Exceptional CDs You May
Not Know About

As mass media continues to promote music as another instantly consumed product, the likelihood of new sounds — or even older ones — being ignored because they don’t fit the style of the moment intensifies. This is especially true when it comes to improvised music. But with the holiday season looming, more committed listeners may be seeking gifts for those who appreciate challenge rather than comfort in their music. Here are some CDs from 2013 that fit the bill. They include ones by established players, younger stylists plus important reissues.

Anyone who claims that experimental music lacks emotion must hear Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Paul Lytton Live at Maya Recordings Festival (NoBusiness NBCD 55 nobusinessrecords.com). A working trio since 1980, tenor saxophonist Parker, bassist Guy and drummer Lytton invigorate this live set with the combination of precision and passion reminiscent of the most accomplished string quartet performance. Even when he isn’t displaying his characteristic circular-breathed multiphonics, Parker is able to prod showpieces like “Obsidian” and “Gabbro” to slow-boiling intensity. Furthermore his instantly identifiable sound can be relaxed without sacrificing emotion. The bassist’s supple finger movements transcend timekeeping with guitar-like facility below the bridge and other extremities, while Lytton’s shuffles and timed rimshots oppose or connect with either or both of the others’ timbres for maximum satisfying cohesion.

A decade younger than Parker, John Butcher has refined extended saxophone techniques further. Paired with drummer Tony Buck and either guitarist Burkhard Stangl or pianist Magda Mayas, Plume (Unsounds 35 Uunsounds.com) demonstrates that even when stripped of beat and melody unmatched vibrancy remains. Although guitar strums and drum resonance satisfactorily complement Butcher’s narratives which replicate bird chirps and pinched reed sucking, it’s “Vellum,” the piano/drum/sax interface, that’s the stunner. As Buck roughly strokes drum tops to equate cicada-like textures or subtle accents with bell-tree shakes, Mayas’ stopped piano keys and internal string plucks provide a sinewy challenge to Butcher’s klaxon-like tones. When the piano soundboard shakes and string vibrations intensify excitement, the saxophonist responds with amplified growls and snorts and the drummer with heartbeat-like thumps. Moving forward chromatically, the mood is intensified with an undercurrent of restrained power. Finally as Mayas’ rummaging in the piano’s innards gives way to pummelling strokes and Butcher’s tongue slaps are replaced by violent staccato trills, parallel release is achieved.

Then same age as Butcher, French soprano saxophonist Michel Doneda has also refined and extended Parker’s tonal experiments. Linge (Umlaut Records umfrcd 07 umlautrecords.com) was recorded in an old barn in Eastern France to organically maximize the spatial properties during his duet with clarinetist Joris Rühl (b.1982). As they work their way through seven sequences, what’s produced are distinctive improvisations that are as frequently created from parallel blowing as intermingled timbres. Concentrated in the highest register of the sound spectrum an amazing multiplicity of tones is still heard. Manipulating air currents as much as reed and key properties, the two attain such a harmonic level that there are points where the sounds are identical to those of a boys’ choir. Other times masticating reed- and tongue-popping extrusions produce a cubist-like perspective. Staccato chirps, flatline blowing and gravelly motions are all present. Only on the penultimate track are individual traits identifiable as Doneda concentrates on split-tone buzzing and Rühl on lyrical and communicative textures. 

Another reed experimenter is Montreal-based clarinetist Lori Freedman, whose seven improvisations on On No On (Mode Avant 16 moderecords.com) are with percussionist John Heward. Related to the cerebral texture and timbre experiments of Butcher/Buck or Parker/Lytton, there’s no chordal instrument present to smooth the interface. The chief pleasure of these tracks is noting the substance of Freedman’s reed flurries and the strategies Heward pulls from his kit to parry her thrusts. Using his palms as often as sticks, Heward’s whacks or rolls are singular replies to the reed solos which frequently extend like run-on sentences, adding violent or narrowed projections to make a point. Marimba-like reverberations are called into play on those rare occasions when Freedman’s output turns legato. Overall while technical prowess is the point, by the final “Improvisation 7,” the narrative turns from squeaks and shudders to an almost jaunty melodiousness.

This sort of intense improvising also involves the piano, as Philadelphia’s Matt Mitchell proves with Fiction (Pi Recordings PI 50 pirecordings.com). Mitchell’s approach is linear as well as forceful, and with the help of Ches Smith, who plays drums, percussion and vibraphone, the 15 tracks showcase a rapprochement between cerebral improvisation and the power of rock-influenced beats. Coming across like a super-powered mixture of Earl Hines and Cecil Taylor, Mitchell’s slashing lines show that he has a thorough grounding in contemporary jazz pianism, yet can slither note clusters into the furthest nooks of the keyboard if need be. On a track like “Dadaist Flu” he appears to output separate lines with either hand; while others, like “Veins” paste abstraction onto the song form. The extended “Action Field” is a microcosm of his work, shaped like an intermezzo yet with the same intensity in pacing as the rest of the CD. If Mitchell’s playing is sometimes overwhelming and pressured, he’ll likely soon learn to moderate his gifts. He was born in 1975.

