My Funny Valentine –
The Chet Baker Songbook
Matt Dusk
Eone Music ROY-CD-5626
mattdusk.com

Toronto-based singer Matt Dusk has just released My Funny Valentine: The Chet Baker Songbook. Given the title, one might think the album would bear some resemblance to the late singer and trumpet player’s work. While many of the songs on the disc were signatures for Baker, he was not a songwriter and these are standards that have been covered by many, many performers over the years. Additionally, Dusk — a self-described crooner — has a very different singing style than Baker, who had a quiet and vulnerable approach to song delivery. To their credit, neither Dusk nor guest trumpeters Arturo Sandoval and Guido Basso attempt to imitate Baker’s sound. All are fine musicians in their own right and take their own approach.

So if it’s not really about Chet Baker then what is it? Dusk and team (co-producers Terry Sawchuk and Shelly Berger) set out to “recreate a nostalgic musical experience” by producing a substantial album with a musical narrative intended to take the listener on a journey. In that they have succeeded utterly. The beautiful artwork and photographs — mostly of Dusk in various suits and settings — evoke years gone by. And the music, complete with horns and sweeping orchestral arrangements, has style and heft. Baker was a poster boy for the spare, laid back West Coast/cool jazz sound and his most popular music was performed with just a quartet. So, certainly enjoy Dusk’s album on its own merits, but listen to the original for a sense of what Baker was all about.

FluiDensity
Brian Groder; Tonino Miano
Latham Records/Impressus Records impressusrecords.com

Here is a recording of free improvisation that channels the players’ multiple sources to combine American jazz and European art music. Related to the tradition of “free jazz” founded by Cecil Taylor at the end of the 1950s, this way of making music requires prodigious rhythmic assurance and close attention to moment-to-moment events. Recording it is the exacting art of the single take: no editing, no overdubs, nowhere to hide.

The players are engaged in a kind of collective creation that balances the strong individualism of each against the duo’s ability to meld their ideas. In this, Groder and Miano happily avoid standard improvisational techniques of simple imitation or “default” roles such as soloist and accompanist.

Miano’s virtuosity is all over the piano. He is most often the “dense” to Groder’s “fluid” in this equation. He never lacks for textural and gestural ideas that contribute a sense of designed space to the improvisations, his harmonies ranging from modal to atonal.

Groder’s sound is the more deeply “jazz,” especially in the way a jazz wind player accesses quasi-vocal lyricism. His phrasing, articulation, pitch modulations and Miles Davis-like staccato identify him as the American in this European-American pairing. The lonely, elegiac solo trumpet is an iconic 20th century American sound that here avoids cliché by virtue of its sincerity.

Recall
Gilbert Isbin; Scott Walton
pfMENTUM CD073
pfmentum.com

Very little contemporary music has been written for the lute. While the guitar has been featured prominently throughout the 20th century, the lute can often feel like it belongs to another era entirely. Gilbert Isbin seeks to remedy this with his latest disc. Recorded in October of 2011, Recall features Isbin on lute and Scott Walton on bass.

The disc contains a series of short compositions and improvisations. Although much of the material is thematically linked, each piece begins to feel like its own short story. Interplay is emphasized here with both performers skilfully manoeuvring between composed sections and more freely improvised passages. This is evident on the track Pensive, with Isbin laying down a harmonic foundation for Walton’s extended bowing techniques. The result is akin to a short piece by Morton Feldman. Timbre is important throughout the set and delicate unison passages can often give way to more turbulent textures. Flutter is a good example of this, with the duo settling into a groove before evolving naturally into a section of free improvisation. This configuration allows for a great deal of space in the music that each performer seems comfortable exploring. Overall, this is a very engaging set from two creative musicians.

Have a Little Fun
Alex Pangman; Bucky Pizzarelli
Justin Time JTR 8578-2

It’s difficult not to greet a new Alex Pangman record with a smile and sense of gratitude. The Toronto-based singer has suffered for years with cystic fibrosis and a few years ago, her health had deteriorated to the point where she didn’t have the strength to stand up to sing. Then she received an organ donation and underwent a successful double lung transplant. For anyone, that is a major gift, but for a singer, it’s nothing short of a miracle to be able to perform again.

