Editor's Corner

Editor's Corner - November 2016

I don’t quite know where to begin. I can only imagine Bruce Surtees’ feelings over the past month as he approached the formidable task of assessing the 200 discs and wealth of literature in the Mozart 225 set. And then to realize that he also immersed himself in the complete symphonies and concertos of Shostakovich…the mind just boggles. But it did give me a good excuse to hold back a disc that I would normally have sent to him: Shostakovich – Cello Concertos 1 + 2 featuring Alisa Weilerstein and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Pablo Heras-Casado (Decca 483 0835). “A young cellist whose emotionally resonant performances of both traditional and contemporary music have earned her international recognition…Weilerstein is a consummate performer, combining technical precision with impassioned musicianship.” So stated the MacArthur Foundation when awarding Weilerstein a 2011 MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship.

With four previous Decca titles (ranging from solo suites by Kodály and Golijov to concertos of Dvořák, Elgar and Carter) and a host of collaborative recordings to her credit, Weilerstein maintains the high bar she has set for herself by tackling two of the most iconic works in the 20th-century canon. It must have been a daunting undertaking, especially considering that both concertos were written for that towering figure Mstislav Rostropovich. However, as was the case of the Carter concerto where she had the privilege of working with the 103-year-old composer prior to her recording, we are told in the liner notes that Weilerstein had the opportunity to gain some firsthand knowledge from the dedicatee. “I played the First for Rostropovich when I was 22. He was a titanic presence, sitting very close, his feet almost touching mine. I played the entire concerto for him without stopping. He then gave me a piece of advice that I will never forget: he said that the emotions that the performer conveys while playing Shostakovich’s music should never be ‘direct’ or ‘heart on sleeve’ in a Romantic sense. That is not to say that the music is unemotional, but rather that it presents a unique challenge to the performer, who must convey a kind of duality – conveying intense emotion that has somehow to be concealed at the same time.” Now, a dozen years later, I would say that Weilerstein has accomplished just that.

Of course this new release drove me back to my archives to find the recordings I cut my teeth on, Rostropovich with Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra (No.1) and with Ozawa and the Boston Symphony (No.2) – thank goodness my vinyl collection is still intact – and I was struck by two things. First was just how good the DG LP with Ozawa recorded in 1967 still sounded (clicks and pops notwithstanding) – especially the explosive power of the big bass drum punctuating the extended cello cadenza of the opening Largo and the clarity of the contrabassoon lines. The second was how well Weilerstein’s performances stood up to the comparison. In my mind’s ear Rostropovich had a god-like power and intensity beside which I thought any mere mortal would pale. But Weilerstein’s command of her instrument, and her understanding of the music as detailed in her insightful comments in the notes, prove her more than equal to the task. (Of course I will not be trading in my vinyl anytime soon.)

The recordings took place in the Herkulessaal in Munich in September 2015 and are both impeccable. The First was captured in a closed session under studio conditions while the Second was recorded during a concert later the same week. Try as I might I can’t hear any evidence of the audience, but there is certainly the dynamic sense of excitement of a live performance. I’m very happy to add this new offering to my collection.

The next disc provided a very different listening experience. Roma Aeterna – Rome the Eternal City – features the outstanding vocal quartet New York Polyphony in works by Palestrina and Victoria (BIS 2203 SACD). The first thing that struck me was the gorgeous acoustic space of the recording, gloriously captured by engineer Jens Braun in Omaha’s St. Cecilia Cathedral in August 2015. The core members of the group – Geoffrey Williams, countertenor; Steven Caldicott Wilson, tenor; Christopher Dylan Herbert, baritone; and Craig Phillips, bass – are joined by countertenor Tim Keeler, tenor Andrew Fuchs and bass-baritone Jonathan Woody as required by the repertoire which ranges from four to six voice settings. But it is hard to realize that all this glorious sound is emanating from such small ensembles. The one voice per part does assure clarity however, complemented by precise diction and impeccable intonation.

Part of this clarity is actually built into the compositions. In Ivan Moody’s excellent program notes we are told that Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli for six voices was for a time thought to have been written around 1565 in response to the injunctions of the Council of Trent (1562), which stipulated that music must allow the texts of the Mass and Offices to be heard as clearly as possible. This mass was even believed by some – Agostino Agazzari is cited – as having single-handedly saved ecclesiastical polyphony from being banned in the wake of the changes brought about by the Counter-Reformation. The notes go on to say however that it may have been composed as early as 1555, independent of the edicts, to celebrate the election of Pope Marcellus II. Be that as it may, Missa Papae Marcelli does exemplify the concerns of the Council of Trent in its simplicity and beauty, which have kept it in the repertoire for nearly five centuries. In this presentation it is sung with plainchant Propers for Easter Day interspersed.

The other major work on the disc is Missa O Quam Gloriosum for four voices by Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria who succeeded Palestrina as chapel master at the Roman Seminary in 1571. He was ordained in 1575 and enjoyed a very successful career in Rome until returning to Spain as chaplain to the dowager Empress Maria in 1587. The mass presented here is one of 15 “parody Masses” he wrote, this one based on his own joyful All Saints’ Day motet O Quam Gloriosum. Rather than plainchant, in this performance the motets Gaudent in coelis by Victoria and by Palestrina are interspersed between the movements of the mass.

The disc opens with one of the four Marian antiphons, the brief Regina Caeli in a setting for four voices by Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) that beautifully sets the stage for what is to come. The two main works are separated by Palestrina’s six-voice Tu es Petrus (You are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church…) and the recital ends with his quiet Sicut cervus, a psalm text describing the soul’s yearning for God.

Concert Note: New York Polyphony will present its Christmas program “Sing Thee Nowell” in a matinee for Fondation Arte Musica in Montreal on December 4 at Salle de concert Bourgie.

One of the most intriguing discs to come my way this month is a solo project from flutist Robert Dick. Many of you may have been curious about that bizarrely shaped instrument pictured in the hands of Claire Chase on the cover of October’s The WholeNote. The contrabass flute, about four metres of tubing bent into something resembling the number four, stands on the floor with its vertical shaft towering above the flutist’s head before bending in a triangle with a horizontal extension that includes an oversized mouthpiece. If you didn’t get to Chase’s “Density 2035” last month and want to hear just what this “gentle giant” is capable of, I suggest you pick up Dick’s Our Cells Knowon John Zorn’s Tzadik label (TZ 4015 tzadik.com). The disc is a series of six improvisations that really explore and exploit the surprising sound world of this distinctive instrument.

Dick is a virtuoso performer on all the members of the flute family, known for his interest in contemporary forms and his encyclopedic knowledge and command of extended performance techniques, many of which he himself developed and has documented in his book The Other Flute: A Performance Manual of Contemporary Techniques. At Zorn’s suggestion this disc focuses solely on the contrabass flute. At first listen it was often hard to realize that the myriad percussive sounds were actually being produced on a flute. As with John Cage’s prepared piano, which turned that familiar instrument into a percussion orchestra, we are presented with sounds that just don’t seem to come from the instrument we are seeing. Thanks to the resonant properties of the contrabass – it looks to be about four times the diameter of a regular flute – the physical sounds of the instrument itself are amplified as if under a microscope. From the opening notes of Mitochondrial Ballet I found myself disoriented, wondering how this “electronic” music was being produced acoustically. The multiphonics sounding simultaneously with an underlying rhythm track provided by the sound of the fingers on the keys, all sustained by Dick’s circular breathing, is almost surreal.

The six tracks, averaging about eight minutes each, all focus on different aspects of the instrument or playing techniques. Aura Aurora is primarily melodic, weaving harmonic overtones with some truly beautiful pure low tones. Afterimage, Before for Ginger Baker, as you might expect, is reminiscent of the iconic drummer’s extended solos achieved here almost entirely with fingers tapping on the instrument’s keys and breath sounds that somehow resemble cymbal strikes and tom-tom beats. Efflorescence returns to the lowest register of the instrument in a very calm, melodic treatment which eventually leads to eerie whistling and humming in counterpoint with the low resonance. On the Restless Seas of Time combines percussive finger work with a variety of breath techniques and flutterings. The title track, a memorial to Dick’s friend Stephanie Stone, closes the disc in an extended meditative state.

While I feared that an entire disc of solo contrabass flute might prove to be a bit “much of a muchness,” I must say that Dick kept my attention throughout his journey and I have found myself returning to the disc time and again over the past few weeks.

Like everyone I suppose, I am always gratified to find out that someone is actually reading these things I write and even paying attention. I received a note from Alex Rodger (alex.rodger@yahoo.ca) recently saying that he remembered I mentioned in passing some months ago that I played 12-string guitar and he thought I might be interested to hear his own creations for that instrument. He included a disc of his “Greatest Hits” titled Alix – 12-String Guitar Dream Series, solo instrumental pieces couched in the lush resonance of his Takemine guitar. Rhythmic and modal, his playing, as he himself points out, is reminiscent of the guitarists of those iconic 70s bands Yes and Genesis. Using a combination of strumming and clever fingerpicking, the Dreams are mostly a wash of harmony with some subtle internal melodies, all quite accomplished. Thanks for sending them along, Alex.

