La Voz Del Mar
Xiomara Torres
Patois Records PRCD028 (xiomaratorres.com)

The African Diaspora transported a variety of seminal musics and rhythmic forms to the Americas, which have also contributed heartily to North American blues and jazz. This luminous project (translated as The Voice of the Sea) honours the Afro-Colombian musical tradition, and was deftly produced by San Francisco-based vibraphonist Dan Neville and Colombian vocalist Xiomara Torres. All of the consummate arrangements were created by Neville, and the recording itself was done entirely in Cali, Colombia. In his profound collaboration with vocalist Torres, this CD stands as a living tribute to Torres’ esteemed uncle, master marimbist and international “Music de Pacifica”/Afro-Colombian icon, maestro Diego Obregon.

Torres lovingly embraces her traditional roots here, while travelling seamlessly through a number of contemporary Latin motifs. First up is Me Quedo Contigo. Torres’ timbre is soft and sensual here, and her vocals are also pitch perfect, vibrant and filled with emotional gravitas. Neville has insured that she is never overwhelmed by the potent and complex rumba Guaguancó arrangement, which is rife with horns, vibes/marimba and incendiary percussion. 

Tarde Lo Conoci is a totally delightful Vallenato – a musical form that one could easily hear in the barrios of Cali, Colombia or Queens, NY – featuring accordionist Miguel Salazar, while Tio is a family affair, written by Diego Obregon and featuring his son David on bass and daughter Michel on chorus vocals. The lively tune begins as a currulao and segues seamlessly into a Colombian rumba. Irresistible stand-outs also include La Puerta, a romantic and ethereal bolero (ballad) and the spinetingling closer – the traditional Filomena – a surprising jazz/Pacific Coast Music fusion featuring the iconic Nidia Góngora and muy hermosa marimba work by Neville.

Unánime
Roxana Amed
Sony Music Latin 19658748082 (roxana-amed.com)

This inspired, gorgeous, relevant project from multi-Grammy nominee Roxana Amed is a joyous celebration of the works of both contemporary and historic Latin-American composers, as well as Miles Davis, Edward Perez and Martin Bejerano. 

Amed views “Latin” as a very open concept, as well as the unifying geno connection that the title implies, and she has made this concept of unity the focus of a stirring and deeply magical recording. The Argentinian emigre has surrounded herself with some of the most exceptional Latin musicians on the planet, including her long-time collaborators, Cuban/American pianist and arranger Bejerano, bassist Perez and drummer Ludwig Afonso.

First up is a re-envisioning of Miles Davis’ Flamenco Sketches in which Amed’s sultry and evocative tones wrap themselves around the listener in waves of warm, horn-like sonic joy. The emotionally moving arrangement manifests a sacred vibration and Niño Josele’s viscous soloing on acoustic guitar speaks to us at the very molecular level. Brazil’s legendary Egberto Gismonti is feted here with a potent version of his composition Agua y Vino. The dusky tones of Amed’s sumptuous voice weave a haunting web, while Chico Pinheiro’s guitar transports us to another realm. Of special note is Los Tres Golpes, a song from Cuban icon Ignacio Cervantes featuring the volcanic Chucho Valdés on piano. The deeply moving closer, Adios a Cuba, is another beloved Cervantes composition, rendered to perfection with the angelic collaboration of Amed and Valdés. 

NETSA
Minyeshu
mcps EUCD2945 (arcmusic.co.uk)

The path stubbornly antithetical to globalism is often littered with civilizations that remain almost supernaturally mysterious. One such civilization and culture is the land of Ras-Tafari and, double-entendre, an amusing example the latter ensconced in a sign at Addis Ababa airport that says: “Welcome to Ethiopia, Centre of Active Recreation and Relaxation.” A scrunched-up brow, no matter how deep the furrows, provides no respite. Neither might the repertoire on Netsa by the eminent effervescent vocalist, Minyeshu Kifle Tedla. 

The great Bill Laswell – in typically Homeric manner – first approached Ethiopia through what he famously described as “cultural collision”. It was Laswell who enabled us to peer – magically, through a glass darkly – into the ontological works of Hakim Bey, the Moroccan sojourns of Paul Bowles and Brion Gysin. Laswell’s cultural collisions also presented the ancient-future of the ineffably brilliant Ejigayehu Shibabaw – and with her mystical music the washint and the kirar (ancient Ethiopian flute and harp respectively), the latter of which was believed to be played by King David when he composed the Psalms. 

Minyeshu, to her enormous credit, has brought the ancient-future of Ethiopian music – indeed Ethiopian culture – to a kind of wonderful artistic maturity. Her majestic vocal ululations propel, with irresistible kinetic energy, music redolent of colourful tone textures and transcendent rhythms to conjure a kind of musical magisterium formed – as it were – out of the vivid red clay of the land of Ras-Tafari. Maddening seduction is imminent.

When it comes to guitarists in jazz and improvised music the most common trio configuration seems to be guitar/bass/drums. Much exceptional music has come from groups like that, but recently more musicians are finding that stretching group parameters with one or two other instruments to balance guitar expression can create novel sounds. Most of these trio discs do just that.

