Last month some of us, in fact many of us around the world, “attended” the MET’s production of Gotterdammerung, the final opera of their “Ring Cycle” live in HD at local movie houses. The conductor was Fabio Luisi who has taken over at the MET from the incapacitated James Levine. Luisi can be seen and heard on many CDs and DVDs, one example of which is a live performance of Mahler’s First Symphony that is outstanding in every way. The concert took place in the Philharmonie in Gasteig, Munich, with the Staatskapelle Dresden of which he was the music director at the time, in April 2008. From the first few bars of the first movement Luisi emerges as a true Mahlerian. His tempos and pacing are flawless as are the dynamics. It’s a gift to know what to do between the notes and, at least here, Luisi gets it. When he lets the orchestra out in the coda of the fourth movement the effect is spectacular in the grand manner. Earlier, the concert opens with a performance of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1 with pianist Margarita Hohenrieder. Her brilliant performance is engaging, witty and animated, proving that one can play Beethoven and smile at the same time. She and Luisi are on exactly the same page (EuroArts DVD 2057718).

Back to the MET …

Some of their productions have been issued on DVD by other companies but recently the MET has begun issuing selected performances from their archives that were broadcast live. The tapes of the selected performances are produced, transferred, restored and re-mastered by the MET themselves. Sony, who publishes them, has issued eight new two-CD sets since our first reviews some months ago and, as before, offer singers and conductors no longer with us.

Risë Stevens, one of the favourites of the day, stars with Richard Tucker and Nadine Connor in Bizet’s Carmen, conducted by Fritz Reiner in the performance of February 16, 1952 (Sony 88697 96189). Reiner was then a staff conductor at the MET but a year later he was appointed music director of the Chicago Symphony, a post that lasted for an illustrious ten years. Risë Stevens and Richard Tucker are featured again in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann with an all star cast including Roberta Peters, Lucine Amara, James McCracken and Martial Singher conducted by Pierre Monteux (88697 96190). This production was broadcast live on December 3, 1955, and the sound, as it is in all these sets, is clean and clear monaural, complete with some sounds of stage business that contributes, for me at least, to the illusion. In this case, however, the home listener of the time would not have heard the fidelity we have here. Hoffmann is one of my favourite operas and I listen to it regularly. This production does in no way disappoint.

Risë Stevens is joined by James Melton, Mimi Benzell and Ezio Pinza for Thomas’ Mignon from January 27, 1945 (88697 96192). Canadian Wilfrid Pelletier is the conductor and Pinza, who would retire from the Met in 1948 after 22 years, was still four years away from playing Emil de Beque. Handsome James Melton was a popular tenor in the 20s and 30s until the popularity of ballad singers and the romantic repertoire declined. He sang at the MET in suitable roles for just a few years only and here is a rare chance to hear him.

Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment was once the property of Lily Pons and here she is on December 28, 1940 assisted by Raoul Jobin, Salvatore Baccaloni and others conducted by Gennero Papi (88697 96191). It is the great bass Baccaloni as Suplice who dominates every time he opens his mouth and Lily Pons and the rest of the cast are swamped. Still, she has her moments and the whole production is good fun. Very good sound, too.

Moving into the 1960s, the usual suspects included Carlo Bergonzi, Leontyne Price, Cornell MacNeil, Carlotta Ordassy, Giorgio Tozzi, Roald Reitin and Robert Nagy and here they are in Verdi’s Ernani from December 1, 1962 under Thomas Schippers (88691 90996). The opera is basically about ill-fated lovers … the same old story of girl meets bandido, conspirators, revenge, the Holy Roman Empire and 16th century Spanish politicking. A good plot for an opera which this cast makes believable. A new production was seen in HD in movie theatres on February 25 with an encore presentation for those who missed it, or wish to see it again, coming up on March 31.

From March 5, 1966, we have Roberta Peters, Carlo Bergonzi, Frank Guarrera and Fernando Corena in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore conducted by Thomas Schippers (88691 90991). Love makers again, this time between a “poor villager and the beautiful, alluring landowner; the pair exude charm and vivacity...” It’s an amusing story with many comic situations that the cast have a great time conveying to the audience.

