Composer Carl Vollrath was born in New York to parents fleeing Hitler's Germany, but from early adulthood was based in the American South and taught for many years at Troy State University in Alabama. A one-time member of the West Point Military Band, Vollrath has made his mark mainly in wind and band literature; however, MMC's Dream Voyages for Piano features Vollrath's keyboard music on two discs, performed by
Milan Langer (first disc) and
Victoria Griswold (second). It is a fairly expansive output and appears to have been created over a fairly long span of time; it's a little frustrating that MMC does not divulge the dates of these compositions in order to provide a more grounded historical context for them.
Langer's disc contains the more obviously serious literature; it contains three sonatas and two suites that appear more substantial than the 42 tracks on
Griswold's disc -- again, MMC didn't see fit to include any timings, so it's hard to tell. The first disc is a little quiet; however, Vollrath's music is whimsical and inspired. In some places it rambles some, and sometimes it is a little like
Bill Evans but more obviously classical in tone. Vollrath favors use of a lot of quartal and quintal types of intervals throughout all of the pieces on the first disc, and one may want to take in small doses, or these various pieces on the disc will start to blend in one's ears.
The second disc is a letdown from the first; although it is louder,
Griswold has a piano to play that is tinny and not very attractive sounding. Apart from the two sonatas placed at the end, this disc consists of suites of intermediate pieces for student pianists with titles such as Random Rhythms for Keyboard Ventures. Some might find it hard to resist the titles of individual movements, such as "The Beverly Hillbillies at Windsor Palace," and Vollrath utilizes quotation in an irreverent and fun way. However, sometimes the work being quoted is something better left alone; "Sleuth & Charlie Chan's Keyboard Chase" is built on the theme music of the cartoon Inspector Gadget, a notorious earworm that many who have heard would love to find a way to forget it. Unlike
Langer on the first disc,
Griswold doesn't invest very much energy in interpreting these pieces, and her playing is kind of pedestrian. In other words, this two-CD set would be a much-improved single CD; nevertheless, some of the music on MMC's Dream Voyages for Piano is interesting and well worth checking out, even if a musical counterpart of Jethro Clampett tramping around in his knight's costume somehow fails to appeal.