The Honens International Piano Competition, based in Calgary, commenced in the early 1990s and occurs every three years. Its next edition will take place in 2012, with a prize advertised as the largest anywhere: $100,000 cash, plus three years of management and concerts, for the first-place winner.

Another angle to the Honens Competition is the occasional issuing of CDs of past winners. Four releases have just appeared, each recorded in 2010 at the Banff Centre. They are an homage to the recently deceased Andrew Raeburn, who directed the Honens for a decade, and earlier in his career ran classical record labels in England and the US. Raeburn is listed as producer on one of these discs, the Bach release by Minsoo Sohn, a follow up to Sohn’s Liszt recording as First Laureate of the 2006 competition. The other three, featuring the 2009 laureates, were produced by Banff recording engineer Theresa Leonard.

The piano sound captured is uniformly fine, closely miked yet resonant. Music choices are diverse, and avoid much of the customary core piano repertoire - no Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Scriabin, or Rachmaninoff.

Russian Evgeny Starodubtsev presents the most interesting recital, clustered around the 1920s: Karol Szymanowski’s three bracing Masques, Paul Hindemith’s jazzy Suite (1922), Schoenberg’s Five Pieces, Op. 23 and Stravinsky’s Sonata (1924). His playing is objectivist in spirit, which may suit a neoclassical milieu.

Russian Georgy Tchaidze offers a lovely Schubert program with warmth and care. He plays the songful A Major Sonata, Op. 120, the Wanderer Fantasy, and four short character pieces like he loves them.

American Gilles Vonsattel delivers a compelling, mostly French recital: Ravel’s Sonatine and Gaspard de la Nuit, five selections from Debussy’s Images, and short pieces by Arthur Honegger and Heinz Holliger (b. 1939). His playing is notably colorful and expressive.

Korean-American Minsoo Sohn’s rendering of the lofty Goldberg Variations is gentle and pianistic, with fleet tempos, lyrical counterpoint, and occasional zest. Sohn observes the repeat signs in each variation, yet almost decoration-free: his Bach journey stretches to a sobering 75 minutes, when it could have been more pleasant at under 40.

While not issued as a set, all four black-and-white CD jackets and booklets look exactly alike: sternly modern in design, with frustratingly small type. Eric Friesen, the CBC classical radio broadcaster, has supplied brief conversational liner notes, taken from his interviews with the performers. For more information visit www.honens.com.

This month I’m catching up on a backlog of solo recital CDs.

Analekta has issued a beautiful 2CD set of the Bach Six Cello Suites on Viola by the outstanding English violist Helen Callus (AN 2 9968-9). Five of the Suites are in the original keys, while No. 6 is transposed up a 4th from D major to G major, apparently to enable Callus to retain more of Bach’s open-string effects. The move away from the cello tessitura – the viola is tuned one octave higher – gives the works an added brightness and a quite different feel. Callus maintains a beautiful sense of line, and handles the multiple-stopping and contrapuntal elements quite effortlessly. Recorded at Domaine Forget’s Salle Françoys-Bernier in Saint-Irénée, Quebec last year, the sound is warm and resonant.

A direct comparison is provided by the Avie Records 2CD set of the Six Suites performed on Baroque cellos (although one is from 1798) by Tanya Tomkins (AV2212). The playing here seems a bit slower and more contemplative, with a tone quality closer to a viola da gamba than a cello, but I found that it didn’t hold my interest over extended listening: I had no problem listening to the Callus set from start to finish, but couldn’t do it here. Perhaps the lack of a strong sense of pulse, particularly in the dance movements, contributed to that. Don’t get me wrong though – this is thought-provoking, intelligent and carefully measured playing, albeit somewhat cool and with not the same life or spirit as the viola set – or perhaps more accurately, with a different spirit. Tomkins’ Benvenue Trio co-member Eric Zivian composed a double for the Sarabande in the Suite No.6.

You don’t have to read the booklet notes for the Linn 2CD set of the Bach Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin by Pavlo Beznosiuk (CKD 366) to realize that this is another performance by a Baroque specialist – the thin high register, the sparse vibrato, and the overall lack of a big sound make it obvious from the opening bars. Again, though, this is clearly a very personal and thoughtful interpretation. Tempos are not fast, but the dance movements in the Partitas are never allowed to drag. Beznosiuk makes some interesting choices with variations in some of the repeats, as well as with the inner workings of the chordal sections; he also changes or omits the occasional note from the standard editions, but he’s not exactly alone in that respect. Overall, though, this is an interpretation that didn’t engage me emotionally, a response that probably wasn’t helped by the distant nature of the recording.

There’s another terrific CD of the Six Sonatas for Violin Solo by Eugène Ysaÿe, this time by the Icelandic-born violinist Judith Ingolfsson (GENUIN GEN 1102). I reviewed the Rachel Colly D’Alba set on Warner last February, and referred then to the startling originality and individuality of these remarkable works. They’re arguably the most significant solo sonatas since Bach’s, yet despite being well represented on CD – one single web search today turned up 16 different issues – they haven’t been recorded by many of the really “big” names in the field. It’s almost impossible to offer an objective comparison with so many choices available, but this is another impressive set that never makes the pieces sound forced or awkward. And that’s saying something.

