Handel – Belshazzar
Clayton; Joshua; Hulcup; Davies; Lemalu; Les Arts Florissants; William Christie
Les Arts Florissants Editions 001

When Handel came to London in 1710, he was primarily a composer of Italian operas. His first oratorio, Esther, dates from 1732 but it was from the late 1730s on, when Italian opera was losing its popularity in London, that English oratorio became central to his work. Belshazzar was composed in 1744. The libretto is largely based on the Book of Daniel and its central event is the writing on the wall which Belshazzar, the Babylonian King, does not understand and which only Daniel, the Jewish captive, can interpret.

In 1745 major changes had to be made because the contralto, Susannah Cibber, who was to sing Daniel, was not available. On these CDs William Christie gives us essentially the work as it stood before that emergency surgery, but he also includes some material that was cut before the first performance (cut no doubt because Handel was worried about the work’s length) as well as some numbers that Handel added or changed for the 1751 revival. The performance is magnificent: it is superbly paced and the soloists, the orchestra and the chorus are all very fine. I was especially taken with the soprano Rosemary Joshua as Nitocris, Belshazzar’s mother, and the countertenor Iestyn Davies as Daniel.

Over the years Christie and Les Arts Florissants have given us many fine recordings, but this is the first set of CDs issued by the orchestra itself. A great beginning!

Concert notes: While there are dozens of performances of Messiah in Toronto each year, chances to hear Handel’s other oratorios are infrequent. But we are in luck this year: Tafelmusik is presenting Saul (February 21 to 23) and the Canadian Opera Company is giving us a staged version of Hercules, directed by Peter Sellars (from March 5).

Mozart – Clarinet Quintet; String Quartet K421
Jörg Widmann; Arcanto Quartet
Harmonia Mundi HMC 902168

Ever since the final episode of M*A*S*H in 1983, I’ve realized that Mozart’s Quintet in A Major for clarinet and string quartet is more than a wonderful part of the repertoire for my instrument: it is a gift left for humanity. A luminous nearly perfect piece, K581 seems intended to assuage grief, to remind us that mortality is not so bad after all. Every new recording of it, indeed every performance, is a way of sharing the divine. In a recent release, Jörg Widmann and the Arcanto Quartet do justice to the music in a way that refreshes the ear with a bracing clarity in the strings and absolutely stunning playing in the clarinet. Widmann chooses to perform on the altered basset clarinet, allowing for some extra-low notes in some passages, but it makes little impact on the overall effect. More telling is the blistering tempo of the 16th-note variation in the fourth movement. Has this man no limits?

The strings adhere to a classical style: the near-absence of vibrato, the almost nasal colour of gut strings. Arcanto is a wonderful ensemble, playing as one, snapping back and forth between lead and accompaniment (the first trio in the third movement is Mozart’s little thank-you gift to the string players, a micro quartet while the tacet clarinettist swabs his horn). Do the five get carried away in the variations? Is the expression perhaps more coarse than necessary at times? Perhaps. But the violist, thank goodness, is not given to self-indulgence, and the piece ends in a flashy coda that few could manage with such a combination of wicked speed and beautiful style.

Arcanto performs K421 on their own in the companion piece. Worth hearing as well, and a welcome deviation from the usual inclusion of a lesser work for the same combination.

Concert note: Jörg Widmann is featured as both clarinetist and composer in New Music Concerts’ “A Portrait of Jörg Widmann” on April 18 at Betty Oliphant Theatre. 

Gold Medalist
Vadym Kholodenko
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907605

Silver Medalist
Beatrice Rana
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907606

Crystal Award
Sean Chen
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907607

Three winners emerged from the 14th Van Cliburn Competition in May/June 2013 to prove once again how unique and individuated such pianistic brilliance can be. A Ukrainian, Vadym Kholodenko, age 26, won the gold. Silver went to 20-year-old Italian Beatrice Rana and an American of 24, Sean Chen, received the crystal award. In addition, the winners also received three years of commission-free career management. These performances were recorded live in Fort Worth with audiences barely able to withhold their applause until the final chords faded completely. Considered together, these three young artists offer intriguingly different approaches to their music and its instrument.

Gold medalist Kholodenko chose an endurance program of Stravinsky (Petrouchka) and Liszt. The Transcendental Etudes, best known for the broad range of their technical demands, never seem to tax Kholodenko. He rises easily above them to allow himself generous interpretive ground. Here he plays wistfully with the melodies of Feux Follets and Harmonies du Soir, drawing out Liszt’s inner themes woven across left and right hand parts. His muscular approach to Mazeppa and Wilde Jagd leave no doubt about his power over the instrument as he makes it roar louder than either of his winning competitors. Similarly, his approach to Petrouchka demonstrates a remarkable clipped staccato in the very opening phrases that adds razor sharpness to the phrasing unlike what most other pianists are able to achieve. This power is beautifully contrasted with his playing of the second movement where a gentle legato and light touch confirm exactly why his medal was the gold.

