Muses Nine - Eight American Composers Plus One Pianist
Becky Billock
Independent n/a www.beckybillock.org

Notable Women - Trios by Today's Female Composers
Lincoln Trio
Cedille CDR 90000126

Are you in need of a musical boost? There is a multitude of musical inspiration to be found in these two new releases featuring the music of American women composers performed by American artists.

Becky Billock is quite simply a great pianist. She specializes in women’s music and it shows. Her choice of repertoire on “Muses Nine” was written across the entire 20th and 21st centuries. Amy Beach’s 1903 work Scottish Legend is an original melody that draws heavily from lilts and tunes of folk music. Emma Lou Diemers’ 1979 Toccata for Piano is a modern masterpiece of rhythmic nuance. Lots of diverse styles are juxtaposed in Libby Larsen’s Mephisto Rag where the composer has the virtuosic pianist jump through technical hoops as Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz is musically turned upside down while a later ragtime style is introduced. Billock knows her material and her grasp of style and rhythm makes this an unforgettable listening experience.

There are more diverse works by women composers for piano, violin and cello trio in “Notable Women.” The Lincoln Trio is a world class chamber group. Desiree Ruhstrat (violin), David Cunliffe (cello) and Marta Aznavoorian (piano) are all accomplished ensemble musicians. Their musicality is put to the test in Lera Auerbach’s Trio where the melancholy ideas are performed with haunting expertise. Stacy Garrop’s Seven is a unique work which the composer explains drew its inspiration from Anne Sexton’s poem Seven Times, and the Borg from television’s Star Trek Voyager. Extended piano techniques create futuristic effects while fast-paced passages maintain one’s interest long after the work has ended. Excellent works by Jennifer Higdon, Laura Elise Schwendinger, Augusta Read Thomas and Joan Tower are also performed with spirit.

“Notable Women” and “Muses Nine” belong in your CD collection as positive examples of the talent of American women composers and the performers who choose to play them.

From Here On Out
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra; Edwin Outwater
Analekta AN 2 9992

These are challenging times for the classical music recording industry and it’s rare that a smaller label will produce a CD of music by three relatively unknown composers. Yet that’s just what Analekta has done on this disc titled “From Here on Out,” featuring music by Nico Muhly, Jonny Greenwood, and Richard Reed Parry, performed by the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony under the direction of Edwin Outwater.

The piece From Here on Out by American-born composer Nico Muhly came about as the result of collaboration with the French dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied whose love of Bach and love of repeated notes both played a part in the creative process. The result was music decidedly neo-classical in sprit, with quirky, energetic rhythms contrasting with long expansive lines.

In total contrast is Popcorn Superhet Receiver written by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. Despite Greenwood’s rock background, his compositional style here is decidedly contemporary, in this case involving glissando strings, microtonal clusters and the use of an Ondes Martenot. The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony has no difficulties in mastering the textural and rhythmic complexities of the score, proof indeed that this ensemble is equally at home with 21st century music as it is with more traditional repertoire.

The most intriguing music in this collection is undoubtedly Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry’s For Heart, Breath and Orchestra, a musical depiction of the heart and breath rates of the human body. The piece was especially commissioned by the K-WSO, and rounds out an intriguing CD of music you probably won’t hear elsewhere. Kudos to both the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and Analekta for pushing the envelope!

Undercurrents - Contact performs the music of Jordan Nobles
Contact Contemporary Music
Redshift Records TK 242 www.redshiftmusic.org

On Toronto-based ensemble Contact’s excellent debut recording of music by Canadian composer Jordan Nobles, instrumental tones are pure, performer interactions retain focus and the recording team headed by Denis Tougas is superb. The meditative cast of Nobles’ music suggests retreat, even relaxation. But below the minimalist surface sheen, a certain unease of mood draws the listener’s attention and anticipation. Rhythms, melodic shapes and tone colours concentrate and shift our responses in surprising ways.

Both composer and Contact players, directed by Jerry Pergolesi, contribute to the musical content. They take up confidently the challenge of pieces that offer considerable freedom in the order and the qualities of musical events. Simulacrum, in which a melody circulates between instruments, and Stasis, an open-form work where long tones enter and exit without a fixed plan, are particularly successful examples. There is also an element of randomness in Grace, where musicians exercise choice in the presentation of grace-note (ornamental) patterns.

There are other musical processes, sometimes identified in titles: interacting metric patterns in Ostinati; tempo shift in Temporal Waves, featuring Rob MacDonald on multi-tracked guitar; and in Undercurrents, crablike motion up through ascending triads. The latter procedure occurs also in Stones Under Water for piano, played by Allison Wiebe. I look forward to much more from Nobles and from Contact members including also Sarah Fraser Raff, violin, Mary Katherine Finch, cello, Wallace Halladay, saxophones, and Peter Pavlovsky, double bass, joined here by Emma Elkinson, flute.

