I should eat this up. This is a work written by my favourite Italian composer of the second half of the 20th century – and with Busoni and Puccini, a contender for my favourite Italian composer of the 20th century – performed, in part, by my favourite male rock singer of all time – and the Greatest Male Rock Singer of All-Time, and if you doubt that, leave a comment and I will prove it through a blog post.
But I have to nitpick.
This isn’t really a performance by Patton, but more by the Ictus Ensemble and the Nederlands Kamerkoor. Yes, Patton plays a major role, but only one of many. It’s the cult of the vocalist – something I detest – which encourages releasing stuff like this under the name of the primary vocalist – though the fact that he owns the label and probably financed the performance certainly is another reason. It’s a cult that is rampant in both rock music and “art” music. It’s not a criticism of the music herein, it’s just something I can’t get over that continues to bug me. This should have been released as an Ictus ensemble release if ego got out of the way.
As for the music, it is incredible. Berio was always so forward thinking, even when he was looking back (like in his folk song adaptations for Berbarian). Few people challenge me like Berio does. He was clearly open to much more than the average composer born in the 1920s and its great to hear how he combines influences from musical theatre, free jazz, and the traditions he was schooled in himself.
I can’t say whether this performance is up to his personal standard, but I can’t really say that about any “classical” work I listen to (having not listened to enough to judge orchestras against each other), and so I can only judge the work based on the context it was written in, the late ’60s. From that standpoint it is revolutionary, and the only thing keeping me from giving it full marks is its length, which is excessive.
9/10
Read my reviews of albums released in 2012 or my reviews of music from 1965. You can also read all my reviews of albums involving Mike Patton here.