Rana, the silver medalist, brings an elegant, dance-like style to her Schumann, Ravel and Bartók. Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes are very dense at times requiring the utmost in accuracy and articulation. Rana is wonderfully adept at drawing out melodies from within this quasi-orchestral score. The ninth etude, although only a few seconds in duration, is an excellent example of how she does this while sustaining a relentless driving pulse around the theme. Her performance of Ravel’s Gaspard meets every expectation for superbly fluid playing in the opening “Ondine.” “Le Gibet” and “Scarbo” each show us how well Rana can shift to a portrayal of darkness and mystery.

Perhaps most convincing is her primal and somewhat savage approach to Bartók’s Out of Doors. Despite the gentler requirements of the second and fourth movements, the opening almost puts the piano at risk as she astonishes the audience with her raw power. A performer with a demonstrably impressive interpretive ability, one understands why she also won the Audience Award.

Finally, Chen, winner of the crystal award performs a program of Brahms, Beethoven and Bartók. This young American pianist takes his Bartók just as seriously as his formidable Italian competitor but regards the composer’s rhythmic and harmonic angularity with more romance and less anger. A very different but very creditable approach. Chen is a thinker, a pianist who clearly appreciates clean structure. This is what informs all his playing. Nowhere is this more evident than in the closing epic fugal movement of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier. Adjectives simply fail to describe Chen’s grasp of how Beethoven built this complex edifice. He plays it brilliantly. The cheering audience reaction says it all.

Busoni – Late Piano Music
Marc-André Hamelin
Hyperion CDA67951/3

Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin has recorded some 50 albums on the Hyperion label of generally unfamiliar and often extremely virtuosic repertoire to great critical acclaim. His recent release of three CDs devoted to the late piano music of Ferruccio Busoni represents another milestone in an outstanding career.

The repertoire covers the last 15 years of Busoni’s life and includes a number of pieces which self-reference his lesser-known orchestral works. CD 1 opens with the pivotal collection of seven Elegies composed in 1907. According to the composer, “My entire personal vision I put down at last and for the first time in the Elegies.” These works reveal a tonal expansion of his earlier, more facile and traditional approach. The title is misleading, as these works are far from funereal. As might be expected from the only child of an Italian father and German mother, both of them professional musicians, Busoni’s style is cosmopolitan in the extreme, freely mixing influences ranging from an exuberant Italianate Tarantella (later incorporated into his massive Piano Concerto, recorded by Hamelin in 1999 in a staggering performance) to variations on the well-known English folk song Greensleeves (strangely, Busoni had been led to believe this melody was of Chinese origin and had used it as such in his opera based on Gozzi’s play Turandot).

CD 2 is largely devoted to Busoni’s six Sonatinas, again of exceptional emotional range, from the inward-looking Sonatina seconda (containing thematic references to his opera Doktor Faust) to the sixth, overtly Lisztian, Kammer-Fantasie über Carmen that concludes the cycle. One even finds an intriguing example of “World Music.” Busoni had toured the United States repeatedly in the early 20th century and while resident there took a keen interest in the Native American music which had been brought to his attention by Natalie Curtis, a former piano student of his who gifted him a copy of her massive 1907 volume of pioneering ethnomusicological transcriptions, The Indians’ Book. Busoni responded with a handful of Indian-inspired works including his Indian Diary in which short motifs from her collection appear as thematic springboards for his kaleidoscopic inventions.

Many of the pieces included on CD 3 have a pedagogical purpose. Opening with a fabulously fleeting performance of the demanding Toccata of 1920, the bulk of the disc is devoted to a generous sampling from his late Klavierübung volumes which explore technical issues involving trills, staccato passages and polyphony as well as an intriguing set of variations on Chopin’s familiar Prelude in C Minor. These three discs contain a number of pieces not previously recorded and also include a sampling of the numerous Bach arrangements Busoni is best known for. The programming is exemplary, the sound is alluring (from a Steinway piano recorded in London’s Henry Wood Hall) and the program notes are excellent. Bravo Hamelin!

Mahler – Symphony No.4 in G Major
Christina Landshamer; Gewandhaus Orchestra; Riccardo Chailly
Accentus Music Blu-Ray disc, ACC10257

Mahler – Symphony No.6 in A Minor
Gewandhaus Orchestra; Riccardo Chailly
Accentus Music Blu-Ray disc, ACC10268

The new Mahler cycle by Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhaus Orchestra continues. Chailly already has a complete cycle on CD (which includes Cooke’s realization of the 10th with the Berlin RSO), with the Concertgebouw recorded between 1994 and 2003 when he was their music director, succeeding Bernard Haitink who also had set down a cycle. Both these Concertgebouw performances are cast in the traditional mould.

