Komitas
Gurdjieff Ensemble; Levon Eskenian
ECM New Series ECM 2451

Komitas’ name is familiar to many local music-lovers, thanks to Isabel Bayrakdarian’s performances and CD of his songs. Soghomon Soghomonian (1869-1935), considered the founder of Armenian musical nationalism, took the religious name of Komitas upon his ordination as a priest in 1895. The priest-musician not only composed original works, but transcribed some 3,000 folk tunes, arranging many for piano, often indicating the folk instrument to be imitated by the pianist, such as the plucked-string tar, the double-reed zurna and duduk, and the tmbuk drum. These annotations assisted Levon Eskenian, director of the Gurdjieff Ensemble, when arranging some of Komitas’ folk-derived pieces for his ten-member folk-instrument group. These, then, are arrangements of arrangements, rather than any original Komitas compositions.

This is a disc to be dipped into, rather than listened to all at once, as most of the 18 tracks, like most of Komitas’ songs, are slow and sad. Only three up-tempo pieces interrupt the melancholy: the raucous Mankakan Nvag XII for reeds and drum; Lorva Gutanerg, a pogh (flute) solo; and Hoy, Nazan, a very pretty, gently flowing pogh-kanon (zither) duet. By far the longest track, over 11 minutes, is Msho Shoror, processional dance music for a traditional religious pilgrimage, now stately, now mournful, with the keening wails of zurnas and duduks, and the haunting sound of the pogh.

While more up-tempo pieces would have been welcome, this CD’s beautiful melodies and vivid, piquant instrumental timbres deliver genuine listening pleasure.

On October 13, 2015 Toronto music lovers attended a recital by the distinguished young pianist, Benjamin Grosvenor, in a return engagement presented by Music Toronto in the Jane Mallet Theatre. After his debut there in February 2014 his self-effacing technique and insightful interpretations were, and still are, the subject of some conversation. This year’s program of Mendelssohn, Bach, Franck, Ravel and Liszt exceeded our highest expectations. The final item on the published program, a dazzling tarantella by Liszt, as they say, drove the audience wild. He returned to the keyboard and treated an expectant, hushed audience to one encore: Percy Grainger’s simple arrangement of Gershwin’s Love Walked In. Devastating! At the moment, Grosvenor has three Decca CDs which, while not exactly the same as being there, are the next best experience.

I mention these two concerts because Decca has issued a box of Stephen Kovacevich: The Complete Philips Recordings (4788662, 25 CDs). I hadn’t listened to his recordings for some time but, unexpectedly, here were very similar qualities latent in Grosvenor’s playing. Stephen Kovacevich is one of the most revered pianists in the world, whose recordings on Philips are to be found on the shelves of music lovers around the globe. He was known as Stephen Bishop until 1975 when he adopted his mother’s name.

The first recording by the American pianist from Los Angeles, who went to London to study with Dame Myra Hess, was made in the Brent Town Hall, Wembley in February 1968 of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. Back to Wembley in August, Philips recorded the Brahms Handel Variations and other pieces.  In December they recorded the Bartók Second Piano Concerto with Colin Davis and the BBC Symphony. They all returned the following April to record the Stravinsky Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments.  Davis proved to be the perfect conductor for Kovacevich. They were simpatico on the various aspects of interpretation as is self-evident in their many collaborations re-issued here; Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Grieg and Schumann.

I would like to have more than nine CDs of Beethoven; the five concertos, the Diabelli Variations, eight sonatas and three sets of Bagatelles for, as these performances unfolded, they reignited an old passion for the composer.

The Brahms First Concerto is a favorite of Kovacevich which is obvious from his recording here. The second movement is tranquility and simplicity itself. I have never heard another performance  come even close to its communication of elegance and acquiescence. Equally intuitive are the four Mozart concertos. The Schumann and Grieg concertos are outstanding, eschewing the empty, meaningless bravura of a mere technician.

This set is a reminder of the constant introspection and depth that Kovacevich conjures. Each and every work – solos, duets, trios and quintets by a variety of composers – is infused with a sense of fragrance and discovery of truthfulness as it resolves with not a single caveat. The performances carry their own authority making comparisons invidious. In so many cases one forgets that the piano is a percussion instrument. Check out the video preview of this set at youtube.com/watch?v=ePGxjGWB-iw.

When the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal moved into its new home, the Maison symphonique in the Place des Arts in 2011, the reviews were enthusiastic for both the aesthetics and acoustics of the hall. In May 2014 the crown jewel of the edifice, Le Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique, was unveiled in concerts which included the Saint-Saëns “Organ” Symphony No.3 and new works by Montreal-born Samy Moussa and Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. Kent Nagano was at the helm of the orchestra and the soloists were OSM organist emeritus Olivier Latry in the Saint-Saëns and Saariaho and current organist-in-residence Jean-Willy Kunz in the Moussa. The stunning performances were captured in exquisite recordings that can be found on a recent Analekta CD (AN 2 8779).

In earlier years the OSM made many of its recordings in Église de St. Eustache which offered a good acoustic and a fine organ. As the sound on this new CD attests there is no longer any reason for the OSM to leave home to make a recording, and the arrival of the new organ by Casavant Frères is the icing on the cake. The organ was designed in collaboration with the hall’s architects Diamond Schmitt + Ædifica to specifications developed by Latry (now organist at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris). It comprises four mechanical action keyboards, with electrical assistance, 109 registers, 83 stops, 116 ranks and 6,489 pipes.

