Naive & Sentimental Music

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Dedicated to conductor (and fellow composer) Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Adams's Naïve and Sentimental Music is an awe-inspiring work of ambitious scope. It seeks to tackle the polarity between the naïve and the sentimental artist (the former oblivious to her place in nature, the latter preoccupied with location in the order of things) and uses wild juxtapositions to advance Adams's investigation. A wafting flute and harp open the three-part, 44-minute piece, but they are overcome by lurching brass, rumbling percussion, reedy woodwinds, and a palpable urgency. The second movement, "Mother of the Man," is, by vivid contrast, an almost ambient piece, floating on broad-stroked violins, bowed vibraphone, bell-struck percussion, and David Tannenbaum's textured guitar work. And then comes the final movement, "Chain to the Rhythm," the most recognizably minimalist excursion in what amounts to a symphony--in every way but its name. Cells of sound, oboes, cellos, vibraphones jut out as clarinets oscillate and twitter. There's a shimmer, a stammering vibrational effect, and a return to the first movement's growing urgency. Has the naïve artist discovered, anxiety-ridden, the insurmountable pressure of the sentimental artist? It's for the composer to know and the listener to find out. In any event, Naïve and Sentimental Music stands out singularly as Adams's most astonishing large-scale instrumental work, a piece that demands repeated listens and never disappoints. --Andrew Bartlett

Album Description
The album is 48-minutes of Adams most ambitious symphonic work to date performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Nonesuch Records. Slipcase. 2002.

Naive & Sentimental Music, Music, John Adams, David Tanenbaum, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Los Angeles Philharmonic, 20th/21st Century Orchestral Music, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Crossover, Classical Music, Minimalism, Orchestral, Orchestral & Symphonic

No Promises
Average customer rating:

Another great CD!!

promises, promises

Subliminal melancholy.

Poetry in music for folk guitars and smoky, sultry voice.

Can't Get Enough Norah Jones? Try Some Carla Bruni

No Promises
Carla Bruni
Manufacturer: Naive
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

France | Continental Europe | Europe | International | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B000L21DVW
Release Date: 2007-03-20

Tracks:

Those Dancing Days Are Gone
Before the World Was Made
Lady Weeping at the Crossroads
I Felt My Life with Both My Hands
Promises Like Pie-Crust
Autumn
If You Were Coming in the Fall
I Went to Heaven
Afternoon
Ballade at Thirty-Five
At Last the Secret Is Out
[CD-Rom Track]

Album Description

The second album of French/Italian model-cum-chanteuse. Two years in the making, No Promises is a unique and personal interpretation of some of the greatest poets of the American and British traditions, including texts by Emily Dickenson and W. B. Yeats. Naive. 2007.

Album Details

2007 Release from the French Singer, Coming Four Years after "Quelqu'un M'a Dit". Bruni Drew Inspriation for the Songs from English Literature, Particularly with the Works of Emily Dickinson, William B Yeats, Wystan Hugh Auden and Walter De La Mare. She Delivers a Heartfelt and Personal Interpretation of These 11 Poems of Romanticism and Melancholia.

Customer Reviews:

Another great CD!!.......2007-06-08

It is always great when you hear a musician with such a unique style and beautiful voice. Highly recommended!

promises, promises.......2007-05-27

I saw this CD advertised in the windows of several record stores in Amsterdam. Bruni is a model-turned-singer, and here she's interpreting poetry as music. It comes across nicely, in chanteuse style...nice, light, and enjoyable. Great music for a dinner party, methinks.

Subliminal melancholy........2007-03-23

Carla Bruni, ex model and former love affair of Mick Jagger, is the reincarnation of sensual infatuation, breathy words and purred seduction.
When she first started singing with a frangible but also very enwrapping voice, the French listeners couldn't resist giving Carla as much credit as she would have deserved. "Quelqu'un m'a dit", her first album, released in November 2002, was a bestseller in her adopted country, France. With her new record entitled "No Promises", she maintains her well proved concept, based on the leading acoustic guitar and interspersed variations of harmonising instruments.
She just changed two things which weren't essentially remarkable if we hadn't any understanding of languages. Besides the fact that Carla swapped from the fragile sounding French to the melodically caressing English, she doesn't sing over her own words this time.
The lyrics come from famous poets and they are all distinguished creations from several personalities. Bruni really proved her musical talent though.
All the melodies, which mostly suit and carry the statements of each poem, were composed by the Italian ex supermodel herself.
She's obviously not an eminently blessed compositor, but she improves when it comes to rather simple but effective acoustic tunes, which leave a mark of easiness and subliminal melancholy. On the opener "Those Dancing Days Are Gone"(William Butler Yeats) she uses the guitar like she's talking frolicsomely to a friend.
"If You Were Coming In The Fall" (Emily Dickinson) follows the mentioned example, but it seems a bit inapplicable referred to the poem's depressing theme.
A song close to decent perfection would be "Before The World Was Made" (William Butler Yeats) which contains a tangent instrumentation, modelled on folk and country elements.
"Promises Like Pie-Crust" (Christina Georgina Rossetti) needs less getting used to, according to Carla Bruni's latest efforts, which are mostly classified into the "chanson" genre.
On "No Promises" there's an arbitrary mixture of folkish melodies and pieces abutted to the musician's preferred " chanson" style. And even though the change of language doesn't bring in that much fresh air, the album's overall well rounded and is best suited to relaxed moments in front of a homely fireplace.
The incontrovertible fact that the lyric often is more enthralling than the musical aspect, doesn't reduce the delight that much. In this case, both parts go hand in hand and were made for operating together as one.

