Paul Frehner – Horizon: Madog
Jeremy Huw Williams; Ensemble Paramirabo; Angela J. Murphy
Navona Records NV6819 (navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6819)

In the realm of rock music, the question “what was the first ‘concept’ album” is a good conversation starter for audiophiles and amateur music historians alike. While the debate often ends in a tie (between Frank Zappa’s Freak Out and The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band), a better question might be: “what constitutes a so-called concept record in the first place?” And while that question will not be solved within this column, I am confident that a tri-language opera (French, English, and Welsh) that explores the theme of post-apocalyptic environmental renewal through the life of a “back-to-the-lander” named Madog who looks for non-technologically mediated means of connecting communication practices across diverse communities, would certainly count as “conceptual.”

Released on Navona Records earlier this year and composed by Western University professor Paul Frehner, with what I can only imagine was an extraordinarily challenging to write libretto by Angela J. Murphy, Horizon: Madog creatively takes fans of contemporary classical music and opera on exactly such a conceptual and exploratory journey. Calling upon his background as rock guitarist, Frehner takes inspiration from progressive rock and avant-garde jazz, blending diverse musical styles on this interesting and exciting project. Also featuring a new composition for analog synthesiser, the entire recording is a welcome addition to the canon of Canadian operatic composition and electroacoustic music, as well as offering a testimony to the creativity that can result when collaborations across composers, soloists, and ensembles work effectively and musically together to good end.

Bach – Goldberg Variations for double reed trio
Tacamis Trio
Leaf Music LM 307 (leaf-music.lnk.to/lm307PR)

Bach – Goldberg Variations
Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado; Frank Nowell
Navona Records nv6821 (navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6812)

Even in 2026, the genius of J.S. Bach is revealed in new and exciting ways. His Goldberg Variations, a war horse within the Baroque canon, was originally composed for the two-manual harpsichord, but has been interpreted using just about every instrumental and vocal combination imaginable. A hallmark of technical difficulty, the piece demands much from its performers who need to find their own opportunities for dynamism (the original harpsichords offered no dynamic touch sensitivity) and personalization within what at this point is a plethora of wonderfully recorded and creatively interpreted performances. Good thing then that there are still imaginative and skilled musicians out there willing to take up the mantle of responsibility and find ever new ways of approaching this great work. And two fine new 2026 recordings, Bach – Goldberg Variations by the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado and Bach: Goldberg Variations for double reed trio by the Tacamis Trio do just that. 

I had the good fortune to attend the Tacamis Trio’s album launch party at the wonderful Arts & Letters Club of Toronto recently and to hear the skilled double-reed maneuvering and interpretive aplomb that this talented young trio brings to the Goldbergs. Comprised of oboist Caitlin Broms-Jacobs, English hornist Tracy Wright, and bassoonist Allen Harrington, who collectively form the double reed section of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Tacamis’ unique instrumental combination and compelling ensemble sound mined the expressive expansiveness of a well-chosen selection of the 30 variations, plus a few beautiful Renaissance pieces. Both the performance and their most recent recording on Leaf Music highlight the groups musicality, ability to weave together compelling contrapuntal lines using an unorthodox, but beautiful, collection of instruments, and their symbiotic performance style that undoubtedly comes from working together, as they have done, in both the MCO and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for over a decade.

While the intimacy of the trio format can tease out the delicate intricacies of Bach’s piece. It is indeed an impressive undertaking when an orchestra, in this case the terrific Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado (featuring a new arrangement by violist Alexander Vittal), takes on Bach’s famous aria and its subsequent creative inventions. Vittal’s version captures both said delicacy, along with the intensity and expansiveness that, for example, Variation 2 deserves, and which an impressive large scale orchestra such as this can handle admirably. 

Both recordings are excellent and while listening to them back-to-back, one gets the sense of not only how seamlessly Bach’s timeless piece can move within various ensemble shapes and sizes, but how in the skilled hands of the many wonderful musicians represented here, there is still much to discover and much joy to be had from a work that is nearly 300-years old.

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Opus 109 – Beethoven | Bach | Schubert
Vikingur Ólafsson
Deutsche Grammophon 13812 (deccaclassics.com/en/catalogue/products/opus-109-beethoven-bach-schubert-vkingur-olafsson-13812)

Born in Reykjavik in 1984, Grammy award winning pianist Víkingur Ólafsson completed his studies at the Juilliard School, and since then has earned an international reputation, performing with such orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw. Ólafsson signed a contract with DG in 2016 and in ten years, has made some 30 recordings, this latest one featuring music by Bach, Schubert and Beethoven.

