{"id":15668,"date":"2013-11-02T08:41:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-02T13:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=15668"},"modified":"2013-11-02T08:41:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-02T13:41:00","slug":"daily-album-review-1-richard-danielpours-evocative-approachable-new-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2013\/11\/02\/daily-album-review-1-richard-danielpours-evocative-approachable-new-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily album review 1: Richard Danielpour&#8217;s evocative, approachable new music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Faced with the fall deluge of new releases, it&#8217;s time to bring back the daily album review from now until mid-December:<\/em><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/11\/darkness.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-15671\" alt=\"darkness\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/11\/darkness.jpg\" width=\"216\" height=\"216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/11\/darkness.jpg 216w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/11\/darkness-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 216px) 100vw, 216px\" \/><\/a>American composer Richard Danielpour has, in middle age, reached a sort of golden period of quality as well as quantity, as demonstrated in a collection of three recent works recorded by the Nashville Symphony and conductor Giancarlo Guerrero (who has done impressive work with the Toronto Symphony) for the Naxos label.<\/p>\n<p>The marquee piece is <em>Darkness in the Ancient Valley<\/em>, subtitled Symphony in Five Movements, from 2011. At 36 minutes, it is a substantial and moving work depicting the tribulations of Iranian people under religious dictatorship.<\/p>\n<p>Danielpour aims for poetry in music rather than slamming his listeners over the head with a political argument. He writes tonally in a style that evokes film music one moment, Shostakovich the next, and John Adams the next.<\/p>\n<p>In short, it&#8217;s a stewpot of accessible, current art-music styles from a master of the narrative. Danielpour knows when to raise the dynamics and tempo and when to get into a more contemplative mode.<\/p>\n<p>The Finale, titled &#8220;Consecration&#8221; is a setting of a text by Rumi gorgeously sung by soprano Hila Pitmann.<\/p>\n<p>The shortest piece on the album, <em>Lacrimae Beati<\/em> is a purely instrumental meditation for strings on the Lacrimosa from Mozart&#8217;s <em>Requiem<\/em>, inspired by Danielpour being tripped by a tree root in front of where Mozart is thought to be buried, followed by a harrowing plane ride in a storm.<\/p>\n<p>The album concludes with <em>A Woman&#8217;s Life<\/em>, a 2007 song cycle setting seven poems by Maya Angelou that trace life&#8217;s beginning to its end. Soprano Angela Brown has a rich but not pretty voice, but she fills every movement with moving conviction.<\/p>\n<p>Danielpour is wonderfully economical in his orchestration of the accompaniment, and Guerrero gets a beautifully clear and balanced sound from his orchestra.<\/p>\n<p>New music is rarely this satisfying to listen to.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll find all the details of the album <a href=\"http:\/\/www.naxos.com\/catalogue\/item.asp?item_code=8.559707\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>John Terauds<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Faced with the fall deluge of new releases, it&#8217;s time to bring back the daily album review from now until mid-December:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,36,81,51,52,60,1,70],"tags":[6451,206,1415,4093,2352,6471,4092],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/11\/darkness.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-44I","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15668"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15668"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15674,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15668\/revisions\/15674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15668"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}