Red Hot Ramble
Red Hot Ramble
Independent RHR001 (www.redhotramble.ca)

Recorded at The Canterbury Music Company, Toronto, March 30, 2012 with Roberta Hunt, lead vocals, piano, Alison Young, baritone and alto sax, Glenn Anderson, drums, percussion and Jack Zorawski, bass. All three also sing background vocals. They are joined by Andrej Saradin, trumpet and Jamie Stager, trombone on some of the numbers.

Roberta Hunt and Red Hot Ramble have established a following in Toronto with their New Orleans influenced brand of jazz and this CD is a good representation of their entertaining approach to the music.

The music is infectious and I particularly enjoyed the soloing of Alison Young. The music is a mix of material ranging from Doctor Jazz by Joe "King" Oliver to Horace Silver's The Preacher and all of it with a contemporary New Orleans feel. Purists might raise an eyebrow or two at the chord changes of Lonesome Road, the 1927 song by Nathaniel Shilkret and Gene Austin, but with repeated listening I got accustomed to this version.

The band is propelled along nicely by Glenn Anderson and Jack Zorawski. Anderson's playing, for example, on the Eddie Harris number Cold Duck Time shows a real understanding of the idiom. Roberta herself lends her own distinctive styling to the proceedings and the overall result is like party night in a friendly bar.

Dream Gypsy
Bruce Harvey; Tom Hazlitt; Kevin Coady
Audubon Music Productions

Bruce Harvey is an exceptionally talented pianist, a fact well-known by other musicians but under-recognized as far as the general listening public is concerned. This is partly because he has a busy career playing shows and accompanying singers, and he spends much less time featuring himself as a soloist or building a high profile outside the immediate musical community.

This recording will go some way to changing that perception. There is a pensive quality to much of the music throughout this CD which is made up of well-known standards, like Laura and Falling In Love With Love, some lesser-known pieces such as You’re My Everything, Old Portrait by Charles Mingus, J. J. Johnson’s Lament and one original by Bruce called Claire De Soleil. There is also a tantalisingly short, (just over one minute), take on Ray Noble’s Cherokee which is given the name Odd Fragment.

Throughout the album Harvey’s imaginative playing amply demonstrates why he is highly regarded by his peers and his fellow musicians. Tom Hazlitt and Kevin Coady provide a sympathetic and tasteful accompaniment.

Like many CDs today this is an independent production so if you are interested in purchasing it please contact harvemuse@yahoo.ca.

The Golden Years
Trapist
Staubgold Digital 19
www.staubgold.com

Although no one would ever confuse the improvisations on this CD with ecclesiastical plainsong, the fact that this Canadian/German/Austrian trio’s name suggests the Trappist order, implies the deferential skill it brings to the music. Not only do the three players cunningly negotiate the boundaries between jazz improvisation, rock beats and electronic interface, but like monks in that order which discourages speech, this compelling program includes as many lucid and protracted pauses as measured instrumental timbres.

Over the course of four mesmerizing tracks, Vancouver-born bassist Joe Williamson’s steadying thumps are advanced with the same sort of electronic delays and modulations as German-born guitarist Martin Siewert brings to his slurred fingering, which is already distorted and processed. Plus the inventive slaps, flams and drags from Austrian percussionist Martin Brandlmayr are only as pronounced as needed to keep the program balanced. Ambidextrous or overdubbed, he expands the basic tripartite sound generation with piano riffs or vibraphone reverb when needed.

Filtering out extraneous timbres throughout, Trapist reaches a climax of sorts on The Spoke and the Horse when perfectly timed twanging guitar licks, a juddering bass line and emphasized drum rolls blend with the crackling and grinding voltage undercurrent for a satisfying rhythmic exposition. Meanwhile, bass and drums harmony is expanded with sensitive vibe colouration and dense, signal-processed buzzing. Finally, after folksy guitar strums and metronomic bass stops are paired with processed sequences that could be telephone dial tones or aviary twitters, the final track incorporates the intimation of waves lapping against the seashore. A similar resonance was heard on the first track, bringing the program full circle.

Additionally this CD confirms how wide a sonic spectrum can result when electronics are put in the service of intelligent intermingling of a minimum of instrumental textures.

David Virelles arrived in Toronto in 2001 at 17, the protégé of Jane Bunnett who has helped in so many ways to take Cuban music to the world. Virelles received the first Oscar Peterson Prize at Humber College from Peterson himself, then won the Grand Prix de Jazz award at the 2006 Montreal Jazz Festival. Since moving to New York in 2009, he’s been studying and working with adventurous musicians like Steve Coleman and Henry Threadgill. Virelle’s first American release as a leader, Continuum (Pi Recordings 46 www.pirecordings.com), is a brilliant step forward — an exploration of Afro-Cuban ritual elements in which his sometimes pensive, sometimes explosive improvisations are framed by poet and percussionist Román Diaz, whose poems are in Spanish and African-derived ritual languages. The music is rooted by bassist Ben Street and given further dimension and sonic potency by the great drummer Andrew Cyrille, who brings both Haitian ancestry and jazz lineage to the sessions. In a world where mere piano chops are common, Virelles’ Continuum demonstrates real depth and vision.

