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Kyle Brenders Quartet
18th Note Records 18-2012-2 (www.kylebrenders.ca)

Proficient in both improvised and notated music, clarinettist/saxophonist Kyle Brenders has become a known commodity on the local music scene and this bang-up disc aptly demonstrates his elevated compositional and playing standards. Working through a program of eight somewhat bouncy always quirky Brenders’ originals he’s helped immeasurably by the cohesive, multi-faceted soloing of trombonist Steve Ward, Tomas Bouda’s unobtrusive yet sturdy bass line and the ever-inventive drumming of Mark Segger.

Working with motifs which reference brassy marching band music while utilizing extended instrumental techniques, the result is sophisticated without ever becoming esoteric. Segger and Ward are keys to this strategy. On a tune such as Porlock for instance, the trombonist constructs a jolting solo out of mid-range plunger impulses and smooth capillary extensions as Brenders’ soprano saxophone exposes quivering multiphonics. Meanwhile the theme is repeated at intervals with tremolo flutters from both, centred by the bassist. With Whisk it’s blustering puffs and slurs from the ‘bone man that hold the line as the composer on bass clarinet cascades split tones a cappella from subterranean to altissimo and is then joined by the drummer’s ruffs and rebounds for a stop-time ending. Terrace on the other hand is Segger’s showcase, as metallic clinks, castanet-like snaps and wood-block smacks move upfront. At the same time his pops and pitter-patters underline the theme, which correspondingly vibrates by parallel clarinet and trombone lines.

Far along in his synthesis of other influences, which include composer Anthony Braxton’s eclecticism, the sax-and-trombone-centred New York Art Quartet and a crafty subversion of Cool Jazz’s thin and subtle harmonies with raucous trombone blats and contrapuntal saxophone glossolalia, Brenders is a noteworthy Toronto talent, with this CD a definitive showcase of his varied skills.

Concert note: On June 22 the Kyle Brenders Quartet is in concert at the Music Gallery along with New York saxophonist Matana Roberts.

Montreal pianist Oliver Jones announced his retirement at age 65 back in 2000, but returned to performing shortly thereafter. Since then he’s made a further contribution to the swing quotient of Canadian jazz, for Jones has a devotion to rhythmic propulsion second only to Oscar Peterson. A certain resemblance may be inevitable: Jones grew up in the same Little Burgundy neighbourhood of Montreal where he studied piano with OP’s sister, Daisy Peterson Sweeney. Josée Aidans appears as a special guest with Jones’ trio on about half of Just for My Lady (Justin Time JUST 251-2 www.justin-time.com) and the warmth of her violin adds a special touch, whether it’s to the forceful Josée’s Blues, the luminous balladry of Lights of Burgundy (a Jones composition from 1985) or the delightful swing of Lady Be Good. Elsewhere Jones, bassist Eric Lagace and drummer Jim Doxas are at their usual consummate level, consistently elegant whether reflective or joyous.

Bill King is another veteran pianist with a Peterson connection, first coming to Canada as a teenager in the 1960s to study at the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto. King has had a long career in Toronto as composer, publisher, bandleader and mentor to a host of vocalists, but on Cinemascope: Orchestrations for Piano (Slaight Music www.slaightmusic.com) he goes it alone at the keyboard of a Steinway grand, improvising on themes with cinematic inferences. There’s a strong thread of Ellington’s particular impressionism here, whether King is reflecting on Audrey Hepburn in Audrey in Silk or Duke’s writing partner in Strayhorn. King’s darkened-theatre reveries can recall a host of landscapes and genres, but they all seem to glow with the special luminosity of memory.

Another alumnus of the Peterson school is drummer Don Vickery, who was already active in Halifax jazz circles before he relocated to Toronto in 1959. Vickery is 74 now, but he’s lost none of his springy, propulsive beat, amply demonstrated on his first CD as leader, Alone Together (Cornerstone CRST CD 139 www.cornerstonerecordsinc.com). The music here is mainstream modern jazz of the first rank, with Vickery fitting hand-in-glove with his partners. Pianist Mark Eisenman’s relaxed rhythmic phrasing and feel for the blues always suggest something of the late Wynton Kelly, while Neil Swainson is a genuine melodic bassist, whether soloing or playing the melody on Johnny Mandel’s seldom heard Close Enough for Love. There’s never a sense of a superfluous note here, and it all seems to float on air, wafted aloft on Vickery’s detailed punctuation. Other highlights include Hampton Hawes’ Blues the Most and Henry Mancini’s Dreamsville, also imaginative repertoire choices.

The Carn Davidson Nine (Addo AJR014 www.addorecords.com) debuts a mid-size ensemble led by Toronto alto saxophonist Tara Davidson and trombonist William Carn. The band is a fine outlet for the co-leaders’ compositions and arrangements, allowing for voicings and dynamics that are unavailable in the typical quintet or quartet. While the name may recall Phil Nimmons’ groundbreaking nonet, this Nine’s structure includes sheer heft (consider the brassy force of Davidson’s opening Battle Scars) as well as nuance, complementing the leaders with saxophonists Kelly Jefferson on tenor and Perry White on baritone (always forceful presences), trumpeters Jason Logue and Kevin Turcotte, and bass trombonist Terry Promane, with bassist Andrew Downing and drummer Fabio Ragnelli. The subtlety comes via the doubling, with flutes and flugelhorns coming to the fore on Carn’s airy When You Least Expect It. With arrangers including Promane, Logue and Reg Schwager and high-level soloists (Davidson is delightfully abstract on her South Western View), the Carn Davidson Nine could become a significant institution.

