Richard Rudenstein's first MMC release featuring works for clarinet, piano, voice, chamber ensemble.

In an era when many composers paradoxically seek to maintain a sizeable distance and artistic isolation between themselves and the society they ultimately desire to engage, award-winning composer Roger Rudenstein is a clear and vibrant exception to that rule. As the composer of the first full-length opera about AIDS, GRACE, Rudenstein is no stranger to tackling the most controversial topics and fanning the flames of social awareness through his art. His first MMC full-length, STATE OF THE UNION (MMC2161), takes this approach to the extreme.

The centerpiece of the release, the 3-movement septet STATE OF THE UNION, is a blistering, blazing piece of Swiftian musical satire featuring some of the finest musicians in modern classical, including Grammy-winning clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, Grammy-nominated mezzo-soprano D’Anna Fortunato, pianist Paul Dykstra, and cellist Emmanuel Feldman. Refusing to pull his punches, Rudenstein jumps into the political fray and strikes right at the heart of the Bush administration with relish and aplomb. This is not music for the faint-hearted.

"Today’s nightmares are many: an erratic ‘decider’ who gets his guidance from the spirit world; young people sent off to be killed and maimed while favored businesses, such as Halliburton and Exxon reap windfall profits," writes the composer in the CD liner notes. "Torture of prisoners justified by our ‘lawmakers’; one of our greatest cities left to perish by inept political appointees, and a Congress that cares more about pork than people. The list goes on."

Rudenstein’s "Sonata for Clarinet and Piano," here performed by Stoltzman and pianist Dykstra, is a spiky, angular work premiered by Dykstra and clarinetist Stephanie Ratte in January 2007. The piece showcases the composer’s ability to employ a wide range of emotional content, from the fidgety, exuberant opening movements to the caustic fury of the denouement. Rounding out the disc is the "Piano Sonata No. 7," again performed by Dykstra; the work bears striking similarities to the clarinet sonata with its sharp edges and adventurous use of the instrument. Dykstra attacks the piece with abandon, exposing the rich harmonies and sinewy melodies with dexterous panache.

The works on this recording are part of Rudenstein's major multi-work opus entitled THE NIGHTMARE OF REASON. It's Kafka meets James Joyce meets the Iraq War," explains Rudenstein. "I've written operas based on Kafka's METAMORPHOSIS and Joyce's ULYSSES and now, under the pressure of society's melting down, I've been attempting to translate this into a more abstract music expression where words are optional but the content reflects what Goya called 'the sleep of reason that produces monsters'. This is my way of fighting back."

THE NIGHTMARE OF REASON opus includes piano sonatas, double piano sonatas, cello sonatas, string quartets, piano trios and concertos for piano and clarinet. "I'm pouring my shock and amazement at the current insanity of the world into my music and, as the madness increases, so does my output, " Rudenstein said.