We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, WholeNote Media Inc., The Centre for Social Innovation, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4. We also encourage you to visit our website thewholenote.com where you can find added features including direct links to performers, composers and record labels, “buy buttons” for online shopping and additional, expanded and archival reviews.

David Olds, DISCoveries Editor
discoveries@thewholenote.com

Editor's Corner - October 2016

My first exposure to local mandolin maestro Andrew Collins was through my activities here at The WholeNote – discs by his groups the Foggy Hogtown Boys and Creaking Tree String Quartet. But it was through New Music Concerts that I first had the pleasure of meeting him in 2008. We had been asked to mount a performance of Chris Paul Harman’s Postludio a rovescio for the presentation of the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music, and the piece called for mixed ensemble, including both guitar and mandolin. Although we already had an excellent guitarist lined up for the concert, it proved to be quite a challenge to find a mandolin player well-versed in the contemporary techniques and notational complexities of Harman’s score. On a recommendation from trumpeter Stuart Laughton, who had taken mandolin lessons from him, we approached Collins. A very accomplished musician in his own field – bluegrass and any number of roots-based musics – the world of hardcore contemporary composition was definitely outside his comfort zone. But what a trooper! Throughout the rehearsal process, he worked tirelessly and rose admirably to the challenge, to everyone’s satisfaction including his own.

I don’t know if that experience sparked an interest in composition per se, but on his latest project, The Andrew Collins Trio – And It Was Good (andrewcollinstrio.com), we are presented with an eight-part suite by Collins depicting a secular version of the Biblical creation story. The work is scored for the multi-instrumentalists of the trio itself – Collins on mandolin, mandola, mandocello and fiddle, Mike Mezzatesta, mandolin, guitar and fiddle, and James McEleney, double bass and mandocello – plus a traditional string quartet formation provided by the Phantasmagoria String Quartet (John Showman, Trent Freeman, Ben Plotnick and Eric Wright). The suite opens ethereally with Light from the Darkness, gradually moving from plucked harmonics to busy mandolin passages over static colours in the quartet, and then on to a gently lilting melody over shifting, cloudlike accompaniment. Firmaments features high mandolin lines soaring above ostinati from the bass and guitar. The quartet returns in Seed of Its Own Kind accompanying an arpeggiated contrapuntal melody from two mandolins. The suite proceeds through Stars, Sun and Moon, Fish and Fowl (featuring a fiddle duet with quartet accompaniment) and Everything That Creeps (with a pizzicato double stop opening from the bass) before coming to Rest, described as an “open, slow, ballad.” The seven-day creation story does not end there however and, with the eighth track, And It Was Good, culminates in an upbeat, bluegrass celebration with a good time had by all, especially me.

This just in: The Andrew Collins Trio is one of five ensembles nominated in the Instrumental Group of the Year category at the Canadian Folk Music Awards for And It Was Good.

Concert note: The Andrew Collins Trio launches And It Was Good at Hugh’s Room on Friday October 21. I know where I will be that night!

With Dutilleux – Sur le même accord; Les citations; Mystère de l’instant; Timbres, espace, mouvement (SSM1012 seattlesymphony.org), Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony complete the third volume in a survey of orchestral works in a centennial tribute to Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013). Sur le même accord – on the same chord – was written at the request of Anne-Sophie Mutter and first performed in 2002. Described as a nocturne for violin and orchestra, it is in one movement and begins with a statement of the six-note phrase that dominates the work played pizzicato by the soloist accompanied by dark timpani strokes. Although the colour remains dark throughout its ten-minute duration, there are moments of busy excitement with shrill violin glissandi. The young Italian violinist Augustin Hadelich, who has made his home in New York City for the past dozen years, shines as the soloist.

Dutilleux was not a prolific composer, working slowly and meticulously, with less than a dozen orchestral works, four chamber pieces and a smattering of piano works and songs in his oeuvre. Les citations for oboe, harpsichord, contrabass and percussion had a long gestation. Originally a one-movement work that did not include the bass, it was composed for the Aldeburgh Festival in 1985 and uses an extended quotation – citation – from festival founder Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes. Dutilleux added a second movement in 1991 at which point the bass was incorporated – reminding us of an early music continuo – as were quotes from French composers Janequin (1485-1558) and Jehan Alain (1911-1940), two Renaissance composers. Whereas the first movement begins with an extended mournful oboe melody, the second opens with a virtuosic harpsichord solo. Dutilleux returned to the work two decades later to make a final version just three years before his death in 2013.

