Celebrating Women! Music for Flute
and Piano by Women Composers
Laurel Swinden; Stephanie Mara
Independent LBSCD2012
www.laurelswinden.com

The flute and piano duo has never had such a powerful and memorable moment as in this collection of music by women composers from past and present. Flutist Laurel Swinden has a sweet and distinct tone which, when combined with pianist Stephanie Mara’s full piano colour, creates a truly beautiful sound. The two musicians are remarkably tight and in sync as an ensemble. In sections of matching rhythms and harmonies, I thought I was hearing a third new instrument in the mix!

The more classical genre works are represented by Mel Bonis, Anna Bon di Venezia, Cécile Chaminade and Lili Boulanger. Though perhaps not household names, each composer’s work stands the test of time. Swinden and Mara perform them with elegance.

However the musicians really shine in the more contemporary works. Heather Schmidt’s Chiaroscuro is filled with mysterious harmonies and tension-filled rhythms. A technically challenging work, it is also the highlight. The duo creates a sense of sweeping moods in their performance. In contrast, Cecilia McDowall’s Piper’s Dream has both instruments emulate the sound of the pipes and draws on traditional folk music for its melodies and ambience. Swindon’s lengthy held notes are breathtaking in colour and duration. Anne Boyd’s minimalistic Bali Moods, Jean Coulthard’s Where the Trade Winds Blow and Katherine Hoover’s witty Two for Two complete the collection.

The production quality is clear, capturing even the most subtle of Swinden’s and Mara’s distinct musical nuances and technical abilities.

between the shore and the ships –
The Grand-Pré Recordings
Helen Pridmore; Wesley Ferreira
Centrediscs CMCCD 17912

The fallout from the Acadian expulsion haunts Canadian amour-propre to this day. That is the fact lurking behind a release from Centrediscs called between the shore and the ships, a loose cycle of settings for voice and clarinet by eight Eastern-Canadian composers and performed with fitting solemnity by Helen Pridmore and Wesley Ferreira. The texts are varied and range from an extract from Longfellow’s Evangeline to contemporary reflections like Mouvence by Gerald Leblanc. The compositional range is somewhat narrower and though the pairing is highly effective — composers have often been drawn to the matching character of soprano and clarinet — the material rarely strays from dour and dreary elongations of vocal line and wandering clarinet decoration. A welcome change is the above-mentioned Mouvence as set by Jérôme Blais. The text is mysterious and fresh; he sets it for spoken voice and largely improvised bass clarinet. Interestingly, the only francophone composer to be included chooses a text that “carries the essence of the Acadian tragedy without ever referring to it directly.” Could the rest be too earnest in their expressions of retroactive guilt?

Singer Pridmore is fearless faced with repeated demands for expressive vowelizations entwining with a clarinet accompaniment that is sometimes played for pleasing dissonances: a challenge for the singer and usually rewarding for the listener. Her tone is on occasion nasal and raw and her pitch suffers in a number of instances, most noticeably the Robert Bauer setting of the Dykes of Acadie. Ferreira has a beautiful and controlled sound that he uses to support as well as he can the soprano and which he highlights beautifully in his solo passages. The overall effect is strong, but I have the urge to go hear some Zydeco and eat some blackened catfish just to feel better.

Secret of the Seven Stars:
Music of Hope Lee and David Eagle
Stefan Hussong; New Music Concerts; Robert Aitken
Centrediscs CMCCD 18012

Three of this recording’s five selections feature German new music accordion virtuoso Stefan Hussong. Hope Lee’s Secret of the Seven Stars is performed by the New Music Concerts Ensemble with Joseph Macerollo as soloist. Hussong’s sound highlights a brighter, more metallic area of the instrument’s timbral range, while Macerollo’s accordion is deliciously deep and mellow sounding.

Composer David Eagle’s works make up the first half of the program and each relies on an electronically enhanced sense of acoustic space. This music requires a good delivery system, i.e. headphones or home stereo. Computer speakers won’t cut it, and MP3 is less than adequate, so buy a full quality download or, better still, the physical CD to get the added benefit of extensive printed information in a very nice package. (The same goes for my review of Janet elsewhere in these pages.) Eagle pursues an inventive array of strategies and techniques in combining and counterposing the live accordion with the computer’s “responses.” In his 2009 work for flutist Robert Aitken, Fluctuare, the computer interactivity elegantly supports Aitken’s warm and masterful interpretation of the solo part.

Hope Lee’s spiritually inspired, highly gestural style is featured in Secret of the Seven Stars and the unaccompanied solo and the end is the beginning. Here, the accordion’s extended resources are on display: pitch bending, bellows shaking and other titillating accordion exotica. Both works trace the emergence of entire soundworlds from a single, sustained pitch — a process the composer repeats in a consistently fascinating variety of ways. Lee’s approach to the contemporary quasi-concerto format in Seven Stars is more to combine solo and ensemble voices than to counterpose them, making her acoustic music sound just as “interactive” as Eagle’s electronica.

