| Review by Dinko January 5, 2004 (5 of 5 found this review helpful)
|
Performance:  Sonics: |
Griffelkin the little devil comes of age and turns ten years old. Time for the little devil to begin making mischief. He is sent to the real world and brings statues alive, before meeting a girl whose mother is ill. After some wild chases and other devilish events, Griffelkin cures the mother and is sent back to hell where he is put on trial for that one good deed. Griffelkin is sentenced to be made human and sent to our world where he is adopted by the family he helped.
It's all told in lovely poetry (libretto by Alastair Reid). The music is a cross between a Broadway musical and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. It's full of great tunes, cartoon-like scoring, and many, many memorable moments.
It's splendidly sung and played by the cast, chorus and musicians. Conductor Gil Rose keeps everything together.
Sonically, this disc as good as it can get. Orchestral instruments are reproduced with very high fidelity. The soloists are kept in front of the orchestra but not too far upfront. The chorus is superbly mixed. Instrumental detail is always preserved. Louder orchestral and choral outbursts are very well reproduced. There is a sense of very natural dynamics. It's as if the engineers placed their microphones and then let the performers handle the music's contrasts - as opposed to the engineers constantly playing around to adjust various levels to make them louder or softer.
|
Was this review helpful to you?
yes |
no
|
|
