American Flute Masterpieces
Susan Hoeppner; Lydia Wong
Marquis 774718141323

This CD is itself a little masterpiece: the six works on it by 20th century American composers, already recorded by many other flutists, are performed with such style, panache, and artistry that it is a welcome and justified addition to the catalogue.

The first track is the opening movement of Eldin Burton’s Sonatina. Susan Hoeppner’s phrasing is mesmerizing, to the point that I want to play this over and over again! Her interpretation of the Canzone from the second movement of Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto is serene and measured, but perhaps a little too dispassionate. The most wonderful moments in the entire CD, for me anyway, come in the second movement of Lowell Liebermann’s Sonata Op.23. Hoeppner and Lydia Wong build on the strength of each other’s playing to come to a thrilling and almost superhuman intensity. Their performance of John Corigliano’s Voyage, while embracing the simplicity of the piece, infuses it with great sensitivity and tenderness and at times intensity that arises entirely out of the sound and colour of the flute. Hoeppner and Wong give stirring performances of the last two compositions, Aaron Copland’s lyrical Duo for Flute and Piano and Robert Muczynski’s technically challenging Sonata Op.14.

This CD brings us definitive performances of music from an ongoing “golden age” of composition in the United States, which continues to thrive in the protective enclaves of universities despite the vicissitudes of these tumultuous times. Kudos to both artists; this CD is a winner.

24 Frames - Scatter
Tim Brady; Bradyworks
ambiences magnetiques AM 206 CD www.timbrady.ca

24 Frames - Trance
Tim Brady; Martin Messier
ambiences magnetiques AM 203 CD-DVD www.timbrady.ca

Tim Brady’s most ambitious composition to date must surely be 24 Frames consisting of a series of 24 movements each of which he identifies as a “frame.” Adding up to three CDs and a DVD (AM 905), it amounts to well over two hours of sometime meditatively calm and at other times challenging and exhilarating music. While a soprano voice, baritone sax, bass clarinet, viola, bass trombone and percussion make appearances one at a time in substantial though supporting roles, the through-line here is Brady’s writing for electric guitar and his masterful virtuoso playing in every section of his sprawling opus.

Indeed the 8’53” section called “Scatter – Frame 1” could easily stand as a self-contained work. Featuring the nuanced vocalise of Karen Young, her vocal performance is so densely processed at times that it becomes a virtual choir. Yet Brady reminds us that this is a human voice first and foremost, by having vocalist Young imitate a wow-wow pedal effect acoustically about halfway in. It only lasts a moment but for me it is such deft and delicate touches which impress the most in 24 Frames. At the end of this section the guitar’s distant bell-like sonorities admirably support Young’s soft cooing.

Frame 2 is subtitled “In Almost Unison” and it’s an apt description of the relentless tempo guisto and metrically complex character of the joint duo of guitar and baritone sax, marvellously played by Jean-Marc Bouchard. Frame 3 on the other hand, featuring Lori Freedman’s dramatic bass clarinet, has many more contrasting angles and emotional facets to it.

Frame 4 – “Still” is a highlight, a lyrical, spacey and languid essay in viola long tones, chords and slow, surprisingly moody mid-20th century melodic passages. It’s underpinned by a lexicon of exposed delicate electric guitar effects: I heard reverb, precise string harmonics, thick gong-like chords, chorus effects and perhaps even pitch-shifted other-worldly echoes. This is a gorgeous, satisfying movement that I’ll be returning to repeatedly.

Frame 5 partners the electric guitar with bass trombone, in several sections juicily modulated with electronic effects. Indeed an outstanding aspect of this movement, as well as several others, is the astonishing range of the blend between the acoustic sounds of the instruments and their sounds electronically morphed.

The sonic shape-shifting continues in Frame 6 which introduces percussionist Catherine Meunier into the mix. She plays the vibraphone and afterward the marimba joined by Brady’s electric guitar, providing a welcome crisp contrast to several of the previous atmospheric sections, many of which did not posses a definable pulse. Here we have melodic lines, many founded on broken arpeggios, which sometimes interlock between instruments. At other moments the duo sounds in melodic and/or rhythmic unison, set in an increasingly complex metric and spectral framework. This first CD culminates in a satisfying crescendo supported by a sort of electric guitar trill stretto perhaps referencing heavy metal.

