Editor's Corner

DISCoveries Editor's Corner - September 2009

01_beyond_the_pale As the summer draws to a close one of the first significant events of the new season is the eighth annual Small World Music Festival which takes place September 24 through October 4. A highlight will be the October 1 performance by Toronto klezmer-fusion masters Beyond the Pale at the Lula Lounge. The band’s new album Postcards (Borealis BCD197 www.beyondthepale.net) is an eclectic collection of traditional material in new arrangements and original tunes by various members of the band, notably violin/violist Aleksandar Gajic, mandolin and cimbalom player Eric Stein and clarinettist Martin van de Ven. Milos Popovic, accordion, Bret Higgins, double bass, and Bogdan Djukic on violin and percussion, complete the mix, but among the most effective tracks are three on which the band is joined by vocalist Vira Lozinski. Lozinski is one of the leading voices in the new generation of singers cultivating Yiddish traditions in Israel and she provides a real sense of authenticity and is a perfect complement to the impeccable instrumetal musicianship displayed throughout this fine recording.

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02_something_in_the_air Something in the Air is a selection of flute music from Alison Melville’s Bird Project. Well-known for her virtuosity on recorders and baroque flutes this CD (Verdandi Music 0906 www.alisonmelville.com/bird) provides a glimpse into a number of other aspects of Melville’s world. Still performing on recorders and traverso, for the most part this repertoire is far from what we’d expect from a baroque specialist. The disc opens with Linda C. Smith’s tranquil Magnolia which segues seamlessly into Ben Grossman’s The Ill Fated Ornithopter, which in turn morphs into Melville’s take on Hildegard von Bingen’s O ignis spiritus and then a free improvisation between Melville’s flute and Grossman’s hurdy-gurdy. The third performer involved in the recording is narrator Kathleen Kajioka who is first heard reciting Lorna Crozier’s Tafelmusik-commissioned poem If Bach were a bird overlaid upon a traditional Shanghai opera melody and followed by a recorder rendition of Bach’s Gavotte from BWV 1006. This is just a taste of the eclectic delights on offer throughout this disc. Other jewels include two “Bento boxes” comprised of Japanese Haiku interspersed with improvised instrumental sections; Ben Grossman’s electronic Birdddub and unusual baroque selections including Jakob van Eyck’s The Little English Nightingale and the anonymous Bird Fancier’s Delight from 1717 in which we are presented with pieces to teach to wild birds - five ditties intended for the instruction of nightingales, canaries, starlings, woodlarks and parrots. Concert note: The Bird Project will present two concerts and a guided nature walk at Todmorden Mills Heritage Museum and Arts Centre, beginning at noon on September 19.

I must confess I don’t quite know what to make of the latest Centrediscs release, P*P (CMCCD 15009) from Toronto’s Toca Loca. This unusual ensemble – Gregory Oh and Simon Docking, pianos and Aiyun Huang, percussion – is a relative newcomer on the Toronto contemporary scene. But since its inception in 2001 Toca Loca has established itself as a vibrant and dynamic force to be reckoned with. High performance standards and the ensemble’s international reach has resulted in some of the most memorable and entertaining performances of serious, and seriously witty, contemporary music in Toronto in recent years. Although they have worked with some of the country’s finest young singers, for this project all the vocals – and vocalisms – are provided by the members of the ensemble. There is no singing per se, but certainly a lot of recitation, declamation and exclamation – well, yelling actually. The strident tone is set by the opening track, Canadian performance artist Myra Davies’ No Time, a clever take on a common modern circumstance performed at breakneck speed by Gregory Oh. Most of the other works are by “serious” composers of Toca Loca’s generation – 30 to 40 something – including Aaron Gervais, Juliet Palmer, Andrew Staniland, Veronika Krausas, Erik Ross and Nicole Lizée. Perhaps the most disturbing is Staniland’s Made in China which is given 2 distinctly different interpretations in male and female renditions, although alt-pop singer-songwriter Laura Barrett’s Robot Ponies runs a close second, for very different reasons. Quinsin Nachoff’s Toca Loca juxtaposes piano with Fender Rhodes and vibraphone in a world that spans jazz and pop inflection to create something at once familiar and “wondrous strange”, something that could be said of this whole disc. But what’s with the packaging? The 20 page booklet contains only minimal program notes and no biographical material but does include a graphic novel of sorts which at time of writing still remains a mystery to me.