The Saint-Saëns, the benchmark against which all other works in the genre must be measured, is well enough known that I will not go into details here. It will suffice to say that orchestra, soloist and instrument are all in splendid form and under Nagano’s direction it’s hard to imagine a finer performance. The new works, both commissioned by the OSM (in conjunction with Orchestre national de Lyon and London’s Southbank Centre in the case of the Saariaho), are dark works that explore the sound/colour spectrum available through the combination of full orchestra and the vast resources of the “King of Instruments.” Moussa, is a 30-year-old with a flourishing career in Quebec and in Germany. His A Globe Itself Infolding is a one-movement work that slowly unfolds, gradually combining dense textures with only moments of punctuation and no real melodic development but is effective and compelling. It is conceived as a stand-alone piece but also as the prelude to a possible future full-length concerto. Saariaho’s Maan Varjot (Earth’s Shadows) is in three movements. The first, Misterioso ma intenso, is just that, mysterious and intense without much development. This is followed by a Lento calmo in which prominent, if sparse, trumpet phrases are echoed and embellished by the organ. The final Energico opens with a blasting cadenza from the organ which is taken up and sustained by the orchestra, eventually giving way to quiet bass drum “footsteps” and a high, soft organ chord that gradually dies away. Although she has not written extensively for the instrument, Saariaho was an organist in her student years and her understanding of the medium is displayed in an effective work that brings this excellent disc to a close.

I first met Erkki-Sven Tüür at the quadrennial Estonian World Festival which was held in Toronto in 1984. At just 25 years old, he was a young composer emerging from the world of rock and roll where he was something of a star. I have followed his development in the three decades since then, both through recordings and live performances, as he has become a fully mature contemporary composer.

Tõnu Kaljuste, who conducted a work of Tüür’s a few years ago in Toronto for Soundstreams, was the instigator of a recent recording which features Tüür and Australian composer Brett Dean. The title Gesualdo (ECM New Series 2452) refers to the Italian Renaissance composer and prince, Carlo Gesualdo, best known for his intensely expressive chromatic madrigals and for brutally murdering his first wife and her lover after finding them in flagrante delicto. The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra perform under the direction of Kaljuste, who transcribed the opening track, Gesualdo’s Moro lasso, for string orchestra. Dean’s Carlo for choir and strings begins with a quotation from Moro lasso and other Gesualdo motives in the choir which are gradually displaced by the orchestra as we are led into a 20th-century sound world. Toward the end of the piece, in the composer’s words, “Gesualdo’s madrigals are eventually reduced to mere whispers of his texts and nervous breathing sounds. These eventually also grow in dramatic intensity into what may be seen as an orchestral echo of that fateful night in Naples.”

At Kaljuste’s request Tüür arranged Gesualdo’s O crux benedicta for strings (adding some “fragile sound clouds” to the original material) and composed L’ombra della croce especially for this recording. The latter reflects the sensibility of Gesualdo’s music with its sombre mood and slowly descending melody, with a brief light and joyous section just past the mid-point before returning to the murky depths.

The disc concludes with Psalmody, an earlier work which has its roots in Tüür’s prog-rock band In Spe (1979-1982). Although not composed until 1993, Tüür says it was “a retrospective commentary on the music I had created in [those] years.” It stands in marked contrast to the other works on the disc. Originally written for mixed chorus and the early music ensemble Hortus Musicus, it was conceived as a vehicle to bring together a minimalist diatonicism and complex atonality. In its several incarnations the atonal aspects were excised and in 2012 it was re-orchestrated and reworked for choir, double winds and brass, percussion, keyboard and strings. It is a joyous and energetic work in which the composer “aimed to step into a dialogue with the mainstream of minimalism that originates from America.” I think fans of Steve Reich and John Adams would be suitably impressed. I know I was.

The other discs to pique my interest this month were a direct result of my association with New Music Concerts over the past 16 years. I first encountered the composer and clarinet virtuoso Jörg Widmann in October 2005 when Robert Aitken invited him to curate a concert of his own music on the series. He was just 32 but well on his way to a stellar double career. Since then he has returned to Toronto several times, at the invitation of the Toronto Symphony in 2012 to take part in the New Creations Festival with conductor/composer Peter Eötvös and again in 2014 for another portrait concert with NMC and to rehearse with the TSO for their European tour.

On that first NMC concert he played music of Alban Berg with pianist David Swan and three works of his own with our musicians. The highlight of the concert for me however was the Accordes’ performance of Widmann’s Jagdquartett – String Quartet No.3 with its vocal and extra-musical interjections and flamboyant gestures. That came right back to me while listening to a new Wergo 2CD set Jörg Widmann – Streichquartette which features all five numbered string quartets plus two short early works for the strings performed by the Minguet Quartet (WER 7316 2). The Minguet has worked extensively with Widmann over the past decade. This is actually their second recording of his quartet cycle so I think we can consider these definitive performances of very challenging works that employ myriad extended techniques.

The quartets are presented in chronological order and, as discussed extensively in the comprehensive liner notes, treated as five movements of one large work. In this way I am reminded of the Orford Quartet recording of the first five quartets of R. Murray Schafer as recorded for Centrediscs back in 1990. At the time producer David Jaeger suggested the same thing about Schafer’s cycle with its interlocking themes and motives. There are other parallels between the Widmann and Schafer quartets, particularly with the vocal outbursts in both third quartets and the use of soprano (albeit much more extensively by Widmann – Claron McFadden is superb) in their respective fifths. Of course Schafer has gone on to expand his set to an even dozen, all interconnecting and all recorded by Quatuor Molinari for ATMA (atmaclassique.com). I wonder if Widmann will continue in the same fashion. At 42 he certainly has time to consider it, but he is currently booked for years in advance with opera and orchestral commissions. It has been a decade since he composed his fifth quartet and so, for the time being, we must content ourselves with this testament to the outstanding contribution to the genre by a young composer who has moved on to larger projects. The set also includes the youthful Absences for string quartet and a brief moto perpetuo movement entitled 180 beats per minute for the somewhat unusual combination of two violins, viola and three cellos. A marvellous “portrait of the artist as a young man.”

The most recent New Music Concert featured the Turning Point Ensemble from Vancouver, a large group whose members include cellist Ariel Barnes (featured in a concertante role in Linda Catlin Smith’s Gold Leaf) and harpist Heidi Krutzen (not present for the Toronto performance). Together these two formed the ensemble Couloir in 2011 and have since commissioned a number of works for this somewhat unusual combination. Released in 2013 but previously unknown to me, Wine Dark Sea (Revello Records RR7879 couloir.ca) presents three of these original works: Three Meditations on Light by Jocelyn Morlock; Drifting Seeds by Baljinder Sekhon; and A monk, dancing by Glenn Buhr.