Reviewing such an immense, assured and accomplished work – and I’ve only touched on about a third of it – is truly an insurmountable challenge given the constraints of this review. I hope my listening notes have successfully reflected the scope of Brady’s fertile compositional imagination, and my own pleasure and enthusiasm for the music in his multi-CD project.

Southam - Returnings
Eve Egoyan
Centrediscs CMCCD 17211

This album marks the premiere recording of four piano works by the late Ann Southam. The music was chosen by Southam, among Canada’s finest composers, who died at age 73 in November 2010. The consummate Toronto pianist Eve Egoyan, for whom the works were created, makes a convincing and moving case for them.

I first heard Southam’s music in the 1970s when she became known for the electroacoustic works she made for Toronto Dance Theatre choreographers. I was surprised to hear later that we shared a mutual composition teacher, Samuel Dolin of the Royal Conservatory of Music. In Returnings I, the piano tolls in the low register while the consonant mid-keyboard chords support a disjunct melodic line. The haunting, though reassuring, music is over well before I want it to be. It hardly seems to last the quarter of an hour the CD timing states.

In Retrospect is like a broken harmonic series rearranged, a set of cubist impressions of bells ringing, their pitches ranging over most of the keyboard. One can imagine in the listening Southam’s abstracted, distanced and terse life in review, fastidious in its avoidance of dramatic overstatement and emotional sturm und drang. While her modernist colours are on display here, by the end of the work I am left with the feeling of unquiet, unnamed musical questions being posed rather than clear statements articulated and argued.

Qualities of Consonance, in contrast, has a dramatic agenda. It serves up dissonant, aggressive, loud musical gestures that would be quite at home in the mid-20th century, alternating with soft sostenuto passages. The resulting dialectic resonates on a deep emotional level. In the final work, Returnings II: A Meditation, Southam offers us a more refined aesthetic. Set in a haltingly rocking rhythm, it revisits the harmonic grammar of Returnings I.

Yes, I hear links in these last piano pieces to the more pattern-concerned jubilant minimalism of Southam’s earlier works, yet this mature autumnal music speaks to me with more conviction. They have the admirable gravitas and serenity of a full life well lived. These pieces, along with Southam’s Simple Lines of Enquiry (recorded by Egoyan on Centrediscs CMCCD 14609), should take their rightful place in the top tier of contemporary concert piano repertoire.

O Music - The Music of Allan Gilliland
New Edmonton Wind Sinfonia
Centrediscs CMCCD 17111

This disc by the well-established New Edmonton Wind Sinfonia contains a variety of music by prolific Edmonton-based composer Allan Gilliland. Conductor Raymond Baril maintains a high standard throughout, with soloists James Campbell and Dean McNeill making distinguished contributions. Included are jazz and Broadway suites as well as music based on the composer’s Scottish heritage. My main reservation is that, for a single-composer collection, I don’t hear enough of Gilliland’s “own” musical voice coming through.

Dreaming of the Masters I pays tribute to great jazz clarinettists including Benny Goodman, Pee Wee Russell and Buddy DeFranco. Perhaps better known as a classical clarinettist, James Campbell emerges here as also a fine jazz stylist and improviser. In Kalla (“call” in Norwegian), trumpeter and arranger Dean McNeill conveys brilliantly the role of a riverside trumpeter in New Orleans circa 1900 making echoing calls that are answered by other trumpets throughout the city (with jazz plunger mutes much in evidence). Fantasia on Themes from West Side Story demonstrates Gilliland’s inventive orchestration and idiomatic technique in what he calls a “re-composition” of material from the beloved musical. O Music, Loch Na Beiste, and Love’s Red Rose evoke the Scottish landscape and traditional melodic style. Overall, this disc would appeal to those who enjoy any or all of the above genres.

two + two
TorQ Percussion Quartet
Bedoint Records BR002 (www.torqpercussion.ca)

