Steven Gerber studied with Milton Babbitt, among others, and began his composing career writing highly charged, atonal works. By the 1980s he was incorporating tonality in his music while exploring other compositional styles. The Violin Concerto (1993), like so many in the 20th century, seems to take its cue from Bartók. The predominant use of fourths in the first movement, and the raspberry trumpets and syncopated rhythms in the finale unavoidably bring to mind the Hungarian master’s work in the same genre. Still and all, the piece is well crafted, and Kurt Nikkanen (for whom it was composed) does it justice.
Gerber deploys pentatonic scales to pleasing effect in his 1994 Cello Concerto, an interesting and varied work that provides ample opportunity for the soloist to display his technical prowess, especially in the finale’s challenging cadenza (deftly handled by the work’s dedicatee, Carter Brey). In his Serenade for String Orchestra, Gerber experiments with minimalism, a technique he admittedly dislikes but nonetheless feels has possibilities when used as accompaniment. I’ll grant that minimalism has come a long way since 1990 (when the piece was composed), but even then composers like Adams and Reich were coming up with far more interesting figurations than Gerber uses here. I’m glad to report that conductor Piotr Gajewski is a true believer in Gerber’s music, and he succeeds in convincing the players of Washington, D.C.’s National Chamber Orchestra as well. Koch provides clear, well-balanced sound.
