Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – Heart & Hereafter
Elizabeth Llewellyn; Simon Lepper
Orchid Classics ORC100164 (naxosdirect.com/search/orc100164)

The neglect that Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1923) seems to have suffered in his lifetime (and after) could rival that of Franz Schubert and Gustav Mahler. Moreover, like Schubert and Mahler, Coleridge-Taylor’s reputation as a composer of exceptional breadth and scope is also being illuminated by the ceaseless proselytizing of a few performers – the latest being the breathtakingly agile lyric soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn together with pianist Simon Lepper. 

On Heart & Hereafter Coleridge-Taylor’s skill unfolds through a breathtaking array of work, from musical settings of Christina Rossetti’s poetry to selections from his other songbooks, all of which constitute profound meditations in music brought to life by Llewellyn and Lepper.

Coleridge-Taylor’s limitless creativity in art song is evident in the range of expression displayed in this collection. It’s clear from the sweep of this music that the composer found inspiration to illuminate each subject with emotional depth and luminosity.

Throughout, Llewellyn does Coleridge-Taylor’s work poetic justice. Her instrument is lustrous, precise and feather-light. Melodies are ideally weighed and measured as Llewellyn digs fiercely into the meaning of each gesture, bringing ceaseless variety, fluid dynamics and – not infrequently – a quite magical quality to her phrasing. Lepper’s fingerwork is exceptional and he exhibits a gleamingly blended tonal quality in his pianism. It’s hard to imagine a duo better suited to this repertoire, with both musicians bringing distinct and deeply interiorized readings to complement each other’s execution of these utterly beautiful songs.

Susan Kander – dwb (driving while black)
Roberta Gumbel; New Morse Code
Albany Records TROY1858 (albanyrecords.com)

Near the end of dwb (driving while black), a woman is teaching her son to drive. “Is this car a ticket to freedom or a time bomb?” she asks herself. It’s not a car crash she worries about. It’s a police stop – will her son be assaulted, even murdered, because he is driving while Black? 

In Roberta Gumbel’s poetic libretto, scenes created from her own experiences as a Black mother alternate with hard-hitting news bulletins. The racially charged incidents these bulletins announce, from dramatically shifting perspectives, escalate from creepy encounters to vicious attacks. 

Composer Susan Kander has scored this chamber opera for one singer, a cellist and a percussionist. Her imaginative exploration of this unusual combination resonates with the intensity of a full-scale opera’s worth of colourful sonorities and textures. dwb (driving while black) is just 46 minutes long, and it moves quickly. But the emotional impact resonates long after it’s over. 

Gumbel, a soprano, sings the part she created with engaging expressiveness. In the detailed vignettes showing her loving relationship with her son, we feel the joys as vividly as the fears – through the jazzy vocalises, the tender lullabies and the theatrical monologues. Her impassioned commitment is matched by that of the versatile musicians of New Morse Code, cellist Hannah Collins and percussionist Michael Compitello. 

Together they reinforce the deep sense of urgency driving this powerful work, shining some light on our fraught times.

New Baroque Sessions
Luc Beauséjour
Analekta AN 2 8919 (analekta.com/en)

Solitary ways of existence brought on by the current pandemic have resulted in spurs of interesting solo projects around the world. Many performing artists have been contemplating the question of their artistic identity in the circumstances that extinguish the very nature of their art. A solo statement of a kind, New Baroque Sessions is an album that captures one artist’s way of retaining the essence of their creative expression while playing the music they love. 

This second volume of Baroque music played on piano (the first one was published in 2016) is a collection of Luc Beauséjour’s favourite pieces from the Baroque repertoire. The compositions, by Bach, Couperin (Armand-Louis and François), Scarlatti, Fischer, Sweelinck, Froberger and Balbastre, touch upon different corners of vast Baroque treasures. Some are well known, others explored less often. All are predominantly written for harpsichord but translate exceptionally well to piano, which was one of Beauséjour’s intentions with this album. 

