National Press
Composers challenge musical boundaries
DOUGLAS AHLSTEDT, TENOR; LUCY SHELTON, SOPRANO; THOMAS PAUL, BASS; GIL ROSE, CONDUCTOR; BOSTON MODERN ORCHESTRA PROJECT; Rands, "Canti Trilogy" (Arsis)*** 1/2
A large-scale work, Rands spent 13 years working on it (between 1980 and 1993). The work consists of three song cycles, in which he sets to music 42 texts in five languages. This might seem imposing and somewhat forbidding, but what Rands has created is a 90-minute work that is forceful, compelling, dynamic, luminous and revelatory.
The music is wonderfully textured in layers of sound, yet the effect is frequently sparse and austere, but always colorful and imaginatively presented. The three soloists (tenor Douglas Ahlstedt, soprano Lucy Shelton and bass Thomas Paul) sing wondrously, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, under the baton of Gil Rose, play radiantly.
CANTI TRILOGY (Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Arsis 156), American Record Guide
"Here is Bernard Rands's Canti Trilogy in its entirety...the first piece in the cycle won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize.
"...what we have here is a large scale cycle of short songs threaded together into a three-part meditation on existence, with observations taken from poetry in a variety of (European) languages. His musical language...predominantly lyrical and tonally centered, though the middle cycle demonstrates that he can mix with the avant-garde if he so desires (one of his teachers was Berio, and his is a profound influence both in structural approach and even the genuine Italianate lyricism of the vocal writing).
"Canti del sole (for tenor) follows the path from sunrise to sunset and is the most lyrical work of the set, sung beautifully here by Mr. (Douglas) Ahlstedt. Canti Lunatici (1980, for soprano) traces the nocturnal cycle of the moon and takes the root of the title's adjective seriously. Pierrot and George Crumb are brought to mind all too easily in this work, particularly with the German of Hans Arp, the Spanish of Garcia Lorca, and the very presence of Lucy Shelton... Finally the lengthy Canti dell'Eclisse (for bass) begins wit the glorification of God, struggles with doubt, and eventually succumbs to resignation. Like every other part of the cycle, it ends in darkness.
"This is an interesting set that promises to reveal new subtleties with each hearing. It's given an exemplary presentation here, with flawless singing and gorgeous sound...snap this up while you can."
String Quartets as a Magician's Bookends
"Bernard Rands's new string quartet, played for the first time at Symphony Space on Friday, is further evidence that the madness that fell upon a good part of 20th-century music has lifted. In an odd evening that featured the Ying Quartet, a performance of Debussy's G-minor Quartet and a magician named Torkova, Mr. Rands's piece looked at first to be facing the wrong way: turning its back on heady exploration and retreating toward Debussy.
"Yet this strong and deeply sincere piece makes the retreat not only honorable but a cause for celebration. Mr. Rands, near 70, was reared in a culture still overwhelmed by the inheritance of Romanticism and desperate to escape its influence. Newness was a defense against tradition: new systems of agreements between notes, new ways of putting pieces together, new ways to avoid the uses of the past.
"I don't know if Mr. Rands had a hand in putting the Debussy on this program, but his own piece reaches out to it 110 years later. There is the same baritonal melancholy, albeit with a stabbing sense of violence in the newer music that the older one does not have. Mr. Rands's harmonic language is not the same as Debussy's, but the strong tonal pull within individual phrases alludes to it. Historical progressions from old to new are re-established; the ruptures are repaired in music like this.
"Rands and Debussy spoke to the ears and invented their own little worlds of time.
"This single-family and very successful ensemble commissioned the Rands quartet, his third, and played it with great eagerness."
"Rands, like many others, uses extended tonality for his music. The basic construct is tonal but with a free use of dissonance and cluster as the texts require. In addition, he also makes use of voices speaking as well as singing.
"Becket is notoriously difficult to set effectively...Rands does very well by him. The four sections setting portions of Becket's poem, Dieppe, are essentially a solo for harp with what amounts to choral commentary. The work rises to a splendid climax in the sung and spoken third part, which is also the longest.
"Music that is interesting (and sometimes more) in nearly perfect performances."
"Although Bernard Rands spells the title of his newest orchestral work, "apokryphos," in lowercase letters, it is very much an uppercase piece. Big in its scoring for solo soprano, large orchestra and 180-voice chorus, this often powerfully dramatic music nevertheless pierces the heart with a dark, disturbing intimacy...a profound meditation on the vulnerability of civiliazation in the face of monstrous evil. Although grounded in the Holocaust, "apokryphos" resonates with a sense of humanity that feels timeless. One is left with the sense of spiritual renewal rising like a phoenix from the ashes of unspeakable cruelty and destruction... The precise and lively instrumental craftsmanship, highly personal lyricism and vivid intensity of expression that mark the best of Rands' mature works are fully evident in "apokryphos." The emotional tension that builds from the piano solo at the beginning through the images of suffering and death that suffuse the central sections to the uneasy consolation of the final section is overwhelming."
"For all its large forces — 180-voice chorus, full orchestra with extra percussion — "apokryphos" was a surprisingly tender, intimate work...Rands' vocal lines had great lyrical flow... This is a masterful work, one whose images and sounds linger in the mind."
"Rands is a composer with a poet's sensibility and a painterly love of color and line."
"A composer with the eloquence of a poet."
"PULITZER PRIZE winning Canti del Sole is a noble and exultant paean to the physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual states of man."
"In Canti del Sole Rands has created an arresting, demanding work that shimmers, blazes and startles."
