Stravinsky – Chamber Works
Barbara Hannigan; Royal Academy of Music; Juilliard School Ensemble
LINN CKD722 (outhere-music.com/en/albums/stravinsky-chamber-works)

In the ideal Platonic State, where dramatists, singers, instrumentalists, dancers, painters and poets dwell, Barbara Hannigan might occupy a place in its upper echelons. She is a formidable artist, whose dramaturgy brings human endeavour vividly to life. As a singer her soprano is luminous; nonpareil and informed by sublime, leaping and swooping lyricism. Her art may interpretate – not imitate – life, as a sage Plato would have it. But poetics that reach the Divine? And who could fault a director of celebrated orchestras who virtually writes her own script? Surely not even Plato who, in a moment of madness, may be seduced as well.

With Stravinsky: Chamber Works, Hannigan and Stravinsky seem perfectly matched. Both are shapeshifting musical omnivores who can become the music they perform. If you haven’t already been mesmerized by Hannigan’s Messiaen, Berg, Gershwin and Zorn, her Stravinsky will have you completely in her power. 

Hannigan reveals Stravinsky’s elements of “objectivist architecture” in the Octet and Septet with panache redolent of the master’s neo-classical genius. The spirited Dumbarton Oaks belies the subtle influence of Bach. The shorter works – poems and songs – are scintillating, revealing the musical chameleon in Stravinsky. The Juilliard School Ensemble and Royal Academy of Music perform with idiomatic grace under Hannigan’s baton, and Alexandra Heath’s soprano is spine tingling. Also notable is Charlotte Corduroy whose conducting elevates the Concertina, but it is Hannigan and Stravinsky who stand shoulder-to-shoulder in Plato’s State.

Béla Bartók - The Piano Concertos
Tzimon Barto; Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Christoph Eschenbach
Capriccio C5537 (naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=C5537)

If your previous impressions of Bartók’s three piano concertos have been of predominantly percussive music, hammered at aggressively, this new recording will have you hearing the music afresh. In the promotional material for the album, pianist Tzimon Barto states, “Even Bartók needs a supple touch. If you bang away at it, without rhythmical buoyancy, of course it will become tedious.” Here, Barto is joined in the concertos by the Deutches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.

For an example of the dividends this approach pays, listen to the beginning of the first concerto. In place of the usual martellato repeated A’s, the opening grows gradually and is remarkably atmospheric. Full advantage is taken of any calm moments here and in the second concerto, creating passages of rapt stillness which in other performances go by unnoticed. There is a notable softening of the edges as a result of this “supple” and “buoyant” approach. Perhaps due to the recording balance, in which the piano is recessed into the orchestra, Bartók’s carefully indicated and often sudden dynamic contrasts can, however, seem downplayed. True fortissimos are rare, even in the biggest climaxes. 

As another notable instance of Barto’s approach, take the opening of the third concerto, by far the most frequently performed of the three. The piano’s opening melody is played so freely and flexibly that it seems to float magically above the gentle string accompaniment. On the other hand, Bartók’s rhythms are nevertheless notated precisely, and reflect the folksongs and dances which are such an important ingredient in his musical language. Additionally, the first movement’s tempo is so slow (two minutes longer than in many other recordings) that the music risks losing forward momentum. These performances may shun percussive aggression, but they also downplay the rhythmic drive and precision that make Bartók’s music so unique. The orchestra, with some particularly fine contributions from the winds, sounds uneasy with the liberties of tempo and rubato, and ensemble suffers in several sections. 

Barto is to be commended for reminding us of the lyricism and delicacy inherent in Bartók’s music (listen to the composer’s own recordings of his piano works to hear this), but the extremes to which Barto goes to emphasize these elements may not be to everyone’s taste.

Envols – Canadian  Works for English Horn
Mélanie Harel; Valérie Dallaire
Centrediscs CMCCD33523 (cmccanada.org/shop/cmccd-33523)

Mélanie Harel’s Envols presents a captivating exploration of Canadian works for the English horn, showcasing the instrument’s expressive range and lyrical beauty. Recorded during the pandemic, this album is both a personal journey for Harel and a vital contribution to a relatively unexplored repertoire.

