Stories - Berio and Friends - Harmonia Mundi: HMU807527 - download

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The work I was most pleased to encounter...was Roger Marsh's Not a Soul But Ourselves...It builds - or disintegrates - beautifully from the verbal theatre of Joyce's text to a beautifully simple,... — International Record Review, July/August 2011 More…

Release Date: 25th Apr 2011
Catalogue No: HMU807527
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Length: 66 minutes

Berio: A–Ronne

Work length27:17

Album only

Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier

Cage: Story

Work length4:53

$1.00

$1.30

Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier

Mac Low Jackson: Young Turtle Asymmetries

Work length3:17

$1.00

$1.30

Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier

Marsh Roger: Not A Soul But Ourselves

Work length14:56

$1.60

$2.60

Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier

Frank Sheldon: As I Was Saying

Work length4:52

$1.00

$1.30

Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier

Cathy Berberian: Stripsody

Work length11:19

$1.40

$2.60

Paul Hillier, Theatre of Voices

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Paul Hillier leads Theatre of Voices in a fascinating programme centred on Luciano Berio: "Although not all these composers actually knew each other, I think of them as a group of mutual friends with shared interests and predilections. If there is a link between them it is perhaps the influence of John Cage, though it could almost equally have been the personality of Cathy Berberian. I’ve had the privilege of meeting them all except Berio. The largest work is Berio’s A-Ronne, which is for me an iconic example of the representative madrigal in modern dress. Mostly the pieces appear to tell a story – or stories – but avoid getting to the point. Two of them advance in straight lines by following the alphabet (A- Ronne, Stripsody), while others go round in circles, around and around." Paul Hillier

Reviews

July/August 2011

The work I was most pleased to encounter...was Roger Marsh's Not a Soul But Ourselves...It builds - or disintegrates - beautifully from the verbal theatre of Joyce's text to a beautifully simple, and simply beautiful, extended coda. Altogether a remarkable disc, with perfect recording quality.

1st May 2011

A-Ronne might be their (secular) bible: a half-hour A-Z of experimentation, devised in 1974 as a radio documentary, but also seen by Luciano Berio as a kind of madrigal...the textural kaleidoscope is fascinating. John Cage’s Story (1940) makes its Gertrude Stein textlet very catchy. Roger Marsh’s Not a Soul but Ourselves (1977) is a vivid, endearing treatment of passages from Finnegans Wake, and Cathy Berberian’s Stripsody (1966) is very 1960s.

28th April 2011

Hillier's Theatre of Voices do the whole mélange proud – their version of Berberian's piece uses three voices whereas her original version was a solo – and the disc is worth acquiring for their wonderfully slick A-Ronne alone.

22nd April 2011

Berio's A-Ronne collages together fragments of text from various sources representing the standard distinctions of beginning/middle/end, while Cage's Story deconstructs a short text by Gertrude Stein into rhythmic, fragmentary vocables. Sheldon Frank's As I Was Saying is a collation of the meaningless pause-phrases that punctuate normal speech: literally, like reading between the lines.

14th May 2011

Experiments in vocal sound is inspired by texts, graphic designs and exerts from conversation - with arresting results...Paul Hillier’s fearless vocal ensemble abandon conventionally notated music for a clamorous, diverting programme of 20th-century adventures in sound...Biggest and best is Luciano Berio’s magisterial A-Ronne, an epic tapestry of texts, alphabet letters, cries and whispers

The Independent on Sunday 8th May 2011

Burps, sighs and coughs. Hisses, purrs and groans. Giggles, barks, polyglot whispers and the chaste-sexy shreds of madrigals and motets cast a spell in Theatre of Voices's performance of "A-ronne".

Classical Review 19th June 2011

The standout work on this disc is Berio's A Ronne, an experimental yet consummate vocal ensemble piece, taking in a wide range of vocal techniques, while also exploring issues of language and meaning. The performances here are all first class. The Berio poses the greatest technical challenges, but all are executed with fluency and (apparent) ease. The balance and ensemble between the singers is always ideal, and the sound quality is great.

6th May 2011

[these pieces] avoid the conventions of setting words to music, or writing music that presents and supports a text, and instead set out to make music directly out of words (and some other vocal sounds, too). Cage and Frank are the most direct. Berberian runs the gamut of cartoon bubble texts. Marsh turns to Finnegans Wake , and Mac Low to chance operations.

4th June 2011

This is excellent, goofy stuff, from the Roy Lichtenstein-inspired artwork to the immaculate production – listen through headphones and you can almost recreate the missing theatrical, visual element to several of these pieces...Full credit due to Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices, audibly having fun but never hamming things up too much.

The Cherwell 27th May 2011

The pieces demand that the performers are not only vocalists but actors too, and it is in this respect which the Theatre of Voices excel. All of the performers fully engage with the dramatic personas of the texts...There is a real sense of dialogue, and each individual captures a sense of wonderment in the exploration of the percussive capacities of vowel sounds and how they combine to form words.

Stories - Berio and Friends

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