"Canticle to the Sun," "United Artists," "Quiet in the Land," and "Autumn Rhythm" performed by Timothy Jones, French horn, the London Symphony and conductor JoAnn Falletta (Naxos). Maestra Falletta's continuing loyalty to her Juilliard classmate, composer Kenneth Fuchs is well-served by this brighthued, ear-friendly second disc of Fuchs' music by Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra. If one were to play "Blindfold Test" games with any student of 20th century music, you'd probably hear the guess that this neo-Romantic and neo-classic music was composed in the '40s by a contemporary of Paul Creston's, Peter Menin's and William Schuman's. These are brass, woodwind and mixed quintet pieces along with the "Canticle to the Sun" which is a concerto for French horn and orchestra. Even when his music is inspired by abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler, as in "Fire, Ice and Summer Bronze" or Jackson Pollock in "Autumn Rhythm," you're in a world of tonality, melody and lyricism that never becomes more dissonant than neo-classic Stravinsky. The variations of the French horn concerto "Canticle to the Sun" take their origins from an old hymn tune shared with Vaughan Williams. The performance is loving and unfailingly warm, if not quite lush. --Buffalo News - January 20, 2008, Jeff Simon(Canticle to the Sun) is a masterfully crafted work, with a horn part that any horn player would relish. --Fanfare Magazine, July/August 2008...a worthwhile disc, by a composer certainly worth watching (and hearing). --ClassicsToday.com, July 8, 2008A definite winner all around! --Audiophile Audition, June 25, 2008Canticle of the Sun - a hymn tune based on 13th-century texts by St Francis of Assisi - is built on a four-note motif. Written for the LSO's principal horn player, Timothy Jones, this 20-minute gem has a radiant, all-embracing optimism that is just irresistible. Indeed, it is not unlike a stained glass window, all those fragments of high colour glowing in the light behind. But at the centre of it all is Jones's supple and passionate playing, surely as seductive a performance of this piece as we are ever likely to hear.As with Respighi's Church Windows, Falletta displays a sense of line and phrase that is most welcome in this music. And while I've grumbled about the sound on some Naxos releases I'm prepared to eat humble pie on this one. The engineers have done an exceptional job capturing the sound of the LSO at St Luke's; what a pleasant change from the dry-as-dust Barbican.Early days, I know, but this could be one of my discs of 2008. --MusicWeb-International.com, Dan Morgan, May 2008Falletta and the LSO do a very fine job indeed. The composer should be thrilled. I hesitate to call the LSO the best orchestra in London only because there are so many others that compete at its level. Jones is a wonderfully lyric player, with an intense singing line. At least, that's mainly what Fuchs seemed to respond to in his playing. A winner in Naxos's "American Classics" series. --ClassicalCDReview.com, May 2008Kenneth Fuchs is an energetic American composer now in his early fifties who is based at the University of Connecticut.  He has a wide range of compositions and is also involved in music education and administration.  At Juilliard, he was a contemporary of JoAnn Falletta, who very much wanted to make an orchestral CD of his music.  The opportunity came in 2003 when she recorded a group of works with the LSO, which came out on Naxos in 2005.  Fuchs was so stunned by the legendary expertise of the LSO in playing at sight for a recording that he wrote United Artists as a short tribute.  It opens this second Naxos CD; a series of chamber works follows, and the disc closes with Canticle to the Sun, a horn concerto in which the British connection continues with the soloist Timothy Jones from the LSO.United Artists is a kind of fanfare to the orchestra, who obviously enjoyed it - the idiom stems from Copland early Carter.  Quiet in the Land for mixed string and wind quintet contemplative in mood, generally music of low density suitable for illustration.  This aspect comes to the fore in Autumn Rhythm, inspired by the paintings of Jackson Pollock; it would make an apt soundtrack for a series of his pictures.Canticle to the Sun is based on the familiar hymn-tune "All Creatures of our God and King."  This is an imaginative idea where the soloist emerges from a tinkling backdrop and retains clear contact with the melody throughout, all though it is never stated in full.  The concerto adds up to a pastoral idyll with occasional spots for the timpani and lyrical cadenzas - all neatly played.  Peter Dickinson --Gramophone Magaznie, March 2008Kenneth Fuchs is fortunate indeed to have not one but two discs of his music recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. The first, in 2003, was nominated for two Grammys in 2005 and the second, recorded in 2006, should do well too, such is the quality of both the music and music-making. Holding it all together in the orchestral pieces and the mixed quintet is conductor JoAnn Falletta, who made such a strong impression in her recent disc of Respighi.United Artists, the first item on the disc, was written specifically for the LSO as a gesture of thanks for their earlier recording of Fuchs's works (Naxos 8.559224). At its core is a four-note motif, presented first in the Coplandesque opening fanfare. But this isn't derivative music; indeed, the composer's distinctive `voice' is evident from the outset, and his flair for orchestral colours and sheer lyricism shine through in this atmospheric opener.Quiet in the land is another of those vast musical landscapes that might provoke comparisons with Copland, yet Fuchs's evocation of the Midwestern Plains just as the Iraq war was beginning is rather more complex and ambiguous in its sentiments. As the composer writes in the liner notes, `I wondered how quiet the spirit of our land might be'.Even without this programme the opening bars hint at harmony, subtly