Liszt – The Concertos
Daniel Barenboim; Staatskapelle Berlin; Pierre Boulez
Deutsche Grammophon477 9521

This live performance of the Liszt piano concertos is an interesting listening experience. The first revelation for me is Boulez conducting music that he had once thought of as empty, virtuosic fluff. The second is Barenboim’s deep, dark, dramatic, yet poetic interpretation. He brings an operatic and devilish Faustian edge to the music.

Boulez is known as one of the 20th century giants in contemporary music as both composer and conductor. Barenboim is acclaimed for his fine Beethoven and Mozart playing. Together the two masters have created a palette of astounding orchestral and pianistic colors emulating a wide range of conflicting emotions. These performances are not simply a showcase for virtuoso technique. I admire the control and attention to the structure of the music. Every detail is carefully nuanced and articulated in both piano and orchestra. We have to remember that Franz Liszt was not only a great pianist, a rock star in his time who had an immense technique and repertoire, but also a successful conductor and a prolific composer.

Alan Walker in his biographies of Liszt has called his piano piece Nuage Gris the gateway to modern music. Liszt pushed chromaticism to the limit in his orchestral tone poems and used the piano pedals to create exotic soundscapes. He was the new music composer of his time. In this performance I found myself listening to the orchestra as much as the piano. Boulez has always been known for his keen ears and his remarkable ability to clarify complex orchestral sounds. He doesn’t disappoint here. I heard lines and details in the orchestra that sounded very fresh and convincing. Barenboim plays the piano with an edge that is aggressive at times but so focused and intense that it became hypnotic. He also articulates the melodic line with passion but tenderness as well.

These are very personal and unique interpretations and maybe not for everyone. The tone of the piano is sometimes too harsh and the tempos are slower than in other performances. The ensemble in the first movement could be tighter. However, I find these performances masterful and exciting, brimming with new ideas and swirling emotions. The encores, Consolation No.3 and Valse oubliée No.1 are a real bonus, exquisitely performed with a deep sensitivity that will melt your heart.

Mahler – Symphony No.1
SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg; Francois-Xavier Roth
Hänssler ClassicCD 93.294

Mahler – Symphony No.7
Bamberger Symphoniker; Jonathan Nott
Tudor7176

Mahler – Symphony No.3
Michaela Schuster; Gurzenich-Orchester Koln; Markus Stenz
Oehms ClassicsOC 648

Though the double anniversaries of Gustav Mahler’s birth (1860) and death (1911) have now drawn to a close the hits keep on coming. A new Hänssler disc of the First Symphony commemorates the inaugural concert of French conductor François-Xavier Roth, recently appointed chief conductor of the Baden-Baden based radio orchestra, a highly accomplished ensemble well known for its expertise in contemporary music. Roth’s approach to Mahler is typically rigorous and hard-driven, a strategy well suited to the bucolic Scherzo and sure-fire finale but one which gives short shrift to the emotive plasticity and elegant phraseology a true Mahlerian such as the late Rafael Kubelik brought to the other movements. The album includes a bonus performance of a rarely-heard early work by Anton Webern, In Sommerwind (1904), notable for its surprising French influences and sprawling episodic structure.

Sad to say, there is some question as to whether this radio orchestra will survive much longer in light of austerity measures recently proposed by the state broadcasting authority. Petitions are flying to ensure its continuation and contemporary German composers are in a panic. Let us hope they have more of an impact than we observed here in Canada some years ago.

Though we have not received their discs at The WholeNote, I feel compelled to mention the ongoing Mahler cycle by another financially challenged orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony under the direction of Manfred Honeck on the Japanese audiophile Exton label, available from the orchestra’s website. Honeck’s visceral interpretation of the First symphony deeply impressed me when I first heard it (the Pittsburgh orchestra boasts a fabulously lusty sounding horn section, an essential component in this work); superlative performances of Symphonies Three, Four and Five are also available.

British conductor Jonathan Nott, director of the Bamberg Symphoniker for the past decade, has passed the halfway mark in his cycle of live performances of the complete Mahler symphonies with the release of the Seventh Symphony. I’ve not heard the others, but on the present evidence his is a no-nonsense, objective approach, more intellectual than passionate. Much depends on the orchestral musicians in such a case; thankfully, the Bamberg artists do not disappoint and the recorded sound is decent enough. Yet one has to ask of this conductor, where is Mahler? Nott’s novice shortcomings (this is evidently his first ever performance of this work) are painfully evident in the Finale, which flies by in a blur, missing the many textural details and eccentric mood swings of Mahler’s mock triumphalism. You might almost think this is the black sheep of the cycle, as the contentious liner notes suggest. Try any performance of this work by Abbado (preferably the most recent Lucerne Festival DVD) and you’ll become convinced otherwise.

I’ve saved the best for last: a real winner of a disc from Markus Stenz and the wondrous Gürzenich orchestra in a compelling performance of the Third Symphony featuring contralto Michaela Schuster and an ensemble of children’s voices from the Cologne Cathedral and Opera choirs. The first five of the symphonies and a disc of vocal works have been recorded in the Stenz cycle so far; all are excellent, but this one in particular has a surpassing beauty. Stenz has a deep understanding of Mahler which shines through and the admirable sonic engineering is spectacularly transparent. Tempi are refreshingly nimble in the inner movements, lending a delightfully Shakespearian sense of fantasy to Mahler’s symphonic cosmos; there’s nary a dull moment over the course of this mighty, six movement double CD performance. From the opening depiction of summer’s awakening to the deeply felt, amorous conclusion, Stenz and his magnificent orchestra bring us sheer delight from first to last.