That said, Slovenian guitarist Samo Šalamon, 43, still finds a way to make inspiring sounds with a conventional trio structure. He does that on Pure and Simple (Samo Records samosalamon.com) by going back to the future. His associates are two players whose pioneering playing helped create jazz-rock fusion in the 1960s: American drummer Ra Kalam Bob Moses, known for his stint with Gary Burton, and Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen, a founding member of Jan Garbarek’s group. Moving into the 21st century with their chops intact, Moses, 74, and Andersen, 77, improvise with the mastery and subtlety that belies fusion’s reputation as a repository for accelerated showy solos. Moses, who vibrates, ratchets and hand pats percussion instruments as often as he lays down a beat, plays constantly throughout the CD, but his rhythmic sense is so ingenious that it’s a drum aura rather than a sound that’s often there. With his instantly identifiable string slides and tandem interaction with the guitarist, Andersen adds melody to the mixture. When the trio plays The Golden Light of Evening, its closest link to jazz-rock for instance, the bassist’s string slithers vibrate in elastic counterpoint to rein in the guitarist’s buzzes and flanges from dominating the track. Meantime, the one time Moses smashes instead of strokes his drums is when playing Albert Ayler’s Ghosts. Yet it’s Šalamon’s slurred fingering that makes his strings soar like a saxophone and Andersen’s perfectly shaped solo that confirms the melodic lift as well as the strength of this free jazz anthem. Just as the three are too accomplished to display energy for its own sake, when it comes to folksy lyricism on tunes like Little Song, harmony among clarion-pitched guitar, mid-range bass strokes and percussion clunks is steely enough to avoid cloying smoothness. But perhaps the best instance of their cerebral interaction is on You Take My Arm. Operating on top of Moses’ hand drumming, Šalamon’s 12-string guitar clangs and the bassist’s gruff chording make the performance loose and languid. It still includes enough strength though so that the rhythmic string plinks and rim clangs hang in the air after the track is completed.

Altering one part of the equation, Vancouver guitarist Gordon Grdina organizes his Nomad Trio with American drummer Jim Black, as well as extra chordal input from New York pianist Matt Mitchell to reach a Boiling Point (Astral Spirits AS 201 gordongrdina.bandcamp.com). One of the ways this trio usually operates at 100 degrees Celsius is the vaporous pressure created by the guitar and piano blend. Steadily ascending in pressure like heating water with a flame, Grdina’s strained string bites and Mitchell’s chordal clips appear to be in continuous motion, backed by Black’s irregular pumps and crashes. Grdina also often slaps his lower strings to create a funky bass line when needed. The blend can sometimes encompass effects pedals and string flanges for rock-directed shading as on the concluding All Caps. But in the main, slurred fingering from the guitarist harmonizes with top-of-scale key tinkling or reflective keyboard sweeps from the pianist, making the two connected no matter the tempo. Grdina also plays the oud here, without adding any false exoticism, though in a situation with Mitchell’s authoritative comping and Black’s syncopated pulsations it’s difficult to tell one strummed instrument from the other. The expanded string oud may figure into the atmospheric and moderato introduction that characterizes Cali-lacs, for instance. But once the string player connects with the pianist’s key clips and the drummer’s claps and pats, identification seems vestigial. From that point on, the three alternate between interludes of methodical interaction and speedier thrusts. Black slaps hi-hat and clashes cymbals; Mitchell rasps metronomic keyboard pumps; and Grdina’s picking is so swift that at times it reaches flamenco-styled, blurred-note intensity. How the trio wraps up these contrasting motifs into a solid whole is a metaphor for its playing on the entire session.  

Keeping the guitar and drums in the trio, but making a horn its third member is a strategy followed by groups like the UK’s MC3 and Brooklyn’s Stephen Gauci, Wendy Eisenberg and Franciso Mela. The British date on Sounds of the City (Phonocene Records mattclarkmusic.co.uk) adds Charlotte Keefe’s trumpet or flugelhorn to Matt Clark’s guitar and James Edmunds’ drum. On Live at Scholes Street Studio (Gauci Music gaucimusic.com), it’s Gauci’s tenor saxophone playing alongside Eisenberg’s guitar and Mela’s drums.

In MC3’s case, Keefe’s technical prowess is such that by default Clark becomes the melodist. While the two create a contrapuntal dance between dissonance and tonality, Edmunds stays in the background with the occasional snare pop or cymbal vibrations. What that means is that most of the eight tunes resemble the strategy on Conversation #1 (Dispatches). Clark’s usual warm strums and expressive frails are constantly challenged by Keefe’s digging out timbres from within her horns that aggressively growl and are often displayed with triplet flurries. Here, however, the guitarist introduces chiming licks and the two end up complementing each other’s output as they attain a groove. Besides theme deconstruction with sharp whines, portamento breaths and plunger detours, Keefe cannily sneaks in brief quotes from familiar tunes, and at one point a Latin-like upsurge, to move along the program. Improvisational friction doesn’t mean the trio avoids slower pieces however. Altercations, the closest to a ballad, includes Clark’s gentle folksy comping and Keefe’s slurring reprise of a snatch of Round Midnight in the middle section. She still interjects some raspberries and pointed pops into her solo, but that’s what defines MC3’s POMO sensibility. Furthermore, when Edmunds asserts himself with press rolls in tandem with swinging guitar fingering on the penultimate Traffic, Keefe’s half-valve smears race along at double the tempo to confirm individuality and the group’s distinct parameters.