Pangman has been going strong ever since and her latest CD Have a Little Fun is aptly named. Continuing in the style she has for years — covering music from the 20s, 30s and 40s — this CD has the added bonus of the éminence grise Bucky Pizzarelli. The American guitarist has played with many legendary musicians including Les Paul, Stéphane Grapelli and Benny Goodman, and his calm, collected rhythm playing is a steady presence throughout the record. Although the songs are mostly medium and up tempo and have a veneer of fun, the lyrics run the gamut of the human condition describing loss, yearning and regret along with happiness and good times. Along with standards like Stardust and I’m Confessin’ are a few of Pangman’s own compositions and one, It Felt So Good To Be So Bad, is a standout. And, really, who among us can’t relate to that sentiment?

Jazz is sufficiently diverse, divisive and sometimes just plain obscure so that plenty of people who like some facet of it might never knowingly recognize others as anything like jazz. Trio Derome Guilbeault Tanguay is somehow different, a group of avant-gardists whose wildly eclectic performance might make any listener respond at some point with a shock of recognition. Their latest CD, Wow! (Ambiances Magnétiques AM 209), takes its name from a composition by the great experimenter Lennie Tristano, but when it appears it’s a segue from You Can Depend on Me by Earl Hines, a pianist whom Tristano idolized and emulated. Similarly, when saxophonist Jean Derome sings a barroom version of The Best Things in Life Are Free or takes on The Baron, Eric Dolphy’s musical portrait of Charles Mingus, he and bassist Normand Guilbeault and drummer Pierre Tanguay are calling up the whole of the jazz past in a kind of feast that anyone with empathy for the music might pick up on. It’s one of Canada’s essential bands, whatever your sub-genre of choice.

Shirantha Beddage, originally from North Bay, Ontario, has gone from studies at Toronto’s Humber College to a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music and back to Humber, where he’s currently head of theory and harmony. There are also plenty of fine saxophone teachers in Beddage’s past, including Toronto tenors Pat LaBarbera and Alex Dean and New York baritone saxophonist supreme Gary Smulyan. Based on the evidence of Identity (Addo AJR012 www.addorecords­.com), Beddage has a well-developed identity on the demanding baritone, playing with real power and focusing on the instrument’s middle and upper register, working in tenor saxophone territory with the baritone’s added grit. His style is essentially hard bop, with infusions of blues and gospel, but he’s also compelling on ballads like The Wanderer. Trumpeter Nathan Eklund, pianist Dave Restivo, bassist Mike Downes and drummers Mark Kelso or Larnell Lewis provide able assistance.

As heard on Live at Joe Mama’s, the Toronto band Organic (organic-jazz.com) is set in the classic mould of the organ quartet, those bands that first flourished in U.S. inner cities in the 1950s, when the Hammond B3 organ migrated from storefront churches to bars and mixed gospel chords and rhythm ‘n’ blues, transposing the riffing style of bands like Count Basie’s to the amplified power of a Hammond organ joined by drums, electric guitar and/or tenor sax. Veteran pianist Bernie Senensky has adapted handily to the organ, playing with the rhythmic verve the style demands and adding plenty of harmonic subtlety to the mix. Drummer Morgan Childs and guitarist Nathan Hiltz maintain strong grooves, while tenor saxophonist Ryan Oliver channels the particularly tight vibrato and upper register split-tones of the great Stanley Turrentine. Everyone sounds inspired on Amsterdamage.

Another veteran, bassist Henry Heillig, leads a new version of his Heillig Manoeuvre on ’Toons (RM 6013 www.heilligman.com). It’s relaxed, entertaining music with Heillig’s cartoon-inspired compositions eliciting good performances all around, whatever the tempo or mood, from the bluesy Meet the Sprintphones to the rapid-fire Moose and Squirrel. The surprising thing is that the cartoon inspirations often lead to deeply felt music. The highlight is the elusive, dreamlike Nanaimo Crossing, with Alison Young’s tenor saxophone and Stacie McGregor’s electric piano floating over the lightest of Latin beats from Heillig and drummer Charlie Cooley.

Toronto native Quinsin Nachoff has been based in New York for a few years now, establishing himself solidly in a city with no shortage of distinct and inventive saxophonists. Nachoff is heard to fine effect on French drummer Bruno Tocanne’s In a Suggestive Way (Instant Musics IMR 007 instantmusics.com), dedicated to the late drummer Paul Motian whose subtle dynamic play and sense of freedom have clearly influenced Tocanne. The instrumentation is a little unusual, a quartet completed by the virtuoso New York pianist Russ Lossing who played and recorded with Motian on many occasions and French trumpeter Rémi Gaudillat, but the results are a particularly lucid reflection. Nachoff’s theme statement of Bruno Rubato is limpidly beautiful against Lossing’s crystalline piano, while there’s crackling intensity in the splintering horn solos on Gaudillat’s Ornette and Don.