Rewind (linus 270155) is Elizabeth Shepherd’s first CD devoted to standards, but they aren’t everybody’s standards; rather they’re a carefully if quirkily chosen personal selection, including French chanson (Pourqois tu vis), art song (Kurt Weill’s eerie Lonely House) and jazz tunes (from Lionel Hampton’s Midnight Sun to Bobby Hutcherson’s When You Are Near, the latter with Shepherd’s own lyrics). It’s a deeply involving album — there’s an insistent intimacy in Shepherd’s light, high voice and her subtle combination of the articulated and the withheld. The matching of voice to band is perfect — Shepherd herself plays various pianos, beatbox and “tuned mixing bowls and muted pestle” — with consistently deft arrangements. Highlights include Poinciana, with Reg Schwager’s lilting guitar accompaniment, and the soul jazz classic Sack of Woe with Andrew Downing’s plucked cello and Shepherd’s period Wurlitzer electric piano.

Toronto saxophonist Kirk MacDonald is doing a fine job of maintaining the modern big band tradition. His last recording Deep Shadows was a 2012 JUNO nominee and he’s followed it with another performance by his Jazz Orchestra, Family Suite for Large Ensemble (Addo AJR013). Here trombonist Terry Promane has taken on the challenge of arranging MacDonald’s 2008 quartet album Family Suite for an 18-piece band, emphasizing brass lustre with five trumpets and four trombones. Promane successfully adopts MacDonald’s complex original lines to the weightier textures, burnishing them with greater emotional depth, and MacDonald the soloist is clearly inspired anew. The quality of the writing is emphasized by the performances of an all-star band that includes alto saxophonist P.J. Perry, guitarist Lorne Lofsky and trumpeter Kevin Turcotte.

Pianist Brian Dickinson wears his influences on his track list, opening his Other Places (Addo AJR011) with a blazing and percussive Unreal McCoy and a harmonically complex Shorter Days, clear homages to Tyner and Wayne respectively. The CD might not win awards for originality, but it could for sheer drive, featuring the intense Boston tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi — a master of a later John Coltrane style in which rapid, convoluted phrases are driven by a tight vibrato and a slightly gravelly tone. The rhythm section of bassist Jim Vivian and drummer Steve Wallace is up to the task and the result is charging, inspired music. Dickinson’s Tagine demonstrates the pianist’s rhythmic invention, an expansive take on a North African theme.

Hexentrio (Intakt CD 205) presents Vancouver pianist Paul Plimley in outstanding international company, with English bassist Barry Guy and Swiss drummer Lucas Niggli expanding the idea of the piano trio. The methodology is free improvisation but there’s no limit to the styles or technique of the music, a brilliant tapestry of 17 short pieces that moves from dramatic three way conversations — like the tumultuous Flo Vi Ru and Railways Rear Viewed in Magic Mirror that bracket the program — to dreamlike epiphanies and spontaneous chromatic rhapsodies. Plimley is an improviser of rare resourcefulness and in this company he is able to launch tonal systems at will, assured of empathetic and apt response. Niggli possesses an aggressive approach and an ability to suggest multiple rhythmic environments, while Barry Guy is simply the most articulate bassist a piano trio might have, embellishing the brilliant tradition launched by Scott La Faro with Bill Evans over 50 years ago.

More than 500 kilometres northeast of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River, Rimouski might strike you as an unlikely spot for cutting edge free improvisation, but you wouldn’t be accounting for the resourcefulness of electric bassist Éric Normand whose quintet mixes Montreal visitors with Rimouski residents. Sur un Fil, released on the Italian label Setola Di Maiale (www.setoladimaiale.net), matches Jean Derome (on flute, alto saxophone and birdcall) and Michel F Côté (drums and feedback) with James Darling (cello) and Antoine Létourneau-Berger (vibes and cymbals). The mood is avant-garde chamber music, with subtle textures set up by Normand’s compositions expanded with a free hand by everyone in the band, from glittering vibraphone to sometimes squalling saxophone, creating a music that can be as elemental as Rimouski’s rocky shore or as abstract as a composition by Boulez.

Alto saxophonist Brodie West has spent substantial time with the celebrated and whimsically independent founders of Amsterdam free jazz, studying with composer Misha Mengelberg and playing with drummer Han Bennink. West in turn has developed his own distinct approach. When West turns to standard forms, he does so with a lyrical directness reminiscent of Lee Konitz and free of the polish and rote learning that often compromise contemporary mainstream approaches. That approach is in high relief with the Chris Banks Trio on the unusual Softly as in a Morning Sunrise (S/R www.chrisbankstrio.blogspot.ca) as West, bassist Banks and pianist Tania Gill play standards and older jazz tunes from Jitterbug Waltz and Undecided to Soul Eyes. The absence of drums emphasizes an intimate and deliberate dialogue and the genuine spirit of improvisation.

