Sleeps With Angels

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
If Neil Young has a pronounced weakness, it's a lack of focus. Restless to a fault, he's apt to rush into the recording studio without fully forming his ideas. Sleeps with Angels is that kind of album--and yet it's one of his best. Jarred by the death of Kurt Cobain (the rock & roll martyr quoted Young in his suicide note), he dashed off this collection of songs in 1994 with backing from his steadfast electric warriors, Crazy Horse. At least two songs--the title track and "Change Your Mind"--seem to directly refer to Cobain. Others--"Driveby" and "Safeway Cart" among the most striking--are mesmerizing and gloomy. Still others--"Piece of Crap," "Blue Eden"--are raw and cutting. Goes to show an elegy, no matter how somber, needn't be a hushed affair. --Steven Stolder

Tracks:

My Heart
Prime Of Life
Driveby
Sleeps With Angels
Western Hero
Change Your Mind
Blue Eden
Safeway Cart
Train Of Love
Trans Am
Piece Of Crap
A Dream That Can Last

Amazon.com

If Neil Young has a pronounced weakness, it's a lack of focus. Restless to a fault, he's apt to rush into the recording studio without fully forming his ideas. Sleeps with Angels is that kind of album--and yet it's one of his best. Jarred by the death of Kurt Cobain (the rock & roll martyr quoted Young in his suicide note), he dashed off this collection of songs in 1994 with backing from his steadfast electric warriors, Crazy Horse. At least two songs--the title track and "Change Your Mind"--seem to directly refer to Cobain. Others--"Driveby" and "Safeway Cart" among the most striking--are mesmerizing and gloomy. Still others--"Piece of Crap," "Blue Eden"--are raw and cutting. Goes to show an elegy, no matter how somber, needn't be a hushed affair. --Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews:

Grungy And Not Exactly What I expect from Neil.......2007-03-21

I don't want to totally put down "Sleeps With Angels", but I'm not overly impressed. Unless you are a really big Neil Young buff, you probably won't like this.

I found tracks 1 and 12 quite cheesy. Tracks 2-3, 5-6 and 9 are pretty good. I found tracks 4 and 10 to have some good qualities, but majorly lacking. And I really didn't "get" tracks 7-8 and 11 at all. The tracks seem to rotate between dark/grungy and corny!

This album is quite different than what you might be used to from Neil Young. Unless you are part of a small segment of hardcore fans, you are better off getting something else. Neil Young has a lot of good stuff. If this is the first Neil Young CD you hear, you may be lead to discount him to easily. In that case, do your self a favour and get something else.

A strong album from an artist who never rests.......2007-01-15

After returning back to his acoustic country-tinged roots on Harvest Moon and Unplugged, Neil Young reunited again with Crazy Horse for 1994's Sleeps With Angels. While their previous collaboration, the excellent Ragged Glory, showed a feeling of resilience amongst the grunge, Sleeps With Angels is closer in spirit to Tonight's The Night in the fact that it's a very dour release. Many of the tracks have Neil playing piano and whether it's on playful tracks like "My Heart" and "A Dream That Can Last" or the melancholy tunes "Western Hero" and "Driveby", his lines, as well as his lyrics, give the feeling of a wake. The title track rages of paranoia with its frequent changes in volume while the Neil's vocals sound like a cry for help on the plodding "Blue Eden." Even the quieter arrangements of "Trans Am' and "Safeway Cart" give a sense of sorrow that works very well. "Piece of [...]" and "Change Your Mind" are more in tune with their most well tunes as the former is Neil's best rocker since "Rockin' in the Free World" while the latter is a jam piece that has great guitar solos from Young and Frank Sampedro and is at least five minutes too long. Also worth noting is that "Train of Love" and "Western Hero" are essentially the same tune with different lyrics. All told, while this isn't one of his (or their) best albums, Sleeps with Angels is a strong release from a musician who continues to challenge himself while most of his contemporaries are resting on their laurels.

Definitely Overlooked.......2006-12-19

This cd came out and just vanished, forgotten. Luckily, I picked it up a short time later to fill out some of my Young collection.