The disc opens with the Prelude No.9 in E Major from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier – all of a minute and 44 seconds – a seemingly odd choice for an opener. Equally intriguing is his decision that every composition on the recording be in the key realm of E, stemming from Ólafsson’s synaesthesia (in his mind, the key translates into vibrant shades of green.)

Beethoven’s Sonata Op.90 from 1814 that follows is sometimes referred to as “a struggle between head and heart.” Ólafsson plays with a strong assurance, easily meeting the demands of the two contrasting movements.  

He returns to Bach with the Partita No.6, long regarded as the grandest of all the Partitas and a true study in contrasts. While the notes are well articulated, both the Corrente and Air are taken at a much brisker pace than is commonly heard. 

The early Sonata in E Minor D586 by Schubert precedes the final composition, Beethoven’s three-movement Sonata No.30 Op.109. The work is a marked departure from the traditional sonata form and Ólafsson offers an energetic and expressive interpretation.

A quibble in this recording is the sound quality. It seems possible that the mic may have been placed too closely to the keyboard, resulting in a particular imbalance and a somewhat less resonant sound. While this might be overlooked, it somewhat mars an otherwise engaging performance.

Chopin & Scriabin: Preludes
Mikhail Pletnev
Deutsche Grammophon 5419773735 (store.deccaclassics.com/products/chopin-scriabin-24-preludes-cd?srsltid=AfmBOorvIu8gwUT_6TdcZw2LGlc5Be-7qAj3MxSpSnUCrf-ejgPCWJqz)

Since winning the gold medal at the International Tchaikovsky competition in 1978, Mikhail Pletnev has enjoyed a stellar career, not only as a pianist but also as a composer and pedagogue. Included among his activities are a large number of recordings for the DG label, both as soloist and conductor. Nevertheless, this latest one presenting Chopin’s 24 Preludes Op.28 and the 24 Preludes Op.11 by Alexander Scriabin, is his first studio recording after a 19-year hiatus. 

Romantic legend has it that Chopin composed the preludes while on his ill-fated sojourn in Mallorca with George Sand during the winter of 1839. Yet contemporary sources indicate that they were probably completed before the couple departed. Pletnev approaches these well-loved gems with an elegant sensitivity, perfectly capturing the ever-contrasting – and fleeting – moods while infusing his own personal mark within.

The opening prelude is taken at a much more leisurely pace than is commonly heard and the “Raindrop” Prelude No.15 in D-flat Major makes much less use of the pedal so the repetitive A-flat in the bass-Iine indeed resembles the sound of its namesake. Préludes such as the Third and Eighth reinforce Pletnev’s reputation for formidable technique, while demonstrating keenly balanced phrasing.

Less well known are the Preludes by Scriabin. The Russian composer greatly admired Chopin’s music, and this set similarly covers all 24 major and minor keys while following the same key sequence. Nevertheless, many have a mood of quiet introspection utilizing a lush harmonic language. Pletnev delivers a refined performance, always carefully nuanced, from the delicacy of No.5 to the more strident Nos.6 and 11.

A program of music both familiar and less so – welcome back Mr. Pletnev. It has been a long wait and we hope you’ll favour us with another recording soon.

Bartók – Miraculous Mandarin; Concerto for Orchestra
Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Gustavo Gimeno
Harmonia Mundi HMM 905365 (store.harmoniamundi.com/format/1871527-bartk-the-miraculous-mandarin-concerto-for-orchestra)

This third issue of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Gimeno for French Harmonia Mundi is the best yet. Bartók is another 20th century giant whose masterpiece, the Concerto for Orchestra has been paired with one of his most imposing works, The Miraculous Mandarin in its seldom performed complete version. This includes some brief but telling choral elements, provided by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and this is far preferable to the usually programmed Suite. The style of this ballet-pantomime is in Bartók’s most challenging Expressionistic vein, a constant and colourful, mostly atonal setting, with a stream of motives and musical events that are hard to fit into any sense of a narrative just from the volatile music. For me this piece is best taken as purely sonic experience, and in this production the TSO gives an overwhelming performance.