Another side of West is apparent on Compound Eyes (S/R www.cluttonmichelli-west.blogspot.ca) by the trio of Clutton/Michelli/West, with the emphasis on a minimalist style of improvisation that often matches West’s repeating whistles and vocal smears with bassist Rob Clutton’s pulsing, repeating figures and drummer Anthony Michelli’s spare accents and subtly insinuated grooves. It’s fresh and challenging work, and even here West manages to reference the tradition, inserting an attenuated phrase from What’s New? in the title track.

At the height of jazz’s popularity, during the Big Band era of the 1930s and 1940s, one of the most common images was of a resplendent clarinettist, instrument shining in the spotlight, taking a hot solo. Subsequent styles found the so-called licorice stick relegated to a poor cousin of the saxophone, with few reed players brave enough to keep the clarinet as a double, let alone concentrate on its unique timbres. However attacks on conventional sounds, coupled with an appreciation for unique instrumental textures starting in the 1960s, spurred a rediscovery of the wooden reed instrument. Right now there are probably more CDs extant featuring the clarinet than at any time since the heyday of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Woody Herman.

Similar in some way to what a jam session involving Goodman, Shaw and Herman would have entailed is The Clarinet Trio 4 (Leo Records CD LR 622 www.leorecords.com). Besides the obvious difference that the trio members are German, rather than American, additional factors characterize this trio of reed players as a 21st Century juggernaut not a 1930s revival band. For a start, each man plays a different member of the clarinet family: Jürgen Kupke, regular clarinet; Michael Thieke, clarinet plus alto clarinet; and Gebhard Ullmann, bass clarinet. Plus nearly all the tunes are Ullmann originals rather than standards. Unlike earlier reed players who depended on rhythm section accompaniment however, the 11 tracks on this CD feature nothing but clarinet timbres. Interludes which result from an arrangement like this are put into boldest relief on Collectives #13 #14 and Geringe Abweichungen von der Norm. The latter is carefully unrolled at adagio tempo, with balanced reed vibrations and understated motion as staccato slurs and pitch-sliding smears appear at the same time, finally melding into a tremolo narrative. In contrast, Collectives #13 #14 is rife with pinched notes from the straight clarinet, snarling quivers from the alto clarinet and inner-directed bass clarinet growls. Eventually a mellow interface from the higher pitched reeds surmounts these chirps and quacks as Ullmann continues to tongue slap and masticate tones. Other tunes such as Blaues Viertel and Waters explore variations in legato tone blending and burbling reverberations, as triple vibrations are showcased in broken octave, chromatic lines. The climatic triple reed definition is News No News however. As abrasive, tremolo lines from each reedist progressively align against one another the finale finds all ultimately diminishing to silence. Before that, three singular melodies have been cross-vibrated and intertwined, while staccato lines maintain each player’s individuality.

Another trio, but this one including string and brass instruments as well as reeds, is on Clarino Cookbook (Red Toucan RT 9345 www3.sympatico.ca/cactus.red). This time the CD matches the clarinet of Belgian Joachim Badenhorst with the trumpet of German Thomas Heberer, who also composed the dozen selections, plus German-French bassist Pascal Niggenkemper. Although the lineup is the same as if it were a combo of Goodman, trumpeter Harry James and bassist Artie Bernstein, Heberer’s graphic notation wouldn’t have been recognizable by those earlier jazzers, though they would have been impressed by the breadth of this trio’s technique. Encompassing a modicum of unanticipated tranquil passages, especially from muted trumpet and fluid clarinet lines, the fundamental object lies in revealing as many contrasting tones as they intersect. For instance a track such as Nomos, introduced by ringing double bass tones, develops new motifs as a busy trumpet limns the bouncing theme. Moderated with clarinet squeaks, the piece is cleanly concluded with bowed strings. More adventurous, Bogen is concerned with melding air bubbled through both horns’ body tubes with arco swipes from Niggenkemper, whose well-shaped notes later underscore Heberer’s brassy yelps and Badenhorst’s rhythmic tongue slaps. Even more dissonance is present on Erdbär with the bull fiddle barely audible.

If Clarino Cookbook characterizes modern abstraction, then the 17 miniatures on Chansons d’amour (Émouvance émv 1034 www.emouvance.com) by French clarinettist/bass clarinettist Laurent Dehors and British pianist Matthew Bourne are the post-modern equivalent of jazz chamber music. Still the skills of both men include an undercurrent of dissonance. Take the familiar La Vie en Rose for instance. Dehors’ clarinet line consists of flutter-tonguing and split tone pauses before uncovering the melody defined in a series of glissandi roughened by tongue stops and breaths. This is followed by Triste, an impressionistic line dependent on harmonic balance between the pianist’s upwards moving glissandi and the reedist’s lyrical quivering. Overall, the CD includes some instances of hushed chamber music-style pacing while other themes are more barbed. The equilibrium of BDK theme is maintained as it unrolls at a clean clip, but by the final variant a Brubeck-like waltz rhythm played by Bourne is jockeying for space alongside Dehors’ strident reed shrills and snorts. Echoes of pedal point pacing from Dehors’ contrabass clarinet on Two are subtly undermined by piano clinks, while even the impressionism driven by the pianist’s key clusters and glittery plucks becomes hesitant and out of tempo on Á propos. Simple piano clusters characterize Three, yet Dehors completes the theme playing different variants simultaneously on two clarinets, one with wolf call ferocity, the other double tonguing. In fact, the CD’s defining moments may occur on Thrown. A mini suite in itself, which modulates from multi-level pumping impressionism to smooth lines at the end, the landscape includes chalumeau streaming tones from Dehors as well as reed bites, as Bourne’s patterns encompass key clicks and repetitive chording.

