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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mysterious rites,
By
This review is from: Birtwistle: Secret Theatre / Silbury Air / Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum (Audio CD)
Based on the frequency that this disc appears in my CD player, it's one of my favorites. I first heard "Secret Theatre" years ago and was totally intrigued by its strange, sinister mood. It might be the highlight of this recording, but all three pieces will compel you to hear them again and again. "Silbury Air" has an innocuous title, but the music is stark, menacing, and tense. The subject is Silbury Hill, a prehistoric mound in England with a purpose that has not been determined to this day. Birtwistle's music has a similar inscrutable quality, and it's beautifully performed here. "Carmen arcadie..." also has a slightly mad, haunting quality, like a huge machine gone out of control. Once it begins, it seems like it may never stop. (And with the excellent London Sinfonietta musicians giving it their all, you probably won't want it to.) This is a marvelous program of some of this composer's best work, all performed with great energy, not to mention a bit of wit, elegantly conducted by Elgar Howarth. It doesn't hurt, also, that the sound is gorgeous -- the clarity allows you to hear all members of the ensemble. An exciting recording that might tempt some who would not otherwise explore contemporary scores.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Birtwistle's Secret Theatre of Music,
By
This review is from: Birtwistle: Secret Theatre / Silbury Air / Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum (Audio CD)
The music of Birtwistle often makes me think of a cross-breed between Varèse and Boulez. With Varèse Birtwistle shares a taste for the most piercing sonorities of woodwinds and brass, and some exotic-sounding melodic turns. With Boulez he has in common a dramaturgy of stop and go, with sudden flurries of instrumental activity with a strong rhythmic contour followed by moments of stasis - sometimes both threads are simultaneous. There is less a sense of a steady, forward-moving pulse than in Varèse (although it appears more in these pieces than in others from Birtwistle - just try the begin Carmen Arcadiae for instance), and the music sounds more complex and intricate than Varèse's.
The three compositions on this disc were all written for the London Sinfonietta, in 1976 (Silbury Air), 1977 (Carmen Arcadiae...) and 1984 (Secret Theatre) - Birtwistle had also written Verses for the same ensemble, a piece requiring only winds and percussion, in 1969. This is not easy listening contemporary music, there are no searingly lyrical melodies (although there are melodies, especially in Secret Theatre, as I said with a Varesian flavor to them), it is rugged, imposing, mysteriously ritualistic, sometimes very atmospheric (the beginning of Silbury Air for instance), highly elaborate but also quite dramatic. Not for everyone - even not for every amateur of contemporary music, but for those with a taste for Varèse, Boulez, Carter and Xenakis. TT 57:47 (Secret Theatre isn't 25:44 as indicated on the back cover but 31:59). Excellent notes. The disc is about to be reissued by NMC, this wonderful british equivalent to New World Records devoted to contemporary British music. It is not yet listed here, but you'll find it on this website's uk sister company under ASIN B001DLUC2Q.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Three fantastic works for ensemble, Birtwistle at his most Stravinskian,
By R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Birtwistle: Secret Theatre / Silbury Air / Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum (Audio CD)
This is the original Etcetera release, since reissued by NMC in 2008, of recordings by the London Sinfonietta from 1987, led by Elgar Howarth. Birtwistle wrote his 1969 breakthrough "Verses for Ensembles" for the LS, and the new music ensemble has a clear grasp of the composer's vision. "Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum" (1977 -- 9'25) and "Silbury Air" (1977 -- 16'15) were written before Birtwistle became totally immersed in his epic "Mask of Orpheus," while "Secret Theatre" (1984 -- 31'52) was written immediately after he completed it.
The most informative liner notes of the 2008 reissue are written by Birtwistle expert Jonathan Cross (see his excellent books on both Birtwistle and Stravinsky, and my reviews of both). As Cross explains, "six so-called musical mechanisms are juxtaposed throughout ["Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum," or Perpetual Song of Mechanical Arcady] ... each presented in turn at the start, and then recurring in different guises and orders to form a jewelled musical mosaic." Each mechanism has a distinctive rhythm. "The opening block, for example, presents a jaunty, asymmetrical dance in triple time." The piece is clearly inspired by Stravinsky's "Symphonies of Wind Instruments," an influence often acknowleged by Birtwistle. Again quoting Cross: "...both composers are fascinated by myth and ritual; the structural importance of rhythm is significant to both, resulting in the construction of new kinds of musical time; both composers have attempted to build musical forms through non-narrative means, such as the opposition or superimposition of blocks of contrasting material; and both composers are interested more in repeating, variation and verse-refrain structures than they are in musical development. In many respects the three works represented on this disk are the most 'Stravinskian' of all Birtwistle's output." "Silbury Air" is a ritual evocation of Silbury Hill, a prehistoric 40 metre high structure on the Wiltshire plains whose origins and uses remain a mystery. Birtwistle calls it "an artificial but organic intruder of the landscape," and he attempts to represent its combination of nature and artifice. The work's imaginary landscape is composed of blocks of music that are juxtaposed and repeated, moving through a "pulse labyrinth" that regulates their movement, including layered blocks moving at different speeds, resulting in a "continually shifting kaleidoscope," a "complex clock mechanism." Both of the 1977 works, like "Verses for Ensemble," feature woodwinds, brass and percussion, giving them a distinctively brash timbre. "Secret Theatre" includes strings, but in a secondary role, continuing in basically the same timbre. "Mask of Orpheus" likewise did not use strings. The title comes from a Robert Graves poem: When from your sleepy mind the day's burden Falls like a bushel sack on a barn floor, Be prepared for music, for natural mirages And for night's incomparable parade of colour. It is hours past midnight now; a flute signals Far off; we mount the stage as though at random, Boldly ring down the curtain, then dance out our love. So not only is the piece a secret nocturnal theatre, it is also a dance, as Cross suggests, perhaps the secret love dance of Orpheus and Eurydice. Opening passages for strings and flute are marked in the score "continuum" and "cantus," and the constantly changing relationship between the two provides the central structure for the piece. And as is Birwistle's wont, this is acted out on stage by the performers, with the members of the continuum remaining seated while soloists (the cantus) periodically move to stand on a dais at the back of the stage. This superb performance might not be fully appreciated if it could not be contrasted with a bad performance, but that contrast has been provided by the 1993 recording of "Secret Theatre" by the Ensemble Intercontemporain led by Pierre Boulez on DG, later included in the Birtwistle (The British Music Collection) set. The London Sinfonietta plays with great rhythmic vitality while the EI plods. Here one can feel the wind blowing through a midnight glade, while listening to the EI recording the listener feels as if trapped in an airless vault. Howarth and the LS brilliantly bring to life Birtwistle's pastoral vision. This London Sinfonietta set is essential Birtwistle, not to be missed by any fan!
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