Ricardo Gall n - Guitar Music - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Liszt,F. / Monteiro,Sergio - Liszt Transcriptions Of Symphonic Poems [COMPACT DISCS] date 06/10/2016

Sir John Tavener describes the Lament for Jerusalem as a mystical love song. The Lament brings together Christian, Judaic, and Islamic texts and is sung in Greek and English. The musical structure is that of a lattice whose proportions are carefully designed so that the listener is invited to focus on key points of the text which are themselves supported by transcendental melodic, harmonic, and textural devices. The simplicity of the work's form and it's logical progression through a series of seven linked, self-referential tableaux allow the Lament to grow in power and beauty during it's course. The American composer Steve Reich has described some of his own music as purveying 'a kind of dynamic stasis' and that aptly sums up the effect of Tavener's Lament for Jerusalem. The Lament is rooted in grim tradition, yet it looks longingly into the future to a time when beatific vision is restored, and, as in much of the very greatest art, form and content are inseparable.

Fernando Lopes-Graca was arguably the greatest Portuguese composer of the second half of the 20th century. He absorbed successive stylistic influences, but the core of his musical impulses lay in the folk music of his native country, a feature especially evident in his songs. The originality and complexity of his harmonization, the vivid and communicative beauty of his sets of Christmas songs and the subtlety of his settings of Russian and Hungarian songs illustrate a complete mastery of this aspect of his multifaceted art. This is one in a small series of music by Fernando Lopes-Graca on Naxos. Upon it's initial , this album was a MusicWeb International 'Recording of the Year' Inchhis generous including his impressive Symphony is most welcome and is the best possible introduction to Lopes-Graca's music so far. Both performances and recording are excellent.Inch