Szymanowski – Król Roger
Kwiecień; Jarman; Pirgu; Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House; Antonio Pappano
Opus Arte OA 1151 D

It took almost a century from its premiere in Warsaw in 1926 for Król Roger (King Roger) to reach the stage of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London. Belated though it is, this debut is nothing short of a triumph. It is by far the finest production of this modernist opera that I have seen. The great strength of Szymanowski’s music is its exuberant, ecstatic orchestral colour, making it more neo-romantic than modernist. Mariusz Kwiecień, whose portrayal of King Roger may be a career-defining moment, put it like this: “To compose this music, you must be either on drugs or mad.” Think Ravel, Scriabin, Bartók, but also Górecki. In the past, infrequent as they were, many productions of the opera faltered on stage because of its halting rhythms. The work jumps from bacchanal celebration to a standstill oratorio within its slim, 90-minute timeframe. Director Kasper Holten brilliantly unites the two polar opposites, with some help from the gorgeous set designed by Steffen Aarfing. Among the many charms of this work are wonderful choral passages and showcase arias for the female protagonist, Queen Roxana, masterfully delivered by Georgia Jarman. Saimir Pirgu as the Shepherd is beguiling and free. All the cast benefit from having a native Polish speaker (Kwiecień) on hand – the language coaching is well beyond the typical, cringe-inducing sound imitation that plagues the productions of many Czech, Polish and Russian operas in the West. Antonio Pappano not only conducts the work, he breathes Szymanowski’s music. This production will likely propel King Roger into the sphere of interest of the major opera houses in the world. Bravi!

Cloud Light – Songs of Norbert Palej
Bogdanowicz; McGillivray; Wiliford; Woodley; Philcox
Centrediscs CMCCD 22315

The song or chanson or lied died with Benjamin Britten – or that is the impression you might have gotten by visiting your neighbourhood record store or any concert hall. While Brahms, Strauss, Schubert and Mahler song cycles are everywhere, very little in that genre seems to have originated since the middle of the 20th century. It is more that the song itself has changed, rather than disappeared. Pianist Steven Philcox and tenor Lawrence Wiliford, directors of the Canadian Art Song Project, summed it up succinctly in the liner notes to this recording: “…the experimentation of the 20th century avant-garde rejected the intimacy that is inherent to the genre…”

Enter Norbert Palej (Pah-Lay), a Polish-born composer, still in his 30s, currently teaching at the University of Toronto. He restores to the song what for centuries was its golden measure: the intricate relationship between poetry and music, the latter being an emotional outgrowth of the former. All cycles included on this disc evoke an earlier era, with respect for the text and an intimacy of interpretation. Cloud Light, not written for any specific voice, invites comparisons with les nuits d’été by Berlioz. Most surprisingly, despite being an homage to the 19th- and early 20th-century tradition of song, the work sounds utterly contemporary and modern. It is as if after 50 years in the wilderness, the genre is coming back into its own. A welcome return!

Sacred Reflections of Canada – A Canadian Mass
Canadian Chamber Choir; Julia Davids
Independent (canadianchamberchoir.ca)

The working style of the Canadian Chamber Choir is unique; with members spread across the country, they convene at least twice a year for short projects after learning their parts at home. A rehearsal period of a few days is hosted by a school, choir or community and the choir then returns the favour by providing workshops before they embark on tour. Their mandate, therefore, is not just to perform, but to build community by educating and engaging as many singers as possible on each tour while introducing the works of established as well as emerging Canadian composers.

This recording, nominated for the 2016 JUNO Awards Classical Album of the Year, is organized into the format of a mass, incorporating 19 works by 17 Canadian composers. Amongst the five movements of the Mass Ordinary (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei) are interspersed a number of other reflective sacred pieces in exquisite a cappella renderings. For example, composer-in-residence Jeff Enns’ O magnum mysterium begins with the purist soprano solo by Megan Chartrand; Robert Ingari’s beautiful and rich setting of Ave Maria is contrasted by another, mysterious and dissonant, by James Fogarty. Director Julia Davids has chosen the pieces well, and woven the parts into a flowing and cohesive whole, whilst directing the itinerant choir in a stunning performance.

