“A completely different orchestral arrangement. Really massive, really powerful sounding stuff.”
Viewing entries tagged
NPR
“The music of Wye Oak with the gorgeous voice of Jenn Wasner... it’s a massive variation, a new symphonic retelling.”
“Finally, we get a recording of Andres' piano concerto, The Blind Banister, shortlisted for a Pulitzer in 2016, with the composer at the keys. That the album contains the cinematic cello concerto Upstate Obscura, with Inbal Segev, makes it worth the wait.”
Monte Belmonte and Kaliis Smith, hosts of The Fabulous 413 podcast on NPR, chat with Caroline Rose ahead of their two-night residency with Metropolis Ensemble at BOMBYX.
“In A Grove” composer Christopher Cerrone and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann recently spoke with Dave Lake at WRUU in Savannah.
Schooled in the classics, Vivian Fung writes music that speaks to the experiences of 21st-century audiences. "I feel like this is my role, she says, whether composing for orchestra, or other ensembles. "It has to be of our time. "
With this collaboration between Nonesuch Records and New Amsterdam, walls of genre are broken down as sounds morph and blend throughout Spiritual America.
Home Stretch is a gentle gondola ride through five lovely Eno songs ... a clever, lovingly orchestrated homage in the time-honored spirit of Franz Liszt.
Dreamscapes is magnificent with virtuosic performances… a spectacular sounding disc… by one of today’s most eclectic composers.
“Thought-provoking glimpses into how the past and the present merge in classical music today.”
“Played with precision and heart by the Metropolis Ensemble” -National Public RadioDreamscapes, the new Naxos album from Metropolis Ensemble featuring the works of Vivian Fung, is receiving high praise in the media. Here is a roundup of the reviews and commentary on the recording. NPR’s Bob McQuiston lauds the new album on the Deceptive Cadence blog:
“The new album Dreamscapes… features works by one of today’s most eclectic composers, Canadian-born Vivian Fung. John Cage fans will love her solo pieces for prepared piano, while traditionalists should find intriguing the concertos for violin and piano… Violinist Kristin Lee’s performance is not only technically brilliant but her sensitive phrasing and pacing endow the music with both an emotional and intellectual appeal… Pianist Conor Hanick’s performance is laudable for its agility… Both soloists receive magnificent support from conductor Andrew Cyr and the Brooklyn-based Metropolis Ensemble, whose members not only turn in virtuosic performances, but follow their extracurricular instructions to the letter. Also, the recording engineers get a big gold star for a spectacular sounding disc.”
Both local classical stations in New York City have included the new album in recent broadcasts. John Schaefer featured the recordings with its “clear inspiration or influence from Indonesian gamelan music” on
.
And Olivia Giovetti introduced the album on
with the following review:
Two concertos dominate Dreamscapes, Vivian Fung’s new album on Naxos’s Canadian Classics series, and both demonstrate Fung’s prepossessing predilection for cross-cultural conversations. Her own Violin Concerto was written with a symbiosis similar to that of Salonen and Josefowicz’s, responding to Fung’s time spent in Bali with violinist Kristin Lee (the violin often resembles the Balinese gamelan). The Metropolis Ensemble, under Andrew Cyr, gave Fung’s Violin Concerto its world premiere last year and returns here for the recording, which also features Fung’s Piano Concerto, “Dreamscapes.” The study of contrasts is apt for an instrument that can juggle two musical lines at once, and here that honor falls to Q2 Music’s own Conor Hanick.“
Joshua Kosman from the
hails the album and its "welcome lyricism and grace.”
“The scales and rhythms of Balinese and Javanese gamelan suffuse the three pieces represented here… Yet the further Fung strays from that stylistic foundation, the more fascinating and rewarding her music becomes… The year-old Violin Concerto that leads off the disc boasts a certain winsome charm, especially in the fluid performance of soloist Kristin Lee… the final Piano Concerto, in a powerhouse rendition featuring soloist Conor Hanick. Here at last is music of dramatic urgency and depth, in which Fung draws on ideas from gamelan while also adding plenty of her own original material – clangorous, dissonant harmonies, off-kilter rhythms and a sense of wild unpredictability.”
David Patrick Stearns from the
suggests that with the
Violin Concerto
, "Fung is in her own more intimate, often pensive, but frequently playful sound world, which indeed lives up to the album’s title… At every point in the disc, Fung has a strong sense of thematic control and structural overview that suggests more great things to come.” David Olds from
praises the release saying “the disc lives up to my expectations.”
“All three of the works presented here are based on gamelan motifs and melodies giving the disc a wonderful continuity… Like a number of composers before her Fung has taken inspiration from her own travels to Indonesia and truly made this music her own.”
Finally, credits roll over a sublime string quartet, mercifully for Black Thought's black thoughts — at least for a moment, before ?uestlove's meticulously arranged strings are silenced by the chilling, deathly growl of a struck piano.
Metropolis Ensemble presents a seductive vision of classical music’s future: young violin virtuosos and guys in jeans playing pieces on laptops.
Hallucinations is being recorded this week at LPR by Q2, the online station of WQXR.
Michael Barone of KSJN Minneapolis on Avner Dorman’s Concertos:
“Intrigued by Baroque music since childhood, Dorman has created a collection of ‘modern’ pieces imbued with the formal clarity and rhythmic energy of 18th century music. Make no mistake, these pieces sound 'new’, but they also sound fresh and friendly, and surprisingly 'original’, despite the obvious derivations. Performances are breathtakingly fine, and if you pass by this album you’re missing out on a disarmingly satisfying production. Go for it!”
Listen to the broadcast:
Sterling Beeaff named Avner Dorman’s Concertos the CD of the Week on KBAQ Phoenix, hailing the recording as “new and delightful… a guilty pleasure… a journey of light and color… and a generous doorway into something new.” Listen to the broadcast:
Hear the Metropolis Ensemble and Deerhoof perform a concert from the Wordless Music Series, recorded live by WNYC at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY. Listen on NPR.org starting at 7:30pm EST. An hourlong special about the Wordless Music Series begins at 6:30pm. Tonight’s webcast is produced by WNYC and hosted by David Garland.
Wordless Music Series pairs Metropolis Ensemble led by Artistic Director/Conductor Andrew Cyr and indie sensation Deerhoof for a night of music under the stars. Experience The Rite: Remixed and Two-Part Belief with an expected audience of 10,000 at Celebrate Brooklyn. Featuring soprano Hila Plitmann.
Join us in Prospect Park - either in person or online - for a night of music under the stars!