RAMSIER: Three Lyric
Pieces (piano); Zoo of Dreams I, “WalrusBird” (contrabass);
Variations, The Grand Bass Gavotte, Bicycle (from Pieces for Friends,
Vol. II (piano, contrabass); Transcriptions (6 Early Scriabin Pieces; J.S.
Bach
Preludes and Gallentries) (piano); The Low-Note Blues (A Musical Tale
for Children) (narrator, piano); Pied Piper (piano)
John Miller, contrabass and narrator; Paul Ramsier, piano.
Albany TROY 554 (DDD) (F) TT: 67:50
This collection of mostly early works by Ramsier is a pendant to his
collection of double bass and
orchestral works on Albany TROY 237 (REVIEW).
None is long, none is harmonically “advanced” (Ramsier
was a neo-Romantic before the term came into use), yet almost all have
a subtly distinctive aura and much charm. Pied Piper was the genesis of
Road to Hamelin for narrator, bassist and orchestra on the previous disc. Zoo
of Dreams, by now a cycle with subtitles, has private connotations
for the composer but challenges for the solo bassist. The Scriabin and
Bach transcriptions are expert without crossing the boundary into Ego-tripping,
and remind those of us who have known the composer in past (since 1951
in my own case, despite a long hiatus) that he was a keyboard pupil of
Ernst von Dohnányi at Florida State U, and later staff pianist for
the New York City Ballet during George Balanchine’s creative prime.
Ramsier was reluctant to come out of retirement, fearful that his technique
had rusted beyond use; fortunately, practice proved him wrong. Without
flash or furbelows, he is an expressive exponent of his music.
John Miller is a new name, however—principal bassist of
the Florida West Coast Symphony Orchestra in Sarasota, where Ramsier
relocated in 1999
after half a century in New York City (and half of those as a clinical
psychologist). Miller succeeds the retired Gary Karr, for whom Ramsier
found himself court composer in effect at the same time he created a
viable and much enlarged repertory for that instrument. Miller has a
honeyed tone
and plenty of technique, not only as a player but as a narrative personality
in The Low-Note Blues. Just as Horowitz never effaced Rachmaninov,
Miller does not surpass Karr in the latter’s prime, but he comes close
with his own spin on tone and technique, and bests the “master” as
a narrator (whose over-the-top amateurism was the single caveat in the Road to Hamelin on TROY 237).
If you have children, this could prove fascinating and perhaps a spur
to practice more, even to take up an instrument. As a listening experience
in sum or in parts, after the alarums and excursions of Late Night TV
News,
I should think sentient adults would find it a welcome change. The recorded
sound from Sarasota honors the standards of Albany’s TROY series.
From here, you take the shuttlecock and play with it.
R.D. (September 2003)