— Daniel Foley

The Danish composer Rued Langgaard (1893–1952) is a new name to me, but if the music on String Quartets Vol.1 (DACAPO 6.220575) is anything to go by then I’ve really been missing something. Denmark’s Nightingale String Quartet is simply superb in this first volume of a series of all nine quartets by a composer described in the excellent booklet notes as an eccentric outsider who was virtually ignored by the Danish musical establishment in his lifetime. The works are essentially in the late romantic style, but mixed with a startling modernity: listen to Train Passing By, the short second movement of String Quartet No.2, written in 1918 and revised in 1931, and you could swear you were listening to two minutes of Philip Glass or Steve Reich; the following slow movement, Landscape in Twilight, is a simply beautiful pastoral episode. The String Quartet No.3 from 1924, the quite lovely single-movement String Quartet No.6 from 1918 (Langgaard’s numbering system is quite confusing!) and the variations on the chorale melody Mig hjertelig nu laenges complete a revelationary CD.

Beautifully recorded at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and issued on Denmark’s national record label, these performances are as close to definitive as you can get. Wonderful stuff, and I can’t wait to hear the rest of the series.

The chamber music of the Irish composer Sir Herbert Hamilton Harty (1879–1941) is featured on the 2-CD set Hamilton Harty String Quartets & Piano Quintet, performed by Australia’s Goldner String Quartet and pianist Piers Lane (Hyperion CDA67927). Dating from the opening years of the 20th century, all three works — the String Quartets in F Major (1900) and A Minor (1902) and the Piano Quintet in F Major (1904, revised 1906) — are virtually unknown today, the second string quartet and the piano quintet apparently remaining unheard from the year of their premieres until the present recording. Like so much British music of the period, these are highly competent and really lovely works, given absolutely beautiful performances here. There are the expected hints of Mendelssohn and Brahms, but it’s Harty’s love of Russian music that seems to predominate, particularly with the echoes of Borodin in the quartets. The faultless recording quality and the excellent booklet notes make this a very attractive set.

The Jasper String Quartet is back with another volume in their excellent series of string quartets by the American composer Aaron Jay Kernis, this time pairing Kernis’ String Quartet No. 1 “Musica Celestis” from 1990 with Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” quartet in The Kernis Project: Schubert (Sono Luminus DSL-92152). I enthusiastically reviewed the earlier volume pairing a Kernis quartet with a Beethoven quartet some time ago, and have no hesitation in being just as enthusiastic this time around. The performances are top-notch, and the recording quality is equally good. If you don’t know this series, then you’re really missing something; apart from anything else, it is all the proof you could ever need that there are contemporary composers adding magnificent and significant works to the string quartet repertoire.

The Brilliant Classics label lives up to its name once again with a 2-CD reissue of the excellent 1990 recordings by The Britten Quartet of the String Quartets Nos. 1-4 by the English composer Sir Michael Tippett (2CD 9257). Tippett’s life (1905–1998) spanned almost the entire 20th century, and his quartets come from both ends of his creative career: Quartets Nos.1-3 are from 1934–1946; Quartet No.4 was written in 1977–78. The composer’s early obsession with Beethoven’s quartets can be discerned, but it is Tippett’s characteristic emphasis on line and counterpoint — especially in the earlier quartets — that stands out.

The six string quartets of Bela Bartók comprise arguably the most significant series in that genre since the Beethoven quartets, and the Dutch mid-price label Newton Classics, distributed here by Naxos, has reissued a 2-CD set of Bartók: String Quartets Nos.1-6 in the 1975 recordings by the Guarneri Quartet originally issued by Sony (8802111). The Guarneri Quartet was in top form in these performances of works which span Bartók’s entire career, and the set — especially at the price — can be recommended without reservation. The original recording and transfers are all excellent. 

Premieres: Music by Bruce Broughton, Ronald Royer and Kevin Lau
Conrad Chow; Sinfonia Toronto;
Ronald Royer; Bruce Boughton
Cambria Master RecordingsCD-1204
www.cambriamus.com

The concept of this project is new works that are inspired by earlier musical styles. Bruce Broughton’s Triptych: Three Incongruities for violin and chamber orchestra (in this case 15 solo instruments) is essentially a type of concerto, with each movement written in a different style. Thus, we hear influences of J.S. Bach’s violin music in the first movement, Prokofiev and more romantic expressions in the second and rhythmic, dance-like elements of Scottish fiddle music in the third. Another composition by Broughton, Gold Rush Songs, is based on three American songs associated with the California Gold Rush.

Ronald Royer’s Rhapsody displays influences of French impressionism and Spanish violin music, among others, with mysterious elements in the first movement and more rhythmic expressions in the second. Royer’s In Memoriam J.S. Bach is based on different motifs from Bach’s works. Sarabande is expressive, even romantic at times, while Capriccio carries playfulness coupled with recognizable Bach rhythms.

