AN AMERICAN BEETHOVEN? WHO KNEW?

We must thank Rebecca Miller of Santa Cruz for the revelation. A former candidate for music director of her hometown Santa Cruz Symphony she has gone on to an international conducting career, including several CD recordings, the latest of which is a program with the Royal Northern Sinfonia of Bristow’s “Jullien” Symphony, named for and dedicated to a short-lived French conductor, and two concert overtures. Bristow was born in Brooklyn to English musical immigrants. He became an accomplished music figure in New York as a performer and composer in all genres. This CD serves up ambitious, high-energy readings, bold and gutsy, with a polished orchestra obviously fired-up for the occasion. At 43 minutes, the “Jullien” Symphony, itself ambitious, seriously challenges the post-Beethoven composers of Europe, France and Britain. Miller abets him in kind. Beethoven, Mendelssohn and, to a lesser degree, Schumann figure in the mix. Indeed, Miller displays an unerring sense of suspenseful anticipation and comes through with authority. This new CD is both revelatory and triumphant.