The disc opens with Vancouver composer Morlock’s Meditations. The birds breathe the morning light begins quietly with the harp providing pointillistic accompaniment to a high, falling melody in the chanterelle range of the cello which gradually develops denser textures without ever losing its contemplative mood. Bioluminescence, the subtitle for which gives the album its title, while still gentle is a more dance-like movement with rhythmic harp motives shimmering under the lyrical cello melodies. Absence of Light – Gradual Reawakening begins, as we might expect, in darkness and the depths of the instruments’ registers but eventually leads us back to the light with some bird-like sounds along the way, ending in warm long tones from the cello.

Sekhon is a composer and percussionist living and teaching in Florida. There are world music influences and extended techniques in his 2012 Drifting Seeds which he says “explores the social and cultural connections between individuals and societies. … While composing this work I was very interested in the idea that we are all different versions of each other.” He does this by juxtaposing, layering and ultimately eliminating materials from a “collection of musical fragments. They appear at different speeds, transposition levels, and with different timbres throughout the work.” It is very effective.

Kitchener-based Buhr says, “A monk, dancing is a good metaphor for a composer. We composers spend much of our time alone in our studios (monastic cells), but the task is to imagine music; so in our minds, we dance.” After a long contemplative section rife with rich melodic chant-like lines in the cello, an arpeggiated transition leads to the “dance” – “bright and happy, with a beat a monk could dance to…” – before returning to contemplation.

While there is a certain sameness to the lush timbres and textures produced by harp and cello in all of the pieces, there is enough diversity to sustain interest throughout this fine recording.

At the Turning Point concert I was particularly impressed with the sound Barnes produced from his cello which he told me is a modern Portuguese instrument. On this CD he is playing another gorgeous-sounding cello, the 1730 Newland Johannes Franciscus Celoniatus on loan from the Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank. I am left with the feeling that any cello would sound great in his hands.

The only piece of music by Isang Yun that I have ever heard performed live was Novelette for flute, harp, violin and cello, presented in the context of New Music Concerts’ Portrait of Toshio Hosokawa that also included Hosokawa’s Memory (In memory of Isang Yun) back in May 2000. The story of Yun is an intriguing one. He was born in what is now Tongyeong, South Korea in 1917, long before the division of North and South. Yun studied and settled in Germany where he was the first Asian composer to integrate aspects of the music of his homeland into the Western Art Music tradition. Yun was a strong believer in the reunification of Korea. While living in West Berlin, along with a number of compatriots, he was in contact with North Korean representatives in East Germany trying to open cultural relations between the two Koreas. Accused of being a spy, Yun and his colleagues were kidnapped and taken to South Korea where they were imprisoned and tortured. After a year, pressure applied by the German government resulted in Yun’s release and return to Germany, where, despite hoping to one day return home to a unified Korea, he remained until his death in 1995. Since that time his music has been championed in both North and South Korea where there are institutes, competitions and festivals in his name, although he is still seen as a dubious character by some.

Of course there is much more to the story than that, some of which is told in Isang Yun Inbetween North and South Korea, a film by German director Maria Stodtmeier which has been released by Accentus (ACC 20208). It is an excellent introduction to the man and the music, with extended excerpts of performances of his challenging and virtuosic compositions – of special interest to me was the extremely demanding Cello Concerto – as well as moving reminiscences of him as a teacher, mentor and composer of popular school anthems, which continued to be performed anonymously during the period when his music was banned in his homeland.

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Variations, by their nature, tend toward the cerebral. Pianists who understand this devote a good deal of effort maintaining their ties to the thematic homeland in spite of the distances a composer may travel in his creative wanderings. Konstantin Scherbakov demonstrates this beautifully in Eroica (Two Pianists Records TP1039190) where Beethoven’s Eroica Variations Op.35 journey far on a surprisingly short musical idea. When at times the composer has left little more than a hint of harmonic progression as a fragment of the original idea, Scherbakov finds it and underlines it to remind us of our point of departure. By the time he’s played through all fifteen variations, the closing fugue comes as a highly energized and joyous finale in the form Beethoven so loved to use.

The same disc contains both the Pathétique and Appassionata sonatas. Here, Scherbakov is more formal. He is very aware of the architecture around his musical content and artfully recalls the ideas Beethoven requires in the closing arguments. The Adagio of the Sonata No.8 in C Minor, Op.13 “Pathétique” is perhaps less outwardly emotional than some would like, but this works well in the context of Scherbakov’s overall approach to both sonatas. A strong performer with a clear technique, he has made this a very fine addition to anyone’s Beethoven collection. Production values on this disc are very high despite the fact that the program was recorded in different locations (UK and Moscow).

Also recorded in Moscow are Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas 6, 7 and 9. Digitally restored from original sources Prokofiev Piano Sonatas (Archipel Records ARPCD 465) features three separate public recitals by Sviatoslav Richter from the mid-1950s. Disappointingly bereft of any historical notes about the concerts, the disc is economically packaged but thankfully a little web sleuthing can uncover plenty more about this material. These are among the recordings from the decade that introduced Richter to the West. The audio restoration is wonderful although the somewhat narrow frequency range of the recording reflects the technology of the period. Still, it in no way impedes the colossal technique Richter possessed. His utter control of the wildest passages in Sonatas 6 and 9 stand in contrast to his pensive playing of the Sonata 7 where doleful reflection speaks of the personal burden Prokofiev felt under the Stalinist regime.

Richter seems the perfect pianist for this repertoire. Recording two of Prokofiev’s “War” sonatas from the early 1940s (No.6 and No.7) just a few years after Stalin’s (and the composer’s) death, one wonders what the propaganda chatter must have been at the time. The final sonata on the disc, No.9, was written for and dedicated to Richter in 1947. All three of these performances are truly arresting.

Vadym Kholodenko is the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition gold medalist. His collaboration with Miguel Harth-Bedoya and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra in Grieg, Saint Saëns Piano Concertos (harmonia mundi HMU 907629) produces thoughtful and unhurried performances. Pianist and conductor are in complete agreement on tempi that favour a more relaxed approach than we sometimes hear. This subtle expansion of time offers the listener an extra moment of consideration before processing the composer’s next thought. The Grieg slow movement is especially exquisite for this reason.