A versatile performer, equally at home on harpsichord, organ and piano, Beauséjour has an elegance to his playing that is truly rare. Here is the performer that plays with colours and articulations; a performer of subtle gestures that amount to grand statements. The pieces themselves contain creative elements one does not necessarily expect – musical portraits, clever compositional techniques, tributes to Greek muses, or simple utterances of the resilience of their times. While honouring Baroque traditions, there is a touch of contemporaneity to Beauséjour’s interpretations, adding an incredible freshness to this album.

Hidden Treasures – 17th-Century Music of Habsburg and Bohemia
¡Sacabuche!
ATMA ACD2 2798 (atmaclassique.com/en)

This is something new. We are aware of the talented and sometimes prodigious output of Austrian composers such as Haydn or Mozart but their predecessors are all but unknown. Enter ¡Sacabuche! For 15 years under the direction of Baroque trombonist Linda Pearse, this Canadian ensemble has rediscovered works from Habsburg and Bohemian sources. What is more, the range of instruments such as cornettos and theorbos is particularly diverse. 

Indeed, it is strident trombone playing that makes its presence immediately felt in O dulce nomen Jesu by the Viennese composer Giovanni Felice Sances. Massimiliano Neri’s Sonata quarta Op.2 is even more complex, demanding an intricate playing which makes the disappearance of these pieces from mainstream music all the more puzzling. 

On occasion the CD includes anonymous pieces; the eight-part Sinfonia is a vibrant full-blooded composition which any modern brass band would be proud to perform. Of course, this does not rule out vocal input as another anonymous composition Salve regina à 4 brings out the contralto contribution of Vicki St Pierre – holding her own even while outnumbered by ten instrumentalists! In fact, while most of the compositions on this CD are scored for several of these instrumentalists, St Pierre’s performance of O quam suavis (again anonymous) brings a virtuoso voice to the selection.

When we consider our familiarity with the contemporary composers from say Venice, the absence of this CD’s composers is very surprising. We owe much to Linda Pearse and her fellow musicians in bringing us this anthology.

Spira, Spera
Emmanuel Despax
Signum Classics SIGCD 665 (signumrecords.com/?s=Spira)

In the liner notes to the terrific 2021 release Spira, Spera, the name taken from Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, French pianist Emmanuel Despax writes that studying and performing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach is metaphysical in that “there is no chaos, just beauty.” Most certainly, during these trying times, humanity’s quest for beauty is, if nothing, unabated. As such, I would suggest (expanding on this point) that Bach’s music – particularly when played as beautifully as is captured on this wonderful recording – is an equivalently metaphysical journey for engaged listeners. Perhaps this sounds trite, but beauty is the antidote to ugliness. And sadly, there is tremendous ugliness in society and in the world at present. Beauty, and beautiful artifacts, such as the music of Bach as performed boldly and with nuance by Despax, hold out the possibility of something (a beauty ideal?) towards which we aspire. 

Although much of the music contained on this disc may be familiar, the arrangements and album concept (paying tribute to the legacy of pianists and composers – Liszt and Busoni among others – who both revered Bach’s music and transcribed it for the contemporary piano) is both unique and musically satisfying. The whole recording is sublime. Even on such workhorses as Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, Despax finds freshness in Dame Myra Hess’s transcription and brings to life beautiful musical subtleties that, of course, were always contained within, but needed the deftness of touch and recording sensitivity that Despax and this album offer, to reveal themselves anew.

