This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.
Notes and Editorial Reviews
Nagano is the ideal Varèse conductor, able to combine a wonderful rhythmic and structural precision with sensual treatment of melodic line and orchestral colour. This disc is the first of a complete survey of Varèse’s work which looks all set to be definitive. The five works included here begin the chronological pilgrimage in 1920 – virtually everything Varèse composed before his arrival in the USA from Paris in 1918 was destroyed. If Amériques is the celebration of the New World that he completed on his arrival – with due acknowledgement to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring – then by the vocal Offrandes and especially Hyperprism and Octandre he was beginning to carve out the niche in modernism that proved to be so
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influential in subsequent generations of composers. In an extraordinary work like Arcana, scored for an orchestra of 120, Varèse’s concept of form, his use of musical objects that revolve and re-order themselves in musical, space, seems utterly new. It is a tribute to Nagano’s control and the playing of the orchestra that the originality and raw power of these works are made so palpable and dramatically potent. Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)
-- Andrew Clements, BBC Music Magazine
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Works on This Recording
1.
Offrandes by Edgard Varèse
Performer:
Phyllis Bryn-Julson (Soprano)
Conductor:
Kent Nagano
Orchestra/Ensemble:
ORTF National Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1921; New York, USA
Venue: Radio France, Paris, France
Length: 7 Minutes 31 Secs.
Language: French
2.
Octandre by Edgard Varèse
Conductor:
Kent Nagano
Orchestra/Ensemble:
ORTF National Orchestra
Written: 1923
Venue: Radio France, Paris, France
Length: 6 Minutes 55 Secs.
3.
Amériques by Edgard Varèse
Conductor:
Kent Nagano
Orchestra/Ensemble:
ORTF National Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: ?1918-21; USA
Venue: Radio France, Paris, France
Length: 23 Minutes 26 Secs.
4.
Hyperprism by Edgard Varèse
Conductor:
Kent Nagano
Orchestra/Ensemble:
ORTF National Orchestra
Written: 1922-3
Venue: Radio France, Paris, France
Length: 3 Minutes 54 Secs.
5.
Arcana by Edgard Varèse
Conductor:
Kent Nagano
Orchestra/Ensemble:
ORTF National Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1925-1927; USA
Venue: Radio France, Paris, France
Length: 18 Minutes 27 Secs.
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