Poetry in music for folk guitars and smoky, sultry voice........2007-03-03

Auden and Yeats are among the finest English-language poets of the 19th and 20th centuries, endowed with rare insight and sensitivity.
Now W. H. Auden, W. B. Yeats and several others have taken on an unlikely new guise.
Their poems -- along with those by two other Britons, Walter de la Mare and Christina Rossetti, and two Americans, Dorothy Parker and Emily Dickinson -- are likely to enter the Top Ten in Europe.
Four years after her debut album after her first album, "Quelqu'un m'a dit" (Someone told me), which sold two million copies, Carla Bruni, the Italian former fashion supermodel offers a collection of music and poetry : 11 beautiful poems set to Carla Bruni's inspired melodies.
She gives a real personal interpretation of these poems with romanticism, melancholy which form a feeling of loneliness.
The album, "No Promises", has divided music critics between supporters hailing a new departure for Europop and detractors perplexed by haunting English verse half-sung and half-spoken in a sensual voice accompanied by folk guitars.
Although the writers have been set to music before -- the composer Benjamin Britten collaborated with Auden, and the singer Joni Mitchell has drawn on Yeats's verse, for example -- Bruni's work is a novelty.
In France , some newspapers wrote rave revues.
I personally like it.
It's different,it's delicate, it's elegant.
Have your say !

Can't Get Enough Norah Jones? Try Some Carla Bruni.......2007-03-01

This popular French/Italian singer delivers her first English language CD and it is a beauty, setting some American and British poetry to music in a manner in which the most accurate description is "simply lovely." With a honey-smoked voice like a young Marianne Faithfull, the songs exude a peaceful mood like being the last couple on the dancefloor in the backyard of a Southern mansion on a magnolia-scented sultry summer's night. The soulful, languid vocals build up a momentum as the CD moves along and, as a whole, are a lot less sleepy than Norah's latest effort. Try "I Felt My Life with Both My Hands," "Promises Like Pie-Crust," "If You Were Coming In The Fall," "Ballade at the Thirty-Five" and "At Last The Secret Is Out" and taste the musical delicacy that is Carla Bruni.

Piano Works by Mozart & Prokofiev [includes DVD]

Average customer rating:

An Interesting Recital Program with Some Odd Mannerisms Mixed with Marvelous Pianism
In concert a loud disappointment

Piano Works by Mozart & Prokofiev [includes DVD]

Manufacturer: Naive
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000LXISFA
Release Date: 2007-04-24

Customer Reviews:

An Interesting Recital Program with Some Odd Mannerisms Mixed with Marvelous Pianism.......2007-05-11

Like the previous reviewer (villegem), I heard Mlle de la Salle play this precise program in a live recital at Middlebury College just two weeks ago. But I've also listened carefully to this 2CD set (and watched the half-hour DVD about her) and I must say that I share some of villegem's concerns about de la Salle's tendency towards mannerism. In the first movement of the Mozart D Major Sonata, for instance, she does some strange pushing and pulling of the basic pulse usually when she approaches a change from loud to soft dynamic: at those times she suddenly puts on the brakes, inserts a brief caesura and then does a (to me) irritating agogic prolongation of the first soft chord. I have no idea why she does this -- and to be honest she does it a bit less obtrusively in the recording than she did the night I heard her recital -- and she also does some old-fashioned chord rolling, something I haven't heard many pianists do like this for possibly forty years. I wonder where she got this? Having said that, otherwise I quite like most of the set. The Mozart Rondo is quite lovely. She plays the 'Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman' variations without a speck of whimsy or wit and thus they come across as more serious than they need be.

Once we get to the Prokofiev, though, it's an entirely different matter. Here she mostly shines. Her Toccata (with which she ended her recital but which comes first on the second CD) is a barn-burner. This is a certifiable knucklebuster that can easily get out of control. Mlle de la Salle displays fantastic control and one has the sense that she is making music as well as playing lots of notes; this is one of the best performances of it that I know. One has the same feeling in the faster portions of the cocky Third Sonata which was, all told, the highlight of the set for me largely because de la Salle understands Prokofiev's ironic nose-thumbing. When we get to the Romeo and Juliet pieces she turns on some entirely appropriate romantic sensibility. My only complaint is that she isn't perhaps as swept away with ardor as the music might suggest. But she gets the hieratic style of 'The Montagues and Capulets' just right.

The DVD is actually the flip side (Side B, if you will) of CD 2, the Prokofiev disc. I'd never seen this arrangement before and it took me a while to figure it out. It contains a short documentary that consists of some short musical excerpts along with conversations with the pianist (who has just turned eighteen) and those who have been involved in her career -- e.g., her teacher (Pascal Nemirovsky) and her mother -- which are conducted, of course, in French. English (or German) subtitles are supplied. I didn't find it particularly revealing and doubt if I'd watch it again.

Scott Morrison

In concert a loud disappointment.......2007-05-04

Reading a review of her Canadian debut in Vancouver on April 29, 2007, one would imagine that a rousing standing ovation greeted Ms. de la Salle's performance, hardly the polite slow rising one she received. Ms. de la Salle credentials are impeccable, so impeccable that the CD pitch came before the recital not even at intermission: simply put, we had to like it or else... And the reviewer, not surprisingly, proceeded from the same line of thought.