Sonic landscapes of another structure are audible on Vancouver-based plectrumist Gordon Grdina’s Her Eyes Illuminate (Songlines SGL-2407-1 www.songlines.com). Built on a jazz-like interpretation of lilting Arabic airs, Grdina, usually a guitarist, concentrates on oud playing, leading a ten-piece group which melds the traditional timbres of riq, ney and darbuka, with a strong bottom provided by electric bass and drums plus jazz-like solo interjections. Triplet runs from trumpeter JP Carter, contrapuntal duets between the split tones of tenor saxophonist Chris Kelley and the choked vibrations from Jesse Zubot’s violin, and liquid glissandi from François Houle’s clarinet are highpoints. One of Canada’s foremost woodwind players, Houle inventively creates a place for his Europeanized reed within this Middle Eastern showcase as he does in improvised, electronic and notated music contexts. Besides connective obbligatos and descriptive squeaks on other tracks, his most distinctive contribution is on the Egyptian/Druze composition Laktob Aourak al Chagar. Buoyed by the timed drumming tempo and aggressive string strumming, Houle bends his pitches so that his horn’s moderato line takes on a strident sturdiness, then as the percussion-pushed theme descends, he joins with the tenor saxophonist for a frenetic duet and finale.

Skilfully manipulating the single reed instrument’s sonic qualities, Houle, Badenhorst, Dehors and The Clarinet Trio validate the clarinet’s adaptability as a vehicle for contemporary improvisation.

Advice from a Misguided Man
Colin Maier
Independent CMCD001
www.colinmaier.com

Colin Maier is far from misguided as an artist. He is comfortable in a wide range of musical styles as is clearly evident for listeners familiar with his work as the oboist for Quartetto Gelato. In this solo project, Maier is joined by a number of special guests in an eclectic collection of music.

Maier, with pianist Allison Wiebe, is sensitive and articulate in Saint-Saëns’ Oboe Sonata. Musical puns abound in Pasculli’s take on Donizetti operas, with accordionist Alex Sevastian providing a solid accompaniment. The traditional The Pipes is arranged by Maier and Mark Camilleri for small ensemble with oboe providing a convincing bagpipe timbre. Maier creates the ambiance in his steady long tones. Rousing versions of Hilario Durán’s Song for Magdalena and the oboist’s composition Bakon showcase Maier’s ample Latin chops. Based on two contrasting Canadian folk songs, Aura Pon’s lyrical Songs of the North Woods, No.1 is simultaneously soothing and dramatic. The idiosyncratic collection of short “songs” by the composer Rebecca Pellett and lyricist Liza McLellan (Gelato’s cellist) are dispersed as tracks throughout. Everything from new music to poetry to dramatic melodies, the songs are unique twists in sound and attitude. There is nothing bland here.

Colin Maier is a multi-talented musician who plays oboe with a gorgeous tone and superimposes his sense of seriousness and humour into all he performs. You would be misguided not to listen to this release.

Tambanavo (Dance With Them)
Zhambai Trio
Independent n/a
www.zhambai.com

The exhilarating debut CD by the Vancouver group Zhambai Trio showcases both the traditional music of the Shona culture of Zimbabwe and that of its transplanted son, Kurai Blessing Mubaiwa, the group’s leader. Mubaiwa is not only an outstanding mbira dza vadzimu (“thumb piano”), marimba, ngoma (hand drum) and hosho (maraca) player; he is an eloquent and powerful singer as well.

Joined by Canadians, world drummer extraordinaire Curtis Andrews and dancer-percussionist Navaro Franco, the Zhambai Trio’s music is deeply steeped in the traditional mbira music of Zimbabwe. The musical form is typically cyclic, while also marked throughout by evolving, interlocking, dual instrument variations. Characteristic vocal solos and choral responses are usually sung over the continuous instrumental patterns, which in the case of Chinzvenga Mutsvairo, builds into a very satisfying, densely woven, polyphonic texture. That and other tracks remind us how closely identified with the essence of music-making the voice is in much of West Africa. The expressive voices, so prominent on this CD, make a compelling case as the real stars here, despite the evident “rightness” and even virtuosity of much of the instrumental playing.

