Search - Arturo Stalteri :: Cool August Moon

Wrong Way Up

11/08/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Eno fans are sure to be disappointed with this schmaltzification of Eno's early work. I enjoyed Stalteri's piano interpretations of Philip Glass works (of course, Glass's work is amenable to schmaltzification, being somewhat schmaltzy already) and was looking forward to what he would do with Eno. Unfortunately what he does is take classic Eno pieces and transform them (non-magically) into Broadway show tunes. Imagine Liberace interpreting Eno with a small classical ensemble and you get the picture. Too bad! Cool August Moon, like bang on a can's Music for Airports, approaches Eno's work from the wrong way up (and down): his work is not about writing everything out and performing it "perfectly" (as classical musicians do) but about creating structures that incorporate freedom and personal, idiosyncratic expression. As such it is everything that classical music is not. In fact in many senses Eno's work is a repudiation of Western "Art Music." So it's no surprise when someone classically trained like Stalteri attempts to interpret it: he can only mimic the form, missing the content entirely. One thing would have made this ablum extraordinary, though: if Eno had produced it!"