Thomas Schippers also conducts Verdi’s Luisa Miller from February 17, 1968, featuring Sherrill Milnes, Montserrat Caballé, Richard Tucker, Ezio Flagello and Giorgio Tozzi … a dream cast if there ever was one (88691 90994). This opera is a fine example of love – both requited and unrequited – deception and betrayal, with a tragic last scene. In other words, melodrama at its best. The artistry of the entire ensemble draws the listener in and holds on until the final curtain.

Finally, the double bill of “Cav & Pag,” Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci broadcast on April 14, 1954 (88691 90999). “Cav” features Richard Tucker, Eileen Farrell, Lili Chookasian, Cesare Bardelli and Mildred Miller. “Pag” stars Anselmo Colzani, Franco Corelli, Franco Ghitti, Lucine Amara and Calvin Marsh. Nello Santi conducts. The evening could not have been in better hands. Each singer brings his or her character to life, reacting seamlessly to the various situations. These really are marvelous performances.

Concert Notes: You can hear an abridged version of La Fille du Régiment at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music’s annual Opera Tea at MacMillan Theatre on April 1. The Canadian Opera Company presents The Tales of Hoffmann in performances at the Four Seasons Centre April 10 to May 14.

Schubert - Piano Sonatas in A Minor D784; B-Flat Major D960
Boris Zarankin
Doremi DHR-71153

If the listener didn’t know it before, this CD confirms that Boris Zarankin possesses an ardent empathy with Schubert. From the opening bars of the first movement of the great Sonata in B-Flat Major, marked molto moderato, there is almost a quasi religious awakening and, as the music unfolds, further dimensions are revealed that one does not hear in other versions of this familiar work. Well, not quite. Hearing Zarankin conjured up the performance by Valery Afanassiev recorded live at the Lockenhaus Festival in 1986 that has lingered in my memory as an interpretation with the same intense, poetic introversion. However, listening to that performance once again, as attractive as it is, Zarankin is the more poetic, realizing the tragedy of Schubert playing out the last chapter of his life.

In both sonatas Boris Zarankin is in a class of his own, fully justifying his venturing into such frequently charted repertoire. Zarankin has his own ideas about playing these sonatas but I sense that they are also Schubert’s.

These recordings were made last August in Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto and engineered by Clive Allen who is responsible for the eminently truthful and dynamic, wide-range sound.

Centre and Periphery, Roots and Exile: Interpreting the Music of István Anhalt, György Kurtág, and Sándor Veress
edited by Friedemann Sallis, Robin Elliott, and Kenneth DeLong
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
480 pages, score examples; $85.00

In 2005, István Anhalt’s The Tents of Abraham won the JUNO Award for best Canadian classical composition of the year. It was remarkable for such a provocative, uncompromising and politically ambitious piece. But it seemed even more remarkable, because for the 54 years Anhalt had lived in Canada, as William Benjamin points out in this collection of essays, his music had been almost totally neglected by performers and audiences in his adopted homeland.

Anhalt is one of the three composers, along with Sándor Veress and György Kurtág, whose relationship to the place of his roots, and the process of displacement that took him away, is looked at. But the ideas of place and displacement are treated not just as physical states. As Gordon Smith writes, “They also embody metaphorical ideas of being and dwelling, and ideas pertaining to danger, persecution, exile, adaption, and the resultant imperative discovery of others and the emergent self.”

Anhalt, Veress, and Kurtág were all born in Hungary and all studied in Budapest at the Franz Liszt Academy — Anhalt and Veress with Zoltán Kodály, and Kurtág with Veress. All left Hungary, having survived the war and the subsequent Soviet occupation of their homeland. Anhalt and Veress left soon after the war ended, but Kurtág, who is younger, didn’t leave until 1993. Anhalt and Kurtág are Jewish, and all three are haunted by a past which is memorialized in their music.

