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Well, I just received this "Shakespeare Cantata" in last night's mail. Put it on the upstairs stereo system while preparing supper. A few minutes later my wife cleared off the recliner and told me to kick back. She said she wanted me to really listen carefully to this for a few minutes.
I did.
The sound is superb!
The performance, however, is something else - not superb - consistently flat sopranos in the chorus, mediocre orchestra, barely competent pianist.
The music?? I should have paid more attention to ONE sentence in Geohominid's review. He did say something about "contemporary fusion". I wish he had said this title was misclassified - for this cliche ridden (no wonder it was completed in just four days) insipid mess certainly is nothing I would list under "classical", despite its claim to be an "oratorio".
If you like George Winston, maybe, just maybe, you will like this.
Buyer beware!
During dinner my wife and I had a little discussion about how expensive SACDs are and about the risks of purchasing music I do not know - she suggests that more satisfactory results would arise from reading at least two reviews of any disc of unknown music prior to purchase!
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Windsurfer said:
Well, I just received this "Shakespeare Cantata" in last night's mail. Put it on the upstairs stereo system while preparing supper. A few minutes later my wife cleared off the recliner and told me to kick back. She said she wanted me to really listen carefully to this for a few minutes.
I did.
The sound is superb!
The performance, however, is something else - not superb - consistently flat sopranos in the chorus, mediocre orchestra, barely competent pianist.
The music?? I should have paid more attention to ONE sentence in Geohominid's review. He did say something about "contemporary fusion". I wish he had said this title was misclassified - for this cliche ridden (no wonder it was completed in just four days) insipid mess certainly is nothing I would list under "classical", despite its claim to be an "oratorio".
If you like George Winston, maybe, just maybe, you will like this.
Buyer beware!
During dinner my wife and I had a little discussion about how expensive SACDs are and about the risks of purchasing music I do not know - she suggests that more satisfactory results would arise from reading at least two reviews of any disc of unknown music prior to purchase!
Windsurfer,
I'm sorry to hear that My Rose was not to yours and your wife's taste; of course that's the nature of the game. My listening experience was clearly very different, and I have continued to enjoy and be moved by the music and its performance, as have a number of my friends. I did try and make clear the context of this recording in my review, that these were non-professional performers (for whom Dobrogosz prefers to compose). Maybe I'm not blessed with perfect pitch, but for me the performers caused no distress but rather admiration for their efforts. I hadn't expected to be wholly sympathetic to the "fusion" style either, but was won over. Surely the amount of time said to be involved in its composition (which may have included a great deal more time of brain-work in thinking and research) is not a fair measure of its relative merit; one thinks of many great composers who produced even masterpieces in shorter times, and there is always the image of Rossini passing pages through the window to his copyist in order to mount an opera on time... It's a funny old world.
Regards, John
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Geohominid said:
Windsurfer,
I'm sorry to hear that My Rose was not to yours and your wife's taste; of course that's the nature of the game.
Regards, John
John,
I just wish I had read ALL of your review more carefully. Your enthusiasm was infectious. I didn't get very far beyond that to consider what "contemporary fusion" might actually refer to. I did expect to hear something on a level with, but not an imitation of Leonard Bernstein's masterpieces - and that I certainly did not!
The word "Oratorio" probably mislead my expectation as much as anything. I really do think the title is misplaced and does not deserve to be listed under that pretty much undefinable term "classical music". In other words, if you disagree, there isn't any definition I think would exclude "My Rose" but it just seemed to me to be quite something else, sincerity of the composer notwithstanding.
The bass-baritone folk artist Gordon Bok wrote something titled "Another Land Made of Water" available once on a Folk Legacy LP. I suggested to my wife that "My Rose" was in that category, to which she replied, Oh no, it isn't - Gordon Bok's music is far more original, not in the least cliche ridden like this thing. (What both have in common is performance by non-professionals who sing in chest tones and are not especially careful of pitch.)
Part of the reason I was hot to purchase this particular item was as, I said, your enthusiasm - I have on a great many occasions found your reviews to be "spot on" with respect to my own preferences.
My attitude could be characterized as: "If Geohomind likes it, it must be really fine" Now I will look a little more carefully at what I propose to purchase.
Yesterday, I listened again to part of the first disc of My Rose, as much as I could tolerate - then turned to the 3rd movement of Rilling's Hanssler recording of Britten's "War Requiem". Now THAT is a masterpiece!
Best regards,
Bruce
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