In the last issue, due to my misreading of a liner note on Daniel Lipel’s ADJACENCE, I mistakenly said that Tyshawn Sorey’s Ode to Gust Burns was a memorial tribute. It has come to my attention that Mr. Burns is alive and well in Seattle. I would like to express my sincere apologies to both Burns and Sorey for my error and any annoyance it caused. I would also welcome you to check out Ode to Gust Burns for yourself at youtube.com/watch?v=xefu3QupKEs.

Pianist Stewart Goodyear was the Royal Conservatory’s inaugural artist-in-residence at Koerner Hall, where in 2022 (after numerous delays due to COVID) he and the Penderecki String Quartet gave the world premiere of his Piano Quintet “Homage” which the quartet had commissioned several years earlier. At that time the piece comprised three movements, but since then Goodyear has added two interludes and a cadenza, resulting in a dazzling 22-minute work that was recorded at Wilfrid Laurier University last Spring by Chestnut Hall Music and is available on all major streaming platforms. 

The quintet is primarily inspired by the works of Beethoven, with which Goodyear is intimately familiar having frequently performed, and also recorded all 32 piano sonatas and the five piano concertos. Goodyear says the first movement is “a passacaglia on the almost atonal 11-note sequence from the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.” 

There are myriad other works by the master referenced throughout the piece – one of my favourites is a nod to the Grosse Fugue in the finale – often infused by other diverse styles. Goodyear tells us the fourth movement is “a ländler fused with gestures of rhythm and blues and calypso,” while the last movement is “a fast toccata, sampling themes of Beethoven similarly to a hip-hop track.” You can watch a performance on YouTube (youtube.com/watch?v=WjVeWgAmYfY).

Speaking of Beethoven, it is mostly thanks to him that the name of Count Andrey Razumovsky is still known to music lovers today some two centuries after his passing – through the set of three “Razumovsky” quartets, opus 59,  commissioned in 1806. 

Razumovsky was a Ukrainian-born Russian ambassador and amateur musician based in Vienna, where he established a house quartet which included Polish violist Franz Weiss. Weiss was an accomplished composer who also wrote quartets for the count, and it is thanks to the Eybler Quartet that the Two String Quartets Op.8 “Razumovsky” have come to my attention (Gallery Players of Niagara GPN 24001 eyblerquartet.com/discography). I find both of these works delightful, and it is a mystery to me why they are not better known and part of the standard repertory. They are virtuosic, alternately lyrical and playful with some extended developmental sections. 

The Toronto-based Eybler Quartet was established in late 2004 to explore the first century and a half of the string quartet, with special attention to lesser-known voices such as their namesake Joseph Leopold Edler von Eybler. Since that time, they have released eight compact discs, first with Analekta (Eybler; Backofen & Mozart; Haydn) and later on the Gallery Players of Niagara label (Vanhal; Asplmayr; Weiss) as well as two discs for CORO Connections of Beethoven’s six Op.18 quartets. 

Current membership includes violinists Julia Wedman and Patricia Ahern (who replaced founder Aisslinn Nosky in 2022) and violist Patrick G. Jordan, all of whom are members of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, with Margaret Gay, renowned in both period and modern performance, on cello. Together their approach to this little-known repertoire is committed and consummate, with nuanced dynamics and balanced performances that really shine. Kudos to the Eybler for bringing these fine works to light. 

Montreal’s Quatuor Cobalt was founded in 2017 for the purpose of exploring early music on period instruments and at the same time championing contemporary repertoire with modern bows, instruments and strings. Their breadth of vision is amply displayed on this debut disc Reflets du Temps (GFN Productions gfnproductions.ca/albums/reflets-du-temps). Touted as “a vibrant tribute to three female composers” – Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen (1745-1818), Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847) and Alicia Terzian (b.1934) – it certainly lives up to that. 

Sirmen, an Italian contemporary of Haydn, was one of the first women to achieve significant success as both a violinist and composer in Europe. Her String Quartet No.2 in B-flat Major, Op.3 begins with a lyrical Andantino and concludes with a sprightly Allegro at times suggestive of a Mozart overture. Hensel’s String Quartet in E-flat Major, known to me through several other recordings (including that of Victoria’s Lafayette String Quartet for CBC Records), is a delight from its stately Andante opening through its caccia-like Allegretto and somewhat sombre Romanza, to the rollicking Allegro Molto Vivace, to my ear somewhat reminiscent of lighter moments in brother Felix’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And Argentinian Terzian is represented by an early work, Tres piezas for String Quartet Op.5, dating from 1954. According to the press release it has rarely been recorded in the quartet version, most recently in 1968. It’s difficult to understand why. Based on traditional Armenian music, it is lyrical and tonal in its opening movements, ending in a lively and percussive Danza Rústica. 

Whatever the repertoire, which spans more than a century and a half, these Montrealers rise to every challenge in sparkling performances. 

Terzian’s Danza Rústica leads me to American Ketty Nez’s recording through the light (Albany Records TROY1991 albanyrecords.com/catalog/troy1991). This disc features two works that draw on the composer’s family heritage, using folk traditions of Central Europe and Turkey, and more specifically the groundbreaking recordings Bela Bartók made in peasant villages in the early 20th century documenting the music of soon to disappear cultures. 

Through the light for string quartet references three Anatolian folk songs Bartók transcribed in 1936, a Romanian violin tune recorded in 1908 and the “ojkanje” style of singing found in Croatia. The first movement is abrasive, percussive, wild and uninhibited. The second movement is more relaxed, taking the form of a duet between two of the songs from the first movement, the cello (bachelor’s song) being juxtaposed with high voices (gazing out the window at one’s beloved) in the violins. The last movement features gentle keening representing the Croatian women singing in sustained dissonant intervals with the use of elaborate trills. The players (violinists Gabriela Diaz and Lilit Hartunian, violist Samuel Kelder and cellist David Russell) capture all the rustic cragginess and charm with enthusiasm.

5 Fragments in 3 are musical “reflections” of Romanian violin and flute tunes recorded in the 1910s by Bartók, scored for piano (Nez), viola (Daniel Doña) and soprano saxophone (Jennifer Bill). The saxophone part can also be played on clarinet, but I find the distinctive timbre of the saxophone especially appealing. The movement titles are descriptive and apt: “in the rain, an introduction,” “organum, and a dance,” “calling lost sheep,” “dance steps” and finally “postlude, a horn call” at the end of which the saxophone gently floats above the pizzicato viola and tinkling piano. A very effective performance.

It was perhaps a coincidence, but a happy one, that as I was preparing this article a new recording, Bela Bartók – Viola Concerto; 44 Duos featuring Paul Neubauer and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by David Atherton, arrived on my desk (First Hand Records FHR175 firsthandrecords.com/products-page/upcoming/bartok-viola-concerto-1995-revised-version-44-duos-for-two-violins-arr-viola-viola-and-viola-cello). 

When approached by music publisher Erich Doflein, Bartók embraced the idea of writing a graduated pedagogical series in which “students would play works which contained the natural simplicity of the music of the people, as well as its melodic and rhythmic peculiarities.” His 44 Duos for two violins could have been mere didactic exercises with little inherent musicality, but a plethora of recordings by professional musicians belie this. 

Peter Bartók arranged many of his father’s violin duos for two violas. I wondered why not all of the duos were included but managed to find the following on the publisher’s website: “Most of the pieces have been transposed down by a fifth interval, so that all open strings would correspond to those of the original instruments. Where lowering of the key seemed undesirable and the original key a bit too high for violas, the piece was not included in the album for violas” (P. Bartók). He also arranged some of the duos for viola and cello, saying “Only 23 of the duos were deemed suitable for this kind of arrangement.” In all, 39 of the duos are included here. Neubauer is joined alternately by violist Cynthia Phelps and cellist Ronald Thomas in very fine performances, giving these “didactic” works renewed life. 

The viola concerto, which was left unfinished at the time of Bartók’s death in 1945 and later completed from his sketches by Tibor Serly, appears here in a version revised in 1995 by Nelson Dellamaggiore and the composer’s son Peter. It is one of my favourites of Bartók’s orchestral works, and of 20th century concertos of any kind. While this version differs somewhat from the Serly completion I have been familiar with for nearly half a century, I have to agree with Neubauer, who edited the solo part, when he says “that the revised version […] is a more effective and stronger work than the original version of the concerto and no doubt closer to Bartók’s intent.” It’s a stunning achievement. 

Another of my favourite 20th century concertos is featured on the new release Kabalevsky 2nd & Schumann CELLO CONCERTOS (Our Recordings 8.226926 ourrecordings.com/albums/cello-concertos) with Theodor Lyngstad and the Copenhagen Phil under Eva Ollinkainen. I first heard Dmitri Kabalevsky’s Cello Concerto No.2 in C Minor, Op.77 on a 1968 Angel LP release of a Melodiya recording of the premiere, featuring dedicatee Daniel Shafran and the Leningrad Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the composer. 

I mentioned above how much I enjoyed the timbre of the saxophone in the classical context and I believe that this recording was my first exposure to this phenomenon. The alto sax plays a pivotal role in this concerto, trading lines with the solo cello in a way that makes them almost indistinguishable. I was floored when I first heard it. This new recording, which features the young principal cellist of the Copenhagen Phil (just 25 when appointed in 2019) is just as engaging, and I hear even more of the sax in the orchestral textures later in the work. 

Kabalevsky was a somewhat controversial composer, often berated in the west for adherence to “socialist realist” doctrines and toadying to the powers that be of the Soviet Union. But this work seems removed from that. As Lyngstad points out “there is a darkness and nostalgic feel to the music. It is undeniably inspired by his professor Myaskovsky’s cello concerto in the same key, a composer that became an accused ‘formalist’ by the Soviet regime. Myaskovsky was dead by the time Kabalevsky wrote this concerto, but it could easily be seen as a tribute to him, and perhaps even a subtle criticism or defiance of the Soviet regime.”

Lyngstad has chosen to pair the Kabalevsky with the more familiar Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op.129 by Schumann. He says “I find them bound together in an introspective and somewhat defiant spirit. They are similar in form, with three continuous movements, written out cadenzas and the overall development of minor to major. But even more interestingly I see a strong link in the personality and psychology of the pieces […] Neither are written for the soloist to show off. To me they are equal conversations between the soloist and orchestra, where the music tells us something rather intimate, honest and true. With melodic styles they show a tension between minor and major, darkness and light, hope and despair.” In his intimate interactions with the orchestra Lyngstad brings all this and more to fore. It’s a very satisfying recording; one I will treasure. 

I began with a piano quintet, and I shall close with another quartet “plus one” project. In this case it was initiated by flutist/composer Allison Loggins-Hull in collaboration with the string quartet ETHEL. 

In my years of working with flutist extraordinaire Robert Aitken at New Music Concerts, one of his ongoing laments was that ever since Mozart wrote his quartets for flute, violin, viola and cello, that formation has become the norm. Aitken’s disappointment stemmed from the fact that when he is invited to perform with string quartets, one of the violinists inevitably must sit out. To rectify that Aitken sought out the few existing works that combined flute with full quartet and commissioned new works by Diego Luzuriaga, Alex Pauk and Roger Reynolds among others. 

I assume that Loggins-Hull experienced the same frustration as a flutist. In Persist (Sono Luminus DSL-92281 sonoluminus.com/sonoluminus/persist?rq=persist) we are presented with post-lockdown new works by Loggins-Hull, Xavier Muzik, Migiwa “Miggy” Miyajima, Sam Wu and Leilehua Lanzilotti. 

Loggins-Hull’s title work features percussive, often driving, strings and soaring flute lines “inspired by concepts of perseverance, motivation and positive outlook […] the efforts of my relatives, and ancestors and what they went through so that I could be who I am today.” Muzik’s Pillow Talk begins ethereally with flute providing a “once upon a time” opening setting the stage for a “surreal journey that illustrates the nebulous emotions we feel when the sun is low as we bask in the morning glow with our partners…” 

Miyajima’s The Reconciliation Suite is in four movements, three depicting various traumatic episodes from the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 of which the composer was a survivor, and the Pandemic a decade later. The final movement celebrates renewal. It “vividly depicts the city coming to life with the sound of blooming flowers.” Sam Wu’s gentle Terraria explores the myriad ways of terrarium building and Lanzilotti’s we began this quilt there is a colourful tribute to Queen Liliuokalani, the only queen regnant and the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom. It features some extended techniques and breath sounds from the flute. 

All in all, Persist is an intriguing album and a major and welcome contribution to the flute quintet repertoire. 

We invite submissions. CDs and DVDs should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4. Comments and digital releases are welcome at discoveries@thewholenote.com.

Bruce Surtees

I’m writing this the day after saying a fond farewell to a beloved colleague in the company of his family and a large cohort of friends from the music community. Bruce Surtees, best known in these pages for his contributions over two decades in the form of his column Old Wine in New Bottles, died peacefully on December 28 surrounded by family at Humber River Hospital after a brief illness. 

Bruce’s legacy began in 1961 when he and his wife Vivienne opened The Book Cellar in the basement of a music store on Yonge Street, a shop that would become a mainstay of Toronto’s literary industry for the next three decades. The store moved several times, eventually to its flagship location (there were several subsidiaries) across from the Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville. With the bookstore thriving, Bruce branched out to embrace his first love, music, opening The Classical Record Shop, as the first tenant and cornerstone of the tony Hazelton Lanes complex. 

Bruce and I first crossed paths during my tenure at CJRT-FM in the mid-1990s where he was the co-host of Records in Review, first with the station’s music director, conductor Paul Robinson, and later with Toronto Star music critic William Littler. But it was not until I invited him to become part of the review team here that I really got to know Bruce. In July 2001, for the inauguration of the DISCoveries section, he wrote his first review for us under the banner “Worth Repeating: Older Recordings Worthy of Note,” writing about one of his favourite pieces, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, in an EMI reissue with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Janos Ferencsik. Some 75 stand-alone reviews followed over the next four years. April 2005 marked the beginning of a new chapter, when his Old Wine column became a monthly feature in the magazine. By the time of his final column in October 2023 Bruce had brought more than a dozen historic performances of Gurrelieder to our attention, along with countless opera sets, symphonic cycles and lieder recitals—nigh on 1,000 reviews, in many cases involving multiple discs. 

I don’t know how he found the time to listen to it all, but listen he did. 

Over the course of the last two decades, Bruce and his family became very special friends to my wife Sharon and me, as they attended chamber recitals by amateur groups I played cello in, under the auspices of University Settlement Music and Arts School, and joined us for musical gatherings in our backyard. One treasured memory is learning Taylor Swift’s Safe and Sound on my guitar in order to accompany Bruce’s granddaughter Alexis, but there are so many memories of Bruce and “his girls” that I will cherish forever. Especially the visits to Baycrest where his caregivers took such good care of Bruce over the past year (thank you Christine and Kristine!) making him comfortable and making us feel welcome. Bruce my friend, we miss you so.

Ives at 151

2024 marked both the sesquicentennial of the birth of Charles Ives in 1874, and 70 years since his death at the age of 80. I’ve spent the last month immersed in a set that would in happier days have fallen into the purview of Bruce Surtees’ Old Wine in New Bottles – although in this particular case perhaps Old Wine in Old Bottles would be more apt.

I say that because Charles Ives: The RCA and Columbia Album Anthology – Recordings for the Analog Era 1945-76 (Sony Classical 19658885962 amazon.ca/Charles-Ives-Columbia-Album-Anthology/dp/B0DBP3VXTH) is a 22-CD boxed set that consists of reissues of more than 30 vinyl records packaged in miniature reproductions of the original LP jackets. Although the booklet includes recording details and release dates for all the pieces and has a five-page introductory essay by Kevin Sherwin, the only actual program notes are those printed on those original LP covers which are reduced to a size nearly impossible to read even with a strong magnifying glass. And in cases where a CD contains material from more than one LP, only one cover is included, leaving some works with no notes at all. So, there’s my quibble out of the way right from the start. Other than that, I find it a marvellous collection. It spans three decades of recordings during which time Ives went from being perceived as an esoteric crackpot with his integration of marching band themes, popular tunes and hymns into his erstwhile “classical” compositions, to being a revered visionary, the epitome of the American composer.

I wrote last month about Ives’ Piano Sonata No.2 “Concord, Mass. 1840-1860” and its first champion John Kirkpatrick. Disc One contains Kirkpatrick’s historic 1948 recording of the sonata (made 11 years after he had given its first public performance), along with a brief movement from the first sonata. Disc Two features William Masselos’ 1951 78rpm recording of Piano Sonata No.1 which appeared on LP in 1953 (reissued in 1961). For comparison of the approaches and developments in understanding these extremely complicated works by the two performers over the period of two decades, Disc 8 presents Masselos’ 1967 revisiting of the first sonata and Disc 13 gives Kirkpatrick’s 1968 second recording of the “Concord.” Masselos’ 1951 recording is accompanied by Patricia Travers, and the disc also includes Otto Herz’s 10” recording of the Sonata for Violin and Piano No.2 from the same year. I’ll mention that this is the only one of Ives’ four violin sonatas included in this mostly comprehensive collection (Tone Roads No.1 is also conspicuous by its absence). 

That being said, there is a CD (Disc 16) of chamber music that includes a piano trio, A Set of Three Short Pieces for string quartet, four diverse pieces for piano quintet, his Largo for Violin, Clarinet and Piano, and another largo for violin and piano. The two numbered string quartets appear on Disc 10 performed by the Juilliard Quartet (1967), with the second of the two reappearing on the final collection’s final CD, performed by the Cleveland Quartet (1976), paired with Samuel Barber’s String Quartet in B Minor with its iconic molto adagio second movement. 

Ives’ vocal music is amply represented with a CD of songs (Disc 17) sung by soprano Evelyn Lear and baritone Thomas Stewart, and Disc 7 features choral works performed by the Gregg Smith Singers and the Columbia Chamber Orchestra, among others; a highlight of the disc for me is General William Booth Enters into Heaven featuring the gorgeous bass voice of Archie Drake. There is also a disc (18) of “Old Songs Deranged” which comprises familiar tunes refashioned for theatre orchestra with Ives’ usual cryptic wit. There are four recordings of Variations on “America” (same tune as God Save the King), one in the organ version with E. Power Biggs, and William Schuman’s arrangement for orchestra conducted by Morton Gould (1966), Eugene Ormandy (1969) and André Kostelanetz (1976). 

The bulk of the set, though, is devoted to Ives’ original music for orchestra. Ives wrote four numbered symphonies and another entitled A Symphony: New England Holidays. He also wrote three orchestral “sets” (the first of which is subtitled Three Places in New England), the surprisingly boisterous Robert Browning Overture, the mostly subdued and at times ghostly Central Park in the Dark, and The Unanswered Question, as well as a number of smaller works. Some of these orchestral works also include choral movements (Symphony No.4, Orchestral Set No.2, A Symphony: New England Holidays) and most of the pieces appear in multiple performances. Most notable among these are the Symphony No.4 in a 1968 performance under the baton of Leopold Stokowski with assistants José Serebrier and David Katz (because Stokowski felt it too difficult for one conductor to realize) and one from 1974 with Serebrier alone at the podium. Also notable: Symphony No.2 conducted by Leonard Bernstein in 1960 and Eugene Ormandy in 1974. The Bernstein recording is supplemented with a lecture by the maestro extolling the virtues (and difficulties) of Ives’ music.

I must say that listening to 25 hours of the quirky music of Ives is daunting and not for the faint of heart. To paraphrase the sometimes-cantankerous composer you need to be able to “stand up and take your dissonance like a man.” An invaluable tool I found for approaching the task is a book that was published in 2021, Listening to Charles Ives: Variations on his America by past president of the Charles Ives Society J. Peter Burkholder (Amadeus Press charlesives.org/listening-charles-ives-variations-his-america). It’s a marvellous resource, especially when read in conjunction with the listening tools on the Charles Ives Society website (charlesives.org). My only frustration came when I could find neither Piano Sonata No.1 nor Symphony No.4 in the detailed discussion of Ives’ works.

The same year that Burkholder published his book, the current president of the Ives Society Donald Berman published Charles E. Ives: Piano Studies - Shorter Works for Piano, Volume 2 - Ives Society Critical Edition (Peermusic Classical), and in 2024 Berman released what may be, thus far, the definitive recording of the “Concord” Sonata, Charles Ives - Sonata No.2; The St. Gaudens (Avie Records AV2678 avie-records.com/releases/ives-piano-sonata-no-2-concord-mass-1940-1860-•-the-st-gaudens-black-march).

I say”thus far” because it is likely there will never be such a thing as definitive where Concord is concerned. As I said in last month’s column, Ives continued to revise the work until 1947 when he published a supposedly definitive second edition after a decade of collaboration with John Kirkpatrick who had given the first public performance of the complete sonata in 1937 and would go on to record it in 1948. But the evolution of the sonata did not stop there, with scholars like Kirkpatrick and later Jay Gottlieb continuing to make “improvements” based on Ives’ innumerable sketches and notebooks. With the resources of the Charles Ives Society at his disposal, Berman has been able to draw on most of a century’s scholarship to foster his understanding of the iconic work and the result is stunning. He has chosen to pair the sonata with The St. Gaudens which is subtitled “Black March.” The music depicts marching soldiers of the Massachusetts 54th, one of the first Union armies of African Americans during the Civil War and one that suffered heavy casualties. In an annotation to the score Ives pays tribute to the regiment and says “Your country was made from you – images of a divine law carved in the shadow of a saddened heart.” Berman offers it as a prelude to the Concord, and it is an effective set-up for an outstanding disc. 

And these just in

In September 2007 I reviewed composer/pianist Frank Horvat’s first CD and said his “compositions are diverse enough that it’s hard to describe exactly what the disc is about. Sometimes bordering on the improvisations of Keith Jarrett (but without the audible humming), at moments reminiscent of boogie-woogie, at others dark ballad-like musings and occasional fugal passages, this is truly an eclectic mix.” Over almost two decades since then, with 22 releases in his discography (16 of which have been reviewed in DISCoveries), Horvat has persisted in his eclecticism and is still hard to pin down.

His latest release, More Rivers (navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6689), explores yet another side of his creativity in a tribute to Ann Southam inspired by her ebullient and rollicking series Rivers. Southam’s frequent collaborator Christina Petrowska Quilico is the pianist here, as she was so often for Southam’s pieces. Her discography, which numbers more than six dozen releases, includes Southam’s Rivers, Pond Life, Glass Houses, Glass Houses Revisited and Soundspinning, a collection of early works including my introduction to Southam’s music, Three in Blue, which was included in the Royal Conservatory of Music syllabus when I was studying piano more than half a century ago.

Horvat says that although “Southam’s work in the area of minimalist composition has been a big influence on my life […] More Rivers is not intended to be a sequel or continuation of Rivers, but my hope is that my own unique musical minimalist voice will be a tribute to this body of work that has impacted me so profoundly.” The set comprises seven pieces constructed with overlapping looping textures evoking water; murmuring, babbling, racing or gently flowing. A number of the movements are calm and meditative, reflecting in the composer’s words “a spiritual sentiment,” but there are also dynamic and forceful moments reminding us of the power of water. Petrowska Quilico rises to all the challenges, making even the most intricate passages sound effortless and natural.

In his programme note Horvat implores us to remember “Water is intrinsic to life. As living beings on this planet, it is one of our most important resources that requires our full respect and protection.” Amen to that.

