Mohammed Fairouz: Poems and Prayers (Blu-ray) (UK IMPORT)

Description: Further DetailsTitle: Mohammed Fairouz: Poems and PrayersCondition: NewFormat: Blu-rayGenre: ClassicalNo Of Discs: 2Studio: Naxos Music UKRelease Date: 03/30/2015Topic: Opera & VocalDescription: EDITORIAL REVIEWS In the context of a world focused on the chaos and strife in the Middle East, Arab-American composer Mohammed Fairouz presents two new masterworks that combine the musical and textual backgrounds of the region, exalting the commonalities, and sharing a vision of unity and hope for peace. Combining massive musical forces with star powered soloists, this release - the second by Sono Luminus of works by this young composer called "an important new artistic voice" by the New York Times - delivers a musically, sonically, and spiritually engaging album that transcends culture or creed. REVIEW It's been a year of firsts for UCLA Philharmonia. Last fall, the university's top orchestra released its first CD - a Yarlung Records disc of first-ever orchestral recordings by Eric Zeisl - to critical acclaim. Then in December, Philharmonia spearheaded a groundbreaking festival on campus called "Listening to the Other: Mideast Musical Dialogues." This week, the Sono Luminus label released Philharmonia's second CD of the school year, titled "Poems and Prayers" and showcasing performances by approximately 250 student musicians from Philharmonia, University Chorale and UCLA University Chorus, joined by acclaimed soloists Sasha Cooke, David Krakauer and David Kravitz, all conducted by UCLA Professor Neal Stulberg. The CD features world-premiere recordings of two works by composer Mohammed Fairouz, which were performed at UCLA Philharmonia's December festival: Symphony No. 3 ("Poems and Prayers") and "Tahrir," a clarinet concerto written for 2013-14 UCLA Regents' Lecturer David Krakauer. Both works were recorded in Royce Hall, and express the power of music to serve as a peace-building force in the Middle East. "It's extremely rare that a new, large-scale choral symphony by an American composer gets recorded commercially, so I expect significant critical attention to 'Poems and Prayers,'" Stulberg said. "It's a landmark for our music school that UCLA Philharmonia has released two discs in one year that both contribute so significantly to the recorded repertoire." --UCLA Newsroom "...the intention to marry both cultures is clear, but on musical grounds alone the effort is so emotionally engaging that the political subtext seems almost unnecessary. Doubtless there are many who would disagree, and it must be said that understanding the context is indeed very moving and completely heartfelt. On a final note, the conducting is terrific here, the orchestral contributions superb. Sasha Cooke reminds me why I like mezzo-sopranos so much in this kind of piece, and David Kravitz is similarly inspired. Some might raise their brows at collegiate forces coupled with such a highly charged subject matter. I did, and I stand corrected. This is triumph, and arguably important on many levels." --classical.net, June 2014 "It is startling, to say the least, to hear a large choral symphonic work by an Arab-American composer begin with an urgent, galvanizing setting of the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. The piece in question is Mohammed Fairouz's grandly ambitious Symphony No. 3, subtitled Poems and Prayers. By alternating between settings of Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew poetry, Fairouz's work pleads for peace between two perennially warring peoples - Palestinians and Israelis - by bearing musical and poetic witness to their horrifying mutual suffering and, consequently, making plain what unites them as human beings, despite their deep and obvious differences. The last couplet of the Kaddish, "Oseh shalom bimromav," recurs between the symphony's four larger movements as a rondo-like refrain with different musical settings, returning at the very end in close to its original form. Throughout the work there are clear elements of both Jewish and Arabic musical traditions, as well as evocations - both overt and implicit - of illustrious Western works like Beethoven's Ninth, Bernstein's Kaddish Symphony, and John Adams's Nixon in China. Fairouz's quest is clearly for something universal, and he achieves exactly that by showing that these diverse strands can be woven into a coherent, original, and quite moving musical tapestry. " "Mezzo Sasha Cooke shows mournful, idiomatic brilliance interacting with virtuoso clarinetist David Krakauer in this movement." "The UCLA Philharmonia, Chorale, and University Chorus. They have clearly risen to the protean demands placed on them, performing with sturdy musicianship and considerable emotive power. Conductor Neal Stulberg has an impressively sure grasp of this challenging and multi-layered work, imposing discipline where it's needed, and unleashing chaos where it's demanded." --Opera News, 2015 "Mohammed Fairouz's Symphony No 3, 'Poems and Prayers', intended as a musical meditation on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, demonstrates the composer s ability to bring down to human scale large blocks of sound and passion..." --Laurence Vitts, Gramophone 2015Region Code: Blu-ray: A (Americas, Southeast Asia...)MPN: DSL92177EAN: 0053479217721Release Year: 2015 Missing Information?Please contact us if any details are missing and where possible we will add the information to our listing.

Price: 23.97 USD

Location: GU14 0GT

End Time: 2024-12-23T19:27:11.000Z

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