Crumb. Madrigals and Chamber works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: George (Henry) Crumb
Label: New World
Magazine Review Date: 9/1988
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 63
Mastering:
ADD
Catalogue Number: NW357-2
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Madrigals |
George (Henry) Crumb, Composer
George (Henry) Crumb, Composer Jan de Gaetani, Mezzo soprano Pennsylvania University Chamber Players Richard Wernick, Conductor |
(An) Idyll for the Misbegotten |
George (Henry) Crumb, Composer
Benjamin Herman, Percussion George (Henry) Crumb, Composer Gordon Gottlieb, Timpani Stephen Paysen, Percussion Zizi Mueller, Flute |
Vox balaenae |
George (Henry) Crumb, Composer
Fred Sherry, Cello George (Henry) Crumb, Composer James Gemmell, Piano Zizi Mueller, Flute |
Author:
Since George Crumb's soundscapes are imagined with such precision and sensitivity they are usually grateful for the performer and so too for the listener. Since they are predominantly soft and slow, however and since all the musical meaning is on or close to the surface, they can easily be boring unless the performance has an element of charisma.
Jan DeGaetani has that charisma, certainly far more so than Anne-Marie Muhle on the rival recording of the Madrigals (BIS). Listening to her vibrant and dramatic singing, it is possible to believe that these settings of Lorca's death-haunted poetry add up to one of the most impressive song-cycles of our time and that Crumb's distinctive brand of musical onomatopoeia is more than just attractive musical wallpaper.
Vox balaenae (''The Voice of the Whale'') is better known in Britain, thanks largely to performances by Douglas Young's ensemble Dreamtiger (who also recorded the piece on Cameo Classics—LP only). Here Crumb's sound-effects are at their most haunting, and the ingenious evocations of exotic percussion using only flute cello, piano and a couple of kitchen accessories, can only be admired. The new recording is admirable in many ways, but I nevertheless found myself assembling a catalogue of niggling criticisms—the flautist's singing-and-playing imperfectly balanced, a piano-string-glissando not done with the fingernail as requested, quartertones too wide, and so on which probably would not have registered at all had the inner intensity been stronger.
An Idyll for the Misbegotten purports to represent the condition of ''the species homo sapiens at the present moment in time''. The ten-minute piece for flute and percussion is accordingly doom-and-gloomy and the atmospheric performance it receives here is barely enough to sustain one's interest.
Madrigals was recorded in 1969 and sounds rather studio-bound (a drawback Jan DeGaetani triumphantly overcomes). The other works are beautifully recorded, although with insufficient silence allowed between them.'
Jan DeGaetani has that charisma, certainly far more so than Anne-Marie Muhle on the rival recording of the Madrigals (BIS). Listening to her vibrant and dramatic singing, it is possible to believe that these settings of Lorca's death-haunted poetry add up to one of the most impressive song-cycles of our time and that Crumb's distinctive brand of musical onomatopoeia is more than just attractive musical wallpaper.
Vox balaenae (''The Voice of the Whale'') is better known in Britain, thanks largely to performances by Douglas Young's ensemble Dreamtiger (who also recorded the piece on Cameo Classics—LP only). Here Crumb's sound-effects are at their most haunting, and the ingenious evocations of exotic percussion using only flute cello, piano and a couple of kitchen accessories, can only be admired. The new recording is admirable in many ways, but I nevertheless found myself assembling a catalogue of niggling criticisms—the flautist's singing-and-playing imperfectly balanced, a piano-string-glissando not done with the fingernail as requested, quartertones too wide, and so on which probably would not have registered at all had the inner intensity been stronger.
An Idyll for the Misbegotten purports to represent the condition of ''the species homo sapiens at the present moment in time''. The ten-minute piece for flute and percussion is accordingly doom-and-gloomy and the atmospheric performance it receives here is barely enough to sustain one's interest.
Madrigals was recorded in 1969 and sounds rather studio-bound (a drawback Jan DeGaetani triumphantly overcomes). The other works are beautifully recorded, although with insufficient silence allowed between them.'
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