We Sing For The Future!

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Rzewski's interpretations of these two works for solo piano are wholly admirable, the performances compelling, and the two improvisations towards the conclusion of We Sing For The Future — an unexpected bonus — are quite magnificent. He stretches the boundaries of style and musical language drawn up by Cardew without rupturing them, and, at the end of the improvisations, Cardew's music is ushered back, seamlessly and convincingly. In the second improvisation we are reminded of the great Bach/Liszt transcriptions; there can be no higher praise. Cardew would certainly have approved the inclusion of the improvisations and would have relished the verve and boldness of Rzewski’s playing. -from the notes by John Tilbury

Tracks:

Act One: Ov - Brewer CO/Rudolph Palmer
Act One: Chor: Ye Sons Of Israel, Ev'ry Tribe Attend - The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes
Act One: Recitative: Behold, My Friends, What Vast Rewards Are Giv'n - John Aler/John Ostendorf
Act One: Recitative: Matrons And Virgins, With Unweary'd Pray'r - Julianne Baird
Act One: Recitative: Caleb, Attend To All I Now Prescribe - John Aler/The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes
Act One: Accompanied Recitative: So Long The Memory Shall Last - John Aler
Act One: Recitative: But Who Is He? - Tremendous To Behold! - D'Anna Fortunato
Act One: Recitative: Joshua, I Come Commission'd From On High - The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes/John Aler
Act One: Recitative: To Give Command, Prerogative Is Thine - John Aler
Act One: Chor: The Lord Commands, And Joshua Leads - The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes
Act One: Accompanied Recitative: In These Blest Scenes - D'Anna Fortunato/Julianne Baird
Act One: Aria Da Capo: Hark! 'Tis The Linnet And The Thrush - Julianne Baird
Act One: Recitative: Oh Achsah! Form'd For Ev'ry Chaste Delight - D'Anna Fortunato/Julianne Baird
Act One: Fanfare/Recitative: The Trumpet Calls: Now Jericho Shall Know - D'Anna Fortunato/The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes
Act Two: Recitative: 'Tis Well! Six Times The Lord Hath Been Obey'd - John Aler
Act Two: March Of The Ark: Glory To God - John Aler/The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes
Act Two: Recitative: The Walls Are Levell'd! Pour The Chosen Bands - John Ostendorf

Tracks:

Act Two: Aria: To Vanity And Earthly Pride - Julianne Baird
Act Two: Recitative: Let All The Seed Of Abrah'm Now Prepare - John Aler/The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes
Act Two: Recitative: Joshua, The Men, Dispatch'd By Thee To Learn - John Ostendorf/The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes
Act Two: Recitative: Whence This Dejection? - John Aler/The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes
Act Two: Recitative: Now Give The Army Breath - D'Anna Fortunato
Act Two: Recitative: Indulgent Heav'n Hath Heard My Virgin Pray'r - Julianne Baird
Act Two: Recitative: Surely I'm Deceiv'd! With Sorow I Behold- - John Ostendorf/D'Anna Fortunato
Act Two: Recitative: Brethren And Friends, What Joy This Scene Imparts - John Aler/John Ostendorf
Act Two: Solo And Chor: Oh! Thou, Bright Orb, Great Ruler Of The Day - John Aler/The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes
Act Three: Chor: Hail! Mighty Joshua, Hail! - The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes
Act Three: Aria Da Capo: Happy, Oh Thrice Happy We - Julianne Baird
Act Three: Recitative: Caleb, For Holy Eleazar Send - John Aler/John Ostendorf/The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes
Act Three: Recitative: Oh Caleb, Fear'd By Foes, By Friends Ador'd! - D'Anna Fortunato/John Ostendorf
Act Three: Chor: Father Of Mercy, Hear The Prayer We Make - The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes
Act Three: Recitative: In Bloom Of Youth, This Stripling Has Acheiv'd - John Aler/The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes
Act Three: Recitative: Welcome, My Son! My Othniel Good And Great! - John Ostendorf/D'Anna Fortunato/Julianne Baird
Act Three: Recitative: While Life Shall Last, Each Moment Will Improve - D'Anna Fortunato/Julianne Baird
Act Three: Recitative: While Lawless Tyrants, With Ambition Blind - John Ostendorf/The Palmer Sgrs/Cynthia Richards-Hewes

Customer Reviews:

follow up.......2003-12-14

Oops, sorry, forgot about the soloists. John Aler has a brighter tenor sound, not as dark as Robert Tear, but the way he handles the recitative text is very similar. Both he an John Ostendorf are a little heavy on the vibrato for my taste, but their diction is not that much skewed by it. J. Ostendorf is a heavy, rich bass, which is striking when you first hear it against Aler's brighter lyric voice. It almost seems wooly, but he steers it away from any Wagnerian tendancies to create a striking bu handsome compliment. Baird is gorgeous- it's that simple. She is not my favorite, but she comes real close. With a voice reminiscent of Emma Kirkby and expression along the lines of Janet Baker, it's a refreshing treat among all these increasing Helden-Sopranos who think that baroque music gives them an excuse to through all delicacy out the window. Over all, this recording is more of a 4 1/2, and I think the most well balanced one may come across.

diamond in rough.......2003-12-14

The conductor may be no Raymond Leppard, but he's preferable by a great stretch than some of these other "new baroque" recordings out there where everything is a forte marcato allegretto. He maintains the baroque atmosphere, much like Harnoncourt's sound (is this he? I don't know who the conductor is). The chorus also has the baroque sound, but my goodness! Thank God for a chorus with proper vowels and a nice sound! Much better than some Deutsche Grammaphon choruses I've heard. If you like the Monteverdi Choir with Gardiner, you'd probably like this chorus as well (I myself am a choister and soloist specializing in oratorio and other such sacred music).

