Trojan Women (after the play of Euripides) [Cast Recording]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Euripides wrote The Trojan Women in 415 B.C., but his tragic play about the aftermath of the fall of Troy continues to resonate many centuries after it was first performed. Eleni Karaindrou, best know for her film scores for Ulysses' Gaze and Eternity and a Day, composed this score for a 2001 production of The Trojan Women after being struck by the parallels between the ancient Greek story and the recent situation in the Balkans. Although she chose to use various folk instruments from around the Mediterranean, such as the lyre, an ancestor of the modern violin; the lauto, a Greek form of the lute; and the ney, an end-blown flute, her stark compositions are not folkloric recreations. Instead, she blends the ancient timbres of the instruments with a vocal chorus to create a sound that is not quite modern but not archaic either. Perhaps the best word to use in describing Karaindrou's austere, beautiful music is timeless. --Michael Simmons

Tracks:

Voices
Lament I
Desolate Land I
Lament II
Hecuba's Lament
Parodos - The Land I Call Home
Parodos - Homes Of My Forefathers
Parodos - I Wish I'm Given There
Cassandra's Theme
Cassandra's Trance
First Stasimon - An Ode Of Tears
First Stasimon - For The Phrygian Land A Vast Mourning
Andromache's Theme
Andromache's Lament
Terra Deserta
Astyanax' Theme
Hecuba's Theme I
Hecuba's Theme II
Second Stasimon - Telamon, You Came To Conquer Our Town
Second Stasimon - The City That Gave Birth To You Was Consumed By Fire
An Ode Of Tears
Desolate Land II
Lament III
Third Stasimon - In Vain The Sacrifices
Third Stasimon - My Beloved, Your Soul Is Wandering
Hecuba's Theme
Lament For Astyanax - Oh Bitter Lament, My Bitter Boy
Exodos
Exodos - Accursed Town
Astyanax' Memory

Amazon.com

Euripides wrote The Trojan Women in 415 B.C., but his tragic play about the aftermath of the fall of Troy continues to resonate many centuries after it was first performed. Eleni Karaindrou, best know for her film scores for Ulysses' Gaze and Eternity and a Day, composed this score for a 2001 production of The Trojan Women after being struck by the parallels between the ancient Greek story and the recent situation in the Balkans. Although she chose to use various folk instruments from around the Mediterranean, such as the lyre, an ancestor of the modern violin; the lauto, a Greek form of the lute; and the ney, an end-blown flute, her stark compositions are not folkloric recreations. Instead, she blends the ancient timbres of the instruments with a vocal chorus to create a sound that is not quite modern but not archaic either. Perhaps the best word to use in describing Karaindrou's austere, beautiful music is timeless. --Michael Simmons

Customer Reviews:

Core Quality.......2003-04-21

This is 'transport' music that can take you to your core and let you stand in quiet awe. Magnificent and soul wrenching at the same time the lament and pain is felt at the deepest levels.

Most beautiful music.......2003-03-06

This is one of the most beautiful CD's I have heard. The different instruments used and the female chorus is perfect for this. I do not agree that it is monotonous. Grief in all its forms is, ultimately, exhausting. The music is a gorgeous rendition of loss, sorrow and grief.

Heartbreaking and barren.......2002-11-30

There are a few different ways to approach Eleni Karaindrou's Trojan Women. One is from a historical context; if you've read the Iliad (story of the war between the beleaguered Achaeans and the besieged Trojans), then this music is the perfect accompaniment to the desolation and destruction at the conclusion of the story. All humanity can relate to the heartwrenching laments and themes throughout the cd.

But if it's so perfect, why a low rating? From a purely musical view, the cd lacks in variety, the same few melodies and rhythms echoing through the sparse choral pieces. Even when the simply breathtaking female chorus breaks in, it can get monotonous. The cuts are very short, but even then they can seem long to the ear. One has to pay close attention to the music in order to appreciate it, which is not a bad thing at all.

all in all, historical context helps the listener appreciate the music immensely. even with the lyrics printed in the booklet, one wouldn't know who the characters referred to are, or what their part in the epic was. It's worth a full listen or two before you decide to invest in it, but keep an open mind and you'll find a treasure contained. Just don't be afraid to cry.

