George Lewis – Afterword, An Opera in Two Acts
International Contemporary Ensemble
Tundra TUN014 (newfocusrecordings.com)

In 1971, George Lewis joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) as a precocious 19-year-old trombone player. Today he is celebrated as a performer, composer, scholar, developer of groundbreaking interactive improvising software and longtime chronicler of the AACM. In 2008 he produced a monumental history of the now-legendary collective of experimental African-American musicians, A Power Stronger Than Itself. This brilliant opera came eight years later. 

Afterword is based on the book. It draws on Lewis’ extensive interviews, plus recordings of early meetings made by AACM co-founder Muhal Richard Abrams. The delightful scene which opens the second act comes from a poetic journal by Claudine Myers. We’re given a colourful glimpse into an afternoon at the AACM’s center in Chicago. The playful camaraderie among such luminaries of experimental music as Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith and Roscoe Mitchell, along with Myers and Abrams (“Man your hair is nappier than mine!”) and the warm encouragement they offer one other (“Get your own thing, you don’t need someone else’s”) are reflected with powerful immediacy in a vibrant tapestry of sound.

 Transcending the constraints of straightforward narrative, Afterword directly confronts the elemental connections music has with originality, freedom, identity… and life itself. Lewis adds layers of resonant nuance by having each solo voice represent a variety of characters. This allows the singers, in different guises, to reflect a sweeping range of struggles, dreams and accomplishments. 

The three terrific vocalists, soprano Joelle Lamarre, contralto Gwendolyn Brown and tenor Julian Terrell Otis, bring dramatic energy to the ever-shifting perspectives. Under conductor David Fulmer, the intrepid musicians of the International Contemporary Ensemble realize Lewis’ intense, unruly orchestrations with precision and passion. 

This recording was made at the 2016 premiere in Chicago during celebrations for the AACM’s 50th anniversary. I can’t imagine a more inspiring way to celebrate. 

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Les Soupers du Roy
Arion Orchestre Baroque; Mathieu Lussier
ATMA ACD2 2828 (atmaclassique.com/en)

It was in 1683 that the French composer Michel-Richard Delalande was appointed superintendent of music of the Chapel Royal at the court of Louis XIV. As a result, most of his output was devoted to sacred music, but he also produced secular cantatas and a significant number of instrumental suites intended to accompany the royal dinners. Suites were a product of several French composers of the period and in light of their length (as were the gastronomic repasts themselves) excerpts from works by five composers are presented on this fine ATMA recording appropriately title Les Soupers du Roy, performed by the Arion Orchestre Baroque under the direction of Mathieu Lussier.

The disc opens with five movements from Delalande’s Cinquieme Suite with the ensemble delivering a stylish performance, clearly demonstrating an innate feeling for the repertoire. More fanciful is Destouches’ Le Carnaval et la Folie, the movements taken from the first comédie-ballet in France premiering at Fontainebleau in 1703. François Colin de Blamont was a pupil of Delalande and the three thoughtfully chosen excerpts from his ballet héroïque Fêtes grecques et romaines are performed here with a particular refinement and precision, the phrasing always carefully nuanced. 

Jean-Philippe Rameau and François Francoeur are the most recent composers on the disc. The suite by Rameau was taken from his ballet héroïque Les fêtes de Polymnie from 1745, while Francoeur’s Fourth Suite “with trumpet, timpani and horns” is particularly jubilant, in keeping with the occasion of a royal marriage, thus rounding out a most compelling program.

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Bach – Clavier Übung III | The Pedal Settings
Renée Anne Louprette
Acis APL41745 (acisproductions.com)

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Clavier Übung III is a masterwork of the organ repertoire, consisting of diverse and complex chorale preludes bookended by a grandiose prelude and fugue, commonly known as the “St. Anne,” BWV 552. Divided into several theological categories, the chorale preludes explore a range of musical styles and textures, from dense five-and six-part counterpoint with pedal to two-part textures which resemble Bach’s earlier keyboard inventions. 

This recording omits the two-part preludes, including only the chorale settings that incorporate the pedals. While the smaller-scale preludes are delightful works, this decision condenses the Clavier Übung into a non-stop journey through some of Bach’s most difficult and demanding organ music. Performed on the Craighead-Saunders Organ at Christ Church Episcopal in Rochester, New York which is modeled after a 1776 Lithuanian instrument by Adam Gottlieb Casparini, this organ is a wonderful vehicle for Bach’s music, containing a superb mix of brightness, boldness and blend.

