R.Danielpour Concerto for Orchestra; Anima Mundi
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Richard Danielpour
Label: Sony Classical
Magazine Review Date: 9/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 56
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: SK62822
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Concerto for Orchestra |
Richard Danielpour, Composer
David Zinman, Conductor Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Richard Danielpour, Composer |
Anima mundi |
Richard Danielpour, Composer
David Zinman, Conductor Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Richard Danielpour, Composer |
Author:
A new brand of concert music is sweeping the US circuit, where Richard Danielpour is among the most sought-after composers of his generation, his large romantic gestures eagerly seized upon by orchestral managements and audiences alike. And Sony Classical obviously have faith in him, having signed him to an exclusive recording contract. The rejection of academic formulae proceeds apace, but let’s hope we’re not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Like Aaron Jay Kernis, Danielpour is a shameless eclectic who wants his work to have “an immediate, visceral impact”, a composer who feels it his duty to entertain those who have “come to the concert-hall after a long day at work and they’re beat” (my italics). Given this mission statement, the present disc should perhaps be counted an outstanding success. David Zinman secures committed playing from the Pittsburgh orchestra, just as he did from the Philadelphia Orchestra in Yo-Yo Ma’s recent recording of Danielpour’s Cello Concerto (Sony Classical, 3/97), and the recording team have achieved glorious results using a simple microphone set-up. It’s the boisterous anonymity of the music itself that might disappoint – everything is beautifully lit but never quite challenging enough, like an exquisitely mounted revival of a second-rate play.
In the informal, conversational notes, Danielpour cites Copland, Shostakovich, Britten, Bartok and Stravinsky as the composers active post-war who have meant the most to him, while it is difficult to imagine his own idiom coalescing (to the extent that it does) without the example of Leonard Bernstein. Inevitably, Danielpour is a more conservative figure than any of these, content to leave innovation (and – it seems – complex rhythmic patterns) to his peers. “I will take an idea that may resemble another composer’s or have the equivalent of a found object to a visual artist, and I’ll kvetch and mull and agonize over it until it no longer resembles the object I have found. Hopefully, it becomes something else.” Hopefully. The first section of Anima mundi is undeniably entertaining and spring-like (Borodin supplies some melodic interest), but when a living composer like John Adams hoves into view, one does begin to worry about the composer-as-alchemist patter.
The production values are truly state-of-the-art and so, in a sense, is the music. Audiophiles should not hesitate.'
In the informal, conversational notes, Danielpour cites Copland, Shostakovich, Britten, Bartok and Stravinsky as the composers active post-war who have meant the most to him, while it is difficult to imagine his own idiom coalescing (to the extent that it does) without the example of Leonard Bernstein. Inevitably, Danielpour is a more conservative figure than any of these, content to leave innovation (and – it seems – complex rhythmic patterns) to his peers. “I will take an idea that may resemble another composer’s or have the equivalent of a found object to a visual artist, and I’ll kvetch and mull and agonize over it until it no longer resembles the object I have found. Hopefully, it becomes something else.” Hopefully. The first section of Anima mundi is undeniably entertaining and spring-like (Borodin supplies some melodic interest), but when a living composer like John Adams hoves into view, one does begin to worry about the composer-as-alchemist patter.
The production values are truly state-of-the-art and so, in a sense, is the music. Audiophiles should not hesitate.'
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