A Multitude of Angels
Keith Jarrett
ECM 2500-03

Drought
Hübsch; Martel; Zoubek
Tour de Bras TDB 9017 CD
(tourdebras.com)

Like a carefully coordinated multi-nation NATO exercise, but anything but bellicose, the distinctive soundscape that is Drought is the result of a longtime alliance among tubist Carl Ludwig Hübsch and prepared piano stylist Phillip Zoubek, both from Köln, and Montreal-based Pierre-Yves Martel, who improvises on the soprano viola da gamba. Dating from the 15th century and with both viola and cello tone attributes, that instrument, played in tandem with the others exposes a rugged postmodern concept on the seven selections here, which the trio presented last year in Toronto.

With the sophistication of undercover agents adopting new identities, each player functions in unexpected ways. Zoubek spends most of his time plucking and stopping the piano’s internal string set plus deadening the key action to produce a clavichord-like exposition with marimba-like reverberations. On pieces such as Darth, Martel meets the contrapuntal piano challenge with a series of staccato buzzes. Rounding the duo’s abrasive thrusts into connectivity, Hübsch produces a breathy continuum so fluid and watery that it appears distant and segmented, nothing like the brass beast’s usual rhino-like snores.

As the nearly opaque narratives unroll, individual contributions are still clearly heard. On Guts, for instance, the interruptions resemble – or are – Ping-Pong balls bouncing on inner piano strings. Later the unusually delicate harmonies created from juddering brass reverb and high-pitched tremolo strokes from Martel, is a highlight of Civilisation. Like a computer manufacturer able to reproduce any desktop function on a handheld device, the 15 1/2 minutes of Conditions miniaturizes themes in solo, duo or trio forms. Comparison of string vibrations from Martel and Zoubek expose subtle differences; while downward whistling tones are expressed individually by Hübsch’s measured breaths and Martel’s pinched strings. Finally the swelling cacophony of twitters, plucks, twangs and judders settles into a reductionist coda where tick-tock piano chords are perfectly segmented by abrasive metal scratches from the outside of Hübsch’s horn.

Not as dry as titled, there’s also no musical drought when it comes to dynamic interaction on this session.

A Boat Upon Its Blood
Jason Sharp
Constellation Records CST 1119 (cstrecords.com)

No gimmick, A Boat Upon Its Blood could be termed a medical as well as a musical advance, since Montreal-based bass saxophonist Jason Sharp uses amplified heartbeats and breaths to trigger a wave-form pulse. Like the plasma dripping out of the blood bag during a procedure, this signal-processed continuum is incorporated with synthesizer amplifications alongside acoustic textures from Sharp, violinist Joshua Zubot and pedal steel guitarist Joe Grass, for an operation that’s fascinating as well as worthwhile. Swirling, irregular strings plus the sound of the healthy human heart’s orderly progression reach a congruent crescendo on Pt.2 of the title tune, later climaxing on A Boat Upon Its Blood Pt.3 as invasive reed gusts bring distinctive balm to suture any remaining gashes left by the tonal surgery.

Unconventional, but cohered harmonies characterize all the CD’s tunes, inspired by Black Mountain poet Robert Creeley’s collection The Heart, with concentrated motor-driven timbres, sandpaper-like rubs and screaming reed explosions creating constant surprises, but ones which reflect the unique half-antiseptic and half-amorous program. These implicit tonal contradictions tersely blend with a lessening of polyphonic stresses on the concluding Still I Sit, With You Inside Me Pt.2, as string plucks and thumps are as prominent as undulations on a heart monitor. Before that, on Still I Sit, with You Inside Me Pt.1, textures as distinct as infant-yelping resembling saxophone squawks and concentrated pipe organ-like-processed reverberations are stacked as solidly as medical equipment in a supply cupboard. Even the occasional reed growl or drum machine pressure doesn’t detract from the therapeutic nature of the performance.

Tumblers from the Vault
Syrinx
Rervng RWRVNG08 (igetrvn.com)

In Tumblers from the Vault, series conceiver William Blakeney continues his collectively titled JMC Retrospective 1967-1977, highlighting the early career recorded music of John Mills-Cockell. A Toronto-born composer, keyboardist and pioneering synthesizer performer, Mills-Cockell was not only an early adapter of the modular synth – he purchased a Moog Mark IIP the same winter of 1968 when the American studio synth trailblazers Wendy Carlos and Suzanne Ciani acquired theirs – but he also swiftly put that early model synth to good use in live performances across Canada and the USA. Furthermore, it featured prominently on the Intersystems albums reissue reviewed in these pages last year.

By 1970, Mills-Cockell’s next music project had emerged: Syrinx was a trio which included two other Toronto musicians, saxophonist Doug Pringle and percussionist Alan Wells. Armed with Mills-Cockell’s compositions and suffused with his increasingly musically confident synth performances, in a couple of years they produced the hit single Tillicum as well as two successful albums Syrinx and Long Lost Relatives. Tumblers from the Vault has carefully remastered those recordings and added previously unreleased material. Dissolving by 1972, during that brief period they managed to merge many music genre threads. I can hear traces of experimental, classical, psych-rock, global influences, proto-ambient, pop, funk and jazz all delivered with a sensitivity for memorable melody, timbral exploration and technological innovation.

I find in the new tracks some of the most musically engaging moments of the box set. These include the extended demo version of December Angel in an ever-evolving dance-friendly 6/8, and particularly the adventurous four-movement, 26-minute Stringspace (1971) for string orchestra, percussion and Syrinx trio. This, the most ambitious work here, points to even larger Mills-Cockell projects yet to come.