Most conductors and orchestras that include Mahler in their repertoire are on firm ground delivering performances that do not stray beyond the, by now, traditional way the scores unfold. Tradition, to paraphrase Toscanini, is what you heard in the last bad performance… and so on back down the line.

This new Fourth Symphony disc contains, in addition to the revelatory, searching performance, two bonus features. Mahler is heard playing from the fourth movement on the 1905 Welte-Mignon piano rolls, and Chailly expounds on his new interpretation of the symphony with illustrations from the rehearsals and performance. Chailly: “It is important to take the time to study music you’ve performed many times before. I hadn’t conducted Mahler’s Fourth for 11 years and it felt like unfinished business. I’ve tried to rethink my interpretation from start to finish and give this great symphony a far stronger sense of structure. I’ve started again from scratch. Mahler takes everything to extremes: he takes his climaxes to the limit, and the movement lengths, so you have to pay close attention to the enormous extremes in dynamics…”

The Sixth is immediately arresting.  Chailly reverses the order of the middle movements, returning the “Andante” to second place followed by the “Scherzo,” now an hysterical danse macabre, distanced from the Allegro energico of the first movement. The total performance is a new experience, to say the very least. On the 15-minute bonus track, Chailly and Reinhold Kubik of the International Gustav Mahler Society discuss many aspects of the symphony including, of course, how many hammer blows. Chailly talks about and illustrates, as before, his break away from destructive traditions.

As do the Second (Accentus ACC10238) and Eighth (ACC10222) released in 2012, these nonpareil performances realize Mahler’s genius as an orchestrator and music visionary. As before, no one on the stage is on automatic pilot…they are all in the moment. My attention was rapt through gossamer pianissimos to translucent, shattering tuttis. I’m sold.

Bruce Surtees

The latest offering from James Ehnes is an outstanding 2-CD set of the Complete Works for Violin by Sergei Prokofiev (Chandos CHAN 10787(2)). Gianandrea Noseda conducts the BBC Philharmonic in the Violin Concerto No.1 in D Major and the Violin Concerto No.2 in G Minor on disc one, and Andrew Armstrong is the accompanist for the violin and piano works on disc two. Ehnes gives thoughtful and sensitive performances of the two concertos, and is given perfect support by Noseda, a conductor who has few equals when it comes to drawing nuanced, sensitive playing from a large orchestra.

Violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti joins Ehnes in the Sonata for Two Violins, Op.56, and Ehnes gives a spirited performance of the lovely Sonata for Violin Solo, Op.115. The difficult and engrossing Sonata No.1 in F Minor, Op.80, is the major work on disc 2, and Ehnes and Armstrong are outstanding. Although completed in 1946, three years after the sonata we know as No.2, Prokofiev had started work on it in 1938.

The Five Melodies Op.35bis were transcribed by Prokofiev in 1925 from his original 1920 version for voice and piano. The final work on disc two is the Sonata No.2 in D Major, Op.94bis, the composer’s transcription of his Flute Sonata from 1943.

Balance and sound quality throughout are up to the quality you would expect from a thoroughly satisfying CD set.

My eyes light up whenever I see a new Jennifer Koh CD from the Cedille label, and the latest release from this most intelligent of performers, signs, games + messages (CDR 90000 143) certainly doesn’t disappoint. Koh is joined by pianist Shai Wosner in a recital that features works by Leoš Janáček, Béla Bartók and the 87-year-old Hungarian composer György Kurtág. Koh and Wosner, in a joint statement in the excellent booklet notes, cite their desire to explore the tension between the visionary modernism of the works and the pull of the folk and cultural memory that is so essential to the personal language of these composers, as the spark for this recital.

There really does seem to be a logical progression through the program, from Janáček’s Violin Sonata, through a selection of short aphorisms by Kurtág, to Bartók’s First Violin Sonata. There are four solo piano pieces from the Játékok series and four solo violin pieces from Signs, Games and Messages in the Kurtág works in addition to three duo works, and the piano pieces in particular have echoes of Janáček’s piano series On An Overgrown Path. The Bartók sonata seems to follow naturally from the final Kurtág work, the In Nomine – all’ongherese for solo violin.

Needless to say, the performing and recording standard throughout is of the highest quality. Once again, Koh provides us with a fascinating journey through a carefully chosen and perfectly balanced program.

The husband and wife team of violinist Benjamin Schmid and pianist Ariane Haering are in superb form on the CD Romantic Duos, featuring works by Franz Liszt, Frank Bridge and Edvard Grieg (TwoPianists Records TP1039299). Schmid’s tone throughout is rich, warm and full-blooded; Haering is a true partner with a beautiful piano tone, and the balance and sound quality are perfect.

