Michael Torke: Strawberry Fields
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Music Reviews of Michael Torke: Strawberry Fields
Music Review: Breathtaking - BUY this one!
Rating: 5 Stars
Michael Torke is one of several composers whose work I have been following for nearly a decade. I own most of his recordings in my collection, though this particular recording was one of three I just acquired. Much of the time, Torke's music has a cheery, jaunty, post-minimalist character (much repetition of little figures, but it does go somewhere - I'm no fan of John Adams, Steve Reich, or Phillip Glass), and after just a few seconds, you can often identify many of his pieces as being Torke works. The two pieces on this CD, especially Strawberry Fields, are a whole different story!
Another reviewer in this string did a nice job of synopsizing the plot. The emotional impact of the music, the text, and the performances are impressive. You just can't help but love the old lady, and the kind-hearted college student! No wonder it is a tear-jerker in live performance! I would LOVE to see this staged, and hope that opportunity comes some day.
The quartet near the end is superb, and not only unique in Torke's music, but unique in general. I haven't heard anything else quite like it. When I got this CD, I found myself listening to Strawberry Fields over and over and over. It's very addictive! I would like to point out three other passages that are particular favorites with me: Early on, the lady is singing "This is the Time" (about the excitement of an opera about to begin), and in an A-prime return, the horn plays her initial melody as she sings a soaring, absolutely gorgeous counter-melody. The tender exchange between the lady and the student after she begins pretending that he is her (long-dead) husband is also wonderfully touching. Finally, an emotionally charged exchange between the lady, her daughter and son, and the student ("Oh Mother, What Now") is a lively but beautiful passage as well. The deft and lovely counterpoint throughout the work shows that besides being a very appealing composer, Michael Torke is very much a master of his craft. The orchestration is colorful and facile, again obviously the work of somebody completely at home writing for large forces. Take a chance on this one, even if you aren't necessarily a Michael Torke fan! A great treat is in store for you!
Pentecost is lovely also, though of course not as emotionally involved as "Strawberry Fields." Just wonderful stuff!!
Music Review: Music makes life worth doing.
Rating: 5 Stars
As a listener, one stands towards Torke's "Strawberry Fields" the way the Lady in "Strawberry Fields" stands toward opera; that is completely- body and soul- engaged. And, while one wants to brightly flare over the work's sensuous aspects such as the vocal quartet that marks cue 13 on the CD or the masterful use of orchestral color to, for example, define character and relationships, one also wants to draw attention to the work's thoughtful aspects.
Opera as lauded in the Lady's lyrics and demonstrated in her actions made her life. "My family has subscribed to this seat for 50 years," she says, and she loves those special moments before curtain rise. Later she says, "I've missed...important things. Music. Feelings. Life," and "I need music in my life. Without it I'll wither away," and "We were lovers, Verdi and I," and "A world without music is a world without love." The Lady, alas confused and ailing, befriends a Student and together they create upon the people that enter the Strawberry Fields section of Central Park a spontaneous opera, an opera that the Lady ultimately conducts and stars in, and an opera that embraces the music as well as the ideas of freedom and liberation celebrated by John Lennon. With her, however, the opera closes. Silence. Yet in the farewell sung by the Son, Daughter, Student, and Chorus one senses that the Lady's opera has shown to all the nonsense of the idea that music, indeed all of art is separate from life.