Costello: Il Sogno

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Barnes & Noble - EJ Johnson
Pop-music idol Elvis Costello takes a stab at the classics with Il Sogno The Dream, an ambitious hour-long ballet score for symphony orchestra based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In composing music for the story, Costello joins august classical-music company: Benjamin Britten wrote an opera based on the play, and Felix Mendelssohn's incidental music remains an orchestral staple -- although it's George Gershwin's concert music, the original classical crossover, that inevitably provides the closest comparison. Is Costello out of his league? Longhair skeptics will no doubt say yes, even with the rocker's track record of successfully pushing the bounds of pop ...
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Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble - EJ Johnson
Pop-music idol Elvis Costello takes a stab at the classics with Il Sogno The Dream, an ambitious hour-long ballet score for symphony orchestra based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In composing music for the story, Costello joins august classical-music company: Benjamin Britten wrote an opera based on the play, and Felix Mendelssohn's incidental music remains an orchestral staple -- although it's George Gershwin's concert music, the original classical crossover, that inevitably provides the closest comparison. Is Costello out of his league? Longhair skeptics will no doubt say yes, even with the rocker's track record of successfully pushing the bounds of pop and crossing the classical divide, most recently with Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter on the lovely For the Stars. Yet Sogno is a serious effort that reveals a composer adept at his modern classical idiom, and what's more, he's a skilled orchestrator as well. Following the play's plot points, the multi-movement score darts through a range of styles, now lyrical, now grand, now dancing, adding lively hints of jazz and rock for extra flavor. Saxophones and vibraphones complement the usual array of orchestral instruments and expand the ensemble colors, often to striking effect. On this premiere recording, Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony Orchestra perform with a finesse normally afforded the masters, and even if Sogno comes up short in elevating Costello to "the next Gershwin" status, he's clearly well on his way to assuming that mantle. Stay tuned.
All Music Guide - William Ruhlmann
Elvis Costello has advantages over some of his peers in popular music in attempting to cross over to classical music, as he does with his first orchestral composition, Il Sogno. Since he learned musical notation and has orchestrated his music himself, he is better able to control the final work than his sometime songwriting partner Paul McCartney, for example. And by accepting a commission from the Italian dance company Aterballetto to score their adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Il Sogno means "The Dream" in Italian, he has a work that gives him a dramatic structure and the further demand of accompanying dancers. These are useful limitations, and he has followed them strictly. His annotations on the play show that he has molded his music to the plot and characters, and even if the listener can't hear that in the score, there is a sense of form and development to the music. The ballet commission gives the work added functionality -- one is never too far from distinctly rhythmic material. But then, Costello brings from his popular music a sense of the need for music to command attention. Il Sogno is never a boring listen, something is always happening. A classical music fan, then, cannot criticize Costello for the usual reasons that pop composers venturing into classical music are criticized. But one criticism that can be made, from a conservative posture, is that, in achieving his effects, Costello is deliberately eclectic. He is not above borrowing a rhythmic idea from the pop song "On Broadway," as he does, for example, in "Oberon and Titania," and he has no problem introducing elements of swing jazz in "Puck 2," while leaving room for saxophonist John Harle to improvise. Also, he isn't always as restrained as he might be. A musical score for A Midsummer Night's Dream ought to be lighter and more playful than this one sometimes is; by the end, the music has taken on the contours of the soundtrack to a movie thriller, which is a bit more melodramatic than necessary. Nevertheless, Il Sogno is full of interesting themes and other musical ideas, along with striking contrasts of instruments, and it justifies both the commission and the London Symphony Orchestra's decision to record it.
New York Times - Jon Pareles
''Il Sogno'' is a rhapsodic work, following the plot's juxtapositions of characters by switching among courtly pomp, folkish lilt, sweeping romantic lines and jazzy swing, along with eerie sustained interludes. As tuneful themes recurred and intertwined, it was easy to imagine ''Il Sogno'' as the latter-day descendant of ballet scores: a film soundtrack.
Washington Post - Terry Teachout
Costello has channeled his thematic material into simple, formal structures that he uses in the disciplined manner of a bona fide classical composer.... Am I surprised? Totally. But if any rocker could pull off such an improbable feat, it's Elvis Costello, whose musical curiosity has always been boundless.
Newark Star-Ledger - Bradley Bambarger
"Il Sogno" is an ingeniously scored orchestral work by a composer who knows his Stravinsky and Prokofiev, as well as his Nino Rota and Gil Evans. Any music lover who appreciates those composers should warm to Costello's vivid score.

''Il Sogno'' is a rhapsodic work, following the plot's juxtapositions of characters by switching among courtly pomp, folkish lilt, sweeping romantic lines and jazzy swing, along with eerie sustained interludes. As tuneful themes recurred and intertwined, it was easy to imagine ''Il Sogno'' as the latter-day descendant of ballet scores: a film soundtrack.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 9/21/2004
  • Label: Deutsche Grammophon
  • UPC: 028947157724
  • Catalog Number: 000328402

Tracks

Disc 1
  1. 1 Il Sogno, ballet after Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" - Elvis Costello & Michael Tilson Thomas
    Composed byElvis Costello
    Conducted byMichael Tilson Thomas
    Performed byMichael Tilson Thomas, London Symphony Orchestra, Peter Erskine
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Album Credits

Performance Credits
London Symphony Orchestra Performing Ensemble
Peter Erskine Percussion
Chris Laurence Double Bass
Michael Tilson Thomas Conductor
John Harle Saxophone
Christopher Laurence Double Bass
Technical Credits
Elvis Costello Composer, Liner Notes, Executive Producer
Mike Cox Engineer
Mark Seliger Cover Photo
Fred Munzmaier Art Direction
Roland Heap Engineer
Mark Buecker Engineer
Sid McLauchlan Producer
Radoslaw Szulc Orchestra Leader
Vaughan Sinclair Liner Notes
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