Although usually attributed solely to Liszt, his Grand Duo Concertant was actually a collaborative effort between Liszt and the violinist Charles-Philippe Lafont, whose Romance, Le Marin is the basis for a set of short variations. It’s a lovely work. Liszt’s brief Consolation No.3 was originally one of six solo piano works, and is presented here in a transcription for violin and piano by Nathan Milstein.

The English composer Frank Bridge only published one acknowledged violin sonata, in 1922, but there is an incomplete sonata that pre-dates the Great War, comprising an opening movement and an unfinished second movement. It is this work that is recorded here, with the second movement completed by the Bridge authority Paul Hindmarsh. It’s a beautifully rhapsodic work that draws terrific playing from the performers. Two short pieces by Bridge are also included: Romanze, from 1904 (the same year as the unfinished sonata); and Heart’s Ease, written in the early 1920s. A passionate performance of Grieg’s Violin Sonata No.3 in C Minor, Op.45, completes an outstanding disc.

Another husband and wife team, Mark and Ute Miller, perform as the Duo Renard on a CD of Duos for Violin and Viola in works by Mozart and Brydern (Fleur de Son Classics FDS 58011).

It’s clear from the outset that this will be a “sit back and enjoy” CD:  the intonation is spot on; the ensemble playing, phrasing and articulation are all excellent; the tone, balance and recorded sound are beautiful.

The two Mozart works – the Duos in G Major, K423 and B-Flat Major, K424 – were written to complete a set of six duos that Salzburg’s Archbishop Colloredo had commissioned from the ailing Michael Haydn, Mozart’s friend and the brother of Joseph Haydn. Mozart was a superb viola player as well as a first-class violinist, and his understanding of both instruments is clear for all to hear.

The two works by the German-born and U.S.-based Benedikt Brydern (b.1966) are an interesting contrast. The seven-movement suite Bebop for Beagles was commissioned by Duo Renard, and is a tribute to the couple’s two pet dogs. From My Notebook Vol.2 is a collection of four short pieces from 2000, following an earlier series with the same title for solo violin. Movement titles like “Cookies in Space” and “Flea Control: Mission Impossible” give you a good impression of what to expect here: both works are great fun – and very, very good.

The brother and sister violin and piano duo of Sergey and Lusine Khachatryan are back with a beautiful CD of the three Brahms Sonatas (naïve V 5314). These glorious works are the perfect length for a CD and always a great listen; indeed, it would take a pretty bad performance to spoil them.

The Khachatryans make you sit up and take notice right from the start, but for all the right reasons. There is a quiet, introspective start to the G major sonata, and some beautifully expansive phrasing, especially in the piano. The violin vibrato tends to be fairly fast and narrow and is rarely missing, but the sweet tone and thoughtful phrasing mean that there is never any sense of harshness or tightness. The CD was recorded at London’s Wigmore Hall, and the balance and sound quality are ideal.

Violinist Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt are in great form on their CD of the Schumann Violin Sonatas (Ondine ODE 105-2). All three sonatas were written towards the end of Schumann’s life, the Sonata No.1 in A Minor and the Sonata No.2 in D Minor within a few months of each other in late 1851. The Sonata No.3 in A Minor has an odd history. Immediately after contributing two movements to the “F.A.E” Sonata on which he, Brahms and Albert Dietrich collaborated in October 1853 as a birthday gift for Joseph Joachim, Schumann added a further two movements to complete the new work; Clara Schumann and Brahms apparently prevented its being included in the complete edition of Schumann’s works though, and it wasn’t published until 1956.

Tetzlaff and Vogt apparently immersed themselves in Schumann’s late works in preparation for this recording, and it shows; their playing is warm and fluent, and they clearly have a great affinity for the material on a terrific CD. Their performance of the third sonata in particular makes you wonder why it was suppressed for so long.

Two ongoing string quartet series came to an end with recent releases; by coincidence, in-depth reviews of earlier volumes in both series were included in the same Strings Attached column in March 2012:

Volume IV of The Soviet Experience, the outstanding Cedille series of String Quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich and his Contemporaries, features quartets numbers 13 to15 by Shostakovich in stunning performances by the Pacifica Quartet (CDR 90000 145). What has added immeasurably to this series, though, is the addition of contemporary Russian string quartets to each volume. This time it’s the String Quartet No.3 by Alfred Schnittke that completes the 2-CD set. Everything about this wonderful series has been of the highest order: the performances; the recording quality; the cover artwork; the booklet notes; the choice of contemporary works. The word “definitive” keeps cropping up in the various reviews of previous sets in this series, and even in the face of some extremely strong competition it’s very difficult to imagine a more compelling or satisfying collection of these wonderful works. Add the fact that all four volumes are currently on sale on the Cedille website for around US$13 each, and the words “must buy” come to mind!