The album opens with Ian McDougall’s Nostalgica, where Harel’s rich, mellow tone shines alongside pianist Valérie Dallaire’s sensitive accompaniment. The interplay between the English horn and piano is seamless, setting a reflective mood that invites the listener into Harel’s world.

Christopher Tyler Nickel’s Sonata for English Horn and Piano takes a darker turn, beginning with an eerie melody that evolves through contemplative passages to a spirited finale. Emily Doolittle’s contributions are highlights of the album. Suppose I Was a Marigold is an introspective piece that allows Harel to delve into the instrument’s softer, more contemplative side. In contrast, Social Sounds from Whales at Night brilliantly showcases her skill in mimicking whale calls. Harel’s use of multiphonics and note bending, combined with the ethereal percussion and tape elements, creates a vivid underwater soundscape that is nothing short of mesmerizing.

Brian Cherney’s Epitaph for Solo English Horn provides a powerful showcase of Harel’s technical prowess, exploring a wide emotional range and highlighting the instrument’s upper register. This is followed by selections from Stewart Grant’s Études, where Harel demonstrates her control and agility, revealing the instrument’s capabilities in a variety of musical contexts. Tawnie Olson’s Plainsong and Paul Marshall Douglas’ Luquet further accentuate Harel’s lyrical abilities, blending expansive musical lines with the English horn’s unique timbre.

The album concludes with François-Hugues Leclair’s Le vol de l’épervier, where playful note bends and the sounds of chirping birds create a delightful auditory experience, leaving the listener with a sense of joy and exploration. Overall, Envols is a cohesive and engaging collection that not only highlights Harel’s exceptional talent but also elevates the English horn’s role within contemporary music.

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Jon Siddall – Little Monster Dreams
Jon Siddall
Independent (jonsiddall.com)

BC-based composer, guitarist and music producer Jon Siddall’s career has for decades bravely straddled the not-always-amicable worlds of vernacular and contemporary classical music. I first met Siddall at York University in the mid-1970s when we were both students of composers James Tenney and David Rosenboom, among others. He continued his graduate composition studies in California with Terry Riley and was introduced to gamelan degung performance by Lou Harrison. Returning to Toronto, Siddall was inspired to combine those disparate musical streams and formed Evergreen Club Gamelan in 1983.

While Siddall’s been tapping into his garage band roots in recent years with his countrified Straightup Seven Hills band, in 2020 he also released Belvedere a self-described “slow music” instrumental album. His current EP Little Monster Dreams follows in the latter experimental ambient vein with two substantial instrumentals aesthetically harkening back to his earliest minimalist compositions.

The three-part Little Monster Dreams of Floating was performed by the composer playing heavily processed guitar, bells and other percussion, including gamelan gongs. The title is a tribute to his French bulldog, the “little monster” who was particularly fond of this music. Siddall describes his musical goal as “amplifying stillness by simplifying memory … the gentle meandering of the sounds relieving the need to keep track of time.”

The other work, With the Tides, consists of a dense chord slowly disintegrating over its duration, separated by silences of varying length. In additional to tidal cycles, the work also explores “what the Japanese call ‘ma’: the space in between things.” This sumptuous-sounding, formally terse, track was constructed solely using multi tracked blown bottles. 

Perceived form here is elusive, subverted, never quite materialising – a concern which “ultimately becomes unimportant” says the composer since, “we’re just with the sound. Is it music for meditation? Can be.”

Trees.Listen
Sharlene Wallace; Frank Horvat
I Am Who I Am Records (frankhorvat.com)

Canadian musicians/composers/educators Frank Horvat (fixed electronics) and Sharlene Wallace (Celtic lever harps) collaborated on this nine-movement exploration of the wonder of trees. It is inspired by medical biochemist/botanist Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger’s book To Speak for the Trees.

