Bravura – Works for Natural Horn and Piano
Louis-Pierre Bergeron; Meagan Milatz
ATMA ACD2 2864 (atmaclassique.com/en)

The natural horn, like its successor the French horn, has, in the right hands, a buttery, full and round timbre and tone that makes one wonder why you would ever again listen to the more strident trumpet. And on ATMA Classique’s terrific 2024 recording, Bravura: Works for Natural Horn and Piano, that question is indeed put to the test. 

Making his recording debut as a leader, the virtuosic Canadian hornist Louis-Pierre Bergeron demonstrates just how beautiful and expressive this pre-19th century brass instrument can be. Ably accompanied by Meagan Milatz on the Classical-era Fortepiano, this sympatico duo mines a set of repertoire that includes impressive works, largely new to me, by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, Ludwig van Beethoven, Nikolaus Freiherr von Krufft and Vincenzo Righini in order to feature this unique instrumental pairing. Take, for example, Cipriani Potter’s Sonata di bravura for Horn and Piano in E-flat Major that captures Bergeron and Milatz at their most expressive and playful. Over 20 minutes in length, this multi-themed piece affords both principals space to showcase their renowned musical abilities, while offering room for the antiquated instruments to interact within a decidedly modern recording context.

As a studio musician, hornist with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and a frequent collaborator with Tafelmusik and various pop ensembles, Bergeron is clearly used to this blending of the old with the new. But for listeners new to the instrumental pairing here, Bravura is unexpectedly refreshing, exciting and musically satisfying.

Mozart – Piano Concertos 9 & 24
Lars Vogt; Orchestre de chamber de Paris
Ondine ODE 1414-2 (naxos.com/Search/KeywordSearchResults/?q=ODE1414-2)

In a sad loss to the music world, in September 2021 at age 51 a remarkable German pianist, conductor and wonderful human being, Lars Vogt passed away leaving behind an impressive career and a worldwide reputation. He appeared as soloist with many major orchestras (including Berlin and Vienna), created his own Music Festival, won numerous awards and had a distinguished discography. Unfortunately, this is his last recording. It has already acquired numerous awards (e.g. Critic’s Choice, Gramophone) and I just couldn’t stop listening. I would include it among my “desert island” discs.

 Vogt had such love for these two Mozart concertos that he felt compelled to record them even in the midst of medical treatments. The two are as different as can be. The first piece, the bold and youthful No.9 in E-flat, Mozart’s first major statement in the genre, has a well-fitting nickname Jeunehomme. It is a concerto of contrasts. After the elegant and optimistic major key first movement, the second is in the relative C minor key and has a tragic, somber atmosphere while the final Rondo is joyful and exuberant.

Out of Mozart’s 27 piano concertos nine are undisputed masterpieces, all of them written in the last two years of his tragically short life. Among these, only two were in a minor key and No.24 is arguably his greatest. The dark C minor chords dominate the first movement which is in a very unusual 3/4 measure, obviously meant to be close to the composer’s heartbeat. (The long virtuoso cadenza at the very end of the first movement was composed by Vogt). The heavenly second movement brings some happiness, but the last one is again in a minor key. Its set of variations on a simple theme brings a virtuoso, brilliant ending.

My feeling concurs with Vogt that “this idea that despite everything things aren’t so horrible in this world… It always plays a role in Mozart.”

Schumann – Dichterliebe
Kristjan Randalu
Berlin Classics 0303295BC (prestomusic.com/classical/products/9609352--dichterliebe)

This recording of Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe by Kristjan Randalu is one of the most ingenious piano recordings not only of anything Schumann that I have heard but possibly any recent solo piano recording. And there have been many recordings by classical pianists far more celebrated than Randalu. All is explained in the final paragraphs below. 

Dichterliebe (Poet’s Love), a cycle of 16 songs, takes its text from Henrich Heine. It introduces to German song a mingling of sentiment and irony, much as Heine’s poems had done for German verse. This is a world of disillusionment in which nature acts as an adjunct and reflection to a bittersweet love story. 

