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Varèse: Amériques, Boulez (CD)

Varèse: Amériques, Boulez (CD)
$17.99
$17.99

Amériques is given a blazing performance — particularly in the use of brass. As a picture of Manhattan, it is both aggressive and static — a picture as raw in the blocks of sound it conveys as the streamlined steeliness of the skyscrapers the sound mimic.

MusicWeb International

Pierre Boulez leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in four groundbreaking works by Edgard Varèse, a composer whose radical approach to rhythm, sonority and orchestral color helped reshape the possibilities of 20th-century music. Boulez described Varèse as an “outsider” and a “loner,” qualities reflected in music that stands apart for its visceral sense of pulse, vivid sonic imagery and uncompromising originality.

The program brings together Amériques, Arcana, Déserts and Ionisation, works that explore massive orchestral forces, explosive percussion and sharply contrasted blocks of sound. Recorded at Orchestra Hall in 1995 and 1996, the performances showcase the extraordinary precision and power of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in repertoire that demands exceptional rhythmic control and instrumental virtuosity.

Amériques unleashes a vast orchestral palette inspired in part by Varèse’s arrival in the United States, Arcana builds immense structures from continuously shifting sonorities and Déserts combines orchestral writing with interpolations of electronically organized sound. Ionisation, scored entirely for percussion ensemble, remains one of the landmark works of the modern percussion repertoire.

2001 Grammy Award, Best Orchestral Performance

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