MoonStrike – Jennifer Higdon; Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate; Pierre Jalbert
Apollo Chamber Players
Azica ACD-71352 (apollochamberplayers.org/media)
This CD presents three recent works for string quartet commissioned and enthusiastically performed by the Houston-based Apollo Chamber Players.
Jennifer Higdon says she grew up “in the shadow of the Great Smoky Mountains,” the setting of her opera Cold Mountain. Music from the opera appears in her 16-minute In the Shadow of the Mountain (2020), both works reflecting, she writes, “The struggles of survival in Appalachia, the majesty of its natural features and the sonorities of the mountains’ music.” In affecting American-pastoral style, it evoked for me a day’s passage – uncertain dawn leading to resolute, animated engagement with the day’s demands, midday rest and reflection, resumption of busily rhythmic work, ending serenely with the coming of night and sleep.
Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s 18-minute MoonStrike (2019) commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Chickasaw astronaut John Herrington engagingly narrates three Indigenous myths about the moon; combined with picture-painting music drawing from traditional songs, this is a winning contribution to the children’s concert repertoire.
New Hampshire-born Pierre Jalbert drew upon three folk songs of his French-Canadian ancestors for his three-movement, 16-minute L’esprit du Nord (2019). It begins with energized variations on Chanson de Lisette. The slow Cantique includes Les Pélerins and what Jalbert calls “a Passion song,” plus snippets from a 1940s field recording of a chanting woman. The vigorous Fiddle Dance, “inspired,” writes Jalbert, “by the French-Canadian fiddling tradition,” cheerfully ends the work and the CD.