David Virelles, who first came to attention in Toronto as the brilliant protégé of Jane Bunnett and who won the Oscar Peterson prize at Humber College, continues with his brilliant career as one of New York’s most notable younger pianists with appearances on two ECM releases that will vie for spots on international top ten lists. Virelles is now a member of Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko’s New York Quartet along with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Gerald Cleaver. The group debuts on Wisława (ECM 2304/05). The music often explores Stanko’s darkly moody ballads and dirges, pensive music that glows with an inner light; at other points the group develops explosive free improvisations with an empathy so developed that ideas pass at will among the members of the quartet.

Virelles also turns up on Chris Potter’s The Sirens (ECM 2258), a suite based on The Odyssey in which Potter develops rich and varied textures using two pianists, Craig Taborn on a regular grand and Virelles on prepared piano, celeste and harmonium. The two musicians develop a subtle dialogue around interlocking ostinatos on Wayfinder, while Potter’s brilliant Coltrane-inspired invocation on the title track summons up all the hypnotic powers that music might possess. 

Having arguably reached its zenith of popularity in the 1960s with the legendary Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans combos, the piano, bass and drums trio continues to be the sine qua non for countless improvisers. But with any jazz trio performance weighted with the configuration’s illustrious history, it’s up to contemporary players to create a distinct musical personality.

Usually this is done subtly, as New York-based drummer Jeff Davis demonstrates on Leaf House (Fresh Sound New Talent FSNW407 freshsoundrecords.com). A frequent associate of Canadian-in-Brooklyn bassist Michael Bates, the drummer knows the value of a sophisticated timekeeper and has found one in Norwegian-born Eivind Opsvik. More crucially with Russ Lossing at the piano, the leader’s eight compositions are interpreted in a fashion which suggests an alternate piano trio history. Rather than the influence of either Peterson or Evans looming large — as it does for too many of their followers — Lossing operates at the edge of atonality while never abandoning the legato. Throughout, his mixture of perceptive pacing, with forays into the instrument’s highest and lowest portals, plus a touch that ranges from intermittent key dusting to rock-ribbed staccato power, suggests a lineage that takes in Herbie Nichols, Lowell Davidson and Paul Bley, but just skirts Cecil Taylor’s revolutionary keyboard transformations. With such an arsenal of effects literally at his fingertips, the pianist can bring forth whatever is needed to illustrate individual Davis tunes. For instance the connections and variations that define Catbird’s conclusions are very Bley-like, especially when the bassist restates the motif with which he began the piece, the better to again bond with the feather-light and gently chromatic melody he and the pianist first played. On the other hand the kineticism that marks tunes like the title track and the loping Faded relate back to Nichols, as Lossing elasticizes lines without breaking the chromatic thrust, while the drummer’s cuffs and clips or poised rim shots meet walking or bowed bass with sympathetic pacing. William Jacob may be the CD’s highpoint though. Moving from a lyrical exposition to a tremolo finale, the pianist craftily strengthens his touch and doubles his attack as the piece evolves, dovetailing into power chords from Opsvik and aggregated ruffs and rebounds from Davis before the conclusion.

Interestingly enough, the pared-down approach of Canadian Bley, who often toured Europe, is one of the modes expressed by veteran Italian pianist Claudio Cojaniz, on the dozen instant compositions that make up Dreiländer Trio (Palomar Records 39 www.giovannimaier.it). Someone who often records solo, the pianist also infuses the tunes with large dollops of entrancing romanticism, and as might be expected from an Italian, matter-of-fact lyricism. At the same time, despite his expressive glissandi and busy note collections, neither his dynamics nor his touch are ever over the top. His innate jazz-swing sense ensures that each tune evolves in a linear fashion. Moreover since the band is a cooperative trio, bassist Giovanni Maier from Trieste and Serbian percussionist Zlatko Kaučič,who has worked with the likes of American saxophonist Steve Lacy, are equally as important to this CD’s achievement. An adept colourist, the drummer is so self-effacing that the rhythm is often felt rather than heard. A master of cymbal shimmering, bell-tree shaking plus drum clanking, clipping and paddling, he cedes musical flamboyance to the other two. Maier, who is an experienced duo and trio player, takes full advantage, properly interrupting the pianist’s cascading glissandi on m&M with double stopping and rubber band-like plucks from his strings and bringing a stirring cello-like range to Trieste-Amman. Along with Kaučič’s pinpointed clatters, Maier’s bow swipes add a needed toughness to the tune which otherwise is characterized by Cojaniz repeating note clusters in many keys, barely skirting 19th century impressionism. At the same time the pianist’s command of Evans-styled passing chords and patterns doesn’t stop him on a piece like Izpoved from deconstructing the gospel-like theme, making it more staccato so that it’s no longer European, but not quite American either.

