No Strings Attached: Music by Philip Rhodes [Import]

Philip Rhodes (Composer), Veblen Trio (Performer), Kathryn Ananda-Owens (Performer), David George (Performer), Edith Davis Tidwell (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Veblen Trio, Kathryn Ananda-Owens, David George, Edith Davis Tidwell
• Composer: Philip Rhodes
• Audio CD (October 31, 2006)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Centaur
• ASIN: B000J10KFU
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,258 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Three Gershwin Settings, for violin & piano: Summertime Fantasy

2. Three Gershwin Settings, for violin & piano: Someone To Watch Over Me

3. Three Gershwin Settings, for violin & piano: I Got (Fascinating) Rhythm

4. Shakespeare In Song, for high voice, clarinet & piano: Prologue (Recitative). (The Merchant of Venice, Act 5, Scene 1)

5. Shakespeare In Song, for high voice, clarinet & piano: Orpheus. (King Henry VIII, Act 3, Scene 1)

6. Shakespeare In Song, for high voice, clarinet & piano: Take Those Lips Away. (Measure for Measure, Act 4, Scene 1)

7. Shakespeare In Song, for high voice, clarinet & piano: Come Away Death. (Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 4)

8. Shakespeare In Song, for high voice, clarinet & piano: Fie on Sinful Fantasy! (The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, Scene 5)

9. Pieces (3) for cello: Cantabile

10. Pieces (3) for cello: Adagio Semplice

11. Pieces (3) for cello: Presto Scorrevole

12. Duo for violin & cello: Introduction and Fugue

13. Duo for violin & cello: Violin Cadenza

14. Duo for violin & cello: Aria

15. Duo for violin & cello: Cello Cadenza

16. Duo for violin & cello: March

17. Partita for viola: Prelude

18. Partita for viola: Air

19. Partita for viola: Scherzo

20. Partita for viola: Postlude

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars But lots of beautiful string music!, April 6, 2007

By 

Daniel Trueman (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No Strings Attached: Music by Philip Rhodes (Audio CD)

Full Disclosure: Phillip Rhodes (or Mr. Rhodes, as I still think of him) was my first composition teacher, approaching 20 years ago, and without his early guidance I doubt I would be a composer today. So, my impressions of this music are hard to separate from my knowledge of him as a teacher (and a terrific teacher at that). That said, this is a fascinating collection of music performed by a wonderful array of performers who have worked with Rhodes over the decades. In some ways, I feel like I can hear Mr.-Rhodes-the-teacher in the first few tracks; the very opening notes of Rhodes's take on the famous Gershwin Summertime reveals (perhaps) what his inner-ear constructs while listening. The violin sustain of the high E (on "time") is breathtakingly long (while the piano continues), lingering until it's place returns in the second part of the phrase (on "fish"); every time I hear this, I find it literally breathtaking, in part because I know how the song goes and can barely wait for the line to continue, but also because it is just terrifically beautiful.

At the other extreme of the CD and Rhodes's ongoing career is his String Trio, written in the mid-1960s and revised in the early `70s. This is vivid, dramatic, intense music that keeps you on the edge of your seat. While clearly "of its time" and full of modernist concision, it is also full of life and, in particular, wonderful sparsely drawn sonorities. While I always listen for the Appalachian influences in Rhodes's music, I suspect this came before they made their way into his concert music. But over the course of the pieces that come between the Gershwin and Trio bookends, especially later works like Shakespeare in Song, it's not hard to hear some of the tunefulness of Appalachia coming through. This is not crossover music or anything superficial; rather it is, at least to my ear, the deep love of the traditional music coming through the filter of a remarkably precise and sensitive ear.

Having performed some of Rhodes's music, I know it can present many challenges. The performances here, ranging over four decades, feature the legendary violinist Paul Zukofsky and a particularly compelling effort (to my ears!) by violist Ann Woodward.