skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Glance at the retouched CD sleeve above from EMI's new budget priced American Classics series. What is the music? - Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite or, perhaps, Copland's Rodeo or Billy the Kid? No, as the original sleeve below shows, it is three masterpieces from that most cerebral of composers, Elliott Carter.
The marketing trick of 'every cover picture tells a different story to the music' has been around since the dawn of the LP age. It continues today, in the twilight of the CD era, with, for example, the excellent Warner Apex budget reissues of Boulez resorting to soft focus library images of flowers. But if the cover image doesn't affect sales why not use typography, as HatHut do with their [now]Art label? And if it does affect sales why couple an easy on the eye photo of the Grand Canyon with an excellent CD containing what a perceptive sleeve note by Martin Cotton calls 'a tough listen'.
Connecting with new audiences for contemporary music is quite rightly a pre-occupation on the blogs and elsewhere. But how many floating listeners will buy this £8 CD expecting to hear contemporary music's Grand Canyon Suite, only to feel misled by the visual 'recommendation'? Isn't it better to manage expectations than flatter to deceive? In today's credit crunch markets cost is the excuse that covers all manner of sins. Yes, library images are cheap. But so is the creative use of typography or royalty free deals (as are used so aggressively by the record companies for the music itself) with ambitious young artists and photographers. Independent label Soli deo Gloria shows how it can be done with their attention-grabbing covers using the powerful photos of Steve McCurry.
Surely a new series celebrating the music of America, that most graphic of countries, just cries out for contemporary graphics? Coverless MP3 downloads may be the new wave, but not yet in the budget market where these American Classics CDs are over-the-counter impulse buys. Low priced re-releases like this are an important vehicle for expanding the market for new music, and as Alan Rich explains in his excellent book Music - Mirror of the Arts the visual arts are a powerful tool for making contemporary music accessible.
'The listener who feels out of touch with some of today's musical developments can, beyond any question, enhance his understanding of this music by observing contemporary developments in painting, sculpture and architecture. For the separate arts do not exist in isolation. Together they provide a key to the prevailing creative impulses of their time: a firsthand report, worded directly from the inner consciousness of the creators themselves. Together they form a body which draws upon the spirit of the time, each in its own way. Together they attest strongly to the integrity of the whole of artistic creation.'
The feeble imagery on this EMI re-issue is the greater pity because the music and performances are so good and the price is so affordable. If you don't have Carter's Concerto for Orchestra, Violin Concerto and Ives influenced Three Occasions for Orchestra in your collection this is a 'must buy'. If you have the works but not these performances by Oliver Knussen, the London Sinfonietta and violinist Ole Böhn you are missing something quite special. And the gorgeous sound captured by engineer Tryggvi Tryggvason in Henry Wood Hall and Blackheath Concert Halls in 1992 is confirmation that the fine art of sleeve design may be dead, but the black art of great recorded sound lives on.
Now this is what I call great sleeve art.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
A very important, and brave, article by James Fenton on the Robert King conviction in today's Guardian - here are some extracts, the whole article is essential reading:
'When the early music conductor Robert King was jailed, at the beginning of this month, on charges of sexual abuse of minors, his agent, Harrison Parrott, dropped his name from its distinguished main website list (John Adams, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Oliver Knussen, Sakari Oramo, and so on). One might have thought that, whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, a separation could be made between professional or artistic matters and the conductor's personal life. And besides, an artist who has just been sent to Wormwood Scrubs (photo above) is going to need some professional assistance in sorting out his affairs. This is one thing that agents are for. Instead, Katie Cardell-Oliver, King's manager at Harrison Parrott, told me his future with the firm is still under discussion: "For obvious practical reasons, we can't represent him while he's unable to work."
The initial reaction from Hyperion, the company for which King made 95 recordings, was also uncertain: no decision had yet been made, it was reported, as to whether to delete his discs from the list. In a few days, however, the possibility that, for instance, the 10 much-praised volumes of Vivaldi's sacred music would be found to be infected with paedophilia, and would therefore have to be burned, had been discounted. Instead, there came from Hyperion's parent company, Harmonia Mundi, the following carefully worded statement.