Still, age makes little difference in creating exceptional music. No better proof is A Night in November Live in New Orleans (Valid Records VR-1015 validrecords.com), featuring Chicago drummer Hamid Drake, 20 years Mitchell’s senior, and Big Easy saxophonist Kidd Jordan (b.1935). Indefatigable in his solos and with the energy of players one-third his age, the saxophonist is familiar enough with the tradition to deconstruct it at will, as he demonstrates on “Wade in the Water.” At the same time, as someone who has been probing music’s limits since the 1960s Jordan can whip any timbres into a cohesive whole with equal emphasis on brain and heart. Take the tracks from “Tenor and Drums.” As Drake matches his narrative with cymbal clanks and drum bumps, Jordan outputs two theme variations, one moderato and flowing, the other quirky and altissimo. Rather than upsetting a consistent narrative, he then constructs a new exposition from shrill tones.

Free-form improvisation can be understated and subtle as well as loud. The pianist who initially melded song form and abstraction was Montreal-born Paul Bley as the classic 1965 Closer (ESP-Disk ESP 1021 espdisk.com) demonstrates.  Newly remastered, the reissue displays with more clarity the pianist’s cleverly shaped and precisely accented tones, Barry Altschul’s nuanced drum accompaniment and the barely there strokes from Steve Swallow’s bass. One marvel is how the pieces are succinctly defined whether from the burrowing keyboard runs and rat-tat-tat drums that advance “Batterie” or from each instrument’s perfect balance on “Ida Lupino.” A factoid: In addition to “Ida Lupino” Bley’s then-wife Carla Bley wrote six of the remaining nine tracks; his next wife, Annette Peacock, wrote the album’s final track, “Cartoon.”  

More than tripling the number of players and recorded in 1977, another reissue, Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath Procession: Live at Toulouse (Ogun OGCD 40 ogunrecords@googlemail.com) celebrates an 11-piece band that excitedly added world music currents to advanced jazz. That because the group was split between self-exiled South Africans and experimenting British improvisers. Expanded with three new tracks, this CD includes Evan Parker among the saxes, but the impassioned ballad playing and booming rugged vibrations he and alto saxophonists Mike Osborne and Dudu Pukwana play are in a different sonic zone. Swaying with Africanized rhythms tracks like “You Ain’t Gonna Know Me”… and “Kwhalo” are a delight. Plus the craftiness of the arrangements is such that sounds are both lilting and grounded in technical mastery. Adding just the bare minimum of notes to direct the band like a Cape Town Count Basie, McGregor, plus bassists Johnny Dyanni and Harry Miller plus drummer Louis Moholo – South Africans all – effortlessly induce the beat. But at the same time stimulating horn vamps pull back enough so that notable chases between trumpet triplets and slippery reed extensions are clearly heard.

Road*Trip
Mike McGinnis+9           
RKM Music RKM 014 (rkmmusic.com)

Composer of scores that reflected his twin careers as an academic and notated music composer plus a part-time improvising clarinetist – most notably with his Mills College friend Dave Brubeck – Seattle-based William O. (Bill) Smith (b.1926) gets his just due with this perceptive CD. Organized by young clarinetist Mike McGinnis (b.1973) for his own nine-piece ensemble, the band not only turns in an authoritative version of Smith’s seminal three-movement Concerto for Clarinet and Combo, from 1956, but couples it with McGinnis’ own recently composed Road*Trip for Clarinet & Nine Players. 

For a start the ensemble’s reading of the concerto proves that unlike some other jazz-and-classical- mixing Third Streamers, Smith certainly was able to swing. As the stimulating theme modulates through big band harmonic flourishes plus carefully stacked orchestral motifs that take advantage of French horn and trombone sonorities, it references the big band arrangements of the likes of Gerry Mulligan as much as Darius Milhaud, with whom Smith and Brubeck studied. Particularly affecting is the conclusion of the second movement when the others play underlying basso timbres as McGinnis’ spiky lines move upwards. Crucially, score fidelity doesn’t stop the program from being a fingersnapper. By its conclusion admiration is as much for the clarinetist negotiating difficult cadenzas a cappella as for the punchy writing.

By definition more modern, Road*Trip’s performance is a bit murkier and more mellow. At the same time McGinnis’ clean solo execution – sometimes staccato and unaccompanied – plus the rubato interpretation of the initial theme by the entire group sensibly reflects Smith’s pioneering work. Here hornist Justin Mullens’ reflective bleats, trumpeter Jeff Hermanson’s plunger timbres and pianist Jacob Sacks’ supportive comping join with drummer Vinnie Sperazza’s measured beats to concentrate accelerating pressure onto the unrolling narrative. With the band’s ululating tonal shifts framing the clarinetist’s flutter-tongued gymnastics, the sense of achievement that follows the suite’s resolution into an advanced swing structure also makes it one road trip worth taking.

