Aporias: Requia For Piano & Orchestra

John Zorn (Composer, Conductor), William Drury (Conductor), American Composers Orchestra (Orchestra), Stephen Drury (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Stephen Drury
• Orchestra: American Composers Orchestra
• Conductor: John Zorn, William Drury
• Composer: John Zorn
• Audio CD (September 15, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Tzadik
• ASIN: B00000AFS0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,357 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #12 in Music > Indie Music > Jazz > Avant-Garde
  • #82 in Music > Indie Music > Classical

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This Grew On Me, November 5, 2002

By 

Christopher Forbes "weirdears" (Brooklyn,, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Aporias: Requia For Piano & Orchestra (Audio CD)

I am not always a great fan of Zorn's concert music. Though some of the string music is quite lovely, I find that often, Zorn's interest in cartoon music, though it is brilliant in groups like Naked City, falls flat in the concert music. And the interest in quoting other material leaves me quite flat...it seems way too hip.

But this piece is making me think more seriously about Zorn the composer. Aporias is basically a concerto for piano and orchestra with several movements for unusual combinations, such as children's voices or hand claps. The Prelude has the feel of many other Zorn pieces...within the space of several seconds the music careens from cocktail to Stockhausen to Mickey Mouse. But the material settles down after that. Most of the movements are dominated by dark sombre chords and clusters in the orchestra, with Klavierstucke-like piano figures and some really striking sonic effects. The Con Mistero movement includes some haunting singing from members of an Eastern European boychoir. The music resembles nothing so much as the music of Morton Feldman. The composer also shows a marvelous ear for orchestral sonority. It makes you hope that he will have the opportunity to composer more music in this medium.

Ultimately, the largest problem that I've had with most of Zorn's concert music is it's static quality. Though the surface buzzes with detail, the sheer variety of the material ends up paradoxically making the pieces go nowhere. Aporias is a great step forward in this respect. Zorn manages to tie his diverse material together and subject it to an overall arch plan. This, plus the deep melencholy feeling in the work, makes it a very successful piece of concert music. To all of those who dismiss Zorn as a composer, this should give you material for reevaluation. It's definately worth a listen.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Difficult, breathtaking music., April 4, 2005

By 

Michael Stack (North Chelmsford, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Aporias: Requia For Piano & Orchestra (Audio CD)

When I first began listening to John Zorn's chamber music, I was very excited at the idea of an orchestra piece, which "Aporias" is. Zorn's chamber work has interested me where many other composers' work has not in that it feels much like his other music, it feels chaotic on first listen but its actually highly organized, its performed to a virtuoso level, more often than not, any calm is awaiting the birth of a storm, an explosion is always on the horizon-- whether it manifests or not.

"Aporias" is in fact a situation where the horizon never quite arrives-- just over half an hour in length-- the piece builds and recedes-- the orchestra never plays in unity, one or two parts come in at a time, and when there's "too many" and listening to this, that make sense, they go away. The tension never quite breaks, but it never quite builds either.

Admittedly, I was waiting for the explosion, but the closest we get is aggressive piano over handclapping in "Risentito", but this is ok, the tension present throughout the piece is enough. There's really quite a powerful emotional current throughout this music, the spirit the composer was reaching for is more often than not right in front of the listener.

But don't approach this with expectations-- it didn't meet mine and it took more than a couple listens to accept that. Nonetheless, the piece is subtle and rewarding, and one of the best chamber works by the composer, and quite honestly-- it is wholly a Zorn piece, all the signposts of his work is here, just presented in a very subtle light-- Stalling, Coleman, Morricone, etc. all rise and fall, but in a very different way. Highly recommended.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Experimental classical music, August 22, 2003

By 

SPM "scott_maykrantz" (Eugene, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aporias: Requia For Piano & Orchestra (Audio CD)

Zorn has written a half-hour tribute to the artistic spirit, employing a small orchestra to play blocks of music. It takes a while to get used to but, because you get something new every time you listen, it's rewarding. If you like Zorn (or anything on his label, Tzadik), you'll like this. Casual listeners might not be too happy with it.