Der Gerettete Alberich By Christopher Rouse

[Superhorn]

  I finally got a chance to hear the hugely entertaining "Der Gerettete Alberich" (Alberich saved,)  by Christopher Rouse ,
on the Ondine CD with Evelyn Glennie ,Leif Segerstam and the Helsinki Philharmonic,plus the violin concerto played by Cho-Liang Lin.
  It's a wildly imaginative piece which asks the question,"What happened to Alberich after the cataclysmic conlusion of Wagner's Ring?"  Using direct quotations from the Ring, Rouse plays with the leitmotifs in a brilliantly inventive manner, and gives the percussion soloist a chance to have a ball , playing a wide variety of percussion instruments, including gourds and Jamaican steel drums.
  It ends in the most unlikley manner with a halftime football march ! 
  This piece has been performed with considerable success by orchestras all over the US, quite deservedly !  This is a work for people who think they hate contempory music. 









                                                                                              
 

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I have this same recording. The piece is quite entertaining, but it's the kind of unmitigated schlock that's worth hearing once or twice, then never again. I imagine it would be fun to see live though.

(Note: this is not an overall judgment on Rouse, much of whose more "serious" music I like)