On her latest solo CD+DVD set, le violoncelle parle (the cello speaks) (harmonia mundi HMC 902078) the French cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand presents an excellent programme: Britten’s Suite No. 3 in C minor, written for Rostropovich; Gaspar Cassado’s Suite from 1926; a relatively new (2003) and quite moving work from Bertrand’s partner and regular accompanist Pascal Amoyel called Itinérance; and a knock-out performance of the Kodaly Suite Op. 8, which really doesn’t sound like it was written in 1915. Bertrand’s breathing noises are a bit intrusive at times, but nothing can detract from the wonderful playing here. The DVD is an engrossing 47-minute film by Christian Leblé that features Bertrand talking about the music (in clear, understandable French with sub-titles) along with sections of the actual CD studio recording of each work and a fascinating look at Bertrand one-on-one with one of her students in a section of the Kodaly Suite.

Newton Classics has reissued the 2CD Complete Works for Violin and Piano by Stravinsky, originally issued by Philips in 1989, and played by Dutch violinist Isabelle van Keulen and Finnish pianist Olli Mustonen (8802062 2CD). The recordings were made in 1987 and 1988 in Switzerland, but sound as fresh as if they were made last week. Most of the works here are transcriptions of Stravinsky’s own orchestral works, with virtually all of them crediting Stravinsky and Samuel Dushkin as the arrangers. Stravinsky met the Polish-American violinist in 1930, when Schott, the composer’s German publisher, suggested that Stravinsky write a concerto for Dushkin. The two got on well, and as Stravinsky needed to increase his income they formed a performing duo which toured extensively throughout the 1930s. All of the music on these CDs resulted from that partnership. Van Keulen’s playing is exemplary – clean, warm, stylish and with no trace of excessive show; it’s fitting, given that what attracted Stravinsky to Dushkin’s playing was the latter’s sensitivity and a complete lack of showy virtuosity. Mustonen provides the perfect support. Beautifully packaged, and with really excellent booklet notes, this is one of the best “complete works” sets I’ve seen in a long time. Distributed by Naxos here, the budget price makes it an even more attractive buy.

An equally attractive Super Audio CD comes from PentaTone Classics, with Arabella Steinbacher and Robert Kulek performing the Complete Works for Violin and Piano by Johannes Brahms (PTC 5186 367). I always feel you can judge how performances of the Brahms sonatas are going to turn out just by listening to the first 4 bars of the G major sonata: the two piano chords and the almost hesitant off-beat entry of the violin have to be perfectly judged in all respects – tempo, dynamics, pulse, touch, style, warmth, you name it – as they set the mood for the whole work. Well, no problems here. This is classic Brahms playing, bringing to mind all the usual adjectives: warm; glowing; expansive; autumnal. Simply beautiful. I’ll be playing this one again and again.

Summer Thoughts is the title of a new Ondine CD of the Works for Violin and Piano by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, played by violinist Pekka Kuusisto and pianist Paavali Jumppanen (ODE1177-2). Rautavaara, who turns 83 on October 9, has had a highly successful career, despite apparently not understanding why: he says that he writes his music “for myself and no one else,” and is “very flattered and surprised” if someone else finds something rewarding in it. His style is very eclectic. The works here, four of which are world premiere recordings, cover most of Rautavaara’s career: Summer Thoughts and April Lines are both recent re-workings of material from the early 1970s; Lost Landscapes was a 2005 commission from Midori; Dithyrambos and Varietude for solo violin were written as the compulsory pieces for the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in 1970 and 1974 respectively; Notturna e danza was also an obligatory piece, written in 1993 for a youth chamber music competition. The most successful piece for me was, ironically, the only one in which the performers don’t actually play together. Pelimannit, or The Fiddlers, is a 6-movement piano suite from 1952 inspired by Finnish violin polska tunes notated some 150 years earlier. For this recording, Kuusisto hit on the idea of playing the actual fiddle tunes before the relevant piano sections. It works wonderfully – and there’s some tremendous fiddle playing!

Naxos has issued a 3CD box set of Elgar - The Violin Music (8.572643-45), although the performers aren’t quite what you might expect for this most quintessentially English of composers: the orchestra for the Violin Concerto and the Serenade for Strings is the West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra under Bundit Ungrangsee. The Kazakhstan-born violinist Marat Bisengaliev, who founded the orchestra in 2003, clearly has strong ties to Elgar’s home base, however: the acknowledgements in the booklet notes include reference to his work as musician in residence in Malvern, and thanks for the loan of Elgar’s violin and bow. CD 1, recorded in 2009, contains the orchestral works; CDs 2 and 3, recorded in 1998 and 2000 and previously released by Black Box Music, consist almost entirely of works for violin and piano, with Benjamin Frith at the keyboard. The concerto receives a very presentable reading, with a nicely-balanced orchestral opening and a clean, transparent sound – no “stuffy” Edwardian approach here. Bisengaliev enters sounding more like a viola, with a big tone, quite nasal in the middle and lower registers, and with a tendency to scoop a bit between notes. Although he is much better in the faster sections of the concerto – especially the opening to the third movement – he sounds a bit strained in the quieter, slower moments, which I felt didn’t have the pensive, contemplative feel that is so essential in this music. Overall, this is a performance that occasionally scales the heights, but doesn’t really plumb the depths of this very personal and emotional work. CDs 2 and 3 contain almost 30 short works for violin and piano, both original and transcriptions, as well as the E minor Violin Sonata. Bisengaliev’s full tone and constant vibrato become a bit tiresome after a while. CD2, incidentally, ends with five remarkable Etudes caractéristiques for solo violin, which I never even knew existed!

