Timeless
Ault Sisters
Independent AAA13001 (aultsisters.com)

The Ault Sisters are a fresh and vibrant vocal trio, featuring three youthful and charming vocalists – Amanda, Alicia and Alanna Ault. On their second outing as recording artists, longtime producer Greg Kavanagh has assembled a stellar band, including the thrilling Robi Botos on piano, George Koller on bass, Ben Riley on drums, John Johnson on saxophones, Ted Quinlan on guitar and the dynamic William Sperandei on trumpet. In addition, well-respected vocalist Debbie Fleming is responsible for all of the clever vocal arrangements (aside from a wonderful contribution by Dylan Bell on Van Morrison’s perennial Moondance).

The Ault sisters have an almost supernatural vocal blend that can only be achieved when genetics are involved – and the sisters freely and effortlessly adopt different vocal parts depending on the material. Although the repertoire on Timeless tends to travel safely down the middle of the road, the Ault Sisters’ purity of sound and musicianship easily make the most out of each neo-standard.

The peppy opener, Back to You, an original by Chris Smith and Kavanagh, sets the tone for this up-beat and entertaining recording. Other standouts include a stunning rendition of Joni Mitchell’s River, featuring the great John Johnson on soprano saxophone; a lush, romantic arrangement of Stevie Wonder’s gorgeous (and rarely performed) ballad Ribbon in the Sky and a crisp contemporary take on the Gershwins’ immortal They Can’t Take That Away From Me. These talented young artists have a tremendous future ahead of them and we should all look forward to what’s next on their mutual dance card!

Concert Note:The CD release for the Ault Sisters Timeless is March 11 at the Jazz Bistro.

Weather to Fly
Swingle Singers
World Village 450025

The Swingle Singers have been around since before the cast members of Glee were a gleam in their parents’ eyes, but they are surely rejoicing in the renewed interest in group singing the TV show has brought about. The a cappella group was formed in 1962 in Paris by Ward Swingle and came to notoriety for their renditions of Bach’s Well-Tempered Klavier. Having gone through many incarnations and currently based in England, the seven-voice group now even includes a Canadian, baritone Kevin Fox.

A cappella singing presents many challenges and while the ability to blend is a coveted skill, it can sometimes result in a homogenous sound that can become tedious. So the vocal percussion on many of the cuts on Weather to Fly adds a welcome dimension. The eclectic repertoire includes a Turkish traditional song, a Piazzola tango and a cute play on a Beyoncé hit – Swingle Ladies. The 80s are represented with the Tears for Fears’ tune Woman in Chains, complete with vocally recreated synth parts, and Chick Corea’s much-covered Spain, here given an oddly antiseptic treatment that I found unappealing (and a little reminiscent of Alvin and The Chipmunks). The title track on the other hand is an example of the best an a cappella group can be – the arrangement makes the most of the voices (especially the beautiful bass of Edward Randell). The soloists Clare Wheeler, Sara Brimer and Oliver Griffiths give impeccable performances. 

Reed sections have been part of jazz’s performing vernacular since its earliest days. But only with the freedom that arose with modern improvised music in the 1960s were the woodwinds able to stand on their own. In the right hands, with the right ideas, a group consisting only of saxophones and/or clarinets can produce satisfying sounds that don’t need the intervention of a rhythm section or even brass for additional colours. All of the fine discs here demonstrate that.

Chicago tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist Keefe Jackson extends this concept on A Round Goal (Delmark DE 5009 delmark.com), with his Likely So ensemble consisting of seven reed players. Including two of his Windy City associates – Dave Rempis and Mars Williams – three Swiss stylists – Thomas K.J. Mejer, Peter A. Schmid and Marc Stucki – plus Polish clarinetist Waclaw Zimpel – the septet members play two or three horns each, providing all the necessary contrast and colours for Jackson’s 11-part suite. After leading the others in unison ostinato lines on Round Goal for instance, alto saxophonist Williams sparks the improvisation with jagged, bracing squeaks that inflate to dog-whistle-like glossolalia, without ignoring swing. Similarly while tenor saxophonist Stucki brings prototypical free jazz cries to Was Ist Kultur, the others’ shifting modes ensure the compositional thread isn’t lost. In contrast, tracks like Neither Spin nor Weave and the descriptively titled Pastorale confirm that experimentation doesn’t have to be abrasive. The former, including contributions from five clarinetists, uses mellow architecture to construct a round of calming timbres. Pastorale, meanwhile, is a showcase for Zimpel. His bass clarinet adds a formal sheen to the proceedings, with tongue fluttering gradually giving way to unforced motions. Later, Mejer’s contrabass saxophone is freed from its role providing pedal point textures with the other low-pitched reeds featured on My Time is My Own. Buzzing out notes that could come from a cello played sul ponticello, his smears and snorts are eventually knit into a tapestry of harmonized timbre with the other horns. By the CD’s end it’s obvious that harsh textures can arise from any reed register to build excitement, as can soothing harmonies. Overall, the key point is that individual showiness never takes the place of balanced interaction.

