Ancestor Song
Janice Jo Lee
Independent (janicejolee.ca)

Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Janice Jo Lee has had seven years between albums, during which time she has peeled away several layers of her former self in order to lay bare her spiritual, political, cultural and environmental bones. Lee, a well-known artist in both Kitchener and Toronto, is more than music. A poet, folk artist, improvisor, facilitator, creator and comedy workshop leader, she is nearing the height of her powers in this latest album, a beautiful collaboration with another Ontario native, producer JoJo Worthington.

Overture: Ancestral Song opens the album with a medley similar to the opening of a musical, leading into Oil in the Grand, a story of contamination on the Grand River, with beautiful vocal harmonies. Here I am is Lee’s statement of her new anthem of taking space and commanding control of her own power. Moonlight Tide is fun and slightly campy, featuring Lee’s poetic lyrics and vocal range. She Looked like Me is a folk-inspired gem about her ancestral Korean heritage, but could be an anthem to anyone feeling disconnected from their own lineage. Swim Forever features Korean lyrics to a strongly rhythmic melody and features the beautiful flugelhorn playing of Rudy Ray (probably my favourite track on the album). The jazzy Crumpled Heart Unfolding and Account Ability, the folksy Child Inside and her vocal looping on Take Space, the catchy Ancestral Song itself, and the power rock-inspired closer Patient as the Land will give you the vast range of Lee’s style, skill and passion.

Babylonia Suite
Ilios Steryannis; Sundar Viswanathan; Jessica Deutsch; Nawras Nader
Independent (iliosjazz.ca)

The names Babylonia Suite and Ilios Steryannis are incorporated into the circumference of a pictogram on the top right-hand corner of this CD cover. This otherwise rather unobtrusive icon of a tree with spreading roots and branches that seem to be encapsulated by both title and name is both intriguing and revealing. For in these roots and branches – fascinating in their ancient modes and modern interpretations – lies a thrilling musical ride. 

You are treated to a series of works that begin with the title song Babylonia itself. The tumbling Middle Eastern groove oscillates between a 6/4 and a 12/8 pulse and sets the tone for the rest of the disc. The first six songs make up the narrative suite of the title that spans the cultural topography of the ancient region which Steryannis’ maternal ancestors once called home. 

The drummer has, of course, called Canada home for many years, but like so many Canadians celebrates diversity as he knows best. His Greek-Hebrew culture unfolds as if in a parade of Middle- and Near-Eastern street musicians whose passionate ululating melodies, eloquent harmonies and infectious rhythms emerge through a modern vortex.  

While Steryannis has sought to celebrate the ancient origins of his maternal heritage this music is far from a sentimental journey written in odd metres. The brawny, polyrhythmic Blue Rumba, meditative Sun Song and vivid 400 North and Laplante also reveal a composer with a refined, multi-dimensional melodic voice.

Collective Wisdom
Sybarite5
Bright Shiny Things (brightshiny.ninja)

New York string quintet Sybarite5 is back with their first studio album in five years performing nine single movement tracks combining classical, contemporary, improvisations and folk sounds. The two original band members double bassist Louis Levitt and violinist Sami Merdinian are now joined by three new members – violinist Suliman Tekalli, violist Caeli Smith and cellist Laura Andrade. 

Paul Sanho Kim’s arrangement of Punch Brothers’ Movement and Location is zippy with repeated violin fast lines, grooves and ideas keeping listeners enthralled. Three short Komitas Armenian Folk Songs are arranged by Sybarite5’s Merdinian (himself of Armenian heritage). In The Red Shawl a yearning sense is depicted by low held strings with above lines. Spring is tearjerking, with slow and solemn low bass held notes and gradual instrumental entries. Oh Nazan features a faster rhythmic hopeful opening with high pitched lines.  

Tight ensemble playing featuring Greek melodies with reggae rhythms embodies Curtis Stewart’s Mangas. Jessica Meyer’s Slow Burn is held together by similar danceable ideas in different sections. Composed earlier during a period of loss, Pedro Giraudo’s own arrangement of his Con un nudo en la garganta is a slow dark tango that builds to closing intensity. Michael Gilbertson’s Collective Wisdom third movement starts with snappy percussive string pizzicatos that continue to add tension until the sudden accented loud closing with bangs. Jackson Greenberg’s so different Apartments has rain, coffee machines, AM radio news sound and electronics while each musician is given the freedom to play their lines as they wish.

Sybarite5 brilliantly play breathtaking music to be enjoyed over and over.

Although many might imagine most free music as intense and raucous, the first adjective may be applied, but the second is sparingly used for the special sounds created by these five reed-keyboards duos. Some may argue that chamber-improv foreshortens the creative urge; however these duos have come up with various strategies to project multiple timbral arrangements without bluster or bellicosity.

Recorded in a venerable spacious church in Copenhagen, Locusts and Honey (ILK Records 349 ilkmusic.com) was created by two Danish residents who are both from other countries. Pianist Matt Choboter is Canadian, while alto saxophonist Calum Builder is Australian. Putting aside any country-associated shibboleths, both players operate in the realm of pure sound with the nine improvisations reflecting the church’s spatial properties as well as Builder’s extended reed techniques and the preparations of Choboter’s keyboard. Harsh squawks and irregular trills issue from the saxophonist, yet are balanced by passages in which muffled snarls dissolve into distant no-key-pressure moments as unaccented air is pushed through the horn. Celeste-like tinkles and suspended echoes share space with wood slaps, inner string jiggling and soundboard hammering from the pianist. Duo synergy is reflected on a track like Crossing on Akróasis when understated saxophone vibrations and horizontal key pumping create a delicate, almost mainstream expression. More compelling are those performances when seemingly incompatible motifs amalgamate as kindred expressions. Honey for instance manages to meld as reflective patterns, Builder’s deep inside the body tube hunting-horn-like resonance and Choboter’s implement juddering piano string clangs. Needle-thin top-of-range snarls from the saxophonist on Hark! are balanced by music-box-like chiming created by subtle piano string agitation. This leeches tension from the reed tones to attain a muffled connection.