A renowned international performer, American organist Renée Anne Louprette provides a splendid rendition of these challenging, inspiring works. It is no small feat to make such complex music sound apparent and simple, but Louprette rises to the task with technical facility, straightforward interpretations and a choice of registrations that emphasize form and clarity. Bach’s genius is such that his music rarely benefits from over-interpretation, and Louprette’s great success lies in the dedication shown to the music itself, without introducing unnecessary complexities. The Clavier Übung III is some of the purest and most profound instrumental music Bach wrote, and this recording provides a glimpse into the mind of the master through his music.

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Mozart – Piano Concertos Nos.20 & 23
Charles Richard-Hamelin; Les Violons du Roy; Jonathan Cohen
Analekta AN 2 9026 (outhere-music.com/en/labels/analekta)

In February 1785, Mozart’s father wrote to his daughter from Vienna referring to “an excellent new piano concerto by Wolfgang, on which the copyist was still at work when we got here, and your brother didn’t even have time to play through the rondo because he had to revise the copy.” The work in question was the renowned Concerto No.20 in D Minor K466, the first of only two concertos Mozart wrote in a minor key. Its premiere proved to be a great success and is presented together with the Concerto in A Major K488 on this fine Analekta recording with pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin and Les Violons du Roi conducted by Jonathan Cohen.

Richard-Hamelin was silver medalist at the International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition and winner of the Krystian Zimerman Prize for best performance of a sonata, so it should come as no surprise that this recording is a joy. Richard-Hamelin delivers a polished and elegant performance, the phrasing clearly articulated, while under Cohen’s skilful baton, Les Violons de Roy prove a formidable and sensitive partner. The second movement Romance is perhaps a little brisker than we’re used to, but the exuberant third movement – with the cheeky D Major ending – is undertaken with great panache.

Compared to the dramatic mood of K466, K488 is all serenity. Completed almost a year later it was premiered at a subscription concert with Mozart as soloist. Again, the ensemble offers a spirited and well-controlled sound with the melding of soloist and orchestra truly a fortuitous one. An added bonus is the Adagio and Fugue in C Minor K546 which brings the program to a most satisfying conclusion.

Clara Robert Johannes – Romance and Counterpoint
National Arts Centre Orchestra Canada; Alexander Shelley
Analekta AN 2 8884-5 (analekta.com/en)

This is the fourth and final installment in Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra’s retrospective of the deeply intimate and complicated musical connections between Clara Wieck, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Robert studied with Clara’s father, Clara and Johannes studied with Robert, Robert and Clara were married and had eight children together, Clara and Johannes cared for Robert as he struggled with mental health torments, and they remained close and devoted friends and colleagues for decades after Robert’s death. Through it all, the composing, performing and teaching of music was of utmost importance.

Conductor Alexander Shelley leads the NACO in thrilling performances of the fourth symphonies of Schumann and Brahms. Particularly impressive is the sweeping and warm string sound and uniformly free and elegant playing from the winds and brass. Though the symphonies were written over 40 years apart, they share a kinship in the eloquence of their Romantic musical language, poignancy and grandeur. Shelley coaxes all of this and more out of the orchestra. Kudos to producers and engineers for the gorgeous recorded sound. 

Also included is a generous collection of the solo piano music of Clara Schumann and her magnificent Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op.22 in a fine performance by NACO concertmaster Yosuke Kawasaki and pianist Angela Hewitt. The solo piano works (a collection of Romances, Preludes and Fugues) are all played with sensitivity and great imagination by Stewart Goodyear. Of special note are Clara’s explorations of themes of J.S. Bach. There are well-known accounts of evenings that the Schumanns spent with Felix Mendelssohn, playing and discussing Bach’s keyboard works, which Clara also used in her teaching into the 1890s. The recording concludes with Goodyear’s own musical offering: an affecting improvisation on themes of Clara’s.

Louise Farrenc – Piano Trios 2 & 4; Variations concertantes; Sonata Op.37
Linos Ensemble
CPO 555 538-2 (chandos.net/products/catalogue/CX%205538)

The name Louise Farrenc may not seem an overly familiar one today, but during her lifetime she was a respected composer, pianist and pedagogue. Born Jeanne-Louise Dumont in Paris in 1804, she was very much an “enfant du siècle” and a slightly older contemporary of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn. Her first compositions – almost entirely for solo piano – were published in the 1820s, earning praise from the likes of Robert Schumann. By the 1840s, she was turning her attention to chamber works which are now regarded as among the finest in her output, four of which are presented on this attractive CPO recording performed by the German-based Linos Ensemble.

