Naxos recently released Sonic Rebellion (Naxos 8570760), a collection of new music designed for an audience which normally doesn’t listen to new music. Ach, I can hear the collective groans out there…
But Soundcheck just listed it as one of its “CDs of the Week,” despite a couple of reservations on the part of Brian Wise who didn’t like the cover and took issue with “questionable edits” in Terry Riley’s In C.
I guess this is where the groans start again?
In C is such an important piece, how can one excerpt it, or should one? No composer wants a work taken out of context, but for a sampler designed to give a different audience a sense of an important work, maybe there is a case to be made? We want audiences to come hear our music, yet we often still expect them to swallow it whole. Sometimes, that isn’t always possible. (Just FYI: there was no “fade-up” in this track as Wise suggested, although I’m not sure that will make any difference to those who object.)
That said, all in all, it was a great write-up for a disc which includes music of composers such as Cage, Glass, Henze, Ligeti, Nancarrow, Scelsi, Plaetner, Gubaidulina and Rautavaara, among others. And, for anyone interested, all the other works on Sonic Rebellion are either complete pieces (Penderecki’s Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, for example), or complete movements, which have been taken from a larger work (Rautavaara’s Piano Concerto No. 1, second movement, Andante). Finally, the liner notes list the CD title and number so listeners who want to explore an entire work, can do so as well.
I’m not sure the new music community will applaud this kind of effort. But I listened to the disc, as skeptical as anyone, and was surprised how well it held together. Personally, I think there is a place for intelligent samplers.
Discuss? Please no hate mail.
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