Corner, Philip

Pieces from The Past

Label: Pogus Country: USA

"It has been a while in the works, but finally Pogus can proudly announce the release of this wonderful disc. Five works spanning 30 plus years by experimental composer Philip Corner, interpreted by his friend and fellow composer and utterly amazing violinist Malcolm Goldstein. These works consist of early pieces with notes (!) though not notated in the traditional, linear way, as well as later pieces with graphic and/or verbal notation as with the gamelan series. And the graphically notated scores themselves are quite lovely.

As noted above, four of the works are from live performances - and they are "must hears" (as of course is the fifth recording - The Gold Stone - taken from the out of print Sounding the New Violin by Goldstein. The interpretation/ performances are intense - and magical - and should be savored. The long friendship and working relationship of these two are probably best summed up by Goldstein:

"I have had the pleasure & honor of playing Philip's music since the early 1960's.... Always his music opened up new dimensions for me; compositional structures that incorporated a variety of improvisation frameworks, with sonic materials that focused the performer within the full spectrum of sound-texture qualities, that invited the musician to participate in the realization of the music and revealed unique realms of music making/thinking."

Amen to that.

A note: Four of the tracks are taken from live recordings that were not necessarily intended for release. Some of the residual ambient sound and audience noise has been left in this present CD in order to preserve as much as possible the unique spectral range of the performances."-Pogus