roa builds
up exciting dramatic momentum. Yet even in the most emotionally weighty
passages, his phrasing is graceful and his textures clear. Berlioz’s Le
Corsaire Overture effectively contrasts the tenderness of Berlioz’s
gorgeous melodies with the extravagantly propulsive rhythms. Figueroa’s
brilliant handling of the evocative colours, sumptuous harmonies and intricate
rhythms of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe Suite No. 2 recalls the origins of
this score, with its detailed scenario, in an extended ballet. The spectacular
sunrise is accompanied by the sounds of bird songs and splashing waterfalls.
Daphnis and Chloe enact the story of Pan and Syrinx, ending with Pan’s mournful
flute solo, splendidly played here. The orchestra brings down the house in the
increasingly wild Dance générale.
The natural, realistically balanced sound does justice
to Figueroa’s carefully shaped textures. But it also reveals that audiences in
balmy Albuquerque cough as much as freezing Torontonians.
This recording certainly creates an awareness of a
committed and spirited ensemble. Other, more well-known orchestras, like the
London Symphony, have successfully produced their own recordings, and the
Philadelphia Orchestra is apparently about to try. The rejuvenated Toronto
Symphony, now sounding better than ever, should take note.
Pam Margles
Concert Note: The TSO performs Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe Suite
No. 2 on June 8 and 9 at Roy Thompson Hall.
Mahler – Lieder
Quasthoff; Urmana; von Otter
Wiener Philharmoniker;
Pierre Boulez
Deutsche Grammophon 00289
477 5329
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Mahler Symphony No.3
Anne Sophie von Otter; Wiener Philharmoniker; Pierre
Boulez
Deutsche Grammophon 474 038-2
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This Mahler Lieder album is
among the many outstanding new releases from Deutsche Grammophon in celebration
of Pierre Boulez’ 80th birthday. There is both genuine sorrow and unfeigned
elation in baritone Thomas Quast-hoff’s moving interpretation of the youthful
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. Soprano Anne Sophie von Otter brings a
similar intensity to the disturbingly morbid Kindertotenlieder song
cycle; her heart-felt interpretation of the cataclysmic finale, In diesen
Wetter, is particularly harrowing. Regrettably, the Latvian
contralto-turned-soprano Violeta Urmana does not rise to the same dramatic
standard with her pedestrian reading of the 5 Rückert-Lieder. Boulez
proves yet again what a superb vocal accompanist he is in these performances,
which are stunningly recorded and authoritatively played by this supreme
orchestra.
Boulez’ previous recording with von Otter dates back
to the 2003 release of Mahler’s Third Symphony. This is not your grandfather’s
Mahler. Pierre Boulez’s lucid interpretation of the sprawling, six-movement
work exemplifies the stand he outlined in his 1976 essay on the performance of
Mahler’s music: “The more one gives in to impudent ecstasy, even in the
hysteria of the moment, the more the initial motivation is disturbed… [the
music will] degenerate into the confused, chaotic, disoriented motions of an
oaf!” This strikingly brisk and sure-footed account is a welcome breath of
fresh air, the perfect antidote to the habitually cloying interpretations this
work has attracted in the past. The excellent pacing of the lengthy, turbulent
first movement and the superbly controlled crescendo of the slow, ecstatic
finale has rarely sounded so architecturally convincing. The vocal fourth and
fifth movements feature exceptional singing by soprano Anne Sophie von Otter
and the Vienna Boys Choir.
Daniel Foley
Caprice
Sylvia Shadick-Taylor, piano
Arktos 200482
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This disc is indeed a great
DISCovery. Sylvia Shadick-Taylor is a young, very talented virtuoso pianist
from Alberta who has toured Canada, US, Germany and Japan and even played
Carnegie Hall. This, her third CD, is an ambitious and extremely difficult yet
entertaining programme. As the unifying title suggests the ten pieces played
here are “caprices” or “capriccios”. They are all whimsical and light hearted,
sometimes dreamy, even passionate and none are easy - a great way to showcase
pianistic talent.
She immediately captivates with her delicate touch and
freewheeling spirit in Moszkowski’s Caprice Espagnol especially in the
“leggieramente” central part with its Spanish rhythms.
Pieces by Mendelssohn and Weber follow but with her
delectable, idiomatic playing of the Brahms Capriccio it seems as if she
is poking fun at good old Brahms. Coming from this pianist, I am sure he would
not have minded at all.
From this point on the disc seems to take off like a
bird and her youthful exuberance is catching. In Gottschalk’s Caprice de
Printemps she shapes the rondo Mazurka so lovingly that one thinks that her
playing is better than the work itself. In the monumental Liszt A Capriccio
she conquers all technical difficulties and is truly inspired although the
length and difficult overall shape of this work may require more maturity.
She sails effortlessly through Dohnanyi’s incredibly
difficult Konzertetude where the already fast tempo just keeps doubling
and tripling as it goes on. Wow!
Need I say anything more? Most enjoyable and satisfying indeed.
Janos Gardonyi