“Always complimenting or opposing” is the descriptive phrase that creative percussion quartet TorQ uses to describe the music on their debut recording project, two + two. Produced by TorQ (skilled percussionist/composers Richard Burrows, Adam Campbell, Jamie Drake and Daniel Morphy) and Ray Dillard, the CD is without question a fascinating and intense piece of work. According to TorQ themselves, their project explores harmonic and rhythmic concepts and the contrasting and complex relationships to their polar antithesis, e.g. pitched and un-pitched; tranquil and relentless; simple and complex.

two + two is comprised of five extended works, including the evocative Awakening Fire by Jason Stanford, which utilizes ephemeral vibes and marimbas, the drones of Tibetan meditation bowls and all manner of drums and percussion gizmos to create a primordial sonic landscape – replete with Neolithic thunderstorms. Also of note is the stark Tak-Nara by Nebojsa Jovan Zivkovic, and the funky, marimba driven I Call Your Name: Rescue Me (Christos Hatzis), which integrates urbanized spoken word snippets as well as some thrilling auricular cacophonies. Also moving is an ethno-centric version of iconic avant-garde composer John Cage’s opus, Third Construction.

This conceptual, non-linear and visceral music may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it clearly extends beyond a mere auditory experience and into the realm of performance art. I’m sure that we can all look forward to the next magical multi-dimensional presentation from TorQ – highly musical percussive artistry without artifice or gimmicks.

Shamanic Journey
Deanna Swoboda
Potenza Music PM1013 (www.potenzamusic.com)

The noble tuba is the only instrument in the standard symphony orchestra that can claim that virtually all of its solo repertoire has been composed within the last 60 years. This is in large part due to the efforts of tuba players themselves, who often seek out the friendship of composers, who they then commission (or brow-beat) into composing these solo works.

American tuba player Deanna Swoboda is no exception to this: a professor of tuba and euphonium at Western Michigan University and the President of the International Tuba and Euphonium Association, she also is a fantastic performer, as this solo CD, her second, ably shows. Most of the featured repertoire is by women composers and most is of the “easy-listening” variety – a number of the works having a jazz or pop-infused feel. Particularly enjoyable is the Concert Piece for Tuba and Piano by the noted American composer, Libby Larsen.

A bonus for listeners on our side of the border is the inclusion of two works by Canadian composers, Elizabeth Raum’s Ballad and Burlesque (commissioned by Swoboda) and Barbara York’s Sonata for Tuba and Piano, subtitled “Shamanic Journey,” which gives Swoboda’s new CD its name.

Saariaho - D’om le vrai sens; Laterna Magica; Leino Songs
Kari Kriikku; Anu Komsi; Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Sakari Oramo
Ondine ODE 1173-2

Kaija Saariaho stands among today’s outstanding concert music composers. She was born in Finland (1952) but has been a long-time resident of Paris. Her research at IRCAM, the Paris institute where FM synthesis and electroacoustic techniques associated with spectral music have been developed, has had a profound influence on her compositions, which often combine live and electronic musical forces.

This CD features three recent all-acoustic works performed by some of Finland’s finest interpreters. Saariaho’s clarinet concerto D’om Le Vrai Sens, inspired by the famous La Dame à la Licorne medieval tapestries is almost operatic in scope, the solo clarinet virtuoso Kari Kriikku playing the protagonist to the orchestra’s lushly mysterious textures.

Saariaho’s dramatic orchestral piece Laterna Magica derives its title and theme from film director Ingmar Bergman’s memoirs, referring to an early type of manual film projector. The title underscores the composer’s fascination with boundaries: between observation and imagination; between objective light and subjective dream-like reality. The latter is represented in sound by shifting, colourfully orchestrated, alternating dense and wispy chords and evanescent hissing instrumental sounds. Whispered words uttered by the musicians, describing light’s effects both on objects and on human mood, are culled from Bergman, adding to the music’s mystery.

The four Leino Songs, built on texts by Finnish poet Eino Leino (1878-1926), were composed for the polished and nuanced voice of the Finnish soprano Anu Komsi and orchestra. Epigrammatic and voice-friendly, the songs follow the lyrics admirably, allowing the words to dictate the overall form and duration of each song. This is by far the shortest of the works here, yet its emotional impact is perhaps the greatest.