Eisenberg’s playing is more forceful than Clark’s and Gauci’s tenor saxophone projects more robustly than a trumpet so that Live at Scholes Street Studio is the fiercest trio disc here. But while saxophone timbres are screeched and guitar licks flanged and Mela’s drums rumble and pop, each of the six untitled selections are played with certain control. Building up to the extended final track, the trio members advance diverse strategies. At points, Eisenberg twangs the lowest pitched of her strings to create a double bass-like pulse, which contrasts with and accompanies her flat picking or squealing flanges for folk or rock music inferences. Mela studs the tunes with a collection of shuffles, ruffs and rebounds locking together the others’ sound shards into horizontal motion. He adds to the free-form excitement of the concluding tune by unexpectedly yelping Spanish-inflected tones to accelerate the climax. Gauci buzzes tones as often as he bites off textures, with his broken chord expositions boomeranging in and out of the altissimo and sometimes sopranissimo ranges. He introduces continuously breathed sections as well as spectrofluctuation and scooped snorts often in tandem with the guitarist’s slurred finger or chunky rhythm licks. Still his strained skyward squeaks and Eisenberg’s exploration of the strings’ constricted highest tones or the alternative basement-level string strums and nephritic reed cries doesn’t preclude swinging linear underpinning, especially when the drummer solidifies the beat. Eisenberg introduces electronics-like crackles and fuzzy rubs on the sixth and final tune adding to its electric feel. But while waves of pressurized tones intensify as the piece reach a crescendo, tension is released following Mela’s vocal mumbles as the guitarist’s finger picking slides downward to tonality.

German trio Skyhook (Audiosemantics 21002 audiosemantics.bandcamp.com/album/skyhook) consisting of bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall, bassist Jan Roder  and guitarist Olaf Rupp are confident enough of their individual skills that they cheerfully improvise in this unique configuration. With peerless rhythmic command the bassist guides linear connection from the bottom with intermittent but steady strokes. The clarinetist sounds a collection of split tones in chalumeau or clarion registers to advance or deconstruct the tunes. Meanwhile the guitarist’s strums and stops bridge potential divisive intervals by capricious adjustments from foreground to background textures; from high-pitched to low-pitched tones; and by frequently using harsh string chops to add extra percussion to comprehensive melody affirmations. Skyhook was recorded live so that every contrapuntal challenge suggested by slurred fingering and crying reed slurs at one point, or constant strumming facing clarion reed peeps at another, must be resolved in real time before the program can proceed. Yet this doesn’t faze the three, who in different combinations have a history of involvement in all manner of advanced sounds. Should Roder for instance, cut off his connective rumble for squealing sul ponticello slices as on vernünftig, then Rupp’s potent strumming takes on that comping role, muting Mahall’s reed barks and bites. Or if the clarinetist completes his exposition with unbroken glissandi as on the concluding was nicht existiert, then the guitarist’s finger picking adds to the linear narrative. With the ability to incorporate into logical motion every extended technique from bony string flanges or resonating twangs plus altissimo clarinet screeches or body-tube exhumed renal honks, Skyhook is like an aerial act that never has to rely on the waiting net. And if you listen closely, especially on tracks like durch and existiert, you may even hear snatches of swing plus perhaps a song quote that buttresses the sound deconstruction and exploration.

None of the instrumental mixes here include unknown or little used instruments. But it’s the way in which they blend with the guitar that makes these discs memorable.

Every now and then a CD comes along of such stunning quality that it almost leaves you speechless. Such is the case with Avant l’orage – French String Trios 1926-1939, a 2CD set priced as a single disc, featuring seven beautifully crafted works, mostly by composers who aren’t household names, in simply superb performances by the Chicago-based Black Oak Ensemble of violinist Desirée Ruhstrat, violist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli and cellist David Cunliffe (Cedille CDR90000 212 cedillerecords.org).

The trios by Henri Tomasi, Robert Casadesus and Gustave Samazeuilh are world-premiere recordings; these three works, along with the trios by Jean Françaix and Gabriel Pierné were all written for and dedicated to the renowned Trio Pasquier. The other two trios here are by Jean Cras and Émile Goué. All seven works are high quality and extremely attractive, and it’s hard to imagine their ever being played better – or with better recorded sound, for that matter. 

The Madrid-based violist Wenting Kang, ably supported by pianist Sergei Kvitko makes her album debut with Mosaic, a CD celebrating an era in which Spanish and French composers were frequently friends and collaborators (Blue Griffin Records BGR609 bluegriffin.com).

Nearly all the tracks were adapted by Kang from violin or cello arrangement scores, to great effect – in fact, Kang sounds like a violin or cello in many of the pieces; her beautifully clear tone and dazzling technical perfection resulting in a wide range of tonal colour.

There are two pieces by Debussy, two by Ravel and four by Fauré, with Spain represented by the Tárrega Recuerdos de la Alhambra in the challenging Ruggiero Ricci solo transcription, the Albéniz Tango and the da Falla Seven Popular Spanish Songs. Casals’ Song of the Birds and a solo Fantasia on the same song by the Japanese composer Akira Nishimura round out a superlative disc.

There’s more outstanding viola playing on Charm, Passion, and Acrobatics – Music for Viola and Piano featuring violist Misha Galaganov and pianist John Owings (Navona NV6434 navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6434).

The CD resulted from Galaganov’s purchase of a collection of music scores from the library of Armand Pushman, who died in 1999 aged 98, and who studied viola at the Paris Conservatory in his youth. Among the long-forgotten works were five featured here: the Nocturne (1905), the charming Prelude et Saltarelle (1907) and the short but intense Impromptu from 1922 by the French composer and conductor Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht (1880-1965), and the 1921 Sonata and 1939 Rhapsodie by the French composer and organist Pierre Kunc (1865-1941), whose manuscripts remained available only to copyright holders until 2021. All are premiere recordings.

Chausson’s final work, the 1897 Piece for Cello (Violin or Viola) Op.39 completes an impressive CD.

Solus et una (“Alone and together”) is a reflection on cellist Amit Peled`s journey during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he spent a lot of time playing the Bach cello suites in his home studio. The two that attracted him the most were the Suite No.4 in E-flat Major BWV1010 and the Suite No.5 in C Minor BWV1011, both presented on this deeply felt and immensely satisfying CD (CTM Classics 95269 15090 ctmclassics.com).

