Dorman: Concertos for Mandolin, Piccolo, Piano and Concerto Grosso

Avi Avital (Artist), Mindy Kaufman (Artist), Eliran Avni (Artist), Arnaud Sussmann (Artist), Lily Francis (Artist), Eric Nowlin (Artist), Michal Korman (Artist), Aya Hamada (Artist), Avner Dorman (Composer), Andrew Cyr (Conductor) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Conductor: Andrew Cyr
• Composer: Avner Dorman
• Audio CD (January 26, 2010)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: NAXOS AMERICAN
• ASIN: B002WEC6YA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #149,733 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Music Web International, Oleg Ledeniov

My first encounter with the music of Avner Dorman was by pure chance: in a local library I saw a disc of his piano works played by Eliran Avni (also on Naxos). After listening I thought: "Wow! I wonder how he does orchestral." Then I had the exquisite pleasure of hearing live his concerto for percussion and orchestra Spices! Perfumes! Toxins! - and was conquered by its exuberance, beauty and richness of musical invention. And then I thought: "Wow again! But maybe it is a one-time success?" The present disc confirms: Avner Dorman is indeed a bright star in today's musical sky. He can do it. He just can. His music is not cheap or derivative, and it only gives more pleasure with each new hearing...So, these are the four concertos. They may not be the most profound, critical-analytical or revolutionary. But music is first and foremost a beautiful art. And these concertos are definitely beautiful art. It would probably be better not to listen to them in a single run: you'll discover more facets if you encounter them one by one.

The recording quality is excellent. Each soloist is ideally balanced with the strings. I especially admired the recording of the mandolin: the ringing aura of the sound is palpable. The liner-notes by the composer are very interesting. The playing of the Metropolis Ensemble led by Andrew Cyr is excellent: sensitive, supportive, very accurate and finely balanced, with a lot of spirit.

I am really happy that there are composers like Avner Dorman. I wish him a great future, for one shameless and purely selfish reason: I just love his music!

Product Description

A graduate of the Juilliard School,
where he earned a Doctorate in
Composition, and a protégé of John
Corigliano and Zubin Mehta, award winning
Avner Dorman is emerging as
one of the leading composers of his
gene championed by many of the world's
finest conductors. The diverse concertos
presented here combine the excitement
and spontaneity associated with jazz,
rock or ethnic music within an
engaging neo-baroque idiom. Dorman
writes: 'I have always loved baroque
music the clear rhythms, the strong
reliance on' Avner Dorman's piano
music is available on Naxos 8.579001.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars pay attention!, February 8, 2010

By 

Milena Z. Fisher "Milena Z. Fisher (PhD) phil... (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dorman: Concertos for Mandolin, Piccolo, Piano and Concerto Grosso (Audio CD)

I believe that Avner Dorman is the one of the most talented composers of our time; his "Concertos for Mandolin, Piccolo, Piano and Concerto Grosso" is yet another, very strong proof of it.
One can immediately tell that the composer is "a citizen of the world"; his unique approach to music shows a very deep understanding of the World's musical tradition. Dorman has his own way of merging and incorporating different themes into deeply sophisticated, never "generic" always lively structures. In my opinion he represents a new generation of young, unpretentious, highly educated composers, who are free of musical prejudice and have immense respect for a true virtuosity in music on every stage of its creation.
The concertos are composed to awe; they bring out the best of the soloists. Each concerto is vibrant, full of life but crafted with unprecedented intellectual precision. I highly recommend this record and can not wait for more of Avner Dorman in the future.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eclectic Syntheses: The Contempory Composer, January 28, 2010

By 

Dr. Debra Jan Bibel "World Music Explorer" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Dorman: Concertos for Mandolin, Piccolo, Piano and Concerto Grosso (Audio CD)

The "global village" is the new reality. Musicians of one land continually borrow and incorporate musics of another region...and sometimes of another era. The modern classical composer is no different. Jazz and nonindigenous ethnic idioms have found their way into the compositions of Lou Harrison, Nikolai Kapustin, Derek Bremel, and Osvaldo Golijov, for instance, and we recall Stravinky's neo-romanticism. Avner Dorman loves the classical structure of the Baroque, but he has a feeling for various ethnic sounds, particularly Mediterranean and Near Eastern. This recording of concerti is such an odd duck. The first, a mandolin concerto does not sound remotely like Vivaldi's; indeed, it is dark, quiet, brooding, more noir, with an ominous bass pulse in its last movement. The piccolo concerto, with piano, on the other hand, is lively, with birdlike thrills and is more suggestive of high Baroque. Dorman thinks that this music suggests the Middle East or Mediterranean, but I hear in the first movement Piazzolla's new tango in its rhythmic chords. The second movement is a shepherd's romance; the final movement is a bright, wild dance. The concerto grosso, featuring harpsichord, violin, viola, and cello, may have an underpinning of Handel and Vivaldi, but it sometimes seems East European in outlook and in its contemplative minimalism. The final work, a piano concerto is the earliest, written with Dorman was but 19 years old; it is romantic, jazzy, and solidly classical. In summary, this album of neo-baroque explorations and ethnic borrowings is interesting, unusual, and very accessible, but I feel that Avner Dorman is only in his early period of composing and may likely push beyond these fusions.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Contemporary in the best sense., October 20, 2010

By 

D. Altschuler (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dorman: Concertos for Mandolin, Piccolo, Piano and Concerto Grosso (Audio CD)

Dr. Bibel's 4-star review is spot-on, but I add the 5th star. This music is:
Contemporary, but firmly planted in the baroque era.
Challenging but not assaulting or confusing.
Crisply recorded and performed.
The piano concerto has the elegant, child-like sophistication of Ravel or Poulenc. It is the most fully melodic, though all the works have a melodic feel. (Most contemporary "melodic" music seems either simplistic or merely built on friendly intervals; but full and uniquely memorable melodies seem to have dried up after Barber and Shostakovich. Exceptions, of course.)
There is not one moment of boredom in these four concertos. They each have three movements and are 15 to 17 minutes long. They are all worthy of being heard more than once, and too interesting to be used as background music (as many baroque concertos can).
I will get Avner's Naxos CD of piano music soon, based on my enjoyment of these concertos.