Customer Reviews

Corigliano: Piano Concerto / Elegy / Tournaments / Fantasia

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

 

 

Contemporary music is generally perceived as a very unwelcoming field: the excesses of the post-Webern avant-garde (Stockausen, Cage etc.) nearly killed music, making entire generations of listeners assume that "modern music" means "random noises" . After a transition phase (Minimalism) a young generation of composers is now producing new music which is serious but not boring, very modern, but with a strong sense of direction. The word "accessible" can be misunderstood as "background music", which this is not, but I don't have a better definition. Among these composers a most distinguished figure is John Corigliano, and this cd is a perfect introduction to his world. If the "great" symphonic form still partially eludes him (his 1st is a very interesting but somewhat sprawling work ), in these shorter, but nonetheless substantial works you can appreciate Corigliano's creative resources and, above all, his incredibly inventive and personal orchestrations. My favorite is the Fantasia on an ostinato. Using a quote from Beethoven's 7th Corigliano builds a powerful, thrilling piece, just like thrilling is Tournaments, title that refers to a confrontation between different sections of the orchestra. Elegy, instead, is a marvelously lyrical piece, and if the Piano concerto is less appealing to me (it verges on the atonal) still I acknowledge it's powerfully concentrated stuff. Splendid playing from the St.Louis orchestra (they always play so well in this American series for Rca !) and Slatkin shows (here and in his recording of the 1st symphony) his deep understanding of this music. The engineering is excellent. I heard that Corigliano is composing a 2nd symphony and I really look forward to listen to it.

For those who claim that Corigliano has risen and fallen, check your radar; Following his successes with the Symphony No. 1 and Ghosts of Versailles in the 90's, he has remained one of the most critically and publically respected and successful composers in the world. In 2001 his Symphony No. 2 won the Pulitzer Prize in music, in 2000, he won an Oscar for the score to the film "The Red Violin". In the last several years a number of new recordings have been issued, both of new works like the Symphony No. 2 and of younger soloists playing his older works on their solo albums, showing that he has entered the contemporary canon. In fact, here in New York City he has even been featured in a widely-seen subway ad campaign for the City University of New York, where he continues to teach.
This album makes it easy to see why he has achieved such success; These are brilliant pieces of music all, combining a flair for orchestral fireworks and dramatic gesture with very well-wrought musical ideas, and a convincing synthesis of eclectic musical styles and techniques in the service of the music's overall emotional impact. Above all, as a number of the other reviews have said, this is contemporary music that rewards the listener after both the first hearing and the hundredth; and isn't that the mark of most truly great art? As for those aesthetes who pooh-pooh the value of accessibility, you can assuage your artistic guilt with the thought that this music is a lot less immediately palatable (and commercially successful) than, say, Philip Glass or Arvo Part (both excellent, sophisticated composers in their own right).

Since I'm a pianist, I'll focus on the concerto here. It is one of the most easily accessable 20th century concertos, probably along with Barber's. It has incredible energy and drive, and you do not have to "learn" to appreciate this, like so many other modern works. You love this when it impacts the eardrum. You have to.

The performance is great, and though I've never heard another, there's certainly nothing bad in this one. I never noticed anything but the utter sweetness of the music.

One final thing. As much I love the whole piece, the 4th movement blows everything else away. It's crazy. Insane. And it doesn't let go ever. When the final crescendo ends, you won't be able to think. You'll be stunned. Buy this now!

This CD was absolutely incredible! Corigliano's music bristles with energy and at the same time can still to a very beautiful calm. The piano concerto is exactly like this. It is one of the most phisically and emotionally exciting pieces of music that I have ever heard. The work is mostly atonal, but there are some very nice tonal sections in the piece. The third movement is proof of that. I do not usually go for atonal pieces, but the piano concerto is one of the best that I have ever heard. The last minute-and-a-half of the final movement is absolutely astounding; it's jaw-dropping! The other pieces on this CD were excellent too. I especially liked Tournaments. And Corigliano's orchestrations are some of the best I've ever heard! So, if your looking for some great, approachable modern music, I can't recommend this disc enough!

At the time this CD was made, 1993-94, John Corigliano had caught the rainbow. He had a major opera ocmmision to his credit (Ghosts of Versailles premiered at the Met and won a naitonal PBS broadcast), and he had written his Sym. #1 as a memorial to AIDS victims, which has gone on to receive more than 800 performances around the world. What worked for him--easily accessible neo-Romantic eclecticism--went down well with the public. Now he seems to have disappeared, and the reason may be that his music was too eclectic and accessible. Nothing is memorably his and nobody else's.

All the works on this CD display Corigliano at his best. We hear the populist idiom of Copland and Barber, lyrical and yearning to be liked, with a light skimming of European modernism a la Ligeti and Henze. Atonalism doesn't enter the picture except as filligree. Pleasant as everything sounds, the composer suffers from lack of committment to any one style that could be expressed with authority. History rewards a Stravinsky, not the neo-classical dabblers (Honegger, Milhaud, Poulenc) who toyed with his style.

Corigliano wrote his Piano Concerto when he was 29; it may be tougher than the other works here, as one reviewer cliams, but only by a small margin. A fistful or tone clusters doesn't add or subtract much. To its credit, the work keeps true to the axis of native composers founded by Copland, Schuman, Piston, and Bernstein, but they were hardly avant-garde in their day. You would never believe hearing this work that Ives had ever written the Concord Sonata or that Messiaen had written Turangalila. Even so, the piano part is virtuosic and exciting, and Barry Douglas does it justice all the way. Audiences would sitll love the fireworks, I imagine, and Corigliano may find his star rising again. at least in sputters and fits.