Al Henderson rarely pushes his bass out front but it’s hard to overlook his presence as a bandleader and a composer, creating music with independent harmonic structures, a keen sense of voicings, memorable lines and real passion. His latest CD Taiga (Cornerstone CRST CD 138 www.cornerstonerecordsinc.com), named for the Northern boreal forest, is steeped in the traditions of Mingus and Monk (Martian Jump is pure Monk) whether it’s hard-driving or weirdly atmospheric — like Croaking Raven which comes with Newfoundland bird tapes, eerie bass clarinet and a recitation of Poe. Henderson is armed with A-list saxophonists — Pat LaBarbera on tenor and Alex Dean on alto, tenor and bass clarinet, and there are appearances on some tracks by baritone specialist David Mott — and the three make up a superb Ellingtonian reed choir on Henderson’s Portrait of Billy Strayhorn.

Brandi Disterheft is another standout bassist, with a deep resonant sound of her own and a deft hand at constructing supportive lines and emotionally direct solos. She also has a knack for creating good group chemistry and well-crafted CDs, beginning with the Juno-winning Debut in 2006. On Gratitude (Justin-Time Just 247), she’s assembled a first-rate New York band that she uses to excellent effect. It’s a group with soulful depths, with transplanted Canadian pianist Renee Rosnes coming to the fore on Disterheft’s Blues for Nelson Mandela and the horns — alto saxophonist Vincent Herring and trumpeter Sean Jones — sounding terrific on Rosnes’ anthemic post-bop Mizmahta. Disterheft also sings on a couple of tracks, including the soul classic Compared to What, in a light, musical way that’s a fine complement to her instrumental abilities.

First formed as a sextet in 1998 and now an octet, the Peggy Lee Band has an almost magical capacity for musical synthesis, moving seamlessly between the cellist-leader’s compositions, jazz improvisation and freely improvised solos that often explore alternative techniques. On their fifth CD Invitation (Drip Audio DA00853 www.dripaudio.com) the title track has the clear harmonies of a folk song, while other tracks will pick up the moods of hymns, 1930s swing and the elegies and landscapes of Samuel Barber or Aaron Copland, with frequent introductions and interludes of almost interior monologue — the cello sings in whistling, tumbling harmonics, a trombone solo by Jeremy Berkman in which several trombones seem to mutter together, or a passage by guitarist Tony Wilson that might spring from African strings.

Kate Hammett-Vaughan can be Canada’s most adventurous jazz singer — she’s turned the writer Jane Bowles’ post-stroke notebooks into art song (on Conspiracy from 2006) — but she’s also explored more conventional repertoire, revealing at every turn a talent that’s as inspired and skilful as it is daring. Whatever the material, Hammett-Vaughan is one of our best singers, with a rich contralto, an ability to sing with the clarity of speech and a host of subtle, expressive techniques from altering pitch to shifting vibrato. A sense of conversational ease permeates Sanzaru (S/R www.katehv.com), a live recording devoted to standards. She’s joined by Bill Coon, a guitarist who plays very few notes, just the best ones, and bassist Adam Thomas who sings as well, with such ebullience and musicality that he recalls Louis Prima. Come Rain or Come Shine and ‘S Wonderful are highlights.

Vancouver saxophonist Coat Cooke may be best known as the leader of the NOW Orchestra, a brilliant aggregation of 16 Vancouver improvisers that set a national standard for such ensembles. He’s heard on a very different scale on two new releases, each featuring a duo. Cooke’s free-jazz side comes through on Conversations with drummer Joe Poole (Now Orchestra CLNOW006 www.noworchestra.com) with Cooke working through the saxophone family in a series of dialogues ranging from the intensity of Feeling Feint to the puckishly vocal Dancing the Night Away, all of it enhanced by Poole’s subtly complex drumming. There’s a very different side of Cooke to be heard on the free improvisation of High Wire with Montreal guitarist Rainer Wiens (Now Orchestra CLNOW007). The emphasis is on texture and timbre, eerie whistling saxophone tones moving through layers of bowed and scratched guitar strings. There’s something uncannily involving about these fragile, evolving drones, a kind of tensile strength and focus that rewards sustained attention.

Defying doomsayers who predicted the death of the LP, the CD’s disappearance appears oversold. True music collectors prefer the physical presence and superior fidelity of a well-designd CD package and important material continues to be released. Partisans of advanced music, for instance, can choose any one of these sets.

