Customer Reviews

Uri Caine Plays Mozart

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

 

 

I agree that the music is phenomonal. The entire ensemble works well both with and off each other, sharing the wide but focused canvas of musical possibility, without getting in each other's way. I also like the return to the solo Caine throughout the disc. For me, the packaging material matches the soaring heights of art attained on the disc. I like the feel of real paper and embossed craft and the tasteful abstract art inside as opposed to your run-of-the-mill hard breakable plastic--there is nothing plastic about URi's Caine's music and his packaging should, as it does, reflect that. Hats off to Winter & Winter, and to the Trio.

I agree with the previous review, I love how this group of musicians led by Uri are rearranging this old music, personally, I like some of the noise effects, I agree whole heartedly with the packaging comments, everytime I buy one of their products I get annoyed with their packaging!

Uri Caine's recordings undoubtedly infuriate many people in the classical music world. That's because he violates one of the clearest boundaries: performers shall *not* mess with the notes in the score. Yet the jazz world operates by different principles. Caine--who was trained at Penn, and studied with George Rochberg--grew up with classical music, and obviously enjoys it thoroughly. So if he wants to play it like a jazz musician--or more precisely, like a New York experimental jazz musician--who is to say that he cannot?

Of the many Caine forays into classical music, this is one of the most joyous. There's a playful quality to Mozart that seems to be unlocked by the kind of musical trickery Caine and his musicians apply. Just listen to the first track--Caine's version of the famous 1st movement of the C major piano sonata. He *knows* the music. He's also unafraid to play within it. If you love both classical and jazz, you will hear in this a perfect fusion of the two. I have to admit that some of the New York stuff (i.e., the sound sculptures of DJ Olive) push the boundaries of enjoyment a bit far. But the overall quality of the musicians' contributions is brilliant. I especially like Joyce Hamann's violin (light, flexible, and always helping to keep the focus on Mozart) and Nguyen Le's electric guitar sound (fat, bluesy, and always helping to push Mozart in unfamiliar directions). Overall, this is a brilliant and highly entertaining experiment that works.

This shows Uri Caine as a true master. The music is exhuberant, playful, inventive, exciting, touching, sweet, funny, and remarkable... in some tracks, this is showcased all at the same time.
It remains true to Mozart and to his simple and refined melodic character... but Caine has added an astounding new interpretation to these standard little beauties.
In some ways, it is Mozart in a completely new and surreal dimension.
And it is JUST AS GOOD as the original. When this refers to Mozart, it is simply a superb and outstanding achievement.

This is another great release by Uri Caine and his circle of outstanding musicians. When you have the talent and the inspiration, sky is the limit. Mozart himself would probably enjoy these versions of his timeless classics. For my ears, several songs contain "noise", distractions from the real thing. If I could delete the noise sections, this would be a 5-star record for me. In the current shape, it is a flawed masterpiece. The CD cover is below the 1-5 stars scale and was not considered in the rating. People at the Winter & Winter label apparently find humor or some other form of satisfaction in packaging great music in covers that are irritating, user-unfriendly by design, potentially harmful to the CDs when you try to get them in and out, and texts are at times unreadable, on purpose I assume printed so that they can not be read. Sorry, I don't get this humor and unfortunately I have to pay for this nonsense. I am sure they know this very well and yet want to have fun at the expense of their customers. Still, I do recommend that you also check out Caine's other records, unfortunately on the same label with equally stupid covers: covers of Bach, Beethoven, Mahler, Wagner, plus more conventional jazz records. Plus great side man appearances on several Dave Douglas records. Enjoy!

I have no problem with the playing and talent involved in this session. Its witty, clever and well played . Unfortunately to me it just comes out sounding silly and mechanical. The percussion is particularly bothersome in the way that it works against the flow of the music as Mozart wrote it. There is also a stilted sound that comes from accuracy without feeling. Not to mention that the music was written with particular instruments in mind. Many traditional performances suffer similar results when accuracy outweighs feeling.
And for those who say that Mozart would have enjoyed it, well I guess that's their opinion and obviously we'll never know. I'm more inclined to think Tom Hulce or Peter Shaffer might enjoy it.

Remember two stars means I just didn't like it, nothing more, nothing less