Joy for solo violin and string orchestra by Kevin Lau is a lyrical, meditative piece that lets the soloist explore different colours and textures. Conrad Chow’s tone has a wonderful quality of sweetness, which is most prominent in Chopin’s Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor, No.20 Op. posth., the encore piece on the album. His playing is rhythmical and precise, and he easily traverses the variety and depth of expression in each piece.

Some may argue that contemporary classical music should be forward-looking and not an evocation of the styles and musical tastes of the past. This, however, should not limit the scope of creativity and inspiration, which can spring from all objects and times. If your musical tastes enjoy revisiting compositional styles of the previous centuries while using contemporary expressions and techniques, this recording is a wonderful opportunity to hear Toronto composers in collaboration with Toronto musicians.

Pasión
Beatriz Boizán
Galano Records GLO–2813 
www.beatrizboizan.com

Latin American piano music is not commonly found on record. Even the Brazilian master, Hector Villa-Lobos, only sometimes gets acknowledged for his piano output. How refreshing then, that the Cuban-born Canadian pianist Beatriz Boizán has decided to change this on her debut disc. Oh, sure, there is an occasional Soler and Albeniz here, but the spirit of this album is an unbridled fiesta. The pianist has a light, precise touch that serves her well in the break-neck pace of some of the pieces, and infuses the whole with a sense of fun.

Most of the pieces will be both unfamiliar and very familiar at the same time, as they reflect the region’s tradition of rhythmic dance. Whether filled with carnival fervor or moments of whimsy, the music of Lecuona, Cervantes and Ginastera shimmers with light and colour — and of course, the “Passion” of the title. This delightful disc is a musical equivalent of sangria— a perfect accompaniment to a hot summer evening. Muy caliente!

English Recorder Concertos
Michala Petri; City Chamber Orchestra Hong Kong; Jean Thorel
OUR Recordings6.220606

Of the many works written for the recorder over the last century, few of the neo-classical or neo-impressionist examples ever make it onto concert programs or CDs, so it’s good to see the release of this recording. Opening the program is Richard Harvey’s Concerto Incantato, written for soloist Michala Petri in 2009. Using a variety of sizes of recorder over five movements, Harvey writes beautifully for the instrument and the piece also sweetly reflects his sensibilities as a composer for film and television. Here’s hoping that the piece receives more performances by recorder players around the world!

Following the Harvey is Malcolm Arnold’s diminutive Concerto Op.133, written for Petri in 1988, and his inclusion of winds in the orchestration makes for a welcome colour change. Gordon Jacob’s exemplary seven-movement Concerto for alto (and sopranino) recorder and strings closes the program. Written in 1957 for Carl Dolmetsch, it blends the strengths of both string and recorder worlds and is given a definitive and expressive reading here.

Conducted by Jean Thorel, the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong is superlative throughout, and Michala Petri, one of the recorder’s leading figures of the past 40 years, is completely at home in this repertoire.

Accordion Concertos
Bjarke Mogensen;
Danish Chamber Orchestra; Rolf Gupta
Dacapo6.220592

Danish accordionist Bjarke Mogensen is the rising young star in the accordion world. Here he performs concerto works representing four decades of composition. This is really is a “coming of age” release for both the performer and the instrument. Mogensen and the colourful Danish National Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Rolf Gupta are brilliant both in their interpretations and tight ensemble nuances.

Any serious student/performer of accordion will have tackled the accordion works of the late Ole Schmidt. Symphonic Fantasy and Allegro, Op.20 is a very early work for classical accordion. The 1958 piece draws its inspiration from Bartók and Stravinsky. Its rhythmic pulse cries out for a modern dance interpretation. Per Nørgård’s Recall (1968/1977) is a happy rhapsodic work with its many popular music harmonic and groove references.

The remaining two concertos were composed for Mogensen. The underlying “tick tock” idea in Anders Koppel’s Concerto Piccolo (2009) sets the mood in a work clearly rooted in the film score idiom. Martin Lohse’s In Liquid (2008/2010) is one of the most original works for accordion I have ever heard. Mogensen makes his brutal technical part sound so easy in this quasi minimalistic exercise in shifting fluid breathtaking sounds.

Mogensen’s strength lies in his great independence of line in the contrapuntal sections. Occasionally the higher pitches could use some added bellows support to create a fuller colour but this is a moot point. Mogensen is an artist to experience!

Games and Improvisations
Katharina Weber; Barry Guy; Balts Nill
IntaktCD 203
www.intakrec.ch

More than mere child’s play, this significant CD expands some of Hungarian composer György Kurtág’s performance pieces to evocative chamber improvisations. Taking 11 miniatures for solo piano from his eight-volume Játékok series, which translates as “Games” in English, the trio’s intuitive skills create nine exciting tracks that refer both to Kurtág (born 1926) and the wider musical world.

The high quality shouldn’t come as a surprise. Besides a career as an improviser, Bern-based pianist Katharina Weber has won many awards for interpreting notated music by contemporary composers. Swiss percussionist Balts Nill moves easily among improvised, notated and even pop music, while British bassist Barry Guy has been exploring the relationship between instantly composed and composed music for years, most notably with his London Jazz Composer’s Orchestra.