04_lees Thanks to Naxos I may remember 2009 as “the summer of the string quartet”, with new releases by several intriguing and lesser known 20th century composers. The Cypress Quartet’s recording of Benjamin Lees’ String Quartets Nos. 1, 5 and 6 (8.559628) is a great introduction to the chamber music of a composer better known for Grammy nominated larger works, Symphony No. 5 and the Violin Concerto. The quartets date from 1952, 2002 and 2005 and give a good idea of where Lees was coming from – he was 28 when the first quartet was written – and where is now. Interestingly, the fifth was written for the Cypress Quartet’s “Call and Response” series, where a composer is asked to create a work influenced by two standard quartet pieces which would be performed alongside the premiere, in this case quartets of Shostakovich and Britten. The lyricism of this work is juxtaposed with the more abrasive Sixth Quartet.

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05_gan-ru Touted as China’s “first avant-garde composer”, Ge Gan-Ru is a name which I had not encountered before the release of Fall of Baghdad – String Quartets Nos. 1, 4 and 5 (Naxos 8.570603) performed by ModernWorks. Born in Shanghai in 1954, his violin studies were interrupted by the Cultural Revolution. In 1974 when the Shanghai Conservatory re-opened he returned, switching his major to composition three years later. His first major work, Yi Feng (Lost Style) for “radically detuned cello”, was received with consternation and criticism, but established him as a pioneer. This was followed by his first string quartet Fu (Prose-Poem) which was a work-in-progress when he was invited to New York to study with Chou Wen-chung at Columbia University in 1982. Fu was picked up by the Kronos Quartet shortly after its completion and Ge went on to receive his doctorate from Columbia in 1991 and continues to live in the USA. This CD presents distinctly different quartets from 1983 (Fu), 1998 (Angel Suite) and 2007 (The Fall of Baghdad), providing glimpses into the development of this multi-faceted and culturally innovative composer.

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06_ginastera Better known, but still not a household name, is the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. Although considered one of the most important South American composers, his reputation has been overshadowed by his student Astor Piazzolla and perhaps his brightest moment in the sun was Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s 1973 recording of Toccata, an adaptation of the finale from Ginastera’s first piano concerto, on “Brain Salad Surgery”. Welcome then is the Ensö Quartet’s recording of the Complete String Quartets (8.570780). Dating from 1948, 1968 and 1973 the three quartets span much of Ginastera’s creative career. For the final work the quartet is joined by soprano Lucy Shelton in three of the five movements which feature texts by Juan Ramón Jiménez and Federico Garcia Lorca.

07_villa_lobos Speaking of South American composers, five years ago in this column I mentioned that the Cuarteto Latinoamericano recordings of the Complete String Quartets of Heitor Villa-Lobos originally released on Dorian had been re-issued on the budget Brilliant label. I am now pleased to report that Dorian has been reincarnated as Dorian sono luminus and those recordings have been re-released as a 6 CD set (DSL-90904) with a new bonus DVD featuring video of the first string quartet and the Cuarteto members discussing the importance of Villa-Lobos and his cycle of 17 string quartets. Priced at about $6 a disc this is a set to treasure.

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We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and comments should be sent to: The WholeNote, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4.

David Olds

DISCoveries Editor

discoveries@thewholenote.com

DISCoveries Editor's Corner: July/August 2009

01_simple_lines_of_enquiry

The first disc to cross my desk this month was one of a plethora of new releases from the Canadian Music Centre. Launched with a concert at the Enwave Theatre at the end of May, pianist Eve Egoyan's Simple Lines of Enquiry (Centrediscs CMCCD 14609) features a cycle of 12 interrelated pieces by Ann Southam. I had the pleasure of being at that concert and have enjoyed revisiting these works on the CD in the weeks since then. Unlike Southam's other piano cycles where we are presented with pieces of contrasting textures, dynamics and tempi, this evocative set encompasses variations on a single contemplative mood. The melodic material is likewise similar from movement to movement, all based on the tone row that has been the underlying cornerstone of Southam's music for several decades. While this might seem a recipe for boredom, if one is willing to relax and let the music take you away for an hour, there is a wonderful journey to be had here. With her patient attention to detail and willingness not to rush the space between the notes, Eve Egoyan is the perfect guide.