Juxtaposing classical Mozart and neoclassical Prokofiev set the stage for an interesting programme indeed! I concede that the recital started well and the Sonata offered some nice moments although slightly contrived: it was the art of representation as opposed to the art of transformation i.e. the feelings portrayed were acted not lived. Granted, a teenager won't have Mr. Brendel's experience. Virtuosity is a blessing but could also become a curse: in her case this led to exaggerating every move, fast or slow, breaking the classical pulsation. This out of style Mozart culminated with the Rondo which became openly romantic Chopin like, quite surprising for a Paris Conservatory pupil. The final Mozart piece "Ah Vous dirais-je Maman..." variations kept on pressing the same obvious style where delicacy, grace and tenderness were absent. By now one was looking towards Prokofiev for relief as it was becoming increasingly evident Ms. de la Salle had nothing new to add to her heavy handed Mozart.

Ms. de la Salle sound is forced rarely graceful. Her shoulders are tense because she presses on keys a lot instead of controlling the hand weight with a free arm. Thus it was no surprise she muscled her way through Prokofiev. The Sonata became an intellectual exercise, virtuosic and abstract. But it is the Romeo and Juliet suite that exacerbated the misgivings of Ms. de la Salle forceful approach. Romeo and Juliet, a tender love story set in a backdrop of violence and family feud immortalized on the silver screen by Zeffirelli. Prokofiev's brilliant music reflects this classic tale and offers soaring moments of absolute beauty. Well, Ms. de la Salle rendition offered none of this. Her insistence to over blow musical traits led her to almost lose it during the syncopated "Montagues and Capulets" renowned theme. Moreover, slow movements were painfully lacking colors and dramatic tension as her sound faded quickly, failing to carry her thoughts. The audience mind wandered away, lost count of the movements, and as a result they applauded too early or too late... Finally, it was an understandably tired soloist who concluded with a rough Toccata.

At 14 Ms. de la Salle in her first recording revealed a promising talent. Her second CD did not confirm as Bach, like Mozart last night, was treated romantically. Her emphasis on the right hand melody at the detriment of counterpoint betrays a rather homophonic hearing. It is truly sad to see how a brutal rise to fame can damage the blooming of a precocious talent and one wishes her to meet a teacher truly interested in freeing her from this over hyped mono dimensional impasse. She would then become the voice the media claims she already is.

Average customer rating:

Delicious but Deceptive
It's About Time...
GODLIKE
A welcome reissue, minus the Orff sample...
You'd have to be naive not to own this.

Naive (+ 5 Bonus Tracks)
KMFDM
Manufacturer: Metropolis Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Naïve/Hell to Go

ASIN: B000IOMXTY
Release Date: 2006-11-21

Tracks:

Welcome
Naive
Die Now-Live Later
Piggybank
Achtung
Friede
Liebeslied
Go To Hell
Virus
Disgust
Godlike
Go To Hell
Virus
Godlike
Leibesleid
Die Now-Live Later

Customer Reviews:

Delicious but Deceptive.......2007-07-04

The Naive (or the better known Naive/Hell to Go) release of yore has been out-of-print for a little while now and the reissue with "5 bonus tracks" comes with a tide of old KMFDM friends. It has been 23 years since KMFDM dropped their first album, after all, and their old albums have been hard to get sometimes - depending on the title. Still, this new marketing campaign is a bit deceptive because 5 tracks indicates new songs and this isn't really the case. New songs wouldn't be that good, either, considering the KMFDM from the late 80's/ early 90's is not the KMFDM of today and the tracks you would be getting wouldn't be anything like the band then. Instead of that awkward thing happening, you get readditions of old songs, a little more "tastes great" while never really being less filling, but that doesn't really give anyone save a collector or someone needing the album something "new" to obtain. So, don't buy it just because you think you are missing out.

That said, Naive/Hell to Go is a good release because it has a rich history (if you want detailed description you can look up the intense drama that happened because of En Esch's creation) and because it has both an En Esch creation AND a Sasha creation built in. En Esch made half the album, had it rejected, and then had it bulked up by a secondary wing of tracks. Maybe it was a fear of a repeat on En Esch's part because he put out the album Cheesy then and it wasn't acclaimed (it was entertaining but was not anything like his new releases with Slick Idiot), or maybe it was a plethora of other cited reasons. Regardless, the additions did strengthen the album and I was actually surprised by the relative aging of the album and how good some of the songs still are.

I'm not going to say that you should or shouldn't buy the album, because this is a matter of taste. Instead, I'll say that this is a good buy IF you like KMFDM of that day AND if you don't have it already. In my opinion it shows KMFDM in their most beautiful days, not really addressing the best releases that were about to come but still showing KMFDM at their finest. You might want to keep to look at the old one if possible because of the old drama AND because you have a song missing from the fray, too, and because the old flow was the intended one. If you want to see if you need it and preview the entire rerelease selection/ hear samples of the album you can go to Metropolis ( website is Metropolis-Records; I would put it all in here BUT it would be edited out of this review so you can add in the rest) and see what you like for yourself.
Regardless, it is great to see the old catalog hitting the virtual shelves again and I recommend it to people who enjoyed the old days of Wax Trax and the refinement of the electronic frontier.