The Berliner Philharmoniker Centenary Edition (DG 4791049, 50 CDs) celebrates “100 years of Great Recordings.” The first disc, of interest only to archivists, contains the usual orchestral excerpts from Parsifal conducted by Alfred Hertz (12 to 16 September 1913) and Arthur Nikisch conducting Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (1913) and Le carnaval romain (1920). Disc two contains a Beethoven Fifth from Furtwangler (Oct 1926), Fingal’s Cave conducted by Bruno Walter (1924) and into the electric era, short works and overtures conducted by Richard Strauss and Hans Knappertsbusch, both from 1928. On disc three Jascha Horenstein conducts the Bruckner Seventh from that same year. On disc four Karajan’s first Pathetique Symphony (1939) is well played and recorded as is a very affectionate Moldau (1940). Discs 5/6/7/9 feature Furtwangler in the Beethoven Fifth (27 March 1947), Mozart 39th (1942/43), the Schubert Ninth, the Haydn 88th and his own Second Symphony (all 1951) plus the Brahms First (1952) and the Schumann Fourth (1953). There are 42 more discs of notable performances by eminent artists who played with this great orchestra in good times and bad. See the complete details at arkivmusic.com.

When Fritz Reiner came to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1953 it presaged an exceptional, albeit short-lived era during which they produced recordings that half a century later are still lauded and sought out for their spectacular performances and exceptional sonic excellence. The Hungarian conductor arrived in the United States to take the post as conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony where he remained until 1931. Reiner had found it very difficult to get an engagement in the 1930s. He was disregarded by orchestras across the country until 1938 when he began his ten-year engagement as music director of The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra where he recorded extensively for Columbia. Thence he became a familiar conductor at the Met.

After Arturo Toscanini, RCA’s star attraction, conducted his last concert on April 4, 1954, it was necessary for RCA Victor to fill the void. They had recorded Reiner conducting pick-up groups in New York and the Reiner/Chicago Symphony marriage was garnering some critical acclaim where RCA had already recorded an extraordinary Also Sprach Zarathustra in Chicago in March. So there it was ... RCA’s new star attraction in the quality of sound never accorded “The Maestro.” By April RCA had assigned Richard Mohr as producer and the now legendary Lewis Layton as recording engineer and there followed a stream of superlative recordings of distinguished performances of repertoire from Richard Strauss, Brahms, Prokofiev, Beethoven, de Falla, Tchaikovsky, et al. to Rolf Liebermann’s Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra.

When RCA issued their Living Stereo Series many of these recordings were the backbone of that program as they were of the SACD issues. Mohr and Layton, who would eventually be deified by audiophiles, also produced equally fine-sounding recordings elsewhere, particularly in Boston with Munch and Fiedler, which discs are still available on RCA Living Stereo.

Fritz Reiner Chicago Symphony Orchestra – The Complete RCA Album Collection (RCA 888837019828, 63CDs ) has all 130+ recordings newly re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, each sturdily sleeved in reproductions of their original LP covers. A 150-page, full-colour hardcover book gives biographical material and details of each recording. Soloists include Maureen Forrester, Arthur Rubinstein, Byron Janis, Jascha Heifetz, Inge Borkh, Emil Gilels, Lisa Della Casa, Antonio Janigro, Rosalind Elias, Van Cliburn, Leontyne Price and many more.

This set is a trove for both discerning music lovers and devoted audiophiles alike. Those who worship analogue sound will be very happy here. You can find full details at arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=1014187.

In the November issue of BBC Music Magazine David Oistrakh was voted by today’s leading players to be the greatest violinist of the 20th century. Coincidently, Doremi issued David Oistrakh, Volume 14 (DHR-8020-21, 2 CDs) containing five concertos, in excellent stereo sound, derived from Swedish Radio archives of 1970 to 1974. These performances appear for the very first time with three items that are new to his discography; the Haydn Sinfonia Concertante Op.84 and two works by Swedish composers. The collaboration between soloist and the Swedish musicians is of the highest quality imaginable, treating us to a stirring Brahms Double Concerto, a crisp Bach Concerto for violin and oboe, a refreshing Mozart Third and an involving Prokofiev First. The romantic Stenhammar Sonata and a Berceuse by Tor Aulin bring this collection to a pleasing conclusion. These were played by Oistrakh in the last years of his life yet his proficiency and artistry are undiminished.

Footnote: Oistrakh’s universally acclaimed first concerto recordings in the West (June 1954, Beethoven and Sibelius) were made in Sweden as were, ironically, these swan song performances.

Finally, two historic concertos from the Lucerne Festival. From September 8, 1959, Clara Haskil, Otto Klemperer and the Philharmonia Orchestra play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.20 K466 and from September 1, 1957, Robert Casadesus, Dimitri Mitropoulos and the Vienna Philharmonic play Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto. “She was sent to earth to play Mozart” wrote a critic quoted in the accompanying booklet. Never were truer words written. Haskil and Klemperer are hand in glove in this exceptional performance which she declared “unforgettable.” French pianist, Robert Casadesus, too, was a highly respected Mozart interpreter as his recorded legacy attests. Also Beethoven, and the sense of occasion in this grand performance is unmistakable. The perfectly balanced sound on this disc (Audite 65.623) was transferred directly from the original analogue master tapes and not off the air. 

Trobairitz
Shannon Mercer; La Nef
Analekta AN 2 9846

Troubadours and trobairitz were active in medieval Provence. The troubadours were men; they were generally not of high birth and in their compositions they sang the praises of noble ladies. By contrast, trobairitz were nobly born women who sang the praises of troubadours. Although a number of their poems have been preserved, there is only one composition that has both words and music: A Chantar by the Comtessa de Día.

