Posted in reseña, tagged music, reseña, Sufjan Stevens on December 27, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Sufjan Stevens and his toss-off-an-album-for-each-of-the-fifty-American-states gambit is like collecting stamps, baseball cards, fountain pens, or—say—old beer bottles. From a distance, you say ‘Oh, yuck!’ if in fact you get close enough to the enterprise to say anything at all.
Then, in an unexpected moment, the sheer methodical, meticulous glory of it dawns on you like an epiphany. After that you pity the people who don’t. (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged music, reseña, The Klezmatics on December 26, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Calling all CD file clerks, including the one this reviewer doubles as when he puts away his cds on their shiny little stands (bought cheap at Target and hastily assembled by the reviewer and file clerk): where the heck do you file music by the oddball, fast-paced, old-new, traditional-iconoclast, Yiddish-English makers of this hilariously titled albums like this one (Rhythm + Jews) and Jews with Horns? (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged Bob Dylan, music, reseña on December 26, 2007| Leave a Comment »
From this considerable distance, ‘masterpiece’ begins to seem an unexaggerated assessment of Dylan’s 1966 double-album, now conveniently remastered and available on CD.
More than a whiff of the child genius is to be discerned in the brilliantly erratic lyrics of these tracks. One wonders how much winking was going on in the shadows as listeners sought profound mysteries in lines that are simply gorgeous for their semi-random articulateness. At this early stage, Dylan played as much, perhaps, with words as with ideas. (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged film, Jason Bourne, Matt Damon, reseña on December 26, 2007| Leave a Comment »
My 19-year-old son doesn’t go for trends and obsessions. So, when home from college on this Christmas break, he agrees to spend two hours with us around the second of his preferred triad of films, we seize the moment by its skinny little cinematic throat.
Two hours later … Wow! (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged music, reseña, Third Day on December 24, 2007| Leave a Comment »
I suppose the best evidence of how I view this album would be to confess that I’ve sat here through the morning with tears on my cheeks as I absorb the potency of its tribute, truly a well-rendered offering.
Third Day, a band of gravelly-voiced, southern-fried rockers in alignment with their Maker offer up a slough of worship songs possessed of an edgy sweetness. (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged Alison Krauss, music, reseña, Robert Plant on December 8, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Full product information for this item, together with my review, my rating of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.
Good grief, the monster stole the maiden and there’s no time left in the movie for rescuing maidens!
But listen to the music they make … (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged Berliner Philharmoniker, Maurice Ravel, music, Pierre Boulez, reseña on December 2, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Full product information for this item, together with my review, my rating of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.
I remember reading years ago of some brain surgeons–maybe they were cardiac surgeons, the important thing is that they knew–who customarily piped Maurice Ravel’s Boléro into the operating room for the calming effect of its rhythmic regularity. (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged film music, music, reseña on November 28, 2007| Leave a Comment »
One wonders what people will say about John Williams in the year 2050. The man just keeps producing scores that, if it were possible, surpass the prior one in elegance, emotional weight, and sheer, gorgeous, spellbinding beauty.
Gushing?
I don’t think so. Listen to this soundtrack before you conclude that this reviewer has gone out-of-his-mind starry. (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged classical music, Johannes Wildner, music, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, reseña, Robert Schumann on November 28, 2007| Leave a Comment »
The six-note motif that introduces Robert Schumann’s Overture (later Scherzo and Finale), Op. 52 is the calling card of a formidable Romantic composer. In the main, the Schumann pieces included in this anthology of his overtures make due on the promise put down by those first six notes.
The Overture to Genoveva is as evocative as the tale its opera tells. The overtures to ‘Bride of Messina’, ‘Julius Caesar’, ‘Hermann and Dorothea’, ‘Faust’, and ‘Manfred’ are all beautifully performed on this 1992 Naxos recording by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Johannes Wildner.
The market for operatic overtures is not huge. Naxos has done us a service with this serviceable presentation.
Posted in reseña, tagged Darlene Zschech, Hillsong, music, reseña, worship, worship music on November 23, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Nobody does high-energy, emotionally exuberant musical praise like Australia’s Hillsong. This reviewer is happy to leave the debate about whether Hillsong is a church or a production company to those closer to the ground. Meanwhile, I’ll enjoy the music. (more…)
Canter Bridge 