The Saint Saëns Concerto No.2 in G Minor, Op.22 is not quite so restrained. Kholodenko takes the first two movements almost ad libitum alternating between the pensive approach of the opening movement and his dazzling chromatic octave runs in the second. But the third is where he explodes out of the gate with real drama. The palpable energy and crisp articulation make this a performance hard to surpass. This is Kholodenko’s second recording for the label. His third is the Prokofiev concertos the first disc of which we can expect the first disc in 2016.

Last month’s column reviewed several discs using period instruments. American Romantics, The Boston Scene (Piano Classics PCL0080) does something similar using an 1873 Chickering grand in a historic Episcopal church in Charlestown, MA. The instrument benefits from modern action and sounds more like a contemporary piano than a fortepiano. Still, its darker colours and unique upper register voicing remind us of its vintage. Pianist Artem Belogurov clearly loves this piano and as much caresses it as plays it. His repertoire choices reveal how much this late romantic American school owed to its European origins.

It wasn’t until the next generation of composers, the modernists of the early 20th century, that an identifiable American voice began to emerge. Still, this disc’s program helps us understand the creative heritage from which that sprang. Highly programmatic, these short pieces by Foote, Paine, Chadwick and Nevin are beautifully written by composers who knew their craft well. Belogurov commits to them wholly. His playing is sincere and utterly convincing.

The disc is enlightening, entertaining and offers a profoundly satisfying final track with Margaret Ruthven Lang’s Rhapsody in E Minor Op.21. Published in 1895, it’s the most substantial work on the recording and demonstrates a remarkable affinity between composer and pianist, across cultures and generations.

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Some four decades later Leonard Bernstein, then in his late teens, wrote his Sonata for the Piano (1938) and Music for the Dance No.2. These two works open and close pianist Alexandre Dossin’s program on Bernstein: Thirteen Anniversaries (Naxos 8.559756). Dossin is Brazilian-born, Moscow Conservatory-trained and now teaches in the U.S. He plays the Sonata with all the boldness and assertiveness that the young Bernstein brought to the page. It’s brilliant music and brilliantly played. The three-movement Music for the Dance is polytonal and angular in rhythm. Dossin understands Bernstein’s structures and always keeps the principal ideas up front for us to follow.

Thirteen Anniversaries from 1988 is the last of four such collections of miniatures Bernstein wrote for his family and numerous friends. A half century separates these from the early compositions on this disc and the difference is remarkable. Dossin conveys what the older composer is feeling. For Stephen Sondheim is a heartfelt tribute to his friend and librettist with very subtle harmonic tilts in the direction of Broadway. In Memoriam: Ellen Goetz is simple and profoundly moving and serves as a fitting close to the set. The 1943 Seven Anniversaries contains tributes to Aaron Copland as well as Serge and Nathalie Koussevitsky and others. Dossin finishes this set with an aggressively energized For William Schumann. All of it is superb.

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Felt Hammers (Tantara TCD0314FHM) is a collection of the piano works of Michael Hicks played by Keith Kirchoff. This disc is far from common fare but more than a few will like it – a lot. Contemporary and a bit experimental in both composition and performance, the music has titles that reflect strong allusions to the sacred, poetic and philosophical. Still, one hesitates to deem it entirely programmatic. With the piano tuned to Werckmeister III (a tuning system with subtle shimmers in certain keys), Kirchoff plays the instrument in the conventional way, but also stops and plucks strings manually and occasionally adds vocalizations.

The core of the program is The Stations of The Cross and its narrative is easy to follow. What raises this composition far out of the ordinary is that Kirchoff has fully captured Hicks’ intention to use the piano in ways that create new and powerfully evocative sonorities. These are sound paintings that strongly project images of Jesus’ journey from condemnation to death and burial. It’s emotionally graphic, though in an abstract way.

The Annunciation is the only piece that extensively uses familiar keyboard technique. Its technical demands are high and Kirchoff meets them capably. The disc opens with a helpful introduction to Hicks’ keyboard language. The Idea of Domes is a simple keyboard tone poem that delivers exactly what its title suggests and prepares the listener for what’s to come. The closing track L’épitaph de Monk is based on Thelonious Monk’s Crepuscule with Nellie and echoes the rhythmic note clusters that punctuate Monk’s original. Those in the target niche for this recording will find it very gratifying.

Since winning first prize at the 2000 International Chopin Competition at age 18, Chinese pianist Yundi has scarcely stopped to catch his breath. Countless international tours and 16 recordings later Yundi’s energy is as impressive as ever. His latest disc is Yundi Chopin Preludes (Mercury Classics/Deutsche Grammophon 4811910) which presents all of the Op.28 Preludes plus the Op.45 in C-sharp Minor and a posthumous work as well.

While each on separate tracks, the 24 preludes are produced with very little time between them and give the effect of a larger single piece. This has the novel effect of joining Chopin’s disparate ideas, many less than a minute long, into a statement that he may never have considered. If anything, it allows us a high-contrast glimpse of his remarkable imagination and technique, none of which is beyond Yundi’s grasp. His playing is often unbelievably fast as in the Prelude No.18 in F Minor, but never sacrifices clarity or phrasing. Others like the No.23 in F Major move with an enchanting fluidity. It’s a breathtaking recording and easy to play often for the sheer marvel of it.

Film music became its own form when musicians first started playing for silent movies. Largely given to supporting and enhancing the emotions portrayed on the screen, film scores occasionally rise beyond their usual task and stand on their own artistic merits. Composer/pianist Francesco Di Fiore has taken this a step further by creating a video and piano performance project using selected shots from a variety of modern films and has reinterpreted the film scores as minimalist keyboard iterations. The studio version of this live project is Piano Sequenza – Piano Music in Film (Zefir Records 9642) and is a remarkably intimate listening experience.