Swiss pianist Gabriela Friedli also adapts the Bley-Evans concept, albeit with a harder touch on Started (Intakt CD 214 www.intaktrec.ch). But her mixture of notated and improvising designs is part of a subtle avant-gardism that hides underneath lyrical narratives. Aided by Daniel Studer’s measured bass plucks and drummer Dieter Ulrich’s smooth pacing, she specializes in contrafacts of other tunes, telegraphing the transformation in song titles. Come Lately relates to Duke Ellington’s Johnny Come Lately; Out of Nothing to Johnny Green’s Out of Nowhere; and no prizes for figuring out the chord origin of I Wrap My Dreams in Troubles. Atop Studer’s chiming beat the last melody is stretched out by Friedli with expansive dynamics. The middle piece becomes a double-time exercise in fleeting cadenzas and string plucks from the pianist, contrasted with sul tasto rubs from the bassist, plus bull’s eye rim shots and cymbal pops from the drummer. As for Come Lately, Studer’s funky bass slaps and Ulrich’s backbeat underline the piece’s basic rhythm and blues feeling. Not content with that, the pianist makes the narrative tougher and more staccato with low frequency cadenzas and note clusters, eventually climaxing as she spins out emphasized glissandi while the drummer’s contrapuntal thumps emphasize wood and metal.

If the preceding groups quietly subvert the piano trio, the most radical reworking of the concept comes from Montreal drummer Michel Lambert. Assisted by pianist Alexandre Grogg and bassist Guillaume Bouchard his Journal Des Épisodes (Rant 1244 www.jazzfromrant.com) is made of 92 [!] brief tracks originally composed for symphony orchestra, re-jigged to fit this format. Although tracks officially clock in at between six seconds and five minutes – with the majority fewer than 30 seconds – the end product sounds like anything but patchwork. Much of the credit has to go to Grogg who manages to maintain the narrative nature of his playing, even if the musical thoughts are interrupted by frequent pauses. Bouchard mostly concentrates on steady rhythmic motions; while Lambert not only exposes every variety of beats from Latin to arrhythmic to near-terpsichorean, but is likely responsible for the sonic add-ons. Besides slide-whistle shrills and alphorn lowing, snippets from a full orchestral usually in romantic mode frequently bisect the performances. Given his head as he has on Sans Commentaire II plus R 59 Liquide or Jour De Célébration the pianist is able to display power voicing matched by Lambert’s ruffs and rolls or showcase moderato fingertip explorations matched by the drumtop strokes and cymbal shakes. When episodes inflate to a whole three minutes on Le Marteau or six [!] on L’homme-Ciseaux the trio comes across with sophistication. Straight-ahead jazz, the former mixes repeated octave jumps and key clipping with press rolls and a thumping bass solo. Even more swing-oriented, the latter is cunningly harmonized with a walking bass line, rolls, drags and ruffs from Lambert and sparkling piano work encompassing tremolo runs and a sprinkling of ringing notes.

Accepting the weight of history, but cunningly or conspicuously moving familiar concepts into new areas, these combos preserve the piano trio for the 21st century. 

As 2013 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901), record companies are issuing new and re-issuing existing recordings. Decca has outdone them all with the ultimate collection! As extensive as their catalogue and archives are, it was necessary for Decca to look beyond its own resources to assemble Verdi – The Complete Works (4784916, 75 CDs plus two 265-page hard-bound, informative books) and truly include everything. The majority of the performances come from Decca’s own archives, some from DG and two operas from EMI plus some oddments from elsewhere. Every opera is here, all 29 of them (30 if you include the 1869 version of the 1862 La Forza del Destino as a different opus), plus the Manzoni Requiem, the string quartet, sacred music, songs, ballet music, sinfonias and a group of “discoveries.” An astonishing achievement at a very low price. The packaging is unique, with each opera in an individual cardboard package listing the full cast. Synopses are included but not the libretto translations which can be found on the website. The musicians involved comprise a virtual who’s who of the last half century. Tebaldi, Pavarotti, Domingo, Caballé, Milnes, Gobbi and a page full of other great voices. Conductors include Karajan, Chailly, Abbado, Giulini, Kleiber, Muti, Solti, Levine et. al. Complete details at Arkivmusic.com.