An occasional Haendel........1999-10-26

The enclosed booklet is too poor. The singers are only good (the best is the soprano). Only good also the conductor . In this way this Haendel's work seems a minor one. Is really so?

Average customer rating:

magnificent piano power in solidarity with a fallen comrade

We Sing For The Future!

Manufacturer: New Albion Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical | Indie Music | Stores | Music
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ASIN: B00005UFF4
Release Date: 2001-12-04

Tracks:

Theme
Cadenza I
Candenza II
Ending
Part I
Part II
Part III

Album Description

Rzewski's interpretations of these two works for solo piano are wholly admirable, the performances compelling, and the two improvisations towards the conclusion of We Sing For The Future — an unexpected bonus — are quite magnificent. He stretches the boundaries of style and musical language drawn up by Cardew without rupturing them, and, at the end of the improvisations, Cardew's music is ushered back, seamlessly and convincingly. In the second improvisation we are reminded of the great Bach/Liszt transcriptions; there can be no higher praise. Cardew would certainly have approved the inclusion of the improvisations and would have relished the verve and boldness of Rzewski's playing. -from the notes by John Tilbury

Customer Reviews:

magnificent piano power in solidarity with a fallen comrade.......2001-12-21

While returning to his home on Leighton Park Road,London in December 1981 Cornelius Cardew was struck by a hit 'n run driver. The circumstances surrounding his death,indeed murder, are rather opaque in that the driver of the auto has never been apprehended.And there was no witnesses, at least not any who have provided usefull clues. Cardew had layed in the cold, in the street for hours before he was discovered. And if the weather had been warmer, the situation may have been very different.

Cardew once avant-gardist composer of graphic/conceptual works, as "Treatise" abandoned those endeavors and turned to Marxist activism, caught in the Anti-Vietnam and May,late Sixties rebellions in Europe. The last year of his life he was working with the various Indian, Pakistani families and was actually learning to speak their various dialects.He also was homeless for a time, living in a train station, that he maintained, and had been arrested for his activities in Camberwell. At the time prior to his death, Cardew had been organizing demonstrations against the growing right wing in London, The National Front, where firebombings of innocent working people's homes had been occuring with greater frequency. Recall the Brixton riots in London condemning the growing racism in London was soon to occur.

"We Sing for the Future" is a piano solo written the last year of his life 1981, in a somewhat Schubertian language, with refernces to early English piano music of William Byrd,John Bull,and the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book,a musical language exhibiting a directness,one of immediate communication.Cardew's abandonment of the avant-garde, the Post-Cage universe of purposless purpose was the growing exhibited elitism,and an indifference to the real problems of political struggle and culture.He turned to obvious,base accessible musical forms uncompromisingly. In this way the function of the music served political activist ways,there extending the focus of deeply historical social and political implications.
He felt the art of piano transcriptions or arrangements of Irish and Chinese revolutionary songs to be an interesting aesthetic focus and as a real supplement toward education of Left cultures.Music remained now simply another means, not a central focus to his creativity.
Cardew's piano writing was always a seminal means in his art. High levels of sophisticated ornamentations,rolled chords elegant clusters, and timbres as in his "February Pieces",for example had now adapted itself wonderfully toward this new unique political repertoire of works.Many of his primary works prior to this political period was for piano solo, as the "Three Winter Potatoes",and three piano "Sonatas", the 'Third Sonata' refurbishing the Boulezian language with a degree of originality. Much of the music he wrote during this period, 1972 to 1981 had this directly functional value and purpose,music intended to be played at worker gatherings, meeting halls, fundraisers,or cultural events.

Rzewski here adds an improvisatory section toward the end, much like a development/commentary,and admirably explores dark anguished penumbral dimensions of this rather simple,uplifting heartfelt tune that Cardew wrote.So we hear Cardew's complete work with Rzewski's appendations.
As pianist Rzewski has no equals in improvisatory prowess,never turning back on the global visions of the work, exploring what he had played, turning, returning, re-constituting the materials with further musical commentary. The lamenting power Rzewski imparts here is indeed a compelling content powerfully overwrought moments of extremes of virtuosity very similar to Busoni,Listz or Beethoven.

The inclusion here of the 'Thaelmann Variations' is yet another example toward this functional/educative music in the service of a political cause. The work a rigid set of variations after a known "lied" pastoral opeining the work with beautifully unencumbered rolled chords.
The work was written to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the death of Ernst Thaelmann, leader of the German Communist Party from 1927 until his death in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944.
The more militant sections of these variations utilizes Hanns Eisler's "Heimliche Aufmarsch"(1927) on the secret gathering of troops. There is also another quote from Charles Koechlin's "Bandar Log" in the more violent variations here. These are followed by more lyrical,melodramatic variations. One striking variation is of softly gentle repeated chords for one hand only. The variations ends in a rousing-like tonal excursion into traditional materials of ascending/descending chords,and scales to maximize the positive dimensions of the struggle Cardew had conducted with his own life and for the benefit of others.

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