MC Maguire - Nothing Left to Destroy
Benjamin Bowman; Douglas Stewart; MC Maguire
Innova 813 www.innova.mu

Once upon a time on the musical planet inhabited by wall-of-sound composer MC Maguire there must have been a catastrophic explosion, scattering the treasures of civilization together with all the cast-off junk of consumerism and the fallout of post-modern warfare. Through the blasted landscape come the remaining voices of humanity, represented on this latest Maguire release by violinist Ben Bowman and flutist Doug Stewart. The CD is called “Nothing Left to Destroy,” and for those interested in references, consider his choice of artist for the jacket: uber bad-boy Istvan Kantor.

Maguire’s works are massively layered and require repeated listenings for one to begin to sort the material out. His is a creative imagination that never seems to lack for material inspiration. Consider the sonic blast-scape of the first track, The Discofication of the Mongols. He references a contemporary icon (nay, cliché), the lonely herdsman with the iPod, to explain his thematic material. If I can decipher nothing else in his liner note explaining the piece’s structure, I can at least appreciate what he means about the loss of indigenous culture, and when you hear Bowman’s gorgeous violin playing drowned by the eventually overpowering disco beat, you understand the intent of the piece. Along the way you’ll want to listen for anything you recognize. “Paul is dead” in retrograde inversion might even be there.

Track two is somewhat shorter and much sweeter. S’Wonderful (that the man I love watches over me) is more homage than lament, remixing three Gershwin songs and quotes lifted from depression-era cinema. Stewart’s flute wanders lonely as a drunken Ginger Rogers, one busted high heel, still dancing with her imaginary Fred. Again, I want to hear the instrumentalist but lose him too often as he ducks behind the scenery. In fact, the critique that feels almost to miss the point is that Maguire’s sonic default setting is too often on “stun.” Regardless, the results are without a doubt stunning and worth the listen.

Ann Southam - Soundings for a New Piano
R. Andrew Lee
Irritable Hedgehog IHM002 www.irritablehedgehog.com

Most people would celebrate a friend’s purchase of a new piano by bringing over a bottle of bubbly. But when Toronto pianist Jane Blackstone bought a grand piano in 1986, composer Ann Southam showed up with a magnificent new work called Soundings for a New Piano, dedicated to Blackstone. On this new release, US pianist R. Andrew Lee gives the work what I believe is its recording premiere.

Southam subtitled the piece “12 meditations on a Twelve Tone Row;” each of its 13 concise movements is like the turning of a musical kaleidoscope that enables the composer to explore a different emotional facet of a 12-interval row. Southam loved this form of musical inquiry, and used it in a number of piano works, culminating in her deeply contemplative Simple Lines of Enquiry (2007). It’s fascinating, in fact, to find several strands of musical DNA from SLoE in Soundings – not just a nearly identical tone row, but also some shared rhythmic and metric features, and a persistent questioning quality in the musical rhetoric.

Lee captures the spirit of curiosity that propels Soundings, and vividly conveys the distinctive, richly nuanced characters found in these 13 compact movements, from the bold insistence of the opening movement through complex tendernesses and passionate outbursts, all of it grounded by a gentle rocking sequence that keeps recurring, at once questioning and comforting.

A welcome addition to the Southam discography, this recording is available as a 23-minute CD or as download from www.irritablehedgehog.com.

Concert Note: Pianist Eve Egoyan launches her latest recording of music by Ann Southam - Returnings – at Glenn Gould Studio on December 2.

Tapestries
Christina Petrowska Quilico; Canadian Ukrainian Opera Chorus; Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Orchestra; Daniel Warren
Centrediscs CMCCD-17011 www.musiccentre.ca

Christina Petrowska Quilico’s significant contributions to the recorded contemporary Canadian piano repertoire continue to impress. As David Perlman noted in October’s WholeNote, her 26 CDs to date include many commissions. Both works on this new Centrediscs release were written for her and recorded live.

Canadian composer George Fiala’s three-movement Concerto Cantata for piano and chorus celebrates the 1988 Millennium of Christianity in Ukraine. Not only Quilico’s combination of sensitivity and virtuosity, but also Wolodymyr Kolesnyk’s informed conducting of the Canadian Ukrainian Opera Chorus, convey the work’s nobility of theme. Fiala’s combination of modernism and Ukrainian choral material, along with some incursions of late romantic piano writing, allow for an ample range of expression. I particularly like the high bell-like piano sounds in this work, even more so when actual chimes join in evoking the magnificent bells of Eastern European churches.