A curiosity, The Hymn of the Nations played by the Philharmonia Orchestra and chorus and Pavarotti turns out to be a boring, indifferent piece. Compare it elsewhere to Toscanini’s electrifying arrangement and extension filmed by the American Office of War Information in December 1943. Toscanini added both the Internationale (hacked out of all subsequent audio and video reissues shortly after the war) and a heroic Star Spangled Banner.

In 1900 Schoenberg began setting to music verses by Danish poet Jens Peter Jacobsen that related the story of the doomed love of the Danish King Waldemar and his beloved mistress Tove, who is murdered by Waldemar’s jealous wife Helvig. Schoenberg worked on the project until 1903 when he laid it aside. In 1910 he applied himself to the task of setting and orchestrating parts two and three and by 1911 Gurrelieder, Songs of Gurre (Waldemar’s Castle) was completed. It is full of good tunes, clearly post-Wagnerian and regarded as Schoenberg’s Tristan and Isolde.

Leopold Stokowski conducted the North American premiere in Philadelphia on April 8, 1932 with repeat performances on April 9 and 11. RCA recorded and issued the final performance on 28 78rpm sides that included Stokowski’s brief discussion of the work. It is readily available on CD and the second performance, given on April 9 and taken from 33 1/3 transcription discs, is available on Pearl (CDS 9066, 2CDs).

There was much excitement when it was announced that Stokowski would conduct the work at the Edinburgh Festival in 1961 and Stoki’s admirers overseas awaited hearing it via the BBC transcription service. Alas no. The story in circulation was that the BBC tapes had been lost between Edinburgh and London. A recording of that historic performance has surfaced and it would be picayune and pointless to critique any of the soloists by comparing them to their counterparts in other recordings. James McCracken is Waldemar, Gré Bouwenstijn is Tove and Nell Rankin is the Wood Dove. Forbes Robinson is Bauer, John Lanigan is Klaus-Narr and Alvar Lidell is the speaker. The London Symphony Orchestra is joined by the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union. The raison d’être for the publication of this performance is Stokowski who really gets what its all about and is completely immersed in the music. Under his baton the score grows organically, culminating in the glorious and overwhelming choral sunrise. The mono recording is not quite as articulate as we now take for granted but it is eminently fulfilling with unrestrained dynamics. I was not in any sense disappointed (Guild GHCD 2388/89, 2 CDs).

Included in this set is Verklärte Nacht that was recorded by Victor in 1952 just months after Schoenberg’s death. The string orchestra was comprised of New York musicians chosen by Stokowski, whose practice it was to telephone each individual and personally engage them. Here is a passionate, heartfelt performance that, while amply dramatic, has no hint whatsoever of bathos. The transfer is exemplary. This is the first of Stokowski’s three recordings of the work. Incidentally, Stokowski is unique in having performed all of Schoenberg’s orchestral works during the composer’s lifetime.

Canada is blessed with a certain number of outstanding classical musicians of international calibre and reputation. Flutist Robert Aitken is one of them, still enjoying an impressive international career spanning more than 50 years. In addition to his engagements as a flutist, he is a composer, conductor and the founding artistic director of Toronto’s New Music Concerts. Aitken also held the position of professor of flute at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany until his retirement in 2004.

With more than 60 recordings over the years, his collaborations have included a host of luminaries, including the late, great harpsichordist Greta Kraus. This disc features Aitken and Kraus in live direct-to-disc recordings from 1979 of J.S. Bach’s Three Sonatas for Flute and Harpsichord BWV1030-1032 and from 1969, the Partita BWV997. Bach composed the partita for lute alone and here Aitken and Kraus play their own transcription.

This new CD amply demonstrates Aitken’s supremacy in his field ... silky tone, breathtaking virtuosity and fluid pyrotechnics. His always immaculate intonation and artistry communicate the best of the composer to his audience. In the familiar C.P.E. Bach Concerto Wq22, with John Eliot Gardiner conducting, Aitken and the Vancouver Chamber Orchestra offer a crisp and enthusiastic performance as fine as any that I’ve heard. Live from 1981, the restored sound is outstanding, as it is on each and every track on this CD (DOREMI DHR-6611). 