Each “tree track” is based on a letter from the ancient Celtic Ogham script, a medieval alphabet that named each letter for a type of tree. One musical note from A B C D E F G and H (B-flat) was chosen to be predominant in each movement. A five-phase process was then used to create the music – phase one harp improvised samples, phase two creation of electronic bed tracks, phase three live harp parts over electronics tracks, phase four finetuning and phase five making final album with producer Jean Martin. 

Opening Ailm – Pine features the note A throughout the harp strums, single plucked notes and softer repeated electronic grooves. Repeated lower harp and electronics add unexpected depth to this walk through a pine forest! Eabha – Aspen opens with electronic held sounds which then alternate with ascending harp strums and lines. Vibrating low held electronic notes under the more tonal harp parts make for an orchestral E sounding work exploring the wonder of trees! Fearn – Alder, with a F note focus, is very easy to listen to, tonal music with a happy colourful harp solo and electronic drumkit hits with detached harp notes for tree dancing!

Horvat and Wallace perform their storytelling tree music with spontaneity and virtuosity.

Jeremy Gignoux – Odd Stillness
Jeremy Gignoux; Various Artists
Independent n/a (jeremygignoux.bandcamp.com)

When listening to such bebop progenitors as Bud Powell and, most of all, Charlie Parker, an identifiable sense of forward motion is conveyed musically. The French musicologist and critic André Hodeir, commenting on this propulsive quality and how the music from this era seemed to push listeners towards frequent moments of climatic resolution, described it as jazz’s “vital drive.” This virtuosic sound, often characterized as teleological (goal directed) and synchronous with the ideas of American Modernism, set a high-water mark for excellence in music (regardless of genre) influencing much that came after it.

As the Calgary-based violinist Jeremy Gignoux explores on his fine 2024 recording Odd Stillness, there are other equally important modalities in music that include tranquility, harmonic stillness and an auditory acceptance of dissonance without resolution that can be equally engaging, musically compelling and ultimately satisfying for listeners. As the French-born bandleader and musical creative writes in the album’s liner notes, “Looking away from harmonic progression and instrumental virtuosity, this recording embraces stagnation, inviting the listener to contemplate the serenity or tension within the moment.”

It is, I suppose, an experiment of sorts to release a recording designed around the aesthetic of musical lethargy and inactivity, but in the capable hands of Gignoux and a terrific ensemble that includes the unorthodox instrumentation of bass flute, contrabass, trombone, trumpet, drums, voice and bass clarinet, this hauntingly beautiful music nudges listeners towards a highly personal relationship with a sound canvas that eschews as many genre labels as it does descriptive adjectives.

Mark Haney – Placentia Bay: Summer of 1941
Meaghan Williams; Various Artists (plus string quartet, string orchestra and vocal ensemble)
Independent (markhaney.bandcamp.com)

Concept albums, historically more the domain of rock and pop than terrifically performed and recorded symphonic music with a storytelling narrative, and a Canadian historical focus, can be somewhat polarizing creations. Not only does one have to like the music, but there is also the issue of the narrative that needs to be compelling enough to thread throughout an entire recording, hueing thematic coherence to all the sounds contained within. Add to the mix the fact that, as it was in my case, you are jumping in at the final installment of a storytelling trilogy that began with 2010’s Aim for The Roses and is ending here with Placentia Bay: Summer of 1941, exploring the secret meeting between Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt off the coast of Newfoundland that resulted in the “Atlantic Charter,” one might be forgiven for thinking this to be a difficult entry point.

But not so when you are in the skilled musical hands of composer, creative community builder, and interdisciplinary artist Mark Haney, with excellent contributions by the Vancouver double bassist Meagan Williams, a small orchestra of first-rate west coast musicians and the vocal ensemble musica intima. The recording stands on its own as a satisfying musical achievement and fine symphonic musical artefact.Should you be inspired (as I was) to go back to the beginning of the trilogy, a musical coherence emerges, despite the differences of theme and subject matter, that only adds luster to this recording and its creative brain trust. 

