Olivier Messiaen – Turangalîla Symphonie.
Angela Hewitt; Valérie Hartmann-Claverie; Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Hannu Lintu
Ondine ODE 1251-5

I remember well a performance of this stunning 1948 work in the mid-1960s during Seiji Ozawa’s time at the helm of the Toronto Symphony (1965-1969). Ozawa later recorded this modern classic with the TSO for RCA to great international acclaim with the composer’s wife and sister-in-law, Yvonne and Jeanne Loriod, as soloists. This new recording also has a Toronto connection because it was here in 1985 that Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt came to the world’s attention by winning the Toronto International Bach Piano Competition, of which Olivier Messiaen was one of the adjudicators. As we know, she has since gone on to a stellar career.

Turangalîla is taken from two Sanskrit words – turanga, time and lîla, love – and this about sums up the essence of this work, perhaps the most inventive, original and forward-looking piece since Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps. The ten movements increase in complexity as the work proceeds. The odd numbers deal with serious issues, like life and death, the “tragic plane” as the great Arthur Koestler would say. The even-numbered ones like the fourth represent love with a playful scherzo that moves towards the sentimental with Janáček-like harmonies embellished lovingly by the piano solo. Hewitt conjures up marvellous sounds with the extended bird-calls in the sixth movement; this is certainly an apex of the composition, where one simply melts into the heavenly harmonies back and forth between Lintu’s virtuoso orchestra and the pianist.

For extra orchestral brilliance Messiaen added a curious electronic instrument, called ondes Martinot (played by Valérie Hartmann-Claverie ), with shivers of glissandos glistening in the love music and some weird barking shouts of joy amidst the overwhelming jollity and magnificent cacophony of the finale, a triumphant movement of total mayhem that somehow reminded me of Strauss’ Symphonia Domestica. This is a gorgeous disc, in the four-star category.

Symphonies of Wind Instruments
Royal Norwegian Navy Band; Ingar Bergby
2L 102

The venerable Royal Norwegian Navy Band (RNNB), founded in 1820, apparently includes a mere handful of actual members of the military, yet it performs with the precision one might expect of soldiers or exceptionally sober sailors. Ingar Bergby, much in demand as a guest conductor throughout Norway, has been the principal conductor of the band since September 2008. The repertoire of this new disc includes some of the most notable works of the 20th century band repertoire. The title track, a scintillating performance of the celebrated composition by Igor Stravinsky, is likely the most familiar of these to the average listener. Stravinsky’s former nemesis, Arnold Schoenberg, is also represented by his purportedly “accessible” Theme and Variations for band, commissioned by Karl Engel in 1943 for the U.S. high school band market. Though couched in a tonal language it is both technically and intellectually more challenging than what the publisher likely had in mind. The RNNB breezes through this intriguing work without a care on that front. The bulk of the album is devoted to outstanding renditions of two major works by Paul Hindemith. The Konzertmusik Op.41 from 1926 is a rarely recorded, powerfully performed three-movement composition in an amusingly neoclassical style while the Symphony in B flat is an imposing wind band masterpiece from 1951. The performance of the latter is as fine as can be imagined, far surpassing the classic stereo version by the Eastman Wind Ensemble and Hindemith’s own recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra, in both sound and technical precision. The disc concludes with Norwegian composer Rolf Wallin’s intriguing Changes (1984), an essay in the sonic interplay of static and incisive gestures. The 2L audio production engineered by Morten Lindberg is spectacular, with a wide sound stage and vivid presence even in the conventional binaural format. In addition to the SACD layer an extra Blu-ray audio disc is provided for the hyper-discerning audiophile.

Whose Shadow?
Lara Solnicki
Independent LSMCD002 (larasolnicki.com)

Toronto singer Lara Solnicki has released a second CD that is a bit of a departure from her first, which was largely made up of standards. Eclectic and artful, Whose Shadow? is still mostly covers, but Solnicki has chosen more modern and unusual songs, and, along with producer and bass player George Koller, has interpreted them in interesting ways. That along with Solnicki’s classical training makes this a refreshing departure from more traditional vocal jazz albums. Her delicate, high voice is a natural for songs such as Kate Bush’s Sunset and Joni Mitchell’s Shades of Scarlett Conquering. The combination of a lightly swinging groove from the rhythm section (jazz stalwarts such as Ted Quinlan on guitar, Mark Kieswetter on piano, Nick Fraser on drums and Davide DiRenzo on percussion) and Solnicki’s straight treatment of the melody on Purcell’s Music for a While is surprising and successful. Freedom Dance harkens back to 70s smooth jazz complete with wind chimes. Overall, the effect of the album is dreamy, contemplative and pleasant.

Play Blue
Paul Bley
ECM 2373

Aged 81 and ailing, the likelihood of Canadian expatriate pianist Paul Bley giving (m)any more concerts is limited. But this newly issued 2008 live performance from Oslo easily confirms why the unique style he developed in the early 1960s has influenced many pianists including Keith Jarrett.

Except for Sonny Rollins’ Pent-Up House, which Bley performs in response to vociferous demands for an encore from the audience – and to which he appends some so-called classical trope to the boppish line – all the compositions are his. Given enough time to develop, each is, for all intents and purposes, a suite, which brings in many allusions. Deceptively lyrical as well as maintaining a blues sensibility, Flame’s ringing key strokes suggest nightclub ballads like My Way, but with a cleaner interface. The dramatic Longer is crowded with chords and arpeggiated runs that would be as didactic as an Art Tatum performance if Bley didn’t slyly insert what sounds like a lick from Arrivederci Roma midway through.

Bravura, but without bravado, Bley defines his art on Far North and Way Down South Suite. Starting off in a nervy gallop, he first cycles through passing chords and glances at the American Songbook before settling into an impressionistic melody that by the finale vibrates basso, bop-like textures from the soundboard. Sharp and intense, the titled Suite piles strident glissandi and blues allusions into an exposition, then after a theatrical many-seconds pause, first deconstructs the melody then focuses it again with even-handed dynamics. Bley’s piano command is such that without leaving the keys it appears as if he’s violently plucking the instrument’s strings as he plays.

We can hope that more Bley will appear on record. But if this concert recording is his swan song, the unique mixture of skills which made his reputation are definitely and appropriately exhibited on it.