Listen to 'Frank Horvat: More Rivers' Now in the Listening Room

Elsewhere in these pages you will find reviews of guitar-centric discs featuring “classical” composers Graham Flett and Tim Brady, and jazz guitarists Jocelyn Gould and the late Emily Remler. Each of those discs showcases, primarily, one style of music, albeit there is quite a range in each of the presentations. The next disc also focuses on guitar, but in this case it appears in many forms and contexts. ADJACENCE – new chamber works for guitar (new focus recordings FCR 423 danlippelguitar.bandcamp.com/album/adjacence) features the talents of Dan Lippel on traditional and microtonal classical guitars, electric guitar and electric bass in a variety of ensembles and settings.

The 2CD set features the work of a dozen living composers and includes pieces by the late Mario Davidovsky (Cantione Sine Textu for wordless soprano, clarinet/bass clarinet, flutes, guitar and bass) and Charles Wuorinen (Electric Quartet performed by Bodies Electric in which Lippel is joined by electric guitarists Oren Fader, John Chang and William Anderson). There are works for solo guitar, multi-tracked guitars, an unusual string trio comprised of guitar, viola and hammer dulcimer, a variety of duets such as piccolo and guitar and percussion and guitar, and a number of quartets of varied instrumentation.

One of my favourites is Tyshawn Sorey's homage to a Seattle-based pianist/composer. Titled Ode to Gust Burns it is an extended work scored for bassoon, guitar, piano and percussion, with the bassoon adding a particularly expressive note to the tribute. Another is Lippel’s own Utopian Prelude that opens the set, on which he plays both electric guitar and a micro-tonally tuned acoustic instrument. Ken Ueno’s Ghost Flowers is another extended work, composed for the unusual trio mentioned above. It begins with eerie string rubbing sounds from the guitar before droning viola and percussive dulcimer join the mix. The next ten minutes get busier and busier with overlapping textures and rhythms before subsiding gradually into gentle harmonics.

Peter Adriaansz’s Serenades II to IV (No.23) for electric guitar and electric bass ends the first disc, with Lippel playing both parts. Sidney Marquez Boquiren’s Five Prayers of Hope is performed by counter)induction, a quartet consisting of violin, viola, guitar and piano. The haunting opening prayer Beacon is juxtaposed with a variety of moods in the subsequent Bridges, Silence Breakers, Sanctuary and Home. The second disc ends with Dystopian Reprise which Lippel describes as “a fusion-inspired improvisation using the final minutes of Adriaansz’s Serenade IV as a canvas.”  Throughout the more than two hours of Adjacence Lippel and his colleagues kept me enthralled with the breadth and range of an instrument it is all too easy to take for granted.

Listen to 'ADJACENCE: new chamber works for guitar' Now in the Listening Room

In closing I will mention one guilty pleasure of the past month. Although I certainly didn’t need another recording of Olivier Messiaen’s mammoth symphonic work, as it is one of favourites I was pleased to add Messiaen – Turangalîla Symphony (Deutsche Grammophon deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/messiaen-turangalla-nelsons-13655) to my collection. Featuring Yuja Wang, Cécile Lartigau and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Andris Nelsons, the recording offers all the excitement, scintillating effects and dynamic range that this exhilarating work requires. Another one for the ages! 

We invite submissions. CDs and DVDs should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4. Comments and digital releases are welcome at discoveries@thewholenote.com. 

I recently received Louise Bessette’s latest, Port of Call: New England with music by Charles Ives and Edward MacDowell (ATMA ACD2 2902 atmaclassique.com/en/product/port-of-call-new-england). The Ives is the extraordinary Piano Sonata No.2 “Concord, Mass 1840-1860” which he worked on for most of the first half of the 20th century, and the MacDowell is New England Idyls Op.62, a set of ten vignettes composed in 1902. I first heard the celebrated Montreal pianist in the early 1990s at George Weston Recital Hall at what is now the Meridian Centre for the Arts where she performed Olivier Messiaen’s stunning Vingt Regards sur l’enfant Jésus from memory. I was enthralled. At the concert, I picked up her CBC Musica Viva recording of selections from the Vingt Regards and to my delight it also included Ives’ Concord Sonata. That was recorded live in concert back in 1987 and now, some 37 years later she has produced a studio recording of the Ives, “one of her all-time favourite works.” It’s one of mine too.

The Concord Sonata is a work that was very special to me in my formative years. I have spoken before in these pages about how my discovery of the Bartók string quartet cycle provided one of my earliest entries into the world of “contemporary” music, a kind of epiphany for me. Another revelatory experience was a lecture/demonstration at the U of T Faculty of Music in November 1974 by German pianist Peter Roggenkamp, whose examination and elucidation of the complex and freewheeling score of the Concord Sonata was another ear-opener. I was already enamoured of John Kirkpatrick’s 1968 Columbia recording of the work, but having it dissected under Roggenkamp’s microscope really brought home the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of Ives’ writing and left a lasting impression. 

In the first 20 seconds of the sonata, we hear Beethoven’s “fate” theme, the first four notes of the Fifth Symphony, which will reappear in myriad forms and guises throughout the four movements. As was his wont, Ives also incorporates/interpolates dozens of hymn tunes, marches, popular songs, fiddle tunes and his own brand of ragtime melodies into the classical piano sonata form. It is at times an extremely wild ride, but this is juxtaposed with gentle, almost transcendental sections. And transcendental is a key word here because Ives conceived the sonata as a depiction of figures of 19th-century American Transcendentalism, designating the movements Emerson, Hawthorne, The Alcotts and Thoreau. 

To paraphrase the late Robert Fulford, publishing is a “necessary evil” that sadly stops the editing process. This was not the case for Ives, who worked on this sonata for 45 years beginning around the time of the First World War. After a decade of tinkering, he self-published a first edition in 1920 and sent out several hundred copies to performers, libraries, critics and anyone he could think of who might be interested. Few were, and he continued to revise Concord until 1947 when he published a supposedly definitive second edition after a decade of collaboration with Kirkpatrick who had given the first public performance of the complete sonata in 1937 and would go on to record it in 1948. 

But the evolution of the sonata did not stop there, with scholars like Kirkpatrick and later Jay Gottlieb, with whom Bessette worked, continuing to make “improvements” based on Ives’ innumerable sketches and notebooks. Most contemporary performances use the 1947 edition, but Kirkpatrick’s own second recording (1968) has craggier moments including, notably, Ives’ dissonant treatment of Hail Columbia, Gem of the Ocean in the latter portion of the piece. We can assume that through Gottlieb, Bessette also had access to Ives’ unpublished manuscripts. It’s a very special performance, muscular when Ives demands it – and demand it he does! – and calm, in fact tender as a breeze over Walden Pond, in the final moments. In that last movement we briefly hear the return of what Ives referred to as the “human-faith-melody” motif, this time played on the flute (Jeffrey Stonehouse). The brief addition of the flute is marked optional in the score, as is a quiet passage on the viola (Isaac Chalk) in the opening movement. Of the ten or so recordings I have in my collection, this is just the second to include these instruments, adding another element to the pleasure I found here.

After the raucous boisterousness of much of the Ives, it’s as if MacDowell’s New England is on another astral plane, although the quietude of Thoreau does lead nicely into the Idyls. With titles such as An Old Garden, In Deep Woods, Indian Idyl and From a Log Cabin, the brief pastoral portraits harken back to a gentler time, in contrast to Ives’ forward-looking approach. It is a bit funny though to hear a quiet echo of the Beethoven “fate” theme appear in the movement called Mid-winter, and the set ends on a lively note with The Joy of Autumn. Bessette is captivating throughout. 

I have also had several epiphanies when it comes to choral music, the first being an Angel LP recording of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana under Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos when I was still in high school. Some years later, as an amateur cellist on my first trip to CAMMAC’s Lake MacDonald summer program, I was sitting in the orchestra playing the pedal note and facing the conductor, when suddenly the choir at the back of the room burst into the glorious “Herr, unser Herrscher” opening phrase of Bach’s St. John Passion. I was gobsmacked! Several years later at the Elora Festival presentation of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc accompanied by a live performance of Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light, again my soul soared at the beauty of a choral creation. 

There are moments in François Dompierre’s Requiem that take me back to the feeling of elation and exhilaration I experienced during those formative years. The performance features Montreal’s Orchestre FILMhamonique, Ensemble ArtChoral, soloists Myriam Leblanc, Andrew Haji and Geoffroy Salvas under the direction of Francis Choinière (LABE Records LABECD-24007 francoisdompierre.com/discographie). Dedicated to the memory of Dompierre’s mother Yolande and father Frédéric, the Latin texts of the gorgeous near hour-long work are taken from traditional liturgical verses: Introit-Kyrie; Dies Irae; Tuba Mirum; Lacrimosa; Hostias; Recordare; Sanctus; Benedictus; Agnus Dei; Lux Aeterna; Libera; In Paradisum. The varied movements range from dramatic and dynamic with full chorus and orchestra, to contemplative, even haunting, moments where the soloists are featured with sparse accompaniment. The musical language is mostly tonal and accessible, but there is enough range and contrast to satisfy even my somewhat jaded palette. The performance is nuanced and well balanced from the quietest moments to the occasional bombastic outbursts. The recording, made at la Maison symphonique de Montréal in January 2024, is outstanding. My one quibble is that the booklet, including Dompierre’s introduction and the translations of the Latin texts, is entirely in French. Fortunately, you can hear the composer talking about his Requiem with English subtitles here: youtube.com/watch?v=gFLPvPLux3E. 

I like it when my reading and my music making overlap. While working at CJRT-FM I read Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music and was intrigued by the narrator’s quest to find Beethoven’s String Quintet in C Minor Op.104, the composer’s rearrangement of an early piano trio. I set out on my own search for the music, fortunately not as onerous as the one described in the novel, and one of the highlights of my “career” as an amateur cellist was spending an afternoon with a quartet of friends under the tutelage of violinist extraordinaire Mark Fewer reading through the fabled work. That was a thrill only exceeded by the time I got to play Mozart flute quartets with Robert Aitken! (But enough about me, for now…).

Speaking of Mark Fewer, Alikeness features the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra Sinfonia under Fewer’s direction (Leaf Music LM 296 leaf-music.ca/music/lm296). Soprano Deantha Edmunds, a singer-songwriter who has the distinction of being the first Inuk professional classical singer, is active in the fields of opera, throat singing and drum dancing. The CD opens with Edmunds’ performance of her Angmalukisaa (“round” in Inuktut), four songs about personal connections arranged for the orchestra by Bill Brennan, Andrew Downing, Jeff Johnston and Robert Carli. This is followed by a “concerto grosso” with Fewer as violin soloist, Episodes by Serge Arcuri, written in 1998 for the Montreal Baroque Orchestra. While referencing the baroque origins of the form, Arcuri’s three movement work incorporates a romantic sensibility and some modern turns of phrase. Matt Brubeck’s solo work The Simple Life appears next in a lush arrangement by Downing for violin and strings, followed by the third movement of Carli’s “C” from his suite B-A-C-H, another contemplative work featuring Fewer’s violin. The title work, composed in 2015 by Jarosław Kapuściński, associate professor of composition at Stanford University, for the St. Lawrence String Quartet (ensemble in residence at Stanford) and percussionist Aiyun Huang. The mostly quiet work, a bit surprising for a percussion “concerto,” is heard here in an arrangement for Huang and string orchestra by Yoshiaki Onishi. The various percussive instruments are effectively juxtaposed with pizzicato accompaniment at times, and at others with lyrical lines or catch-me-if-you-can chase scenes with the strings. This very effective piece, lasting almost 25 minutes, completes a satisfying disc of unusual repertoire for chamber orchestra.

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(And here I am again…) Back in my days as a music programmer at CJRT, a favourite selection was Claude Bolling’s wonderful “chamber jazz” creation Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio as recorded by Bolling with Jean-Pierre Rampal. Somehow it escaped my notice that he had also written a Suite for Cello and Jazz Piano Trio composed and recorded in 1984, with Yo-Yo Ma as soloist. The Suite recently came to my attention on 1Q84, a new recording by Montreal cellist Sahara von Hattenberger (Odd Sound ODS-36 saharathecellist.com) who performs with pianist Joanne Kang, bassist Adrian Vedady and drummer Jim Doxas. Whereas in the original recording the rhythm section was confined to pretty much just that, in this new rendition the piano, bass and drums are given improvisatory sections in each of the six movements. While we expect it from jazz journeymen Vedady and Doxas, classical pianist Kang also shows herself right at home in “uncharted” waters and the end result is exhilarating.  

Regarding the unusual name of the album, although the booklet notes don’t go into it, the press release explains the significance of the title, borrowed from the well-known fantasy novel by Haruki Murakami set in 1984. The protagonist in the novel refers to the parallel universe in which she finds herself as 1Q84 (Q is pronounced the same as the number nine in Japanese). Van Hattenberger notes that 1984 was also the year Bolling completed his cello suite. 

The “parallel universe” in this case is the second CD of the set, where van Hattenberger performs new works for the same ensemble from composers Remy Le Boeuf, Malcolm Sailor and Jeffrey Fong. Le Boeuf has also contributed a quartet arrangement of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (a particularly fond earworm for me). The press release also states that Bolling’s famous crossover suite “acted as an antidote to the angst of the era. Massive inflation, the AIDS epidemic, financial unrest and overwhelming fear of and obsession with technology…” and goes on to suggest that “Van Hattenberger’s re-imagining […] maintains the same sense of joy and wit as the original […] This album is a welcome respite from the pressing darkness we often find ourselves in today.” I must say I have to agree as I write this in the days following the U.S. election. 

One caution: It seems there was a mix-up in the pressing of the second CD. It was intended to be heard in the order printed on the packaging (Sailor, Le Boeuf, Bush, Fong), but the actual order on the physical disc is Le Boeuf, Bush, Sailor, Fong, easy enough to re-program on a CD player. For digital purchase, the order of the tracks is correct. 

I don’t know where to start with this next one. Brandon Seabrook’s Object of Unknown Function (Pyroclastic Records PR 37 brandonseabrook.bandcamp.com/album/object-of-unknown-function) is unlike anything I’ve heard before (a few familiar sound fragments notwithstanding). The album is meant to convey the extreme physicality of Seabrook’s solo performances. It is a mixture of single instrumental lines supplemented by layers of similar or disparate instruments, juxtaposed with four-track cassette recordings from a variety of sources. The mix of instruments is somewhat unusual: an early 20th century six-string banjo, a tenor banjo played with a bow, an electric 12-string guitar and a classic Fender Telecaster. Six-string banjos are variously known as banjitars, guitjos and ganjos, Seabrook simply refers to his 1920 William O. Schmick instrument as a guitar banjo and it is tuned like a guitar. 

Tenor banjos, popular in the early 20th century in traditional jazz ensembles such as Dixieland bands, have four strings tuned in fifths like the viola and cello, or alternately in Chicago tuning, pitched like the four higher strings of a guitar. They are most often strummed rhythmically rather than plucked like their five-string counterparts, but Seabrook treats his differently, playing with a bow resulting in a sound similar to a Chinese erhu, or picking individual notes to create complex melodies. His Neptune 12-string electric guitar, built by Nashville luthier Jerry Jones in 1998, is naturally lush but Seabrook takes this to the nth degree when he layers four tracks of it along with seven bowed and two pluck tenor banjos in Melodic Incidents for an Irrational World producing a virtual wall of sound. 

Although there are moments of respite, such as the track Some Recanted Evening (one 12-string electric guitar) or the closer The Snow Falling, Falling (four bowed and one plucked tenor banjo), I must emphasize that this is not easy listening and at times borders on painful with its abrasive, ruthless energy and dissonant textures. That being said, I find myself drawn to it repeatedly, especially the above mentioned Irrational World  (which puts me in mind of the complex layers of acoustic instruments in the music of Paul Dolden), and in Unbalanced Love Portfolio, a contemplative solo for one guitar banjo. Not for the faint of heart, but a rousing ride for the more adventurous listener.  

I will close with a shout-out to an old friend, Sandy Bell, who was my counterpart as manager of Arraymusic for most of the 20 years I spent in the same capacity at New Music Concerts. Sandy has now retired from the heady world of arts administration to live the good life in rural Nova Scotia and concentrate on the things that matter. She has always been a singer, trained in choirs in her youth, but found her personal voice in the world of country music. While in Toronto she co-founded a band called The Wanted which played in such hallowed halls as the Gladstone Hotel and Cameron House. It seems her life’s dream was to produce a solo album and now she has done it. Break of Day – Songs for Colin (sandybellcreative.com/music) is a beautiful collection of original songs commemorating the life of her son who died tragically at the age of 20. There are some laments, including a chilling rendition of I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, the only cover version on the album, but the overall feeling is of hope and celebration. Sandy’s soprano voice with its country twang is complemented by a backing band of traditional fiddle, pedal and lap steel, acoustic and electric guitar, banjo, bass and drums, with harmony vocals by Kristin Cavoukian, Max Heineman and Sofia Harwell, all produced by Andrew Collins who also contributes mandocello lines. Although this may not be the album Bell began dreaming of before the death of Colin, it’s nevertheless a lovely fulfillment of that dream.

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We invite submissions. CDs and DVDs should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4. Comments and digital releases are welcome at discoveries@thewholenote.com. 

Homage to Janos – When respected Toronto architect Janos Gardonyi retired from his professional activities he began a new creative life delving deeply into digital photography, expanding and exploring a life-long love of classical music and sharing his thoughts and personal reminiscences with the WholeNote community. In October 2004 we published his first review, a CD of piano works by Leoš Janáček performed by Hakon Austbo. Two decades and 285 reviews later, we published his final words last month, an encomium to the late Lars Vogt and his recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos.9 & 24 with L’Orchestre de chambre de Paris. Janos died peacefully on September 8 at the age of 87. I will miss his memories and anecdotes, but I have a wealth of written words, and a remarkable surrealistically coloured arboreal photograph on my kitchen wall, to remember him by. Janos, you will be missed. 

In February of this year I wrote briefly about an ATMA digital-only release of Symphonie Gaspésienne by Claude Champagne (1891-1965) featuring L’Orchestre symphonique de Laval under Alain Trudel. At that time I said “Although not much attention was given to him in English Canada, where his contemporaries included Healy Willan and Sir Ernest MacMillan, Champagne was an important figure in the annals of classical music in Quebec, where his students included Violet Archer, Roger Matton, Pierre Mercure, Serge Garant and Gilles Tremblay among other notables. I was very pleased to see a new recording of Champagne’s brilliant tone poem, composed in 1944. Starting eerily in near silence, Trudel leads his orchestra through the gradually building portrait of the fabled Gaspé peninsula with dramatic turns and climaxes along the 20-minute journey.” This recording has now been supplemented with works by Hungarians born a decade before Champagne, Béla Bartók’s Dance Suite Sz.77 (1923) and Zoltan Kodály’s Dances of Galánta (1933). The Bartók is not a suite of dances as we have come to expect from the baroque model; it draws on Hungarian, Romanian and Arabic rhythms and modes to create an “imagined folklore,” often dark and dramatic. In some ways it foreshadows his late works Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and the Concerto for Orchestra. In contrast, Kodály’s one-movement work is much more tonal and based on actual tunes he heard performed by Roma bands while growing up in Galánta. The disc (ATMA ACD2 2867 atmaclassique.com/en/product/symphonie-gaspesienne-champagne-bartok-kodaly-prevost) concludes with Célébration (1966), a rousing and somewhat more abrasive work by modernist Quebec composer André Prevost (1934-2001), whose teachers included Jean Papineau-Couture, Clermont Pépin and Olivier Messiaen. As in the Champagne recording, the Laval orchestra rises to all the various challenges of these varied works and Trudel draws out resplendent performances from this fine 53-piece ensemble. 

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Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was one of the most influential composers of the first half of the 20th century, and this year we celebrate the sesquicentennial of his birth. Juilliard String Quartet Plays Arnold Schoenberg (SONY Classical 19658827202) spans fifty years of his chamber output from the early String Quartet in D Major of 1897, thought lost until after his death, and the string sextet Verklärte Nacht (1899), through the four numbered string quartets (1904-05; 1907-08; 1927; 1936), to the Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte on a text by Lord Byron (1942) and the Trio Op.45 for violin, viola and cello (1945). The recordings themselves span four decades, from the Juilliard’s first cycle issued in 1953 to the 1993 release of Verklärte Nacht and the String Trio. During these 40 years the quartet went through a number of personnel changes, the one constant being founding first violinist Robert Mann who remained at the helm for nearly half a century from the quartet’s inception in 1949 until 1997. (The quartet remains active today, with the current “old hand” being Ronald Copes who was enlisted as second violin in 1997 when Joel Smirnoff moved from second to first chair upon the departure of Mann.) The seven-CD box set includes two recordings of the string quartets, the first as mentioned from 1953 and the second from 1977. This latter also includes the D major quartet which remained unpublished until 1966 and was unavailable at the time of the first recording. I appreciate its inclusion here as Schoenberg’s first major work (25 minutes in this performance). Although one can hear hints of things to come in it, each time I hear the final movement I do a double take thinking that some mistake has been made and a bagatelle of Dvořák has been erroneously inserted. 

In between these two quartet cycles is a 1967 album that was issued as the seventh volume of The Music of Arnold Schoenberg series which includes the Ode to Napoleon, for which the quartet is joined by pianist Glenn Gould and narrator John Horton, and the Trio Op.45 performed by Mann, violist Raphael Hillyer and cellist Claus Adam. The final disc includes Verklärte Nacht in which the quartet is joined by violist Walter Trampler and cellist Yo-Yo Ma and another performance of the trio, this time with Mann, Samuel Rhodes and Joel Krosnick. 

This important collection gives us a wealth of understanding about how Schoenberg’s writing developed from his earliest output to one of his last compositions, about how the Juilliard’s approach to his music changed over the decades and about how recording technology advanced over the same period. The booklet, which contains full recording and release information, includes a very personal essay by Schoenberg, How One Becomes Lonely, in which he discusses how he felt about the often tempestuous and derisory reactions to his music among critics and the public. It also includes an interview with the 1977 members of the Juilliard, Mann, second violinist Earl Carlyss, Rhodes and Krosnick in which they point out that although the membership had almost completely changed in the 24 years since the first recording the group had continued to perform the quartets throughout that time so there was an organic development over the years. It’s interesting to be able to compare the “youthful” and somewhat aggressive approach in the early recordings to the more mature, but still energetic performances later. 

Notwithstanding my appreciation of the booklet itself, I have a few complaints about the packaging. Within the box, each of the CDs is encased in a miniature cardboard replica of the original LP release. This is fine for the front cover art, but unfortunately the reduction results in the original program notes on the back covers being too small to read comfortably, even with a magnifying glass. It is also unfortunate that these are the only program notes provided for the individual pieces and that the Verklärte Nacht/Trio and Ode to Napoleon/Trio covers have no liner notes whatsoever, presumably because the original releases had substantial booklets not included here. Although declaimed articulately by Horton, inclusion of Byron’s text for Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte would have been an important addition, as would some discussion of the trio to give it context, especially since two different performances are presented. That being said, this is a marvelous set and I’m glad to have it. 

