Fanfare Magazine Review of Quincy Porter: The Complete Viola Works
PORTER Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. 1 Speed Etude. 2 Duo for Viola and Harp. 3 Blues Lointain. 2 Suite for Viola Alone. Poem. 2 Duo for Violin and Harpsichord. 4 Duo for Violin and Viola. 5 Eliesha Nelson (va); John McLaughlin Williams, cond.; Northwest Sinfonia; 1 John McLaughlin Williams (pn),2 (hps),4 (vn) 5; Douglas Rioth (hp) 3 • DORIAN DSL-90911 (73:47)
Quincy Porter (1998-1974) was a composer of highly lyrical, French-inflected American neoclassicism. I’ve always had a fond feeling for his work, as it is resolutely conservative yet never academic (even though he spent most of his life teaching, at such institutions as New England Conservatory, Cleveland Institute, Vassar, and Yale). There’s an inventiveness that keeps the music from becoming formulaic, and above all, I sense a sweet integrity. One feels that Porter loved what he wrote, and loved sharing it.
The composer was a violist, and this disc comprises his complete works for the instrument. I do feel that Porter can become a little too enamored of a sort of endless lyricism that has chant as its basis, which can become a little gray over time. For me, the Duos with harp, harpsichord, and the Blues Lointain and Poem fall into this category. But his strengths are evident in the remaining pieces. The Concerto (1948) is concise in its materials, lucidly orchestrated, and has a Latin rhythmic lilt in its final movement. The 1948 Speed Etude is exactly what it describes, a tour de force de vélocité. The 1954 Duo for Violin and Viola is impressive with its counterpoint, which is a fanciful and thoughtful dialogue between the instruments. And the 1930 solo viola Suite is for me the standout. It has a satisfying austerity, and an “archaic” quality that gives it a feel of early music (and folk fiddling) revisited.
Eliesha Nelson plays with a big, full tone, always secure, both grandly rhetorical and intimate. And John McLaughlin Williams is a true musical polymath, conducting and performing on piano, harpsichord, and violin. Overall a very satisfying release, and I’m sure Porter is beaming from above.
Robert Carl