The online notes refer to the “trance-y” nature of the performance in its homeland. Traditionally sought after in Shona ceremonies, trance states are used to communicate with ancestor spirits and to offer insights to problems of community members. The lyrics on this CD however offer less dramatic, reassuring advice to youth, “you can also do what your elders can” (Chipundura). Another song urges people to get along with their grandmothers, who they rely on for comfort and warmth (Dangurangu).

While the Zhambai Trio was formed as recently as 2010, this CD is clear evidence of an infectious brand of contemporary Zimbabwean-inflected music emerging fully formed from our west coast.

Arguably the most illustrious achievement in Decca’s history, and in the industry’s, was the realization of a staged for stereo production of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelungen featuring the world’s eminent Wagnerian voices to be supported by the incomparable Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. EMI had recorded the Karajan cycle live in Bayreuth in 1951 but getting it to market didn’t get beyond the planning stage. Some years later a tentative release date for the complete cycle was announced but the project was shelved when, as I understand the situation, EMI was unexpectedly required to pay all the musicians involved with a fee equal to what they would be paid if they were to record it at this later date. Fortunately, EMI secured the rights and issued the Furtwangler Ring recorded in Rome in October and November 1953. The story of getting that cycle to disc is a saga in itself.

In addition to engaging singers the Decca project required a conductor of stature. Hans Knappertsbusch was considered but Georg Solti was the final choice. John Culshaw was the producer who led the Decca team responsible for everything necessary to get some 16 hours of intense music making onto a finished tape. To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the composer in 2013 and the conductor’s 100th this year, Decca has assembled an extraordinarily opulent edition with many extras that are listed at the bottom of this review.

Das Rheingold was recorded in the Sofiensaal during September and October 1958 with an all-star cast including George London (Wotan), Kirsten Flagstad (Fricka), Set Svanholm (Loge), Paul Kuen (Mime), Gustav Neidlinger (Alberich) and other luminaries of the day. The closing scene following Donner’s summoning the thunder is most impressive with London the perfect Wotan who has unknowingly set in motion the inevitability of the far off twilight of the gods. Many of us looked forward to London’s Wotan in Walküre and Siegfried but it was Hans Hotter who sang the role in both.

Initially, there were very real concerns as to whether demand at retail would be large enough to make the project worthwhile. After all, there had never been an undertaking of this magnitude. Decca/London’s classical manager in the United States, Terry McEwan, was very positive about the sales potential and it is claimed that his enthusiasm and initial first order ended any doubts about the future of the cycle. The three LP set of Das Rheingold was issued in 1959 to universal acclaim, both artistically and sonically. No one had ever heard a recording to match the realism of Decca’s “Sonic Stage” stereo sound and such opulence from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. It was a milestone. It has been in the catalog ever since as LP, then tape and finally CD ... well not quite finally as related below.

In Die Walküre the real story begins as Sigmund (James King) and Sieglinde (Regine Crespin) are thrown together, discover that they are brother and sister, fall madly in love and run off into the woods and conceive Siegfried. Hunding is sung by Gottlob Frick, Wotan by Hans Hotter, Birgit Nilsson is Brunnhilde and Christa Ludwig is Fricka. The eight Valkyries include Brigitte Fassbaender and Helga Dernesch who would later be Karajan’s Brunnhilde in his cycle for DG. Die Walkure was recorded after Siegfried during October and November 1965. Siegfried had been set down in May and October in 1962. The legendary Wolfgang Windgassen is really into the role of Siegfried who knows not fear, slays the dragon Fafner (Kurt Bohme), kills Mime (Gerhard Stolze) then learns of and finds the sleeping Brunnhilde thanks to the Wood Dove (Joan Sutherland).

Nowhere better is the opulent sound and full glory of the Vienna Philharmonic heard than in Götterdämmerung, where all the machinations are paid for, all the principal mortals killed off, Loge has his revenge on the gods as Valhalla burns and the gold is restored to the Rhine Maidens.

There are, of course, many passages in this recording of a very long and complex work that the listener may wish to compare favorably or unfavorably with another performance or performances. That’s what collectors and music lovers do and enjoy.

The Solti Ring is a living tribute, a monument, to everyone involved; the singers, the orchestra and to Solti himself and of course Wagner, the librettist and composer. All perpetuated by Decca who had the remarkable foresight to hand over reigns to producer John Culshaw and a totally enrolled support team.

I must comment on the single Blu-ray audio disc that contains the entire cycle. There is a total absence of any processing artifacts and the listener is immediately and unmistakably right there in the acoustic of the Sofiensaal, witnessing the nuances and dynamics of a live performance. I have heard every iteration from the stereo LPs on, and this sound really is a fresh experience.