Maqueque
Jane Bunnett
Justin Time JTR 8586-2

Toronto sax player Jane Bunnett has long immersed herself in Cuban music and many of her award-winning recordings have introduced Cuban musicians to North American audiences by blending Afro-Cuban rhythms with contemporary jazz. Her latest, Jane Bunnett and Maqueque, is no different, as Bunnett ventured to Havana to record with this new all-female group. (“Maqueque” – pronounced Ma-keh-keh – means the spirit of a young girl in an Afro-Cuban dialect.) Voice, flute and soprano sax-laden, the tracks are driven by percussion, as you’d expect. The strings, courtesy of the Annex String Quartet arranged by ex-pat Cuban and piano master Hilario Durán, lend a sense of drama and old-fashioned romance to many of the songs. The recording is not over-produced so has an immediacy and authenticity to it. Singer Dayme Arocena has a particularly strong presence as she wrote three of the songs on the disc – including the lovely Canto a Babba – and has a raw, earthy warmth to her voice. One of the standout tracks is her duet on Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone sung in English and Spanish which starts out simply and hauntingly accompanied by only tres guitar and congas.

The final cut – Song for Haiti – was originally recorded as a fundraiser for Red Cross relief efforts in that struggling country and has completely different personnel on it, including Cuban rapper Telemary. The clever arrangement is a sophisticated and touching way to close out the disc. Maqueque is touring Canada and the U.S. this year and dates can be found at janebunnett.com/tour.

Editor’s Note: Four-time JUNO Award-winner, two-time GRAMMY nominee and Officer of the Order of Canada, Jane Bunnett has been chosen as a finalist for the Ontario 2014 Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. The laureates will be announced at an awards ceremony at Roy Thomson Hall on September 16. Bunnett and Maqueque finish up their U.S. tour on September 22 at NYC’s prestigious Blue Note Jazz Club and give a farewell performance at Hugh’s Room in Toronto on September 27, before the band returns to Cuba.

Last Dance
Keith Jarrett; Charlie Haden
ECM 2399

Prescient by happenstance, Last Dance had just been released when double bassist Charlie Haden died from the effects of post-polio syndrome at 76 on July 11, 2014. Actually recorded in 2007, this nine-track recital, featuring Haden’s and pianist Keith Jarrett’s reimagining of jazz and American songbook classics, demonstrates only one aspect of the bass master’s skills. His evolutionary recasting of the instrument’s role, defined during his membership in Ornette Coleman’s barrier-breaking quartet, and his political commitment, expressed by his leadership of the aptly named Liberation Music Orchestra, can be researched elsewhere.

Instead Haden and Jarrett, in whose quartet he played from 1967 to 1976, deal here with instantly recognizable melodies in a novel fashion, but subtly enough that familiar underpinnings aren’t neglected. It’s noteworthy, with Jarrett’s reputation for immoderation and showiness, that Haden’s bass work puts the finer point on these re-creations. At times, for instance, when it appears as if the pianist is opting for ponderous readings, dialogue with Haden prods the pianist to open up the tune.

Case in point is when Haden’s rhythmically perfect countermelody adds ballast to Jarrett’s interpretation of Everything Happens to Me. With the pianist now commenting on the chromatic bass line, dancing key strokes become more than decoration. Similarly It Might As Well Be Spring bounces along as a too-familiar show tune until Haden’s plucked reverb exposes the piece’s underlying gravitas, which is maintained even as the head is reprised. Even Dance of the Infidels, the set’s one up-tempo number, benefits from Haden’s ability to suggest a sub-theme while solidly accompanying the pianist’s narrative elaboration.

Poignantly, the bassist’s modest, yet powerful solo on Goodbye, the CD’s concluding track, adds an appropriate finality to the project. Haden’s string exposition creates the proper context for Jarrett’s theme variations. Unwittingly perhaps, Haden exits this session leaving behind a first-class demonstration of one facet of his sizable musical talent.

After two volumes of works for violin and piano James Ehnes reaches Volume 3 in his series of Béla Bartók’s Chamber Works for Violin with a CD featuring clarinetist Michael Collins, pianist Andrew Armstrong and violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti (Chandos CHAN 10820). Collins and Armstrong join Ehnes in an excellent performance of Contrasts, the work Bartók wrote for himself, Joseph Szigeti and Benny Goodman in 1938, and Armstrong accompanies Ehnes in the very brief Sonatina, a piano piece from 1915 heard here in a 1925 transcription (approved by Bartók) by André Gertler.

The bulk of the CD, though, is devoted to the 44 Duos for Two Violins from 1931. Bartók had been asked to transcribe some of his short piano pieces from 1908-09, For Children, a collection that had been based in part on some of the folk music he had collected before the First World War. He chose instead to write four books of duets drawing almost exclusively from a wider range of the folk traditions he had encountered at that time. They’re very brief – 28 of them last less than a minute – but anyone who has played them knows that their brevity doesn’t in any way indicate an absence of interest, mood change, variation or depth of invention.

They’re not difficult to play for the most part, although the technical level certainly does rise the deeper into the set you go, so it’s not so much a case of judging the performances here but more one of simply enjoying them. And with Ehnes and Moretti you’re in terrific hands.

By pure coincidence, the batch of CDs that included the Ehnes Bartók also included violists Claudine Bigelow and Donald Maurice in Voices from the Past (Tantara TCD0213VFP), a wonderful 2CD set of transcriptions of the 44 Duos for two violas, but with a startling – and quite strikingly emotional – addition: 32 of the original field recordings made by Bartók that supplied the impetus and the basic material for most of the duos, heard here for the first time together on one album.

The first CD has a performance of the 44 Duos with the appropriate field recording preceding the corresponding Bartók duo; the words of the songs, the names of the singers or players, the locations and dates are all included in the excellent booklet notes. The second CD is an uninterrupted performance of the Duos.

Obviously, the sound quality of the field recordings, made on wax cylinders between 1904 and 1916, is understandably quite poor, and no restoration has been attempted here. Some of the recordings are very rough – almost inaudible in places – but the emotional impact of this singing and playing of ordinary people from 100 years or more ago paired with the music they inspired is enormous and not only sheds fascinating light on the nuances of Bartók’s writing but also imparts a sense of nostalgia to the pieces that is heightened by the darker tone of the two violas.

Bigelow and Maurice wisely chose not to use the William Primrose transcription of the work – the only one commercially available, but full of crucial changes Primrose made in an attempt to keep the duos at original pitch – and opted instead to simply transpose the entire set of duos down a fifth, thus retaining their integrity. Some brightness is lost as a result – in The Bagpipe and the final Transylvanian Dance, for instance – but the gain in warmth and depth more than compensates for this.

