Carlos Simon is composer-in-residence at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and when this album appeared in 2024, that residency was, unusually, being extended.
Simon does, broadly speaking, take up African American materials in his music but also reaches beyond them; his orchestral song cycle
Songs of Separation sets texts by
Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, and the final orchestral work,
Wake Up!, was inspired by a poem from Nepali writer
Rajendra Bhandari. The strongest work on the program may be the four-movement
Tales: A Folklore Symphony, which veers from Afrofuturism (the "Flying Africans" movement) to more traditional ideas in which African American spirituals are quoted. Except
Simon's treatment of these ideas is not really traditional at all. Sample the last two movements of the symphony, in which
Simon draws on
Go Down, Moses, and
John Henry, well-known tunes to be sure, and this is key to
Simon's method. They are well enough known that if he refers simply to a single detail of the quoted songs, listeners will recognize the opening "go down" figure from the former and the hammer rhythm from the latter. It is both an ingenious and an inspiring piece. There are pleasures elsewhere, including the rich mezzo-soprano of
J'Nai Bridges in the
Songs of Separation and the busy urban scene of the opening
The Block, inspired by the artwork of
Romare Bearden and reflecting the influence of one of
Simon's teachers,
Michael Daugherty. These live recordings, with
Gianandrea Noseda leading the
National Symphony Orchestra, have plenty of energy, and the bottom line is that this is appealing music for all. ~ James Manheim
