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From: rjw@ptsfc.UUCP (Rod Williams)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Requiem'
Message-ID: <378@ptsfc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Apr-85 22:18:03 EST
Article-I.D.: ptsfc.378
Posted: Tue Apr  9 22:18:03 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Apr-85 05:57:09 EST
References: <353@ptsfc.UUCP> <9696@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Distribution: net
Organization: Pacific Bell, San Francisco
Lines: 49


=> Who else, among those of you who've heard the "Requiem," thought
=> that ALW was trying TOO HARD? 

  Well I must agree that the hype surrounding this piece is quite
  distasteful. I also agree that if Lloyd Webber wanted his Requiem
  judged *seriously* on its own merits, he might have resisted the
  use of superstars like Domingo and Maazel, and done like he did
  with "Evita" (Before any thought had been given to staging it, he
  and Tim Rice produced a recording of the music and lyrics with
  relatively unknown performers, which is still superior to any of
  the subsequently released cast albums.) He's almost assured of
  commercial success (I can't walk into a record store any more
  without hearing Placido's Hosanna :-)), but has made every critic
  dip his or her pen in venom - I've never read such savage reviews!

=>                                          ...Yet the music cannot
=> support the ambitiously chosen text; and the obviously talented
=> performers         ...outclass rather than redeem the composition.

  The implication here seems to be that if a composer can't come up
  to the standards of Mozart, Brahms or Verdi, he/she shouldn't even
  attempt a Requiem (but if you just mean that Placido Domingo should
  stick to those composers rather than John Denver, I'll go along :-))
  Lloyd Webber is obviously not in the same league as those composers,
  but neither that fact nor the sour taste produced by all the hype
  are reason enough to dismiss the music itself out-of-hand.

=> What do YOU think?  I know I'll be tuned in on Friday...

  I also tuned in on Friday (April 5 on PBS). Domingo's part - with the
  exception of the Hosanna - sure is uninspired ("cheesy," according to
  Newsweek :-)) and the orchestra is given so little to do that one
  suspects that ALW is playing it safe. I still, however, like many
  of the choral parts and the woman and boy sopranos' parts - and
  their duet in the "Pie Jesu/Agnus Dei" is simply lovely (although I
  was horrified after the *live* performance when our local PBS station
  then showed "Pie Jesu - The Video" - all soft-focus and lip-synch,
  with a strange sub-plot involving children weeping at the scene of
  a bombing or something >gag< ).

  So, to summarize, I    *  Hate the hype
                         *  Like the music
                         *  Look forward to the stage show  (:-))
-- 

 rod williams | pacific bell | san francisco
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