The cello is a Giovanni Grancino from c.1695, and Peled uses its deep, warm tone to maximum effect, creating smooth, flowing lines in beautifully judged readings that mine the emotional depths of these exceptional works.

An encore track is the one piece Peled was able to record with his students during the lockdown: an arrangement for eight cellos and piano of the Andante from Brahms` Symphony No.3. It`s a lovely end to a quite beautiful disc.

When the Danish cellist Jonathan Swensen won the 2019 Windsor Festival International String Competition part of the prize was a debut recording with Champs Hill Records; his CD Fantasia – works for solo cello is the result (chandos.net/products/reviews/HR_168).

Swensen says that he wanted the studio recording to have “exactly the same energy that comes from a live concert,” and he certainly succeeds with a stunning recital that simply crackles with electricity and intensity.

The established works are the Ligeti Sonata for Solo Cello with a dazzling Capriccio second movement, Dutilleux’s Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher and a towering reading of the monumental Kodály Sonata for Solo Cello Op.8. A lesser-known work – which should surely be part of the standard repertoire – is Khachaturian’s terrific Sonata-Fantasie for Solo Cello Op.104 from 1974, and the CD’s title track is the 2021 commission Farewell-Fantasia by the Danish composer Bent Sørensen.

Outstanding technique and musical intelligence combine for a superb start to Swensen’s recording career.

Corazón (Heart) is the new CD from the American cellist John-Henry Crawford, accompanied for the most part by pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion and in three pieces by the South Korean guitarist JIJI (Jiyeon Kim) in a program that reflects the cellist’s love of Latin American music (Orchard Classics ORC100198 orchidclassics.com).

The major work is the Sonata in G Minor by the Mexican composer Manuel Ponce, also represented by the well-known Estrellita and the title track Por ti mi corazón. There are short single pieces by Leo Brouwer, Carlos Guastavino and Egberto Gismonti, as well as three by Heitor Villa-Lobos and two by Astor Piazzolla, whose closing track Oblivion features Crawford on multiple-tracked cello. The guitar provides the accompaniment in Estrellita and the Brouwer and Gismonti pieces.

Every track is a gem, with Crawford quite superb in music he says “pulls at the heartstrings and exudes romance and passion” – as does the playing on a captivatingly gorgeous disc.

Longtime collaborators John Williams and Yo-Yo Ma reunite for A Gathering of Friends, their new CD with the New York Philharmonic featuring the premiere recording of the revised version of Williams’ Cello Concerto, originally written for Ma in 1994. Selections from three of Williams’ movie scores are also heard in new arrangements with solo cello (Sony Classical 886449741939 sonyclassical.com/releases).

Don’t expect any Korngold-like movie material in the concerto – it’s an intense and highly compelling work very much in a modern style, with some lovely cello writing and a beautiful tonal final resolution.

Three pieces from Schindler’s List – Theme, Kraków Ghetto Winter 41 and Remembrances – need little introduction. The other movie tracks are With Malice Toward None from Lincoln and A Prayer For Peace from Munich, the latter a duo for Ma and guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas. 

Ma is joined by harpist Jessica Zhou in A Gathering of Friends – Highwood’s Ghost, written in 2018 for the Bernstein Centenary at Tanglewood, where there is a legend of a ghost in the manor house.

If you still believe that contemporary string quartets are always a tough listen then Robert Paterson String Quartets 1-3 in superb performances by the Indianapolis Quartet should change your mind (American Modern Recordings AMR1054 americanmodernrecordings.com).

This is clearly music to be enjoyed. String Quartet No.1 includes a “swing” first movement, a country waltz with a middle section called “Andrew Lloyd Webber Disease” and an Energetic Polka. String Quartet No.2 features Rigor Mortis, portraying the barking dog from the comic strip of the same name.

String Quartet No.3, commissioned by the Indianapolis Quartet explores “other voices,” including Tourette’s syndrome in Twist and Shout and an auctioneer and country fiddling in Auction Chant.

It’s imaginative, hugely entertaining and quite brilliant writing, with Paterson always in total control of style and structure.

Listen to 'Robert Paterson String Quartets 1-3' Now in the Listening Room

Prism IV – Beethoven Mendelssohn Bach is the penultimate release by the Danish String Quartet in their Prism project, where a Bach fugue is connected to a late Beethoven quartet that is in turn connected to a quartet by a later master (ECM New Series ECM2564 ecmrecords.com/shop).

Bach’s Fugue in G Minor from Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier opens the disc, followed by an intense performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet No.15 in A Minor Op.132, published in 1826. Crystal-clear definition, terrific ensemble, dynamics and tone all make for an outstanding reading.

The standard never drops in Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No.2 in A Minor Op.13, begun in July 1827 just months after Beethoven’s death. Mendelssohn was fascinated by Beethoven’s late quartets, and his Op.13 continues their progress towards the new Romanticism. 

The 2CD set of Mozart String Quartets Vol.5 is the final volume in the series by the Armida Quartet (Avi 8553496 avi-music.de).

The two earliest quartets are No.3 in G Major K156 and No.5 in F Major K158 from a group of six written in Milan in 1772. The quartets No.10 in C Major K170, No.11 in E-flat Major K171 and No.13 in D Minor K173 are from the six “Viennese” quartets written the following year after Mozart’s exposure to Haydn’s recently published string quartets.

Finally, there are two works from the six “Haydn” quartets that followed the publication of Haydn’s own Op.33 set of six in 1783: No.15 in D Minor K421 and No.16 in E-flat Major K428.

