Adagio for Strings (1936). Samuel Barber /emusic/

Time for this month's download of 40 tracks at .25 each from eMusic. The selection is generally obscure but with back catalog of Frank Zappa, Innova Recordings, Canteloupe Music etc., I can always find tracks I'm interested in.  This month, I chose two versions of Samuel Barber's Adagio, one by the  Flutes Fantastique, apparently a Chicago-based flute quartet, and one by Danney Alkana, on an album entitled Rock the Bach. I was wary about the flute recording, thinking back to fourth-grade flutophone but the performance was somber and low-key. No liner notes from eMusic but I gather that the quartet includes alto and bass flutes, giving the music more gravity than I expected.

On the other hand, the Danney Alkana recording... It starts off with some gratuitous thunder but then splits off into the standard Adagio played on keyboard but with an electric guitar solo on top throughout the piece. Granted, the solo is tasteful and my jazz side says that this is arguably analogous to the practice of improvising on top of chord changes of a standard pop song. But nonetheless, my classical side is appalled. 

At 25 cents a pop, I also bought Alkana's recording of Vivaldi's Concerto in B Minor. This has a lead rock guitar, playing what was probably close to what was written. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and say that the timbre of the electric guitar gives the music some of the shimmering feel that baroque music can have at its best. But the drum kit and synthesizer solo seem completely out of place. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer anyone?

Comments

[emusic review]

At the age of nine Samuel Barber writes to his mother:

“ Dear Mother: I have written to tell you my worrying secret. Now don’t cry when you read it because it is neither yours nor my fault. I suppose I will have to tell it now, without any nonsense. To begin with I was not meant to be an athlete. I was meant to be a composer, and will be I’m sure. I’ll ask you one more thing .—Don’t ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football.—Please—Sometimes I’ve been worrying about this so much that it makes me mad (not very).

Great stuff:-)

[guanacaste costa rica]

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