The famous Concerto for Orchestra is one of the more frequently done and recorded works of the 20th century, and always shows any orchestra at its best, being not only a challenge for countless solo instrumental turns, but also in ensemble and orchestral discipline. The competition is daunting on recordings, starting with the first great recording by the Chicago Symphony conducted by Fritz Reiner, who commissioned the piece from the dying Bartók in 1941 after he made it to the United States. The Concerto has since been recorded by most major orchestras and many aspiring conductors, and this new recording must be one of the best in recent times. Gimeno is competitive with Reiner.

There is a short, commissioned piece, the sediments, by TSO associate composer Emile Cecilia Lebel. This welcome work contrasts the event-packed Bartók pieces with calmer, sustained sonorities of complex overlaid chords later mixed with tam-tams. 

The sound has been perfectly captured with careful microphone placement in Roy Thompson Hall to create a resonant soundstage with a good sense of depth and uncluttered spatial openness. The annotations are especially informative.

Mahler – Symphony 9
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski
LPO LPO-0139 (lpo.org.uk/recording/mahler-nine)

No composer ever expressed more turbulent inner demons in his music than Gustav Mahler. In his last completed symphony, the Ninth, he even confronted his own mortality, having been diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition.

The symphony’s hesitant opening phrases, likened by Leonard Bernstein to Mahler’s irregular heartbeat, lead to nearly half-an-hour of musical angst, struggle, nostalgia and cataclysmic fortissimo climaxes before ending with serene resignation. The second movement sardonically parodies ländler folk dances using “wrong notes” and heavy-footed accents. The following Rondo-Burleske frames longing lyricism with music of angry aggression.

The extended Adagio has been called “a foreshadowing of eternity,” its tormented dissonances dissolving into a profoundly moving evocation of transfiguration, comparable to the sublime Adagios of two other Ninths, those by Beethoven and Bruckner.The extraordinarily drawn out closing minutes have always suggested to me a long series of faltering heartbeats, inexorably diminishing until the symphony’s final note, marked “ersterbend” (dying).

On December 3, 2022, Vladimir Jurowski returned to London’s Royal Festival Hall to conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra, having served as its principal conductor from 2007 to 2021. In this “live” performance, Jurowski combined intense energy with generous rubatos, drawing superbly balanced, massive sonorities from Mahler’s huge orchestra, including an immense string section – 18 first violins, 16 seconds, 14 violas, 12 cellos and 10 double-basses – while carefully spotlighting the many beautifully played woodwind and brass solos. Bravi Jurowsky and the LPO!

Youth – Krása | Ancerl | Schulhoff
Krása Quartet
Supraphon ANI-145-2 (wearewarpedrecords.com/UPC/8594211850674)

The Prague-based Krása Quartet’s debut album honours three Czech-Jewish victims of the Nazis, including Hans Krása (1899-1944), the ensemble’s inspiration, who was murdered in Auschwitz. Influenced by Zemlinsky and Mahler, Krása’s early String Quartet, Op.2 (1921) mixes lyricism, harmonic instability and highly imaginative part-writing, juxtaposing sonorities from the violin’s highest register to the cello’s lowest. The opening Moderato features brooding, disquieted chromaticism; the whimsically titled Prestissimo-Molto Calmo-Volgare is a fantastical excursion through strident dissonances and kitschy clichés; the predominantly meditative Molto lento e tranqillo is interrupted by an intense, far-from-“tranquil” climax before slowly subsiding into silence. This youthfully audacious work contrasts markedly with Krása’s Theme with Variations (1935-1936) which tries too hard to please with its excessive sentimentality.

Karel Ančerl (1908-1973) survived internment in Auschwitz, albeit with permanently impaired health; his wife and son, however, died there. Ančerl, the Czech Philharmonic’s artistic director (1950-1968), emigrated after the Soviet invasion, becoming the Toronto Symphony’s music director from 1969 until his death. His robust Two Fugues (ca.1926-1927), brief student exercises, suggest Ančerl’s compositional potential before he opted instead for the baton.

Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942), who died of tuberculosis while interned at Wälzburg, embraced diverse styles including jazz and musical Dadaism – his absurdist, silent piano piece In Futurum, consisting solely of rests, possibly inspired John Cage’s 4’33”. The young Schulhoff’s five-movement Divertimento (1914) alternates cheerful and melancholy folk-flavoured melodies. It’s an appealing work, but the real gem here is Krása’s boldly ingenious String Quartet.

