It’s been close to 25 years since the founding of the unique Montreal-based label empreintes DIGITALes (empreintesDIGITALes.com) in 1989 by Jean-François Denisand Claude Schryer. Solo-directed since 1991 by Denis, the label has produced 130 discs representing 107 composers and specializes in contemporary electroacoustic music, acousmatic and musique concrète. Although these genres of music are not the common fare for most of the concert events listed by The WholeNote, it is important to realize that the technical innovations and ways of thinking that have been pioneered by the practitioners of this music have had a wide influence on a vast array of musical forms and styles as well as media-based art forms.

One of the most distinguishing features of electroacoustic music in general is that it is composed primarily within a studio environment and is designed to be listened to through loud speakers. And although the ingredients of melody, rhythm and harmony can be an aspect of electroacoustic music, its primary focus is on the sound itself, which can originate from recordings made in a particular acoustic environment, or generated and processed through purely electronic or digital technologies. Sometimes the original sound source is recognizable – such as recordings of ocean waves or the inside of a piano, and in other situations, the sounds have been studio processed beyond recognition of their original context.

Back in 1990, empreintesDIGITALes offered its own vision of the wide array of possibilities within the electroacoustic genre. It published the groundbreaking Électro Clips CD which featured three-minute miniatures by 25 different composers, each one representing a unique approach to working in a studio environment.

More recently, the label has released four new albums by four unique composers: Martin Bédard (Montreal), Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (Montreal/UK), Andrew Lewis (UK) and David Berezan (Calgary/UK). Although the pieces are of longer duration than the three-minute clips, each disc presents four unique approaches and aesthetic visions.

Each of Bédard’s five acousmatic compositions on his Topographies CD (empreintesDIGITALes IMED 13121) creates a sonic picture of specific acoustic environments, ranging from recordings made in restored jail cells to the soundworld of trains. He also weaves in tributes to what he calls “phonoculture” – lyrics from a Rush song or the audio heritage of a specific community. He is captivated by specific behaviours, whether those be of a night watchman or of metal under stress, and his compositions are expressions of his curiosity.

The five compositions on Tremblay’s 2-disc set entitled La Marée (IMED 13123/124) are excellent examples of the interaction between live performers and a form of live processing of the solo instrumentalist. I found his piece La tombeau des fondeurs particularly engaging with its rhythmic and timbral pulsations that create a seductive sonorous quality suggestive of the casting of a metal or bronze bell or gong. All his pieces are meditations on life, a balancing of contradictions.

The music of Lewis on his CD Au-delà (IMED 13125) is a great example of pure acousmatic music in which the original sound sources are heavily processed and the original context is predominantly unrecognizable. However, Lewis’ skill at weaving sounds together creates strong impressionistic and imaginary soundscapes. His track Cân, the Welsh word for song, takes the Welsh musical heritage beyond the traditional sounds of harps and male choirs. Short interjections of these traditional sounds are juxtaposed with more abstract sonic textures.

And finally, the music on Berezan’s Allusions Sonores (IMED 13122) offers the listener a window into the places he has visited. Seeing himself as a composer who collects and “uncovers” sounds as part of his creative process, each of the five pieces reflects places he has personally visited or interacted with. Ranging from the sounds of a Balinese thumb piano to recordings made in Alberta’s badlands to the chirping sounds of temple and palace floors in Japan, listening to Berezan’s music is similar to listening to the ocean. Each piece has a very distinctive wave-like motion with the constant ebb and flow of the sound textures rising up and then falling away.

These four discs are a testament to the ongoing commitment this independent label has for a very unique and distinct genre of music. It is known and respected internationally and considered the go-to place for the keen listener and connoisseur of electroacoustic music in all its varied forms. 

As genres draw closer to one another, the idea of a musician from one area playing and composing a work in another area doesn’t seem so far-fetched. More importantly the sophistication of many contemporary performers means that these inter-genre excursions are triumphant rather than merely passable. One form that is being explored by improvising musicians for instance is composing for the bedrock of the so-called classical music tradition: string groupings.

Torontonians get a chance to experience this when the Afiara Quartet joins pianist Uri Caine at Koerner Hall May 23 to play his composition for jazz piano and string quartet. Caine who has spent the past 15 years creating intriguing post-modern variants on works by, among others, Bach, Wagner and Mahler, provides a new take on tunes by early jazz-classical crossover icon George Gershwinon Rhapsody in Blue (Winter & Winter 910.205-2). Although it features only Caine, bassist Mark Helias, violinist Joyce Hammann, reedist Chris Speed, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, drummer Jim Black plus vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Barbara Walker, Caine’s take on familiar Gershwin compositions suggests the potential surprises that may result at Koerner Hall. Vocalists provide novel song interpretations, especially on a deconstructed They Can’t Take That Away from Me where yodelling and burbling is harmonized with trumpet triplets and percussion slaps. As well as operating in different metres and tempos, Caine’s solo uniquely shades How Long Has This Been Going On. But it’s the title track which is the CD’s showpiece. With an ensemble one-quarter the size of Paul Whiteman’s band which premiered the concerto in 1924, not only do Caine and company provide a sophisticated jazz sensibility, but his 22-and-a-half-minute-arrangement augments hitherto unexplored nuances in Gershwin’s score. Capturing the famous introductory glissandi, Speed’s clarinet tone includes Klezmer inflections while Alessi’s later call-and-response with the clarinetist adds Latinesque echoes and genuine emotion to the program. At one point when the trumpeter’s apex of excitedly modulated tones is coupled with pseudo-stride piano, it suggests how much more interesting Rhapsody in Blue might have been if initially performed by Louis Armstrong and James P. Johnson. True to the score, especially during Hammon’s violin parts, the sextet reaches an appropriately exciting climax at the 20-minute mark as Black’s thoroughly modern rollicking swing spurs the soloists. By the conclusion, as the underlying beat turns to a witty march rhythm, the theme is extended with jabbing keyboard lines.

