David Chesky: Urbanicity

David Chesky’s latest CD consists of a concerto for electric guitar and two ballet scores, all unified in celebrating the cultural and ethnic diversity of New York City, where Chesky lives. Stylistically an extension of his previous album, the brilliant Urban Concertos, these new pieces are broadly tonal, rhythmically vigorous, and restless in temper, but with a difference: the orchestra here is completely virtual. This is not “electronic” music as conventionally understood and no synthesizers were used. Instead, complex processes of instrumental and acoustical sampling were employed to generate a performance entirely in a computer, resulting in the best virtual simulacrum of an orchestra I’ve heard, though serious listeners won’t be fooled (brass in particular lack the telltale sound of their bores). Chesky’s decision owed to the difficulty the new works present to orchestras lacking adequate time to prepare them, though scores do exist and they have been performed by actual orchestras. The very idea of a virtual orchestra raises more issues than I can enumerate, let alone address, here. But beyond doubt is Chesky himself, who continues to grow. Sonics are stunning ly dynamic, the virtual orchestra emerging as a three-dimensional something or other. Available also as a hi-res download from HDtracks.com.