Ades: Asyla, These Premises Are Alarmed, etc. / Rattle, et al
|
List Price: Our Price: $13.52 You Save: $3.46 (20%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $12.17 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Ades: Asyla, These Premises Are Alarmed, etc. / Rattle, et al
Free Music Review: Worth buying
Hit: 4 Stars
Although somewhat uneven, what the heck he's still young, this is worth buying.Free Music Review: Early Thomas Ad?s: Promises Kept
Hit: 5 Stars
Thomas Ad?s just complete a two year residency with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and in those two years he produced enough evidence not only through his compositions but also with his gifts as a pianist and as a conductor that establish him as one of the more important contemporary musical artists of the day. The finale for his residency was a performance of the staggeringly unique 'Asyla for orchestra, Opus 17 which he conducted in the Disney Concert Hall to great acclaim from audience and critics alike. After that experience it is refreshing to return to this fine performance of not only the 'Asyla' but also the smaller works 'Concerto Conciso, for piano & chamber orchestra, Opus 18 (with Ad?s at the piano), 'These Premises Are Alarmed, for orchestra', Opus 16, '. . . but all shall be well, for orchestra, Opus 10 and the 'Chamber Symphony' Opus 2.
Simon Rattle has long been a proponent of Thomas Ad?s and his City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group serve both composer and conductor well. Asyla is deeply married to melody and harmony and is easy for the nascent listener to understand. But the joy of Ad?s comes in his massive, cohesive orchestrations that take melody and then explode it into some of the most creative orchestral colors and instrumental contrasts being written today.
This is a recording to savor. Hopefully there will be other recordings of his newer works out soon, but until then for the listener who has yet to meet the master, this recording is a superb beginning. Grady Harp, December 06
Free Music Review: Sometimes pleasing, but quite problematic
Hit: 3 Stars
Few composers of recent times have evoked such mixed reactions as young Briton and Cambridge graduate Thomas Ades, with the gamut running from praise of the new hope of contemporary music to accusations of charlatan imitation of other musical trends ancient and modern. Even the individual listener can't quite decide what to make of him, and I admit that my opinion swings wildly from one extreme to the other and back while I listen to this disc. As this EMI disc contains some of his most noted pieces, it is perhaps the best introduction to the curious Ades phenomenon, it's certainly stronger than the other collections of his works out there. The CBSO performs on the large works, and the Birmingham Contemporary Music group on the small ones. Sir Simon Rattle conducts the first piece, and the composer himself conducts the rest.
"Asyla" (1997) op. 17 is a symphony in all but name, the largest work in terms of length and orchestral force that Ades has written to date, and a piece I have a love-hate relationship with. What one first notices about the piece is its novel instrumentation. Two pianists perform, one going between a concert grand and an upright, and the other playing an upright tuned a quarter-tone flat. There's an array of unusual percussion, including prominent cowbells and a sack full of silverware that's beaten with a stick. The third movement, "Ecstasio" is already infamous in contemporary music circles, for with 4/4 time and clever scoring the composer recreates the sound of mid-1990s house, bass pounding obnoxiously and woodwinds giving off trippy synth-like notes. Simon Rattle clearly loves the piece, he's toured it around the world and paired it with a Mahler symphony for his first concert leading the Berliner Philharmoniker (this performance is available on a DVD from EMI). What I take umbrage with in this piece, however, is it's overt tonalism. Clearly Ades still believes in the idea that tonalism has value since it can "tell a story", although there are as many interpretations of the piece as their are listeners, but for myself, enraptured by Boulez, Xenakis, Norgard, middle-period Lutoslawski, and others, Ades' music seems very limited, even occasionally a series of musical tropes.
The "Concerto Conciso" for piano and chamber orchestra is a two-movement work that puts the soloist in the dual role of pianist and conducter--the piano writing is mainly written for one hand to make this easier. Instead of the high style of the first work on the disc, the concerto takes inspiration from Ligeti-style zaniness, New Orleans jazz, and an obscure dance of medieval England. My complaint here is that, in spite of some potentially interesting theory, the concerto is quite unfocused and bespeaks a certain immaturity on the part of the composer.
"These Premises Are Alarmed" (1996) returns to the vast orchestral dimensions of the first piece but is less than four minutes long. It speedily examines various parts of the orchestra, and ends with an alarm-like ringing. This is for me the least problematic work on the disc, a veritable okay work, which fits alongside the three-star efforts of composers like Peter Lieberson and Peter Eotvos.
The last two works on the disc return to the problems of the piano concerto. The "Chamber Concerto" seeks to draw all instruments close to a basset clarinet persistently in the background, but goes nowhere. "but all shall be well" (1993) op. 10 takes its title from the "Four Quartets" of T.S. Eliot, a composer who has given great inspiration to Ades--his op. 1 was a setting of Eliot's five "Landscape" poems. In this purely instrumental work, Ades meanders through some vaguely pastoral scenes, but the music doesn't really do much.
The pieces here at times engage the listener, at times infuriate, and all in all cannot securely stand on the ground of worthy listening.
Free Music Review: Good! but not great
Hit: 4 Stars
Good music, performances, and recordings.
Why not great? because Ades's material isn't allowed to live up to its dramatic potential. He sounds rushed to get out more and more information in each piece. There are uncountable places in all of these works where the depth of the material cries out to be revealed.
Therefore, lacking dramatic pinnacles, the individual pieces loose their identity. The cumulative effect on the listener is that of a sample CD of good contemporary music using basically the same compositional language.
The only exception might be the 3rd movement of Asyla, but even here the development is only -enough-. Given the nature of the material, the extent of climax should be merciless. I'm sure that Thomas, when writing this, thought he was going way over the top. But this is a prime psychological battle of the artist (especially in an abstract language like music). Once he thinks he has gone too far, he's just barely gone far enough.
Ades is certainly one of the great orchestrators of our generation, and there is certainly a creative spark here. He only needs to learn patience and detachment. These things will come with age and introspection and have probably been discouraged by conventional education and early adulation.
Free Music Review: Emperor's New Clothes or Pearls Before Swine?
Hit: 4 Stars
Short answer- Pearls. "Asyla" is indeed inspiring evidence of genius as are most of the pieces on this CD. I find it odd that so many seem to be so deeply polarized by his music. Unaware at the time of the controversy surrounding Ades, I listened to Asyla and was immediately impressed-it's clearly amzing stuff.Ades' music is all over the map in terms of styles he has assimilated, but his language is unified by his unmistakably his own. The music could be characterised as having a restless exploratory quality- as you would expect given his young age, but it's clear that he will be one of the major voices of our time. All the pieces are interesting and varied. His idiom is often complex and will challenge some listeners, but re-hearings are increasingly rewarding.
"Asyla" and "But all shall be well" were the highlights for me but everyone of these pieces is clear evidence of that overworked term, genius. This is one case where applying that word tohis music is no mere hyperbole.