Customer Reviews

Solstice Live!

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

 

 

I have vivid memories of attending my first Paul Winter Consort "Winter Solstice" concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine some half-dozen years ago. At that time, I was perhaps just short of two years into acquiring and traversing his works available then, but this Solstice Live album was not one of those already in my library. And so that Winter Solstice concert was a certifiably new experience for me. And I was like and 8-year-old enjoying his first circus. I even had a stiff neck the morning after, just as that 8-year-old at his first circus would have had.

This annual gig is a perfect example of "theater in the round" (and an explanation for that stiff neck of mine). That it is "theater" as much as it is "music" may or may not come across in this excellent album, but I think that it will, in light of the sophisticated techniques used to record the program. And a good program this one was, fully up to the expectations of the thousands of members in the audience who have, since 1980, turned this event into an annual ritual.

The 66 minutes on this album makes it a "highlights" album, since Paul Winter's Solstice concerts typically run two hours or more.

But what highlights! The opening fanfare, a Solstice tradition, has Paul Winter high in the balcony of the cathedral, as far away as possible from the central stage placed at the "crossing" of the cathedral, followed by Gordon Gottlieb's wake-up call on timpani. A great pairing of two knock-your-socks-off voices: Nóirin Ní Riain singing "Christmas Day Is Come" and Kecia Lewis-Evans bringing the house down with "The Sparrow," a gospel song that truly soars. One of Rhonda Larson's virtuosic turns on flute in "Highland Heaven." World music from the Ecuadoran Andes (Andes Manta), Russia (the Dmitri Pokrovsky Singers), the Celtic world (Ireland, with Ms. Ní Riain, and Galicia, with Nando Casals), and just about everywhere else under the sun (with Glen Velez's world percussion turns).

Since these concerts celebrate the return of the sun, after the longest day of the year, an annual highlight is the "Turning Point Suite," which represents this return. The Suite on this album is a very good one, beginning with a procession through the cathedral by Nando Casals playing his Galician bagpipes (recorded with a terrific sense of space, and great "underpinnings" support by the cathedral organ), through "dark" improvisations, by the Consort musicians, representing the longest night, concluding with the raising of the "sun gong" (the world's largest such gong), finally breaking forth into sunlight with the "Solstice Chant."

A Paul Winter Consort performance at the cathedral would be incomplete without one of Winter's improvisations on his saxophone, in duet with the cathedral organ. The improvisation duet here, "Duet for the Longest Night," with Paul Halley at the organ console, is a soaring, yet melting, example of their way with "Cathedral Blues."

The finale, also a Solstice tradition, begins with a traditional Guinean song, "Minuit," made famous by Winter some years before this performance, segueing into "Adeste Fideles" with full audience participation. A good "wrap" on an excellent program.

Cathedrals can be notoriously difficult venues in which to capture music faithfully and clearly without destroying the acoustic ambience of such spaces. Not here; the recording is simply downright excellent, and one gets a clear sense of the ambience.

One of these Winter Solstice events is easily worth a visit to New York during the holiday season. Try to plan to take one in; it's well worth it. And watch out for your neck; it'll get a workout if you do catch one of these concerts for the first time.

Bob Zeidler

If you are interested in hearing a truly "BIG" sound of music, this is one CD that is a must for your collection. This CD coordinates, marvelously, the sounds of primitive instruments, woodwinds, percussion, gongs, etc., accompanied by the Great Organ of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York, where the concert was performed live. You, too, will join the audience in thunderous applause for this magnificent production!