The Armida Quartet is working with the publisher G. Henle Verlag on a new Urtext Edition of the Mozart quartets, and their insight and attention to detail are evident throughout finely judged performances.

There’s more top-notch quartet playing, this time from the Takács Quartet, on Haydn String Quartets Opp.42, 77 and 103 (Hyperion CDA68364 hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68364).

The String Quartet in D Minor Op.42 was the first following the huge success of Haydn’s Op.33 set. The two Op.77 quartets – No.1 in G Major and No.2 in F Major – were the final two quartets that Haydn completed, the two middle movements of a quartet unfinished at his death and published as Op.103 completing the CD.

The Takács Quartet has previously released CDs of Haydn’s Op.71 and Op.74 Quartets to great acclaim and it’s easy to hear why, with bright, clear playing, a lovely dynamic range and a resonant recording making for a delightful disc.

The Brazilian guitarist Plínio Fernandes, now resident in London, makes his CD debut with Saudade (Nostalgia), a “virtuosic, soaring melodic set” combining his two passions – the popular songs of Brazil and the classical tradition of Villa-Lobos (Decca Gold 4857617 pliniofernandesmusic.com).

It’s the familiar Five Preludes of Villa-Lobos that are at the centre of a very attractive recital, the other 13 tracks featuring songs by, among others, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Milton Nascimento, Violeta Parra and Jacob do Bandolím, mostly in arrangements by Sergio Assad. Guest artists are cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, his violinist brother Braimah and vocalist Maria Rita.

“An entrancing collection,” says the publicity blurb. And rightly so.

Forestare, the Montreal ensemble of 12 guitars and a double bass celebrates its close ties with France on Douze Guitares à Paris, an album dedicated to works by Debussy and Ravel and compositions by contemporary French guitarists Roland Dyens and Arnaud Dumond (ATMA Classique ACD2 2835 atmaclassique.com/en).

A dozen guitars sounds like a lot of separate voices, but the arrangements here are all in four parts with three players assigned to each, a system essentially ensuring a strong, even tone with no loss of dynamic range. 

Hamsa by Dyens (1955-2016) is followed by Debussy’s Suite bergamasque. An effective transcription of Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye comes between the two impressive works by Dumond (born 1956): the terrific Allegro barbaro for ten guitars, double bass and two soloists, and his Lumières sur le Saint-Laurent for solo electric guitar and classical guitar ensemble.

Listen to 'Douze Guitares à Paris' Now in the Listening Room

There’s another 2CD set of Beethoven Complete Music for Piano and Cello, this time by Robert deMaine, the principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and pianist Peter Takács (Leaf Music LM233 leaf-music.ca).

The five sonatas – Op.5 Nos.1 & 2, Op.69 and Op.102 Nos.1 & 2 – are joined by the three sets of variations: the 12 Variations in G Major on Handel`s “See the conqu’ring hero comes,” the 12 Variations in F Major on “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” and the Seven Variations in E-flat Major on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen”, both from Mozart`s Die Zauberflöte.

DeMaine plays with a quite dark and rich tone, but tends to sound a bit muffled or indistinct at times, as if set too far back in the balance. There’s fine playing and ensemble work here though, particularly in the really tricky Allegro vivace movements.

Listen to 'Beethoven Complete Music for Piano and Cello' Now in the Listening Room

Debut is the first recording by the Brazilian-Canadian Amorim-Rufino Duo of violinist Vladimir Rufino and violist Fabiola Amorim in a recital of somewhat uneven musical and technical quality (Azul AMDA1755 azulmusic.com.br).

The 1789 Sonata No.1 by Paul Wranitzky and the 1788 Duo in C Major Op.19 No.4 by Franz Anton Hoffmeister open the disc, the latter the stronger piece with some particularly good viola work. The Villa-Lobos Duo from 1946 is followed by the world-premiere recording of Two Hearts in Concert, the short 2021 work written for the duo by Canadian composer Frank Horvat. The best work in the recital, Bohuslav Martinů’s Three Madrigals H.313, closes the disc. 

There’s competent playing of challenging works here, although the recorded sound could be better balanced and warmer.

Canadian Art Song Project: Jeffrey Ryan – Found Frozen
Danika Lorèn; Krisztina Szabó; Dion Mazerolle; Steven Philcox
Centrediscs CMCCD 30222 (cmccanada.org/shop/cd-cmccd-30222)

Canadian Art Song Project (CASP) – a national treasure of an organization that perennially commissions, performs and records the art song canon of our country – has just released a consummate record of Jeffrey Ryan’s music. Ryan has come to be regarded as an important compositional voice in Canada and here, his unassuming, sensitive lyricism and narrative panache make for a first-rate audio survey of songs.

This new album casts a cyclic triptych featuring eminent voices framed by the superlative pianism of Steven Philcox: the urgent, theatrical soprano of Danika Lorèn; the silken, magnetic mezzo of Krisztina Szabó and the lush, brazen baritone of Dion Mazerolle (whose sensual performance of Ryan’s earliest cycle is amorously candid).

The two youthful cycles on this disc – Of Passion’s Tide and Found Frozen – date from 1991 and 1997, respectively. Here we note Ryan’s vernal approach to the genre, flattering both singer and pianist alike with full-blooded melody and neo-Romantic gesture. (The marked song style of American composer Ned Rorem comes to mind.) There is a quality in Ryan’s musical language that feels familiar, shaped – perhaps involuntarily – by folk traditions: a Canadian lingua franca, earnestly cultivated and sung from the heart.