As Nick Storring offers in his insightful liner essay, “Syrinx’s music is more than a faded strain in Canada’s consciousness […one that] has never expanded universally.” Can Tumblers from the Vault elevate the short-lived Syrinx to a “place in the wider canon of groundbreaking music, so its story can be appreciated beyond the limits of Canadian notoriety,” as posited by Storring? I can’t say. What I can is that this music from the last century welcomes us to imagine listening to future music which flows freely and amicably across multiple genre boundaries.

Minstrelle
Kristina Bijelic; Felipe Tellez
Independent (kristinabijelicvox.com)

This imaginative project is not only a tour-de-force for the female voice and a celebration of a distinctly feminine journey (hence the title), but it is also the manifestation of the creative partnership between Toronto-born, multilingual, genre-fluid, classically trained vocalist and lyricist Kristina Bijelic and noted Colombian composer and orchestrator, Felipe Tellez. The six evocative, brilliantly produced, original compositions presented here, embrace a variety of ethnic influences and cultural motifs as well as elegant and poetic English, Spanish and Serbian lyrics written by Bijelic. The infusion of Tellez’s stirring orchestral arrangements (performed by the Budapest Art Orchestra) are nothing short of magic.

Of special note is the opening track, On the Horizon. The spaciousness of the composition seems to symbolize the intoxicating lure of travel, of taking the first steps of an irresistible journey. Bijelic’s rich, sonorous alto voice is as resonant as a fine cello, and like a cello, it is a pure conduit for the expression of the deepest emotions. Also stunning is Enamorarme de ti (Falling in Love with You). Based on a traditional Spanish bolero, the Latin rhythmic elements and complex, contrapuntal moving string lines transport the listener into a romantic idyll.

Near the end of the album’s journey is the jazz-influenced Wandering, which is perhaps the most cinematic composition on the CD, bringing to mind the Film Noir of the 1940s and 50s, and Devajačka Pesma (Girl’s Song) is a total delight. Traditional Balkan motifs, chord progressions and instrumentation, as well as the dynamic vocal by Bijelic, make this particular fusion of musics not only original, but thrilling.

I Am the Hero
Shirley Eikhard
Independent (shirleyeikhard.ca)

A New Way of Hearing Notated Music

Like labels being taken off beverage bottles for blind taste tests, the designations of what characterizes distinct musical genres has become increasingly fluid over the past few years. This is most evident when it comes to Western improvised and notated music. With established so-called classical music ensembles becoming increasingly hidebound and conservative, it’s new music companies that showcase composers’ new works, many of which feature improvisation. In a mirror image of this, jazz musicians create novel programs not only tweaking classical composed material, but also premiering contemporary composers’ scores.

Arguably the most audacious admixture occurs on Mass (RareNoiseRecords RNR CD 072 rarenoiserecords.com), a reimagining of Missa Sancti Jacobi, a nine-part choral work by Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474). As if he’s draping cathedral walls with an embroidered tapestry whose intricate designs reflect secular as well as sacred concerns, Niagara Falls, NY-born percussionist Bobby Previte aggrandizes the Dufay work by having it performed by a combo of himself, electric bassist Reed Mathis, electric guitarists Don McGreevy, Mike Gamble, Jamie Saft, with Marco Benevento on pipe and electric organs, and most prominently, guitarist Stephen O’Malley of drone rock band Sunn O))). Benevento’s nave-shaking grandiloquence appears equally influenced by resonant organ compositions by Olivier Messiaen and the prog rock blowouts of Rick Wakeman. Ecclesiastical connections are maintained not only by Messiaen-like pipe-organ tropes, but also by Latin vocalizing from the 11-member Rose Ensemble. The sonic brocade is most evident on those tracks where Dufay’s choral sections are harmonized with instrumental breaks that could have migrated from a death metal session. On Gloria for instance, vocal polyharmonies move upwards alongside organ glissandi and fuzzy guitar riffs. Previte’s sinewy percussion and Mathis’ jazz-like bass line create a backdrop on which the beauty of stacked and intertwined male and female voices can be appreciated on Credo. This is followed by a sequence that contrasts triple vocal hocketing and pseudo-psychedelic guitar riffs. In a similar fashion, vocal chanting snakes around augmented and diminished riffs from the rhythm section on Alleluia. Benevento’s beat-club variants give way to accompanying the delicate vocals on Agnus Dei. The guitars absent on that track move to the centre on the concluding Communion. A showpiece for O’Malley, the track highlights as many shaking effects, whistling distortions and dial twisting that could be found in an electric guitar demonstration, yet polyphonically matches this swaggering display with liturgical infusions from the ensemble. Before the piece climaxes with guitar riffs and jackhammer percussion, Benevento’s incessant tremolo, which sounds as if numerous church organs are quivering in unison, is swept away by harmonized vocal and instrumental timbres. A mixture of profound and profane, Mass is awe-inspiring in both its original and contemporary meanings.

