Starobin, David / Favorite Tracks, Vol. 2: 20th Century Classics With Guitar
Album: Favorite Tracks, Vol. 2: 20th Century Classics With Guitar   Collection:Classical
Artist:Starobin, David   Added:May 2009
Label:Bridge Records  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2010-03-14 Pull Date: 2010-05-16 Charts: Classical/Experimental
Week Ending: May 16 Apr 25 Mar 28
Airplays: 1 1 1

Recent Airplay
1. May 15, 2010: Music Casserole
Stephen Sondheim: Sunday Song Set (1984) Lesson #8, Mario Laviat: Natarayah (1997)
3. Mar 23, 2010: Ambient Annoyance
Sandor Jemnitz: Trio, Op. 33 (1932) Molto Vivo
2. Apr 24, 2010: Music Casserole
Elliot Carter: Tell Me Where Is Fancy Bred (1938)

Album Review
Red West
Reviewed 2010-03-02
modern classical, acoustic guitar, sometimes with a few other instruments, trained voice. Most tracks radio-friendly lengths.

+1. solo guitar, mid-fast. Minor key(?) 5 (2+3)(?) time signature. This is where angular post-rock comes from.
2-4.Baritone voice sings Frost poems with vibrato. 2 is mostly string ensemble backing. +3 is mostly guitar backing at start, ensemble in middle. 4.More challenging music.
5.Solo guitar, lots of pizzicato tone rows, dissonant intervals, some harmonics. Quiet end
+6.Soft-jazz sounds on guitar, mideavel folk sounding soprano voice.
7-9.Harp & mandolin join the guitar. +7 twisty, rather quiet +8.”nice” twisted up with “wrong” 9.Lots of notes and modulations, semi-annoying
10-13 Song cycle with baritone & guitar. +10. M voices saying art-critique words, then singing/speaking along with the pizzicato guitar. Easy to ridicule but good enough that it gets engaging by halfway, even if it does sound pretentious. 11.Lost love song, like from a college musical production. +12.Lilting ¾ guitar while we hear how George is depressed and afraid, and then the time signature changes (nearly imperceptibly) 13.George’s story continues but now it’s business and not daydreaming, more confrontational than prior track. Nice alliteration near end.
14.Scary synth, overly dramatic piece.
15,16 are children’s poem’s set to grown-ups music. Kinda fun to hear.
+17-19. Violin & viola join guitar to play piece Hungarian composer Jemnitz wrote a few years b4 ww2. 17. gradually builds agitation 18.milder, like a sad gypsy’s tired wail, melodic end. 19. Fast, pizzicato guitar & short strokes on the bowed instruments, then it plays in circles, then it builds back like voices in alarm.

Track Listing
1. Mario Laviat: Natarayah (1997)   10. Stephen Sondheim: Sunday Song Set (1984) Color And Light
2. Elliot Carter: Three Poems Of Robert Frost (1975), Dust Of Snow   11. Stephen Sondheim: Sunday Song Set (1984) Finishing The Hat
3. Elliot Carter: Three Poems Of Robert Frost (1975), The Rose   12. Stephen Sondheim: Sunday Song Set (1984) Lesson #8
4. Elliot Carter: Three Poems Of Robert Frost (1975), The Line Gang   13. Stephen Sondheim: Sunday Song Set (1984) Putting It Together
5. Elliot Carter: Changes (1983)   14. Michael Starobin: Chase (1987)
6. Elliot Carter: Tell Me Where Is Fancy Bred (1938)   15. Humphrey Searle: Two Practical Cats (1953) Macavity: The Mystery Cat
7. Hans Werner Henze: Carillon, Recitatif, Masque (1974) Carillon   16. Humphrey Searle: Two Practical Cats (1953) Growltiger's Last Stand
8. Hans Werner Henze: Carillon, Recitatif, Masque (1974) Recitatif   17. Sandor Jemnitz: Trio, Op. 33 (1932) Allegretto
9. Hans Werner Henze: Carillon, Recitatif, Masque (1974) Masque   18. Sandor Jemnitz: Trio, Op. 33 (1932) Lento
  19. Sandor Jemnitz: Trio, Op. 33 (1932) Molto Vivo