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02_22dollarfishlunch Arriving too late to find its way into the hands of one of our more bona fide jazz reviewers, bassist Mark Zubek's twentytwodollarfishlunch (Fresh Sound Records FSNT 323) was such a treat that I decided to tell you about it myself. Zubek is a Toronto native who has recently moved back home after studies at Boston's Berklee College, 10 years in New York performing and producing recordings, a number of world travels and collaborations with the likes of Betty Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland. The quintet featured here includes Zubek on upright bass, Avishai Cohen trumpet, Mark Turner and Seamus Blake on tenor saxophones and Mark's brother Kevin Zubek on drums. All the tracks are originals composed by Zubek and original they are, notwithstanding the perceptible influence of Mingus, and perhaps surprising for a band without a keyboard, Monk and McCoy Tyner. The instrumentals are all hard edged post-bop compositions but there are three vocal tracks which show the influence of time spent producing singer/songwriters and rock recordings. But like the jazz tracks, there is nothing smooth here. The first time we hear Zubek's voice, it is through a megaphone in the song Paradox and curiously we are left with the impression of that distortion in the other vocals even in the absence of that mechanical device. Check www.markzubek.com for samples.

03_concours_molinari Another disc with which I felt right at home was Concours Molinari 2005/2006 (ATMA ACD2 2368) featuring the winners of the Molinari Quartet's third international composition competition. Guest jurors joining the members of the quartet were composers Isabelle Panneton and Serge Provost. Their daunting task was to select four winners from the 92 string quartet entries by composers under 40 received from 32 different countries. As in past years the results were truly international, with the first prize ($3,000) going to Kazutomo Yamamoto (Japan), second ($2,000) to José Luis Hurtado (Mexico), and a tie for third ($500 each) to Luca Antignani (Italy) and Stephen Yip (Hong Kong). To my ears this is "good old-fashioned" new music, uncompromising stuff which doesn't bow to recent trends of trying to befriend the listener. Personally I would have awarded the prizes in the reverse order, with Yip's more abrasive Yi Bi my preferred work. Kudos the Molinari quartet for their dedication to expanding the string quartet repertoire, and for reminding us that Western Art Music is alive and well in just about every corner of the earth.

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04_yalla_yalla Yalla Yalla is the latest offering from a different sort of string ensemble, Toronto's Sultans of String (www.sultansofstring.com). I won't say too much about this one because you can read all about a concert performance of the same material in Cathy Riches' blog. Produced by six-sting violinist (?!) Chris McKhool, the group which also features Kevin Laliberté and Eddie Paton on a host of guitars, Drew Birston on bass and Rosendo Chendy Léon on drums, effectively meshes traditional string-band sensibility with world music influences. Self described as "an energized adventure of Latin, Gypsy-jazz, Middle Eastern and folk rhythms, celebrating musical fusion and human creativity with warmth and virtuosity", the Sultans of String are all this and more as "Yalla Yalla" aptly demonstrates. McKhool and Laliberté share writing credits on most of the tunes, with a little help from Erik Satie and Pete Townsend along the way. Special guests in this eclectic mix include, among others, the vocals of Maryem Tollar, George Gao's erhu, Basham Bishara's oud, Andrew Collins' mandolin and a Cuban trumpet section. Evidently a good time was had by all!

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05_alice_ho The last disc I'll mention is the latest addition to the Centrediscs catalogue. Ming (CMCCD 14409) features works for solo percussion by Alice Ping Yee Ho. Beverley Johnston is featured on marimba and vibraphone in the dramatic and virtuosic Forest Rain, and a full array of percussion instruments on the title track. She is joined by the University of Toronto Percussion Ensemble on Kami, based on Japanese mythology and involving a host of vocalizations, and by the Penderecki String Quartet for Evolving Elements, where at some moments subdued pizzicato strings and at others strident bowing blend with marimba to produce some surprising effects. Much of Ho's music finds its inspiration in her Asian heritage and this is the case with Ming. The extended work develops out of quiet with Buddhist-like chanting through a variety of increasingly enervated gestures using pitched and unpitched instruments, ultimately culminating in a dramatic Peking Opera style cadenza replete with characteristic caterwauling before subsiding again into the original calm. This is an exhilarating addition to the discography of both Ms Johnston and Ms Ho.

We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and comments should be sent to: The WholeNote, 503 - 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4.

