Amazon.co.uk Review
Volume One, recorded on Millennium Eve, presented a programme of music designed to woo the more cautious listener towards the music of our time. An obvious success, a sequel was inevitable, so EMI has repeated the formula, capturing a live concert given on December 31, 2000 in Hamburg's Musikhalle. The music is a well-considered balance of the familiar and the less well known, consistently shown in the best light under Metzmacher's guidance. The players have no problem letting their collective hair down in both the opening number, Gershwin's exuberant and joyous
Cuban Overture and in the closing item, the Mambo form Bernstein's
West Side Story. The pieces in between range from John Adams' punchy, minimalist
Short Ride in a Fast Machine to Korngold's Military March (pure carnival music), Honegger's graphic aural representation of a locomotive in
Pacific 231 and Shostakovich's manic
Journey through Moscow. Ravel's
Pavane pour une infant défunte provides an oasis of peace. The most moving piece, however, and worth the price of the disc alone, is "Green" (an excerpt from Takemitsu's
November Steps). Its static, intensely fascinating sound world speaks with a specifically Japanese beauty, which compulsively draws the listener in and casts the most magical of spells. --
Colin Clarke
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