These 20 papers by various academics, composers and performers were first presented at a symposium at the University of Calgary in 2008. To set the scene, there’s a lovely musical tribute to Veress, who died in Switzerland in 1992, by his son, Claudio Veress. Kurtág, who has the greatest international reputation of the three, is recalled in an insightful reminiscence by his godson, Hungarian-born Canadian pianist Gergely Szokolay. Anhalt, now 93 years old and living in Kingston, Ontario, where he spent many years teaching at Queen’s University, contributes a brief personal memoir to complement John Beckwith’s astute portrait, and emerges as a thoroughly fascinating figure.

The strength of this probing collection lies in the way the various approaches to place and displacement offer insights into interpreting key works by these three composers. But the connection between Anhalt, Veress and Kurtág is left unexplored — only Friedemann Sallis’s introduction links them together. Otherwise, each paper deals with an individual composer and his own milieu. So in the end I was left wanting to know more about how the shared roots and experiences of these three composers influenced the development of their individual styles.

Concert Note: The Toronto Symphony Orchestra will perform Kurtág’s Messages on Thursday March 1 in Roy Thomson Hall, as part of their New Creations Festival, curated by Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös.

Kaija Saariaho: Visions, Narratives, Dialogues
edited by Tim Howell with Jon Hargreaves and Michael Rofe
Ashgate Publishing Company
238 pages, score samples; $99.95 US

Like István Anhalt, Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho has spent most of her career outside her homeland. But unlike Anhalt, she left under no duress, having benefited from Finland’s supportive culture and enlightened political values.

This collection of essays charts the development of Saariaho’s distinctive voice as a composer, with its unusual sensual beauty, expressive power and emotional directness. “Harmony, texture and timbre: those three things were then, and still are, at the heart of my musical thinking,” Saariaho says in the interview with Tom Service included here. In her stage works — three operas and an oratorio so far — she creates something new and challenging, with inventive, unclichéd storytelling and innovative use of painting, mime, lighting, electronic sounds and pre-recorded materials. Yet traditional musical devices are also part of her operatic language. As Liisamaija Hautsalo writes, “The musical topics within Saariaho’s works, often modified into the musical language of our time, could be described as whispers from the past: a link between tradition and the composer’s individual expression.”

A number of writers discuss how dreams play an essential part in Saariaho’s work. While L’Amour de loin (Love from Afar) features a dream scene, the whole opera can be seen, as Anni Iskala describes it, as “an opera about dreaming of, and loving, the unattainable.” In fact, dreams have been a direct source of inspiration right from Saariaho’s earliest works like From the Grammar of Dreams, and, starting with Im Traume, she has used her own dream diaries to provide material.

While these eight essays and the interview with the composer provide an invaluable perspective on Saariaho’s music, they do not attempt to situate her music in today’s contemporary music scene. The contributors are all from either Finland or England — oddly there are none from France, where she has lived since coming to Paris as a student in 1982.

It’s certainly noteworthy that when the Canadian Opera Company produces L’Amour de loin in February, it will be the first opera by that company written in the 21st century. Even more noteworthy, this will be the first opera written by a woman to be produced on their main stage. Even though Saariaho resists being defined as a woman composer — or as any type of composer, for that matter — she has never stepped back from breaking down barriers, as this book shows.

Concert Notes: On Monday January 30, Soundstreams presents soprano Carla Huhtanen performing music by Kaija Saariaho at 7:30pm in the Gardiner Museum.

On Tuesday January 31 at 12pm, Soundstreams presents the Elmer Iseler Singers performing Saariaho’s Tag des Jahrs and soprano Carla Huhtanen performing the Leino Songs, as well as chamber works by the composer in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.

On Thursday February 2 at 12pm in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, artists of the COC Ensemble studio perform vocal works by Saariaho, including From the Grammar of Dreams and Lohn (From Afar). These performances will be introduced by Saariaho.

On Thursday February 2 and Friday February 3 at 8pm in Koerner Hall, Soundstreams presents Saariaho’s Tag des Jahrs, performed by the Elmer Iseler Singers under Lydia Adams.

