The Symphonic Works of Daniel Asia: Gateways

PERFORMED BY

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, James Sedares, Conductor. With André-Michel Schub, piano.

LABEL Summit Records [product id: DCD285]

WORKS ON THIS ALBUM BY DANIEL ASIA

Gateways for large orchestra

Piano Concerto for piano and large orchestra

Black Light for orchestra

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REVIEWS

"Schub’s performance of the challenging but listener-friendly Piano Concerto is a tour de force. Sedares and the orchestra handle the complex and varied orchestration with an excellence that underscores the New Zealand Symphony’s fine reputation….this recording should make a major step toward getting Asia the recognition he deserves."

M. BARGREEN, THE SEATTLE TIMES

"Daniel Asia is one of the most prominent American composers of his generation…Certainly the centerpiece of the disc is Asia’s 37-minute Piano Concerto…This is the deepest, most personal music I have heard from Asia."

W. SIMMONS, FANFARE

"Schub’s performance of the challenging but listener-friendly Piano Concerto is a tour de force. Sedares and the orchestra handle the complex and varied orchestration with an excellence that underscores the New Zealand Symphony’s fine reputation….this recording should make a major step toward getting Asia the recognition he deserves."

M. BARGREEN, THE SEATTLE TIMES

"The second half premiered Daniel Asia’s Gateways, a brilliant fanfare with appealing character and colorful, Stravinsky-esque harmony and texture. Its superb orchestration is evidence of the craftsmanship of this composer."

J. Gelfand, The Cincinnati Enquirer

"Schub’s performance of the challenging but listener-friendly Piano Concerto is a tour de force. Sedares and the orchestra handle the complex and varied orchestration with an excellence that underscores the New Zealand Symphony’s fine reputation….this recording should make a major step toward getting Asia the recognition he deserves."

M. Bargreen, The Seattle Times

"Asia’s celebratory “Gateways” caught the CSO full sail. Written in honor of the CSO’s 100th anniversary, the title recalls Cincinnati’s historic “gateway” role. Combining intricate rhythms and boisterous Midwestern braggadocio, it sounds like a mix of Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein. Brassy, robust “oompahs” alternate with quieter episodes, conveying an infectious, all-American optimism… In fact, if another “Fanfare for the Common Man” (by Aaron Copland, premiered by the CSO in 1943) is to come from this season’s crop of centennial fanfares, Asia’s “Gateways” may be it."

M. E. Hutton, The Cincinnati Post

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Asia Orchestral Works

Seattle-born Daniel Asia (b.1953) can number Jacob Druckman, Stephen Albert, Gunther Schuller and Isang Yun among his teachers. Since 1988, he has been a member of the Music Faculty at the University of Arizona and was the Phoenix Symphony’s composer-in-residence from 1991-4.

Black Light (1990) grew out of Asia’s 1987 Scherzo Sonata for piano (five movements of which also eventually formed the basis for his First Symphony) and charts a course from evocative slumberings (“like the quiet time before daybreak”, to quote the composer) to joyous clangour (“the fierceness of the appearance of the sun ... in all its glory, at that first instant of daybreak”). Aptly festive in demeanour, the five-minute overture Gateways (1993) was commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony for their centenary and is pure Stravinsky from start to finish (Asia himself unashamedly admits to cribbing from The Rite of Spring at the close).
However, by far the biggest offering on this Koch anthology is the Piano Concerto (1994), an approachable, strongly communicative 37-minute work, whose rhythmically invigorating outer movements frame a mellifluous (but not always untroubled) 20-minute meditation. The admirable Andre-Michel Schub produces a ravishing variety of tone colour throughout and he is excellently supported by James Sedares directing a meticulously prepared New Zealand SO. Impressive sound, too: spacious, transparent and expertly balanced.'

--Andrew Achenbach, Gramaphone Magazine 

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Asia Orchestral Works

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

Seattle-born Daniel Asia (b.1953) can number Jacob Druckman, Stephen Albert, Gunther Schuller and Isang Yun among his teachers. Since 1988, he has been a member of the Music Faculty at the University of Arizona and was the Phoenix Symphony’s composer-in-residence from 1991-4.

Black Light (1990) grew out of Asia’s 1987 Scherzo Sonata for piano (five movements of which also eventually formed the basis for his First Symphony) and charts a course from evocative slumberings (“like the quiet time before daybreak”, to quote the composer) to joyous clangour (“the fierceness of the appearance of the sun ... in all its glory, at that first instant of daybreak”). Aptly festive in demeanour, the five-minute overture Gateways (1993) was commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony for their centenary and is pure Stravinsky from start to finish (Asia himself unashamedly admits to cribbing from The Rite of Spring at the close).

However, by far the biggest offering on this Koch anthology is the Piano Concerto (1994), an approachable, strongly communicative 37-minute work, whose rhythmically invigorating outer movements frame a mellifluous (but not always untroubled) 20-minute meditation. The admirable Andre-Michel Schub produces a ravishing variety of tone colour throughout and he is excellently supported by James Sedares directing a meticulously prepared New Zealand SO. Impressive sound, too: spacious, transparent and expertly balanced.

GRAMAPHONE MAGAZINE'