Mahler - Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection"
5/5 Stars
Symphony No. 2 is hands down a complete masterpiece! Titled the Resurrection symphony, the whole work powerfully and profoundly explores a wide range of emotions while depicting the experience of loss, remembrance, harsh realities, resurrection, and judgment:
Movement I:
The first movement creates a sense of loss, mourning, and even a hint of regret. Presumably the listener is to imagine (or remember) the feeling of losing someone dear, and the stir of emotions that accompany.
Movement II:
Here we find a gentle musical setting with long, warm melodies. The grief has passed as we remember the deceased fondly and envision their soul(s) soaring through the clouds upward toward heaven.
Movement III:
We are snatched out of our dreamy haze, and stirred out of a peaceful state to again face the harsh realities of life and loss.
Movement IV:
The exquisite alto soloist sings "I am from God and will return to God. The dear God will give me a light, will light me to eternal blessed life!" to calm our restless hearts.
Movement V:
This movement is a symphony within the symphony—thirty five plus minutes. This is perhaps one of the greatest movements in all symphonic history. The ground shakes, the earth opens, and judgment day is upon us. The massive orchestra literally shakes the hall at times.
Two random comments:
1)I think I know where John Williams got his Superman theme from..... Good heavens that seems a little too close.
2)How does any bass sing a low Bb??
Mahler’s grasp of orchestration is clearly the pinnacle of Viennese orchestration—a master creating a masterpiece. Mahler’s gifts spread far beyond his ability to orchestrate. His melodies are effortless, memorable and beautiful. His timing and placement of key moments is impeccable. And lastly, his understanding of tempo shifts and abrupt mood changes make perfect sense. The only downside to this piece is its duration. It’s hard to find 95 minutes of undisturbed time to listen to the second symphony, but well worth it when you do. I would very highly recommend this piece to anyone, classical lover or not. The power and beauty that moves through the whole piece doesn’t just speak to musically minded folk, but to the hearts of all people.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
John Corigliano - Symphony I
John Corigliano - Symphony I
2.5/5 Stars
The impetus behind Corigliano’s first symphony was his overwhelming feeling of frustration and sadness from losing so many close friends to the AIDS epidemic. Knowing this fact gives many of his compositional choices a lot more meaning and context. Being unaware of it might leave a listener with some major questions.
Movement I, “Apologue*: Of Rage and Remembrance”, seemed to start with real promise: a vigorous tremolo from the strings all on a single pitch. The pitch however slowly changes timbre (probably due to playing the same pitch but shifting strings) and gives a real since of intense frustration. Shortly after the opening, the mood was quickly spoiled by a barrage of brass. This sudden interjection felt both careless and hokey. The composer failed to develop the brilliant opening gesture and spilled into a chaos of brass in an unprepared fashion. The over structure seemed to be in a lose ABA’ format where the opening and the unfortunate brass “fanfare” made up the A section. The B section, while coming out of left field, had a very interesting juxtaposition of haunting strings slowly shifting from dissonance to suspension to consonance and an offstage piano that sounded like it belonged in the slow movement of a Rachmaninoff piano concerto (upon later research it appears the piece was actually Isaac Albeniz’s "Tango"). The texture was unusual and intriguing—it was hard to focus on both event simultaneously which made it engaging as I tried follow both. The A’ section was much like we might expect but with an even bigger brass apex. It does however end on the same pitch it began with but an octave higher—nice symmetry—perhaps a simple message: we are the same but different.
Movement II, “Tarantella”, was a complete mishmash of thoughts. Within the first 30 seconds there seemed to be at least 3 themes conveying 3 different moods. It felt like a renaissance version the Disney’s “It’s a Small World” ride. It sort of aimlessly meandered through various versions of the folk like melodies and had a few disturbing fff interruptions. On the plus side, around the second half, the piece did seem to start growing in intensity and tempo, accelerating to the end—a key feature of a Tarantella.
Movement III, “Chaconne: Guilio’s Song”: the saving grace of this piece. Corigliano captures sadness like a master. Sounding like a cello concerto, the soloist plays a desperately sad melody that aches for resolution, almost achieves it, and then slips back into darkness. The composer sets up a really nice state of emotion though the use of a chromatic melody that moves around slowly enough that the listener almost thinks they hear a home key, but then it shifts to somewhere new. It’s a brilliant mix of anxiety and peace, discontent and content. I almost feel as though the movement might be more accurately named “Purgatory”. However, that really doesn’t fit into the programmatic concept of the piece…nonetheless I found myself completely satisfied with dissatisfaction :) There was some unfortunate bombardment of noise and bells toward the end that I didn’t really follow. But I was so taken with the first half that I barely cared.
Movement IV, “Epilogue”. This was utterly disappointing. If the purpose of this movement was to leave the listener with a mildly irritated, confused, empty sense, then job well done…..and given the topic and the hopelessness of the disease perhaps that was the purpose. This 4 minute movement was completely underwhelming. It called back some old themes and brought back the offstage nostalgic piano, but on the whole this seemed to do nothing. It didn’t have to end with some huge V-I-V-I Beethoven-like bonanza, but something more than we got would have been nice--something with purpose and with a statement that says more than: “sigh”.
