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Genesis - The Gabriel Years (2010) {2xDVD5 PAL Set Anvil Media ANV3578}
2xDVD5 -> 5.79 Gb | All Regions | PAL 16:9 | Dolby AC3, 2 ch/Dolby AC3, 6 ch/DTS, 6 ch | ~ 111 min | ISO Images
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 17 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2010 Anvil Media | ANV3578
Rock / Progressive Rock / Art Rock / Documentary / Concerts

The theatrical flair and musical innovation lent to Genesisbetween the years 1967 and 1975 by its founder, Peter Gabriel, comes under critical review in this insightful examination. Included is rare performance footage of The Knife which Gabriel made famous by introducing the now-common practice of stage diving to its strains; performances of The Musical Box,Selling England By The Pound and Dancing Out With The Moonlit Knight are also highlights. Fleshing out the band footage is a team of leading critics, musicians, and writers, who reveal their opinions and knowledge of this enduring music.

The Transcendental Études (French: Études d'exécution transcendante), S.139, are a set of twelve compositions for piano by Franz Liszt. They were published in 1852 as a revision of an 1837 set (which had not borne the title "d'exécution transcendante"), which in turn were – for the most part – an elaboration of a set of studies written in 1826.

The Box hail from Quebec, Canada. They were, apparently, more of a pop outfit in the '80s, but reformed in the '00s and released two albums that were closer to progressive rock, of which this is the second, and my first experience with them.The opener, "Ouverture", starts off quiet, before it introduces a spacy section with distant "na na na na"s. Then the guitars and drums make a quick intro, before it changes again into what sounds, to my untrained ear, like an accordion. Ultimately, the song is about a simple theme, but the way that it is presented is quite excellent.

Marius Constant, who had an intimate knowledge of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, published Impressions de Pelléas, published in 1992 an abridged version (95 minutes instead of 150) for six singers and two pianists. In an intense flow of music, he telescopes the five acts with great finesse, removing a few scenes and making a fair number of cuts and a few minimal adjustments to the musical material. For the scenography, he suggested, ‘We are in an early twentieth-century salon’ This reflects the fact that during the genesis of Pelléas, Debussy regularly played fragments of it for his circle of friends. In this version, both listeners and performers are involuntarily swept towards the origin and essence of Debussy’s masterpiece: a ‘music of the soul’ in which we can all recognise our own Mélisande, Pelléas, Arkel, Geneviève, Yniold and Golaud. This chamber version of the opera is completed by the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune in Debussy’s own transcription for two pianos and the suite En blanc et noir. The two pianos used are the new straight-strung instruments built in Belgium by Chris Maene at the request of Daniel Barenboim.

Gustav Mahler was not yet thirty years old when he mounted the podium to conduct his ‘Symphonic Poem’ (Sinfonische Dichtung) in the Large Hall of the Redoute (Vigadó) in Budapest on 20 November 1889. The young man, who had recently been appointed director of the Hungarian capital’s opera house, was presenting an orchestral composition for the first time that evening. This work, which Mahler thought would be ‘child’s play’, was in fact - as he was to admit years later - “one of [his] boldest.” It is the crystallisation of his childhood, marked by the successive deaths of his brothers and sisters but also by the brutality of his father. The work also embodies the dreams that this rebellious young student at the Vienna Conservatory had already forged some ten years earlier, with the new generation of artists and thinkers of which he was a member.

To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the legendary Quatuor Habanera (Paris), the Swiss-Slovenian saxophonist Maja Lisac Barroso presented the formation with an immense but fascinating challenge. To rehearse a work that is actually seen as the ‘epitome of a chamber music work for strings’: Schubert’s famous String Quintet, D.956. The artist spent two years listening to Schubert’s masterpiece every day, researching the work and its genesis, before finally arranging it for five saxophones. The result? Something seemingly impossible…