The Naxos release of the String Quartets Nos.1, 2, 3 and 4 by Polish composer Krzysztof Meyer is also a fourth and final volume, this time in the series of the complete quartets performed by the Wieniawski String Quartet (8.573165). These early works run from the Op.8 of 1963 to the Op.33 of 1974, and show a developing but confident composer willing to experiment with sounds and forms. The members of this Polish ensemble are completely at home with these important works by their compatriot, and the four volumes constitute an impressive set.

Two other CDs continue ongoing series:

French violinist Fanny Clamagirand is joined by her regular duo partner, pianist Vanya Cohen in the second volume of Saint-Saëns Music for Violin and Piano (Naxos 8.572751). The main works here are the Suite in D Minor, Op.16 and the Violin Sonata No.2 in E-Flat Major, Op.102; there is also a very early – and very brief – unfinished sonata, although “hardly started” might be a better description. A short Méditation and two works originally for cello – the Romance in C Major, Op.48, and The Swan – round out the CD.

Saint-Saëns’ music may not have impacted the course of musical history, but it’s of a very high quality. Clamagirand and Cohen have exactly the right mix of technical bravura and musical insight to make these works sound terrific. Volume 1, featuring the Violin Sonata No.1, is available on Naxos 8.572750.

The Naxos series of the 10 Strathclyde Concertos by Peter Maxwell-Davies continues with the Concerto No.5 for Violin, Viola and String Orchestra, coupled with the Concerto No.6 for Flute and Orchestra (8.572354). Both works were written in 1991, and were recorded two years later for the Collins Classics label by the artists to whom the works were dedicated and who gave the premieres: violinist James Clark; violist Catherine Marwood; flutist David Nicholson; and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by the composer. This Naxos CD is a reissue of those recordings. The performances of these high-quality works are clearly definitive, although there is little to stir the blood in either concerto.

Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht is available in a new version, this time coupled with the String Quartet No.1 in performances by the Fred Sherry String Quartet and Sextet (Naxos 8.557534). Leila Josefowicz is the first violin here, and the disc is part of an ongoing series of Schoenberg recordings under the direction of the legendary Robert Craft. Despite this noteworthy pedigree, however, I don’t think this performance of Verklärte Nacht quite matches the version by Janine Jansen and friends reviewed in this column in June 2013.

The String Quartet No.1 is worth the price of the CD on its own, though. It’s a large, deeply chromatic work from 1904/05, a pivotal point in the composer’s career, and it’s made even more interesting by the knowledge of where it would lead in just a few years. Four short canons from the series of Thirty Canons that Schoenberg wrote between 1905 and 1949 close out the disc.

Several other works also seem to be cropping up quite regularly these days. There are two new recordings of the Schubert String Quintet in C Major, for instance, although it’s difficult to imagine having too many versions of this outstanding work. Cellist Anne Gastinel joins the Quatuor Diotima in a beautiful performance on naïve (V 5331), while Danjulo Ishizaka joins the Pavel Haas Quartet on a 2-CD Supraphon set that also features Schubert’s String Quartet No.14 in D Minor, Death and the Maiden (SU4110-2). A wide range of dynamics in the latter release makes for some terrific moments in passionate but sensitive performances of both works.

Rosenthal – L’intégrale pour piano
Stéphane Lemelin
ATMA ACD2 2587

While Manuel Rosenthal earned his greatest success as a conductor over the span of his long lifetime (he died in 2003 a few weeks short of his 99th birthday) he was also a composer of considerable merit, writing in an affable, neo-classical style. For whatever reason, his output for solo piano is comparatively small, all of it written between 1924 and 1934, and it is presented in its entirety on this ATMA release featuring pianist Stéphane Lemelin.

With his affinity for French music, it seems appropriate that Lemelin should be the one to unearth this relatively obscure repertoire. He studied with Karl Ulrich Schnabel and Leon Fleisher and since 2001 has been on faculty at the University of Ottawa.

From the gentle opening chords of the Huit Bagatelles from 1924, it’s clear that Lemelin is very much at home with this music. His playing is refined and elegant, ably capturing the ever-contrasting moods of these musical miniatures. And it’s this sense of kaleidoscopic variety that makes these pieces so engaging. The brief Valse des pêcheurs à la ligne (The Angler’s Waltz) is all pastoral tranquility, while the suite Les Petits Métiers from 1934 is a musical description of various occupations, ranging from the striking chords of the “Le Maréchal-ferrant” (The Blacksmith), to the staccato frenzy of “La Petit Télégraphiste” (The Telegraph Operator). Do I hear echoes of François Couperin? Lemelin handles it all with great panache.

While Rosenthal’s piano output might not be deemed “great music,” it nevertheless has a charm all its own, often combining elements of French salon style with the more progressive tendencies of Ravel and Milhaud. Lemelin is to be commended for bringing to light some intriguing 20th-century repertoire that might have been undeservedly forgotten.