A departure from the early essays, Miss Carr in Seven Scenes (2017) employs austere accompaniments and dark, wistful lines. Conversational and at times monodic, Ryan’s new set is expertly realized by Szabo, whose refined acting and characterful musicality blazons on full display.

Samuel Adler – To Speak To Our TIme
Gloriae Dei Cantores; Richard K. Pugsley
Gloriae Die Cantores GDCD 066 (gdcrecordings.com/new-release-samuel-adler)

With over 400 published works to his name, Samuel Adler is a composer who is difficult to fit into a single category or niche. This recording focuses specifically on Adler’s religious choral music and how the composer’s versatility and wide-ranging style take us on a journey blending contemporary musical techniques with the influence of his Jewish heritage.

Adler was born in Mannheim, Germany, where his father was a highly respected synagogue cantor and liturgical composer. Within a year after the nationally orchestrated pogrom known as Kristallnacht, the Adler family emigrated to America, where the elder Adler obtained a position as a cantor in Massachusetts and Samuel began demonstrating his musical talents. He became his father’s choir director when he was only 13 and remained at that post until he began his university studies. During that early period, he began composing liturgical settings, at first under his father’s influence and soon developing his own style.

From the very beginning of this recording, the opening A Hymn of Praise demonstrates this Jewish influence, setting the text to a traditional Yigdal melody commonly known as the hymn tune LEONI. The remaining texts, taken from the Psalms and Old Testament, recount God’s goodness on the journey of life and through the hills, valleys and mountaintop, and every emotion from pain to joy, disappointment to elation and sorrow to hope. The musical settings of these texts are a delight to the ears, wonderfully rich and robust, and brought to life with energy and joy by Gloriae Dei Cantores and their director Richard K. Pugsley.

Juris Ābols – Xeniae 
Latvian Radio Choir; Sigvards Klava
LMIC SKANI 140 (skani.lv)

When encountering a piece of music for the first time, the brain begins searching for general thematic similarities: is this like Bach or Black Sabbath; Monteverdi or Miles Davis? While this “compare and contrast” method works well for most music, occasionally a listener is confronted by a single work that contains such a vast synthesis of styles that it is both disorienting and astonishing; such is the case with Juris Ābols’ opera Xeniae.

From the very first movement of this opera, we are introduced to a staggering tapestry of eras and references, including early-Baroque recitative accompanied by guitar and smooth jazz. As improbable as this may seem, the effect is both successful and addictive, for as we make our way through this staggering work, we can never guess what comes next, and this propels us forward with eager anticipation. There is, perhaps, no parallel to Xeniae in the world of classical music, for the breadth of material is simply too diverse, and it is rather similar in a number of ways to Pink Floyd’s The Wall. 

What cannot be overstated is just how impressive the performance of the Latvian Radio Choir and its director Sigvards Kļava is on this recording, especially considering that the entire opera was recorded in the basement of Kļava’s home. Although an unknown name to many, Ābols makes a tremendous impact with Xeniae, and proves that he is one of the 21st century’s most eclectic and exciting composers. This disc is highly recommended, not only to those who favour classical music, but to those who appreciate any music, for there truly is something here for everyone.

James Kallembach – Antigone
Lorelei Ensemble; Beth Willer
New Focus Recordings FCR331 (newfocusrecordings.com)

James Kallembach’s Antigone relocates Sophocles’ seminal Athenian tragedy to the landscape of Nazi Germany. His libretto draws inspiration from the tragic poetry found in Sophie Scholl’s diary. Scholl, a member of the non-violent student White Rose Movement was arrested and later guillotined – along with her brother Hans – by the Nazis in 1943.      

Kallembach’s Antigone unfolds in the impassioned struggle of the title character, a woman determined to fight for the truth amid tyranny. The struggle features Antigone and Ismene locking proverbial horns with their dictatorial uncle Creon. Kallembach’s narrative seamlessly weaves the characters’ lives in and out of Athens into the warp and weft of Nazi Germany. Members of the Lorelei Ensemble create a shimmering luminosity as they delicately vocalize the sisters and the powerful voice of Creon. In particular, Christina English, Sarah Brailey and Rebecca Myers Hoke sing with enormous sensitivity, superbly characterizing everyone from the sensitive Ismene to the powerful Creon and the tragic Antigone who is none other than Scholl. 

The Ensemble delivers this outstanding libretto, directed by the sensitive yet firm hand of Beth Willer. In particular the encounters between Scholl and Lisa Remppis, with words from the former’s diary entries, have a pared-down style, particularly effective in the vignettes from late March, 1942. The reading of Scholl’s pamphlets is expertly melded into the disturbing backdrop created by moaning cellos. Something elegant and different emerges after each hearing of this disc.

La Zingarella: Through Romany Songland
Isabel Bayrakdarian; Gryphon Trio; Juan-Miguel Hernandez; Mark Fewer
Avie Records AV2506 (avie-records.com/releases/la-zingarella-through-romany-songland)

Gypsies, Romanies, Zigeuner, Gitans – however they were named, the peripatetic people from north India who entered and traversed Europe in medieval times were everywhere scorned as mountebanks, maligned as thieves. Nevertheless, the wanderers’ music, with its exotic timbres, vibrant rhythms and soulful melodies, has been an enduring source of inspiration for innumerable composers, including the 11 on this CD.

Multi-Juno-winning soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, singing here in German, Czech, Spanish, French and English, is joined by violinist Mark Fewer, violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez and the Gryphon Trio performing vigorous, freshly created instrumental arrangements by Peter Tiefenbach and John Greer.