Also emphatically meeting the string-writing challenge is pianist Vijay Iyer, whose Mutations (ECM CD 2372) is based around ten compositional fragments for string quartet, piano and electronics. More prominent during the solo piano pieces which frame this chef d’oeuvre, electronics gently quiver during Mutations I-X as Iyer generously shares interpretation space with violinists Miranda Cuckson and Michi Wiancko, violist Kyle Armbrust and cellist Kivie Cahn-Lipman. Named for incremental genetic changes, the Mutations sequences are linked, but the through-composed material is structured in such a way that cerebral string improvisation is encouraged and blended both with piano cross-pulsing and recorded samples of the string playing. Concluding with a triumphant eruption of frenzied staccato string passages with an affiliated rhythm in Mutation X: Time, these Mutations cycle through many properties as they evolve. Latterly suggesting canon-like cohesion, earlier variants display skittering string harshness layered as frequently as harmonic cohesion. On Mutation IV: Chain for instance, keyboard patterning and string glissandi cross and re-cross one another following a heartbreaking solo violin interlude, saved from ur-romanticism by Carnatic-like percussion pumps from the lower-pitched strings. Tone laddering and detaching is present throughout the suite, with Iyer maintaining interest by including enough jocular and linear passages to keep the composition organically whole no matter how many sinewy string curves or processed extrusions are involved. A cohesive exploration of the possibilities available from focused composing, Mutations’ shimmering colour palate fittingly expands the steaming blues-jazz inferences in the solo piano tracks which precede and follow it.

From Léandre’s frenzied sawing coupled with sibilant whispers to the emphasis on new roles for mass string ensembles advanced by Salamon, these sessions outline some of the paths to couple improvisation with the liberating compositions for strings. Caine will likely supply yet another concept.

Another move away from idiomatic usage of strings as merely melody sweeteners is exhibited by German trombonist Nils Wogram, who integrates violin, viola and cello into his Root 70 quartet on Riomar (Wog Records 007). Although there are portions towards the end when the harmonizing gets a little too overripe, stabbing staccato from Matt Penman’s supple double bass on a track such as Song for Bernhard roughens the strings to give passages more texture. More generic are pieces such as Vacation without Internet and the title tune where the precarious string-band balance works imposingly. On Riomar Gareth Lubbe’s distinctively mournful viola tone sets the scene appropriately enough so that when Hayden Chisholm’s dissonant alto saxophone timbres sound, the instruments are perfectly matched. From then on, as synchronized strings quiver, solo lines from Wogram (plunger and smeary), cellist Adrian Brendel (sharp and sul ponticello), and Chisholm (spiky or mellow), extend the tunes. With drummer Jochen Rueckert limiting himself to off-beats, Vacation without Internet is even more sophisticated. Not only do the peppy string parts loop around the steady rhythm and rapid-fire bop changes from Wogram, but their other-directed arco plucking at the top combines elegance and earthiness in such a manner that it takes a while to realize that Penman has begun thumping a steady rhythm. Ironically it’s Mental Isolation (dedicated to Duke Ellington) whose spewed and strained microtonal theme elaboration provides the closest resemblance to new music. Then again Wogram’s dazzlingly tremolo tones here follow a direct line from Lawrence Brown`s mellow trombone blowing in the Ellington band.

Dealing with a three-person string section is audacious enough, but Slovenian guitarist Samo Salamon has set himself a more formidable task. On Free Strings Orchestrology (KGOSF VD 013) he and drummer Roberto Dani interpret his compositions alongside the Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra of eight violinists, three violists, two cellists and a double bassist. To be honest, dealing with 14 string players at points becomes too onerous, and the resulting synchronized tones can resemble those of a pit orchestra running through an overture. Because of the harmonic juxtaposition, at full force the string parts often produce a too familiar smoothness with waltz, tango and semi-classical inferences, and – especially when the guitarist’s licks merely advance a theme – nearly replicate a sort of James Last/Paul Mauriat lushness. Other tracks are more formal and processional, leavened by Salamon’s spidery licks, or dampened down with an overriding Mozartian classicism. Happily, improvisational toughness from Salamon and Dani rescues most of the program. For instance Mea Culpa moves along with herky-jerky glissandi from the strings and maintains a strong swing emphasis even when the melody takes on an over-familiar lilt. In complete contrast Miss Sarcasm is harsher and more percussive. Here staccato strings advance alongside clanking drums plus a guitar part that turns to bass-guitar-like thumps as it sheepdog-like herds the bow players into connective motions. Dutilleux is probably the CD’s high point, as the guitarist’s distorted timbres and fluid chording are perfectly attuned to the leaping and pulsing strings. Romantic inferences from solo violinist Janez Podlesek join the drummer’s clanking cymbals and the guitarist’s wah-wah pedal to mould the stimulating climax.

