![]() Right at the end comes a brief mirage of peace: phrases curl upward in the orchestra like wisps of cloud, and a solo violin plays a keening phrase. Notes blacken the page instruments become an angry mob, spilling from the sidewalks into the streets. The final movement is a phantasmagoric March for full orchestra, replete with thudding drumbeats and craggy brass fanfares. Here is Ross on Alban Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra (listen to a lo-fi version Using a distinctive palette of metaphors and similes, he makes familiar works seem altogether fresh, and renders those pesky, dense, and contemporary "difficult" pieces completely accessible - that dreaded word. Of course it's "pretty," "melodic," even "hypnotic," but most of us eventually reach a verbal Waterloo, where, defeated by Beethoven's power, surrender by saying simply: "Indescribable. One can try for example, to ramble on about the Moonlight Sonata. Ross clearly loves music, but so do many people Ross's genius is that he can describe music. I HAVE MADE MY LIVING as a composer and conductor for over 30 years, standing in front of a symphony orchestra waving my baton or sitting before a blank sheet of manuscript paper gnawing a pencil, and I can say with all confidence that The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross is simply the best book about music that I have ever read. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |