Carole Eastman Movie

Under the baton of conductor Mark Scatterday, the Eastman Wind Ensemble celebrates its 60th anniversary with its first recording for Avie, a superb reading of Stravinsky's Octet, while the Eastman Virtuosi, with narrator Jan Opalach, deliver a devilish rendition of L'Histoire du Soldat.

Gay Guerrilla and Evil Nigger, both composed in 1979, with a third work, Crazy Nigger, make up what Eastman called The Nigger Series. Some of themost challenging and beautiful works composed for piano during their era, they double as a window into the intricate thought process and contentiousness of their creator. When the composer was asked to perform the series at Northwestern University in 1980, due to protests by African American students, their titles were censored in the event’s program. His response was a flamboyant foreshadowing of the sentiments toward bigoted language which later arose within hip-hop culture – to publicly take back these words, assert ownership of them, and deploy their power for positive change.

“Lincolnshire Posy” is one of the greatest compositions written for wind band, and this is likely the definitive recording of the work. Frederick Fennell's (the conductor's) full score has become the definitive edition, since Grainger never published anything but a condensed score. The Eastman Wind Ensemble provides a tremendous performance of the piece, and of all the works on the album.

During the '50's and early '60's Mercury recorded some of the lesser known American composers. This particular selection which I originally had on a mono-LP is one of my favorites, and probably the best of Colin McPhee's compositions. Roger Sessions' "The Black Maskers" is also an excellant little heard American Classic. As a bonus the CD includes Virgil Thomson's "Symphony On A Hymn Tune" which was not on the LP.