A Chantar is not on this disc. Instead the director, Seán Dagher, has taken a number of extant texts and composed new music for them. Their sound world is closer to that of a folk-music group like Milladoiro than that of early music groups like Sequentia or Hesperion XX. No texts are included but they can be found on the Analekta website. An oddity is that, while the titles of songs are given in Occitan and in French and English translations, the texts are in Occitan only. That limits their usefulness. Another oddity is that the names of the (presumed) poets are not included.

The instrumental ensembles are tight and the music is attractive if not particularly memorable. The glory of the disc is in the singing of Shannon Mercer. Mercer is perhaps best known as an early music singer (for Analekta she has recorded Francesca Caccini and traditional Welsh music) but she also sings contemporary music (in a recent Soundstreams concert she performed Arvo Pärt and James Rolfe). Her singing on this disc is very fine: expressive, technically assured and with wonderful intonation.

Verdi
Anna Netrebko; Orchestra Teatro Regio Torino; Gianandrea Noseda
Deutsche Grammophon 4791052

The Verdi Album
Jonas Kaufmann; Orchestra dell’Opera di Parma; Pier Giorgio Morandi
Sony Classical 88765492042

Domingo/Verdi
Placido Domingo; Orquestra do la Comunitat Valenciana; Pablo Heras-Casado
Sony 88883733122

The music of Verdi, nearly 200 years on is still the litmus test of opera singers of the 21st century.

It is something to be graduated to, something that reveals the true mettle of contenders and something that strikes fear in the hearts of those singers. Let’s call it a rite of passage for the vocalists. One of the reasons, but by no means the only one, is the fact that Verdi always wrote for the divas (and divos) of the day — singers blessed with that extra high E, smoother coloratura and a more dramatic glissando. Unlike the masters of Bel Canto, there was nothing superfluous in Verdi’s writing, no extra trills to enhance the experience. Instead, the full vocal range was exploited and the dramatic range of the performers was used to the fullest effect. These days, the Verdi repertoire is not only the most consistently performed on the world stage, but also what separates the wheat from the chaff. When it comes to the female voice, Verdi demands a full soprano, somewhere between the lyric and dramatic, and as for tenors, well, they need to be “helden tenors” with power to spare.

The current reigning diva of the Met, Anna Netrebko, having wrestled the mantle from Angela Gheorghiu, has finally released her first Verdi album. The thoughtful selections, from Macbeth to Giovanna d’Arco, Don Carlo and Il Trovatore, take her voice through some major hoops, showing the growing confidence of the Russian soprano. She truly is the “prima donna assoluta” however much one may hate such superficial judgments. In perfect command of her voice, Netrebko does justice to all her predecessors, Verdi’s favourite divas: Erminia Frezzolini, Marianna Barbieri-Nini, Rosina Penco and Sophie Cruvelli. A graduation from the lighter Puccini and verismo roles bodes well for the soprano’s future both at the Met and in the recording studio.

Jonas Kaufmann, surely the brightest star of the new generation of tenors, comes to the music of Verdi from a point of reverence. His lovely voice, so effective in his native tongue in the renditions of Schubert, Mahler and Mozart, at first seems intimidated by the Verdi repertoire. The culprit, I presume, is his knowledge of Verdi’s arias in German at first, making a transition to Italian that much more difficult. Fortunately once he gets through his initial jitters he proves once again that he is the one to watch, exuding both confidence and the bravado necessary to dominate the stage in Verdi productions of the future.

Placido Domingo could have easily succumbed to the “superstar syndrome” so readily embodied by the late Luciano Pavarotti: sing it all, sing it badly (or at least too long) and damn the torpedoes. Instead, Domingo carefully observes the changes to his voice over the decades, moving his repertoire down his range, tackling the baritone with some tenor flourishes. Not having heard him live in over five years, I cannot vouch for this voice outside the recording studio, but here it sounds as though Domingo is in full control of his abilities, beautifully navigating the treacherous waters of Verdi’s writing. He may be the lion in winter, but his roar still sends shivers down the spine.

The good news in all this is that the music of Verdi has a most competent cast of characters, both young and old, beautifully bringing the music of the Italian master to our ears on the 200th anniversary of his birth!

Stephen Chatman –
Magnificat: Songs of Reflection
UBC University Singers; Graeme Langager; UBC Symphony Orchestra;
Jonathan Girard
Centrediscs CMCCD 19313

Students at UBC are fortunate to have one of Canada’s most popular choral composers close at hand. Stephen Chatman, multiple JUNO nominee and a Member of the Order of Canada, is Professor and Chair of Composition at the UBC School of Music. In this recording, the UBC University Singers and Symphony Orchestra begin with his setting of the Magnificat, a work commissioned in 2010 by the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Chatman begins the piece with the traditional Latin text, and then sets the following sections in the six official languages of the Vancouver Winter Olympics: French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Russian and English. The 40-voice choir handles the linguistic transitions well and there are some wonderful changes of cultural idiom for the orchestra. A fourth year student (at the time of recording), soloist Bahareh Poureslami manages the voice of Mary with lovely expressiveness ranging from tender anticipation to soaring joy and divine rapture.