Perhaps the most immortal interpretation of this song-cycle is baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and pianist Alfred Brendel’s (Philips, 1986). In this (and every other version) the piano becomes an equal partner with the singer, appearing sometimes as a combatant, sometimes as commentator, and given the long preludes and postludes, the instrument adds an extra dimension to the possibilities of the lieder genre. Randalu makes all of the above happen by masterfully employing his insolent virtuosity and febrile imagination to Dichterliebe.

Randalu’s right hand cadenzas are “the singer” adding “vocalastics” through improvisation, a second layer of colour, liberating the lyrical element of Dichterliebe, and defining the emotional element more precisely. His left-hand acts as combatant and commentator. Together they offer Dichterliebe as Schumann dreamed: “a deeper insight into my inner musical workings.”

Breaking Glass Ceilings – Music by Unruly Women
Rose Wollman; Dror Baitel
SBOVMusic (sbovmusic.com)

Expansions of the classical canon are always welcome. Offering much needed opportunities to infuse new and diverse voices into the ongoing history of this music not only provides revitalized repertoire for potentially warhorse weary ears, but such fresh compositional contributions underscore just how relevant, vibrant and still meaningful an art form classical music remains. All of the above is most certainly the case with violist Rose Wollman and pianist Dror Baitel’s excellent 2024 duo recording, Breaking Glass Ceilings, a collection of fine music from the pens of four women composers: Florence Price, Libby Larsen, Rebecca Clarke and Amy Beach.

Released on Sounds Better on Viola (SBOV) records, Breaking Glass Ceilings showcases not only an exciting program of lesser-known pieces by three deceased and one still-living composer, but traverses style (from the lush Romantic-era inspired sounds of Beach to the contemporary and decidedly American influenced compositions of Larsen), and, perhaps most of all, offers up an exciting new duo set of viola and piano performances with impressive results. 

While described as a musical celebration of “women who were told ‘no’ and did it anyway,” the recording may have an agenda to correct long standing historical omissions but there is nothing didactic here. Instead, what we have is an effervescent contemporary recording featuring excellent interplay and blue-chip musicianship from two accomplished soloists and performers. An excellent addition to the collection for fans of the genre.

Tchaikovsky – Symphonies 4, 5 & 6
Park Avenue Chamber Orchestra; David Bernard
Recursive Classics RC4789671 (chambersymphony.com/recordings)

Conductor David Bernard has organized and conducted orchestras such as this Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, bringing them up to excellence in concerts and recordings recognized by audiences worldwide and to critical acclaim by the likes of the New York Times and Gramophone magazine. There is a photo of Bernard as a young kid getting a conducting lesson from the great Serghiu Chelibidache and I consider this his highest recommendation. By the way, chamber symphony is a misnomer. They are full size and have all the instruments of a complete symphony orchestra.

Tchaikovsky’s late symphonies, the Mighty Three, are cornerstones of musical literature. These are divinely inspired and among the most important and beautiful works of the master (and perhaps of all Russian composers). I have been in love with the passionate Fourth Symphony in F Minor since seeing Rudolf Kempe doing it so beautifully at Massey Hall back in the 60s with the Royal Philharmonic. In the entire symphonic literature there are few other works that test all sections of an orchestra and its individual instruments in technical brilliance: just think of the virtuoso pizzicato third movement that requires the entire string section to be in perfect unison and coordinated like a giant balalaika. These Park Avenue Chamber players are having a lot of fun with it and can be congratulated on passing the test very well. The sunny, optimistic, heroic and arguably the most beautiful of the three, Symphony No.5 in E Minor and the soul-searching gut wrenching but noble and magnificent Symphony No.6 in B Minor, the “Pathetique” are given equally fine performances.

As a distinguishing feature I noticed the conductor’s obvious effort to bring out all that’s written down in the score thus exposing internal voices I’ve not heard before. But what impressed me most is Bernard and his orchestra’s tremendous enthusiasm and love of this music that one can feel. It shows as if it were a live performance which is not easy to achieve. All in all, not a Mravinsky, nor a Karajan, but lovingly played and a sincere noble effort and that could be the most important element.

Prokofiev – Piano Sonatas Vol.II
David Jalbert
ATMA ACD2 2462 (atmaclassique.com/en)

One of the 20th century’s most significant composers, Sergei Prokofiev’s music continues to challenge performers and listeners alike with its thrilling rhythms, complex harmonies and technically demanding scores. An expert pianist himself, Prokofiev’s piano music is notoriously challenging, notably demonstrated in his first two piano concertos.

