Turnage: Fractured Lines

Mark-Anthony Turnage (Orchestra), Leonard Slatkin (Artist), Evelyn Glennie (Artist), Christian Lindberg (Artist), BBC Symphony Orchestra (Artist)

Product Details

• Orchestra: Mark-Anthony Turnage
• Audio CD (November 26, 2002)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Chandos
• ASIN: B00006NSE5
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #273,115 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

Fractured Lines, the first CD of music by Mark-Anthony Turnage on the Chandos label, features the premiere recordings of four of the composer's most recent orchestral works. "Another Set To" gets the disc off to an exhilarating start. Described by Turnage himself in the informative sleeve notes as "quite argumentative…optimistic and extrovert", "Another Set To" features trombone soloist Christian Lindberg whose growling yet extraordinarily agile playing goads and taunts the orchestra from start to finish.

"Silent Cities", which was inspired by a visit to the graveyards on the Somme and named after Kipling's description of that same place, is a far more somber affair. In complete contrast, "Four-Horned Fang" which follows on is a riotous tour de force for four horns and orchestra. Despite its title, "Four-Horned Fandango" is not an overtly Spanish piece, rather it contains more subtle references such as the occasional castanet flutter and percussive strings.

The disc is rounded off with "Fractured Lines", Turnage's double percussion concerto which features Evelyn Glennie and Peter Erskine; two better soloists would be impossible to find. Based on a tune written by Erskine himself, the concerto is a energetic, nay unstoppable work. A thrilling disc from start to finish. --Rebecca Agnew

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not entirely convincing, despite the good performances, December 16, 2003

By	Edward Wright (Toronto, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Mark-Anthony Turnage and his brassy, jazz-inflected music have been major players in British concert life over the last two decades. With a recently televised opera, The Silver Tassie, and a variety of concert works over the last few years, his profile has remained consistently high. Continuing this trend, Leonard Slatkin and the BBC Symphony Orchestra have recorded here four recent works for contrasting ensembles.

Another Set To, the disc opener, is a brief concertino for trombone and orchestra, expanded from the brass piece Set To. Its nine minutes of vigorous dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra are lively and entertaining, and navigated with ease by the composer's preferred soloist, the inimitable Christian Lindberg.

More ambitious is the orchestra piece, Silent Cities, based on a melody by Turnage's regular collaborator, the jazz guitarist John Scofield. This work, dedicated to the memory of Michael Tippett, was inspired by a visit to the graveyards of the First World War (the 'Silent Cities' of the title). It alternates between mournful bluesy melodies and brusque orchestral violence, before concluding quietly. This recording is of the recent revised version, which clears up some of the problems with the original version, though I still find the orchestration sometimes becomes overly cluttered.

Four-Horned Fandango is another work that was revised for this recording, though in this case the revisions were much more drastic, as Turnage felt the original version to be a total failure. The work pits four solo horns against an orchestra of strings and percussion, and flows from a slow beginning to a dramatic climax, before the energy subsides in a slow, eerie conclusion. The fandango elements are kept mainly in the background, and the orchestral writing is of a more delicate, restrained nature than typical in Turnage, and I find this entirely to the work's benefit--this is probably the strongest piece on the disc.

Less impressive is Fractured Lines, a concerto for two percussionists and orchestra. Once again performed in a major revision, this work takes a tune by the jazz drummer Peter Erskine (the unpitched percussion soloist here; Evelyn Glennie takes the pitched percussion) and garlands it with variations. Two cadenzas, the first for Glennie, the second for Erskine, interrupt the work's vigorous progress, before it closes quietly. I found this work felt a little too routine to really grip me, though the closing bars are impressive.

This disc showcases Turnage's strengths and weaknesses in equal measure, but Four-Horned Fandango suggests a possible avenue for further development in his musical style. The performances are uniformly good, and a special word of praise must be given to the horn soloists in the Fandango.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Horn Player's Dream, February 21, 2008

By	Banchreee - See all my reviews

I play French Horn, and have done so for many years. The first listen of Turnage's pieces in itself is absolutely amazing. The layering of the voices, and the dramatic subtones reach through and grab your attention as you move through each piece individually.

Then I listened to it again on the Shure SE530 headphonesShure SE530 Sound Isolating Earphones

This takes the pieces to a whole new level. You hear the subtleties hidden in the muddle of normal audio equipment, and truly begin to understand the piece as a whole.

The parts tear through each other revealing a new sound, and a new idea. It is a truly phenomenal experience to listen to these compositions.