Most of the music selected for this recording was already piano-centric, either written for the instrument as solo or using it to carry the main thematic idea. Di Fiore’s reinterpretations have the effect of being artistic distillations, powerful for their links to films we know well, The Piano, The Hours, The Truman Show and others. And while there is a strong melancholic undercurrent to it all, he infuses it with a clear and uplifting simplicity that has a lingering effect.

Whether he is spinning the ideas of Michael Nyman or Phillip Glass, Di Fiore succeeds in turning the piano into a unique voice, through which we experience the film world of directors Peter Weir, Jane Campion and the others included on this unusual disc.

Our own James Ehnes is back with a CD of early 18th century works on Vivaldi Four Seasons (Onyx 4134), with his regular partner Andrew Armstrong at the piano for Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata and Leclair’s Tambourin Sonata, and the Sydney Symphony under Ehnes’ direction providing the support for the title work. It’s the first time Ehnes has recorded The Four Seasons, and it was certainly worth the wait. The playing is everything you would expect from him: it’s warm, intelligent and beautifully judged, with sensitive and very effective orchestral accompaniment.

The Tartini and Leclair sonatas are the opening works on the CD, with Ehnes using the Kreisler edition of the Devil’s Trill sonata that ends with the challenging cadenza that Kreisler added to the work. Again, the playing by both performers is outstanding.

Another Onyx CD features live concert recordings of violin music by Sergei Prokofiev in terrific Frankfurt performances by Viktoria Mullova (ONYX 4142). The Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi provides the support in the lovely Concerto No.2 in G, Op.63, recorded over two days in May 2012. Mullova is equally at home in the work’s beautiful slow movement and in the music’s spikier passages.

Prokofiev’s two unaccompanied violin sonatas – the Sonata for Two Violins in C, Op.56 and the Solo Violin Sonata in D, Op.115 – were recorded in December 2014. Tedi Papavrami joins Mullova in the former. The recorded ambience is full and resonant, especially in the concerto, and there is no real sign of audience presence other than the applause at the end of the works, which fades out after a few seconds.

There’s more live Prokofiev, as well as Shostakovich and Rachmaninov on Russian Concert, a 2-CD recording of the March 28, 2006 concert in Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio by the outstanding violist Rivka Golani and pianist John Lenehan (Hungaroton HCD 32743-44). The concert opens and closes with pieces (six on CD1, five on CD2) from Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet, transcribed for viola and piano, with the composer’s permission, by the Russian violist Vadim Borisovsky. Violist Douglas Perry joins Golani and Lenehan for the final two pieces.

CD1 ends with a brooding performance of the Shostakovich Sonata for Viola and Piano Op.147, the only work in the concert in its original form, but the heart of the recital is the transcription – again by Borisovsky – of Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata in G Minor Op.19. More than anything else on the two CDs this brings impassioned playing from both performers, with the piano often predominant in a role that is far from being merely an accompaniment. Despite the wonderful viola playing, however, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that the instrument’s pitch is higher and somewhat thinner than the cello’s, and the absence of the latter’s strength, depth and richness, particularly in the lower strings, alters the tonal relationship with the piano; at times here, the music just seems to be too big for the instrument. Still, what a performance!

The ever-reliable English cellist Steven Isserlis is back with yet another delightful CD, this time with harpsichordist Richard Egarr on Bach, Handel and Scarlatti Gamba Sonatas (Hyperion CDA68045).

Bach’s three sonatas – in G Major BWV1027, D Major BWV1028 and G Minor BWV1029 – are programmed around Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in D Minor Kk90 and Handel’s Violin Sonata in G Minor HWV364b. The Handel here relies on an authentic manuscript version that shows the opening of the violin part lowered an octave and indicated as for viola da gamba. In this work and the Scarlatti the players are joined by Robin Michael on cello continuo.

Isserlis points out that playing with a harpsichord allows him “to play as lightly as possible without ever courting inaudibility,” and the result is playing of grace, lightness and warmth. Add the usual intelligent and insightful booklet notes written by Isserlis in his inimitable style – he even quotes Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel at one point – and the whole package is another winner.

The often-asked question “How could I not have heard them play before?” raised its head again this month when I played Four Centuries, a new CD from pianist Susan Merdinger and violinist David Yonan featuring works by Mozart, Schumann, Bloch and the Chicago-based contemporary composer Ilya Levinson (Sheridan Music Studio susanmerdinger.org). Both players have impressive résumés, but the Berlin-born Yonan made his recital debut in Berlin, Moscow and St. Petersburg at the age of 11. He also studied with the legendary Dorothy DeLay at Juilliard. He has impeccable technique, a sumptuous tone and a real depth to his playing.

A lovely performance of Mozart’s Sonata No.13 in B-flat Major, K454 opens the disc, with the fine balance between the instruments reminding us that the work was written as being “for Piano and Violin.”

Schumann’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in A Minor, Op.105 is also beautifully played, but it is the 20th century work, Bloch’s Suite Hébraïque that really steals the show here. “It is the Jewish soul that interests me,” said Bloch, and it’s that soul which is at the heart of this three-movement suite and given a brilliant realization by Yonan. It’s stunning playing.

The final work is the world premiere recording of Levinson’s Elegy: Crossing the Bridge, a short piece dedicated to David Yonan, who gave the world premiere in Chicago in 2011. Susan Merdinger is a terrific partner throughout a highly satisfying CD.

Three of the great Czech string quartets are featured on Janáček & Smetana String Quartets, the latest CD from the Takács Quartet (Hyperion CDA67997). All three works, while being strongly nationalistic, are also intensely personal.

Smetana openly admitted that his Quartet No.1 in E Minor, From My Life, was a tone picture of his life: the first movement is his youthful yearnings; the second the dance music of his youth; the third his first love – his future wife, whom he would lose to tuberculosis; and the fourth his joy in incorporating nationalism in his mature music, a joy that would be terminated by his growing deafness, represented in the score by the sudden ominous high E harmonic pitch that sounded in the composer’s ear. It’s obvious from the passionate opening that this will be a rewarding performance, and it never disappoints.