Concert Note: The Canadian Opera Company will present eight performances of Kaija Saariaho’s Love From Afar, featuring Russell Braun, Erin Wall and Kristina Szabó, February 2 to 22.

From the New Village
Duo Resonance
Woodlark Discs (www.silverflute.ca)

German Romanticism of the 19th century, in spite of much turbulence at the time, was a golden age for the arts, especially for music and poetry. Duo Resonance is composed of guitarist Wilma van Berkel and flutist Sibylle Marquardt. The title is derived from the first set of compositions on the disc, Songs and Dances from the New Village by Dusan Bogdanovic, pieces based on traditional music from south-eastern Europe. The rest of the repertoire, with the exception of Toru Takemitsu’s Toward the Sea, is similarly related to folk or traditional music.

There is some invigorating music-making on this CD. In the first movement “Bordel” of Astor Piazzolla’s L’histoire du tango, for example, Marquardt’s robust sound, incisive articulation and precise rhythmic sense, coupled with van Berkel’s dynamic and fluid playing, propel the music forward to an exciting climax. Van Berkel‘s solo at the beginning of the contrasting second movement, exquisitely languid, sensitive and touching, sets a sultry summer mood.

Van Berkel also excels in Toronto composer Alan Torok’s idiosyncratically spelled Native Rhapsody in Hommage of James Brown. The writing for guitar, while neither particularly “native” nor “folk” to my ears, is rhythmically sophisticated and works well with the modal flute line.

The notation of Takemitsu’s Toward the Sea, described in the liner notes as “annotated to the point of excess,” proves effective, nevertheless, in drawing Marquardt, playing alto flute, into a more expressive mode than elsewhere on the disc, exploring a greater variety of tone qualities, colours and dynamics.

Kudos to the duo for coupling some of the better known repertoire for their instruments with lesser known contemporary compositions that need to be heard.

Winging It - Piano Music of John Corigliano

Ursula Oppens; Jerome Lowenthal

Cedille CDR 90000 123 www.cedillerecords.org

John Corigliano is a musical dramatist who melds the past century’s innovations into his own compositional style. Equally comfortable in classical repertoire and in contemporary music, pianist Ursula Oppens is an ideal interpreter of Corigliano, with the delicate sensitivity and fearless assurance to meet his music’s wide-ranging demands. This disc spans nearly 50 years, from Kaleidoscope (1959) to Winging It (2008). The latter comprises three composer improvisations “translated” from recorded sequences to written compositions. Corigliano succeeds in maintaining an improvisational feel, as does Oppens in her exploratory interpretation.

Corigliano’s Fantasia on an Ostinato (1985) is the most expressive minimalist work I know. His Etude Fantasy (1976) struck me as an outstanding and original work when I heard dedicatee James Tocco play it shortly after it was composed. Oppens’ interpretation maintains a wonderful sense of fantasy, while rising to the demands of five difficult pieces that never become strenuous technical exercises. For example, Etude No.3: Fifths to Thirds fits the hand beautifully.

Pianist and pedagogue Jerome Lowenthal joins Oppens in works for two pianos. In the evocative Chiaroscuro (1997) for pianos a quarter tone apart, the second piano suggests variously an out-of tune instrument, or “blue” notes, or high-register tinkling chimes! And in the early Fantasia (1959) Corigliano emerges as an Ivesian proto-Magic Realist, already with his own remarkable technique and colour-palette well established.

Eduardo Sainz de la Maza - Sonando Caminos: Guitar Works

Daniel Bolshoy

ATMA ACD2 2635

The latest CD from the outstanding Canadian guitarist Daniel Bolshoy features the music of Eduardo Sainz de la Maza (1903-82), one of two Spanish guitarist/composer brothers whose lives spanned most of the 20th century. Bolshoy has a direct link to the other brother, Regino Sainz de la Maza (1896-1981): one of Regino’s students was Ricardo Iznaola, with whom Bolshoy studied at the University of Denver.

Unlike his brother, Eduardo rarely composed in the traditional Spanish style, being more influenced by jazz, and particularly by the music of Ravel and Debussy. The works here are mostly from the 1960s and 1970s, and are beautifully crafted and immediately accessible. The eight-movement Suite Platero y Yo (Platero and I) is the centerpiece of the recital: it was inspired by Juan Ramón Jiménez’s 1956 Nobel Prize-winning prose-poetry about a writer and his donkey, and the short excerpts from the chosen poems that the composer included in his score are also included here in Bolshoy’s excellent booklet notes.

