Recordings
Presences from Aforetime, Symphony No. 3, etc.
Bridge Records
The first CD dedicated entirely to Anthony Korf’s work, the recently released “Presences from Aforetime” on Bridge records presents a wide cross-section of instrumental works written over a fifteen- year period, including the composer’s third symphony from 2007. The album title and that of the opening work, is drawn from a famous Thomas Hardy poem, “The Two Houses” which muses on the past and the inevitability of change and loss.
“The symphony, a substantial work of almost half an hour, is a dramatic work of somewhat programmatic content, concerning a nostalgic, rather melancholy meditation on the passage of time and the irrevocable changes in life and landscape it causes. These reflections and similar ideas in the ensemble piece Presences were invoked by reflecting on the way a mere half-century’s history had altered the mood and nature of some specific locations, and extrapolating to what the future might hold. The evocative score suggests some reminiscences of Sibelius and Bartók in a modern but tonally based idiom. The little solo pieces are lighter in mood, lively character pieces which allude to the composer’s love of jazz, without being in any sense ‘crossover’ works.”
RECORDS INTERNATIONAL
“Anthony Korf, cofounder and artistic director of Riverside Symphony, works the traditional elements of musical composition in astonishing ways that result in a wholly original sound world. The music on this Bridge release is so cerebral as to become down- right sensual, and so fastidiously constructed as to sound completely spontaneous.”
WILLIAM ZAGORSKI FANFARE MAGAZINE
Symphony No. 2 Blue Note
New World Records
Anthony Korf’s Symphony No. 2 “Blue Note”from 1987 is one of three outstanding American works featured on Riverside Symphony’s debut album for New World Records. Korf’s refreshing symphony in three movements is among the earliest classical compositions to incorporate a synthesizer within the orchestral fabric.
Anthony Korf’s Symphony No. 2 (Blue Note) has a walking bass line that propels the orchestra through difficult rhythms. The harmonic language is unpredictable and varied, at times a simple tonal one, at others unapologetically dissonant, contingent upon the character of what is being developed. The overall mood, as the title might indicate, is slightly melancholic, though tinged with different shades of blue.
MARK SWED, 7 DAYS
“It invites further listening. Although he gave the work the subtitle “Blue Note”, Mr. Korf was careful about lapsing in to the vernacular. Occasionally, a muted trumpet or a bent flute notes suggests a bluesy subtext; but overall, the language is gently atonal and both the movement structure and the orchestra texture (which include a sparingly deployed synthesizer) are balanced with taste and sobriety.”
ALLAN KOZINN, THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Living Daylights
Summit Records