The only saxophonist to be part of saxophonist John Coltrane’s working group, tenorist Pharoah Sanders is celebrated for his own highly rhythmic Energy Music. In the Beginning 1963-64 (ESP-Disk ESP-4069 www.espdisk.com), a four-CD package, highlights his steady growth. Besides Sanders’ first album as leader, very much in the freebop tradition and as part of a quintet of now obscure players, the other previously released sounds capture Sanders’ recordings in the Sun Ra Arkestra. More valuable is a CD of unissued tracks where Sanders asserts himself in quartets led by cornetist Don Cherry or Canadian pianist Paul Bley. The set is completed by short interviews with all of the leaders. Oddly enough, although they precede his solo debut, Sanders’ playing is most impressive with Bley and Cherry. With more of a regularized beat via bassist David Izenson and drummer J.C. Moses, Cherry’s tracks advance melody juxtaposition and parallel improvisations with Sanders’ harsh obbligato contrasted with the cornetist’s feisty flourishes; plus the darting lines and quick jabs of pianist Joe Scianni provide an unheralded pleasure. Bley’s economical comping and discursive patterning lead the saxophonist into solos filled with harsh tongue twisting lines and jagged interval leaps. With Izenson’s screeching assent and drummer Paul Motian’s press rolls, the quartet plays super fast without losing the melodic thread. Sun Ra is a different matter. Recorded in concert, the sets include helpings of space chants such as Rocket #9 and Next Stop Mars; a feature for Black Harold’s talking log drums; showcases for blaring trombones, growling trumpets; plus the leader’s propulsive half-down-home and half-outer-space keyboard. Sharing honking and double tonguing interludes with Arkestra saxists Pat Patrick and Marshall Allen, Sanders exhibits his characteristic stridency. Enjoyable for Sun Ra’s vision which is spectacular and jocular, these tracks suggest why the taciturn Sanders soon went on his own.

Partially in reaction to vocifeous American players like Sanders, by the 1970s European innovators developed a spacious and subdued take on improvisation. This can be sampled via the solo work of Swiss percussionist Pierre Favre, a model of taste and restraint on Drums and Dreams (Intakt CD 197 www.intaktrec.ch). Overall it’s 1972’s Abanaba which is the defining masterwork, with 1970’s Drum Conversation and 1978’s Mountain Wind, the buildup and elaboration of maturity. Favre has such command of the sonorous properties of his expanded kit that he can use approximations of tones from unusual sources such as guiro, conches, unlathed cymbals and thunder sheets plus a regular kit without bombast or showiness. A track such as Kyoto is a fascinating duet between kettle drum and tuned gongs, expanded by theremin-like resonations; while Gerunonius is an essay in abrasion, as textures created by sawing with a bow on drum rims are integrated with shakes, pops and pulls. Roro fastens on triple sticking at supersonic speeds, producing ringing tones from log drums, cymbals and gongs, while the final track demonstrates how aggression can be paced as bell trees ping and snares sizzle. CD1 establishes a framework for juxtapositions, with silences integrated with kinetic paradiddles and ruffs. Sounding at times like multiple players, Favre’s distinctive sounds are as likely to arise by twisting mallets on aluminum bars as from blunt whacks on oversized gongs. By 1978, his rhythmic palette had expanded so that he could replicate the sound of a telephone bell ring or Chinese temple bell with equal facility and without any loss in power.

This mixture of delicacy and strength is expanded to its pianistic limits on Spontaneous Suite for Two Pianos (Rogueart R0G-037 www.roguart.com). These four CDs capture an entire recording session beginning with the evocative acceleration from feathery chording to anvil-like kinetic pressure on CD1, track one, and conclude with key-clipping near-player piano continuum on CD4, track seven. Anyone who follows dual keyboardists like Radu Lupu and Murray Perahia or Albert Ammons andPete Johnson will be staggered by the work here. Completely improvised, the nine interlocking suites expose almost all variations of what can be extracted from 176 keys. Technical wizardry plus jazz inflections are apparent in the playing of Connie Crothers and David Arner, yet focussed reductionism as well as spontaneity is also on tap.

Piano guru Lennie Tristano’s most accomplished student, New York-based Crothers has recorded with jazzmen like drummer Max Roach. Up-state New York’s Arner is associated with choreographers such as Meredith Monk. Playing side-by-side with layered chords, palindromes or in counterpoint, the two evoke many aspects of piano literature while creating their own. For instance The Hoofer which bounces and taps as a terpsichorean fantasia is followed by Blues and the Moving Image. Despite low-pitched glissandi, this blues is polyrhythmic, depending on a dusting of high-frequency tremolo to provide the necessary emotion. The Reckoning is meditative and linear, while Density 88X2 moves from jocular patterns to blunt syncopation. An extended sequence like City Rhapsody may unroll staccatissimo with soundboard rumbles and ringing cadenzas in equal measures, but it never unravels or loses connectivity. Overall the real connection this duo exhibits is with their own histories. Basso notes on Swing Migration and Fool both unearth Tristanto-like themes among the cumulative cascades and pitch-sliding vibrations.

