Customer Reviews

Varese: Arcana; Ameriques; Ionization; Offrandes; Density 21.5; Octandre; Integrales

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4 star:		(2)
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This disc doesn't contain all of Varese's music, but it comes close at 77 minutes. Varese was not nearly as prolific as he was creative! The first recorded Varese I heard was on the VoxBox (called "Ionisation"), and five of the pieces found here are also on that disk, conducted by Cerha. What a contrast! Cerha presents Varese delicately, transparently, without passion. The advantage is that the instruments are clearly delineated. But you are left wondering what the fuss is about -- it doesn't sound very radical. Boulez emphatically captures the chaos, the energy, the alien-ness of Varese! Of course the overall impact is heightened by the inclusion of "Ameriques" and "Arcana," two 20-minute pieces for full orchestra that are bigger and louder than anything included on the VoxBox. The production value is superb -- sharp and clear -- and the packaging is faultless as well. In short, if you only had one recording by Varese, this would be an excellent choice. If you like this, by all means look for Xenakis' "Orchestral Works and Chamber Music" on Col Legno. Varese is a key influence, especially the composition "Arcana"!

This is THE recording of Varèse's music. Boulez is by far the only conductor who truly understood his music. Even the renderings of Varèse's pupil, Chailly, are fairly disappointing in the light of these. I consider Chailly's 2-CD intégrale to be useful only for its transfer of the unique Poème électronique (and for it contains also some rare works, but these are something that maybe only scholars will be interested in). Finally, I must mention that there's also another referential CD in this wonderful mid-priced Boulez series which contains his renderings of Varèse's Déserts and Hyperprism altogether with Carter's Symphony for Three Orchestras. So, for anyone interested in 20th-century (serious) music, buy this CD right now!! and check out for the latter, too.

This is a good Varese disc for those unwilling to shell out for the new two-disc Complete Varese. When all is said and done, Varese was a major composer in the decade of the 1920s. These are the works on which his reputation is warranted, and these are the works on this disc. He combines a strong percussive thrust with an ear for unusual but attractive sound combinations. And Boulez and his Ensemble InterContemporain play it all lovingly and, of course, superbly.

This is one of the finest set of recording of the Varese repetoire ever made. The french performances are particularly well done with right degree of ensemble and tone required of this difficult music.

The Octandre is especially good with super attacks from all players...not for the faint of heart.

Reading the other Amazon reviewers left me wondering - has anyone here any idea at all what's involved in Varèse? Back in the 1920's, when most of these works were created, Varèse's compositions stepped quite decisively out of the the world of classical music - indeed, music of any form - and into a new found artistic universe, where abstract rules of construction would dominate. Calling Varèse a musician is fair only to the extent he works with musical instruments and retains musical notations - in fact he's much better described as a painter or sculpture working in sound! This is not to suggest Varèse was not a genuine musician to his fingertips - he had exceptional talent in what might be described as 'regular music', choral works, accentuation, etc. But once this fundamental distinction about the totality of his vision is grasped the breadth of Varèse's accomplishments can begin to be understood. The normal apparatus of music criticism, especially as it existed in Varèse's time - when the compositions on recorded on this Cd were being put together - simply did not function when confronted by these striking creations.

Thus, what we have is a radically new sensibility, something Varèse's namesake Edgar Poe might have admired - a world where the lines between the visual and the aural begin to merge, twist, and conflict in all together newly discovered combinations. We do not so much hear a work by Varese as we experience it physically - the powerful and sudden fortes and climaxes in many of his works are meant to act not just architecturally, but also directly on the senses, quite independently of any role they might have in the composition. Musical quotations should be 'seen' as a landscape much the same way visual quotes function in a work by Jasper Johns or Rauschenberg, where multiple and overlapping images from a variety of normally unassociated sources act to undercut or open up new vistas. Varèse's admiration for all the arts - he was a big admirer of the cubist Braque - as well as his uncanny ear for concrete everyday sounds, such as the sound of waves lapping against a pier, or the shattering melee of urban traffic volumes, emerge naturally into musical cityscapes with a hither-to-fore unknown reality and forcefulness.

