Offertorium

Moreover, the composer had actually the nerve to touch some of the most beautiful poems ever written, T.S. Elliott's "The Four Quartets". The result obviously cannot live up to the exquisite beauty and deep spiritual FEELING of the poems and in the end, both the music and the poetry lose.

This mucic is caught up in the brain, it has not immersed itself in the mystical religious depths it supposedly wishes to convey and the result is superficial and dissapointing. Good for the brain, indifferent to the soul.

It's good to listen to this CD only to see for yourself the degree of "degeneracy" and the values that our musical culture worships.

Gubaidulina's "Offertorium" is an exploration of the Royal Theme from Bach's "Musical Offering", with some sort of influence from Weber. The notes explain that the theme is played nearly complete, and then deconstructed note by note for the remainder of this thirty minute piece. I must confess total ignorance on the foundation of the work, as I have little knowledge of music theory and have never heard Bach's original. The violin is at the core of this work, being written for Gidon Kremer, but there are also very prominent contributions from the horns and drums. I find that this piece is an excellent introduction Gubaidulina's oeuve because it highlights the composers tendency to softness broken by powerful and shaking movements.

The "Hommage a T.S. Eliot" is an exciting piece, here performed by a small ensemble selected by Gidon Kremer. Gubaidulina wrote the homage after reading the Eliot's "Four Quartets", often considered the poet's masterpiece and one of the finest works of spiritual poetry of the 20th century.

The homage consists of seven parts. The beginning two part are instrumental only. The first is with strings, a slow and tranquil exploration of sound very characteristic of Gubaidulina's "String Trio". The second is for horns, already much more energetic. In the third part the soprano appears solo, singing a portion from the first of Eliot's quartets, "Burnt Norton." The following movement, again for only strings, is brief and insubstantial, and gives the listener a rest from the intense philosophical insight of the previous. In the fifth part, the soprano returns to sing a portion from "East Coker", this time with the accompaniment of the entire ensemble. After this comes another instrumental movement for strings. The seventh portion begins with a deeply moving interplay between the strings that creates tension and suspense before the soprano marks a stunning climax of the work with the closing lines of "Little Gidding." This is a incredibly deep piece, and as a fan of T.S. Eliot I am quite satisfied with Gubaidulina's insightful and loyal treatment of "Four Quartets".

The instrumentalists give a very confident and unflagging performance. My only complaint about the recording is that soprano Christine Whittlesey's singing seems strained and pretentious, and doesn't respect the euphony of Eliot's work. In the recordings of Eliot reciting "Four Quartets", his delivery was always very simple, plain, and direct, a big contrast with Whittlesey's absurdly trilled r's.

I would certainly recommend this disc. It is among the easiest of the composer's work to find and the liner notes are excellent.