An atypical and moving Karaindrou.......2002-06-12

If you are a collector of Karaindrou's music like myself you will be surprised when you hear this album for the first time,
the Byzantian tunes will sound unfamiliar. Gradually you will recognise her moving notes in those very tunes.
I strongly recomend this album to everyone who enjoys Karaindrou's music. It is quite different than her past work yet very much like her.

Fantasies for Orchestra/The Trojan Women

Average customer rating:

Not the best introduction to the music of Karel Husa

Fantasies for Orchestra/The Trojan Women

Manufacturer: Phoenix USA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000009LPL
Release Date: 1998-01-01

Tracks:

Divertimento for Brass Ensemble and Percussion
Fantasies for Orchestra
The Trojan Women

Album Description

The works on this disc show three different sides of Karel Husa. The Divertimento, written in 1958, is a light, charming piece of Neoclassicism in four brief movements. The more expansive Fantasies for Orchestra from 1956 is one of the composer's finest works, virtually a three-movement symphony. The opening movement brings to mind Bartók, especially in the slow, constantly building passage for strings that occupies its first half. The second movement is an exhilarating dance, based on a two-plus-three rhythm that suggests Eastern European folk music. The Finale is called "Nocturne," and there are once again suggestions of Bartók -- the connections to the latter's night music are obvious -- but far less tense and a bit more lyrical. The scenes from "The Trojan Women" show again a different Husa, quite comfortable with orchestral and compositional techniques of the second half of the century. There are dissonant clusters, a huge percussion battery, and the use of microtones, all of which help to create a score of considerable tension and dramatic power. The piece demonstrates one of Husa's greatest talents, the ability to use effects often associated with more forbidding music in a manner that always remains accessible for the audience.

Customer Reviews:

Not the best introduction to the music of Karel Husa.......2007-03-01

The small Phoenix label has been very enterprising and helpful in giving a second, CD life to recordings of 20th century American composers (Barber, Rorem, Menotti, Douglas Moore, Irving Fine, Peter Mennin, Lou Harrison, Ezra Laderman, Nicolas Flagello - to which one can add the Argentinean Alberto Ginastera) first published on rather obscure and specialized LP labels, such as Orion or Everest. One related and very welcome reissue has been the 2nd and Pulitzer-Prize winning 3rd String Quartets of Karel Husa, an important recording from the early 70s (see my review of String Quartets No.2 and No.3). In the present case, however, they are really unhelpful and slapdash in providing no recording dates nor any information about the sources of these recordings. One of the most appreciated innovations of the CD over the LP has been to provide that kind of info and, as much as one is grateful to Phoenix for making that kind of material available, one can only chastise them for their sub-par publication standards. Even the brass ensemble conducted by clarinetist Lawrence Sobold in the Divertimento is unnamed. The selected discography contained in the liner notes of the New World Records CD with Husa's 2nd violin sonata and 2nd piano sonata (see my review) refers to it as the New York Brass Ensemble, but I don't know where that info comes from and if it is reliable. The Scenes from "The Trojan Women" must have been recorded somewhere between 1981 (the ballet's first performance) and 1998 (when this CD was issued). As for the Fantasies for orchestra, there is in the Library catalog of Cornell University (where Husa has taught from 1954 to his retirement in 1992) an entry for an LP published by Cornell in 1962, containing what appears to be this very recording, made by the composer with the "Orchestre des solistes de Paris" (and certainly not the comical hodge-podge of French and English "Orchestra des soloistes de Paris" as the Phoenix back cover has it). During his Paris years (around 1954), Husa made two recordings with the cryptic "Orchestre des Cento Soli" (Brahms' first symphony and Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin-Suite and two Rhapsodies for violin with soloist Devy Erlih), and I assume this is the same orchestra.

Anyway, the 1958 Divertimento for brass ensemble and percussion and the 1956 Fantasies for orchestra are not the most typical of their composer - or rather, they are typical of his earlier, not yet mature style. The short brass divertimento (11'), which comes in excellent sound, is couched in a rather anonymous, mildly modern and slightly bombastic "American" idiom; it could be, really, anybody's composition: Morton Gould, Persichetti, Copland, Virgil Thompson, you name it. The second movement, "Little Scherzo", betrays some Bartokian influence - but no more than anybody who'd have studied his scores in those years might have displayed, and as for the fourth movement, I had to read its title, "Slovak Dance", to realize that it was that rather than just any merry, boisterous stars-and-stripes finale.

