Illuminations
Albany, 2023
9/10
One on Asia’s most noted composers, the work of Dr. Narong Prangcharoen is fleshed out by the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra and Jeffery Meyer’s conducting across these 7 creative pieces.
The tense and rumbling “Phenomenon” opens the listen with dramatic strings and lively percussive sounds that can retreat to calmer moments of beauty, and “New Horizons” follows with much attention to mood in the gentle climate of softness that increases in intensity.
“Migration Of Lost Souls” and “Illuminating Journey” arrive in the middle, where the former carries a cinematic quality that’s textured precisely, and the latter uses the booming drums strategically amid the agile winds. The final track, “Illuminations”, puts an firm exclamation point on the affair with dense drums, animated strings and radiant brass.
An artist who has received the Charles Ives Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Barlow Prize, Prangcharoen’s work has been interpreted worldwide, and this body of work certainly does justice to his vision.
Travels well with: Matthew Weissman- Frederic Rzewski: 4 Pieces, Squares, 6 North American Ballads; Steven Gerber- String Quartets