JOHNTERRYL PLUMERI: Plumeri Conducts Plumeri

Johnterryl Plumeri

Plumeri Conducts Plumeri

© 1995 GMMC Records (601333731120)

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"Technically and esthetically stunning" Fanfare Magazine - Contemporary romantic style oboe concerto and picturesque tone poem of the sea performed by the Moscow Philharmonic, written and conducted by one of America's finest composer conductors.

notes

Plumeri Conducts Plumeri: Windflower - Pride of Baltimore. Johnterryl Plumeri conducting the Moscow Philharmonic, with Sara Watkins oboe. GMMC 731-2 DDD; 38:34 (Distributed by Bayside)

     A new label and a new composer, both making  auspicious debuts.

     Although no biographical data is provided in the booklet, one can assume Plumeri is a relatively young man who has much in common with other American post-modernists. While showing a fully professional awareness of twentieth-century harmonic and instrumental procedures, he is content-perhaps because of his Italianate heritage?-to fall back on the tried and true precepts of the late-nineteenth-century masters, because his primary aim is to please the ear and to communicate with the soul of the listener.

     This music is conceived with a sumptuously sensuous neo-romantic afflatus that calls to mind the similarly effortless lyricism of the American-born Canadian, Michael Conway Baker (b. 1937), (examples on CBC and Summit), or the "Victory At Sea" spirit of the Roylance/Gavin music for "The Battle of the Atlantic" on Conifer.

     WINDFLOWER is a meditative thirteen-minute tone poem for oboe and orchestra which is modeled on pieces like Vaughan William's "The Lark Ascending", and is fraught with a comparable kind of pantheistic mysticism. But this is most definitely not "New Age" music-soothing though formless and emotionally undemanding. Plumeri has an inborn dramatic sense of shape and pacing, as his twenty-five minute narrative PRIDE OF BALTIMORE  demonstrates. This work, inspired by the saga of a century-old refurbished clipper which was tragically lost at sea in 1986, could superficially serve as a soundtrack of a documentary film, but is actually a long way from being just a fragmentary background score. It shows sustained formal growth, diversification, and integration, and it operates on a much broader canvas, musically as well as philosophically.

     These well-prepared, composer-conducted performances and recordings are both technically and esthetically stunning. Let us hope more Plumeri is in the recording pipeline.


Paul A. Snook
Fanfare Magazine 

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  • Plumeri Conducts Plumeri
    author: Jon Drossos

    Stunning work. Anyone who enjoys classical, and even those who thought they do not, will enjoy this marvelous cd. Plumeri is outstanding. I love EVERYTHING he does.

  • There is a lovely neo-romantic muse at work in Windflower!
    author: Double Reed Review - Dan Stolper

    There is a lovely neo-romantic muse at work in Windflower, and the influence of the lyrical folk music of the northern British Isles is almost immediately apparent. Both works, conducted by the composer, are expertly performed. The recording quality is magnificent. There is a dramatic sense of pacing apparent all through these works, as well as an expert use of orchestral color.

  • The performance by Sara Watkins is exquisite!
    author: Jacqueline

    Windflower is one of the most beautiful pieces for oboe and orchestra written in the twentieth century. The performance by Sara Watkins is exquisite! If you love beautiful oboe playing…don’t miss this.

  • Technically and esthetically stunning!
    author: Paul A. Snook

    These well-prepared, composer-conducted performances and recordings are both technically and esthetically stunning.

  • Heard it on the radio, had to have it
    author: Fraser

    I heard this piece on the radio, WBJC out of baltimore. The name of the work was "Pride of Baltimore". I do not like most modern works, in that they have no harmony or melody. Also modern works then to be very atonal. This was neither. Pride of Baltimore is a tone poem, and you can follow the ship through its life until its untimely end. Excellent!

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