Listen to the girls collapsing in laughter at the end of their bright, up-tempo song, and then listen to Bartók’s slow, melancholy Prelude & Canon transcription that follows it, simply aching with longing for a rapidly vanishing past. It will forever change the way you hear these remarkable pieces.

Glenn Dicterow has just stepped down after 34 years as concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, and to mark the event and honour his service the organization has issued The Glenn Dicterow Collection (NYP 20140201), a three-volume selection of Dicterow’s live solo performances with the orchestra between 1982 and 2012. Volume 1 is available as a CD and download; volumes 2 and 3 are available only as downloads from nyphil.org/DicterowCollection.

A beautiful 88-page souvenir booklet comes with the CD, which features superb performances of the Bruch G Minor Concerto, the Bartók Concerto No.1, the Korngold Concerto and the Theme from Schindler’s List, Dicterow getting inside these works quite wonderfully in really outstanding recordings.

Although he started his professional career as a violinist, Paul Hindemith developed an international reputation as a superb viola player from his early 20s. As a composer, the smaller repertoire for the viola no doubt presented an intriguing opportunity for him and he made significant efforts to enlarge it, writing five major works before he turned 30.

The outstanding French violist Antoine Tamestit has marked the 50th anniversary of Hindemith’s death last December with Bratsche!, a CD featuring four of the composer’s works for the instrument, (naïve V 5329). Pianist Markus Hadulla is the accompanist for the Sonata Op.11 No.4 from 1919, the earliest of Hindemith’s viola sonatas. The work has a beautiful opening, with a simply lovely melody that sounds tailor-made for Tamestit’s trademark deep, rich tone. There’s a lovely piano presence here as well, with great balance and superb recorded sound quality.

The Sonata Op.25 No.1 for Solo Viola is a relatively short work from 1922, but one which explores the full range of the instrument’s potential. Tamestit’s masterly technique and musical sensitivity are again fully evident.

Hindemith wrote Der Schwanendreher, a concerto for viola and small orchestra, in 1935, and based each movement on a medieval German folk song; the title comes from the song used in the final movement. Interestingly, the string section of the orchestra consists of cellos and basses only, the absence of violins and violas allowing the solo instrument to assume more prominence. The Frankurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi joins Tamestit in another terrific performance.

In January 1936 Hindemith travelled to London for a performance of the concerto, but the unexpected death of King George V resulted in the concert being cancelled at two days’ notice. The BBC asked Hindemith to write something suitable that could be broadcast in its place, and provided him with an office for the day; Trauermusik (Mourning Music) for viola and string orchestra was composed in a matter of hours, and performed and broadcast the same evening. The four movements last a little under 8 minutes, but it’s a quite beautiful piece which provides a beautiful ending to an outstanding CD.

The American cellist Michael Samis makes his CD debut with Reinecke: Cello Concerto (Delos DE 3446), a disc that highlights a long-forgotten concerto by the German Romantic composer Carl Reinecke and also includes works by Sir John Tavener, Robert Schumann, Ernest Bloch and Osvaldo Golijov. The Reinecke concerto was written in 1864, and is a lovely, immediately accessible work clearly influenced by Reinecke’s teacher, Felix Mendelssohn. Samis has the necessary big, warm tone, and there is some lovely orchestral support from the Gateway Chamber Orchestra under Gregory Wolynec. Samis considers the work to be “a lost gem that richly deserves a place in the repertoire,” and it’s hard not to agree with him.

Schumann was another of Reinecke’s teachers, and his Adagio and Allegro Op.70 is heard here in an orchestral transcription by the Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet. Originally written for horn and piano and later arranged by the composer for cello and piano, it’s a lovely, if somewhat inconsequential, piece.

Bloch was nearing the end of his life when he wrote three unaccompanied cello suites in the mid-1950s; the four-movement Suite No.1, which was dedicated to the Canadian cellist Zara Nelsova and is described in the excellent booklet notes as the best known and most accessible of the three, is included here. Samis gets to the heart of Tavener’s Threnos, a short solo piece written in memory of a close friend in 1990. Percussionist Eric Willie joins Samis for the final track, Golijov’s 1999 Mariel, for cello and marimba; it’s another work inspired by the sudden death of a friend.

Samis’ playing throughout is of the highest order, and there is depth, resonance and excellent balance in the recorded sound.

There’s something wonderfully wild and abandoned about true gypsy violin playing – its virtuosity, its pulsating and wildly fluctuating rhythms and tempos, mixed with the almost cluttered background accompaniment of cimbalom, accordion, clarinet and strings, make for an almost-out-of-control feeling of pure spontaneity.

For the real thing, you need look no further than Here Comes the Dance, a Hungarian release featuring the multiple award-winning Santa Ferenc Jr. (Hungaroton HCD 10337). Ferenc has been playing this music for 45 years, and is currently the artistic director and leading violinist of the Hungarian National Gypsy Orchestra.

It simply doesn’t get any more authentic, or any better, than this, and there is some simply terrific fiddling here. There’s a great mix of numbers, including a dazzling Czárdás by Monti, and the CD ends with Dinicu’s Pacsirta, a classic gypsy fiddle piece. The whole CD is irresistible, and an absolute blast from beginning to end.

The Brazilian Guitar Quintet has been around for 15 years now, and has made a particular name for itself as specialists in Spanish and Latin American music, winning the 2011 Latin GRAMMY award in the Best Classical Album category.

Their latest CD, Spanish Dances (Delos DE 3466), features a wide selection of works by Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados, Joaquin Turina, Joaquin Rodrigo, Federico Mompou and Isaac Albéniz, all in outstanding arrangements by quartet member Tadeo do Amaral. The group’s use of two six-string guitars and two eight-string guitars gives a richness and depth to their sound that is perfectly suited to the music on hand here. There is a virtual absence of fingerboard noise, technique to burn in quite dazzling performances and a beautiful quality to the recorded sound, which fully captures the nuances, sonorities and colour of the playing.

The arrangements themselves are quite brilliant, and easily pass the acid test: they sound like original works, and it’s really difficult to imagine them as having been originally written for piano, which all but one were.

Opus Two, the American duo of violinist William Terwilliger and pianist Andrew Cooperstock, has a new CD of George Gershwin Music for Violin and Piano (Azica ACD-71290). Both players have just the right sound and style for this music, although some of the transcriptions are less successful than others. There are four world premiere recordings here, three of them – the Suite from Girl Crazy, Love Walked In and Nice Work If You Can Get It – by arranger Eric Stern; the fourth is Ayke Agus’ completion (from the original sketches) of Jascha Heifetz’s Excerpts from An American in Paris, Heifetz also being responsible for the Three Preludes for Piano and the Selections from Porgy and Bess. The only original piece for violin and piano is Short Story, which Gershwin wrote with and for the violinist Samuel Dushkin.

