Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Michael Poll and Jack Liebeck - Midsummer Light (2025) [Hi-Res]

Midsummer Light brings together three works that explore lyrical expression within American modernism. Rooted in a neo-romantic tradition that nonetheless embraces 20th‑century harmonic innovation, formal clarity, and lyricism, these pieces stand in deliberate opposition to the hyper‑rationalism of mid‑century serialism and the stark minimalism that followed. These composers cultivate rich tonal palettes, transparent orchestration, and emotional directness that assert a distinctly American voice.

Barber’s Violin Concerto (1939) exemplifies this confluence: it is anchored in a language reminiscent of that of Sibelius and Elgar and echoes the Brahmsian lyricism of earlier Americans including Arthur Foote (1853–1937) and George Whitefield Chadwick (1854–1931). The concerto’s harmonic surprises and rhythmic variety, however, give the piece a characteristic ‘New World’ feel. This blend of lush lyricism with dynamic harmonic and rhythmic language typifies Barber’s compositional idiom; Adams and Conte, writing later in the 20th and 21st centuries, extend this ethos in distinctly individual ways.

Byron’s Adams’s Midsummer Music unfolds in an arch‑like structure from a serene opening through an animated middle to a reflective close; Conte’s Sinfonietta traverses a Stravinskian opening sonata, a Copland-inspired elegiac central movement, and a vibrant, celebratory finale that recalls Poulenc’s harmonic world and hints at Conte’s formative years studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Though grounded in functional tonality, each work stretches its boundaries to trace a rich emotional arc.

“Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” – Henry James

Byron Adams’s Midsummer Music is an impressionistic piece in a manner reminiscent of composers like Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920). Adams recalls that the initial impetus for his Midsummer Music for orchestra occurred in the mid-1980s when he first viewed ‘Summer’ (1890), by the American Impressionist Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938).

The painting depicts four elegant, but indistinct, women clothed in diaphanous gowns dancing or floating (or both) to music provided by a seated woman with a golden harp. Later, Adams recalled this canvas while walking the Forest of Fontainebleau, noting the sun-dappled landscape to be similar to the lush green background of the Dewing; he sketched Midsummer Music between teaching and conducting duties at the American Conservatory of Music in Fontainebleau.

Midsummer Music contains an extensive quotation from Adams’s own art song, ‘Green’, a setting of a sensuous poem by D. H. Lawrence, as well as ‘Il était une bergère’, a chanson populaire that was first published in the seventeenth century, which recounts the naughty adventures of a young shepherdess, her cat, and a lascivious priest. Variations on this lively tune make up the work’s central section. After a return to the evocative music with which Midsummer Music began, the score concludes in a state of rapturous contemplation that gradually dissolves into silence.

Midsummer Music reached its final form in 1998, six years after the first sketches, and is dedicated to art historian and curator John Davis, who suggested that Adams seek out Dewing’s paintings.

Michael Poll