CARL ROSKOTT (1953-2008): Violin Concerto, Violin Sonata.

Description: These satisfyingly Romantic scores in traditional forms are less neo-romantic than Romanticism that behaves as though most of the 20th century had never happened. In fact, the composer experimented with atonality and other modernist trends of the times in the early 1970s, then turned completely toward tonality in the 1980s, influenced to an extent by Bernstein, and also by the sense that the works that he encountered in his parallel career as a conductor were more satisfying than his own music and that of his contemporaries. The concerto is thus a very convincing example of one that could, for the most part, have been written 100 years or more ago. The composer's treatment of themes in cyclic forms is very reminiscent of the late 19th century, with a strong musical and emotional argument buttressed by a thorough use of structure. Roskott has a penchant for bitonality, which suggests a slightly later influence; early Stravinsky. The finale is a set of variations, which include an Appalachian fiddle-inspired one which is one of the work's few concessions to its time and place of composition. The sonata is in traditional four-movement form, with a somewhat more varied harmonic vocabulary, with quartal harmonies and suggestions of Impressionism especially in the slow movement, and bitonality even more of a feature than in the concerto. Akemi Takayama (violin), Silvan Negruţiu (piano), Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra; Paul S. Kim.