Following with a collection of “songs of reflection” the choir performs (sans orchestra) Chatman’s settings of contemplative poetry by Christina Rossetti, Sara Teasdale and Walt Whitman, as well as two from FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat and John McCrae’s In Flanders Fields. Themes of love, loss and longing, followed by transcendence and peace, find tender expression through skilful composition and artful nuance in the choir’s performance.

Passaggi
Vincent Lauzer; Mark Edwards
ATMA ACD2 2637

Having just recently enjoyed a CD of late 16th and 17th century music for the cello, it’s timely to hear Passaggi, a recording of repertoire from the same era but this time for recorder and keyboard. This disc includes diminutions, sonatas, sinfonias, canzonas and Frescobaldi’s extravagant Cento Partite for harpsichord, and features two players familiar to Montréal audiences, Vincent Lauzer and Mark Edwards.

They work well as a team and play this program with affectionate invention. Edwards’ alternation between organ and harpsichord is often witty, for example in Berardi’s Canzona and Schmelzer’s sonatas, and his take on Frescobaldi’s Cento Partite is impressive. I particularly enjoyed his laid-back ambling through the sections displaying the savoury nature of the temperament he’s chosen. Lauzer provides impressive displays of nimble fingerwork, for example in the Notari canzona and the Schmelzer, and plays with a sweet sound. It’s also very good to hear him employ the g alto recorder, the favoured “solo” recorder of the era, as well as the soprano. He creates some nice changes of colour and volume with the use of alternate fingerings, but in the 17th-century pieces I miss the ornamental affetti described by musician/composers of the time, which are commonly heard in baroque violin and cornetto performances of this repertoire. They provide a broader expressive palette to the wind player and assist in making a greater distinction between diminution practice and the “seconda prattica” of the 17th century.

That aside, this is an enjoyable musical exploration of some wonderful music, from two of North America’s fine younger generation of players. Kudos to all involved!

Bach – Keyboard Works
Hank Knox
EMCCD-7775
earlymusic.com

It took performers like Wanda Landowska — and more recently, William Christie and Kenneth Gilbert — to take the harpsichord out of the museum and put it into the concert hall or the recording studio. Among the instrument’s most recent champions is the Montreal-based performer and pedagogue Hank Knox, whose talents are admirably showcased on this recording on the earlymusic.com label featuring selected works by J.S. Bach.

Early keyboard instruments have been a big part of Knox’s life for many years. He studied harpsichord with Kenneth Gilbert in Paris and also at McGill University, where he currently directs the Early Music program. A founding member of the Arion Ensemble, Knox has also performed, toured and recorded with the Tafelmusik Baroque Ensemble and the Studio musique ancienne de Montréal, and this newest release is further evidence of his deep affinity for music from this period.

What a wonderful program this is! The disc features some of Bach’s most formidable works for solo keyboard, including the Toccata in E minor, the great Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, the Fantasia in C minor and the French Overture BWV831. From the opening chords of the Toccata, it’s clear to the listener that Knox is in full command of this repertoire, the playing confident and self assured. The challenging Chromatic Fantasy — a true “tour de force” among Bach’s solo compositions — displays not only his redoubtable technique, but also a deeply-rooted musicality.

Published in Leipzig in 1735, the Overture in the French Manner was undoubtedly Bach’s way of transferring the French orchestral suite to the keyboard. Knox has no difficulty in conveying the subtle nuances required of the music, from the stately “Ouverture” to the brisk “Echo,” bringing this most satisfying disc to a close.

Haydn – Symphonies 6 & 82;
Violin Concerto in G
Aisslinn Nosky;
Handel and Haydn Society;
Harry Christophers
CORO COR16113
handelandhaydn.org

The energy that emanates from this recent recording is palpable. Now in his fifth season as the artistic director of the venerable Handel and Haydn Society, the multi-talented conductor Harry Christophers brings a wonderfully rustic and open personality to this terrific CD, without losing one iota of elegance and charm.

The cover promises two symphonies and one concerto, but indeed the early Symphony No.6, written in 1761 at the beginning of Haydn’s illustrious career at the court of the Esterhazys, is less a symphony and more a “sinfonia concertante” featuring extensive and virtuosic solo work from many different areas of the orchestra. Christophers leads a brisk, smile-inducing performance of the piece, nicknamed “Le Matin” for its warm and evocative musical “sunrise” and generally perky spirit. Special mention goes to violinist Aisslinn Nosky, flutist Christopher Krueger and bassoonist Andrew Schwartz for their brilliant solo contributions.

Toronto-based Nosky, who has been the concertmaster/leader of the orchestra since 2012, moves front and centre for the Violin Concerto in G. Her trademark tone, technique and sense of abandon are present throughout this delightful and moving performance.

The crowning glory is Christophers’ powerful rendering of the Symphony No.82, written in the mid-1780s for performance in Paris. It’s an endlessly fascinating piece, full of contrast, humour, poignancy, sensuality and grandeur. Christophers and the orchestra give a detailed, lively and majestic performance, reminding us at every turn of Haydn’s inventiveness and wit.

Brahms – Piano Miniatures performed on a Johann Baptist Streicher fortepiano (1851)
Boyd McDonald
Doremi DDR71154/5

Veteran pianist, composer and musicologist Boyd McDonald, now professor emeritus at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo has, for the better part of his career, been exploring and performing on period pianos and their ancestors of the last 200 years. A former student of Nadia Boulanger and winner of the Leschetitzky Prize, McDonald is a recognized authority on Brahms’ own instrument made by Johann Streicher in 1851, on which instrument he has now released this set of Brahms miniatures.