Schumann – Liederkreis
Gerald Finley; Julius Drake
Hyperion CDA67944

Canadian singer Gerald Finley is living proof that being a baritone is not some form of divine punishment. Finley demonstrates his advantage with a rich, resonant ease in a range that basses and tenors can rarely match.

His choice of the Schumann Op.24 and Op.39 song cycles offers him the opportunity to move through a wide range of poetic texts by Eichendorff and Heine. Whether nostalgic, frustrated or purely romantic, Finley captures the spirit of each iteration with a conviction as honest as Schumann’s own must have been. The writing is imbued with the passion and frustration of his romance with Clara Wieck whose father found Schumann an unsuitable match for his daughter and resisted the ever-deepening relationship that would inevitably result in their marriage.

These songs reflect a structural freedom that is neither fully through-composed nor fully strophic. Yet Schumann seems entirely comfortable with his decision to live in an evolving world between accepted forms. His writing offers singers a freedom to exploit the emotional and dramatic potential of each poem, and Finley does this exceptionally well, especially in the more gentle songs.

Finley brings an engaging tenderness to the opening tracks of Op.39, especially “Mondnacht.” Where many singers glide through the text on the merit of Schumann’s melody, Finley uses strategic pauses to heighten the sense of nocturnal mystery. The Op.24 “Berg’ und Burgen” also shows Finley’s superb artistic sensibility. Altogether a very fine performance.

Whither must I wander?
David John Pike; Isabelle Trüb
Signum Records SIGCD314
davidjohnpike.com

With a daunting range of emotional expression and poetic moods, Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel challenge every singer who performs them. Singers performing these songs must have a convincingly profound understanding of the composer’s affinity for the poet’s (Robert Louis Stevenson) own spiritual wanderlust. Canadian-British baritone David John Pike travels well in Vaughan Williams’ universe. He understands the evolutionary push these works gave to English parlour song, moving the art form into the 20th century and unimagined new realms of form and tonality. Vaughan Williams writes with the feel of open-ended free form that nevertheless rests on solid compositional craft. Pike seems naturally at home with this, flowing easily from the lighter-hearted “Blackmore by the Stour” to the mystical and sacred “The Call.”

Pike’s dark roast baritone voice is wonderfully robust yet clear and his articulate pleasure at singing art song in English is a joy to hear. His repertoire choice makes for a superb program on a disc that includes works by two of Vaughan Williams’ friends and colleagues: Gerald Finzi and Roger Quilter. Finzi’s language is more restrained and introspective, qualities that Pike senses and portrays beautifully. But the real surprise on the disc is Quilter’s Three Shakespeare Songs that Pike delivers with imagination and elegance. Here is an unassailable argument for hearing more of Quilter’s work performed and recorded.

Finally, accompanist Isabelle Trüb is stunningly virtuosic without stealing the limelight ... incredible.

Wagner – Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Gerald Finley; Marco Jentzsch;
Johannes Martin Kränzle; Anna Gabler; London Philharmonic Orchestra; Glyndebourne Chorus; Vladimir Jurowski
Opus Arte OA 1085 D

To sit through Wagner’s over five-hour long comic masterpiece in the opera house is a daunting task but on DVD in the comfort of home it becomes joyful and rewarding. From Glyndebourne’s new Opera House the piece springs to fresh new life under David McVicar’s innovative direction. Fully aware of how this opera has been bound to “sacred” Germanic traditions he has made a few striking departures to make it relevant to today’s audiences not with directorial “tricks” but by adding a new thoroughly human dimension.

Canadian baritone Gerald Finley is an inspired choice for Hans Sachs, the hero of the opera, traditionally portrayed as an old man. Many of Wagner’s operas are somewhat autobiographical and seeing himself as Sachs, a still handsome, virile and wise middle-aged artist surely would have pleased Wagner. Finley proves to be wonderful in this complex and difficult role.

Wagner also saw himself as the rebellious young lover, Walther von Stolzing, sung by Marco Jentzsch, not the traditional beefcake heldentenor but a handsome youth with a voice of gentle tenderness embedded in the Wagnerian power. Just like the composer, Walther is also intent on breaking into the “Establishment” with his new music, but encounters strong resistance in Beckmesser (alias Hanslick, Wagner’s arch critic) who in this new setting is no bungling fool, but a man of some stature, portrayed superbly by J.M. Kränzle.