Enhanced textures also characterize the work of another duo, each member of which is an accomplished improviser on an acoustic instrument. Here though, heightening timbres are added from the live electronics used by Russian-American pianist Simon Nabatov. The oscillations’ span suggests the addition of a third instrument to Nabatov’s keyboard on Entanglements (Acheulian Handaxe AHA 2301 handaxe.org) recorded with fellow Cologne resident, German tenor saxophonist Matthias Schubert. Free jazz despite the additional voltage, Schubert’s Trane-like tongue slaps, overblowing and siren-like honks are not only integrated into the narratives, but given added oomph when live processed or cushioned by the oscillations. At the same time, Nabatov’s acoustic piano patterns include enough crashing chords and sympathetic plinks to preserve the improvisational aura. Brushed is an instance of this as the saxophonist spews out puffs and whines in the form of toneless air blocked by an obstruction in his horn’s bell as Nabatov’s synthesized echoes create percussion backing. Tensile raps are then replaced with keyboard thumps as the saxophonist reed bites and blows out snuffles and split tones. The electronically produced squeaks and air-raspberries however don’t prevent the two from sounding like an expected jazz duo on tracks like Scratch. The grumbling oscillations have to share space with key clips and clanks and sax buzzes and smears. Squeezing out multiphonics or overblowing an emphasized fruity tone, Schubert then foils the electronics’ spatial tendency to overwhelm acoustic properties. By the concluding track, Closing, the duo confirms the appropriate electro-acoustic balance. A melange of reed growls and tongue stops mixed with crashing piano chords, the flanged wave form variations that are subsequently heard soon dissolve into faint rumbles to make common cause with and accompany the saxophonist’s angled split tone squeaks and a tone-shaking summation.

Bringing novel sounds to a reed/piano duo doesn’t have to venture into the electronic world however. On Crusts (FOU records CD 48 fourecords.com) for instance, French improviser Jean-Luc Petit’s playing tenor and soprano saxophones and bass clarinet is amplified by the elaborations from Didier Fréboeuf  on piano, objects and clavietta, a mouth-blown piano keyboard instrument with accordion-like tones. Meanwhile Norwegian Isach Skeidsvoll on Chanting Moon, Dancing Sun – Live at Molde International Jazz Festival (Clean Feed CF 617 CD cleanfeed-records.com) and Japanese Yoko Miura on Zanshou Glance at the Tide (Setola Di Maiale SM 4620 setoladimaiale.net) both use a similar handheld instrument, the melodica, with its mouthpiece and keyboard sounds in their duets with Lauritz Skeidsvoll playing soprano and tenor saxophones and Italian soprano saxophonist Gianni Mimmo respectively.

Used more sparingly than electronics, Fréboeuf’s mouthpiece-attached instrument doesn’t make its appearance until the final track, but even before that his measured responses perfectly complement Petit’s expositions, depending on which reed is used. Squeezed alp-horn like blows and crying treble reflux from the tenor saxophone are met with inner piano string jangles and wood smacks that speed up the interface to gentling connections. More descriptively thickened chalumeau register bass clarinet slaps and snorts move the pianist deeper into pedal point expression on the appropriately named Scab, with the musical skin further exposed with bottom board echoes and brutal key clanging. As piano abrasions pull away, strangled reed cries confirm that the sonic wound still throbs. The clavietta’s music box-like tinkles and shaking variations simply solidify Fréboeuf’s distinctive exposition on Crisp, with Petit’s equally crisp rejoinders on soprano saxophone move into droning telephone-wire-like shrilling without key movements. Dynamic near-honky-tonk keyboard patterns however, push that sequence to the bursting point with the resulting timbral explosion drawing the saxophonist to a forced air and altissimo squeaking finale. 

More use is made of the melodica on Chanting Moon, Dancing Sun with the title track based on a do-si-do of that instrument’s barrel-organ-like textures in unison or counterpoint with the saxophone. While the plastic melodica does create an interesting contrast to a reed instrument, as quickly as a modal sequence is advanced Isach Skeidsvoll returns to percussive piano tones as Lauritz Skeidsvoll’s nasal soprano saxophone adds Carnatic-like squeaks. By the conclusion, reed work begins to quiet as intricate piano chording moves forward. Perhaps more a physiological than a musical observation, but despite the Skeidsvolls literally being brothers – Lauritz is two years older than Isach – their playing appears more distant from one another than that of the other duos. Exploring freer playing at points with reed split tones, tongue stops and slide whistle-like squeaks plus energetic piano shifts in and out of tempo, their fluid improvising also veers toward pseudo gospel dynamics. Earlier spiritual music inferences come out into the open on the concluding From the Wasteland I Ascend. Waves of ecclesiastical piano glissandi and intensified saxophone honks and squawks suggest Southern Baptists feeling the spirit, with the potent beat all consuming but somewhat odd coming from Norwegian musicians at a Norwegian jazz festival.