Compositionally moving forward a few centuries is Montreal’s six-piece Cordâme, whose interpretation of 17 Variations (Malasartes MAM 022 malasartes.org) by French composer Erik Satie (1866-1925) adds free-floating swing to these animated miniatures. Composer/arranger Jean Félix Mailloux does so with agile shadings for his own double bass, Mark Nelson’s percussion and Guillaume Martineau’s piano, with themes largely interpreted by Sheila Hannigan’s cello, Éveline Grégoire-Rousseau’s harp and Marie Neige Lavigne’s violin. Like experimental chemists testing new substances Mailloux encourages the musicians to intermix their experiences. On a track such as Danses de travers for instance, Martineau moves from prosaic note reading to healthy swing, backed by drum pops; while four sets of healthy string slaps make Un morceau en forme de Poire peppier than what Satie envisioned. Avant-dernières Pensées: III Méditation et Variations picks up on the lighthearted run-through of II Aubade that precedes it, but the churn comes from Neige Lavigne’s fiddle and slippery piano comping. Novel tinctures beyond Satie’s ken are suggested as well. Shades of jazz piano phrasing and almost rock-styled drumming are audible on Autour de Gnossienne III; while like the additional detailing added to the frame of an Impressionistic canvas, the centre section of Hannigan outlining the theme in careful fashion is preceded by call-and-response from the other string players and followed by rooted harmonies from piano, bass and drums. The sextet brings out the unblemished beauty plus looming unease that characterizes Les cloches du Grand Maître with the skill of conservatory graduates, but pizzicato motion enlivens the pieces so that it climaxes with percussive plucks and thumps. More characteristically Cordâme confirms its position as a group of more than mere interpreters on Airs à faire fuir. As if the players are superimposing a transparent diagram of new nations on top of the composer’s Edwardian-era map, Grégoire-Rousseau’s bell-like reverb and tick-tock drum beats provide a groove upon which Neige Lavigne sluices out passages that would be equally acceptable in a Balkan ditty or a Satie composition.

A near contemporary of Satie, the work of Charles Ives (1874-1954) was as unconditionally Yankee as the other’s was Parisian. Guitarist Eric Hofbauer and his Quintet on Prehistoric Jazz Vol. 3 (Creative Nation Music CNM 028 erichofbauer.com) move one of the composer’s iconic works, Three Places in New England, into the improvisational idiom. Like actors performing Shakespeare in modern dress, what Hofbauer and his associates – trumpeter Jerry Sabatini, clarinetist Todd Brunel, cellist Junko Fujiwara and percussionist Curt Newton – do revamps the material. The strategy evolves contrapuntally throughout, with the jazz forays flowing more freely than the somewhat rigid composed material. This works most obviously on Putnam’s Camp, Redding Connecticut, where the march-like gait played by bass clarinet and trumpet is reminiscent of 19th-century brass bands. As Sabatini remains Maynard Ferguson-like orotund in his obbligato, Brunel and Hofbauer float other airs like secular musicians on a nearby bandshell. Crunching guitar thumps and a walking bass line (from Fujiwara’s cello) combine for the final section, which not only swings but refers back to Ives’ original. Similar alchemy is exhibited on the brief The Houseatonic at Stockbridge. While the guitar parts are concentrated and undoubtedly 21st century in execution, the leisurely themes from cello and clarinet affirm the antebellum songs that vibrate alongside the modernist interpretations from the CD’s beginning. Imagine a gentle stream flowing past a plantation porch in 1857. But the plucking on that veranda is from a modern jazz guitarist.

Modernism is taken for granted on Fonogramatika (Lithuanian Classics CD 089) as the five members of the German-British Apartment House ensemble interpret seven compositions by Lithuanian composer Antanas Rekašius (1928-2003). The players are conversant with both notated and improvised music, with reedist Frank Gratkowski, a recognized jazzer as well. Like an illusionist intent on showing his range, Gratkowski brings a sophisticated improvised temperament to the tracks on which he’s featured along with cellist Anton Lukoszevieze and percussionist Simon Limbrick. Gratkowski invests the five-part Phonogram with unexpected snorts, split tones and swizzles, applying Rudy Wiedoeft-like showiness to insets ranging from menacing chalumeau to visceral coloratura tones. Two sections may be labelled Grotesque but have confident rapport with the main theme. Topping low-frequency string swerves and hard drumming as if additional seasoning is being added to a recipe, Gratkowski’s dribbling alto saxophone and robust flute quavers make the three-part Musica dolente e con brio the more overtly jazzy. Atonal bass clarinet snarls contrast enough with stolid drum beats on the five-part Epitaph to encourage ratcheting pizzicato cracks from Lukoszevieze. The cellist’s spiccato multiphonics bring needed airiness and a telephone-wire-like buzzing to Fluorescences the CD’s longest track. Otherwise consecrated to Kerry Yong’s synthesizer, pushed to its limits with hocketing replicating pipe-organ fluctuations, Lukoszevieze’s later string slaps prevent the keyboardist from lapsing into silent-movie-house excess. Regrettably reminiscent of faux ragtime, though composed in 1970, Philip Thomas’ out-of-order reading of Rekašius’ seven Atonic fragments for solo piano are at best performed with staccato high frequency, but at worse resemble early 20th-century composers’ parlour music-like appropriation of American syncopation.

The performance most contiguous to improvised music on Sound of Horse (HUBRO CD 2582 hubromusic.com), the Norwegian asamisimasa ensemble’s interpretation of five pieces by British composer Laurence Crane (b.1961) occurs on the seven-part title track. Like a radio broadcast leaking into another program, the unexpected jump cuts when Anders Førisdal’s gritty electric guitar distortion disrupts the leisurely theme expressed by clarinetist Kristine Tjøgersen and cellist Tanja Orning, recall several of John Zorn’s militant compositions. Aggressive as well are Ellen Ugelvik’s expanding organ glissandi which introduce Riis, before settling into a comforting narrative in tandem with the cellist and clarinetist. The remainder of the material is precise and clean, though lacking in anything resembling syncopation or swing. Yet the composer and the ensemble members – filled out by percussionist Håkon Mørch Stene and soprano Ditte Marie Bræin – are young enough to have grown up when improvisational techniques were as much part of the musical gestalt as the reductionist piano lines and aleatory string buzzing reflected here. As notated as the material may be, the group’s dexterity confirms that these tracks and the other CDs would have been composed and played markedly different years earlier.

