| This Week's Highlights |
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analysis w/e 14.5.11 |
DVDs out 9.5.11 |
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@ DVDfever Youtube |
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May 11 2011 
DVDfever co uk
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2002 re-issue of Richter’s post-classical masterpiece. Now this is some album - Breathtaking. Recorded at BBC Manchester and available originally on the BBC’s short lived Late Junction label, Memoryhouse gets a welcomed re-issue. German born Richter studied composition and piano at the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Academy Of Music and with Luciano Berio in Florence, so this guy knows his onions. He then formed modern classical ensemble Piano Circus, which he was a member of for ten years. They made five albums for Decca/Argo. After seven years and three other solo albums, Richter’s epic is given the Fat Cat treatment with a full blown release. Recorded with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the work of eastern bloc composers like Ukrainian Valentin Silvestrov comes to mind – particularly in the simplest of sonic experiences that are considered avante garde. The flavours are very much steeped in memory of post war Europe. Memoryhouse is an exploration of real and imaginary stories and histories with melodies that disappear using linked pieces through assorted themes, motifs and variations that appear and reappear. Just like the PR blurb, it does exactly what it says : its (occasionally) bright, sparkling, warming, heartbreaking, rousing and most definitely gripping. More than that, it has depth and beauty. The whispered open vocal, rain, ominous piano and sombre violin on Europe, After The Rain, create a tense but beautiful prefix for the entire collection, as you get visuals of the aftermath of the genocide at German concentration camps, not that it was probably intended that way, but you can feel some collective mourning going on : it’s very dramatic and powerful despite the deliberate minimalist template. The apocalyptic theme continues on the moving Maria, The Poet (1913) as the sweeping strings follow the spoken introduction. Laika’s Journey, a short piece, has a space-like quality that’s intended to recreate the tragic journey of the Soviet 3 year-old mongrel stray Laika, that was the first living creature to orbit our planet in Sputnik 2. It died shortly after take off probably due to stress and overheating.
After the delicate piano tinkling of The Twins comes the jewel in a very large crown – Sarajevo. Rousing orchestration accompanied by lyric- less vocal of stunning proportions, enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck shiver not stand up. Untitled is a quirky and menacing but fascinating 3-minutes worth of modern techno twiddling and swooning orchestration. Lifting the melancholic mood, November is a stirring violin lead excursion into post classical pomp with shades of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with rotating motifs enough to blow you away. Dutch composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, one of the first great keyboard composers of Europe straddling the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods, gets a touching tribute. The ode is simply played out on a harpsichord. Then the harpsichord returns on the divine Garden, this time supported by violin. An all-too-short Fragment is one that should have been explored further because there’s plenty in its magnificent 1 minute 27 seconds that could have been developed. In pure classical terms, Embers give an undoubted nod to Mozart. The rolling and haunting piano gives way to equally haunting violin solos. After a sequence of low key compositions, the album finally explodes with the all the pomp and circumstance of classical eastern bloc bombast – Last Days - full-on horns and strings that swirl into a monster crescendo. The album limps out on a sad and heartbreaking tone with understated strings and horns – Quartet Fragment. The verdict – One word – AWESOME.
Weblink: maxrichter.com / myspace.com/maxrichtermusic (audio samples)
The full list of tracks included are :
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B 37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier. PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
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Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.