The disc opens with the Trio No.2 Op.34 from 1844. From the outset, the listener is struck by the solidly constructed score, greatly enhanced by the polished and confident performance of pianist Konstanze Eickhorst who, together with violinist Winfried Rademacher and cellist Mario Blaumer, comprise a formidable union. What a joyful sound these musicians produce! Similarly, the Trio for Piano, Flute and Cello No.4 Op.45 from 1856 shows an adept use of counterpoint among the parts, where flutist Kersten McCall shines in a commanding performance. The Variations concertantes sur une mélodie suisse for piano and cello is a charming earlier work written before 1833 while the Violin Sonata No.1 Op.37 from 1848 drew high praise from a Parisien critic. In both cases the two parts are effortlessly integrated resulting in perfect partnerships in this engaging music.

With its attractive melodies and overall fine construction, Farrenc’s music has gone unnoticed for too long and only recently has it been receiving the recognition it deserves. Kudos to the Linos Ensemble for taking steps to further its appreciation.

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Mahler – Symphony No.1
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Semyon Bychkov
Pentatone PTC 5187 043 (pentatonemusic.com/product/mahler-symphony-no-1)

Roll over Beethoven – you have been supplanted! And Gustav Mahler saw it coming. He is reputed to have proclaimed that “In 30 or 40 years Beethoven’s symphonies will no longer be played in concerts. My symphonies will take their place.” Well, it took a little longer than that, only really gaining steam in the 1960s, but judging from the number of Mahler cycles issued these days his time has truly come. 

This new release of Mahler’s first and arguably most popular symphony performed by the distinguished Czech Philharmonic represents the fourth instalment of Semyon Bychkov’s traversal of these mighty works. Though he eventually abandoned any programmatic descriptions of his compositions, as late as 1893 Mahler still felt compelled to describe his first symphony as “a tone poem in the form of a symphony.” More importantly, he defined the work as consisting of two over-arching sections. The first included the first three movements (the third movement was eventually dropped) while the second encompassed the final two movements. The first part most closely resembles the traditional symphonic genre, and it is here that Bychkov adopts a fairly conventional approach, straightforward, pellucid and artfully nuanced. The second section, subtitled Commedia Humana, completely baffled the audience at the Budapest premiere and was not well received. It seems that the promoters neglected to supply the audience with the guidance of program notes… (As an aside, I’ve often wondered how any audience could be expected to follow the convoluted plots of such works as Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony. No wonder Mahler abandoned them.) 

No matter though; the excellent liner notes by Gavin Plumley will tell you all you need to know, and more. From the opening funeral march of part two onwards, Bychkov and the orchestra gradually pull out all the stops in a masterful crescendo of emotion. The finale in particular has the uncanny effect of the whole of one’s life passing before one’s eyes through a near-death experience that resolves itself in a shatteringly triumphant affirmation of life. I for one found it deeply moving. 

The wide-ranging sound of this elegant orchestra is superbly rendered by the expert team at Pentatone Records. A must-have recording indeed.

Sommer Nachts Konzert 2023
Elena Garanča; Wiener Philharmoniker; Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Sony Classical 19658818942 (wienerphilharmoniker.at/en/shop)

Midsummer night in Vienna, classical music capital of the world, with the Vienna Philharmonic at the wonderful Baroque Gardens of Schönbrunn, summer palace of the Hapsburgs, who could ask for anything more? By now a Viennese tradition, there is a giant outdoor concert with a glittering glass-covered sound stage, huge TV screens and loudspeakers set up either side, multicoloured searchlights radiating from the palace with seating for thousands and free for everyone. It was televised here on PBS, but unfortunately I missed it. No matter. It’s out on Blu-ray video and here is a CD from Sony Classical.