It's a 5 star affair with the showcase song 'Change Your Mind', one of Neil's brilliant songs from the 90s.

Songs like 'The Prime of Life' and 'Drive By' grow on you after a while.

Don't miss out on this great cd.

Better than it sounds..........2006-08-15

Sleeps With Angels does not fit comfortably into Neil Young's Crazy Horse canon. Granted, Neil's singing has often lent a certain depth to the Horse's bonehead playing. The Horse can create a backdrop with the best of him, as its sheer repetition gives the songs almost a primal flow. Take "Cortez the Killer" for instance -- or any of dozens of songs, for that matter. But here, even musically, the Horse ceases to be itself. The songs don't drive so much as they meander. On an album about dying, the music perfectly mimics death -- sinister, calm, sometimes even ominously pristine. And overall confused. .

Maybe because the Horse is out of its element, this album seems off. It reminds me of After the Gold Rush in tone, in places, but with more going on and even more of a dark shadow over it. Part of that created by the music. Part of it because the music does not seem to know where it is going. This shadow, of course, was Kurt Cobain's death -- and the seeming justification of this suicide with a Neil Young quote ("It's better to burn out than to fade away"). To this day, Neil Young will not talk about the Cobain connection, as I understand it. But one does not have to look far to see it -- or hear it, in this case.

Neil's singing is its most harrowing since Tonight's the Night. His voice squeaks in falsetto lyrics about love right on top of lyrics about death. The songs do not always seem to be directly about Cobain, as many are framed in stories that do not match this particular case. But they bear the mood. "My Heart" is pure pain, one of Neil's best love ballads -- the Horse at its sparest and most understated, singing with Neil in train wreck gospel harmony. It's love and devotion with the sense that something is about to happen (It's not to late, I've got to get somewhere") .... Like a dream someone might have on death row, of pastures and sheep and things being different.

"Change Your Mind" comes from the other direction, reading like a belated last letter to its subject -- on why not to do it, on how love can stop it. "Distracting you from this must be the one you love, must be the one who's magic touch can change your mind." A cry that rings hollow in the face of events, and: a message to future victims? An implication of the love Cobain hadn't gotten? It's a song impossible to construe but powerful in the 14 driven minutes for which it weaves. Too long, maybe. Necessary, yes.

"Driveby" could be postmarked as the theme song for falling apart and dying too young, with three chords dragging like chains, some Spanish guitar, and the chorus just repeating that one word "Driveby" -- that one word saying so much about what it is for any young person to die, whatever the means.

Other standouts are the "Western Hero" and "Train of Love" set -- two songs with identical melodies, sounding like a poor Crazy Horse version of Harvest or Harvest Moon. But making these songs just sparse enough to be believed: the first about the fall of Western civilization from outlaws and soldiers to big business and heartlessness. The second, just as pretty and sad, but this time a declaration of love, hard to say whether desperate or joyous -- but vaguely apocalyptic.

And finally, there's the precarious vision of hope at the end, "A Dream That Can Last. This song, to me, is among the most fascinating in Young's catalog. Like the others, cannot be its mood and images are of death. Indeed, the drifty tack piano sounds like some kind of church hymn -- Crazy Horse, now, like some skewed gospel choir. One lone base drum provides the beat, pounding like a message from the mountain. In a way, to me, this sounds like Neil Young's stab at Kurt Cobain's funeral song. The angst, the pain that he had lived with are stripped away -- replaced by clarity that seems like heaven, and couldn't be achieved in life, "I feel like I died and went to heaven . . . I saw the present, I saw the past, and when I wake up I know that it's a dream that can last." Obviously, with Cobain, there was no "waking up" -- but maybe that was what makes it "last." Does heaven exist? Who knows. Neither does Neil -- but the hope is enough. This hope does not sound like it precedes death, it sounds like it follows, and thus conquers, it.

Musically, this is not one of the best Neil albums. The sound is strange, Horse is out of its element, Neil write songs as though in a trance -- some of which work, some of which don't. But flawed or not, this was the first Neil album since Rust Never Sleeps that sounded like it had to be written. Neil has made better albums, but few as raw, emotional, prophetic, and purely ambitious...... so much so that, in the end, the nonconformity and overreach of this album serve it well: as a tribute to Kurt Cobain, a struggle between a mind and itself, and an image of both the abyss and the possibility of a light at the bottom of it. That pain does bring redemption; that death brings love.