A prolific writer, Prokofiev composed nine piano sonatas in addition to seven completed operas, seven symphonies, eight ballets, five piano concertos and a number of other large-scale works. Featuring Piano Sonatas 5-7, Canadian pianist David Jalbert gives a commanding survey of Prokofiev’s powerhouse writing for piano in this, his second installment in a series of the complete piano sonatas.

Piano Sonata No.5 in C Major is the least-performed of all Prokofiev’s sonatas, largely due to its cumbersome history. Accused of “formalism” by the Stalin regime in 1948, Prokofiev re-composed the third movement, simplifying his music in accordance with Stalin’s dictates. These unwanted, detrimental changes weakened the structure of the sonata, so much so that Prokofiev issued it a new opus number. Despite these political-compositional accommodations, Jalbert injects great energy and conviction into his interpretation, overcoming any weakness in the score with a strong and captivating performance.

Sonatas six and seven, written in 1940 and 1942 respectively, are known as the War Sonatas (along with Sonata No.8, composed in 1944). These works are at once thrilling, expressive and devastating, effectively distilling the angst and anguish of the time into one piano and two hands. This music needs to be attacked and thrust upon the audience, and Jalbert achieves this with gripping success, making this recording essential listening for pianophiles everywhere.

The Lost Generation
The Orchestra Now; Leon Botstein
Avie Records AV2684 (avie-records.com/releases/the-lost-generation-hugo-kauder-•-hans-erich-apostel-•-adolph-busch)

Leon Botstein (founder-conductor of Orchestra Now, a graduate-level, multi-year program at Bard College in Red Hook, New York) enjoys rediscovering and performing unfairly neglected works. Here, works by three composers of “the lost generation” – those born between 1888 and 1901 – receive their first available recordings.

Hans Erich Apostel’s Variations on a Theme by Haydn (1940) utilizes a graceful theme from Haydn’s Symphony No.103. Apostel’s variations, while not completely atonal, reflect his studies with Schoenberg and Berg. Despite their melodic aridity and astringent harmonies, listener engagement is maintained by Apostel’s imaginative changes of tempo, rhythm and orchestration.

Renowned violinist Adolf Busch composed his sentimental, cheerful Variations on an Original Theme for piano four-hands (1944) as a Christmas gift for his wife. Often played by his son-in-law Rudolf Serkin and grandson Peter, they’re heard here in Peter Serkin’s orchestration.

The CD’s major offering, Hugo Kauder’s 40-minute Symphony No.1 (1920-1921), opens with Bewegt. As per its title, it’s emotionally agitated, Brucknerian in sonority and drama. The following scherzo is a wryly rustic Mahlerian dance (Kauder dedicated the symphony to Alma Mahler), interrupted by a lyrically nostalgic trio. The gorgeous slow movement is very much in the Bruckner-Mahler mould, featuring long-lined, yearning melodies and noble, hymn-like crescendos. The finale, a passacaglia, begins skulkingly, with alternating playful and solemn variations before ending abruptly. Amazingly, it took 100 years since its creation for Botstein to conduct this fine symphony’s U.S. premiere at Carnegie Hall in 2022.

Cuando el Fuego Abrasa
Ensemble Bayona; Eros Jaca
Eudora Records EUD-SACD-2403 (eudorarecords.com)

At first glance, the cultural connection between Spain and Switzerland may seem a tenuous one. Nevertheless, the two countries work closely together on political, economic and cultural levels and this premier recording by the Spanish-based quintet Ensemble Bayona is an intriguing demonstration of this close alignment. Titled Cuando el Fuego Abras (When the Fire Burns), it features works by both Swiss and Spanish composers, all of them first recordings.

Focusing on music from the first half of the 20th century, the ensemble made its debut in Berlin in 2021 having won the Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Prize the previous year. 

The disc opens with the Piano Quintet in F Major Op.6 by Swiss composer Joseph Lauber, music very much in the German late romantic style. What a fine sound these musicians produce, the warm tone of the strings – particularly from cellist and artistic director Eros Jaca – perfectly blending with the solid and assured playing by pianist Camile Sublet.