Ligeti – Violin Concerto; Lontano; Atmosphères; San Francisco Polyphony
Benjamin Schmid; Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Hannu Lintu
Ondine ODE 1213-2

It’s not just the terrific performances on this disc that make it so appealing. The programming of four iconic works by Hungarian composer György Ligeti offers a handy overview of the orchestral music of one of the most imaginative, idiosyncratic, influential and enjoyable composers of the past century. Ligeti was a loner, but his music was embraced by leading avant-garde composers and featured in popular films like 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The big draw here is violinist Benjamin Schmid’s energized performance of the majestic Violin Concerto, a late work from 1993. There are plenty of thrills, especially in the virtuosic cadenza. But what makes this performance so memorable is the way Schmid and conductor Hannu Lintu find the ideal balance between Ligeti’s angular modernism and his heartfelt lyricism.

The earliest work here, Atmosphères, from 1961, still fascinates – that such an apparently static work can be so gripping. The surface is all glassy smoothness. But Lintu takes us deep into the colours and textures swirling underneath as they emerge and recede.

By the time Ligeti wrote San Francisco Polyphony, in 1974, he was working with recognizable melodies, layering them in new and exciting ways. In his delightfully idiosyncratic booklet notes Lintu admits that “successfully executing the trickiest sequences in San Francisco Polyphony requires not only skill but a generous helping of good luck, too.” It sounds like everyone involved in this marvellous disc had plenty of both good luck and skill.

Concert note: Hannu Lintu conducts the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall on March 20 and 22 in Solen by Matthew Whittall, Symphony No.5 by Sibelius and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5, with Angela Hewitt as soloist.

Nebula – solo piano music of Heather Schmidt
Heather Schmidt
Centrediscs CMCCD 19613

Throughout musical history, the term “pianist-composer” is one that has been used all too liberally – usually it’s a case of either-or. So when someone such as Heather Schmidt comes along, we tend to sit up and take notice, for she truly excels on both levels. Her newest disc, Nebula, on the CMC label, is the first opportunity for the public to enjoy her pianistic talents at performing her own solo music, while demonstrating just how well the description pianist-composer applies to this Calgary-born artist.

Schmidt studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School and later at Indiana University, where she was the youngest student to earn a doctorate degree. Since then, she’s been the recipient of numerous honours, including three consecutive BMI awards and two from SOCAN.  Most recently, a move to Los Angeles with a focus on the creation of film and television scores has revealed yet another side of her talents.

In creating Nebula, she explained that it was her aim to capture the special connection between composer, performer and audience and as a result she deliberately included works with a wide range of styles. Indeed, contrast is a big part of this disc, and her music demonstrates a myriad of influences. Pieces such as Silver Tides and Serenity are nocturnal and atmospheric while the “Fugue” from Twelve for Ten is a robust contemporary interpretation of a baroque form. In contrast, Shimmer owes something to the French Impressionists, while the technically-demanding Nebula is bold and impassioned. Throughout, her flawless technique goes hand-in-hand with a deeply-rooted sensitivity.

Bravo, Ms. Schmidt, you’ve proven that you are indeed a rara avis, a fine pianist who also happens to excel at composition, and Nebula is an example of some fine solo contemporary musicmaking on many levels.

A Sweeter Music
Sarah Cahill
Other Minds Records OM 1022-2

This CD has an admirable concept, which packs a powerful message in today’s society. The title comes from a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1964: “We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody, that is far superior to the discords of war.”

The repertoire chosen for this CD reflects a myriad of responses from the selected composers. Terry Riley’s Be Kind to One Another (2008/2010) is a rag, which began as his late-night improvisatory noodling. This was not what I expected for a first piece on this themed CD. You would think an Arvo Pärt spiritual work would reflect the CD’s concept. However, I enjoyed the retro-sounding work and let myself really live in the musical moment and anticipated being surprised by the rest of the CD. Meredith Monk’s Steppe Music (excerpts) (1997) explores colour, texture, resonance and gesture. Frederic Rzewski’s Peace Dances (2007/2008) were written for Sarah Cahill. The brevity and unique sound for each of the seven pieces remind me of Henry Cowell’s Six Ings. These works are a wonderful addition to the contemporary piano repertoire. Kyle Gann’s War is Just a Racket (2008) has the pianist making a speech given by General Smedley in 1933. Although Cahill did an admirable job in her oration I would have preferred a low baritone to represent the general’s voice. Carl Stone’s Sonamu (2010) with electronics created ghostly apparitions of sound and Phil Kline’s 2009 The Long Winter (“Crash” and “Embers”) is recommended for the lovely tonal quality of “Embers.” Toning (2008) by Yoko Ono sounded like someone tuning the piano and although I understand the musical concept I felt this was the weak link in the CD. The Residents: drum no fife (2008) with text and narration by the Residents was a fitting end to this intriguing and worthwhile CD.

