Search - Stravinsky, Gesualdo, Marlow :: Mass / Responsoria

Mass / Responsoria
Stravinsky, Gesualdo, Marlow
Mass / Responsoria
Genre: Classical
 
Sixteenth-century Gesualdo and 20th-century Stravinsky? What are they doing together on the same disc? Each composer's "uncompromising modernism" and position at the "forefront of the avant-garde" bring the two into a kind...  more »

     

CD Details

All Artists: Stravinsky, Gesualdo, Marlow
Title: Mass / Responsoria
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Conifer
Release Date: 6/13/1995
Genre: Classical
Style: Opera & Classical Vocal
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 756055123224

Synopsis

Amazon.com
Sixteenth-century Gesualdo and 20th-century Stravinsky? What are they doing together on the same disc? Each composer's "uncompromising modernism" and position at the "forefront of the avant-garde" bring the two into a kind of cross-generational alignment. But the truth is that Stravinsky found something personally appealing both in Gesualdo's staunch individualism and in the unique sound of his music, which owed much to its startling harmonies and unorthodox chromatic effects. Stravinsky championed Gesualdo's music, expressing concern that this "academically unrespectable composer" and his work needed to be saved from musicologists. The Choir of Trinity College offers an amazingly effective musical and historical juxtaposition, allowing us to hear an uncanny connection between two religious works physically separated by 300 years, but seeming to have emerged from a common spiritual source --David Vernier

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CD Reviews

Bridge between old and new devotional music.
B. Marold | Bethlehem, PA United States | 05/30/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This 1948 'Mass' by Igor Stravinsky and the 1611 Responsoria - Sabbato Sancto' by nobleman Italian composer, Carlo Gesualdo seems, on the face of it, a very odd juxtaposition by the producers of the label, Conifer Classics. It turns out that the modern Stravinsky, especially while he was in his 'classical' period, had a great affection for this Renassiance 'outsider' whose music was not given the appreciation it deserved in his own time.



For my part, I am reminded of how surprisingly uniform sacred choral music can be over the years. While Stravinsky's voices have a strong similarity to some modern choral classics by, for example Gyorgi Ligeti (See '2001' sound track), they are also strongly similar to voices performing music over 400 years old.



Another interesting aspect of Stravinsky's pieces is the inclusion of instruments to accompany the parts of the mass, in spite of the fact that Stravinsky was a practicing Russian Orthodox Christian, those who forbade instruments from liturgical music.



A very interesting little corner of musical history."