Magnus Lindberg – Viola Concerto, Absence, Serenades
Lawrence Power; Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Nicholas Collon;
Ondine ODE 1436-2 (ondine.net/index.php?lid=en&cid=2.2&oid=7270)

If “tradition” was ever a prison for Magnus Lindberg, then he has broken free by scaling its inner dynamic with this remarkable Viola Concerto. He has cast the instrument, often presumed to be in “no-man’s land… between the dazzle of the violin and the warm sonority of the cello” (from the booklet notes) to become an almost new instrument, increasing the scope of its authentic sonority with new malleability in tone textures. 

Just as Lindberg’s Viola Concerto delights in testing the soloist’s virtuosity to the limit – a challenge that Lawrence Power successfully negotiates with aplomb, the two other works on this disc – Absence and Serenades – test the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra by manipulating rhythmic intricacies and dense harmonies, also mining a vein of lyricism that opens up unexpected possibilities for something akin to melody. 

Absence characterizes the orchestra as one massive voice with myriad individual protagonists each with its own particular character. This generates the work’s momentum. 

Serenades puts the ensemble at the centre of gravity of Lindberg’s sense of light, shade, energy and lyricism. With Nicholas Collon at the helm the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra appears to have lived this – and the rest of this music – for decades.

Sofia Gubaidulina: Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Bayan; Rejoice! Sonata for Violin and Cello
Baiba Skride; Harriet Krijgh; Elsbeth Moser; NDR Radiophilharmonie; Andrew Manze
Orfeo C230121 (orfeomusic.de/CatalogueDetail/?id=C230121)

Sofia Gubaidulina has described herself as “the place where East meets West,” which is as accurate a categorization as any. Her Tartar-Slavic background and the influence of Eastern philosophies is clear in many of her attitudes towards spirituality and its expression. Whether writing for small ensembles, large orchestras or even solo instruments her work explores a wide range of sonorities in order to create music that is extraordinarily still and serene, leaving the listener with a sense of timelessness rare in Western music.

Among her most radiantly contemplative chamber works are Rejoice! and Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Bayan. The former work features a hauntingly beautiful setting in which Gubaidulina offsets her vast landscape with spare, orchestral writing that soars with mystical impressionism. 

In her Triple Concerto Gubaidulina creates an unusual, yet enthrallingly beautiful sound-world using all the resources of the three featured instruments – violin, cello and a traditional Russian bayan or button accordion – embedded in a symphonic orchestra. Here the solo instruments  play beautiful lamenting melodies and strange, agitated, wheezing sounds over chant-like passages from the ensemble. 

In this repertoire both Rejoice! and the Triple Concerto stand out for their radiant beauty. This rapturous  performance by Harriet Krijgh, Elsbeth Moser and Baiba Skride and the North German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrew Manze  is consistently sensitive to the works’ intricate subtleties.

Crossroads
Ksenija Sidorova; Sinfonietta Riga; Normunds Šnē
ALPHA 1090 (outhere-music.com/en/albums/crossroads)

Latvian accordionist Ksenija Sidorova’s Crossroads features arrangements J.S. Bach’s music and later works by composers influenced by that master. She plays both solo and in ensemble with Sinfonietta Riga under conductor Normunds Šnē. Her accordion pictures show a right-hand piano keyboard. The left-hand button side appears to have a switch activated traditional chord stradella bass, and free bass multi octave single note bass buttons.

Bach’s famous three movement Concerto in D Minor, BWV1052 opens. Bach’s first 1720’s version featured solo organ and 1730’s version solo harpsichord, both with orchestra. Future arrangements by others include solo piano, violin, recorder and heavy metal guitar! Sidorova’s accordion arrangement has wide-pitched contrapuntal lines for both hands, colourful blending with orchestra, and tight accordion and orchestra contrasts in alternating sections. 

Composer Sergei Akhunov’s solo accordion Sketch III has lyrical broken chords and single note lines. His Bach-inspired five movement Concerto Chaconne Bach has SO much to listen to from an opening mysterious low orchestral feel, high-pitched held accordion notes “squealing” above repeated orchestral chords, modernizing percussion hits and reflective calms. Dobrinka Tabakov’s virtuosic Baroque style The Quest: Horizons for solo accordion and orchestra features wide-ranging volumes with touches of contemporary sounds. Solo works Beyond Bach by Gabriela Montero, arranged by George Morton and Sidorova, and Sidorova’s arrangement of her childhood favourite Bach’s Ich Ruf Zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639, highlight Sidorova’s impressive musicianship and breathing bellows control.