The 20-minute long Fantasies are (very) moderately original in their construction, in that the fast movement (Capriccio) is framed by two slow ones (Aria and Nocturne), all played without interruption. The first movement then is a brooding aria, first uttered by the strings and rising to a climax then receding to its initial calmness. It is reminiscent of the opening of Bartok's Concerto for orchestra or the first movement of the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. The Capriccio could be a Martinu piano concerto - but without the motoric drive so typical of Martinu. More original is the closing Nocturne, again starting softly and rising to a climax, but very subtly orchestrated, in an almost "pointillistic" manner, with a very colorful result. This movement alone - I believe in the same interpretation - had been published on a CRI LP which also had the 1st Symphony and Serenade, the two latter reissued on a now unavailable CRI CD without their filler (see my review). The sound is not as vivid as with the two other pieces, but one adjusts easily.

As their title implies (but you've got to go to the back cover for the full title), the Scenes from the ballet "The Trojan Women" are not the 44-minute complete ballet but a 28 minute suite drawn from it. The complete work is featured on a First Edition CD with the Louisville Orchestra under Akira Endo, which I have reviewed (Karel Husa: Two Sonnets from Michelangelo / The Trojan Women). The composer-led Brno orchestra sounds more raw and gruff-colored, with more prominent percussion, than Louisville under Endo - which adds much ominous power in the more violent numbers, like Cassandra's dance (track 9) or The Death of Astyanax (track 11), but at the cost of some refinement, as in the upward scale that ends the prologue (track 8). Hecuba's lullaby to her slaughtered grandson Astyanax (track 10) comes out very well, thanks to the cruder sound of the bamboo flute over bells, making it sound - rather inappropriately to the historical subject but nonetheless interestingly musically - like "Chinese" music. In Louisville the flute was hardly distinguishable from a normal flute, but again the string glissandos were more refined and eerie. The sometimes very descriptive and plot-bound nature of the complete ballet is not so much in evidence in the Scenes, which sound more like Husa's more "abstract" compositions.

Still, given that neither the Divertimento nor the Fantasies showcases Husa at his most mature and personal, and that the complete ballet can be found elsewhere and is a preferable representation of the composer, this CD is perhaps not the best introduction to the music of Karel Husa.

Karel Husa: Two Sonnets from Michelangelo - The Trojan Women

Average customer rating:

Another entry for the same First Edition CD with Husa's complete ballet "The Trojan Women"

Karel Husa: Two Sonnets from Michelangelo - The Trojan Women

Manufacturer: First Edition
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0007ORE26
Release Date: 2004-01-01

Tracks:

I. The Night
II. To God
I. Prologue And Scene I
II. Scene II
III. Interlude I
IV. Scene III
V. Scene IV
VI. Interlude II
VII. Scene V And Epilogue

Customer Reviews:

Another entry for the same First Edition CD with Husa's complete ballet "The Trojan Women".......2007-03-05

This is apparently another entry for the same CD as ASIN B00027JY76, and I refer you to the review I have published under that alternative entry: Karel Husa: Two Sonnets from Michelangelo / The Trojan Women.

Average customer rating:

The Trojan Women : a significant composition in Husa's output - but maybe not his best music

Karel Husa: Two Sonnets from Michelangelo / The Trojan Women

Manufacturer: First Edition
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00027JY76
Release Date: 2004-06-08

Customer Reviews:

The Trojan Women : a significant composition in Husa's output - but maybe not his best music .......2007-02-28

Karel Husa's "The Trojan Women" is a ballet written in 1980 on commission from the Louisville Orchestra and Ballet, and this CD reissues the first recording of the piece, conducted by Akira Endo in 1981, shortly after the first performance - to my knowledge, it remains the only one (the other, composer-conducted recording on a Phoenix CD - Fantasies for Orchestra/The Trojan Women - is only of the symphonic suite drawn from the ballet). The composition is viewed by Husa as the third panel in a triptych of "Manifests" (as he terms them) or outcries against the woes of mankind, also comprising his famous "Music for Prague 1968" (the Soviet block invasion of Czechoslovakia) and the 1971 "Apotheosis of this Earth" (Mankind's destruction of the planet).

