Release 2/12/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, NV6025
(Original Release 2007: Masterworks of the New Era, Volume 11 – ERMMedia-6811 no longer available)
Recorded 2006: Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Robert Ian Winstin, Conductor
Program note: Recurrent punctuations of an urban soundscape reverberate in the late hours and mix with an emotional insight suffused with sadness and clarity that dreams and conflict will continue, insistent and inconsolable. –RW
Release 2/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, NV6025
Original Release 4/2011: Light and Shadow, Navona Records, NV5847
Recorded 3/2010: PARMA Recordings, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, Ovidiu Marinescu, Conductor
Program note: Tracing a Dream taps into the impressionistic logic of emotions and dreams. Within this realm there is a fluidity of connections and sequences that is governed by emotional contexts, rather than rational order. Music has the capacity to heighten and distill emotions through juxtapositions that might otherwise be thought to be unlikely – comparable to dream imagery. – RW
Released 7/8/2016: SPARKS, Navona Records, NV6050
Recorded 6/11/2015: PARMA Recordings, Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Petr Vronsky, Conductor
Program note: The inspiration for Still Motion arose from a combination of sorting through the emotional residue of year’s end and the impatient desire to move ahead with life with a new year’s beginning. It is a mix of edgy energy, reflective sadness and strength of conviction. – RW
Re-Release 2/12/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, NV6025
Released 2008: Masterworks of the New Era, Volume 12 – ERMMedia ERM-6827
Recorded 2006: Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Robert Ian Winstin, Conductor
Program note: Shredding Glass began as an immediate cathartic response to the events and images of September 11, 2001. It was not until several years had passed that I was able to complete the work. To me this piece represents the essence of an emotional remembrance of how a sense of time and timelessness unfolded while coping with the realization, heartbreak and impact of this catastrophic event. I believe the music is ultimately about transcendence. – RW
Re-Release 2/12/2016: Dream Vapors, Navona Records, NV6025
Recorded 11/2011: PARMA Recordings, Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Petr Vronsky, Conductor
Tapping into the impressionistic logic of emotions and dreams, moving through an interior space where logic dissolves and language gives way to subconscious rooms and pathways where memories play like shadows cast against a screen of emotion.
I. Pulses of Distraction
II. Empty Corners
III. Pulling Apart
Chromatic, strong tonal centers, neo-romantic and minimalist influences, atmospheric textures and rhythmic pulses without traditional harmonic development. Traces the stages of the dissolution of a relationship. In Mvt 3, all is irrevocably set in motion.
Released 2/12/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, NV6025
Program note: Inspired by the emotional intensity of a dream – careening through dense dark night fog on a bike with no brakes, no control and no visibility, accompanied by alternating interludes of fear and transcendent calm. – RW
I. Running Late
II. Waking From Broken Dreams
III. Yet Still Night
Anxiety segues to a waking insight suffused with sadness and clarity, moving to the inescapable realization that night continues. Recurrent sonic punctuations of city life. Urban soundscape reverberating in the late hours of a night’s existential moment. The final nocturne opens softly with a lullaby motive that becomes insistent and inconsolable
Sparks, a compilation of orchestral miniature works by several composers, offers a sampling of much of what post-modern, contemporary orchestral music has to offer, and is most interesting to consider in contrast to nineteenth century orchestral transitions.
Includes Still Motion by Rain Worthington