Album

American composer Earl Kim, who died from lung cancer in 1998, is certainly a figure in contemporary music one wants to like, and for that reason alone the volume devoted to Kim in the Naxos American Classics series, Earl Kim: Violin Concerto, is automatically welcome. Once the disc goes into the machine, however, listeners hear the characteristic leaping figures in the opening of Kim's Violin Concerto, which one immediately associates with mid-century serialism. One might think, "Here we go again," and then Kim surprises listeners with an outburst of minimalist gestures à la Terry Riley. Following this is some strongly cinematic music and an odd succession of other ideas, none of which seems to coalesce into a complete statement.

Kim's Violin Concerto does have some moments of sweetness and is a good showcase for a violinist of talent; Cecylia Arzewski, erstwhile concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, does a fine job of making the most of the violin part. Conductor Scott Yoo and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra contribute a decent blend in support of Arzewski. However, Kim's organization of this Violin Concerto into two parts containing eight sections presents the music in a fragmentary and unsatisfying formal scheme.

There is no discernable quality that separates Kim's concerted piece for piano and orchestra from 1959, Dialogues, from anything else produced in a dry, academic, serial style and dating from that year. Kim's musical setting, with narration in English, of Rainer Maria Rilke's famous war poem "Cornet," features his most cinematic writing, as he grafts predictable dramatic turns in the orchestra onto Rilke's lines of verse. The effect with the narration, though, is rather "corny," pardon the pun. Kim was a professional and highly skilled musician who, nonetheless, swam in the currents of his time. While it is likely that a composer of Kim's gifts produced in his long career something of lasting value along the line, it is not found on Earl Kim: Violin Concerto.

© Uncle Dave Lewis, All Music Guide

CD 1
Earl Kim Composer Violin Concerto Work 22:21 RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra Orchestra, Robert Kim Narrator, Scott Yoo Conductor, Cecylia Arzewski Violin
1	Part One. Adagio molto sostenuto	3:45			$0.99
2	Part One. Variation 1	1:44			$0.99
3	Part One. Variation 2 (poco scherzando)	1:24			$0.99
4	Part One. Episode 1	1:28			$0.99
5	Part One. Episode 2 (cadenza)	3:24			$0.99
6	Part Two. Introduction	2:56			$0.99
7	Part Two. Episode (Adagio, ma non troppo/con affetto)	2:37			$0.99
8	Part Two. Finale (Allegro molto)	5:03			$0.99
Earl Kim Composer Dialogues, for piano & orchestra Work RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra Orchestra, Robert Kim Narrator, William Wolfram Piano, Scott Yoo Conductor
9	Dialogues, for piano & orchestra	9:12			$1.49
Earl Kim Composer Cornet, for narrator & orchestra Work 25:34 RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra Orchestra, Robert Kim Narrator, Scott Yoo Conductor
10	1.Riding, riding, riding ....	2:52			$0.99
11	2.Von Langenau stirs in his saddle ...	1:34			$0.99
12	3.Camp-fire	1:30			$0.99
13	4.The little Marquis says ...	1:34			$0.99
14	5.One day, in the morning ...	1:53			$0.99
15	6.A day's ride with the Army	1:00			$0.99
16	7.Von Langenau is writing a letter ...	1:16			$0.99
17	8.They ride over a slain peasant	1:56			$0.99
18	9.It began as a feast	1:56			$0.99
19	10.And there is one who stands ...	1:59			$0.99
20	11."Have you forgotten that you are my page ..."	0:53			$0.99
21	12.Slowly the castle lights go out	1:50			$0.99
22	13.Was a window open?	1:35			$0.99
23	14.He races to out-strip the blazing corridors ...	1:00			$0.99
24	15.Count von Langenau is right in the midst of the enemy	1:34			$0.99
25	16.The tunic was burnt in the castle ...	1:12			$0.99