To make room for the best of the wealth of material received over the holiday break and to accommodate the addition of three wonderful new reviewers to our fold, I find I have left insufficient space for my own musings this month. So let me just take a moment to introduce to these pages pianist and pedagogue Christina Petrowska Quilico who shares insights on a new release by her colleague Stephen Hough; composer and tuba virtuoso J. Scott Irvine who opines on a CD of contemporary tuba and euphonium repertoire from Deanna Swoboda; and my own chamber music coach and mentor, violinist Ivana Popovich who gives us her take on the Tokyo Quartet’s recent Schubert release. Welcome aboard to one and all!

We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and comments should be sent to: The WholeNote, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4. We also encourage you to visit our website www.thewholenote.com where you can find added features including direct links to performers, composers and record labels, “buy buttons” for on-line shopping and additional, expanded and archival reviews.

David Olds, DISCoveries Editor
discoveries@thewholenote.com

Weill - Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Measha Brueggergosman; Jane Henschel; Michael König; Willard White; Teatro Real Madrid; Pablo Heras-Casado
BelAir BAC067

Kurt Weill’s music stands alone and needs no visuals to covey its brilliant, contemporary and relevant meaning. That said, his stage works always assault the senses when produced well – especially when accompanied by the words of his most famous collaborator, Bertold Brecht. Mahagonny, immortalized by the countless renditions of the “Alabama Song,” is so much more than the simple morality play that many perceive it as. It is a work, which especially in this brilliant production satirizes, troubles and challenges the viewer. In these years of market crashes and the disenfranchised “99%” its resonance is as fresh as it must have been in the Weimar Republic. The stunning sets, including a verdant golf course – surely as much of a power centre as one can imagine – create the backdrop to the all too human struggle with that “crime of crimes” – not having money in the materialistic world. Jane Henschel as the widow Begbick and Canada’s own Measha Brueggergosman as Jenny Smith form a powerful female axis of the performance, with Brueggergosman taking refreshing risks with the score. Michael König (Jim MacIntyre) and Willard White (Trinity Moses) in the meantime, complete the play’s – and music’s – symmetry. The orchestra delivers the score beautifully, with a strangely appropriate Spanish verve. This is truly an “edge of your seat” opera experience, even without the original German rhythms of speech. Bravo.

Britten - War Requiem
Edith Wiens; Nigel Robson; Håkan Hagegård; Prague Philharmonic Choir; Ankor Children’s Choir; Israel Philharmonic Orchestra; Kurt Masur
Heilicon Classics 02-9645

Ominous sounds issuing from the lower depths of the strings with the insistent tolling of bells and the tenor‘s desperate question “what passing bells for those who die as cattle?” – so begins the pacifist Benjamin Britten’s mass for the dead, a passionate antiwar statement written in 1962 for the opening of the newly rebuilt Coventry Cathedral. The ingenious idea to combine the Latin text, the basic underpinning structure of the mass, with poems of dark, terrifying imagery of the war in the trenches is what distinguishes Britten’s work from other requiems of the past. The poems of Wilfred Owen, an English foot soldier who was killed a week before the fighting ended in 1918 are what give this piece its unforgettable poignancy and impact.

Nothing but praise can be given to this spectacular new recording produced in Israel whose people have suffered and continue to suffer from the ravages of war. In the tradition begun by the composer himself, Kurt Masur, a former director of the Leipziger Gewandhaus, commands the massive ensemble of forces (full symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra, several choruses and three soloists) with precision, clear insight and passionate understanding. The deafening sounds of war in the “Dies Irae” section, martial trumpets and horns with rumbling bass drums emulating the roar of cannons and snare drums imitating the rattle of machine gun fire, sound frighteningly real.

But the soul of the piece is in the singing. The Latin text is carried by the mixed choruses and the boys’ choir as well as the female soloist, Canadian soprano of international repute Edith Wiens. Her wailing lament, for example in the “Lacrimosa” is heartbreaking. In stark contrast, Owen’s verses in the declamatory style of the English language are sung by the tenor Nigel Robson and baritone Håkan Hagegård. Their precise diction, annunciation of remarkable clarity and emotional involvement rival that legendary first recording by Peter Pears and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau of 1963, under the composer’s baton.

