David Lang: Pierced

Real Quiet (Artist, Performer), David Lang (Composer), Lou Reed (Composer), Gil Rose (Conductor), Boston Modern Orchestra Project (Orchestra), Evan Ziporyn (Performer), Andrew Russo (Performer), Theo Bleckmann (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Real Quiet, Evan Ziporyn, Andrew Russo, Theo Bleckmann
• Orchestra: Boston Modern Orchestra Project
• Conductor: Gil Rose
• Composer: David Lang, Lou Reed
• Audio CD (November 18, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: NAXOS AMERICAN
• ASIN: B001HBX8U0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,400 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Although once a scruffy outsider as a co-founder of Bang on a Can, composer David Lang is part of the establishment now. The 52-year-old teaches at Yale University and won a Pulitzer Prize last year for his 'The Little Match Girl Passion' He still has the outsider attitude, though, saying that what he likes about this new collection of his work is that 'all the pieces try to take classical music someplace it doesn't usually go.'
The disc features the first recording of 'Pierced' a 15-minute triple concerto for piano, cello and percussion with agitated strings hovering over a stuttered rhythm -- the performance both bracing and hypnotic. Also here is Lang's classic 'Cheating, Lying, Stealing' (a piece with rhythmic novelties that Steve Reich said made him envious). The lovely piano piece 'Wed' shows Lang's more reflective side. Then there is his lyrical, Philip Glass-like arrangement of Lou Reed's Velvet Underground song 'Heroin', with Theo Bleckmann's detached vocal inhabiting the macabre soul of the song like a wraith. --Newark Star Ledger, Bradley Bambarger, February 23, 2009

San Francisco Chronicle, Joshua Kosman, February 2009

Dark, mordant and rhythmically relentless, "Pierced" is the most exciting new work in years from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang. It's a concerto for trio and string orchestra, but the piece doesn't bother with any of the usual concerto give-and-take. Instead, Lang sets his forces in quivery, almost hostile juxtaposition; all they can agree on is the recurring downbeat. The results are irresistible, the most forceful thrill of several to be had from this explosive disc. Also in the lineup are "Heroin," Lang's chillingly tender remake of the Velvet Underground classic into a postmodern art song, the vivid "Lying, Cheating, Stealing" and the dynamically beautiful "How to Pray." The spirit that comes through in all these pieces - edgy, aggressive, thoughtful and ironic - is Lang's distinctive addition to the musical landscape.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good to see Naxos branching out, November 19, 2008

By 

C. D. Shirley (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: David Lang: Pierced (Audio CD)

It's good to see Naxos moving into a a more experimental repertoire, and David Lang deserves it more than, I think, some of the other living American composers featured by the label. The works receiving their recording debut here ("Pierced" and "Heroin"--yes, an arrangement of the Velvet Underground song) are worth the price of admission in themselves. Which is good, because the other available performances of the other pieces on this CD are, I think, a tad better. "Cheating, Lying, Stealing" doesn't really benefit from the dry acoustic here, though the playing itself is clean and precise. "How to Pray" is a bit flat and the recording lacks the resonant depths of the other available version, but the textual clarity here is appreciated and makes audible some of the piece's structure that's obscured on Elevated. The rendition of "wed" is good and reveals elements of the piece that Lisa Moore's version doesn't, but I nevertheless prefer Moore's because her performance (to my ears) nails the subtle violence under the surface of what just seems like some pretty chords (which this performance threatens to become).

"Pierced" is very much in the composer's recent style and deviates slightly from his nineties pieces (represented by "Cheating, Lying, Stealing" on this recording) in that harmonic and rhythmic structure are less certain--in fact, that uncertainty seems to me to be what the music is about, while his other more stable pieces have other preoccupations (and are more clearly indebted to minimalism).

Speaking of minimalism (read: Philip Glass), "Heroin," a setting of Lou Reed's words, actually succeeds, I think, where Glass's various Bowie symphonies didn't. "Heroin"'s brevity and beauty prevent a sense of kitsch, in which (alas) Glass's two symphonies often seem steeped; Lang, recognizing the importance of lyrics to rock music (which Glass fails to do), has produced a very moving art song that can stand on its own as rewarding music.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Disconcerting Beauty, March 3, 2009

By 

Tym S. (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: David Lang: Pierced (Audio CD)

David Lang is a prime mover in the experimental contemporary Classical collective, Bang On A Can. The five pieces on this collection effectively reflect his use of outsider sources and contrary strategies.

The opener "Pierced" contrasts the avant chamber trio Real Quiet with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Each plays almost independantly of each other while adding into a contrapunctual whole. The trio's jaunty and jazzy tangents, almost like an abstracted and distracted Lionel Hampton, are surrounded by sheets of nervous strings more akin to Bernard Herrmann. The effect is both exuberant and trepiditious. Midway, a new movement brings in terse percussion underlining slower sad lyricism and skittish dissonance, a disconcerting beauty.

Lang transmutes the viola-ed danger of the Velvet Underground's "Heroin" into a startling new arrangement, with Theo Bleckmann's confessional choral ebbing and flowing over a modal and serpentine cello. It is like a throughline between Phillip Glass and Radiohead, something that Lou Reed and John Cale would wryly appreciate.

"Cheating, Lying, Stealing" is a self-deprecating jibe about unreliability, riffing off of being a rip-off. Modes repeat but shift erratically in a formal dance that's gone tipsy and turnabout. The three movements sych to the title; the first like bold tiptoeing, the second secretive and dark, the third like partial melodies skipping grooves. But it all gells as exciting and engaging instead of being randomly frustrating.

"How To Pray" pairs elegaic cello flows with strong piano chords to synthesize classical swell with rock urgency. "Wed" evokes a bittersweet personal memory by balancing delicacy with decay, where Lang says "hope and despair were in some strange equilibrium". A good summary of the goods herein. Each piece on the disc is strong and nuanced, an excellent introduction to a musical outlaw.

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy beautiful, April 13, 2011

By 

Kimberly "KeMz" (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lang, D.: Pierced / Heroin / Cheating, Lying, Stealing / How To Pray / Wed (Real Quiet) (MP3 Download)

Quality sound, wonderful recordings! I can hear every movement. Thank you! I recommend this to anyone who enjoys better vocals and instrumentals.