The distinguished cast is well chosen, look the part, act and sing gloriously. Add to all this the London Philharmonic in the orchestra pit and a young conductor, Vladimir Jurowsky, who controls Wagner’s multi-layered polyphonic, contrapuntal score like a Karajan reborn.

Die Thomaner - A Year in the Life of the St. Thomas Boys Choir, Leipzig
Paul Smaczny; Gunter Atteln
Accentus Music ACC 20212

Bach - Matthaus Passion
Thomanerchor; Gewandhausorchester; Georg Christoph Biller
Accentus Music ACC 20256

The Leipzig Thomanerchor was founded in 1212 and the Thomasschule, of which the choir became part, followed soon after. The DVDs under review were issued on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the choir. Johann Sebastian Bach was the Cantor there from 1723 until his death in 1750. It was for Leipzig that he wrote most of his cantatas as well as the two great Passions: St. John and St. Matthew.

Although now the choir is the jewel in the crown for both the school and the city of Leipzig, that was hardly true in Bach’s time. Bach was responsible for the music not in just one church but in five. He was to complain that pupils were generally admitted on academic, not musical grounds. At one point he calculated that among the pupils 17 were “usable,” 20 might become “usable” at some point and 17 were unmusical. Bach also had to find orchestral musicians. They had to be paid but the city administration refused to fund more than eight. Many of the schoolboys played instruments but, if they were used as instrumentalists, that further reduced the number of singers available. We should also remember that in Bach’s time a boy’s voice did not change until much later than is the case now. He would not become a tenor or bass until 17 or 18. The advantage of this would have been that trebles would be more mature and experienced than they are now, but it would produce difficulties with the lower voices.

The documentary presents a year in the life of the school; it also shows the trajectory from the initial auditions for five-year-olds to the tearful farewells of those who at 18 have to leave the choir after having spent much of their young lives there. We see the choir in rehearsal, in performance and on a tour to South America; we also see them playing soccer and having pillow fights.

Two recent recordings of the St. Matthew Passion perform the work one voice to a part; the Evangelist and the Christus are also the tenor and the bass of the first choir. By contrast, this performance could be called old-fashioned: it uses six adult soloists, a large (divided) boys choir, a (divided) modern orchestra, modern pitch and no viola da gamba. But if one judges it on its own terms, as one should, it is very successful; I found watching and listening to it a very moving experience. The soloists are all good but the finest is the Christus, the bass Klaus Mertens, who sings with wonderful sonority, impeccable diction and true involvement. At the end there is no applause. Quite right: who would want to applaud the Crucifixion?

James Whitbourn - Annelies (from The Diary of Anne Frank)
Arianna Zukerman; Westminster Williamson Voices; Lincoln Trio; James Jordan
Naxos 8.57307

The passages librettist Melanie Challenger has chosen from the writings of the highly intelligent, insightful and inspiring Anne Frank with added biblical passages have been set to a tender yet powerful score by composer James Whitbourn. He offers two versions: both for soloist and chorus, one with full orchestra, the other for piano trio plus clarinet. This recording is of the latter, which offers such a poignant, personal characterization that one is immediately drawn into an almost unbearable intimacy with the tragic events. Rather than straight accompaniment, it seems each instrument has several roles to play in the drama, for example, the clarinet as the voice of Jewish tradition, the violin and cello deep emotion and the passage of time with piano as chiming clock. Of course, the voices have many changes to portray: soprano Arianna Zukerman sings with a supremely controlled tone that never strays from pure beauty, but sublimely imparts the contrast of isolation vs. devotion and buoyant hopefulness.

The choir, Westminster Williamson Voices led by James Jordon, is superb and they are flawless in the delivery of passages that range from terror and alarm to prayerful and even a chorale on Anne’s Ich danke dir für all das Gute und Liebe und Schöne (Thank you God, for all that is good and dear and beautiful) that appears more delightfully Mozartian in character than one harmonized by Bach. This first choral setting of The Diary of Anne Frank certainly proves worthy.

Méhul – Le Chant du depart
Les Jacobins; Mathieu Lussier
ATMA ACD2 2659

Etienne-Nicolas Méhul — now there’s a name we don’t encounter all that often these days! But if you were an enlightened citoyen and a patron of the arts during those stormy days following the French Revolution, his name would probably have been quite familiar. Born in Givet in 1763, Méhul is now regarded as the first French Romantic composer, his operas enjoying considerable acclaim from the 1790s until the first decade of the 19th century. Today, his music has fallen undeservedly into obscurity, but what better way of re-introducing it than through this delightful ATMA recording of woodwind arrangements titled Le Chant du départ performed by the Montréal-based ensemble Les Jacobins under the direction of Mathieu Lussier?

