Search - Christopher Rouse, Alsop, Colorado Symphony Orch :: Gorgon

Makes "Rite of Spring" seem like a frolic in a baby bath!

Jeff Dunn | Foster City, CA USA | 08/04/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the best collection available of the music of Christopher Rouse, one of the most audience-pleasing Americans writing today. The Trombone Concerto won the Pulitzer Prize for its mastery of form and content--but it also speaks as a heartfelt tribute to the memory of Leonard Bernstein."Gorgon" is an astounding creation, one of the loudest pieces ever written, adding 75 percussion instruments to the full orchestra. Its frightening relentlessness will test the capacity of the best stereo system. Rouse does you blotto with the ostinato. Not for the squeamish; but for those who can take it, it may well prove to be the most exciting investment of a lifetime."

A magnificent disc

dancergirl | Baltimore, MD | 06/10/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rouse' Trombone Concerto won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. There are two recordings of it, this one and a BIS recording with Christian Lindberg as soloist. Both of these are excellent, though I'd perhaps give this RCA CD the edge because of the playing of Joseph Alessi, for whom the concerto was written. Like many of Rouse's works, this is a dark and somber meditation on death, and it is deeply, deeply moving. "Iscariot" is also a very distrubing piece. And then there's "Gorgon," which HAS to be one of the wildest, loudest pieces of music ever composed. It's a crazy, rollercoaster ride of a work, a great test for anyone's audio system. The performances are all first-rate, and the music is profoundly important."