Britten - Songs & Proverbs of William Blake
Gerald Finley; Julius Drake
Hyperion CDA67778

The songs of Britten naturally conjure up the memory of Peter Pears, Britten’s partner, muse and greatest influence. The celebrated tenor was also the poetry consultant to the composer and their shared tastes shaped Britten’s output. But there were other voices he composed for. One of the most significant ones was Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the wonderful baritone. Just like in his operas, from Billy Budd to Death in Venice, Britten approaches the baritone voice in these songs with a lyricism usually reserved for the tenor. Given that and the special nature of Blake’s poetry, it isn’t any voice that can tackle this material. Fortunately, Gerald Finley possesses a baritone worthy of comparisons with Fischer-Dieskau. It may not sound like an insightful comment, but Finley’s baritone is simply elegant. His phrasing and understated ornamentation bring a fully engaged understanding to the texts. What makes this disc even more interesting is that it contains Britten’s settings spanning a lifetime – from the revised early compositions of a 14-year-old boy to late-in-life, mature compositions and finally some published posthumously. Whether you are familiar with Britten’s songs, or Blake’s poetry for that matter, you will appreciate the intelligent, focused reading of the material in the Finley-Drake collaboration. And you will love the sound that the two artists create – love it enough to come back to this record again and again.

A Bridge of Dreams - A Cappella Music from the Pacific Rim
Ars Nova Copenhagen; Paul Hillier
Dacapo 6.220597

Curious and delightfully captivating, this recording by the 14-voice Ars Nova Copenhagen ensemble under Paul Hillier presents a programme by (mostly Western) composers of music from the Pacific Rim.

Hillier’s credentials rest largely on his years of work in early music. His ability to cope with challenging contemporary repertoire, however, leaves no doubt about his extraordinary musicianship. While his programme for this recording is well balanced – including works by New Zealander Jack Body, Australians Anne Boyd and Ross Edwards, American Lou Harrison and Lui Sola, a multi-disciplinary artist from China – two works really deserve special mention.

Harrison’s Mass for St. Cecilia’s Day is tinged strongly by his attraction to Chinese and Indonesian music. The Latin text, sung in an obvious plainsong style, is frequently embellished by modal phrasings and ornaments from the Oriental world. The effect of this fusion is surprisingly compelling. One is never quite sure if what’s being sung is ancient or modern. Harrison’s skilful writing moves effortlessly through an in-between realm where he creates something new from something ancient.

Edwards’ Sacred Kingfisher Psalms also combine otherwise unrelated material into a remarkable composition. Using portions of Latin psalm texts, Edwards pays homage to the aboriginal spirit of his homeland by weaving the native names of indigenous birds into his Latin text. The chanting evokes ancient aboriginal rituals as well medieval European polyphonies.

Harrison’s and Edwards’ works appear to practice some kind of musical alchemy and do so with the skilful formulation of Ars Nova’s choral ingredient.

Liszt - Lieder
Diana Damrau; Helmut Deutsch
Virgin Classics 50999 0709282 4

German Romanticism of the 19th century, in spite of much turbulence at the time, was a golden age for the arts, especially for music and poetry.  The greatest poets of the German language, Goethe, Schiller, Heine and Lenau lived in this period, so Liszt (and of course Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms) had just to reach out to access a wealth poems of great inspiration longing to be set to music. There were lesser poets too. Who has ever heard of Ferdinand Freiligrath for example? Curiously enough he wrote the poem O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst (Oh love as long as you can!) that became Liszt’s divine inspiration for Liebestraum No.3 and one of his most beloved songs that is included on this disc.

Or think of the Petrarca Sonnets. These beautiful piano works originally started as songs written to his sweetheart Countess Marie d’Agoult in Bellagio on the shores of Lago di Como where the two lovers spent unforgettable times. These three songs now stand as a centerpiece of this new recording by Diana Damrau, one of today’s leading sopranos.