More restrained in execution, but with similar inspirations so that the program never flags, is Itinéraire Bis (Between the Lines BTLCHR 71231 doublemoon.de). Blending two clarinet trios into the Double Trio de Clarinettes, the players use standard, alto, E-flat, bass and contrabass clarinets to highlight the woodwind’s unique properties. Although the Berlin-based Clarinet Trio of Jürgen Kupke, Gebhard Ullmann and Michael Thiecke may be more oriented towards jazz and improvised music and the Paris-based Trio de Clarinettes, which includes Armand Angster, Sylvain Kassap and Jean-Marc Foltz, has more of a new music bent, no fissure exists here. Parameters are established as early as track one, Almost Twenty-Eight, with the reedists spending as much time vocalizing exuberant harmonies as playing. But while such ebullience is present throughout the disc, so is the sophistication that melds atmospheric textures, expressing individual instruments’ rugged or shrill qualities as the pieces advance. Ullmann’s Desert… Bleue… East for instance is a centred performance that includes an unfolding hint of menace, even as vibrating low tones and seagull-like cries are harmonized into a smooth flow. Meantime Kassap takes a more cerebral and musicological approach. His compositions, Bizarre, FAK! and Charles Town, But Yesterday… which follow one another, set up a distinctive continuum. Initially an essay in low pitches, he sabotages the first track’s relaxation with chattering, slightly bizarre interjections ending with a kazoo-like cry; the next sequence deconstructs the line into shaking timbres only to have it snap back into shape following comfortable harmonies from the other players, standard clarinet in the lead; and concludes with a thorough re-examination of the theme. Rhino-like pedal points from the lower-pitched reeds balance the flighty aviary cries from the other woodwinds, with the result beautifully balanced polyphony that succinctly express the theme then stops instantly.

The difference may result from geography or personality, but in sharp contrast to the concentration on solemn experimentation which characterize the Double Trio and Keefe Jackson CDs, Montreal clarinetist Robert Marcel Lepage's Canard Branchu (Ambiances Magnétiques AM 216 CD actuelcd.com) in the main promotes unselfconscious merriment. With his reputation for creating soundtracks, Lepage sets his compositions here in a fanciful swamp populated by the insects, birds and amphibians. Moreover while many tracks on the other CDs appear to be evolving improvisations, Lepage’s are self-contained songs. Nonetheless while the sounds may be decorous and controlled, they’re not formal and mix good fun alongside technically clever improvisations. The band make-up is different as well. The core is Jean-Sébastien Leblanc and Pierre Emmanuel Poizat on clarinets, Guillaume Bourque, bass clarinet, André Moisan on basset-horn plus bassist Fraser Hollins and drummer Pierre Tanguay, with Nicolas Borycki adding electric organ on three tracks. Bass clarinetist Lori Freedman joins the band on one track and plays another unaccompanied; while the composer plays solo and duets with Moisan on two different cuts. With steady rhythm section work, the others are freed for supple, contrapuntal work, resembling the score for a kids’ show on one hand and Duke Ellington’s arrangements for clarinet trio on the other. Characteristic is Le Pelleteur de nuages, whose church-like harmonies courtesy of Borycki underlie a theme that touches on Can’t Help Falling in Love plus Creole Love Call. Bourque shines on Maringouins en escadron as tremolo horn parts sound as if they come from an accordion; whereas Fondation: qui sommes-nous? is a pseudo-tango that contrasts the basset-horn’s serene chalumeau with slick drum patterns. Chalumeau is also in use on Mi-figue, mi-bémol, Lepage’s solo feature, that improvises succinctly on the melody line, whereas on her own feature, Freedman’s variants on Le Grand Héron et la demoiselle use hectoring cries, irregular vibrations, split tones and spetrofluctuation to deconstruct the theme into individual atoms, then reconstruct in pointillist fashion.

These bands’ instrumentation wouldn’t have been possible without the pioneering efforts of players who demonstrated how flexible multi-reed ensembles could be. One of the first, S.O.S.,namedafter the members’ initials, involved three of the United Kingdom’s top jazzmen: Mike Osborne, who played alto saxophone and percussion; Alan Skidmore, on soprano and tenor saxophones and drums; plus John Surman who divided his skills among soprano and baritone saxophones, bass clarinet, synthesizer and keyboards. Looking for the Next One (Cuneiform RUNE 360/361 cuneiformrecords.com) is a two-CD set of previously un-issued material recorded in 1974 and 1975. Like Lepage, the trio often expands the concept by using synthesized loops or drum beats as continuum, but emphasis throughout is still on saxophone blends or solos. Especially moving are the jerky squeaks and cornucopia of smears, slurs and sighs output by Osborne (1941-2007), defining the substantive jazz qualities of the band, especially on cuts such as Suite and the title track. The latter at first pairs quivering, Sun Ra-like wave forms with faux baroque piano until the narrative breaks out into firebrand solos from the alto saxophonist and tenor man, with Skidmore’s incendiary blowing contrasting with Osborne’s lonely cries. A more sophisticated effort, unlike some of the other tracks, whose rhythms sound as if they migrated from a contemporary Africanized-jazz fusion date, the more-than-25-minute Suite cunningly develops its narrative from among electric piano comping plus varied pitch variations from all three horns. A tapestry of tones, smears, flattement and irregular vibrations show off each reedist to his best advantage, while maintaining forward motion. S.O.S. isn’t all about technique though. A traditional air arranged by Surman, The Mountain Road mixes a flat-out Irish reel with buzzing jazz inflections, propelling two sorts of staccato dance rhythms. That experiment worked so well that the reel appears again during the extended Trio Trio, sharing space with Ellington echoes and reed-theme deconstruction, atop bubbling synthesizer loops.

In trio or larger formations, each of these CDs confirms the long-term viability of woodwind groups creating exhilarating sounds.

Many musicians act as their own agents, produce and distribute their own recordings and promote their own concerts, but a few take on far greater roles, developing performance spaces and record labels, helping create vital scenes. Three such figures are Vancouver’s Cory Weeds, Toronto’s Ken Aldcroft and Rimouski’s Éric Normand.