Groteske

Mark Fewer; Jonathan Swartz; Andrés Díaz; Wendy Chen

Soundset SR 1033 (www.soundset.com)

Erich von Korngold’s Suite, Op. 23 (1928) is a remarkable though lesser-known work, commissioned by one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein and ably performed here by Jonathan Swartz and Mark Fewer, violins, Andrés Díaz, cello, and Wendy Chen, piano. The viola’s absence de-clutters the middle register, letting Korngold’s left-hand piano writing shine. At the Prelude and Fugue’s opening flourish the piano announces its full and equal participation, delivered here with superb virtuosity by Wendy Chen. Violinists Fewer and Swartz capture the disoriented giddiness of the Waltz while cellist Díaz leads similarly into the almost hallucinatory Groteske, which carries us through turbulent mood contrasts. The intense, post-Mahler Lied followed by the ingenious, energetic variations of the Rondo-Finale complete this exciting performance.

In Toronto-based Kieran MacMillan’s Fantasy Variations on a Theme by Charpentier, commissioned by Swartz for the same instruments, fantasy is the key element. The work weaves in and out stylistically from its theme, taken from a Marc-Antoine Charpentier cantata. I enjoyed the atonal flights in the evanescent Variation 3 and Messiaen-like piano flourishes in Variation 6. The tonal variations are evocative too, some tending to magic realism in suggesting glimpses of the past or the beyond. Mixing styles has been accepted since the 1960s when Foss, Rochberg, Colgrass, Kagel and others started quoting, re-working, or re-creating in the styles of earlier composers. And through being tasteful, aptly conceived for the instrumentation, and welcoming to the listener, these fantasy-variations are worth hearing too.

Ned Rorem - Chamber Music with Flute

Fenwick Smith; David Leisner; Ronald Thomas; Mihae Lee; Ann Hobson Pilot

Naxos 8.559674

Ned Rorem, now in his late eighties was, in his prime, better known for his published diaries than for his music, contributing no doubt to his belief that “society has abandoned its artists in favour of a philistine culture of increasingly embittering ugliness. He feels that his own work is neither recognized nor properly understood.”

Former Boston Symphony Orchestra flutist, Fenwick Smith is joined by pianist Mihae Lee, guitarist David Leisner, harpist Ann Hobson Pilot and cellist Ronald Thomas to play five of Rorem’s compositions. Smith navigates the varied challenges of the music with aplomb: in Queen Mab from the 1977 Romeo and Juliet suite for flute and guitar for instance, he uses dynamics effectively to build excitement, integrates flutter tonguing seamlessly, all the while maintaining great rapport with his collaborator. In …it was the nightingale from the same suite, we hear him as an accomplished virtuoso flutist, but for me the most moving moment in the whole CD was his rendering of Last Prayer from Four Prayers, written a mere five or six years ago, the last track on the disc. The performances can be considered definitive: according to the liner notes “Rorem worked closely with” and was “honoured to be so dazzlingly represented by” the performers on this recording.

Kudos to Naxos for bringing much deserved recognition to Ned Rorem’s work as a composer; I hope it will result in these works appearing more frequently in flute recital programmes everywhere.

Mosaic

Terri Lyne Carrington

Concord Jazz CJA-33016-02

Terri Lyne Carrington has brought together some of the top women in jazz for the female-centric Mosaic project, and the result runs the stylistic gamut from jazz/funk, to rap and whatever category Grammy-award winning Esperanza Spalding’s music fits into. (Baroque jazz?) Although the liner notes are at times unclear as to who performs on which track, what is clear is that Carrington is the guiding hand, playing drums on all the songs, switching styles effortlessly, and she wrote a handful of the tunes. Other dominant performers among the 20 or so on the disc are Geri Allen, Patrice Rushen and Helen Sung sharing the piano and keys duties. Singer Cassandra Wilson lends her mahogany tones to the aptly named Simply Beautiful, by Al Green, which also benefits from nuanced violin work from Chia-Yin Carol Ma. One of the standout tracks is the opening Transformation, written by Carole Pope and Kevan Staples, formerly of Toronto’s 80s music scene staple Rough Trade, along with Nona Hendryx, who performs the vocals. Also strong is Lennon/McCartney’s Michelle, which gets turned on its pretty head. The only thing I found a bit off was awkwardness in some of the horn and woodwind parts, which seemed largely due to the arrangements rather than the playing. But soloing from all of the horns – Ingrid Jensen, Anat Cohen and Tineke Postma - was solid.

Canada Day II

Harris Eisenstadt

Songlines SGL 1589-2 (www.songlines.com)

Although he left Toronto more than a decade ago, Brooklyn-based drummer Harris Eisenstadt hasn’t abandoned his home town… or country. This thoroughly modern session is the second CD by one of his working bands, whose name came from its first gig on July 1. Complete with a cover painting – with canoe – reminiscent of the Northern Ontario summer camp the drummer attended, Eisenstadt’s eight originals are played by a quintet of top-flight New York jazzers, none of whom is Canadian, although bassist Elvind Opsvik is Norwegian.