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For The Complete Chopin – Deluxe Edition (DG 4796555, 20 CDs, one DVD, large 108 page book) DG has assembled an outstanding collection of well-chosen performances from its archives together with new recordings by many contemporary artists.

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth in 1810, DG issued Chopin, The Complete Edition on 17 CDs (DG 4778445) that certainly was complete as claimed and contained acclaimed performances of, well, everything. The contents of that edition are pretty well duplicated in this new one… with some changes and four extra discs of some interesting alternative performances. Changes to this set are: The Arrau/Inbal versions of the works for piano and orchestra are replaced by a new June 2016 recording by Canadian Jan Lisiecki conducted by Krzysztof Urbanski; The Rondo for two pianos in C Major Op. posth.73 passes from Kurt Bauer and Heidi Bung to Daniil Trifonov and Sergei Babayan; For the 19 Waltzes, Ashkenazy is replaced by Alice Sara Ott; The Grand Duo concertant on themes by Meyerbeer finds Anner Bylsma and Lambert Orkis replaced by Gabriel Schwabe and José Galiado.

CD 18 in the new set is a live recording from the XVII International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2015 of the winner, South Korean Seong-Jin Cho who was 21 years old at the time. His artistry came as a pleasant surprise for, unlike many technical wizards, he plays with understanding beyond his years without empty artifice. There are the 24 Preludes, the Nocturne in C Minor Op.48 No.1, the Second Piano Sonata and finally the Polonaise in A-flat Major Op.53. All adding up to an unexpected, insightful and thrilling 73 minutes.

CD 19 has 20 legendary Chopin pianists, the usual suspects and others – Halina Czerny-Stefanska, Adam Harasiewicz, Monique Haas, Julian von Karolyi, Géza Anda and Stefan Askenase – playing familiar shorter pieces from the repertoire. CD 20 has pianists from the younger generation: Lisiecki, Trifonov, Blechacz, Grosvenor, Grimaud, Uja Wang and others. Disc 21 is a DVD of Arthur Rubinstein playing the Second Piano Concerto with André Previn conducting the LSO in 1947 and the Second Scherzo from 1973. Both very worthwhile in very good video.

The new edition is an overtly opulent production in the form of a unique 11” wide x 8” tall “book” bound in burgundy vinyl moleskin, with gold embossed boards. Enclosed is an impressive, well-researched and illustrated 11” x 7 5/8” 108-page book. If you own the earlier set you may not consider this a reasonable purchase. If you don’t, the peerless new edition is certainly the one to have.

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Volume Three of the Michael Gielen Edition from SWR Music is an all-Brahms program featuring the four symphonies, together with The Tragic Overture, The Variations on a Theme of Haydn, First Piano Concerto, Double Concerto, Schicksalslied and the Schoenberg transcription of the First Piano Quartet Op.25 (SWR19022CD, 5 CDs).

Many of us have a favourite go-to Brahms symphony and mine is the Second, listening through to the end and hoping for the extraordinary final movement edge-of-the-chair, breakneck accelerando as heard in the closing pages of the Bruno Walter/New York Philharmonic 1953 recording. Gielen’s Second Symphony finale does not accelerate but maintains a steady forward thrust through to an exultant coda of great power. The Haydn Variations that follow the symphony reflect the same attitude to Brahms even though the symphony dates from 2005 and the Variations from 1996.

The soloist in the First Piano Concerto is Gerhard Oppitz, considered to be one of the leading Brahms interpreters. On the same CD is Schicksalslied Op.54, one of Brahms’ many works for chorus and orchestra. In the summer of 1868, Brahms read and was deeply affected by Hyperions Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) by Hölderlin, the author of verses set by so many composers. He began setting it in 1868 but was unsure of how to finish and before he directed the first performance in 1871 he had written the Alto Rhapsody. Soloists for the Double Concerto are Mark Kaplan and cellist David Geringas.

Throughout the five discs we are treated to a celebration of Brahms as an inspired, virile composer and not an aging bearded gentleman. Gielen’s Brahms is not lugubrious but is vital and optimistic, the textures throughout are translucent while still maintaining a suitable foundation in the low strings and tympani. The perfectly engineered sound throughout is full-bodied and clearly detailed.

Louis Kentner, the late Hungarian/British pianist (1905-1987), today remembered mainly by collectors, was widely respected across the middle of the last century. Ironically, he had a runaway bestselling recording that sold millions and millions of copies worldwide but did not identify him as the pianist. The producers of the 1941 British film Dangerous Moonlight (aka Suicide Squadron) wanted a Rachmaninoff-like concerto for the plot and commissioned Richard Addinsell who handed his notes to his orchestrator, Roy Douglas who then created The Warsaw Concerto. Kentner forbade his name to appear in the opening credits nor on the 12” Columbia 78 that followed, believing that it would wound his reputation. Columbia continued to record him and the 1940s productions are brought together on a new Appian set in all new transfers (APR 6020, 2 CDs). The most deservedly celebrated entry is the 1949 recordings of the 12 Études d’exécution transcendante Op.11 by Sergy Lyapunov, written as an homage to Liszt’s, completing the tonalities Liszt had not attempted. Newcomers to this monumental opus should be enthralled both by Lyapunov’s invention and the intensity and sensitivity of the playing. The other works on this collection include four by Mili Balakirev: Piano Sonata in B-flat Minor, Reverie, Mazurka No.6 in A-flat Major and the notoriously difficult Islamey. Add to these, Kentner’s very rare 1948 recording of the Liszt Sonata in B Minor. This performance is unusual, if not unique. A cerebral reading compared to the mainstream romantic versions, on first hearing this one seems to have little or no pulse nor phrase-to-phrase continuity, sounding rather static with statements rather than a narrative. However, after listening to it several times over a few weeks it now makes sense in its own right and is arguably persuasive.