Upon reading back, this turned into more of a scathing review than I expected. And don’t get me wrong, there were many nice features: memorable melodies, beautiful orchestration, some interesting textures, and a great concept behind the piece. I personally feel the concept was, unfortunately, not realized to its full potential. All said and done, I would encourage any listener to choose another piece if they are hearing Corigliano’s music for the first time.
2.5/5 Stars
The impetus behind Corigliano’s first symphony was his overwhelming feeling of frustration and sadness from losing so many close friends to the AIDS epidemic. Knowing this fact gives many of his compositional choices a lot more meaning and context. Being unaware of it might leave a listener with some major questions.
Movement I, “Apologue*: Of Rage and Remembrance”, seemed to start with real promise: a vigorous tremolo from the strings all on a single pitch. The pitch however slowly changes timbre (probably due to playing the same pitch but shifting strings) and gives a real since of intense frustration. Shortly after the opening, the mood was quickly spoiled by a barrage of brass. This sudden interjection felt both careless and hokey. The composer failed to develop the brilliant opening gesture and spilled into a chaos of brass in an unprepared fashion. The over structure seemed to be in a lose ABA’ format where the opening and the unfortunate brass “fanfare” made up the A section. The B section, while coming out of left field, had a very interesting juxtaposition of haunting strings slowly shifting from dissonance to suspension to consonance and an offstage piano that sounded like it belonged in the slow movement of a Rachmaninoff piano concerto (upon later research it appears the piece was actually Isaac Albeniz’s "Tango"). The texture was unusual and intriguing—it was hard to focus on both event simultaneously which made it engaging as I tried follow both. The A’ section was much like we might expect but with an even bigger brass apex. It does however end on the same pitch it began with but an octave higher—nice symmetry—perhaps a simple message: we are the same but different.
Movement II, “Tarantella”, was a complete mishmash of thoughts. Within the first 30 seconds there seemed to be at least 3 themes conveying 3 different moods. It felt like a renaissance version the Disney’s “It’s a Small World” ride. It sort of aimlessly meandered through various versions of the folk like melodies and had a few disturbing fff interruptions. On the plus side, around the second half, the piece did seem to start growing in intensity and tempo, accelerating to the end—a key feature of a Tarantella.
Movement III, “Chaconne: Guilio’s Song”: the saving grace of this piece. Corigliano captures sadness like a master. Sounding like a cello concerto, the soloist plays a desperately sad melody that aches for resolution, almost achieves it, and then slips back into darkness. The composer sets up a really nice state of emotion though the use of a chromatic melody that moves around slowly enough that the listener almost thinks they hear a home key, but then it shifts to somewhere new. It’s a brilliant mix of anxiety and peace, discontent and content. I almost feel as though the movement might be more accurately named “Purgatory”. However, that really doesn’t fit into the programmatic concept of the piece…nonetheless I found myself completely satisfied with dissatisfaction :) There was some unfortunate bombardment of noise and bells toward the end that I didn’t really follow. But I was so taken with the first half that I barely cared.
Movement IV, “Epilogue”. This was utterly disappointing. If the purpose of this movement was to leave the listener with a mildly irritated, confused, empty sense, then job well done…..and given the topic and the hopelessness of the disease perhaps that was the purpose. This 4 minute movement was completely underwhelming. It called back some old themes and brought back the offstage nostalgic piano, but on the whole this seemed to do nothing. It didn’t have to end with some huge V-I-V-I Beethoven-like bonanza, but something more than we got would have been nice--something with purpose and with a statement that says more than: “sigh”.
Upon reading back, this turned into more of a scathing review than I expected. And don’t get me wrong, there were many nice features: memorable melodies, beautiful orchestration, some interesting textures, and a great concept behind the piece. I personally feel the concept was, unfortunately, not realized to its full potential. All said and done, I would encourage any listener to choose another piece if they are hearing Corigliano’s music for the first time.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
What is this Blog?
Hello, and Welcome to my Blog!
The main purpose of this journal is to document my thoughts on the various pieces I listen to as I continue to survey the history of western art music. My comments are, of course, my own opinion and never do I intend to offend any composer, listener, or reader.
Each entry will focus in on a major work and give some brief comments on the significant highlights as well as any moments of weakness.
Please feel free to comment, disagree, ask questions, correct, or add to anything I write.
Thanks for reading!
Best,
Perry
The main purpose of this journal is to document my thoughts on the various pieces I listen to as I continue to survey the history of western art music. My comments are, of course, my own opinion and never do I intend to offend any composer, listener, or reader.
Each entry will focus in on a major work and give some brief comments on the significant highlights as well as any moments of weakness.
Please feel free to comment, disagree, ask questions, correct, or add to anything I write.
Thanks for reading!
Best,
Perry
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