{"id":37707,"date":"2016-07-18T11:34:52","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T15:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=37707"},"modified":"2016-07-18T11:34:52","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T15:34:52","slug":"record-keeping-orbis-valerie-milot-harp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2016\/07\/18\/record-keeping-orbis-valerie-milot-harp\/","title":{"rendered":"RECORD KEEPING | Valerie Milot Provides Fresh Perspective With Orbis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Orbis:
Orbis: Valerie Milot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Orbis. Val<\/strong>\u00e9rie Milot, harp. Les Violons du Roy. Marianne Lambert, soprano. Music by Marjan Mozetich, Steve Reich, John Cage, Antoine Bareil and Frank Zappa. Analekta AN 2 9880. Total Time: 54.00.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is not easy being a harp soloist; the repertoire is small with very few acknowledged masterpieces, and the cost of transporting the massive instrument around is pretty daunting. Although the harp is difficult to play and few are capable of mastering it, several Canadian soloists have risen to prominence, among them Judy Loman and Erica Goodman. Now we can add 31-year old Quebecker Val\u00e9rie Milot, who is defying the odds – she has made six albums for Analekta and was chosen to be artist-in-residence for Orchestre M\u00e9tropolitain next season – to that list.<\/p>\n

Milot\u2019s latest CD is titled Orbis<\/em>, suggesting \u201cthe loop as a musical concept,\u201d an idea leading to repetition and minimalism, which, for the most part, is what we have on this CD.<\/p>\n

Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich\u2019s El Dorado<\/em> (1981), which features the harp with support from a string orchestra, is a harp concerto in all but name. The fifteen-minute piece begins and ends slowly but in between gives us, in the words of Lucie Renaud, \u201cperpetual organic motion.\u201d By nature soft-spoken, the harp is easily covered by an ensemble of almost any size; not so in this piece, which creates a masterful balance between soloist and orchestra.<\/p>\n

Steve Reich\u2019s Electric Counterpoint<\/em>, written for jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, is in three movements, featuring solo guitar, twelve guitars and two bass guitars respectively. In this recording, Val\u00e9rie Milot plays all the guitar parts by means of overdubbing. One might say that this composition, in which the harp appears to be a civilising influence, is an impressive demonstration piece for the instrument.<\/p>\n

John Cage\u2019s In a Landscape<\/em> was composed in 1948, making it the oldest piece on the CD, and depending on one\u2019s point of view, either a soothing accompaniment to meditation or New Age noodling. There is not much musical material here, and the repetition can wear thin.<\/p>\n

Castille 1382<\/em>, the piece by Les Violons du Roy <\/em>violinist Antoine Bareil, was inspired by a Fourteenth Century virelai, from which he quotes. The final section, in which Valerie Milot is joined by soprano Marianne Lambert, is devoted to elaborate ornamentation.<\/p>\n

The most entertaining pieces on the CD are also the shortest: Frank Zappa\u2019s G-Spot Tornado<\/em> and As Old as You\u2019re Young<\/em> by the 1970s British progressive rock band known as Gentle Giant. Both pieces combine the harp with a small ensemble and exude great energy and joy.<\/p>\n

All the performances are first-rate, and Val\u00e9rie Milot is to be commended for putting together an album that is so fresh in its choice of repertoire.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Valerie Milot’s Orbis explores the idea of the loop in a CD full of fresh harp repertoire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":37708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5723,77,5739,51,52],"tags":[6268,5850,3444],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/07\/71MXCtuL6tL._SL1200_.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-9Ob","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37707"}],"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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37707"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37712,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37707\/revisions\/37712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37707"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=37707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}