Customer Reviews

Lou Harrison: La Koro Sutro

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

 

 

I am a great fan of the varied career of Lou Harrison, perhaps the most eclectic of all American composers. His music shows the influence of Gamelan and other eastern elements, but it is music that is clearly of the west. He still even occasionally composes in twelve-note fashion, though of course within his own unique style.

La Koro Sutro is a masterwork, perhaps the most impressive Harrision work I have yet heard. The text is an Esperanto translation of the Buddhist Heart Sutra, accompanied by the "American Gamelan" (instruments created by Harrison and his life partner, William Colvig), harp and organ. Throughout the piece, Harrison displays his genius for sound. The choral writing too is excellent and the piece rises to a luminous conclusion. Deeply spiritual and moving music!

The other works on the recording are equally fine. The Varied Trio is a beautiful work for violin, piano and percussion. It is written in Harrison's "oriental chamber music" style. The titles of the movements show the varied influences from Indonesian and the French Baroque (Rondeau in Honor of Fragonard). The Suite for Violin and American Gamelan is also stunning. The slow first movement is haunting. The piece then morphs into a series of Baroque inspired dance pieces with some Indian influences in the Jhala movements. As always, Harrison fuses his overtly asian influence with a distinctively Western attitude toward composition.

Harrison should be more widely appreciated I think. His music is mostly tonal and immediately communicative. As such, it should command the same wide audience that has embraced Part, Gorecki and Tavener. But Harrison is not simple-minded as some of the minimalists can be, particularly Tavener at his worst. The music is always fresh and rewarding, and the harmonic pallete is adventurous without becoming too dissonant.

If you are a fan of minimalism, world music, or simply contemporary music that can be immediately enjoyed and yet stand up to close scrutiny, this is a great place to start. I can not give this CD enough praise!

I didn't know Lou Harrison from chopped liver until this lovely late spring evening of 2004, when it was given to me to hear Lo Koro Sutro whilst watching a Hudson Valley sunset.

I have been "working" with the Heart Sutra for about 30 years...and I write to you all, not as a music person (though I have those credens) but as a very thankful Dharma person who finally heard a version of this sutra proper for the West.

Btw, it happens to be beautiful too.

"La Koro Sutro" is Esperanto for "the Heart Sutra," a traditional Buddhist hymn. I found this music deeply moving and spiritual. Lou Harrison studied with Arnold Schoenberg, but this music is not at all like Schoenberg's. This music draws you in, sometimes with unusual percussive effects (Harrison uses strange instruments like metal rice bowls), sometimes with warm, ethereal vocals. I highly recommend this album.

This is an album of modern pieces that are quite creative and enjoyable. There is a good variation found here and this allows for a rewarding hour of listining. It is one to listen to, not to play in the background.

Five stars for the music----Harrison was sui generis. But while I agree with the other reviewers about this beautiful music, the copy I just recently purchased (July 2011) is an incredibly cheap-looking CDR---not a Redbook-standard CD, repeat, not an actual "permanent format" compact disc---with a shoddy insert containing NO LINER NOTES or recording info at all, only a track listing. It says "copyright New Albion" but the larger label listed is "Ioda: digital done right", with a large "Compact Disc" logo, and "CD-R Format" written in tiny print beneath that. What a fly-by-night, dishonest con. New Albion should be ashamed of themselves. I've seen illegal downloads of this album that are more complete. Amazon features a small note about this, but this review should stand as an additional red flag to potential purchasers.

Excellent recording of a hauntingly beautiful piece. Glad to find some of the old CRI records are now available on CD Wish more of Harrison's music could be made available.

La Koro Sutra is probably the most popular of Lou Harrison albums. Hearing it on radio in 1988, I was stunned by its majestic spiritual beauty, its rhythms, its choral melodies, even its Esperanto version of the Buddhist Heart Sutra. The sound was entirely new but I recognized the Indonesian influence. It is like an oratorio composed of eight sections. The metallophone gamelan was not of traditional instruments but manufactured from junkyard metal. The second piece, a largely percussive trio with haunting violin lyricism and dance rhythms, is followed by a violin suite with gamelan that was later adapted for string orchestra [See: Suite for Violin, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Koch]. This is a brilliant composition that reflects Balinese dance; the final Chaconne brings this album to a remarkably sweet conclusion. This recording was my first Harrison album (and among my very first CDs during that LP transition period); I am pleased that it is still available. If you wish to explore the works of Lou Harrison, begin here.

This CD is not for the faint at heart. Apparently, La Koro Sutra is Lou Harrison's finest choral work. If that is the case, I would hate to hear any other. It is very boring and often very meditative. I was severely disappointed with his music.

If you are a Harrison fan, the performance on this CD is mediocre.