The program notes, most written by the composers, were excellent and informative. Cahill played with a sweet and sensitive tone and touch. Her technique was impeccable and I recommend this CD highly.

Returning Minimalism (In Deung – vibration of the spirit (getaran jiwa); In Dang – teruna’s dream (mimpi teruna))
Gamelan Semara Ratih of Bali
Sargasso scd28074 (sargasso.com)

This musically intriguing and culturally complex release uses American composer Terry Riley’s genre-defining 1964 minimalist work In C as a working model for exploration and improvisation by the renowned group Gamelan Semara Ratih (GSR) from southern Bali, Indonesia. It’s the brainchild of the Italian gamelan recording producer and composer John Noise Manis who has since the 1990s nurtured the notion of bringing together two of his musical passions: minimalism, and Javanese and Balinese forms of gamelan music. This ambitious album is the third in the series titled “Returning Minimalism.” In each, the creative challenge posed by Noise Manis to indigenous performers: find your inner, culturally appropriate In C.

He’s certainly not been the first to employ cross-cultural approaches to exploring music he loves. As the musicologist Kyle Gann has written, “minimalism [can be seen as] an irruption of non-Western influences into the Western tradition – even, American music’s attempt to connect with the rest of the world.” More pointedly however: did gamelan music somehow exert a substantive influence on early minimalism? There’s no evidence for this. To the contrary in 2011 Terry Riley stated that in the early 1960s when he created his early minimalist works, “the fact is that I didn’t know about gamelan.”

Regardless of shifting perceived patterns of cross-cultural influence the ongoing Returning Minimalism project argues for the important work of contesting stereotypical Western exoticist readings of culture. In this album the project has put a seminal musical composition, which at its birth shook up norms of classical Western music, into the hands of Balinese composers and musicians.

Guided by the seasoned American gamelan musician Ken Worthy, in their adaptive explorations of In C the 23 musicians of GSR are heard in two works on this ear-opening album. They form an attractive unforced-sounding hybrid reflecting both their Balinese and minimalist sources with clarity while not compromising either. On track one, In Deung – Vibration of the Spirit, melodic cells from In C are transposed into the seven-tone tuning of the GSR gamelan evoking an introspective mood representing “the spirit centred in the self.” By way of contrast the more lively In Dang – Teruna’s Dream reworks In C motifs and skilfully weaves into the fabric occasional quotations from Teruna Jaya (Victorious Youth), the influential early 20th-century North Balinese masterwork.

This marvellous music helps us deepen our understanding and enjoyment of such masterfully made multiple redirections in the flow of trans-cultural influences.

Gamelan Cage – John Cage’s prepared piano pieces on Balinese Gamelan
Sanggar Ceraken of Bali
Sargasso scd28075 (sargasso.com)

This album is another example of Italian gamelan recording producer John Noise Manis’ passion: the reinterpretation of 20th century modernist Western music by various kinds of gamelan groups. Here nine Cage prepared piano works from 1940 to 1948 were arranged by American ethnomusicologist Andrew Clay McGraw for Ceraken, an ensemble of dedicated young Balinese musicians led by composer I Made Subandi. They were then recorded in the idyllic rural setting of an “open-air pavilion overlooking the terraced rice fields of Batuan village” in southern Bali.

In his well-researched liner notes McGraw wonders whether Cage’s 1940s invention of the prepared piano was influenced by gamelan music. There is no evidence for such a causal relationship. Cage’s unexpected sole work scored for gamelan came late in his life when Toronto’s Evergreen Club Gamelan commissioned Haikai (1986). Interested readers can find my account in “John Cage, Master of Silence” in The WholeNote, September 2012.

McGraw argues that rather than gamelan, “more important for Cage’s prepared piano phase was the interwar flowering of percussion and percussive music.” On the other hand Cage’s piano preparations, “almost always transform the string from an harmonic to an inharmonic vibrating body.” This key observation links the sounds of the prepared piano to the bronze gongs and keys of the gamelan which are designed to produce inharmonic overtones. It is because of this sonic family resemblance that many listeners “think of the gamelan (and sometimes assume a direct line of influence) when hearing the inharmonic, noisy, but definitely pitched sounds of Cage’s prepared piano.”

McGraw worked intensely for weeks through the Cage scores with the Ceraken musicians, learning them by heart. They produced striking transformations, rendering them with a fresh percussive sonic palette as well as with Balinese-mediated choices of tempo, expression and ensemble performance practice. Moreover the creative team chose their instrumentation from seven very different gamelans. Lending complexity to the arrangements: none of the sets were “tuned to the other and there were very few coinciding tones between them.”

