Simon Mulligan, Wen-Sinn Yang, Jose Serebrier - Rorem: Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto (2007)

Chosen in 1988 as Composer of the Year by Musical America and now recognized as one of the finest song composers in America, Ned Rorem has also written a significant body of music for orchestra, including three Symphonies (Naxos 8.559149), a Violin Concerto and a Flute Concerto (Naxos 8.559278). When Leonard Bernstein gave the première of Rorem’s Third Symphony with the New York Philharmonic in 1959, it signaled a significant triumph for his orchestral music, written in a tonal idiom alien to the experimental practices of the day. Composed in Morocco in 1951, the Second Piano Concerto has a distinctly American character. The last movement, ‘Real Fast!’, is a tour de force for soloist and orchestra, with jazz-like rhythms and an exhilarating conclusion. In his recent concertos such as the Cello Concerto of 2002, Rorem has abandoned the usual three-movement pattern. The composer has written: “Although I don’t believe that non-vocal music can be proven to ‘mean’ anything ... it’s still fun to give programmatic subtitles to various sections.”