Solstice Spirit – The Musical Visions of Sister Gildaherd the Benign
Kirk Elliott
Pipistrelle Music KESS2016 (pistrellemusic.com/kirk-elliott)

Multi-instrumentalist and merry prankster Kirk Elliott has been very busy preparing for the onset of winter, it seems. Following up on his 2015 release Widdershins – the Legend of Tristan Shoute, the master of parody and deceit has outdone himself on this latest offering, just in time for Solstice celebrations. As is his wont, Elliott plays no end – literally – of plucked, bowed, blown, squeezed and banged instruments spanning centuries and cultures (i.e. from Renaissance lute and psaltery, to balalaika, sitar and guzeng, Celtic harp to harmonica and accordion to electric guitar, to name just a few). He gets a little help from friends Rebecca Campbell (sultry voice), Don Rooke (honey-dripping Hawaiian slide guitar), Alison Melville (tuneful tenor recorders) and Ben Grossman (hardy hurdy-gurdy) on a few tracks, but this is mostly a solo project.

​Whereas in Widdershins Elliott created a heroic character who appeared in various guises and historical time periods, in this instance the conceit is the story of a young woman who rises through the ranks of a nunnery to eventually be elected Mother Superior. This is a title and position she rejects however as she abolishes the hierarchy in favour of an equitable sisterhood. So, who was Sister Gildaherd the Benign? We are told that “The youngest of twelve children, Gildaherd lost her entire family within months, due to primitive medical conditions, jousting, and head cheese. Relocated to an obsolete convent, she was tormented by insomnia – until she found a mysterious herbal cure, which somehow rendered her susceptible to auditory hallucinations.” Elliott has created an imaginative, festive collection of Gildaherd’s musical visions, from reworkings of The Huron Carol and Edi beo thu to She’s Like the Swallow and Polorum Saskatoona. The last mentioned is Elliott’s take on the medieval Marian hymn Polorum Regina, “Queen of Heaven,” in a Canadian variant substituting his hometown of Saskatoon for the namesake capital city of Saskatchewan.

​Elliott’s original alias Tristan Shoute himself also makes an appearance, at least off-stage, in the album, with a visit to the convent where he briefly tutors the sisters in the musical arts, and leaves in his wake a string of “virgin” births. The musical styles included in this Solstice offering are as eclectic as Elliott himself and I thank him for sharing his wit, wisdom and wonderful musicality with us again.

David Olds is reviews editor at The WholeNote. He can be reached at discoveries@thewholenote.com.

The outstanding Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili is back with simply ravishing performances of the Tchaikovsky and Sibelius Concertos with Daniel Barenboim leading the Staatskapelle Berlin (Deutsche Grammophon 479 6038).

The recordings are the direct result of the artists’ collaboration in the final open-air free concert of the annual State Opera for All concert series in Berlin, initiated by Barenboim in 2006. For the past four years Batiashvili has been the guest artist, playing the Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius concertos – indeed, it was her televised performance of the latter with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra that prompted Barenboim to make the initial contact.

The Berlin studio recordings here were made within days of the 2015 and 2016 Tchaikovsky and Sibelius concert performances, and they are simply stunning. Batiashvili has a rich, clear tone with wonderful depth and a brilliant top, and Barenboim supplies a perfectly judged accompaniment with an unerring instinct for when to hold back and linger awhile and when to forge ahead. It all makes for sensitive, thrilling and passionate interpretations that grab you from the opening bars and never let go.

Add a simply outstanding orchestral and recording quality and these are performances that can hold their own with any on record.

The English violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen is the soloist in the Violin Concertos by American composers Roy Harris and John Adams on a new Signum Classics CD with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Litton (SIGCD468).

The Harris concerto was written in 1949 on a commission from the Cleveland Orchestra for its concertmaster Joseph Gingold, but the premiere was cancelled when numerous discrepancies between the score and the orchestral parts couldn’t be corrected in time for the concert. It was 35 years before Gregory Fulkerson and the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra gave the first performance in 1984, with Fulkerson’s recording the following year making the concerto available to a wider audience.

It’s a work that is very much of its time, optimistic with a strong nostalgic feel and an American Western country folk feel throughout. Waley-Cohen consulted the manuscript source in the Library of Congress in Washington and was apparently enchanted by the rhapsodic solo writing. It certainly shows in her terrific performance here.

The Adams concerto was completed in 1993, and while in the traditional three-movement form is described by the composer as having no sense of traditional competition between orchestra and soloist, the violin instead making its way unimpeded through the body of the orchestra, which remains below or behind it. There’s a tranquil Chaconne middle movement, and a Toccare finale that is right out of the same drawer as Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine.

Outstanding performances make this a significant addition to the 20th-century violin concerto discography.

Chora Brazil is the debut CD from the Toronto ensemble Tio Chorinho (tiochorinho.com), the only ensemble in Canada dedicated to performing Brazilian choro music, the primarily instrumental musical form which originated in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century and provided the foundation for several modern Brazilian musical styles. The group members are Eric Stein (mandolin), Avital Zemer (seven-string guitar), Maninho Costa (percussion), Carlos Cardozo (cavaquinho) and Andre Valerio (guitar and cavaquinho).

The 12 tracks are mostly compositions by the masters of the genre, including six by the mandolin virtuoso Jacob do Bandolim, two by Waldir Azevedo and two by Pixinguinha. It’s just an absolute delight from start to finish, with some outstanding playing by the core members and occasional guest performers. Stein’s mandolin work is particularly impressive, often having the same sort of sound as the Portuguese guitar in fado music. Check out the videos of their performances on their website.

