 |
Harrison Birtwistle: Melencolia 1 / Ritual Fragment / Meridian
CD DetailsComposer: Harrison Birtwistle Conductor: Oliver Knussen Performer: Mary King Orchestra: London Sinfonietta Edition: Music CD Format: Import CD Release Date: 2000-09-15 Music Label: NMC Records Soundtracks: - Melencolia I - Antony Pay/Helen Tunstall
- Melencolia I - Antony Pay/Helen Tunstall
- Melencolia I - Antony Pay/Helen Tunstall
- Melencolia I - Antony Pay/Helen Tunstall
- Melencolia I - Antony Pay/Helen Tunstall
- Ritual Fragment - London Sinf
- Meridian - Mary King/Michale Thompson/Chrisopher Van Kampen/London Sinf Voices/Oliver Knussen
- Meridian - Mary King/Michale Thompson/Chrisopher Van Kampen/London Sinf Voices/Oliver Knussen
- Meridian - Mary King/Michale Thompson/Chrisopher Van Kampen/London Sinf Voices/Oliver Knussen
- Meridian - Mary King/Michale Thompson/Chrisopher Van Kampen/London Sinf Voices/Oliver Knussen
- Meridian - Mary King/Michale Thompson/Chrisopher Van Kampen/London Sinf Voices/Oliver Knussen
- Meridian - Mary King/Michale Thompson/Chrisopher Van Kampen/London Sinf Voices/Oliver Knussen
- Meridian - Mary King/Michale Thompson/Chrisopher Van Kampen/London Sinf Voices/Oliver Knussen
- Meridian - Mary King/Michale Thompson/Chrisopher Van Kampen/London Sinf Voices/Oliver Knussen
- Meridian - Mary King/Michale Thompson/Chrisopher Van Kampen/London Sinf Voices/Oliver Knussen
- Meridian - Mary King/Michale Thompson/Chrisopher Van Kampen/London Sinf Voices/Oliver Knussen
Music reviews of Harrison Birtwistle: Melencolia 1 / Ritual Fragment / MeridianMusic Review: Some essential Birtwistle Rating: 5 Stars
All three works on this disc are essential Birtwistle. Oliver Knussen is one of best conductors in the world. The London Sinfonietta needs no introduction. And NMC is one of the great independent labels. What else do you need?Well, I know Birtwistle's music alienates some people, and in its way it is more radical than anything 50/60s Darmstadt serialism could offer. But it is perhaps also the most interesting, often in a extra-musical way. Birtwistle seems to engage with forgotten areas of history (both musical and cultural, especially that of Britain). He makes history seem a strange, different, and incomprehensible world; he stresses its difference, and thus makes us re-exmaine our current position and cultural acrtivity. Like Stravinsky's Agon, his music problematises a notion of linear and progressive development. It is a critique of the rationalism and humanism of the Modern world, and the goal-orientated music that 'accompanied' it. Witness his interogation of pulse and clock time in Silbury Air (on Etcetera), narrative and the idea of character in the Mask of Orpheus (NMC), and his privileging of the sensous, pre-rational world of Archaic/early Classical Greece (eg, Tragoedia (Decca Britain)). It is primeval music, yet could not have been written at any other time. In a cultural, not musical, sense, it perhaps exhibits, at the very least lays the foundations for, a radical postmodernity (Musical discussion of the modern and postmodern seems to revolve around whether so-and-so's music has a melody or not!) The best description for a lot of his music is probably Mechanical Pastoral. Both modern and old, simple yet ellusive, robotic but sadly human, intergorrative and submissive, foreign yet instantly recognisable, his is the music I often have to struggle with the most to begin to comprehend. I don't understand the half of it, but that's what I love about it.
Description of Harrison Birtwistle: Melencolia 1 / Ritual Fragment / MeridianAll products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.
|
 |
Winterscapesby London Philharmonic Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; BookBest price: $2.75Price in other shops: $6.99
The Queen, the Bear, & the Bumblebeeby Dini Petty Children's Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; BookBest price: $13.38Price in other shops: $13.98
Classical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs CdrRelease date: 2000-04-05; Music CDBest price: $24.98
Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos))by Malcolm Sinclair, Jeremy Siepmann Naxos; Published: 2003-11; Audio CD; BookBest price: $35.99
Jose Carreras - Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS]Sling Shot; Release date: 2000-04-18; VHS Tape; VHS VideoBest price: $5.86Price in other shops: $9.99
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-09-09; VHS Tape; VHS VideoBest price: $29.89Price in other shops: $29.95
Rambert Dance Company - Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-10-28; VHS Tape; VHS VideoBest price: $14.99Price in other shops: $29.95
Winter Music: Composing the Northby John Luther Adams Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; BookBest price: $21.91Price in other shops: $25.95
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS VideoBest price: $6.38Price in other shops: $29.95
Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS VideoBest price: $12.95Price in other shops: $29.95
|
|