Swiss conductor Paul Sacher commissioned some of the most significant works of the 20th century including pieces by Stravinsky, Martinů, Elliott Carter and significantly Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. One of the last works that Sacher commissioned was Dutilleux’s Mystère de l’instant, which in tribute to Bartók is scored for strings, percussion and the Hungarian cimbalom. The one-movement work is in ten connected sections, the penultimate of which is Metamorphosis (sur le nom SACHER) thus providing a double tribute.

The disc ends with the earliest composition on offer, Timbres, espace, mouvement (ou “La nuit étoilée”) from 1977, inspired by van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night. Drawing on the full orchestral palette in the first and third movements – Nébuleuse and Constellations – the intervening Interlude begins in the growly depths of the contrabass section and only gradually ascends into the firmament.

Concert note: “Henri Dutilleux – A Portrait from the Piano” presents another side of this iconic French composer performed by Katherine Dowling at Gallery 345 on October 28.

The weathered stone (ER26 ergodos.ie) is a mostly meditative suite by Irish composer Benedict Schlepper-Connolly. Its gentle, pointillist minimalism is something like the music of Morton Feldman or perhaps Linda Catlin Smith, but in double time. The overall sensibility and careful placement of notes is familiar but in this case there is a repetitive trance-like effect that gives the impression of very slow development while the notes are actually moving quite quickly. The press release describes it aptly as a “many-hued musical statement that is at once minimal and teeming with matter.” It is said to be “inspired by the secret histories of landscapes, old maps and memory” and it is certainly filled with a haunting beauty. The eponymous extended first movement is scored for piano, violin and cello, although quite a bit of time passes before we become aware of the cello in the texture, which is dominated by slow-yet-ebullient piano and sparse violin repeating a two-note theme. As it develops over its 20-minute duration, roles are reversed with the rolling strings punctuated by gentle but persistent piano interpolations which in turn are replaced by placid clouds of sound from all three. There is eventually a percussive pizzicato section, but this soon passes back into a calm arpeggiated progression cleverly passed between the three musicians.

The second movement, A View from Above, features the Robinson Panoramic Quartet – one each of violin, viola, cello and bass – and opens with an extended pizzicato introduction which eventually gives way to a rollicking, wave-like arco barcarolle. This is gradually replaced by sparse solo melodies replete with harmonics in the high strings which continue to the piece’s end. Beekeepers is a gentle – that word keeps coming up throughout this journey – song featuring the soft and vulnerable voice of the composer. The instrumentation includes Saskia Lankhoorn’s piano, chalumeau – a rarely heard precursor of the clarinet played by Seán Mac Erlaine – and the quartet, which in this instance creates a texture reminiscent of a harmonium drone.

Schlepper-Connolly is (barely) heard on synthesizer in the last track, Field, on which piano and quartet return while Mac Erlaine switches to bass clarinet. While this closer does build to mezzo-forte with a brief dance interlude, the overall feel of the track, and the suite, is gentle (again!) beauty spun gracefully over its 45-minute development. A wonderful experience for anyone in a quiet mood.

Another disc perfect for a quiet mood is Teresa Suen’s debut CD Longing (teresasuen.com). Suen has the distinction of being the first Chinese harpist to obtain a Doctor of Music degree, which she acquired after studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois with Elizabeth Cifani. The Hong Kong-born harpist has recently made Toronto her home after a three-year appointment at Carleton University in Ottawa. Longing was recorded in 2010 and features turn-of-the- and mid-20th-century works for solo harp. While the music is more or less modern – including works by Paul Hindemith and John Cage – it is surprising how mellow the overall feel of the disc is. It begins and ends with Préludes intimes by the important pioneer of harp technique and development, Carlos Salzedo. The subtitles tenderly emoted and profoundly peaceful are apt descriptions, but his Chanson dans la nuit includes a variety of moods.

Hindemith, in his quest to write “music for use,” composed solo sonatas for every instrument. The Sonata for Harp was written in 1939 in Switzerland just before he emigrated to America. The three-movement work is inherently melodic with moments of playfulness and exuberance, although its finale is moody and slow. Cage’s In a Landscape is the most recent work on the disc, dating from 1948. Originally a piano piece, it is often played by harpists, its slow and mournful arpeggios being well-suited to the instrument. Other works included are by Saint-Saëns, Pierné and Granados. Suen has chosen a well-balanced program focusing on calmness and warmth, beautifully played. She will be a welcome addition to the local music scene.

