Ensemble InterContemporain

Harrison Birtwistle: Secret Theater / Tragoedia / Five Distances / Three Settings of Celan - Pierre Boulez / Ensemble InterContemporain

Pierre Boulez, Christine Whittlesey, Ensemble InterContemporain
Harrison Birtwistle: Secret Theater / Tragoedia / Five Distances / Three Settings of Celan - Pierre Boulez / Ensemble InterContemporain
Genres: Pop, Classical

Track Listings (13) - Disc #1
1. TRAGOEDIA: Tragoedia; I. Prologue
2. TRAGOEDIA: II. Parados
3. TRAGOEDIA: III. Episodion: Strophe I -- Anapaest I
4. TRAGOEDIA: IV. Antistrophe I
5. TRAGOEDIA: V. Stasimon
6. TRAGOEDIA: VI. Episodion: Strophe II -- Anapaest II
7. TRAGOEDIA: VII. Antistrophe II
8. TRAGOEDIA: VIII. Exodos
9. FIVE DISTANCES: Five Distances for Five Instruments
10. THREE SETTINGS OF CELAN: Three Settings of Celan for Soprano and Five Instruments; I. White and Light
11. THREE SETTINGS OF CELAN: II. Night
12. THREE SETTINGS OF CELAN: III. Tenebrae
13. SECRET THEATER: Secret Theatre

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CD Details

All Artists: Pierre Boulez, Christine Whittlesey, Ensemble InterContemporain
Title: Harrison Birtwistle: Secret Theater / Tragoedia / Five Distances / Three Settings of Celan - Pierre Boulez / Ensemble InterContemporain
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: 3/12/1996
Genres: Pop, Classical
Styles: Vocal Pop, Opera & Classical Vocal, Chamber Music
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 028943991025

Synopsis

Amazon.com

A good performance of Birtwistle's Tragoedia for chamber ensemble should be shocking, bristling, hair-raising; Pierre Boulez and the Ensemble InterContemporain perform here as if they're in an elegant 19th-century salon. Everything's in tune, but there's no passion: it's almost breezy. Boulez is more comfortable with the exquisite, transparent moments in the score, which are played beautifully; but that's only one side of the fascinating British composer. Three other works are on the disc, including Secret Theatre and settings of poet Paul Celan. --Joshua Cody

CD Reviews

Great Birtwistle's chamber music in a marvellous recording.

Francisco Yanez Calvino | Santiago de Compostela, GALIZA, Spain. | 11/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Pierre Boulez long relation with the music of Harrison Birtwistle comes from the very early times of the Ensemble Intercontemporain as can be heard in this CD in all its splendour, even if this is a chamber CD of very little and concentrated pieces.

The instrumental playing is very "boulezian", clear and precise, making Birtwistle music much more continental, as he is, together with Ferneyhough the most "european" british composer.

I know another very good recording of Secret Theater, by MusikFabirk with Johannes Kalitzke, recorded by CPO, a bit more "modern" in style than this. Both are wonderful recordings.

The recording is very good, very clear and perfect for chamber's music.

This CD is now out of DG's catalogue, but you can buy it in a double CD released by Decca with Birtwistle's music, No. 468 804-2 , together with Panic & Earth Dances by the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Dohnanyi, a great CD too.

"