The arrangements are, for the most part, creative, sympathetic and effective, although the Porgy and Bess transcription (and to a lesser extent An American in Paris) suffers from being a bit too clever at times – perhaps not surprisingly, given that the transcriber was Heifetz; far from enhancing the music, the virtuosity seems to be all that matters, and simply gets in the way.

Soprano Ashley Brown joins the duo for the two songs Love Walked In and Nice Work If You Can Get It, and does a great job; the vocals are light and idiomatic, and the arrangements and violin playing quite lovely.

Violinist Midori Seiler is joined by the period specialist ensemble Concerto Köln, which she also directs, on her latest CD of Violin Concertos by Joseph Haydn (Berlin Classics 0300550BC). Four of the numerous violin concertos attributed to Haydn have been confirmed as authentic; one in D major has been lost, and the three concertos here in C Major, A Major and G Major, Hob.VIIa Nos.1, 3 and 4 respectively.

Seiler is noted as one of the leading period performance violinists in Germany, and brings a wealth of insight and experience to these fascinating works. The small size of the accompanying ensemble for this recording – six violins, two violas, one cello and one bass – gives the performances a lightness, clarity and sense of intimacy which is quite delightful, while the excellent range of dynamics provides a spirited vibrancy throughout.

The final track on a lovely CD is the short but charming Romance by Johann Peter Salomon, the German violinist and contemporary of Haydn who achieved greater fame as the London impresario who brought the composer to England on his two London visits.

Moving into a comfortable adulthood, the annual Guelph Jazz Festival (GJF), September 3 to 7, hasn’t abandoned its presentation of new artists. However it has reached the state where musicians who have been there in the past are returning, but mostly in new contexts. Case in point in 2014, the 100th anniversary of bandleader Sun Ra’s arrival on this planet – he returned to the cosmos in 1993 – where the Sun Ra Arkestra, now under the direction of alto saxophonist Marshall Allen, gives two performances on September 6. The first is an afternoon parade; the second couples the band with dancers from the Colman Lemieux Company for “Hymn to the Universe,” a multi-media presentation at the River Run Centre (RRC).

Minus the visuals you can sample a Sun Ra Arkestra performance on Live in Ulm 1992 (Golden Years of Jazz GY 30/31 leorecords.com) when Ra, the man from Saturn, was still in charge. Unusual because there’s extended input from trombonist Tyrone Hill, guitarist Bruce Edwards and electric bassist Jothan Collins, this 10-piece Arkestra features four drummers, two reedists and two trumpeters who faultlessly follow the segues directed by Ra’s piano. An intense track like The Shadow World is defined by screaming reed multiphonics as the rest of the orchestra harmonizes; while James Jacson’s nasal oboe and Allen’s guttural flute bring otherworldly exotica to The Mayan Temples just as a bass vamp and percussion bumps keep it attached to terra firma. Elsewhere the percussionists’ claves produce a montuno pulse on a Latinized version of Fate in a Pleasant Mood, but before the dance beat becomes too predictable, Ra slips in references to other Ra classics while sounding if he’s playing a honky-tonk keyboard. Suggestions of spirituals and the Second Line alternate with brassy crescendos, and just as you think all the tricks have been revealed, the group presents a raucous recreation of Fletcher Henderson’s Hocus Pocus. Later there’s a vocal version of Prelude to a Kiss whose clip-clop backing is crowned by a strident Allen solo. With marching band precision and rhythmic hand claps, most of the second CD is given over to a singalong medley of Ra’s greatest hits including Space is the Place, We Travel the Spaceways and Outer Spaceways Incorporated. Ra may have left this earth, but the Arkestra continues impressing people.

Another veteran musician who has helped extend the lineage of jazz is New Orleans-based tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan. He returns to the GJF September 6 to play the River Run Centre’s Co-operators Hall with another Free Jazz pioneer, drummer Milford Graves, plus Canadian pianist D. D. Jackson. Jordan and Graves haven’t recorded together but Trio and Duo in New Orleans (NoBusiness Records NBCD 64/65 nobusinessrecords.com) suggests how they may sound since here the saxophonist’s partner is another Free Jazz percussion pioneer: Alvin Fielder. More interesting is the second CD of duos, although both are also in top form on the first CD that adds the late bassist Peter Kowald. Jordan’s tempered split tones and stentorian output that stands up to every challenge are completely original. In the main, he’s comfortable in the altissimo register and on pieces such as Duo Flight, invention is paired with stridency as screeched multiphonics alternate with moderato slurs. Fielder uses shakes and shudders from percussion add-ons to make his points. In the final minutes, as Jordan moves into lower pitches, the two attain a spiky rapprochement that brings in bop echoes. Even when Fielder takes a protracted solo as he does on E. Fashole-Luke, there’s no show-off commotion, just moderated pizzazz. The drummer’s ruffs, ratamacues and rebounds show a man in perfect command of his kit. This sound authority extends to Jordan, who utilizes screams and melisma to build up to major saxophone statements. That the CD’s final track was recorded seven years after the first four, with no letdown in power, is a confirmation of the musicians’ skills.

Another sax-drum duo of equal quality unrolls on September 5 at the Guelph Youth Music Centre (GYMC) with American multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee and French percussionist Lê Quan Ninh. Highly praised for his mastery of contemporary notated music, Ninh is equally proficient as an improviser as he demonstrates with Montreal saxophonist Jean Derome on Fléchettes (Tour de Brass TDB 9004cd tourdebrass.com). During the course of one over-40-minute track the two face off like friendly gladiators lobbing back and forth any texture suggested by one or the other. Using only a giant, horizontal bass drum Ninh’s creations take on spatial as well as sonic qualities. Scraping, sliding and stroking a variety of timbres from his drum, he uses room architecture to amplify and expand rim shots plus wood abrasions, while creating electronic-like drones. Making use of all registers of his alto saxophone and flute, Derome’s interface is as dissonant as it is startling. His emotional expressions are sourced from flatulent guzzling slide-whistle-like peeps and piercing duck calls. In the duet’s final minutes a rapprochement established with the broken-octave improvisations finally fades following ghostly cries from Derome’s horn and answering rubs from Ninh’s drum top.