The musical results range from experimental and exploratory sounding, as in the “microtonal” sections of Daughters of the Lonesome Isle, to the musically substantial Bacchanale. The latter, stocked with 16th note hemiolas characteristic of Balinese kotekan, was a favourite among many of the musicians. Sounding just as convincing in an arrangement for Balinese gamelan as it does on its original instrument, it’s my favourite too.

Tranquility
Neil Swainson; Don Thompson
Cornerstone Records CRST CD 141 (cornerstonerecordsinc.com)

Recorded October 3 and 4, 2012 at Inception Sound Studios, Toronto, here is another gem from Cornerstone Records and producer Barry Elmes, with two musicians who blend beautifully together in that most intimate of musical settings, the duo. Neil Swainson has a very personal sound and melodic quality to his bass playing and listening to Don Thompson’s piano there is a rippling liquid quality that makes me think at times of a flowing stream.

The program begins with a unison statement of the Charlie Parker theme Quasimodo based on, if my hunch is correct, Embraceable You. The rest of the CD consists of compositions written by some of the finest musicians and composers, ranging from Henry Mancini’s Mr. Lucky to Time Remembered by Bill Evans via Never Let Me Go by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston and an original, Tranquil, by Swainson. 

There is also a waltz, something that I like to find on any album. There is something about 3/4 tempo which gives a natural swing to the music and this one, Everybody’s Song But My Own by Kenny Wheeler is no exception. This is music played at the highest level by two masters of their art.

There is a liner note contributed by the late Jim Hall and I shall borrow a phrase from what he wrote – “Lovely music played beautifully by two fantastic musicians…” ’Nuff said.

This Is What You Get…
Griffith Hiltz Trio
Independent (ghtrio.com)

In complete contrast to the Swainson/Thompson CD we have a much more extroverted offering from this group – excellent musicianship, obvious empathy and a wide range of influences with hints of Celtic, Norse and Eastern regions as well as a tip of the hat to R&B and Ornette Coleman, all of it with a strong melodic content.

Reed-player Johnny Griffith is a very accomplished musician and one of my favourite tracks is The Rainbow Connection which features him on bass clarinet. It is pensive and beautifully haunting including the guitar solo from Nathan Hiltz. Other highlights for me include the quirky Strawman and Steppin’ Out.

As a group all three have an obvious shared pleasure in their music and a cohesiveness in which they become greater than the sum of the parts. I feel somewhat remiss in singling out Hiltz and Griffith because drummer Sly Juhas is a major factor in the success of this group’s music and the feeling of unity.

If you are looking for a conventional jazz recording this isn’t it – but if you are willing to open your ears to something a little different and innovative I would recommend This Is What You Get… You might just like what you do get.

Paul Bley (Complete Black Saint and Soul Note recordings)
Paul Bley
Black Saint; Soul Note BXS 1027

If one is asked to name the most popular or famous Canadian jazz performers, certain names trip readily to the tongue, likely Diana Krall and Oscar Peterson. If asked to name the most creative or influential, it’s almost as easy, likely the Montreal-born pianist Paul Bley or Toronto-born trumpeter Kenny Wheeler. Since his recording debut as a leader over 60 years ago with modernist giants Charles Mingus on bass and Art Blakey on drums, Bley has worked near the vanguard of jazz, crafting a distinctively minimalist yet freely lyrical solo style, leading a series of highly interactive bands from trios to quintets, developing new idioms with legendary figures like Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins and Jimmy Giuffre, and influencing pianists like Keith Jarrett and Brad Mehldau.

Much of Bley’s creative range and some of his key partnerships are apparent in this 10-CD set that collects his work for the Italian Soul Note label between 1983 and 1994. His special creativity as a soloist is apparent in Tango Palace, including his deft reimagining of tango and barrelhouse. His willingness to map out a new music with fresh partners is apparent in the duets of Sonor with Toronto percussionist George Cross McDonald or those of Not To Be a Star with saxophonist Keshavan Maslak. He seems just as happy, though, getting together with long term associates. The 1993 Conversation with a Goose was the last recorded meeting of the trio with clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre and bassist Steve Swallow that first played together in 1961 and whose understated style of closely interactive, free improvisation is still finding new adherents.

There are a couple of propulsive, harder-edged New York quartets with guitarists – Hot with John Scofield and Live at Sweet Basil with John Abercrombie – while Bley may reach furthest on Chaos, an aggressive program of free improvisation with Italian bassist Furio di Castri and English percussionist Tony Oxley. The best moments, though, seem to come with the longest standing associations, with musicians who share Bley’s profound sense of sound and duration: the luminous trio of Memoirs, with bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Paul Motian, and Mindset with bassist Gary Peacock, a sublime exchange of ideas that seems continuous with the studio’s resonance.