Fascinating, ever-evolving compositions and improvisations by musicians from around the world, performed in New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine to celebrate the Winter Solstice. Even though this is a recording of new material with numerous guest artists, it plays almost like a "Best Of ..." compilation in that it showcases the variety of composition and performance styles that the Paul Winter Consort has explored and perfected over the years--classic jazz, "cathedral blues", chamber music, South American, world fusion and collaboration with animals. For the first few times you listen to "Solstice Live!", you many never quite know what to expect next, yet all the diverse selections fit and flow together, blending mystery and excitement, joy and lament into a satisfying whole. Highlights of this album include "Tomorrow is my Dancing Day", "Hodie" and "Midnight/Adeste Fidelis", all of which reinterpret traditional Christmas songs, blending them with other musical styles and suitable new harmonies. Also striking are the lovely, soaring flutistry of Rhonda Larson, and the joyfully dissonant Russian singing of the Dmitri Pokrovsky Singers. One number that particularly struck me is "Boon Song", a wonderful trio for saxophone, flute and the Uirapuru (an Amazon rainforest wren who was presumably recorded in its own home rather than in the cathedral itself). The song is a great example of how this group can take inspiration from one of nature's voices and craft beautiful ensemble music, which sounds particularly fresh and new since the melody is not of man. In fact, the Uirapuru is given top billing as composer in the credits, with only secondary credit going to keyboardist Paul Halley. This is very cool stuff--a celebration of diversity, artistry, spirit, and triumph of light over darkness. I like this CD better and better every time I listen to it! For more recordings of the Winter Consort's Solstice concerts, try also "Journey with the Sun" and "Celtic Solstice".

We live in Michigan, get to spend some time in Tucson. After hearing a live broadcast on NPR, we got tickets, used frequent-flyer mileage and flew from Tucson-NYC-Tucson to see this spectacle. Didn't let us down; as the narrator on the live broadcast had described, at a climactic moment, this 5- or 6-foot gong at the back of this enormous cathedral is hauled up 100 feet, with this guy in a bosun's chair being hauled up with it, whacking away at it with a gong. It's all inspiring, entertaining. After, we walked down Amsterdam 30 blocks and heard folks around us singing and howling (the Howleluja Chorus). Not a review of the CD? Yes it is, the CD admirably invokes being there, even without the Howls. It's Dec. 22, 2004 and I can't find the CD and it's not on my iPod or in my computer and I can't get it delivered in time for Christmas, let alone the solstice. More to the point, Solstice Live is a grand recording, entirely representative of the performance. And if audio is sometimes a little quiet, consider that fixed microphones are sometimes recording processions down a very, very long aisle. That's Solstice Live!

I had this CD stolen with my car stereo and didn't realize it until too late last year. When this December rolled around, I had to get it back. Having seen the Winter Solstice concert, it meant even more to me. Inspiring, heartfelt, meaningful music regardless of your personal and religious beliefs. Those who worship the Solstice, Christianity, Muslim, Judiaism or any other belief can stand with Mr. Winter and his group of eclectic musicians. And if you get a chance to see this in person, don't miss it. A 40' diameter gong rising to the ceiling of a gothic cathedral is not to be missed!

I've been to Paul Winter's Solstice concert in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine a number of times, and this CD represents it superbly. The first time I attended, I was struck by the sense of participating in the telling of a great creation myth. Everyone in the cathedral is swept up in the narrative of rebirth, and I've never known anyone who left without feeling exuberant and enlivened. All of that is marvellously captured in the selections on this CD (the only thing missing is the "Howl-elullah Chorus, the pinnacle of audience participation). The selections themselves are well-chosen, from, I believe, more than one year's concerts. As several other reviews note, the sound quality is quite spectacular and true to the setting. It's very "world" and "new age," so if you don't enjoy those things, don't bother. Everyone else should enjoy it immensely!

I wanted to love this cd but only ended up liking it marginally. About half the songs have a new-age sound to them, the other half are more like folk songs. The reason I'm giving it 3 stars is primarily the audio quality. Some songs were recorded at really low levels so you have to crank it up then others are really loud. On others the clarity just isn't there. The songs don't really flow together very well in my opinion either. There are some chants, some gospel singing, some bagpipes, some synthesizer, some group songs. Note that this was recorded live so there is clapping between songs too. Sounds like the audience really enjoyed it. Better solstice cds I've found are Beautiful Darkness, Winter Solstice Carols and A Winter Garden.

Solstice Live! right?!?!

This is mostly innocuous then BAM! a jesus myth song about the murderers who justify extermination by their supposed spiritual superiority.

Boycott them and their kind!