Worthy 90's Neil........2006-02-19

This is an album I got pretty much right when it came out, and still play it fairly often. Now it seems to have become one of his forgotten discs, but there is some good stuff on here. "Prime Of Life" follows the simple opener "My Heart" nicely. "Western Hero" might be my favorite track, and actually does sound like a western song. Then there's "Change Your Mind", which I think was the single, but this version is nearly 15 minutes long. We also get "Train Of Love", which is roughly the same song as "Western Hero", but with different lyrics. One other thing to mention, is that despite being backed by Crazy Horse on this album, the only real rocker is "Piece Of Crap". The rest of the album is fairly dark and mellow, though good. Overall I hesitate to call "Sleeps With Angels" essential, but it is a must for fans of this era.

Average customer rating:

A worthwhile investment
Excelent compilation!
Amazingly Now Retrospective
How Could You Not Listen?
Good for help to know up-to-date contemporaly music

25 Years: Retrospective
Suzanne Elder , Paul Hillier , David Krakauer , John Adams , Franguiz Ali-Zadeh , Ken Benshoof , George Crumb , Morton Feldman , Philip Glass , Osvaldo Golijov , Henryk Gorecki , Sofiya Gubaydulina , Arvo Part , P. Q. Phan , Astor Piazzolla , Steve Reich , Terry Riley , Alfred Schnittke , Peter Sculthorpe , Kevin Volans , Aki Takahashi , Ellen L. Hargis , Neal Rogers , and Kronos Quartet
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Avant Garde & Free Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

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General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Classical | Box Sets | Stores | Music
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ASIN: B00000DD9B
Release Date: 1998-10-27

Tracks:

John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Judah to Ocean
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Toot Nipple
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Dogjam
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Pavane: She's So Fine
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Rag the Bone
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Habanera
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Stubble Crochet
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Hammer & Chisel
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Alligator Escalator
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Standchen: The Little Serenade
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Judah to Ocean (Reprise)
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Fratres
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Psalom
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Summa
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Missa Syllabica: Kyrie
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Gloria
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Credo
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Sanctus
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Agnus Dei
John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994): Ite, missa est

Tracks:

Traveling Music: 1. Gentle, easy
Traveling Music: 2. Moderate
Traveling Music: 3. Driving
Song of Twenty Shadows
Five Tango Sensations: Asleep
Five Tango Sensations: Loving
Five Tango Sensations: Anxiety
Five Tango Sensations: Despertar
Five Tango Sensations: Fear
Five Tango Sensations: Four, for Tango

Tracks:

Piano And String Quartet (1985) - Various Artists

Tracks:

Quartet # 4 (Buczak, 1989): I
Quartet # 4 (Buczak, 1989): II
Quartet # 4 (Buczak, 1989): III
Mishima Quartet, Quartet #3 (1985): 1957 - Award Montage
Mishima Quartet, Quartet #3 (1985): November 25 - Ichigaya
Mishima Quartet, Quartet #3 (1985): 1934 - Grandmother and Kimitake
Mishima Quartet, Quartet #3 (1985): 192 - Body Building
Mishima Quartet, Quartet #3 (1985): Blood Oath
Mishima Quartet, Quartet #3 (1985): Mishima/Closing
Company, Quartet #2 (1983): I
Company, Quartet #2 (1983): II
Company, Quartet #2 (1983): III
Company, Quartet #2 (1983): IV
Quartet #5 (1991): I
Quartet #5 (1991): II
Quartet #5 (1991): III
Quartet #5 (1991): IV
Quartet #5 (1991): V

Tracks:

The Dreams & Prayers of Isaac the Blind: Prelude: Calmo, sospeso
The Dreams & Prayers of Isaac the Blind: I. Agitato - Con fucco - Maestoso - Senza misura, oscilante
The Dreams & Prayers of Isaac the Blind: II. Teneramente - Ruvido - Presto
The Dreams & Prayers of Isaac the Blind: III. Calmo, sospeso - Allego pesante
The Dreams & Prayers of Isaac the Blind: Postlude: Lento, liberamente
Quartet #4 (1993)
Mugam Sayagi (1993)

Tracks:

Quasi una fantasia (Quartet #2), Op.64 (1990-91): I. Largo (Sostenuto - Mesto)
Quasi una fantasia (Quartet #2), Op.64 (1990-91): II. DecisoEnergico (Marcatissimo sempre)
Quasi una fantasia (Quartet #2), Op.64 (1990-91): III. Arioso: Adagio cantabile
Quasi una fantasia (Quartet #2), Op.64 (1990-91): IV. Allegro (Sempre con grande passione e molto marcato)
Already It is Dusk (Quartet #1), Op.62 (1988)

Tracks:

Different Trains: America Before The War
Different Trains: Europe During The War
Different Trains: America After The War
Black Angels: I. Departure - 1. Thenody I: Night Of The Electric Insects - 2. Sounds Of Bones And Flutes - 3. Lost Bells - 4. Devil-Music - 5. Danse Macabre
Black Angels: II. Absence - 6. Pavana Lachrymae - 7. Threnody II: Black Angels! - 8. Sarabanda de la Muerte Oscura - 9. Losts Bells (Echo)
Black Angels: III. Return - 10. God Music - 11. Ancient Voices - 12. Ancient Voices (Echo) - 13. Thenody III: Night Of The Electric Insects

Tracks:

Cadenza on the Night Plain (1984): Introduction
Cadenza on the Night Plain (1984): Cadenza: Violin I
Cadenza on the Night Plain (1984): Where Was Wisdom When We Went West?
Cadenza on the Night Plain (1984): Cadenza: Viola
Cadenza on the Night Plain (1984): March of the Old Timers Reefer Division
Cadenza on the Night Plain (1984): Cadenza: Violin II
Cadenza on the Night Plain (1984): Tuning to Rolling Thunder
Cadenza on the Night Plain (1984): The Night Cry of Black Buffalo Woman
Cadenza on the Night Plain (1984): Cadenza: Cello
Cadenza on the Night Plain (1984): Gathering of the Spiral Clan
Cadenza on the Night Plain (1984): Captain Jack Has the Last Word
Cadenza on the Night Plain (1984): G Song
Salome Dances for Peace (1985-86) - III. The Gift: Echoes of Primordial Tim
Salome Dances for Peace (1985-86) - III. The Gift: Mongolian Winds
V. Good Medicine: Good Medicine Dance

Tracks:

Quartet No. 2 (1981): I. Moderato
Quartet No. 2 (1981): II. Agitato
Quartet No. 2 (1981): III. Mesto
Quartet No. 2 (1981): IV. Moderato
Quartet No. 4 (1989): I. Lento
Quartet No. 4 (1989): II. Allegro
Quartet No. 4 (1989): III. Lento
Quartet No. 4 (1989): IV. Vivace
Quartet No. 4 (1989): V. Lento
Collected Songs Where Every Verse Is Filled With Grief (1984-85)

Tracks:

Jabiru Dreaming, Quartet #11 (1990): I. Deciso
Jabiru Dreaming, Quartet #11 (1990): II. Amoroso
Quartet #8 (1969): I. Con dolore
Quartet #8 (1969): II. Risoluto; calmo
Quartet #8 (1969): III. Con dolore
Quartet #8 (1969): IV. Con precisione
Quartet #8 (1969): V. Con dolore
From Ubirr (1994)
Tragedy at the Opera (1995)
White Man Sleeps Quartet #1: First Dance
White Man Sleeps Quartet #1: Second Dance
White Man Sleeps Quartet #1: Third Dance
White Man Sleeps Quartet #1: Fourth Dance
White Man Sleeps Quartet #1: Fifth Dance