With the German capital now home to a mass of creative musicians, it takes 40 selections on a three-CD anthology Echtzeitmusik Berlin (Mikroton CD 14/15/16 www.mikroton.net) to try to define the scene. Although currents of free jazz, notated music, punk-rock and all sorts of electronic programming are universally accepted, echtzeitmusik is defined differently by each innovator. For instance the long pauses and foreshortened breaths from Robin Hayward’s microtonal tuba and intermittent plinks from Morten Olsen’s rotating bass drum on Deep Skin may come from the same reductionist base as Versprechen which mutates piano string strums by Andrea Neumann with linear trumpet breaths from Sabine Ercklentz. But the studio collage that’s Annette Krebs’ In-between, mutating ring-modulator whooshes, music samples and layered voices has little in common except density with Antoine Chessex’s Errances which inflates a single saxophone’s tremolo timbres to near organ-like cascades. So what defines the sounds? The key may be Blues No.5 by Perlonex.Guitar feedback, turntable scratches plus drum smacks and electronic quivers reach an intensity that equals the emotionalism of a blues singer. Consequently honesty and innovation supersede musical forms. Echtzeitmusik Berlinallows the listener to sample and choose.

The difficulty for this reviewer with any of the many different omnibus collections that have appeared in cubes of various sizes over the last while is where to start, what to sample first? Sometimes it is easier ... in any Beethoven Symphonies collection I start with the Fourth, but let me share a new quandary:

Deutsche Grammophon has released a further inexpensive collection to commemorate their 111th anniversary, MOZART 111 containing 111 compositions on 55 CDs (DG 4750059). Representing his entire oeuvre are 111 complete works played by various artists from every performance practice. I acknowledge that I know most of the works reasonably well and some quite well. Also many of the various recordings are in the back of my mind somewhere. So what would you listen to first when every disc is equally enticing? Here is the menu: Symphonies 25, 26, 29, 38, 39 (Pinnock/ECO), 28, 33 (Levine/PO), 32, 35, 36 (Karajan/BPO), 40, 41 (Minkowski/Musiciens du Louvre); Piano concertos 6, 17, 21 (Anda/Salzburg Mozarteums), 27, 10 for two pianos (Emil & Elena Gilels/Böhm/VPO), 19, 23 (Pollini/Böhm/VPO), 20, 24 (Bilson/Gardiner), 14, 26 (Pires/Abbado/VPO); Various concertos, violin 3, 4, 5 (Perlman/Levine/VPO), Sinfonia Concertante K364, Concertone K190 (Perlman/Zukermann/Mehta/Israel PO), clarinet K622, flute K313, flute and harp K299, Andante for flute K315, oboe K314, bassoon K191, horn 1, 2, 3, 4 (Orpheus Chamber); Serenades: K361; wind serenades K375, K388 (Orpheus Chamber),”Posthorn” K320, “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” K525 (Levine/VPO), Serenata Notturna K239, Divertimento K334 (Karajan/BPO); String quartets, the six Haydn Quartets (Hagen); Miscellany, Divertimento K334, Masonic Funeral Music K477 (Böhm/VPO). And that’s only the first 23 discs out of 55, and the best is yet to come! The church music, the Requiem (Abbado/VPO), more chamber music, many recitals and complete operas: Idomeneo, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte and Die Zauberflöte. For many decades the DG sound has been ideal for Mozart and with these acknowledged masters of the repertoire, it really wasn’t that hard to get into the collection; getting out was hard.

“Nobody that I have ever heard played the piano any better than Alexis Weissenberg.” This pronouncement was made by Glenn Gould on August 24, 1977 on a CBC radio program devoted to Weissenberg. The evidence to support this statement can be certainly heard on a new collection devoted to the artistry of the young Alexis Weissenberg, recorded between 1949 and 1955 (The Sigi Recordings DOREMI DHR-7987/8, 2 CDs). Until his mid-20s he went by the name Sigi Weissenberg and his first three LPs are credited to that name. Every bar on these recordings made by Columbia and the French label Lumen confirms an innate pianistic and artistic talent of immense stature. One could now easily argue that he never played better than he is heard here. He recorded much of this repertoire again for EMI but not nearly at the same level of bravura, freshness and excitement. I went directly to a particularly favourite work, the Liszt Sonata and was literally astounded by the towering performance and the true-to-life sound. Incomparable on any level! Similarly, the other works portray the same pianistic achievement, from Bach-Liszt, Haydn, Soler, Czerny, Prokofiev, Scriabin and more Liszt. An unexpected and important release. You must hear that Liszt Sonata!