Drummer Lou Grassi partners another improv master, Belgian pianist Fred Van Hove on a GYMC double bill on September 6. Like Jordan, whose commitment to free expression goes back to the 1960s, the pianist works in many contexts. One unusual set-up is captured on Burns Longer (Balance Point Acoustics BPA2 balancepointacoustics.com) playing with Belgian bassist Peter Jacquemyn and American bassist Damon Smith. Grinding and goosing their eight strings the two scramble to keep up with Van Hove whose cadenza stream almost sweeps any interference out of his way. Not that this is a one man show. Both bull fiddlers hold their own, with one fortifying the rhythmic pulse and the other stropping strings. Sharpened stops squeak from the highest register as often as bowed textures outline more supple textures. Although Archiduc 2 is the most pianistic of the tracks, as Van Hove dampens his note waterfall by percussively stopping inner strings, the concluding 35-minute Archiduc 3 defines the narratives. Unexpectedly uncrating his accordion so that tremolo glissandi create an ostinato underpinning, the bassists’ response is close to what could be heard on a baroque recital. Back on piano, Van Hove’s kineticism increases. Yet the technical expertise of Smith and Jacquemyn allows them to not only respond with buoyant tones but also to mutate these timbres to resemble harsh blowing from saxophones or didgeridoos. Finally just as it seems as if the mixture of splayed strings and cascading lines can’t get any more exciting, the trio reaches a crescendo of interactive polyphony as the altered chords and tremolo strokes meld.

Another pianist returning to Guelph on a Co-operators Hall double bill on September 4 is Vijay Iyer whose trio includes drummer Tyshawn Sorey. Both are on featured on Pyramid, where alto saxophonist Pete Robbins mixes his fine-boned originals with jazz variations on tunes by Guns’n’Roses, Stevie Wonder, Nirvana and even Jimmy Webb (Hate Laugh Music 003 peterobbins.com). Playing with a Paul Desmond-like fluidity but a harder tone, Robbins’ recreations are neither smooth nor funk jazz. Instead the improvisations toughen a tune like Wichita Lineman, as Iyer’s molten swing runs contrast to Robbins’ relaxed reading of the head; or add unprecedented free-form motions to rock anthems. Lithium is given a Latin treatment as the pianist’s fleet fingering deconstructs the bridge, only to speed up returning to the familiar theme. Meanwhile the altioist’s reed vibrations and the pianist’s chording unearth the near-symphonic underpinning of Hallelujah. The Robbins-composed title tune showcases Sorey’s powerful backbeat; while a strummed solo from bassist Eivind Opsvik defines the groove on Too High. The probability of Iyer and Sorey presenting any Nirvana or Wonder songs during their concert is pretty slim. But considering the GJF’s reputation for showcasing unconventional music, and the breadth of the performers’ talents this year, who know what may take place?

By happy coincidence the past few months have seen new releases by many of Toronto’s most consistently creative musicians.

The trio of saxophonist Mike Murley, guitarist Ed Bickert and bassist Steve Wallace set a high standard for harmonically sophisticated, lyrical chamber jazz. The group released just two CDs – Live at the Senator and Test of Time – but each won the JUNO for Best Traditional Jazz Album, the former in 2002 and the latter in 2013. Guitarist Reg Schwager assumed the guitar chair when Bickert retired in 2001, but Looking Back (Cornerstone CRST CD143 cornerstonerecordsinc.com) is the first time this configuration of The Mike Murley Trio has recorded. The tunes are chosen with rare taste, emphasizing little-heard pieces by great composers, like Billy Strayhorn’s Isfahan and Antônio Carlos Jobim’s If You Never Come to Me. It’s music of supreme artistry, floated aloft on Murley’s distinctive, almost feathery, tenor saxophone sound and the bubbling electric clarity of Schwager’s guitar, all of it tethered joyously to Wallace’s pulsing bass lines. A rare blend of wistful reflections and soaring freedom make the CD another JUNO contender.

Reg Schwager turns up in another fine ensemble, trombonist Darren Sigesmund’s distinctive septet, on Strands III (darrensigesmund.ca). Sigesmund is an outstanding composer, creating welcoming moods comprised of evocative and elusive harmonies. His music is both warm and cool, dense and transparent, and there’s a subtle Latin flavour woven throughout. If his earlier work suggested a strong Wayne Shorter influence, his own identity is everywhere apparent here, its distinctive sound formed by the unusual combination of Eliana Cuevas’ wordless voice, his own mellifluous trombone and the expressive wail of Luis Deniz’s alto and soprano saxophones, complemented by Schwager, vibraphonist Michael Davidson, bassist Jim Vivian and drummer Ethan Ardelli. El Encanto, the only song here with words (Cuevas’ own) is particularly compelling.

Fern Lindzon is a rare jazz singer, her strong identity based on nuanced expression, a clear, almost silky voice, and a freedom from the collections of mannerisms that many jazz singers use to distinguish themselves. Instead, her work seems to grow from her solid piano playing and the empathy that exists with her band. For her third CD, Like a Circle in a Spiral (iatros IMO3 fernlindzon.com), she moves deftly between languages and styles, singing songs in Hebrew (Mishaela) and Yiddish (A Malekh Veynt) with the same idiomatic comfort that marks the more familiar Windmills of Your Mind. The most striking piece may be her arrangement of alternative pop songwriter Ron Sexsmith’s Jazz at the Bookstore, a richly ironic rendition in which accomplished jazz musicians (saxophonist David French, bassist/producer George Koller, vibraphonist Michael Davidson and drummer Nick Fraser) get to “play” jazz musicians.

Bassist Andrew Downing, trumpeter Jim Lewis and guitarist David Occhipinti provide comparable surprise on Bristles (Occdav Music - OM007, davidocchipinti.com), as they alternate a series of brief collective improvisations with longer treatments of standards. Each of the improvisations is named for a 20th-century painter, with a direct methodological link between the repeated even tones and cyclical discords of Cy Twombly and the sudden swirling lines of Jackson Pollock. The standards are evidently chosen for melodic richness, with the trio exploring the possibilities of such tunes as My One and Only Love, Emily and I Fall in Love Too Easily. There’s a spectacular clarity of thought and sound as the three embellish and reshape their materials, at times turning suddenly from icy abstraction to the most exalted lyricism.

