Moodswings

Richard Rodney Bennett (Composer), Lars von Bjork / Sjon / Trier (Composer), Elvis / O'Riordan, Cait Costello (Composer), Kate Curtis (Composer), Emma Ludlow (Composer), Arieh Miller (Composer), Daniel Monk (Composer), Meredith Monk (Composer), Randy Newman (Composer), Ron Sexsmith (Composer), Sting [1] (Composer), Emma Tillyer (Composer), Various Composers (Composer), Errollyn Wallen (Composer), Elvis Costello (Performer), Errollyn Wallen (Performer), Ian Shaw (Performer), Jacqueline Dankworth (Performer), Jacqui Dankworth (Performer), Meredith Monk (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Elvis Costello, Errollyn Wallen, Ian Shaw, Jacqueline Dankworth, Jacqui Dankworth, et al.
• Composer: Richard Rodney Bennett, Lars von Bjork / Sjon / Trier, Elvis / O'Riordan, Cait Costello, Kate Curtis, Emma Ludlow, et al.
• Audio CD (April 26, 2005)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Asv Living Era
• ASIN: B0006OJQXM
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #329,553 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Appropriate Title for Sharp Performances on a Bumpy Road, June 6, 2005

By 

Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Moodswings (Audio CD)

The Brodsky Quartet remains as audacious as ever with their new recording. This time out, the intensely dramatic string quartet spent time in select UK schools where they composed new songs with schoolchildren. Those are presented here alongside the quartet's arrangements of songs by more established writers such as Elvis Costello, Sting, Björk and Ron Sexsmith. The result could have been a mess, but it's not. Far from it, it's a soulful and sometimes challenging album adhering together rather tenuously as an avant-garde theatrical album. There are several peaks and valleys throughout, though luckily the high points make this a worthwhile disc to get.

Sting's performance of his gypsy ballad, "Until...", sounds especially influenced by Kurt Weill, as does Björk's familiar dirge, "I've Seen It All", from her 2000 cinematic foray with Lars von Trier, "Dancer in the Dark". Jacqui Dankworth lends a languorous vocal to Kate Curtis' and Will South's "The Abyss" and the more funereal "Song" by Daniel Monk. And a nice surprise is the Gershwin-inspired "I Never Went Away" by Richard Rodney Bennett, though it does feel a bit out of place among the more experimental music. Truth be told, some tracks are plain odd, such as Meredith Monk's "Gotham Lullaby" with its random yelps and minor-chord la-la's and Errollyn Wallen's meandering, overlong "Daedalus", a rather pretentious art song. The schools provide two of the highlights here: "Swearing at the Moon" by Arieh Miller of JFS in London, and Venus Flytrap by students from Blatchingham Mill School in Hove. Both songs are performed by Ian Shaw, whose biting vocal mixes well with the discordant string arrangements. Elvis Costello frames the recording with the jaunty opener, "My Mood Swings" and his closing cover of Randy Newman's "Real Emotional Girl", a slow, heartbreaking ballad with Newman's trademark observations. The quartet itself performs with their brio intact, applying a lot of color and texture to the songs.

5.0 out of 5 stars Errollyn Wallen will break your heart and put it back together again., May 1, 2006

By 

M. Mendelssohn (Edinburgh, Scotland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Moodswings (Audio CD)

Errollyn Wallen's track, Daedalus, will break your heart and put it back together again. This is a quiet, absolutely beautiful testament to her power, verve and finesse as a composer. Genius.