The Korngold Collection
Pacifica Quartet; Orion Weiss; Milena Pajaro van de Stadt; Eric Kim
Cedille CDR 90000 240 (cedillerecords.org/albums/the-korngold-collection)

Having created a legacy of gorgeous operatic and instrumental works, including four of the five pieces in this two-CD set, Erich Wolfgang Korngold fled Austria in 1938, just ahead of the Nazi Anschluss, to flourish anew as a Hollywood film composer.

Beauties abound in this album’s nearly two-and-a-half hours of music. In the richly-textured String Sextet in D Major, Op.10 by the teenaged Korngold, two joyously surging movements frame the moody Adagio and the Intermezzo’s charming Viennese waltz. Korngold’s signature combination of long-lined, achingly beautiful melodies and jaunty cheerfulness illuminate his Piano Quintet in E Major, Op.15 (incorporating themes from his song cycle Lieder des Abschieds) and his pre-Hollywood string quartets, No.1 in A Major, Op.16 and No.2 in E-Flat Major, Op.26.

As with his other final masterworks – the much-loved Violin Concerto and still under-performed Symphony – Korngold drew from his film scores for his String Quartet No.3 in D Major, Op.34. The Trio of the spiky Scherzo uses a nostalgia-laden theme from Between Two Worlds, the tender slow movement is based on The Sea Wolf’s haunting love music, and the bumptious Finale features a lighthearted tune from Deception.

Strangely, despite their loveliness, these five works are seldom heard in the concert hall. Bravi, then, to the Pacifica Quartet, quartet-in-residence at Indiana University, pianist Orion Weiss, violist Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt and cellist Eric Kim for their stirring performances that should help bring these unjustly neglected works to a wider audience.

Tulevaisuus
Mackenzie Melemed
Bright Shiny Things BSTC-0227 (brightshiny.ninja/tulevaisuus)

Finnish for “future,” Tulevaisuus is the title of an engaging and moving recital of music from the 18th to the 21st centuries by American pianist Mackenzie Melemed. A disparate combination of music at first glance, Melemed pairs works from the classical canon by Bach, Liszt, and Brahms with contemporary works that respond to these older works.

Melemed employs a wide range of tone colour for Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Minor (from book one of the Well-Tempered Clavier). His beautiful control of textures and contrasts in the following Prelude and Fugue by Stephen Hough is proof that this music is effective even in hands other than Hough’s own. Not linked by title alone, Hough’s fugue features a sudden re-appearance of the opening motif from Bach’s prelude at its climax. Liszt’s Funérailles is suitably dramatic and brooding, if lighter in texture than normally heard. Laura Kaminsky’s Threnody… October 2024 follows with dramatic use of sonority and a bell-like resonance which recalls Liszt’s own dramatically tolling work. 

In Brahms’ early Variations on a Theme by Schumann, Melemed gives a performance of sombre lyricism, a mood that continues in Avner Dorman’s Lament and Variations, which quotes directly from the Brahms in the course of an emotional arc that ranges from sorrow to resilience, and concludes in peaceful stillness. 

Drawing these works together is an overall mood of elegiac reflection. Liszt’s Funérailles was inspired by the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1848, Brahms’ variations were composed in the aftermath of Schumann’s attempted suicide by drowning, Dorman’s work is dedicated to the victims of the October 2023 attack in Israel, and Kaminsky’s Threnody was written in response to the incessant conflict of our present time.

Bow & Brush – 12 Scores of Nadina Tandy
Stefan Smulovitz
Redshift Records TK548 (stefansmulovitz.ca)

Vancouver multi-instrumentalist and technology artist Stefan Smulovitz is known throughout the west-coast as a diverse musician, collaborator and organiser, and founder of the ensemble Eye of Newt, a group creating live scores to enduring movies. Inspired by a series of painted images from visual artist Nadina Tandy designed to be interpreted musically, Smulovitz has released his first album Bow & Brush: 12 Scores of Nadina Tandy. Using his diverse experiences as a multi-disciplinary artist, violist, sound artist, electronic creator and improvisor, as well as the creator of his own software Kenaxis, Smulovitz gathers together a full album from what was originally a single commission from Vancouver New Music’s One Page Scores program (visual artists were invited to create a one-page visual score to be interpreted by a partnered musician). Smulovitz went on to commission 11 further visual scores from Tandy to create this album.

