John Adams: The Dharma at Big Sur/My Father Knew Charles Ives
|
List Price: Our Price: $11.44 You Save: $8.54 (43%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $8.73 (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 John Adams: The Dharma at Big Sur/My Father Knew Charles Ives
Free Music Review: Amazing.
Hit: 5 Stars
this is for the fisrt disc 'Dharma at Big Sur' i have not even listened to the second disc as of yet.
I've been waiting since i heard a rebroadcast of the L.A.premiere (2003) shortly after the actual live premiere and have been impatiently awaiting this release. That's about 3 years and i felt every frickin second of it!
I was driving to work the night it was being rebroadcast and I was just overwhelmed, not by the idea of an electric violin because to me that's really not that 'out there' but yet i was overpowered with emotions of excitemnt and a sort of 'awakening.' My eyes actually widened as the performance continued until i reached my work and i just sat there in my car listening, not wanting to leave any amount of the piece unlistened to. I eventually started work that night being about 20 min late but i just didn't care.
Let me tell you i bugged my local classical radio station who actually did the rebroadcast if they could give me a copy or something. I Bugged nonesuch records. I tried having it played on request nights so that i could record it on my computer. Finally three years later i get an email from nonesuch and i shortly thereafter purchase this amazing piece of work.
Looking back at all my reactions and after reading the booklet inside the cd case, I find myself amazed that all of those feelings from first eye opening discoverey and overwhelming emotion then agonzing wait to 'achieve' (in my case get the music again) and giving in to the wait and to a final fierce almost angry capturing of what you longed to have again after a very long journey, were all part of what John Adams tried to capture.
who'd of thought buying a cd could be so gratifying? Definately worth the 20 bucks.
Free Music Review: New tricks from the old dog...
Hit: 5 Stars
The music of John Adams has always been both distinctively personal and at the same time evocative of numerous other kinds of music. In that regard, it's Post-Modern in the best sense of the word: able to combine old things in new and provocative ways. If there were echos of 1940s Big Bands in Adams' "Fearful Symmetries," and a near-quote from Stravinsky's "Song of the Nightingale" in Adams' "Slonimsky's Earbox," then this new double CD is a continuation of that trend. The source for Adams' collage technique is clearly Charles Ives: what made "The Transmigration of Souls" into such a beautiful piece is the use of Ivesian techniques of collage to create a deeply American music of profound emotional impact. So "My Father Knew Charles Ives" is the latest manifestation. I would caution buyers who don't know Ives' "Three Places in New England" that you almost need to know that work before you hear Adams' piece to understand how fully Adams has modeled his music on Ives. The Dharma at Big Sur is a double homage as well. The first movement is inspired by Lou Harrison (who was my teacher) and the second movement by Terry Riley (who's a friend), so it was interesting to hear how Adams managed to be himself while evoking the work of two other composers. My only quibble with this beautiful sounding and looking disk is the wastefulness of issuing it on two CDs. Even if Nonesuch only makes you pay the price of a single CD, the two works together are barely an hour long, and it just seems a little over the top to put each work on its own CD. But hey, I guess if they were issuing MY music that way, it wouldn't seem overdone.Free Music Review: Difficult to not gush
Hit: 5 Stars
I was fortunate enough to attend a live performance of "Dharma" at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2005, a little less than 2 years after it's first performance. It is a thrilling experience to see and hear this work live. There was an electricity in the air throughout the entire performance. Anyone who has the opportunity to attend a concert of this music should not miss it. But the good news is that for everyone who can't make it to a concert this recording does the piece justice (as much is possible for a CD).
While live classical music (with all of it's fine nuances and atmosphere) can't easily be canned for recording, this studio recording of Dharma maintains all the sonic quality possible for the medium. I expect that one reason for the delay in this CD release was mix & mastering quality control. The sound of the electric violin is right where it needs to be -- usually on top of the mix (or just even with the rest) but never obscuring the rest of the orchestra. I would love to hear a multichannel and high resolution mix of Dharma. SACD or DVD-Audio anybody?
For those who enjoyed Dharma, I would recomend John Adams' Common Tones in Simple Time for Orchestra and Harmonielehre for Orchestra. The magic is alive, and it's purveyor is John Adams, with the talent of Tracy Silverman and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Free Music Review: "Dharma" a Masterpiece
Hit: 5 Stars
"The Dharma at Big Sur," a concerto for electric violin and orchestra, features the kind of post-minimalist style typical of John Adams' works, but is one of his more harmonically adventurous. The overall feel of the work is calm, but as it progresses in the second movement the dance-like revelries of the violin fly above an orchestral pulse and humming sonoroties that gradually intensify so much that by the end I'm always left breathless. This piece has turned out to be among my favorites of Adams' works.
"My Father Knew Charles Ives" is a piece that makes a good companion of Ives' "Three Places in New England." Adams pays homage to Ives, using inter alia Ives' technique of clashing melodies and the sounds of bands, but he also manages to take the work in his own direction. Compared to "Dharma," this is relatively darker and more introspective, with moments of its own intensity surrounded by quieter ruminations.
Free Music Review: Fantastic
Hit: 5 Stars
John Adams never ceases to amaze and this latest release is as good as they come. "Dharma," a concerto for electric violin and orchestra, is extraordinary: full of colorful, brilliantly inventive orchestrations, soaring melodies, and rich harmonic contours, it is a grand and glorious bear-hug of a score. Tracy Silverman is the dazzling soloist. "My Father Knew Charles Ives" is equally magnificent and rather more personal. References to Ives abound, but you don't necessarily need to be familiar with his output to appreciate Adams's; of special note should be the haunting second movement and the beautiful (surprising) coda of the third.