In contrast are two contemporary compositions, the Variations on a Swiss Theme for string trio by Swiss-born Christoph Blum and the Cantos for string quartet by Valencian composer Francisco Coll. The variations are a true study in contrasts with alternating pizzicati and glissandi and the use of vocal parts throughout, while the Cantos is quietly introspective.

The program returns to 20th century Spain with a 12-movement suite from Manual de Falla’s 1915 ballet El Amor Brujo specifically arranged for the ensemble by the Spanish composer José Luis Turina. The ensemble approaches the music with much bravado with vocalist Maria José Pérez further enhancing this fine performance of De Falla’s colourful and sensuous score.

With outstanding playing and a melding of two musical cultures, this disc is well worth investigating.

Solace
Kormaz Can Saglam
Sono Luminus DSL-92272 (sonoluminus.com/store/solace)

The name Korkmaz Can Sağlam may not be an overly familiar one, but this up and coming Turkish pianist already has much to his credit. Born in Ankara in 1999, he was the Grand Prize winner of the 2022 Alexis Gregory Vendome Prize, having received his bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School. While there, he was also recipient of the Ahmet Ertegün Memorial Scholarship and the Susan W. Rose Piano Fellowship. Sağlam is currently pursuing his master’s degree at the Cleveland Institute and this premiere recording, featuring works by Handel, Rachmaninoff and Turkish composer Ilayda Deniz Oguz, is worthy proof of his stature.  

Handel’s six-movement Suite in D Minor (c.1720) is a set of stylized dance movements, each a musical miniature. Sağlam delivers a polished and elegant performance, from the expansive opening Prelude to the virtuosic presto finale, easily demonstrating that baroque keyboard repertoire can sound as convincing on a concert grand as it does on a harpsichord.

History has never been too kind to the Rachmaninoff Piano Sonata No.1 Op.28. Very much in the grand late romantic tradition; it was written for the composer’s tour to the U.S. in 1909, yet he never performed it in public again. Nevertheless, Sağlam approaches the score with a particular vitality, always clearly focused throughout the myriad technical complexities.

In contrast is Rachmaninoff’s lyrical In the Silence of the Secret Night, the third of his Six Romances Op.4. Of even greater dissimilarity is Bozluk, a contemporary composition by Sağlam’s friend Ilayda Deniz Oguz, where the use of prepared piano demonstrates yet another facet of Sağlam’s musical capabilities.

Canadian Suite Celebrations
Duo Majoya
Centrediscs CMCCD 32423 (cmccanada.org/shop/cmccd-32423)

The talents of five veteran Canadian keyboardists combine in listener-friendly music for the unusual pairing of piano and organ, championed by Edmonton-based Duo Majoya – pianist Joachim Segger and organist Marnie Giesbrecht, both now retired from university posts in Edmonton.

From 1969 to 2021, Denis Bédard (b.Quebec City 1950) served as a church organist in Quebec and Vancouver. His charming five-minute Capriccio (2007) made me smile. The four brief movements of his Duet Suite (1999) are, in turn, dramatic, playful, stately-ceremonial and celebratory. Bédard’s 27-minute Grande Suite (2016) is, by far, the CD’s longest work. Overture moves from solemnity to cheerfulness. Evocation (Des prairies canadiennes) is a haunting soundscape of hushed repeated piano arpeggios over moody organ chords. Ritournelle is a piquant folk dance, Dialogue an echoing children’s song, Intermezzo a hesitant waltz, followed by the mock-courtly Menuet and jubilant Marche.

Pianist-organist Ruth Watson Henderson (b.Toronto 1932) was, for many years, accompanist for the Festival Singers and Toronto Children’s Chorus, composing over 200 choral pieces. Her Suite (2011) is in four brief movements – a portentous Prelude, gentle Intermezzo, a searching, ambulating Romance and rollicking Dance.

In 1976, Jacobus Kloppers (b.1937) left his native South Africa, settling in Edmonton where he chaired Kings College’s music department (1979-2005), also teaching organ at the University of Alberta. In The Last Rose of Summer – Reminiscences in Autumn (2011), he quotes the title song in music surging with sentiment, ending in an aura of quiet nostalgia.

