Under the collective title, “Javelin. The Music of Michael Torke”, this excellent anthology (containing both new and previously unrecorded material) offers us an ideal opportunity to assess the career of this young American composer. It’s also a good excuse to bring together on one disc some of the most optimistic, joyful and thoroughly uplifting music to appear in recent years. Admittedly, Torke’s music may not be heavily laden with the socio-political messages of our time or deal with the darker corners of man’s psyche, but that certainly doesn’t make it any less relevant.
Of the new pieces presented here the main attraction is Javelin, which was composed in 1994 and is the official commission of the 1996 Olympic Games. Javelin is lithe and sleek and very athletic and heroic in tone – its bright and breezy countenance more than fulfilling its sporting brief. The work’s classical reverberations place it alongside pieces such as Green and Bright Blue Music.
December, too, is very classical in tone. Scored for strings the writing has, to these ears at least, a certain English quality about it, recalling at times Tippett. Run, which dates from 1992, can be counted amongst Torke’s process pieces, though I use the word ‘process’ with caution as the result tends away from minimalism rather than towards it. Torke’s own description of the piece as “someone setting out on their morning run, taking in the ever-changing panorama of the rising sun over a still-sleeping city” is very evocative; it’s a high-energy, invigorating work.
The remaining pieces are taken from earlier Torke/Argo releases, and consist of the beautiful central movement from Music on the Floor, the ‘pop’-inspired chamber work Adjustable Wrench (Torke’s most frequently performed composition) and the two exhilarating roller-coaster-ride orchestral pieces Bright Blue Music and Green.
Performances and recordings of all the pieces on this disc are superb, and if you are coming to Torke’s music for the first time I cannot recommend it highly enough. Even if you already have the original recordings of some of these pieces the disc is worth considering for the new items alone.'