Pianist Gerry Shatford worked extensively in the Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa jazz scenes before returning to Toronto where he was raised. He’s been emphasizing composition in recent years, along with studies with master pianist Stanley Cowell, and the results of both pursuits are documented on When I Sat Down to Play the Piano (gerryshatford.com), a suite of pieces inspired by Al Purdy’s poetry. Viewed through the great piano tradition of James P. Johnson, Thelonious Monk (his compositions get quoted) and Bud Powell, the poems find analogues in the off-kilter stride of Home-Made Beer or the romantic reverie of How a Dog Feels to Be Old. Accompanied here by the ideal rhythm section in bassist Neil Swainson and drummer Terry Clarke, the journeyman Shatford reveals a strong identity of his own.

The Jazz Descendants are another piano trio featuring a relatively unknown pianist with a stellar rhythm section, combining bassist Brandi Disterheft and drummer Leroy Williams with pianist Joshua Goodman, who works regularly in Disterheft’s quartet. Red (Superfran Records SFR0008, superfranrecords.com) is dedicated to Barry Harris, the respected bop pianist and teacher with whom Williams has long been associated and with whom Goodman has studied. Much of the music is low key, Goodman blending his mainstream jazz and classical influences in a consistently pleasant way, While his reflective Medley goes on too long, stretching its pastoral themes to the 14-minute mark, he brings a precise bop touch to the venerable Scrapple from the Apple. The best moments come when Disterheft and Williams come to the fore, as on the bassist’s potent Prayer to Release the Troops. 

Conductor Ferenc Fricsay (1914-1963) was a significant figure in the international music world in the mid-20th century. He was born in Budapest and studied with Bartók, Dohnányi and Kodály at the Budapest Academy of Music. He held several posts before 1945 when he became co-conductor of what would become the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra and sole director of the Budapest Opera. By the 1950s his interpretive talent was recognized and he was in demand as a guest conductor by leading orchestras. He left the Budapest Philharmonic in 1948 to become music director of the recently formed RIAS Symphony in Berlin. He held that post from 1948 through 1954, then again from 1959 to 1963.

Thanks to Deutsche Grammophon (DGG at the time) who recorded Fricsay working with his own and other orchestras, there is a wealth of superb performances in the vaults that are about to surface and re-surface in two omnibus CD packages. The first is available now, Ferenc Fricsay The Complete Recordings Volume 1: Orchestral Works (479 2891 45CDs, mono and stereo). Recorded mostly in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche in Berlin, with either the Berlin Philharmonic or the RIAS and its successor, these performances represent the highest level of musicmaking.

I recall my excitement in 1958 over acquiring the Beethoven Ninth in stereo! It was by Ferenc Fricsay conducting the Berlin Philharmonic with soloists Irmgard Seefried, Maureen Forrester, Ernst Haefliger and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. It was on two Decca LPs and was outstanding in every respect. As I write this I am listening to that very performance on disc nine of this collection and it really does stand the test of time. This is a different Beethoven from, say, the Klemperer or Furtwangler Beethoven. The textures are translucent without any suggestion of inevitability, particularly the slow movement which is open and at times radiant. In total there are five discs of Beethoven in the box and lots of brilliant performances of Bartók and Kodály. There are four discs of Tchaikovsky, five of Mozart. Soloists include Géza Anda, Tibor Varga, Monique Haas, Annie Fischer, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Pierre Fournier, Nicanor Zabaleta, János Starker, Joanna Martzy, Erica Morini, Clara Haskil, Yehudi Menuhin and many others. Clearly there is no space to detail the extensive popular and esoteric repertoire but the detailed track listing of the contents is at deutschegrammophon.com.

Thanks to the soundtrack of 2001, A Space Odyssey, Also Sprach Zarathustra is Richard Strauss’ most familiar work … well, at least the opening pages. Producer and director Stanley Kubrick carefully chose the music and selected the Herbert von Karajan-Vienna Philharmonic recording on Decca as his must-have. The request was unequivocally declined but after much negotiating, Decca agreed on condition that the performance remain anonymous and never identified. A soundtrack album was issued, substituting a Böhm recording. The secret was safe. Years later all was revealed and we wonder if Decca or Karajan was calling the shots.

That performance and the other Richard Strauss recordings made by John Culshaw in the Sofiensaal in 1959 are contained in a sumptuous package of all Karajan’s analog recordings of Richard Strauss for Decca and DG with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras. Karajan Strauss (4792686) is a limited edition, LP-sized package, about an inch thick, containing eleven CDs, a Blu-ray audio disc and an informative art book. None of these recordings is new to the catalogue. All the usual suspects are here including the live 1960 Der Rosenkavalier from Salzburg (including libretto), plus two historic recordings with the Concertgebouw Orchestra from 1943, The Dance of the Seven Veils and Don Juan, set beside the 1970s recordings from Berlin. The astounding new 24/96 processing of all these analog originals is an unexpected revelation of just how much more information there was to hear. The Blu-ray disc contains the same repertoire as on six of the 11 CDs.

Oscar Shumsky (1917-2000) was one of the most cultivated and exquisite violinists of his time, revered by his fellow musicians. He enjoyed a busy career, from the child prodigy engaged by the likes of Stokowski and Reiner settling into the role of concertmaster of New York orchestras and a much-loved and sought-after chamber musician. He played regularly with Glenn Gould, William Primrose, Bernard Greenhouse, Leonard Rose and Earl Wild and vocalists Maureen Forrester, Lois Marshall and James Melton. He was also a conductor and teacher. Canadians may well remember hearing performances in Stratford where he was co-director (1961-64) or director (1965-67) of music. I recall a Mozart concerto there “conducted from the keyboard” by Jose Iturbi in which the orchestra depended entirely on concertmaster Shumsky for their cues. He remained a regular contributor to Toronto’s musical life in addition to his role as teacher.

As sometimes happens, a major talent often is underutilized by the record companies in concerto recordings. In his later years however, Shumsky was taken over by an influential British concert management and became a busy soloist in recordings with leading orchestras.

A new Doremi set (DHR-8031-3 , 3 CDs) is a treasure house of mostly previously unreleased highlights of four decades of Shumsky’s great artistry in various musical styles, in concert with the above artists, playing composers from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to Hindemith. Complete details at Doremi.com. 

Palace of Wind
Battle Trance
New Amsterdam NWAM058 (newamrecords.com)

 Battle Trance may be a quartet of tenor saxophonists, but banish from your inner ear the smooth reed sounds of The Four Brothers or more experimental foursomes like ROVA. Instead the Brooklyn-based ensemble, which plays at Arraymusic  on September 5 (155 Walnut Ave, 416.532.3019), specializes in a more difficult type of interaction.