Suffused with electronic extensions and additional soundscapes, Smulovitz expands his colours and expressions into multitudes of hues and textures from various sources: playing acoustic violin, viola and bass, with the addition of Dvina, Enner, Lyra, Noon, Perkons, Waterphone, gongs, and layers of electronic treatments and instruments. The result is a cinematic audioscape one might describe as “ambient grunge.” The album comes with a booklet of Vancouver-born Tandy’s abstract paintings, which may enhance the listening experience and are worthy on their own. My favourite track is Maple Seed Pods, a slow, grounded course of water drifting out to a wide expanse of light.

From Dusk Till Dawn
Dobrochna Zubek; Caitlin Boyle
Redshift Records TK 570 (redshiftmusicsociety.bandcamp.com/album/from-dusk-till-dawn)

Hamilton-based violist Caitlin Boyle and Toronto-based cellist Dobrochna Zubek collaborate in 13 short pieces, most of them composed for this pairing of instruments.

Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) was herself a virtuoso violist; her Viola Sonata ranks among today’s most-often performed, alongside the two by Brahms. Her Two Pieces, Lullaby and Grotesque, are respectively dreamy and mischievously brusque.

Before joining the modernist avant-garde, Witold Lutosławski (1913-1994) drew inspiration from traditional Polish folk melodies and dances, as heard in the five miniature pieces that make up his Bucolics for piano, here arranged by Boyle and Zubek. The fourth, a soulful, songful Andantino, is especially lovely.

The engaging pizzicato-dominated Limestone & Felt by American Caroline Shaw (b.1982) begins with unpredictable dancing syncopations before shifting to sustained, slow, pensive pulsations. (The title, writes Shaw, refers to hard and soft surfaces.)

In the duo’s arrangement, Song of Ophelia from Seven Verses of Alexander Blok, Op.127 by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), originally written for soprano Galina Vishnevskaya and her husband, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, retains its haunting sense of sorrowful plaintiveness.

The Break of Dawn by the cellist’s father, Andrzej Zubek (b.1948), progresses gradually from darkness to light, encountering subtle touches of Gershwin and Viennese waltz along the way.

A moody Prelude, sprightly Gavotte and warm-hearted Berceuse from Eight Pieces, Op.39 by Reinhold Glière (1875-1956) end this entertaining disc. Lasting only 33 minutes, the CD left me wanting much more entertainment from this very talented pair of musicians.

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Thomas Adès – The Exterminating Angel Symphony; Violin Concerto
Leila Josefowicz; Minnesota Orchestra; Thomas Sondergard
Pentatone PCT 5187 487 (pentatonemusic.com/product/ades-the-exterminating-angel-symphony-violin-concerto)

Thomas Adès has had one of the more successful compositional careers in England for at least 25 years now, with compositions in all forms, including three operas. He has written many orchestral pieces in unconventional forms, and his style seems unpredictable, but always holds the attention with surprising musical gambits and constantly spectacular and very personal orchestration.

The Violin Concerto from 2005 has now been recorded at least three times, including an out-of-print EMI disc by violinist Anthony Marwood with the composer at the podium. This latest production, featuring the high-octane Canadian-born Leila Josephowicz accompanied by the under recorded Minnesota Orchestra with their new chef Thomas Søndergård, offers the most  compelling treatment. Slightly faster, this performance fulfills the stratospheric demands of the score which are handled with quicksilver dexterity and a deft expertise by both soloist and orchestra.

The main work here is the debut recording of the symphony Adès has extracted from his last, phantasmagorical opera, commissioned by the Met: The Exterminating Angel inspired by the eponymous surrealist film by Louis Buñuel. This symphony provides a sampling of some of the tumultuous music from the opera. The first two movements are derived from the restless orchestral background score which evades and overwhelms the listener. The last movement ends up as an almost wild waltz. The orchestral performance and recording here are focussed and very clear in the orchestra’s famous unobtrusive acoustic. This enterprising, very successful disc heralds Pentatone’s arrival to record this group and their new conductor in the cleanest most direct sound. May they continue with the enterprising repertoire.

Prophecy: Tüür; Korvits; Vasks
Ksenija Sidorova; Estonian Festival Orchestra; Paavo Järvi
Alpha Classics ALPHA1198 (outhere-music.com/en/albums/prophecy)

Prophecy, performed by renowned Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi and his Estonian Festival Orchestra comprised of his handpicked musicians, and Latvian solo accordion superstar Ksenija Sidorova, who has collaborated with Järvi for over ten years, pays tribute to Baltic Estonian and Latvian music.

