This concludes my look back at 2015 with the newer new albums -- the ones with new, or at least contemporary, compositions, most by living composers.
1. Soloists/Warsaw Boys' Choir/Warsaw Philharmonic Male Choir/Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra/Antoni Wit Penderecki: Magnificat; Kadisz (Naxos) Naxos' invaluable Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) project continues to bring us conductor Antoni Wit's impeccable renderings of the Polish composer's complex and challenging music, especially excelling in the choral works, as here. One of the longer settings of this text (here nearly 45 minutes), Penderecki's Magnificat (1973-74) is also epic in sound, written in a high-avant style similar to his iconic St. Luke Passion, with extended singing effects (especially long glissandi, but also speaking and whispering), highly disjunctive melodies, extremely dense dissonance, and colorful cluster interjections by the orchestra, especially the winds.
It has a prominent if intermittent role for solo bassist (here Wojtek Gerlach), surprising...
1. Soloists/Warsaw Boys' Choir/Warsaw Philharmonic Male Choir/Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra/Antoni Wit Penderecki: Magnificat; Kadisz (Naxos) Naxos' invaluable Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) project continues to bring us conductor Antoni Wit's impeccable renderings of the Polish composer's complex and challenging music, especially excelling in the choral works, as here. One of the longer settings of this text (here nearly 45 minutes), Penderecki's Magnificat (1973-74) is also epic in sound, written in a high-avant style similar to his iconic St. Luke Passion, with extended singing effects (especially long glissandi, but also speaking and whispering), highly disjunctive melodies, extremely dense dissonance, and colorful cluster interjections by the orchestra, especially the winds.
It has a prominent if intermittent role for solo bassist (here Wojtek Gerlach), surprising...
- 1/12/2016
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Jenny Lin Stravinsky: Solo Piano Works (Steinway) Night Stories: Nocturnes (Hänssler Classic)
Long-time readers may have noted my admiration for Lin's immaculate pianism and eclectic programming. She's been a prolific recording artist as well, with 21 albums to her credit (plus inclusion on a multi-pianist set), and her repertoire is highly eclectic even by modern standards.
She's back with two more brilliant albums, and even on the single-composer disc manages to throw some repertoire curveballs. Guido Agosti's rarely heard arrangements of the last three movements from the Firebird Suite is a dazzling tour-de-force; it works well and Lin's performance sparkles vividly (the outer movements sound like real knuckle-busters).
Stravinsky's transcription of the Prologue from Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov, written for his children, is simple and touching; Lin communicates its quiet emotive power. The fragments of the unfinished sonata he was working on near the end of his life are very brief,...
Long-time readers may have noted my admiration for Lin's immaculate pianism and eclectic programming. She's been a prolific recording artist as well, with 21 albums to her credit (plus inclusion on a multi-pianist set), and her repertoire is highly eclectic even by modern standards.
She's back with two more brilliant albums, and even on the single-composer disc manages to throw some repertoire curveballs. Guido Agosti's rarely heard arrangements of the last three movements from the Firebird Suite is a dazzling tour-de-force; it works well and Lin's performance sparkles vividly (the outer movements sound like real knuckle-busters).
Stravinsky's transcription of the Prologue from Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov, written for his children, is simple and touching; Lin communicates its quiet emotive power. The fragments of the unfinished sonata he was working on near the end of his life are very brief,...
- 7/11/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Tagline: "The dead don't burn." Actor Danny Trejo (Machete) has been starring in a lot of movies lately. His most recent starring role is in Rene Perez's Volcano Zombies. This film was partially shot in the Lassen Volcanic National Park, which is in Northern California. Here, the undead are released when a dormant volcano erupts. The film also stars Tom Downey and Morgan Lester. Volcano Zombies is now in post-production. The film is expected to release in 2014. And now, the first film poster for the film has been released. The graphic shows the undead influences. As well, an early still has been released for the film, which shows actors Danny Trejo and Morgan Lester in fiery peril. More details on the film are below. Release Date: 2014. Director: Rene Perez. Writers: Jeff Miller and Jason Ancona. Cast: Danny Trejo, Tom Downey, Moniqua Plante, Robert F. Lyons, Nicole Cummins, Kevin Norman,...
- 11/27/2013
- by noreply@blogger.com (Michael Allen)
- 28 Days Later Analysis
Yes, you read that headline correctly. One of Danny Trejo's 10,000 upcoming films is called Volcano Zombies, and in it he's set to do battle with zombies... that come out of volcanoes. I trust that you're already completely on board, so check out the first stills and artwork for the film below!