An interconnected three-part composition by leader Travis Laplante, Palace of Wind wasn’t notated, but taught orally to the other players: Matthew Nelson, Jeremy Viner and Patrick Breiner. Laplante, whose improv experience includes the band Little Women, uses the harmonic conventions of jazz only as a bonding mechanism. Setting up the sequences, unaccented buzzing, tinges of folk melodies and contrasting expositions, singular, unison and with the other saxes’ organ-like chords cocooning the soloist, are put into play at various times. Similarly the narrative moves from gentle, barely audible whispers to crescendos of fortissimo timbres. Utilizing all parts of the woodwind(s), specific passages concentrate on the highest alto-like register of the horns or guttural, baritone-like lowing. But no tone predominates; and there’s always underlying textural bonding. Consistently deconstructing and rebuilding the themes, near pastoral sections are succeeded by ferocious blow-outs with split tones and irregular vibrations cascading every which way. Then just as often, intricate, overlapping unison playing arises.

Reaching a climax in the final minutes of the third and lengthiest section, the concentrated reed drone becomes so intense it’s almost visible. Just as quickly though this basso-range wallowing is succeeded by wispy reed airiness that guides the piece to its conclusion, with the horns and program still accurately and memorably harmonized.

This CD, and the upcoming performance, promise air currents you probably won’t want to miss hearing.

The Humours of Autorickshaw
Autorickshaw
Tala Wallah Records TW 005 (autorickshaw.ca)

The JUNO-nominated world music ensemble Autorickshaw’s delightfully exciting fourth album is a rich record of a particular transcultural Toronto musical masala. Make no mistake; The Humours of Autorickshaw is no parochial product however. Rather its achievement resonates across other communities of musicians forging other new musical hybrids. In its ambitious aspirations—adventurous genre mixings, and in some of its lyrics touching, contentious reaches of the human condition—it will resonate with select global audiences.

Somos Agua
Tony Malaby: Tamarindo
Clean Feed CF 304 CD (cleanfeed-records.com)

An essay on the intricacies of saxophone improvisation, New York tenor man Tony Malaby explores every nuance of reed sounds on this matchless session, backed only by the four-square pacing of William Parker’s double bass and the rhythmic flow of drummer Nasheet Waits. Reminiscent of similar trio tours-de-force by Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson, the seven selections make up a suite whose parts flow logically and seamlessly into one another. At the same time, Malaby’s solos confirm his experimental credo by exposing as many split tones and screeches as emotive flutters and gentling tones.  

Never losing sight of the tonal even as his solo explorations appear to produce aural x-rays of his horn’s insides, on the title track the saxophonist’s output is unhurried and relaxed enough to reference  the initial theme, even as his dense multiphonics squeeze the last atom of sound out of his horn. Parker’s power stops or sensitive bowing, plus Waits’ crunches and clatters, aptly second the saxophone flights. Nonetheless, the most edifying example of the Tamarindo trio’s game plan is the 14-minute Can’t Find You. Despite the title, there’s never a moment when the drummer’s intuitive cymbal splashes or drum colours aren’t on track as Malaby stretches stratospheric altissimo cries into slim variations which are finally reconstituted as a powerful narrative. Framing the journey, Parker’s thick stops eventually become supple, supportive strums. With this defining saxophone CD under his belt, it will be instructive to see how Malaby intersects with the local three-saxophones-three-rhythm Kayos Theory sextet when he plays The Rex June 27 and 28.

Jeanne Lamon’s more than 30 years at the helm of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra has been an incredible journey which has resulted in the development of one of the world’s great orchestras and brought respect and renown (and the best period performers in the world) to Toronto. A leader in the true sense of the word, when Lamon declared her intention to retire last year there was a sense of shock throughout the music community, only somewhat mitigated by the announcement that she would stay involved through a newly established legacy project, the Tafelmusik Institute.

Another recent legacy project was the eponymous recording label Tafelmusik Media through which the orchestra has garnered control of its back catalogue, reissuing such classics as Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and producing new CDs and DVDs recorded in Toronto’s flagship venue Koerner Hall. To celebrate her extraordinary association with Tafelmusik the latest offering from the label is a collection of highlights from earlier recordings featuring Lamon in prominent roles entitled The Baroque Virtuoso (TMK1026CD).

Bach’s Concerto for 2 Violins in D Minor, in which Lamon is joined by longtime Tafelmusik colleague Linda Melsted, opens the disc in suitably festive and flamboyant style. This is followed by the Concerto Grosso in C Major after Corelli by Geminiani whose contemplative opening and third movement adagios are contrasted by the playful allegros in which the ensemble and soloist enjoy a merry chase. The full string orchestra is featured in these works, but in Schmelzer’s long slow Sonata III from Sonatae unarum fidium Lamon is showcased alone with the accompaniment of only a chamber organ. Also on a smaller scale, but with full continuo and small string section, is Biber’s Partia V from Harmonia artificioso-ariosa. These, plus another concerto grosso by Geminiani and the “Summer” concerto from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons were recorded in the 1990s and originally released by Sony. The final selection, Bach’s Suite in A Minor for violin and strings after BWV1067, is a more recent performance from a 2011 Analekta recording.

While we wouldn’t normally pay attention to a compilation of earlier releases, this tribute to Jeanne Lamon on the occasion of her departure from Tafelmusik gives a worthy context and a welcome reason to revisit this marvellous music making. Changes of this magnitude which mark an end of an era also give the opportunity for new beginnings and we look forward to the next phase in the history of this important Toronto institution.

Another extraordinary Canadian orchestra with a relatively short history is the National Arts Centre Orchestra, established in 1969 in the nation’s capital under the direction of the late Mario Bernardi. One of the seminal experiences in my own development as a listener was a performance in the early 1970s at Massey Hall which featured Bernardi conducting the NACO from the piano in a Mozart concerto. Although I have forgotten the exact details of that evening – I believe it was one of the “20-something” concertos – what has remained with me is the flamboyance of Bernardi’s performance and way he was able to communicate with the orchestra by a simple nod of the head or lift of the wrist. The musicians, and the audience, were enthralled.