Last month I opined “it’s not possible to have too many recordings of Ravel’s string quartet…” and I would say the same is true for that other stand-alone French classic, Claude Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor, Op.10. The two are most often paired together on recordings and last month’s release of the Ravel by Toronto’s Venuti Quartet was a rare exception to the rule. I recently found another when the Euclid Quartet, faculty quartet-in-residence at Indiana University South Bend, released Grieg | Debussy (Afinat Records AR2402 afinat.com). The excellent program notes acknowledge the unusual inclusion of Grieg’s String Quartet in G Minor, Op.27, completed in 1878 at the age of 35, but make a strong case for doing so. Debussy wrote his G minor work in 1893 at the age of 31 and was evidently influenced by Grieg’s quartet. They share a number of characteristics, including a motif that falls from the octave to the seventh and then the fifth, a favourite of Grieg’s, and particularly the eventual triumphant transition from G minor to G major at the conclusion of both works. I am less familiar with the Grieg, as I daresay most audiences are, although the Euclid claim it as one of their “greatest hits.” I was reminded of the incidental music to Ibsen’s Peer Gynt which Grieg composed two years earlier, and was struck by the fact that the final cadence of each movement seemed so final, as if the work were over, that I was almost surprised at the onset of each subsequent movement. Influences aside, the Debussy of only 15 years later appears to be from a different world. Grieg’s Norwegian nationalism and romantic gestures are replaced by the soft, vibrant pastels of French impressionism. The Euclid Quartet seems comfortably at home in the bombast of the former and delicacy of the latter. Another welcome addition to my collection. 

Quite a different kind of string quartet came to my attention this month, in the form of a set of collective improvisations by Richard Carr, Caleb Burhans, Clarice Jensen and Carr’s son Ben a.k.a. Carrtoons. August Light (neuma records 208 richardcarrviolinist.bandcamp.com/album/august-light) features a dozen tracks that range in style from ambient to abrasive. Carr is primarily a violinist, but is also heard on piano and, in one instance, electric guitar. Burhans is a violist and Jensen a cellist with Carrtoons adding electric bass on some of the material. The overall mood is contemplative, but as mentioned there are occasional moments of aggression. Play with Fire, with its choppy cello line and raspy upper strings seemed familiar to me, but not in a derivative way. Eventually I figured out that it was reminiscent of the Kronos Quartet version of Purple Haze or perhaps Matt Haimovitz’s cello ensemble playing Kashmir. But as I say, most of the disc is a lot more mellow than that. A favourite is the haunting Vik, bringing to mind the quiet majesty of the black volcanic sand beaches near the fishing village of that name on the south shore of Iceland that I had the pleasure of visiting with my wife a dozen years ago. This is followed by At the Crossroads, another ethereal piece with Carr on piano and the strings gently enhanced with electronics. The disc opens with Standing Stone, featuring plucked strings and overlaid long notes, and seemingly ends in a similar fashion with Standing Stone Reprise almost an hour later. After more than a minute of silence however the actual final track, Desolation is a Railway Station, begins with Carrtoons’ quiet walking bass line, the “heartbeat in this nocturnal jazz noir journey.” Very effective.

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Update: In June I wrote about Russell Truesdell Presents SYNTHESIS – The String Quartet Sessions (SynthesisSQS.com), a mammoth project for which Truesdell invited 15 large ensemble jazz composers to write for the iconic classical string formation. At the time, as is often the case, I was working from digital audio files in advance of the official release. Since then I have received the full-release LP-size package containing three CDs and an old-school, full size program booklet. My initial reaction before opening the package was “how annoying, this won’t fit on my CD shelf” but, especially considering my concerns about the Juilliard Schoenberg set as noted above, I quickly realized that this was something special. What a joy to hold the booklet and be able to read the print without eye strain. Although I still get annoyed at odd-sized releases, this one has the standard dimensions of a vinyl record and will be easy to store with the LPs which still have a prominent place in my collection. So, thank you to publicist Ann Braithwaite for sending this along!

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And this just in: Just as I thought I was finished for this edition I received Glasswing, the latest from Canadian string band The Fretless (thefretless.com). Like their previous four albums, Glasswing features original compositions by the members of the band, both individually and collectively, which explore their own unique take on the traditional folk string ensemble. Added to the mix are the warm vocals of Madeleine Roger on three tracks which she co-wrote with the band. The Fretless comprise the traditional formation of a string quartet, two fiddles, viola and cello, but one thing that makes them unique is that all three fiddlers – Karrnnel Sawitsky, Trent Freeman and Ben Plotnick – each take turns in the viola chair. Eric Wright is the cellist, providing a solid bass backing to the lilting higher strings. Highlights for me include the opening quasi molto perpetuo Lost Lake by Freeman, the gentle On the Hook by Plotnick and Sawitsky, Wright’s Tree Finder with its doppler-like opening and the closer, Icarus, with Roger’s poignant vocals re-telling the story of the boy who flew too close to the sun. 

Concert note: The Fretless launch Glasswing in a cross-country tour this month. In collaboration with set designer Gillian Gallow, lighting designer Emerson Kafarowski and sound technician Karen Gwillim, the tour promises to be an immersive, multi-sensory concert experience. It kicks off in B.C. on October 3 and culminates at Toronto’s Great Hall on October 20

We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4 or to discoveries@thewholenote.com. 

Spending time at the family cottage in the Haliburton Highlands this summer with my mother I was reminded of her favourite adage “You can’t have too many mushrooms.” This came to mind as I was listening to the CD Ravel | Jurecka by the Venuti String Quartet (venutistringquartet.com) when I realized you also “can’t have too many recordings of the Ravel String Quartet,” especially when it’s played with such joie de vivre as it is by this Toronto-based ensemble. Dating from 1903, the quartet is a relatively early work written when the composer was 28 years old. A forward-looking piece, especially in the assez vif – très rhythmé second movement with its extensive use of pizzicato, Ravel’s quartet is rooted in turn of the century late romantic sensibilities. Two decades later, Ravel was exposed to the St. Louis style of blues and jazz music as performed by W.C. Handy, who was based in Paris at the time, and incorporated this influence into the Sonata for Violin and Piano (1923-1927). In a similar way, Toronto multi-instrumentalist, poly-stylist, composer and arranger Drew Jurecka, founding member of the Venuti String Quartet, draws upon jazz in his String Quartet in D that opens the disc. The initial Allegro moderato begins with pizzicato in the lower strings, perhaps in homage to Ravel, with a lovely lilting unison melody in the violins, followed by a rollicking Scherzo that features some string-scraping percussion effects. The third movement, Indigo, brings to mind Porgy and Bess, and the Fast Swing finale is reminiscent of the quartet’s namesake, iconic jazz violinist Joe Venuti. Jurecka is joined by Rebekah Wolkstein (who takes first desk in the Ravel), violist Shannon Knights and cellist Lydia Munchinsky in a captivating performance of a welcome addition to the quartet repertoire. The disc ends with a breath-taking tour de force called The Spider, a tribute to Carl Stalling of Looney Toons and Merry Melodies fame, co-written by Jurecka and long-time associate, guitarist Jay Danley. Hold on to your hat!

The latest release by the Miró Quartet, aptly titled Home (pentatonemusic.com/product/home) explores various aspects of feelings associated with their (our) sense of belonging and place. It represents the group’s artistic home, firmly rooted in the American soundscape and musical tradition, and the commissioned works also investigate the composers’ understanding of the word. Kevin Puts’ 2017 three movement work that gives the CD its title, is a response to the civil war which displaced more than 13 million Syrian Nationals and sparked the European Migrant Crisis, and to subsequent events including the US border crisis and Russia’s war on Ukraine. It’s an expressive three movement work that “confronts the idea of what being forcibly driven from your home by violence might mean and feel like.” Caroline Shaw wrote Microfictions [Volume 1] during COVID restrictions while confined to her apartment in NYC. Inspired by science fiction writer T.R. Darling’s Twitter-based short stories, Shaw took those same character limit restrictions and created her own brief vignettes as introductions to six movements for string quartet. We hear her reciting these to accompany the Miró performance. The longest work on the programme is Samuel Barber’s gorgeous String Quartet in B Minor (1936, rev.1943). Violist John Largess’ program note tells us this work is “a dramatic, powerful and intense piece, uniquely American, but also universal in its message” and the Miró’s performance reinforces his perspective. Of course, it is the third movement of Barber’s string quartet that is most familiar as the standalone Adagio for Strings. In a review some years ago I chastised a young Canadian string quartet for only including this excerpt on a disc that had room for the whole quartet, so I’m pleased that the Miró have presented the complete work here. However, Home also includes a similarly iconic excerpt known as “Lyric for Strings,” the Molto adagio movement from George Walker’s 1946 String Quartet No.1. Fortunately a recent recording by the Catalyst Quartet – Uncovered Vol.3 – includes the quartet in its entirety and I was happy to seek it out. Home ends gently with William Ryden’s arrangement of Harold Arlen’s Over the Rainbow. You can find a wonderful video performance on YouTube entitled Miro Quartet’s “Over the Rainbow” Celebrates Hometown of Austin, TX. There’s no place like home! 

Since its founding in 2006, Quatuor Béla have been touted as the enfants terrible of French string quartets. In addition to a commitment to traditional quartet repertoire they specialize in the most significant quartets of the 20th century and have been instrumental in the continuing development of the genre commissioning and performing works by Saariaho, Drouet, Stroppa, Mochizuki, Leroux and Platz to name just a few. Benjamin Britten (lepalaisdesdegustateurs.com) is their latest release, two CDs including Britten’s three numbered string quartets and a strikingly effective bare bones transcription by first violinist Frédéric Aurier of Les Illuminations with soprano Julia Wischniewski. Aurier also wrote the detailed and insightful liner notes which provide context and analysis of the works presented. I particularly like the way he relates the string quartets to Britten’s operas. The first two were written while the world was in the throes of the Second World War; String Quartet No.1 in 1941 while Britten and his partner Peter Pears were sheltering in the USA (they returned to Britain in 1942) and String Quartet No.2 in 1945. Although ostensibly written to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Henry Purcell’s death, the second quartet also incorporates the feelings of devastation Britten experienced while visiting Germany with Yehudi Menuhin after the armistice to perform for liberated prisoners and emaciated survivors from German camps, including the notorious Bergen-Belsen. The three-movement work concludes with what Aurier calls a “bewildering” Chaconne with its theme and variations, a theme “which has its operatic twin in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw.” Aurier goes on to say that “Though the tribute to Purcell is real, it is a Beethovenian force that drives the piece” and the repeated final chords are indeed reminiscent of that master. Three decades would elapse before Britten returned to the form, and the String Quartet No.3 (1975) was his final completed instrumental work. It is closely linked to the opera Death in Venice written shortly beforehand and it ends peacefully, the work of a composer facing his own imminent death. Here, as elsewhere in these impeccable performances, Quatuor Béla captures every subtle nuance and dramatic cadence with aplomb. 

Les Illuminations was begun in England in March 1939 and completed a few months later in the United States. It was originally scored for soprano and string orchestra, but within two years of its premiere Britten conducted Pears in the tenor version which has become more often performed. But as Britten’s biographer David Matthews wrote, the work is “so much more sensuous when sung by the soprano voice for which the songs were conceived.” Wischniewski certainly brings sensuousness and passion to fore here in a spectacular performance. The texts are selected passages from poems abandoned by Arthur Rimbaud at the age of 20, later published under the same name as the song cycle. Although the poems are not included in the booklet, the notes give a synopsis of each of the nine movements. As for the “de-orchestration,” Aurier tells us that “as in any reduction, something is lost… a smoothness, a density, a quiet force. And something is gained… a sharpness, details, the quintessence of the speech, the articulation and the urgency of the music perhaps. We wanted this version to be faithful, dynamic and expressive, more raw perhaps, but connected with the Rimbaldian delirium.” Mission accomplished. 

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I find myself wondering if recordings of Bach’s cello suites are like mushrooms, because they seem to keep popping up, and also because it seems that I “can’t have too many” of them. The suites are so ubiquitous that virtually every cellist plays them, throughout their life, and most professionals record them at least once. Two new recordings came my way recently.

Henrik Dam Thomsen, principal cellist of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra since 2000, has just released his well considered version of J. S. Bach – Six Suites for Cello Solo (ourrecordings.com) with an excellent introductory essay by Jens Cornelius which incorporates historical information about Bach and the suites and includes extensive quotes from the performer and a description of the recording venue (Garnisons Kirke, Copenhagen). Thomsen says of his own personal journey to this point, “I have just turned 50, and for 40 of those years I have studied the suites. So a long musical journey underlies the way in which I play them today. As a cellist one goes through various phases with regard to the suites. When young, one is strongly influenced by one’s teachers. This is followed by a phase where one makes the music one’s own and attempts to discover what means something special for oneself. And in my case this has already been a very long period. I have played Bach at numerous concerts over the years, and at the same time the suites have been my daily practising therapy.” He goes on to talk about the choices one has to make today in considering historical instruments and performance practices and how this has influenced him. His ultimate decision was to use his usual instrument – a 1680 Francesco Ruggieri built five years before Bach was born – while eschewing gut strings for modern ones and using a conventional bow. He also chooses to play the final suite on this instrument, despite it having been conceived for a five-string cello. The result is a warm, confident, at times exuberant and a very welcome addition to the discography. I’ll leave the last words to Thomsen: “Today, Bach is like some huge tree, and the interpretations of his music are like a million leaves on that tree. To record Bach’s music is a profoundly personal thing, but when I come with an attempt at an interpretation, all I do is add just one more leaf to that huge tree which is Bach.” 

In 2002 Montreal-born French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras (jeanguihenqueyras.com) was awarded the City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protégé Prize as selected by that year’s laureate Pierre Boulez. In 2007 Harmonia Mundi released Queyras’ first recording of Bach’s cello suites. Later this month HM will release JS Bach – Complete Cello Suites (The 2023 Sessions), Queyras’ 36th recording for the prestigious label. This latest version follows a dance collaboration with Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Mitten wir im Leben sind / Bach6Cellosuiten (2017). After nearly a hundred performances of the dance work, Queyras returned to the studio to record his current interpretation of these masterworks. Obviously influenced by his experiences with the dancers – each of the suites is comprised of a prelude and five dance movements after all – these performances are flowing and fluid. In the booklet Queyras discusses his approach and influences. Like Thomsen, Queyras speaks about how the suites are a lifelong project: “Bach’s Cello Suites do indeed accompany us, cellists, throughout our lives. We encounter them while still very young, by tackling the less technically challenging movements. For me, it started with the Bourree from the third suite. I was 10 years old. My connection to the Bach Suites began there, and this music has never left me since. When you are quite young, you play it spontaneously, you celebrate life. Then in adolescence, you start to question yourself, to go through moments of genuine doubt. At the age of 17 or 18, you turn to the great masters of the past, to their countless recordings that have set the standard, and you ask yourself: How should I do it? What could I add to all this? When I was in my twenties, I had a tendency to sink into deep thought and serious questioning... And in Bach, I found a source of support. [...] When I went into the studio to make this second recording, my idea was to say, I am letting the passage of time do its work. The recording I am making today will be what it is because it is nourished by everything I have experienced during the 17 years that separate the two sessions, especially by the experience of Mitten. […] I wanted to open up new avenues and to focus even more on the harmonic movement. Harmony is the framework that allows the melody to soar. That is also how jazz musicians approach their charts. In this new recording, I tried to go further in these flights of imagination…” Queyras goes on to say that he was also influenced by a viola da gamba recording by Paolo Pandolfo and wanted to incorporate some of the gestures specific to the gamba. I find that particularly noticeable in the haunting melancholy of the fifth suite and in the sixth with his use of ornamentation and the way he manages to create the impression of a hurdy-gurdy. Like Thomsen he chooses to use his “usual” four-string instrument for this suite, a Gioffredo Cappa cello dating from 1696. 

We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4 or to discoveries@thewholenote.com.

Correction: In a review in our previous issue (Volume 29 No 5) the bass player on John Herberman’s album Spring Comes Early was incorrectly identified as Jim Vivian. In actuality the “sinuous, emotive bass” playing referred to was that of Paul Novotny. The WholeNote apologizes for the error. Lesley Mitchell-Clarke’s review of Novotny’s own latest album Summertime in Leith, which features duets with Robi Botos, leads off the Jazz and Improvised review section further on in these pages. 

I enjoy connections, and excuses to revisit my vinyl collection, and in this issue I found several. While editing Yoshi Maclear Wall’s review of Disaster Pony in the Jazz and Improvised Section below, I was struck by his comments about the interplay between cello and saxophone. It put me in mind of the first time I encountered saxophone in a classical context in a 1965 recording of Kabalevsky’s Cello Concerto No.2 featuring its dedicatee Daniil Shafran with the Leningrad Philharmonic. About halfway through the work there is a cello cadenza followed by a phrenetic orchestral tutti in which a saxophone takes up the cello’s theme. On first listening, it took several seconds to assimilate what I was hearing. When the cello takes back the theme a minute later, I was amazed to realize just how alike the two seemingly disparate instruments could sound. It was a revelation. So, Yoshi’s review sent me rooting around my vinyl collection to come up with the old Melodyia/Angel LP. What a joy to revisit that seminal recording. 

The next excuse for a deep dive came as a result of a CD which I didn’t at first think I would be reviewing, Sinta Quartet Plays Beethoven (Bright Shiny Things BSTC-0196 brightshiny.ninja). Now Sinta is a saxophone quartet, and I must say my initial skepticism was not allayed by the opening movement of Beethoven’s “Serioso” String Quartet No.11 in F Minor, Op.95. It was as if I was hearing the soundtrack of a Roadrunner cartoon, or maybe the Keystone Kops. I decided to withhold judgement, however, and skipped ahead to the centrepiece of the disc, the prayer-like third movement of String Quartet No.15 in A Minor, Op.132. From there I was drawn into the fugal opening of String Quartet No.14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op.131 and sat transfixed throughout its seven movements. I was immediately taken by the effectiveness of Dan Graser’s transcriptions, although I found the upper range of the soprano saxophone at times a bit shrill. To contrast that, the rich fullness of the baritone sax, far exceeding the depths of a cello, was captivating. I was surprised to find myself spending more time with this disc than any other in recent memory. Over the period of a month, I pulled out half a dozen versions of the string quartets, from my first vinyl recordings with the Yale String Quartet on the Vanguard Cardinal label and the Guarneri on RCA, through Orford and Italiano quartet LPs, to CDs featuring the Alban Berg, Tokyo (with Peter Oundjian) and Alcan quartets, all juxtaposed with repeated listenings to the saxophone versions. I’m not suggesting that saxophone arrangements will replace the originals in my heart, and pride of place for Op.132 still goes to the Orford Quartet’s digital recording on a Delos CD, but I’m pleased have this alternate take in my collection, much in the way that I appreciate Marion Verbruggen’s performance of Bach Cello Suites on the recorder – an interesting and enchanting new perspective.

I had no qualms whatsoever about Kinds of ~Nois, a recording of original works for saxophone quartet written by the members of the composers collective Kinds of Kings for the Chicago-based quartet ~Nois (Bright Shiny Things BSTC-0197 brightshiny.ninja). Presented in reverse chronology, the disc is bookended by two works by Gemma Peacocke, the recent Hazel, inspired by a poem by Pablo Neruda, and Dwalm, which represents the first collaboration between the two groups back in 2018. Shelley Washington’s Eternal Present is in two movements: I. Now and II. Always. The first features gently moving cloud-like clusters; the second is more playful and percussive, with echoes and games of tag. Maria Kaoutzani’s Count Me In is an “exploration of rhythm and drive inspired by Afro-Cuban bata traditions, made up of interlocking rhythmic patterns” which at times give way to drone-like stasis. Washington returns to narrate her poem BIG TALK and then to perform one of the two baritone sax parts in the duet of the same name, “an outcry against rape culture designed to be an endurance piece for the performers in solidarity with women forced to endure a daily barrage of physical abuse.” An “intentionally confrontational” work, BIG TALK exploits fully the range and power of the baritone instrument in a wild and varied ride lasting 11 minutes, with driving minimalist low ostinati and occasional hints of Harlem Nocturne on speed. Kaoutzani’s Shore to Shore provides respite with its quiet tribute to the sea, “with echoes of a Cypriot lullaby the composer’s grandmother used to sing to her.” Dwalm is an old Scottish word meaning both stupor or daydream and to faint or fall ill. “The composer pursues that idea by contrasting lullabies with cries of sorrow […] in the context of the same underlying darkness of oblivion,” although the density of layers and accelerated tempi keep despair at bay.  

Leah Plave is a cellist currently based in The Netherlands who holds degrees from universities in Cincinnati, Montreal, Budapest and Den Haag. While studying at McGill she served as artistic director and cellist for the Montreal Music Collective. Tong Wang is a Canadian pianist and collaborative artist active in performance, research and community engagement. The Canada Council-funded Black Sea, Orange Tree (Leaf Music leahplave.com) features the two in works for cello and piano by Turkish composer Fazil Say and Canadian Alice Ping Yee Ho. Each four-movement work depicts specific places in colourful aural portraits of the Republic of Türkiye and the People’s Republic of China respectively, and in each, the cello is called upon to replicate sounds of traditional instruments. Say’s Dört Şehir (Four Cities) is a journey through culturally diverse regions of Anatolia (Asia Minor) with stops at Sivas (a conservative city in Eastern Anatolia), Hopa (represented by a traditional wedding dance), Ankara (the capital city of Turkey under Atatürk in 1923), and finally Bodrum (known as the “St. Tropez of Turkey”). This last is a boisterous, jazz-inspired romp with “an abrupt and absurd conclusion in its depiction of a pub brawl as frequently experienced in this city.” Ho’s Four Impressions of China portray Hunan, Tibet, Heilongjiang and her birthplace, Hong Kong. The composer tells us that the music of Hunan takes a Chinese folk song as its point of departure. Tibet is an “imaginary train ride through the Himalayas to the city of Lhasa.” The Black Dragon River, one of China’s four great rivers, is the inspiration for Heilongjiang as the composer imagines a dance of the Black Dragon to symbolize the province’s fierce winters and dormant volcanoes. Hong Kong captures night scenes where locals “...gather at the harbour and lively night markets. Music unfolds the magical view of the Victoria Harbor glittering with city lights; there are the sounds of street performers singing and playing traditional instruments.” In these diverse portraits both performers have shown consummate command of their western instruments while adapting them admirably to create convincing Asian soundscapes.

David Crowell is a New York-based composer and instrumentalist who is active in the fields of contemporary classical composition, improvisation, jazz and experimental rock and pop. His latest release Point / Cloud (Better Company Records davidcrowellmusic.com/music) features four compositions performed by Sandbox Percussion, guitarists Dan Lippel and Mak Grgić, and the duo eco|tonal. The percussion work Verses for a Liminal Space is a gentle piece full of bell sounds, vibraphone and marimba ostinati underscored by subtle drum kit beats. The title work is a response to Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint from 1987. Like that iconic work, Point / Cloud is in three movements in which the solo guitarist plays against tracks they have previously recorded. Lippel, who consulted with Reich for his own recording of Electric Counterpoint, is the guitarist here and gives a nuanced and well-balanced performance of this effective tribute, which, while acknowledging its forebear, avoids being derivative. For Pacific Coast Highway Lippel is joined by Grgić in a classical guitar duet version of a work Crowell originally composed for electric guitar and electric bass. It’s a wild ride “via dancelike passages that bend and wind after their namesake.” The most intriguing work is the final one, 2 Hours in Zadar featuring the meditative duo eco|tonal consisting of Crowell and cellist/singer/improviser Iva Casián-Lakoš. The text is drawn from a poem by Casián-Lakoš’ mother Nela Lakoš. “Subtle utterances of Casián-Lakoš speaking Croatian are blended with organ-like electronics, which are derived from manipulations of [her] voice. […] Eventually, samples of a sound unique to the city of Zadar makes its presence known: The Sea Organ. A symbiosis of human architecture and the unpredictability of nature, this ‘organ’ is a marble stair in the Croatian coastal city that contains an assortment of pipes in its steps, which are ‘played’ by the ebb and flow of waves.” The sounds are haunting and captivating, as is the entire disc. 