Miura and Mimmo offer a different and distinct duo conception on Zanshou Glance at the Tide, another live concert. That’s because the pianist and saxophonist play solo on the first two tracks, only uniting for Further Towards the Light, the extended finale. The first track is a threnody for the Finnish bassist Teppo Hauta-aho, one of the many Occidental musicians with whom Miura has played. Yet melancholy is mixed with muscle as her light touch is overtaken by pressurized energy and key slaps at near player-piano speed. Continuing up the scale with chiming notes and plucks; melodica puffs also echo sparingly. With detours into suggestions of Charles Mingus and Jimmy Rowles themes on the second track, the saxophonist is both lyrical and literal, building a mellow exposition from tune variations mixed with double tonguing, tonal slides and the odd screech. As a duo the two also scramble expectations by introducing a lengthy meditation on ‘Round Midnight as a secondary motif. At first Miura adds energy with bell tree shakes and melodica trills that underline Mimmo’s more emotional pitch undulations and near circular breaths. With each taking turns interpreting the Thelonious Monk ballad, she not only comps aggressively but uses the mouth-blown keyboard to double and strengthen the saxophonist’s ascending and descending single line expositions. The entire piano keyboard is brought into play in the final sequence, uniting textures from all three instruments for a broadened referential conclusion.

Overall, using add-ons or playing acoustically each duo distinctively defines its territory and the combination.

Violinist Tomás Cotik adds to his 2020 release of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas and 2022 release of Telemann’s 12 Fantasias for Violin Solo with another outstanding solo disc on Bach The Six Suites, his own transcriptions for violin of the Six Cello Suites BWV1007-1012 (Centaur CRC4030/4031 tomascotik.com).

Cotik transposes the first five suites up a fifth to keep the relations between the violin strings (G-D-A-E) the same as on the cello (C-G-D-A); they are also an octave higher. Suite No.6 was written for a five-string instrument with an added high E string, so it is played here in the original key, with notes from the unavailable C string moved to a higher register. If there’s a downside, it’s the loss of the deep warmth of the cello’s lower register.

A Baroque bow is used, with resonant synthetic strings that are slightly softer than those Cotik regularly uses. Vibrato is employed effectively “as an ornament to the sound but not a continuous addition.” Cotik’s customary detailed and insightful booklet essay adds to a fascinating release.

The Akoya duo of violinist Naomi Dumas and harpsichordist Caitlyn Koester makes its label debut with an album of sonatas by Christoph Graupner on Graupner Intégrale des sonates pour violon et clavecin, aided by Amanda Keesmaat on Baroque cello (ATMA Classique ACD2 4038 atmaclassique.com/en).

Dumas and Koester formed the duo when studying in the Historical Performance program at Juilliard and specialize in the interpretation of early repertoire. An exact contemporary of J. S. Bach, Graupner (1683-1760) was virtually forgotten after his death, but recent groundbreaking work on his autograph sources at the University of Darmstadt has led to a revival of interest.

This CD marks the world premiere recording of Graupner’s complete sonatas for violin and harpsichord GWV707-711; two are in G major and three in G minor. They are absolutely charming works, given beautifully articulated performances in a richly resonant recording.

Every now and then a CD of such outstanding quality comes along that it leaves you struggling for words. Such is the case with Kaleidoscope, a CD featuring brilliant playing by violinist Paul Huang and pianist (and no relation) Helen Huang in works by Respighi, Saint-Saëns, Paganini and Chopin (naïve V 8088 paulhuangviolin.com/recordings).

Paul Huang draws a sumptuous tone from the 1742 “Ex-Wieniawski” Guarneri del Gesù violin, but it’s the power and expressiveness of his playing that takes your breath away. Helen Huang’s piano work is no less fine. 

The seldom-heard Respighi Sonata in B Minor p.110 is a real gem, with a gorgeous opening movement, and the Saint-Saëns Sonata No.1 in D Minor Op.75 is a dazzling work with a hair-raising Allegro molto fourth movement.

Paganini’s Cantabile in D Major Op.17 – which really does sing here – comes between the two sonatas, and Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat Major Op.9 No.2, in the transcription by Sarasate ends one of the most captivating albums I’ve heard in a long time.

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Closing Statements, the new CD from violinist Sophie Rosa and pianist Ian Buckle, is described as exploring the ways in which composers end their creative lives (Rubicon Classics RCD1119 rubiconclassics.com/artist/sophie-rosa-ian-buckle).

Schumann’s Violin Sonata No.3 WoO2 was created when he added two new movements to the Intermezzo and Finale that he had contributed to the F-A-E sonata with Brahms and Dietrich. Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim played through it in February 1854, just days after Schumann’s attempted drowning in the Rhine, and decided to suppress it, the sonata not being published until the 1956 centenary of the composer’s death.

Two Phantasies, while differing greatly in sound, both look back to classical models: Schoenberg’s Phantasy Op.47 and Schumann’s Fantasie in C Op.131, written for Joachim in 1853.

Both draw particularly fine playing from the duo. The hauntingly beautiful 1991 “Post scriptum” Sonata by Ukrainian composer Valentyn Silvestrov (b.1937) rounds out an excellent disc.

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Three Sonatas for Violin & Fortepiano, Op.1b, featuring violinist Andrew McIntosh and fortepianist Steven Vanhauwaert is another COVID lockdown product (Olde Focus Recordings FCR923 newfocusrecordings.com).