Throughout this CD, Weber outlines the minute-or-so composed lines in appropriately intense, solemn or staccato fashion. Immediately following are group improvisations which, without losing the underlying sentiment, stretch the motifs with techniques encompassing hypnotic glissandi or methodical isolated key strokes from Weber, rim shot pop and woody reverb from Nill and Guy’s rapid string rappelling or percussive stops.

A prime instance of this occurs with Kurtág’s Playing with Infinity that’s followed by Improvisation VI. The former is built around a descending line that radiates overtone coloration as it fades away. The latter evolves at a speedy clip as the pianist’s hunt-and-peck variations evolve into a bouncy line that almost spirals out of control until steadied by Guy’s thumps and Nill’s clanks and clatter. Finally the percussionist’s metallic rim shots and the bassist’s staccato rubs presage a finale of linked arpeggios from the keyboard. Elsewhere these contrapuntal musical salutes evolve in different ways, as flapping cymbals meet intense low-pitched piano reverb; or a tremolo build up of passing piano chords is balanced with squeaking bass lines or hard objects reverberating on drum tops.

All and all the three manage to honour an underappreciated composer’s music while simultaneously creating noteworthy sound statements on their own.

Gloryland (Tales from the Old South)
Bill King
Independent
www.billkingpiano.com

Versatile veteran pianist/composer Bill King’s latest CD is a deeply personal, musical recollection of his boyhood experiences growing up in the American Deep South and is certainly one of the most interesting projects of the year. Comprised of 12 beautifully recorded original solo piano compositions, all of the material is evocative and dripping with magnolias, sugarcane and southern gothica. King is a thrilling and deeply sensitive pianist, and he freely draws from elements of jazz, blues, boogie-woogie, sacred hymns and ragtime motifs.

Beneath the leafy, bucolic images of the Old South lurks a dark subtext of racism, religious intolerance, poverty, injustice and ignorance. Eviscerated economically by the Civil War and later by the Great Depression, the perplexing dichotomies of the Southland are fully explored and captured in this profound sonic photo album.

Particularly moving are the slow rag-infused The Devil Has 666 Fingers and the heartbreakingly lovely Faces in a Field of Trouble, which is tinged with the influence of King’s former teacher and mentor, Dr. Oscar Peterson. King steams down the Mississippi with The Gambler and The Riverboat and the soulful title track invokes a gentler side of fundamentalist Christianity. Also exquisite are the mournful The Hangman and the eerie One Blue Sheet Hanging in the Wind.

The piano itself is an equal collaborator here, and then as now, it assumes the role of cultural focal point – so important to the dreams and creativity of the small, rural, communities labouring out their lives below the Mason-Dixon Line.

Adding another voice to an established improvising ensemble is more precarious than it seems. With a group having worked out strategies allowing for individual expression within a larger context— and without notated cues— the visitor(s) must be original without unbalancing the interface. Luckily the sessions here demonstrate successful applications.

Invited to Rimouski, Quebec to give a workshop, British saxophonist Evan Parker also participated in Vivaces (Tour de Bras TDB9006 CD www.tourdebras.com), recorded with the 12-piece Grand Groupe Régional d’Improvisation Libéréeor Le GGRIL. Made up of players from different musical backgrounds living in the Lower Saint-Lawrence region, GGRIL is distinctive in that the group includes two electric guitarists, an electric bassist plus two accordionists, but only three horn players. Using these circumstances to best advantage, these tracks, alternately directed by Parker and GGRIL violinist Raphaël Arsensault, employ the accordionists’ tremolo pulsing and sweeping electronic oscillations to thicken the bottom. With upturned slices from the strings and barnyard cries from the squeeze boxes, two clarinets and the tuba, it’s often Parker’s restrained undertone that gives a linear shape to the improvisation. The best example of this is Marcottagethat manages to include contributions from nearly every GGRILer. As Parker pushes forward with staccato split tones he’s backed by sympathetic grace notes from fellow guest, trombonist Scott Thomson, and skittering, slurring accordion lines. Triangle pings signal a timbral shift and presage a ferocious solo from the saxophonist. Band members’ responses range from rebounding percussion ratamacues, crackling electronic runs from the guitars and bass plus one accordionist sounding a faux balladic line as the other pumps powerfully. Finally the mass cacophony downshifts to a satisfying connective rumble.

The London Improvisers Orchestra (LIO) deals with similar situations during a recital on Lio Leo Leon (psi 11.04 www.emanemdisc.com/psi.html) where group improvisations are supplemented by two specific concertos. Conducted by guitarist Dave Tucker, Concerto for Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith & Orchestra features veteran American trumpeter Smith, who has been involved in similar situations since the mid-1960s. The other, Concerto for soft-loud key-box No.2, is conducted by pianist Steve Beresford and designed for pianist Leon Michener, who is comfortable with both improvised and notated music. Mostly concerned with textural melding and displacement, the 38-piece LIO makes maximum use of counterpoint. Some tracks depend on harmonies among stringed instruments; others mate kettle drum smacks with light flute puffs; most climax as passing tones coalesce into linear narratives.