Janáček’s two quartets, subtitled The Kreutzer Sonata and Intimate Letters, were both written late in his life, when he had found his decidedly individual voice and was experiencing a late surge in his career. In particular, he was deeply involved in an intensely passionate – though essentially unrequited – friendship with the young Kamila Stősslová, and the second quartet specifically represents events in Janáček’s relationship with her; despite his age, it’s full of the passion and yearning of a youthful man.

The performances of both works here are all that you could want them to be.

American Dreams is the title of a lovely new CD from the St. Helens String Quartet (Navona Records NV6004) as well as the subtitle of the opening work, Peter Schickele’s String Quartet No.1 from 1983.

Schickele, who turned 80 this year, has enjoyed a long career as a composer and performer when not busy with his alter ego P.D.Q. Bach. This quartet, the major work on the CD, is beautifully written, moving in an arch from an Appalachian start through jazz, blues and fiddle styles and a Navajo song back to the dulcimer-like Appalachian tune from the opening.

Ken Benshoof (born 1933), Bern Herbolsheimer (born 1948) and Janice Giteck (born1946) are the other composers, represented by a variety of short works. Benshoof’s Swing Low from 2004 is eight views of the famous spiritual, and his Remember is a nostalgic sketch from 1977. His Diversions from 2005 – six pieces in various moods, including Blue Grass and Raggedy Blues – are for violin and piano, with pianist Lisa Bergman providing the accompaniment.

Botanas, Herbolsheimer’s five-movement work from 2008, is named for the appetizers served in Mexican bars and cafes. The two pieces by Giteck are Ricercare (Dream Upon Arrival) from 2012 and Where can one live safely, then? In surrender, written for the St. Helens Quartet in 2005. There is nothing here that is hard to assimilate, and a great deal that is thought-provoking and highly enjoyable. The playing throughout is warm and idiomatic, the recording quality excellent.

Also from Navona Records is Feral Icons, a suite of six movements for solo viola by Peter Vukmirovic Stevens performed by Mara Gearman (NV6008). The work was written for Gearman in 2013-14, and according to the very sparse booklet notes employs Stevens’ signature sound of extended tonality and isometric rhythms.

To be honest, I’m not quite sure what that means in this particular context. We’re told that Stevens, who studied with Bern Herbolsheimer among others, has a compositional approach that strips away the extraneous to reveal simplicity, and certainly the writing here seems to be mostly tonal and quite accessible, with a fairly standard use of the instrument. There’s not a great deal of dynamic, rhythmic or tonal range though, and Gearman’s vibrato never seems to vary much. Still, she’s more than up to any technical challenges the work presents.

Judging by the number of cello ensembles around these days, cellists must love company. Vibrez is the first release on the UK’s Edition Classics label by the London-based cello octet Cellophony (EDN1047), featuring a program of nine arrangements by octet member Richard Birchall and one original composition. The eclectic list includes Wagner’s Prelude to Act 1 of Tristan und Isolde, three Schubert songs, Liszt’s La Lugubre Gondola, Wieniawski’s Scherzo-Tarantelle (in a particularly dazzling performance), Mendelssohn’s Ave Maria, a Bach Prelude and Barber’s Adagio Op.11, the famous “Adagio for Strings.” The original composition Violoncelles, Vibrez! by the contemporary Italian composer and cellist Giovanni Sollima completes a charming and entertaining disc.

Music for a New Century is a new and intriguing CD of Violin Concertos by the American composers Sidney Corbett and Christopher Adler, performed by Sarah Plum (Blue Griffin Recording BGR371).

The Chamber Music Midwest Festival Orchestra under Akira Mori joins Plum in a live recording of Corbett’s Yaël at its June 5, 2011 North American premiere in Wisconsin, while Nicholas Deyoe conducts San Diego New Music in the world premiere of the Adler concerto, commissioned by Plum specifically to pair with the Corbett on this CD release.

While both works are clearly very strong neither is an easy first listen, with a good deal of unrelenting toughness that tends to act like a suit of emotional armour, keeping you at bay. Plum, however, calls them “beautiful, original and quite striking,” and says that she is “confident that they will enter the repertoire and be played for many years to come.” I really hope she’s right, but I won’t be putting any money on it; these are works that are not immediately audience friendly in the traditional sense, even on repeated hearings, and might prove difficult to program.

Mind you, it’s difficult to imagine a better flag bearer for them than Sarah Plum, who is quite brilliant here, or better performances or recordings. This is still an indispensable addition to the contemporary American violin concerto discography.

Rimsky-Korsakov – The Tsar’s Bride
Peretyatko; Rachvelishvili;Kränzle; Cernoch; Kotscherga; Tomowa-Sintow; Staatkapelle Berlin; Daniel Barenboim
BelAir Classics BAC105

This production was a highlight of the 2013 season in Berlin. One of the reasons was Russian director-genius, Dimitry Tcherniakov (creator of the COC’s unorthodox and spectacular Don Giovanni last February) who has since become a very desirable commodity all over the world. Tcherniakov’s modern concept targets the world of media bosses inventing computer-generated heroes and rounding up beautiful women (remember The Bachelor?) to be chosen against their will to be their wives. His concept chimes in nicely with the gruesome original story and is also very engaging, colourful and spectacular to look at.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Tsar’s Bride is largely unknown in the West and it is the true story of Ivan the Terrible’s chosen bride who was poisoned soon after their marriage. The opera is strongly dramatic with beautiful melodic invention and is profoundly moving, especially in the hands of Daniel Barenboim, who is packing in sold-out performances one after the other in Berlin and in Milan – at La Scala where Verdi was discovered and where he is referred to these days simply as “The Maestro.”

The celebrated cast is headed by Russia’s latest export, the gorgeous high soprano Olga Peretyatko, still a bit of an unknown quantity to most, but already a star. I’ve watched her in Rossini literally charming the Pesaro audience with her conquering hair-raisingly difficult vocal acrobatics and her spectacular stage presence. It’s almost impossible to outdo her, yet mezzo Anita Rachvelishvili’s deeply felt, heartbreaking performance as the wronged woman gets even more applause at the end. Of the men, German bass-baritone J.M. Kränzle, who is also a great character actor, makes a big impression as a larger-than-life and complex Boyar Grigory. Opera at its best.