The astonishing fertility of this artist remains little appreciated even to this day. All of the works on this Cd are striking achievements in a totally new path - they are both manifestoes and final statements. Not since the days of Vivaldi had music been presented with such an extreme emphasis on what might to most musicians be termed secondary or amusical elements - color for color's sake; pure, unadorned volumes that cannot be distinquished from noise; bizarre contrats and groupings running over any and all formalized elements of Western polyphony and harmony. Offrandes, written in 1921, a deceptively short but ground-breaking work, brushes lightly past the over-contructed bridge to nowhere of Schönberg's Pierrot lunaire with an absoluteness impossible to quantify - the soprano sings quite freely of any musical constraints or requirements, freed of the chains of the past.

Varèse felt systems such as Schönberg's could only limit; with Amériques the artist puts his new vision to a full test and succeeds beyond any possible measuring standards of his day. A fully realized new concept is put into place, presented, and the established directions of music can no longer continue without recognizing what has happened. Within another year Varèse produces yet a further landmark on his newly discovered continent, Octandre, superficially a retrogression, with elements of more conservative formula and musical writing, but by the finsih of the three short movements, all around two minutes, very little is left of any connection to the past. A subtly subversive little work, and one displaying extremely nice writing for woodwinds.

Intégrales emerges into view in 1924. For me this is one of Varèse's most stunning works - I've listened to it innumberable times, and it's always an overwhelming experience. Varese manipulates traditional musical relationships into an entirely unexpected sum, where the frantic fragments miraculously are transformed into a unity, a sum far greater than the parts, a work of total wholeness.

It's not surprising Varèse's next major orchestra work, Arcana, rarely was played in his day - it requires an orchestra far larger than even Richard Strauss' Elecktra! We can thank that contemporary champion of modern music, Leopold Stokowski, for giving Arcana its premiere in Philadelphia way back in April, 1927! Bravo, Leopold! One can only wonder what those staid Philadelphia season ticket holders thought about Stokowski's latest voyage into the unknwon reaches of modern music! I suppose the Philadelphia musicians didn't wear earcovers to protect their hearing, as they did for a later premiere of George Crumb. Arcana is thrilling, wildly engaging music, in the pounding undertows of life as it most deeply registers to the ultra sensitive barometer of exploding possibilites Varèse must have been in the Roaring Twenties. A grand, magnificent orchestra work - unique, bold, undaunted by Time.

The last work I'll briefly mention - Ionisation, 1931. The work is wholly modern, quite removed now from any lingering connection to the past or even contemporary music of the time. It could just as easily appeared a quarter century later, during the height of Abstract Expressionism, and been viewed as radical!

The performances here are from Boulez's first recordings of this music made with the New York Philharmonic, or with selected intrumentalists. The playing is razor sharp, and highly informed. Boulez understands Varèse to a fare-thee-well - he has no trouble with the density of the supersized orchestra works, such as Ameriques or Arcana, eliciting from his orchestra tremendous rocking force when required in Varèse's demands for explosive uproar. Pitch, always a Boulez speciality, is a quality one might think of lesser importance in some of the perplexing sound world of these huge works, but Boulez applies it with his usual keen ear to the finest degree, and this is marvelously done in the smaller works - though to call any work by Varèse 'small' is a misnomer, both in quality and general scale!

A landmark in modern Art, not just music!

I've been a fan of Frank Zappa's since the 60's and have been well aware of his debt to Edgar Varese since I first purchased FREAK OUT many years ago. As a result, I had to purchase Pierre Boulez's presentation of Varese's composition. I can make several points that might be helpful to others reading this.

First, the quality of the CD is beyond normal! I heard this CD for the first time on a pair of EPI 50's. These speakers are over 20 years old. The quality of the sound is incredible! I've never heard anything better. On this CD, you'll hear every slight nuance of sound. It is an impressive piece of sound engineering.