Listen to 'Canadian Suite Celebrations' Now in the Listening Room

Games of the Night Wind – 12 Nocturnes by David Jaeger
Christina Petrowska Quilico
Navona Records nv6630 (navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6630)

The celebrated Canadian pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico has collaborated with composer and producer David Jaeger on a number of recordings over many decades. Games of the Night Wind is their third on the Navona Records imprint alone. The devotion of the pianist to the composer’s music is, predictably, personal. It speaks of long acquaintance with these works on offer, the 12 Nocturnes by Jaeger, and you need only sample the first set of four to hear how lovingly the pianist caresses the music that gives it a unique raptness. 

While the 12 Nocturnes may be the centrepiece of the recording, particularly the tenth which lends the album its name, and the other nocturnes are spectacular as well. For example, the enormously uplifting second, A Blessing, the sixth, Forget the Day and the ninth Lament for the People of Ukraine, are all especially impactful. With Jaeger’s nocturnes we are treated to the composer’s sublime grasp of the form, and enthralled by Petrowska Quilico’s performance. 

Her treatment of the other pieces is absolutely scintillating too. Toru Takemitsu’s Les Yeux Clos is other-worldly-ethereal, and Henryk Górecki’s Intermezzo is long-limbed and beautiful. Meanwhile Górecki’s superb, crepuscular Lullaby is evocative (as an angular contrafact) of Mozart’s Twelve Variations on Ah vous dirai-je, Maman, albeit darker in colour. 

Jaeger also gets high marks as session producer of this recording.

A Walk to Meryton
Made by Musicbots and Arne Eigenfeldt
Redshift Records TK533 (redshiftmusicsociety.bandcamp.com)

North Vancouver-based composer Arne Eigenfeldt has worked with Artificial Intelligence since the1980s. His musical tool creation Musebots is a modular, interactive system which generates countless musical environments like washes, percussive sounds, held notes, intervals and low to high pitches. Ten pieces with video co-written and generated by Musebots feature genres like contemporary music, jazz, spoken word and electronics. Live human performers John Korsrud (trumpet, flugelhorn), Meredith Bates (violin), Jon Bentley (soprano & tenor saxophones) and Barbara Adler (text/reading) were recorded then overlaid to the Musebots tracks. Each musician was given a generated score with melodies, harmonic progressions and suggestions where to improvise. Adler wrote her spoken texts based on her conversations with Eigenfeldt about walking, Jane Austin, musebots and internal dialogs.

Room for a Moment features tonal, accessible lyricism like electronic clicks, held notes and ringing bell sounds between phrases. Background spoken words and violin mix well to closing comforting sound. Fit As You Are opens with a repeated walking and exercising drum beat. Then a bit slower with intervals and held notes. Spoken word articulation at times matches the generated rhythms. Trumpet and sax fit well but are too soft. In Pleasure to Suffer grim low held notes support higher lines of spoken word, alternating bell like sounds and held notes. Abrupt saxophone trills add interest. 

I am SO surprised and excited by this Musebots generated music. Yes, it still has that “familiar TV/film computer sound” yet Musebot’s lush harmonic tonal to atonal melodies, washes and percussive rhythms combine perfectly with the human performers.

Vanessa Marcoux – Cendres
Vanessa Marcoux; Marie-Christine Poirier; Strings
Independent (youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m8IULQX12yWqxLhPw-lHI63QGXkhcnHpQ)

This CD comes without any information about Vanessa Marcoux other than that she’s the violin soloist in her own compositions, performing with pianist Marie-Christine Poirier, also heard here, as Duo Cordelia. Also lacking, other than the movement titles, are any descriptions of the music. Searching online, I learned that she’s Québecoise, was born in 1986, studied composition with Ana Sokolović, was a member of the Juno-nominated klezmer band Oktopus and scored the film adaptation of Gabrielle Roy’s novel La riviėre sans repos.

At 28 minutes, Marcoux’s arrangement for violin, piano and string ensemble of her Violin Sonata dominates the disc. In Lento, the violin wails in desperation. The discordant tango of La porte entrebâillėe grows steadily faster and wilder. Improvisation – Le déroute is an extended, vehement solo cadenza. Tempo rubato’s lyricism is tinged with regret; the concluding Molto Aggressivo defines itself.