In the Salon of Madame Brillon – Music and Friendship in Benjamin Franklin’s Paris
The Raritan Players; Rebecca Cypess
Acis APL40158 (acisproductions.com)

This inspired new recording from the noted Raritan Players was conceived and directed by pianist and scholar Dr. Rebecca Cypess, and is the result of arduous research and performances. The project is focused on the pre-Revolutionary War Parisian hostess, patroness and composer, Anne-Louise Boyvan d’Hardancourt Brillon de Jouy (1744-1824), and on both her musical canon and the sparkling workings of her fabulous, fashionable and elite Parisian salon. Her luminous guests were drawn from the rarified worlds of music, art, philosophy and diplomacy – including her flirty pen pal Benjamin Franklin (then U.S. Ambassador to Paris). 

There are seven world-premiere recordings here, which include Brillon’s duet for harpsichord and square piano (performed on a rare 1780 English instrument by Johannes Zumpe). All selections have been performed on period instruments and feature not only Brillon’s work, but music preserved in her personal collection, including compositions dedicated to her by the iconic cellist Luigi Boccherini. 

Of particular beauty in this heady bouquet are Boccherini’s Sonata No.4 in D Major from Sei Sonate di Cembalo e Violino – particularly the Andante, which explores the gorgeous and unexpected, natural sonic symmetry of the violin and harpsichord. Brillon’s own Sonata No.4 in G Minor is a fresh-sounding and compelling work, and in the Andante con espressione, the square piano resonates with passion and urgency – engulfing the length of the keyboard. Henri-Joseph Rigel’s three-movement piece for piano and harpsichord, Duo No.2 in C Minor is a spine-tingling celebration of musical possibilities. 

Constrained by the societal restrictions of her day, Brillon, who nearly disappeared from history, manifested an international life of artistic and historical significance that still resonates today.

Boccherini – Complete Flute Quintets
Rafael Ruibérriz de Torres; Francisco de Goya String Quartet
Brilliant Classics 96074 (naxosdirect.com/search/5028421960746)

Virtuoso cellist and composer, Luigi Boccherini, born in 1743 in the city of Lucca in Tuscany, Italy, only 92 kilometres west of Florence, received his musical education in Lucca and subsequently in Rome. He spent some time in his mid-20s in Paris, which led to his moving to Madrid and his appointment as a musician in the household of the Infante Don Luis, brother of King Charles III.

It was there in 1773 and 1774 that Boccherini composed the two sets of Six Flute Quintets Opp.17 and 19, recorded on the first two CDs of this three-CD set. The third CD is of the Flute Quintets Op.55, composed in 1797, either in Spain or in Berlin, where he was employed by King Frederick William II of Prussia.

These 18 quintets, while far from Boccherini’s total output, reveal a very skilful and original composer, different from but not inferior to his much better-known colleagues, Haydn and Mozart. First and foremost is his gift for melodic invention, evident in everything on the CD, even in the third set, composed when he was in his mid-50s. 

The flute would, you might think, be a bit of a fifth wheel when added to a string quartet, but not for Boccherini. He sometimes uses the flute as a soloist, as in Op.19, No.3, which is almost a concerto, the flute even having a cadenza; sometimes as an orchestral colour to bring out a series of modulations, as in Op.17, No.1; and sometimes as a source of contrast, as in Op.19, No.4, where the flute and the cello alternate as soloists.

The performers are the Spanish Francisco de Goya String Quartet and flutist, Rafael Ruibérriz de Torres. The quartet’s playing is technically flawless, and their sensitivity to each other and to the flute is exemplary. Ruibérriz de Torres always sounds as if he belongs, and his facility on the period instrument is astounding during the virtuoso passages. Bravissimi to the five for giving us this first complete recording of these hitherto neglected works.

Flute Passion: Mozart
Nadia Labrie; Antoine Bareil; Isaac Chalk; Benoit Loiselle
Analekta AN 2 8925 (analekta.com/en)

Mozart’s dislike of the flute has long been a topic of controversy, and whatever truth there may be behind the theory, some of his most charming works were written for the instrument, albeit the result of commissions received between 1778 and 1787. Five of these compositions – the Quartets K285, 285a and 285b in addition to the Quartet K298 and the renowned Andante K315 (as arranged and adapted by François Vallières) are presented here on this delightful Analekta recording performed by flutist Nadia Labrie and her accomplished colleagues Antoine Bareil, violin, Isaac Chalk, viola and Benoit Loiselle, cello. First-prize winner from the Conservatoire de musique du Québec, Labrie holds a master’s degree from the Université de Montréal and has appeared as soloist with such ensembles as the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. This is her third in the Flute Passion series.