Just over a year ago I didn’t know of the Israeli violinist Ittai Shapira, but this month sees the third CD of his that I’ve reviewed in the past 15 months. American Violin Concertos, on the English nonprofit label Champs Hill, features reissues of the violin concertos of Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti with a world premiere recording of the violin concerto Katrina by Theodore Wiprud (CHRCD043). The Barber and Menotti were recorded in Moscow in 2001 with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra under Thomas Sanderling, and issued separately on the ASV label. The Wiprud was recorded in Liverpool earlier this year, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Neil Thomson.

The Wiprud concerto was written at Shapira’s request, and premiered by him just a year ago. The composer describes it as reflecting on the devastation that Hurricane Katrina wrought on the musical life of the whole Delta region, the cradle of so much American music, and as exploring the enduring nature of music, and of life itself, even when apparently crushed by such overwhelming events. It’s a strongly tonal and very effective work.

I don’t recall hearing the Menotti before, but again it’s an immediately accessible work with hints of the Barber in the slow movement – hardly surprising, given the two composers’ almost life-long relationship. Shapira is in his usual superb form – and boy, can this guy play! He certainly has something new to say with the Barber. He takes his time with a meditative and rhapsodic first movement, allowing it to build slowly, but never at the expense of the lyrical nature. Both here, and in the slow movement in particular, the sensitive orchestral balance allows many often unheard details to come through. The Presto finale, while fast, is never simply a headlong rush, with clear delineation of the solo line.

Shapira never puts a foot wrong in impassioned, committed and intelligent performances. One of my earlier reviews mentioned that the violinist had already had 14 concertos written for him; this latest CD makes it easy to see why composers want to write for him. It’s also just as easy to see why people want to listen.

Many years ago I worked for the Chester/Wilhelm Hansen music publishers in London, England, and we would receive a constant stream of new issue Scandinavian works from the Copenhagen office. Two of the leading composers were Denmark’s Per Nørgård (b.1932) and Norway’s Arne Nordheim (1931-2010) and both are featured on the new CD Momentum – Nordic Cello Concertos, featuring the Danish cellist Jakob Kullberg with the New Music Orchestra under Szymon Bywalec (Aurora ACD5075). The third work on the CD is Amers – Concerto No.1 for Cello, Ensemble and Electronics, by Finland’s Kaija Saariaho (b.1952).

I had difficulty back then trying to identify personal or national styles in the Scandinavian composers, and I find much the same problem now. It’s a challenge in any case to try to judge performances of contemporary works without the benefit of a study score; all you can really do is try to decide if the music communicates with the listener. The level of performance here is clearly very high throughout the CD, although the degree of communication will probably be a matter of individual taste.

Nørgård’s Momentum – Cello Concerto No.2 was written in 2009, and dedicated to Kullberg, who also gave the first performance; composer and soloist have enjoyed a close collaboration for the last 15 years.

Nordheim’s Tenebrae – Concerto for Cello and Orchestra was written in 1982 for Rostropovich and is performed here in a chamber orchestra version. It’s not a literal depiction of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical service, but certainly addresses the same issues of shadow and pain.

Saariaho’s Amers – “sea marks” or “buoys” – was written in 1992, and was inspired by a collection of French poetry on the theme of the sea. The addition of electronic sounds possibly makes it a tougher first listen.

These are clearly works that must be listened to, and not approached casually; the result, though, will be worth the effort.

The Nørgård and Nordheim concertos – the latter apparently only in this chamber version – are premiere recordings. Both works are published by Wilhelm Hansen; the Saariaho, coincidentally, is published by Chester.

Last month’s column featured an outstanding recording of the last string quartet that Schubert wrote, two years before his death, and this month there’s a CD of Schubert’s final string chamber work, the wonderful String Quintet in C Major, Op.163, D956, (harmonia mundi HMC 902106) that matches it in all respects. The ensemble in this performance is the German Arcanto Quartett with Olivier Marron on second cello.

The work was written in the summer of 1828, only a few months before Schubert died in November, and it’s one of the great masterpieces of the string chamber repertoire. Strangely, it wasn’t performed until 1850 and didn’t appear in print until 1853.

The lengthy booklet notes, somewhat awkward in their translation, present a complex, rather puzzling and not always convincing analysis of the nature of the contrasting elements in the music, but this is a work which needs no explanation, especially in performances like this one.

Recorded in the Teldex Studio in Berlin, the sound and balance are both exemplary.

I still find it a bit strange having to use the term “21st century music,” but that’s what we have on the very interesting and appealing CD Boiling Point – Music of Kenji Bunch (Delos DE 3430) featuring members of the Alias Chamber Ensemble.

In a perceptive foreword, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts notes that it still isn’t easy “to write from the heart without fear of elitist backlash,” as Bunch does, and goes on to describe Bunch as a consummate musician who “can write effortlessly in a myriad of styles and languages, which he is able to juxtapose with elegance and humor.” All of which should give you a good idea of what this disc sounds like. It’s strongly – but not entirely – tonal music that reflects numerous diverse musical influences, and it’s beautifully crafted and always interesting.

Bunch, born in Portland, Oregon in 1973, describes the CD as a collection of some of his favourite and most deeply personal chamber works of the past decade.