Concert note: Toronto’s reigning harp diva Judy Loman is celebrated on October 30 in “Mazzoleni Masters: Judy Loman 80th Birthday Celebration,” where she will perform works by Salzedo among others, at Mazzoleni Hall. The concert celebrates her illustrious career and the launch of Ariadne’s Legacy, the complete works for harp by R. Murray Schafer which is being released on the Centrediscs label and will soon be reviewed in these pages.

And just couple of quick jazz notes lest you think I have joined the Lotus-eaters and spent the last month in a state of mellow musical bliss…

Guitarist Eric St-Laurent and his quartet will launch Planet (ericst-laurent.com) at Hugh’s Room on October 6. This jazz/funk offering features Jordan O’Connor on bass, Attila Fias on piano and the Latin-nuanced percussion of Michel DeQuevedo in a set of five St-Laurent originals and intriguing arrangements of Charlie Parker’s Donna Lee, Carly Rae Jepson’s Call Me Maybe and in a moment of relaxation, the second movement theme from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No.8 convincingly rendered on acoustic guitar with double bass in unison. The driving rhythms and clever interactions of the quartet were just the wake-up call I needed after my extended immersion in the discs mentioned above.

After a busy summer in Toronto, trumpeter and flugelhornist Andrew McAnsh has returned to his studies at the Berklee School in Boston. Although there are no local performances on the immediate horizon, McAnsh has left us with Illustrations (andrewmcansh.bandcamp.com) on which he is joined by Jeff Larochelle (tenor sax), PJ Andersson (trombone), Geoff Young (guitar), Wes Allen and Soren Nissen (bass), Chris Pruden (piano) and Ian Wright (drums). Wordless vocals by Mjaa Danielson and Mara Nesrallah (who also provides compelling narration on Confabulation) in unison with horn lines add to a very intriguing big band texture. All the tracks were composed by McAnsh with the exception of the opening Utopia Suite which was co-written with the trombonist. Of particular note are McAnsh’s arrangements which convey the impression of a large brass section using only three horns. Perhaps we’ll have a chance to hear him live again next summer.

We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, WholeNote Media Inc., The Centre for Social Innovation, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4. We also encourage you to visit our website
thewholenote.com where you can find added features including direct links to performers, composers and record labels, “buy buttons” for online shopping and additional, expanded and archival reviews.

David Olds, DISCoveries Editor
discoveries@thewholenote.com

Editor's Corner - September 2016

I have mentioned before that one of my great joys is when my two passions, music and literature, come together. The most recent example of this was occasioned by an email from someone I consider an old friend even though I only met him in person a year and a half ago. I’m speaking of music critic, librettist and novelist Paul Griffiths, who dropped me a modest note mentioning that the latest edition of the journal Music & Literature (No.7, ISBN 978-0-9888799-6-6) had devoted more than a 100 pages to his creative writings. I began reading Griffiths on contemporary music some 40 years ago when I was first getting interested in “the music of our time” and found in him a welcome guiding hand through the oft-times murky waters of modern and post-modern fare. Some years later I encountered his novels Myself and Marco Polo and The Lay of Sir Tristram and was intrigued by how well he captured the voice and the spirit of distant times in a contemporary way. I was aware of his collaboration with Elliott Carter as the librettist of that American icon’s one-act comic opera What Next? in 1999 and most recently that his novel let me tell you had been the source of the text for Hans Abrahamsen’s orchestral song cycle of the same name. It was this latter work which brought about our meeting.

In March 2015 the Toronto Symphony Orchestra brought Abrahamsen, Griffiths and soprano Barbara Hannigan, who had been instrumental in commissioning the work, to participate in the New Creations Festival. During his time here, Griffiths gave a lecture at the University of Toronto and graciously agreed to participate in “An Evening with Paul Griffiths,” a fundraising event at Gallery 345 to benefit New Music Concerts, at which portions of Carter’s opera were screened. It was through my position as general manager of New Music Concerts that I had the privilege of meeting and getting to know Paul and his wife Anne West Griffiths. Anne is one of the contributors to Music & Literature No.7 in the form of a series of email exchanges with Hannigan documenting the gestation of the let me tell you project. It grew from the idea of a set of songs with piano accompaniment to commemorate Griffiths’ 64th birthday, to ultimately become a half-hour-long orchestral cycle commissioned jointly by the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation and the Danish Arts Fund. The journal also includes a number of articles about that work and the texts for the three movements which Griffiths extracted from his novel.