These one-, two-,  or three-movement works – never more than 17 minutes in length – may have only been written for the purpose of financial gain, but after 250 years they remain miniature gems – amiable chamber music where all parts are deemed equal. 

As a cohesive ensemble, this group of four succeeds admirably!  From the beginning, the listener is struck with the wonderfully intimate sound these musicians produce. Labrie’s pure and sonorous tone is perfectly complemented by the underlying strings that provide a sensitive partnership. This is nowhere more evident than in the second movement of K285b, a theme and six variations. Here, the artists approach the graceful intertwined melodies with great finesse, achieving a delicate balance throughout.

Félicitations à tous! This is a wonderful performance of engaging music played by four gifted musicians. Whatever feelings Mozart may have had for the flute, he would surely have approved!

Mozart – Gran Partita & Wind Serenades
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Harmonia Mundi HMM902627 (akamus.de/en)

Alte is German for “old,” perhaps leading one to imagine fustiness, cobwebs or creaking joints. The Akademie für Alte Musik invert the age of the music, making old sound new, in their release of two of Mozart’s beloved Wind Serenades, K.375 in E-flat Major and K.361 in B-flat Major (known affectionately as the Gran Partita). I imagine the players wearing some fashions of the later 18th century, shoe leather worn by the cobblestones of Vienna, marvelling at and revelling in the sounds they are called on to make by the newly written score; some probably in need of a bath, wishing their masters paid more, hoping to avoid cholera. 

This music is never old, no matter how often it’s reworked. The playing is so damned fine that every moment is a joy, conjuring the freshness that Mozart inserted into the charming form of the Serenade during its moment of popularity. Ever the canny businessman, he wrote the second of these entertainments “quite carefully” to catch the attention of a wealthy potential patron: Emperor Joseph II. Wind players and their audience are much the richer for his efforts.

There’s some oddness of pitch, owing to the use of period instruments; the bassoon sound in particular is quite special. The ensemble colours are fresh and juicy, the phrasing and articulation precise. These performances rank among the finest recordings of this material I’ve heard. Bonus delight: the audible breath upbeats beginning each track.

Mozart – Works for Oboe and Orchestra
Albrecht Mayer; Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Deutsche Grammophon (deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/mozart-albrecht-mayer-12210)

The new Deutsche Grammophon album Mozart consists of six works transcribed for oboe, oboe d’amore and English horn, including a completed version of the first movement of the unfinished Oboe Concerto in F Major, expertly performed by internationally renowned solo oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic, Albrecht Mayer and the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen chamber orchestra. Comprised of a thoughtful selection of works originally for soprano, violin and flute, Mozart showcases Mayer at the top of his craft. 

The fragmented and unfinished concerto movement was commissioned to be completed by Mayer’s friend, Swiss composer Gotthard Odermatt. Keeping with the style and flare of Mozart, the fragments were imagined by Odermatt into a delightful, charming and convincing first movement. Another highlight is one of Mozart’s most recognized masterpieces, the Concerto for Flute and Harp. Transposed to the key of B-flat Major, it was arranged for oboe and harpsichord, featuring Vital Julian Frey. The choice of the harpsichord was a unique and effective substitute for harp, fitting perfectly with the timbre of the oboe. It is truly an elegant performance.

With the addition of Ave verum corpus performed on English horn, Exsultate, jubilate and Ch’io mi scordi di te performed on oboe d’amore as well as the Rondo in C and Ah se in ciel, benigne stelle performed on oboe, this album really is a “best of” collection featuring the entire oboe family.