Before he came to Hollywood in 1934, Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957) was lauded as a child prodigy and then as a prodigious composer. One of his more renowned operas was Die Tote Stadt, first performed in 1924 in Berlin with Lotte Lehmann and Richard Tauber in the leads. Korngold’s movie scores are today accepted as classics, Anthony Adverse, King’s Row, The Sea Hawk, Robin Hood and many more, but his operas are rarely mounted. Die Tote Stadt is full of great romantic tunes and falls comfortably on the ear. However, the plot is quite macabre and more than somewhat difficult to grasp. Some of it is real and the rest is in the skewed and haunted mind of Paul, the central figure who, it seems, killed his wife earlier. This 1983 production by the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Arthaus Musik 101656) staged by Gotz Friedrich stars his wife, Karan Armstrong and James King as Paul. The set and costumes are perfect for the 1920s and, at last, the plot is clear ... I think. The conductor is Heinrich Hollreiser and there is a bonus track with Friedrich introducing the opera and clarifying the plot.

Readers with an awareness of historic performers may be wish to spend an hour or so with Benjamin Britten conducting the English Chamber Orchestra on a new DVD from ICA (ICAD 5083). These are live performances from Fairfield Halls in Croydon on December 20, 1964 as telecast in black and white by the BBC. The concert begins with a nifty performance of the Mozart Symphony No.40, quite straightforward but beautifully played with sustained lines. To end the concert Peter Pears joins Britten for a magnificent performance of Britten’s Nocturne Op.60 for tenor, seven obbligato instruments and strings. I have been listening to this work for decades but the intensity of this performance touched me, revealing its true quality. Britten admirers owe it to themselves to hear and see this outstanding performance. There are two bonus tracks in full colour from a concert at The Maltings on June 5, 1970, in which they play the Adagio and Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony.

One of the most pleasant CDs to come my way recently is Ofra Harnoy and Friends (DOREMI DHR 6609). The selections were recorded during the 1980s and 1990s but most are new to her discography. Repertoire ranges from Vivaldi to Gershwin via Mozart, Beethoven, Rimsky-Korsakov, de Falla and several lesser known names. She impresses by her versatility in adapting to the various styles, projecting the joy of music making in whatever the repertoire. It is also evident that her enthusiasm is shared by her colleagues. Harnoy was popular with young audiences and with her special appeal had drawn them into classical music. She was, as they say, a natural! Before her retirement from the concert stage to raise a family, the cellist had close to 40 discs listed in the Schwann catalogue. Additionally hers was a familiar name on Billboard’s International Best Sellers charts. Included on this refreshing compilation are performances with Igor Oistrakh in the Vivaldi Double Concerto RV546 and Maureen Forrester in Massenet’s delightful Élégie. An enjoyable 80 minutes. 

Dialogues in Two Places
Trevor Watts; Veryan Weston
Hi4Head Records HFH 010D (www.hi4headrecords.com)

Confirmation of the Guelph Jazz Festival’s increasing importance on the international scene is this significant 2-CD set by British saxophonist Trevor Watts and pianist Veryan Weston. Both men have helped define improvised music since the 1970s, and during a rare North American foray in 2011, recorded one CD in Guelph and the other in Toledo.
               
Nationalism aside, the two appear more assured north of the border, with the climax, Cardigan, a 32 minute intermezzo. Three months earlier in Ohio they distributed their aleatoric and dextrous efforts among six much shorter improvisations. Playing both soprano and alto saxophones, Watts’ tone is sequentially taut, peeping, staccato and agitated in Toledo, while Weston’s lines encompass both formal pianism and near-splintered tremolo dynamics to extend and pivot the performances. Toledo’s high point appears on Glenwood. Here a contrapuntal intersection displays the saxophonist’s mercurial skills at speedy and slow tempos while compressing tones for nuance and colour. Also featured is the pianist initially accelerating, then halving the accompaniment, while moving from high-intensity chording and pounding to edgy soundboard and string plinking patterns.
               
Practically an invention on its own, Cardigan dramatically conveys the veterans’ familiarity with each other’s sound strategies and their ability to parry and thrust in split second intervals. The initial variations find Weston’s kinetic pumps, clips and unexpected octave jumps prodding Watts to move from reed bites and snorts into broken octave, aviary-like tremolos as the two explore the tune in tandem. By the exposition’s midpoint, metronomic keyboard cascades embolden the saxman to unleash a variant of circular breathing which culminates in juddering bagpipe-resembling tremolos. Soon afterwards Weston’s playful variations in the piano’s bass clef sustain the rhythm as he splays sharp harmonies. Leading to the finale, further developments find Watts echoing and shaking grace notes to affiliate with the pianist’s now low frequency, slow-paced chording. By the end pinched oboe-like reed bites replace an ocean-wide vibrato as Weston’s meticulous keyboard framing leads to parallel diminuendo.
               
Before a short encore, the applause from the Guelph audience is almost as protracted as the length of some of the Toledo tracks.