Well engineered, “Canada Day II” balances on Opsvik’s upfront bass rhythm, as well as the never-obtrusive beats of the drummer. With Chris Dingman’s ringing vibraphone clanks recurrently moving from foreground to background, most of the swinging pieces are elaborated by Nate Wooley’s buzzing trumpet technique and Matt Bauder’s vamping tenor saxophone.

Both the trumpeter and bassist are showcased on To See/Tootsie as the bassist keeps up a steady pace and Wooley delves into slurry stutters, mouthpiece kisses and capillary cries. Subsequently, Bauder states the tuneful theme and Eisenstadt accompanies with off-side flams and rim shots. Cottage country cool rather than downtown hot, most of the pieces on “Canada Day II” are like that. With the horns or rhythm instruments often working in tandem, other solos stand out as well. Jagged flutter-tonguing from the saxophonist erupting from a foundation of vibe resonation from Dingman enlivens Now Longer, a bass vamp that became a suite. During the piece, Opsvik slithers all over the strings or walks authoritatively as the blurry unison horn work confirms the transformation.

Overall the expatriate Torontonian’s playing, arranging and composing is so accomplished that one doesn’t known whether to give it an “A” or an “Eh”.

The Fall is always a showcase for the best in Canadian jazz – this month’s collection is a prize package, the top three world class.

Up first is a splendid trio disc from pianist Robi Botos, who since his arrival from Hungary has consistently brought audiences to their feet with sparkling imagination and a fabulous technique. The impressive Robi Botos Trio - Place To Place (A440 002 www.robibotos.com) is the first album under his name, 68 minutes on which he’s backed by brother Frank on drums and long-time associate Attila Darvas on bass. The 14-cut outing (mostly originals) is terrific from the first notes of Life Goes On with Darvas a revelation in a unit demonstrating impeccable interaction. A fab reworking of Wayne Shorter’s Footprints, a delightful take on the classics with Be Bach, a lovely tribute to Oscar Peterson (Emmanuel), a storming title piece, a bristling Smedley’s Attack and the humour delivered on Inside Out are just a few disc highlights, which assert the leader’s firm grasp of pianistic essentials. Some might quibble at the Botos delight in fiery, top gear playing but to these ears it’s simply splendid.

Pianist John Stetch is a seriously gifted musician whose presence unfortunately is rare in the GTA despite an international reputation. Edmonton-born but U.S.-based, his releases invariably are stunningly original and on the dozen tunes of John Stetch Trio - Fabled States (Addo Records AJR010 www.addorecords.com) he demonstrates his fluent skill at embracing a plethora of styles, rich textures and harmonic progressions. His virtuosic playing and arranging is a constant here, with the opening Oscar’s Blue Green Algebra an energetic, sweeping homage to Oscar Peterson with gospel underpinnings. The pulsating 12-minute Black Sea Suite is a brilliant fusion of world music and western jazz, Plutology (based on the indestructible I Got Rhythm) spins way out and What The McHeck conveys bracing hard bop. Fascinating considerations of jazz approaches continue with Do Telepromptu probing bluegrass, Gmitri reacting to a Shostakovich prelude and the title tune riffing on Benny Golson’s Stablemates. Bass Joe Martin and drummer Greg Ritchie contribute fluently to an often breathtaking disc.

Drummer Ernesto Cervini is a relative newcomer who’s blazing a path through contemporary jazz with smart new ideas and a burning intensity that shouts to be heard. Taped live over two nights at Vancouver’s Cellar Club, he illustrates his achievements with terrific young sidemen in tow – versatile American saxophonist Joel Frahm, pianist extraordinaire Adrean Farrugia and bassist Dan Loomis. On Ernesto Cervini Quartet - There (Anzic Records ANZ-3200 www.ernestocervini.com) there’s nine tracks, six by him, that illustrate individual skills and group cohesion with Frahm’s spiky lean notes, Farrugia’s dynamic imagination and Loomis’ solid core bass keeping energy levels high despite formidable rhythmic shifts. They even reimagine the soul ballad Secret Love into helter-skelter mode rooted in bop with Frahm’s tenor referencing Sonny Rollins. These performers always complement each other, notably on the Andalusian-flavoured Granada Bus, the reverential Gramps and the clever, quirky The Monks of Oka. Farrugia’s rollicking Woebegone is a meaty treat and the exhilarating Little Black Bird is a blast on an album that has to be one of 2011’s best.

The Cookers are a back-to-basics hard bop quintet, nowadays an attractive voice in the land of quasi-intellectual trickery, avant-garde noodling and jazz’s black sheep cousin, smooth jazz. Formed last year, the fivesome comprises veterans and newbies but they’re close companions on The Cookers - Volume One (TC69420 www.thecookers.ca) and its eight originals supplied by bandsmen. Immediately you know this group’s best heard live with its mix of bop, soul, jazz and the blues, with trumpeter Tim Hamels and saxman Ryan Oliver swinging hard, pianist Richard Whiteman reliable as ever in all modes and a lively pulse generated by tuneful bassist Alex Coleman and drummer Morgan Childs. The trumpet’s crisp, rough-toned precision matches Oliver’s full-range warm horn, the former occasionally offering full rasp Roy Eldridge, the latter bringing to mind Eric Alexander. Top tracks: The Ramble, Blues to Booker and The Pork Test, but all have merit. Pity there’s just 47 minutes on offer.