More cacophonous then the LIO with a mere 21 members, Amsterdam’s Royal Improvisers Orchestra (RIO) actually find a more cohesive direction on His Composition, the track on Live at the Bimhuis (Riot Impro 01 www.royalimprovisersorchestra.com) featuring veteran Dutch drummer Han Bennink. Encompassing as many of The Netherlands’ top improvisers as the LIO does the United Kingdom’s, the RIO is commandingly inventive throughout. Still, the resulting Klangfarbenmelodie often sounds as if every player wants to be heard – no matter what. Thus an extended throaty tenor saxophone solo evolves beside burping bassoon lines plus low-pitched flute blowing. Electronics crackle in-and-out of the sequences as the RIO’s two guitarists produce distorted licks. The contrast between thematic material and free-form interjections is made sonically murkier when two female vocalists yowl inhumanly or scat-sing rhythmically. Using distinctive brush work which has powered many an ensemble over the past 50 years, Bennink introduces a variation of easy-going swing on his track, while leaving plenty of space for avant touches, including descending slides from the four string players; galloping tremolo from the pianist and some impressive flutter-tonguing from saxophonists John Dikeman and Yedo Gibson. At the same time Bennink’s contributions indicate performance shifts and lead the band to a crescendo that also serves as a satisfying finale.

The situation on ETO (Libra Records 215-029 www.librarecords.com) is a little different, since it’s pianist Satoko Fujii and her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura who are the outsiders with her Orchestra New York. Fujii, who also leads Japanese bands, frequently assembles this 15-strong collection of some of Manhattan’s first-call musicians to play her compositions. Here, the pianist has written a suite in honour of Tamura’s 60th birthday, with soloists celebrating 12 animals in the zodiac. Along the line of Duke Ellington’s musical cameos such as Concerto for Cootie, and Self Portrait (of the Bean), her arrangements for these anthropomorphic showcases depend on subtle harmonization of the orchestra’s alternately swinging and sympathetic backing to frame the soloists. Among the stand-outs are Ox, where Joey Sellers’ loose-limbed, mid-range trombone floats on orchestral pulsations; drummer Aaron Alexander’s percussive drum backbeat alongside Oscar Noriega’s liquid alto saxophone licks on Ram; and subsequent trumpet solos from Frank London and Herb Robertson on Monkey and Rooster respectively which in the first instance mate hand-muted plunger work with an infectious staccato theme played by Fujii; and on the other use reed riffs to highlight Robertson’s mixture of half-valve effects and pure blowing. Not to be outdone, on Snake the birthday boy follows a more experimental strategy, with double-tongued growls and subterranean guffaws. But his solo is still aligned with the bouncy contrapuntal melody.

            Tamura’s and Fujii’s subtly connecting additions to an existing band plan demonstrate how novel conceptions can fit in with those from an existing improvising ensemble. Parker, Bennink, Smith and Michener do the same on the other fine CDs. 

The shortlist of Canadian-born musicians who’ve influenced the shape of jazz might well be headed by Kenny Wheeler, who at 82 continues to craft significant new work. The Long Waiting (CamJazz CAMJ 7848-2), recorded in 2011, is a spectacular big band outing. Wide interval leaps, airy highs and a piquant emotional subtlety still distinguish Wheeler’s flugelhorn lines, while his compositions somehow swing as his Hindemith-like brass voicings bring special depth and lustre. It’s an unusual combination of the mobile and the regal, and Diana Torto’s wordless vocal leads (the band even has a singer!) add another distinct dimension. The CD is a shared achievement, with Wheeler supported by a host of long-standing associates, among them pianist John Taylor, guitarist John Parricelli and saxophonists Ray Warleigh and Stan Sulzmann.

Mundo: The World of Jane Bunnett (EMI 5-09993-01621-2-9) is a 2-CD retrospective of her career, compiling tracks from CDs dating back to 1989. Whether Bunnett is playing flute or soprano saxophone, in a duo with a master pianist like Don Pullen or Paul Bley or with a large group of Cuban percussionists and vocalists, she’s an exciting musician, committed to reaching her limits and finding something new. Her Cuban adventures are highlighted here, but there are plenty of other moods and rhythms, including balladic depths (You Don’t Know What Love Is), playful flute chatter (Serenade to a Cuckoo), and soulful funk (New Orleans under Water). The interest never flags in the two and a half hour program, further tribute to Bunnett’s taste in sidemen and her sense of variety.

On Double Entendre (Soccer Mom Records SOCM005), Jeff McLeod mixes and matches musicians from Toronto and Rochester, N.Y. where he’s doing graduate work at the Eastman School. It’s an ambitious 2-CD debut that highlights his work at both the piano and organ, devoting a disc to each. The piano disc is more reflective, contemporary fare, emphasizing musical conversations on originals and diverse repertoire by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Tom Waits and Sun Ra. On organ, McLeod seems to reach back 50 years, his pulsing grooves animating tunes by Thelonious Monk, Chet Baker, Pete Rugolo, and the organist Larry Young, while tenor saxophonist Mike Murley and guitarist Ben Bishop almost dance through the burbling organ. McLeod’s own ballad Namekus is a highlight, a lush springboard for some brilliant Murley work.