It's About Time..........2007-06-27

When KMFDM first released the album Naive,it was only in availability for a very short while. Due to copyright issues on the song "Liebeslied", KMFDM used a sample from "O Fortuna" that they, apparently, did not have the right to use. The album was quickly recalled and regurgitated a few years later with approximately 50% remixes and "Hell to Go" added to the title. It's nice to see this disc back in its (almost) original form. "Lieseslied" is still missing the samples from "O Fortuna", but the disc loses no power because of it. It's a solid representation of KMFDM's work in the very middle of their career (to date) before they signed their long-term contracts in '92. You can almost say this represents the Beginning of KMFDM's Wax Trax! era.

GODLIKE.......2007-03-12

KMFDM is rereleasing all their back catalog... with bonus tracks. This has 5 extra tracks compared to the original Naive, and they are the remixes from the Naive/Hell to Go album. I like that in this album, the continuity and flow of the tracks is incredible, same as the old one. The sample on Liebeslied isn't there, and it's a shame, because I think the sample added so much. It can probably be found on eBay or something... just look around!

Definitely a must have for any KMFDM fan, with great tracks like "Naive" "Go to Hell" "Virus" "Godlike" and "Liebeslied".

If you even like indusrial music period, buy this. You won't be disappointed.

A welcome reissue, minus the Orff sample..........2006-12-25

The original version of 'Naive' had to be yanked from the shelves due to an uncleared sample of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" being used in "Liebeslied." A subsequent "cleaned" version, 'Naive - Hell to Go,' was released, and both eventually went out of print. Now, we have a compilation of sorts - the entirety of the original 'Naive' MINUS the Orff sample (ergo the "edit" designation on "Liebeslied") and the unique tracks from the 'Naive - Hell to Go' album. Still, this reissue sounds great, although I'm still holding onto my previous version of 'Naive,' if only to give the Orff people a middle-finger salute.

You'd have to be naive not to own this........2006-12-19

I own the original pressing of this cd and to preserve it, I'll most definitely purchase this one. Sascha and En Esch hold true and create probably one of their best albums to date. I've been a fan of them for years and own several of their albums, but this one is up on my top faves by them. Industrial roots come together and shine through this album and is worth the purchase. Liebeslied, Godlike and Go to Hell are intense tracks to listen to.

Average customer rating:

La Musique de Paris Derniere, Vol. 4
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Naive
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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La Musique de Paris Derniere, Vol. 5
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ASIN: B0002RK8QC
Release Date: 2005-05-01

Tracks:

Ain't No Mountain High Enough
Only You
Happy Together
She's A Lady
Survivor
Walk This Way
Reach Out I'll Be There
Black Hole Sun
Can't Get You Out Of My Head
Feel Like Making Love
I Wish
Staying Alive
Hey Ya
Don't Speak
Get On It
Try A Little Tenderness
Ya Ya (Ringe Ringe Raja)

Album Details

With "Paris Dernière," One No Longer Sees a Show Host on Television. In his Place, One May See What He Sees, One Goes Through Paris at 300 Mph, One Talks to Celebreties, One Connects with Strangers, One Trails Along and Goes Deep Into the Hottest Places. We Live and Enjoy Our Night Life, and Even Better Yet We Turn Our Heads to Undress a Girl Or Lift them to Finish One Last Drink. One Becomes the Host. We were Looking for a Distinct Type of Music in Order to Put Together Images of Paris in Time-lapse Photography that Gave Life to Daily Encounters, Interviews, and Chats. Beatrice Ardisson, who Specializes in Sound Mixing, Chose the Best Cover Songs. The Drawings were Done by the Most Trendy Graphic Designer, Florence Deygas and the Text by the Most Cultivated Rock Critic, Yves Bigot.

Average customer rating:

Say what you will, he's not Haydn

Haydn: Sonatas

Manufacturer: Naive
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000LE0TFQ
Release Date: 2007-03-27

Customer Reviews:

Say what you will, he's not Haydn.......2007-03-31

Few composers have more wit and grace than Haydn; consequently Haydn can absorb quite a bit of `external character'. His piano sonatas - as so much of his aevre - are music to be had fun with. Glenn Gould had fun with it and produced a marvelous recording of the last Haydn sonatas (48-52, Sony). Fazil Say now has brought us a disc of Haydn piano sonatas, too - Nos. 10, 31, 35, 37, and 43. They are charmed and charming, they are quirky and delightful. Say can't quite draw the same attention unto himself in the recording studio (which is largely a good thing) but it's not for lack of trying.

His playing reminds a little bit of Mikhail Pletnev's. Odd accents, changes of meter on a whim, impetuous all the way. No harm done to Haydn (although the best of all Haydn interpreters on disc, Alfred Brendel, does none of this and still makes these works sparkle with wit an life), and the added twinkle had me listen again and again. Sadly, beyond the accents, Mr. Say intrudes upon the listener with his humming. It's difficult to believe that this is anything other than the conceit of a self-styled Gould-wannabe, an overt rebel who points at himself and proclaims: "There, look, here you have it, I'm completely rebellious!" It's a studio recording... even if his nature compelled him to hum along music, lest he not be able to play it well, it could be edited out. The fact that it isn't is part and parcel of the strategy with which Say is sold. I'd be lying if I claimed that I wasn't occasionally annoyed with these extraneous sounds (why do pianists - specifically Messrs. Jarrett, Gould, and Say - never hum in tune, either?), but neither did it keep me from wholeheartedly enjoying this disc full of musical sunshine. ¬Caveat emptor; for my part, the disc will remain within grabbing distance on my shelf for a while!

Average customer rating:

Only the Mandolin pieces are newly recorded.