Tenor Saxophonist Cory Weeds is an all-purpose advocate for mainstream modern jazz, running Cory Weeds’ Cellar Jazz Club and the very active Cellar Live label. Canada/U.S. musical exchanges figure in three recent releases. Let’s Go! (CL 013013 cellarlive.com) documents Weeds’ visit to New York’s Smoke Jazz Club with his regular associates, pianist Tilden Webb, bassist Ken Lister and drummer Jesse Cahill, and adds New York trombonist Steve Davis. Recorded at the end of a 19-performance tour, the experience shows. The music is a pure distillation of hard-bop, featuring tight-knit, spirited playing throughout, highlighted by the muscular lyricism of the tenor/trombone combination. A highlight is a reflective rendering of the late trombonist/pianist Ross Taggart’s ballad Thinking of You.

The recording venue switches to Weeds’ own club for American guitarist Peter Bernstein with the Tilden Webb Trio (CL 042613). Along with bassist Jodi Proznick, Webb and Cahill are once again models of support: Webb a worthy foil to Bernstein, turning out long lines that coil and twist, alive with melodic surprise, and Cahill providing animating drive and prodding rhythmic detail. With a distinctive singing tone, rare sustain and inspired virtuosity, Bernstein finds new dimensions in standards and jazz classics, from a heart-felt Darn that Dream to elegiac renderings of John Coltrane’s Wise One and John Lewis’ Django.

The cross-border emphasis continues with tenor saxophonist Pete Mills’ Sweet Shadow (CL 070813). Originally from Toronto (his CD includes a photo of Charlie Parker’s autograph, collected at the 1953 Massey Hall concert by his father, Ernie), Mills, who teaches at Denison University in Ohio, is a wildly inventive player with a light, airy sound and solid fundamentals. Sam Rivers and Joe Henderson likely number among his inspirations, while his themes include Roland Kirk’s Serenade to a Cuckoo and Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend. Aided by a first-rate New York band that includes guitarist Pete McCann and drummer Matt Wilson, Mills also plays two freely improvised duets with Wilson.

Since migrating from Vancouver more than a decade ago, guitarist Ken Aldcroft has become an essential figure in the Toronto improvised music scene, producing performance series and acting as one of the founders of AIMToronto, an association of improvisers. Documenting his own work on his Trio Records since 1997, Aldcroft has just released two contrasting sessions.

Aldcroft’s Convergence Ensemble is his principal group, a long-standing quintet that has been a laboratory for his developing compositional approach. Saskatoon (TRP-017 kenaldcroft.com/triorecords.asp) was recorded at the Bassment in 2007, so it’s clearly an old performance with enduring significance. Alto saxophonist Evan Shaw, trombonist Scott Thomson, bassist Wes Neal and drummer Joe Sorbara share Aldcroft’s commitment to the group, and it’s apparent in every instant of this music, a consistent collective creation on Aldcroft’s themes. Our Hospitality cleverly integrates free jazz, swing and instrumental click languages.

For sheer playfulness, there’s Aldcroft’s duo with drummer Dave Clark, Hat and Beard: The Music of Thelonious Monk. Their second all-Monk program, Reflections (TRP-018), extends Monk’s own assertive rhythms, clashing phrases and unlikely chord changes. The approach, with Clark’s explosive, weirdly precise cacophony and Aldcroft’s acid-toned minimalism, may owe as much to the members of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band as to Monk himself. It’s all a delight, but Pannonica and Monk’s Dream are stand-outs.

While Weeds and Aldcroft work in major population centres, bassist Éric Normand, through sheer creativity, commitment and energy, has somehow made Rimouski, Quebec a hotbed for free improvisation, producing concerts, drawing in international guests and releasing music in a welter of media on his Tour de Bras label.

The acronym GGRIL may identify the large ensemble Grand Groupe Régional d’Improvisation Libérée, but it also suggests “guerrilla,” emblematic of Normand’s adaptive and spontaneous rebellion. GGRIL has released one of the year’s most beautiful records, Combines a red-vinyl LP in a clear plastic sleeve, (TDB 990001LP tourdebras.com). There’s a delightful sense of community get-together in the music, whether it’s using chance methodologies or two conductors simultaneously leading a collective improvisation, and it extends to the unlikely combination of instrumentalists: multiple percussionists, bassists, and guitarists with an accordionist among the featured voices.

At the opposite pole of media, there’s the insubstantial Rrrrrrrrrroyal Canadian Free Form Folk Experience (tourdebras.com) by the trio ofNormand, Halifax-based guitarist Arthur Bull, and Toronto percussionist Bob Vespaziani, also known as the Surruralisms. Available as a paid download or free streaming audio, the work consists of a single half-hour improvisation called Batoche’s Battle, a brilliant realization of Normand’s aesthetic, melding folk materials and instruments with the most radically concentrated, minimalist, electroacoustic improvisation. It’s an invitation to sample one of Canada’s most creative musical visions.

Normand has also released the latest music by the Montreal-based trio Pink Saliva, with trumpeter Ellwood Epps, bassist Alexandre St-Onge and drummer Michel F. Côté also exploring electronics. Available as a download or a micro-edition CD, Il parait que... (TDBW0003) is a tangled forest of vital distorted sound, Epps’ amplified trumpet sounding like a raw nervein the undergrowth.

Long-playing discs were developed by Bell Laboratories in the early 1930s and a few recordings of Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra were issued by Victor. The shellac discs of the time were not viable and they were withdrawn. In 1948 thanks to vinylite and other factors, LPs were perfected at Columbia Records under Peter Goldmark. By the early 1950s LPs were in common currency, to the chagrin of RCA, the final holdout, who tenaciously supported their “convenient” seven-inch 45s including multiple-disc sets. The transfers of existing 78 rpm masters to LPs were much sought after and required no costly recording sessions and Columbia and RCA had performances dating back to the turn of the century. Tape recorders had newly enabled anybody to inexpensively document performances anywhere… well anywhere but in the United States where the musicians’ union held sway.