Drummer Vito Rezza’s pounding jazz fusion band 5 After 4 makes a mostly welcome return on Rome In A Day (Alma ACD62112 www.almarecords.com) with its sixth album, the first since 2004. Backing the powerhouse leader on 11 originals are versatile woodwind ace John Johnson, Matt Horner on piano, Rhodes and organ, and bassist Peter Cardinali. The musical architecture is as always firm, groove and vigour uppermost. Johnson enjoys himself throughout, setting out his keen priorities on the fiery opener 10,000 Days with Cardinali’s bass sound big and booming, a combination that works well with tried and trusted drumming and complementary subtleties from Horner. The bluesy Top Hat is spelled out neatly with Rhodes and agile bass followed by a surprisingly serene ballad caressed by tenor and then the dense, off-kilter Mr. Govindas. Perhaps the most appealing tune is Changes Of Season with marked contrasts employing speed, delicacy and finally fury, Johnson leading the charge. The only problem here is a sameness in composition and execution, as if the ensemble’s wound too tight.

Lovers of Cuban music will rejoice in Jane Bunnett & Hilario Duran - Cuban Rhapsody (Alma ACD67112 www.almarecords.com), a vast survey of the island nation’s music from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th. Virtuosos Bunnett (flute and soprano sax) and Duran (piano) play with passionate vitality and gracious charm as they canvas traditions established by such valued composers as Ernesto Lecuona and Frank Emilio Flynn. The heart of this album, crammed with dancing beats and lilting melody, is a five-tune medley of contradanzas by Manuel Saumell. The duo plays with intimate chemistry and still adds jazz improv fuel to a sterling session that integrates European music with classic Cuban folkloric styles.

Praised and reviled in equal measure during his 40-year career, Vermont-based trumpeter Bill Dixon was finally recognized as one of improvised music’s most original stylists and theorists before his death at 84 in June 2010. Fittingly his final concert took place a mere three weeks previously at Quebec’s Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, where a hand-picked octet played this composition under his direction. Luckily the performance has been released as Envoi (Victo Records Victo cd 120 www.victo.qc.ca). Not only do the two sections illuminate Dixon’s particular mixture of formalism and freedom, but with a horn section of four playing cornet, bugle and flugelhorn, Envoi also demonstrates Dixon’s influence on a younger generation of brass players. Famously prickly and opinionated, Dixon organized The Jazz Composers Guild, one of the first musicians’ self-help organizations in the mid-1960s. A long-time professor at Bennington College in Vermont, Dixon recorded sparingly over the years, which makes this session doubly valuable. Impressionistic and dramatic, Envoi is organized with classical precision in varied sequences. Most involve muted, shaded bent notes from the brass players in counterpoint to the spiccato string swipes of cellist Glynis Loman and bassist Ken Filiano, or, in the first section, tart slurs from Michel Côté’s bass clarinet. Additional unifying motifs come from Warren Smith’s resounding kettle drumming, and, in the second section, his ringing vibes, which soften the interface as it moves forward. In that same section the unison strings maintain a menacing undertow, breached only occasionally by heraldic brassiness or dissonant grace notes, plus at one point echoing stillness from Graham Hayes’ bugle. True to Dixon’s style, most of the brass tones are segmented sound shards which waft pure air through the horns. Following nearly 40 minutes of quivery tremolo theme variations, a spectacular example of the trumpeter’s measured art arrives near the end. After one cornetist sounds heraldic tones at a higher pitch among the others’ capillary whispers, all harmonize for a protracted section of legato impressionism, only scattering at the end as one puffs quietly while another exposes plunger tones. Finally, call-and-response vamping from all marks the climax.

New York’s Taylor Ho Bynum and Chicago’s Rob Mazurek, both featured on “Envoi”, have been marked by Dixon’s compositional and improvisational skill, as has Montreal’s Ellwood Epps. On his own, Bynum is probably closest to Dixon when it comes to voicing. Atmospheric textures on the six instant compositions that make up Next (Porter Records PRCD-4058 www.porterrecords.com) are built up from his cornet, flugelhorn or trumpet, Sara Schoenbeck’s bassoon and Joe Morris’ guitar. With no instrument in the so-called front-line, and each player capable of extended techniques, it’s often difficult to separate timbres. Schoenbeck may use her burbling pedal-point as a foundation, but on a tune like Next, she splinters her tone into tiny reed bites, and later harmonizes intense growls with Bynum’s triplet patterns. On Next the guitar texture is all bottleneck licks. Yet on pieces such as Consensus Struggle Morris’ percussive strumming emphasizes the beat, allowing the bassoonist to solo with hoarse multiphonics, and giving the cornetist room for peeping squeals and trippy tongue flutters. The trio’s interface is most appealing on Fireside. Morris’ below-the-bridge plinks are further coloured by Schoenbeck’s burbling bluster as Bynum’s staccato, off-centre trills soar upward to lip-twisting brassiness.

Someone who took lessons with Dixon and – at least in choice of band name – has inherited the older man’s impudence, is Ellwood Epps, whose Pink Saliva trio (& Records &11 www.etrecords.net), is filled out by Alexandre St-Onge on electric bass and laptop and Michel F Côté on drums, microphones and lap steel guitar. Although Dixon only dabbled in electronics, Epps, a Toronto native, and his Québécois confreres embrace it wholeheartedly, adding oscillated wave forms and crackling drones to everything they play. Negotiating the line between indie-rock and jazz-improvisation, the CD is studded with irregular ruffs and drags on Côté’s part, rumbles and pops from St-Onge’s string set and dial-twisting buzzes. At points overdubbed, Epps’ trumpet soars over these wiggling sequences, repeatedly shifting from low-pitched inner-horn gurgles to piercing trills, adding additional touches of soaring lyricism.