Vivaldi: Musica per mandolino e liuto

Manufacturer: Naive
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000LE0TEC
Release Date: 2007-03-27

Customer Reviews:

Only the Mandolin pieces are newly recorded........2007-03-27

The majority of the works presented here were recorded and originally released over a decade ago. Only the two concertos featuring mandolin are newly recorded.
It is a pity that the recording dates are not clearly noted on the outer sleeve, as this would make it clear that this is basically a re-release, with just a few tracks added. Many will buy this thinking it is a new look at the lute concertos from Lislevand, when in fact it is the old one in disguise.
Having said that, the older release is now hard-to-find and was exceptionally good. It was only spoiled by very short playing time. So it could be argued that fault has now been addressed and the new mandolin concerto recordings make a welcome, belated and easily-accomodated entry to fill out the disc.
The mandolin movements are handled in typical Lislevand style, full of flair and total command. The sound does not clash with the earlier recordings, despite the definite benefits a decade has given to the newer recordings.
No Lislevand admirer will be disappointed with his latest work. It's just a pity that for most of his followers, two-thirds of this CD will already be in their libraries.
However, for those coming to Lislevand's Vivaldi recordings for the first time, this is the full package and no better CD of this repertoire is to be found.

Average customer rating:

Excellent Service

Transcriptions 2

Manufacturer: Naive
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000H0MH36
Release Date: 2007-02-27

Amazon.com

Accentus, the superb French choir, follows up its successful Transcriptions disc with a second one of 19 inventive transcriptions of works by composers ranging from Vivaldi to Ravel. Some are of keyboard works, others, of orchestral pieces, still others, of songs. In each the arrangers have used the original texts or poetry that fits the music, a striking example being Franck Krawczyk's arrangement setting the text of the Requiem to the Winter concerto from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Like others in this collection, it proves surprisingly appropriate in its choral guise, the transcription closely following the original score. Perhaps even more impressive is the way pieces by Scriabin, Debussy and Ravel are fitted with texts that fit the music with uncanny exactitude. What might seem like a far-fetched exercise is transformed into an exciting exploration of choral sonorities that add a new dimension to the originals. The result is an enjoyable and thought-provoking disc that will delight lovers of choral music. -- Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Service.......2007-05-12

My purchases came in excellent condition and very quickly. I'd use this vendor again.

Average customer rating:

No Masterpiece, But Good Stuff
Postmodern Polyphony
Flash and No Substance
thousands of notes for no apparent reason...
Still Searching

Naive & Sentimental Music
John Adams , David Tanenbaum , Esa-Pekka Salonen , and Los Angeles Philharmonic
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00005UW1A
Release Date: 2002-07-30

Tracks:

Naive and Sentimental Music
Mother of the Man
Chain to the Rhythm

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Dedicated to conductor (and fellow composer) Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Adams's Naïve and Sentimental Music is an awe-inspiring work of ambitious scope. It seeks to tackle the polarity between the naïve and the sentimental artist (the former oblivious to her place in nature, the latter preoccupied with location in the order of things) and uses wild juxtapositions to advance Adams's investigation. A wafting flute and harp open the three-part, 44-minute piece, but they are overcome by lurching brass, rumbling percussion, reedy woodwinds, and a palpable urgency. The second movement, "Mother of the Man," is, by vivid contrast, an almost ambient piece, floating on broad-stroked violins, bowed vibraphone, bell-struck percussion, and David Tannenbaum's textured guitar work. And then comes the final movement, "Chain to the Rhythm," the most recognizably minimalist excursion in what amounts to a symphony--in every way but its name. Cells of sound, oboes, cellos, vibraphones jut out as clarinets oscillate and twitter. There's a shimmer, a stammering vibrational effect, and a return to the first movement's growing urgency. Has the naïve artist discovered, anxiety-ridden, the insurmountable pressure of the sentimental artist? It's for the composer to know and the listener to find out. In any event, Naïve and Sentimental Music stands out singularly as Adams's most astonishing large-scale instrumental work, a piece that demands repeated listens and never disappoints. --Andrew Bartlett

Album Description

The album is 48-minutes of Adams most ambitious symphonic work to date performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Nonesuch Records. Slipcase. 2002.

Customer Reviews:

No Masterpiece, But Good Stuff.......2007-04-10

Naive and Sentimental Music is not the masterpiece that Harmonielehre is. Although they employ similar orchestral forces and have similar compositional structures, the former doesn't reach the kind of tension or exuberance that the latter achieves. Nevertheless, there's also a lot of beautiful music here, and if you're a fan of John Adams you will probably find this piece worthwhile.

Postmodern Polyphony.......2006-06-12

Reading this bunch of intelligent reviews for John Adam's work is a great experience. No one seems to be bored by this score and the music intonates lots of different feelings.

Personally I find this music a masterpiece. Not because of all the obvious skill displayed from composer and performers alike. Nor because (as most agree) the orchestration is perfect.

What I think the core of this artistic achievement is John Adams ability capture the Zeitgeist of 1999. It is as if the optimism, all the hype and drive of the 1990s found its way into his score. This is very much music for a certain place at a certain point in history.

Adams also turns this upside down when melancholy and irony takes over in the last movement. There is a ambivalence at play not heard in many film scores (nor in most music at all).
The analogy with Mahler is obvious - a classical composers takes the simple and perhaps sentimental pop idiom then turns it into monument of his time.
John Adams is - I think - the better composer, but the fate of his music (and its critics) will be very similar indeed.

