Barati: Symphony No. 1

George Barati (Artist), Laslzo Kovaks (Artist), Vladimir Valek (Artist), Budapest Symphony Orchestra (Artist), Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 15, 2002)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos American
• ASIN: B00005U4W9
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #281,935 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a find!!, July 31, 2003

By 

P. SIMPSON "nucaleena" (North Yorkshire, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Barati: Symphony No. 1 (Audio CD)

This is a marvellous disc in every way.

Judging on this disc Barati's music can at times sound like W. Schuman, as "An Amazon customer" notes, as well as like Shostakovich, Bartok, Nielsen and Schoenberg, but manages to be original and distinctive at the same time: reminiscent without being at all derivative.

Its also gut-wrenchingly, ear and cheek-burningly powerful, - not just the almost unbearably grief-racked "Into the Dark" but the Symphony and "Light" too. Barati's murder when he had turned to composing with renewed energy is a tragedy which adds resonance to both tone poems.

The performances are committed and disciplined and the sound suits the music well. It is multi-miked and spotlights instruments and groupings and that would normally irritate me, but there's a lot going on, some of it episodic, and the techniques are beneficial rather than irritating. The recordings date from 1995 and 1999 and the more recent are slightly better but the sound throughout is in the demonstration class, the best I've heard from a Naxos orchestral disc.

Recommended unreservedly on musical, performing and recording grounds. Now I'm off to explore some more Barati.

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive music, November 27, 2009

By 

Hayward H. Siegel (East Meadow, New York United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Barati: Symphony No. 1 (Audio CD)

Barati was a master of orchestral texture. The music is modern sounding, but not avant garde. The 1st Symphony is in 3 movements. The music paints a picture of the natural beauty of the mountain scenery, as well as the beauty of the man-made additions to it. It is a collage of sounds, describing what you see and feel in the landscape. You can even hear trains. This is accomplished without the use of much melody, but through constant changes in instrumentation, themes, and rhythms, which flow easily from one to another. I was impressed with his use of percussion instruments, especially when he used them to play the melody at times. The Symphony closes very majestically. Chant of Light is abstract, and the orchestration is very colorful. There is a constant flow of themes from more tranquil to more energetic, and from more abstract to more melodic. The music becomes more somber as the composition closes. You are now in the mood to hear the last composition on the recording, Chant of Darkness. As the name suggests, it is dark sounding. The music is somber, melancholy, and, at times, ominous. It is unfortunate, that such a beautiful piece of music was written to describe a sorrowful period of time, namely, the death of Barati's daughter due to cancer. While listening to this, I got the distinct impression and eerie feeling, that the music was also portraying the ticking away of the period life, right to the time of death.