The Kammerphilharmonie Bremen follows and matches the elegant, tasteful phrasing of Mayer, highlighting the mastery of the instruments and his clear love of Mozart.

Beethoven – Symphony No.3 “Eroica”
Les Siècles; François-Xavier Roth
Harmonia Mundi HMM902421 (harmoniamundi.com/#!/albums/2692)

Beethoven’s Eroica is a revolutionary work; “not only in physical scale, but in spiritual content it surpasses all classical symphonies written before.” It completely broke away from the world of Haydn and Mozart, his former principal influences.

It was like a breath of fresh air in the world of music at that time. As it was written not long after the French Revolution and at the time of Napoleon as a “liberator against tyranny” (his words) Beethoven initially dedicated it to Bonaparte. That spirit prevails and the work throbs with élan and heroism in the glorious key of E-flat Major, especially in the first movement. It’s full of invention, breaking traditional forms and even has such powerful dissonant fortissimo chords that the players at the premiere concert refused to play!

That was in the summer of 1804 conducted by the young Beethoven, but now in the 21st century it’s in the hands of a revolutionary conductor, creator of the revolutionary orchestra with period instruments, Les Siècles. François-Xavier Roth has the ability to enter the composer’s mind and capture the essence, the spirit of heroism, the dash and urgency throughout the work. Tempo is fast, but most likely the composer’s original intent, the symphonic argument and all details are crystal clear. I actually saw Roth conducting the Scherzo and how simply and easily he induced a tremendous intensity and concentration into the players and what remarkable precision and lightness he achieved. The last movement is tremendous. It’s fast but the orchestra is so precise that all details of the mad Romani episode and the final apotheosis of the Prometheus theme come out magnificently. The overall effect is simply overwhelming.

Chopin: 24 Preludes
Charles Richard-Hamelin
Analekta AN 2 9148 (analekta.com/en)

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
–Ernest Hemingway

Pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin is well on his way to becoming a Canadian national treasure. In fact, he likely already is. Though he also works with collaborators in recordings, the solo stage is where Richard-Hamelin’s talent originated and where it remains most impressive to date. (His performances of the Chopin ballad cycle are now in the annals of recent musical history – a show “to tell your friends about.”) The newest recording from Richard-Hamelin modestly juxtaposes Chopin’s Preludes, Op.28 with the Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise Brillante, Op.22.

At once, the opening preludes of Op.28 deliver something unexpected. It’s what is not there that seems more notable than what is. Richard-Hamelin plays this music in an earnest and brave language that is difficult to comprehend at first. There is such a brazen lack of the self that the listener feels as if they are missing something. Too many pianists of our day move their egos to the fore in performance; not Richard-Hamelin. He glides through this miraculous set of miniatures with a devotional vision, as if the very composer himself were at the keyboard. 

The Grande Polonaise is equally unexpected in its freshness and lucidity. Open and honest, this music lilts with a simplicity of means that awakens subtler forms of beauty. One trusts that this is just another iteration – among many – on a long road that Richard-Hamelin will tread. His life and career will bear witness to a multitude of beautiful things as he climbs towering mountains of musicianship, one true sentence at a time. As listeners, he does the work for us, conjuring and shepherding, as we are effortlessly carried to the summit view, ’pon wings of pianistic gold.

Ravel
Jean-Philippe Sylvestre
ATMA ACD2 2773 (atmaclassique.com/en)

The charismatic and rakish Jean-Philippe Sylvestre has released an album of music he knows well and truly: solo piano works of Maurice Ravel. And for some extra flair and curiosity, Sylvestre recorded on an 1854 Érard piano.