Toronto-born drummer Harris Eisenstadthas been working in New York for over a decade, but he commemorates his origins in the name of his quintet, Canada Day, a brilliant aggregate of younger New York musicians that updates the forward-looking mid-60s Blue Note style of Eric Dolphy and Andrew Hill, compounded with their own distinctive voices and Eisenstadt’s continuing explorations of rhythmic structures. On Canada Day III (Songlines SGL 1596-2), the group includes trumpeter Nate Wooley, saxophonist Matt Bauder, vibraphonist Chris Dingman and bassist Garth Stevenson who create a glittering weave of elements around Eisenstadt’s works. Recorded at the end of a tour, the group manages to play the works with aplomb, confidently negotiating even the shifting patterns of Slow and Steady. Even in this company, trumpeter Wooley stands out, moving from a tender bop lyricism to electronic-sounding explorations.

Eisenstadt’s Canada Day Octet (482 Music 482-1080) adds three winds to the quintet, among them the veteran Ray Anderson whose explosive, vocalic trombone work is an apt addition. Most of the CD is devoted to a four-part suite, called The Ombudsman, built around the idea of negotiating between structured and unstructured elements and arguing for their co-existence. Eisenstadt’s gifts as a composer come to the fore here, constructing wholly satisfying music out of apparently opposite strategies. As with the quintet date, it’s enlivened at every turn by absolutely superior musicianship.

Composer and pianist Gordon Sheard first became interested in the music of Brazil’s Bahia area around 1990, eventually making several trips there for an ethno-musicological study. His desire to work with Bahia’s leading musicians was realized in 2009, and the results are heard on All Saints’ Bay (GSM002 www.gordonsheard.ca). Sheard’s pieces reflect the authentic rhythms of the region. Some works are actually composed over tracks by the drummer Gabriel Guedes dos Santos with a group of percussionists from the area, while according to the credits, all of Sheard’s piano and organ tracks were overdubbed in Toronto a year later. There’s an inevitable compromise in the method. Those percolating rhythm tracks may hum with life, but the ultimate production favours surface polish over interaction. Saxophonist John Johnson manages to break through though, contributing heated solos on both tenor and alto.

Vancouver pianist Tyson Naylor’s trio suggests the maxim “less is more,” making almost every phrase count on a debut that reflects the post-rock minimalism of the Bad Plus and EST. Kosmonauten (Songlines SGL 1594-2), is imbued with musicality and an instinctive lyricism, with the group managing to invoke the exuberant abstraction of the Amsterdam avant-garde and the rhythmic vitality of the South African townships, all on the opening track Paolo Conte. Naylor, bassist Russell Sholberg and drummer Skye Brooks develop cohesive, evolving textures, while guest clarinettist François Houle brings a gorgeous sound, at once woody and liquid, to See It Through. There’s a tendency on a debut to show everything one can do, but Naylor’s deliberate approach suggests he has plenty in reserve. 

When I first became preoccupied with classical music and buying records of favourite and obscure works, the name Vladimir de Pachmann had already disappeared from current usage and was only recognized by a few of the cognoscenti. His performances were genuinely legendary and sought out by both music lovers and collectors (there is a difference!) but perhaps he was best remembered for his second (1927) recording of the Chopin Etude in G-Flat Major Op.10 No.5 which he introduces and after a few bars is heard to say, “ No … I try it again.” which he does.

Born into an era when pianists before the public played only selected works that suited their temperament, it was de Pachmann (Odessa, 1848–1933) who played the entire Chopin oeuvre, introducing his audiences to pieces that they would never have heard. For his debut recitals in New York in 1889–90 he played all-Chopin concerts and finally an orchestral concert featuring the Concerto in F Minor.In the same concert, his wife, Marguérite, made her American debut playing the Liszt Concerto in E-Flat Major!

A remarkable set from Marston (54003-2, 4 CDs)contains every one of de Pachmann’s known recordings, both published and unpublished, beginning with the G&T sides from 1907 through to the 1927 electrical recordings by The Gramophone Company in London. There are 96 performances, including 70 plus of Chopin in addition to works by Mendelssohn, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms and Henselt.

Very soon after actually listeningto the first disc, the realization dawns: each and every work on it is an individual masterpiece, an exquisite performance as if in the intimate salon setting for which it was written. We hear pianissimos that would be unheard in an auditorium. It is inescapable that de Pachmann is listening and responding to the notes that outline the composer’s thoughts. The performances evoke an impression of a delicate mosaic with elements that could fit nowhere else. His artistry remains unique and since then no one has heard his equal.

To cite the highlights of these recordings would be to diminish the others and listeners may wish to compare some performances of the same work made years apart. The transfers to CD are a work of art … no ticks, clicks or swishes, only the steady sssh of the 78 rpm originals with every note clearly heard, even those delicate pianissimos.

It was a great pleasure to audition and review this unique collection that reflects a labor of love by all concerned including the many sponsors. The extensive liner notes are informative, comprehensive and readable, the best I’ve seen. They were written by Edward Blickstein, whose definitive biography of de Pachmann, written with Greg Benko, is expected by the end of this year from Scarecrow Press.

Amazon lists a couple of dozen CDs devoted to, or including, performances by de Pachmann, confirming that he is not forgotten by those who care about the artistry and sensitivity of this pianist whose recordings from a hundred years ago can captivate today’s discerning and receptive music lovers.