While I find his performances are pleasant, the raison d’être of this set is to reveal to modern ears the instrument that Brahms himself used, as did Schumann and others. For historical reasons, this is an important documentation of a chapter in the development of the keyboard instruments. Compared to the modern piano, the sound is slim and percussive and so may not be to everyone’s taste. Heard are Four Ballades, Op.10; Two Rhapsodies, Op.79 and shorter works opp. 76, 116, 117, 118 and 119.

Schubert – Piano Sonatas D664 and D894
Janina Fialkowska
ATMA ACD 22681

These two sonatas are dissimilar works, coming as they do from very different periods in Schubert’s life, albeit only seven years apart. The earlier Sonata in A Major is thoroughly pleasant with familiar echoes of Mozart and Haydn throughout. Altogether, it’s a finely crafted piece with a conventional three-movement structure and competently developed ideas.

While this description sounds bland, the beauty of Fialkowska’s approach is that she actually understands this and refuses to make more of the sonata than it deserves. Instead, she plays each movement with a strict no-nonsense approach leaving aside the over-romanticized interpretations attempted by some other pianists. She finds just the right balance between the technical requirements of the music and the smaller but clearly still-emerging voice of the composer in this musical form.

In the second sonata (G major) Fialkowska acknowledges the more substantial content. Here, Schubert places technical demands in greater service of the music’s development allowing the performer new heights of invention and emotion. The opening movement is huge and Fialkowska plays it with a sustained commitment to holding its thematic ideas together until the triple forte ending.

The succeeding slow movement weaves a tender melody around a more stormy response which Fialkowska never allows to grow out of control. After a light dance movement, she plays through a fourth and final movement that ends quietly with a tasteful sense of anti-climax.

Throughout both sonatas, Fialkowska’s seasoned touch is a tribute to her mature understanding of Schubert’s actual intentions. Fialkowska’s Schubert is the real McCoy.

Strauss – Josephslegende; Love Scene from Feuersnot; Festmarsch
Royal Scottish National Orchestra;
Neeme Järvi
Chandos CHSA 5120

Richard Strauss, reigning overlord of the orchestral tone poem and emerging monarch of the operatic stage at the turn of the century, had been seriously intrigued by the prospect of writing a ballet since 1900, partly because, as he confided to his parents, “One does not have to worry about singers and can storm about in the orchestra.”

In 1912 he witnessed a sensational performance of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Berlin and, through his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal and the diplomat Count Harry Kessler, arranged a commission from the celebrated troupe. The end result was a gargantuan, 65-minute pantomime (subtitled “Action in One Act”) with an incredibly detailed scenario based on the biblical episode of Joseph’s enslavement at the Egyptian court by Potiphar, updated to the era of the Venetian Renaissance for the sake of sumptuous costuming. The central role of Joseph was designed for the stupendously talented Vaslav Nijinsky, though by the time of the premiere Strauss was disappointed to learn that Diaghilev had dismissed him after a lover’s quarrel and replaced him with Léonide Massine. Strauss himself conceded that while composing the work he felt frustrated with the “boring” piety of the saintly young Joseph and the angel that guards him but even so his score roars to life with his grandly erotic depictions of the suicidal attempts by Potiphar’s wife to seduce the reluctant underage Israelite. Sadly for Strauss and all concerned, the 1914 Parisian premiere was swiftly followed by the onset of the Great War and the ballet fell into obscurity.

Josephslegende demands such an immense orchestra that stagings of the work are quite rare and there are precious few recordings available (notably by Sinopoli and Iván Fischer) for comparison. This compelling new performance by Neeme Järvi, conductor laureate of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, is a welcome addition, plushly recorded by Chandos in a hybrid SACD format. Two brief works, an orchestral excerpt from the early opera Feuersnot and the juvenile Festmarsch Op.1 (composed at the age of 12!) fill out the disc. Though Josephslegende is perhaps not among the composer’s greatest achievements, the sheer orchestral magnificence of this little-known score is immensely captivating.

DeGaetano – Concerto No.1;
Chopin – Concerto No.1
Robert DeGaetano;Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra; John Yaffé
Navona Records NV5929

I always look forward to CDs that feature composer/pianists. The results usually portray the performer in their best light. The composer/pianist knows the instrument intimately and shows off the pianists’ unique skills to their best advantage. Such is the case with Robert DeGaetano’s first piano concerto. Virtuosic technique blazes through this concerto. Scintillating runs and octaves are spectacular. I loved the opening, which reflects the composer’s intent on showing the universe breathing. I would have liked more development of that mood however, instead of the constant runs. The second movement was charming with hints of the rhythms and jazz of New York. The orchestration sounded retro in a good way. The third movement was a more intimate, reflective performance and a prelude to the last dance-like movement. Hints of Italian tarantellas, overtones and brilliant technique brought this dazzling concerto to its finale. Bravo for an imaginative first piano concerto.

