The Music of Life/Joseph Curiale
Track Listings
| 1. Tea in Chinese Camp: Sky Blue after Rain | ||
| 2. Tea in Chinese Camp: A Cup of Kindness | ||
| 3. Tea in Chinese Camp: Double Happiness | ||
| 4. Passages: Liquid Autumm | ||
| 5. Passages: Middle Essence | ||
| 6. An American Variation | ||
| 7. The Music of Life: Prairie Hymn | ||
| 8. The Music of Life: A Prayer | ||
| 9. The Music of Life: A Gathering of Atoms | ||
| 10. Shadow and Light | ||
| 11. Heaven and Earth | ||
| 12. Wind River (I Am) |
The Music of Life/Joseph Curiale, Music, Joseph Curiale, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Osamu Kitajima, Karen Han, Masakazu Yoshizawa, Stephanie O'Keefe, Yitkin Seow
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The Music of Life/Joseph Curiale
Manufacturer: Orchard Road ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD  Classical
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ASIN: B00005S81D Release Date: 2001-12-01 |
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Customer Reviews:
same ol' same ol'.......2006-08-26
Music that touches my soul.......2003-11-15
If you buy only one CD this year..... buy this one!.......2002-06-05
Curiale's first album, Awakening, was once described in a British magazine review as 'film music without the film', an opinion that kind of depends on whether one has the imagination to close one's eyes and see the pictures for oneself... not difficult with music of this level of filmic colour and imagination.
Music of Life begins with Tea in Chinese Camp, a triptych that takes its name from three Chinese teacups unearthed in a small Californian town and given to Curiale by a local historian there. Each movement of this opening work is as finely crafted and richly coloured as the ornaments from which they take their names and one can imagine clearly from the music the possible worlds that, by cradling the fragments of china cup, one holds in one's hand; erhu soloist Karen Han turns in an awesome performance throughout the hauntingly beautiful 'A Cup of Kindness'.
'Liquid Autumn' paints exquisite strokes about that most colourful of seasons - most notably with the liquid tone of French Horn player Stephanie O'Keefe. to whom the track is dedicated.
(I am skipping forwards a little now, but 1000 words is not nearly enough space to really tell you about Joseph of this disc...)
Halfway through the CD and one arrives at 'American Variation', a track which Curiale admits to being his "...symphonic Opus#1".
Written as an essay of the deep emotional experiences he had whilst living in Japan for many years, Curiale's 'American Variation' features two of the traditional instruments of Japan - the koto and shakuhachi - and conjures vivid imagery of a country which for me too has a deep emotional resonance. For anyone who has travelled to Japan, this work will doubtless take you straight back again and for anyone who has never been, Curiale and soloists paint a picture so vivid that one simply has to let one's eyelids drop to begin the journey. Any fans of the work of Ryuichi Sakamoto, especially his soundtracks (Last Emperor/Little Buddha) will find enormous enjoyment in Curiale's orchestrations and the rich and broad palette he uses in this work in particular.
'Shadow and Light' (track 10), like many of the works on the disc recorded in London's famed Abbey Road, brings together the extraordinarily talented violist Yuko Inoue, flautist Pippa Davies, Geoff Brown on English horn, Caroline Dearnly on cello and pianist Kelvin Thomson. Dedicated to artist Nao Otomo, 'Shadow and Light' celebrates and explores the middle-world between these two extremes; the delicate and rippling piano providing the ever-present line along which the other instrumentalists travel and inter-twine.
'Wind River' is a fittingly grand ending to this CD, bringing to bear the full force of The London Symphony Orchestra, in a work originally written for the University of Wyoming in recognition of the new millennium. Saturating himself in the state and all he could read about it for one year has made a work that lives and breathes in its form. The opening brass lines set the scene, and one feels the space and temple-like grandeur of the vista open. Curiale's brass and wind lines are what sing through in this piece, and are what give form to both the boldness and delicacy of the image of landscape he is conjuring.
There's so much more one could say about Music of Life, but really I would just say to you to buy it and by doing so to embark upon a musical voyage that no music-lover should miss.
Truly the Music of Life.......2002-04-14
Mr. Curiale's life IS his music.......2002-01-17
Each composition offers us a glimpse into an intense personal relationship between the man and his art. He does not take composition lightly: composition for Mr. Curiale is an intense, exhausting experience, an outpouring of his entire heart and soul into his work. It is this deep personal expression that sets his compositions apart from his colleagues.
The composer, a master at orchestration, successfully melds Western sonorities with Oriental modalities, thereby creating a style of music uniquely his own. Listen to his "Tea in a Chinese Camp" featuring erhu artist Karen Han and to "An American Variation" to hear the influence that his years living in the Far East have left on him. On the other hand, listen to "Wind River (I Am)" to actually "hear" the great state of Wyoming in its entire natural splendor, and also to "Prairie Hymn", a hymn dedicated to the spirit of the American Heartland and its people.
This CD should be in every music lover's library as a fine example of the best of contemporary music today.
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