Trejo plays a Native American warrior who knows a little somethin' somethin' about the cursed volcano.
Co-written by Jeff Miller and Jason Ancona and directed by Rene Perez, the Syfy-esque flick also stars Tom Downey, Moniqua Plante, Robert F. Lyons, Nicole Cummins, Kevin Norman, Kyle T. Heffner, Julia Lehman, Tom Nagel and Jenny Lin.
Synopsis
A sheriff and an estranged family must escape not only the impending eruption of what was thought to be a dormant volcano but also a horde of zombies brought to life by the cursed mountain.
Visit The Evilshop @ Amazon!
Got news? Click here to submit it!
Trejo plays a Native American warrior who knows a little somethin' somethin' about the cursed volcano.
Co-written by Jeff Miller and Jason Ancona and directed by Rene Perez, the Syfy-esque flick also stars Tom Downey, Moniqua Plante, Robert F. Lyons, Nicole Cummins, Kevin Norman, Kyle T. Heffner, Julia Lehman, Tom Nagel and Jenny Lin.
Synopsis
A sheriff and an estranged family must escape not only the impending eruption of what was thought to be a dormant volcano but also a horde of zombies brought to life by the cursed mountain.
Visit The Evilshop @ Amazon!
Got news? Click here to submit it!
- 11/26/2013
- by John Squires
- DreadCentral.com
Generally I try to give my genre review roundups a certain breadth, but this time I'm focusing on solo piano recordings, with one exception at the end that's still keyboard-centric.
Jenny Lin: Get Happy (Steinway & Sons)
Looking at the tracklist, one might think this is a jazz album: "Blue Skies," "I Got Rhythm," "Begin the Beguine," "My Favorite Things," etc. The subtitle, though, is "virtuoso show tunes for piano," and all of these are thoroughly notated arrangements, most by classical pianists -- Earl Wild, Alexis Weissenberg, Christopher O'Riley, Stephen Hough, and Marc-Andre Hamelin are among those credited, though from the jazz side Dick Hymen and Cy Walter are also heard from, and Andre Previn goes both ways, musically speaking.
The subtitle is a bit off in one instance, in two senses: as Lin freely admits in the fine interview that makes up the friendly yet informative booklet notes, David...
- 11/26/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Born in Barcelona on April 16, 1893 to a Catalan lawyer and his French wife, Frederic (a.k.a. Federico) Mompou was educated in Paris. Shyness kept him from a career as a pianist, though while at the Paris Conservatory, he studied piano with Isidor Philipp, among whose teachers were Saint-Saëns and Chopin's best student, George Mathias. Though he was initially influenced by Fauré's music, by the time Mompou arrived in Paris, the Impressionists reigned supreme, and that style profoundly shaped his own compositional evolution. (For that matter, Philipp was a friend of Debussy's and often played his piano music.) After a long dry spell as a composer, and the Nazi invasion in 1941, Mompou returned to his native Catalonia (the northeastern-most region of Spain), where he lived for the rest of his long life.
He continued to concentrate on solo piano miniatures, though he also published six song cycles, a couple of choral works,...
He continued to concentrate on solo piano miniatures, though he also published six song cycles, a couple of choral works,...
- 6/30/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Here at Dread Central we're big fans of hot chicks and their boxes, and that's why when word broke of the new indie feature The Pandora Experiment, we immediately were standing at attention.
The film, directed by Mike L. Taylor, stars Michael Dorn, Noah Hathaway, Rachel Federoff, Destin Pfaff, Dave Fearless, Yasmine Yenganeh, Diana Terranova, Christine Nguyen, Jennifer Wenger, Bruna Rubio, Jon Mack, Tammy Klein, Rileah Vanderbilt, Robert Rhine, and Jenny Lin. Again, attention grabbed.
Head on over to the official Pandora Experiment Facebook page for lots and lots of eye candy. And we mean lots.
Synopsis
It's New Year's Eve, and five hot party girls are tearing it up on the Las Vegas Strip. The night goes horribly wrong when they steal a car, take a wrong turn, and find themselves trapped.
They get kidnapped and held against their will in an underground research facility. Held captive, these beauties...