The idea of programming Chopin’s First Piano Concerto with his own has merit. DeGaetano went the extra mile in having John Yaffé revise the orchestration due to questions about the originality of Chopin’s. Yaffé began his work with the 1910 version by Mily Balakirev as the point of departure for his own. It will be available for other performers in a published version. There is not enough room in this review to discuss orchestration so I will address the performance. DeGaetano is an excellent technician and musician. He has a lot of fire and energy in his playing. I would prefer more breadth and breath in both the opening orchestral tutti and the piano. More singing tone and a vocal approach would help elevate this into a stunning performance. The third movement is dancelike and the syncopated rhythms could convey this more. However, I think the CD is valuable in showing off two opus one concertos and with exemplary performances they deserve a listen.

Mosh Pit (One Piano Four Hands)
Zofo
Sono Luminus DSL-92167
sonoluminus.com

Listening to two pianists at a single keyboard usually sets up an expectation of something slightly heavy and possibly ungainly. Zofo, however (love that name!), blow all that away with their euphoric energy. These two are young, driven and fearless. There is no repertoire from which they shrink. They exude a “take no prisoners” approach yet perform with an interpretive competence and originality that leaves listeners wanting to hear more.

Gershwin’s Cuban Overture is so fresh and alive I hardly recognized it and checked the liner notes to ensure it was really Gershwin’s own version of his orchestral score. This is a terrific way to open the disc and it grabs you instantly.

Nancarrow’s Sonatina immediately shifts to an intense and delicate discipline that is by contrast, quite arresting. Zofo’s gift for extracting and delivering melody makes this work seem all too short. Likewise, Samuel Barber’s Op.28 Souvenirs, a bouquet of tuneful post-romantic ideas, are also played with profound engagement.

Two sets of dances by John Corigliano and Allen Shawm set a new stage for Zofo as the pair work ever so seductively with shifting rhythms to leave listeners embraced by the constant sense of movement.

Finally, the disc’s major work, Schoenfield’s Five Days from the Life of a Manic Depressive, isn’t nearly as frightening as the title suggests. Rather, filled with a humourous cynicism about contemporary music, it becomes a good-humoured showpiece by its end, closing the CD with the same kind of energy that opened it.

Cello sonatas, featuring the G minor sonatas by Rachmaninov and Chopin, is the outstanding new release by the Canadian duo of cellist Denise Djokic and pianist David Jalbert on the ATMA Classique label (ACD22525).

The Rachmaninov Sonata Op.19 is a relatively early work, written at the same time as his Second Piano Concerto and at the end of a three-year period of depression caused by the failure of his First Symphony. It’s a marvellous work, melancholy at times, but passionate and virtuosic, and full of those typical Rachmaninov melodies.

When Chopin wrote his Op.65 sonata in 1846, his health was failing and his affair with the writer George Sand was coming to an end; three years later he would be dead. Listening to it back-to-back with the Rachmaninov, it’s quite striking how similar their moods are at times; despite the gap of over 50 years between them, they seem to be soulmates.

The final track on the CD is Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, written in 1915 following the deaths of the composer’s friends and colleagues Sergei Taneyev and Alexander Scriabin. The transcription is by Leonard Rose. Not surprisingly, it’s no mere afterthought but a perfect fit with the two major works.

Djokic is in tremendous form throughout the disc, as is Jalbert, a top soloist in his own right — in fact, you only have to look at the composers’ names to realize how demanding and virtuosic the piano writing will be. The instrumental sound is warm and vibrant, and the interpretation everything you could ask for.

Toronto-based guitarist Warren Nicholson is a graduate of Hamilton’s McMaster University and the Manhattan School of Music, and made his solo debut at New York’s Weill Recital Hall in 1998. He has been active as a teacher and performer ever since, but Latin American Guitar Favourites (warrennicholsonguitar.com) is his debut CD. It features works by two early 20th century South American guitar masters, together with works by two contemporary Latin composers.

The program opens with the Cinq Préludes by the Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos, followed by four pieces by Cuba’s Leo Brouwer: his Dos aires populares Cubanos and Dos temas populares Cubanos. Milonga, by the Argentinian Jorge Cardoso, and five pieces by the Paraguayan Agustín Barrios Mangoré complete the recital. In the final track, Una limosna por el amor de Dios, Nicholson displays a fine control of right-hand tremolo.

The playing throughout is accurate, clean and thoughtful, although perhaps a little too reserved at times. The guitar tone is lovely and the recorded sound is warm and clear.

There is, unfortunately, no information at all regarding recording dates or location, and there are no timings for the individual tracks; the CD clocks in at just under 50 minutes.

There is another excellent release from the Danish national label, Dacapo Records, this time featuring Concertos by the Danish composer Vagn Holmboe (6.220599). Holmboe, who was 86 when he died in 1996, produced an enormous number of strongly tonal compositions, many of which have inevitably been overlooked. The three highly accessible works on this CD are all world premiere recordings, and one — the Concerto for Orchestra (1929) — is believed to be a world premiere performance as well.

Lars Anders Tomter is the soloist in the Concerto for Viola Op.189 from 1992. Written for Rivka Golani, it’s a work which immediately shows strength and personality. Violinist Erik Heide performs the Concerto for Violin No.2, Op.139 from 1979, although the number is somewhat misleading; there is an earlier violin concerto from 1938 that carries the designation No.1 but has never been performed, and this current work is apparently regarded as “the” violin concerto. Again, it’s a two-movement work, with hints of Samuel Barber as well as Carl Nielsen, especially in the beautiful slow movement.

