Recordings
David L. Smith
Buskers are street musicians, and the Cambridge Buskers are Michael Copley and Dag Ingram, who are said to have got their start when a temporary shortage of change for the ride home led to a impromptu fund-raising concert in a London tube station, providing the necessary coin as well as the idea for similar concerts on the streets and in the train stations of cities all over Europe. Appearances in concert halls of the more traditional type resulted in a recording contract, and the best of their LP's have now been issued here on a single disc entitled A Little Street Music (DG 2536 414). Copley's bag of instruments includes flutes, ocarinas, piccolos, and recorders, while Ingram's instrument is the accordian. Their repertoire is extensive, offering charmingly offbeat arrangements of nearly everything from the William Tell Overture to Joplin's The Entertainer.
Despite its lack of appeal for many listeners, minimalism's critical acclaim and commercial success have earned it the right to be taken seriously as an important trend in contemporary music. Minimalist elements—repetitive rhythms, shifting patterns of sound, spare orchestration—can be found in albums as diverse as Arthur Blythe's Illusions (Columbia JC-36583) and John Surman's The Amazing Adventures of Simon Simon (ECM 1—1193), but it's composers such as Philip Glass who have come to epitomize the genre. Glass' attractive new collection is called Glassworks (CBS FM-37265), in which his usual grouping of seven players has been extended to include a string ensemble. The half-dozen pieces share minimalism's characteristic sense of being both focused and buoyant. At its best, as in the lyrical Opening and Facades, the music has a hypnotic power and spare elegance that—for better or worse—is simplicity itself.
Ponchielli's marvelous La Gioconda (1876) has received a top-notch new recording with an all-star cast (London LDR-73005). Caballé, in one of her best recent performances, handles the difficult wide emotional swings of the title role with a smoldering intensity and total conviction. Convincing too are Pavarotti as Enzo, who offers full measure of his role's requisite ardor, and Agnes Baltsa as Laura, a performance that suggests a tender vulnerability. Sherril Milnes and Nicolai Ghiaurov are the menacing duo Barnaba and Alvise, and Bruno Bartolletti gets maximum contrast between episodes of high drama and romance through his effective conducting of the National Philharmonic.
