Early, Classical and Beyond

Bruckner – Symphony No.7
London Symphony Orchestra; Sir Simon Rattle
LSO Live LSO00887 (lso.co.uk)

It is said that Otto Kitzler, a decade younger than his student Anton Bruckner, helped inspire a momentous change in his illustrious pupil. The defining moment that enabled Bruckner to find his true musical vocation was when he heard Kitzler conduct a performance of Wagner’s Tannhäuser in Linz. 

Bruckner had spent 40 years assimilating every rule of composition. However, Kitzler’s performance of Wagner led Bruckner on a voyage of discovery of Wagner that enabled him to break the rulebook he had so assiduously assimilated. Indeed Wagner, the operatic iconoclast, enabled Bruckner to create symphonic music that mirrored Wagner’s achievements as a master of music drama. 

Nowhere is the newly discovered dramaturgy more evident than in this version of Bruckner’s most enraptured Symphony No.7. It features the long radiant phrase by the cellos and the first horn, which unfolds over tremolando strings. The portentous Adagio presages Wagner’s death with the sombre, glowing tone of four Wagner tubas. The near-demonic and extreme tension generated by the violins’ restless accompaniment in the dramatic Scherzo is evocative of Bruckner’s discovery of the devastating fire that killed 386 patrons in the Ringtheater. This is followed by the near-euphoric airy pastoral character in the climax of the finale.

Sir Simon Rattle’s shaping of Bruckner’s arching phrases, the exactness of his control of the London Symphony Orchestra and the sumptuousness of the orchestral tone majestically reinforce the idea of Bruckner as a master builder.

Rachmaninoff Piano Works
Ian Gindes
Navona Records NV6582 (iangindes.com)

The twin centrepieces of Rachmaninoff Piano Works by American Ian Gindes are selections from the composer’s celebrated Preludes and Études Tableaux. These are complemented by Rachmaninoff’s arrangement of Fritz Kreisler’s Liebeslied and Zoltan Kocsis’ arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s masterwork, the Vocalise Op.34, No.14. The surprise is the finale: Jerry Goldsmith’s Alone in the World arranged by Jed Distler.

Like Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Rachmaninoff’s comprise a sequence of miniatures in every major and minor key and, as with Chopin, the self-imposed constraints inspired some of the composer’s most original ideas. This selection includes the famous C-sharp Minor Prelude Op.3 No.2 as well as a selection of four from Op.23 and one from Op.32. Melody is the less dominant element, for many of these pieces are built upon rhythmic patterns that lead towards the establishment of a melodic pattern reflecting the rhythmic pulse. 

As with the Chopin of the Ballades, Études and Preludes, the Études Tableaux take a motif or a technical challenge as their starting point, and weave poetic musical fabrics from that. Mordant, terse and visionary in their endless chromaticism, luminously simple and spectrally poignant, they are distinguished by their brevity and a new level of virtuoso pianism.

Gindes’ interpretations fall somewhere between Alexis Weissenberg’s punchy sound and Sviatoslav Richter’s tremendous performances. Gindes’ illustrious renditions reveal a visionary glow behind the eloquent, melancholy virtuosic exteriors of these Rachmaninoff masterworks.

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Shooting Star – Étoile Filante
Reverso
Alternate Side Records (ryankeberle.bandcamp.com/album/shooting-star-toile-filante)

If you are wondering how, on Étoile Filante, a trombone, a cello and a piano might come to be evocative of the musical voice of Lili Boulanger you might have no need to look further than the intrepid trio Reverso, comprising the trombone of Ryan Keberle, the cello of Vincent Courtois and the piano of Frank Woeste. But how did they succeed in recreating the ephemeral beauty of Boulanger’s music? 

