Volans Works for Wind Ensemble
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Kevin Volans
Label: New Direction
Magazine Review Date: 1/1998
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 59
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CHAN9563
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| This is How it is |
Kevin Volans, Composer
Kevin Volans, Composer Netherlands Wind Ensemble Wim Steinmann, Conductor |
| Walking Song |
Kevin Volans, Composer
Kevin Volans, Composer Netherlands Wind Ensemble |
| Leaping Dance |
Kevin Volans, Composer
Kevin Volans, Composer Netherlands Wind Ensemble Wim Steinmann, Conductor |
| Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments |
Kevin Volans, Composer
Daniel Harding, Conductor Kevin Volans, Composer Netherlands Wind Ensemble Peter Donohoe, Piano |
| Untitled (In memoriam G.H.V.) |
Kevin Volans, Composer
Kevin Volans, Harpsichord Kevin Volans, Composer Netherlands Wind Ensemble Wim Steinmann, Conductor |
Author: mharry
In his booklet-text for this CD Kevin Volans describes how he is interested in creating a “hand-made quality” to a piece, a quality which he writes is “notable by its absence in minimalism”. Certainly this is a very apt description of how his music differs from the works of, say, Steve Reich and John Adams.
Whereas exact symmetry conditions the whole expressive world of Reich’sTehillim, often Volans will end a piece with new material in such a way that the listener is left hanging (as at the end of Leaping Dance and Untitled), waiting for a sense of closure that never comes; and unlike John Adams, who synthesizes the vernacular elements of American music seamlessly into his recent symphonic works, the vernacular African elements on this disc are presented almost raw, giving them a poignancy peculiar to Volans’s music.
At his best Volans can create a sound that is arrestingly beautiful and sustain interest in the way it is developed for the whole of the piece. For this reason Walking Song, Leaping Dance and Untitled are the pieces to listen to first, for they communicate their ideas with a rare combination of directness and sophistication. But I was surprised that This is How it is was placed at the start of the CD as it seems to me by far the weakest piece and, although the Concerto for piano and wind instruments has many striking textures, I for one will have to reserve judgement on whether it sustains them effectively throughout. Despite a remarkably sensitive performance of the piano part by Peter Donohoe, the Concerto’s frequent references to the slow wind chords from Stravinsky’sSymphony of Wind Instruments inevitably lead to a loss of musical tension.
Nevertheless, there is much to entrance the listener here, played with all the commitment and textural sensitivity that we have now come to expect from the Netherlands Wind Ensemble. Anyone who has fallen under the spell ofWhite Man Sleeps should definitely consider buying this disc.'
Whereas exact symmetry conditions the whole expressive world of Reich’s
At his best Volans can create a sound that is arrestingly beautiful and sustain interest in the way it is developed for the whole of the piece. For this reason Walking Song, Leaping Dance and Untitled are the pieces to listen to first, for they communicate their ideas with a rare combination of directness and sophistication. But I was surprised that This is How it is was placed at the start of the CD as it seems to me by far the weakest piece and, although the Concerto for piano and wind instruments has many striking textures, I for one will have to reserve judgement on whether it sustains them effectively throughout. Despite a remarkably sensitive performance of the piano part by Peter Donohoe, the Concerto’s frequent references to the slow wind chords from Stravinsky’s
Nevertheless, there is much to entrance the listener here, played with all the commitment and textural sensitivity that we have now come to expect from the Netherlands Wind Ensemble. Anyone who has fallen under the spell of
Volans Works for Wind Ensemble
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