Eight shorter original pieces and three arrangements – La Paloma, the cowboy song Colorado Trail and Swanee River, complete a delightful and thoroughly enjoyable CD that runs for over 77 minutes.

Bolshoy has a full, warm tone, with virtually no fingerboard or string noise. Recorded at the beautifully resonant Salle Francoys-Bernier at Domaine Forget in Quebec, the sound is close and intimate.

As an accordionist since childhood, I have seen the popularity of my instrument rise and fall in a fashion similar to current money markets. The accordion is on a sharp rise again at the moment, with a number of new releases that feature its rhythmic and melodic sensibilities in a variety of styles.

Finnish accordionist/composer Antti Paalanen showcases his enviable bellows control and minimalist compositional ideas in the solo release Breathbox (Siba Records SACD-1005). The Finnish landscape is depicted musically in tracks like the heavy long tones and looping grooves of Permafrost and the ethereal high pitched harmonies of Northern Wind. The tiny detailed tones of Mementos waltz are as touching as looking at one’s favourite keepsakes. Paalanen is an excellent instrumentalist fully in control. Many of the repeated musical ideas seem to be drawn from traditional folk melodies creating an exciting and accessible “cross-over” effect, though some lengthy passages, especially in Gaza, could use a bit of editing.

Accordionist Robert Kusiolek showcases his playing, compositional and electronics skills in Nuntium (Multikulti MPCC002). Along with Anton Sjarov, voice/violin, Ksawery Wojcinski, double bass, and Klaus Kugel, drums, etc., Kusiolek creates an atonal musical environment in seven chapters. The slow-moving vocal/violin improvisational mood of Chapter 1 sets the stage for a diverse range of ideas that is unbelievably coherent. Chapter 4, with its intricate conversations between the instruments, is the highlight. Each player is a star, with the accordion driving the jazzy music. The free improvisational feel of Nuntium adds to the unique sound of the accordion in this ensemble setting.

The bandoneon with its free reed mechanism, is a distant relative of the accordion, so the inclusion here of Navidad de los Andes (ECM 2204) is fitting. Bandoneonist/composer Dino Saluzzi breathes sonic beauty into this “Christmas in the Andes” ensemble collection. The excellent programmatic liner notes provide a guiding hand through the 11 tracks without getting lost in technical details, aiding the listener to envision the Christmas story in a personal way. From the arid, bleak opening track, many South American musical traditions (like the ever popular Tango) are brilliantly performed by Saluzzi, cellist Anja Lechner and tenor sax/clarinettist Felix Saluzzi.

The Tarkovsky Quartet (ECM 2159) is the brainchild of composer/pianist François Couturier. His music, which is inspired by the work of the late filmmaker Andre Tarkovsky – thus the name of the quartet – draws upon his life and work. Couturier’s new age tonal music shifts slowly like a scene frozen in lush cinematography allowing Parisian accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier to sit on long held notes with solemn colour. Cellist Anja Lechner and soprano saxophonist Jean-Marc Larche add their own unique contributions to the mix. Though the impressionistic compositions are in the style of movie music, it is the collective improvisations on three tracks that are the highlights. Here the harmonic world opens to more punchy chords while accordion melodies race through florid legato lines and extreme staccatos.

Now, literally, off to the movies. Uniko (Cmajor 707108) was written by Finnish rock star status accordionist/vocalist Kimmo Pohjonen and his colleague, electronics master Samuli Kosminen. The Kronos Quartet was introduced to Pohjonen’s music while on tour in Finland, and loved how he had expanded the possibilities of the accordion. All are featured in this concert film. There are lots of shots of fingers playing but the stark stage set and lighting supports the stark rhythmic explosiveness of the music. The looping musical ideas are perfect for the film idiom. Do not be misled by Pohjonen’s on-stage persona – his expertise on the accordion is solid. However, it always amazes me that nobody ever needs to turn a page…

There is a vast world of music available for the accordion and it should be no surprise that in solo and ensemble settings the “squeezebox” keeps pushing and pulling its way into contemporary music.