While other discs are concerned with the place of strings in advanced settlings, French violinist/violist Théo Ceccaldi goes one step further, reconstituting the most revered of European ensembles: the string quartet. On Can You Smile (Ayler Records AYLCD 136), his Trio+1 also includes guitarist Guillaume Aknine, cellist Valentin Ceccaldi and bassist Joëlle Léandre. Throughout the emphasis is on atonality, with each player doing his or her best to disrupt the proceedings at the same time as bonding during the 11 compositions. Case in point is Brosse à chaussure where sharp, sul ponticello quivers from the cellist and violist sprawl alongside the guitarist’s chromatic picking, only to mix twangs and triple stopping in an exciting conclusion. On the other hand Sirènes et bas de laine finds Léandre and Aknine strumming a continuum while tremolo glissandi from the viola replicate reed slurs. Finally Hirondelles parcels out the dissonance among all the strings, as every sequence becomes narrower and more staccato, until unexpectedly a measured combination in the final 30 seconds produces a quixotic climax. Throughout, the bassist’s florid nonsense syllable verbalization constantly mocks any high-art pretentiousness associated with a string quartet, while preserving an innate musicality. Fancifully the sounds from this Trio+1 may be what could have resulted if one of the serialists had composed for a Roma ensemble, with the added virtue of a sense of humour.

From Léandre’s frenzied sawing coupled with sibilant whispers to the emphasis on new roles for mass string ensembles advanced by Salamon, these sessions outline some of the paths to couple improvisation with the liberating compositions for strings. Caine will likely supply yet another concept.

Pianist/composer Kris Davis has followed a musical path from her native Vancouver to Calgary to the University of Toronto and on to Brooklyn, where she’s a key member of one of the world’s most creative jazz scenes, playing solo, leading her own ensembles and working in a number of bands and ad hoc ensembles with other notable musicians like saxophonists Ingrid Laubrock and Tony Malaby and guitarist Mary Halvorson.

A recent highlight is Waiting for You to Grow (Clean Feed CF292 cleanfeed-records.com) by her trio with bassist John Hébert and drummer Tom Rainey. Recorded in May 2013 after the group had just completed a European tour, the CD demonstrates both developed empathy and a keen familiarity with the nuances and possibilities of Davis’ compositions. At times, Davis and her partners seem to be redefining the piano trio in percussive terms that see instruments playing essentially rhythmic patterns, often elaborating dense polyrhythms. If that suggests an exploration of the roots of jazz in African music, it’s also aligned here with the early percussion music of John Cage. The sonic explorations of another experimental composer are referenced directly in Berio, a complex, analytical work that suggests the compound methodologies of late serialism as much as the free play of sonic particles.

Those references to modern concert music take even greater prominence with Massive Threads (Thirsty Ear THI57208-2 thirstyear.com), Davis’ second CD of solo piano music. It’s somber and playful, spontaneous and inevitable, an outstanding CD in any genre to which it might be assigned. The title track moves from ponderous bass clusters in alternating hands, eventually progressing upward in pitch, becoming quieter all the time, until it disappears. Many of the pieces are built around similar ideas of transformation. In the remarkable Ten Exorcists for prepared piano, Davis initially creates complex rhythmic dialogue around a single pitch. Dancing Marlins is playfully pointillist in the extreme, its random Morse code eventually turning into phrases that would be at home in the blues. Thelonious Monk’s Evidence reveals itself in evanescent bits, finally emerging as a continuous two-handed improvisation in multiple meters. 

Davis’ position at the forefront of current jazz is further apparent in her membership in tenor saxophonist Matt Bauder’s Day in Pictures on Nightshades (Clean Feed CF289). The idiom is post-bop, with roots in the mid-60s Blue Note school of Sam Rivers and Andrew Hill, but it’s also informed by a further 50 years of improvised music, with both traditions firmly in place, whether in the foreground or lurking in the shadows. Davis’ lines are at once limpid and precise on Bauder’s Starr Wykoff, a ballad that might have been penned by Thelonious Monk in 1958. Apparently named for the Brooklyn coffee shop called Wykoff Starr, it might even be a Monk title. Elsewhere sudden random runs from Davis and explosions of multiphonics from Bauder and trumpeter Nate Wooley (the two Americans are also the frontline in expatriate drummer Harris Eisenstadt’s Canada Day) confirm this is insistently current music.

Cory Weeds’ policy of bringing in guest artists to perform at Vancouver’s Cellar Jazz club has created some memorable collaborations. David “Fathead” Newman & the Tilden Webb Trio’s Cellar Groove (Cellar Live CL090113 cellarlive.com) is definitely one of them. Newman, who died in 2009, was already 71 when this was recorded in 2004. Best known for his work with Ray Charles, Newman was an adept saxophonist and flutist who could hold his own with hard bop masters like Lee Morgan when the opportunity arose. Here he tours the terrain of bop (Dizzy Gillespie’s A Night in Tunisia), hard bop (Hank Mobley’s This I Dig of You) and modal jazz (pianist Webb’s Roundabout), clearly enjoying the superb accompaniment of Webb’s trio with bassist Jodi Proznick and drummer Jesse Cahill, a band in itself that propels Newman and his enthusiasm alike.

Another Vancouver band that shows the positive effects of working regularly is the Mike Allen Quartet with pianist Miles Black, bassist Adam Thomas and drummer Julian MacDonough. Embracing a broad modernism, the group has hosted the official jam sessions of the Vancouver Festival for years and they’re also the jazz ensemble-in-residence at Western Washington University where saxophonist Allen directs the jazz program. On Panorama (Cellar Live CCL121013), trombonist Hugh Fraser, whose suave bluster has long graced Vancouver jazz, is the featured guest. Allen has his own sound, at once forceful and muffled, and it gives his work immediate dimension, but every musician here contributes to a consistent sense of substance. The opening Get Back may be playful jazz funk, but Allen’s Let Go Rise Atone and Black’s San Miguel are imbued with luminous depths.

