This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.
Notes and Editorial Reviews
The Masterprize Competition was a welcome and timely development, its stated aim to find 'new works for symphony orchestra that are truly original and have the power to communicate and engage a broad range of music-lovers'. Fine sentiments, but does this disc of the six finalists add up to more than a memento of a high-profile event?
Two Poems from Tang is by some distance the most resourceful and accomplished work here; intricate, fastidious and, in the second poem, with a robust humour, it confirms AA's recent endorsement of Zhou Loiw's chamber music (Cala, 3/98). Carl Vine's Descent is as vividly descriptive as its soundtrack origins would suggest, although its often clichècl gestures do not represent this
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composer's flamboyant orchestral style at its most compulsive (for which turn to the first three symphonies (ABC Classics, 10/95). Even so, it has more substance than Stephen Hartke's brash and overcalculated show-piece or, for that matter, Daniele Gasparini's flashy Alice-inspired cameos, complete with 'allusions' of mind-numbing crassness. Victoria Borisova-0llas brings some welcome integrity to her engaging study, its assured technique more than compensating for an (as yet) unfocused idiom. As for the winning entry, Andrew March offers an attractive if diffuse seascape, its sincerity unquestionable.
Performances and recording mirror the allround professionalism of the Masterprize concept. Do buy this disc. It sheds valuable light on the nature of present-day orchestral composition, as well as the wider cultural conditions that can make it happen.
-- Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone [2/1999]
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Works on This Recording
1.
Marine - A Travers les Arbres by Andrew March
Conductor:
Daniel Harding
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Date of Recording: 12/1997
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 11 Minutes 52 Secs.
Notes: This selection won 1st Prize in the International Composition Competition at Barbican Hall, April 7, 1998.
2.
Wings of the Wind by Victoria Borisova-Ollas
Conductor:
Daniel Harding
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Date of Recording: 12/1997
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 10 Minutes 11 Secs.
3.
Through the Looking Glass by Daniele Gasparini
Conductor:
Daniel Harding
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Date of Recording: 12/1997
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 13 Minutes 4 Secs.
4.
The Ascent of the Equestrian in A minor Balloon by Stephen Hartke
Conductor:
Daniel Harding
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Date of Recording: 12/1997
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 10 Minutes 35 Secs.
5.
Descent by Carl Vine
Conductor:
Daniel Harding
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1996; Australia
Date of Recording: 12/1997
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 11 Minutes 48 Secs.
6.
Poems from Tang: Hearing the Monk Xun play the Qin by Zhou Long
Conductor:
Daniel Harding
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Date of Recording: 12/1997
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 6 Minutes 28 Secs.
7.
Poems from Tang: Song of Eight Unruly Tipsy Poets by Zhou Long
Conductor:
Daniel Harding
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Date of Recording: 12/1997
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 6 Minutes 5 Secs.
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