The Westminster Recording Company, founded in NYC in 1949, promptly looked to Europe to record those artists and ensembles that had not been signed up by producers such as Walter Legge for EMI. Through these Westminster recordings, new names became familiar to the record-buying public. Included in this exhilarating new collection of superb musicians was the German conductor Hermann Scherchen. Over the years into the stereo era he produced a Beethoven symphonies cycle, Haydn symphonies, Liszt tone poems, Mahler symphonies, Bach choral works, plus a body of work by Mozart, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Offenbach, Ravel, Honegger and others. Not only were the performances fresh and exciting but the sound, as heard on any and every Westminster recording, was the ultimate in realism and meticulously edited, on the best pressings in the industry.

In The Westminster Legacy, The Collector’s Edition (DG 4792343, 40 CDs) music lovers and collectors alike will find some usual and lots of unusual repertoire not to be found in any other omnibus edition. Some examples: 14 songs by Henri Duparc sung by Léopold Simoneau; Sena Jurinac singing Schumann’s Frauenliebe & Leben and Liederkreis, Op.39; Julian Bream playing Turina, de Falla and Sor; The Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet plays Schubert’s Quintet in C major, Op.163 and the Octet Op.166; Paul Badura-Skoda plays Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasie, Moments musicaux D780 and the four Impromptus D899; Jörg Demus plays César Franck and Fauré; the Smetana Quartet plays two Beethoven quartets and joins the Smetana Quartet for the Mendelssohn Octet Op.20. The venerable Egon Petri performs three Beethoven Sonatas, the Pathetique, the Appassionata and the Hammerklavier; the young Daniel Barenboim gives us Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.22 and the Piano Sonatas No. 8 & 16; Clara Haskil plays Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.20 and 11 Scarlatti Sonatas. Violinist Erica Morini plays the Brahms and Tchaikovsky concertos.

And there’s more, a lot more, including Holst’s The Planets (Boult), the complete Nutcracker Ballet (Rodzinski), Handel’s complete opera Rodelinda (Priestman) and Beverly Sills singing Bellini and Donizetti Heroines. The sound on these discs remains as vital as when we first heard them. Check the complete track listing at deutschegrammophon.com/en/cat/4792343.

Martha Argerich is recognized as one of the finest pianists in the pantheon. From her early years when she was not yet 20, Doremi has unearthed four Mozart performances of works that she has not recorded commercially (DHR-8024). The 21st Piano Concerto, aka Elvira Madigan, with Peter Maag conducting the Cologne Radio Symphony was broadcast on September 8, 1960. From the same year she is heard in the only minor key sonata, K.310 in C Minor and also K.333 and K.576. Argerich already possessed all the magic ingredients for outstanding Mozart interpretations: sensitivity, style, lilt, a pulse and breathing with captivating innocence. A Mozart lover’s delight.

Doremi has happily restored to active duty the 1970 Verdi Requiem with Gundula Janowitz from Salzburg with Karajan conducting (DHR-7734/5, 2 CDs). There is no commercial recording of the Requiem with Janowitz which is surprising because the ethereal beauty of her voice that illuminates this performance is quite incomparable. On stage with her were Christa Ludwig, Carlo Bergonzi and Ruggero Raimondi.

On November 15, 1958 Herbert von Karajan made his first appearance with an American orchestra, The New York Philharmonic, in a program of Webern, Mozart and Richard Strauss (Heldenleben, of course). Their November 22 concert consisted of the Beethoven Symphonies Nos.1 & 9 with the Westminster Choir and soloists Leontyne Price, Maureen Forrester, Léopold Simoneau and Norman Scott. Archipel has issued this concert (ARPCD 0556, 2 CDs). I was not expecting the polish and suavity of the playing, after all these were New Yorkers, not Viennese or Berliners who were simpatico with Karajan. The First is immediately seamless and articulate, a quality that continues throughout. There is no lingering to smell the roses or make a point. Orchestral balances are ideal and the mono sound good enough to hear all in perspective.

The Ninth has the enormous sweep and drive, played with often astonishing fire and occasional raw energy. Unfortunately, the recorded balance seems to have been adjusted during the intermission as timpanist Saul Goodman often swamps his colleagues in the tuttis making the sound somewhat dense. The third symphony in the package is a Beethoven Fifth from Salzburg recorded August 18, 1948 with The Vienna Philharmonic. This Promethean performance from Salzburg has astonishing assurance and an unmistakable aura of optimism. Those familiar with Karajan’s Ninth recorded eight months earlier in Vienna by EMI will know exactly what I mean. The monaural recording is dynamic and very satisfying. This performance is recommended without any hesitation. A must-have.