Parry – I Was Glad; Coronation Te Deum
Choir of Westminster Abbey; Onyx Brass; Daniel Cook; James O’Donnell
Hyperion CMA68089

Sir Hubert Parry’s most famous Church of England standards such as Jerusalem, Dear Lord and Father of mankind (on his hymn tune Repton), the ode Blest pair of sirens, his “Mag and Nunc” (Magnificat and Nunc dimittis) and coronation pieces I was glad and Te Deum are featured alongside lesser-known early works in this excellent recording by the gentlemen and boys of Westminster Abbey. Though some contemporaries saw Parry as overly conventional, one must admit that his music can be rousing and has graced many a royal occasion, not just in his own time but in ours as well.

While I was glad and Te Deum served for coronations throughout the 20th century, Blest pair of sirens – Parry’s setting of Milton’s ode At a Solemn Music, was performed by the Westminster Abbey Choir for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (William and Kate). By employing the Onyx Brass, this recording pays tribute to the many times brass was introduced in arrangements of Parry’s work, notably those by Grayston Ives. The choir performs as if born to this music and an excellent solo quartet for the Magnificat emerges from its ranks, including a treble solo of great clarity by the young Alexander Kyle. Organist Daniel Cook veritably shines, having been given the over 11-minute Fantasia and Fugue in G Major.

Rufus Wainwright – Prima Donna
Janis Kelly; Kathryn Guthrie; Antonio Figueroa; Richard Morrison; BBC Symphony; Jayce Ogren
Deutsche Grammophon 479 5340

Perfect Polyphony – Peter Phillips’ Favourites
Tallis Scholars
Gimell CDGIM 213

Coming up to 2000 concerts and 56 albums, director Peter Phillips has chosen to celebrate the Tallis Scholars by compiling his favourite recordings from 40 years of their stellar performances of Renaissance polyphony. Appropriately, the disc begins with Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli, which also happens to be the very first piece the group ever recorded, and is followed by a lovely 1987 recording of Victoria’s Versa est in luctum. Tackling Gesualdo’s intense and harmonically challenging Ave, dulcissima Maria highlights the high level of precision these singers can execute. Particularly moving are the two sets of Lamentations of Jeremiah by Thomas Tallis, with Brumel and Ferrabosco’s settings following. Repetition, however, is not an issue: each composer’s treatment (and selection of text) is quite different. The opening of Josquin’s Missa Ave maris stella is resplendent with purity of tone, particularly in the women’s voices, and is lovely in its canonic pursuit from start to finish. The Tallis Scholars’ perfect intonation is enhanced by their uncanny ability to imbue the performance with meaning and beauty, never departing from the true spiritual significance of these works.

Concert note: The Chamber Music Orillia Chamber Choir performs Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli and works by Rachmaninoff, Fauré and Bach under Jeffrey Moellman’s direction on November 8, at St. James' Anglican Church, Orillia.

The Vale of Tears
Theatre of Early Music; Schola Cantorum; Daniel Taylor
Analekta AN 2 9144

Many years ago I discovered Heinrich Schütz’s funeral cantata, the Musikalische Exequien at an early music workshop in Amherst, Massachusetts. I am not exaggerating when I say that this was one of the most stunning musical experiences which have come my way. The week ended with a performance which was recorded. Naturally I rushed out to obtain the tape. It proved truly awful. Fortunately I discovered a fine professional performance conducted by Hans-Martin Linde on LP (it never made it to CD). Since then there have been others. I do not myself care for the very extroverted disc conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (Archiv) but there is a superb rendering by Vox Luminis on Ricercar, conducted by Lionel Meunier, who is also one of the bass soloists.

I am not going to claim that this new recording led by Daniel Taylor is even better, but it certainly runs close. It gets off to a very good start with the Intonation sung by Rufus Müller, who is terrific throughout. The singing is very fine and besides Müller I very much enjoyed the soprano soloists, Agnes Zsigovics and Ellen McAteer. The CD also contains two short movements from a mass by Michael Praetorius as well as a cantata by Bach (O heiliges Geist- und Wasserbad, BWV165). That cantata has a solo quartet consisting of Zsigovics, Müller, Daniel Taylor (alto) and Alexander Dobson (baritone). They are very good as are some of the obbligato players, notably the violinist Cristina Zacharias and the cellist Christina Mahler. Highly recommended.

Concert note: The Theatre of Early Music Choir and Students of the Schola Cantorum led by Daniel Taylor, are featured in The Lamb: An A Cappella Christmas Concert at Walter Hall, Edward Johnson Building, University of Toronto, on November 29.

Le Concert Royal de la Nuit
Ensemble Correspondances; Sébastien Daucé
harmonia mundi HMC 952223.24

The ballet Le Concert Royal de la Nuit was first performed in 1653. It can be seen as an act of homage to the young French king, the then 15-year old Louis XIV, who also danced the main part, that of the rising sun. A complete list of the performers has survived: it includes 24 princes and aristocrats, four courtiers and five children. We know that the author of the text was Isaac de Benserade. Jean de Cambefort was the most prominent composer of the music. The vocal music has been preserved but the instrumental music is based on a copy by Philidor, made half a century after the ballet’s performance. Philidor wrote out the top line and sometimes the bass line. It was left to the conductor, Sébastien Daucé, to reconstruct the implied but missing inner lines.

Often now record companies try to economize on the material provided. That is not the case here where the CDs come with a richly documented book of almost 200 pages that includes illustrations of the original performers and their costumes, illustrations taken from the material preserved at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. In one of his notes, Daucé mentions that he had originally intended to create a complete reconstruction of the original ballet, but that was not feasible. Instead, we have here all the vocal music as well as 51 of the original 77 dance sequences. This music is juxtaposed with selections from two Italian operas written for Paris: Ercole amante by Francesco Cavalli and Orfeo by Luigi Rossi. These operatic sequences are written in a rather different idiom than that of the dance music but they go together surprisingly well. The record also contains some earlier airs by Antoine Boesset (who had died in 1643): these provide an interesting contrast with the slightly later dance music. The music requires large forces to do it justice: I counted 16 singers and 34 instrumentalists. Everything is beautifully done.