Prima Donna
Karina Gauvin; Arion Orchestre Baroque; Alexander Weimann
ATMA ACD2 2648

The soprano Karina Gauvin has an extensive recorded repertoire which ranges from Purcell in the 17th century to Britten in the 20th, but it is the music of Handel with which she is most closely associated. She has performed in the recording of three complete operas (Alcina, Ezio and Ariodante) as well as in a solo recital and a recording of duets from Handel’s oratorios with Marie-Nicole Lemieux.

The decision to centre a recording on one of Handel’s singers is not new. In 1996 Harmonia Mundi brought out a collection of four discs, each of which contained music composed by Handel for specific singers: the soprano Francesca Cuzzoni, the mezzo Margherita Durastante, the castrato Il Senesino and the bass Antonio Montagnana. The disc under review is, however, the first recording to centre on Anna Maria Strada del Pò. It contains six arias by Handel with the addition of one piece by Vivaldi and another by Leonardo Vinci.

There have in recent years been a number of recorded anthologies of baroque arias, by Handel and by others, but this disc ranks with the best: Gauvin is equally at home with the coruscating swiftness of “Scherza in Mar” (from Lotario) as with the sustained pathos of “Verdi piante” (from Orlando). For some years much music from the opere serie by Handel and Vivaldi has been available but it is good to see that a not so well-known composer like Leonardo Vinci is beginning to get his due.

Opera Arias: Gluck; Haydn; Mozart
Marie-Nicole Lemieux; Les Violons du Roy; Bernard Labadie
Naïve V5264

Review is not the right word. This piece of writing should be more like an extended and exalted praise for a childcare worker from Quebec turned star mezzo-soprano of the highest calibre. Lemieux has distinguished herself time and time again ever since her big win at the “Queen Elizabeth” in Belgium in 2000 and offers began pouring in. And today she is still young, only 37.

Her most recent recording on the prestigious French label, naïve, is an adventure into the 18th century, the world of Mozart, Gluck and Haydn. For the average listener her selections of this repertoire, apart from a few exceptions, will be mostly unknown, but let me assure you that same listener will become a devotee by listening to them all.

Lemieux immediately plunges into a spirited attack of early Mozart (“Mitridate di Ponto”), a fiendishly difficult aria where she shows off some miraculous deep notes in full forte reminding me of the great Marilyn Horne. This is followed by beautiful, lyrical, restrained piano singing from a rather unknown Haydn opera (L’isola disabitata). Already a considerable feat, but more surprises are coming. With Iphigenie en Aulide by Gluck she is in familiar, i.e. French, territory where she creates shockwaves singing Clytemnestra’s fire-eating aria with fierce passion. There will be many more great moments by the time she finishes with Haydn’s “Sudo il guerriero,” another bravura showstopper. To make things even better, and even more Canadian, she is accompanied by the world class Les Violons du Roi under Bernard Labadie, a group I’ve had the privilege of reviewing before in these pages. An unconditionally excellent recommendation.

Schoenberg – Complete Songs
Claudia Barainsky; Melanie Diener;
Konrad Jarnot; Christa Mayer;
Markus Schafer; Anke Vondung; Urs Liska
Capriccio 7120

A collection of complete songs by one composer is a fascinating object. As much of a record as it is a key to the composer’s development, it allows the listener to trace the styles, fascinations with different poets and composers, homages, pastiches and breakthrough moments. When the composer is someone as misunderstood and still controversial as Schoenberg, such a collection can be nothing short of a revelation. This 4-CD edition traces his involvement in lieder from the self-taught early fascination with Brahms, the “apprenticeship” under Zemlinsky, the influence of Wagner, the push towards the “end of tonality” and finally, the 1933 coda of the Three Songs, Op.48 — the only dodecaphonic songs written by him and indeed, his last foray into the genre.

Throughout his life, Schoenberg struggled for acceptance of his new ideas about music, but for the most part his supporters were his fellow composers. Zemlinsky, Mahler and Schoenberg’s students, Webern and Berg, were his greatest proponents. The general public remained indifferent and at times hostile to his ideas and music. This collection reveals a composer who at times was as poignant and romantic as Schubert, as dramatic as Brahms and as tuned to human emotions as Mahler. What helps are two artistic choices: firstly, all of the songs are presented with piano-only accompaniment, even the Gurrelieder, better known in their later orchestral renditions. The second choice is equally fortuitous: one great pianist, Urs Liska, and six diverse, but equally talented singers. This edition is a must-have in any music lover’s library.

Janet
Helen Pridmore
Centrediscs CMCCD 17512

This is an album of works created for and performed by the British-born, Nova Scotia resident, singer and teacher Helen Pridmore. Its great strength is a closer than usual collaboration between an extraordinary performer and her chosen composers.

In Emily Doolittle’s Social Sounds From Whales at Night, we are often unsure where actual recordings of humpback whales end and Helen Pridmore’s vocalism begins — an eloquent and effective way to deliver this work’s message of the seamless continuity between life forms on Earth. The humpback’s songs (or calls or conversations) translated into human vocal music provide Pridmore with the opportunity to display her very accurate microtonal ear.