Heather Schmidt is a remarkable Canadian composer-pianist who early on established an international profile. Her musical language is somewhere in the same galaxy as that of Corigliano, Schwantner, or Hétu, and her individual voice is still developing. In the Piano Concerto No.2 I find the second movement’s intensity and orchestration particularly powerful. Sense of structure and pacing, idiomatic instrumental writing, and harmonic control are all notable. Making it sound easier than it is, Quilico’s performance in partnership with the fine K-WSO led by Daniel Warren is colouristic and well-paced, justifying indeed the disc’s title, “Tapestries.”

Concert Notes: The Canadian Music Centre (www.musiccentre.ca) hosts the launch of “Tapestries” in a public event on November 2. Christina Petrowska Quilico performs Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Kindred Spirits Orchestra at the Markham Theatre for the Performing Arts on November 5.

When I saw the artistic pairing on the latest CD by James Ehnes, the Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 and the Viola Concerto by Béla Bartók (Chandos CHAN 10690), my expectations sky-rocketed: not only was Ehnes playing, but the conductor was the terrific Gianandrea Noseda with the BBC Philharmonic. A dream team! For years, the Violin Concerto No.2 was assumed to be the only one that Bartók wrote, until the discovery of an earlier two-movement concerto, written in 1907-08 for the young violinist Stefi Geyer, to whom Bartók was romantically attached. The score remained unpublished and in her possession until her death in 1956. Ehnes is terrific in the lush, romantic first movement, as well as in a second half that more approaches the style of the mature composer. Despite Ehnes’ comment that this is music that has been very close to his heart since childhood, I found the Concerto No.2, one of my favourites, to be a bit less than I hoped for. It’s a passionate and lyrical reading, true, but I felt it lacked the contrasts and the sense of mystery that Menuhin – who knew Bartók – used to bring to this work. The Viola Concerto was left unfinished at Bartók’s death; unfortunately, the supposedly complete draft turned out to be just a pile of unnumbered manuscript pages with only a couple of indications of instrumentation. Bartók’s friend Tibor Serly, himself a violist, managed to solve the puzzle and complete the work, and Ehnes plays it with a commitment that never leaves its authenticity in any doubt. Noseda does his usual terrific job of bringing the very best out of the orchestra. One personal comment: the booklet bio again uses that quote from a Toronto newspaper hailing Ehnes as “the Jascha Heifetz of our day.” Does anyone else find this ridiculous? What’s wrong with Ehnes being hailed simply as one of the truly great players of his generation? If you want to appreciate how silly this is, then just imagine someone releasing a historical reissue of Heifetz recordings, and hailing him as “The James Ehnes of Yesterday.” Exactly!

I know it’s a bit of a cop-out to be quoting a large chunk of the booklet notes in a CD review, but the opening remarks by the Quatuor Ebène for their Mozart Dissonances CD (Virgin Classics 50999 070922 2 0) tell you all you need to know about their approach to the music: “Mozart – despite the surface simplicity of his music – is one of the most difficult composers to interpret well, if not the most difficult of all. For his works demand two things of performers: absolute technical assurance, as anything less than perfect intonation and articulation would be all too clearly apparent in music that is so pure and transparent, …but above all the ability to let go and bare all.” And that’s exactly what you get on this wonderful recording of two of Mozart’s greatest quartets – the D minor K421 and the C major “Dissonance” – and the early Divertimento in F, K138. This is Mozart playing at its glorious best: warm, expansive, both passionate and sensitive, intelligent and thoughtful, and full of contrast and nuance. Add the simply beautiful recorded sound and you have a Mozart disc that will be hard to equal, let alone surpass.

You would be hard-pressed these days to find someone who would mention the French violinist Émile Sauret (1852-1920) in the same breath as Paganini, but such were his performing skills – he was giving concerts in London, Paris and Vienna at age 8! – that contemporary critics detected the same hint of the supernatural about his playing. Sauret was another of that breed that essentially died out during the 20th century: the virtuoso performer with compositional skills to match. Naxos has issued a charming CD of his Music for Violin and Piano (8.572366) played by the American violinist Michi Wiancko and the Russian pianist Dina Vainshtein. Their playing of these attractive, well-crafted pieces, that are closer to Sarasate in style than to Paganini, is an absolute delight. Recorded at the CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio by the always-reliable Norbert Kraft and Bonnie Silver, the sound quality displays perfect balance and a spacious ambience.