In 2020 McIntosh and Vanhauwaert read through the violin sonatas of Bologne to pick one to film and became so enamoured of them that they decided to record all three for an album. Published in 1781 at the height of Bologne’s career they are charming and not insubstantial works, full of late 18th-century elegance. 

Each of the sonatas – No.1 in B-flat Major, No.2 in A Major and No.3 in G Minor – has two movements, with an opening Allegro and a gentler second movement. Dynamics and articulations in the printed edition are minimal and often inconsistent, with the duo here consequently employing ornamentation consistent with the style of the period in excellent performances.

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Cellist Christoph Croisé and pianist Oxana Shevchenko have been playing together since 2014, and on 1883 they celebrate a year marked by two major cello sonatas plus the publication of a significant single movement (Avie AV2632 avie-records.com). 

The first version of Richard Strauss’ Cello Sonata in F Major Op.6, TrV 115 dates from 1881, but Strauss – still only 19 years old – revised it in 1883 by replacing the original third movement with a completely new finale. It’s a work of youthful exuberance with a profound middle Andante.   

A profound middle movement Andante is also a feature of Grieg’s Cello Sonata in A Minor Op.36, a mature work, the slow movement of which recycles material from an earlier funeral march. Fauré’s Élégie Op.24, possibly intended as the slow movement for a projected sonata, was written in 1880 and published in 1883; it mirrors the previous slow movements in mood.

Croisé plays with a full, warm tone, and Shevchenko’s playing is sensitive and unfailingly musical. The two say that they thought the three pieces would make a wonderful program. They were right.

The Verona Quartet is in superb form on György Ligeti Complete String Quartets, an album celebrating the centenary of the Hungarian avant-garde composer (Dynamic CDS8010 veronaquartet.com/discography).

Ligeti’s String Quartet No.1 Métamorphoses nocturnes, a continuous single movement of 12 sections was written in 1953-54 during the era of Soviet censorship; it was not premiered until May 1958, after the composer had fled Hungary for Vienna. It’s a fascinating work in its range of sound and style, with Bartók’s influence clearly audible.

String Quartet No.2 was written in 1968 for the LaSalle Quartet, and unlike its predecessor, immediately became part of the string quartet repertoire. The five movements differ widely in pacing, with the fifth unexpectedly fully tonal and melodic.

Ligeti wrote nothing further for string quartet, although there were advanced plans for two additional quartets commissioned by the Arditti and Kronos ensembles. However, he did release Andante and Allegro from 1950, an attempt at accessible music within the Socialist Realism constraints; it ends a terrific CD.

The ongoing Quatuor Molinari set of Philip Glass Complete String Quartets continues with Volume 2 String Quartets Nos. 5-7, a digital-only release. Volume 3 is planned for 2024, at which point a box set will be issued (ATMA Classique ACD2 4072 atmaclassique.com/en).

The works mark a move away from Glass’searly repetitive patterns to a broader post-minimalist approach, although minimalist influences are never far away. String Quartet No.5 exhibits a more sophisticated musical development, and String Quartet No.6 reflects the composer’s pursuit of a more classical approach. String Quartet No.7, an extensive single movement, was initially presented as a choreographed dance piece. All three quartets were premiered by the Kronos Quartet, in 1992, 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Performances and recording quality are top-notch throughout.

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The Sacconi Quartet, Britain’s longest-established string quartet celebrates 21 years with the original membership on an outstanding CD of quartets by Schubert and Beethoven (Orchid Classics ORC100265 sacconi.com/recordings).

Schubert’s String Quartet No.14 in D Minor D810, “Death and the Maiden”

 from 1824, when the composer was facing his own mortality, is paired with Beethoven’s String Quartet No.14 in C-sharp Minor Op.131 from 1826, the year before his death. The Op.131 was the last music Schubert heard, days before he died – in 1828.

The quartet members say that they “wanted to make an album of some of the music that means the very most to us, and these two quartets were obvious choices. We have literally lived with them for most of our career.” The Beethoven in particular has been performed from memory in various artistic and theatrical settings, including their “Beethoven in the Dark” immersive performance.

Their familiarity with the works is obvious in quite striking performances, the resonant recording capturing the emotional depth and sensitivity of the playing.

The premise behind Shades of Romani Folklore – works connected by a Romani influence – seems a bit tenuous at first glance, but spirited performances by the Ulysses Quartet certainly justify it (Navona NV6567 navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6567).

The finale of Beethoven’s String Quartet No.4 in C Minor, Op.18 No.4 is described as “rip-roaring,” with a distinct Romani flavour to its rondo theme. The link continues with the world-premiere recording of Paul Frucht’s Rhapsody, a work inspired by the Tzigane Ravel wrote for the Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Arányi that evoked the Romani style.

The most powerful work here is Janáček’s String Quartet No.2, “Intimate Letters”, reflecting his passionate but unrequited feelings for the much younger Kamila Stösslová. In one of his over 700 letters to her, revealed that in his song cycle Diary of One Who Disappeared he had cast her as Zefka, the Roma girl whose forbidden love affair with a young Czech man is the basis of the work. The obsessive passion and raw emotion are beautifully captured by the performers.

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When violinist Christian Tetzlaff and his sister, cellist Tanja Tetzlaff, decided to record an album in memory of their long-time artistic partner pianist Lars Vogt, who died in September 2022 one particular work was “immediately the right piece” for all concerned: the Double Concerto in A Minor Op.102 by Brahms, one of Vogt’s favourite composers. A superb performance is at the heart of the resulting CD Brahms | Viotti with the Deutsche-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Paavo Järvi (Ondine ODE 1423-2 naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=ODE1423-2).