Since coming across bass-baritone José Van Dam’s recording of Les nuits d’été by Hector Berlioz while working at CJRT-FM some years ago, this has been one of my favourite song cycles. The setting of six songs on texts of Théophile Gautier, originally written for tenor or mezzo-soprano with piano accompaniment, was one that Berlioz returned to time and again over more than a dozen years, eventually providing versions for baritone, contralto and soprano and in 1856 completing an orchestral accompaniment. It is in this arrangement that we most often hear it and that is the case with a recent Centaur recording (CRC 3239) featuring soprano Shannon Mercer and Toronto’s group of twenty-seven (groupof27.com) led by Eric Paetkau. Gautier’s poems are selected from La Comédie de la mort and deal with death, love and longing. The well-crafted songs work wonderfully in every vocal range and Mercer is in superb voice, catching every nuance in this live recording from Grace Church on-the-Hill from April 1, 2011. Berlioz’ cycle is complemented by a set of five songs by Polish composer Norbert Palej who has been assistant professor of composition at the University of Toronto since completing his doctorate at Cornell in 2008. He is the director of the University’s gamUT contemporary music ensemble and of the annual New Music Festival that takes place at the Faculty of Music January 25 through February 2 this year. Palej uses his own English translations of poems by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, a leading member of Poland’s so-called Generation of Columbuses who was shot and killed at the age of 23 while fighting the Nazis in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The poetic fragments – From here…, Sparrows, Dark Lullaby, Hangmen’s Ballad and White Magic – are powerfully moving and effectively set, perhaps most so the final lyric which portrays the poet’s wife (who, pregnant with his child, was killed in an explosion a few days after Baczyński’s death). Once again, Mercer is in fine form. The disc concludes with Palej’s work for string orchestra, Rorate Coeli, inspired by a poem of the same name by Baczyński. After a tempestuous opening the tension relaxes into luscious and haunting melodic textures that eventually die away, reflecting the poem’s final lines “At night – may it grow like a column of grass, At night – let it be night eternal.”

The group of twenty-seven, founded several years ago by Eric Paetkau who previously served as resident conductor with Les Violons du Roy in Québec, is a Toronto-based chamber ensemble which draws on some of this city’s finest musicians, including members of the Toronto Symphony and Canadian Opera Company orchestras, and soloists from across the country. g27’s latest release – Canadian Concerto Project Volume One (MSR Classics MS 1480 msrcd.com) – features bassoonist Nadina Mackie Jackson and trumpeter Guy Few in solo roles performing new works by Mathieu Lussier, Michael Occhipinti and Glenn Buhr. Lussier, himself an accomplished bassoonist, contributes two concertante works for that instrument which Mackie Jackson performs with flare and grace, as well as Impressions de l’Alameda for trumpet and strings. It is this three-movement Spanish-flavoured work which opens the disc, setting the stage for the lush and lyrical music which pervades the CD. Guy Few is impeccable here and in Occhipinti’s two contributions and Buhr’s and man will only grieve if he believes the sun stands still for corno, bassoon and strings. Buhr’s piece has enjoyed a number of settings, originally written as an aria for the opera Anna’s Dream Play and now existing in a variety of vocal and instrumental settings. The current version comprises the second movement of a concerto written at Mackie Jackson’s request and I only wonder why we are not treated to the other movements on this disc. Although Occhipinti’s Thirteen Seconds is billed as being for trumpet, bassoon, guitar and string orchestra it is the wind instruments which dominate while the guitar simply adds texture to the strings. Like most of the works on this disc the music is flowing and melodic and the same is true of his Sicilian Proverbs, which with its lilting geographically inspired rhythms brings the disc full circle. I look forward to Volume Two.

Concert notes: On February 7, group of twenty-seven presents “I’m Austrian-Canadian” with works by Aaron Gervais, Maya Badian, Jocelyn Morlock, Haydn and Mozart featuring soloists Gregory Oh, piano, Ed Reifel, timpani and Mike Fedyshyn, trumpet at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre. On February 16 Nadina Mackie Jackson and Guy Few will premiere Fort Coligny-L’épopé de la France Antartique, Mathieu Lussier’s double concerto for bassoon, trumpet and orchestra with Orchestra Toronto in a matinée performance at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. On February 17 another side of group of twenty-seven is revealed when the g2-7 recital series presents Bethany Bergman, violin, Amy Laing, cello, and Monique de Margerie, piano, in music by Ravel and Beethoven at Heliconian Hall.

Speaking of lush recordings, there is a new disc from Newfoundland that I am quite enjoying. Rob Power’s Touch: Music for Percussion (robpower.ca) includes seven tracks of mostly warm and resonant music featuring mallet instruments. Power is joined by a number of accomplished musicians, several of whom have been active on the Toronto scene including John D.S. Adams (who contributes electronic treatments and co-produced the disc with Power) and Bill Brennan (who returned to his native Newfoundland a few years ago after being a member of the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan for nearly 20 years). All of the tracks were composed by Power since 2000 with the exception of Shards which is a collaborative composition with Adams, Brennan, Kevin Coady and Erin Donovan featuring glass triangles, shakers, a djembe and electronic pitch modulation. This pointillistic piece is an exception to the overall lushness of the disc, although there are percussive bursts and moments of stillness interspersed throughout, especially in the final solo track which features Power on congas, bongos, gongs, temple bowls, triangles and the like in a piece written for New Brunswick percussionist D’Arcy Gray (who was recently in Toronto performing with Motion Ensemble at the Music Gallery). While the overall sensibility of the music presented here might be classified Minimalist with its use of ostinato and “friendly” harmonic writing, there is actually a wide spectrum of musical thought on offer, including extensive exploration of unpitched sounds as well. A number of the works received their premiere performances at the biennial Sound Symposium in St. John’s and two are dedicated to the memory of iconic figures associated with that festival, John Wyre and Don Wherry. The disc was recorded at the Memorial University School of Music, where Power is associate professor of percussion and directs the Scruncheons Percussion Ensemble.

I was pleased and intrigued to receive The Edge of Light (harmonia mundi HMU 907578) featuring pianist Gloria Cheng and the Calder Quartet. The disc juxtaposes the early piano Préludes of Olivier Messiaen (1929) and his final work, Pièce pour piano et quatuor à cordes (1991) with two works for solo piano, Prélude (2006) and Ballade (2005), and the piano trio Je sens un deuxième coeur (2003) by Kaija Saariaho.