Prophecy (2007) by Erkki-Sven Tüür for accordion and orchestra, a work in four movements played without pauses, explores the concept of the Seer, a person who can see the future but is often despised by the society in which they live. The opening has the orchestral holding slow soft notes and building in volume, then soft again,  blending with Sidorova’s virtuosic accordion playing. An accordion bellows shake creates dramatic rhythmic sense with loud orchestra playing.

Tõnu Kõrvits’ four movement Dances (2024) opens with I. Darkness containing quiet held notes on the accordion to short silence to contemporary dance flavoured full orchestral crescendo and upfront accordion. Closing full “band” decrescendo to soft accordion is breathtaking. II.Passacaglia is serious with big volume changes. Accessible sounds in III.Siciliana. Closing IV. Sarabande is loud with orchestra, percussion and accordion rhythmic lines to unexpected accented closing. Pēteris Vasks’ The Fruit of Silence (2007), inspired by a prayer by Mother Teresa, is arranged by George Morton for accordion, vibraphone and string orchestra. Sidorova’s beautiful musical high single note melody followed by vibraphone solo, and orchestral and accordion accompaniments are mellow, calming and reassuring. These two works were performed live in Toronto with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Järvi and Sidorova October 31 through November 2, 2025.

Järvi’s passionate conducting draws out tight orchestral and accordion performances in this clearly recorded release with contrasting blasting and subtle sounds. Hästi tehtud -- well done!

Arid Landscapes
Noah Franche-Nolan; Dan Pitt
Signal Chain Records SC001 (aridlandscapes.bandcamp.com/album/arid-landscapes)

As a fan of Toronto jazz guitarist Dan Pitt’s minimalist solo album Monochrome: Songs For Travel, I was richly rewarded by his new duo’s debut album Arid Landscapes with Vancouver pianist Noah Franche-Nolan. Ten tracks of deep explorations into expressive treatments of both instruments unfurl delicate nuances of artistry; the resulting partnership is so immersive I found myself at times forgetting I was listening. It’s not clear how much of the music is written vs improvised (my hunch is a lot of both). As with many creative partnerships during the COVID era the pair began by exchanging recordings online before meeting up in person, adding electronics both live and in post-production. The resulting project is a warm and enveloping creative journal leaning at times toward textural soundscapes, blossoming into a beautifully sparkling album I could not put down. 

I love the pairing of acoustic piano and guitar delays in the fantastical explorations of RTMK. Weathered could be a soundtrack for a moon-landing, feeling spontaneous yet grounded in harmonic notes and textures of the guitar’s reverse delays with acoustic piano. Summerhill‘s supremely subtle shifts in tones might be my favourite track of the album, along with the shimmering closer The Optimist. 

I’m inspired by players who have so much trust in each’s skill and alignment that it shows in their patience in each other, giving time for the development and refining of each idea. This was beautifully supported by the mastering by François Houle, keeping the authenticity of the duo’s intertwining electroacoustic rhythms and acoustic explorations perfectly balanced while ensuring the buoyancy and liveliness of this new project is clean and fresh.

Caity Gyorgy With Strings
Caity Gyorgy; various artists
La Reserve Records (caitygyorgy.bandcamp.com/album/caity-gyorgy-with-strings-arranged-and-conducted-by-mark-limacher)

Back in the heyday of popular singers like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole it was standard practice for record labels to release albums for their artists every year or even multiple times a year. (Fun fact: Doris Day recorded more than 650 songs from 1947 to 1967.) And these weren’t thrown together bare bones records – they were fully orchestrated and replete with horns, woodwinds and strings. Caity Gyorgy is throwing back to that time with this latest release (her sixth in about as many years) and she references that era in her liner notes, saying how labels used to “crank ‘em out.” 

But this sounds like anything but a rushed job, with its beautiful production and full orchestra on each track. All ten songs are original and penned by Gyorgy and Mark Limacher or by Gyorgy alone. Most of the songs clock in around the three-minute mark, and there’s no soloing to speak of, and that all adds to the nostalgic feel of the album and puts it more in the crooner category than jazz. Limacher’s gorgeous arrangements give the record a generally upbeat tone, despite some quite poignant lyrics from Gyorgy, and on several of the tunes the orchestrations really take centre stage. 

Standout tracks for me are Gyorgy’s own Next Time and There Goes, and the collaboration That Doesn’t Matter where the melody is the star and the arrangements complement and support it. Overall, this record is quite an accomplishment and Gyorgy and Limacher should be very proud. Bonus: the cocktail recipes included in the liner notes are a lot of fun!

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