Petite Suite Aquatique is in two movements. Aquarium features long-lined, plaintive violin melodies over abrupt piano rhythms. In Deep Blue Saloon, a Romany-flavoured dance is followed by honky-tonk ragtime, ending raucously. According to the only description by Marcoux I could find online, it represents “a bar frequented by the motley fauna of the deep sea who have come to witness the burlesque stripping of a wanton octopus.” (!)

The densely-scored Cendres for string quintet begins with agitated propulsion before subsiding to restless songfulness. Although the CD lasts only 48 minutes, Marcoux’s intensely gripping, tempestuous music left me completely satisfied.

Cartografia del Mar
Andre Cabráin; Pedro Mateo Ganzález
Eudora Records EUD-SAC-2307 (eudorarecords.com)

The sea, like amniotic fluid, has the power to join us all, as creatures of consciousness, through the power of music. Cartografia Del Mar (A Map of the Sea) is a deeply stirring international and intergenerational program presented here by accomplished flutist (and Scotsman) Andre Cebrián and eminent classical guitarist (and Spaniard) Pedro Mateo González. The album’s, suites and stand-alone compositions are from Astor Piazzolla, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Toru Takemitsu, Robert Beaser, Leo Brouwer and Feliu Gasull. 

Up first is Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango. Lyrical and pungent, heavy with the aroma of Argentinian night life through the past century, this magnificent suite has been brilliantly re-imagined by Cebrián and González. In the first movement, Bordel 1900, the duo explores the bordello as the instigator of the 20th century roots of tango. Light, airy, joyous are all descriptive of this movement. Coy, jejune passages are interspersed with waves of intimacy and pungent secrets as Cambrián and González traverse intrigues of the Buenos Aires night like a single-celled organism. 

Italian icon Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Sonatina Op.205 is rendered here with exquisite care and skill by both artists, and captures every nuance of this gorgeous, rhythmically varied suite, rife with nearly unbearable beauty. Japanese composer Takemitsu contributes his masterful work, Toward the Sea. In the first movement, The Night, the listener’s skin tingles… all senses are open and awash with an eerie feeling of unseen presences, swathed in mystery… lower flute tones evoke a feeling of isolation, while the guitar is the veritable vapor on which the flute floats. Also of note is the “Mountain Songs” suite by New England-born Beaser. It is a work of pure Americana, stunningly rendered with authenticity by the duo. A magnificent work!

Nancy Galbraith – Everything Flows
Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Gil Rose
BMOP Sound 1096 (bmopsound.bandcamp.com/album/nancy-galbraith-everything-flows-concerto-for-solo-percussion-and-orchestra)

I’ve previously written reviews in The WholeNote praising five different CDs by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and conductor Gil Rose. Here’s another. These three very entertaining concertos by Nancy Galbraith, chair of composition at Carnegie Mellon University in her native Pittsburgh, were written for, premiered by and now recorded by three “friends and/or colleagues” – violinist-conductor-composer Alyssa Wang, new-music-championing flutist Lindsey Goodman and virtuoso percussionist Abby Langhorst.

Galbraith’s Violin Concerto No.1 (2016) begins with perky percussion and the violin playing buoyant Chinese-sounding melodies. In the elegiac second movement, Eggshell White Night, Galbraith’s tribute to a late friend, the violin laments amid gentle harp and piano arpeggios over solemn, sustained orchestral chords. The finale begins as a perpetuum mobile with headlong violin figurations and ends with grandiose orchestral perorations accompanying the violin’s rapid passagework.

The Flute Concerto (2019) is similarly structured. Two cheerful movements featuring percussion-enlivened Latin American dance rhythms bracket the Nocturne, in which the flute plays plaintive phrases and melodies, electronically echoed and amplified, over gloomy orchestral chords.

A wild barrage of syncopated Latin American rhythms launches the one-movement Everything Flows: Concerto for Solo Percussion and Orchestra (2019), gradually subsiding to a slower, quieter central section that evokes, for me, African drumming and the thumb-played mbira. The concerto ends with a raucous, jazzy jam session. It would be great fun to watch as the soloist becomes a one-person percussion section, playing nearly non-stop on at least 12 different instruments!