The Orchestra

Following several releases over the past decade of archival Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra of Excited Strings material and collaborations with other ensembles, on labels including Black Truffle, Choice Records, Megafaun and Superior Viaduct, Drag City is excited as well to be able to introduce Resolve, the first release of new Excited Strings music from Arnold Dreyblatt since 2002. Resolve acts in dialogue with the minimalist inspirations of the first Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra of Excited Strings release, 1982s Nodal Excitation – in effect, looking beneath the hood of several decades of progression, reviewing and renewing the revolutionary intent of their foundation credo.

This new studio recording contains three works for piano and orchestra that virtuoso pianist Orion Weiss and conductor Leon Botstein first performed in concert at the Bard Music Festival. Together, the three works span almost a century of musical Romanticism and are as different from one another as the generations they represent. In each piece, the virtuoso genre becomes a means by which the composer responds to a specific source of inspiration – in the first case (Korngold), a performer and family friend who had suffered a horrendous tragedy, in the second (Rimsky-Korsakov), a venerated old master, and in the third (Chopin) a melody from a beloved opera.

Two very different takes on the romantic piano concerto, both equally successful. The Bliss – written in 1939 for the World’s Fair in New York – is extrovert, exuberant and virtuosic, the Rubbra a profound reflection on, and continuation of, the English pastoral tradition.

Originally released in 1970 by little-known Chicago imprint Futuro, ‘Vamonos / Let’s Go!’ is the first and only album recorded by Brooklyn neighbourhood salsa band ‘The Orchestra Soledad’. Led by trombonist and singer Hector Ramos, the music of Orchestra Soledad is characterised by brash and energetic salsa arrangements created by Ramos himself, who also composed (or co-composed) all of the music featured on the LP.

Ferdinand Ries may once have been celebrated as ‘one of the finest piano-performers of the present day’ (the 1820s), but he is now remembered chiefly for his association with Beethoven. Yet the music here is never slavishly imitative: Piers Lane makes a persuasive case for rescuing these works from the pages of musical history.

Two very different takes on the romantic piano concerto, both equally successful. The Bliss—written in 1939 for the World’s Fair in New York—is extrovert, exuberant and virtuosic, the Rubbra a profound reflection on, and continuation of, the English pastoral tradition.