Paul Fetler: Violin Concerto No. 2; Capriccio; 3 Poems by Walt Whitman

This recording, the first devoted entirely to the music of Paul Fetler, features Ann Arbor poet and attorney Thomas H. Blaske as narrator in the evocative Three Poems by Walt Whitman, written to commemorate the American Bicentennial in 1976. An elegant solo violin quasi-cadenza opens the remarkable third movement, after which the narrator intones the haunting line, “Ah, from a little child, thou knowest, Soul, how to me all sounds became music…” The phrase is heard again, reflected near the close and carried as if by a distant music box, simulated by a toy piano. A labour of love, Fetler’s Violin Concerto No. 2 mixes spry energy and elegant orchestration with expressively flowing melody into an irresistible tour de force, a perfect example of the “progressive lyricism” that characterises his musical style.