Martin Arnold’s Janet is built of short phrases that are electronically “gated” so that, as Pridmore sings, we hear all the piece’s elements — two vocal tracks plus banjo and electric guitar along with ambient environmental sounds — at the same time. But when she pauses, all sounds pause with her. The melodies — vaguely modal-sounding to reflect the Scottish ballad which inspired this piece — eventually turn on themselves to provide passages of effortless-sounding dissonance, while a long and clear downward melodic drift ensures formal cohesion. The banjo’s timbre brings a certain hominess to the music which was recorded, in fact, in several rooms of Pridmore’s home.

Another striking piece on this recording is Ian Crutchley’s Helen Pridmore Sings, and Sings and Sings! wherein the soloist is invited to perform fragments of a broad and deliberately bewildering variety of songs and styles from Handel to Marlene Dietrich to the theme from (70s TV series) Happy Days and even from Emily Doolittle’s composition on this same album.

Clearly, the composers have all been attracted to Pridmore’s unique skill set and manner of working. The resulting music takes full advantage of her attractive and flexible voice, impressively extended technical and stylistic range and — perhaps most important of all — adventuresome spirit.

Glenn Gould plays Strauss
Glenn Gould; Elizabeth Schwartzkopf; Claude Rains
Sony 88725413702

Richard Strauss: Songs
Felicity Lott; Graham Johnson
Champs Hill Records CHRCD037

Richard Strauss: Three Hymns; Opera arias
Soile Isokoski; Helsinki Philharmonic; Okko Kamu
Ondine ODE 1202-2

Glenn Gould was an enthusiastic advocate of Richard Strauss, as expressed in performances, writings, lectures and documentaries, but just a handful of recordings. The Sony 2-disc set Glenn Gould Plays Straussfeatures the rare and unique performances he chose to record. As he once expressed surprise that so few concert pianists performed the Piano Sonata in B Minor, Op.5, it seems fitting that this was the very last work that Gould recorded before his death. The sonata, and the Five Pieces, Op.3 featured on this recording, were romantic, nostalgic works of Strauss’ youth, and Gould’s playing masterfully enhances by turn all the inherent innocence, angst, rapture and exuberance. Included in this collection is Gould’s first Strauss recording of an obscure melodrama based on a blank verse poem by Tennyson. Enoch Arden, a romantic triangle resulting in a mariner’s unhappy loss,is narrated by actor Claude Rains with Gould on piano deftly and sensitively interpreting the orchestral score. Equally fascinating is the uneasy collaboration in 1966 with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf on the Ophelia Lieder, Op.67. In addition to dealing with an overheated studio with air far too dry for singing, the famed soprano was forced to comply with Gould’s insistence on improvising the accompaniment. Nevertheless, she soldiered on, producing an exquisite performance in which she imbues the madness of Ophelia with a tremulous, eerie quality that never diminishes her rich tonal palette.

In Richard Strauss: Songs, recorded in 2003 and just rereleased by Champs Hill, soprano Felicity Lott includes no less than 26 Strauss lieder, also including a marvellous and dramatic performance of the Ophelia songs, with piano accompaniment (superbly unadulterated) by pianist Graham Johnson. This and the other repertoire presented as a program divided into five thematic sections, seems a virtual tribute to Strauss’ wife Pauline de Ahma. Married in 1894, Strauss’ wedding gift to his bride was the four Op.27 songs, and these as well as many of the others included on this CD were written for her. The couple gave many recitals together until she retired from singing in 1906, after which her temperamental and fiery nature continued to be an inspiration for the female characters in his operas. Through emotive colouring and smooth sensuality, Lott artfully navigates the difficult terrain offered by this demanding and breath-defying repertoire.

For our third Strauss selection, we move to orchestral accompanied songs: Three Hymns/Opera Arias featuring another expert Strauss interpreter, Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski whose powerful and luminous voice soars over the Helsinki Philharmonic in excerpts from Ariadne auf Naxos, Der Rosenkavalier and Capriccio. Although the Three Hymns, Op.71 is a work rarely recorded because of its almost excessive demands for the soloist, Isokoski clearly has the fortitude to carry off a brilliant performance.

It might be mentioned at this point that all three of our featured sopranos recorded these works in their 50s. It makes me wonder if a lifetime of experience is a requirement for the effective interpretation of and stamina to execute the highly emotive and electrifying songs of this composer.

Music from the Eton Choirbook
Tonus Peregrinus
Naxos 8.572840

The Eton College Choirbook is one of pre-Reformation England’s greatest glories. English composers rejoiced in their settings of music that were as joyful as the architecture in which they were performed was lofty. The Choirbook required the skins of “112 average-sized calves” to produce; none died in vain, as this recording proves.

