Except under the broad rubric of modernism,
Paul Chihara's music has never been easy to categorize because his ideas are not tied to any particular school or ideology, and his works reflect his diverse interests and highly varied practices as a composer for concerts, films, and the stage. His Concerto for guitar and orchestra with trumpet obbligato is openly tonal and fairly traditional, akin to the great Spanish guitar concertos in its flavor and ornamented style; what few dissonances and unusual orchestral effects there are serve only as spices, no more than that. On a different track,
Chihara's one-act ballet, Mistletoe Bride, is frighteningly chimerical in its styles and moods, veering between folk song simplicity and menacing atonality to relate its haunted tale of love and death. The avant-garde Grass (Concerto for two double basses and orchestra) is wildly eclectic in its mix of virtuoso techniques, free jazz inflections, and popular song references, and takes the listener on a dizzying journey through the composer's vivid and disturbing soundworld. With impressive performances from such luminaries as guitarist
Pepe Romero, trumpeter Jens Lindemann, soprano
Susan Botti, and
Sir Neville Marriner conducting the
London Symphony Orchestra, this 2005 album is a fine introduction to
Chihara's imaginative work. The sound quality is terrific.