"Canti del Sole is a magnificent accomplishment. Rands' sensitivity to texts and their various heritages is stunning."
"Canti Lunatici is a distinctive score of remarkable dramatic power and poetic invention."
"Rands' Canti Trilogy...a mesmerizing score...made a stunning impact."
"What is most impressive about Mr. Rands' employment of texts is that he does not become hypnotized by their density and complexity...the music lays out the general mood beneath the poetry or imitates its fundamental rhythm. The result is an almost cinematic arrangement for poetry, with intimate images enlarged."
"Rands has written a work of highest importance. His searching musicality, exploring the technical and emotional gamut of his instruments, brilliantly evokes and underlines the inner world of the poetry."
"Rands' complex style...does not dabble in trendy systems that reduce music to pablum for the masses. Nor does he pay much attention to dry, academic formulas that honor science above sensuality. He writes music that wants to appeal, in almost equal measure, to the brain and to the gut. That puts him in rare contemporary company."
"Mr. Rands knows how to make an orchestra speak in wonderfully colorful tones and Le Tambourin is the sort of piece that could find a place in many an orchestra's modern repertory."
"His orchestral suites Le Tambourin are tours de force of modernist impressionism. Impressive work; impressive composer."
The two Le Tambourin suites...are meticulous and elegant; the kind of gems that awe..."
"His music breathes a kind of modernist impressionism -- now lyrical, now dramatic and highly charged; a voice with something urgent to say."
"Hiraeth's world of sound is sometimes eerie, sometimes ominous, often celestial but never harsh, coarse, or threatened by anxiety. In it, heart and mind are beautifully balanced, emotion is openly expressed without reference to the contrived innocence of the New Romanticism."
"Rands' brilliant, often sudden outbursts of sound have a leering, night-fearing expression."
"The concert reached its climax in a shattering performance of Rands' powerful cantata Metalepsis 2."
"Rands is a master of piquant orchestration...but one can discover plenty of method behind his lovely madness. The ideas unfold with compelling, organic logic...but he never slights lyrical expression in his quest for linear sophistication. This Symphony deserves repeated hearings. Soon!"
"Ceremonial made the strongest impression...an example of minimalism at its most emotionally resonant and generous minded. Its atmosphere is strong and dark and its orchestration shows the hand of a master." International Press
"Wildtrack 2 proved riveting; its gripping emotional power is the work of a major composer, with something major to say."
"His singing, lyrically melodic lines make Canzoni per Orchestra unfailingly beautiful..."
"What emerged quite clearly was the distinctive character and shape of the music...from precisely articulated figurations to more indeterminate sound patterns producing many fascinating and keenly imagined sonorities -- brought vividly to life in performance." "...the same control, the same inspiration is present in Formants I - Les Gestes. It is a very rich piece, admirably exploiting the traditional and new resources of the instrument...the work's career will be most successful and rewarding in the hands of such a virtuoso."
"Mésalliance is indeed more than a piano concerto...in this compelling and impressive work, ideas are carried through brilliantly."
"Mésalliance is a sort of mad concerto. It ends on a fantastic cadenza which threatened to (and did) bring the house down."
"Metalepsis 2 found me reveling in Rands' magical command of the massing and contrasting of sonorities and his breathtakingly exact instinct for the moment to change mood and texture. It seemed, beyond doubt, one of the finest compositions of recent years."
"Rands keeps a firm hold upon the musical material throughout -- and the pieces reveal a keen ear for texture and color and a flair for dramatic virtuosity. Overall forms are constructed with breadth and clarity."
By Edward Reichel
Deseret Morning News
Bernard Rands writes music that is abstract but very human, cerebral but sincere and intense but expressive. His Canti Trilogy is all of this, and more — it's intellectual, yet captivatingly direct and heartfelt.
Bernard (r.) with Leonard Horton (l.)
Allen Gimbel, American Record Guide
STRING QUARTET #3, World Premiere, 9 January 2004
Bernard Holland, The New York Times
"...I consider Bernard Rands to be a composer's composer...goose bump-inducing, ravishing sounds."
conductor Frank Albinder
Fanfare
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Chicago Sun-Times
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Chicago Tribune
Musical America
The Detroit News
The San Francisco Chronicle
"Wandering in the labyrinth is one of the Canti Trilogy's pleasures: Rands unspools a shining thread to guide us and keep us safe. Still another is the alluring sensuousness of surface Rands stretches over troubling depths. The composer has an extraordinary ear; the sonorities and ideas are deep, dark and magical."
The Boston Globe
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
The Baltimore Sun
The New Yorker
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
The New York Times
Musical America
The Los Angeles Times
The New York Times
"Rands has produced six orchestral essays of enormous impact. They mark him as a master of color, as a mood painter of striking sensitivity and versatility, as a technician who can manipulate a mighty orchestra apparatus with unerring coherence and dynamic impact. His music speaks with fluency, with bravado and with lyric eloquence."
The Los Angeles Times
The Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Reader
The Chicago Tribune
Musical America
The New York Times
Musical America
The Los Angeles Times
The Boston Globe
The Financial Times, London
The Sunday Times, London
"Whether he handles strings, winds, harp or percussion instruments, Rands demonstrates a perfect mastery of the new instrumental possibilities; and especially what is infinitely more rare, he maintains our attention and interest throughout."
Le Monde, Paris
The Daily Telegraph, London
French Journal of Music
Melos, Germany
The Guardian, London
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
The Musical Times, London