Amazon.com

Seems like only yesterday the Kronos Quartet stepped up their career as musical mavericks with a coveted, wide-open contract with Nonesuch Records. Now it's Nonesuch's turn to give Kronos the big-package nod, gathering key works recorded by the group--from younger composers and time-tested veterans alike--into this 10-CD box set. As one might expect, the set is stuffed with contrasts, from the first CD, with its 11-part, upstepping John Adams suite and then the far more solemn Missa Syllabica from Arvo Pärt. Nearly 20 of these pieces here were composed expressly for Kronos, pitched and sculpted for their easily-racked mixture of straightforward string quartet roles and intelligently restructured approaches to the even the simplest gestures. Perhaps most key here is George Crumb's Black Angels, in large part due to Crumb's role in inspiring David Harrington to form Kronos 25 years ago. Crumb's music spirals and chases through the air, engaging high pitches and fast pacings as if they were ends in themselves. Gone from this set are most of the short snippets that have filled some of Kronos's other fine single CD recordings. In abundance instead are some of the legendary works: Morton Feldman's long, endlessly patient Piano and String Quartet (with Aki Takahashi), Steve Reich's unnerving Different Trains, and Henryk Górecki's String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2. There are also some of the astounding Eastern European works from Night Prayers as well, including the stunning Quartet No. 4 from Sofia Gubaidulina. And of course there are the Kronos biggie pieces: Philip Glass's works fill one CD, and so do Terry Riley's. What's more, Riley's Cadenza on the Night Plain and "G Song" are presented here in entirely fresh, new recordings. What the listener gets is a huge block of music, full of shifting colors and textures but perfectly apt in giving a wide-angle vantage on what Kronos has done for contemporary music. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

A worthwhile investment.......2003-10-06

It would be an understatement to say that this is a fabulous box set. All 10 CDs are packed with some fabulous music that beautifull highlights the first 25 years of the Kronos Quartet, and the booklet included provides a great history of the group as well as nice blurbs on the composers and their pieces.

Equally nice about the box set is the inclusion of multiple new recordings, thus making this a worthwhile investment for fans. The Peter Sculthorpe Quartets are a particularly nice addition, as are the added Piazzolla, Part, and Riley compositions.

Along with this, the "classic" Kronos recordings are all here: "Black Angels" "Different Trains" "Salome Dances for Peace" (well, exceprts), and Feldman's Piano and String Quartet. Of particular note, I think is the inclusion of Gubaidulina's Quartet No 4, a fabulous recording that is otherwise hidden in Kronos' recording "Night Prayers."

Yes, this is quite an investment, but I firmly believe that it's worth it - longtime fans and newcomers alike have a lot to gain from this collection.

Excelent compilation!.......2001-09-09

I like more classic period, like Hayden, but Cronos does it very well, technicaly excelent. The ten sets are wonderful recordings and the selection is unique. It deserves the investment, If you buy it, youre going to have more than ten hours of joy.

Amazingly Now Retrospective.......2001-06-26

Since their youthful start in the NW back in the 70's, Kronos has collaborated with, commissioned, or just played such a breadth of musicians it almost seems that breadth - and especially non western world culture - is their mission. But, while this conservatively and esthetically designed 25-yr-retrospective box (with its increasingly sophisticated photo-portraits) belies the pulsation of social angst and conscience that underlies the bulk of the inclusions, the latter concern, its vitality and relevance - and not some stylish chasing after cultural breadth - is what overtakes the listener/reader, rather soon. I say reader, since the booklet is very helpful, especially to the relative novice, and well balanced in its coverage of composers, historical contexts, performers, individual texts, etc.

There are probably more non contemporaries performed by the Quartet over the years than this selection would indicate. That undercuts their ties with the sense of revolution in music throughout the ages, but it leaves more time for the present: and that is where one expects the group wishes to be, is most contributory and challenged, and is best and most fairly judged. Highly recommended, both for those who know Kronos's work well and wish a handsome tribute on their shelf, and for those who do not but are open and ready to be affected, whether impacted esthetically, reminded socio-morally, or whatever combination of both befits.

