In recent years, Michael Torke (born 1961) has rapidly acquired fame–an enviable status for such a young composer, resulting in plenty of commissions, performances, and recordings. It’s hard to understand what the fuss is all about. Although well written, his music offers only banal formulas and “already-heard-ten-thousand-times” ideas in the most primitive tonal idiom. Nothing wrong with the lack of novelty, but some personal touch, some exciting way of making the old sound new wouldn’t hurt. To say it succinctly: just a single memorable tune would be welcome. At best, Torke’s music vaguely evokes in turn Copland, the neo-classical Stravinsky (repeated motives, displaced rhythmic accents), John Adams, or Broadway shows; at worst, it sounds like some bad TV series theme song. Naturally, a copy never is as good as the original, and Torke simply doesn’t withstand comparison to his far more accomplished colleagues. Book of Proverbs requires two vocal soloists, choir, and full orchestra–a luxury of means that Torke never uses to its full potential, alternating bland lyricism with the most basic rhythmic devices. The Dutch performers are irreproachable. Written for voice (the feeble Catherine Bott) and ensemble, Four Proverbs suffers from the same dullness of intent, despite a slightly more interesting use of instrumental timbres. What a bore.
