Search - Aldo Clementi, Ives Ensemble, Esther Probst :: Madrigale

Ravishingly Beautiful...can't understand why he's not more f

Peter Heddon | 05/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Not often am i so struck by a disc of new music.Delicate,mesmerizingly woven musical patterns of hushed intensity which can't fail to intrigue.

There's a good cross section of work on this disc so it's possible to chart the development of Clementi's work:studi (1956)may betray the pointillist hallmarks of serial composers, but moments of unexpected unisons and tonal references out of the blue tend to mark it out as something unique.Veni,Creator (1997) is the most recent work and the emphasis is on ravishing the ear within quite a tightly controlled framework...the piece ends in mid air and phew what a relief,a living composer who knows when to stop!"

70+ minutes of stern canons, at times verging on the boring

Discophage | France | 10/05/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"70+ minutes of slow-moving, atonal canons for various but always sparse, Webern-like instrumentarium, from clarinet-violin-viola-cello (track 1 Impromptu) to Flute-oboe-2 trumpets-percussion-piano-violin-viola-cello (track 10 Veni Creator), by way of clarinet-flute (track 7 Duetto), flute-violin-piano (track 9 Due Canoni), trumpet-piano-violin (track 6, Studi) and so forth. Stern, unseductive, at times verging on the boring - but also, in the long run, eliciting a genuine fascination. Sometimes it is even downright fun, as in the 2 piano & percussion Madrigale (track 8), which sounds like some zanily out-of-joint clockwork mechanism. Those with a taste for the slow-moving music of Morton Feldman might enjoy this."