Founded in 2011 by clarinetist Pascal Archer, Exponential Ensemble is a mixed chamber music collective (flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and piano, supplemented with horn, trumpet and an additional violin here), whose unusual mission includes commissioning and premiering works that are inspired by math, science and literacy. Matters of Time (American Modern Recordings AMR1055 americanmodernrecordings.com) features four quite different works that approach this mandate in varying ways. Amy Brandon says “Crown of the Sun is a reflection on the physical nature of the sun’s corona contrasted with the deep emptiness of space. NASA recently sonified the radiation patterns that the sun emits, and I found a particular connection between this sound and the complex and beautiful sound of oboe multiphonics, which is why they are referenced throughout this piece, to essentially sonify the varying states of the sun’s corona in sound.” A Dark Matter by Gilead Cohen “explores the notion that our mind also sometimes circles around an […] indefinable worry, regret, or fear [that] can occupy us for a long time and color everything else in dark shades. At the core of this piece is such musical ‘dark matter.’” The Bright Exuberant Silence by Jared Miller gives us a curiously positive glimpse at the lockdowns of 2020, inspired by that “fleeting and eerie moment in modern history when the world was put on pause due to COVID-19 [and] nature began to heal. Pollution started to clear in the air as fewer people drove cars to work every day. Birdsong was audible in silent metropolises [and] you could even see the stars in the sky in the middle of Manhattan on some nights. Nature began to overtake cities quietly and holistically – and for a moment, urban dwellers learned what it was like to peacefully coexist with the natural world.” Both Miller’s and Brandon’s work were commissioned with the support of the Canada Council. The disc is completed by a surprisingly lyrical, playful and somewhat anachronistic work, to my ear reminiscent of the music of Francis Poulenc, by Robert Paterson. Relative Theory is in four movements that reference physicists and mathematicians Blaise Pascal, Emmy Noether, Albert Einstein and Pythagoras. Paterson says he was inspired by how much the Exponential Ensemble enjoy performing programs for children that relate math to music. “In a fun, yet hopefully meaningful way, the movements of my piece are designed to draw parallels between these two distinct, but interrelated worlds.” It certainly is fun, especially Einstein’s Daydream with its quotations from Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, and the rollicking finale The Hammers of Pythagoras. 

Listen to 'Matters of Time' Now in the Listening Room

I began this column writing about string quartet transcriptions for saxophones, and this latest arrival seems, in a way, to bring me full circle. Russell Truesdell Presents SYNTHESIS – The String Quartet Sessions (SynthesisSQS.com) is a mammoth project for which Truesdell invited 15 large ensemble jazz composers to write for the iconic classical string formation. Truesdell says the project grew out of the isolation of the pandemic. “I wanted to find a way to inspire and challenge large ensemble composers – myself included – at a time when we were feeling hopeless for the future of our artform [...] The idea for SYNTHESIS came from the knowledge that many jazz composers derive inspiration from the string quartet writing of composers like Bartok, Brahms, and Ravel, and the necessity of finding a realistic, yet inspiring way to create music together, safely, in person. [...] I wanted to hear my peers, whom I respect and whose music I love so much, create something new in this idiom.” The 3CD set has kept me enthralled throughout my first listening – it arrived as I was putting the finishing touches on this column, so I haven’t had time to properly immerse myself in it yet – and although there is simply too much material to deal with in detail, I wanted to share my enthusiasm with you. Truesdell gave the composers very few parameters in terms of length or style to guide them, and I was particularly taken with the range of approaches taken. While most of the works were composed specifically for this project, also included are a previously unrecorded work for string trio from 1990 by Bob Brookmeyer and a reworking of John Hollenbeck’s Grey Cottage, originally for solo violin, for quartet with the composer adding drums, marimba and piano. Most of the composers have chosen to stick within the traditional quartet formation of two violins, viola and cello, but several feature soloists within this context, including Christine Jensen whose lovely Tilting World features violin soloist Sara Caswell. Truesdell, who himself contributed three titles, adds Israeli-born clarinetist Anat Cohen for Suite for Clarinet and String Quartet and bassist Jay Anderson to the quartet in Heart of Gold (for Jody) which is a showcase for cellist Jody Redhage Ferber. To quote the press release: “SYNTHESIS challenges old perceptions of the traditional string quartet [...] exploring a new genre of music cultivated at the intersection of jazz, classical, world, and contemporary music.” It does so admirably. 

Listen to 'SYNTHESIS: The String Quartet Sessions' Now in the Listening Room

We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4 or to discoveries@thewholenote.com.

Although you will not be reading this until April, or even May, as I write it is not yet March. While I try to keep on top of the many, many releases that have come in for consideration since our last issue, I am also having to consider a number of discs that we overlooked in the past year. While we will not know the results of the Juno Awards before we go to press, the nominations have been recently announced and although we have covered most of discs in the categories most relevant to The WholeNote, there are a few we overlooked. You’ll find a couple of these – Caity Gyorgy/Marc Limacher and Nick Maclean Quartet featuring Brownman Ali – in our Jazz and Improvised section, and two from the Classical Album of the Year (soloist) category right here. 

Matt Haimowitz is the soloist in the digital-only release Thomas de Hartmann – Cello Concerto Op.57 (Pentatone PTC 5187159 pentatonemusic.com/product/de-hartmann-cello-concerto). Dennis Russell Davies conducts the MDR Leipzig RSO in the first commercial recording of this work by one of the significant Ukrainian composers of the first half of the 20th century. De Hartmann (1885-1956) was an important compositional voice during his lifetime, but since then his colourful and compelling music has been largely ignored. This recording is part of a larger undertaking aimed to remedy that situation, and Haimowitz’s stunning performance bodes well for the success of the venture (thomasdehartmannproject.com). The concerto, which reflects the anxiety of the times, was composed in 1935 and first performed three years later by Paul Tortelier and the Boston Symphony under Serge Koussevitzky. Although not himself a Jew, de Hartmann was troubled by the acute antisemitism of the rising Nazi regime in Germany and the work incorporates Jewish musical folklore and other Eastern European folk traditions. Indeed the playful third movement, with its moto-perpetuo cello line, opens with a (presumably Hungarian) theme that Bartók would use in sketches for a viola concerto a decade later. The at times cinematic, 36-minute concerto is an excellent introduction to this often-overlooked composer, and with the current horrific situation in Ukraine its rediscovery is a timely reminder of the glorious musical heritage of that nation.

James Ehnes is the soloist for Carl Nielsen – Violin Concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic under Edward Gardner (Chandos CHSA 5311 chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHSA%205311). An extended slow introduction – likened by Paul Griffiths in the excellent booklet notes to a folk fiddler playing with “classical elegance,” gently fades away before an abrupt orchestral explosion into the Allegro cavallerésco, a “chivalric” episode evoking knights on horseback. The Poco Adagio begins gently with winds before morphing into a contemplative violin solo. The final movement is also gentle but quite mischievous where, in Griffiths’ words “comedy is overplayed […] making riot of its ebullience. [But] the cadenza goes another way, back to a moment of drone-accompanied melody, as if this had all been the dream of a wandering fiddler.” Nielsen began the work in Norway and Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang has said “I think every violinist should play this concerto, because you get challenged not only technically, but also structure-wise. You have to take a bird’s eye view of this concerto, you need this kind of perspective.” Ehnes seems to have had no problem attaining this vantage point. He rises to all the challenges and there are passages that shine like jewels. It’s easy to see why this performance was short-listed for a Juno. 

Gardner also leads the orchestra in a magnificent performance of Nielsen’s Symphony No.4 “The Inextinguishable” recreating the same pairing of works that Nielsen conducted in a program in London in 1923, 100 years before this recording was made. 

Another one that slipped through the cracks last year is a fabulous new recording of Ravel – Daphnis et Chloé complete ballet (Chandos CHSA 5327 chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN 5327) featuring the Sinfonia of London Chorus and Sinfonia of London. Director John Wilson used the COVID-19 lockdown period to prepare a new performing edition of the ballet that we are more familiar with from the two suites that the composer extracted from the near-hourlong original. It was conceived in 1909, the year Serge Diaghilev brought his Ballet Russe to Paris, as a collaboration between Ravel, Diaghilev and dancer/choreographer Michel Folkine. Although there were myriad complications and disagreements along the way, the project was eventually brought to fruition culminating in, much to Ravel’s chagrin, only two performances at the end of the 1912 season. Although Diaghilev did mount three more performances at the end of the following year, he never thereafter presented it in Paris. This new recording is accompanied by extensive notes by Wilson detailing the history of the ballet’s creation and his own challenges in recreating what he feels is an authentic version of the historic ballet. There is also a detailed libretto/mis en scene by Folkine, making a very impressive booklet in three languages totaling 42 pages. The performance is stunning and the recording itself is immaculate, with a dynamic range that has to be heard to be believed. 

One more disc lost in the shuffle before we move on. New Stories features saxophonist Joseph Lulloff and pianist Yu-Lien The performing works by colleagues from Michigan State University, Canadian Dorothy Chang and Americans David Biedenbender, Stacy Garrop and Carter Pann (Blue Griffin Records BGR607 bluegriffin.com). Chang’s lyrical title work is the earliest on the disc, dating from 2013. The composer says the commission “was the perfect opportunity to explore the combination of Eastern and Western influences in my music, a composition puzzle I was grappling with at the time.” Biedenbender’s one-movement Detroit Steel is an unaccompanied work intended to honour “the grit, strength and resolve of the people of the city.” Garrop’s Wrath is a follow up to her earlier Tantrum for alto sax and piano, and its three movement titles – Menace, Shock and Amok – aptly describe the moods of the piece. At 25 minutes, Pann’s Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano is the most extended and developed work on the disc, comprising six tracks of varied aspect from the opening This Black Cat to the closing Lacrimosa in memory of Joel Hastings. Throughout the disc Lulloff and The rise to every challenge and nuance pitched by the four composers, from languid and emotive melodies to brash, abrasive and sometimes jocular outbursts. 

And on to more recent arrivals… Another saxophone disc CONVERGENCE – Music for Saxophone and Mixed Media (Navona Records nv6608 navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6608) features Heidi Radtke in works for soprano, alto and tenor saxes in a variety of settings. The eight compositions – each by a different contemporary composer – span a plethora of moods and emotions, from raucous and playful, to morose and meditative. The disc opens with a lush reimagining by Jenni Watson of Debussy’s first Arabesque in which the sax is surrounded by a gorgeous wash of pre-recorded sounds, primarily those of violin and piano. Two particularly moving works are Andy Scott’s Wind Telephone, inspired by the 2011 tsunami in Otsuki, Japan and Rahsaan Barber’s Breonna Taylor (How Many More?), a gentle lament for a Black woman killed by police in Louisville, KY in 2020. It uses field recordings from Iroquois Park close to Taylor’s home in which calls of red-winged blackbirds are prominent. British-born Canadian composer Peter Meecham’s contemplative 3 Pieces for Solo Saxophone depict “A lonely man, on the New York subway, playing his saxophone, not for money, but for himself.” The title work is a 2011 collaboration between Radtke and Sang Mi Ahn in which the solo saxophone interacts with an electronic soundtrack generated from sounds made by Radtke’s sax. I might have expected an hour’s worth of solo” saxophone to be a bit “much of a muchness,” but to the contrary, Radtke’s compelling playing, the varying compositional palettes and diverse accompaniments made for an engaging listening experience throughout.  

The Emily Carr String Quartet (emilycarrstringquartet.com) released its second album in January. Portraits, a digital release on Leaf Music “is inspired by the work of Emily Carr. […] It is through music, one of the most abstract of art forms, that we can connect ourselves to her. The rhythm of a piece can be likened to the movement of brush strokes. The musical notes can be described as the pigments of colour chosen to convey the deep, dark and wild nuances of B.C.’s coastal rainforest. Musical phrases can begin to suggest Emily’s connection with the land and the First Nations she was friends with.” Four Canadians – Tobin Stokes, Jocelyn Morlock, Jared Miller and Iman Habibi – have written works that reflect their feelings about or inspired by the iconic artist. Stokes’ Feathers is a nine-movement work with each brief sketch, with such titles as Nesting, Nightingale and Hummingbirds, prefaced by a short quotation from the writings of Carr. Morlock’s Big Raven evocatively reflects Carr’s desire to “bring loneliness to this canvas and haunting broodiness, quiet and powerful.” Miller was inspired by another of Carr canvas, Strangled by Growth, which juxtaposes a human construction (totem pole) with the natural world (forest). Habibi’s Beloved of the Sky pays homage to the painting of the same name in the second movement, with impressions of Carr’s depictions of Forest, her pet monkey Woo and an introspective Self Portrait completing the work. The disc concludes with Stoke’s suite Klee Wyck, interpretations of five stories from the book of the same name. Each of the composers bring their own frame of reference and personal language to the project and the ensemble successfully bridges the divides effectively and convincingly, make for a truly enjoyable disc. 

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The Fine Arts Quartet was founded in Chicago in 1946 so of course there have been personnel changes over the decades. The current violinists, Ralph Evans and Efim Boico, have been members since 1982 and 1983 respectively, with violist Gil Sharon and cellist Niklas Schmidt joining in 2018. The ensemble is still going strong and has just released the tenth and final volume of the complete string quartets (plus other related works) of Antonin Dvořák, Dvořák – String Quartet No.2; Bagatelles; Rondo (Naxos 8.574513 naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.574513). String Quartet No.2 in B-flat Major was one of three quartets written in 1869 during a period when Dvořák was markedly influenced by Wagner. He later destroyed the scores and the quartets were thought to have been lost until sets of parts were discovered after his death. According to the website antonin-dvorak.cz/en, although there had been a private performance in Prague back in 1932, the first public performance of Quartet No.2 was not until September 2021 in that same city by the Zemlinsky Quartet. This recording of the 50-minute work took place just over a year later in Marienmunster, Germany. It is hard to tell why it languished so long without acceptance, or for that matter why it was rejected by the composer. It’s a lovely and fully developed work, if, according to Paul Griffiths, a bit “prolix.” [I had to look that up.] The disc is completed by the humourous Bagatelles of 1878 for two violins, cello and harmonium (Ryoko Morooka) and the rollicking Rondo in G Minor from 1891 for cello and piano (Stepan Simonian). With Dvořák in its rear-view mirror and a discography of some 200 other works spanning the history of the string quartet genre, I look forward to seeing what the future holds for this fine (arts) quartet. 

The Neave Trio is back again – five reviews in these pages since 2017 – and their latest, A Room of Her Own (Chandos CHAN 20238 chandos.net), features four turn-of-the-20th century composers Lili Boulanger, Cécille Chaminade, Dame Ethyl Smyth and Germaine Tailleferre. It’s a bit of misnomer to designate Tailleferre as turn-of-the-century however as she lived and remained active as a composer until 1983. As a matter of fact, although her Trio originated in 1917, she reworked the version included here in 1978, replacing the middle movement and adding a fourth. These new, ebullient movements add a sunny quality to the work while still maintaining the characteristic voice she had established some six decades earlier. Boulanger completed her Deux piéces en trio in 1918, the year of her untimely death at the age of 24. The first of these is a cheerful, brief depiction of a spring morning. The second is a sombre, more extended exploration of a sad evening. The other two trios date from almost 40 years earlier, both composed in 1880. Chaminade’s Trio No.1, Op.11 in G Minor is a fetching work in four movements, with a particularly charming Presto leggiero featuring waterfall-like textures in the piano. British composer Smyth is the only non-French national included here and her formative studies took place in Leipzig, grounding her firmly in the Austro-German romantic tradition. She was born one year later than Chaminade, in 1858, and both died in 1944. Her Trio, at 31 minutes the longest offering here, like her coeval’s is also in a minor key, in this case G Minor. In spite of this there are many bright moments, especially in the scherzando section of the second movement and throughout the Scherzo. Presto con brio third. The Neave Trio in, as always, in top form and is to be commended for bringing these rarely heard gems to light is such stellar performances.   

Poet and author Robert Priest has been active on the Toronto scene as long as I can remember, going back to the early 80s when we were both denizens of Ye Olde Brunswick House open mic nights. I’ve often thought of him over the years, fondly remembering a line (with a tip of the hat to Allen Ginsberg) “I saw the best minds of my generation falling off streetcars” or something to that effect. [Priest tells me the phrase may have actually been “the best mimes of my generation.”] He’s obviously been active in the years since, with half a dozen albums, myriad poetry collections and novels to his credit, as well as co-writing Alannah Myles’ hit Song Instead of a Kiss. I was disappointed to miss his recent album launch at Hugh’s Room – I was asleep at the wheel I guess – but am glad to have received a copy of People Like You and Me (vesuviusmusic.com/robert-priest). It’s a combination of spoken word and song, all accompanied by some fine players from Toronto’s jazz community including Kevin Breit, Alison Young, Great Bob Scott and George Koller, who also share writing credits with Priest. The music is diverse, running a gamut of styles. Most surprising to me is the jazzy torch song You and I and Faraway co-written with Allen Booth and featuring Young’s honey-dripping sax, in which Priest turns in a convincing Brian Ferry-esque performance. Some of the clever turns of phrase I particularly enjoyed were “In my country we don’t have free speech, but the speech we do have is really, really cheap” and “I’m so prophetic I get pre-traumatic stress disorder!” from [I strive for] Outer Peace and “Love is a many gendered thing” from a tune of the same name. I wish I hadn’t missed the show! 

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Concert note: I do intend to be at Priest’s next performance at the Great Sunday Night Folk Off at the Tranzac on April 21 (5pm start). 

We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4 or to discoveries@thewholenote.com. 

As I write this in the early days of January it is fitting that I speak about my New Year’s resolution to be a better friend to my cello this year. With this in mind I’m getting together with my friends Anne (violin) and Adam (piano) for trio sessions after a lengthy hiatus. Having previously played music by Mendelssohn and Mozart, this year we have embarked upon Beethoven’s Piano Trio Op.1, No.2. It’s a piece that I worked on extensively some 20 years ago and have been inspired to revisit by a new release, Beethoven Complete Piano Trios performed by the Weiss Kaplan Stumpf Trio (Bridge Records 9505A/C bridgerecords.com). Yael Weiss (piano), Mark Kaplan (violin) and Peter Stumpf (cello) all have notable solo careers and have been playing together as a trio for more than two decades. What I particularly like about this 3CD package – in addition to the fabulous performances – is that in lieu of program notes for the familiar trios, the booklet includes essays by each of the three performers about their own connections to the music. In the case of Weiss, this involves a lineage of teachers reaching all the way back to Beethoven via her mentor Leon Fleisher, a student of Schnabel, who worked with Leschetizky, a student of Liszt, who studied with Czerny, a student of the great master himself. Kaplan and Stumpf each share their personal takes on the trios, and the occasion of the recording. 

Although not as frequently heard as the string quartets which span Beethoven’s entire career (some of which are among the last works he would compose), the piano trios represent his early and middle periods very well, from his earliest published works, to the mammoth “Archduke” Trio Op.97 of 1811 (my own introduction to the genre some 50 years ago in a recording featuring Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan and Mstislav Rostropovich). This current recording reminds us however that Beethoven returned to the trio form in 1824 when he published the charming “Kakadu Variations” Op.121a, here paired with the very first trio from 1795. The eight trios therefore spanning three decades of Beethoven’s creativity, all in splendidly dynamic and idiomatic performances which kept me captivated for many hours over the course of the holiday season. 

It seems Beethoven also provided inspiration to composer Joan Tower whose 1985 Piano Concerto – Homage to Beethoven is the title track on a new portrait CD from Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP Sound 1093 bmop.org/audio-recordings). Soloist Marc-André Hamelin is in stellar form in the dramatic and often percussive work from 1985. Although there are no obvious quotations from Beethoven, Tower says “he had a huge influence on me in terms of how to try to create and motivate a strong dramatic structure.” She also says she included fragments from three Beethoven sonatas which are imbedded in the cadenzas. The most recent work is Red Maple, a bassoon concerto from 2013. Right from the extended solo opening, bassoonist Adrian Morejon establishes command, leading BMOP through the haunting quarter-hour virtuosic showpiece. There are two flute concertos bookending Red Maple, Rising for flute and string orchestra (2010, originally for flute and string quartet) and the 1989 Flute Concerto, both premiered by the outstanding Carol Wincenc who is the soloist here. This CD is a fitting tribute to Tower, the now 85-year-old American treasure whose successful career has spanned six decades. 

Joan Tower’s piano concerto put me in mind of one of my first exposures to modern (at the time contemporary) concertante works, more than half a century ago. I bought an LP of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G featuring Lorin Hollander with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf that also included the premiere recording of Norman Dello Joio’s 1961 Fantasy and Variations for Piano and Orchestra. I fell in love with the Ravel, especially Hollander’s tender performance of the slow movement, but it was the Dello Joio that really caught my attention. Although that recording has recently been remastered, it is a piano concerto by his son Justin Dello Joio that I want to write about here. Oceans Apart: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra features Garrick Ohlsson with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Alan Gilbert (Bridge Records 9583 bridgerecords.com). Composed in 2022, the title of the work refers, in part, to the “…the immensity, the oceanic vastness, of the polarization of our time. People seem to be moving irreparably apart. The waves of misinformation spreading relentlessly over the web, the belief that such a thing as ‘alternate facts’ can exist, and the swell of unharnessed power this has caused – these were in my thoughts.” Captured in a live performance, the work opens with “an unresolved tritone in the low register in the piano and the highest sounds, beyond any specific pitch, whispering incomprehensively and at the edge of audibility in the strings” which extends into a 20-minute dramatic contest between piano and orchestra. Ohlsson, for whom it was written, holds his own in a brilliant performance which, to paraphrase the composer, pits him like a surfer on a 100-foot wave against the daunting force of a large symphony orchestra. As the applause dies away we are treated to Due Per Due, two movements for cello and piano (Carter Brey and Christopher O’Riley), Elegia: To an Old Musician and Moto in Perpetuo. Written in 2011, three years after his father’s death, the first pays homage to Norman’s Prelude: To a Young Musician which Justin learned to play at the age of six. The second is as rambunctious and flamboyant as the title implies. This fine disc is completed by Blue and Gold Music written for the tricentennial of the Trinity School, in a sparkling performance by organist Colin Fowler and the American Brass Quintet. 

My first exposure to the music of Claude Champagne (1891-1965) was an educational LP on the Canadian Music Enrichment label, one side of which was an uninterrupted performance of Symphonie Gaspésienne and on the other the same work with cues for a slideshow depicting the landscape of the Gaspé peninsula that inspired the work. Although not much attention was given to him in English Canada, where his contemporaries included Healy Willan and Sir Ernest MacMillan, Champagne was an important figure in the annals of classical music in Quebec, where his students included Violet Archer, Roger Matton, Pierre Mercure, Serge Garant and Gilles Tremblay among other notables. I was very pleased to see a new recording of Champagne’s brilliant tone poem featuring L’Orchestre symphonique de Laval under Alain Trudel (ATMA ACD2 4053 atmaclassique.com/en). Starting eerily in near silence, Trudel leads his orchestra through the gradually building portrait of the fabled peninsula with dramatic turns and climaxes along the 20-minute journey. Although the program notes mention Debussy and the Russian school as influences, I also hear echoes of Delius and Vaughan Williams in this marvelous one movement work. You can access the digital-only recording for free on the ATMA website. 

