Exquisite Fires

On this CD:

1. Exquisite Fires
Composed by Linda Bouchard
Performed by National Arts Centre Orchestra
Conducted by Trevor Pinnock

2. Songs for an Acrobat
Composed by Linda Bouchard
Performed by National Arts Centre Orchestra with Kevin McMillan
Conducted by Derrick Inouye

3. Vertige
Composed by Linda Bouchard
Performed by National Arts Centre Orchestra
Conducted by Trevor Pinnock

4. Ressac
Composed by Linda Bouchard
Performed by National Arts Centre Orchestra
Conducted by Trevor Pinnock

5. Eternity
Composed by Linda Bouchard
Performed by National Arts Centre Orchestra
Conducted by Trevor Pinnock

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Linda Bouchard's celebrated compositions straddle the orchestral divides among 19th-century post-Romantic music, serialism, and avant-garde New Music. This compendium begins with the now-brassy, now-pastoral "Exquisite Fires," which has a wide stylistic and instrumental range that echoes Arvo Pärt's Arbos and even Penderecki's 1950s-era work. The longest piece, Songs for an Acrobat, sets Maurice Toruigny's libretto--a lengthy poetic look at physical desire, passion, love, and the threat of loss in the age of AIDS--to music that encompasses sweeping, string-ensemble lushness and horn-fronted, glowering precipices. Percussion is a frequent ingredient for Bouchard, and she uses it often as hefty punctuation--and, as on the short, magnificent Vertige as a kind of prime-mover pushing a surge-and-swirl cycle of strings, brass, and woodwinds. Bouchard's string-and-brass studies get further development in Ressac, where string glissandi shear the air behind soft piano chromaticism and curving horn forms. Eternity closes the recording with sprays of tension and percussive brilliance. --Andrew Bartlett

Exquisite Fires, Music, Kevin McMillan, Linda Bouchard, Derrick Inouye, Trevor Pinnock, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Chamber Music & Recitals, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Miscellaneous, Miscellaneous Music
Bouchard: Exquisite Fires
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Very good music by a promising contemporary composer
 Bouchard: Exquisite Fires

Manufacturer: Marquis Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Chamber MusicChamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
Pinnock, TrevorPinnock, Trevor | ( P ) | Featured Performers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000007TJE
Release Date: 1998-06-23

Tracks:

  1. Exquisite Fires: I
  2. Exquisite Fires: II
  3. Exquisite Fires: III
  4. Exquisite Fires: IV
  5. Exquisite Fires: V
  6. Exquisite Fires: VI
  7. Exquisite Fires: VII
  8. Exquisite Fires: VIII
  9. Exquisite Fires: IX
  10. Songs for an Acrobat: Prelude
  11. Songs for an Acrobat: I - Land
  12. Songs for an Acrobat: II - Winter
  13. Songs for an Acrobat: III - Canyon
  14. Songs for an Acrobat: IV - White
  15. Songs for an Acrobat: V - Glass
  16. Songs for an Acrobat: VI - Forever
  17. Songs for an Acrobat: VII - Evening
  18. Songs for an Acrobat: VIII - Aubade
  19. Vertige
  20. I
  21. II
  22. Ressac: III
  23. Ressac Coda
  24. ETERNITY: Prelude
  25. ETERNITY: Interlude
  26. ETERNITY: Gun
  27. ETERNITY: Postlude

Amazon.com

Linda Bouchard's celebrated compositions straddle the orchestral divides among 19th-century post-Romantic music, serialism, and avant-garde New Music. This compendium begins with the now-brassy, now-pastoral "Exquisite Fires," which has a wide stylistic and instrumental range that echoes Arvo Pärt's Arbos and even Penderecki's 1950s-era work. The longest piece, Songs for an Acrobat, sets Maurice Toruigny's libretto--a lengthy poetic look at physical desire, passion, love, and the threat of loss in the age of AIDS--to music that encompasses sweeping, string-ensemble lushness and horn-fronted, glowering precipices. Percussion is a frequent ingredient for Bouchard, and she uses it often as hefty punctuation--and, as on the short, magnificent Vertige as a kind of prime-mover pushing a surge-and-swirl cycle of strings, brass, and woodwinds. Bouchard's string-and-brass studies get further development in Ressac, where string glissandi shear the air behind soft piano chromaticism and curving horn forms. Eternity closes the recording with sprays of tension and percussive brilliance. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Very good music by a promising contemporary composer.......2000-11-04

I was very impressed with much of the music on this disc. Ms. Bouchard is certainly a very gifted composer whose propensity for creating strange, almost alien structures is amazing. She doesn't use what could be called true melodies as much as pulses of notes strangely independent from each other. There's a kind fluidity to her music as if every note is a drop in a ethereal sea--quite facinating. The title work as well as "Eternity" are real gems; it's worth buying the CD just for them. Unfortunately, "Songs for an Acrobat" left me somewhat unsatisfied. Not to say that it's a bad work, but I'm just not able to get excited about it. Yet this CD is still definitely worth the price, I highly recommend it.

Music Track:

  1. Ezra Laderman, Vol. 2
  2. First Great Recordings
  3. Footeprints: Chamber Music of Arthur Foote
  4. Frank Martin
  5. Free Spirits
  6. French Masterpieces for the Violin / Fauré / Debussy / Tomasow
  7. From Beethoven to Ravel [Box set]
  8. Gieseking plays Schumann
  9. Go Guitars
  10. Grieg: Concerto for piano in Am

Music Track

music track

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