![]() ![]() The CD features fourteen settings of poets as diverse as Dickinson, Lorca, Cummings and a 13th Century Persian Sufi mystic. He describes this, his first work for stage, as an 'opera electronica', and it combines trance, ambient, and techno electronics in a genre crossing combination of choral, cinematic and operatic forms.Ĭloudburst was recorded by Hyperion, and takes it name from one of Eric Whitacre's best known choral works which sets a poem by Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz. One of his most recent compositions is Paradise Lost (production shot right). Whitacre's choral works, which include Water Night, Cloudburst, Sleep, Lux Aurumque and A Boy and a Girl, are hugely popular in the US, and his compositions for symphonic winds are also frequently programmed, particularly Ghost Train which has had over a thousand performances and forty recordings. Above all it is his ability to make music the servant of words that distinguishes his vocal works, and this is reflected in his eclectic choice of texts. Despite Eric Whitacre's popular appeal there is no complacency in his writing, and he keeps the listener on the edge of their seat with shifting chords and startling harmonies that confirm his pop/rock roots. Whitacre is a master of harmony, but is a million miles away from the 'comfort music' of John Rutter and others. (Opening the link launches an audio file of this sublime work). It is no bad thing, but I do also clearly hear the influence of another unique voice in the form of Peter Maxwell Davies (right), particularly Max's 1981 Lullabye for Lucy. His musical voice is unique but fundamentally conservative, and he has been described as the ' anti-Tavener' because of his disregard for fashions such as the so-called 'holy minimalism', although the setting of the biblical text When David heard does pay homage to Arvo Pärt. We are delighted, but it is really quite surprising as Eric Whitacre is almost unknown here." T he success of Cloudburst has been reflected in the US where within a day of being released it entered the Amazon top ten classical best seller list.Įric Whitacre was born in Nevada in 1970, and played synthesizers in a teenage techno-pop band before graduating from the Juilliard School of Music where he studied with John Corigliano and David Diamond. ![]() Sales of Cloudburst have also been very strong this week, easily outselling the big January release of the 2006 New Year's Day Concert conducted by Mariss Jansons. That was double our next best seller - a TV advertised 'Best of Mozart' compilation. Then the rush started, and we took more than ten orders just on Saturday. It hit all the hot buttons, and proves that a full price CD of music written in the last fifteen years can outsell the TV promoted greatest hits of a dead guy from Salzburg.Īndrew Cane of leading UK independent classical store Prelude Records explained to An Overgrown Path yesterday: " Cloudburst had been out for two weeks when BBC Radio 3's CD Review gave it an outstanding review. Cloudburst, a CD of Eric Whitacre's choral works sung by Polyphony, is currently the surprise UK classical best seller. It also needs to feature a marketable personality and be supported by the media. It needs to be recorded by an enterprising label, with top-class performers and engineering. What you need is great contemporary music which is innovative, honest and accessible. You don't need dumbing-down, the latest avant-garde tricks, classical music night-clubs or free Beethoven MP3s. Yet just this week a surprise classical best-seller has shown how to do it. How to reach new audiences is a continuing preoccupation of the 'serious music' community. ![]()
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