Voices of Earth
Amadeus Choir; Lydia Adams; Bach Children’s Chorus; Linda Beaupré
Centrediscs CMCCD 21915

Lydia Adams’ Amadeus Choir has produced its eighth CD, featuring the music of four Canadian composers, two of whom perform on the recording. The title piece is composed and played by pianist Ruth Watson Henderson, joined by a percussion ensemble along with another featured composer, Eleanor Daley, playing the celeste. This, and others on the recording, afford another opportunity for the choir to partner with the Bach Children’s Chorus, celebrating 28 years of collaboration. Voices of Earth is a multi-movement work with a great variety of harmonic colour and ever-changing rhythms which mirror the dynamic character of nature and creation. Similarly, the next piece, Of Heart and Tide by Sid Robinovitch, portrays another force of nature, the sea, with musical undercurrents evoking the awesome power therein. Eleanor Daley’s pieces are of a different character altogether and contrast nicely; her Salutation of the Dawn and Prayer for Peace are essentially quiet, heartfelt devotionals. I Will Sing Unto the Lord by Imant Raminsh is joyful and jubilant, rounding out the program nicely. It is, as always, truly wonderful to experience the convergence of excellent singers, instrumentalists, conductor and composers who are unequivocally passionate about choral music.

Schubert & Beethoven
Grigory Sokolov
Deutsche Grammophon 479 5426

Schumann
Jan Lisiecki; Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; Antonio Pappano
Deutsche Grammophon 4795327

Mahler – Symphony No.6
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Daniel Harding
BR Klassik 900132

Daniel Harding makes all the right moves in this new recording of Mahler’s mighty Sixth Symphony, scrupulously following the letter of the score and observing every indicated tempo fluctuation with considerable élan, but what really caught my attention was the magnificent, totally committed playing of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. It more than compensates for the missed opportunities (particularly in the first movement) for Harding to set his stamp on this work as decisively as a Bernstein or Kubelik. My only frustration is that this recording uses the New Critical Edition of the score, which swaps places between the Andante and Scherzo of the middle movements. Though there are good historical arguments for doing so, musically I prefer Mahler’s original conception. Perhaps in his own performances of the work Mahler found it less taxing for the musicians of the day to perform the slow movement second; or possibly he was keen to stress the traditional symphonic order as a purely musical structure, though it is far more than that. Nonetheless thematically the scherzo serves as a relentless expansion of the previous movement in a relationship consistent with that of the first two movements of his Fifth Symphony.

The four movements have been shoehorned into a single disc for this release and the applause excised from the live performances recorded in Munich in March of 2014. The mixing is superb and finely detailed. The booklet oddly features electrocardiac diagrams of the response of the percussion section and the conductor at the second cataclysmic hammer blow of the finale. Big spike from the musicians, flat line from the conductor. That sums it up nicely. As a member of the Vienna Philharmonic once remarked of a certain music director, “We like him. He doesn’t get in the way.”

Bucoliques: French Album III
Richard Sherman; Minsoo Sohn
Blue Griffin Records BGR 379 (bluegriffin.com)

Kudos to flutist Richard Sherman and pianist Minsoo Sohn for this selection of little-known music for flute and piano by four more or less forgotten 20th-century composers. Sherman’s readings are disciplined and spirited. Sohn’s, to my ears anyway, somehow capture the French-ness of the music.

The title Bucoliques raises questions about the composers, their intentions and the world in which they lived. Neither the lives of the composers, Gabriel Grovlez (1879-1944), Raymond Gallois Montbrun (1918-1994), Louis Durey (1888-1979) and Alfred Desenclos (1912-1971), nor Paris, the city where they lived and worked, were bucolic. “Bucoliques” is borrowed from the title of the work by Desenclos. The program notes suggest that “the classical titles of its movements recall those of 19th-century academic forebears, such as Théodore Dubois, and reflect the academic rigour of his work.” I don’t quite get the connection between Arcadian allusion and academic rigour, although it may reflect a taste for irony and self-deprecating humour!

The notes also bring to light something of Desenclos’ approach to composition: “...I do not deny the past on the pretext of creating the future.” The turbulence of Durey’s career is hinted at, with the references to his involvement in left-wing politics and the French Resistance; and we are also told of Montbrun’s rise “to the top of the French musical establishment.”

Bucolic or not, their music gives us a glimpse into the ideals and accomplishments of another time, so close and yet so remote.

The French Influence: Music for Trumpet and Piano
Gerard Schwarz; Kun Woo Paik
Delos DE 1047

Ives – Symphonies Nos.3 & 4; Unanswered Question; Central Park in the Dark
Seattle Symphony; Ludovic Morlot
Seattle Symphony SSM1009 (seattlesymphony.org)

Charles Ives had a beautiful musical mind, far ahead of his time. In my youth I watched a televised performance by Stokowski with the American Symphony of Ives’ Symphony No.4 (1910-16). Each subsequent hearing magnifies my appreciation of this masterpiece. Conductor Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony seem comfortable with the work’s contradictions. Ethereal high strings evoke night uncannily in the short Prelude yet orchestral interruptions are harsh; meanwhile a hopeful chorus sings the hymn Watchman. Is it right to have all of this going on? Ives would say, “Sure – why not?” Then a complex movement, Comedy, goes much further. It opens with quarter-tone string glissandi, the quiet soon intruded on by other material including marches and full brass, sentimental tunes, a piano waltz and a violin solo, often with different simultaneous tempi. Conductor, orchestra and engineer still manage to keep everything in balance in this musical funhouse! The following strict hymn-tune-based Fugue could not contrast more vividly. In the visionary Finale, despite diverse interruptions, Morlot maintains the unifying sense of a parade bookended by percussion-alone passages that emerge from and return to silence.

