Tan Dun
Out of Peking Opera · Death and Fire · Orchestral Theatre II: Re
Cho-Liang Lin, violin · Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra · Muhai Tang, conductor
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Christopher Rouse
Der gerettete Alberich
Rapture · Violin Concerto
Evelyn Glennie, percussion
Cho-Liang Lin, violin
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Leif Segerstam, conductor
Track listing
6 tracks · 63:42Listen to samples on selected tracks.
Christopher Rouse
- Der gerettete Alberich (1997)for solo percussion and orchestra 26:40
- 1 I. 8:33
- 2 II. 12:02
- 3 III. 6:04
- 4 Rapture (2000) 12:46
- Violin Concerto (1991) 24:16
- 5 I. Barcarola 13:07
- 6 II. Toccata 11:10
About this recording
This CD contains world premiere recordings of three works by Christopher Rouse, one of America's best known and most frequently played composers (Musical America's Composer of the Year 2009). The recording features the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leif Segerstam, as well as percussionist Evelyn Glennie and violinist Cho-Liang Lin.
Completed in 1997, Der gerettete Alberich was commissioned for Evelyn Glennie by a consortium of four major international orchestras. The twenty-two minute fantasy for solo percussion and orchestra postulates the return of Alberich, whose whereabouts are unknown at the end of Wagner's Ring, "so that he might wreak further havoc in what is quite literally the godless world in which Wagner has left us in the final pages of Götterdämmerung."
Rapture, for orchestra, was premièred in 2000 by the Pittsburgh Symphony. The composer writes, "I wished to depict a progression to an ever more blinding ecstasy, but the entire work inhabits a world devoid of darkness - hence the almost complete lack of sustained dissonance. Rapture also is an exercise in gradually increasing tempi; it begins quite slowly but, throughout its... duration proceeds to speed up incrementally until the breakneck tempo of the final moments is reached."
The featured soloist of the Violin Concerto is Cho-Liang Lin, who also premiered the piece at the Aspen Music Festival in 1992. The Baltimore Sun called the Violin Concerto, "a beautiful work, accessible yet challenging," while the Albany Times Union said it "comes close to being the best violin concerto composed in the last 25 years."
Features
Booklet with liner notes in English, German and French
Press
Evelyn Glennie has been presented with few more effective-sounding vehicles for her virtuosity than this entertaining and often extremely rackety pieces... Demonstration-class recording.
BBC Music Magazine *****
Gorgeous sonics top off yet another superb disc of contemporary music that we can only pray will find something like the popularity and general acceptance that it surely deserves.
David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com, March 26 2004, Artistic Quality 10 / Sound Quality 10
The artists
Evelyn Glennie
Evelyn Glennie (b. 1965 in Scotland) graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London at the age of 19, with the piano and percussion as her principal subjects of study. She gave the first ever percussion recital and percussion concerto in the history of the Royal Academy of Music.
Cho-Liang Lin
Taiwanese-American violinist Cho-Liang Lin is lauded the world over for the eloquence of his playing and for the superb musicianship that marks his performances. Renowned for appearances as a soloist with major orchestras, he is also frequently heard in recital and in chamber music. Musical America named Mr. Lin its 'Instrumentalist of the Year' in 2000.
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the first professional symphony orchestra to be founded in the Nordic countries (1882), has grown from a band of 36 players to an orchestra of 102 regular members.