Lisa Bielawa: In medias res

BMOP/sound 1017
June 2010
2-CD, SACD
Disc 1: 72:42
Disc 2: 68:45
  • Boston Modern Orchestra Project
  • Gil Rose, conductor

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CD price: $35.99

Track Listing

Disc 1
  • 1.Roam (2001)

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  •  Double Violin Concerto (2008)
  • 2.I. Portico
  • 3.II. Song
  • 4.III. Play Within a Play

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  • 5.unfinish'd, sent (2000)
  •  In medias res, concerto for orchestra (2009)
  • 6.I. and
  • 7.II. or

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Disc 2
  •  Synopses #1-15 (2006-2009)
  • 1.Synopsis #1: It's Over (But It Was Fun)
  • 2.Synopsis #2: In the Eye of the Beholder
  • 3.Synopsis #3: I think We Should Tell Her
  • 4.Synopsis #4: I'm Not That Kind Of Lawyer
  • 5.Synopsis #5: He Figures Out What Clouds Mean
  • 6.Synopsis #6: Why Did You Lie to Me?
  • 7.Synopsis #7: Where's the Guy with the Directions?
  • 8.Synopsis #8: Most Rumors About Him Are True
  • 9.Synopsis #9: I Don't Even Play the Bassoon
  • 10.Synopsis #10: I Know This Room So Well
  • 11.Synopsis #11: It Takes One to Know One
  • 12.Synopsis #12: What I Did Over Summer Vacation
  • 13.Synopsis #13: Thy Sting is Not So Sharp
  • 14.Synopsis #14: No, No, No-Put That Down
  • 15.Synopsis #15: Two Days After You Left I...
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News & Press

