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AN OSCAR WILDE MUSIC
DISCOGRAPHY : |
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DE PROFUNDIS |
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Compiled with commentary by
Tine Englebert |
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page
created April 2009 |
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For the Discographies Table of Contents, click
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Audiobook
– Corin Redgrave reads Oscar Wilde |
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De
Profundis: A Very Special Performance of the Oscar Wilde Classic Recorded by
Corin Redgrave on Location at HM Prison Reading to mark Oscar Wilde's
Centenary |
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Audio CD: SmartPass Ltd (1 Nov 2002)
978-1903362211. Open Sou |
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De
Profundis is
beautifully performed on the CD by Corin Redgrave who was touring a stage
version of Oscar Wilde's letter to Lord Alfred Douglas around England. Redgrave
reads eleven passages from De Profundis selected and edited by Wilde’s
grandson Merlin Holland, who introduces the performance with an audio essay.
It was recorded
entirely on location at HM Prison Reading. Music was
specially composed by Jonathan Goldstein, performed by Yoo Hong Lee and
recorded at St Nicholas Chu |
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Audiobook
- Oscar Wilde. De Profundis. Read by Michael von Au (in German) |
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Audio
2 CD Der HR Verlag DHV; Auflage: 1 (1. März 2005) 978-3899405347 |
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Autorisierte Lesefassung
Sprecher: Sebastian Koch |
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Critical
notice from the Süddeutsche Zeitung,
06.12.2005: |
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Vergnüglich
findet Rezensent Tobias Lehmkuhl nicht, was er zu hören bekommt, wenn die
"gefangene Seele" Oscar Wilde an das geliebte Ekel Lord Alfred
Douglas schreibt. Völlig unverständlich müsse es dem Leser bleiben, wie Wilde
Liebe zum niederen Charakter des Angehimmelten empfinden, wie er dessen
Verhalten zugleich verurteilen und entschuldigen konnte. "Es ist leicht,
für ihn Abscheu zu empfinden und schwer, das nicht zu tun", seufzt
Lehmkuhl und kann sich Wildes Verhalten nur damit erklären, dass er ein zwingendes
Bedürfnis gehabt haben muss, sein Leben mit leidvollen Liebeserfahrungen
anzureichern. Ins Schwärmen gerät er allerdings hinsichtlich des empathischen
Vortrags von Michael von Au, dem es gelänge, in einer schwierigen
Gratwanderung das "An- und Abschwellen dieses gnadenlosen Klagegesanges
stimmliche Gestalt zu verleihen". |
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Frederic
Rzewski – De Profundis, melodramatic oratorio for solo pianist playing &
reciting |
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Frederic Rzewski (b.1938) himself performs De Profundis on the CD: De Profundis / piano and voice
Frederic Rzewski |
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Hat Hut Hat ART CD 6134 (1994) |
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Track listing: 1. Sonata for piano (1991); 2. De
Profundis for a speaking pianist (1992) |
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‘De Profundis’ is an oratorio of
sorts, which features eight musical sections preceding Rzewski reading eight sections of a
text Oscar Wilde wrote in
prison. It is an oratorio
that musically becomes a manifesto, and there are few – none comes to mind in
this form – representative works to which it can be aligned. It is powerful,
political in the sense that all Rzewski's
work is, and somewhat didactic but not in any offensive way (as if
meditations on freedom ever could be). The end result of the triplets,
harmonic extensions, and repeated thematic extrapolations serve the text well
and give listeners a picture of Wilde
they've perhaps never heard before either. These two works serve only to
deepen what is already a widely held opinion, that Frederic Rzewski is, since Ives and Copland,
a terribly important American composer whose work best reflects the land it
comes from; indeed, his music seems to emanate from the land itself – no
matter how critical and searing his view of its social, political, and
religious conventions. |
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By Thom Jurek |
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Rzewski
plays Rzewski – Piano Works, 1975 – 1999 |
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Nonesuch Records, 9623 (2002) 7 CD BOX |
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Track listing: 7.01; 32':42'' |
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Nonesuch
Records celebrates Rzewski’s distinctive body of work with the release of a
7-CD, 25-year retrospective of the composer’s piano-based work, Rzewski Plays Rzewski: Piano Works 1975-1999, on
September 24, 2002. The discs feature all new recordings performed by the
composer of such classic works as The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
and De Profundis, a dramatic work incorporating the Oscar Wilde letter to
Lord Alfred Douglas, spoken by the pianist. Also included are Mayn Yingele,
inspired by the verse of Morris Rosenfeld, poet of the New York sweatshops;
the Piano Sonata, with variations on “L’Homme Armé”; the Fantasia; and four
of eight parts of The Road, a seven-hour work he has been assembling since
1995, conceptualized as being “like an epic Russian novel in the tradition of
Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky.” Extensive liner notes by Rzewski himself and
long-time colleague Christian Wolff are also included in the packaging. |
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He was a
student of Charles Mackey in the 1950s; at Harvard and Princeton he met
valued kindred spirits such as Christian Wolff and David Behrman. Moving to
Rome with a Fullbright Scholarship in 1960, he found his unique voice, felt
freed from academia, and he settled there to create his own brand of
provocative music. Rzewski currently resides in Brussels, where he has been
Professor of Composition at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liège,
Belgium, since 1977. |
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Production credits: Produced and edited by Marc-Henri Cykiert; Recorded
March 1998-March 2001 at Odéon 120/The Right Place, Brussels; Sound Engineer:
Michaël W. Huon; Piano: Steinway D274 (Pianos Maene, Brussels) |
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Design by John Gall; Photography by Michael Wilson;
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz |
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Frederic
Rzewski - Which Side Are You On? |
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Audio CD (May 13,
2003) Label: Cantaloupe
B00008XUUX; Performed by Lisa Moore |
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Track listing: De Profundis, melodramatic oratorio for solo pianist playing &
reciting. North American Ballads (4) for piano |
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‘The first woman to record Frederic Rzewsi's setting of Oscar Wilde's
"De Profundis," Bang on a Can/Steve Reich pianist Lisa Moore sheds
powerful new light on Wilde's jailhouse meditation on imprisonment,
debasement, and the barriers that he faced as a homosexual. Rzewski, one of
the great revolutionary American composers, has created an aggressively
emotional soundtrack to Wilde's moving prose. "De Profundis" breaks
down the boundaries between a piano recital and a theatrical experience.
Written for a virtuosic pianist who also sings, shouts, and declaims, Rzewski's
masterpiece is given a gripping re-interpretation by the fiery Moore, who
brings a new character to the work through her passionate piano performance
and compelling voice.’ |
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"Lisa Moore gave a
startlingly good performance: she was lustrous at the keyboard, and at once
engaging and challenging." |
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Larry
Sitsky – De Profundis, for double string quartet, percussion and baritone |
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Audio CD Move Records MD3084 |
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Track
Listing: De Profundis: for
double string quartet, pe |
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Oscar Wilde's
text for 'De Profundis' written in the dark days following his trial inspired
Sitsky's illuminating and intense musical interpretation. Baritone Lyall
Bevan, pe |
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In addition
this disc features the 'Violin Concerto No.2' which was inspired by the
writings of the influential philosopher Gurdjieff and juxtaposes the musical
languages of the East and West. It
also includes two compositions for piano performed by the composer: 'Fantasia
No.2' and 'Petra'. |
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Press quotes: |
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“As is the case with the other pieces on this disc,
'De Profundis' receives an exemplary performance.” |
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— Opera Australi |
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For the
Discographies Table of Contents, click |
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