Customer Reviews

Barber: Horizon

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The reason to buy the disc is Horizon, which is the world premiere recording. Horizon is a short work, rather dark and moody. It is a curiosity for lovers of Samuel Barbers music but not as striking or memorable as the Essays for Orchestra, or the Scene from Shelly. The Knoxville: Summer of 1915 that is recorded here is among the worst. Ruth Golden's voice is completely unsuited, and I could not help wondering how such a recording could have been approved for issue. Unfortunately, it spoils what would otherwise be a fairly nice disc. If one wants to hear a great Knoxville, turn to Price, Steber or Upshaw.

The remaining works on the disc are well played. The Capricorn and Serenade are particularly nice. Then the ubiquitous Adagio for Strings makes its appearance. It is comes off well-enough but has been better played by other orchestras.

I am puzzled by two other reviewers' extraordinarily negative review of Ruth Golden's singing of Knoxville - that her "voice is ugly, the intonation is abysmal, the performance is a mess in every way..", etc.

This is grossly unfair to Ms Golden, who in fact sings the piece quite creditably. What's going on here?

Samuel Barber was clearly one of the great composers of all time in American music, and music of the 20th century in general. He is best known to music lovers for his elegiac "Adagio For Strings", a work once termed by conductor Leonard Slatkin to be America's "music for mourning", which is certainly is. As this 1995 recording by the San Diego Chamber Orchestra and their music director Donald Barra demonstrates, however, there is more to this great composer.

Indeed, this CD includes the very first ever recording of a work Barber composed in 1945, "Horizon", a short but very atmospheric four and a half minute miniature piece for orchestra that is highly engaging; and the rarely heard 1956 "Summer Music" for woodwind quintet, here performed by the Arioso Wind Quintet, who are composed of principal woodwind players of the S.D.C.O., and who also have worked with their larger counterpart the San Diego Symphony. Also featured here are the Serenade For String Orchestra, a work from 1929, and the Capricorn Concerto for flute, oboe, trumpet, and orchestra (from 1944); each of these works gives the S.D.C.O. a good challenge, which they are able to succeed at. The gentle "Knoxville: Summer Of 1915", with text by James Agee, is probably Barber's greatest contribution to the art of song; and I'm going against the grain of a few other reviewers here in saying that soprano soloist Ruth Golden, while she may not compare in terms of this song to, say, Dawn Upshaw or Sylvia McNair, is certainly a long way from being terrible. It is then fitting that the recording should conclude with the much-beloved "Adagio", whose use in films like THE ELEPHANT MAN and PLATOON helped accelerate its popularity, and which has become such an appropriate fixture on 9/11.

To have such a solid and trimmed-down Barber collection being done by a much-underrated small American orchestra like the S.D.C.O. is something to be thankful for, especially when dealing not only with something as well known as the Adagio For Strings, but also the other works that are not necessarily played on classical radio stations every day of the week. This is a recording to have.

To be fair, I have heard only the "Knoxville" from this recording. A "classical music" radio station played it today. I've not heard the rest of the recording.

Because of what I heard, I came looking for the recording and reviews. I found only one, by D. A. Wend, who described the performance by Ruth Golden as the worst. That doesn't go nearly far enough. The voice is ugly, the intonation is abysmal, the performance is a mess in every way. I've heard much better student performances of this really wonderful piece. You wonder who at Decca made the decision to actually commit this performance to a CD.