A similar brass lyricism is evident on Starlicker’s Double Demon (Delmark DE 2011 www.delmark.com) featuring Rob Mazurek. Instructively it’s also the cornetist who impels the tunes towards jazz improvisation, while John Herndon, of the Tortoise rock band, concentrates on gutsy backbeats. Meanwhile the six Mazurek compositions are given distinctive shape by mallet-driven staccato juddering from Jason Adasiewicz’s vibraphone. With the vibist’s ringing gamelan-like tones a constant leitmotif, whether playing in ballad time or much speedier, Starlicker’s appeal lies in continuous contrast among three intense instrumental textures. The title track finds the vibist’s blurred tremolo lines matching the cornet’s strident brays; whereas the brass man uses finesse and moderated splutters to create a chromatic line alongside Herndon’s ratcheting and discordant pops on Triple Hex. However on Skull Cave, the cornetist’s Dixon-like melodic release which recaps the initial theme, moderates sequences of metal bar smacks and a thick drum backbeat.

Regularly operating outside of jazz’s mainstream, Bill Dixon’s brass sound and ideas actually influenced more musicians than is generally acknowledged. It’s both ironic and appropriate then, that it was an experimental Canadian festival which gave him a platform for his final performance.

Fado is a traditional art of singing in Portugal. The word comes from the Latin, fatum meaning Fate. The songs, while quite beautiful and moving, “relate a general sense of frustration and a unique Portuguese fatalism.” Amália Rodrigues - The Queen of Fado - was born in Lisbon in 1920. She sang when only four or five years old, revealing a natural talent. In 1935 she became a serious amateur and in 1939 made her formal debut. In the 1950s and ‘60s she was considered the prime exponent of Portuguese popular music, a celebrity appearing not only in Portugal but around Europe and just about everywhere else including the USA, Japan and, of course, Brazil. She died in her sleep in 1999. 15 of her songs presented in a new CD from ARC Music (EUCD2337) convey feelings of “beautiful sadness” and even though I neither speak nor understand Portuguese, I am touched by these performances, finding them very satisfying and settling. In 10 of the 15 she is accompanied by the distinctive timbre of a guitarra portuguesa. There are no texts but the song titles are translated, including: Curse; Sad Inside; Oh! To die for you; Yellow Breasted Sparrow; and One year ago today.

SONY Classical has issued four new CDs (all Verdi) and four DVDs in their ongoing series of notable performances from the Metropolitan Opera’s archives, newly remastered by The Met.

Marian Anderson was the first African–American artist to be given a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera. She sang Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera on January 7, 1955 and reprised that role on the afternoon of Saturday, December 10 in a performance that was heard by countless millions via the live radio broadcast. That afternoon’s stellar cast included Met regulars of the time: Zinka Milanov, Robert Merrill, Roberta Peters, Jan Peerce, Giorgio Tozzi and Norman Scott. Dimitri Mitropoulos conducted. (88697 91002, 2CDs)

Il Trovatore from February 4, 1961 was also a gala event. Leontyne Price and Franco Corelli had made their Met debut a week earlier to wild acclaim and now millions in the radio audience could judge for themselves. Today, fifty years later a new audience can hear exactly what all the excitement was about... and exciting it is! How could it not be? Price and Corelli both at their spectacular best, together with a fine cast including Mario Sereni, Irene Dalis, William Wilderman, and a fresh Teresa Stratas (as Ines). Fausto Cleva conducted. As usual in this series, the sound is untroubled by sonic artifacts, has realistic dynamic range and a good sense of the front-to-back perspective (88697 91006, 2CDs).

Don Carlo featured Franco Corelli in the title role in the broadcast of March 7, 1964 supported by Leonie Rysanek, Irene Dalis, Nicolae Herlea, Georgio Tozzi, Hermann Uhde and others. This performance makes a good case for the four act version heard here. Kurt Adler conducts (88697 91004, 2 CDs).

Rigoletto dates from February 22, 1964 and stars these familiar Met alumni: Robert Merrill as Rigoletto and Richard Tucker as the Duke of Mantua, Roberta Peters as Gilda, Mignon Dunn as Maddelena and Bonaldo Giaiotti as Sparafucile. Fausto Cleva conducts this stunning performance that brings this treasure trove of great arias, this cautionary tale of bad karma, to its tragic ending (88697 91005, 2 CDs).

The first of the four SONY DVDs from The Met dates from April 5, 1978 and features the usual double bill of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. As originally telecast, images and a bare outline of the plot are silently seen while the two preludes are played. The 37 years young Placido Domingo stars in both operas in performances that define the roles of Turiddu and Canio, supported by Tatiana Troyanos as Santuzza in Cavalleria and by Sherrill Milnes (Tonio), and Teresa Stratas (Nedda) in Pagliacci. The sets were designed by Franco Zeffirelli and James Levine conducts these performances that remain a lasting memento of a memorable evening (88697 91008-9, 1 DVD).