Each of the five movements of String Circle for string quintet (with two violas) pays tribute to a particular kind of American string music: the highlight is a brilliant all-pizzicato movement evoking banjos and ukuleles.

Drift is a charming trio for clarinet, viola and piano; 26.2, for French horn and string trio, celebrates and depicts the composer’s first running of the New York City marathon with his wife – 26.2 miles is the official distance.

Luminaria, for violin and harp, drew its inspiration from the Mexican/Pueblo tradition of votive candles enclosed in coloured paper wrappings.

The final title track, for string quartet, string bass and drums, is a spirited full tilt romp that follows the development of water in a kettle as it gradually escalates to the boil; it’s performed with a live kettle on stage, the performance ending only when the whistle blows!

All in all, a delightful CD of solid, captivating pieces, beautifully performed and recorded. 

Le Triomphe de l’amour
Sandrine Piau; Les Paladins;
Jerome Correas
Naïve OP 30532

The recorded repertoire of the soprano Sandrine Piau is extensive; it also covers a remarkably wide field, from Purcell and Biber in the 17th century to Frank Martin and Benjamin Britten in the 20th. It is, however, as an interpreter of baroque music, both opera and oratorio, that Piau is best known and it is French baroque opera, from Lully and Charpentier in the 1680s to Sacchini in 1783, which forms the subject matter of the disc under review.

As the title suggests, the arias are all about love: about desire, about jealousy, about grief for the death of the beloved. Piau has an agile and expressive voice. She displays an impressive coloratura in the disc’s opening aria from Grétry’s L’amant jaloux and even more so in the fearsome passage work of the extract from Sacchini’s Renaud. Her technique is, however, never offered for its own sake. This is best heard in the sadness and the passion of the aria from Campra’s Idomenée and in the long sustained lines of the arias from Charpentier’s David et Jonathas and from two Rameau operas: Les paladins and Les indes galantes. There are also several instrumental tracks; of these the dance sequence from Rameau’s Les fêtes de Ramire is especially attractive.

We can look forward to Piau’s appearance with Tafelmusik early in the new year. Meanwhile we have this disc, which I recommend with enthusiasm.

Sogno Barocco
Anne Sofie von Otter; Sandrine Piau; Ensemble Cappella Mediterranea; Leonardo Garcia Alarcon
Naïve V 5286

The mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter has never been known as an early music singer, in the limiting sense of that term, but she has sung in some very fine recordings of early music. The CD under review is a very welcome addition to her repertoire: it both begins and ends with Monteverdi; in between there is music by Cavalli, Rossi and Provenzale. The first Monteverdi item is the solo madrigal, Si dolce è ‘l tormento, which has in the past been recorded by other fine singers, notably Janet Baker, Montserrat Figueras and Philippe Jaroussky, as well as by von Otter herself. There are two duets from L’incoranazione di Poppaea, in which von Otter sings Nero to Sandrine Piau’s Poppaea, while the concluding piece is Penelope’s great lament in Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria. Of especial interest too is Rossi’s lament by the Queen of Sweden on hearing the news of the death of her husband Gustavus Adolphus on the battlefield. It is complemented by Provenzale’s parody of that lament.

Von Otter is in great voice throughout the recording, which I recommend with enthusiasm. The three duets with Piau are especially fine. We shall be able to hear Piau in concert with Tafelmusik in the new year; von Otter last sang in Toronto in February 2011, but I remember her from a much earlier occasion, when she did a fabulous recital at the George Weston Recital Hall. When shall we hear her again?

Massenet – Don Quichotte
Jose Van Dam; Orchestre symphonique et choeurs de la Monnaie; Marc Minkowski
Naïve DR 2147

One of the last operas of Jules Massenet, a moving incarnation of an “impossible dream” and the inevitable reality of old age, is celebrating its 100th anniversary, performed to perfection at the Royal Opera House of Belgium. A grand event attended by the Queen who contributed to the show by financing four new young singers. It also became a farewell performance for José van Dam, who dazzled the world in the title role for decades. He was also a vocal coach for the young singers; an inspirational figure indeed.

As to what was involved to realize this magnificent occasion there exists an excellent long, exhaustive documentary. It shows the almost superhuman painstaking efforts step by step from the directorial concept, the rehearsals, the building of the scenery with millions of sheets of paper, the coaching of the choir and the tireless efforts of the young assistant conductor. Finally the godlike arrival of conductor Marc Minkowski and the mercurial presence of le directeur, Laurent Pelly, whose enormous contribution this video increasingly demonstrates.

Because of the very difficult task of coping with a huge, episodic novel, the composer decided to select a few key episodes, like the iconic windmill adventure and came up with a dramatically cohesive structure with one of the most moving endings in opera. José van Dam is ideally suited for Don Quixote, a role originally written for Chaliapin. As a Frenchman would, Massenet expanded the role of the woman in the story into a sophisticated, tempestuous and beautiful femme fatale (Cervantes’ Dulcinea was never like this!). The role is exquisitely sung and acted by Silvia Tro Santafe, a Spanish mezzo with a spectacular vocal range. And we mustn’t forget the third principal, Werner van Mechelen, a Belgian baritone who made Sancho Panza his own.