The members of the David Rubel Quartet are all at the outset of their careers. Products of Jazz Studies at the University of Toronto, tenor saxophonist Rubel, pianist Winston Matsushita, bassist Malcolm Connor and drummer Robin Claxton range in age from the early to mid-20s. On Into the Dark (davidrubelmusic.com), Rubel’s current emphases are a strong melodic focus and repeated modal figures, delivered with a rich tenor sound over infectious rhythms, including 5/4 and 7/4. It’s engaging, well-played music with a strong sense of mood, though at this stage that very consistency threatens at times to turn it into background music. The highlight is Matthew, with Rubel adding sudden, fluting, upper register swirls to vary his approach.

Leonard Bernstein had a long career as conductor, composer, pianist, lecturer and educator. We witnessed his growth in every aspect through his recordings, from 78s to CDs and SACDs and visually from Beta to VHS tapes to DVDs. The recordings began in 1945 when RCA Victor initiated a series of American music played and conducted by Bernstein. In 1953 American Decca issued performances of popular symphonies accompanied Bernstein’s spoken analysis and then came the steady procession of his seemingly boundless repertoire recorded by Columbia mostly with his own New York Philharmonic but also with the London Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic.

He made his television debut on November 14, 1954 on CBS’ Omnibus with an analysis of the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with a grand copy of the first page from the score painted on the floor. The orchestra, members of Toscanini’s then recently dissolved NBC Symphony, played discarded passages from Beethoven’s workbook. Fascinating, yes, but there were only six more of Bernstein’s inspired creations, passed between CBS and NBC and finishing at ABC in 1958. 

He expended a lot of time and energy on and took much pride in his memorable Young People’s Concerts that ran on CBS-TV from 1958 to 1972-73 with such subjects as “What does music mean?” “What is a Concerto?” “Humour in Music” and “Berlioz Takes a Trip.” 

In 1957 he was appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic and in 1958 began his tenure that lasted until 1969 when he resigned, declaring that it took up too much time and that he would never again take on the role of music director of any orchestra. He continued to conduct them from time to time and make further recordings. He was named conductor laureate.

In 1972 DG recorded the Met production of Bizet’s Carmen with Marilyn Horne and James McCracken. It was Bernstein’s first recording for DG and by the way, it won a Grammy. Off to a good start. From then on he recorded mainly for DG, occasionally returning to Sony and on one or two occasions appeared on Decca, EMI or Philips. DG was there for his final concert in Tanglewood on August 19, 1990 when he conducted Britten’s Four Sea Interludes and the Beethoven Seventh with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He died on October 14 and New Yorkers lined the streets of Manhattan for the funeral procession and construction workers were seen to remove their hats and call “Goodbye, Lennie.”

The Bernstein Collection Volume One (Deutsche Grammophon 479 1047) contains all his audio recordings for DG by composers A to L. There are 59 CDs and one DVD, packaged in a sturdy LP sized box, two and a half inches deep.  Each disc is individually sleeved in a replica of the original art work but without the liner notes on the back; they would have been too small to read anyhow. Instead there are track listings with timings and recording session data.

Bernstein had made studio recordings of all the Beethoven symphonies with the New York Philharmonic (NYP) for Sony in the early 60s but there is no question that the sweep and continuity of the live versions with the Vienna Philharmonic (VPO) outclass them in every way for many reasons. The orchestra has a signature sound that is passed on from player to player, from one generation to the next. The sonority of their string sound is nurtured and protected. The aura of their winds, particularly the oboe is specific to the VPO. The burnished brass is legendary. Also Bernstein had certainly matured considerably as a conductor and a musician regardless of where he conducted. The differences are unmistakable interpretively and most certainly in the quality and reality of the recorded sound. These evaluations apply equally to the four Brahms symphonies. The DG years documented Bernstein’s finest music making both at home and abroad.

Although there is no mention of any new remastering, the sound on every disc that I played is disarmingly real. I went straight to disc 58 to hear a recording of a longtime favourite that I knew so well, Liszt’s Faust Symphony, the one with the Boston Symphony. I don’t recall the sound being so compelling and real. It made me very happy to be in Symphony Hall where it was recorded.

There’s lots of Bernstein conducting Bernstein, Copland, Ives and Harris, Haydn and Hindemith and the Carmen mentioned above, plus an interesting DVD of the making of West Side Story with Te Kanawa, Carreras et al. Check the complete contents of this Limited Edition set on the DG website, deutschegrammophon.com/us/. The Omnibus programs and The Young People’s Concerts are available on two DVD sets from kultur.com.

In July 1957 EMI recorded Nathan Milstein playing the Goldmark Violin Concerto No.1 with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Harry Blech. Milstein championed this ravishing concerto when it was virtually unknown. This stereo recording was reissued in 1995 by Testament in a faultless and satisfying transfer (SBT1047). The reel-to-reel stereo tapes from those sessions have passed into the hands of Praga Digitals who have prepared an SACD version coupled with the Brahms Violin Concerto conducted by Anatole Fistoulari (Praga PRD/DSD 350105).  The DSD remastering of the original tapes has produced ambient recordings of unsurpassed reality, as clear and present as one could wish.

Quite a few years ago, frankly almost half a century if I care to do the math, I built my classical record collection by scouring the bargain bins on Yonge St. at Sam the Record Man and A&A Records. At the time it was possible to find some superb recordings for 99 cents to $1.99, including as I recall, my first exposure to Schubert lieder as sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Boulez conducting the Domaine Musical Ensemble in works of Gilbert Amy and Anton Webern, Honegger symphonies performed by Ansermet and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Bartok Quartets with the Fine Arts Quartet (well, that 3-LP set may have been $3.99) to name just a few highlights. What takes me back to those memories is a new recording of the Bach Brandenburg Concertos featuring the Freiburger Barockorchester (Harmonia Mundi HMC 902176.77). My first recording of these iconic works came from those same bargain bins and inadvertently introduced me to the world of period performance practice in, as far as I know, one of its earliest incarnations. Featuring the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis on two Heliodor LPs this was an ear-opening, if not quite life-changing, event for me. I’d never heard anything like it before and I was hooked, although it would be a good many years before I figured out what it was that made it so special. Of course period performance is almost de rigueur these days, thanks in large part to the influence of the Schola which Paul Sacher founded in Basel in 1933, but back in the 70s it was quite a new idea to most of the musical world. Since that time as I say, historically informed performances abound and Toronto’s own Tafelmusik has played a major role in establishing this as the norm. Their own 1995 Juno award-winning recording of the Brandenburgs, recently re-released on their own Tafelmusik Media label (TMK1004CD2), is itself a benchmark against which others are to be measured. I’m glad to have the luxury of not having to choose between an embarrassment of riches and am simply able to enjoy them all. I’m happy to have had an excuse to revisit my favourite recordings – including the thrilling modern-instrument performance featuring the CBC Vancouver Orchestra under Mario Bernardi with soloists including Robert Aitken – thanks to this new release from Freiburg, which incidentally is just across the border from Basel. I particularly enjoyed the crisp attacks and well-balanced recording throughout the two discs, the wonderful (and wondrously in tune!) natural horns in the First Concerto and of special note, the harpsichord cadenza by Sebastian Wienand in the Fifth. This is a welcome addition to my collection.

The Canadian Music Centre’s Centrediscs label is busier than ever it seems, and this month has three new releases featured in these pages. The one I have chosen for myself, Cobalt (CMCCD 20014), is an eclectic offering featuring mostly large-scale music by the chameleon-like Jocelyn Morlock performed by five different orchestras. The exception is a dark and brooding piano trio written for Duo Concertante (Nancy Dahn, violin and Timothy Steeves, piano) with guest cellist Vernon Regehr, Asylum, a tribute to and meditation on Schumann’s life and music. The opening track, Music of the Romantic Era, written for and performed by the Windsor Symphony, is a pastiche whose inspiration was the concern that classical music is disappearing from our lives. It would be fun to hold a contest to see how many sources of the familiar and almost-familiar phrases found therein can be identified. The title track is a sort of concerto grosso for two violins and orchestra, a lyrical reflection on the luminous cobalt blue of the night sky, the properties of cobalt the element (poisonous, magnetic and radioactive), and kobold, the mischievous goblin that inspired its name. Jonathan Crow and Karl Stobbe are the soloists with the National Arts Centre Orchestra under Alain Trudel. Disquiet is a short homage to Shostakovich which explores “a sense of oppression and urgency, such that I imagine would have been the perpetual emotional state of Shostakovich and his contemporaries.” The haunting work is performed by the CBC Symphony Orchestra, again under Trudel’s direction. Bramwell Tovey leads the Vancouver Symphony in the nature-inspired Oiseaux bleus et sauvages, a nod to Messiaen with some moments reminiscent of John Adams.

Perhaps the most curious work on the disc is Golden, written in memory of Morlock’s teacher Nikolai Korndorf and performed by the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and oboist Philippe Magnan. The piece starts with quiet percussive sounds and disjointed whispered phrases and gradually grows into dirge-like, quasi-medieval textures in the strings and solo oboe. The final piece Solace also found it’s inspiration in early music, Josquin’s Missa L’homme armé. The orchestra, the strings of the Vancouver Symphony, is divided into subgroups: an “early music” ensemble playing music based on Josquin’s mass; a group of “ethereal” violins playing long harmonies over top the tutti; and a concertante violin and cello. It is the soloists that are most prominent and while the background is based in medieval music, the soaring melody of the violin, echoed effectively by the cello, is to my ear quite reminiscent of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending in its quiet grandeur. All in all this is a wonderfully lyrical disc and a great reminder that we do have an important body of orchestral work in this country. Now, if we could just get our orchestras to play it more often… (I know I always say that, but that doesn’t make it any less true!)

Another disc that took me back to the early days of building my record collection, specifically the discovery of Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, is a delightful eponymous disc by Les Petits Nouveaux (lespetitsnouveaux.bandcamp.com). There’s not much information included with the self-produced CD but surfing the web I have gleaned that this gypsy jazz group was formed in 2009 when Swedish guitarist Mikko Hildén was studying the manouche stylings of Django Reinhardt under the tutelage of Drew Jurecka at Humber College. Les Petits Nouveaux is currently a trio with another original member, Montreal violinist Aline Homzy and, since 2011, Toronto guitarist Andy Mac. The disc is mix of gypsy jazz standards (including Reinhardt’s gently swinging Douce Ambiance on which the group is joined by mentor Jurecka on bass clarinet) and original compositions, one from each member: Hildén’s El Cafecito, Homzy’s Siva Macka and Mac’s particularly idiomatic Ville Belle. At just a half an hour in length this disc falls somewhere between EP and full-length offering (and is priced online accordingly at just $7), but it serves as a satisfying introduction to the group, and to the idiom if you’re not familiar with it. A very effective treatment of Gene de Paul’s classic I’ll Remember April brings this little gem to a close.

