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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
For Wagner fans, an interesting new version of Siegfried Idyll
27 Nov 2011
Format:Audio CD
This soundtrack contains 18 piano and orchestral tracks by veteran soundtrack composer Howard Shore, followed by a 32-minute (!) piano transcription of Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, performed by Lang Lang.
Wagner looms large in the film, A Dangerous Method. The characters discuss symbols and metaphors in Wagner's opera Siegfried at length, and the Will to Power, a concept which found expression in Wagner's works, is a key theme in the film, as well.
The first 18 tracks on the disc all almost all 1-3 minutes long. Some are simply snippets of Siegfried Idyll, and the rest are extremely Wagner-esque piano and orchestral compositions by Shore. Many of them are promising and interesting, but unfortunately too short to really develop any of their ideas.
The highlight of the disc is a piano transcription of Siegfried Idyll by Shore. Almost without exception, recordings of the orchestral original from the past 60 years have clocked in around 16-20 minutes. Glenn Gould recorded two versions of his own shortly before his death in 1982 which, at the time, were almost radically slow and long at 23-24 minutes. One was Gould conducting a 13-piece chamber orchestra, and the other was Gould's own piano transcription. Both stand, in my opinion, as the deepest and grandest interpretations of Wagner's piece. Gould's consummately Gouldian piano version emphasizes Wagner's contrapuntal architecture, while Gould's orchestral version took an unprecedentedly slow, meditative approach to the piece.
Apart from Gould, no one has every really done anything radically different with Siegfriend Idyll. Some are a bit faster, some are a bit slower. That's about it. Which is why it's a welcome surprise to hear Shore and Lang Lang do something really NEW with the piece. Here, they take it even slower than Gould, drawing it out to 32 minutes. Lang Lang (who has never recorded Wagner, as far as I know) takes it super slow, gentle, romantic, emotional. It's the opposite of Gould's cerebral piano approach. We've never heard Siegfried Idyll like this and that alone is worth celebrating. Whether, novelty aside, the piece will please individual classical fans is a matter of personal taste. I personally don't like Lang Lang's style on lots of other music (and don't even get me started on his attempts to turn piano concerts into pop music theater, complete with seizure-inducing light shows and video screens), but applying his style to Siegfried Idyll was an interesting and successful experiment.
Anyone with an interest in Wagner will want to hear this once, and perhaps many more times.
Wagner looms large in the film, A Dangerous Method. The characters discuss symbols and metaphors in Wagner's opera Siegfried at length, and the Will to Power, a concept which found expression in Wagner's works, is a key theme in the film, as well.
The first 18 tracks on the disc all almost all 1-3 minutes long. Some are simply snippets of Siegfried Idyll, and the rest are extremely Wagner-esque piano and orchestral compositions by Shore. Many of them are promising and interesting, but unfortunately too short to really develop any of their ideas.
The highlight of the disc is a piano transcription of Siegfried Idyll by Shore. Almost without exception, recordings of the orchestral original from the past 60 years have clocked in around 16-20 minutes. Glenn Gould recorded two versions of his own shortly before his death in 1982 which, at the time, were almost radically slow and long at 23-24 minutes. One was Gould conducting a 13-piece chamber orchestra, and the other was Gould's own piano transcription. Both stand, in my opinion, as the deepest and grandest interpretations of Wagner's piece. Gould's consummately Gouldian piano version emphasizes Wagner's contrapuntal architecture, while Gould's orchestral version took an unprecedentedly slow, meditative approach to the piece.
Apart from Gould, no one has every really done anything radically different with Siegfriend Idyll. Some are a bit faster, some are a bit slower. That's about it. Which is why it's a welcome surprise to hear Shore and Lang Lang do something really NEW with the piece. Here, they take it even slower than Gould, drawing it out to 32 minutes. Lang Lang (who has never recorded Wagner, as far as I know) takes it super slow, gentle, romantic, emotional. It's the opposite of Gould's cerebral piano approach. We've never heard Siegfried Idyll like this and that alone is worth celebrating. Whether, novelty aside, the piece will please individual classical fans is a matter of personal taste. I personally don't like Lang Lang's style on lots of other music (and don't even get me started on his attempts to turn piano concerts into pop music theater, complete with seizure-inducing light shows and video screens), but applying his style to Siegfried Idyll was an interesting and successful experiment.