Accounting for 15 of the disc’s 27 tracks are two song-cycle masterworks known in English as “Gypsy Songs” – Brahms’ Zigeunerlieder, Op.103 and Dvořák’s Cigánské melodie, Op.55 (including the much-loved Když mne stará matka – “Songs My Mother Taught Me”). Three sassy, saucy Spanish songs by Sebastián Iradier are especially ingratiating; the third, El arreglito (Canción habanera), was the tune Georges Bizet borrowed and slightly modified for the CD’s following track – the Habanera from Carmen!

Bayrakdarian is in fine voice and exuberant high spirits for these mostly high-spirited selections, yet poignant or sensuous when appropriate. Songs by Franz Liszt, Joaquín Valverde and Henry F.B. Gilbert, plus arias from operettas by Maurice Yvain, Franz Lehár, Emmerich Kálmán and Victor Herbert, all reflect these composers’ admiration (not “appropriation”) of a marginalized ethnic minority’s distinctively spicy, rhapsodic music. This exhilarating cross-cultural excursion is enthusiastically recommended!

Jonathan Berger; Harriet Scott Chessman – Mỹ Lai
Kronos Quartet; Vân-Áhn Vanessa Vo; Rinde Eckert
Folkways SFW CD 40251 (folkways.si.edu)

Every once and a while the invisible cosmic forces align in such a manner as to create art that is spectacularly dark and forbidding, yet utterly irresistible and monumental. For the operetta Mỹ Lai those forces fuelled its composers, the musician Jonathan Berger and the librettist Harriet Scott Chessman, who conspired to bring Mỹ Lai back to life with the great Kronos Quartet, traditional Vietnamese instrumentalist Vân Ánh Vanessa Võ and the ineffably brilliant vocalist Rinde Eckert. 

Ordinarily you would credit any operetta as having a fairly linear narrative line. But Mỹ Lai is no ordinary operetta. It is a revelation of an open wound in the history of the Vietnam War, one in which US soldiers’ massacred 504 South Vietnamese civilians in Mỹ Lai village. 

On this recording the terrifying narrative is woven into the howl of the Kronos strings and the roar of Eckert’s singing – voicing several characters who were involved in or witnessed the event. Meanwhile the evocative percussion colours of Võ’s instruments add an eerie contrapuntal voice, redolent of delicate tintinnabulation and ghostly echoes of mallets on metal keys,

Highly charged performances by the Kronos and Võ, employing the sound-mass textures of Berger’s orchestral work and the unearthing of the naked horror in Chessman’s libretto by Eckert, together make Mỹ Lai an unforgettable work of art. It is the most powerfully moving anti-war palimpsest since Picasso painted Guernica. 

Global Wagner: From Bayreuth to the World
A Film by Axel Brüggemann
Naxos 2.110708 (naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=2.110708)

German director/scriptwriter/filmmaker Axel Brüggemann made this documentary film almost 140 years after composer Richard Wagner’s death. Brüggemann offers a look at and listen to Wagner’s life, music and his Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, by exploring and filming backstage at rehearsals and performances, and including countless Wagnerite fans, international Wagner societies around the world today and individual viewpoints about the enigmatic, controversial composer. Mostly in German with no voiceovers, the subtitles in English (among other languages) are legible.

Brüggemann’s journalistic documentary approach, with colourful scenic visuals throughout, is to be commended. The film opens in Venice, where Wagner lived, loving the city’s calmness, with breathtaking city clips, including fascinating emotional footage from the room where he died in 1883. Then to Bayreuth with astounding aerial views. Other worldwide sites include Newark New Jersey, Riga Latvia, Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv and Tokyo, with these city visuals complementing interviews, concerts and fans, making this a “never leave your home” trip around the world. And the background Wagner music performances are perfect!

Lots to learn from the interviews with such Wagnerites as Bayreuth artistic director /business manager Katharina Wagner, conductor Christian Thielemann, operatic bass-baritone Kevin Maynor and American music critic Alex Ross, among others. Especially fun are day-to-day commentaries from Ulrike and Georg Rauch who own a butcher shop near the festival theatre. Emotional contrasting footage is of Jerusalem-based Jewish lawyer and chairman/founder of the Israel Wagner Society, Jonathan Livny, who is quoted in the liner notes as saying “Wagner was a terrible person but he wrote heavenly music.”

And viewers get up-close looks at rehearsals and performances. We see the Bayreuth orchestra musicians rehearse and set volume and dynamic levels, we watch stage hands move and place sets and hear director commentaries during sung/acted rehearsals and subsequent performance footage in the acoustically unique theatre. All are eye-opening. Lots of packed crowds of well-dressed fans of (surprisingly) all ages to see entering the theatre.

Short fragmented music, visuals and interview cuts are joined seamlessly together, making this an easy group of stories for all to follow about the world’s fascination for Wagner today.

Beethoven: The Symphonies
Chamber Orchestra of Europe; Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Deutsche Grammophon (deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/beethoven-the-symphonies-nezet-seguin-12724)

The summer of 2021 was not an easy one so it isn’t hard to imagine the excitement the Chamber Orchestra of Europe must have felt when it came together to record a new version of the nine Beethoven Symphonies with none other than Yannick Nézet-Séguin, one of the most expressive and thoughtful conductors on the scene today, someone capable of truly joyous music-making. Add to this the backing of Deutsche Grammophon and you have the makings of a wonderful project: the first recording of the New Complete Edition of the Symphonies, painstakingly prepared for the Beethoven celebrations in 2020.

