Sergio Sorrentino: Dream
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Christian Wolff, Jack Vees, John Cage, David Lang, Van Steifel, Larry Polansky, Morton Feldman, Alvin Curran, Elliott Sharp
Genre:
Instrumental
Label: Mode Records
Magazine Review Date: 04/2019
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 67
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: MODE301
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Dream |
John Cage, Composer
John Cage, Composer Sergio Sorrentino, Electric guitar |
Warmth |
David Lang, Composer
David Lang, Composer Sergio Sorrentino, Electric guitar |
Alpha Aloha |
Jack Vees, Composer
Jack Vees, Composer Sergio Sorrentino, Electric guitar |
Mare Undarum |
Elliott Sharp, Composer
Elliott Sharp, Composer Sergio Sorrentino, Electric guitar |
Rose of Beans |
Alvin Curran, Composer
Alvin Curran, Composer Sergio Sorrentino, Electric guitar |
The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar |
Morton Feldman, Composer
Morton Feldman, Composer Sergio Sorrentino, Electric guitar |
Going West |
Christian Wolff, Composer
Christian Wolff, Composer Sergio Sorrentino, Electric guitar |
An Unhappy Set of Coincidences |
Larry Polansky, Composer
Larry Polansky, Composer Sergio Sorrentino, Electric guitar |
Urutora-man |
Van Steifel, Composer
Sergio Sorrentino, Electric guitar Van Steifel, Composer |
Another Possibility |
Christian Wolff, Composer
Christian Wolff, Composer Sergio Sorrentino, Electric guitar |
Author: Guy Rickards
His programme showcases his instrument’s expressive capabilities and limitations, however, not least in his precise transcription of Cage’s Dream (1948). Lacking the piano’s depth of tone, lines meander rather than soar; likewise in Alvin Curran’s Rose of Beans (1997). Jack Vees’s Alpha Aloha varies the palette with electronic processing through digital filters while David Lang’s Warmth (2006) adds a second guitar – multitracked by Sorrentino – but the instrument’s muddy tone makes it trickier to follow the musical argument than with, say, a pair of violins. Larry Polansky’s An Unhappy Set of Circumstances (1980) for electric guitar and bass, also multitracked here, is more successful.
Elliot Sharp’s quasi-improvisatory Mare Undarum uses a ‘prepared guitar’ using a bottleneck, Blu tack, chopsticks and some advanced playing techniques. It and Van Stiefel’s gentle Urutora-man are the pick of the programme, consistently interesting musically. For many, the main attraction will be Feldman’s lost The Possibility of a New Work for Guitar (1966), given here in Seth Josel’s recent reconstruction. Originally composed for Christian Wolff to be played in ‘a kind of table-top position’, it is fascinating to compare this experimental curiosity with Wolff’s own Another Possibility (2004) and rather denser Going West (2013, for Larry Polansky).
If none of these are quite the masterpieces Sorrentino claims in his booklet notes, there is much of interest. Overall, it is hard to escape the feeling that this is a sampler rather than a real recital. What no one should doubt is the virtuosity of Sorrentino’s playing. Mode’s sound is very clear and precise, as it needs to be!
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