The final disc that has been in rotation on my system this month is a meditative project which is based in the song of Chassidic niggunim and Sephardic Jewish traditions. Song of the Grasses features Siach HaSadeh, a clarinet and double bass duo (Yoni Kaston and Joel Kerr) complemented with violin (Daniel Fuchs), cello (Gaël Huard), harmonica (Jason Rosenblatt) and oud (Ishmail Fencioglu) as the repertoire requires. The quiet flowing clarinet over the subtle supportive bass lines is a constant delight throughout the 15 tracks, but for my ears it is the percussive melodies plucked on the oudand the extremely lyrical harmonica playing (it’s hard to imagine this as the same instrument known as the “blues harp” in Rosenblatt’s hands – the iconic Toots Thielemans comes to mind) that really makes this music special. In the program notes (only available on the website siachhasadeh.com), it states that “the songs […] were created as vehicles to reach the depths of spiritual space. Many of them have passed through fire and water to reach us, and are not known outside of the communities where they are still sung. While they are distinctly Jewish, they express something deeply universal, something that can only be expressed in wordless melody, and that could be obscured by text. Here, they become platforms for improvisation and musical conversations.” The spirituality is achieved without any New Age trappings and the resulting contemplative journey is one well worth undertaking. It has given me a much appreciated sense of calm and some quiet stimulation over that past few weeks.

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

Schubert – Winterreise
Gerald Finley; Julius Drake
Hyperion CDA68034

Schubert – Winterreise
Jonas Kaufmann; Helmut Deutsch
Sony 88883795652

Only one of these two new versions of Winterreise seems to be able to take seriously one of Schubert’s most harrowing delineations of despair.

Finley and Drake provide an object lesson in rendering these pieces as more than mere entertainment, whereas Kaufmann and Deutsch seem content with simply providing a well-sung song cycle. Both singers are consummate operatic artists and their pianists are both good but Drake is by far the better at conveying subtle nuances. Kaufmann is certainly an expressive singer but does not yet really have those skills that can project the psychological internalization of drama and tragedy. It is Finley and Drake who have all the essential extra skills in the strategies of lieder singing. These qualities are omnipresent throughout the entire cycle. In the final song, “Der Leiermann,” Kaufmann certainly gives an engaging rendition, carefully projecting to his audience a muted picture of aimlessness. But listening to Finley and Drake we learn how bereft and suicidal the subject really is, making it painfully clear that he has lost all hope and is looking for his death. Mention must be made of the appropriate salon acoustic that crowns the Finley, versus a much larger venue in which Kaufmann appears.

Winterreise is Schubert’s most trenchant metaphor of his own life and tragedy. It is a difficult piece and it is rare to hear such an unflinching probing of this sad masterpiece as Finley’s, which may indeed be the best version ever.

Wagner – Parsifal
Jonas Kaufmann; René Pape; Peter Mattei; Katarina Dalayman; Evgeny Nikitin; Metropolitain Opera; Daniele Gatti
Sony 88883725589

The Met is certainly back on the right track following their dubious and very costly Ring adventure with this stunning, awe-inspiring, memorable and by far more economical production of Parsifal, created to kick off the composer’s 200th birthday festivities. Why? Three reasons:

To begin, acclaimed film director, French-Canadian François Girard, already known in Toronto for his Siegfried for the COC, here envisages a “pervasively gloomy” apocalyptic vision with dark clouds and swirling mists (no doubt inspired by Goya’s frescos), barren grounds bisected with a river of blood and atavistic symbolism thoroughly in keeping with the harrowing story of the Knights of the Holy Grail’s inner doubt and hopelessness.

Next, the choice of Italian conductor extraordinaire Daniele Gatti, a wonderfully talented musical mind who truly presides over this incredibly complex score and conducts it entirely from memory! To my recollection only Toscanini could do that, mainly because he was vain and refused to wear glasses. My experience with Gatti so far has been his memorable Verdi performances, but here he is on an altogether different level. With broad tempi and long melodic lines he sustains a glowing intensity rarely achieved by even the very best.

Thirdly, in the title role, German heroic tenor Jonas Kaufmann is an inspired choice, with a wonderful stage presence and voice of immense sensitivity he becomes a thoroughly committed personification of Parsifal for our age. The distinguished cast is superb: René Pape is synonymous with Gurnemanz, Peter Mattei is simply heartbreaking as the suffering Amfortas and Evgeny Nikitin is terrifying as the evil bloodthirsty Klingsor. As Kundry, an almost insanely difficult female role, Katarina Dalayman is maternally seductive with spectacular vocal power.

This is an immortal production that will resound through the ages.

Franck – Stradella
Isabelle Kabatu; Marc Laho; Philippe Rouillon; Opera Royal de Wallonie; Paolo Arrivabeni             
Dynamic 37692

A child prodigy, a brilliant piano player and composer already in his teens, with a career tightly controlled by his father – until he emancipated himself. No, I am not talking about W.A. Mozart. This unusual career path was also followed by César Franck. The Belgian composer is remembered for his organ compositions that constitute a goodly part of every organist’s repertoire. However, he was just as skilled as a composer of instrumental music with sonatas, a celebrated piano quintet, the Symphony in D Minor and the Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra plus several operas.

Rarely, if at all staged, Franck’s operas nevertheless deserve our attention. Stradella, his first, was never fully orchestrated and the current recording represents its first public performance.

Alessandro Stradella, the 17th century composer murdered in Genoa, is only nominally connected to the libretto – as this is a work of fiction. Stradella seeks to woo Leonor with his beautiful singing, but not for himself – for the Duke of Pesaro. Of course, he falls in (reciprocated) love and the lovers elope to Rome, pursued by the vengeful Duke. The Duke hires assassins and instructs them to kill Stradella. Here is where this production by Jaco Van Dormael diverges from the original story: the opera actually has a happy ending, as the Duke is so moved by Stradella’s singing, he forgives the betrayal and blesses the union of Leonor and her love. Alas, Van Dormael has decided to reference the murder of the real-life Stradella and has Leonor dying of grief. Stradella then joins her in heaven, as joyous music, hardly appropriate for this tragic ending, plays on.