undermined by vague discord - just listen to that quiet, agitated figure that begins at 1:30, beneath the more lyrical and expansive melody above. It is such lucid, `hear-through' writing, yet it's full of warmth. The members of the LSO manage to bring out both these aspects of the score, blending precision with feeling. And what a haunting close, too.The recording venue - St Luke's in London's Old Street - is very well captured by the engineers, with no hint of brittleness or edge. The musicians seem ideally placed, too, which is particularly welcome in Fire, Ice, and Summer Bronze for brass quintet. Subtitled an 'Idyll ... after two works on paper by Helen Frankenthaler' the first movement yokes together two eternal opposites - fire (the restless first section) and ice (the more muted second section).There seems to be an underlying creative tension in some of these pieces, perhaps an attempt to reconcile musical and emotional extremes. For instance, in Summer Bronze the music is strangely mercurial - now lyrical, now dissonant, now both. But it's that other dichotomy, between outward virtuosity and inner feeling, that these seasoned players - always secure, always poised - convey so well.Based on a painting by Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm does contain some jazzy snippets, but the emphasis seems to be on sonorities, with long, lyrical melodic lines and, at times, a quirky bass. It is a strangely `in-between' piece; to use the autumn analogy, summer is not quite done, yet winter is on its way. In his notes Fuchs describes how the two states are drawn together and, indeed, how one becomes the other: `An unusual aspect of this composition is that in its final section the flute, oboe, and clarinet metamorphose into their lower - perhaps autumnal - counterparts, the alto flute, English horn, and bass clarinet.' It's a remarkable sleight of hand, deftly constructed and seamlessly executed.Canticle of the Sun - a hymn tune based on 13th-century texts by St Francis of Assisi - is built on a four-note motif. Written for the LSO's principal horn player, Timothy Jones, this 20-minute gem has a radiant, all-embracing optimism that is just irresistible. Indeed, it is not unlike a stained glass window, all those fragments of high colour glowing in the light behind. But at the centre of it all is Jones's supple and passionate playing, surely as seductive a performance of this piece as we are ever likely to hear.As with Respighi's Church Windows, Falletta displays a sense of line and phrase that is most welcome in this music. And while I've grumbled about the sound on some Naxos releases I'm prepared to eat humble pie on this one. The engineers have done an exceptional job capturing the sound of the LSO at St Luke's; what a pleasant change from the dry-as-dust Barbican.Early days, I know, but this could be one of my discs of 2008. - Dan Morgan --Music Web International, February 2008THERE'S a trend among today's American composers to write music that is modern-sounding but easy on the ear. Perhaps Hollywood has something to do with it, or simply that Americans are maybe a bit more conservative in their outlook. Kenneth Fuch's music - he is in his early 50s - has that inoffensive trait. From sounds that have their roots in the expansive soundscapes of Copland and his mildly angular lyricism, Fuchs constructs delicately effusive scores, several of which, for varying ensembles, appear in this attractive survey of his music. It's part of Naxos's illuminating American Classics series, and features all and parts of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) under the direction of JoAnn Falletta. The full ensemble opens the disc with one of the composer's most recent orchestral works - United Artists - and ends it with a horn concerto, Canticle to the Sun, specifically written for the LSO's Timothy Jones and based on the traditional hymn tune to All Creatures of Our God and King. Both underline the darting filmic qualities of Fuch's style, a restless energy that combines virtuosity and clarity of texture with softness of touch. In many ways, though, the most interesting sounds appear in the reflective Quiet in the Land, Autumn Rhythm and Fire, Ice and Summer Bronze, all written for smaller chamber ensembles, which glow with inner warmth. An attractive disc from a very listenable composer. --The Scotsman, February 29, 2008The work takes its title, Canticle to the Sun, from a hymn text originally composed by St. Francis of Assisi, circa 1225. Fuchs bases the concerto on a setting of the text to a tune found in the Geistliche Kirchengesang, dated 1623. In 1906, Vaughan Williams harmonized the tune. There's a lot of Americana at its core, which is not to denigrate it in any way. It's a masterfully crafted work, with a horn part that any horn player would relish. Timothy Jones does himself and Fuchs proud. Nor should JoAnn Falletta's contribution to this enterprise be overlooked. As usual, she proves an adept leader who happens to be especially sympathetic to 20th-century American music.Naxos's sound, as expected, is excellent. Recommended to the receptive. --Fanfare Magazine, Jerry Dubins, June 2008United Artists is a kind of fanfare to this orchestra, who obviously enjoyed it - the idiom stems from Copland and early Carter. Quiet in the Land for mixed string and wind quintet is contemplative in mood, generally music of low density suitable for illustration. This aspect comes to the fore in Autumn Rhythm, inspired by the paintings of Jackson Pollock: it would make an apt soundtrack for a series of his pictures.Canticle to the Sun is based on the familiar hymn-tune "All Creatures of our God and King". This is an imaginative idea where the soloist emerges from a tinkling backdrop and retains clear contact with the melody throughout, although it is never stated in full. The concerto adds up to a pastoral idyll with occasional spots for the timpani and lyrical cadenzas - all neatly played. --Gramophone Magazine, Peter Dickinson, June 2008