Review of Il Sogno
Orlando Sentinel, 2004-09-21
- Marshall Spence

MUSIC REVIEW: * * ** (4 stars out of 5)

Elvis Costello: Il Sogno
Costello treats listeners to a classical adventure
By Marshall Spence
Sentinel Staff Writer

September 21, 2004

In some form or other, the music of the classical composers of the past has influenced nearly every aspect of modern-day music.

So, it would make sense that the bard with the nasally voice, nerdy glasses and perpetually evolving musical bag of tricks, Elvis Costello, would make the leap to probe into his compositional roots and tip his punk-rocker hat to the great composers who preceded him.

Costello's latest foray into the rich, creative and transcendent nether regions of the Romantic and Impressionistic periods is like a musical "Where's Waldo." Recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, Il Sogno -- literally, "The Dream" -- is a kaleidoscope of musical styles and a narrative fantasy story tour de force. It throws so much musical variation around that the listener can't even sneeze for fear of missing something important.

Costello penned the masterful piece for the Italian dance company Aterballetto for its adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. He cranked out the 200-page score in an impressive 10 weeks and wrote it without the aid of a computer, preferring the old-fashioned method of pencil and composition paper. Due to deadline constraints, Costello inscribed the last 170 pages of it right into the full score.

Costello's sense of dramatic pace and timing reveals his maturity and wisdom as a composer. The musical narrative plateaus and plummets, and he doesn't give the listener everything at once, carefully doling out the excitement.

Yet, there's no stinginess in Costello's lavish use of musical styles -- Il Sogno is loaded with variety. This piece samples everything from Bach to Gershwin, with even some Eastern flavor thrown in the mix.

One of the most kick-butt musical moments in the piece is "Oberon and Titania." If this is Costello's artistic vision of the king and queen of the fairies, those two must be some pretty hip, swinging cats.

The movement opens with screeching, distorted violins, and then abruptly body slams the listener into a beautiful, delicate, poised motif in a lilting compound meter with oboe, soprano sax and clarinet playing catch with the melody. About two minutes into the movement Costello changes step again and drop kicks the listener into a jazzy, Leonard Bernstein-ish variation of the original motif with world-renowned classical saxophonist John Harle doing his thing on soprano sax alongside jazz drummer Peter Erskine.

In the "Tormentress," Costello delves deeper into the use of jazz elements to communicate turmoil, frustration and anger.

Il Sogno is a surprisingly stunning, diverse and lovely orchestral composition, and if listeners can't find Waldo, they can find Costello -- whose true inspiration comes not just from one musical style, but from all the world's music.

© 2004 Orlando Sentinel Communications