The staging is beautiful, though at times puzzling – a giant wading pool is the perfect setting for Venice flooded during the Carnival, but it makes less sense as the action moves to a church in Rome. Regardless of the dramatic choices in this production, the music of Franck and beautiful singing by Marc Laho as Stradella make this disc a keeper.

Poulenc – Stabat Mater; Sept Répons de Ténèbres
Carolyn Sampson; Cappella Amsterdam; Estonian National Symphony Orchestra; Daniel Reuss
Harmonia Mundi HMC 902149

In the 1930s Francis Poulenc started to display a more introspective character in his compositions. A period of soul-searching after the deaths of two close to him, his lover Raymonde Linossier and composer Pierre-Octave Ferroud, Poulenc began to explore the religion he had once set aside, undertaking a pilgrimage and adding sacred music to his oeuvre. Highly personalized, the subsequent works seem to vacillate between two sides of the composer’s life, embodying both sublime reverence and worldly excess. His settings of Stabat Mater and Sept Répons de Ténèbres were composed two decades later and represent the mature expression of this dichotomy, breaking character from the solemnity with expressions of extreme emotional, sensual and even dancelike diversions. This is a challenging drama for an ensemble to undertake, to tackle Poulenc’s personification of the sacred and express it in all its complexity. The flawless voicings of Capella Amsterdam and the Estonian Chamber Choir and superb musicianship of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra led by Daniel Reuss produce a truly affective interweaving of these seemingly diverse elements while the dulcet renderings of soprano Carolyn Sampson perfectly embody the Marion essence.

Harrison Birtwistle – The Moth Requiem
Roderick Williams; BBC Singers; Nash Ensemble; Nicholas Kok
Signum Classics SIGCD368

This fourth of Signum’s series of composer-led releases with exquisite performances by the BBC Singers is perfectly timed to coincide with Harrison Birtwistle’s 80th year. Though a mixture of recent and older compositions, this is a premiere recording for all works on the disc.

The title piece is the most recent. The Moth Requiem is composed for 12 female voices, alto flute and 3 harps. The beauty and tenuous life of the moth is explored through a text based on The Moth Poem by Robin Blaser, with the names of moth species, both common and close to extinct, intertwined throughout. An eerie, shimmering fragility is perfectly evoked by the women’s voices while the music is crafted to portray a moth trapped inside a piano, touching the strings and bumping on the lid in its efforts to escape.

This tenuous hold on life is mirrored through similar effect in Three Latin Motets employed as interludes for Birtwistle’s opera The Last Supper. In The Ring Dance of the Nazarene, Christ is alternately represented by the superb baritone Roderick Williams and the chorus while an Iranian darbuka drum is employed to evoke the dance that Christ performs for his disciples. On the Sheer Threshold of the Night, is taken from his opera The Mask of Orpheus, a setting of Boethius’ early Christian interpretation of the Orpheus myth, set underneath the motif of Orpheus and Eurydice calling out to each other over the great divide between life and afterlife.

Doulce Mémoire
Margaret Little; Sylvain Bergeron
ATMA ACD2 2685

This CD explores the variation technique known as “diminutions,” a concept more commonly known as “divisions.” It is explained in the accompanying booklet: “Diminutions were made by dividing long notes of the melody into a series of shorter notes either surrounding the melody note or filling up the interval between it and the next melody note.” Many of these were based on madrigals, most famously Cipriano de Rore’s Ancor che col partire. Here the artists have chosen one set of variations, that by Ricardo Rogniono. The title of the CD refers to a different madrigal, Doulce Mémoire, by Pierre Sandrin. Here three sets of variations are played: by François de Layolle, Diego Ortiz and Vincenzo Bonizzi.

Although there are only two players, the recital gives us many different textures: of the 17 tracks, seven are for treble viol and archlute, six for bass viol and archlute, two for solo treble viol and two for solo archlute. The material is largely based on variations on 16th century madrigals, but it is complemented by selections from John Playford’s 1684 collection The Division Viol with its variations on popular English songs. No selection of variations would be even half complete without that most popular of songs, La Folia. Fittingly the CD ends with an anonymous set of variations based on that song.

Throughout the CD viol player Margaret Little and lutenist Sylvain Bergeron, are superb. I am always careful not to use superlatives too easily but these performances are truly out of this world.

Meine Seele – German Sacred Music
Matthew White; Tempo Rubato; Alexander Weimann
ATMA ACD2 2668

As the CD’s booklet reminds us, music was very important to Martin Luther. It was “a gift of God,” he wrote in 1530. It should be central to education: “A teacher must be able to sing; if not, I don’t think he’s any use.” Luther’s views account, at least in part, for the centrality of music in the Lutheran tradition. The tradition culminated with Johann Sebastian Bach, but he was able to build on at least a century of earlier music.

This recording begins with an early cantata by Bach (Widerstehe doch der Sünde) but then moves back into the 17th century (Heinrich Schütz, Franz Tunder, Johann Rosenmüller, Johann Michael Bach, Christoph Bernhard). It then returns to the early 18th century with the final work, a cantata by Philipp Heinrich Erlebach. The vocal works are complemented by instrumental pieces: a sinfonia by Tunder, extracts from a suite by Erlebach, a passacaglia for organ by Georg Muffat and a set of dances by Rosenmüller.