Seemingly, the decision to deliver two major cycles from Ravel’s catalogue in and of itself was an easy one, but the unusual fancy for a historic instrument here serves as the surprise. Such a shift brings welcome change – crystal clear lines and sonorities emerge from this piano, nearly two centuries old. We are greeted with colourful music-making in a mode that never suggests museum vaults or relic hunting. ’Tis a newfangled lens through which to hear this music and one can’t help feeling closer to Ravel.

Sylvestre’s interpretations reveal an artist’s singular reconceiving of beloved repertoire: having learned it, put it away, then re-learned and now un-learned so as to match the demands of an older instrument few are accustomed to playing. At times, the mid-19th-century Érard does hinder the execution, with reduced reverb available and less hammer/damper agency. The performer must work many times harder to achieve the usual results begot from a modern piano. But the efforts seem worth it for Sylvestre as he achieves quirky moments of expressive beauty, textural novelty and uncanny sonorities. An example is the Alborada del grazioso, with its chiselled, wood-like clarity and revelatory repeated notes, speckled with equal parts dust and morning dew.

Earl Wild: [Re]Visions
Vittorio Forte
Odradek Records ODRCD399 (vittorioforte.com)

Proclaimed “a tribute to the great musician on the tenth anniversary of his death,” a disc from newbie Italian pianist, Vittorio Forte, celebrates an impressive assortment of transcriptions from the late great American keyboard virtuoso Earl Wild.

Opening with the oft-heard Harmonious Blacksmith Variations by Handel, Forte thrusts the listener into the heartiest of renditions with an unexpected quantity of octaves and thickly voiced figures. Wild’s take on the original Handel is, after all, a dated one but Forte seems to relish this peripheral brand of pianism. With such technical command as he possesses, we get caught up in Forte’s excitement, not to mention the sheer tunefulness of Handel’s music. By its conclusion, one laments the end: what if Wild had written a variation or two of his own?

The album’s centrepiece is a collection of transcriptions of songs by Rachmaninoff.  Wild earned a reputation for these gorgeous little things and Forte takes up the mantle with admirable aplomb. Naysayers might argue that pianists have enough original Rachmaninoff in the catalogue to satisfy and, consequently, dispraise the pillaging of song repertoire for the sake of yet more piano music. The rest of us are just grateful that Wild did what he did, creating felicitous versions of several Rachmaninoff songs. Indeed, the Russian master himself made arrangements of at least two of his own songs for solo piano, offering them as encores in recitals. And so Wild – and Forte – remain in safe (and inspired) company.

Prelude to Dawn
Bruce Levingston
Sono Luminus DSL-92245 (sonoluminus.com) 

Highlights for me of pianist Bruce Levingston’s Prelude to Dawn are the variation works that begin and end the recording. Brahms’ challenging arrangement for left-hand piano of Bach’s violin Chaconne in D Minor is played securely, from the perfectly voiced rolled chords of the theme onward. Through great variety of articulation and tone colour, the work’s 64 variations remain fascinating and in character. Levingston’s pedalling is especially good in clarifying bass, melody, inner parts and chord structure. The same is true in the Theme and Variations in D Minor, Op.18b, Brahms’ piano arrangement of the profound second movement from his B-flat Major String Sextet. Here Levingston captures the disturbing mood of a broken-up version of the theme in bringing the disc to a moving close.

As for the other pieces, preludes one and two from Wolfgang Rihm’s early Six Preludes are unexpected but effective choices. I especially like the pianist’s pacing and control of dynamics in the spare No.2, with its very low notes suggesting tolling bells. Originally for lute or harpsichord, Bach’s Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-flat Major is unique. Levingston’s flowing prelude and the meticulously articulated fugue with its unusual broken-chord interlude especially captured my interest. Two chorale preludes, the Bach-Busoni Sleepers, Awake and Brahms’ organ masterpiece Herzlich tut mich verlangen add to the disc’s pensive mood. Indeed, recent trying times are a subtext here, but so are notes of passion and hope in Prelude to Dawn.

Listen to 'Prelude to Dawn' Now in the Listening Room