Cleveland Chamber Symphony

Ronald Perera is Professor of Music at Smith College. He studied with Leon Kirchner, Randall Thompson and Mario Davidovsky. His Music for Flute and Orchestra was composed for William Wittig who performs it on this disc and who is also the principal flute (since 1970) of the Springfield, Mass. Symphony Orchestra. Howie Smith is a virtuoso saxophonist, composer and jazz musician. As a performer he has worked with everyone from Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley to Luciano Berio and John Cage. About his Song for the Children he writes: "It is a song for the children of Argentina, El Salvador, Lebanon, Nicaragua, South Africa, and so many other places where they seem to have been forgotten." The work is scored for alto saxophone and WX7 MIDI Wind Controller, strings, 2 DX synthesizers and a pipe Organ. The Italian title of Edwin London's one movement work una novella della sera primavera translates as "A novel of the spring evening." The solo oboe is the central character in the "novel." In a further whimsical program note the composer suggests that his "music novel" might be construed as "the make-believe quintessence of oboe (a rebel dude) coming forward from ashes (a rubble deed!) to meet the challenge offered by anthropomorphic dialectics: vicissitudes in search of a character. A double read? Why not." In The London Financial Times Andrew Porter called John Eaton "the most interesting opera composer writing in America today." Eaton's Songs of Desperation and Comfort were composed during a residency the composer spent in the Villa Serbelloni at Bellagio, Italy. The premiere of this music by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony was the 100th world premiere composition presented by this Organization. It is scored for mezzo-soprano and Chamber Orchestra.