Verdi’s Otello, live from September 25, 1978, has the incomparable Jon Vickers in the title role supported by Cornell MacNeil (Iago), Renata Scotto (Desdemona), Andrea Velis (Rodrigo), James Morris, and others. This was some four years after Vickers filmed Otello in Karajan’s production in Berlin. Cornell MacNeil, who died in July this year, is perfectly cast as the schemer who brings down Otello. Production and sets by Zeffirelli (88697 91012-9, 1 DVD).

Of the four operas in this release, I found Alban Berg’s Lulu the most engrossing. Perhaps it is the lingering impression of Louise Brooks’ portrayal in Georg Pabst’s 1929 German film, Pandora’s Box. John Dexter was the producer and Jocelyn Herbert was responsible for the sets and costume design of the Met’s Lulu, all coming together in a mise en scène that is appropriately surreal and decadent, as it would be in productions of the time of Pandora. Julia Migenes is the ill-fated Lulu and Franz Mazura is Jack the Ripper, Lulu’s last customer. The Countess is sung by Evelyn Lear and Kenneth Riegel is Alwa. There are over 20 singing roles in Lulu, too many to list here. Suffice to say, this is an unusually compelling and enthralling performance in dynamic stereo or 5.1 surround sound. James Levine conducts (88697 91009-9, 2 DVDs).

The Magic Flute is the abridged, English language version as seen December 30, 2006, the first season of the Met’s “Live in HD” in theatres around the world. Intended for children of all ages, this pantomimed version has innocent charm and may be an entertaining introduction to Mozart’s masterpiece (everything by Mozart is a masterpiece). Outstanding are Nathan Gunn (Papageno), Erika Miklosa (Queen of the Night), Ying Huang (Pamina), René Pape (Sarastro) but there doesn’t seem to be any role not ideally cast. Sub-titles in many languages, including English are accessible. James Levine conducts this exuberant, brilliantly staged, happy event (88697 91013-9, 1 DVD).

A Lesson in Love

Kate Royal; Malcolm Martineau

EMI 9 48536 2

No, Kate Royal is not a stage name of the Duchess of Cambridge. It is the real name of a young English soprano, whose ascent to fame has accelerated since one special evening in 2004, when as an understudy in The Magic Flute at Glyndebourne Festival Opera she got to sing Pamina when a diva got sick. Sounds like a typical operatic story, except there is nothing typical about Ms. Royal. The child of singers, she studied at the Guildhall School and won the Kathleen Ferrier trophy. Her happy association with Glyndebourne continues, with great results such as the recently-reviewed Don Giovanni, with Royal as Donna Elvira.

Her lyric soprano seems particularly adept at conveying emotion – her heartbroken and confused Elvira was, well, haunting. But Ms. Royal also reserves 5 months of the year for concert performances and rather than relying on existing song cycles, she has created her own – with some great collaborators. “A Lesson in Love” is an extensive cycle of songs penned by Schumann, Wolf, Schubert, Tosti, Bridge, Copland, Ravel, Fauré, Britten, Debussy and Strauss. They are artfully woven into four stages of a woman’s life, being “Waiting,” “The Meeting,” “The Wedding” and “Betrayal.” These phases are neatly spanned by two versions of William Bolcom’s Waitin (sic). Royal navigates without effort through English, German and French texts, infusing each song with her personal mark. How personal? Well, dear reader, listen to Canteloube’s “Tchut, tchut” from the Songs of the Auvergne and judge for yourself!

Berg - Lulu

Laura Aikin; Cornelia Kallisch; Alfred Muff; Peter Straka; Zurich Opera; Franz Welser-Möst

ArtHaus Musik 101 565

Since its premiere in Zurich in 1937 Lulu cannot escape controversy. Granted, in 1937 the subject-matter of a sociopathic prostitute was as controversial as it is today, but there is so much more at stake here. Left unfinished by Berg, the opera was completed in the 1970s from Berg’s sketches and discarded drafts. Even so, this recording features the original, unfinished score, both to commemorate the 65th anniversary of its premiere and to satisfy those, who claim that Berg left the work unfinished on purpose.

It is an opera with probably the most complex female character in history. In parts Violetta, Lady Macbeth and Mélisande, Lulu is as conflicted as she is beguiling. The production takes a deep, psychological view of her character. She is a victim of childhood sexual abuse, illuminated by silent vignettes projected throughout. She also is treated by her husbands and lovers in a proprietary, misogynistic way - illustrated by female mannequin body parts encased in plastic that populate the stage. Like some macabre Damien Hirst sculptures, the body parts point to the commodification of Lulu and explain her coldness and at times hatred towards others. This approach actually works, portraying the heroine as damaged beyond repair and thus tragic, not just loathsome. As the principals sing the difficult music of Berg with ease (with Laura Aikin and Alfred Muff deserving of a special mention), Franz Welser-Möst handles the orchestra beautifully. Fair warning, though: given the graphic nature of the projections, this may be difficult for some viewers to watch. This Lulu is not for the faint of heart.