Second, the work of Varese will make a Zappa fan reflect. In particular, I found myself imagining a young Frank Zappa (about age 13) listening to this over, and over, and over. I can see the influence that Varese had on Zappa. It is interesting to realize the profound influence Varese's compositions had on the mind of the young Frank Zappa. Clearly, it was a pivotal point in Zappa's life.

Third, I am not musically gifted. In fact, my piano teacher encouraged me to stop taking lessons. I found the Varese's compositions to be much more polished than Frank Zappa's. Now, my impression could be the result of the extremely high quality of the sound engineering for this CD. OR, perhaps, Zappa died prematurely and did not have the opportunity to achieve the level of polished sound that Varese had acquired. I don't know.

Any fan of Zappa will truly enjoy this CD. If you are, I suggest that you purchase this CD before it is discontinued.

This album (CD) made it into my collection the same way as a few others who've commented here. One day after listening to Lumpy Gravy I was at the record store holding this CD in my mitts wondering if I really wanted to subject myself to one of Zappa's major musical influences.

This is music either for someone who knows a lot about the structure of sound and can appreciate it for that reason or someone who gets bored listening to the same sort of thing all the time and enjoys variety. This is not what most people would consider the easiest "stuff" to listen to. It has an overall disonance to it that many would consider an assault on their senses. At the same time it also has a mathamatical structure to it that makes it obvious to even the most musically uneducated dullard that this is unique, well thought out sound. To be honest I'd have to admit to not understanding much of this CD but it certainly is interesting and different. Arcana, for instance, reminds me a little of something Gustov Holst might have written if he had been spending time with Carlos Castenada. The entire CD takes the listener through a range of emotions that might go from sombre and desolate to momentarily uplifted likely ending up somewhere between confused and perhaps violated... maybe even satisfied.

This is NOT the sort of thing I could listen to all the time but when the mood strikes there isn't a rendition of Louie Louie that is going to hit the spot that this will. Recommended for someone with a musically adventurous disposition.

I purchased this cd after reading Frank Zappa's audobiography, where he pays homage to the great Varese for inspiring him. I can see where Varese had an influence on him. This is a strange but good collection of pieces conducted by Boulez, who also worked with Zappa on "Perfect Stranger". If you like Zappa then you will probably appreciate this album. Varese was a very talented composer and this album proves it. Ionization alone proves it, but the rest of the disc is great also.

i first heard of varese in my frank zappa book, he was mentioned as an influence. There's loads of great drumming in this album, loads of loud percussion. Ionisation is a huge sounding percussion thing. This is guaranteed to wake up your neighbours, play it very loud. Ameriques is a great 23 minute orchestral work, which reminds me a bit of rite of spring, but it is a hell of a lot louder. It's a top tune-it has quiet bits too for the women. The flute bit is immaculately played by some guy. Top tune. Then some singing bits by a girl, lovely stuff and short too. More orchestral fun in 'arcana', which is about 19 minutes. This is a loud guy too, so use them high volume speakers. Boulez does a great job getting the huge sound from this huge ensemble. Octandre is a 3 part composition for clarinets and stuff. It's a delightful bit of music . Integrales wraps up the gig, another really top tune. I only have this version of these tunes so i can't compare them to other interpretations. But they sound right to me. This is the best tenner you'll ever spend! Thank you

I was interested in this CD because I had heard a few of Varese's more popular works (Ionisation, Integrales), liked them and was interested in what else this composer had to offer. Well, this CD is basically more of the same, only of lesser quality. If you have not heard Varese's music before, most of it involves forlorn sounding melodies with equally forlorn accompaniment (lots of tritones) mixed together with percussion. Considering his output fills less than two CDs, you would expect it to be a lot more varied and interesting. I suppose Varese may have been a 20th century pioneer (use of timbre, etc) but his music is not all that appealing to me. There are much better 20th century composers, I think.