Two composers included here, Lambe and Browne, probably had connections with Eton. Lambe’s Nesciens mater a 5 is so exhilarating it could be used at any modern service — and the Choirbook likely dates from 1500!

William, Monk of Stratford, gave his Magnificat a 4 an ebullient character. Tonus Peregrinus uses 13 voices, five upper and eight lower, initially alternating but ultimately combined. Occasionally William’s polyphony uses strange examples of either lost or extra beats — is the lost beat between “the rich” and “he hath sent away empty” a deliberate ploy?

A second Magnificat, by Hugh Kellyk, is not as strident as William’s. It is nonetheless very demanding on the higher voices. Tonus Peregrinus’ already high reputation is only enhanced by its interpretations of the Eton Choirbook.

The opening pages of Richard Davy’s St. Matthew Passion have been lost. Jesus stands before Pilate and the events leading to crucifixion are recounted. Davy uses the arrangement soprano, alto, tenor, bass for both Pilate and Pilate’s wife. The bass part for both characters is, perhaps strangely, sung by one singer, Nick Flower. This certainly does not detract from the sheer forcefulness of Davy’s interpretation.

John Browne’s Stabat mater also uses 13 voices. Emphasis is placed on the soprano voices in what is a very powerful setting; mention must be made, however, of the bass parts, which are omnipresent if somewhat overshadowed.

Naxos is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It describes this recording as “perhaps the jewel in the crown of its series of Milestones of Western music.” Only “perhaps?”

Chauvon – Les nouveaux bijoux
Washington McClean; Alison Melville;
Julia Wedman; Michael McCraw;
Charlotte Nediger
early-music.com EMCCD-7773
www.early-music.com

A virtual who’s who of North American early music specialists jump headfirst into the clever and charming world of French baroque composer François Chauvon, whose name may be unfamiliar to the reader. A student of Couperin, he composed a small number of chamber and vocal works between 1710 and 1740.

Tibiades (1717) is a collection of suites for baroque oboe and flute, with some suites including violin. Influenced by the Italian concertato texture style of the time, the instruments to be played were specified, but which line for each was not indicated. The performers are at liberty to choose their part, and when to play tutti and solo. Here, the performers not only choose their parts, but expand their choices by the addition of bassoon and continuo. The resulting instrumentation creates charming and distinct settings.

Eight suites are featured. Each is short in duration, with the occasional movement under one minute. The 44 second “Arpégement, le Pièche (gracieusement)” is a memorable harpsichord interlude from the Première Suite. Chauvon also dabbled with programmatic titles. The “la Mélancholique” movement from the Troisième Suite is slow and somewhat glum in notation and the selected instrumentation.

As to be expected, all the performers are spectacular. I especially marvel at Alison Melville’s breath control on recorders and traverse flute and harpsichordist Charlotte Nediger’s extraordinary continuo expertise. This recording is early music at its best.

Haydn – Piano Sonatas III
Marc-André Hamelin
Hyperion CDA67882

Few Canadian pianists have produced such an eclectic catalogue of recordings as Marc-André Hamelin. Ever since his first CDs featuring music by composers such as Claude Caron, Stephen Albert and William Bolcom, he has demonstrated a decided affinity for music a little off the mainstream. Yet this isn’t to suggest that the Montreal native has ever ignored the standard “old masters” either, and indeed, his latest offering on the Hyperion label is a case in point, a fine two-disc compilation of Haydn piano sonatas from the HobXVI series.

This is actually the third volume of Haydn piano sonatas Hamelin has recorded, the first two appearing in 2007 and 2009. For this set, he chose 11 sonatas mainly dating from Haydn’s middle period of the 1760s and 70s. This was a time when the 30- and 40-something-year-old composer was prodigiously creating string quartets and full scale operas while in the service of the Esterhazy family. Not surprisingly, these sonatas are true models of classical form. While they present no huge technical demands on the part of the performer, Hamelin approaches them in an intelligent manner, his playing finely nuanced with the subtleties so integral in music from this period. Yet not all is rococo galanterie here. Many of the slow movements demonstrate a deep melancholia, clearly foreshadowing romanticism, and once again Hamelin has no difficulty in conveying the contrasting moods through his finely shaped phrases and sense of timing.

An added bonus in this set is the inclusion of two divertimentos, later published as Sonatas 1 and 6 in the Hoboken XVI catalogue, and also a short sonata in D major, now known as “#51.” The sonata was a product of Haydn’s second visit to London in 1794 and demonstrates a much greater sense of stylistic freedom, as if Haydn was by now attempting to go beyond the restrictions of traditional Viennese classicism. He was to live only 15 more years and by 1809 the European musical world had very much moved on.

This set of finely crafted music elegantly played is a wonderful addition to the catalogue, proof once again (if proof is needed), of Hamelin’s outstanding musicianship and ability to excel at anything he chooses to play.