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Index • home • what is insomnia? • treatment • types • natural cures • trivia Site Info about us contact us about amazon about google ads privacy disclaimer links sitemap Useful Ads Insomnia | home | all | books | dvd | gourmetfood | healthpersonalcare | music | about Amazon products | Insomnia Music from Amazon Insomnia List Price: $16.98 Amazon Price: $10.18 Average Customer Rating: (4 reviews) Editorial Review: This may be one of the least abrasive albums of contemporary music you'll ever hear. On this culture-melding disc, violinist Gidon Kremer and harpist Naoko Yoshino explore the dizzying roots and offshoots of modern compositions from the Far East and Europe. Every work on Insomnia--whether written by John Cage, Arvo Pärt, or Richard Strauss--seems to share influences and similarities with the next. While Japanese composer Michio Miyagi (1894-1956) was looking to France for influences on Haru no umi, Erik Satie (1866-1925) was looking to the East on the preludes to Le Fils des Étoiles. The comparisons are fascinating, and Kremer and Yoshino make this difficult music sound easy and hypnotic. Especially effective: Pärt's gorgeous Spiegel im Spiegel and Schnittke's almost New Age-sounding "Pantomime" (from Suite in the Old Style). Great stuff for modern lovers. --Jason Verlinde Customer Reviews: 0 of 0 found this review helpful: East meets West with no crossover gimmickry involved, 2008-03-14 In mid-1996 violinist Gidon Kremer and harpist Naoko Yoshino met in Tokyo and performed a series of works by (sometimes Western-inspired) Asian composers and (sometimes Asian-inspired) Western composers. Three years later, Philips released the programme on CD. Many East-meets-West releases from major labels tend to be World music crossover gimmickry, but here we have a fascinating mix of philosophies in pieces with actual musical substance. The disc opens with Michio Miyagi's "Haru no umi". Miyagi (1894-1956) was mainly a player of koto, the Japanese string instrument. Nonetheless, he had an interest in French music, and an arrangement of this piece that he allowed for violin served to introduce him internationally. The strong pentatonic feel keeps the piece rooted in the East, but the phrasing and counterpoint are a clear gift from Europe. John Cage's "Six Melodies" are the very opposite, working with Western scales but looking East with their spare textures and slow tempo. Kaija Saariaho's "Nocturne" for solo violin (1994) takes its musical material from her violin concerto "Graal Theatre" of the same year (Kremer plays a thrilling performance of it on a Sony disc). Without the orchestra, the music is much less dramatic and energetic and more pensive and halting, with its harmonic scheme centered on A stripped naked for the listener. Toru Takemitsu's "Stanza II" for harp and tape (1971) is a sort of sequel to a rather zany piece for small ensemble and mezzo-soprano which the Japanese composer had written a few years previously. It foreshadows Boulez's "Repons" and the music of the spectralists with its glittery metallic colours. The use of bird song and the snippets of conservation briefly heard on the tape keeps it away from total abstraction. Unfortunately, the recording quality here makes the piece sound distance and cold, and I much prefer the recording with harpist Ursula Holliger on a DG reissue. I don't care much for Takemitsu's 1975 arrangement of part of Erik Satie's "Le files des etoiles", for in his last two decades of activity Takemitsu's own music strayed too close to musical wallpaper to arrange a composer who openly sought to write it. Yuji Takahasi's "Insomnia" for violin, voices and kugo is the first work I've ever heard from this composer. At first it sounds like the work of a Japanese Tan Dun, but then veers into Fluxus-like improvisation of mock sleepwalking around the stage and Kremer reciting Mandelstam. The French composer Jean Francaix (1912-1997) was one of the few pupils of Nadia Boulanger who actually stuck with her Neo-classical teachings for the whole of his career. His "Cinque piccoli duetti" of 1975 could have been written fifty years before. It's tidy and elegant, but Neo-classicalism has never been my thing. Nino Rota (1911-1979) is best known as a composer of film scores, and his brief "Il padrino" for harp is from his score for "The Godfather". It's fairly lightweight. Arvo Part's "Spiegel im Spiegel" (Mirror in Mirror, 1978) has appeared before in several arrangements, most notably for violin and piano and for cello and piano on the ECM album Alina, but the violin and harp version works wonderfully too. In this extremely elegant piece, the harp keeps a constant cadence against which the string instrument sweeps. Listeners seeking a programme may hear something immensely spiritual like seeing two lovers gaze into each other's eyes, but for this more sober listener I prefer to marvel at the clarity of textures and the form that is allowed to breath. The disc ends with the Pantomime movement of Alfred Schnittke's "Suite in the Old Style" (1965). In spite of Schnittke's later music--and in spite of what the liner notes may have you think--the piece involves no big cataclysm where a blatantly classical music suddenly gives way to dissonance and brash modernism. Instead, the tension between the two styles is very subtle, appear for just a few bars under the surface. While this disc contains the only recording of Saariaho's "Nocturne", the reason I got it, there's little here to make it a must-have purchase for contemporary music listeners. Nonetheless, if a friend or loved one begins to show disturbing interest in crossover classical, this may make a fine gift. 0 of 0 found this review helpful: sublime and fascinating, 2006-02-25 I could not agree more with the next reviewer: this is one of the most cohesive collections I've heard; each track segues effortlessly into the next. While the dissonance and atonality of much modern music grates on me; this CD is devoid of such things. The compositions are wonderfully luminous and the performer(s) approach rivets the listener. Excellent night-time composition music, seduction music- what have you. I strongly encourage you to take a chance on this! 10 of 14 found this review helpful: Insomnia- No Way! This one is hot!, 2000-06-16 The title is misleading if not down right dubious. This is one hot album. Gidon Kremer is a performer of rare ability and he is at his best with the broad range of composers featured here. He is accompanied by an excellent harpist Naoko Yoshino who adds her own special charm to these pieces. They work well together and their skills are clearly evident. This album is not for everyone; it challenges the listener and forces you to pay attention but it is worth it. 6 of 11 found this review helpful: Insomnia? No Way-This is for the living!, 2000-06-15 Gidon Kremer is at his most provocative best! The wide range of composers played here require all of his skill and he comes through. This album is not for everybody but those who want something new won't be disappointed. Naoko Yoshino's contributions on the harp are a delight in themselves and shouldn't be missed. From a musical point of view this is not for quiet nights! It gets you up and keep you up This album may challenge some people but that's one of its charms. Need a challenge go for it; its truly an adventure. 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