Deutsche Grammophon has assembled a luxurious set of their audio recordings with Herbert von Karajan made in the 1960s titled simply Karajan 1960s (DG 4790055), including 82 CDs, a 200-page book and some recording session data sheets, all in a sturdy eight by eight by six inch presentation box. The CDs are faithful to the original LPs in content, cover art and liner notes. Here are all the celebrated recordings of 40 composers made during what was surely a golden age. The collection has all the orchestral and choral recordings but excludes the many operas.

Some examples:

Ein Heldenleben(CD1) was DG’s first recording with Karajan. The sessions, March 2 to 4, 1959, took place in the Jesus-Christus Kirche in Berlin, which was to be the venue of choice for many years. The balance engineer was Günter Hermanns who would be Karajan’s engineer from then on. Ein Heldenlebenbecame a Karajan specialty and this recording was a triumph both artistically and technically. Playing it today is as thrilling as it was over half a century ago. Possibly more so. On a personal note, on January 24, 1965, I was in Constitution Hall in Washington for a concert by the Berlin Philharmonic. A gentleman appeared on stage and announced the death of Winston Churchill and that Mr. von Karajan was dedicating this performance of Ein Heldenlebento his memory. That was both an occasion and a mighty performance to remember.

Stravinsky did not care for Karajan’s way with his music but Karajan recorded Le Sacre du Printempstwice, as well as other works included here. The 1964 Sacre(CD15) is opulent and brilliant, and would likely not have conformed to the composer’s acerbic vision. Sibelius, on the other hand, was most enthusiastic about Karajan’s performances of his music. This collection has eight Sibelius CDs including the last four symphonies and the deservedly admired Violin Concertowith Christian Ferras (CD25) plus a sweeping proclamation of Finlandia.

Upon its release, we were all astonished by Karajan’s recording of Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony (CD17). It was notable for the prodigious vitality of the performance with not one tentative moment to dampen the ardor, all heard in dynamic and lucid sound. Recorded in March 1964, it is still artistically and sonically exhilarating (as is Karajan’s unbeatable version of Debussy’s La Mer(CD18) from the same month).

Karajan’s historic first “Beethoven Symphonies” cycle is here plus all the overtures, the Violin Concerto with Christian Ferras (CD47), the Military Marches (CD70) and more. Equally notable are Karajan’s recordings of the four Brahms symphonies (CD19-22), the Violin Concerto (CD23) again with Christian Ferras, the Second Piano Concerto with Geza Anda (CD60) and my favourite version of Ein Deutsches Requiem(CD24) with Gundula Janowitz, Eberhard Waechter and the Wiener Singverein. You can find full details of this collection at www.deutschegrammophon.com/cat/single?PRODUCT_NR=4790055.

No one would expect that every recording by this artist, or in fact any artist, would or could be a universal favourite. Besides, what we dislike today we may like tomorrow. And the reverse is equally true.

Soon after Karajan’s death, an orchestra member was quoted as saying that, forced to choose between truth and beauty, Herbert von Karajan chose beauty. 

Freedom and the Arts: Essays on Music and Literature
by Charles Rosen
Harvard University Press
448 pages, musical examples; $35.00 US

Once again, Charles Rosen has drawn on his talents as a pianist, scholar and essayist to produce a singularly thought-provoking collection of articles and reviews. Most were first published in the New York Review of Books — the title paper, Freedom and Art, appeared just this past May. At 85 Rosen is as brilliant as ever, if a touch more curmudgeonly than in previous collections. He has also become noticeably more nostalgic for the days when directors were not expected to “spruce up” operas to attract audiences, young composers did not feel compelled to write easily accessible music, and audiences read essays for pleasure.

Rosen’s ongoing tiffs with fellow journalist-musicologist Richard Taruskin run through these pages. In Western Music: The View from California, a detailed review of Taruskin’s six-volume Oxford History of Western Music, Rosen challenges Taruskin’s more sociologically-based approach to music history. He even goes so far as to accuse Taruskin of gearing his writing to appeal to the lucrative textbook market. In a postscript, Modernism and the Cold War, Rosen attacks Taruskin’s response to this review, in which Taruskin had written that he “regards Rosen’s literary output — all of it — as Cold War propaganda.” And so it goes. While this is all very entertaining — and edifying — the irony is that as outspoken as these two are, they are often not that far apart, especially on controversial issues like early music.

In a heartfelt tribute to Elliott Carter on his 100th birthday, Rosen writes eloquently in defence of Carter’s complex music, “Since Beethoven, it is the difficult music that has survived most easily; the originally unintelligible Wagner, Strauss, Debussy, Stravinsky and all the others that were so shocking are now an essential part of the concert scene.” Recalling a critical comment about a lack of emotion in Carter’s Night Fantasies after he performed this gorgeous work in Toronto 30 years ago, he adds, “Only when one understands how the music works (that is, consciously or unconsciously, feels at ease with the music) can one perceive the emotion.”

He offers plenty to argue with, such as when he dismisses composers who reject what he calls the “triumphs of modernism” and produce tonally based works with regular pulses and measurable rhythmic patterns. “All the modern tonal music I have heard,” he writes, “is loosely and simply organized, incapable of the subtle articulations and complex significance we find in Haydn or Beethoven.”