Viola players are not exactly overwhelmed with choice when it comes to concertos for their instrument, so the recent Naxos release of a CD of Viola Concertos by Stamitz and Hoffmeister (8.572162) is a welcome one. It’s an intriguing one as well, for viola concertos were not that common in the 18^th century. Carl Stamitz, whose father Johann was the leader of the famous Mannheim orchestra, was a viola virtuoso as well as a violinist and composer, and his Concerto No.1 in D major, published around 1774, combines a technically challenging solo part with a skilful and sensitive orchestration. Although the composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister is now mostly remembered as a successful music publisher, his viola concertos in D major and B flat major were never published: each work has survived only in a single contemporary set of manuscript parts. This recording uses the new Artaria edition prepared from those parts by Allan Badley, who also wrote the booklet notes. Violist Victoria Chang is perfectly at home in this charming, if somewhat insubstantial, music and receives excellent support from the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra under Markand Thakar. The booklet notes remark that all three works remind us of the musical riches that can be found in the most unexpected corners of the 18^th century. That’s quite true, but they also remind us of just how far Mozart was ahead of his contemporaries.

I didn’t know the names of any of the three composers on Russian Viola Sonatas (Sono Luminus DSL-92136), the new CD from the American violist Eliesha Nelson and the U.K.-based Nigerian pianist Glen Inanga. Varvara Gaigerova (b.1903), Alexander Winkler (b.1865) and Paul Juon (b.1872) all died between 1935 and 1944, but not – as you might suspect – as a result of the political situation in Russia at that time. Only Gaigerova died in Russia, in 1944 at the early age of 40, but her folk-inspired compositions and politically correct works in the 1930s apparently never put her at odds with the Soviet regime. Winkler emigrated to France 11 years before his death there in 1935; Juon retired to Switzerland in 1934, and died there in 1940. All the works on the CD are from the 20^th century, but there is little of the sound and style that we associate with composers such as Shostakovich and Prokofiev. All three composers were influenced by Russian folk elements, making for very attractive and highly accessible works, but there’s hardly a moment when you have no doubt that you are listening to 20^th century Russian music: there’s more of a German Romantic feel here a lot of the time. Winkler and Juon, of course, received their training in the 19^th century, but even the Gaigerova work has turn-of-the-century echoes of Scriabin, Brahms, Ravel and Rachmaninov. Juon, whose Sonata in D major, Op.15 is the only work on the CD that is not a world premiere recording, was raised in a German-speaking household and spent virtually all of his working life in Berlin. His three-movement sonata, written in 1901, makes it clear why he was often referred to as the “Russian Brahms.” There is more than a trace of the same composer in the Winkler Sonata in C minor, Op.10, from 1920, by far the biggest work on the CD – in fact, there is an almost direct quote from the Brahms A major violin sonata in the first movement. Winkler’s Two Pieces Op.31, the slow Méditation élégiaque and the scherzino La toupie, are well-crafted and effective light music pieces. Gaigerova is perhaps the most interesting composer here – very little information is available about her – and she was the composer most strongly influenced by the folk music of the numerous Soviet Republics. Her four-movement Suite Op.8, published posthumously in 1969, is a beautiful work, and makes you wonder what we might be missing in her neglected string quartets and symphonies. Nelson’s viola tone is mostly warm, although it’s a bit thin at times in the upper register, but the tonal quality and the steady, constant vibrato hardly vary at all throughout the disc. There’s not much dynamic contrast either, and the end result is that the works tend to sound rather the same. How much this is due to the compositions themselves rather than the performance would make an interesting discussion, but I really can’t hear the power and passion or the sensitive phrasing that some reviewers of this CD have found in Nelson’s playing. Inanga is a fine partner at the keyboard, although the recorded balance makes the piano sound a bit distant at times.

Hahn; Schmitt; Dubois
Ames Piano Quartet
Sono Luminus DSL-92141

This is the 14th release by the Ames Piano Quartet, the resident chamber music ensemble of Iowa State University. The quartet has been hailed for their two decades worth of well-received releases for Dorian Records, subsequently re-issued as a box set by the Virginia-based Sono Luminus label. Their latest recording features French chamber music from the first half of the twentieth century.

Best known for his vocal works, the Venezuelan-born Francophile Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947) is represented here by a late Quartet in G published in 1946. Hahn, partly Jewish and once the intimate partner of Marcel Proust, kept an understandably low profile during the war years hiding away in Monte Carlo. His elegant, finely crafted quartet betrays little personal anxiety considering the circumstances; though the tender third movement suggests a certain regret, the general tone is one of restrained optimism.

Florent Schmitt (1870-1958) enjoyed tremendous success at the outset of his career but alienated the establishment through his acidic music reviews (his habit of shouting out his verdicts in the concert hall led the publisher Heugel to brand him “an irresponsible lunatic”) and perceived pro-Germanic stance owing to his Alsatian origins. Be that as it may, his truly delightful “petit concert” Hasards Op. 96 (1944) towers over his compatriots on this recording thanks to its brilliant colours, refreshing mutability and sheer rhythmic inventiveness.

