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CDs:
· Eddie Marcon
(We liked it and you will too!)
· Alchemist
· Crazy Penis
· Deftones
· The Fruit Bats
· Grand Fatal
· I Am Ghost
· I Am X
· Ian Brown
· Jackson Browne
· The Juan Maclean
· Kristjan Jarvi/Absolute
Ensemble
· Mount Eerie
· New Order
· Pest
· Public Enemy
· The Rolling Blackouts
· The Silvermine Tapes
· Thelonious Monk/Bud
Powell/Horace Silver
Live:
· A Day On The Green
· Cat Empire
· Emiliana Torrini
· Foo Fighters
· Motley Crue
· Okkervil River
· Tim Rogers & The
Temperance Union
· Symphony In The Serengeti
Kristjan
Jarvi/Absolute
Ensemble
Vinao - Arcanum
BIS/Select
Argentina has been no slouch with
20th century classical music,
producing such important
composers as Alberto Ginastera,
tango-master Piazzolla and Lalo
Schifrin, as well as great musicians of the calibre of Barenboim and
Argerich. More recently, through the advocacy of the Kronos Quartet
and his effective St Mark Passion, Osvaldo Golijov has shot to the
forefront of contemporary American composers whilst drawing on an
eclectic series of influences ranging from klezmer to tango and other
Latin musical forms. His exact contemporary Ezequiel Vinao is set to
achieve similar things having already accepted commissions from the
prestigious Juilliard Quartet and the Grammy award-winning vocal
group Chanticleer.
Arcanum - performed by soprano Janet Youngdahl and Jarvi's New
York based Absolute Ensemble (guests at the last Festival) reprogrammes sacred medieval vocal music to great effect
(particularly that of Victoria). Fans of such Eastern European
composers as Part and Vasks should try this one, as should those of
Messiaen (with whom Vinao had studied). The texts which underpin
this effective meditative work draw upon a wide-ranging series of
sources: Virgil, the Bible and other ancient and medieval philosophers
and spiritual writers. Here is a work that spans the centuries in an
effective and effortless manner whilst maintaining the Deuteromedievalist approach that we've come to associate so firmly with Part.
Kristjan Jarvi and his ensemble approach the work with the spiritual
reverence that it deserves, no doubt also reflecting upon the
conductor's own Baltic heritage and his family's (father Neeme and
older brother Paavo) international reputation as interpreters of Tuur,
Part and others. Superbly recorded in SACD format but playable in all
machines, BIS have opened open up yet another area of
contemporary composition to great effect. I certainly hope to hear
more from this obviously gifted composer who is currently at work on
an opera based upon the Arthurian wizard, Merlin - no doubt following
in the footsteps of the Spanish composer Albeniz - sections of which
can be listened to on the net (www.merlintheopera.com).
Brett Allen-Bayes
The latest issue
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