Rosen is especially attuned to nuances and outright contradictions in matters of interpretation, above all when it comes to the significance of style in understanding music. “Musical style,” he writes, “is not a passive material that can be molded at will, but a system that both resists and inspires change.” So I find it surprising that throughout this collection Rosen fails to recognize that an interpretation of musical style is fundamental to period instrument performances, and is responsible for their refined techniques, ever-expanding repertoires, and ever-increasing influence on mainstream performers and conductors. Yet Rosen writes, in Culture on the Market, “Concerts of music by Locatelli, Albinoni or Graun are bearable only for those music lovers for whom period style is more important than quality.”

The point of these essays is not to convince us, but to enhance our experiences of the music. More than anything, it’s the surprising and delightful connections, not just in music but also in related philosophy, art and literature, that make them so delightful to read. Rosen’s scope is so broad that it’s a challenge to keep up to him, especially when he writes that “the history of art can only be understood if the most extreme and eccentric phenomena can be integrated into our view of the whole picture.” What we can do is keep reading and listening — and enjoying.

The Mastersinger from Minsk
by Morley Torgov
Dundurn Press
264 pages; $17.99

The plot of Morley Torgov’s latest mystery novel, like his previous Murder in A-Major, revolves around real figures from the world of classical music — in this case Richard Wagner and his young wife-to-be, Cosima von Bülow, daughter of his friend Franz Liszt. Cosima’s current husband Hans van Bülow is on hand as well, since he is conducting the premiere of Wagner’s new opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Rehearsal is underway in Munich when Chief Inspector Hermann Preiss, who narrates, is called in to investigate a disturbing message Wagner has received. It says, “June 21 will be the day of your ruination.” Dead bodies keep appearing, including that of the star heldentenor Wolfgang Grilling, who had been the main suspect in the threat against Wagner. Grilling was furious because Wagner had given the lead tenor role in his new opera to an unknown singer who had shown up at auditions, and saddled Grilling with the apparently demeaning buffo role of Beckmesser. But what Torgov doesn’t seem to realize is that Grilling would undoubtedly have been especially vexed because he, a heldentenor, had been given a role written for a light baritone — a different range, colour and weight of voice altogether.

This setting allows Torgov to paint a vivid picture of Wagner rehearsing his opera. When Father Owen Lee gave one of his insightful books on Wagner the title The Terrible Man and His Truthful Art, he summed up what Torgov manages to capture in his plot, which revolves around the horridness of the man and the glory of his music. To add authenticity, Torgov wisely consulted the journals that Wagner’s ballet-master Richard Fricke kept while working with the composer on the premiere of the Ring Cycle.

Because this story is set in 1868 Torgov gets away with referring to Preiss as “the only policeman in Europe who takes an interest in opera.” Books featuring opera-loving detectives like Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Morse and Kurt Wallander may have been written earlier, but they all take place later.

With his imaginative plotting, Torgov has found an effective way to present the complicated questions surrounding Wagner’s — and Cosima’s — deep-seated anti-Semitism. Whether Wagner intended Beckmesser to be the anti-Semitic figure of fun that Torgov paints him is open to debate. In any case, Torgov deftly conveys the transcendent power of Wagner’s music through his novel, if far-fetched, twist to the convoluted plot. It’s worthy of Hitchcock in the way it uses the interpretation of a song as a plot device — rather like Die Meistersinger itself, for that matter.

But it’s the characters, fictional like Preiss, real like Wagner, that kept me reading so eagerly. Torgov is at his best creating characters, and Preiss is at his most sardonic and colourful describing them. Preiss seems to be aware of this, since part way through the case he comments, “I was a curator, not of a collection of tangible evidence, but of a collection of people — living curiosities, flesh and blood to the eye yet unfathomable, untrustworthy, conniving, everyone seemingly filing onto my stage carrying his or her own bundle of plots and lies, and at the centre of the stage, Richard Wagner himself, principal plotter and liar.” 

Purcell – Love’s Madness
Dorothée Mields; Lautten Compagney Berlin; Wolfgang Katschner
Carus 83.371

Welcome to the antidote for those who believe that Purcell’s works comprise over-ornate, highly theatrical operas. There was another side to Purcell suppressed for many (notably Victorian) years.

This is no compilation of songs for love-sick swains snubbed by ice-cold maidens. It gives ample examples of the “mad songs” that emerged in 17th century England, as musicians were inspired by the sometimes tenuous division between sane and insane. This is demonstrated by Dorothée Mields’ strident performance of Purcell’s Bess of Bedlam and ‘Tis women makes us love, two of several such songs in this anthology. Her interpretations leave no one in any doubt as to the amount of insanity these songs express!

Then there are the more conventional pieces by Purcell: the songs from Dido and Aeneas and from the musical theatre productions he made his own, the expertly-played consort pieces, e.g. the Fantazia of 1680, and O, Solitude sung with a purity reminiscent of Alfred Deller’s countertenor version.

Finally, traditional and often anonymous songs complete this highly varied 31-track(!) selection. Thomas Ravenscroft’s The Three Ravens comes with imaginative recorder playing which conveys just how touching and moving this ballad is.

Yes, an introduction to Purcell’s unknown side and to the “mad song” but a not inaccurate appetizer of English 17th century music.