Music / opera

Memory game


Reviews (4)


The guardian

d. 20. Mar. 2020

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John Lewis

d. 20. Mar. 2020

"The Bang on a Can All-Stars cover nine of Monk's works for theatre with compelling authority, alongside her trusted Vocal Ensemble ... The main draw, however, is hearing how New York chamber outfit Bang on a Can All-Stars have reorchestrated nine pieces from Monk's varied theatrical productions since the early 1980s".


The quietus

d. 10. Apr. 2020

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Eve Willis

d. 10. Apr. 2020

"Composer Meredith Monk teams up with the Bang on a Can All-Stars for a set of re-orchestrated versions of pieces from throughout her career ... Alien races, football, champagne, champagne, champagne - and, of course, plenty of staccatoed yelping. This is a janglingly strange album from the High Priestess of the avant-garde. I hope she lives to 100 so we get many more".


Presto classical

2020

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2020

"Meredith Monk's MEMORY GAME, as its title implies, is both a look back at a pivotal point in her storied career, and a richly layered portrait of how vocal music, under the guidance of an indefatigable master, can play with our expectations in poignant and compelling ways. Teaming up here with her renowned Vocal Ensemble (featuring Theo Bleckmann, Katie Geissinger and Allison Sniffin) and backed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Monk explores all-new arrangements of never-before-recorded selections from her award-winning sci-fi opera The Games, as well as new versions of several pieces originally released on Do You Be (1987) and Impermanence (2008). What emerges from MEMORY GAME is a suite of songs that flows with a remarkable narrative cohesion, stemming in large part from the composer's willingness to revisit the past with an insatiably curious eye".


BBC music magazine

2020 August

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Freya Parr

2020 August

"Monk hands over the musical direction to the Bang on a Can All-Stars in this new album. Dynamic mouth percussion - recorded in superb, visceral sound quality - gives way to eerie, otherworldly soundworlds".