Kim Portnoy’s Chamber Music Album

from the Bandcamp Web page for the album being discussed

At the beginning of this month, composer Kim Portnoy released his own self-produced album of chamber music he has composed either by request or on commission over the last fourteen years or so. He is Director of Composition Studies at Webster University in St. Louis, which is probably where the six pieces on the album originated. As of this writing, that album only seems to be available through a Bandcamp Web page. This may be a bit problematic, since the only option is a “Digital Album,” which includes a download of the thirteen tracks but says nothing about the notes that Portnoy had prepared for a physical album.

For the most part, the music is pleasantly innocuous. Most of the track titles provide enough information to compensate for the lack of Portnoy’s text supplements. The performances themselves are consistently well-executed.

My guess is that any one of the pieces on this album would do well as a “change of pace” offering on a well-prepared concert program. At least one of those compositions, From an Imaginary Musical. was actually created with that intention in mind. It is a three-movement suite drawing upon popular styles from the twentieth century. It was written for violinist Yuli Ilyashov and pianist Alla Voskoboynikova to provide a “break” in a recital program that began with Johannes Brahms and concluded with Dmitri Shostakovich.

Nevertheless, without the immediacy of performance, there is not much to engage the attentive listener. Portnoy clearly has enough skill that he does not deserve to be relegated to “background music.” Perhaps the best that can be hoped for this album is that it will inspire musicians interested in preparing imaginative programs to seek out scores from this composer’s catalog.