For Liszt, song writing was a sideline and he treated the voice much like he treated the piano, mercilessly. Recordings have been scarce probably because of the enormous demands imposed on the singer. Wide range of pitch (two octaves) and dynamics, sudden key changes, emotional outbursts and sensitive shadings pose a big challenge and will not tolerate lesser performers. Damrau’s strong but attractive high soprano voice may not have the richness and expressive power of a Fischer-Dieskau but her dedication, sincerity and valiant effort more than make up for it. Special credit must also be given to Helmut Deutsch whose virtuoso reading of Liszt’s incredibly difficult piano accompaniments contributes much to the success of this recording.

Luciano Pavarotti
A Film by Esther Schapira
Euroarts 2058918

Legends is a series of films dedicated to exploring the lives of famous individuals. This time it is the story of the late Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti. Adored around the world, the king of the High C’s led an exceptional life both on and off stage, and he knew it. This excellent biopic strips away the layers of intrigue and drama to provide the viewer a glimpse into the singer’s illustrious life.

From his hometown of Modena to the great opera cities of New York and Milan, the visual scenes provide an armchair traveller’s guide of his worldwide stomping grounds. Interspersed are brief segments of his most famous operatic feats such as the Three Tenors concert, the Central Park extravaganza and early on stage footage with childhood friend Mirella Freni.

Almost everyone acknowledges Pavarotti’s vocal prowess. Listen to his recordings for the music. It is the interviews with the people who knew him that make this film worth spending the time to watch. From his first wife Agua to his manager to his friends to rock superstar Bono, the public “Pav” image dissolves as those who knew him discuss their personal relationships with both love and pain. The effort to film “just the facts” makes this a moving and thought provoking exercise. Their insights open up a cornucopia of unanswered questions about his private life yet substantiate his larger than life musicality and love of singing.

Il Progetto Vivaldi 2
Sol Gabetta; Cappella Gabetta; Andres Gabetta
Sony Classical 88697932302

Vivaldi - Cello Concertos
Jean-Guihen Queyras; Akademie fur Alte Musik, Berlin
Harmonia Mundi HMC 902095

These are two lively and exuberant recordings of the music of Vivaldi and his contemporaries, focussing on the Venetian composer’s rich and somewhat varied cello concertos. There are 27 cello concertos by Vivaldi that have come down to us and a strong cross-section is represented here. Gabetta and Queyras are two of the world’s leading cellists and belong to a generation of modern European musicians who have fully integrated baroque style into their musical philosophies.

The “Argentine French Russian-born” Sol Gabetta has been garnering rave reviews for her playing since finishing her studies in 2006. She maintains a busy performing and recording schedule and a wide repertoire, from Bach and Vivaldi to Shostakovich, Elgar and Ginastera. Her playing on this recording – her second CD of Vivaldi concertos - is exquisite and the orchestral playing (directed by her brother, violinist Andrew Gabetta) is exciting and elegant. Of special interest is the Concerto in D Major by Leonardo Leo, which looks forward stylistically to the galant music of the later 18th century, and the world premiere recording of the Concerto in D Minor by Giovanni Benedetto Platti, an interesting and dramatic work that we should hear more often.

Jean-Guihen Queyras was born in Canada, but brought up in France. He was the winner of the 2002 City of Toronto Protégé Prize as chosen by Glenn Gould Prize laureate Pierre Boulez and his playing is possessed of a remarkably burnished and gorgeous tone. His interest in chamber music is apparent in the program of this CD, which features sinfonias and orchestral concertos by Vivaldi in addition to the concertos for solo cello. The Berlin Akademie provides tasteful and profound support, exploiting a wide range of string colours. Of special note is the playing of lutenist Simon Martyn-Ellis. Included are two sinfonias by Antonio Caldara, to my ears not as musically interesting as the Vivaldi works.

Of the two recordings, the one by Queyras feels a little more rehearsed, steady and thoughtful. The Capella Gabetta has the feeling of being a pick-up band, albeit one made up of very fine players. Both recordings are full of life and youthful energy and are highly recommended.

Vivaldi - Return of Angels
Ensemble Caprice; Matthias Maute
Analekta AN 2 9995

This CD builds on Ensemble Caprice’s first recording of Vivaldi’s sacred music, Gloria! Vivaldi and his Angels. Once again, we are transported into the confines of the Ospedale della Pietà, the orphanage where Vivaldi taught orphaned girls violin and singing, and composed concertos and sacred music.

