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Mazzoli: Dark with Excessive Bright / Herresthal, Gaffigan, Arctic & Bergen Philharmonic
BIS

Mazzoli: Dark with Excessive Bright / Herresthal, Gaffigan, Arctic & Bergen Philharmonic

$21.99

Details

Composer
Missy Mazzoli
Artist
Peter Herresthal
Format
SACD
Label
BIS
Released
Mar 03, 2023
Catalog #
BIS-2572
UPC
7318599925721

About

Named ‘2022 Composer of the Year’ by Musical America, Missy Mazzoli inhabits an exquisite and mysterious sound-world in which indie-rock sensibilities meet American minimalism, European modernism and classical traditions. The first woman ever to receive a commission from the Metropolitan Opera, she has also composed for prominent soloists, ensembles and orchestras around the world. Through her music, she reaches to the roots of tradition, inhabits and renovates older forms while using every resource at her command. Mazzoli, who says that she likes “to tell stories”, always imagines actors, singers and dancers grappling with a situation, even when she composes instrumental works. The album is bookended by two versions of the same work: loosely based on baroque idioms the violin concerto Dark with Excessive Bright is first heard with string orchestra accompaniment and then in a chamber version. The soloist is in both cases Peter Herresthal, who also performs Vespers for Violin, a piece for amplified violin and electronics using sampled organs, voices and strings, drenched in delay and distortion. Three orchestral works complete the programme: Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres), These Worlds in Us and Orpheus Undone in performances by the Arctic Philharmonic under Tim Weiss.

REVIEWS:

When Missy Mazzoli was just 10 years old, growing up in rural Pennsylvania, she confidently declared she was a composer, although she hadn’t written a single note. Her family thought it was a phase she would get through. Now 42, Mazzoli is among today’s busiest and most respected composers. She’s best known for her operas, such as the career-boosting Breaking the Waves, but a new album, titled Dark with Excessive Bright, is the first to showcase the young composer’s purely symphonic music.

[The] titular Dark with Excessive Bright [is] a lyrical violin concerto inspired by a very old double bass which sat in an Italian monastery for centuries and whose cracks were patched with pages from the Good Friday liturgy.

The concerto riffs on baroque formulas while recycling motifs in fresh disguises. Like a photographer, Mazzoli captures moments rich in texture and charged with expression. They are hard to describe, but you can see them in your ear. For example, after the orchestra slides up to a cadence, low strings pluck the beat, high strings twinkle with glitter, and in the middle, a melody wanders a solitary path. (As a fascinating bonus, the album includes a reduced version of the piece for solo violin and string quintet.)

...while this album is purely symphonic, drama abounds in the music. Mazzoli dedicates the piece These Worlds in Us to her father, a Vietnam vet. Sometimes the music swirls downward on sliding string figures while other passages prove that Mazzoli knows how to make an orchestra roar like a jet engine.

Coming of age in a DIY environment, and encouraged by outfits like the Bang on a Can collective of composer-performers, Mazzoli is at home using rock instruments and electronics in her music. On Vespers for Violin, played with ardor and agility by Peter Herresthal, Mazzoli sampled old organs, strings and voices, and waterlogged them in distortion.

Mazzoli likes to think of herself as primarily an opera composer. But with instrumental music as expressive and rigorously built as this – not to mention the dynamic performances here by the Bergen and Arctic Philharmonic Orchestras – we kindly ask that she not forget the command she holds over a symphony orchestra.

-- NPR Music

Tracklist 7 tracks

  1. 1 Dark with Excessive Bright (version for violin and string orchestra) 14:05
    Track
    1
    Title
    Dark with Excessive Bright (version for violin and string orchestra)
    Duration
    14:05
    Composer
    Missy Mazzoli
    Performer
    Peter Herresthal
    Ensemble
    Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester
    Conductor
    James Gaffigan
  2. 2 Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) 08:36
    Track
    2
    Title
    Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)
    Duration
    08:36
    Composer
    Missy Mazzoli
    Ensemble
    Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Timothy Weiss
  3. 3 These Worlds in Us 08:33
    Track
    3
    Title
    These Worlds in Us
    Duration
    08:33
    Composer
    Missy Mazzoli
    Ensemble
    Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Timothy Weiss
  4. 4 Part I: Behold the Machine, O Death - 09:50
    Track
    4
    Title
    Part I: Behold the Machine, O Death -
    Duration
    09:50
    Composer
    Missy Mazzoli
    Ensemble
    Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Timothy Weiss
  5. 5 Part II: We of Violence, We Endure 04:58
    Track
    5
    Title
    Part II: We of Violence, We Endure
    Duration
    04:58
    Composer
    Missy Mazzoli
    Ensemble
    Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Timothy Weiss
  6. 6 Vespers for Violin 05:53
    Track
    6
    Title
    Vespers for Violin
    Duration
    05:53
    Composer
    Missy Mazzoli
    Performer
    Peter Herresthal, Missy Mazzoli
  7. 7 Dark with Excessive Bright (version for violin and string quintet) 13:53
    Track
    7
    Title
    Dark with Excessive Bright (version for violin and string quintet)
    Duration
    13:53
    Composer
    Missy Mazzoli
    Performer
    Peter Herresthal, Oganes Girunyan, Øyvind Mehus, Natalya Girunyan, Mary Auner, Ingvild Maria Mehus
    Conductor
    Timothy Weiss