David Olds

DISCoveries Editor

discoveries@thewholenote.com

DISCoveries Editor's Corner: June 09

01_bach_bminor Marc Minkowski first came to the attention of Toronto concert-goers through his highly successful collaboration with Opera Atelier of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas back in 1995. But he has been an important force on the “period performance” scene for much longer than that, having founded Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble at the age of 20 in 1982. With dozens of recordings under his belt it seems strange that Minkowski has waited more than 25 years to tackle any of the major works of J. S. Bach. With the recent release of the Mass in B-minor (Naïve V 5145) all that has changed and Minkowski has embarked on a long-term projected “Bach cycle”. In the Mass Minkowski uses sparse forces which he feels reflect those which would have been available to Bach, had the work seen the light of day during his lifetime. Instrumentally there are just thirteen strings, pairs of winds and trumpets, solo horn for the famous duet with the bass voice in the Quoniam tu solus sanctus, timpani and continuo alternating between organ and harpsichord. The ten vocal soloists do double duty as one-voice-per-part choristers as required, and we are presented with an intimate, crystalline performance lasting one hour and forty-one minutes. Recorded last July during the fledgling Via Stellae Festival (Festival of Music of Compostela and its Ways of Pilgrimage) in the gothic San Domingos de Bonaval Church, Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the reverberant acoustic belies the small ensemble and we are treated to a glorious full sound without losing any of the intimacy of the performance. The predominantly young vocal soloists are all outstanding, with highlights for me being alto (and former soprano soloist in the Vienna Boys’ Choir) Terry Wey in the Qui sedes ad dextram patris with oboe d’amore provided by Emmanuel Laporte and in the duet Et in unum Dominum with soprano Lucy Crowe; and Canadian tenor Colin Balzer’s Benedictus with flute soloist Florian Cousin. Beginning the cycle with what has been called the culmination of Bach’s life’s work will prove to be a tough act for Minkowski to follow, but on the evidence of this maiden voyage there are future treasures in store. Packaged as a one hundred page, trilingual hardcover book (thankfully with CD-case dimensions for easy filing) including program notes, an interview with Minkowski, texts with translations and full artist biographies, this handsome set is a welcome addition the catalogue and to my collection.

Bach: B Minor 'Mass

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02_national_youth-orch Last month the National Youth Orchestra of Canada announced the 100 members of the 2009 edition of the orchestra selected from some 550 applicants across the county. If Selections from the 2008 National Tour (NYOC2008CD www.nyoc.org) is any indication, audiences have a treat in store in August when this year’s orchestra, under the direction of Alain Trudel, tours Ontario and Quebec with stops including the National Arts Centre and Roy Thomson Hall. Last year the baton was held by Trois-Rivières native Jacques Lacombe, who is currently making his mark on the opera stages of Europe and will make his debut at Covent Garden this summer. Lacombe leads the 2008 NYOC in very strong performances of late 19^th, 20^thand 21^st century works. The two disc set begins with Kelly-Marie Murphy’s Through the Unknown, Unremembered Gate, a work which, as I suspected but is not attributed as such in the disc’s liner notes, was commissioned by the NYOC in which orchestra members are required to vocalize as well as play their instruments. It is quite an effective, dramatic work and Toronto audiences will have a chance to hear the TSO perform it during the New Creations Festival in February 2010. Murphy’s piece is followed by convincing performances of Mahler’s First Symphony “The Titan” (with my compliments to the excellent horn section) and Prokofiev’s “Scythian Suite”, but where the orchestra truly shines is in Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben. Concertmasters Aysel Taghi-Zada and Kenny Wong turn in stellar performances in the solo roles, but the work, which leaves each section of the orchestra exposed in turn, is testament to the fact that there are simply no weak links in this well-oiled machine. These discs make it easy to see why a third of all the players in professional Canadian orchestras are alumni of the NYOC which next season will celebrate 50 years since its founding by Walter Susskind back in 1960.

A couple of months ago in this column I noted the 20th anniversary release by Catherine Wilson’s Ensemble Vivant. Not content to rest on their laurels, the ensemble has just released Fête 03_ensemble_vivant Française (Opening Day ODR 9379 www.openingday.com). Over the years I must confess that I have tended to ignore the group’s recordings simply as bomboniere, collections of lighter fare, all dessert and no main course. I am very pleased to find their latest release contains a much more substantial menu, with little known works by familiar composers to which we have not been overexposed in the past. Of particular note for me is the Debussy Piano Trio in G Major, an early work which was suppressed by the composer and only came to light in 1980. Having had a go at this one with my own amateur trio I was very happy to find a wonderful performance of it on this new recording. Although Debussy decided that this was not something he wanted to send out into the world to represent him, it does provide a pivotal glimpse into his development and the world he was leaving behind with the new ideas that would lead him to Impressionism. The CD also includes two other rarities, a charming collection of Alsatian folk melodies set for piano, violin and cello by Charles-Marie Widor, a composer known to most only for his organ works, and a Septet by Camille Saint-Saëns. This latter is a backward-looking work which had it been composed 50 years later – in 1930 instead of 1880 – would have been called neo-classical, or more accurately neo-baroque. Scored for the unusual combination of string quintet (with double bass), piano and trumpet, it was commissioned by the organizer of a society of wind players called La Trompette, and consists of a suite of dance movements including a menuet and gavotte. Congratulations to Ensemble Vivante for uncovering these works and presenting them with their usual flare.