Michael Zev Gordon: The Impermanence of Things

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Release Date: 19th Apr 2024
Catalogue No: NMCD277
Label: NMC
Length: 74 minutes

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Zev Gordon: Bohortha, Seven Pieces for Orchestra

Work length18:47

$7.00

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BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Michael Zev Gordon

I. Lost Worlds

Track length3:10

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II. Broken Pieces

Track length2:20

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III. Ancora Venezia

Track length3:02

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IV. Still Centre

Track length1:58

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V. On Gossamer Wings

Track length1:54

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VI. Terrifying Angel

Track length1:18

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VII. Bohortha

Track length5:05

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Zev Gordon: Violin Concerto

Work length26:07

$4.55

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BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Catherine Larsen-Maguire, Carolin Widmann, Michael Zev Gordon

I. Very Still, Intense; Moderato

Track length8:51

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$2.30

II. Spacious, Still; Lightly Dancing

Track length6:14

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III. Spacious; Gently Flowing; Always Simple

Track length11:02

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Zev Gordon: The Impermanence of Things

Work length29:17

$13.00

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London Sinfonietta, Ryan Wigglesworth, Carolin Widmann, Huw Watkins, Michael Zev Gordon

I. True singing is a different breath, about nothing

Track length0:47

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II. So we live here, forever taking leave

Track length1:32

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III. All things want to fly

Track length2:25

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IV. Though the pool’s reflection often blurs before us

Track length2:03

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V. Every angel is terrifying

Track length0:47

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VI. All that’s hurrying will quickly be past

Track length2:52

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VII. Be forever dead in Eurydice

Track length1:34

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VIII. Another elegiac

Track length1:31

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IX. From which flit ecstatic butterflies

Track length1:53

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X. Through a glass mountain

Track length3:06

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XI. And those who are beautiful, oh who can retain them?

Track length1:52

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XII. Learn to forget that passionate music

Track length2:40

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XIII. May his memory be a blessing

Track length6:15

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About
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About

Michael Zev Gordon is a composer whose music is deeply engaged with the subjects of memory and loss. These themes are central to the three large-scale works which comprise this new portrait album, named The Impermanence of Things.

The album opens with a seven-movement orchestral work performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jukka Pekka Saraste, which explores our awareness of the passing of time. Time pushes on, time pulls back, before seeming to stand still completely as we journey towards the end of the work. The final movement shares its name with the overall title ? Bohortha ? which is a tiny village lying at the end of a remote Cornish peninsula, an evocative symbol of open-endedness.

If Bohortha consists of many small, contrasting fragments, the Violin Concerto is constructed more conventionally, with both the work's structure and expressive character being influenced by early exploratory sessions with the soloist, Carolin Widmann. Gordon has commented that he was inspired by 'just how many nuances of singing she could bring to her instrument: intense and open, strained and fragile'. Lyrical melodies collide with dissonant clusters in this recording by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Catherine Larsen-Maguire.

Conventions are again turned on their head in The Impermanence of Things for piano (Huw Watkins), ensemble (London Sinfonietta) and electronics. Rather than playing the traditional soloist role, the piano instead acts as a linchpin, around which thirteen short movements revolve. Throughout the work, a constant tension between forward and backward, reveals an ultimate yearning for stillness in the present.

Gordon has been the recipient of the Prix Italia, and two British Composer Awards. Two previous portrait discs ? On Memory (NMC D144) and In the Middle of Things ? were both in The Times' '100 Best Albums of the Year' lists.

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