Stereophile reviews Lisa Bielawa: In Medias Res
April 1, 2011 — Lisa Bielawa is a major new voice in music, and this two-disc set contains some of the most blindingly beautiful and original works I have heard in a while. Time Out New York describes Bielawa as possessing a “prodigious gift for mingling persuasive melodicism with organic experimentation,” and that well captures my feelings. Her In medias res (Concerto for Orchestra) combines traditional harmonies with shifting tonalities.
Stereophile Full review
Kafka, Kihlstedt, Concerto
March 2, 2011 — One year after marveling at Lisa Bielawa’s Kafka Songs at the Other Minds festival—almost in time for the next Other Minds festival, actually—I’m finally realizing that Kafka Songs has been available on CD for years. Call me slow. Bielawa more recently worked with Kihlstedt and violinist Colin Jacobsen on a double violin concerto, performed with Colin Jacobsen. On this piece, as on Kafka Songs, Kihlstedt’s voice and violin are put to use simultaneously, creating a role that’s rare in classical music and probably challenging to pull off.
Memory Select: Avant-jazz radio Full review
Stereophile reviews Lisa Bielawa: In Medias Res
March 1, 2011 — Lisa Bielawa is a major new voice in music, and this two-disc set contains some of the most blindingly beautiful and original works I have heard in a while. Time Out New York describes Bielawa as possessing a “prodigious gift for mingling persuasive melodicism with organic experimentation,” and that well captures my feelings. Her In medias res (Concerto for Orchestra) combines traditional harmonies with shifting tonalities.
Stereophile Full review
The San Francisco Chronicle reviews Lisa Bielawa: In Media Res
January 9, 2011 — The wealth of beautiful and inventive music on this double CD is the outgrowth of a three-year residency by composer Lisa Bielawa with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. It’s a wonderful document, not only for the works included, but for the portrait it offers of a rewarding artistic collaboration.
The San Francisco Chronicle Full review
Fanfare reviews Lisa Bielawa: In Media Res
January 1, 2011 — The more new music I review, the more I am amazed by how much good music there actually is (yes, and bad). Lisa Bielawa has the phenomenal orchestral chops to warrant a two-CD set, including one full CD of music performed by the notable Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Bielawa’s ability to write for full orchestra alone is admirable, but this composer is gifted with much more than technical competency – and she’s accessible without being trite, fun without being light, serious without being dull.
Fanfare Full review
Lisa Bielawa's double CD release concert is characteristically captivating
December 21, 2010 — Sunday at Galapagos composer/singer/multi-instrumentalist Lisa Bielawa and an inspired cast of indie classical types played a stunningly eclectic mix of new material from her two latest albums, Chance Encounter (with the Knights and soprano Susan Narucki) and In Medias Res (with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project conducted by Gil Rose).
Lucid Culture Full coverage
Jeremy Eichler's top classical albums of 2010
December 19, 2010 — The artistic fruits of Lisa Bielawa’s recent tenure as BMOP’s composer-in-residence are beautifully presented on this two-disc set, including her Double Violin Concerto and her Concerto for Orchestra, both of which place her hauntingly lyrical yet restlessly inventive compositional voice on full display. © Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe Full review
Literary triumph in CD form
November 12, 2010 — What composer and vocalist Lisa Bielawa does with text might be considered the exact opposite job of a music critic. Instead of putting music into words, she turns words into music — not just setting them for songs, but using them as the jumping-off point for much of what she does.
The Star-Ledger Full review
American Record Guide reviews Lisa Bielawa: In Media Res
November 1, 2010 — Prix de Rome recipient Lisa Bielawa (b. 1968, daughter of composer Herbert) has recently been composer in residence with Gil Rose’s Boston Modern Orchestra Project (2006-09). Ms. Bielawa (brought up in San Francisco but now living in Manhattan) is a Yale graduate, but her degrees are in literature and critical studies; she is also a performing soprano, making for an interesting and quite striking list of accomplishments. This collection documents the product of the three Boston seasons and includes some earlier music.
American Record Guide Full review
CLOFO reviews Lisa Bielawa: In Media Res
September 10, 2010 — RECOMMENDED
Classical Lost and Found Full review
Audiophile Audition reviews Lisa Bielawa: In Media Res
September 1, 2010 — Contemporary American composer Lisa Bielawa (b.1968) majored in literature at Yale University and her love for the written word is one source of inspiration for her music. She values her relationships with the musicians she works with, and many of the compositions on this disc are dedicated to the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), where she completed a three year residency project in 2009. She tours with the Phillip Glass Ensemble and is the winner of the 2009 Rome Prize.
Audiophile Audition Full review
Sounds heard: Lisa Bielawa – In medias res
August 31, 2010 — Boston Modern Orchestra Project has long been forging ties with contemporary composers and developing new audiences for modern music in the concert hall and beyond. Every season since 2000 BMOP has hosted a composer-in-residence and in 2008 it launched house record label BMOP/sound, focusing on new and otherwise unrecorded orchestral works. For three years beginning with the 2006-07 season, composer Lisa Bielawa served as the BMOP resident composer, and her BMOP/sound CD In Medias Res draws a map through her time working with the musicians of this group.
NewMusicBox Full review
Sequenza21 reviews Lisa Bielawa: In Media Res
August 8, 2010 — Lisa Bielawa is a phenomenon. The perky San Francisco native who, judging from her booklet photo, appears to be very much on the sunny side of life, started her career as a singer. After touring with the Philip Glass ensemble from 1992 and founding in 1997 the MATA Festival to promote the work of new composers, she began writing her own music about ten years ago. Right from the beginning, she showed a decided preference for the larger forms of music.
Sequenza21 Full review
Composer-vocalist Lisa Bielawa's solo and orchestral music on 2-cd set
June 6, 2010 — Composer-vocalist Lisa Bielawa’s solo and orchestral music will be released as a 2-CD set entitled In medias res by BMOP/sound in June 2010. Performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), conducted by Artistic Director Gil Rose, the first disc, an SACD, includes four orchestral works: Roam (2001); Double Violin Concerto (2008) featuring violinist/vocalist Carla Kihlstedt and violinist Colin Jacobsen; unfinish’d, sent (2000) featuring the composer as soprano soloist; and In medias res, Concerto for Orchestra(2009).
Interchanging Idioms Full review
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