Vivaldi’s charges enjoyed great fame throughout Europe, a fact made even more amazing by the thoroughly demanding quality of the compositions. Listeners even included the English traveler Edward Wright, who states that the girls “have a eunuch for a master, and he composes their music!” It is a unique description of Vivaldi!

Ten lady singers are assembled by Matthias Maute; not a male voice is to be heard even though the opening “Coro” from Juditha Triumphans is inspired by a military theme. Less warlike are the “Coro O quam vaga” and the aria “Armatae, face” (both sung with distinction by Shannon Mercer).

Other soloists make their mark: Laura Pudwell, contralto, in Si Fulgida, and Gabriele Hierdeis in the motet O qui coeli terraeque serenitas. Also on the CD, perhaps strangely, are two pieces by Zelenka (the soloists Mercer and Pudwell once again) and even two concertos by Vivaldi; perhaps it was Vivaldi’s custom to spare the voices of his charges from over-exposure and Maute is following suit.

In fact, the Ensemble’s interpretations, solo or otherwise, present a spiritual and intense selection of Vivaldi’s compositions for his orphaned girls. This reviewer looks forward to a third CD.

A French Soirée
Trio Settecento
Cedille CDR 90000 129

Name any truly great French baroque composer and you will find him on this CD. Trio Settecento has recorded a selection of the finest music of its type, the antidote to those jaded souls who believe baroque music all sounds the same.

The program starts with Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Ballet Royal de Flore; those distinctive names that typify Lully’s ballet movements are conspicuous by their presence: “Entrée pour les Jardiniers et quatre gallants” is one such. The trio may use a 1983 replica of a harpsichord, but a 1770 violin and a 1743 seven-string bass viol provide authenticity throughout the CD, not to mention the inspiration for passionate playing.

Solo music for baroque viol is personified by Marin Marais: John Mark Rozendaal imparts a playful quality to La Guitare, which is after all a joyful imitation of a joyful baroque instrument. More restrained is the Chaconne for all three players.

François Couperin is bound to feature on a compilation of this kind. Seven movements from his Troisième Concert are played. Enjoy the Courante and Muzette for their rural evocations but be moved by the Sarabande and Chaconne.

Far less well-known is Jean-Féry Rebel and a mere seven minutes can only hint at Rebel’s demanding violin scores. A full CD to bring Rebel to a wider audience, Trio Settecento?

Finally, Rameau, as may be expected. Rameau’s pieces here are portraits of the Commedia dell’Arte, a gossip, and even the Rameau household with its musical rehearsals and barking dog!

And if you want to hear baroque music from either Italy or Germany, the Trio has already recorded it – Italian Soujourn (sic) and German Bouquet.

@bach
Evan Shinners
New Cull Records (www.evanshinners.com)

Evan Shinners’ début recording – he graduated from Juilliard in 2010 – comprises an unedited recording of two live concerts of Bach’s music. We even hear the orchestra tuning and sounds from the intermission – and there is no post-production to divert us from this interpretation.

Shinners’ first piece is Bach’s own first piece – the Partita in B-flat BWV825. Shinners is his own man as he plays the Allemande and Courante with an equally joyful quality and the second Minuet with the vigour of which Bach must have dreamt when he composed the work. The audience’s applause affirms everything.

Improvisation is Shinners’ driving force behind two Toccatas – and as he explains to his audience, he is keeping that tradition of the toccata alive. A thoughtful interpretation of the E Minor BWV914 is followed by the C Minor BWV911 with its own swift changes and heavy demands on the player. The audience was impressed.

Shinners does not shy away from including pieces which some might dismiss as being typically baroque. In fact, there is nothing stilted or restricted or confined about his interpretation of the French Suite BWV816. Shinners plays all seven movements according to the original qualities of the French dances that became stylized in the Baroque.

And so to the final work, the Concerto in D Minor BWV1052. Here we find the sheer power of the first Allegro, the pleading and almost sombre quality of the Adagio, the further vigour of the second Allegro, and Evan Shinners shining supreme.