A joy to watch, never boring, much laughter and touching tenderness make this a very rewarding evening’s entertainment.

Mercadante – Don Chisciotte
alle nozze di Gamaccio
Ugo Guagliardo; Domenico Colaianni; Laura Catrani; San Pietro a Majella Chorus, Naples; Czech Chamber Soloists, Brno; Antonino Fogliani
Naxos 8.660312-13

Cervantes’ huge, epoch making novel from 1605, the first “novel” ever written, has inspired more than one musical treatment not to mention the magnificent tone poem by Richard Strauss, but there is one curiosity just recently emerged. At the well established and respected Rossini in Wildbad Festival, a totally forgotten opera (not performed in the last 150 years!) was unearthed. The composer was Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870), a contemporary of Rossini and Donizetti, an Italian who did much of his work in Spain. His music is much under the influence of Rossini with some originalities explained competently in the liner notes.

To me the interesting thing is how each composer approached this enormous novel. Massenet compressed the work into a few significant scenes, but Mercadante chose an entirely different venue by selecting only one episode, the 20th chapter, where Don Quixote prevents a forced marriage of a farm girl to a wealthy suitor instead of her poor lover. The music is delightful throughout with all-pervasive Spanish rhythms, but the opera really takes off when Don Quixote (Ugo Guagliardo) enters the scene. The entry of the powerful basso profundo voice with vocal acrobatics and strong characterization turns the opera into the extraordinary, much like what Rossini did in his Maometto Secondo. Laura Catrani, the country girl and her lover Hans Ever Mogollon (tenor) are beautiful fresh voices and there is no weakness in the supporting roles either. Rossini specialist Antonino Fogliani conducts with a strong impulse and forward momentum to draw a thunderous ovation.

Les Gouts Accordes
Esteban La Rotta; Jivko Georgiev; Margaret Little; Katelyn Clark
ATMA ACD2 2673

Louis XIV wanted to bring ethnic cohesion to his western European mini-empire. Realising culture would play a part in this, he brought Italian-born Giovanni Battista Lulli to his court and rebranded him as Jean-Baptiste Lully. This CD brings us Lully and Robert de Visée (who actually was French-born) and others such as Jean-Baptiste Barrière who composed in the Sun King’s wake.

Barrière’s second and sixth trio sonatas bring out a rich resonant quality in the theorbo. This continues in the allegro movements with a part for viola da gamba which plays the spritely gigue that ends both sonatas. The theorbo is, above all, given a chance to showcase itself with de Visée’s A Minor theorbo suite. Here, the incorporation of more lively dance-based movements, the gavotte and rondeau, enhance the enjoyment of the suite and Esteban La Rotta’s dexterity manifests itself.

Finally, there is a theorbo solo where de Visée arranges the “Ritournelles des Fées” from Lully’s opera Roland. In the hands of La Rotta the solo underlines just how versatile the theorbo was at a time when it was being challenged in every area of performance by the harpsichord. Indeed, it also demonstrates how effective the combination of Lully and de Visée was in forming a cohesive French musical tradition.

Busoni – Clarinet Concertino; Flute Divertimento; Rondo alecchinesco
Giammorco Casani; Laura Minguzzi; Gianluca Terranova; Orchestra Sinfonica
di Roma; Francesco La Vecchia
Naxos 8.572922

The Italian maestro Francesco da Vecchia, who favoured us last season with an ambitious new recording of Busoni’s gargantuan Piano Concerto, continues his championing of the music of Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) with a generous sampling of shorter orchestral works by this sorely underrated composer whose inimitable compositions have long been overshadowed by his towering reputation as a legendary performer. The centrepieces of the present disc are two single movement wind concertos. Giammarco Casani is the exceedingly suave soloist in the Clarinet Concertino while Laura Minguzzi provides an appropriately sprightly interpretation of the mercurial Divertimento for flute and small orchestra. My only grievance with these interpretations is that they are engineered with the soloists forced unrealistically forward in the sonic mix.

An additional quartet of purely orchestral works presents a broad chronological overview of Busoni’s stylistic development, commencing with the bustling neo-classical Comedy Overture of 1897, the moody, otherworldly Song of the Spirit Dance with its striking aboriginal references inspired by Busoni’s foray to America, followed by the sardonic Rondò arlecchinesco (both from 1915) and concluding with Busoni’s last orchestral work, the Viennese-accented Tanzwalzer of 1920.

In an unusual practice for Naxos, there are two different sets of liner notes, the usual prosaic English version by the ubiquitous Richard Whitehouse and, as best as I can tell, a considerably more insightful Italian essay by Tommaso Manera.