Now, more than four decades later, I am again captivated by NACO performances of Mozart concertos. Designed as a “classical” orchestra at less than two thirds the size of a modern symphony, the NACO is perfectly suited for the music of Haydn and Mozart. In this instance the soloist is renowned Canadian Angela Hewitt – I also remember when she won the 1985 Toronto International Bach Piano Competition at which one of the adjudicators was Olivier Messiaen – and the conductor is Finnish rising star Hannu Lintu. Mozart Piano Concertos 22 & 24 (Hyperion CDA68049) features Hewitt’s characteristic crisp and nuanced playing perfectly balanced with the orchestra, whose horns, winds and reeds are in especially fine form. There are extensive and elucidating booklet notes by Hewitt herself and biographical information is included about the soloist, conductor and orchestra. The only thing missing that I would have been interested to know is how it came about that Lintu was selected for the recording rather than the orchestra’s director Pinchas Zukerman, whose recordings of Haydn, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart are referenced in the notes. This recording from the National Arts Centre dates from July last year, so some time after Zucherman’s announcement that he would leave the orchestra in 2015, but still well within his tenure…

Concert note: Angela Hewitt is featured in an unusual pairing with choreographer/dancer Tré Armstrong on June 11 at 9pm in “Keys on the Street – A recital of Urban Dance and Piano” at the Luminato Festival Hub at David Pecaut Square. The program includes music of Bach, Couperin, Messiaen and Debussy. Admission is free.

The Canadian Music Centre, established ten years before the NACO, has been producing recordings since 1981 through its Centrediscs label. The very first offering was an LP of live electronic music created by the Canadian Electronic Ensemble and over the years electronic and electroacoustic music has had a place in the catalogue in varying degrees. More than three decades since that first offering and having just surpassed the 200-release mark, one of the most recent discs incorporates state-of-the-art computer technology in four of its seven compositions. The Lethbridge Sessions (CMCCD 19213) features Calgary’s Rubbing Stone Ensemble in interactive works by David Eagle, Laurie Radford, Arlan N. Schultz and Anthony Tan as well as acoustic works by Alain Perron, Shelley Marwood and Nova Pon.

The intriguing name of the ensemble was inspired by a landmark of Calgary’s geography and history – a “beautiful big rock […] gracefully presiding over the Calgary region for many centuries and known to native people of the region. It was a place for bison to rub their fur coats, creating smoothed stone surfaces that survive to this day.” The collective of nine musicians dedicated to the creation and performance of new music was founded in 2007 and includes among its instrumentation saxophone, flute, clarinet, piano, harp, percussion, violin, cello and soprano. Jeremy Brown’s saxophones (soprano, alto, tenor and baritone) are the most pervasive influence, appearing in all but one of the variously orchestrated compositions on offer. In fact it was Brown and composer David Eagle who brought the initial intention to fruition and their stamp remains strong on the group. Eagle’s Resound – Soundplay 5 for saxophone and electronics is one of a series of works designed as “games” in which sound files, melodic and spoken fragments, solo and ensemble movements, extensive live processing and sound spatialization can be combined in different ways.

Considering astronomer Edwin Hubble’s discovery that the universe is constantly expanding, contrary to Newton’s law of gravity and Einstein’s collapsing universe model, but intrigued by the existence of such phenomena as black holes where gravity is so great that everything collapses inward, Radford’s Infolding proposes “a concept where sound and energy move inwards, converge […] where intensity is created as events fold inwards wave upon wave…”The work is scored for soprano saxophone, violin, piano, percussion, live signal processing and eight-channel sound. Another work with elevated inspiration, Schultz’s Ikos – kun tu ‘bar ba uses texts created by the composer, meditations on light based on Orthodox liturgy and Tibetan religious philosophy. The extended composition is scored for soprano (recitation of the texts, often buried in the overall textures), tenor saxophone, percussion, harp, piano and processed audio. Tan’s UnRavel, like Eagle’s Resound, uses just one instrument and electronic processing, in this instance a virtuosic violin line performed by David Seidle. As in many of Tan’s works the computer is used to extend the range and textures of the instrumental line both micro- and macroscopically.

Even the purely acoustic works on the CD tend to expand the sonic palette through unusual combinations of instruments – Perron’s Cycle 4 using four saxophones (one player), piano and percussion; Nova Pon’s Wayfaring for tenor saxophone and harp; and even Shelley Marwood’s Merge, which although ostensibly written for the standard “Pierrot” ensemble includes the addition of soprano saxophone giving some unexpected timbres to the mix. All of the composers represented have strong ties to the Prairie Provinces, although a number of them hail from elsewhere and have made Alberta (Eagle and Radford) or Saskatchewan (Perron) their home. Marwood is a native of Alberta but is currently pursuing postgraduate studies at the University of Toronto and Canadian-born Chinese-Malaysian composer Tan currently resides in Germany.                

The Lethbridge Sessions is an eclectic collection of intriguing works by composers ranging from emerging to mid-career, all with strong and unique voices. Congratulations are due to both the Rubbing Stone Ensemble and Centrediscs for bringing them to our attention.

We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, WholeNote Media Inc., The Centre for Social Innovation, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4. We also encourage you to visit our website thewholenote.com where you can find added features including direct links to performers, composers and record labels, “buy buttons” for on-line shopping and additional, expanded and archival reviews.

David Olds, DISCoveries Editor
discoveries@thewholenote.com

Bel Raggio – Rossini Arias
Aleksandra Kurzak; Sinfonia Varsovia; Pier Giorgio Morandi
Decca 478 3553

Now here is a disc that once and for all will put a stop to people moaning that the “golden age of singing is over.” Those lucky enough to have attended L’Elisir d’Amore in December 2012 at London’s Covent Garden with Aleksandra Kurzak (and Roberto Alagna) or even before, in 2008, at Kurzak’s sensational debut there in Rossini’s Matilda di Shabran will certainly protest vehemently. The young Polish coloratura non-plus-ultra is following the footsteps of the great Joan Sutherland with her opening number Bel Raggio lusinghier here, the phenomenal aria from Semiramide – and to put it mildly if she (Dame Joan) were still alive, she’d better watch out for her job. Without a doubt “her voice is stupendous, firm, crystal clear in coloratura, beautifully rich in legato” – as The Times of London raves.

This is indeed a stunning recording, one that you’d want never to end and to listen to over and over again. There are nine arias of immense difficulty, emotional scope and a vocal range extending from strong deep notes into the stratosphere of shattering high notes, which unfortunately I cannot identify (not having perfect pitch). The hair-raising Rossini fioraturas she sails through lightly as a feather and she refers to these “as the easy part.” Kurzak comes from a musical family; her mother was an opera singer and her father a horn player and she is also ravishingly beautiful with a lovely stage presence. Splendid accompaniment too by Sinfonia Varsovia conducted with great flair by Pier Giorgio Morandi. This is her second release for Decca and it’s a winner.