All concerned found the experience incredibly moving, with Vogt foremost in their minds throughout the recording, and the emotional intensity together with the superb playing makes this a performance for the ages. Brahms wrote the concerto to mend his broken friendship with Joseph Joachim, and the Tetzlaffs’ profound understanding of how the individual movements may relate to what Brahms was trying to say and achieve clearly adds depth to their interpretation. 

In the concerto Brahms quotes from Viotti’s Violin Concerto No.22 in A Minor, a work with early significance in Brahms’ and Joachim’s friendship, and it’s the other major work on the disc. A lovely performance of Dvořák’s Silent Woods Op.68 No.5 for cello and orchestra completes an outstanding CD. 

The Vivaldi Edition, the ambitious project to record all of the music in Vivaldi’s personal collection of autograph manuscripts now in the Italian National Library in Turin reaches volume 71 and volume 11 of the violin series with Vivaldi Concerti per violino XI ‘Per Anna Maria’ with soloist Fabio Bondi leading Europa Galante (naïve OP 7368 vivaldiedition.net).

Anna Maria (1696-1782) was the most famous instrumentalist at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice during Vivaldi’s time there; her own personal repertory manuscript volume contains the solo violin line for 24 Vivaldi concertos, including five otherwise unknown, with alternative reliable sources needed for the complete parts. Of the six concertos here three – in D Major RV207, D Major R229 and E-flat Major RV261 – are preserved in Turin, and two – in E-flat Major RV260 and B-flat Major RV363 “Il corneto da posta” – in Dresden. The Concerto in C Major RV179a is reconstructed from Anna Maria’s volume.

Performances are beautifully judged throughout the disc.

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The idea for the CD Ennio Morricone: Cinema Rarities for violin and string orchestra with Marco Serino as soloist and leader of the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto came about during the recording of its predecessor Cinema Suites, when the Morricone family sent Serino, the composer’s chosen violinist several rarities they hoped could also be recorded. These works, along with others that Serino rediscovered in his own archives make up the program here (Arcana A554 outhere-music.com/en).

Space restrictions preclude my listing full details of the directors, film titles and years and individual track titles, but the music ranges from Sergio Leone’s 1968 Once Upon a Time in the West to Silvano Agosti’s 2001 The Sleeping Wife. There are three suites named for directors – Agosti, Mauro Bolognini and the Taviani Brothers – plus Four Adagios, chosen by the composer and dedicated to Serino. Arrangements are by Morricone (the majority) or Serino.

The overall mood changes little, but it’s enchanting music, quite beautifully played.

Elvira Misbakhova is the principal viola with the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal and a member of I Musici de Montréal. It’s this latter group under Jean-François Rivest that accompanies her on Destins Tragiques, a CD featuring new versions of music from the 1930s by Prokofiev and Shostakovich (ATMA Classique ACD2 2862 atmaclassique.com/en).

With the composer’s permission, the violist Vadim Borisovsky made 13 arrangements for viola and piano from scenes in Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet Op.64. The Montreal violist and arranger François Vallières has taken seven of these arrangements and composed a new orchestration for strings from the piano part. It’s nicely done but lacks the bite of the original Prokofiev. The viola is not always prominent – by design – and even in the several virtuosic passages tends to be absorbed into the string sound.

Much more effective is the 2006 Fantasy for Viola and Orchestra on Themes from the Opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” by Shostakovich, Op.12 by the Montreal composer Airat Ichmouratov, heard here in Ichmouratov’s own reduction for string orchestra.

Les 9 de Montréal is an ensemble of eight cellos and a double bass founded by cellist and artistic director Vincent Bélanger; their third album, Nocturne is a new digital release (GFN Productions www.les9.ca).

The program is mostly arrangements of classical favourites, with Saint-Saëns’ The Swan, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata theme, Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte, Debussy’s Clair de lune (particularly effective), Fauré’s Après un rêve, Rameau’s Hymne à la nuit and a Chopin Nocturne. Soprano Lyne Fortin joins the group for Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise and La veuve et la lune, a work by Montréal composer Christian Thomas.

As the title suggests, there’s not a great deal of mood change, just a constant flow of mellow cello ensemble playing, nicely arranged, sensitively played and beautifully recorded. All in all, an excellent and appropriate choice for late-night listening. 

Monteverdi – Vespers of 1610
The Thirteen; Children’s Chorus of Washingon; Dark Horse Consort; Matthew Robertson
Acis APL53837 (acisproductions.com)

As we are reminded in the informative liner notes of this new recording of Claudio Monteverdi’s sacred masterpiece, Vespers is an early evening prayer service, part of the Liturgy of the Hours, fulfilling Jesus’ command to “pray always.” Replete with psalm texts, a hymn and the Magnificat (the canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary) Vespers is designed to be contemplative and Monteverdi’s setting is miraculous in its variety of textures, virtuosity and hypnotic harmonies. In addition, it marries Renaissance and Baroque musical styles with staggering beauty and uniformity, featuring a wide array of vocal and instrumental writing. 

The Thirteen was founded in 2012 in Washington, D.C. by Matthew Robertson and the group has a wide mandate, performing music from all eras, specializing in early and contemporary choral works and educational outreach. Their recording of Vespers – in collaboration with the Children’s Chorus of Washington and the early winds of the Dark Horse Consort – took place in the reverberant acoustic of Washington’s Franciscan Monastery. 