It’s a terrific debut CD; play it on a grey day and your room will be filled with sunshine!

There’s more fine fiddling on Of Witches and Devils – works by Paganini, Tartini and Locatelli played by violinist Luca Fanfoni and pianist Luca Ballerini on a new Dynamic CD (CDS 7749).

Some strong playing in Fritz Kreisler’s version of Tartini’s Sonata in G Minor, known as the “Devil’s Trill,” opens the program, but things really get interesting with the first of three Paganini works – Introduction and variations in G Major MS44 on Nel cor più non mi sento (by Paisello). This was one of Paganini’s dazzling show pieces and features all the usual tricks: left-hand pizzicato; arpeggios and runs; multiple stops; runs in thirds, sixths, octaves and tenths. It no longer has us believing that the composer was in league with the devil, but it still has challenges that Fanfoni certainly does more than just surmount.

The lyrical Adagio from the Concerto No.3 in E Major MS50 is next, followed by the Sonata a preghiera MS23, the work more commonly known as Variations on the G String on Moses’ Prayer from Rossini’s opera Mosé in Egitto. It’s noted here as the traditional version, by which they mean the one we’re used to hearing. More on that later.

Locatelli’s Capriccio for solo violin (“Il Labirinto Armonico”) from L’Arte del violino Op.3 is a short but quite astonishing piece with a constant flurry of bowing interrupted by single notes ticking away. Then it’s back to Paganini for Le streghe, Variations on a theme by Franz Süssmayr MS19 followed by the fascinating final track. The Moses’ Prayer Variations, it turns out, are only the final part of the complete Sonata a preghiera. Not only is this the first recording of the unabridged original version, it is played on Paganini’s own violin and with the string tuned up a minor third, a trick that Paganini himself used to obtain an even higher sound.

Fanfoni tends to favour speed over clarity, and the intonation seems a little less sure than in the traditional version, but it makes for a unique ending to a very interesting CD.

Imagined Memories is a 2-CD issue featuring string quartets by Franz Schubert and Ralf Yusuf Gawlick in performances by Austrian ensemble the Hugo Wolf Quartett (musica omnia mo0704).

Schubert’s String Quartet No.13 D804 (Rosamunde) has a lovely brooding and delicate start, and a sensitive performance throughout, recorded with a fair amount of resonance. It’s included here because the start of the quartet is quoted at the beginning and the end of the Gawlick quartet, which the composer describes as “an autobiographical work that probes into the realms of a relationship that never was, a bond with my biological mother, whom I never met.” The opening also quotes quartets by Smetana, Borodin and Shostakovich.

To say that Gawlick’s compositional process was complicated is an understatement: seven pages of booklet notes outlining thoughts, choices, graphic charts, Memory Triangles and spaces, Memory Footprints and numerical integers taken from various combinations of the initial letters of the composer’s and his birth mother’s names are almost impenetrable at times. Still, all that matters is the music – and there’s a great deal of tender, sensitive, beautifully effective writing here. Of the 17 short sections in the main body of the work, played without a break, most fall between one and two minutes in length and none reaches four minutes. It’s mostly quiet and soft, not difficult to listen to, although not traditionally tonal, and clearly quite personal and intimate.

The work was commissioned by the performers and was recorded shortly after its Carnegie Hall premiere in April of this year. Their outstanding performance here can be considered definitive.

Contemporary string quartets are also featured on Green Ground (Dacapo 8.226153), five works from 2011 by the Danish composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, who died just this past June at the age of 83. The works were written for and dedicated to the composer’s longtime collaborators the Kronos Quartet and also the vocal quartet Theatre of Voices under their director Paul Hillier. These world premiere recordings are of live concert performances in Copenhagen on December 4, 2012.

The titles of the CD and the works are, at first sight, quite confusing: No Ground; Green; No Ground Green; New Ground and New Ground Green, but there is a clear logical progression here. Last Ground, the composer’s ninth string quartet from 2006, was supposed to be his last, but a tenth quartet, New Ground, and an eleventh, No Ground, were written in 2011 (three more were to follow in 2013).

When PGH felt that the two new quartets needed to be connected, he wrote Green for four voices and wooden percussion, taking lines (“To the greenwood we must go”) from Desire, by the Renaissance English composer William Cornysh as his starting point. Green is then superimposed (a technique PGH had used before) on both New Ground and No Ground to produce, in effect, two new works.

It’s certainly a fascinating soundscape, and quite difficult to describe. There are some extreme techniques employed and a basic lack of tonality, although there are beautiful moments in Green. Also, the New Ground quartet uses the ground from Pachelbel’s famous Canon, albeit with an extra bar and a chromatic twist thrown in for good measure. Don’t be fooled by the apparent easier access, though – things soon become more complicated.

Again, a set of what must be definitive performances of some quite fascinating works.

The German composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann wrote his Sonatas 1 and 2 and Suites 1 and 2 for solo violin in 1927 when he was only 22, but despite destroying a great deal of his early works chose to preserve these, going as far as burying them in a metal box in a friend’s garden during the years of the Third Reich. Never performed during his lifetime, the two suites were first performed in Spokane, Washington in 1984 and 1986, and the two sonatas were premiered by Thomas Zehetmair in Munich in 1987. At the time, Zehetmair called them “among the best things written for unaccompanied violin during the 20th century.”

They are featured on a new CD by the German violinist Renate Eggebrecht on the Troubadisc label that she founded in 1991 (TRO-CD 01447). They are uncompromisingly tough pieces, and the 72-year-old Eggebrecht’s somewhat dry tone and slow vibrato tend to make her playing sound a bit unsure at times.

