Soaring with Agamemnon

Gavin Bryars (Composer), Malcolm Forsyth (Composer), Arvo Part (Composer), Peter Longworth (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Peter Longworth
• Composer: Gavin Bryars, Malcolm Forsyth, Arvo Part
• Audio CD (March 23, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Marquis Music
• ASIN: B00000IGMA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #423,017 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely playing, April 27, 2008

By 

Stephen Chakwin (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soaring with Agamemnon (Audio CD)

Amanda Forsyth is the daughter of Malcolm Forsyth, a composer. Not surprisingly much of this disc is devoted to dad's music. It's not music that does much for me. It is fluent and well-written and slips from my mind a few moments after I hear it. So why am I so strongly recommending this disc?
For two great pieces, totaling 20 minutes, that are more than worth the price of the album.
The first is "The South Downs" by Gavin Bryars, a fairly early work that is a kind of rhapsody for cello and piano. The cello is like the voice of the wind and of the imagination soaring along with it. The piano is, perhaps, the physical landscape and the human heart. Or maybe not. All I know is that I've had this piece for about two months after I pulled over while driving to hear it. The work was so powerful that I couldn't drive and listen to it and I would not turn it off. Since then I've probably listened to it at least every other day, some days more than once. Part of the magic is the music itself. It sounds as if it is the love child of a piece by Shostakovich at his most lyrical and Philip Glass at his. And love is what shines through the playing. Forsyth's playing is technically superb with amazing fluency and intonation and so full of expression that she sounds like a great singer singing a song or aria that she loves. Tenderness, warmth, caprice, lightness, richness - the playing here is like an encyclopedia of all the magic that a great instrumentalist can use to reach a listener. This listener is more than reached. He is hooked and landed. And the music echoes in my heart and in my mind.
Part's piece - the title, mirror in mirror, suggests how the movement of the lines reflects back on itself as the work goes on - appears in different arrangements, including a lovely one recorded by Kremer for violin and harp. It's a cool, serene work on the surface, but Forsyth's vocal quality of playing suggests a tenderness beneath the gleam of the surface. Hypnotic is a good word for the piece. Like so much of Part's music, it plays with time and rhythm, seeming to move slowly or more flowingly depending on how you focus on it.
Forsyth pere's compositions sound pretty quotidian by comparison, as I've suggested, but are pleasant enough and could not be better played. You might find more in them than I did.
Longworth is a fine partner for Forsyth. He's there when he needs to be and neither too assertive nor too deferential. I'd like to hear him in some solo work.
I don't understand what the cover photo has to do with anything - I know this disc from the iTunes download which doesn't give me liner notes - but there could be almost anything on the booklet cover and the disc would still be a must-have for anyone who loves great cello playing and is open to music of our time.
There is an alternate recording of the Bryars in print with the composer and a British cellist. I haven't heard (I will some day) but I can't imagine that it would be more compelling than this one. At best it might be a useful supplement.

1.0 out of 5 stars My Album order never arrived., September 27, 2011

By 

Norman Ouston - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Soaring with Agamemnon (Audio CD)

While ordering online, I did not notice that another address in New York was the destination box. I paid by visa then completed the order form. My album "Soaring with Agamemnon" was sent to the USA instead of my home address at Armstrong BC, here in Canada. I tracked it to that address and saw the party had moved. I don't know where the item is any more and my $20 is now yours.
I was unable to find where to contact you online with this problem subject within your automatic selections. The return items system did not apply.
I don't regret my first attempt with Amazon has failed because of my NOT carefully reading the order form. It was my fault entirely. At 73, I should have had more sense.
If you can find my album that would be great, if not, well thanks anyhow. I'll order another one from you I suppose.

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful modern music, February 20, 2009

By 

e-elemental (BC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soaring with Agamemnon (Audio CD)

Wonderful, serious yet playful, moody modern music, beautifully performed by Amanda Forsyth (cello) and Peter Longworth (piano). Most of the music is by Malcolm Forsyth, Amanda's father, but works by Arvo Pärt and Gavin Bryars are also included, and those listeners who like those composers won't be disappointed by the CD as a whole. I've given this CD to friends and family members, and everyone loves it. The joyful image on the front cover, depicting, I assume, a youthful, hippyish Malcolm years ago, piggy-backing his young daughter, captures perfectly the feeling of the music inside, which is warm and affectionate, sometimes lighthearted, sometimes poignant, never schmalzy. This is a CD that works as a CD, with each piece a delight, but the whole conveying something more. I have purchased it both in record stores (that feature classical CDs) and online.