The premise of the book, and the songs, is the telling of Ophelia’s backstory in her own words, using only the 483-word vocabulary which Shakespeare gives her in Hamlet. It is a sparkling achievement, but more to the point, it is moving, poetic and compelling, as I was reminded when I re-read let me tell you (ISBN: 978-1-874400-43-1) upon finishing the journal. Having been at the Toronto performance I can vouch for the haunting beauty of Abrahamsen’s lush setting and I was pleased to find that there is a recording with Hannigan and the Bavarian RSO under Andris Nelsons which I have ordered from Amazon (I could not find a local source). I had hoped it would have been delivered by the time of writing this article but for now I must content myself with a YouTube excerpt from the Berlin Philharmonic. (The whole concert is available on their Digital Concert Hall.)

The scope of Music & Literature No.7 is much broader than this one work however, with several of Griffiths’ unpublished fictions and writings about such musical subjects as Bach’s solo violin pieces, in memoriam György Ligeti, Hearing György Kurtág reading Samuel Beckett and a (thus far) unproduced opera based on Gulliver’s Travels utilizing invented languages, with composer James Wood. As is the usual format of the Music & Literature series, there are three subjects included in this volume, with extensive treatments of British avant-garde novelist Ann Quin (1936-1973) and Russian composer/pianist/poet/artist Lera Auerbach (b.1973). Well worth exploring!

Other old friends I re-visited this summer were more in the folky vein. Allan Fraser and Daisy DeBolt were a duo of adventurous singer-songwriters who performed together from 1969 until 1974 and produced two albums which were very influential in my formative years. Evidently I was far from the only one impacted by their quirky style and Fraser’s Them Dance Hall Girls has become something of a cult classic still frequently heard from myriad performers on folk festival stages around the continent.

DeBolt died in 2011 and over the past five years Fraser has been compiling and cleaning up the available archival material from their time together. The result is the double LP set Fraser & DeBolt – This Song Was Borne (Roaratorio roar39 roaratorio.com) which includes 19 previously unreleased original songs and a cover of Bob Dylan’s I Threw It All Away. The collection is a mix of studio recordings, live performances and radio broadcasts and the audio quality is varied but generally quite presentable. Although perhaps of most interest to existing fans of the duo, this new release paints an intriguing picture of a seminal time in the development of the Canadian folk scene. Their music included strange transitions and surprising chord progressions, atonal interludes – especially those featuring violinist Ian Guenther – and strident harmonies combined with sweet melodies and country rhythms. Highlights for me, and recently added to my own repertoire, are The Snowdrift Song and Dandelion Wine – with Calypso Joe and Doors Will Appear (…And Swing Open) soon to be added.

The final old friend who “stopped by” this summer was singer/actor/storyteller Theodore Bikel (1924-2015). He feels like family because Bikel is one of my mom’s favourites and I grew up listening to his albums. It nearly broke her heart when she was unable to get tickets to a tribute show in conjunction with the Jewish Film Festival earlier this year. While I’m Here (Red House Records RHR CD 286 redhouserecords.com) is a marvellous 2-CD set which is being released in conjunction with the Ashkenaz Festival at Harbourfront where there will be two events honouring Bikel on September 4 (ashkenaz.ca). Disc One features a surprisingly strong-voiced 90-year-old Bikel telling stories of his life’s journey from pre-war Austria to Palestine, England and ultimately the U.S.A.; warm and funny and serious and inspiring all at the same time. Disc Two is a compilation of live performances in several languages, often with witty introductions, and studio recordings spanning four decades. The highlight for me is Come Away, Melinda (Before the War), the song for which my youngest sister was named. Also worthy of note is Phil Ochs’ poignant anthem When I’m Gone and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Edelweiss which they penned especially for Bikel and the original Broadway production of The Sound of Music with Mary Martin. This is a set my mother (and I) will treasure.

We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, WholeNote Media Inc., The Centre for Social Innovation, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4. We also encourage you to visit our website
thewholenote.com where you can find added features including direct links to performers, composers and record labels, “buy buttons” for online shopping and additional, expanded and archival reviews.

David Olds, DISCoveries Editor
discoveries@thewholenote.com

Editor's Corner - November 2016

Editor's Corner - October 2016

Editor's Corner - September 2016

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