Flash and No Substance.......2006-05-28

As a composer I do actually admirer Adams' skill as an orchestrator and I do like his 'Harmonium' best for it's 'naive' very American(to a British ear) beauty which has a lovely sense of unfolding harmony.
Unfortunately a lot of his music-and this cd is included-is to me just flash technique.Flash,showy and yes-impressive orchestral writing.BUT there seems to be no real substance here.The first and third movement start very nicely indeed.But as other reviewers have said the music quickly loses direction and descends into more complex showy(percussion driven) music as if he is trying to show off his technique.It lacks any real depth.It reminds me of much current film music that is very brilliant highly skilled complex orchestral writing but with not much real musical worth.That is forgiveable because it is written to enhance action on screen.But this ain't no great symphony.His Chamber Symphony is also highly praised but again it's all flash technique to me and not much else.Fast Ride,Loopalooza,Grand Pianola,Century Rolls all to me are brilliant technically flash pieces BUT with no real musical core.
Danielpour suffers from this shallowness too-he is again a brilliantly skilled guy.
There is a relentless tediousness to these movements-almost as if he is scared of rests!

thousands of notes for no apparent reason..........2006-01-23

The following is from my review of a live performance of Naive & Sentimental Music by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. All comments apply equally to this recording.

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Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen is conducting tonight, and he trots onstage displaying the "boyish good looks" and "hip wardrobe" that are inevitably mentioned whenever you read about him. The first half of the program is Naive and Sentimental Music by John Adams, which I am particularly looking forward to. I was obsessed with musical Minimalism during my formative geeky teenage years, especially the Holy Trinity of composers Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and John Adams. I wore out my LPs of "needle stuck in the groove" Minimalist classics such as Glass' Einstein on the Beach and The Photographer, Reich's Music for 18 Musicians and Octet, and Adams' Harmonium and Shaker Loops. I've also continued to listen to the newer music by all of these composers (with varying degrees of disappointment) here in the "laser beam stuck in the aluminum" CD era. John Adams has certainly made out well for himself in the "establishment" orchestra and opera world over the years, becoming perhaps the most performed and applauded contemporary composer out there right now. (Interestingly, though, his "official" website is awful compared to Phil's and Steve's...)

A massive orchestra is assembled on the stage for the nearly hour-long Naive and Sentimental Music, including a rogue's gallery of percussionists playing such exotic instruments as almglocken, high anvil, Chinese gongs, "ranch" triangles, and sleigh bells. The usual full complement of brass, strings, and winds are also joined by two harps, piano, celeste, guitar, and -- as if Adams couldn't get all the sounds he wanted from the 100+ other instruments on stage -- a Kurzweil synthesizer.

There's something I've noticed listening to quite a few newly composed orchestra works over the years: beware of huge percussion sections -- more often than not, it turns out the composer is trying to compensate for a lack of melodic and harmonic interest by throwing in as many gadgets, toys, and strange sounds as possible to keep things "interesting." Unfortunately, Naive and Sentimental Music confirms this observation.

The first movement begins with the awkwardly amplified guitarist (who is actually one of the CSO's string bass players) strumming chords rhythmically and accompanied by flutes and strings attempting to establish a very unmemorable melodic line. More and more instruments join the mix playing what are probably various permutations of that feeble melody, those percussionists keep busy back there running back and forth between different instruments, and Esa-Pekka tries to hold it all together with curious but entertaining arm gestures. You get the idea that this all sounded cool when Mr. Adams pressed play on his expensive MIDI music software set-up, but that real human beings are being asked to do some pretty strange inhuman things and that there are probably more time signatures and polyrhythms going on here than anybody should ever have to keep track of. It keeps building and building, yet just sitting there making lots of noise and not really going anywhere... and then it's over.

Actually we've only just begun... now it's time for the second movement, "Mother of the Man," which we learn from Mr. Adams' (really really long) program notes is a "gloss on Busoni's Berceuse elegiaque." That poor bassist-turned-guitarist is front and center again here, strangling all of his notes. Bowed vibraphone is featured prominently, setting an ethereal mood and promting everyone to nudge their companion and point at the stage -- "Look at that... they're playing the vibes with violin bows... isn't that cool?" Things meander along pleasantly here, occasionally becoming dissonant but mostly floating in an almost New Age-y bliss. Fellow audience members are nodding off in droves, and frankly I consider joining them a few times... The low brass chords concluding this movement are particularly lovely, but frankly you can enjoy this same kind of mood in about half the time by simply listening to Busoni's Berceuse elegiaque instead.

As is customary at the end of every slow, quiet movement performed at Orchestra Hall, the audience coughs, hacks, shuffles, and converse amongst themselves in the most obvious way possible. It would almost be funny if it weren't so embarrasing... do the audiences do this in L.A. too, I wonder? And what about Finland? Esa-Pekka offered no clues...

At last we arrive at the final movement, "Chain to the Rhythm" which lives up to the probably unintended masochistic implications of its name. This is a real "garbage pizza" of a loud and clattery mess where Adams empties out everything in his bag of tricks including repeated clarinet eighth-notes fading in and out ripped right from the pages of Reich's Music for 18 Musicians. The percussionists are running around beating the sh*t out of everything in sight, brass players and blatting out chords all over the place, the poor string players are fiddling around with endless ostinatos, and Mr. Salonen is doing a modern dance worthy of Martha Graham. For the first time that I could see, the Kurzweil synthesizer lady finally does something for a couple minutes, but even her amplified instrument can't be heard above all the clutter. The guitarist looks happy to be sitting this one out, and after thousands of notes have been hurled at us for no apparent reason, the whole thing suddenly stops. Several people leap to their feet shouting "Bravos" and whistling so loud you'd think the Bears had just made it to the next round of the NFL playoffs, while the rest of us clap politely and can hardly wait to get a cocktail during intermission to soothe our frayed nerves and throbbing eardrums.