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Chinatown (Leaf-Music LM281 leaf-music.ca) is a striking new opera featuring the words of Giller Prize laureate Madeleine Thien and music by multiple-award-winner Alice Ping Yee Ho. The project was initiated by City Opera Vancouver back in 2017 and developed over the next five years through a myriad of workshops and public consultations with Vancouver’s Chinese community. During that process the importance of the Hoisan language to the history of Vancouver’s Chinatown became evident as that was the province of China where many of the original immigrants came from. Writer Paul Yee was engaged to translate portions of the opera into the Hoisan dialect. The result is the first opera to depict a Canadian Chinatown, and the first libretto to combine Hoisanese, Cantonese and English. The orchestration features traditional Chinese and Western classical instruments. It tells the story of two families and a chorus of ghosts, beginning with the building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad through to our own times. It deals with “violence and despair, the Head Tax, the Exclusion Act, paper sons, and paper promises.” The opera was staged in 2022 under the direction of Mary Chun and this is the original cast recording of the groundbreaking milestone of the musical stage. The booklet includes a synopsis for each of the 12 scenes of the two-act opera, program notes and biographies in English, French and Chinese pictograms. 

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Edmonton-born, Juno Award-winning composer Vivian Fung first studied with Violet Archer, went on to receive her doctorate from the Juilliard School and is currently based in California. Insects & Machines – Quartets of Vivian Fung (Sono Luminus DSL-92270 sonoluminus.com) features the Jasper String Quartet – who have admired Fung since first performing one of her quartets in 2019 – being “immediately captivated by the visceral energy and impeccable craft of her writing.” The four works included span 18 years of her chamber output. Fung, whose family survived Cambodian genocide, has travelled extensively in the Far East and drew on folk music of certain parts of Asia, including China and Indonesia, for her String Quartet No.1. It began as a short movement written on assignment at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in 2001 for performance by the American String Quartet. The success of that reading inspired her to add three more movements, also drawing on Eastern themes, to complete the quartet in 2004. To my ear is it reminiscent of the “night music” style of Béla Bartók, especially in the original pizzicato movement. (What young composer would not be influenced by Bartók’s incredible contribution to the string quartet genre? And, having spoken of musical lineage earlier in this column, I will mention that Fung’s teacher Archer was herself a student of that Hungarian master.) Fung states that “issues of my Asian identity underscore much of my work.” String Quartet No.2 (2009), also uses a Chinese folksong for its base, and String Quartet No.3 (2013) evokes “a non-Western song […] highly ornamented, powerful, and tuned to suggest the microtonal tendencies found in many non-Western scales.” String Quartet No.4: Insects & Machines is likewise inspired by travels to the Orient, this time Cambodia, where “I was especially attuned to the persistent noises of buzzing insects that accompanied my walk through the thick jungle.” The subtitle aptly describes the divisions of this one-movement work: Buzzing… whirring… glitching… ringing… thumping…. The members of the Jasper String Quartet – named after Canada’s Jasper National Park, although I cannot find another Canadian connection to the group – rise to the multiple challenges posed by Fung throughout these works, but especially in the unrelenting and virtuosic tour de force of this final quartet. But final is not the right word: Fung has recently completed a fifth for Victoria’s Lafayette String Quartet. 

Speaking of string quartets, later on in these pages you will find Terry Robbins’ take on Quatuor Molinari’s latest installment of the quartets of Philip Glass. The Molinari is not the only Montreal-based ensemble to have an ongoing interest in the American minimalist master, and Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà have just released a follow-up to their 2008 Philip Glass: Portrait album. Signature: Philip Glass (Analekta AN 2 8755 outhere-music.com/en/labels/analekta) is comprised of 16 short movements drawn from a dozen “signature” works spanning most of four decades. Dubeau says that for many years she has found Glass’ music “nourishing intellectually and musically” and for this, her 48th album, she chose works she finds “significant and compelling” from his vast oeuvre. Opening (appropriately) with Opening from 1981’s Glassworks, the earliest work on the disc, we journey through the years with stops at such classics as Symphony No.3, Koyaanisqatsi, The Somnambulist, A Brief History of Time, Candyman Suite and several movements from Bent. New to me, and of particular interest, is the extended movement from the 2018 Piano Quintet and two Duos for Violin and Cello from 2010 (featuring Dubeau and Julie Trudeau). The arrangements and adaptations are by Dubeau and François Vallières and they are compelling indeed. 

Around the same time that I was discovering the music of Philip Glass in the late 1970s I was also intrigued by the ambient compositions of Brian Eno such as Music for Airports. Glass had a seminal influence on Eno who, in 1971 along with David Bowie, heard Glass perform at the Royal College of Art in London. Glass would later acknowledge a reciprocal influence, composing three symphonies based on Eno and Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy of albums. In 2015 Bruce Brubaker released Glass Piano and with his latest, Eno Piano (infiné iF1088 infine-music.com) the connections continue. Whereas Eno used a variety of techniques and tape loops to create the drones and sustained notes of his ambient creations, in effect making the studio his instrument, with aid of new technologies such as the EBow (an electromagnetic device used to make long notes on the strings of a guitar or piano) and the latest spatialization techniques from IRCAM, Brubaker has effectively turned the grand piano into a studio to be played in real time. It’s quite a stunning achievement. The tracks on offer are the three parts of Music for Airports along with three shorter works, The Chill Air (from Ambient 2 with Harold Budd, 1980), By This River (Before and After Science, 1977) and Emerald and Stone (Small Craft on a Milk Sea, 2010). 

Another contemporary take on the ambient genre, Skjálfti (Quake) by composers Páll Ragnar Pálsson and Eðvarð Egilsson (sonoluminus-com/store/skjalf) extrapolates a 15-part suite from their soundtrack to the 2021 Icelandic film of the same name. Written and directed by Tinna Hrafnsdóttir, the film tells the story of Saga, an author and mother who, after an epileptic seizure, experiences memory loss at the same time as hidden memories of family secrets begin to resurface. The psychological drama the film explores is hauntingly realized in this effective expansion of the original soundtrack that comprised 40 very brief segments, developing them into a strikingly atmospheric stand-alone work. 

Having begun this column with Beethoven’s impressive cycle of piano trios, I will close with the world premiere recording of one of the latest contributions to that time-honoured genre. Renowned Danish composer Poul Ruders (b.1949) had written some two dozen orchestral works (including five symphonies), as many concertante works, and countless chamber pieces (including four string quartets), before embarking on his first Piano Trio in 2020. Written for the Trio Con Brio Copenhagen, featured here in a performance that lives up to the group’s name, the composer describes it as a Kantian “thing in itself” with no hidden agenda. As per the accompanying press release, “The outer movements zip by in a flurry of heightened virtuosity that verges on the ecstatic (or hysterical, depending on your mood).” The contemplative central movement, Slow Motion, provides some much-needed respite from the at times abrasive opening, and a chance to catch your breath before the whirlwind finale. This is a fine example of how older forms can serve contemporary purposes. Cudos to all involved in this exceptional project (Our Recordings 9.70892 ourrecordings.com). 

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We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4 or to discoveries@thewholenote.com.

After a career of 47 years the renowned Emerson String Quartet is calling it a day and they have enrolled Canadian superstar Barbara Hannigan for their farewell offering, Infinite Voyage (Alpha 1000 outhere-music.com/en/albums/infinite-voyage). The disc opens gently with Paul Hindemith’s four-song cycle Melancholie, Op.13 which Hannigan’s pure soprano is the perfect vehicle for the poems of Christian Morgenstern. Set in memory of Hindemith’s friend Karl Köhler, whose death on the Western Front in 1918 left the composer devastated, noting “Everything is dreary and empty. I feel deathly sad.” This is followed by Alban Berg’s String Quartet, Op.3, with its references to Tristan und Isolde as a tribute to the composer’s beloved – and later its eerie prefiguring of the madness depicted in his own opera Wozzeck – in a deeply moving performance by the quartet. Pianist Bertrand Chamayou joins the others for Ernest Chausson’s Chanson perpétuelle, a setting of abridged verses from Charles Cros’ Nocturne in which the narrator, abandoned by her lover, prepares for suicide. At nearly half an hour, Schoenberg’s String Quartet No.2, in F-sharp Minor, Op.10 is the most substantive work presented here. The first two movements are scored for traditional string quartet. The first movement expands the tonality of the key signature without venturing too far outside the lines. Things begin to go astray in the second movement, when toward the end a fractured, but recognizable rendition of the popular song O du Lieber Augustine with it’s refrain “All is over” is heard. The third and fourth movements both feature soprano and the poetry of Stefan George: Litany built on motives from the previous movements using a text that opens “Deep is the sadness that gloomily comes over me”; and Ecstasy, in which there is no longer a key signature and the words begin “I feel air from another planet” as the work indeed leads us into a new world of tonality. Once again Hannigan’s is the perfect voice for this powerful and haunting work, which provides a fitting end to the Emerson Quartet’s “infinite voyage.” Their journey lasted most of half a century and they produced nearly three dozen recordings. The Emersons will be missed, but what a legacy!

Transfigured featuring the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective and soprano Francesca Chiejina (Chandos CHAN 20277 chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2020277) presents a program of chamber music from the turn of the 20th century with and without voice. The disc begins with Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Maiblumen blühten überall for soprano and string sextet from 1898, a setting of Richard Dehmel’s gruesome poem that translates to Lilies-of-the-valley blossomed everywhere, which ends “and the sun burned him to death in the corn.” Anton Webern’s 1907 Quintet for Piano and Strings, at 13 minutes is one of the composer’s most sustained works. Written early in his studies with Schoenberg, it shows some influence of Zemlinsky, his orchestration teacher, and certainly an appreciation of Brahms, as well as an understanding of his new mentor’s ideas. Zemlinsky, Schoenberg’s teacher and later his brother-in-law, also numbered among his students Alma Schindler, who became his lover before her marriage to Gustav Mahler in 1902. She wrote a variety of compositions before her marriage, but Mahler decreed that his wife would have to give up composing. He later relented somewhat and in 1910 sent her music to Universal Edition who published some of the songs recorded here. Kaleidoscope pianist Tom Poster has arranged them quite effectively for soprano and string sextet and in this form they perfectly complement the other repertoire on the disc. Chiejina’s dark, dramatic voice is well suited to these songs which actually show more affinity with the world of Zemlinsky and Schoenberg than that of Mahler. In 1899 Schoenberg wrote the string sextet Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) which remains his most celebrated work, with the possible exception of the mammoth Gurrelieder published a decade later. Like Zemlinsky’s Maiblumen and the first of Alma’s songs presented here, Die stille Stadt, it is based on an emotionally charged poem by Dehmel. In this case however, the text is interpreted solely through music in an extended and gripping tone poem replete with sturm und drang. As the notes tell us, “indebted to Brahms in its string sextet form, the work seemed to be a deliberate repudiation of such a soundworld and its harmonic rules.” Although still some years away from his development of the “atonal” 12-note system of composition, and still using a traditional key signature (D minor), in this seminal work Schoenberg expands the tonality, stretching it almost to the breaking point while still conveying the depths of emotion in this star-crossed love story. Kaleidoscope rises and falls exquisitely with all the rollercoaster twists and turns of the plot until eventually, a half hour later, the quiet and compassionate resolution brings this very satisfying disc to a resplendent close. 

I have spent some time in recent months sorting through several thousand LPs in my basement and came across Glenn Gould’s two iconic recordings of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. I took the opportunity to give them both a spin and was surprised at just how much I appreciated Gould’s “mature” 1981 version (51 minutes) with its leisurely approach versus the sprightly, often breakneck tempos of his youthful 1955 debut (38 minutes). A few days after this comparative listening session a new recording of the Goldbergs by Icelander Vikingur Ólafsson arrived at my desk (Deutsche Grammophon 486 4553 vikingurolafsson.com) and to my surprise, I now have a new favourite of this much-recorded work. As the opening Aria began, I got the impression that, as with the elder Gould, I was in for another treat and settled in for a smooth and relaxing ride, but soon had to fasten my seatbelt; a number of the 30 variations proved to be as nimble and breathtaking as the young Gould’s renderings. It is simply astounding to me that fingers can actually move that quickly and articulately. That notwithstanding, the relationship between the slow and fast movements and overall arc of the trajectory from opening aria to closing reprise gave the impression of a thoughtful, relaxed and balanced performance. It has always surprised me that a work commissioned by an insomniac to ease him through long, sleepless nights is quite so active and engaging. I would have expected the intention to be more of a sleep-aid than an entertainment. In spite of his virtuosic dexterity in the faster variations, I found Ólafsson’s interpretation to be more in keeping with my own sensibilities in this regard. I was quite surprised to find that this new recording is virtually twice as long as Gould’s original, despite Ólafsson’s equally fast tempos in some of the variations. I had to refer to the score to confirm my suspicion that, as is somewhat common practice, Gould omitted the second (and I think even some of the first) repeats, whereas Ólafsson plays them all, giving an outstanding performance that lasts some 74 minutes.

One of my great pleasures this past summer was reading Ma vie heureuse (My Happy Life) by Darius Milhaud (1892-1974). I was quite surprised to discover that this prolific French composer, a member of Les Six, is sadly underrepresented in current commercial recordings and on websites like YouTube and Spotify. My own collection, built over the past half century, is thankfully more complete than what’s out there currently, so I was nonetheless able to revisit some of Milhaud’s wonderful compositions in conjunction with his delightful memoire. That being said, I was pleased to receive a new disc from clarinetist Yevgeny Dokshansky recently featuring Milhaud’s Suite for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano Op.157b (1936), comprising charming movements excepted from the music for a play by Jean Anouilh. Around the World: Trios for Clarinet, Violin and Piano performed by Ensemble Next Parallel (Heritage Records HTGCD170 heritage-records.com) also includes work by Milhaud’s contemporary, Armenian Aram Khachaturian, and living composers Peter Schickele (USA) and Roger J. Henry (Trinidad and Tobago). Khachaturian’s trio has a Romantic sensibility, and its final movement draws on an Uzbek folk melody. In Serenade for Three, Schickele is up to his usual tricks, particularly in the final movement’s perpetually rising variations on a theme from his alter ego PDQ Bach’s oratorio Oedipus Tex. Henry’s Caribbean infused music is actually not dissimilar to the sounds of Brazil that so inspired Milhaud most of a century earlier. 

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Yevgeny Dokshansky also included his earlier Heritage release featuring another of my mid-century favourite composers – From Jewish Life: The Music of Ernest Bloch – on which he is accompanied by pianist Richard Masters. Another welcome addition to my collection.

Regional Roots Roundup

As I write this in early November, I have just enjoyed a heady evening at the new Hugh’s Room Live. It was my maiden voyage to the venue on Broadview Avenue, and I must say I was mightily impressed with the layout and the acoustics of the former Broadview Avenue Congregational Church, an 1894 structure designed by iconic Toronto architect E.J. Lennox. Unfortunately the venue is not yet wheelchair accessible, but press releases assure us it is a priority to rectify this as soon as possible. 

The occasion of my outing involved the launch of the Andrew Collins Trio CD The Rule of Three (andrewcollinstrio.com). The musicianship of this band is outstanding; between the three of them they cover mandolin(s), mandola, mandocello, string bass, guitar and fiddle(s). As to what kind of music they play, Collins is the first to admit it’s hard to describe. He’s even written a song about it that you can check out on YouTube: I Don’t Know (But I Like It). The influences are diverse. While leaning heavily to bluegrass, there’s a healthy mix of western swing, old-time, folky singer/songwriter, a bit of pop – including a tune by Pink Floyd – and straight up classical, with a remarkable rendition of Debussy’s Clair de Lune on this new album. Although mostly a string band, not all of the repertoire is instrumental. Vocals are mostly taken care of by Collins, with bass player James McEleney providing sweet harmonies and occasional leads. The Rule of Three opens with Contranym, which Collins explained refers to words which are also their own opposites, such as cleave or sanction. It’s not a word I was familiar with, but in one of life’s little synchronicities Contranyms came up as a category on the episode of Jeopardy I watched the very next day. Other highlights for me include the raucous How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall, the balladic title track, the dizzyingly virtuosic Fleabag and That Jethro Really Burns!, a swinging tribute to Kenneth C. “Jethro” Burns of Homer and Jethro fame. 

Collins also spoke about the strange experience of sheltering in place during the pandemic, a time spent playing alone and writing mandolin tunes. The result was the 2022 solo release Love Away the Hate on which he performs admirably as a one-man band, combining mandolin, mandola, mandocello, violin and guitar arrangements of ten tunes also available in notation and tablature in an accompanying book of sheet music. I look forward to using this to hone my own mandolin skills!

The new Hugh’s Room doesn’t have a kitchen, so rather than the dinner club aspect of the original venue, focus is on the intimate concert hall setting so well appreciated by the audience. One potential casualty of this format is Ken Whiteley’s Gospel Brunches, a treasured monthly feature at the old location. Fortunately, Whiteley has adapted his approach. The first Gospel Matinee took place on Sunday November 12 and presumably will continue in the new year. The first installment served as a launch for Whiteley’s latest CD So Glad I’m Here (kenwhiteley.com) featuring a special guest – Iranian tar and oud master Davod Azad – giving an ecumenical take on the gospel genre. On it, Whiteley plays a host of instruments, including guitar and resophonic guitar, accordion, mandolin and Hammond organ among others, with George Koller on bass, Bucky Berger on drums and half a dozen supporting musicians and singers, all making “a joyful noise unto the Lord.” The repertoire involves traditional gospel tunes adapted and arranged by Whiteley, along with several originals, including the anthemic (My God Is) Bigger Than That (a sentiment I much prefer to the one more common in this troubled world, “My God is Bigger than Yours!”). One of the real rockers is Gospel Ship which is kind of a family affair with brother Chris Whiteley on harmonica and son Ben on bass, along with full chorus. Azad’s ethereal introduction to Reverend Dan Smith’s This Is The Lord’s House sets the stage for a truly welcoming invitation for everyone to come in and “taste the bread of life.” Each of the nine songs is a treasure, but a highlight is the title track with Whiteley’s finger style guitar intro and Azad’s solo, which is a true stunner. The penultimate track, It’s Gonna Rain, is superb. 

There are several connections to the preceding in Constellations, the new album by Canadian Appalachian clawhammer-style banjo playing, guitar picking singer/songwriter Meredith Moon (True North Records TND807 meredithmoon.com). The CD was recorded, mixed and mastered by Andrew Collins and the Toronto launch took place at Hugh’s Room Live back in October. Eight of the ten tracks are self-penned, mostly self-accompanied ballads with an old-time feel. One exception is Soldier’s Joy including bass and subtle drums and a fiddle break from Tony Allen, with strangely dark lyrics about the whiskey/beer/morphine concoction used in the 19th century in lieu of anesthetic for battlefield surgeries. I had not heard the words before and only knew it as an upbeat traditional fiddle tune. Quite a surprise! The other is Needlecase Medley, another traditional offering, in this case solo banjo with Moon accompanying herself with podorythmie (foot tapping common in Québécois and Acadian music). Other highlights include the beautiful title track, a nostalgic look back at the wanderlust of Moon’s earlier days, and the closer, Slow Moving Train, a haunting depiction of time rolling on. 

I’m surprised and a little embarrassed to say that I had never heard of Canadian singer/songwriter Noah Zacharin until his ninth CD Points of Light (noahsong.com) landed on my desk. I’m sorry to have come so late to the parade because Zacharin is really something. In addition to his solo career in which he has opened for the likes of Odetta, Dave van Ronk and Fairport Convention, he has appeared as a musician or producer on some 65 albums by artists from across North America. This latest disc showcases his outstanding finger-style guitar chops accompanying his solo vocals in storytelling ballads, as well as full band versions of another half a dozen songs in various styles from the gentle and gorgeous (My Love is a) Red Red Bird featuring Denis Keldie (B3) and Burke Carroll (pedal steel) to some rollicking blues and honkytonk tunes to me reminiscent of the late Mose Scarlett and (Chris and Ken Whiteley’s) Original Sloth Band, with help from Gary Craig (drums), Russ Boswell (bass) with cameos from Kevin Turcotte (trumpet) and Roly Platt (harmonica). The disc opens in solo mode with Ten Tons of Road, a paean to love and the call of the road, and continues with one of my favourites 17 Minute, an anti-lament of sorts for past loves. Zacharin seems content to let the past go, with no hard feelings putting me in mind of Tom Rush’s iconic No Regrets. Something Like a River is a solo acoustic guitar instrumental depicting a stretch of the York River in the Canadian Shield where Zacharin spends time in an off-grid cabin. The disc ends quietly with the lovely Been a Long Day, just guitar and voice complemented by an inobtrusive, though lush, string arrangement by Drew Jurecka. I’m so glad that Points of Light found its way to me.

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We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4 or to discoveries@thewholenote.com. 

Enigmatic Variations consists of Canadian works performed by Calgary-based violist Margaret Carey and pianist Roger Admiral (Centrediscs CMCCD 32723 cmccanada.org/product-category/recordings/Centrediscs), opening with a piece by Malcolm Forsyth (1936-2011), Steps for Viola and Piano (1978). Traditionally melodic and idiomatically well-suited to the viola, the five movements are self-explanatory: Buoyant, Strange Light, Violent, Colours and Jocular, all played adeptly by Carey and Admiral. Milton Barnes (1931-2001) is featured on three tracks, Ballade for Solo Viola (1978) and Lament and Hymn Tune Pavane for Viola and Piano (1976). Barnes was a traditionalist by nature who was schooled in the 12-tone tradition but chose to avoid avant-garde idioms in favour of tonally based expression. The pieces included here, especially Ballade, are playfully rhythmic and melodic, at times reminiscent of childhood chants and songs. 

The title of the disc is taken from a 2021 work commissioned from Sean Clarke (b.1983). Clarke and Carey both studied at Mount Royal University Conservatory and the variations are inspired by the “virtuosity, playing and teaching style” of several of their teachers and colleagues, as well as a landscape drawing by Carey featuring Canadian flora and fauna imbedded in a Peruvian Inca Cross. Apart from occasional sharp outbursts, the variations remain as dark and enigmatic as the opening theme. 

The most substantial work on this disc is the Viola Concerto Op.75 by one of the most prolific composers from Quebec, Jacques Hétu (1938-2010). Hétu composed 16 concerted works for most of the instruments usually found in an orchestra and several that are not, such as ondes Martinon, amplified guitars and marimba, plus a Rondo for cello and string orchestra and a Symphonie concertante for flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon and strings. Not to mention four full symphonies. I don’t believe any Canadian composer has come close to this orchestral output. The Viola Concerto (performed here in a piano reduction) is in four contrasting movements. Although Admiral does a fine job with the piano accompaniment, the lush colours of Hétu’s original orchestration are a bit lost in the translation. Carey’s solo viola is however, here as throughout the disc, full and present with all the nuance we would expect. 

In response to Carey’s request for a solo viola work, Stewart Grant (b.1948) transcribed his Two Poems – Breath of Life and The Rear View Mirror – originally composed for cello (2004). The disc concludes with a second 2021 commission, A Three Dog Night by the youngest composer represented here, Benjamin Sajo (b.1988). It’s another contemplative work, with the piano and dark-hued viola line perfectly balanced. 