Bringing up the rear is the teacher of both Hahn and Schmitt, the distinguished Théodore Dubois (1837-1924), now mostly remembered for denying Maurice Ravel the Prix de Rome. The thoroughly conventional structure and fulsome harmonies of his impeccably proper Quartet in A minor (1907) bring to mind the music of César Franck, an impression confirmed by the cyclic return of earlier themes in the finale of the work. Schmitt remains the indubitable star of the show however and reason enough to own this intriguing collection of lesser-known repertoire.

Concert Note: Reviewer Daniel Foley’s latest composition Music for the Duke of York will receive its premiere at an afternoon concert honouring the late Antonin Kubálek at Walter Hall on November 6.

Russian Favourites
Alexander Sevastian
Analekta AN 2 9929

“Russian Favourites” showcases Quartetto Gelato accordionist Alexander Sevastian in a number of Russian solo accordion works and arrangements.

The accordion specific works are important examples of “classical” 20th century Russian accordion repertoire. Compositional acumen and the monster virtuosic strength of the Russian players created a challenging collection. Here Vyatcheslav Semionov’s Don Rhapsody No.1 is a prime example. In just under five minutes, it showcases almost everything the accordion can do. Massive chords, lyrical melodies and blasting sound walls are all controlled brilliantly by Sevastian. The work is saved from becoming a musical parody of itself primarily thanks to the composer’s clever compositional skills. Original works by Shenderyov, Korolyov, Panitsky and Zolotaryov are also featured.

Sevastian himself arranged works by Rachmaninoff, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky. The success of any arrangement for the accordion from Romantic piano repertoire is tricky. The piano is a percussion instrument – finger articulation causes a hammer to hit a string which causes it to vibrate. Pedals figure prominently too. Lots of sound source possibilities. The accordion is a wind instrument – the bellows force air through metal reeds causing them to vibrate once buttons or keys are depressed. There is only has one sound source. That’s why sometimes an arrangement like Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise sings with its inherent flowing melodic beauty while Mussorgsky’s “The Gnome” from Pictures at an Exhibition stumbles with too many simultaneously vibrating reeds.

Sevastian is a sensitive and accomplished performer in this crowd-pleasing jewel.

Tchaikovsky - Symphonies 4-6
Mariinsky Orchestra; Valery Gergiev
Mariinsky DVD MAR0513; Blu-ray BD MAR0515

Philips issued CDs of these three symphonies with Gergiev conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in live performances from 2002, 1998, and 2004. Although they were very well received in some quarters, I found them to be quite perfunctory. Here is a wiser Gergiev in 2010 with his own orchestra live from the Salle Pleyel in Paris and the performances are polished, spectacular and substantial.

The first movement of the Fourth Symphony sounds eccentrically slow on first hearing but after listening to all three symphonies it now fits perfectly into Gergiev’s new understanding and appreciation of Tchaikovsky’s music. The Fifth Symphony is unusually stirring from the first notes to a hectic, triumphant finale. The Sixth can be driven too hard as Gergiev did in the Vienna recordings but here it unfolds with unusual respect and sensitivity. That is not to imply that it is not thrilling, which it assuredly is, but there is an atmosphere of inevitability throughout heard in no other performances that I know of. The tragic last movement, Tchaikovsky’s valedictory address, is played with intense passion and is quite final. I “Do not go gentle into that good night,” he seems to say.

There is a bonus in which Gergiev talks about Tchaikovsky’s orchestrations with interesting observations. Not an overly large orchestra, about 50 players, the textures and balances are never obscured. For me, these extraordinary, vital performances set a new standard. Perfect sound and thrilling dynamics throughout make this Blu-ray disc an uncontested first choice. Enthusiastically recommended.

Beethoven - In the Breath of Time
Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal; Kent Nagano
OSM OSMCD7437

The Montreal Symphony has much to be happy about these days. Conductor extraordinaire Kent Nagano is now in his sixth season as music director and the orchestra is sounding great. This is in part because of its new hall, which opened in September and is proving to be an acoustical gem. Furthermore, the ensemble has begun to record on its own label – OSM - and this latest offering – a two-disc set titled “In the Breath of Time” is another in the series featuring music by Beethoven, specifically symphonies six and eight, in addition to the Grosse Fuge as arranged by Felix Weingartner.

As fine an ensemble as the MSO is, there are no surprises here, nor is there any ground-breaking. Instead, under Naganos’s competent baton, the orchestra concentrates on solid musicianship, performing with a particular warmth and sensitivity. The “Pastoral” Symphony is a delight – here are the familiar bird-calls, the peasant dances and the joyful mood of life in the country as Beethoven witnessed it. The more traditional Symphony No.8 is approached with a suitable spirit of nobility and the monumental Fuge – all seventeen minutes of it – with the grandeur it deserves.