As the booklet essay points out, these works place enormous demands on both the technique and especially the musicality of the performer. At times, it’s hard to shake the feeling that the sheer effort to get through them limits the interpretation here, and a check of the audio samples of Ingolf Turban’s excellent and smoother recordings on the Claves label would seem to confirm this. If that wasn’t enough, the brilliant Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova included these unaccompanied works on her debut recital CD in 2007, and you can hear audio samples of her recordings on the Hyperion Records website.

What’s really interesting, though, is that this CD is actually Volume 8 in a Violin Solo series that Eggebrecht has compiled, and the range of composers – Reger, Skalkottas, Honegger, Bacewicz, Milhaud, Bartók, Hindemith, Bloch, Stravinsky, Schnittke, Rodrigo among others – is quite astonishing. It sounds like a highly significant series that should be much more widely known.

The music of the Uzbekistan composer Dilorom Saidaminova is performed by her son, the violinist Tigran Shiganyan and friends on a new Blue Griffin Recording CD (BGR414). It’s the first commercial recording of her works.

The music here is essentially tonal and very pleasant. Saraton for solo violin, soprano and traditional instruments is a lovely, meditative piece; the two Sonatas for violin and piano are strong works; Umid for violin and piano and the two trios Where there is no time…for violin, clarinet and piano and Sabo for violin, cello and piano are all well-written and effective.

The CD comes with a short DVD featuring Saidaminova talking about the works on the CD and a rather strange and pointless outdoor “performance” of Saraton which is poorly filmed and quite obviously mimed to a pre-recorded track.

Louis Lortie has added another recording to his list of more than 30 on the Chandos label. In Après un rêve: A Fauré Recital, Volume 1 (Chandos CHAN 10919) Lortie programs works from different periods in Fauré’s life. In the first volume of what will be a series, Lortie offers some of the early works that have easy and familiar appeal. He plays his own transcription of Pavane Op.50, originally for chorus and orchestra. It’s a clever treatment with the piano doing remarkably well at being a pizzicato string section at the same time as being a choir.

He also includes a couple of nocturnes, barcarolles and the nostalgic Après un rêve Op.7 No.1 using Percy Grainger’s 1939 arrangement. Fauré’s Suite from Pelléas et Mélisande Op.80 brings the recital to the threshold of the 20th century. Its opening Prélude is exquisite as is Sicilienne. In both these sections as well as the closing La mort de Mélisande, Lortie astonishes with a frequent bell-like touch.

Similarly he captures the modern flavour of the Nine Préludes Op.103 (1910) by emphasizing the angular rhythms and chordal patterns of the three very fast Préludes. The balance of the set is true to Fauré’s slightly wistful and lifelong melancholic nature. Lortie knows his composer’s voice and uses it as beautifully as ever.

Nicholas Phillips is an energetic promoter of new music, specifically piano works of the last decade by American composers. He finds new works that have already been recorded and contributes to their longevity by giving them a second recording, hence, Impressions (Blue Griffin Records BGR409). The one exception, Keyboard of the Winds (2015) is by composer Stacey Garrop. She builds an impressive sonic picture of a Colorado mountain range using massive chordal patterns and angular melodies to evoke the jagged rock formations. Equally angular is Jonathan Pieslak’s Shards (2008). Phillips embraces the duality of this work shifting adeptly between its spikey opening and the quieter, extended moments of repose.

Carter Pann’s White Moon Over Water (2011) draws inspiration from nocturnal kayaking on a wide river in Maine. Its central section depicting the expanse of starry sky is breathtaking with Phillips deeply in his element.

Hommage à Trois (2005) by Mark Olivieri is a brilliant collection of three stylistic tributes to composers particularly meaningful to him. The tributes to Aaron Copland and James Brown, especially, are beautifully crafted and immediately evoke their dedicatee’s memories.

This recording’s most effective work is Pann’s She Steals Me, a short Appalachian style waltz that lingers harmonically on many passing notes and unresolved progressions. The effect is profoundly touching and Phillips does a masterful job in leveraging its emotional potential.

Originally recorded in 1978 and released in 1980, Edvard Grieg – Slåtter Op.72, Stimmungen Op.73 (Somm Recordings SOMMCD 0154) is a reissue that offers a glimpse of a remarkably gifted English musician in his early 40s. John McCabe (1939-2015) was a prolific composer and performer. His wife recounts McCabe’s abiding affection for the piano works of Grieg, Slåtter (Norwegian Peasant Dances) Op.72 in particular. Numerous searches in the late 1970s for the published score proved fruitless until he one day came upon a worn copy in an obscure secondhand book shop. It proved sufficient for the recording project with RCA.

Stimmungen (Moods) Op.73 and Slåtter were Grieg’s final two works for solo piano. The latter is a collection of folk tunes and dances originally heard as regional fiddle melodies passed down through generations. Grieg first published these compositions along with their original fiddle scoring. McCabe’s playing captures Grieg’s rhythmically raw elements and gives the dances a characteristic fiddle drone while bringing forward the very brief melodic ideas of the folk material. There’s a very wide range of expression in McCabe’s playing. Stimmungen, especially, demonstrates his ability to probe the moody and introspective side of the composer’s writing. Folk Tune from Valders is an exquisite example of just how much mysticism McCabe can evoke at the keyboard. Studie (Hommage à Chopin) is also remarkable for its stylistic references so unerringly discerned and conveyed.

Pianist Kirill Gerstein is as eloquent in interview as he is at the keyboard. The notes in Liszt – Transcendental Études (Myrios Classics MYR01) are insightful answers to questions about the transcendental nature of these études. Gerstein argues that their extreme difficulty leads to a heightened technique that transcends the traditional requirements of playing the instrument. He then describes Liszt’s intention that this transcendence go beyond the physical and technical.

