From the ecstatic flourishes that open the work like some great, multi-tiered Polynesian flower, listeners can tell they are in the rarefied sonic world of Alaska-based composer John Luther Adams in his New World Records release For Lou Harrison. This features the Brobdingnagianially named Callithumpian Consort of the New England Conservatory under the direction of Stephen Drury. For Lou Harrison, completed in 2004, is the third and final part of a trilogy of memorial works that Adams has composed for his parents: Clouds of ...
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From the ecstatic flourishes that open the work like some great, multi-tiered Polynesian flower, listeners can tell they are in the rarefied sonic world of Alaska-based composer John Luther Adams in his New World Records release For Lou Harrison. This features the Brobdingnagianially named Callithumpian Consort of the New England Conservatory under the direction of Stephen Drury. For Lou Harrison, completed in 2004, is the third and final part of a trilogy of memorial works that Adams has composed for his parents: Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing for his father; In the White Silence for his mother; and this work for the man who was in many ways Adams' "musical" parent, Lou Harrison. It is scored for a string quartet, string orchestra, and two pianos, reserving a very prominent role for duo pianists Yukiko Takagi and Keith Kirchoff. The overall effect created by this ensemble of ensembles is as a blend working toward a single-minded purpose, rather than within a solo and ripieno context or as a...
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