Haydn; Schubert; Brahms
Stéphane Tétrault; Marie-Ève Scarfone
Analekta AN 2 9994

This cello disc comprises three significant works by Viennese masters. Haydn’s delighful Divertimento in D Major was arranged for cello and piano by Gregor Piatigorsky from the original, composed for the viol-related baryton, viola and cello. Cellist Stéphane Tétreault is heartfelt in the opening Adagio’s melodies, still achieving classical poise with pianist Marie-Ève Scarfone. They convey the Menuet’s classicism and match the finale’s brightness and geniality. For me the disc’s highlight is Schubert’s Sonata in A Minor for the six-stringed, bowed arpeggione (1824), now usually played on the cello. The duo’s reading is impassioned, its expression tasteful. Dramatic arpeggios and leaps suggest agitation and crying. The Adagio’s emotional opening cello melody carries forward into a well-shaped long line. There is plenty of colour in Tétreault’s playing, with flexibility of tempo and perfect ensemble by the duo.

Lucie Renaud’s fine program notes point out nostalgic and historical elements in Brahms’ Sonata in E Minor (1871) – for example the second movement’s minuet and third movement’s fugato – and connections to the disc’s previous works. After the Schubert, I was struck by this piece’s analogous leaping cello cries in the first movement’s opening theme. And Brahms-like Schubert is a master at mixing major- and minor-key inflections that evoke shifting moods. The performers are neither routine nor precious in their expressive reading of the Menuetto. And Scarfone comes to the fore in the finale, playing its contrapuntal passages with fire and conviction. 

Schumann – Piano Concerto in A minor; Piano Trio No.2
Alexander Melnikov; Isabelle Faust; Jean-Guihen Queyras; Freiburger Barockorchester; Pablo Heras-Casado
harmonia mundi HMC 902198

This is the second installment of Schumann’s three trios and concertos. The first (HMC 902196) contained the violin concerto and the third trio Op.110 in performances that were game changing with a soft attack and sensitive textures.

This orchestra as we know by now, with their aesthetic firmly based, seeks to recreate the sound of early music in its time. The open mesh to their sound illuminates this middle-romantic deployment of pre-modern instruments. With valveless horns and trumpets, woodier woodwinds, sinewy gut strings and taut percussion, this must be the sound the composer knew wherein no instrument is buried. Schumann in his concertos sought to harmonize the sound of soloist and orchestra rather than throw them against each other as Brahms did later. The pianoforte employed in this concert performance, recorded in the Berlin Philharmonie, is an 1837 Érard. The enthusiastic performance is a revelation, driven by Spanish conductor Heras-Casado’s well-paced tempi, always attentive to the felicities of Schumann’s score. All aspects considered, this is decidedly a benchmark account.

Exactly as I noted in my May 2015 WholeNote review of their performance of the Third Trio, “Faust and her colleagues radiate ardor and optimism, performing with sensitivity, sincere musicality and flawless ensemble that hold the listener’s attention.” Their choice of instruments is interesting: Melnikov’s pianoforte is again the Streicher (1847 Vienna), Faust’s violin the 1704 Strad and Queras’ cello the 1696 Gioffredo Cappa.

Mahler – Symphony No.5
Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra; Myung-Whun Chung
Deutsche Grammophon 481 154-0

Mahler – Symphony No.10
Orchestre Metropolitain; Yannick Nézet-Séguin
ATMA ACD2 2711

Two very different recordings pose the question: how “live” is a live performance? The Korean conductor Myung-Whun Chung has brought the Seoul Philharmonic to the world’s attention thanks to his recording contract with the venerable yellow label and the orchestra certainly sounds fabulous in this latest DG recording of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. Though it is difficult to say precisely whether the credit lies entirely with the conductor or the German Tonmeister team, the results are sonically exceptional. It is, after all, quite unusual to detect the grainy sound of contrabassoon doublings so distinctly in the concert hall or to apprehend orchestral balances this clearly in real life live performances. In any case, Chung proves himself a master of this familiar work, conducted from memory and sensitively interpreted with a convincing Viennese lilt in the lengthy third movement Scherzo and a moving yet not maudlin performance of the celebrated Adagietto. The challenge of the Rondo finale is adroitly solved by taking a middle-ground tempo that binds together the ever-shifting tempi of the disparate sections.

Rachmaninov; Haydn; Ravel
Alain Lefèvre
Analekta AN 2 9296

Ever since winning first prize in piano and chamber music at the Paris Conservatoire followed by first prize at the Alfred Cortot International Piano Competition, Alain Lefèvre has earned a reputation as an artist of the first rank. His performances have won him rave reviews in the press and he has appeared on concert stages as far reaching as New York, Berlin, London and Shanghai. Although born in Poitiers, France, Canada has long claimed him as a native citizen, owing to his long period in this country beginning with his first lessons at the Collège Marguerite-Bourgeoys in Montreal.

His newest disc on the Analekta label features an eclectic program of music by Rachmaninov, Haydn and Ravel. From the opening descending arpeggio of the Rachmaninov Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, the listener is made keenly aware that Lefèvre is in full command of this most challenging repertoire. Like Chopin’s sonata of the same key, this work is a study in contrasting movements. Lefèvre approaches the technical demands of the first and third with apparent ease, capturing the dark and dramatic spirit with much bravado, while the quietly introspective second movement is treated with much sensitivity. In total contrast is the Haydn Sonata No.38 in F Major, dating from 1773. Lefèvre’s interpretation is elegant and precise, demonstrating a particular clarity of phrasing as befits this music, clearly rooted in the classical tradition.

Ravel’s La Valse from 1918 has always been regarded as a tour de force. In this version for piano, Lefèvre adroitly captures the waltz’s kaleidoscopic moods, from the opening references to a gracious Second Empire ballroom to its final frenzy – a true musical depiction of a “harsh new world” brought on by the immense political and social changes of the early 20th century. Bravo, M. Lefèvre – once again you have proven yourself most worthy of the accolades bestowed by critics and audiences alike.