The solo and small ensemble singing is uniformly excellent, including a radiant Nigra Sum sung by soprano Michele Kennedy, a sumptuous Pulchra es sung by sopranos Molly Quinn and Katelyn Jackson and a tour de force Duo Seraphim from tenors Aaron Sheehan, Stephen Soph and Oliver Mercer. The chorus and instrumental ensemble bring a suitable glory and grandeur to the performance: 90 minutes of life-affirming, provocative “new” music, written over 400 years ago.

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Alessandro Scarlatti – La sposa dei cantici
Meghan Lindsay; John Holiday; Jay Carter; Ryland Angel; Ars Lyrica Houston; Matthew Dirst
Acis APL53721 (acisproductions.com)

The Scarlattis were a tremendously gifted and prolific musical family, with Domenico composing over 500 keyboard sonatas and his father Alessandro writing over 100 operas, 600 cantatas and 30 oratorios. Even in comparison to their impressively productive contemporaries such as Bach, Handel and Telemann, their output remains staggeringly high and defined Italian musical style for decades.

This recording, performed by Ars Lyrica Houston and directed by Matthew Dirst, features Alessandro Scarlatti’s La Sposa Dei Cantici (The Bride of Songs), which is scored for strings, continuo and four soloists: three countertenors and one soprano. As with many early works, this music’s journey from composition to 21 st century performance is characteristically complex, its material existing in numerous reworkings, adaptations and even different libretti set to the same music for performance in different locations at different times of year. Long story short, this recording is essentially a snapshot of the music’s state in 1710 in Naples, as indicated through manuscripts in the Stanford University Library and Paris’ Bibliotheque National.

As with almost all Italian Baroque oratorios, La Sposa Dei Cantici consists mostly of recitatives and da-capo arias, with a brief orchestral Sinfonia and the occasional dramatic interjection. Despite this formulaic nature, Scarlatti was able to craft a large-scale work of striking beauty, using both vocal and instrumental soloists to achieve ranges of expression that are both delightful and captivating.

Built on a libretto far less dramatic and aggressive than Italian opera, Ars Lyrica brings out the best of Scarlatti’s La Sposa Dei Cantici, keeping a sense of momentum and expression that ensures a smooth flow from recitative to aria and back again. This is a wonderful recording that deserves to be heard by all, whether familiar with the Scarlatti family or discovering them for the first time.

Ethel Smyth – Der Wald
Soloists; BBC Singers; BBC Symphony Orchestra; John Andrews
Resonus RES10324 (resonusclassics.com/products/smyth-der-wald-the-forest)

No paragon of “proper” English womanhood, the openly bisexual, cigar-smoking feminist who composed the suffragette anthem, The March of the Women, spent two months in jail for stoning and shattering an anti-suffrage politician’s office windows. Nevertheless, Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) achieved success at a time when women composers were routinely ignored, becoming in 1922 Britain’s first female composer honoured as a “Dame.”

In 1902, Smyth’s 66-minute, one-act opera Der Wald premiered in Berlin and in 1903 became the first and only opera by a woman produced at the Metropolitan Opera until 2016 (!). The libretto, by Smyth and Henry Brewster, originally in German, is sung here in Smyth’s English translation (included).

The peasant maiden Röschen (soprano Natalya Romaniw) and her fiancé, woodcutter Heinrich (tenor Robert Murray), are beset by the malevolent Iolanthe (mezzo Claire Barnett-Jones), who lusts for Heinrich. Of the five other soloists, baritones Andrew Shore (Pedlar) and Morgan Pearse (Count Rudolf) play important parts in the unfolding of the tragic drama.

Smyth’s admiration for two composers often considered opposites – Brahms and Wagner – is manifested in the lush, warm, Brahmsian choruses of forest spirits and the Wagner-enriched arias of Röschen, Heinrich and Iolanthe. Other highlights are the Röschen-Heinrich love-duet, the ebullient peasant dance and chorus, and the stirring, defiant, dying declamations of Heinrich and Röschen.

Conductor John Andrews, the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Orchestra energetically provide rich colours and powerful climaxes in this premiere recording of Smyth’s landmark opera.

Stravinsky, Janáček, Bartók: Village Stories
Prague Philharmonic Choir; Lukáš Vasilek
Supraphon SU4333-2 (supraphon.com/album/763075-stravinsky-janacek-bartok-village-stories)

Village Stories brings together the worlds of ethnomusicology and nationalism in one compelling package. The featured composers were all profoundly influenced by their interest in indigenous musical materials to varying degrees. Bartók roamed far and wide scientifically recording and transcribing source materials on Edison cylinders; Janáček did much the same, though more modestly, while also probing deeply into the melodies concealed in everyday human speech. Stravinsky took a more leisurely approach, shamelessly stealing his materials from pre-existing publications. (The eerie opening bassoon solo of his Rite of Spring, for example, is cribbed from a volume of Lithuanian folk songs.) 

The apogee of Stravinsky’s magpie-mania culminated in his explosive and highly influential ballet Les Noces (The Wedding) for chorus, four pianos and percussion ensemble, completed after many false starts in 1923.

