Customer Reviews

Gavin Bryars: Farewell to Philosophy

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This disc features three very different but worthwhile pieces. The Cello Concerto is elegiac and mournful in tone. It is a very quiet, haunting piece, but it never feels inert or without passion, and it is not "minimalist". The themes unfold slowly and achingly across the unbroken seven- movement span. The orchestration is quite graceful, especially the woodwinds and assortment of bells and chimes, nicely detailed. The whole ensemble plays with the unwavering concentration the piece demands. I could be wrong, but I think people who enjoy Elgar's Cello Concerto may enjoy this too.
"One Last Bar, Then Joe Can See", by contrast, is a dazzling piece for an arsenal of percussion instruments (once again, bells, chimes, vibes, xylophones,etc.) . This is not "head-banging" music, rather it's quite delicate and alluringly exotic.
"By the Vaar" is a wonderful synthethis of jazz and classical chamber music. It has a somber and nocturnal feel to it, and bassist Charlie Haden plays with deeply felt intensity. Highly recommended.

This is the most classical, enjoyable, & profound of all of Gavin Bryars modern works. Yes, the 20th century needed the experiments & Gavin Bryars has done his share, but this CD returns to classical roots while still remaining fresh & modern. The 1st section "Farewell to Philosophy" is a Concerto for cello & orchestra written for Julian Lloyd Webbers who's mastery expresses deep sorrow & beauty in a world that has thrown away philosophy. "One Last Bar, then Joe can Sing" for the 5 percussionists group Nexus is an anti John Cage near tonality, enjoyable work. "By the Vaar" was written for my favorite bassist Charlie Haden, who doesn't lose his jazz expression within this quasi jazz modern classical piece. Therefore if you have heard or bought some of Gavin Bryars works in the past & felt that something was missing, try this CD.

I love this album, but as I'm not a muso nor a classically literate listener, forgive my probably naive reasons. I found this album more accessible than others of his, but I do not think that it is in any way simplistic. Perhaps it is because it is more lyrical and less angular than other albums. Perhaps it is just that the closing piece, featuring Charlie Haden, has one of the most aching passages (and note! - trust me) that I have ever heard. Either way if you're new to Bryars I can't think of a better place to start. If you know his work then I hope you have this one. Enjoy.

Here we have an artist who often could be classified as both, classical composer and as creator of ambient music. Sinking Of The Titanic is a much more ambient than classical album. Jesus' Blood Has Never Failed Me Yet is another spectacular example of repetitive minimalism with gradual buildup, many of which we can find among the ambient music. As a matter of fact, both these early ambient compositions were the first releases on Brian Eno's Obscure label in 1975. Brian Eno was one of the members of the Portsmouth Sinfonia established by Gavin Bryars in 1970 where experienced musicians could only play a completely new to them instrument and were playing music side by side anyone else off the street whoever expressed the desire to join the project and make noise. Could there be a more experimental approach to making music? As a matter of fact I used to listen to the CDs of Gavin Bryars and Zoviet France on shuffle and the effect is quite amazing.
Man In A Room Gambling is a superb modern classical composition of a texture resembling Einstain On The Beach by Philip Glass. I have started listening a lot to Gavin Bryars in the early 1990s after my close to 2 year period of listening exclusively to the classical music. I came across After The Requiem and instantly fell in love with it. To me that was the classical music I wanted the most, both classical and ambient. After The Requiem was an album which made me leave my classical music quarantine in order the explore the new ambient terrain, which I have to say was not new ground to me, as part of my upbringing was made up of the early music of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze whose first album, Irrlicht from 1972 could define ambient music still now, in 2009.
Farewell To Philosophy is my favorite album by Gavin Bryars. It is not an easy choice and all his albums I have listed above are great and very dear to me. Farewell To Philosophy is possibly a less ambient composition than some of his other works, but that is the state of mind it ends up putting me in anyway.
Gavin Bryars' background is of a jazz musician and jazz is one of the layers of the overall atmosphere of this music as well. To me this album shares something with some of the most interesting ambient jazz releases of ECM. The title track of Farewell To Philosophy is a cello concerto performed by Julian Lloyd Webber. The following track One Last Bar, Then Joe Can Sing is the one I like a lot, perhaps because to me it is almost like a slowed down variation on Mike Oldfield's Incantations, one of my favorite pieces of music. Last piece, By The Vaar was written by Gavin as adagio for Charlie Haden, jazz bass player and is perhaps my list favorite here.
This music, although it is one of my favorite albums among over 5,000 could bore you, so please make sure you are one of the people who don't get bored easily, before you purchase this music. Perhaps you might want to start with A Man In A Room Gambling which is probably much more accessible and has more of a modern feeling to it.