Messiaen wrote a wealth of solo piano music, much of it based on his extensive and exacting transcriptions of bird songs, most notably the seven-volume Catalogue d’Oiseaux (1956-58) – indeed Wikipedia identifies him as a French composer, organist and ornithologist – so it is of interest that the first of the preludes, his first acknowledged works, is entitled Le Colombe (The Dove). The set is more reminiscent of the placid and exotic world of Debussy than of the exuberant ecstasy of the Messiaen we would come to know in later years but there are certainly moments that foreshadow things to come. Of greater interest to me however is the piano quintet movement written for the 90th birthday of his publisher Alfred Schlee at Universal Edition. Although only three and half minutes in length, this quintet is particularly significant not only as Messiaen’s last work, but as his only work for a chamber ensemble written after the iconic Quatuor pour la fin du temps, which he wrote for the resources available to him (violin, clarinet, piano and a cello with only three strings) while interned at a German prisoner-of-war camp in Silesia (1940-41). Pièce is divided into 14 very brief contrasting sections mostly alternating between angular un peu vif unisons in the strings with bien modéré piano phrases. The exception is a longish passage in the middle where strings and piano join forces in a chattery depiction of a fauvette des jardins (Garden Warbler), thus confirming that Messiaen maintained his passion for birds right up to the very end.

Saariaho’s solo piano pieces are darker and more sombre than Messiaen’s but, to my way of thinking, do fall into the French tradition, at least if we consider Chopin and his influence to be an integral part of that history. Cheng gives us the first recordings of these two works. On the other hand, the trio for viola, cello and piano – a darker variant of the traditional piano trio – has appeared on at least two previous recordings, including one featuring Toronto violist Steven Dann, cellist Annsi Karttunen and pianist Tuija Hakkila reviewed in this column in November 2012. At that time I mentioned that Je sens un deuxième coeur was based on themes from Saariaho’s second opera Adriana Mater but noted that it is “an effective chamber work not dependent on the programmatic inspiration for appreciation.” In the notes to the current recording famed opera director Peter Sellars paints a different picture: “We are in a country that is on the verge of war. […] a young woman dares to step out onto her small balcony dreaming of freedom, of liberation, and of pleasure, to sing “I unveil my skin.” The gesture of unveiling is provocative but innocent […] This intensely personal song is the opening of the opera, and forms the content of the first movement.” He goes on to describe the “impetuous music of rising danger” depicting an abusive boyfriend at the door in the second movement. In the third her sister dreams that war breaks out and “imagines the surreal atrocity that transforms a city at war.” In the anguished fourth movement war actually does break out and the drunken boyfriend batters down the door and rapes her. The final movement, “I feel a second heart beating next to mine,” provides the musical image of the double heartbeat of a woman carrying a child which Sellars calls “one of the most poignant and satisfying moments in the history of music.” Perhaps the programmatic nature of the work does benefit from the telling… All in all this is an important release on a number of counts, not the least of which is its excellent sound quality and high performance standards.

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Salieri – Falstaff
John Del Carlo; Teresa Ringholz; Richard Croft; Stuttgart RSO; Arnold Östman
ArtHaus Musik 102306

This recording is not exactly new. It gives us a live performance from the Schwetzingen Festival, which dates from 1995. The DVD was first released in 2000 (it is still available in that format). So we are dealing with what is essentially a repackaging.

Although in the early 17th century Monteverdi’s opera had both serious and comic elements, in the 18th century these tended to be divided between opera seria and opera buffa. That division was not absolute and several of Handel’s operas (most notably Partenope and Serse) were in part comic. It was not until Mozart, however, that the serious potential of comic opera was brought out. Antonio Salieri’s Falstaff was first performed in January 1799, a little more than seven years after Mozart’s death. Yet it is a comic opera that shows little of the complexities which we find in Don Giovanni or Così fan tutte. Nor is Falstaff’s story as interestingly treated as it is by Verdi, Nicolai or Vaughan Williams.

I found much of Salieri’s opera decidedly unfunny and much of the music rather routine. There are a few exceptions such as Mr. Ford’s jealousy arias (beautifully sung by the tenor Richard Croft) and the final scene in which Falstaff is confronted with a ritual scene of torment (with the soprano Teresa Ringholz very fine as the Queen of the Fairies). It is not a coincidence that it is exactly those scenes which carry a threat which move beyond what is merely comic. 

Haydn – Lord Nelson Mass
Mary Wilson; Abigail Fischer; Keith Jameson; Kevin Deas; Boston Baroque; Martin Pearlman
Linn CKD 426

Written when Haydn was in his mid-60s and at a time of great uncertainty for Europe, the premiere of this mass must have been an emotionally charged one for the citizens of Vienna – the threatened invasion by Napoleon’s army having been recently thwarted by British Admiral Horatio Nelson. With the start of the Kyrie featuring a terrifying military outburst of trumpets and timpani followed by a jubilant rejoicing choir, the audience must have been deeply moved by the dramatic effect. Two years later, Haydn presented this work to the conquering hero when he visited the Esterhazy palace.

Boston Baroque certainly captures the character of those times, deftly alternating huge dynamic ranges that switch from jubilant and boisterous celebration to reflective and prayerful gratitude. And the current day performers were affected by equally upsetting events. Rehearsals for the recording took place at the time of the Boston Marathon bombing, giving a much too realistic experience of the original title of the work (Mass in difficult, uncertain or anxious times). Particularly poignant is the soloist’s quartet for the Agnus Dei. Following the Mass on this recording, Martin Pearlman leads the orchestra in a lively, fast-paced and vigorous rendition of Haydn’s Symphony No.102, another exuberant offering most welcome and uplifting to the spirit.

