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Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Composers Concordance Presents The Mozart Influence

The Composers Concordance folks are unpredictable and at times refreshingly irreverent in a reverent sort of way. All that applies to a series of recomposition-compositions brought together under the rubric The Mozart Influence (Composers Concordance 0030). This is ingenious fun, music based on Mozart and his thematic and personal universe.

You who like me have spent plenty of time with the musical wunderkind and his rapid flowering will recognize some of Mozart's thematics and even whole compositions, all resituated into the kaleidoscopic world of today, into the creative world of Composers Concordance. It is all put together by a chamber ensemble most certainly not limited to the instruments of Mozart's day but including electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and electronic treatments.

We pleasure our way through a lucky 13 works-reworks by Gene Pritsker, Patrick Grant,  David Taylor, Jon Clark, Milica Paranosic, and Dan Cooper. You will hear some over-the-top arrangements for Taylor's bass trombone and Jon Clark's French horn, a Mid-East meets Latin America chamber transformation, some rock restating with anything from scat-yodeling (Chanda Rule!) to unusual modernist rething-king, operatic recititaves on the state of Mozart's finances, jazz encapsulations, and more besides.

It is adventure and beauty, avant and proto-contemporary, popped and played with, dissected and made into various friendly Frankenstein monsters, things that carry the essence of Mozart and pay tribute to the serious and playful side of the brilliance music force. There are musical jokes he would have appreciated and there are seriously moving reworkings, all put together quite nicely and at times quite brilliantly.

Anyone who wonders what is new, what is postmodern about our modern music, anyone who loves Mozart and is not afraid to hear his influence transmuted in a kind of creative alchemy, this one you should hear, you should buy.

It is a hoot from many an inspired owl. Do not miss it if you want to go further along the road to tomorrow.

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