Garbage Concerto/ Rock Symphony

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The title Garbage Concerto: a concerto for recycled garbage and orchestra might make one fear the worst, but Jan Järvlepp's work for orchestra and five soloists playing glass bottles, metal cans, and hubcaps is both melodic and accessible. The opening and closing movements deliver dynamic excitement, while the central movement is a highly atmospheric soundscape, the themes carried by soloists blowing over the top of tuned glass bottles. Many who grew up with progressive rock before developing an appreciation of classical music will love Imants Kalnins' Rock Symphony. Written in 1972, it reverses prog-rock's flirtation with the classics, assimilating the excitement of rock rhythms into something much more sophisticated. The opening Allegretto has the relentless drive of Led Zeppelin's Kashmir, the Andante tranquillo a flavor of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, while the finale ranges, not entirely successfully, from art song to Broadway. Elsewhere, there are elements of orchestral jazz and film music, but rather than a postmodern mess, the result is a largely convincing expansion of the symphonist's palette. The sound is very detailed, the Kroumata Percussion Ensemble well-balanced against the orchestra, and conductor Lan Shui draws expressive, exhilarating performances from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. --Gary S. Dalkin

Amazon.com

The title Garbage Concerto: a concerto for recycled garbage and orchestra might make one fear the worst, but Jan Järvlepp's work for orchestra and five soloists playing glass bottles, metal cans, and hubcaps is both melodic and accessible. The opening and closing movements deliver dynamic excitement, while the central movement is a highly atmospheric soundscape, the themes carried by soloists blowing over the top of tuned glass bottles. Many who grew up with progressive rock before developing an appreciation of classical music will love Imants Kalnins' Rock Symphony. Written in 1972, it reverses prog-rock's flirtation with the classics, assimilating the excitement of rock rhythms into something much more sophisticated. The opening Allegretto has the relentless drive of Led Zeppelin's Kashmir, the Andante tranquillo a flavor of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, while the finale ranges, not entirely successfully, from art song to Broadway. Elsewhere, there are elements of orchestral jazz and film music, but rather than a postmodern mess, the result is a largely convincing expansion of the symphonist's palette. The sound is very detailed, the Kroumata Percussion Ensemble well-balanced against the orchestra, and conductor Lan Shui draws expressive, exhilarating performances from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. --Gary S. Dalkin

Customer Reviews:

I liked both works.......2001-01-03

The Garbage Concerto is essentially a percussion concerto -- very lively and accessible.

The Rock Symphony is fun to listen to until the final movement, when the vocal part seems contrived and pretentious.

If you are expanding your collection of modern music, this would be a fun addition.

I liked it so much I wrote the liner note!.......2000-08-21

I was travelling home across town one night in the car in March 1998 when I heard a remarkable piece of classical music that was to change my life. I found out, after much effort, that it was the 4th Symphony of Latvian composer Imants Kalnins, and finally got hold of a copy of the 1997 Liepaja Symphony Orchestra recording on the Latvian Remix label, unavailable at that time (and today) except through Balticshop.com or, in the USA, SVEIKS.com. I found out that Kalnins is a hero to the people of latvia, and that he also writes and records wonderful rock on the UPE label of Ainars Mielavs (UPE.parks.lv). I began pestering the boss of BIS, the very urbane Robert von Bahr, to record some Kalnins music, as I felt it should be available more easily in the public domain, not knowing (as neither did he!) that a recording of the 'Rock Symphony' was already in the pipeline there! Robert eventually asked me to write the liner note for this new recording, which gave me enormous pleasure. I enjoyed talking to Kalnins and Lan Shui the conductor of the SSO, but, a little sadly, I cannot say that I find this recording as thrilling and majestic as the 1997 CD. Too much Rock and not enough Symphony? Perhaps Lan Shui has substituted the rock drumkit and electric guitars of that 1997 recording with kettle drums and pizzicato strings, but the subtlety and drive of the original is compromised by the overfast tempo and thin string arrangements of this BIS recording, I fear. Nonetheless, I do recommend itheartily, and I am thrilled to see Kalnins' material finally getting issued on a recognised and easily available record label of BIS' renown. I don't know what to think of the Garbage Concerto. ~I don't find it satisfying. Just start playing the disc at track 4, perhaps?