Robert Moran is an eccentric figure in American music but his elegant, easily assimilable idiom should not be dismissed out of hand. As one might expect from a pupil of Milhaud and Berio, he has an exceptional ear for sonority and, while much of his recent output is minimalism at its least demanding, his commitment to high polish and piquant harmony continues to mark him out from the ragged repetitiousness of his peers. There is nothing on this disc to equal the touching charm of his “Arias, Interludes and Inventions” from the opera Desert of Roses (Argo, 8/92), but 32 Cryptograms for Derek Jarman comes close. Instantly recognizable as the work of the same composer, it is not through-composed: each neatly constructed cell encapsulates a mood which can be extended by repetition or altered in terms of dynamic level at the behest of the conductor. Perhaps the shards of Parisian Stravinsky, Poulenc and pop are of no great originality in themselves, and yet the piece has unexpected resonances and, at just under nine minutes in this performance, it certainly doesn’t outstay its welcome. The same cannot be said for the ambient patterning of Rocky Road to Kansas, a delicate and civilized half hour of muted virtuoso drumming scarcely enlivened by the occasional tap and clatter of keyboard and guitar. You could chat to friends or eat ethnic food during it.
The Requiem is more than sonic wallpaper, less than a total triumph. Moran wants us to connect our listening experience with the Aids epidemic, even if he remains more interested in playing acoustic games than with communicating his bitty text. The words you can’t hear are said to have been uttered by Mozart on his deathbed and they encourage Moran to explore the kind of archetypal material you might not associate with him. Of the three sections, the first is mostly fragmentary and twinkly, whereas the second, wordless, begins with Wagnerian horn calls and attempts to evoke an epic, vaguely Sibelian landscape. Standards of playing and recording are uniformly high, but do try Desert of Roses first.'