What is new in this edition? As a contrabassoonist myself, I’m delighted to say that the program notes make quite a lot of the fact that the most noticeable change is a much-expanded role for the contrabassoon in the Ninth Symphony. Designated contrabassoon parts in Beethoven’s hand exist for the finales of the Fifth and Ninth Symphonies but the liner notes point out that Beethoven created tailor-made versions of the Ninth for various specific performances and that the new contra part is an amalgam of six different contra parts from Beethoven’s day. I was curious to find out if these changes are audible: bad contrabassoon playing quickly makes itself obvious but a well-rendered contra part can make a performance seem rich or deep without the listener knowing exactly why. Such is the case in this set. I deliberately listened to the Ninth without any clue as to where the contra has been added, just to see if I could hear anything new and I’m happy to say that I did. Behind the baritone‘s first solo after the recitative, there is definitely more of a “spine” in the bassline, and at the Turkish March, one can hear that the contra has been moved up an octave as it used to appear in older editions. 

Are there other audible changes in this edition? In the second movement of the Ninth, the repeats have been sorted out (559 bars total vs. 954) and there is a diminuendo in the tympani part which I don’t recognize. As far as the rest of the set goes, there is an unusual ornament in the third movement of the Seventh Symphony but otherwise most listeners won’t notice anything strikingly unusual. There are many lovely turns of articulation but it’s hard to say whether this is because of changes to the edition or just good musicianship. Tempos are not always what Beethoven called for but they are always appropriate with the exception of a rather slow third movement in the Fifth. Interestingly, this tempo gives a great sense of relief when it returns in the last movement so perhaps that was YN-S’s intent. Another surprise comes at the start of the second movement of the Eroica where the grace notes in the basses seem to arrive after the downbeat: an interpretation that is, well, puzzling.

The playing of the orchestra is wonderful: tight ensemble in the strings, characterful woodwind solos, discreet brass and incisive tympani playing. My main concern is with the way the orchestra has been recorded. Producer Andrew Mellor seems to prefer a mix that locates the listener very close to the first violin section often making the firsts too present and the rest of the orchestra too vague. This is particularly true of the lower woodwinds and the horns, making many of the chorale passages sound unblended and rendering more than one duet as more of a solo with only a hint of the second line. And before you dismiss me as being partisan, I can assure you that many other recordings sound, to my ears, much more homogenous and portray the winds and strings as more equal teams. Ultimately, the buck stops with YN-S, but I’m more inclined to question the engineering.

If you can listen past the balance issues, or if it sounds just fine to you on your system, you will be rewarded with much grace and humour and some thrilling moments: the whole First Symphony is a delight and the first movement of the Seventh is pure joy. The funeral march of the Eroica seems to have a special depth to it, as you might expect, and the singing in the Ninth is first-rate, possibly because of details added in this edition. I particularly love the qualities of Florian Boesch’s baritone voice which give an almost tenor-ish spring to his solo and I have never heard a more nuanced and articulate version of the Ninth’s celli/bassi recitative.

The Year That Never Was
Matei Varga
Sono Luminus DSL-93358 (sonoluminus.com)

An eclectic, highly personal recording from Romanian pianist Matei Varga is intended “to bring joy when we really need it… to take [the] mind away from current realities.” As such, Varga offers an attractively curated disc of miniature delights, from Gershwin to Chopin to Scarlatti. The contemporary content on this disc is sourced from the salon-styled pen of Cuban master, Ernesto Lecuona and Romanian composer, Andrei Tudor, whose Ronda alla Crazy is featured as a quirky micro-highlight. This three-minute swinging track encapsulates a veritable brand of crazy, born of pandemic freneticism. (It was even delivered to Matei by the composer via Facebook Messenger!) 

Ernesto Lecuona’s music was a new (pandemic) discovery for Varga, and one that centres the vision for the record. Varga is at home in this off-beat repertoire, imputing characteristic charm and improvisatorial ease to Lecuona’s 19th Century Cuban Dances. Here, interwoven with Chopin’s “salon” music, the pairing of both composers brings credibility to Lecuona. It is a clever juxtaposition, framing Chopin less seriously and Lecuona more so. Varga reminds us that much of Chopin’s art originated from smaller stages and gentil spaces, sporadically populated by aristocrats who desired to be amused, not feverously stirred.

Varga’s signature pianism is apt in arguing for seemingly disparate musical threads. More of a recital program than a thematically directed album, The Year That Never Was nonetheless achieves satisfaction, executed with much joy and a tasteful, rollicking fondness for this personalized set list.

Musical Remembrances
Neave Trio
Chandos CHAN 20167 (chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2020167)

Recorded in 2021 at Potton Hall, England and released on Chandos Records, their fourth for the label, Musical Remembrances by the Neave Trio (Anna Williams, violin; Mikhail Veselov, cello; and Eri Nakamura, piano) captures the trio in a reflective mood. The album is inspired by remembrance, both in terms of repertoire selection (Ravel’s Piano Trio in A Minor, Op.67 captures the French composer “remembering” his native Basque musical tradition) and in terms of remembering what a pre-pandemic world of touring and concertizing was like for musicians of the calibre and renown of the Neave Trio. And while speculative as this recording may be, it is anything but maudlin or melancholic – the dynamic chosen repertoire pops from the stereo speakers with the same clarity, purpose and confidence of delivery that earned their previous recording, Her Voice, a best recording of the year designation by both The New York Times and BBC Radio 3. 

Although the entire recording is excellent, it is the Brahms Piano Trio No.1 in B Major, Op.8 where the chamber group, to my ears, shines brightest, bringing out a range of musical emotions and drawing listener ears towards new musical ideas over four movements that always centre around excellence, but leave room for new discoveries. On the faculty now at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, let us hope that this terrific trio continues to find the time to mine the depths of the great chamber music repertoire of Western Art Music and make recordings such as this that both delight and surprise.