Michael Torke: Strawberry Fields
List Price:
Our Price: $10.93
You Save: $8.05 (42%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.98 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Composer: Michael TorkeConductor: David Alan Miller
Orchestra: Albany Symphony Orchestra
Performer: John Hancock
Performer: Keith Kibler
Performer: Joyce Castle
Performer: Heather Gardner
Performer: Margaret Lloyd
Performer: ALBANY PRO MUSICA
Performer: Jeffrey Lentz
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-11-08
Music Label: Ecstatic Records
Soundtracks:
- Strawberry Fields, opera: Good afternoon
- Strawberry Fields, opera: This is the time
- Strawberry Fields, opera: Mother, we've been searching everywhere!
- Strawberry Fields, opera: If I were your mother
- Strawberry Fields, opera: Thank you for your thoughts
- Strawberry Fields, opera: Excuse me. May I borrow your program?
- Strawberry Fields, opera: Where have you been?
- Strawberry Fields, opera: How can I love you?
- Strawberry Fields, opera: A nickel or a dime
- Strawberry Fields, opera: But look. A group of peasants...
- Strawberry Fields, opera: Here's your wheelchair, Mother
- Strawberry Fields, opera: Oh Mother, what now?
- Strawberry Fields, opera: Maybe we're wrong...
- Strawberry Fields, opera: Alright Mother. Enough is enough
- Pentecost, for soprano & orchestra: 1. And It Shall Come to Pass
- Pentecost, for soprano & orchestra: 2. And I Will Show Wonders
- Pentecost, for soprano & orchestra: 3. Whosoever Shall Call
Music reviews of Michael Torke: Strawberry Fields
Music Review: Torke expands his vocal (and emotional) palette
Rating: 5 Stars
Color me a Torke completionist: I try to acquire every recording of this fascinating composer's work. This album includes two works: the mini-opera "Strawberry Fields," and "Pentecost," Torke's setting of passages from Acts 2 (which are actually citations of the prophecy of Joel, meaning Torke still gravitates toward Old Testament texts even when he's setting a New Testament text to music).
Strawberry Fields focuses on an elderly lady who, under the influence of some form of senile dementia, believes she's at an opera house when, in fact, she's in the part of New York's Central Park where the John Lennon memorial is located. There is poignancy and humor in the situation: she receives moral support from a university student cutting class (whom she later comes to think is her late husband). Her son, and later her daughter, enter the scene intent upon transporting her to a new managed care facility: to them, she is a loose cannon that needs to be sedated and hauled off in a wheelchair to her "nice new home." The student's advocacy for the old woman gives her children some pause, blooming into a wonderful vocal quartet where the protagonists open up their hearts to themselves. (Don't recall encountering anything like this passage in Torke's recorded output -- it is singular in this regard.)
The humor is good-natured. E.g., the old lady asks a construction worker if she could borrow his "opera program." The gruff New Yorker hands her the Racing Form he was reading, advising her of his recommended pick. When she hands it back, he's curious about what it said about the "opera." She notes only that the opera definitely had a complicated plot.
A fascinating musical/emotional subtext is the references to Verdi (championed by the old lady) and John Lennon (extolled by the student). The two even sing about how the world mourned over the respective deaths of these composers, who wrote about freedom (Lennon) and liberation (Verdi). Touchingly, in a wry reversal, she concludes, "I love Lennon," while the student sings back, "I love Verdi."
I'd love to have seen this staged -- I seriously doubt a recording can do justice to the dynamics of this as a stage work.
Pentecost is both effective and affective, and it bears a strong relation to the composer's "Book of Proverbs," excepting that a soprano alone interacts with the orchestra. "Book" was longer and therefore seems more substantial than "Pentecost," but the question is, does "Pentecost" properly illuminate its Biblical text? Answer: certainly as well as "Book" evoked its selection of Proverbs. I prefer the first of the three movements for its moto perpetuo energy levels, but the second movement reminds us that Torke has penned some compelling slow movements of late, often hidden between remarkably kinetic allegro passages (see his excellent ballet, "The Contract," to see this beautifully realized in a purely orchestral setting).
The recording is warm and clear, very dynamic when necessary, and allows one to hear the individual vocal lines entwining over the purposive orchestral textures Torke summons to the fore. This becomes all-important at the end of Strawberry Fields, where it becomes clear that the old lady has actually passed away while others were bickering over her disposition: in Torke's sensitive hands, these ultimate moments become revelatory, reaching to the heart. A suffusive sense of loss is broadcast with the simplest means. If that constitutes an act of genius, one is inclined to think that Torke has touched its face here.
More Michael Torke: Strawberry Fields free music reviews:
1
1
Classical CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Classical CDs
Winterscapesby London Philharmonic
Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $2.74
Price in other shops:
The Queen, the Bear, & the Bumblebeeby Dini Petty
Children's Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.40
Price in other shops:
Classical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs CdrRelease date: 2000-04-05; Music CD
Best price: $25.98
Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos))by Malcolm Sinclair, Jeremy Siepmann
Naxos; Published: 2003-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $35.99
![Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS] Image](/images/Jose-Carreras-Jubileum-Concert-VHS-1584481471-X.jpg){kind=small}
Jose Carreras - Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS]Sling Shot; Release date: 2000-04-18; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.87
Price in other shops:
![Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS] Image](/images/Tchaikovsky-The-Nutcracker-Nureyev-Park-Royal-Ballet-VHS-156127092X-X.jpg){kind=small}
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-09-09; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.94
Price in other shops:
![Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS] Image](/images/Lonely-Town-Lonley-Street-Sergeant-Early-Dream-VHS-1561270857-X.jpg){kind=small}
Rambert Dance Company - Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-10-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $24.99
Price in other shops:
Winter Music: Composing the Northby John Luther Adams
Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.73
Price in other shops:
![Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Puccini-La-Fanciulla-del-West-Santi-Domingo-Neblett-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720382-X.jpg){kind=small}
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Verdi-Falstaff-Giulini-Bruson-Ricciarelli-Nucci-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720358-X.jpg){kind=small}
Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops:
Similar CDs
Michael Torke: An Italian Straw HatRelease date: 2005-04-26; Music CD
Best price: $8.73
Price in other shops:
Michael Torke: Blue PacificRelease date: 2008-03-11; Music CD
Best price: $2.10
Price in other shops: