PAUL FETLER (b.1920): Violin Concerto No. 2, Capriccio for Orchestra, 3 Poems by Walt Whitman for Violin, Narrator and Orchestra.

Description: A long-time faculty member of the University of Minnesota, winner of many prestigious grants and awards (Guggenheim, NEA) and student of, among others, Quincy Porter, Boris Blacher and Hindemith, Fetler writes approachable, tonal music in the fine tradition of 20th century American composers. His 1980 concerto has a rhapsodic flow through its three movements with Romantic and Impressionistic orchestration providing an alluring foundation for the melodic lines of the soloist, which often seem to hint at the intonations of eastern Europe. The Capriccio of 1985 is a delightful, balletic and witty 12-minute jeu d'esprit and the Whitman piece, commissioned for the U.S. bicentennial, is in the tradition of all such works. Aaron Berofsky (violin), Thomas H. Blaske (narrator), Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra; Arie Lipsky.