Songspin

Juice vocal ensemble

Nonclassical Recordings (www.nonclassical.co.uk)

Traditional, classical and new music meet head on in the debut album by a cappella vocal trio Juice. Bringing art music forward to a hip, modern sensibility, their performances are enjoyed from Wigmore Hall to Austin's SXSW festival. Despite arrangements that are incredibly complex and vocally demanding, their delivery is crystal clear, clean and precise whether mimicking the babbling brook in Paul Robinson's Triadic Riddles of Water or a pointillistic, northern lights-like brilliance in Elisabeth Luyten's Of the Snow. With the use of breath, sighs, sonorous and dissonant harmonies, these women demonstrate how the primal resonance of the human voice has the ability to shape (or even bend) our psyches. Downright eerie are arrangements of the traditional English folksong Cruel Mother as well as group member Kerry Andrew's compositions Lullaby for the Witching Hour and luna-cy. Both a sense of wonder, and fear of the tenuous relationship between mother and child is evoked through the use of punctuated breath and long, languorous sighs in an arrangement of Gillian Welch & T-Bone Walker's Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby. Extremes in rhythmic complexities are perfectly executed in James Lindsay’s Sanbiki No Kasikoi Saru sounding almost like a game of skill in which none of the three voices trip or falter. They end off the recording with seven playful, quirky remixes; having already taken the listener to the edge, they then extend far beyond.

Jadin - Quatuors a cordes, Oeuvre 1

Quatuor Franz Joseph

ATMA ACD2 2610

Child prodigy Hyacinthe Jadin premiered his own piano concerto at the age of 13 during the French Revolution, an event which both inspired and overshadowed him. He composed in almost every contemporary genre, including harpsichord and piano pieces, revolutionary hymns, conventional sonatas and trios and chamber music when it was exclusive to the aristocracy.

Quatuor Franz Joseph is certainly conventional: two violins, viola and cello. However, it introduces us to Jadin’s first quartet with a largo which very soon becomes an allegro that is tackled with relish by the quartet. The allegro and following adagio, minuet and second allegro combine to create chamber music at its most exhilarating.

Much less serious in tone are the two other quartets, in A major and F minor. Both exemplify the conventional chamber music of the pump room, albeit enlightened with the demands of the presto last movement of the A major and the folkloric quality of the F minor’s polonaise.

Jadin is said to have been influenced by Haydn, highly likely as Haydn’s influence was by then ubiquitous. Jadin was unique first in that he wrote chamber music when it was almost never publicly performed and second in that he was influenced by Haydn’s slow introductions to his symphonic works. All from a 19-year-old!

We are lucky that Quatuor Franz Joseph is bringing Jadin to the ATMA label; his spirited music makes his death at 24 all the more tragic.

Beethoven - Piano Sonatas 8; 17; 23

Ingrid Fliter

EMI 0 94573 2

Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, with his symphonies and string quartets are among the supreme achievements of civilization in the same sphere as the work of Shakespeare, Dante and Michelangelo. The best pianists have recorded them, like Schnabel, Backhaus, Gieseking, Kempff, Rubinstein, Horowitz and Richter to name only a few. Now a new challenger by the name of Ingrid Fliter has arrived to add to the roster.

Born in Buenos Aires and studied in Europe, she has already won prizes at numerous international competitions and received the prestigious Gilmore Award. This is her 3rd issue with EMI after two very successful Chopin recordings. Here she selected works that probably best suit her temperament, three of the Master’s most turbulent and passionate sonatas, all with a nickname: Pathétique, Tempest and Appassionata.

She plays with great fervour, almost reckless passion, abandon, phenomenal technique, precision and imagination rarely found in other pianists. Nowhere does this come out better than in the performance of Op. 57, the “Appassionata”, where the nearly deaf Beethoven with violent outbursts is virtually shaking his fist to the heavens. Interestingly, it is somewhat related to the 5th Symphony. Notice the four note motive in the bass - D flat, D flat, D flat, C - very similar to the Fate motive that permeates the 1st movement of the 5th. The whirlwind, turbulent last movement where the speed and excitement just builds and builds to the breaking point, ending with an even faster frantic gypsy dance coda is guaranteed to lift you out of your seat, that is if you are not already standing.

Gabriel Dupont - Les heures dolentes; La maison dans les dunes

Stéphane Lemelin

ATMA ACD2 2544

In this terrific 2-CD release, pianist Stéphane Lemelin makes a strong case for the remarkable piano music of French composer Gabriel Dupont (1878-1914). These works amalgamate late romantic and impressionist elements into a personal voice that meaningfully conveys the composer’s struggle with tuberculosis. Dupont was known in his day for operas; here too melody pours out and harmony is intriguing. The 14-piece set Les heures dolentes (Doleful Hours) is a diary from the composer’s sickbed at a spa. Particularly touching is the charming “A Friend has Come with Some Flowers” at the work’s midpoint. The last four pieces suggest confrontation and resolution: “Death Grinds,” “Some Children Play in the Garden,” the truly great “White Night - Hallucinations” with its terrifying bass figurations and dissonant harmony, and finally “Calm.”

The ten pieces of La maison dans les dunes (The House in the Dunes) reflect nature, especially the sea. Water has life-giving status in both the playful “The Sun Plays in the Waves” and the dissonant, surging menace in “Sea Swells at Night” where Lemelin delivers a tour de force of “maritime pianism.” The penultimate “Star Light” I found to be the most spiritual piece of all, on the level of the “In Paradisum” from Fauré’s Requiem. Whether the pianistic challenge is handling soft, rapid filigree around a singing melody, pedalling dense passages without getting waterlogged, or achieving transcendent calm, Lemelin can do it. Highly recommended.