In keeping with the overall theme of time and change, the second disc concludes with a brief spoken word trilogy titled Declaration of INTERdependence, written and narrated by David Suzuki. While the recitation is moving and poignant, it’s the music itself that makes this such a satisfying recording – a fine interpretation of familiar repertoire by one of Canada’s most renowned orchestras.

Mark-Anthony Turnage - Anna Nicole
Eva-Marie Westbroek; Gerald Finley; Royal Opera House; Antonio Pappano
Opus Arte OA 1054 D

Opera is probably the most democratic art form, contrary to its “elitist” reputation. Centuries ago, the librettists and composers figured out that lives of courtesans, prostitutes and comfort women are as worthy of being immortalized as the kings and nobles whose pleasure they serve. Enter “Anna Nicole.” The story of a rather Rubenesque woman famous… well, for being famous and for her enhanced chest, is pure tabloid fodder, sordid and vulgar. It is also tragic, not the least because of its final outcome.

Richard Thomas (who also created “Jerry Springer – the Opera”) seizes upon all the tabloid angles, but never loses sight of our tragic heroine. The choir, on-stage from the overture on, initially is just a Greek chorus. It quickly becomes a flock of media vultures, ready to report on the slightest non-event and to destroy Anna Nicole’s camera-seeking life in the process. You cannot help feeling as sorry for the fame obsessed small–town girl as you would for Cio Cio San. Large credit goes to Eva-Maria Westbroek’s sensational performance; Gerald Finley, who is clearly Covent Garden’s audience favourite, lends his beautiful baritone to the role of the sleazy lawyer Stern and Susan Bickley, is forced to be a modern-day Cassandra, predicting the gloom.

Turnage’s music, never very easy, gains on second hearing and is ably assisted by a rhythm section including John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin, I kid you not!). Should you see it? Yes! Besides, where else can you hear a soprano aria “Get me the f**k out of here!”?

Rossini - William Tell
Gerald Finley; John Osborn; Malin Bystrom; Marie-Nicole Lemieux; Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; Antonio Pappano
EMI 0 28826 2

With glorious C major arpeggios and a scene bathed in sunlight over the mountains above Lake Lucerne in a newly liberated Switzerland… so ends Rossini’s last work for the opera stage. Guillaume Tell, a monumental, French style grand opera and a prototype for the genre later developed by Auber, Halevy and Meyerbeer, was indeed his swan song after which, at age 48 and after 59 operas, he wisely decided to take it easy, enjoy his wealth and fame in Paris, be a great cook, give musical soirées and teach at exorbitant fees. William Tell is unlike anything he had written before in its scope, scale and musical language. Even Wagner expressed unusual interest by saying that at one point Rossini created a “perfect fusion of declamatory style and emotional content.” “So I wrote music of the future?” asked Rossini innocently. “No, Maestro, but music for all times!” was Wagner’s thoughtful reply.

The opera is seldom recorded mainly because of the strenuous requirements on singers. For example the tenor has to sing 54 B flats, 19 high C’s and 2 C sharps! Therefore it is doubly welcome to have this superb new EMI release conducted by today’s maestro of maestros of opera, Antonio Pappano. With carefully studied pacing this long, unwieldy score becomes beautifully coherent with dramatic excitement, tumultuous crowd scenes, expansive pastoral interludes and exhilarating ballet music of the finest kind. This recording bolsters our national pride with two of the principals being Canadian, baritone Gerald Finley (Tell) and Marie-Nicole Lemieux (his wife Hedwige), both in fine characterization, superior voice and impeccable French accent. But probably the greatest strength of the recording is American tenor John Osborn heroically conquering this most gruelling role of the repertoire, Arnold Melchtal.

All other principals are exemplary and form a true team effort of this surprisingly satisfying rarely performed work.

Berg - Lulu
Julia Migenes; Evelyn Lear; Kenneth Riegel; Metropolitan Opera; James Levine
Sony 88697910099

Alban Berg finished the short score of Lulu in the spring of 1934. Like Wozzeck, it was structured with what George Perle called a “recapitulatory aspect” in that large sections of the second half repeat or alter movements from the first half. Berg orchestrated Acts 1, 2, and the first 268 bars of Act 3; the orchestral interlude of Act 3 and the closing scene were thrust into the Lulu Suite as a promo piece suggested and conducted by Kleiber in November 1934. Delayed by the commission of his violin concerto, his sudden illness and death left the remainder of Act 3 unorchestrated. Erwin Stein published Acts 1 and 2 and had engraved the first 70 pages of Act 3 when the short score was locked away by the widow Helene in her lawyers' safe. Frau Berg supposedly saw uncomfortable parallels between an autumnal feminine interest of her husband and the seductive anti-heroine Lulu. Act 3 was micro-filmed, there was a legal dispute and then Frau Berg died in 1976. Contrary to some stories, all but 86 bars could be orchestrated with a mathematical conviction. Happily, the task fell to Friedrich Cerha, a composer devoted to Webern, Schoenberg and Berg. The Berg scholar Anthony Pople generously admitted: “Whatever its minor shortcomings, Cerha's realization is brilliant work, and there is no reason to think that there will ever be a necessity for the completion of Act 3 in full score to be undertaken afresh.”

