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Fanfare

The works on this disc might well fall in the category of “New Age,” or “Salon Music.” I do not mean the label “Salon Music” in any pejorative way. I have nothing against salon music, and even released a disc of same.

Much of the music on the disc is the sort that one can envision being played while sitting in a garden sipping some tea. There is an unassuming simplicity in the music. At times the music sounds more like an improvisation than a through-composed work. That is not to say that there isn’t charm to some of it. It struck me that Habershon was trying to capture some imagined vision of an earlier, gentler time. There is very little in the way of what one might call “dissonance.” Farewell Ice and Requiem-Anna Akhmatova offer some passages of dissonance that come as a surprise. Other than those exceptions, the music presents little challenge in its harmonic vocabulary. From time to time the tunes are quite lovely; however, I found that the music did not sustain my interest. It is a succession of pleasant tunes that offer little in the way of contrast. To my ears, the most engaging piece was Day of Judgement. It reminded me of something that one might encounter in one of the lyrical pieces on a Mannheim Steamroller album.

The composer is also the clarinetist in several of the compositions. She has a fine tone and is a very good player. It would be wonderful to hear her in some challenging repertoire. All of the players do an excellent job, even if the music is no more challenging than playing some slow-moving accompaniment figures. The recorded sound is appropriate to the intimacy of the music.

The music is “what it is.” There seems to be no other aspiration other to being charming and uncomplicated. No doubt her music will find an appreciative audience. It just isn’t my cup of tea.