This year the invited artists are the world-famous conductor from Montreal Yannick Nézet-Séguin and equally famous, the spectacular mezzo from Latvia, Elina Garanča. The program is a bit unusual for Vienna, all French masterworks from the 19th and 20th centuries. First comes Bizet with fond memories of Carmen at the Met: Nézet-Séguin conducted and Garanča mesmerized New York audiences with her revolutionary portrayal of Carmen. Here she sings Habanera and then Nézet-Séguin conducts the Carmen Suite No.1.  Garanča later sings one of my favourites, the gorgeous, seductive aria Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix from Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Delilah, her pièce de resistance just perfect for her voice.

Berlioz was a genius who as a kid came to Paris not knowing what a symphony orchestra was and a year later amazed the world with his Symphonie Fantastique. Here we are treated to Le Corsair Overture stretching the orchestra to its utmost limits, giving a real workout to the VPO.

More highlights: Ravel’s opulent Daphnis et Chloe Suite No.2 with its tremendous sunrise, Lever du jour, and later his Bolero described at its premiere as a “huge musical joke.” The conductor unleashes the total forces of the orchestra controlling the gradual crescendo brilliantly.

The encore is a mandatory Strauss Waltz, Wiener Blut saluting Vienna and providing a suitable ending to a memorable evening.

Rachmaninoff – Piano Concertos & Paganini Rhapsody
Yuja Wang; Los Angeles Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel
Deutsche Grammophon 486 4759 (deutschegrammophon.com/en/artists/yujawang)

Not long after Yuja Wang exploded on the music stage as if from the nuclear corona of the sun, one of her earliest albums (2011) with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado (DG 477 9308) featured what many critics then considered to be one of the great performances of Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini.

Wang makes her masterful presence felt once again, this time with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, whose masterful conducting and direction is superbly attentive. Rachmaninoff: The Piano Concertos & Paganini Rhapsody takes the music into a rarefied realm. 

Sentimentality has no place here. The powerful authority of Wang dominates, above all, in the sheer daring of interpretations that hang fire as if possessed by the legendary Rachmaninoff despair and then explode as if suddenly bursting into flame, especially on Piano Concerto No.2 in C Minor. 

Piano Concerto No.1 in F sharp Minor, composed when Rachmaninoff was a mere 18-years-old comes alive in the emotional ebb and flow of the music. There’s a vibrant and unpredictable edge to Wang’s playing that imparts a sense of discovery in both Concertos No.3 in D Minor and No.4 in G Minor. Throughout the 24 Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Wang is responsive to the music’s exuberance as well as its nostalgia, ending the sequence with a barely audible flutter of notes, as capricious as Niccolò Paganini’s original.

Kodály – Háry János Suite; Summer Evening; Symphony in C Major
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; JoAnn Falletta
Naxos 8.574556 (naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.574556)

Imagine a typical village scene in 18th-century Hungary. Recruiting army officers come to the village to enlist some strong peasant lads into the army. Free food and drinks, fun and dancing galore and the lads promptly go to sleep. But when they wake up, surprise! They find themselves soldiers in the army. The dance was the Verbunkos, a strong, rhythmic, syncopated dance that forms one of the movements of Kodaly’s Háry János Suite. Háry János is a folk hero who likes telling tall tales like defeating Napoleon’s army singlehandedly and even getting decorated by the Emperor. Kodály wrote a whole singspiel (music drama) and a suite around it beginning with a giant sneeze meaning that the whole thing is a big joke, but the music is a lot of fun.

Some highlights are the lovely glockenspiel of the Viennese Musical Clock, an amusing mock march when Napoleon gets defeated, a peaceful pastoral interlude of a lovely folk song with some simple variations where the cimbalom is featured and of course the famous Verbunkos Intermezzo, probably the best piece in the suite. The singspiel I saw performed in Budapest in the 1950s with Kodály himself present.

Kodály was composer emeritus of Hungary in the latter half of the 20th century, but he was also a tremendous educator who invented the solfege method of teaching with hand signals and to introduce music early to young children with the emphasis on singing together.

This new recording follows an earlier very successful issue of Kodály with JoAnn Falletta conducting (which I reviewed in The WholeNote April 2018). She is now much favoured by Klaus Heymann, the owner of Naxos is with a host of new recordings spreading her and her brilliant orchestra’s name all over the world.

De la lumiere aux étoiles
Aaron Tan
ATMA ACD2 2872 (atmaclassique.com/en)

There are different kinds of organ music recordings, ranging from the silly to the serious and everything in between, but it is rare to find one that is both serious and fun at the same time. Canadian organist Aaron Tan’s De la lumiere aux étoiles is just that, however, presenting serious music that is also great fun to listen to, performed at the highest level. Winner of the 2021 Canadian International Organ Competition, Tan is a multi-faceted individual, holding a PhD. in Materials Science from the University of Michigan and currently pursuing a doctorate in organ performance at the Eastman School of Music. 