Makii Ishii Live
Ryan Scott; Esprit Orchestra; Alex Pauk
Innova 809 www.innova.mu

With a strong international reputation, Maki Ishii (1936-2003) stands among the foremost Japanese composers in the avant-garde concert hall tradition. Ishii had a strong predication for the purity and drama inherent in percussion sounds and the three concerti on this CD, first recordings all, place them and the percussionist front and centre.

Ishii’s idiosyncratic musical universe revealed in these works reflects his mature style, one that straddled two musical worlds - combining the language, compositional methods and sound palette of European and Japanese musical traditions.

The solo parts are here masterfully performed from memory by the Toronto percussionist Ryan Scott. Twice nominated for a Juno, Scott has built a career playing percussion with many Toronto and American ensembles and orchestras.

Saidoki (Demon) (1989-1992) features new instruments called Cidelo Ihos, metal sculptures created by Kazuo Harada and Yasunori Yamaguchi for this work. They are sounded by striking and bowing, creating unpitched metallic soundscapes, framed dramatically by the Esprit Orchestra spread out throughout the hall. Adding to the metal sounds is a battery of wood and skin instruments constructed for this work by Ryan Scott. The orchestral writing emphasizes its concerto nature, clearly revealing the voice of the percussion soloist. By the rumbling ghostly ending Ishii’s programmatic aim, to evoke the vigour and energy of a “rough demon” with the “inner soul of a human,” has been imaginatively evoked.

The earlier, equally virtuoso Concertante for Marimba (1988) was composed for a 5-octave marimba solo accompanied by an ensemble of 6 percussion instruments. It is overall more transparent in texture than Saidoki, though possessing no fewer theatrical gestures. The third Ishii concerto, South-Fire-Summer (1992) utilises a large battery of standard orchestral percussion instruments. Initially framed with sparse orchestral accompaniment with plenty of sonic room for soloist Ryan Scott to display his mallet control and fine musical taste, it builds to a roaring climax.

The clear live sound, recorded over a number of years by CBC Radio 2, clearly reveals the timbral and textural details of these works. Kudos to producer David Jaeger and recording engineers David “Stretch” Quinney, Doug Doctor and Steve Sweeney.

Concert Note: Ryan Scott is featured in Maki Ishii’s South-Fire-Summer at the Esprit Orchestra concert at Koerner Hall on November 30.

Vox Terra - Music for the Clarinet with a Global Focus
Cris Inguanti
Redshift Records TK 425 www.redshiftmusic.org

“Vox Terra,” a disc featuring Vancouver-based clarinettist Cris Inguanti, is a satisfying collection of mostly recent works for the instrument in a variety of settings.

Unaccompanied in the earliest work, Joan Tower’s Wings (1981), Inguanti includes duos, a trio, a quartet and a highly effective work with electronic interface and pre-recorded sound. His collaborators include two of the composers featured, as well as the fine Marie Julie Chagnon in the clarinet duo by Michael Tenzer, and pianist Corey Hamm on three of the thirteen tracks.

At first blush the album’s subtitle, Music for Clarinet with a Global Focus, seems to stretch a point. Only two composers presented hail from outside of North America. New York and Western Canada are well-represented, and Toronto’s own David Occhipinti plays guitar in his own Arts and Letters. But before anyone takes this apparent geographic exclusivity too much to heart, they ought to pay attention to the liner notes, most written by the composers themselves. Balinese, Bolivian and Balkan influences can reasonably be claimed, though at least in Tower’s case, South American rhythmic character is subsumed into her own very personal voice.

More to the point is the refreshing listenability and humour of the collection. The strengths of the various pieces, and the fine musical performances given them, atone for the absence of any music emerging from Asia and Africa. With the exception of the final track there is nothing tremendously “avant-garde” or difficult for the listener to prepare for, and a good deal of sheer simple pleasure to be had nodding along to Michael Lowenstein’s Ten Children #3. Wait before giving up on track 13. Nicola Resanovic saves some delightful surprises for those who suspend the wish to turn off the clamour of the opening electronic sequence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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