The three-act version appeared in Paris on February 24, 1979 starring Canada’s Teresa Stratas to rave reviews. Franz Mazura was Dr. Schön and Kenneth Riegel his son Alwa, both of whom then appeared at the Met in 1980 in the production recorded in this beautiful DVD set. Lulu is Julia Migenes, a seductive and street-wise survivor, with a sharp dramatic edge. Evelyn Lear (a wonderful Lulu herself) plays the lesbian Countess Geschwitz, completely at home in this music and convincing as the only truly honourable character in the opera. Both the acting and the singing are compelling. James Levine loves Berg and draws a nuanced performance of this complex and fascinating work. If you have not previously been won over by Lulu, she may well seduce you with this appearance.

A recent Naxos release of music by Howard Hanson (8.559700) performed by the Seattle Symphony under the direction of Gerard Schwarz caught my attention because of this American composer’s inadvertent influence on the history of composed music in our own country. It was Hanson, during a conducting engagement in Toronto in 1937, who encouraged John Weinzweig to enrol at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester where he was the director. Unlike the University of Toronto at the time, Eastman had courses in 20th century music and substantial library holdings and it was here that Weinzweig was exposed to two works which would influence him greatly: Stravinsky’s Sacre du printemps and Berg’s Lyric Suite. The rest, as they say, is history as Weinzweig went on to become Canada’s first important modernist composer and to mentor several generations of composition students. This new disc, a re-issue of an earlier Delos recording, provides a grand introduction to the music of Howard Hanson, featuring the expansive Symphony No. 1 “Nordic” – a kind of homage to Hanson’s idol Sibelius – and the dramatic Lament for Beowulf which also employs the Seattle Symphony Chorale. Both works date from the 1920s before the composer had turned 30, yet show a mature command of the medium by a young man who would go on to become one of the most lyrical symphonists of his time. I notice that Naxos has just released the next instalment in Hanson’s complete symphonies - with No.2 “Romantic” - so evidently we can look forward to hearing all seven in the coming months.

Although he seems to have expunged it from his official biography, as a young man Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi spent a season at the helm of the Chamber Players of Toronto in its final year of operations, 1991-1992. He has since gone on to a number of prestigious postings, currently Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris, following a decade in the same capacity at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra culminating with the 2010-2011 season. To commemorate their long and fruitful relationship the CSO has just released Baltic Portraits (CSOM-946) with live performances spanning 2002 through 2011. The disc begins with Fireflower, a short dramatic work by fellow countryman Erkki-Sven Tüür, to celebrate Järvi’s 10th anniversary with the CSO. Designed not so much a fanfare as a ceremonial bouquet - with “blossoms resembling flames” – it is a colourful work representative of the composer’s recent orchestral output (symphonies 4 – 8) with a momentary reference in the rhythm section to Tüür’s early years in a rock band. Finnish symphonist Aulis Sallinen is represented by the Symphony No.8, “Autumnal Fragments” which Järvi premiered in 2004 with the Concertgebouw Orchestra before introducing the work to North America in Cincinnati the following season. The Finnish connection continues with Gambit, a work composed as a 40th birthday present for Magnus Lindberg by someone we know better as a conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen. Beginning in shimmering ethereal waves the piece erupts into a dynamic extended middle section before eventually returning to its quiet opening mood. Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten with its familiar tintinnabulations seems to grow organically from the Salonen and then leads dramatically to the final work, the Symphony No.6 of Estonian composer Lepo Sumera, completed just months before his death at age 50 in 2000. Not only one of Estonia’s most significant composers, Sumera also had a wider public influence serving as the Minister of Culture from 1988-1992 during the country’s Singing Revolution. This dramatically compelling symphony, which would in other circumstances have been a mid-career milepost, adds to the legacy of this strong and original voice, but leaves us wondering what Sumera might have accomplished if allowed even a few more years.

