A Garland for Linda | 
 enlarge | Artist: Various Artists
Label: Emi Classics
Category: Music
List Price: £15.99
Buy New: £3.28
You Save: £12.71 (79%)
New (19) Used (7) from £2.79
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 60300
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 724355696120
EAN: 0724355696120
ASIN: B00003ZKRB
Release Date: February 7, 2000
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Silence of music - Ralph Vaughan Williams | | • | Prayer for the healing of the sick - John Tavener | | • | Water Lilies - Judith Bingham | | • | Music dei donum - John Rutter | | • | The doorway of the dawn - David Matthews | | • | Nova - Sir Paul McCartney | | • | I dream'd - Roxanna Panufnik | | • | Farwell - Michael Berkeley | | • | The flight of the swan - Giles Swayne | | • | A good-night - Sir Richard Rodney Bennett |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
This album is designed as a tribute to the life and memory of Linda McCartney (who died of breast cancer in 1998) and includes the work of nine contemporary British composers. Portmanteau albums such as these always raise the question of stylistic unity, but the composers have actually mostly responded to the theme of illness, suffering and hope in very similar ways: the tone of the whole album is one of calm reflection, punctuated by moments of visionary ecstasy. Unity is also achieved by the awe-inspiring singing of the Joyful Company of Singers who produce a cool cathedral-type sound which gets red-blooded at exactly the right moments. There are some extraordinary moments: Judith Bingham's Debussy-esque multi-layered soundscape is one, as is Giles Swayne's setting of the 10th-century poem "The Swan's Lament" with contributions from the flute and cello. Thankfully, the percentage of beautiful, imaginative or interesting music is high, even if it's not all at the level of the two pieces mentioned above. Fans of John Tavener or Arvo Paert will certainly find much to enjoy. A percentage of the proceeds go to The Garland Appeal, which supports cancer research and British music. --Warwick Thompson
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| Customer Reviews:
tiny dramas and beautiful meditations April 8, 2000
C. Cleveland (Dryden, NY United States)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Although I have not followed contemporary classical, or formal music, and bought the album to acquire Paul McCartney's contribution, I was looking forward to an introduction to other contemporary composers, and I was not disappointed. As one who has more background in literature than in music, I was struck by the degree to which all the composers rendered tiny dramas from the texts they worked with, or, in some cases, wrote themselves. The more dramatic pieces, with full plots, as it were, are Water Lilies, The doorway of the dawn, The flight of the swan, and Nova. Doorway of the dawn has a distinctive verve, and sounds like trumpets. John Taverner's Prayer for the healing of the sick has an extraordinarily fine melodic line, handled with great restraint, and Roxanna Panufnik's I dream'd explores the territory between harmony and discord fruitfully. Michael Berkeley's Farwell seems both fully felt and fully controlled. The flight of the swan, I thought, had perhaps a few too many feathers, but is very there. If the album were to be treated like a popular album, there are many candidates for release as singles. The drama of McCartney's Nova is drawn from a lovely text that reworks the Book of Job. Its beautiful melody is subordinated to other devices like harmony and volume to express the progress of grieving from despair and desperate seeking to acceptance of the beauty that remains. Garland for Linda is a very satisfying album quite apart from the causes it supports.
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