"The recordings of the King's Consort will remain available, since they have involved the efforts of literally hundreds of first-rate musicians and it does not seem fair or appropriate to restrict their work from sale. Mr King does not receive income from the continuing sale of Hyperion CDs." Implicit behind the second sentence is the idea that one might otherwise wish to boycott, say, the Monteverdi series, or the Purcell anthems series, on grounds of disapproval of King's private life. But now we know he was not on a royalty.
It is, of course, very hard to extend sympathy to someone in King's position without seeming to overlook, or to condone, offences against minors. For my part, once the court has done its work, and the sentence of, in this case, three years nine months has been set in motion, I think that there is every reason for the individual to feel sympathy for the convicted. We are individuals. We are not the state. We are not obliged to agree with the sentence, and nobody can prevent us from keeping an open mind about the verdict.
As it is, the King's Consort and its choir are being conducted, in the immediate future, by their recently appointed associate, the harpsichordist Matthew Halls. The consort is managed by King's wife, who stood by her husband throughout the case. Presumably the future of the whole operation is in some question. It is a tragedy for all concerned. And I strongly believe that when our most distinguished artists are in such terrible situations - whether or not they brought it on themselves - we should offer them some kind of support, not because, as artists, they deserve a better treatment than anyone else, but simply because we have so much to thank them for.' Full Guardian article here.
Another case where some help and understanding is needed?
James Fenton was librettist for Charles Wuorinen realisation of Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories as a children’s opera, and by coincidence Rushdie has been awarded a knighthood today. Photo credit BBC. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Aldeburgh Festival's new production of Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice has been hailed as a 'triumph' by the critics. Director Yoshi Oida is singled out for particular praise, and this production is yet another example of Japanese influence on cosmopolitan Aldeburgh. Britten's homage to Noh Theatre, Curlew River, is the best known Eastern connection, but the Festival has some other interesting, and lesser known, Japanese links.
In 1984 Toru Takemitsu visited the Aldeburgh Festival for the first time, and fell in love with that most sublime of all performing spaces, Snape Maltings. The result of his visit was the Festival commission, Archipelago S., which was given its first performance at Snape in 1993. The work is an essay into surround-sound, and uses two mixed ensembles on either side of the main stage, a brass quintet along the back wall (there is no balcony at Snape), and two clarinets play behind the audience to either side of the auditorium.
Archipelago S was commissioned by Oliver Knussen when he was artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival. Knussen has recorded it on a DG CD which also includes Takemitsu's Dream/Window from 1985. Archipelago S is for large orchestra with integral small ensemble, and the composer described it as follows: The title "Dream/Window" is taken from the Buddhist name of a Zen priest of the Muromachi Period. Muso (mu = dream, so = window) Soseki (1275-1351). Among the many famous gardens designed by Muso Soseki is that of the Saiho-ji Temple (popularly known as the "Moss Temple") in Kyoto. My music has been profoundly influenced by Japanese historic gardens. For example, "Arc" for piano and orchestra (1963-66/76) and "In an Autumn Garden" in the complete version for gagaku orchestra (1979) were based on relatively concrete images of gardens.
I was fortunate to visit Kyoto some years back and visit the famous temples, and this sparked a fascination for Japanese garden design. I bought a copy of Kiyoshi Seike's book on Japanese gardens when working in New York in the early 1980s, and created my first garden using it a few years later. My photo above is another example of Japan meets East Anglia - it is the view from my study here in Norfolk where I write On An Overgrown Path, and shows the small Japanese garden outside the patio doors.
No post tomorrow as we are at Aldeburgh for a full day of music, Nono in the morning followed by a picnic on the beach, and then Death in Venice at Snape in the evening. But continue the thread with going Buddhist with Lou Harrison.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