Another Canadian disc that has been in frequent rotation here this past month is Kevin Lau: Under a Veil of Stars featuring the St. John | Mercer | Park Trio (Leaf Music LM273 leaf-music.ca). Born in 1988, Lau is on track to give Jacques Hétu a run for the money in orchestral output. An almost ubiquitous figure on the GTHA music scene, Lau has served as composer-in-residence or affiliate composer with the Toronto, Mississauga and Niagara Symphony Orchestras, the Banff Centre and currently, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. In addition, his works have been performed by the National Arts Centre, Winnipeg Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic and Tampa Bay Symphony Orchestras and the National Ballet of Canada, for which he has composed two major works. This release is devoted to his chamber music, including works for piano trio and subsets thereof. 

The extended title work is in three movements that are evocatively brought to life in the music: The Stars are Never Still; Land of Poison Trees and In that Shoreless Ocean. In his intimate program note Lau describes the impetus for the work, and how it changed with the death of the dedicatee, violinist Yehonatan Berick. Berick, along with his life partner cellist Rachel Mercer and pianist Angela Park comprised the AYR Trio who commissioned the work. Lau says the three movements depict a life cycle chronicling childhood, adulthood and old age. Renowned soloist and chamber musician Scott St. John has taken on the emotionally difficult task of replacing Berick in this trio’s configuration, not only in the trio works but also in Intuitions No.2, a violin and cello duo written for Berick and Mercer, and If Life Were a Mirror for violin and piano. This latter work comprises reflections on Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in the Mirror), in which we hear numerous echoes of familiar tunes from Bach and other icons, “musical artifacts that reflect one another like a hall of mirrors.” The former was composed as part of a set of pieces designed to be played by partners living in the same bubble during the pandemic lockdowns, and the latter was completed just before the COVID-19 outbreak. 

The other trio works include two from 2007, Piano Trio No.1 and Timescape Variations, and A Simple Secret from 2019. The Dreamer for solo piano fills out the disc. Mercer and Park have worked together in various combinations over many years, including the piano quartet Ensemble Made in Canada, and their compatibility and intuitive partnership are on fine display here. St. John’s playing fits with these two like a glove, partly I’m sure due to Lau’s idiomatic and skilfully crafted music. A very satisfying release.

Gerald Cohen – Voyagers presents chamber music by this American composer performed by the Cassatt String Quartet with guest soloists Narek Arutyunian (clarinets) and trombonist Colin Williams (innova 090 innova.mu). Cohen (b.1960) is a Jewish cantor and professional baritone as well as a composer and his music often reflects his religious roots. Playing for Our Lives was written for the Cassatt for a 2012 concert devoted to music by composers interned at the Nazi concentration camp Terezin (Theresienstadt) near Prague. The quartet asked for a contemporary memorial and tribute to the musical life at that place, a transit camp on the road to Auschwitz and other death camps. The three movements draw on material related to Terezin: a Yiddish folk song Beryozkele (Little Birch Tree) which had also been set by Viktor Ullmann who perished in Auschwitz; a lullaby from Hans Krasa’s children’s opera Brundibar, composed and performed at Terezin; and Verdi’s Requiem, a piece championed at the camp by conductor Rafael Schachter, from which Cohen fashioned his Dies Irae (Day of Wrath). The music is at once angry, contemplative, full of angst, uplifting and haunting, ultimately ending in sublime quietude. 

The title work for clarinet and string quartet is a tribute to the Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977 and headed to the outer reaches of the solar system. It was inspired by the music of the Voyager Golden Record, an audio time capsule intended to give extraterrestrial beings an impression of human culture on Planet Earth. Cohen “chose several of these [sound samples]: a Beethoven string quartet (Cavatina), an Indian raga (Bhairavi) and a Renaissance dance (Galliard), weaving them together in a composition that celebrates humanity’s quest to explore the universe, and the power of music to express the rich emotions and cultures of human life.” The final movement Beyond the Heliosphere brings back aspects of the first three using the Beethoven as its central element and ending with a direct quote from the Cavatina of Beethoven’s Op.130 quartet before fading out with a repeated high note from the bass clarinet “as if the signal of the Voyager keeps going, ever fainter, as it continues its interstellar voyage.” 

The disc ends with Preludes and Debka, written in 2001 for the unusual combination of trombone and string quartet. Three contrasting preludes lead to the concluding debka, a Middle Eastern dance popular in both Arab and Israeli communities, introduced by a trombone cadenza. This finale is “mostly lively and playful, eventually becoming rather wild before reprising the debka theme at the conclusion” bringing this intriguing and sometimes surprising disc to an end. 

The early 20th century was an exciting time in the development of European concert music, with a plethora of new approaches. With Divergent Paths – Schoenberg & Ravel (Azica ACD-71360 azica.com) the Telegraph Quartet has embarked on a project to present and juxtapose some of these diverse directions. Although born one year apart, Ravel (1875-1937) and Schoenberg (1874-1951) could in many ways not be farther apart, and the same could be said of the quartets presented here, written around the same time (1902 and 1907 respectively). The excellent and extensive liner notes claim that this is the first time the two have been recorded together, and point out that they rarely, if ever, appear on the same concert program. Following in the footsteps of Debussy’s quartet of a decade earlier, Ravel’s is the epitome of French Impressionism while Schoenberg’s expanded tonality points the way to his later development of the 12-note system adopted by the Second Viennese School; together they paint a telling portrait of the changing times. Although there is some sturm und drang in the vif et agité final movement of the Ravel, the overall impression is that of beauty and balance. Schoenberg’s String Quartet No.1 in D Minor, Op.7 starts stormily, in the relative minor key to Ravel’s F Major, making a good case for their pairing, but there the similarities stop. There is a lushness in the Schoenberg, especially in the third movement, but it is a much darker mood than the mostly playful Ravel. Heard now, more than a century after it was composed, the Schoenberg no longer sounds shockingly abrasive and there is even a Romantic sensibility in its quieter moments, making me wonder why it is still so infrequently heard in the concert hall. Fortunately, there are a number of historic recordings available of Schoenberg’s four quartets by the likes of the Juilliard, LaSalle, New Vienna, Schoenberg and Pražák string quartets. Hopefully this committed and thoroughly nuanced performance by the Telegraph Quartet will bring this first to a wider audience. I look forward to where they take us next in their exploration of Divergent Paths. 

Although relegated to obscurity in recent decades, the prolific composer Leopold van der Pals is currently undergoing a renaissance, thanks in large part to the efforts of cellist Tobias van der Pals, the great-grandson of Leopold’s younger brother, conductor Nikolaj. Leopold was born in St Petersburg in 1884. His father was the Dutch consul there, while his Danish-born maternal grandfather was Julius Johannsen – composer, music theorist, professor at and later director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Music had a central role in the van der Pals home, where the composers Glazunov and Tchaikovsky were regular guests, and it was on Glazunov’s recommendation that the young Leopold began his tuition as a composer. At Rachmaninoff’s suggestion he went to study with Reinhold Glière in Berlin, under whose tutelage he completed a symphony that was accepted for performance by the Berlin Philharmonic, an auspicious beginning indeed. The outbreak of WWI forced him to leave Germany and the October Revolution in Russia meant he could not return there either. Van der Pals settled in Switzerland where he remained until his death in 1966.  

Tobias van der Pals has been immersed in his great uncle’s life and legacy for more than 20 years and in 2018 had the opportunity to move Leopold’s entire archive to Copenhagen. There are now over 700 compositions being prepared for publication by Edition Wilhelm Hansen with Tobias as editor. Following a CD of orchestral works and another of solo concertos, CPO has recently released Leopold van der Pals – String Quartets Vol.1 performed by the Van Der Pals Quartet, of which Tobias is a member (CPO 555 282-2 vanderpalsquartet.com). Van der Pals completed six quartets and the first three are included here, along with a brief late work, In Memoriam Marie Steiner. Born a decade after Ravel and Schoenberg, he too wrote his first quartet around the age of 30, beginning it shortly after his move to Switzerland. That decade seems to have made a difference in the confluence of styles, and in van der Pals’ writing we see something of a blending of the cultural differences of the elder masters. 

Although van der Pals returned to the medium at several points in his life, the first three quartets were completed within a span of a dozen years. Strangely he didn’t publish the second and only heard a fragment of it performed in his lifetime. It was given its world premiere by this ensemble in 2018. The lyrical third quartet dates from 1929 and was very well received by public and critics alike as, it seems, was all his music. This makes its disappearance during the latter part of the century even harder to fathom. Kudos to Tobias van der Pals and his colleagues and to the folks at CPO for bringing these forgotten gems to light. I am eager to hear more.

I had hoped to include one more disc, but I see I have run out of space so I will just give it honourable mention here. Stravinsky | Poulenc | Debussy (LAWO Classics LWC1260 lawo.no) features excellent performances by Norwegian cellist Amalie Stalheim and pianist Christian Ihle Hadland of Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne, an arrangement of Baroque-inspired dances extracted from his ballet Pulcinella, and cello sonatas by Poulenc and Debussy, the latter being one of the Impressionist master’s final works. A collection to treasure, with immaculate sound, balance and ensemble playing. 

We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4 or to discoveries@thewholenote.com.

Jumping the gun a wee bit, I’d like to start with a world premiere recording of Leonard Bernstein’s “long lost” Music for String Quartet (1936) that will not be released officially until September 8 (Navona Records nv6577 navonarecords.com). Composed by an 18-year-old Bernstein during his studies at Harvard, the piece has been “steadfastly shepherded from its re-discovery to this historic release” by former Boston Symphony Orchestra librarian John Perkel who discovered it in the Library of Congress. The two-movement work lasts just over ten minutes, beginning with an extended angular, though melodic, dance-like fast movement followed by a brief and somewhat mournful slow one. It’s not clear whether this latter, recently found in the Library of Congress, was intended as a final movement – it ends somewhat inconclusively with a pizzicato pattern fading into oblivion. Complete or not, this is an interesting addition to the string quartet repertoire and an important key to understanding the young Bernstein who would go on to become such an iconic figure in American music. It is convincingly performed by violinists Lucia Lin and Natalie Rose Kress, violist Danny Kim and cellist Ronald Feldman. Kress and Kim are also featured in the contemplative duo Elegies for Violin and Viola by Aaron Copland, a musical mentor, collaborator and dear friend of Bernstein’s.

Sticking with American music for string quartet, Bright Shiny Things has recently released Shatter, three world premiere recordings performed by the Verona Quartet (BSTD-0186 brightshiny.ninja). The works include Julia Adolphe’s Star-Crossed Signals, Michael Gilbertson’s Quartet and Reena Esmail’s Ragamala, which features Hindustani singer Saili Oak. It is this latter four-movement work that opens the disc and comprises almost half its length. Ragamala interweaves Eastern and Western traditions. Each movement opens the same way, inspired by Esmail’s experience of attending concerts in India, with traditional drones here provided by the string quartet. Each movement is based on a different raag: Fantasie (Bihag); Scherzo (Malkauns); Recitative (Basant); and the Rondo (Jog) all sung by the sultry Oak over the lush textures of the strings. Adolphe’s Star-Crossed Signals juxtaposes issues of empowerment and the assertion of dominance with a yearning for connection. The movement titles, DELTA X-RAY and KILO KILO come from nautical signal flags used by ships at sea, which the composer’s father used in his early paintings. The first, which means “keep your distance” and “watch for my signals,” is quite aggressive in contrast to the second, “I wish to communicate with you” in which the composer says “the strings gently reach for one another, enveloping and folding each line in a kind of dance.” Gilbertson’s Quartet was in progress during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, after which it became a personal reaction to those events. Feeling the need to compose something comforting, Gilbertson chose as the basis for the first movement Mother Chords a gesture like the pulsing chords that open Sibelius’ Second Symphony. The second movement Simple Sugars, which Gilbertson describes as “carbs that are metabolized quickly and provide an immediate rush, but no nutritional substance” is an allusion to the movement’s restless energy. The Verona Quartet rises to all the challenges of these diverse works. 

From quartets to octets now, in a manner of speaking. My first exposure to Steve Reich’s music for multiple instruments of the same family was Vermont Counterpoint for solo flute and an ensemble of ten flutes, or pre-recorded tracks of the piccolos, flutes and alto flutes as performed by the soloist, this latter being the case in the 1982 Ransom Wilson EMI release. In 2003 Reich composed Cello Counterpoint for eight cellos on a joint commission for Maya Beiser (who will appear later on in the column). On the recent New Focus Recordings release 8-Track (FCR373 newfocusrecordings.com) we are presented with Ashley Bathgate’s layered realization of the work, along with new compositions in the same format by Canadian/Icelandic composer Fjóla Evans and Americans Emily Cooley and Alex Weiser. Evans’ Augun was inspired by a traditional Icelandic song and features overlapping motives to create shimmering, undulating textures. Cooley tells us that composing Assemble was like “assembling a sort of puzzle;” only at the end do the pieces come together in one voice. Weiser’s Shimmer unfolds through gradual and dramatic changes, in a waxing and waning of the canonic relationship between each cello and the soloist. This is the closest in minimalist spirit to Reich’s original which concludes this inspired disc. Bathgate’s technical control and musicality shine through each of these contrasting works within a common context, resulting in a mesmerizing recording. My only concern is that the two most similar sounding works, Weiser’s and Reich’s, are placed side by side. I would have preferred the disc to begin with Cello Counterpoint thus presenting a context for the project.

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Kate Ellis’ Strange Waves is a digital release that takes this same approach to the cello ensemble, but this time presenting an extended six-movement work by collaborating Irish composer Ed Bennett (Ergodos Records ergodos.bandcamp.com). Ellis has been a member of Crash Ensemble, Ireland’s leading new music group, for the past two decades and currently serves as its artistic director. Strange Waves is a predominantly ambient work with the multiple cellos blending in a dreamlike texture of glissandos and drones creating a foggy haze into which field recordings from the County Down coast and Ireland’s northernmost island, Rathlin in the North Atlantic, are subtly integrated. A truly meditative experience.

Infinite Bach is Maya Beiser’s very personal take on the iconic Suites for Solo Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach (Islandia Music Records IMR012 islandiamusic.com/releases). In the words of Beiser, best known for her work as an avant-garde cellist, “I spent 2022, my 60th year of life, immersed in recording, and rerecording, deconstructing and decontextualizing, experimenting and exploring sounds, reverberations, harmonics in my converted barn in the Berkshires, Massachusetts, engaging with Bach’s cello Suites. Having dedicated the past 35 years to creating new music, work that reimagines the cello on a vast canvas in multiple disciplines, I radically departed from the conventional classical cello sound. Yet, the Suites were ingrained in my daily practice. Even as I was getting ready to perform a new work by Steve Reich, Louis Andriessen, or David Bowie, I would still begin every day playing a movement from the Suites. Over the years I was experimenting with the process of unlearning the doctrine I was taught about this music, until last year when I took the time to relearn it anew.” The result takes some getting used to, sounding at times as if recorded from a different room, with extreme reverberation sometimes supplemented with sympathetic drones and overlays, and some radically altered tempos. I also find the arrangement of the suites surprising. Spread over three discs (itself not unusual) Beiser has chosen to pair the suites according to major and minor tonality, the G major and C majors (nos.1 and 3) on the first disc, the D minor and C minor (2 and 5) on the second and the E-flat major and D major (4 and 6) on the last. While my initial reaction was that this was too much of the same mood on each disc, I eventually came around to appreciate the continuity. And once I let myself let go of expectations and prejudice about how these works were supposed to sound, I was able to immerse myself in Beiser’s vision and enjoy the ride. Although Infinite Bach is available in Full Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio via Apple Music and in an Immersive Binaural Mix for enhanced headphone listening, I must say the plain old-fashioned CDs sound pretty good on my old stereo system too.

Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir is another cellist who has made the Bach Suites “her own,” re-interpreting them, although in a much less radical way than Beiser. In the liner notes to Marrow – The 6 Suites for Solo Cello by J.S. Bach (Sono Luminus DSL-92263 sonoluminus.com) she says “There is an Icelandic saying, ‘mergur málsins,’ which directly translates to ‘the marrow of the matter,’ and these Suites, to me, speak directly to the essence of being human. As for many cellists, these Suites have been my steady companion throughout my life with the cello, first as a vehicle to learn counterpoint, style, and harmony, then as material with which to explore personal expression and interpretation, and today they are a mirror, reflecting the deeper truth of the human experience, revealing more layers of meaning each time I come back to them.” Thorsteinsdóttir feels Bach “pushes the boundaries of the expressive and technical possibilities of the instrument with each succeeding Suite.” As she began playing the Suites as a set, she heard a dramatic through-line begin to emerge, finding the first “innocent” and the second as a “first taste of bitter disappointment,” in the third a “renewed optimism,” the fourth “bold and brash,” with “dark tragedy” in the fifth and “glorious redemption” in the sixth. To clearly illuminate this arc, she presents the Suites without the printed repeats “so that we may more closely follow this universal storyline.” This also has the advantage of making it possible to present them all of a piece, in one sitting. The two CDs of this set clock in at 90 minutes, and present the suites in numerical order conserving the original major-minor-major groupings. The performance is exhilarating and makes for a satisfying, if intense, listening session.

The final selection also features solo cello, but in a very different context. In a trip down memory lane, Portrait (mikeherriott.com/bwg_gallery/discography) featuring cellist Ofra Harnoy and her life partner trumpeter Mike Herriott, takes me back to my days as a music programmer at CJRT-FM. Harnoy’s RCA discs of Haydn and Vivaldi concertos (several of which were world premiere recordings) with the Toronto Chamber Orchestra under the direction of former CJRT music director Paul Robinson were staples of our library. The current disc with the H&H Studio Orchestra, a hand-picked ensemble of Toronto’s finest studio musicians, features many of the jewels of the operatic repertoire that were often heard during CJRT’s exhilarating all-hands-on-deck fundraising campaigns. These include Una Furtiva Lagrima from L’elisir d’Amore, The Flower Duet from Lakme, Au Fond du Temple Saint from The Pearl Fishers, along with several selections from Porgy and Bess and Somewhere from West Side Story. These vocal treasures have been masterfully arranged by Herriott and feature cello and trumpet alternating in the solo roles. All the performances are outstanding and my only quibble is that overall mood, lyrical and slow moving, is a bit too similar from track to track. That being said, it’s still a marvellous journey, which ends with Harnoy’s moving transcription for cello and trumpet of Larry Adler and Itzhak Perlman’s languid duet arrangement of the iconic Summertime. 

We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, WholeNote Media Inc., The Centre for Social Innovation, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4.

David Olds, DISCoveries Editor
discoveries@thewholenote.com

Aux deux hémisphères features two sonatas and three stand-alone works by Quebec cellist and composer Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy, accompanied by pianist Jean-Michel Dubé, (Société Métropolitaine du disque SMD 311-1 dominiquebeausejourostiguy.com). Although the CD’s extensive liner notes are unilingual French, the composer’s website gives detailed context in English for the project from which I take the following: “The title is a reference to two of my main sources of inspiration, namely the lyricism and the torment found in Russian post-Romantic music as well as the relentless rhythmic energy of Argentinian tango music. These two hemispheres are very present in my music and represent the two poles of my musical personality. Indeed, my compositions frequently alternate between introversion and extroversion [creating] a cinematographic flavour with a lot of intensity and contrasts. The two hemispheres are also a way of expressing the duality and the complicity between the cello and the piano, constantly in dialogue and each occupying a place of equal importance.” On repeated listening to this disc, the word that kept coming to my mind was “soaring.” The music itself is enthralling, both conventional and adventurous at the same time, and the multi-award-winning performers, are in top form. As pointed out by Terry Robbins elsewhere in these pages, the facilities at Domaine Forget where it was recorded in late 2021 “guaranteeing top-level sound quality,” this album is a real treat for chamber music enthusiasts. 

Nuages is another outstanding Canadian cello and piano disc, showcasing Noémie Raymond-Friset and Michel-Alexandre Broekaert respectively, collectively known as Duo Cavatine (KNS Classical KNS A/121 duocavatine.com). The title for this debut disc, which translates as clouds, comes from its centrepiece, producer David Jaeger’s Constable’s Clouds for solo cello. I spoke in my February column about a reworking of this piece with electronics for violist Elizabeth Reid, so I welcomed the opportunity to get to know this original set of variations inspired by the cloud studies of John Constable. Jaeger tells us the variations “of widely differing character” were inspired by the “magical and endless variation we see in the shapes of clouds streaming by.” Raymond-Friset, who gave the work’s premiere, rises to all the technical challenges Jaeger presents in these nuanced nuages. The disc opens with a rarely heard yet charming sonata by Francis Poulenc dating from the occupation years of the Second World War. It’s from the gentle second movement Cavatine that the duo has taken its name. Alfred Schnittke’s powerful Sonata for Cello and Piano No.1 reverses the normal order of things by starting and ending with Largo movements bookending a diabolic moto perpetuo Presto. Throughout the disc, whether in the lyricism of Poulenc or the abrasiveness of Schnittke, Raymond-Friset and Broekaert shine, with technique and musicality to burn. Recorded at Glenn Gould Studio the sound is, as we have come to expect from engineer Dennis Patterson, impeccable.

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In the Pot Pourri section this month you will find Andrew Timar’s thoughtful and informative account of three new discs by the California based Gamelan Sinar Surya, an ensemble devoted to preserving the traditional gamelan music of Indonesia and its diaspora. In contrast, following in the footsteps of his West Coast predecessor Lou Harrison, American composer Brian Baumbusch has created his own instruments in the Balinese tradition while also envisioning new performance practices through innovative building designs and special tunings. He has worked closely with the Balinese ensemble Nata Swara and in 2022 donated his instruments to them and shipped – 1,800 pounds of them – to Bali. He then went to Bali himself to record the album Chemistry for Gamelan and String Quartet with Nata Swara and JACK Quartet (New World Records 80833-2 newworldrecords.org/search?q=Brian+Baumbusch). The disc opens with the exhilarating Prisms for Gene Davis for gamelan, completed in 2021, the most recent work presented. This is followed by Three Elements for String Quartet (2016), Helium, Lithium and Mercury. Performed by JACK, the work, an extreme example of Baumbusch’s “polytempo” style, features close harmonies and some abrasive textures amid doppler effects and the breakneck speed of its final movement. The disc closes with Hydrogen(2)Oxygen (2015) featuring both ensembles. The work reconsiders the earlier Bali Alloy for quartet and gamelan in which the composer attempted to unite the disparate instruments. This later work takes into consideration the irreconcilability of its two sound worlds, i.e. the harmonic overtone series naturally produced by the string instruments and the inharmonic series of partials of the steel and cedar bars of the gamelan instruments. This allows the string quartet and gamelan to exist side-by-side, exploiting their combinations and contrasts for expressive effect; in the words of Stephen Brooke after the premiere, “building from an ethereal opening into a raging torrent of asymmetrical rhythms, phase-shifting patterns and beautifully strange harmonies [...] magnificent, and as intoxicating as a drug.” 