Dima Slobodeniouk conducts the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra in the concertos, and the orchestra takes centre stage for the Concerto for Orchestra, a single-movement work from 1929 that has apparently never been performed. It’s a very attractive piece, quite heavy on brass and percussion, and again with distinct hints of Nielsen, who was the examiner when Holmboe auditioned for the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and who clearly influenced the young composer’s early works.

Cellist Wendy Warner adds to an already impressive discography with a CD of the two Cello Concertos of Joseph Haydn, paired with the Cello Concerto In C major by Josef Mysliveček (Cedille CDR 90000 142). Drostan Hall leads Camerata Chicago in excellent orchestral support.

The Haydn concertos are relatively recent additions to the cello repertoire, the C major work having been discovered and first performed in the early 1960s. The D major concerto was long believed to have been written by Anton Kraft, a cellist with Haydn`s Esterhazy orchestra, until Haydn`s original score was discovered in the 1950s. The virtuosic cadenzas here are by Maurice Gendron and Emanuel Feuermann.

Mysliveček was a contemporary and acquaintance of Mozart, and known at the time mostly for his operas and concertos. His cello concerto is actually a transcription of one of his violin concertos and features a good deal of playing in the higher register.

Warner is a simply marvellous player, with great tone, lovely phrasing, and agility and technique to burn. She effortlessly holds our attention throughout a simply dazzling and delightful CD.

There is more thoughtful and intelligent playing of the highest order on Mendelssohn & Schumann Violin Concertos, where violinist Rachel Barton Pine is joined by the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester under Christoph-Mathias Mueller (Cedille CDR 90000 144). The two Beethoven Romances are also included.

It sometimes seems that there can’t be anything left for a soloist to say with the Mendelssohn, but Barton Pine would doubtless disagree; “The older I get,” she says, “The more difficult this ‘easier’ concerto becomes.” Her approach here is sensitive and low-key, but no less effective for that. It’s thoughtful playing with a light touch, and with tempi that are kept moving; no time for wallowing in sentiment here, but no lack of feeling either.

The Schumann concerto has had a troubled history. Written shortly before Schumann’s 1854 suicide attempt that led to his entering the sanatorium in which he would die two years later, it was never fine-tuned to the composer’s satisfaction, and was suppressed by its dedicatee, Joseph Joachim, not long after Schumann’s death. It resurfaced in Germany in the 1930s due primarily to the efforts of violinists Jelly d’Arányi and Yehudi Menuhin, but plans for a premiere were hijacked by the Nazis, who hoped to promote it at the expense of the Mendelssohn concerto, with its Jewish connection. The concerto has its technical problems, in particular an exceptionally difficult solo part in the last movement which makes an ideal tempo almost impossible, but it has a particularly beautiful slow movement. Mueller was responsible for Barton Pine’s deciding to record the work, and the soloist has done her work here, making judicious changes where she felt necessary; in particular, she and Mueller make the final movement work extremely well.

The performances of the Beethoven F major and G major Romances follow the approach set in the Mendelssohn, with a clear tone, slow and spare vibrato and a nice sense of movement.

Barton Pine’s own extensive and excellent booklet notes contribute to another top-notch Cedille issue. 

I must admit to having approached the latest Nigel Kennedy CD, Recital (Sony 88765447272) with a great deal of trepidation. Kennedy’s huge talent has never been in doubt, but he has often been a lightning rod for controversy; some of his career choices have been – well, a bit puzzling, to put it mildly. In particular, his crossover rock/jazz CD projects have been wildly erratic, and at times almost inexplicably bad.

“Music inspired by Fats Waller, J .S. Bach, Dave Brubeck and more…” says the sticker on the front of the jewel case, and perhaps that’s the clue to why this particular CD is such an overwhelming success: the standard of the basic material is much higher than on some of Kennedy’s other projects, particularly the Polish ones. It’s also music which Kennedy says he has either grown up with or feels as if he has grown up with, so there is clearly a strong affinity with the material.

There are four Waller numbers here, and one Brubeck – Take Five, of course – plus numbers by Ze Gomez and Yaron Stavi and two originals by Kennedy himself. The Bach tracks were inspired by the Allegro from the Sonata No.2 in A minor for Solo Violin and the first movement of the Concerto in D minor for Two Violins.

Kennedy is joined by Rolf Bussalb on guitar, Yaron Stavi on bass, Krysztof Dziedzic on drum (singular, note) and Barbara Dziewiecka on second violin and viola on selected tracks.

Kennedy is not the greatest of jazz violinists, but his playing on this disc is very sophisticated, very original and highly entertaining. He uses his enormous technical skills to great effect, creating a quite different sound to most jazz players. Even in the standards he “shreds” in places – and it works! The Fats Waller tracks in particular are simply terrific, and the takes on Bach are a real blast.

The sense of freedom – and of fun – is obvious throughout the disc, with group laughter clearly audible on some of the tracks. This is Kennedy being Kennedy at his best: sounding like no one else, having a ball, and making terrific music. The entire CD is an absolute delight, and a real winner.