Hope In the Midst of an Anxious World

Hope: 12 Prayers for Cello & Orchestra Andreas Graf, cello.

London Symphony Orchestra/Ben Palmer Claves 50-3152 Total Time:  43:20 Recording:   ****/****

Performance: ****/****

The concept album Hope is a collection of twelve new works for cello and orchestra.  Each piece provides a different musical perspective on the human condition and wishes to inspire the listener with thoughts of a better world and our shared humanity.  Cellist Andreas Graf shares how he was entranced by the way music tells stories and his appreciation for Charlie Chaplin’s application of music in his films.  The idea here is that each piece will hopefully provide a reminder of the beauty in the world and our part in it.

The composers all work in visual media (film, television, video games) and get a chance here to craft brief works of warmth and sweeping thematic writing.  The track listing provides another thematic connection for each piece as well.  The opening title piece by Peter Hauser gets things off quite nicely with a moving Morricone-like melody.  A more folkish and cinematic sweep continues in The Frozen King by Nathan Stornetta which also has some additional choral elements.  A somewhat magical adventure awaits in the propulsive styles of Christoph Zirngibl’s Every Child Has a Right to Dream (a Williams-esque piece).  Sharon Farber’s Echoes of Eternity has some interesting harmonic richness that that reaches ever outward in engaging ways.  Unknown Story (Oleg Tranovsky) is a nice little waltz-like idea with a melody that sort of starts and stops and features interesting little melodic surprises.  A more melancholic quality wafts across Farewell (David Kudell) while a darker, somber quality moves us into Andrew Morgan Smith’s Perspective Shift.  The latter’s more open chordal ideas provide a nice contrast from the more traditional harmonies of the first half of the disc.  In A-Dieu, Patrick Kirst’s cello line wafts across undulating strings with rich harmonic shifts.  A bit more rich, dissonant quality adds some character to Kathryn Bostic’s impassioned Solace which features more unaccompanied solo work and interesting orchestral solo responses.  That sadder quality also comes out a bit in To Those We Lost (Tomasz J. Opalka) with more hopefulness and pleading in A Promise (Tom Roberts).  With a more soft, astral backdrop, Sarah Barone’s Grace of the World provides a beautiful conclusion to the album as it reaches upward with an aptly hopeful conclusion.

Ben Palmer leads the London Symphony Orchestra who provide a rich backdrop to Graf’s forward-imaged solo.  It creates a rich, sonorous quality throughout.  The album is a bit brief, but certainly provides a number of fine moments that are reminiscent of love-theme like film compilations, with echoes of the classic Yo-Yo Ma and Morricone album.  A program note by Graf discussing the inspiration behind the works and composer biographies also are included.  It is a quite gorgeous set of music that should provide much pleasure with each work providing an extension of lyrical writing in beautiful orchestral colors that does not outstay its welcome.