Music for a Glass Bead Game
| Music for a Glass Bead Game | |||||||||||||||||||
Tracklisting: Customer Reviews: Hermann Hesse envisioned the Glass Bead Game as more than “an intellectual exercise in which one idea elaborates off another.” It was a form of meditation he engaged in on his own which he regarded as the highest art. The goal was to connect ideas in opposition in order to achieve a universality, a balance, an act of creation. The novel became an elaboration on that idea: “Every transition from major to minor in a sonata, every transformation of a myth or a religious cult, every classical or artistic formulation was, I realized in that flashing moment, if seen with truly a meditative mind, nothing but a direct route into the interior of the cosmic mystery, where, in the alternation between inhaling and exhaling, between heaven and earth . . . holiness is forever being created.” - GBG p. 119. The Glass Bead Game: (Magister Ludi) A Novel In the novel, the metaphor starts with music, with Bach’s Inventions and with friendship (GBG p. 55). Reviewer Paul Geffen has provided a good summary of the works presented. While I like the idea of presenting music over a period of time and in differing styles and trying to achieve a synthesis of those styles, I’m afraid that the combination presented here just does not do that for me. I find the Kodaly and the Martinu very jarring when set alongside Bach, Handel and Giordani. Try as I might to attain balance between the pieces, I am not able to do so. I am speaking for myself. Others, I realize, feel differently. I do like the Bach Inventions played here on the cello. I don’t find them dull sounding or non-inventive. Actually, I was hoping that Nathanial Rosen had recorded more of Bach’s work. The Inventions are included because they are the framework of the novel and they set the game in motion. The concluding Handel passacaglia is glorious and does serve well as a wonderful conclusion/summation to these works. The artwork is Burne-Jones’ “The Angels of Creation: The First Day” - 1870-76 - watercolor, gouache, shell gold and platinum paint on linen-covered panel prepared with zinc ground. Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museum, Cambridge, MA - bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop (from liner notes). It might be an interesting idea to read GBG in combination with listening to this music, or just generally the works of J.S. Bach, Froberger, Alessandro Scarlatti or others who figure so importantly into the novel. My favorite part of the novel is the absolute love of music young Joseph Knecht communicates on his first encounter with the Music Master (See p. 55-57) and the “magical events of the sacramental hour.” It is very inspiring. Chamber music with attitude This is simply a wonderful disc musically, artisticly and in terms of sound quality. A rare treat. Violin for audiophiles Not only is Arturo’s playing flawless…as best my untrained ear can tell…but the texture of the notes is extremely involving on my high resolution system. I didn’t expect to be so delighted with it, but I am. Thank you very much, Mr. Marks. Worth every cent Classic and Modern Duos for Violin and Cello. Kodaly is neither Romantic not Modern; he is sui generis, in a class by himself. His roots run deep into the Hungarian folk tradition, which he studied and championed and then distilled into a very refined personal style. His sound is sometimes similar to that of his countryman Bartok, but I find it more lyrical, introspective, and subtle. It’s deceptively simple on the surface, but this economy transmits musical expression of great depth. Delmoni and Rosen play the Kodaly Duo passionately and with a rich, resonant tone. The Adagio is searching, mysterious and dark, and it is given a sympathetic reading here. Overall, this performance is very smooth and polished, with moderate tempos and very clean intonation and articulation. This is in contrast to the more astringent tone adopted by Josef Suk in his live performance with Andre Navarra on Praga, a more typical East European sound. Delmoni and Rosen sound restrained by comparison, but they are just as expressive in a different and less direct way. The Martinu Duo is a short and powerful piece with some very effective contrasts between the two movements. The first is eerie, spooky, even creepy, but with counterpoint as precise as that of Bach. It is dissonant and tightly organized to great effect. The second movement shares the sense of precision but has a very different feeling; made up mostly of fast runs, it is lighter, even amusing. And the time signature keeps changing. In the middle of this mad Rondo is a short passage where the mood of the Prelude returns, briefly, while the rest of the movement runs rings around it. (My interpretation of the work is as a quasi-religious dyptich of ominous death balanced by exuberant life. And always in the midst of life, the spectre is with us.) Delmoni’s brilliant passagework and Rosen’s earthy tones are well suited to putting across the various moods of this piece. Tommaso Giordani wrote operas and songs and was based in London and Dublin for the better part of his career. His Duetto is a pleasant, if somewhat predictable, collection of early Classical figures and gestures. No transcription is credited for the Bach Inventions, and I have no doubt they are played straight from the keyboard score. Alongside the bright, inventive pieces described above, the Bach seems somehow dull, and perhaps they are played this way deliberately. The Inventions are included to provide contrast to the Kodaly and Martinu works. After hearing Bach we are more aware of the freedoms these later masters enjoy. The Bach pieces are taken very seriously indeed. The recital ends with a Handel passacaglia, a brilliant set of variations taken from one of the Suites for keyboard. All the contrasts presented in the rest of the program are summed up here, all the colors and moods are repeated in miniature, bringing the hour to a suitable close. The recording and production are excellent, as always from this label. The sound of the performance is captured in a natural ambience, somewhat reverberant, with a very lifelike presence.
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