Still Searching.......2004-12-19

The earlier music of John Adams has been some of the most touching and engaging music to me, and it remains in my regular listening repertoire. With the "Chamber Symphony" being one of my all time favorite works of Adams from years past, I have increasingly lost interest in his most recent music.

His recent "Naive and Sentimental Music" is, unfortunately, no exception to this trend. While everyone else raves about this new work, this piece feels overblown and meandering. Being one for really giving it all I can, it seems that this piece will not do it for me, and this is after hearing it performed live and having listened to the CD at least 15 times.

Somehow, it seems I am one of an extremely small number of listeners (perhaps the only one) who does not enjoy this work, unike the rest of the current concert audience. I have had a similar experience with "On The Transmigration of Souls".

Nonetheless, Adams still has an exquisite command of the orchestral palette, and his music exudes the energy and atmosphere of a true master able to unfold a musical intention with conviction. Where his intention takes this listener is not anywhere very intriguing or moving.

I am still searching in his new work for the journey his earlier work is still able to take me on.

Beethoven: String Quartets Opus 18 Nos. 2 & 3

Average customer rating:

great again!
Finally, the Completion of the Quatuor Mosaïques' Op. 18 Set!

Beethoven: String Quartets Opus 18 Nos. 2 & 3

Manufacturer: Naive
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Beethoven: String Quartets Opus 18 Nos 1 & 4 /Quatuor Mosaiques
Beethoven: String Quartets Opus 18 Nos. 5 & 6
Mozart: Clarinet Quintet; Kegelstatt Trio
Haydn: Piano Sonatas
Mozart: String Quartets /Quatuor Mosaiques

ASIN: B000LXISFK
Release Date: 2007-04-24

Customer Reviews:

great again!.......2007-05-14

I loved the other two discs and now the last installment of Opus 18.

I have the Takacs sets of all Beethoven's string Quartets. I don't know if the Mosaiques' discs are actually better than the Takacs' Opus 18. But I like this recording better. Both are highly recommended

Finally, the Completion of the Quatuor Mosaïques' Op. 18 Set!.......2007-05-11

This review won't take long. I've already written reviews of the Quatuor Mosaïques' two earlier releases of the Op. 18 set -- you can go to those reviews by clicking on these links: Beethoven: String Quartets Opus 18 Nos 1 & 4 /Quatuor Mosaiques & Beethoven: String Quartets Opus 18 Nos. 5 & 6 -- and I raved, nay exulted, about them. Same here. I believe these have become my favorite recordings of these delicious Opus 18 quartets. There is something about the sound of the Quatuor Mosaïques that speaks to me like none other. Their sound almost makes that of modern instrument recordings sound wrong. (See my earlier reviews where I try to explain what I mean by this.) This may be an idiosyncratic response on my part, but there you are.

I assume that Naïve may ultimately issue these three CDs in a box set but I've heard of no such plans. Meanwhile, I hope that Quatuor Mosaïques continues with Beethoven, at least as far as the Op. 59 quartets. Perhaps their sound wouldn't be so appropriate for the quartets that come after that but I'd love to hear them in the Rasumovsky set.

A most urgent recommendation.

Scott Morrison

Average customer rating:

A profound, mesmerizing reading -- the best since Oistrakh
Remarkable Talent
Disappointing Shostakovich First Violin Concerto
An Almost Great Recording

Shostakovich: Violin Concertos
Sergey Khachatryan
Manufacturer: Naive
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Khachaturian, Sibelius: Violin Concertos
Music for Violin and Piano
Schumann: Fantasie; Kreisleriana; Arabeske
Romance De Amor
Romance de Amor

ASIN: B000H0MH2W
Release Date: 2007-01-30

Customer Reviews:

A profound, mesmerizing reading -- the best since Oistrakh.......2007-07-21

I heard Sergey Khachatryan performthe Shostakovich First with the Boston Sym. last spring with Bernard Haitink, and it was one of those rare epiphanies in the concert hall where a hused audience shares an experience beyond description. I hoped that this mesmerizing young artist would duplicate his feat on disc, and he has. This CD captures someone who is destined to sweep all before him, a violinist capable of taking a great work of music and amplifying i to the rank of nobility.

As you might suppose, I can't remotely understand the reviewers here who find fault. What could they possibly be looking for? Khachatryan opens the first movement with a soft, hypnotic singing line that somehow never breaks until he reaches the last bar of the fourth movement. This was so in the concert hall and it's so here. He goes so deep inside himself that one is held in total captivation. The miking is unnaturally close, but no more so than with most star violinists, and fortunately the instrument that Khachatryan plays is worthy to hear up close--the dark woody tone is upheld by perfect intonation. Kurt Masur also finds unexpected depths in his accompaniment.

For years I have cherished the famous pariting of Mravinsky and Oistrakh in this work, and now an equal has joined its ranks. Despite my love for the versions from Mullova, Perlman, and Vengerov, Khachatryan steps far ahead.