How Could You Not Listen?.......1998-12-19

My opinion pales when compared to this CD. Indeed the group's ingeniousness, its knowing and its balls are in full display here, hopefully to put to rest any lingering contention that there is little more to Kronos than form. To any person who accepts the merits of 20th-century music, this CD presents the genius of our culture and teaches that daring and ingenuity do not have to be sacrificed on the road to technical brilliance. My only regret is that the CD does not include Kronos's interpretation of Bartok. But, so what? Górecki's here, as are Part and Benshoof. Listen to this CD -- soar and struggle with it.

Good for help to know up-to-date contemporaly music.......1998-11-28

The Kronos Quartet has released many albums. There let us see what the quartet has tried new titles and arrenges in each period. But this is the best set for understand the quartet as summary of thier works. The CDs are distributed by each composers and we can see thier identities easily.Unfortunately this dose not include all but be enough to see what the quartet has been.I hope that every classical music fans(not only contemporaly music fans) listen this CDs.

Average customer rating:

I Hear You Calling Me

Manufacturer: Asv Living Era
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Baroque (c.1600-1750) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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Tracks:

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
The Sunshine Of Your Smile
Macushla
The Bard Of Armagh
Come Into The Garden, Maud
Turn Ye To Me
Angels Guard Thee ('Berceuse')
I'll Sing The Songs Of Araby
Venetian Song
Flirtation
Since You Went Away (Seems Lak' To Me)
Dear Old Pal Of Mine
Dream Once Again
A Brown Bird Singing
When You And I Were Young, Maggie
The Garden Where The Praties Grow
I Hear You Calling Me
The Irish Emigrant
Jeannie With The Light Brown Hair
Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms
South Winds
She Moved Thro' The Fair
The Star Of The County Down
Waiting For You
The Kerry Dance

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The Minstrel Boy
Nirvana
My Dreams
A Little Love, A Little Kiss
The Angel's Serenade
Ave Maria (Intermezzo From 'Cavalleria Rusticana')
Serenata
Barcarolle ('Night Of Stars And Night Of Love')
Before My Window
Swans
Come, My Beloved
Moonlight And Roses
I Look Into Your Garden
Bird Songs At Eventide
By The Short Cut To The Roses
The Fairy Tree
The Harp That Once Thro' Tara's Halls
Once In A Blue Moon
Charm Me Asleep
Vespers
Sweetly She Sleeps, My Alice Fair
A Song Remembered
The Dawning Of The Day
A House, Love, Made For You And Me
The Old House

Average customer rating:

An interesting compilation

Music of the Twentieth Century

Manufacturer: Cala Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Preludes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Sacred & Religious | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Requiems | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Tracks:

The Dream Of The Cherry Blossoms
Hypothetically Murdered: Part I : Act I, Gallop
Huit Preludes: La colombe
String Quartet No. 3 - 3rd Movement
The Consolations Of Scholarship: Lamento
Flute Sonata No. 1 - 3rd Movement
Requiem: I: Salvator mundi
Romeo And Juliet - Juliet As A Young Girl
Der Unterbrochene Gedenke ('The Broken Thought')
4'33 - 1. Tacet
The Salley Gardens
White Man Sleeps: 1st Movement
Mass - 2: Gloria
Sonata For Cello And Piano: Presto
The Lamb
Black Angels - Extract
Totus Tuus

Customer Reviews:

An interesting compilation.......2007-02-06

Don't know how you got here, but good digging. This album is a sampler from United records, a company out of the UK. It contains a fairly good cross section of 20th century composers. Many pieces stand out - Keiko Abe's, the Shostakovich piece, the Schnittke sonata. The inclusion of John Cage's 4'33 is negligible. It was the piece that drove me to dig up this CD. I knew what it was (silence), but I at least expected ambient crowd noise (I don't think it was recorded live). It being included here amidst such great music, it acts like a dead weight. I think there were surely more representative John Cage pieces they could've selected. But enough of my griping.
If you're looking for an intro into some of the more avant-garde leanings of 20th century classical, this one works halfway. Overall, a good disc with some pieces that will surely find their way into your head. You might have to look hard for this - it was on my Wish List for a year and a half without any sellers- but it can be worth it.
If ANYONE reads this, click the helpful button. I'm just curious to see if anyone else finds this CD out here in the Amazon bins.

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