Customer Reviews

Glass / Rorem / Bernstein: Violin Concertos / Serenade

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

 

 

The Glass Violin Concerto is one of the best examples of his current "mature" style, that combines Minimalist techniques with surging lyrical flow and mastery of orchestral forces much larger that the Glass Ensemble. It's been called, with a fascinaring oxymoron, Maximalist Minimalism. This evolution implies the use of the traditional classical forms, such as symphonies and concertos, and, in this respect, the Violin Concerto is one of Glass's most convincing essays. Actually, it's the piece which "converted" me me to the appreciation of a composer whose early output I often criticized. This concerto astonishingly reminds me , of all composers, of Sibelius. There's something of that Nordic master in the otherworldly lyricism of this concerto, especially in the magnificent, impossible-to-forget slow movement, yet this is distinctly a Glassian sound-world. All his trademarks are present in new, enriched forms: arpeggios, repetitions, that marvelous "far/close" effect in the strings. In this respect the two exhilaratingly motoric outer movements are more typically Glassian, and they encapsulate splendidly the middle one, the hauntingly lyrical heart of the whole piece. Gidon Kremer is a splendid, silvery-toned soloist (I've heard him live recently just in the Sibelius and he was peerless) and also a most intelligent musician : very sensitively he doesn't overplay his part , which was written to go along with the orchestra and not in opposition to it in the traditional , virtuoso way. The Wiener Philharmoniker and Christoph von Dohnanyi (that's what I call luxury casting!) sound, somewhat unexpectedly, totally into the idiom. Actually, I'd say that the warm, aristocratic Vienna sound is very apt for this music. It does not surprise me that, after this premier recording, this beautiful work has enjoyed two further ones., from Telarc and Naxos: I bought the Naxos (mainly for the couplings) and it's very good, but probably Kremer's is destined to remain unmatched for a while. The recorded sound is excellent, if not quite state-of-the-art. If you liked this I recommend you warmly the symphonies (especially nos.2 and 3) and, less obviously, an undeservedly lesser-known masterpiece: the soundtrack for the "Secret Agent" , a suite of marvelously addictive music. The couplings are kind of unlikely, but very interesting: the Rorem concerto is a rhapsodic, varied work that grows on you on repeated listenings. There's kind of a Rorem re-discovery currently going on : I don't think it's unforgettably personal music, but this composer has been unjustly neglected for all the wrong reasons (too tonal, too fluent, too openly gay), and deserves to be heard more. The Bernstein Serenade is very enjoyable, if not exactly a milestone, but those who usually respond to his music more warmly than me will love its Stravinskian wit coupled with Bernsteinian flamboyance. A highly rewarding disc.

First of all, Deutsche Grammaphon should be congratulated on their 20/21 series of "new music" recordings. So far all of them I've heard have been superb.

On to this specific disc though. The idea is simple: three violin concertos by American composers in the latter half of the 20th century. The previous sentence will frighten many folks, but rest assured those of you out there that fear contemporary classical music. All three of these works (with the exception of a few moments in the Rorem) are all melodic and beautiful works and shouldn't raise a stir even amongst the most hardline musical conservatives.

The Philip Glass violin concerto is without a doubt my favorite of the three pieces (and if you can believe it, actually the most traditionally structured of the three pieces.) Shimmering and intense (but not in an overbearing way) this lush, gorgeous piece foreces reflection and contemplation in the listener. The beautiful second movement with its longing violin part can evoke tears in the listener. The fast paced third movement has a triumphal sense about it and as always, Gidon Kremer's playing is flawless.

The Rorem piece is the quirkiest of the lot. The little sequences range in sound from primal to drunken cartoon music to sounding like a 1950s American sitcom theme song. Given an open mind the piece can be a lot of fun.

Finally, there is the Bernstein "Serenade" (after Plato's "Symposium.") It is a good piece, but ultimately the least memorable of the three (and ironic considering he is the most well known throughout the world.)

Even if this disc were just of Glass performance, it would be worth picking up. Once again, Gidon Kremer's expert handling of these three distinctly different pieces is a treat as well.

"Kremer playing Bernstein (with Bernstein)" are quite enough to persuade me to buy this album (for me). If that is not enough, I promise you, you'll find the 3 greatest American violin concertos of this century played by maestros. Honestly speaking, I overlooked Ned Rorem untill I encounter Susan Graham's album. After listening to Graham's song, I listened this concerto again to find this talented composer. The episode, friendship between Bernstein and Rorem for over forty years and inviting Kremer for this concerto project are moving (you'll find in liner notes.) I love "adagio" from Bernstein's "Serenade" and "Romance without Words"(what a romantic title!) from Rorem's. (This lyricism reminds me Graham's songs.) You'll be one of the gifted if you have this.

This disc in Deutsche Grammaphon's "20/21" line of performances of contemporary music collects three violin concertos by three very different American composers with a spotlight on Gidon Kremer, virtuoso of modern violin repetoire. Philip Glass, Leonard Bernstein, and Ned Rorem are all composers enjoying popular acclaim and have been associated with New York, yet their styles have little in common. Philip Glass is well-known for minimalism, Ned Rorem for a rural and pastoral ethic, and Bernstein for his theatrical endeavours.

Philip Glass' three-movement "Concerto for violin and orchestra" (1987) is fairly entertaining but wholly uninsightful. I think minimalism is one of the greatest disasters to befall contemporary music, and has provided more charlatans than any other style (and I would definitely include Glass among such). I prefer the zahlenmystik of Gubaidulina, the frenetic business of Lindberg, or even the academic stylings of early Boulez. Yet, I can appreciate some works of Reich and Part. The music of Glass, on the other hand, lacks innovation and is so blatantly derivative of his passionate music of yesteryear, and this piece comes from what even many Glass fans consider to have been his darkest days. This piece is performed by the Wiener Philharmonik with Christoph von Dohanyi, who give an unobjectionable go at this dull piece.

The second piece on the disc is Ned Rorem's "Violin Concerto" (1984). Six movements conceived by the composer as songs (but lacking words), the piece could also fairly be called, says Rorem in the notes, a concertino or variations or even a suite. The Romantic first movement "Twilight", sparse with violin above strings, leads to a second movement "Toccata-Chaconne" with admirable use of percussion as a major player in its own right. The brief third movement "Romance without Words" sounds just like what its title suggests, as does "Twilight". "Toccata-Rondo", the fifth movement, is the fastest of all, and pairs the violin first with percussion and then with brass. The final "Dawn" is marked to be "wistful", and slowly ends the piece. I think that the piece as a whole could have been more gripping had percussion been used in more than two movements. While I can't say I'm an admirer of Rorem's work, this is the high point of a generally flat-as-Holland disc.

Leonard Bernstein's "Serenade" (1954) is the oldest of the pieces here. It was inspired by Plato's "Symposium" a dialog in which 4-century Athenian cognoscenti gather for a drinking party and debate the nature of love. It is divided into five movements, each named after a character: Phaedrus, Aristophanes, Erixymachus, Agathon, and Socrates. Fairly tonal, the piece is shackled to the unreasonable demands of the romantic tradition and the music can't breathe. It panders to the conservative audiences that Bernstein was happy with. Dreadful.

All in all this is perhaps the least satisfactory of all releases in the "20/21" line, and the least deserving of a place there, since all three of these composers apparently haven't learned anything from modern progress in music.