A conductor who has not disavowed his time in Toronto, Jukka-Pekka Saraste was director of the TSO from 1994-2001. He currently serves as the Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic and since 2010 is Chief Conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne. The London Philharmonic Orchestra has just released a disc of live recordings (LPO – 0057) drawn from concerts Saraste conducted in February and October 2008 featuring two of my favourite orchestral works, Sibelius’ Symphony No.5 and Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra. Sibelius is of course one of Saraste’s specialties – he’s recorded the cycle of seven symphonies twice to great acclaim – and Sibelius was, along with Mahler, a mainstay of his repertoire in Toronto. Unlike many composers, with Sibelius we are not given finished themes that are then developed and reworked, but rather fragments which seem to grow organically into the final form of the composition. This live performance with the LPO is outstanding as we hear Saraste building the music block by block until we reach its majestic conclusion and the anticipatory tension of the final six chords. The Lutosławski concerto is a relatively early work which exploits the full resources of the orchestra in a dramatic and dynamic way. I see this as a culmination of the composer’s early development, kind of a doctoral thesis summing up his understanding of the music of the first half of the 20th century. His particular influences were Bartók (whose own Concerto for Orchestra was perhaps the first modern day work in this form) and the folk music of his native Poland. Shortly thereafter, his music began to develop along different lines as he incorporated aleatoric aspects and added extended temporal and harmonic effects. One the earliest works in the new style, premiered at the 1958 Warsaw Autumn Festival, was another homage to Bartók, the Musique funèbre in memory of the Hungarian master. But it is the wonderfully dramatic Concerto for Orchestra we are presented with here and Saraste really brings it to life, emphasizing the bombast of the exuberant passages and the foreboding of the opening of the final movement with its haunting double reed melodies. The thunderous ovation which begins almost before the last note sounds is testament to the London audience’s appreciation.

1957 was a breakthrough year for Thelonious Monk seeing the release of two seminal albums including Monk’s Music, the only studio recording on which John Coltrane performed in a Monk ensemble. Other members of the septet included trumpeter Ray Copeland, Gigi Gryce on alto sax, Monk’s former boss Coleman Hawkins sharing tenor sax duties with Coltrane, Wilber Ware bass and Art Blakey on drums. The original six track Riverside Lp included Monk’s arrangement of the traditional hymn Abide with Me, the distinctive Well, You Needn’t and three more Monk signature pieces – Ruby, My Dear; Off Minor; Crepuscule with Nellie – and the 1942 Kenny Clarke/Thelonious Monk tune which has been touted as “the first classic, modern jazz composition” Epistrophy. In 1991 there was a CD re-issue on the Original Jazz Classics label which included bonus tracks of other takes of Crepuscule and ­Off Minor and several months ago I received a 2011 re-issue of the re-issue, now on the Original Jazz Classics Remasters imprint (OJC-32689-02). This latest incarnation has added another bonus, an extended track entitled Blues for Tomorrow penned by Gigi Gryce, recorded at the end of the first day of the two day session that produced the original disc. Notably absent is Monk himself on this track, evidently fast asleep after the effort of recording Epistrophy. The new release has retained the iconic cover picture of Monk seated in a little red wagon wearing his distinctive hat and sunglasses, and the original liner notes have been shrunk to near illegibility to fit the CD format. Fortunately these notes by Orrin Keepnews are also included in a more readable type inside the booklet along with a four page in depth appreciation by Ashley Kahn. It is features like this which make the continued recycling of the existing catalogue worth while.

Around the same time an intriguing new album arrived – Hat and Beard: The music of Thelonious Monk – which uses for its cover art a clever re-working of the Monk-on-a-wagon portrait, this time with the vehicle fashioned from a guitar and a drum kit. The disc was recorded live at Toronto’s Somewhere There in April 2009 and features guitarist Ken Aldcroft and drummer Dave Clark (Trio Records TRP-013). Although there is no overlap of material here with “Monk’s Music” and for that matter almost none in the instrumentation, the entire album re-interprets the music of the quirky legend in some surprising ways, from a very busy 52nd Street Theme to a very sparse (but ever growing in intensity) Locomotive. A highlight is the Monk/Hawkins co-composition I Mean You. While this album in some ways outdoes the originator’s minimal approach to melody and arrangement, it certainly provides evidence of a thoughtful consideration of the music of this modern master.

Simultaneous with the release of “Hat and Beard” Ken Aldcroft – a very active participant in Toronto’s avant-jazz scene and co-founder of the Association of Improvising Musicians – released Home: Solo Guitar Compositions (Trio Records TRP-5502-012). I approached this disc with some trepidation, assuming that an entire album of solo electric guitar works by a single composer would wear a little thin after a while. Of course an electric guitar can produce an almost infinite variety of sounds with the extensions and manipulations available today. I was therefore doubly surprised to find that Aldcroft held my attention throughout the near hour-long excursion, and that he did so without the obvious use of pedals and other devices so commonly seen at the feet of guitarists. Oh he certainly uses some extended playing techniques, but one gets the impression these are all achieved through dextral facility rather than electronic means. There aren’t any tunes you’ll go away whistling here, but some surprising sonorities in the exploration of the possibilities inherent in the six strings of Aldcroft’s instrument.

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