This is accordion and orchestra at their very best. A standing ovation for all!

Vijay Iyer – Trouble
Jennifer Koh; Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Gil Rose
BMOP Sound 1099 (bmop.org/audio-recordings/vijay-iyer-trouble)

I like it when a composer admits they have trouble finding their way to what they eventually write. While the product in no way betrays difficulty, if the search is somewhat successful, it’s there anyway, because no doubt what provoked them to write the piece is indeed troubling. Such is the case with Vijay Iyer’s new release (in italics this time), Trouble. He approaches the role of orchestral composer as something of an outsider, but one who brings vital new material inside. 

Asunder (2017) opens the disc with worrisome momentum (the first movement is called Agitated), a pulsing major third that passes from voice to voice. I grew more and more anxious as his ideas provoked me to see the worst outcomes, to fear the things to come. But I also just enjoy hearing his textures play out, an urgent though mindless race, all the voices like commuters on the same narrow path. Written for and premiered by the Orpheus Ensemble, it travels quite a way from its opening unease through subsequent movements Patient & Mysterious, Calm & Precise and Lush. Iyer found inspiration in the collaborative non-hierarchic ensemble’s working method; Asunder evolves.

Once more for everyone in the back, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project led by Gil Rose is fantastic. As is the violinist soloist Jennifer Koh in the title work, an alien voice within a landed chorus. Guiding Iyer towards rethinking the genre (he admits to having had doubts about writing a typical concerto form), Koh shared her experience of being an “artist of color in the U.S… nearly a year in the making, Trouble (2017) remains, for me, one of my most layered... intense works,” the composer writes in his liner notes.

Crisis Modes (2018), a work for strings and percussion, closes the disc. It’s simply gorgeous, while still infused with the unease that colours the whole disc. Iyer wrote all three works in the years of Trump’s first administration, as an American of Colour aware of the suddenness with which things can turn. It’s no surprise that the themes are of dysphoria and doubt.

Plucked & Struck
Percussia
Neuma 197 (neumarecords.org/home/ols/products/percussia-plucked--struck)

Anything recorded can go astray, especially if the music purports to be from a group “… a mash-up of classical, modern, popular, and global music styles….” This excellent album plucked & struck, for instance, might easily be construed as an elegant railway system linking all of the aforementioned (styles) as chamber music coming from an ensemble born of a 21st century post-serialist conservatoire. Of course, to describe the ensemble Percussia as such would give the impression of overcooking when, in fact, the whole project is a masterpiece of subtlety.

The duo’s take on things plucked and struck – Ingrid Gordon’s Orff xylophone and other small percussion and Susan Jollies’ Celtic harp – summon magical sounds from notes that whirl and twirl, and dance in graceful arcs and leaping parabolas that float benignly around each other. Each note adds a rich and not entirely predictable foundation to this music, as does Melissa Fogarty’s luminous soprano to the lyrics of Cuando El Rey Nimrod ai Compo Salia. 

The surprises, when they come, are effective, but discreet: gamelan-like riffs are often played as pizzicato harmonics, a delicate curlicue of a bassline underpins what sounds like a Gaelic lament on Fogarty’s Ladino lyrics. Everywhere close-knit ensemble passages develop from single magical phrases. In the music of plucked & struck Percussia have pierced music’s mysterious skin. Kudos to them for having done so.

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David Lang – Composition as Explanation
Eighth Blackbird
Cedille CDR 90000 230 (cedillerecords.org/albums/composition-as-explanation)

This album is serious fun. As an adaptation of Gertrude Stein’s seminal 1926 lecture, David Lang’s multi-disciplinary work showcases the creative and technical prowess of this Pulitzer-prize winning composer. Adding to the marriage is the dedication to the work of Grammy-winning sextet Eight Blackbird, who bring us a solid performance of an interesting and dynamic work. And a performance it is, as the piece was written to be presented on stage, with the composer asking the musicians to be stage performers, to learn acting, diction and the art of theatre, to produce an integrated and seamless work. 

