James Manheim has a new review for Mark Abel’s Terrain of the Heart CD and compares the three song cycles to the music of William Bolcolm and Leonard Bernstein:
“California-based composer Mark Abel has developed a unique musical language that incorporates strong influences from rock music without losing the basic shape of classical song. He is less a crossover composer than one who has managed to absorb rock rhythms into a largely tonal classical style. The shapes of his long melodies owe little to rock, which comes in mostly on the rhythmic side. William Bolcom, or a less flamboyant Leonard Bernstein, would be the closest comparisons. … It’s a testament to the distinctiveness of Abel’s music that Five Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke fits with (the CD’s) other two cycles, whose language has a much plainer idiom. Indeed, the directness of Abel’s texts (for The Dark-Eyed Chameleon and Rainbow Songs) is one of the strong points of his songs in itself. … Abel is developing a characteristic body of work.” —James Manheim, AllMusic
Read the full review at AllMusic.com
Buy from Delos Today! Download the Digital Booklet!
You must be logged in to post a comment.