Likening the performance of the cycle to the disciplined movement of Tai Chi, Gerstein describes his own experience in overcoming the technical challenges of these pieces. For him, it was as if he combined the discipline and exertion of a martial art with meditation to find that the transcending experience lay not just in the music but in the actual execution.

This becomes very clear as the performance reveals his virtuosic ease with the most difficult passages of Feux follets, Ricordanza and Wilde Jagd. And when Liszt’s moments of resolution or repose occur, Gerstein is so obviously playing from someplace deeply and internally transcendent that his assertions about the experience become remarkably credible. It’s a beautifully performed set of the Études and equally well recorded.

Before playing Nada in Hamburg – Johannes Brahms (MEII Enterprises 261 43930) one has to accept Nada Loutfi’s stylistic premise that the young Brahms played very much lighter pianos while in Hamburg. This would require a distinct departure from conventional approaches. Accents would be shorter, there would be more staccato and a great deal less use of the sustain pedal. Loutfi argues that modern interpretations overload and misrepresent the sound Brahms imagined at the time of these compositions.

As if to underscore her point, she programs two pieces for the left hand, where performers generally tend to pedal more generously in order to bridge the gaps the single hand is to required leap. The Bach Chaconne for the Violin, (Étude No.5) and the Étude for piano for the left hand after Franz Schubert (Étude No.6) both require a moment for the ear to adjust but quickly establish a credibility based on Loutfi’s sensitive and intelligent phrasings. The Schubert, especially, becomes an extraordinarily beautiful technical display.

From Brahms’ Eleven Chorales for Organ Op.122, Loutfi plays No.s2, 4 and 8. The organ score is for manuals alone and the parts so intricately woven that it’s often impossible to solo the chorale over the surrounding accompaniment. Nevertheless Loutfi does a wonderful job using the piano’s dynamic advantage to achieve this very feat.

The Sonata Op.1 No.1 in C Major takes on a very different feel from most other performances. Loutfi’s light detached style quickly becomes the norm and draws more attention to other aspects of her interpretation. Most noteworthy is her very introspective and raptured playing of the second movement, Andante.

This is quite an unusual disc that intelligently challenges some of our conventional ideas about how Brahms should be played.

Palestrina – Missa Papae Marcelli; Motets
Sistine Chapel Choir; Massimo Palombella
Deutsche Grammophon 4796131

Canzonette Spirituali, e Morali
Capella Intima; Bud Roach
Musica Omnia mo0701 (musicaomnia.org)

Capella Intima is a Canadian vocal ensemble led by tenor/baroque guitarist Bud Roach and includes singers Sheila Dietrich, Jennifer Enns Modolo and David Roth. Flawless intonation, excellent diction and infectious enthusiasm (including strummed guitar) mark the group as a major contributor to the Baroque music scene. As explained in Roach’s excellent program notes, Canzonette Spirituali, e Morali (published 1657) includes canzonettas (here, spiritual songs in a popular vein), solo arias with recitative, and dialogues. Intended for the oratory rather than church worship, these musical exhortations for personal piety previously designated as anonymous are now attributed to the priest Francesco Ratis.

Variety in the 22 works on this CD chosen from the Canzonette is demonstrated by some of my favourites. The opening Poverello, che farai? (Poor thing, what will you do?) is a simple strophic song warning us to change our ways. Capella Intima’s virtuosity shows in fast-tempoed Fuggi, fuggi, fuggi (“O run, run away [from this deceitful world]”). To La mala compagnia – “Bad company will lead you to the tavern, and if you don’t want to go, you’ll get a good beating” – Capella Intima adds slaps and moans! Other numbers are tender: Spera Anima (Place your hope, my soul) is emotionally affecting while Angiol del Ciel (O Heavenly Angel) lives up to its title. The accompanying booklet contains English translations but original Italian texts must be downloaded. I suggest listening to only a few pieces at a time as the texts’ meanings are crucial.

Roger Knox

Wandering Heart
Chor Leoni
Independent CLR 1611 (chorleoni.org)

Bellini – I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Christof Loy; Joyce DiDonato; Olga Kulchynska; Opernhaus Zurich; Fabio Luisi
Accentus Music ACC20353

I Capuleti e i Montecchi gives us the story that we know as Romeo and Juliet. The libretto was written by Felice Romani for a musical setting by Nicola Vaccai in 1825. Bellini took over that libretto for his opera in 1830. There are a number of points where Romani’s libretto differs from Shakespeare’s play. Tybalt (Tebaldo) is not Juliet’s cousin but her would-be lover. This has useful implications for the opera since it needs a tenor. That cannot be Romeo, since his part is sung by a mezzo. Romani also linked the family feuds in Verona to the historical warfare between the Guelfs (the Capulets) and the Ghibellines (the Montagues). The Zürich production adds a social dimension: the Capulets are posh in their dinner jackets; the Montagues are working-class yobs with cloth caps.

But the most striking difference lies in the sequence of events in the final scenes of the two works. In Shakespeare’s play, Romeo travels back from Mantua to Verona, gains access to Juliet’s tomb where she lies in a drugged sleep and, thinking that she is dead, takes poison and dies. Juliet wakes up and finds Romeo dead besides her. But in the Romani libretto Romeo is dying but not yet dead when Juliet wakes up. This allowed Bellini to compose a heart-rending duet, surely the finest part of the opera.

Joyce DiDonato is spectacular as Romeo and there are fine performances from the young Ukrainian soprano Olga Kulchynska as Giulietta and the French tenor Benjamin Bernheim as Tebaldo.