Comprising Quebec’s top woodwind and brass players, Les Jacobins is a group of variable size that comes together to explore the little-known music of the French Revolutionary period. And what a wonderfully resonant sound they produce! The eight members delive r a thoughtful and well-balanced performance of these fine arrangements, all of which capture the dramatic intensity and orchestral colour of the original scores. Included on the disc are several of Méhul’s operatic overtures, including Mélidor & Phrosine, Joseph and La Chasse du jeune Henri. The CD also contains a number of patriotic songs for which Méhul was renowned, his most famous being Le Chant du retour, spirited music from 1797.

For those who look upon arrangements with slight disdain, it must be remembered that operatic overtures, arias and patriotic songs were frequently popularized by small woodwind ensembles in the same manner as Mozart’s Harmoniemusik. Hence, Les Jacobins has not only succeeded in recreating a sound from the streets of revolutionary Paris, it has also brought to light repertoire that definitely deserves greater recognition. Grands felicitations for some splendid music making!

The Beethoven Journey –
Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3
Leif Ove Andsnes;
Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Sony 88725420582

One of my favorite pianists, Leif Ove Andsnes came to record this CD by way of an elevator in São Paulo, Brazil. He loved hearing short fragments of these concertos playing on a loop in the hotel elevator. Lucky for us, Andsnes fell in love again with Beethoven’s music as we will in listening to this CD. I find it difficult to believe that this is his first recording of Beethoven.

Andsnes also directs the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in this seamless journey in rediscovering the diversity of ideas and expressions in Beethoven’s mesmerizing masterpieces. Andsnes feels the music in a deeply spiritual way which he communicates in sublime phrasing, especially in the slow movements. His shaping of the melodic singing lines captures Beethoven’s soul-wrenching humanity and desire to change the world through his music.

The Piano Concerto No.1 in C Major reflects the style of Haydn and Mozart. However, Beethoven uses spaciousness and basic rhythmic patterns to create fresh and intense musical rhetoric. The slow movement which is immense is also one of the most beautiful of the concertos. The first theme in the third movement feels like a Turkish march, popular in Vienna at that time. Andsnes has the rhythmic articulation and drive, crisp runs and a sense of humour to make this movement sparkle like a gem.

The Piano Concerto No.3 in C Minor is much grander in scale, with something like a military march in the first movement. There is a rich layering of motifs building tension that results in an extreme dramatic impact. The slow movement is heart wrenching in its beauty and Andsnes milks every nuance of emotion in his performance. The technical virtuosity of Andsnes’ playing is flawless. Stylistically it is impeccable. His fingers dance over the keyboard, caress the keys with a velvet touch and display his exquisite musicianship in a myriad of tonal colours. I look forward to the rest of his Beethoven journey with anticipation.

Platero y Yo: An Andalusian Elegy
Michael Kolk
Independent
michaelkolkguitar.com

As I write this, the weather outside is seasonally grey and cold — so a disc titled Platero y Yo: An Andalusian Elegy featuring 20th century guitar music from sunnier climes performed by Michael Kolk seems the perfect antidote. Kolk’s first two recordings were as one half of the Henderson-Kolk guitar duo, but this is his first solo endeavour, presenting music by Manuel Ponce, Eduardo Sainz de la Maza, Augustin Barrios Mangoré and Joaquin Rodrigo. A native of Vancouver, Kolk studied at the University of Toronto where he earned a Master’s degree in guitar performance. Since then, he has appeared in Europe and North America, and has been the recipient of numerous first prizes in guitar competitions.

This disc is a gem! Taking for its title the name of an eight-movement suite by de la Maza, it opens with Ponce’s set of variations Theme varié et Finale from 1926. The mood is quietly introspective, and even in the brisker movements, Kolk achieves a wonderful sense of intimacy. De la Maza’s suite that follows comprises an appealing set of contrasts, apparently inspired by a book by Spanish author Juan Jiménez. Four charming waltzes by Paraguayan composer Barrios Mangoré precede Rodrigo’s Introdución y Danza, a brief but notable example of that composer’s affable style.

While all of these pieces were composed during the 20th century, there’s nothing avant-garde about them and Kolk’s sensitive and technically flawless performance further enhances their charm. Platero y Yo, (with its attractive packaging) is indeed the perfect disc to savour on a cold winter’s day — or for that matter, any time of year.