Remarkable Talent.......2007-03-28

Khachatryan is a remarkable young artist! I was told about him by a friend in Germany who heard him perform DDS VC1 in Frankfurt. I heard him perform the Sibelius VC in San Diego and was stunned by his vibrancy, clarity and emotion. I have heard the Sibelius many times, but his performance stands out -- it even brought the orchestra to its highest level. As far as this recording, I think Masur needs a bit more fire or possibly a different orchestra would do better, but Khachatryan's performances cannot be faulted for any technical reason. He could possibly instil a bit more 'humanity' into the work. The engineers spotlight the violin to the detriment of the overall sound image.

Disappointing Shostakovich First Violin Concerto.......2007-02-13

This is Khachatryan's 2nd concerto album, the other being the Sibelius/Khachaturian violin concertos. That disc is the more successful of the two. Disappointed is the word which describes his performance of the first Shostakovich concerto. It seems more like a symphony with a solo violin part, the way Khachatryan interprets it. The result is dull, especially in the slow movements. The only section that seems completely successful to me is the cadenza (notice the pianos and sudden forte chords).

Sergey continues to exploit his unprojected restrait, which I think is a mistake. So reserve is his playing, at times he seems a part of the orchestra. A colleague of mine heard him play the Beethoven concerto last summer at the Mostly Mozart Festival, and although he enjoyed his performance on the whole, he said occasionally Khachatryan was audibly remote (to the point of loss of presence).

The 100th anniversary of Shostakovich's death has seen a marked increase of interest in his life and music. Autobiographical codes are having an effect on interpretations of his music as well. This can be a good or bad thing. Hence the ultra-somber readings that have krept into performances of the first concerto as of late. The first movement, the desolate nocturne, even if withdrawn emotionally and with a dynamic marking of piano, the violin part must still sing and dominate. These long, lyrical lines must be constantly nuanced to keep them interesting. Khachatryan fails at this. Occasionally he soars in the upper registers, but the lower and middle must resonate as well. Adding to this, the orchestra is recorded at almost equal levels. The fast movements suffer especially from this. I listened to my copy of Perlman's live performance of this concerto with Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic. Here there are no balance problems, and the result is a concerto that 'sounds' like a violin concerto throughout.

Kurt Mazur's direction is adequate and the Paris orchestra plays admirably, but aside from these balance problems with the soloist, couldn't he have had the horn octaves at the beginning of the passicaglia more sustained and drawn out to noble effect?

Perhaps this review is unfair, since I haven't listened to the 2nd concerto. But I was expecting much more from Khachatryan's performance of the first, which I know much better.

An Almost Great Recording.......2007-02-07

Sergey Khachatryan is a brilliant young Armenian violinist, winner a couple of years ago of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgium competition. His earlier release of the Sibelius and Khachaturian concerti was rapturously received by me as well as any number of others. When I heard that he was recording the two Shostakovich concerti I knew I had to have them. He recorded them in July 2006 with Kurt Masur and the Orchestre National de France and now it is out on the adventurous French label, Naïve.

I wish I could be rapturous about this one. But I'm afraid that this time it's a case of modified rapture. It's not that the violinist stints in his playing, but I have to say that Khachatryan's is such a Apollonian approach that some of the anguish and grittiness of the First Concerto is missing. When one considers the genesis of the work it is impossible to deny that it is one of Shostakovich's most personal works. It was written in 1947-48. During its composition Shostakovich and Prokofiev, along with others, were publicly brutalized by Andrei Zhdanov, Stalin's cultural commissar, and when the concerto was finished it was put away and not premiered until seven years later. Originally assigned opus number 77, when it was premiered and then published in 1955 it had been very slightly modified (in one spot) and was given a new number, Op. 99, as a sop to the still-prevailing but somewhat loosened strictures of the post-Stalin government. Later, though, Shostakovich insisted that the work be reassigned its original opus number as a subtle sign that it had been written at the earlier time during which he and his colleagues were victimized. Unfortunately, the published opus number, Op. 99, has stuck. Still, Shostakovich's insistence about the opus number suggests how strongly he felt about the work and its subtextual meaning. All this explanation is in service of noting that Khachatryan's performance of the work's emotional core, the Passacaglia, is emotionally too cool. Likewise, the savagery of the Scherzo, almost certainly a musical portrait of Stalin, is too tame. Part of this impression can be accounted for by the occasionally colorless playing of the Orchestre National de France under Masur.

If one does not take these matters into consideration, however, there is something to be said musically for the way Khachatryan plays the work. It certainly benefits in the first movement and parts of the third (especially the long cadenza leading into the fourth movement) from Khachatryan's emotionally restrained manner. And from a technical standpoint, and allowing for Khachatryan's choices about approach, the performance is a knockout. He has absolutely no technical limitations and his elegant tone has just enough edge to cut through the heaviest orchestration (although this is helped here by somewhat close miking).

The Second Concerto is definitely well-played by all parties. Its very nature is less anguished than that of the First, and Khachatryan and Masur seem to be of one mind about how it should go. The Second is, however, a weaker sibling than the monumental First. It has its own felicities but it tends not to evince much reaction on the part of its occasional listeners. I have never heard it in concert or indeed ever seen it programmed. I think that says volumes about its relationship to the powerful First.

I continue to think that Sergey Khachatryan is an immensely talented violinist and a growing musician. Even if one disagrees with his approach to the First, one can admire him for having had his own ideas about how it should be played. I remain interested in anything this young man records and will certainly go to hear him live any chance I get.

Scott Morrison

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