The lecture by the iconic Stein, Composition as Explanation, was a description of what she is doing in her writing. “…in her same repetitive, plainspoken and circular format that she uses in her writing…” (Lang). Lang paints the lecture’s writing as billboard-sized enactments, blurring the lines between text and performance, while also stretching the musicality of his writing to showcase the versatility, technical skill and group dynamics of Eighth Blackbird. Each track of the composition reads as a small chapter of the lecture, which includes nearly all of Stein’s writing word-for-word, and the complex music never overshadows the text. As an illustration of Stein’s work, it is a colourful, theatrical exposition, a larger-than-life performance allowing the listener to discover the lecture in more detail, giving it new meaning and relevance today. It is a work one would wish to see live, but the album does well to impart the flavour of a stage performance, and the album booklet’s inclusion of photos from the performance does well to set the scene.

New Music for Brass and Percussion
Metalofonico
New Focus Recordings FCR413 (newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/metalofonico)

What happens when you mix 16 brass players, seven percussionists, electric guitar and synthesizer? A sonic wallop, here courtesy of trumpeter Jon Nelson, University at Buffalo professor and his ensemble Metalofonico, named after Brazilian Dimas Sedicias’ rowdy, big-band dance piece, included in this CD. (Sedicias’ bluesy tuba solo, Raymond My Friend, played by Raymond Stewart, comes midway through the disc, a brief respite from the mostly clamorous goings-on.)

This newly-released CD was recorded back in 2001-2002. Responding to my email query, Nelson explained that it was originally manufactured in 2003 to serve as a limited-distribution promotional item – “I decided last year to put it out ‘for real’ in the hope of giving new life to the pieces.”

Four world-renowned composers are represented – Charles Ives’ From the Steeples and the Mountains, memorably evoking overlapping, reverberating church bells; Iannis Xenakis’ Khal Perr (Greek for “Walking Dance”), a kaleidoscopic compendium of percussion-braced sonorities; Milton Babbitt’s atonal, amorphous Fanfare for Double Brass Ensemble; Giovanni Gabrieli’s noble Canzona XXV, from the first golden age of brass.

The disc’s longest piece, Tom Pierson’s 11-minute Music for a Solemn Occasion, is predominantly slow and introspective. In marked contrast are Nelson’s pounding, jazz-rock Insomnio and his rollicking arrangement of Perez Prado’s 1950 hit, Mambo No.5, Brian McWhorter’s industrially pile-driving Lucre Iota and David Felder’s Two Tuttis – Incendio and Shredder, the latter, writes Felder, “meant to be ferocious fun.” There’s ferocity and fun aplenty on this CD.

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Usual Suspects
No Codes
(benjamindeschamps.bandcamp.com/music)

No Codes’ sophomore release pulls no punches, and constantly proves that less is more. Exhibit A is the title track, which drops a single eighth note during the second phrase of the head, making an already irresistibly danceable syncopated rhythm feel subversive and lively. From there, the groove seamlessly transitions into a half time feel, Louis-Vincent Hamel’s open hi-hat providing emphatic weight to every snare hit. Returning to the original pattern and back again, that bar of seven offsets the listener’s expected arrival point of the next section, gripping them with a feeling of constant momentum. The track is just over two minutes long, but it feels dense and eventful nevertheless. 

All this profound power, generated from the mere omission of one beat, is a testament to the cohesion of this wonderful combo. Exploring many points on the musical spectrum while embracing dissonance and allowing each musician their own improvisational space, there is nary a dull moment to be found across these ten sprawling tracks. It is not only easy to find one’s self in awe of the two-piece rhythm section’s pas de deux, but also how consistently both saxophonists sound like an extension of this bond, playing percussively and interpretively while contributing to the overall driving pulse of each respective composition. Usual Suspects is a singular blend of being accessible and thought-provoking and is an absolute joy to listen to.

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