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"A Gathering of Friends" Williams / Yo Yo Ma album with Pablo Sainz-Villegas & Jessica Zhou


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3 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

I love the 1.5 minute piano solo version on the OST.

Apart from that I am absolutely with you.

The other orchestral versions, especially those two on the Spielberg collaboration album sound a little inflated to me without adding much interesting musically.

But this version is here is a nice extension.

 

The National Symphony Orchestra used to a have link to a concert (that I can no longer find--maybe someone here grabbed it).  Anyway, they performed the elegy, which segued right intro Malice.  It really transformed the latter as a sort of healing to the harshness of the elegy.  

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Finishing the album.

 

Schindler's list: cello is off in first movement, LSO recording is better. Second movement is amazing. I don't like the new key for the third movement, strings are too high and cello is great.

 

HIghwood's Ghost: some parts are really interesting, but I won't be returning to this one.

 

Lincoln and Munich: fantastic.

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15 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

 

 

 

 

The view on Williams concert works is not most gracious around here.

I actually really enjoy JW's concert music. I also enjoy when he reworks his film music into concert pieces, including when he really does to town on them like with several pieces on the Across the Stars album. However, in the case of With Malice Towards None, the earnest simplicity of the original on the Lincoln OST works best for what the music is trying to evoke. 

 

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18 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

The view on Williams concert works is not most gracious around here.

 

Possibly related to that, I'm pretty sure I have more of this board's users on ignore than ones I don't.

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Yeah I like to think of the Shrieking Shack!

 

Absolutely love the new quiet ending for the Cello concerto. Sooo much more poignant than the original loud ending which always seemed to be a bit out of place tbh.

 

So, I understand the bad compression is not because of Spotify but actually like that on CD……? Yikes.

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I have a new appreciation for the concerto--a piece I already really liked.  One gripe I have about some of Williams concertos is the lack of thematic developement.  The concerto is four movements of variation on the same theme, and each variation is interesting and different.  Even if it does not have the transcendent heights of, say Elgar's concerto, it is really good, showcase cello writing.  

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I finally listened to this album today.  I avoided the digital release and waited until my physical CD copy arrived, which I just finished spinning.

 

Overall, I liked the album a lot!  It really felt like I was spending time with a small group of friends gathered to share a love of music, instead of some contractual Radio Friendly Unit Shifter.


The revised Cello Concerto is a great way to start, because it puts you in the right mood to enjoy an album of different music from the usual hits, and it's a varied and pretty interesting piece.  The Schindler's List trio was about as lovely as this stuff always is.

 

The highlight for me was definitely Highwood's Ghost, I liked that a lot!  With Malice Towards None I am not sure what to say about yet.  I love the Lincoln score so much, and love this theme so much, that any arrangement different than all the ones recorded at the original session always through me for a loop and take me a while to decide how I feel about it.  I think overall I like it just fine, but still prefer the more intimate original recordings over any subsequent revisits JW has done.

 

A Prayer For Peace is an awesome final track, I liked it a lot!  It reminded me I really need to revisit Munich, I have not listened to that album that many times.

 

So yes, overall, a wonder addition to William's Sony run!

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On 25/05/2022 at 12:22 AM, Remco said:

Yeah I like to think of the Shrieking Shack!

 

Absolutely love the new quiet ending for the Cello concerto. Sooo much more poignant than the original loud ending which always seemed to be a bit out of place tbh.

 

So, I understand the bad compression is not because of Spotify but actually like that on CD……? Yikes.

 

Is there a specific track you are referring to? Thanks!

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You know what, there might be a few problematic mastering spots but this is still a great album! The cello concerto is still great, this revision accentuating very different elements for me (only knew the 2002 version), Schindler's interesting with such a different solo timbre and rhythmic elements. Highwood's ghost is a lovely piece reminding me of HP's less classically HPey elements (dementory strings, Hedwig for Harp) - I remember liking the piece in the first bootleg of the live recording we got and I still love it. Malice is very good and Munich is a wonderful cherry on top. Nice looking release with good notes.

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These albums tend to be a bit "overproduced", but ehhh... people are always complaining... they are not happy with live takes and not happy with studio albums too... It's hard to please everybody.  I think we just have to allow each recording to have its own "colour".

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