The film, directed by Mike L. Taylor, stars Michael Dorn, Noah Hathaway, Rachel Federoff, Destin Pfaff, Dave Fearless, Yasmine Yenganeh, Diana Terranova, Christine Nguyen, Jennifer Wenger, Bruna Rubio, Jon Mack, Tammy Klein, Rileah Vanderbilt, Robert Rhine, and Jenny Lin. Again, attention grabbed.
Head on over to the official Pandora Experiment Facebook page for lots and lots of eye candy. And we mean lots.
Synopsis
It's New Year's Eve, and five hot party girls are tearing it up on the Las Vegas Strip. The night goes horribly wrong when they steal a car, take a wrong turn, and find themselves trapped.
They get kidnapped and held against their will in an underground research facility. Held captive, these beauties...
- 1/30/2012
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
Here's what I have to say to all the people who bemoan the state of classical music: My classical list is the last one I'm posting (as has often been the case) because there were so many great releases to listen to that I didn't finish until now.
I want to once again admit the biases operating in my best-of-the-year classical lists: I am most interested in the piano, choral, and symphonic literatures. I’m happy to listen to other things when they come my way, but those are what I seek out, vastly tipping the balance in their favor (tipping the balance against opera is the increasing disinclination of record companies to send promos for new opera recordings unless one specifically asks -- and even that is no guarantee). Also note: no reissues or compilations here. That disqualified even the first box-set appearance of David Zinman's fine Mahler cycle,...
I want to once again admit the biases operating in my best-of-the-year classical lists: I am most interested in the piano, choral, and symphonic literatures. I’m happy to listen to other things when they come my way, but those are what I seek out, vastly tipping the balance in their favor (tipping the balance against opera is the increasing disinclination of record companies to send promos for new opera recordings unless one specifically asks -- and even that is no guarantee). Also note: no reissues or compilations here. That disqualified even the first box-set appearance of David Zinman's fine Mahler cycle,...
- 1/5/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Plastic Paper is Winnipeg’s celebration of animation, illustration and puppet films, organized by the Big Smash! filmmaking collective. Their second annual event will be held on May 4-8 at the Park Theatre.
The big score for this year’s edition is a special screening of Ralph Bakshi’s 1981 feature-length musical opus American Pop with the filmmaker in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. For this groundbreaking work, Bakshi utilized the innovative technique of mixing rotoscoping, water colors, computer graphics, live action shots, and archival footage. This screening and discussion will be a real treat for animation junkies.
But that’s not to say that the rest of the festival isn’t also filled with other amazing films.
Because, speaking of groundbreaking work, the fest kicks off with Brent Green’s simply astounding film Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then, the first full-length film utilizing real-life actors in amazing stop-motion animation.
The big score for this year’s edition is a special screening of Ralph Bakshi’s 1981 feature-length musical opus American Pop with the filmmaker in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. For this groundbreaking work, Bakshi utilized the innovative technique of mixing rotoscoping, water colors, computer graphics, live action shots, and archival footage. This screening and discussion will be a real treat for animation junkies.
But that’s not to say that the rest of the festival isn’t also filled with other amazing films.
Because, speaking of groundbreaking work, the fest kicks off with Brent Green’s simply astounding film Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then, the first full-length film utilizing real-life actors in amazing stop-motion animation.
- 4/30/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Silent Music: Jenny Lin Plays Mompou (Steinway & Sons)
This is Mompou’s complete Música Callada plus the very compatible bonus track of “Secreto” from Impresiones intimas. Federico Mompou (1893-1987) was a Spanish composer (half French, half Catalan) who spent many years living in Paris and was part of the same scene as Poulenc, Milhaud, and others between the World Wars. He was basically a miniaturist Impressionist whose main concern was with piano sonority, with influences of Chopin, Satie, Scriabin, and some contemporaries filtered through Mompou’s highly distinctive personal style, the fully mature epitome of which is Música Callada.
read more...
This is Mompou’s complete Música Callada plus the very compatible bonus track of “Secreto” from Impresiones intimas. Federico Mompou (1893-1987) was a Spanish composer (half French, half Catalan) who spent many years living in Paris and was part of the same scene as Poulenc, Milhaud, and others between the World Wars. He was basically a miniaturist Impressionist whose main concern was with piano sonority, with influences of Chopin, Satie, Scriabin, and some contemporaries filtered through Mompou’s highly distinctive personal style, the fully mature epitome of which is Música Callada.
read more...
- 4/23/2011
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
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