Consisting of French (and French-inspired) works, this disc is a wonderful exploration of the organ and its capabilities, with music by Karg-Elert, Demessieux, Canadian composer Rachel Laurin and Louis Vierne, among others. This disc begins with Fernando Germani’s Toccata, Op.12, a joyfully busy piece that erupts into a final ecstatic outburst, and ends with Vierne’s glorious Final from his fifth Organ Symphony, one of the composer’s most joyous and thrilling final movements.

Other highlights include the endlessly quirky Sigfrid Karg-Elert’s Phantasie und Fuge, Op.39b and Laurin’s Poème symphonique pour le temps de l’Avent, each of which displays the organ of the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate, located in Guelph, at its absolute best. Manufactured by the Casavant Frères firm of St. Hyacinthe, Quebec in 1919, this organ features a French Romantic design, including a French terrace console, as seen at the great organs of France.

The organ is a temperamental instrument; some need a performer to tame them, while others need a kind and nurturing hand. Either way, when the right performer and instrument are matched together, extraordinary music can be made, such as that found on this brilliant recording.

Chamber Works of Robert Muller-Hartmann
ARC Ensemble
Chandos CHAN 20294 (chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2020294)

Volume seven of the Music in Exile series spotlights German-Jewish composer Robert Müller-Hartmann (1884-1950), whose compositions, prior to being banned by the Nazis, had been conducted by Richard Strauss and Otto Klemperer. The works on this CD, all receiving their first recordings, were composed before 1937, when Müller-Hartmann left Germany and settled in Dorking, England, where his elder daughter had previously found employment. There, he became close friends with another Dorking resident, Ralph Vaughan Williams. Briefly interned as an “enemy alien” in 1940, he was released after Vaughan Williams interceded.

No avant-garde adventurer, Müller-Hartmann looked back to Viennese late-Romanticism for inspiration. Graceful, sentimental gemütlichkeit imbues the CD’s earliest work, the Violin Sonata, Op.5, which premiered in 1923. Similarly, the very Brahmsian Two Pieces for cello and piano – Meditation and Elegy – are warmly, earnestly expressive. Three Intermezzi and Scherzo, Op.22 for piano are affable and appealing, Brahms again invoked in Intermezzo I. Particularly charming is Müller-Hartmann’s Sonata, Op.32 for two violins, four genial, sprightly dance-like movements. While more “serious,” the String Quartet No.2, Op.38 is no less entertaining, a soulful Adagio surrounded by three movements enlivened by repeated tempo-changes and animated rhythms.

Toronto’s ARC Ensemble, under artistic director Simon Wynberg, continues to honour composers suppressed or exiled by dictatorships and war. Wynberg and the ensemble’s core musicians – violinists Erika Raum (in Op.5) and Marie Bérard, violist Steven Dann, cellist Thomas Wiebe and pianist Kevin Ahfat – surely deserved to be honoured as well.

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Waves
Bruce Liu
Deutsche Grammophon (deutschegrammophon.com/en/artists/bruce-liu)

Warsaw – October 2021. Final round of the 18th International Chopin Competition. Finalist Bruce Liu totally relaxed, full of youthful exuberance and joy, performs Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 in E Minor. I watched this performance and was totally enchanted. It was amazing. As soon as it ended the conductor threw his arms into the air, and almost in tears embraced and kissed Liu warmly and the applause was deafening. He was a clear winner. Liu, Chinese-Canadian, from Montreal is another one of the expanding list of Canadian pianists acquiring world fame.

This is his first recording and a quite unusual one; three French composers representing three consecutive centuries. Rameau’s work is for the harpsicord, so Liu had to study an instrument without dynamics that has a certain dry, bouncy, plucking sound. The Rameau program features a Gavotte with 6 variations of ever increasing difficulty. The pianist was having fun especially with La Poule, later orchestrated by Saint-Saëns and included in his Carnival of the Animals.