The classics The Unanswered Question (1908) and Central Park in the Dark (1898-1907) receive scrupulous, loving treatment, with impeccable intonation. In Symphony No. 3, “The Camp Meeting” (1901 - 14) a different side of Ives appears, as turn-of-the-century classical music language combines seamlessly with nineteenth-century American hymnody; this recording presents a persuasive case for the result.

Prokofiev – Symphonies Nos. 4, 6, & 7; Piano Concertos Nos. 4 & 5
Alexei Volodin; Sergei Babayan; Mariinsky Orchestra; Valery Gergiev
Mariinsky MAR0577

The Swiss composer Arthur Honegger once claimed that Prokofiev would “remain the greatest figure of contemporary music.” These were strong words of praise indeed and whether or not one agrees, this splendid two-disc set on the Mariinsky label offers the listener ample opportunity to decide. The collection is the first in a series the label is issuing to honour the 125th anniversary of Prokofiev’s birth and features the piano concertos Four and Five and symphonies Four, Six and Seven, appropriately performed by the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre with soloists Alexei Volodin and Sergei Babayan all under the direction of Valery Gergiev.

The set opens with the Piano Concerto No.4 for the left hand, music completed in 1931, and the second concerto written for the pianist Paul Wittgenstein who had lost his right arm in the Great War (Ravel had provided the first). The opening movement – the first of four – is sprightly and virtuosic, with Alexei Volodin easily handling the technical demands for the left hand that would challenge all but the most competent of artists. An expansive and introspective second movement follows a quirky Moderato before a lickety-split finale where soloist and orchestra prove a formidable pairing.

The Fifth Concerto from 1932 also presents considerable technical challenges. Its five brief movements are true studies in contrasts, from the cheeky and extroverted opening to the calm Larghetto. Throughout, Sergei Babayan’s dexterity and keyboard style are much in evidence; the virtuosic demands are conveyed with great finesse.

Judging from the relatively small number of recordings of the Symphony No.4 – originally composed in 1930 but expanded 17 years later – it would seem to be the most under-appreciated of all seven symphonies. The light and playful mood attests to its origins in the ballet The Prodigal Son on which it was based. Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra provide a spirited and thoroughly convincing performance, bringing together a wealth of timbres and colours. Symphony No.6 was completed in 1947 and has long been regarded as the darker twin of the more optimistic No.5. Nevertheless, Gergiev draws a sensitive performance from the orchestra throughout the solemn march-like opening movement, the anguished and lengthy Largo and the optimistic and rambunctious Vivace, performed with panache. To a degree, the ballet spirit is also found in Symphony No.7 from 1952. The gracious second movement waltz and elegiac andante are further enhanced by the warmly resonant strings, while the spirited finale seems meant to be danced to! A surprisingly placid ending brings the symphony – and the set – to a satisfying conclusion.

In all, these are exemplary performances and the collection is destined to be a staple in the catalogue.

social sounds
Catherine Lee
Teal Creek Music TC-2035 (catherinemlee.com)

The difficulty and excitement of a solo instrumental performance arises from the fact that the entire sound envelope is, from beginning to end, from top to bottom, exposed. A note’s attack, its approach towards silence, the sound of keys, the performer’s breath – all these come under the listener’s scrutiny, amplified by the surrounding stillness. On social sounds, Portland oboist Catherine Lee, instead of merely navigating these choppy waters, makes them her destination. Almost all of the pieces feature an improvisatory aspect, tools which Lee uses to prod the boundaries of her instrument’s sound.

The first such piece presented here is Jérôme Blais’ Rafales. Scored for solo oboe and piano with depressed sustain pedal, the work is this disc’s standout. Inspired by the composer’s encounters with Nova Scotian wind, Blais supplies the performer only with loosely defined long-tone gestures, leaving their lengths at the performer’s discretion. These, combined with the timbral shifts caused by the choreographed movement of the oboe in relationship to the microphone, result in a gripping tension: Lee’s tone, at first pushed and pulled along its edges, finally disintegrates into the murk of sympathetic vibrations with the piano.