Janáček’s whimsical Říkadla (Nursery Rhymes, 1926) is a late work based on humorous doggerel culled from the funny pages of his daily newspaper. Scored for ten instruments (including a toy drum and an ocarina!) and a small choir, it is a patently absurd and highly enjoyable treasure trove of good clean fun. He considered these Czech verses as “frolicsome, witty, cheerful – that’s what I like about them. They’re rhymes after all!” This delightful set of 18 choral miniatures is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Bartók’s Three Village Scenes, also composed in 1926, is scored for female choir and chamber orchestra. It is considered by some to be his response to Stravinsky’s Les Noces, but with a twist. The opening movement likewise depicts a wedding scene, though the agitated, asymmetric orchestral outbursts and minor key setting hint at a dim future; a line of the text reads, “I’m a rose, a rose, but only when I’m single. When I have a husband, Petals drop and shrivel.” The subsequent Lullaby touchingly laments an uncertain future for a mother’s child. A rollicking Lad’s Dance concludes the work on a more positive note.

Full English translations of the Russian, Czech and Hungarian texts are included with the physical product; unusually, the Stravinsky libretto is also provided in the Cyrillic alphabet. The perfoóóórmances are uniformly excellent and the audio production first class. Not to be missed.

Dean Burry’s The Highwayman
Kristina Szabó; Sarah Moon; Kornel Wolak; Gisèle Dalbec-Szczesniak; Wolf Tormann; Younggun Kim; Darrell Christie
Centrediscs CMCCD 32123 (cmccanada.org/product-category/recordings/centrediscs)

The Highwayman – a romantic and gory extended poem written in 1906 by the English poet Alfred Noyes – has been given a splendidly vivid and evocative musical setting by the Kingston-based composer Dean Burry. Burry takes as his model Arnold Schoenberg’s expressionist masterpiece Pierrot Lunaire, writing for the same forces: flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano and mezzo soprano. While the two works share moon imagery and certain ensemble colours, Burry’s work has a bolder, more cinematic quality that complements the epic sweep of Noyes’ poem in contrast to Schoenberg’s spooky transparency. Indeed, it would be a treat to hear the two pieces together in concert. 

A powerful instrumental prologue sets the scene for a tour-de-force performance by the celebrated Canadian mezzo Krisztina Szabó who brilliantly dramatizes the story and offers up a varied and gorgeous sound throughout her extended vocal range. Her brilliant diction and operatic sensibility coupled with Burry’s clear and attractive writing keep the interest and intensity throughout the 17-movement work. The five instrumentalists contribute strong and confident playing under the sensitive direction of Darrell Christie, with violinist Gisèle Dalbec-Szczesniak being a particular standout. 

The project was recorded at the Isabel Bader Theatre in Kingston with Burry producing. The sound is first-rate. There’s an informative short documentary A Torrent of Darkness: The Making of Dean Burry’s The Highwayman available on YouTube.

Bramwell Tovey; John Murrell – The Inventor (an opera in two acts)
Soloists; UBC Opera Ensemble; Vancouver Symphony Orchestra; Bramwell Tovey
Centrediscs CMCCD 31723 (cmccanada.org/product-category/recordings/centrediscs)

Although the conductor and composer Bramwell Tovey was born and educated in the United Kingdom, many Canadian classical music enthusiasts associate him principally with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, for whom he worked as music director from 2000 until 2018. Tovey died in 2022 but his name lives on in Vancouver, as his significant contributions to that city’s musical culture and community is reflected in the renaming of the Tovey Centre for Music that now houses the VSO’s School of Music. How fitting then, that the Canadian Music Centre should put out a new release of a 2012 recording of Tovey’s first opera, The Inventor with a libretto by John Murrell, that in sound and script tells the story, heretofore unknown to me, of Alexander “Sandy” Keith.

Although the narrative and back story is indeed compelling – Keith was a scoundrel, con artist and murderer, who attempted to take down a transatlantic steamship with a bomb – knowledge of this tragic and decidedly Canadian story is not a prerequisite to enjoying this fine new release. Recorded at Vancouver’s beautiful Orpheum Theatre and featuring the VSO with Tovey at the helm, The Inventor is a sprawling two-disc double-act modern opera that clocks in at over two hours of music. Capable of inspiring a thesaurus worth of musical descriptors (modern, dissonant, lush, romantic, cinematic, declamatory), this ambitious project both deserves and needs to be heard to appreciate the magnitude of its creativity and breadth. Although the closest analogue to my ears is Alva Henderson’s work with Nosferatu, I suggest that this 2023 release would be enjoyed by opera and modern classical music enthusiasts alike.

Ispiciwin
Luminous Voices; Andrew Balfour
Leaf Music LM267 (leaf-music.ca)

Having had the good fortune to review both a CD (Nagamo) and a live performance of Andrew Balfour, the Toronto-based Cree composer and member of Fisher River First Nation, I looked forward to exploring Ispiciwin (Journey), a project on which Balfour serves as composer and creative lead. Once again, I was tremendously impressed. Impressed by both the ambition of the conceit of the project, as well as the resulting beautiful sonic capture from either the Bella Concert Hall at Mount Royal University in Calgary, or the Chapel at the University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus Camrose, both fitting venues for this haunting and engaging set of new music.

A meaningful attempt in sound to explore the concept of artistic reconciliation, Ispiciwin pairs Balfour’s immense talent, creativity and insatiable desire to push musical borders with the vocal group Luminous Voices, Timothy Shantz artistic director, along with Jessica McMann on bass flute and Walter MacDonald White Bear on Native American courting flute. The result is an expansive set of new choral music sung in Cree that derives from, explores and celebrates various histories, backgrounds and extractions (from Sherryl Sewepagaham to Sofia Samatar to John Dowland). 