Liu explains the album title Waves alluding to the sea that “always changes” refers to his approach to his pianism being fluid, flexible and always open to new ideas. The sea, however, soon manifests itself with Ravel’s Une barque sur l’ocean, a long impressionistic piece where we feel the sea in turmoil, waves splashing, throwing the little boat around. Liu is in his element here and also in Alborada del grazioso, his pièce de resistance, played with lots of charm and gaiety.

The third composer chosen by Liu is Charles-Valentin Alkan, an almost completely neglected Parisian composer/pianist who was a contemporary of Chopin and Liszt. He was a great virtuoso who could compose and play études (studies) that are 20-minutes long! As the final piece of the program Liu plays Alkan’s enormously difficult 12 Etudes in All the Minor Keys, Op.39, for the 12 notes of the chromatic scale, containing 25 variations on a simple theme. An exceptional pianistic achievement.

Linda Catlin Smith – Dark Flower
Thin Edge New Music Collective
Redshift Records TK543 (redshiftmusicsociety.bandcamp.com)

Toronto composer Linda Catlin Smith has enjoyed a long professional career attracting important commissions from soloists, ensembles, orchestras and choirs. Her strongly flavoured music has attracted increased international attention in recent years.

Founded in 2011, Thin Edge New Music Collective is dedicated to commissioning concert music and presenting the work on Toronto and international concert stages.

Dark Flower, TENMC’s freshman six-track CD, is a portrait album of Smith’s works, impeccably produced by contemporary music industry veteran David Jaeger. Seven outstanding Toronto musicians are featured: Cheryl Duvall (piano), Anthony Thompson, (clarinet), Nathan Petitpas (percussion), Ilana Waniuk (violin), Aysel Taghi-Zada (viola) and cellists Amahl Arulanandam and Dobrochna Zubek.

In a recent interview Smith reflected on her compositional process. “I often feel that the work emerges like the development of a photograph. Dark Flower [for piano, violin, viola, cello] for instance: I started with the idea of rolled low register piano arpeggiations in a bed of string chords – that was the starting point, just that one image. And that’s enough for me ….”

At 26 minutes, Dark Flower (2020) is the album’s largest work. Its contained emotion, often expressed through restrained, soft melodies, harmonies, textures and silence, achieves a delicate balance between the old – I hear Renaissance and 20th-century music echoes – and our age’s complexity. TENMC’s dedicated ensemble playing maintains an admirable equilibrium between the various musical threads throughout this masterful work’s substantial arc. 

Remarkably, the entire album sustains a sensuous, intimate mood which sometimes shades into an iciness. That may seem contradictory, yet it’s where Smith’s music ultimately flourishes.

Portrait
Cheng² Duo (cello; piano)
Centrediscs CMCCD 33223 (cmccanada.org/product-category/recordings/centrediscs)

The internationally acclaimed Canadian siblings, cellist Bryan Cheng and pianist Silvie Cheng – the Cheng² Duo – having thrillingly recorded French, Spanish and Russian repertoire, here revisit their Chinese and Canadian roots, including commissions from four composers of Asian ancestry, three of them Canadian Juno-winners and nominees.

Portrait of an Imaginary Sibling, says Dinuk Wijeratne, describes “a young person of precocious and mercurial temperament,” the cello wandering aimlessly before joining the piano in driving rhythmic abandon. Vincent Ho says his music often reflects the Canadian Prairies’ “gusting winds, birds, lakes, even the stillness of winter.” His Horizon Images begins with Prairie Song, the cello lyrically expansive over intermittent piano splashes. In Soleil différé, the cello disturbingly evokes what Ho calls “vocal wails and sighs” over irregular piano punctuations. Windstorm’s aggressive propulsion requires – and receives – extreme rapid virtuosity from both musicians.

Two short pieces by Alexina Louie – Pond Mirrors Bright Sky and Wild Horse Running – feature raucous, abrupt accents, the “horse” bucking continually until finally galloping off. American Paul Wiancko’s 23-minute Cello Sonata No.1 “Shifting Baselines,” by far the CD’s longest work, somewhat outlasts its sparse, repetitive materials.

The CD includes two 20th-century Chinese standards. The Chengs’ arrangement of Hua Yanjun’s lament, Moon’s Reflection upon a Spring, employs bent notes, glissandi and sonorities imitating traditional Chinese instruments, while their breathtaking arrangement of Huang Haihuai’s Racing Horses, replete with headlong hoofbeats and screeching whinnies, should become (if not already) the fabulous duo’s signature encore piece.