The answer is quite clearly in the use of uncommon instrumental voicing to mirror the poetics of a composer’s work that once combined vocal sensuousness with spectral imagery daubed onto the darkened sonic canvas. The cello’s bow sweeps across the strings of the instrument in an alternating movement of flux and flow. Meanwhile the trombone moans – almost always pianissimo – with a deeply religious intensity pouring out in solemn, elliptical melodic lines. Meanwhile the piano provides the harmonic glue as an overwhelming sense of mystery pervades the ensuing music. 

As sculpted phrases are created from notes that leap off the staved paper dancing and pirouetting in rarefied air around us, we find ourselves in the ephemeral world – literally and figuratively speaking – of Boulanger, the younger of the two legendary French musician-sisters. 

The subtle chromaticism of Boulanger’s songful music comes brilliantly alive. These are songs without words, every bit as compellingly delicate in a Mendelssohnian way, and the music sparkles like stars shooting across a glittering soundscape.

American Spiritual
Michael Lee
Independent ML202301 (leaf-music.ca)

Although some more than others (professors, teachers, music critics, authors), we are all canon formers one way or another. While we may think that our musical decisions about what we “like” or “don’t like” is based upon our individual agency and personhood, in truth our tastes have been shaped and formed by friends, teachers, disc jockeys, books, or, increasingly, a Stockholm-based AI chatbot that algorithmically suggests playlists based upon our Spotify listening habits. Next, we in turn pass on said formed tastes to others, reinforcing our personal musical canon with our listening, artistic preferences and the concerts we choose to attend. The point of this review, however, is not to go down a Theodor Adorno-inspired Marxist rabbit hole about the illusion of choice, but rather to say that musical canons, like taste, are both fluid and malleable. And a good thing too. In the last number of years, there has been a concerted effort by symphonies, artistic societies and record labels to feature greater diversity and inclusion in their offerings, broadening the range of the artists whom they have chosen to platform.

Michael Lee, a DMA scholar, current faculty member at his alma mater  the University of Toronto, and a tremendous pianist, has taken on this responsibility of canon expansion with seriousness, aplomb and care. And, supported by an arts grant from ArtsNL (The Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council), Lee has made a beautiful recording capturing a number of major piano works from BIPOC composers. American Spiritual seamlessly bridges European Art Music with important American Spiritual compositions of Florence Price, Margaret Bonds and the Niagara Falls-born Canadian/American composer Robert Nathaniel Dett. The 2023 recording is top shelf, and the canonic expansion to include these important compositional voices most welcome.

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Luna
Anna Lapwood (organ)
Sony Classical 19658831402 (sonyclassical.com/releases/releases-details/luna)

The pipe organ is considered by many to be a fossil: an academic, inflexible instrument that exists in large, inaccessible places and plays long, complex music – or a hymn-churning jukebox – depending on who you ask. “My grandmother played the organ at [insert small local church here]” is a line that organists hear dozens of times a year, and it is this relatively limited window of exposure that makes the organ a public relations challenge.

Enter Anna Lapwood. With over one million followers on social media, Lapwood is introducing a new international audience to the pipe organ through behind-the-scenes videos, genre-bending collaborations and open access to some of the world’s finest instruments. According to the album’s press release, “The power of social media gives the ability to demystify the outdated baggage the organ once carried along with it, throwing open the doors to new music, new possibilities, and new audiences.” 

Luna, Lapwood’s recently released recording, features 15 tracks including transcriptions of film and piano scores, as well as new music. There is a great range of material here, from the Interstellar and Pride and Prejudice soundtracks to Philip Glass, Chopin and Debussy, as well as two selections performed by Lapwood’s choir at the Chapel of Pembroke College, Cambridge. 

Much like Lapwood’s social media presence, this recording is an ideal vehicle for acquainting new audiences with the organ. The music is light and easy to listen to, expertly prepared and performed, and recorded in a way that captures the rich acoustic palate of the instrument. For experienced organophiles desiring the depth and density of Bach and Widor, it is best to look elsewhere; for those seeking an accessible and enjoyable introduction to the organ, however, there is a wealth of material here that will be utterly delightful.