Verdi – Messa da Requiem, Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Di Giacomo; DeYoung; Griglo; D’Arcangelo; Los Angeles Philharmonic and Master Chorale; Gustavo Dudamel
Cmajor 714708

Young Dudamel’s idea of bringing Verdi’s Requiem into the open air, to an unlikely venue with questionable acoustics was a risky undertaking. It was riddled with technical problems from the very beginning, but somehow it came off surprisingly well and turned out to be a huge success. And with good reason too.

Young he may be yet he is not a showman, but a very serious, dedicated and astute musician. He conducts the entire mass without a score and without a baton, using his hand gestures (like Karajan did), not at all easy when controlling the vast forces at his disposal. He says he wants to have the piece in his hands, close to his heart. Using carefully maintained slow tempi ensures every detail is moulded to perfection, but he never lets the tension sag – Verdi would have hated that! He is also fully aware of the tremendous dramatic aspects of the work: witness the sudden deep silence after the gigantic outburst of “Dies Irae” when the clouds disperse to open up to clear blue sky, with trumpets sounding from high above and one really feels God is coming to pass final judgment.

There is a fine quartet of soloists, each having their memorable moment: Juliana Di Giacomo is heartbreaking in “Libera me,” the part actually written first where the soprano reigns supreme; Michelle DeYoung shines eternal light in “Lux Aeterna.” Vittorio Grigolo is certainly no easy-going Duke of Mantua (where I saw him last) but deeply moving in his tenor solo at “Ingemisco” and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, with his very suitable name, is a seasoned veteran in the basso role who provides a solid foundation to the numerous solo assemblies Verdi had always excelled in writing.

Busoni – Doktor Faust
Henschel; Begley; Hollop; Jenis; Kerl; Fischer-Dieskau; l’Opéra National de Lyon; Kent Nagano
Erato 2564 64682-4

Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) was celebrated by his contemporaries as an astounding pianist and valued teacher but considered himself above all a composer. It was not until the 1980s however that his compositions began to attract the international attention they deserve. Busoni rightly considered his opera Doktor Faust as the summation of his life’s work. His interpretation of the Faust legend takes its inspiration not from Goethe but from the origins of this mythical figure in Medieval puppet plays. He wrote and published his own libretto in 1916 and devoted the remainder of his life to its composition. Sadly, he died just short of the completion of his masterpiece, which he entrusted to his student Philipp Jarnach to fulfill for the 1925 premiere.

In 1982 the musicologist Anthony Beaumont reconstructed two more scenes intended for the ending of the opera from previously unavailable sketches and this “complete” version was issued on the Erato label in 1988. The Erato firm was absorbed by Warner Music in 1992 and this important recording became unavailable. Happily, further corporate restructuring has brought it back to life in Warner’s new “Erato Opera Collection” launched in 2013. This reissue features the Opéra de Lyon production under the direction of Kent Nagano with Dietrich Henschel in the lead role, Kim Begley as Mephistopheles and Eva Jenis as the Duchess of Parma among others. Though the interpretations are immaculate and the sound is very fine the repackaging offers only a brief synopsis and no libretto is provided, though with some sleuthing an English translation of the Jarnach version can be located on the internet.

The incomparable Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau first made this work famous in a compelling 1970 recording conducted by Ferdinand Leitner with the Bavarian RSO on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Fischer-Dieskau (Henschel’s teacher from long ago) also appears in the cast of the Erato production, though his is merely a speaking role at this late point in his career. The landmark DG recording has also long been in limbo though I am happy to report it too has resurfaced in digital form on iTunes. Were it not for some major cuts to the score (not necessarily a bad thing) and the damage done by the woefully wobbly Hildegard Hillebrecht as the Duchess it would still stand as my preferred interpretation of this strangely beautiful drama.

The Beaumont additions are provided as fillers at the end of the third disc of the Erato set, with suggestions of programming the tracks to either avoid or include them clumsily sketched out, though there is no discussion of the history of the reconstruction in the documentation. Rather than ending with the melodramatic death of Faust in dismal E-flat minor the Beaumont version ends with his mystical redemption through reincarnation in a luminous C major. Take your pick then, though it seems to me that on the opera stage death wins every time. The Beaumont edition has evidently failed to catch on; the recent 2001 Metropolitan Opera and 2006 Zurich Opera productions revert to the 1925 Jarnach version. Both featured baritone Thomas Hampson in a temperamental interpretation of the title role, with the latter performance available as an ArtHaus DVD previously reviewed here by yours truly (March 2008).

Honegger – Jeanne d’Arc au bucher
Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR; Helmuth Rilling
Hänssler Classic CD 098.636

German conductor Helmuth Rilling is known here mainly for his authoritative performances of Bach. But his repertoire is, in fact, remarkably broad and adventurous, and his recorded output is prodigious. In this live recording he undertakes a magnificent work whose rarity in our concert halls is baffling.

The two leading parts, Joan and Brother Dominic, are spoken rather than sung. But for the rest, French composer Arthur Honegger drew on a mixture of musical styles, from jazz and folk song to Gregorian chant and Bach chorales. These make for many wonderful moments, but the most moving is near the end, when the Virgin, sung by Canadian soprano Karen Wierzba, soars radiantly over the huge choir and orchestra as Joan is burned at the stake and ascends to heaven.

Rilling brings out the disparate moods of the work – the irony, absurdity, humour, mystery and profound spirituality. But these disjointed elements don’t always come together in the unified vision that Honegger and his librettist Paul Claudel sought.

Sylvie Rohrer as Joan and Eörs Kisfaludy as Dominic are affecting but unidiomatic, and momentum is sapped by the slow pace of their extended dialogues. It’s the Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart, founded by Rilling in 1954, that steals the show, especially with the soloists frequently overpowered by the massive forces behind them.

The booklet essay and soloist biographies are in French and English, but the libretto is given only in French, without even a synopsis in English.