There are times when Baumbusch’s textures sound unearthly and it’s hard to reconcile the sounds with acoustic instruments. The same is true of Jason Doell’s Becoming in Shadows – Of Being Touched (Whited Sepulchre Records WSR043 jasondoell.com), although in this instance there are electronic manipulations at work. All the sound materials originate from the composer’s daily piano improvisations recorded while in residency at the Banff Centre in early 2020 (although some of it seems to have been performed by Mauro Zannoli on a “frozen” piano, exhumed from a snowbank). These are, to greater and lesser degrees, subjected to a piece of simple generative music software developed by Doell. The program blends user-defined parameters with decision-making procedures to determine how sounds from an audio database are strung together, layered and transformed, all the while guided by the composer’s aesthetic. A kind of humanized AI design. The result is a dreamlike landscape, a labyrinthine journey where microtonal pitches are blended with soft percussive sounds, all recognizable as emanating from a piano, albeit an otherworldly one. 

Concert Note: On June 18 at Array Space the TONE Festival features Jason Doell as he launches his album Becoming In Shadows ~ Of Being Touched. 

Although there is an electronic aspect on one of the tracks of Christina Petrowska Quilico’s latest CD Blaze featuring piano music of Alice Ping Yee Ho (Centrediscs CMCCD 31323 cmccanada.org/product-category/recordings/Centrediscs), the rest are purely acoustic. Ho tells us “The eight works in this collection have short, descriptive titles, with inspiration drawn from abstract paintings, forces of nature, the last journey of a female pilot, a horror film, plus a show piece from a piano competition. These compositions are both introspective and personal, designed to elicit evocative ‘images’ or ‘impressions,’ visually and psychologically. It is a great honour to have these works recorded by Christina Petrowska Quilico, an astounding musician as well as an acclaimed visual artist. The poetic metaphors in these pieces not only showcase her powerful performer’s persona but also uniquely resonate with her beautiful and vibrant paintings.” Among the paintings depicted are Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Dali’s The Persistence of Memory. Erupting Skies evokes Amelia Earhart’s last journey: “The solo piano is a symbolic representation of a female voice; […] the electronic track is a combination of Earhart’s voice with multiple layers of engineered acoustic and synthesized sounds.” The range of emotions depicted and the sheer virtuosity of several of the works make demands on the pianist that a lesser musician would find daunting. Petrowska Quilico, still at the top of her game after more than 50 recordings, rises to every challenge without breaking a sweat. Stay tuned for the upcoming Centrediscs release Shadow & Light, a double concerto CD with Petrowska Quilico and violinist Marc Djokic with Sinfonia Toronto under Nurhan Arman featuring music by Ho, Christos Hatzis and Larissa Kuzmenko. 

If it is due to the efforts of Christina Petrowska Quilico that we are aware of as many Canadian women composers as we are, it is thanks to American pianist Sarah Cahill that the world is becoming increasingly aware of the presence of women composers throughout history. The Future is Female (firsthandrecords.com) is a project launched in March 2022 encompassing 30 composers ranging from Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729) to the more familiar 19th and early 20th-century names of Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel and Germaine Tailleferre, and on into modern times with two dozen more including Betsy Jolas and Meredith Monk to name just a couple. Bringing the series to a close, Vol. 3 At Play (FHR133) was released in May 2023 and features works by Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836), Cécile Chaminade, Grażyna Bacewicz, Chen Yi, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Pauline Oliveros, Hannah Kendall, Aida Shirazi and Regina Harris Baiocchi, pieces by the last four having been composed in the 21st century. Cahill says “Like most pianists, I grew up with the classical canon, which has always excluded women composers as well as composers of color. It is still standard practice to perform recitals consisting entirely of music written by men. The Future is Female, then, aims to be a corrective towards rebalancing the repertoire. It does not attempt to be exhaustive, in any way, and the three albums represent only a small fraction of the music by women which is waiting to be performed and heard.” Each of the three volumes has a theme – In Nature, The Dance and At Play – and is arranged chronologically, with ten works spanning three centuries per CD. In this way each recital brings a fresh perspective and expands our understanding of the history of Western music from the classical to the modern era. Kudos to Cahill for convincing performances of the music of all these diverse styles and composers, for giving them voice and for opening our eyes and ears. 

Some half a century ago I spent many hours at my kitchen table trying to figure out a song from Bruce Cockburn’s eponymous first album, the inaugural release on Bernie Finkelstein’s True North Records label. That song, Thoughts on a Rainy Afternoon, has recently come back into my repertoire thanks to guitarist Brian Katz who attended one of my backyard music gatherings last fall. It’s taken a while to get my chops back for Cockburn’s intricate chord progressions and finger patterns, but it’s been worth the effort. So imagine the pleasure I felt to find Cockburn’s O Sun O Moon (True North Records TND811 truenorthrecords.com), in my inbox last month. Over the years Cockburn’s music has gone through changes from that pristine acoustic first offering through many sides of pop music and hard-edged songs, but he has always maintained his moral compass, celebrating life and protesting abuse and ignorance. On his latest album the opening track On a Roll is reminiscent of some of his rockier outings, but the overall feel of the disc is gentle and, as always, thoughtful and thought-provoking. Predominantly acoustic, Cockburn plays guitar, resonator guitar and dulcimer and is joined by a handful of A-list musicians including guitarist Colin Linden, who also produced the recording, with vocal support from Shawn Colvin, Susan Aglukark, Allison Russell and Ann and Regina McCrary. Highlights include the mournful yet anthemic Colin Went Down to the Water, When the Spirit Walks In the Room with violinist Jenny Scheinman and Janice Powers on B3 organ, the cryptic King of the Bolero – who is it plays like that? – and the instrumental Haiku. Cockburn’s voice has weathered somewhat over time, but he uses the gruffness to good effect, and he has not lost any of his musical charm or character. “O Sun by day o moon by night | Light my way so I get this right | And if that sun and moon don’t shine | Heaven guide these feet of mine – to Glory…”

That first True North Record was produced by Eugene Martynec, as were many of the label’s subsequent offerings including, in that same inaugural year, the haunting track December Angel on Long Lost Relatives by Syrinx, a seminal Toronto electronic ensemble featuring the synthesizers of John Mills-Cockell. Martynec is still an active part of the Toronto music scene, albeit after spending some years abroad, and his current project is the free improvising collective Gilliam | Martynec | McBirnie in which he’s in charge of electroacoustics, with pianist Bill Gilliam and flutist Bill McBirnie. Their latest release, Outside the Maze (gilliammcbirniemartynec.bandcamp.com/album/outside-the-maze), consists of ten diverse tracks, no two of which sound the same. While the piano and flutes (C and alto) are pretty much distinguishable throughout, Martynec’s contributions vary from atmospheric to percussive. At times it is hard to imagine the convincing sounds are not being created on physical drums and cymbals; at others it’s hard to imagine what their origins are. It’s also hard to imagine that these cohesive “compositions” are being created spontaneously in real time without premeditation or formal structure. The results are entrancing. 

A final quick note about Toronto’s Latin diva Eliana Cuevas’ latest release Seré Libre (Alma Records ACD472323 shopalmarecords.com). The Venezuelan-Canadian singer is accompanied by the Angel Falls Orchestra – named for the world’s highest waterfall located in Canaima National Park, Venezuela – conducted by the album’s producer Jeremy Ledbetter. Cuevas says “I created this 27-piece orchestra, as it was the one missing piece to realize my dream of fusing the incredibly rich traditions of Venezuelan folk rhythms and classical music.” The album explores loss – the deaths of Cuevas’ father and grandfather – and her mission to continue the centuries old folk music traditions they taught her. The title song, which translates as “I shall be free,” is a nine-minute epic journey which Cuevas says she always dedicates to her troubled homeland, but “it can be interpreted as being about finding freedom from whatever is holding you back.” With Cuevas’ gorgeous voice and the lush orchestrations played by an orchestra that includes many of Toronto’s finest pit musicians, this is truly a glorious album. There will also be a theatrical film release of the project which will be available online by the time you read this. 

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We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, WholeNote Media Inc., The Centre for Social Innovation, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4.

David Olds, DISCoveries Editor
discoveries@thewholenote.com

As a folk singer of sorts I was intrigued to read somewhere that Franz Schubert sometimes accompanied his songs on guitar. For several issues now I’ve meant to write about a new version of Die schöne Müllerin but each time I’ve run out of space, or it just didn’t seem appropriate to the theme of the column. Guitarist David Leisner has adapted the original piano score for guitar and is joined by baritone Michael Kelly in a compelling performance (Bright Shiny Things BSTC-0175 brightshiny.ninja). I wrote back in December that the lack of texts for Victoria Bond’s song settings on the album Blue and Green Music was not an issue due to Kelly’s clear diction. I’m sure if I were conversant in German the same would be true in the case of the current recording, but as I’m not I’m glad that there is a QR code linking to full lyrics and translations. Leisner’s clever adaptation of the accompaniment and his clear and fluent playing provide a transparent, yet supportive framework for Kelly’s nuanced interpretation. The sparser textures produced by the guitar allow Kelly to really shine, especially in the tender, quieter moments, without compromising the effect of the more dramatic sturm und drang aspects of the song cycle.

It seems that, like me, David Leisner got his start singing folk and pop songs, accompanying himself on guitar as a teenager. As his horizons expanded through choral singing and composition studies, he established himself as an accomplished classical guitarist and composer, with a focus on art song. On Letters to the World (Azica ACD-71353 davidleisner.com/composition-recordings) we are presented with four examples of this spanning the 1980s to 2011. The disc opens with Confiding, a cycle of ten songs for soprano and piano, featuring Katherine Whyte and Lenore Fishman Davis, with texts by Emily Dickinson and Emily Brontë, four each, and single offerings from Elissa Ely and Gene Scaramellino. The disc’s title is taken from the final song of the cycle, Dickinson’s This is my letter to the World (That never wrote to Me). Dickinson is also the source of the texts of Simple Songs from 1982, for baritone and guitar featuring Michael Kelly and the composer. Leisner chose (and rendered into English for the programme booklet) five selections from Richard Wilhelm’s German translation of Lao Tzu’s Tao te Ching for the cycle Das Wunderbare Wesen (The Miraculous Essence) for baritone and cello. Leisner says, “The songs emerged less out of deference to the melodic line and more in response to a structure established in the cello part, e.g., a repeated alternating metric pattern or a melodic theme that is repeated in the fashion of passacaglia throughout a movement.” Once again Kelly shines, in equal partnership with cellist Raman Ramakrishnan. The final track is the powerful Of Darkness and Light, written in response to the 9/11 tragedy. Leisner says, “To ‘know the light’ and ‘know the dark’ is essential, especially in times of trouble.” Of Darkness and Light uses five poems by Wendell Berry written between 1968 and 1970 which the composer found to “have special resonance in 2002 as well.” Set for tenor, violin, oboe and piano, this moving performance features Andrew Fuchs, Sarah Whitney, Scott Bartucca and Dimitri Dover respectively, drawing this intimate composer-portrait disc to a successful close. 

Schubert’s songs have been subjected to many diverse interpretations and adaptations over the past two centuries. One of the most effective that I have had the pleasure to witness was Chimera Project’s Winterreise featuring bass baritone Philippe Sly as staged during the 21C festival at Koerner Hall just a couple of months before the COVID lockdown in 2020. I have just encountered another intriguing evening-long production conceived and staged by Christof Loy for Theater Basel. Eine Winterreise (A Winter Journey) features soprano Anne Sofie von Otter accompanied by pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout and a sparse cast of silent characters representing various aspects of the drama (Naxos DVD 2.110751 naxos.com/Search/KeywordSearchResults/?q=Eine%20Winterreise). Loy writes, “Anne Sofie plays the soul of Schubert in a kind of fictionalized account of the composer if he had lived to grow old rather than dying so young. Other characters gather round her, played by non-speaking actors and dancers. Like shadows from the past, inspired by Schubert’s biography. There is a double who is kind of a younger mirror image of the ‘mature Schubert’ – a melancholy soul for whom life is complex in its beauty but also in its difficulty. The other man, Schober, is based on Schubert’s friend, a reckless young man with a freewheeling lifestyle who […] a number of biographers even accuse of having taken Schubert to the prostitute who gave him the syphilis infection that killed him. In this sense, the courtesan in A Winter Journey is associated with death though conversely she’s also full of vitality. The other female character, whom we christened Viola, imparts a gentle, hopeful strength to the whole production.” Stand alone songs – the play opens with Die Sommernacht – and selections from the cycles Schwanengesang and Winterreise, are interspersed with solo piano works and text fragments taken from Schubert’s Mein Traum, often with dramatically choreographed accompaniment. The evening ends quietly and mournfully with the beautiful Des Baches Wiegenlied (The Brook’s Lullaby) from Die schöne Müllerin as snow falls on the darkened set and the cast slowly disperses into the night. There is a momentary respite from the gloom as von Otter steps out of character and recites Wilhelm Müller’s sardonic epilogue from that cycle of poems arresting the audience’s suspension of disbelief and bidding them a safe journey home. A stunning performance.

One of the most striking usages of Schubert’s music in another medium is Ariel Dorfman’s play Death and the Maiden which he later adapted for Roman Polanski’s 1994 mystery-drama film. But it was Schubert himself who first reinterpreted his 1817 song Death and the Maiden and used it as the theme for a set of variations in the slow movement of his 1826 String Quartet No.14 in D Minor. It is this work which is the cornerstone of a new (digital only) release by Brooklyn Rider, a New York-based string quartet, titled The Wanderer (In A Circle Records ICR025 brooklynrider.com). The title refers to another Schubert lied that the composer incorporated into a late work, the devilishly difficult Wanderer Fantasy for solo piano. The album is “bound together by the dualities of memory and remembrance, melancholy and bliss, old and new, and life and death” made all the more poignant by the fact that the disc is a recording of a live performance in eastern Lithuania shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It opens with Aroma a Distancia, a work composed for the quartet by Gonzalo Grau. The composer lived the first 20 years of his life in Venezuela before moving to the United States. He says, “the aroma, the remembrance of my past, is what makes me who I am today. After all, it often happens when I am in Venezuela, I miss Madrid or New York, or if I’m in Boston I miss Caracas.” The brief work incorporates flavours from these various influences. Another South American transplant, Argentinian Osvaldo Golijov’s Um Dia Bom (A Good Day) “depicts the story of a life from morning to midnight and beyond, but as told to a child” with movements titled Hovering in the Cradle, While the Rain, Around the Fire, Riding with Death and Feather. Acknowledged influences include a traditional Yiddish song, a sparse painting by Basquiat of a horse carrying the Death Rider, Blind Willie Johnson’s song Dark was the Night and the spirit of the late Chick Corea. The crowning glory is a stunning performance of Schubert’s masterpiece, his penultimate contribution to the string quartet genre, especially nuanced during the variations on the tune that gives the work its name and the flamboyance of the breakneck galloping horse-like finale.

Banjo is the glue that binds the remaining discs in this column. When I was preparing for retirement from my day job at New Music Concerts four years ago, I began to collect instruments I thought I would enjoy getting to know better, including mountain dulcimer, accordion and banjo. Although I did gather some instruction books, took a few lessons and even learned a few banjo songs, I must admit that when COVID hit and my work at The WholeNote expanded into a near-fulltime job organizing CD reviews to fill the void left by the empty concert halls, my best laid plans fell by the wayside. 

All that is to say that I’m envious of guitarist and singer Kate Weekes who took advantage of her isolation in the Gatineau Hills during the pandemic to learn how to play clawhammer (old-timey, rather than bluegrass style) banjo and pursue new directions in song writing. The result is a new CD, Better Days Ahead (kateweekes.com), featuring ten original songs all penned by Weekes. Although not flashy, there is nothing about Weekes’ banjo playing to indicate her neophyte status; the banjo provides rhythmic and harmonic structure to the quirky songs and supports her simple soprano voice lines. She is accompanied by a trio of accomplished musicians who play nearly two dozen instruments, primarily sousaphone and other brass (Brian Sanderson), fiddles, bass and mandolin (James Stephens, who also produced and engineered the disc) and various exotic percussion instruments (Rob Graves). The arrangements are simple and straightforward, always complementing Weekes’ singing and not interfering with the clarity of the lyrics. I particularly enjoy the use of sousaphone (marching tuba) for the bass line on most songs. Highlights for me include Liminal Space about sheltering in place; the haunting title work co-written with Brenda Berezan; Floating Face Down, a cryptic and surprisingly upbeat, quasi-English ballad about the narrator’s drowning in the Thames “wearing my mother’s dress”; and Time by the Moon, a song written during a month-long banjo tune writing workshop hosted by Chris Coole during the late fall of 2021. Videos for these last two can be seen at youtube.com/results?search_query=kate+weekes. It’s well worth the visit. 

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One of my problems with the traditional five-string banjo is trying to get my head around the counterintuitive fact the highest sounding string is on top, whereas on every other stringed instrument I’ve played it’s on the bottom. One day about five years ago I found myself at the corner of Danforth and Broadview where I was met by the intriguing sight of a young man playing a banjo with six strings. I asked if it was tuned like a guitar, and he said yes. Well, I thought to myself, that’s cheating! I’d also like to think that I’m not too old to learn a new trick or two, so it was a five-string banjo I eventually bought. I’m still stymied though because when my ear knows a high note is called for, I instinctively pluck the first string instead of the fifth… 

My mother is a big fan of the late Leon Bibb, folksinger, actor and civil rights activist – he marched at Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – and through her interest I became familiar with his son, renowned bluesman Eric Bibb. Eric’s youth was spent immersed in the Greenwich Village folk scene. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Pete Seeger were visitors to his home, and he was deeply influenced by Odetta, Richie Havens and Taj Mahal. Mom and I had the pleasure of seeing him perform at Hugh’s Room some years ago and my biggest takeaway from that evening was his statement “I just need one guitar… more!” Imagine my surprise when I watched a video from his new album Ridin’ (Stony Plain SPCD1472 stonyplainrecords.com) and saw him playing a six-string banjo (aka banjitar). Bibb plays it more like a blues guitar than a traditional banjo, but the snare drum-like membrane of the banjo head and the hollow round body give it a very distinctive sound. 

It this sound that opens the disc in a paeon to kith and kin, aptly titled Family, the lyrics of which nicely sum up the overall message of the album: “I am like you – born of a woman | I am like you – a child of God | You are like me – here to learn from History | You are like me – Family.” Bibb says, “As a songwriter, studying African American history has always been a deep well of inspiration. The true stories of my ancestors and their communities are at the heart of many of the songs on my new album. Together with co-writer/producer Glen[vin Anthony] Scott, we’ve created a concept album focusing on the ongoing task of understanding systemic racism and purging it from our world.” The history lessons include songs about the 14-year-old Emmett Till, kidnapped, tortured and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 (the title track); another about the white author who underwent skin pigment transformation to write Black Like Me, and the persecution he faced from his own community as a result in The Ballad of John Howard Griffin; and the destruction of “Black Wall Street” by white mobs in 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma in Tulsa Town, among others. These are interspersed with traditional folk songs like 500 Miles and Sinner Man. I cannot find credits for the backup band, but there are a number of identified cameos throughout the album including star turns by Taj Mahal and Jontavious Willis on Blues Funky Like Dat. Bookending the disc is People You Love (People you love pass on, but they’re not gone | the ones who love you, stay by your side…) bringing a bittersweet but hopeful portrait of a troubled land to a gentle close. 

I see I have not left myself much space for the final disc, TumbleWeedyWorld, the latest from Canadian country icon Lynn Miles (True North Records TND802 lynnmiles.ca). On this, her 16th studio album, the Juno Award-winning and three-time Canadian Folk Music Awards Songwriter of the Year is accompanied by an outstanding band featuring Michael Ball (bass), Joey Wright (mandolin/acoustic guitar), Stuart Rutherford (dobro), Rob McLaren (banjo) and James Stephens (violin). Wright’s mandolin is front and centre on one of my favourite tracks Cold, Cold Moon which features Miles’ signature octave breaks in the moving melody line. Although at times during the disc I felt that this vocal effect was a little overused, it is particularly moving and effective on Moody, where it borders on yodelling. Julie Corrigan and Dave Draves contribute harmonies on the upbeat Sorry’s Just Not Good Enough This Time and dobro and banjo come to the fore in All Bitter Never Sweet with Rebecca Campbell providing duet vocals. This traditional country-flavoured disc comes to a poignant conclusion with Miles in fine voice on the ballad Gold in the Middle. 

We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, WholeNote Media Inc., The Centre for Social Innovation, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4.

David Olds, DISCoveries Editor
discoveries@thewholenote.com

I received the sad news shortly before Christmas that my friend, iconic Canadian composer John Beckwith, had died at the age of 95 from complications of a fall. I had seen him some ten days earlier when I dropped by to have him autograph my copy of his latest book – his 17th! – MUSIC ANNALS: Research and Critical Writings by a Canadian Composer 1974-2014 (Institute for Music in Canada 2022) which you likely read about in last September’s issue of The WholeNote. You may also have read the many insightful CD reviews John contributed to this magazine between 2001 and 2016, running the gamut from early Canadiana (1753 – Livre de Montreal) and period performance practices (Haydn – Five Sonatas on Fortepiano performed by Malcolm Bilson), through Beethoven Late String Quartets (Takács Quartet), Schubert’s Winterreise (Russell Braun) and Chopin Nocturnes and Impromptus (Angela Hewitt) to 20th-century American composers (Toch, Persichetti, Bolcom) and his Canadian contemporaries Harry Somers, Henry Brant and Eldon Rathburn to name but a few. These can all be found on thewholenote.com website. Of course, numerous recordings of his own music were also reviewed in these pages. 

John’s career was many faceted, encompassing a range of fields from music critic, composer, teacher, writer, historian, administrator – he served as Dean of the Faculty of Music at U of T and Director of the Institute for Music in Canada – and performer, but he preferred to refer to himself simply as a musician. His knowledge and breadth of interest was vast, and his own compositions tended to incorporate and synthesize several of these at a time. John’s oeuvre spanned virtually all genres of art music from folk-song arrangements to art songs, choral works and operas, symphonic works, chamber music, duets and solo pieces. Although his stage works are strikingly underrepresented, recordings of a good cross section of his other works can be found at the Canadian Music Centre (cmccanada.org). Also available from the CMC is his moving personal autobiography, Unheard Of: Memoirs of a Canadian Composer, which I highly recommend.

One work that I have particularly enjoyed revisiting in recent days is Quartet as recorded by the Orford String Quartet (John Beckwith Centrediscs CMC-CD 5897). Back in 1986 I had the pleasure of interviewing John on my radio program, Transfigured Night at CKLN-FM. When speaking about Quartet John mentioned that, like Bartók, who had drawn on his Hungarian heritage and had the string instruments mimic the sounds of cimbaloms and hurdy-gurdies, he wanted to reflect the traditional music of Canada in his string quartet. Although John was not particularly well versed in popular music, his father had played the mandolin and his oldest son played guitar, so he had a bit of a head start and as usual was willing to do some homework. He began researching fiddling styles and attended the finals of the Canadian Open Fiddle Championship in Shelburne, Ontario. The resulting work, while not sounding like fiddle music per se, draws on gestures and nuances of fiddle technique and adds a surprising innovation. The two violinists share a third instrument in an alternate tuning enabling different open string chords and unexpected harmonics and producing a “distorted fiddle tune at the same time as the real one” towards the end of the piece. It’s quite a stunning effect. 

Hear! Hear! Remembering John Beckwith takes place at 7:30 on February 28 at Walter Hall, U of T. Performers include Choir 21, Monica Whicher, New Music Concerts Ensemble, Opus 8, Robert Aitken, Peter Stoll and others.