The music of "The Trojan Women" is powerful and dramatic, oftentimes imaginative in its sonic invention. Among the special highlights for me are the beginning, a sinister sound-evocation in the orchestra's lower registers which could be a depiction of Chaos as in Haydn's Creation but here represents the smouldering ruins of Troy, and the transition from Prologue to scene 1 (starting at 2:25 in track 1) with its beautiful, Britten-like harp and orchestra's upward scale, ending in the strings' and harp's highest register with soft vibraphone punctuations. There is also a battle music (Scene III, track 6) which relies heavily on percussion alone and brings to mind the interlude from Music for Prague. The Epilogue is also a very dramatic build-up of tension, bringing to mind in its final pages the second movement of "Apotheosis", a violent onslaught of pounding percussion and brass interjections.

On the other hand, the music's limitation, I feel, comes from its nature of "Gebrauchsmusik" (music conceived for a specific use, here the ballet): it is at times a bit too descriptive and graphic, and relies to that end on a musical vocabulary so often used as to make it sound somewhat hackneyed. Take again track 1, for instance, when Scene 1 sets in and with it Hecuba's mourning (3:49), represented by a long, sorrowful melody played on the English horn, first underpinned by harp only than a hushed "carpet" of strings, and later joined by bass clarinet. A menacing trumpet motto depicts the arrival of the Greek soldiers at 6:39 and again at 8:52 with snare drums and timpani - how more cliché can you get? Then come the mounting tension of a funeral march based on a passacaglia-like bass string ostinato (7:00), followed by a tussle between Greek soldiers and Trojan women, starting around 9:30, with string riffs pitted against woodwind shrieks - the Jets and the Sharks were there before. Not that all those musical gestures aren't dramatic and effective, but they've all been done before. To an extent they liken Husa's composition to film music - admittedly of the highest order, but not as inventive, nourishing and rewarding, in my opinion, as his more "abstract" music (his symphonies, string quartets and chamber music in general). It is something I had already remarked with "Apotheosis of this Earth" (see my review of the Louisville issue Husa, Creston and Lutoslawski), though there is more original sonic invention therein (possibly because it is less based upon a detailed plot).

So, although this is a very significant composition in Husa's output and therefore indispensable to the serious collector of this composer's recordings, I wouldn't recommend it as a first introduction. For that, go to the Marco Polo release with Music for Prague, Fresque and the 2nd Symphony (see my review of Husa: Music for Prague 1968, Symphony no 2 "Reflections", Fresque).

Contrary to what their title seems to imply, the Two Sonnets from Michelangelo (also a reissue of a world-premiere recording made bh Robert Whitney shortly after the first performance, in 1972) are not orchestral songs, but two short tone poems inspired by two Michelangelo sonnets: one is an eerie and haunting nocturne after by Michelangelos La Notte (the night), full of Husa's compositional trademarks (string glissandos, woodwind and string quarter-note slides, hushed harp tremolos) and rising to a powerful climax, and the other one a more agitated and anguished piece after the sculptor and poet's A Dio (To God). They are both very effective and inventive.

The sound is entirely up-to-date. The notes are thorough on data about first performances and recordings (even original matrix numbers are given), the texts and translations for the two sonnets are provided, and a full synopsis of the ballet's plot is given, but there is unfortunately no info on the origins and signification of "The Trojan Women". The notes also make the claim that "Music for Prague" is available on another First Edition CD in a world premiere recording conducted by the composer - but that is wrong: that performance is conducted by Jorge Mester, and it is the disc's companion piece, "Apotheosis of this Earth", which is conducted by Husa.

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

Good Old Boys

Herman D. Koppel: Ternio, etc.

Guilty 'Til Proved Innocent!

Complete Norman Granz Sessions [Import]

After the Rain [Import]

Let Me Love You

Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1982 Original Broadway Cast) [Cast Recording]

Haydn: Symphonies 94,96,104

Holy Wood [Import]

Improvisations for Piano

Jazz Music: A Touch of Evil

Gigantes de La Cancion

El Sol Nace Para Todos

Swing Time Shouters, Vol. 2

Mescalero