ASENJO
A Diptych of Lord Dunsany’s Tales.
Concerto for Orchestra.
Glimpses at Borges Universe:
3 Impressions for Violin and Orchestra
1
Kirk Trevor, cond;
1
Mario Filipov (vn); Bulgarian P O
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ALBANY 1374 (59:47)
Here is a perfect example of multiculturalism: the music of a Brazilian composer played by a Bulgarian orchestra and conducted by an Englishman. I always applaud any effort in the presentation of new music, unless it is really poor new music, yet in many ways I have found the scores of Florencio Asenjo difficult to review because the music is so elusive. That is not meant as a compliment to its originality, but rather as a comment on its unusual admixture of coolness, broken melodies, and disjointed sections that, when put together, are not coherent. Moreover, this music says nothing to me. It is just a succession of pleasant sounds.
The composer, according to the liner notes, finds himself drawn to stories and artwork that express the infinite, such as the tales of Lord Dunsany and the writings of Jorge Luis Borges, but the end result of his musical meditations is merely a succession of sounds—most of them tonal and pleasant, to be sure—that convey absolutely nothing. Not being familiar with any of this music, I can’t say whether or not Trevor’s fragmentary phrasing and otherwise disjointed performances reflect the intent of the scores or not, but either way I found the listening experience extremely tedious and unengaging. This music fits the dictionary description of the phrase, “In one ear and out the other.”
Lynn René Bayley
