The three works by American composer Marga Richter heard here are what used to be called tone poems: distinctively scored single-movement orchestral works illustrative of specific external scenes or ideas. The recordings were made in the mid-'90s, in two different and not particularly sonically compatible locations in Seattle and Prague. The conductor throughout is Gerard Schwarz, who gets his name only in very small print but who has a real gift for this kind of thing. Richter's music is notable for its orchestration and ...
Read More
The three works by American composer Marga Richter heard here are what used to be called tone poems: distinctively scored single-movement orchestral works illustrative of specific external scenes or ideas. The recordings were made in the mid-'90s, in two different and not particularly sonically compatible locations in Seattle and Prague. The conductor throughout is Gerard Schwarz, who gets his name only in very small print but who has a real gift for this kind of thing. Richter's music is notable for its orchestration and for the variety of moods that follow from that orchestration. It may bring to mind what might have happened if Mahler had lived a long time and begun writing the edgier type of film music; critic Mark Lehman, quoted in Richter's own sleeve notes, compares the humorous-grotesque Quantum Quirks of a Quick Quaint Quark (1992) to Nino Rota's music for Fellini's films. Richter's music is a good deal less tonal, but the comparison is apt, and the opening piccolo-contrabassoon sonority is a...
Read Less