A similar effect is achieved in Emily Doolittle’s Social sounds from whales at night, only here it’s improvised timbral fingerings and pitch bends which cause the tension, and pre-recorded whale sounds rising to the ocean’s surface which give release. The sum of these is a CD as compelling as it is eminently listenable.

Mangabeira
Trio Virado
Soundset Recordings SR1075 (triovirado.com)

Trio Virado was created after member guitarist João Luiz heard the Leo Brouwer piece Paisajes, Retratos y Mujeres in a Brazilian concert at the Leo Brouwer Festival. So enthralled was the musician with its successful instrumentation that he asked his manager to bring flutist Amy Porter and violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez together for a concert of this piece and Luiz’s arrangement of three Astor Piazzolla tangos. The musical chemistry clicked with a permanent trio, more concerts, more pieces and this debut release.

The unusual instrumentation works as each instrument and each performer can convincingly take on lead or accompaniment roles in various styles. The above-mentioned Brouwer piece is given a clear, energetic performance in its subtle three note ideas, unison sections and stylistic shifts from Renaissance to minuet dance rhythms. Likewise the three Luiz-arranged Piazzolla tracks are spirited, tight, rhythmic, and true to the bandeonist/composer’s musical vision. The other three works by Sergio Assad, Hermeto Pascoal and Luiz are well-played good pieces in a more popular music genre – for example Luiz’ theme and variations work Todas as Manhas draws on the familiar Luiz Bonfa song Manha de Carnaval, and showcases the trio’s ability to transcend lighter styles.

Trio Virado’s musicianship is world class yet the group still feels slightly like a work in progress before it is fully grounded. But this is a first release which still needs to be heard and appreciated. And the future should be exciting for them!

Thirst – Ana Sokolović; Julia Wolfe
Turning Point Ensemble; musica intima Vocal Ensemble
Redshift Records TK442 (redshiftrecords.org)

Thirst. The name of this CD evokes a primal human need and fear – our absolute reliance on water for survival. The album offers four works by two composers – Ana Sokolović from Montreal and Julia Wolfe from New York City – whose composing styles share some similarities while also exhibiting quite contrasting approaches. The four works on the album are expertly performed by two Vancouver-based groups, the Turning Point Ensemble and musica intima.

Beginning with three works by Sokolović, one immediately is struck by her compelling and driving use of rhythm. This feature can in part be attributed to her Serbian background and the influence of traditional Balkan music with its characteristic irregular rhythms. The first track is inspired by songs from a Serbian rock band, whereas the third track Vez, a Serbian word for embroidery, creates an atmosphere of furious and energetic patterns and gestures for solo cello. Her other work Dring, dring plays with both sounds and words associated with the experience of using a telephone. Humourous and dramatic exchanges are tossed amongst the singers in four different languages.

Wolfe’s epic work Thirst immediately casts a spell upon the listener with its long expansive and timeless gestures, all the while maintaining a driving movement forward. Using text from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, the composer creates an intense drama, plunging the listener into an act of contemplating the precious need for and precarious presence of water.

Forest Grove
Allison Au Quartet
Independent AA-15 (allisonau.com)

Saxophonist and composer Allison Au’s aptly titled Forest Groveis a lush and inviting recording that takes the listener on a journey through a suite-like series of tunes. The compositions retain a remarkable unity of purpose despite the obvious sonic and stylistic differences between them. Au’s writing embodies an approach that blends arrangement with improvisation in a way that seems perfectly natural. One idea flows seamlessly into the next, regardless of whether the ideas are improvised or composed. The addition of vocalist Felicity Williams on three of the nine tunes ties the record together and helps to deepen its compelling mood.

The opening track, Tides, establishes many of the hallmarks of Au’s writing and the band plays through them with ease and assurance. Complex harmonies are played over unexpected rhythmic shots and melodies are doubled with bass and Fender Rhodes piano. Drummer Fabio Ragnelli and bassist Jon Maharaj mesh effortlessly on the tricky arrangement, providing both groove and conversation. Au solos confidently, displaying a rich alto tone and a sophisticated linear concept.

Bolero features bassist Maharaj, improvising a lyrical solo over Au’s and Williams’ ethereal melody. The post-bop-tinged Aureole showcases the band’s convincing, hard swinging up-tempo chops. Au’s strong sense of the tradition is highlighted by Todd Pentney’s bluesy B-3 playing. They Say We Are Not Here closes the journey with Felicity Williams’ voice spinning textures over its gorgeous, hypnotic, two-chord vamp.