Although this recording most certainly does not prioritize a political agenda over the music, there is indeed something inherently political about the fact that, as Balfour acknowledges in the album’s liner notes, such a recording would have been virtually unthinkable some 30 years ago when he was coming up as a young choir boy and lover of Renaissance vocal music. The result writes important new voices into the canon of choral music and is recommended listening indeed. 

Listen to 'Ispiciwin' Now in the Listening Room

Wound Turned to Light – New Songs by James Rolfe
Alex Samaris; Jeremy Dutcher; Andrew Adridge; Lara Dodds-Eden
Redshift Records TK540 (redshiftmusicsociety.bandcamp.com)

We ought to have been done with COVID-19, but the effects of “The Pandemic of the Century,” has had a lasting, profound psychological and sociological effect on humanity, even as the health of the species bounces back. Happily, we have been rescued (again) by poets, the very tribe that Plato – who disparaged them for relying on imagery at some distance from reality – would rather have nothing to do with in his Republic of Grecian times. But oh… how times have changed!

Former Poet Laureate of both the City of Toronto and the Canadian Parliament, George Elliott Clarke commissioned 15 Canadian members of this very (disparaged) tribe to lift our sinking hearts. The result is some edifying poems – including two of his own – the eloquence of which James Rolfe has turned to exquisite music. And so, our existential angst has been briefly assuaged, and Rolfe lifts our hearts with his Lieder. 

Wound Turned to Light dwells not in some forgotten utopia or impending dystopia, but in nature, dreams – broken and fulfilled – and in the mysticism of life and death asking, as Schiller once asked in Die Götter Griechenlands: “Schöne Welt, wo bist du?” (Beautiful world, where are you?). 

Alex Samaras does much of the lifting of Rolfe’s music with a combination of rich and lofty vocals in his singular, delicious tenor sound (cue Marigold). His mature insights into the lyrics are utterly convincing, all but eclipsing the celebrated Jeremy Dutcher who shines on Set me as a seal. Andrew Adridge is elegant on Bombastic. Pianist Lara Dodds-Eden is the uber-sensitive accompanist.

Listen to 'Wound Turned to Light: New Songs by James Rolfe' Now in the Listening Room

Frank Horvat – Fractures
Meredith Hall; Brahm Goldhamer
I Am Who I Am Records (iam-records.com)

Canadian composer and environmental activist Frank Horvat’s most recent album, Fractures, is a cycle of 13 songs performed by soprano Meredith Hall and pianist Brahm Goldhamer. Inspired by the 2016 anthology Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America, this work explores the controversial practice of fracking, a method used to extract natural gas and oil from deep rock formations known as shale. With lyrics curated from several Canadian and American writers who have been directly affected by fracking, the song cycle explores various viewpoints that surround the procedure. 

Horvat’s song cycle speaks to the ramifications of fracking, from the resources required to the impact on both the land and surrounding communities. Each song has an independent theme and musical structure and the cycle is unified by recurring motifs of fire and water. Although Hall and Goldhamer, both seasoned performers, demonstrate great commitment to the text and the music, listening to Fractures is, at times, difficult, for it requires a certain window into the knowledge of fracking to better understand the ironies and or musical choices that accompany certain texts. To the uninitiated, a more relatable song can be found in Lullaby in Fracktown, where a mother sings to her young child against the backdrop of her husband’s employment insecurity. 

Notwithstanding, it is a gift when living composers take time to explain their work and thought processes, which is what Horvat does in the generous liner notes of Fractures. His explanations enhance our ability to reflect more deeply on fracking and our environment. Horvat’s activism and dedication to this project (and others) are reminiscent of R. Murray Schafer’s soundscape work and that’s a very good place to be.

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Jérôme Blais – Mouvance
Suzie LeBlanc; Jérôme Blais
Centrediscs CMCCD 31223 (cmccanada.org/product-category/recordings/centrediscs)

It is on notes to this disc Mouvance that Jérôme Blais – a Québécois – alludes to the “…sense of uprootedness despite our migrations within the same expansive and culturally diverse country, Canada.” Meanwhile, in music of uncommon beauty, Blais gives wing to the poignant lyrics by Acadian poet Gerald Leblanc. His poem, parts of which appear four times during the recording, not only makes for the theme of the album but also sets the tone for Blais’ music, voiced with featherlight expressiveness by Suzie LeBlanc, a Vancouverite of Acadian descent. 

Blais has also set the exquisite elegiac work of nine other poets all of whom explore bluesy emotions – of otherness and unbelonging – so deeply felt in the proverbial “mouvance” of migration. Eileen Walsh’s woody, eloquently dolorous clarinets, Jeff Torbert’s lonesome twangy guitars, Norman Adams’ soaring cello and Doug Cameron’s often rumbling hand drums and hissing and swishing percussion heighten the atmosphere and bring experience and technique to these pieces. 

All this is just as well, given the varied types of text setting involved. LeBlanc is exquisite in her many contributions, her creamy soprano soaring in the four iterations of Mouvance, and in the finale Tu me mouves, deftly supported by the instrumentalists playing Blais’ distinctive music. 

The close, slightly resonant recording is never uncomfortable and weaves voice and instruments into a kind of damask musical fabric. Discerning lovers of song – particularly Francophonie Canadians – will enjoy investigating these charming works.