J.S. Bach, Schütz and Rosenmüller are the only composers here who are at all well known today. It is good to hear the religious music of other German composers of the Early Baroque, especially when sung by the countertenor Matthew White, who is a fine interpreter of this music. We used to hear him often in Toronto, with Tafelmusik or the Toronto Consort. Now his work centres on Montreal and Vancouver. I hope he will come back soon.

Mozart – Piano Concertos 12 & 13
Karin Kei Nagano; Cecilia String Quartet
Analekta AN 2 8765

Mozart – Piano Concertos 13 & 14
Janina Fialkowska; Chamber Players of Canada
ATMA ACD2 2532

The piano concertos featured on these two recordings may not be largely known to most audiences. After all, Mozart wrote 27 piano concertos and many later ones appear to be more dazzling and exciting. However, concertos Nos.12, 13 and 14 were written at the time when Mozart himself entered a very prosperous and exciting stage in his life; he had just moved to Vienna, thus acquiring more independence from his father, married Constanze Weber, and began developing entrepreneurial spirit by generating revenue from public performances and sales of his new compositions. These piano concertos, written in 1782 (Nos.12 and 13) and in 1784 (No.14), reflect the forward momentum of Mozart’s life as well as some nostalgic elements and a subtle homage to Johann Christian Bach and Joseph Haydn in the middle movements. In an attempt to promote his work, Mozart wrote two versions of these concertos: the orchestral version (strings and woodwinds), meant for concert halls, and the chamber one, making them more accessible to amateur musicians.

It is the more intimate, “a quattro” version that is presented on both recordings. The absence of the horns is arguably bothersome to some but it is my opinion that the chamber rendition offers nuance and clarity in phrasing that otherwise may not be heard and works just as well. Pianist Karin Kei Nagano and the Cecilia String Quartet dive into the intimate textures and colours by emphasizing the simplicity of Mozart’s music. Cecilia Quartet uses vibrato with the clear intention of enhancing the sound, making the phrasing appear fresh and exciting at times. Karin Kei Nagano brings youthfulness and certain sweetness to her interpretation – her notes are light, spirited and virtuosic in a very natural way.

The Chamber Players of Canada and Janina Fialkowska included the double bass in the string ensemble thus achieving a warmer overall sound. Fialkowska’s playing is fierce at times yet wonderfully lyrical. She does not shy away from darker piano colours in the concertos but emphasizes innocence and brightness in Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman. The string ensemble playing is intense and elegant. Eine kleine Nachtmusik has a reputation of being the party piece in the classical music world – the Chamber Players of Canada clearly enjoyed playing it and they did so with a high degree of stylishness.

Beethoven – Symphonies 1 & 7
Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal; Kent Nagano
Analekta AN 2 9887

Conductor Kent Nagano leads the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM) in energetic and technically tight live performances of Beethoven Symphonies Nos.1 and 7 in this thought-provoking release.

Symphony No.1 is an early work where the compositional influences of late Haydn are combined with Beethoven’s precise and contrasting dynamics. In contrast, the later Symphony No. 7 is a robust rhythmic composition, as the liner notes state, “the theme of Joy in conjunction with that of Dance and dance rhythms arising from physical impulses consistently predominates.”

Both works are given thorough and invigorating interpretations. The musical and ensemble mastery of OSM is most evident in the faster sections, where Nagano’s appropriate choices of tempo create a sense of urgency without a feeling of rushing the beat. The orchestra shines in these sections, and it is a joy to listen to such crisp performances.

But it is the contrasts in dynamics that makes these performances stand out from the crowd. Nagano and the OSM seem to trust each other’s musical choices, as the louds, softs and in between volumes are succinct, colourful and result in energetically focused performances that are never exaggerated for effect.

Each performance ends with justifiable rousing applause from the audience. Combined with clear production, this is a recording to listen to, contemplate and appreciate as Nagano and the OSM offer a fresh and modern take on two Beethoven symphonic chestnuts!

Resolve – Hindemith masterworks for clarinet
Richard Stoltzman; Various artists
Navona Records NV5934

One has to thank Richard Stoltzman, dean of the clarinet in North America, for this latest addition to a long list of recordings, in this instance a celebration of Paul Hindemith’s clarinet music. Missing only the Quartet (1938), this disc features the Concerto (1947), the Sonata (1939) and the Quintet with strings (1923, revised in 1954). The last is the most curious of the lot, at times starkly modern and strange, reflecting the composer’s early experiments with form and tonality, at others oddly restrained. No clue if this is on account of the later revisions. Recorded two and a half decades ago, it’s certainly fun to hear a younger Richard Stoltzman strut about with the E-flat (piccolo) instrument in the middle movement.

It can be lonely work sticking up for Hindemith among colleagues who champion the work of more adventurous composers. I love his music, its assured quality, its exploration of the instruments’ possibilities, and okay yes, his adherence to a form of TONALITY! His writing for strings in the quintet is masterful, recalling somewhat the character of his ballet: The Four Temperaments. Tashi, the chamber group co-founded by Stoltzman and Peter Serkin, plays with mad commitment. This is the earliest recording of the set, dating from 1988. He recorded the Concerto with the Slovak Radio Orchestra in 2003.

Now in his early 70s, Mr. Stoltzman seems not ready to pack up his horn. The sonata was recorded just last year, with Yehudi Wyner on piano. If Stoltzman has lost some of his beautiful tonal focus over time, his ability to form la phrase juste has not diminished.

This disc bears a dedication to the late great Keith Wilson, his (and my) one-time professor at Yale. It’s a fitting tribute to both men.