As mentioned, Beckwith’s Quartet doesn’t sound like traditional fiddle music, but I had no shortage of the “real” (or should that be “reel”) thing over the past month or so. I was inundated with folk recordings by local artists in a variety of styles and from a variety of traditions. First up, a disc simply called Fiddle Music by Elise Boeur and Adam Iredale-Gray (Fiddlehead Recordings FHR013 eliseandadam.ca). Boeur plays both fiddle and hardingfele (Norwegian hardanger fiddle) while Iredale-Gray alternates on fiddle and guitar. They are accompanied by upright bassist Robert Alan Mackie, who also provides lyrical solos on some of the numbers. The personal liner notes give the authors and origins of each of the tunes and how they came to be in the group’s repertoire. The disc begins with a medley of lively traditional Irish tunes featuring fiddle and guitar. This is followed by La Coccinelle (ladybug), a bourrée by French fiddler Jean Blanchard combined with a tune by Norwegian accordionist Kristoffer Kleiveland, performed on two fiddles with added bass. The lyrical valse à cinq Evening Glory, penned by Belgian Toon Van Mierlo, is arranged here for fiddle, guitar and bass. Other eclectic offerings include more traditional Irish, American and Swedish tunes and several for hardingfele – a rull and a Setesdal Gangar – that Boeur learned while studying folk music in Norway. The disc concludes with a stark tune by the Icelandic jazz band ADHD, followed by another medley that starts slowly with the melancholic Frank Thornton, gets moving with Cock and the Hen and finishes with a rousing rendition of Cottage in the Grove. All in all, a feast for the ears, with fine playing from all concerned.

Bassist Robert Alan Mackie reappears as a member of Vinta on the next disc, Beacons (vintamusic.com). Other members include Emilyn Stam (fiddle and piano accordion), John David Williams (clarinet, diatonic accordion, bass clarinet) and Nathan Smith (fiddle and viola). One might expect hints of Klezmer from the ensemble’s instrumentation, but Vinta is based in the folk-dance traditions of Europe, especially those of France and Sweden. Growing out of Balfolk gatherings in the High Park neighbourhood of Toronto, the enforced isolation of the COVID lockdown also provided an aspect of the group’s inspiration. “At a time when joy and celebration were far away, the four of us came together and shared everything we could. First came the old tunes, hot meals and loud laughter – sure enough, then came the new tunes.” The result is an album of original music in traditional style(s), and one cover – Seduction, a 1929 waltz by Frenchman Mario Cazes, which is combined with Mario and Everest by Stam, “a wedding waltz written for dear friends.” A highlight for me is another waltz, Rosedale Valley by Mackie, once again paired with a composition by Stam, Regent Street Parade. Other pieces of note include High Park by Williams, and the group composition Le réveil des coccinelles, yes, those ladybugs again. Producer (and mandolinist extraordinaire) Andrew Collins praises Vinta’s “unique aesthetic driven by their original composing, arranging and virtuosic playing. […] one certainty is that you will have a smile on your face.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. 

The next disc features half the members of Vinta, Emilyn Stam and John David Williams performing as a duo. I thought Stam was a familiar name and searching back a few years I found a disc by a local group called The Shoeless – a “cross-cultural stew, combining the sounds of Klezmer, French, Celtic, Appalachian and English music” in a trio with fiddle (Stam), banjo and cello – so obviously her roots spread far afield. The current album focuses on her Dutch heritage and draws on a collection of tunes published in the early 1700s, the title of which translates as Old and New Farmer Songs and Contradances from Holland. On The Farmer Who Lost His Cow and other old Dutch tunes (emilynandjohn.com) Stam plays five-string fiddle, piano and piano accordion, while Williams adds harmonica to his arsenal of clarinet and diatonic accordion. To 21st-century ears there is a certain sameness to the melodies, but differing tempos and the way the duo switches up the accompaniments makes for an entertaining listen that kept my attention. I’m not sure if it is just the novelty of the titles, but highlights included The Pig Scratches His Hole, The Mullet Fish and, of course, the title track, along with the almost minimalistic The Friction Drum and the haunting Farewell My Love with its harmonica lead. As well as songs, there are numerous Gaillardes interspersed throughout this compelling disc. And I feel I must mention, the graphic art includes… ladybugs!

David Greenberg’s Multiple voices for One (Leaf Music DG2022A davidgreenbergviolinist.bandcamp.com/album/multiple-voices-for-one) is another disc that combines traditional fiddling styles with dance forms, contemporary arrangements and compositions. For over three decades, Greenberg has enjoyed a double career as a Baroque violinist and Cape Breton fiddler. His international career spans continents and his Toronto connections have included performing as a member of Tafelmusik and Toronto Consort among others. This disc features movements from Bach’s partitas and sonatas for solo violin and other classical movements intercut with a variety of jigs, reels and marches from various sources and original tunes by Greenberg and his son Owen, as well Toronto’s late legendary fiddler Oliver Schroer’s Enthralled. Greenberg plays both Baroque and octave violins on the album, both tuned in period style at A414. There is no overdubbing involved, he just plays one or the other on each track, but the booklet includes a clever picture in which he appears to be playing both at once with the smaller one tucked under his chin, the other on his shoulder and the bow spanning both instruments. Greenberg is an acknowledged master of violin and fiddle techniques and, as this recording attests, possesses a consummate musicality that spans genres and styles. An accomplished clinician, he offers a variety of online tuition opportunities, that latest of which is “Making Tunes with Intention,” a three-week course exploring the composition and arrangement of traditional style tunes – Celtic, Baroque, and classical – beginning February 26. You will find details and registration at davidgreenbergviolinist.com/mti-home.

Listen to 'Multiple Voices for One' Now in the Listening Room

Sticking with the violin family, but moving away from the fiddle tradition, the next disc features music for solo viola by longtime CBC producer and frequent contributor to The WholeNote, David Jaeger. In the spirit of full disclosure I will say that I have had a lengthy professional relationship with Jaeger over the years as the administrator of New Music Concerts but of course almost everyone in the contemporary music community could say the same. Since retiring from the CBC, Jaeger, when not busy producing independent recordings for some of Toronto’s finest musicians, has expanded his activities as a composer and there has been a wealth of new work in recent years. Conjuring: Viola Music of David Jaeger (Redshift Records TK524 redshiftrecords.org) spans four decades. The soloist is Hamilton native, now Vermont resident, Elizabeth Reid who rises to the various challenges the works present with aplomb and conviction. She is accompanied by Alison Bruce Cerutti in Sonata, Tristan and Isolde, written in 1992 in honour of the 70th birthday of the composer’s mother (and her dog and cat), and Sonata No.1 for viola and piano written just four years ago. The Six Miniatures for unaccompanied viola are based on verses by Scottish poet David Cameron, the texts of which are included in the booklet, with the violist “in effect, playing the role of the reciter.” As befitting a founding member of the Canadian Electronic Ensemble, Jaeger’s three remaining works involve the use of technology in one form or another. Constable and the Spirit of the Clouds is an adaption of a work originally for solo cello. At the suggestion of Reid, Jaeger reworked the cello score for viola and added an electronic track “composed using a similar process,” i.e., examples of linear variation observed in the work of English Romantic artist John Constable. The result is intriguing. The final two works were written for the internationally renowned Israeli violist Rivka Golani who made her home in Toronto for some years. Favour for viola and live digital delay controlled by the performer was composed in 1980. Sarabande was composed to address the issue of the complicated set-up required for the live electronics aspect of Favour, here replaced by a single playback track for the performer to play against. Favour was originally released on Golani’s Viola Nouveau (Centrediscs CMCCD 0883), still available from the Canadian Music Centre, providing a rare opportunity to compare two interpretations of a contemporary Canadian piece. By pairing these two works we are presented with Jaeger’s “second take” on the same material and also a second performer’s take on them both. It’s great to see a new generation of musicians taking up the mantle and championing existing works along with the new. 

Listen to 'Conjuring: Viola Music of David Jaeger' Now in the Listening Room

Mid-career American super-star composer Missy Mazzoli "inhabits an exquisite and mysterious sound-world that melds indie-rock sensibilities with classical traditions… [equally at home in] concert halls, opera houses and rock clubs." Dark with Excessive Bright (BIS-2572 missymazzoli.com) is a portrait disc spanning 15 years of Mazzoli’s international career, featuring Norwegian violinist Peter Herresthal. Once again, we are presented with a composer’s alternate takes on several works. The title piece was originally a concerto for double bass and string orchestra that at Herresthal’s request Mazzoli reworked for violin, “essentially flipping the work upside down.” Dark with excessive bright is a phrase from Milton’s Paradise Lost, a surreal and evocative description of God’s robes, written by a blind man. Mazzoli says: “I love the impossibility of this phrase and how perfectly it describes the ghostly, heart-rending sound of strings.” It appears here twice, bookending the disc, opening with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by James Gaffigan and closing with a reduced version for solo violin, string quartet and double bass performed by members of Norway’s Arctic Philharmonic under the direction of Tim Weiss. Both versions are extremely powerful, with a sound palette that belies the all-string instrumentation, and it’s hard to comprehend that in the latter all that sound is being created by just six players. Vespers for Violin is a reimagining of the earlier Vespers for a New Dark Age, in which “sampled keyboards, vintage organs, voices and strings from that composition, drenched in delay and distortion,” are used to create an effective work for a solo violinist. Full orchestral resources are utilized in Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) with music “in the shape of a solar system.” The title draws on two meanings of the word sinfonia: a Baroque work for chamber orchestra and the old Italian term for a hurdy-gurdy. Mazzoli describes it as “a piece that churns and roils, that inches close to the listener only to leap away at breakneck speed, in the process transforming the ensemble into a makeshift hurdy-gurdy, flung recklessly into space.” There’s a Toronto connection in Orpheus Undone. It’s an orchestral suite, fragments of which have their origins in Orpheus Alive, a work composed for the National Ballet of Canada back in 2019. In its present form, it depicts “a single instant in Orpheus’s life, in the immediate aftermath of his wife Eurydice’s death. I have used the Orpheus myth… to explore the ways traumatic events disrupt the linearity and unity of our experience of time.” It was composed in 2021, no doubt in response to the trauma of COVID-19. Concert Note: Speaking of Toronto, Mazzoli’s Dark with Excessive Bright will be performed in its original double bass version by the Toronto Symphony and guest conductor Kerem Hasan, with TSO principal Jeffrey Beecher as soloist on March 1 and 2 at Roy Thomson Hall. 

We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, WholeNote Media Inc., The Centre for Social Innovation, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4.

David Olds, DISCoveries Editor
discoveries@thewholenote.com

You may have read Max Christie’s article “John Beckwith Musician” two issues ago (The WholeNote Volume 28/1) about the launch of Beckwith’s latest book Music Annals: Research and Critical Writings by a Canada Composer 1973-2014, and Christie’s sequel “Meanwhile back at Chalmers House” in the following issue. The evening of the launch at the Canadian Music Centre included a live performance by SHHH!! Ensemble and provided my first exposure to this duo from Ottawa: Zac Pulak (percussion) and Edana Higham (piano). Dedicated to performing and commissioning new works, their debut CD Meanwhile has recently been released by Analekta (AN 2 9139 analekta.com/en). Comprising works by five mid-career Canadian composers including Monica Pearce (whose leather was also included on that composer’s portrait disc Textile Fantasies reviewed in this column last month), Jocelyn Morlock, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Micheline Roi and John Gordon Armstrong, plus one relative newcomer on the scene, Iranian-Canadian Noora Nakhaie, and the current grand old man of Canadian music, Beckwith himself. All of the works were written for the pair, with the exception of Murphy’s Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine which was Pulak’s first commission back in 2016 “fresh out of school and out of my depth.” Murphy, who had never written for solo percussion, eagerly took on the project and created a dynamic and almost relentless work for unpitched drums with only a brief respite in metal and bell sounds. This is followed by Roi’s Grieving the Doubts of Angels, a motoric, minimal and mostly melodic work which ends dramatically with a pounding pulse. 

A highlight for me is Nakhaie’s Echoes of the Past, inspired by Sister Language, a moving book by Martha and Christina Baillie. This testament to the triumphs and struggles experienced by a family dealing with profound mental illness and to the bond between siblings is sensitively interpreted by the composer. Meanwhile concludes with the title piece, the duo’s first commission, a 2018 work for marimba and piano (both inside and out) by Beckwith in which the then 91-year-old shows no signs of compromise in his approach. There are echoes of earlier works – Keyboard Practice comes to mind – yet we are left with the impression that the composer is looking forward as much as back. Forward is definitely the direction of SHHH!! Ensemble and we’re glad to be along for the ride. 

Kelly-Marie Murphy reappears on the next disc, de mille feux (a million lights) featuring the Andara Quartet (leaf music LM262 leaf-music.ca). Murphy’s Dark Energy was commissioned by the Banff Centre and the CBC as the required work in the 2007 Banff International String Quartet Competition, won that year by Australia’s Tinalley String Quartet although the prize for best performance of the Canadian commission was awarded to the Koryo String Quartet (USA). The Andara Quartet would not be formed until seven years later when the members met at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. They have subsequently gone on to residencies at the Banff Centre, the Ottawa Chamberfest and the University of Montreal. The quartet’s debut disc opens with Benjamin Britten’s all too rarely heard String Quartet No.1 with its angelic opening high-string chorale over pizzicato cello before transitioning into a caccia-like Allegro vivo. The extended Andante calmo third movement eventually leads to a playful finale in which the strings seem to be playing tag. This is contrasted with Samuel Barber’s gorgeous Molto Adagio extracted from his String Quartet in B Minor Op.11. Of course we are familiar with this “Adagio for Strings” in its standalone string orchestra and a cappella choral versions, but I must admit to have mixed feelings about having it cherry-picked in the context of a string quartet recording. Generous as the disc’s 65-minute duration is, there was ample space available to have included the quartet’s outer movements as well (less than ten minutes between them), but that is a minor quibble. Murphy’s single-movement work is next up, opening forebodingly, as many of her works do, before changing mood abruptly to a rhythmic and roiling second half featuring abrasive chordal passages and Doppler-like effects. The final work, producer James K. Wright’s String Quartet No.1 “Ellen at Scattergood” is in four somewhat anachronistic movements. It could have been written a century ago, but is none the worse for that. A pastoral depiction of life at the cottage of a couple of friends, it was commissioned by the husband as a gift for wife Ellen. 

This maiden voyage for the Andara Quartet with its warm and convincing performances bodes well for their future, and for chamber music in this country. I also note that the triennial Banff Competition is still going strong 30 years after its inauguration – the first prize winner in 2022 was the Isidore Quartet (USA) and the Canadian Commission Prize went to Quatuor Agate (France). This year’s required work was by Dinuk Wijeratne and it’s great to realize that all nine of the competing quartets from around the world have taken that new Canadian work into their repertoires. Even more exciting is when a young quartet like the Andara takes on an earlier competition’s work and gives it new life as they have done with Dark Energy. 

Listen to 'de mille feux' Now in the Listening Room

Blue and Green Music features two string quartets by American composer Victoria Bond performed by the Cassatt String Quartet along with the song cycle From an Antique Land and the standalone song Art and Science, both featuring baritone Michael Kelly with Bradley Moore, piano (Albany Music TROY1905 albanyrecords.com). The title work takes its inspiration from a painting of the same name by Georgia O’Keeffe, in the words of the composer an “abstract study in motion, color and form, with the interplay of those two colors that dance with each other in graceful, sensuous patterns.” The four movements endeavour to represent that interplay, and to these ears succeed gracefully and gleefully in the final movement Dancing Colors. Art and Science takes its text from a letter which Albert Einstein wrote to the editor of a German magazine that the composer says “even though it was written as a letter, the organization of thoughts was startling. There was such logic […] and such a sense of form that it was as though Einstein had composed a poem….” More traditionally, From an Antique Land does use poetry, with Recuerdo and On Hearing a Symphony of Beethoven by Edna St. Vincent Millay bookending poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley and Gerard Manley Hopkins. The accompaniment in the final song cleverly incorporates echoes of the third movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Although texts are not provided in the booklet, there are synopses, and frankly, Kelly’s lyric baritone voicing is so well articulated that the words are clearly understandable. 

Dreams of Flying was commissioned by the Audubon Quartet and Bond took the name of the ensemble as inspiration to create a piece about birds. The opening movements, Resisting Gravity and Floating are as their titles describe and set the stage for the playful and boisterous The Caged Bird Dreams of the Jungle, which, after a gentle opening becomes truly joyous, replete with chirps, whistles and cries as the birds of the jungle awake. The work and the CD end exuberantly with Flight, featuring rising motifs, high glissandi and repeating rhythmic patterns. Here, as throughout this entertaining disc, all the performers shine. 

Listen to 'Blue and Green Music' Now in the Listening Room

After 20 years working alongside Robert Aitken you might be forgiven for thinking I’d have heard enough flute music to last a lifetime and indeed there are times when I have said that a little flute goes a long way. That sentiment notwithstanding I encountered a lovely disc this month that put the lie to that. Through Broken Time features Jennifer Grim in contemporary works for solo and multiple flutes, some with piano accompaniment provided by Michael Sheppard (New Focus Recordings FCR346 newfocusrecordings.com). I had put the disc on while cataloguing recent arrivals without paying undo attention until the bird-like sounds and Latin rhythms of Tania León’s Alma leapt out at me. I had just finished listening to Victoria Bond’s disc, and it was as if I were back in the jungle dreamed of by the caged bird mentioned above.

I suppose it was inevitable that I would find Julia Wolfe’s Oxygen for 12 flutes (2021) reminiscent of Steve Reich’s Vermont Counterpoint for flute and tape or 11 flutes, which I first heard in Ransom Wilson’s multi-tracked recording some four decades ago I don’t mean to say that Wolfe’s work is derivative of that classic, but that the orchestra of flutes, in this case involving all the regular members of the flute family rather than Reich’s piccolos, C and alto flutes, and especially the consistency of sound from part to part as a result of them all being played by one flutist, has a familiarity, especially in the context of Wolfe’s post-minimalist style. The addition of bass flute to the mix fills out the wall of sound, the density of which can at times be mistaken for a pipe organ. The liner notes also liken the piece to Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments but whatever the forebears, Wolfe has made this flute choir her own and Grim rises to the occasion in spades. 

David Sanford is represented by two jazz inspired works, Klatka Still from 2007, and Offertory (2021), the first a homage to trumpeters Tony Klatka and Tomasz Stanko, and the second inspired by the extended improvisations of John Coltrane and Dave Liebman. The disc also includes solo works by Alvin Singleton and Allison Loggins-Hull – this latter a haunting work that meditates on the devastation wreaked by hurricane Maria, social, political and racial turmoil in the United States, and the Syrian civil war – and Wish Sonatine by Valerie Coleman, a dramatic work that conveys brutality and resistance and which incorporates djembe rhythms symbolizing enslaved Africans. Grim proves herself not only comfortable but fluent in all the diverse idioms and the result is a very satisfying disc. 

Listen to 'Through Broken Time' Now in the Listening Room

If Jennifer Grim’s CD can be considered diverse within the context of contemporary composition, Origins, featuring rising super-star recorder virtuoso Lucie Horsch, takes musical diversity to a whole ‘nother level (Decca 485 3192 luciehorsch.com). Most of the works are arrangements, opening with Coltrane’s classic Ornithology followed by Piazzolla’s Libertango. The accompaniments vary, ranging from orchestra and chamber ensemble to bandoneon, guitar, kora and, in Horsch’s own arrangement of Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances Sz.56, cimbalom (Dani Luca). There is an effective interpretation of Debussy’s solo flute masterpiece Syrinx and more Horsch arrangements of works by Stravinsky. Traditional material includes Simple Gifts and the Irish tunes She Moved Through the Fair and Londonderry Air. Like Grim with flutes, Horsch plays all the members of the recorder family and although I don’t see a bass there, she is pictured with five different instruments in the extensive booklet. At home in seemingly all forms of music, including such unexpected treats as improvisations on traditional Senegalese songs (with kora master Bao Sissoko) and one of contemporary composer Isang Yun’s demanding unaccompanied works, Horsch is definitely a young artist to watch. 

The final disc I will mention is the EP Water Hollows Stone, a compelling work for two pianos by American composer Alex Weiser (Bright Shiny Things BSTC-0176 brightshiny.ninja), which takes its title from a quotation by Ovid that the composer saw inscribed in Latin on the wall of a subway station in NYC. Performed by Hocket (pianists Sarah Gibson and Thomas Kotcheff) the three movements are Waves, a quietly roiling texture from which “phrase, melody and harmony” eventually emerge, Cascade, a series of rising and falling arpeggios based on “a misquotation” of one of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, and Mist, which uses “an evocative keyboard technique borrowed from Helmut Lachenmann “where the notes of a chord are released individually so that the decay is as important as the initial sounds.” It is a very effective technique, a kind of juxtaposition of positive and negative space, and it is further developed in Fade, a standalone piece for solo piano conceived as a postlude to the 18-minute Water Hollows Stone, performed here by Gibson. A very immersive disc. 

I began this article with a mention of John Beckwith’s Music Annals and I’d like to turn now to another book that documents an important moment in the cultural annals of Quebec. When Paul-Émile Borduas published his manifesto Refus Global in 1948 it was a harbinger of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution and the changes that would come in the following decades. The 16 signatories included artists, dancers and actors who were associated with the Automatiste movement, previously known as the Montreal Surrealists. Among them was the writer Claude Gauvreau (1925-1971) whose arcane and often invented language used “[s]craps of known abstract words, shaped into a bold unconscious jumble.” 

Toronto’s One Little Goat theatre company, in association with Nouvelles Éditions de Feu-Antonin, has just published the libretto of Gauvreau’s 1949 opera Le vampire et la nymphomane/The Vampire and the Nymphomaniac in a bilingual edition brilliantly translated by Automatiste scholar Ray Ellenwood (onelittlegoat.org/publications). Although Gauvreau originally planned to work with Pierre Mercure on the opera, that composer withdrew from the project and it was never realized during Gauvreau’s lifetime. The absurdist libretto – “A new concrete reality where music and meaning meet” – makes for difficult comprehension – “Gauvreau is marshalling his creative powers to explode the profundities of human consciousness…”  – but simply put, in the words of the translator, it is “[a] love story. Star-crossed lovers kept apart by the forces of patriarchy: church, husband, police, psychiatry.” 

“Gauvreau’s opera opens the possibility of a renewed push towards the purely sonic dimension of language.” In his own words “This work is vocal, purely auditory. […] It’s an opera exclusively for the ear […] not conceived with anything else in mind but music.” It was only after Serge Provost became interested in Le vampire et la nymphomane two decades after Gauvreau’s death – he first composed L’adorable verrotière using fragments from it in 1992 – that the opera began to take shape. In 1996 Montreal’s Chantes Libres presented the first production with baritone Doug MacNaughton and soprano Pauline Vaillancourt in the title roles and a supporting cast that included, among others, mezzo Fides Krucker and actors Albert Millaire and Monique Mercure, under the stage direction of Lorraine Pintal. Provost’s score was performed by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne with founder Lorraine Vaillancourt at the helm. It is a striking production and thankfully it is available in its two-hour entirety on the Chants Libres website (chantslibres.org/en/videos). It is a perfect complement to this important new testament to the creative powers of Gauvreau, his unique voice in both the cultural history of Quebec and Canadian literature.

[Quotations are taken from the informative essays by Ray Ellenwood, Adam Seelig and Thierry Bissonnette which provide useful contextual information for Gauvreau’s opera in the One Little Goat publication.]

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