Crítica de "The flower is a Key" en All Music Guide

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‘Round Midnight
Die 12 Cellisten der Berliner Philharmoniker

Booklet languages: English, German, French
Libretto languages: English
Time: 59:05
Release Date: 2002
Review
Of all the string instruments, the cello is the one that is most self-sufficient when heard en masse. Villa-Lobos knew it -- his "Bachianas Brasileiras Nos. 1 and 5" are the results -- and The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic have been proving it for some 30 years before the release of this album of American music of several stripes. No one needs to be told that this is a crossover special; after all, it has been released as a joint EMI Classics/Blue Note project. But this is no rah-rah album of patriotic pieties, for the CD explores the dark side of "America" as well as its soul-lifting show tunes, spirituals, and jazz tunes. Using all kinds of extended techniques that prod and scrape at the instruments, the opening "Caravan" sounds truly dangerous, capturing the dissonant strands that stick out of the Ellington 78 of the 1940s and have seldom been heard since. Bob Brookmeyer, the jazz trombonist/arranger/composer, surprises us all with "Amerika 2002: In Memoriam," a troubled two-part meditation on the state of the union, inspired by the events of September 11. On the other hand, Leonard Bernstein's "America" is turned into a neo-classical piece, while the "Pink Panther" theme emerges remarkably unchanged in its essential sneakiness.
In what turned out to be the album's principal coup, the cellists managed to persuade their new chief conductor, Sir Simon Rattle, to supply the "rap" for Sergio Cardenas' hilarious "The Flower Is A Key (A Rap For Mozart)." Rattle obliges with his deep, mischievous Liverpudlian accent, putting his stamp on an album which serves notice that the tenures of Herbert von Karajan and Claudio Abbado at the Berlin Phil are going to look awfully stodgy in comparison to the Rattle era. ~
Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide

Contents of the CD:

Composer Title Time
Duke Ellington / Juan Tizol Caravan
5:06
Leonard Bernstein
America, song (from "West Side Story")
2:16
Traditional Spiritual Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
3:13
George Gershwin
Clap Yo' Hands, song (from Oh, Kay!, musical)
3:16
Henry Mancini
The Pink Panther, film score (Theme)
3:13
Glenn Miller Moonlight Serenade
3:44
Sergio Cárdenas The Flower is a Key (A Rap for Mozart)
7:13
George Gershwin
Preludes (3) for piano (Prelude No. 2)
5:07
Robert Brookmeyer Amerika 2002, In Memoriam, for 12 cellos
9:59
Traditional Spiritual Deep River, spiritual
2:49
Shigeaki Saegusa Ragtime
2:21
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea Spain, for voice & ensemble
5:21
Thelonious Monk Round Midnight, song
5:27


About Richard S. Ginell is an avid believer in the idea that there is something worthwhile in virtually every idiom of music, so he chooses not to limit himself to any one category. That unfortunate tendency is severely tested by the limited number of hours in a day, but it also makes him a formidable player in the music version of Trivial Pursuit. 

Born in Glen Cove, NY and relocated to the Los Angeles area at age five, Ginell has been a terminal music addict - no cure, no hope - from as far back as he can remember. Two years after graduating from UCLA, he became the music critic of the Los Angeles Daily News for 12 years, establishing classical music coverage at the newspaper and also writing about jazz, rock, folk, and other idioms. Since leaving the Daily News, he has been a busy freelance music writer; his articles have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Musical America, Performing Arts, Stagebill, and numerous other publications. Currently he writes about jazz for Daily Variety and classical music for American Record Guide as its Los Angeles correspondent. In addition, Ginell has contributed several sets of program notes to the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera and L.A. Opera, as well as liner notes for releases on the Telarc, Verve, Concord Jazz, Naxos Jazz, Nonesuch, Koch International and RCA Victor labels. His biography of the 1960s folk group The Limeliters will be published by Scarecrow Press in the near future. Ginell also plays acoustic and electric keyboards in various jazz and rock bands, and devotes plenty of time to the care and feeding of his grand piano and ever-expanding record collection. He currently lives in Frazier Park, CA in the mountains north of Los Angeles.

E-mail - Rsg78rpm@aol.com