Jennifer Higdon - An Exaltation of Larks (2013)
Contemporary Classical | Bridge 9379 | 2013 | 55:20 | EAC (FLAC, cue, log) | Full Scans | Various File Hosts | 281 MB
Lark Quartet, Gary Graffman (piano left hand), Blair McMillen (piano), Todd Palmer (clarinet)
Contemporary Classical | Bridge 9379 | 2013 | 55:20 | EAC (FLAC, cue, log) | Full Scans | Various File Hosts | 281 MB
Lark Quartet, Gary Graffman (piano left hand), Blair McMillen (piano), Todd Palmer (clarinet)
American composer Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962) is known mostly for orchestral works that have bridged the divide between popular and academic composition: they are lyrical, accessible, and tonal, but they are quite economically constructed, and they refer themselves to the rigor of the grand tradition in a way that has appealed to prize boards including that of the Pulitzer. Colorful and idiomatic orchestration is her calling card, but chamber groups are finding that her talents also transferred well to that medium. The string quartet An Exaltation of Larks is probably her most popular chamber work. Like much of Higdon's music it builds into exotic textural realms from fairly straightforward beginnings, and it's not an easy work for the players. The Lark Quartet, appropriately enough, has made a specialty of this work and are both in command of its technical challenges and able to put across the essential lyricism that may bring Vaughan Williams to mind.
Scenes from the Poet's Dreams, composed in 1999, has a specific program: "What kind of dreams would a poet have?" Higdon wrote. "The poet might be the main character or s/he might also be just a part of the fabric, observing from the sidelines." The poet is represented by the piano in the piano quintet texture, here offering a part for the left hand alone. The part is performed by Gary Graffman, who has recorded little since an injury to his right hand in the 1970s, and some will prize this recording for his presence alone. Light Refracted, for clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and piano, whose two movements were composed at different times, is related to Higdon's orchestral work blue cathedral, which depicts one of Claude Monet's magically hazy cathedral paintings. Again Higdon gives unusually direct appeal to a basically abstract idea. With fine sonics from Bridge's engineers, working at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York, this can be recommended for those wanting to sample Higdon's smaller works.
Track List:
01. An Exaltation of Larks [0:16:05.02]
02. Scenes from the Poet's Dreams: I. Racing Through Stars [0:02:09.69]
03. Scenes from the Poet's Dreams: II. Summer Shimmers Across the Glass of Green Ponds [0:07:02.15]
04. Scenes from the Poet's Dreams: III. I Saw the Electric Insects Coming [0:03:49.07]
05. Scenes from the Poet's Dreams: IV. In the Blue Fields They Sing [0:07:05.54]
06. Scenes from the Poet's Dreams: V. The Fast Dancers Dance Faster [0:03:32.06]
07. Light Refracted: I. Inward [0:11:29.50]
08. Light Refracted: II. Outward [0:04:08.13]
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011
EAC extraction logfile from 15. June 2013, 20:37
Jennifer Higdon / An Exaltation of Larks
Used drive : TSSTcorpCDDVDW TS-L632H Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 16:05.02 | 0 | 72376
2 | 16:05.02 | 2:09.69 | 72377 | 82120
3 | 18:14.71 | 7:02.15 | 82121 | 113785
4 | 25:17.11 | 3:49.07 | 113786 | 130967
5 | 29:06.18 | 7:05.54 | 130968 | 162896
6 | 36:11.72 | 3:32.06 | 162897 | 178802
7 | 39:44.03 | 11:29.50 | 178803 | 230527
8 | 51:13.53 | 4:08.13 | 230528 | 249140
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename D:\Jennifer Higdon - An Exaltation of Larks\Jennifer Higdon - An Exaltation of Larks.wav
Peak level 95.3 %
Extraction speed 1.6 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0A19EC29
Copy CRC 0A19EC29
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 not present in database
Track 2 not present in database
Track 3 not present in database
Track 4 not present in database
Track 5 not present in database
Track 6 not present in database
Track 7 not present in database
Track 8 not present in database
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
End of status report
==== Log checksum 36BE91CC0926BEF19230210620293E75D58AF212108775A0F38F22BF2E3182D8 ====
EAC extraction logfile from 15. June 2013, 20:37
Jennifer Higdon / An Exaltation of Larks
Used drive : TSSTcorpCDDVDW TS-L632H Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 16:05.02 | 0 | 72376
2 | 16:05.02 | 2:09.69 | 72377 | 82120
3 | 18:14.71 | 7:02.15 | 82121 | 113785
4 | 25:17.11 | 3:49.07 | 113786 | 130967
5 | 29:06.18 | 7:05.54 | 130968 | 162896
6 | 36:11.72 | 3:32.06 | 162897 | 178802
7 | 39:44.03 | 11:29.50 | 178803 | 230527
8 | 51:13.53 | 4:08.13 | 230528 | 249140
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename D:\Jennifer Higdon - An Exaltation of Larks\Jennifer Higdon - An Exaltation of Larks.wav
Peak level 95.3 %
Extraction speed 1.6 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0A19EC29
Copy CRC 0A19EC29
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 not present in database
Track 2 not present in database
Track 3 not present in database
Track 4 not present in database
Track 5 not present in database
Track 6 not present in database
Track 7 not present in database
Track 8 not present in database
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
End of status report
==== Log checksum 36BE91CC0926BEF19230210620293E75D58AF212108775A0F38F22BF2E3182D8 ====
Read more about the CD here.
Read more about Jennifer Higdon here.
3% recovery record is included.
Of related interest:
Higdon, Theofanidis, Barber, Copland - Rainbow Body (2003) Link
Jennifer Higdon - Chamber Music (2006) Link
Jennifer Higdon - City Scape; Concerto for Orchestra (2004) Link
eighth blackbird - strange imaginary animals (2006) Link
More contemporary American and European music is available at my blog.