Olympic Mountains Overture (2003) - Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra - Joel Eric Suben (Conductor)
Symphony No. 4 (2017) - Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine - Theodore Kuchar (Conductor)
Symphony No. 5 (2021) - Polish Wieniawski Philharmonic Orchestra of Lublin - Theodore Kuchar (Conductor)

Imagine that ... orchestral symphonic music composed as recently as 2021 that makes musical sense, and that actually sounds like music, and not a bunch of arbitrary, harmonically disjointed sounds slapped together as a pretense for music. Although I wouldn't quite agree with the comment I've read that says: "the kind of 'Big Country' sound that one can hear in Copland". Despite being born in Boston, the music of American composer Charles Roland Berry (b. 1957) doesn't sound anywhere near as "American" as the music of Aaron Copland. As a matter of fact I can't think of any composer that quite captures the American big sky country spirit the same way Copland did. Berry's music is more in line with the music of one of his teachers, Paul Creston, and possibly even William Schuman to a certain extent.

His music seems very much an extension of his personal views and opinions on today's society, and more specifically how "the choices of large businesses and large media have a direct effect on the artistic culture of our civilisation" {Booklet Notes}. I myself couldn't agree more with many of his comments on the sad state of music, and more specifically classical music 'promotion' these days. The booklet notes alone are worth the price of this CD. He and I share one thing in common in that for many years he worked for Tower Records, and I worked as the Classical Music Manager for HMV Superstores. We both lost our jobs when the record industry collapsed due to the metastasizing growth of binary bits and bytes that the industry inflicted on itself, and by music promoters and record label execs on a mission to support only "composers" on the fringe.

Nothing to do with organized sports, the Olympic Mountains Overture is a highly colorful, tone-poem inspired description of the moods and sounds of the Olympic National Park in Washington State. It incorporates the use of a piano, saxophone, wind machine, and multiple percussion instruments within the orchestral fabric to great effect. The Symphony No. 4 is more concerned with Divine Influence and our spiritual connections with all aspects of the natural and spiritual world. Its five movements are subtitled as per the key elemental forces of life ... Water, Earth, Fire, Spirit and Air. There's a highly fluid progression that threads its way through the whole work. The brand new Symphony No. 5 follows the more traditional four-movement structure, and not reliant on a predetermined program, is conceived as absolute music, feeding on itself to achieve growth and resolution.

All three orchestras present these new works with committed playing throughout. And for those of you often bemoaning the fact that there isn't anything new to listen to, these are all world premiere recordings. This is not groundbreaking stuff, but rather the work of a composer who respects music, and plays by its rules.