Paul Moravec’s The Time Gallery, scored for violin, piano, cello, flute, clarinet, and percussion, explores various aspects of time–or more accurately, our relationship to it through the use of various time-keeping devices. The first movement, Bells: The Devotional Hours, begins in a ringing panoply that easily could find a home in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. Multi-layered clock ticking introduces the following Time Machine, while a human heart sets the meter for the mercurial Pulse movement. The finale, Overtime: Memory Sings, superimposes chimes over ticking clocks, setting the stage for the mysterious and meditative music to come. This and the first movement form the slow bookends to the piece, while the inner movements feature a bracing energy and rhythmic vitality similar to that found in Shchedrin’s Carmen Ballet. Moravec’s own musical language is generally tonal–and although it’s not consistently melodic, it’s always accessible. More than that, it’s highly engrossing, especially in this stimulating performance by the ensemble Eighth Blackbird.
Protean Fantasy and Ariel Fantasy present opposite poles of motion: serenely relaxed in the former and nervously swift in the latter. Whatever the pace, both works require imagination and impeccable musicianship, qualities that violinist Paul Sheppard-Skaerved and pianist Aaron Shorr provide aplenty. Naxos’ recording captures it all in clear, vivid sound. Now this is a disc of new music most anyone can enjoy. [4/21/2006]
