Christopher Rouse is often regarded as an eclectic composer because he has employed multiple styles, musical references, and extended techniques in his music, though they are always used to express underlying emotions and ideas. Seeing (1998) is Rouse's free-form piano concerto, inspired by the Piano Concerto in A minor of Robert Schumann and the psychedelic song "Seeing" by Moby Grape guitarist Skip Spence. The collisions of quotations and original material result in a dizzying, hallucinatory study of the conflicts between ...
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Christopher Rouse is often regarded as an eclectic composer because he has employed multiple styles, musical references, and extended techniques in his music, though they are always used to express underlying emotions and ideas. Seeing (1998) is Rouse's free-form piano concerto, inspired by the Piano Concerto in A minor of Robert Schumann and the psychedelic song "Seeing" by Moby Grape guitarist Skip Spence. The collisions of quotations and original material result in a dizzying, hallucinatory study of the conflicts between sanity and mental illness (both Schumann and Spence were institutionalized for psychosis), and the nature of visionary creativity. Pianist Orion Weiss is the soloist, backed by David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony, and they play with incredible precision and focused energy, despite the chaotic and frenetic impression the score makes. Balanced against this turbulent work is Rouse's collection of songs for soprano and orchestra, Kabir Padavali (1998), a setting of six poems by...
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