Anyone with an interest in Wagner will want to hear this once, and perhaps many more times.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
You've never heard the Siegfried Idyll quite like this...
16 Dec 2011
Format:Audio CD
There are two ways for fans of film and classical music to enjoy this fascinating score--the first, and probably best, is to come to it with as few preconceived notions as possible. If you have never heard the Siegfried Idyll before, then you will not notice anything. You will have a lovely lovely time enjoying Howard Shore's short but pleasant cues, and then will get to hear a beautiful piano piece lasting more than half an hour. The second, for those who (like me) have loved the Siegfried Idyll for years is to revel in its strangeness, to let your mind float, to resist the urge to hum along, and to let Lang Lang carry you in angel soft wings down a river of sound. The Siegfried Idyll was originally a birthday present for Wagner's wife; the orchestral version is well known and performed widely, and with good reason. It is beautiful, moving, melodic and very stirring. It is not, however, a particularly slow piece. Howard Shore and Lang Lang have stretched this piano transcription past the bounds of the conceivable and essentially warped the Idyll into a new piece. Melodic lines are langorous, long, and breathe. Aspects of the structure of the Idyll become apparent which were before only hinted. Ornamentation (long trills) which would have been wildly out of place in a faster version here become commonplace and--surprisingly--effective. This will never be my go-to version of the Idyll, I love it too much in its standard form for that to ever happen. But I really enjoyed hearing it in this new fashion, trying to approach it as a new piece. It worked, from a sheer beauty perspective, although Wagner might have had an aneurysm upon hearing it. Recommended soundtrack for fans of romantic music, and for people who can approach a hallowed Wagnerian piece with an open mind.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
The Languid World of Wagner
29 Mar 2012
Format:Audio CD
Howard Shore has tackled many film assignments and almost always comes up with a musical score that accentuates the purpose of the drama without calling attention to itself. His score for this moody biography of those involved in the development of psychoanalysis during the early years of the 20th century, namely Sigmund Freud, Karl Jung, Otto Gross and Sabina Spielberg, opened the idea f the mythological based operas of Richard Wagner (emphasizing Jung's later involvement with his world vision) and the fact that Wagner's music has had such a role in the anti-Semitism that drove the new Germany crazy underlines the fact that both Freud and Spielberg were Jews. But those are the preludes that pass through the mind of a composer called upon to recreate or underline an era that will embellish the final cinematic achievement.
Shore capitalizes on Wagner's themes form many of his operas but refrains from Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung are most often quoted, arranged of course for smaller orchestral forces and at times transcribed in part for the piano. There is one extended transcription of another Wagner work on this soundtrack recording - the Siegfried Idyll - which Shore offers as a transcription for the piano alone. The piano work is performed by Lang Lang and his fans will love the manner in which he draws out the romantic melodies ad infinitum. Lang Lang's detractors will find little to complain about as the music is passionate and meant to be an extended love song.
There are many tracks on this CD that are simply phrases of Wagner, lovingly altered for the purpose of the film's flow. For Wagner lovers who don't mind 'excerpts recordings' will find this excellent background music. For purists...there is enough of Wagner's genius present here to warrant investment. It is a solid album, the major part of it being the piano transcription of the Siegfried Idyll. Grady Harp, March 12
Shore capitalizes on Wagner's themes form many of his operas but refrains from Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung are most often quoted, arranged of course for smaller orchestral forces and at times transcribed in part for the piano. There is one extended transcription of another Wagner work on this soundtrack recording - the Siegfried Idyll - which Shore offers as a transcription for the piano alone. The piano work is performed by Lang Lang and his fans will love the manner in which he draws out the romantic melodies ad infinitum. Lang Lang's detractors will find little to complain about as the music is passionate and meant to be an extended love song.
There are many tracks on this CD that are simply phrases of Wagner, lovingly altered for the purpose of the film's flow. For Wagner lovers who don't mind 'excerpts recordings' will find this excellent background music. For purists...there is enough of Wagner's genius present here to warrant investment. It is a solid album, the major part of it being the piano transcription of the Siegfried Idyll. Grady Harp, March 12
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