Méfano – Micromégas
Isshiki; Dupuis; Isherwood; Trémolières; Ensemble 2e2m; Pierre Roullier
Maguelone MAG 111.170

Philosophical treatise from the 18th century as a libretto for a quasi-operatic work? A preposterous idea, right? Not if the librettist is Voltaire himself and the music is supplied by French composer Paul Méfano (b.1937). After all, Candide proved to be one of the best sources for the musical theatre of the 20th century. Alas, Micromégas – action lyrique en 7 tableaux – is not a straightforward story, but rather a series of musings on loosely-related topics of existence, colour, microscopic universe and human destiny. The cast of characters is more of a group of ideas, expressed through abstract, yet frequently amusing observations from the world of philosophy and, ever-important in the 18th century, science. In typically Voltairean fashion, the last line of the work, delivered by Saturnien, is “I was right to doubt it!”

This is the milieu in which Méfano develops his complex landscape of musical themes, assigning motifs to ideas and quasi-characters, endowing them with particular, easily identifiable harmonies and distinct “voices.” All of this is put in the context of a “tone poem” and “sound images,” overlapping and leading the narrative from a light, comedic touch to a much deeper, contemplative conclusion.

Méfano studied with Darius Milhaud, as well as Boulez, Stockhausen and Olivier Messiaen. All of these influences are clearly present in his music, making for a fascinating, meandering journey through the music of the 20th century and beyond.

Heggie – Hear/After – Songs of Lost Voices
Stephen Costello; Joyce DiDonato; Nathan Gunn; Talise Trevigne; Carol Wincenc; Alexander String Quartet
PentaTone PTC 5186 515

Art song is alive and well in North America as evidenced by this rich two disc collection of collaborations by Jake Heggie (music) and Gene Scheer (texts). The lost voices represented are “silenced individuals whose stories deserve to be heard,” including victims and survivors of 9/11 (Pieces of 9/11: Memories from Houston). In 9/11, the duo is successful in their intention to bring forward “the hope and newness that can come from grief” through excerpts obtained through 30 hours of interviews from first responders, families and community members. Woven throughout are echoes of the “Prelude” from Bach’s Cello Suite in G Major, providing a poignant and moving undercurrent to the memories.

Another of the “lost voices” is French sculptor Camille Claudel (Camille Claudel: Into the Fire) whose tumultuous relationship with Rodin and frustrated ambitions resulted in commitment to an asylum. The duo take as their inspiration six of her sculptures with each movement evoking the story that each represents. Performances by mezzo Joyce DiDonato and the Alexander String Quartet are absolutely stunning in their tender, exquisite phrasing.

Art as inspiration is a prominent theme throughout this recording with two more song cycles: Rise and Fall, which gives voice to famous sculptures, and A Question of Light, inspired by six major artworks in the Dallas Museum of Art.

Guardian Angel – Works by Biber, Bach, Tartini, Pisendel
Rachel Podger
Channel Classics CCA SA 35513

Lest you think this is a lightweight, “new-age” recording, the title of this brilliant new CD is shared with Biber’s Passacaglia for solo violin, the last of his Mystery Sonatas. Rachel Podger is well-known as a first-rate baroque violin soloist, teacher and leader of many of England’s top period instrument orchestras. On this recording from May, 2013 she appears alone, leading us on a tour of music from the Baroque era written or transcribed for unaccompanied violin. The program includes interesting music by the London virtuoso Nicola Matteis, the long-lived Italian violinist Giuseppe Tartini (two of his rather obscure solo sonatas) and the little-known Dresden composer Johann Georg Pisendel. The absolute highlights, though, are a suave performance of the title work by Biber and a transcription of J.S. Bach’s superb A Minor Flute Partita.

Podger’s playing is full of clarity, technical assuredness and power. What is most impressive and moving, though, is her attention to detail and understanding of the rhetoric of these pieces. To quibble, it might have been nice to hear a broader range of dynamics and colours, but her sound is so mesmerizingly beautiful and her musical ideas so clear and convincing that our interest is keenly held throughout.

I especially appreciated the recording quality. Solo violin can be tricky to record well. This recording places us in the hall with enough distance for good perspective, though we’re close enough to pick up every detail.

Royal Recorder Concertos – Music from the Court of King Frederik IV
Bolette Roed; Arte dei Suonatori
Dacapo 6.220630

With its focus on 18th-century Danish musical life during the reigns of Frederik IV and V and Christian VI, this disc shines a provocative light on uncommon repertoire and makes a refreshing addition to recorder music available on CD. On a more personal note, this delightful collaboration between the excellent Danish recorder player Bolette Roed and Polish ensemble Arte dei Suonatori had me smiling and humming along from its first note to its last.

The CD opens with Graupner’s Overture in F Major, reminiscent of Telemann’s Suite in A Minor for its similar instrumentation, style and length. Though less virtuosic than the Telemann, it presents interpretative challenges which these players meet with aplomb, finding for example a perfect, improvisatory tempo giusto for the movement “La Speranza.” Roed provides a lovely cadenza in the first movement of Scheibe’s Concerto a quattro, and a serene, easygoing yet beautifully expressive adagio. In vivid contrast, Graun’s Double Concerto in C bursts out of the gate with its virtuosic passagework and decidedly “yang” character. Graupner’s F Major Concerto and the suite from the music collection of Princess Charlotte Amalie, arranged by Maciej Prochaska, are two little gems.

The performances offer much variety of mood and colour, and thoughtful attention to details in the original scores provides a springboard to refined and imaginative interpretation. The instrumental balance is good, the booklet notes are excellent and the packaging is quite beautiful. Way to go, Denmark!