Last year Montreal saxophonist Patrick Lampron released Walking the Line and Ottawa trumpeter Craig Pedersen put out Days like These, both CDs of exceptional promise. That promise has been fulfilled in record time with the release of Live in Silence (www.craigpedersen.com), the end product of a Northern Quebec tour by Pedersen/Lampron/Gobeil/Kerr/Thibodeau, essentially Pedersen with the band from Lampron’s CD: guitarist, Dominic Gobeil, bassist Joel Kerr and drummer Eric Thibodeau. While Pedersen’s band conception usually falls in the overlapping orbits of Ornette Coleman and John Zorn’s Masada, here the collective inspirations are the ECM label’s Nordic cool, open harmonies and spacious, lyrical modal jazz, complemented by influences from Wayne Shorter and Tomasz Stanko. The band is cohesive, with Pedersen bringing another dimension, nowhere more apparent than in Lampron’s compelling and concluding Obrigada, a composition that the quintet sustains with developing interest for nearly 17 minutes of music.

A similar Ontario/Quebec connection appears in the quintet of free improvisers Martin, Lozano, Lewis, Wiens, Duncan on the CD at Canterbury (Barnyard Records BR0332 www.barnyardrecords.com). The style is deliberate and focused, with ideas clearly developing as they’re passed around the group. Singer Christine Duncan and guitarist Rainer Wiens, doubling on theremin and mbira respectively, can create backgrounds of a rain forest density while trumpeter Jim Lewis and saxophonist Frank Lozano are deft musical architects, marking lyrical trails through the soundscape, all of it enhanced by Martin’s expansive store of adroitly distributed sounds. There’s an often uncanny sense of form here, and it’s too bad that Wiens and Lozano reside 500 kilometres from the rest of the band.

Montreal saxophonist François Carrier and drummer Michel Lambert are regular ambassadors to the world of improvised music, intrepid travellers who have matched inspirations with similarly open creators throughout Europe and parts of Asia. On Overground to the Vortex (Not Two MW904-2 www.nottwo.com), another segment in their extended chronicle, the two appear at London’s Vortex with two outstanding representatives of the British school of free improvisation, bassist John Edwards and pianist Steve Beresford. The trio of Carrier, Lambert and Edwards are heard first with Edwards’ complex bass activity matching up perfectly with Lambert, creating a force field of percolating rhythmic details that Carrier negotiates with the zeal of an urban explorer facing a new metropolis. The full quartet assembles for Archway, an extended musical arc consisting of constantly shifting moods and densities, highlighted by Carrier’s controlled passion and Beresford’s playfulness.

As the rhythmic base of jazz has changed over the past half century, adding emphases besides pure swing to improvisation, the role of the percussionist has changed as well. No longer just a time keeper the modern drummer must be conversant with varied beats from many genres of music. This familiarity with other cultures is also why many non-Americans have become prominent. Case in point is Norwegian percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love, who plays with the Euro-American band Lean Left at the Tranzac on June 15. Nilssen-Love, whose associates range from the most committed electronics dial-twister to free-form veterans is equally proficient laying down a hard rock-like beat as he is trading accents with experimental timbre-shatters. The two extended tracks on Live at Café Oto (Unsounds 32U www.unsounds.com) demonstrate not only Nilssen-Love’s cohesive skills amplifying the improvisations of Chicago-based tenor saxophonist/clarinettist Ken Vandermark as he does in many other contexts, but shows how both react to the power chords and violent string distortions which characterize the style of guitarists Andy Moor and Terrie Ex from Dutch punk band The Ex, who complete this quartet. In spite of Vandermark’s consistent overblowing which encompasses pumping altissimo honks and frenetic slurs; plus the guitarists’ constant crunches, smashes and frails, the drumming never degenerates into monotonous rock music-like banging. Instead, while the backbeat isn’t neglected, auxiliary clips, ruffs, ratamacues and smacks are used by Nilssen-Love to break up the rhythm, with carefully measured pulsations. This strategy is most obvious during the climatic sections of the more-than-37 minute Drevel. With all four Lean Lefters improvising in broken octaves, the narrative shakes to and fro between Vandermark’s collection of emphasized freak notes and dyspeptic stridency and the dual guitarists’ slurred fingering that leads to staccato twangs and jangling strums. Not only is the climax attained with a crescendo of volume and excitement, but the final theme variations are in contrast as stark and minimalist as the earlier ones are noisy. As guitars methodically clank as if reading a post-modern composition, and the clarinet lines emphasize atonal reed bites, intermittent stick strokes and toe-pedal pressure from the drummer concentrate the sound shards into the track’s calm finale.
            
An extension of this calm also eventually occurs on Double Tandem Cement (PNL Records PNL 013 www.paalnilssen-love.com), where Nilssen-Love’s and Vandermark’s only companion is Amsterdam’s Ab Baars, playing tenor saxophone, clarinet and shakuhachi. Although the drummer trots out ruffs, smacks and bounces when both saxophonists blare at top volume, the most distinctive track here is the 30-minute Shale. Dividing interaction into duos or trios, as he faces each reedist’s experiments in hushed atonality the percussionist limits himself to microtonal popping and ratcheting as if he were playing Native American drum patterns. When one tenor saxophonist expels Sonny Rollins-like sharp and brittle slurs and honks, Nilssen-Love concentrates his responses to cymbal swishes and snare splatters. Elsewhere, glockenspiel-like pings plus cross-handed ratamacues back lip-bubbling, mid-range clarinet growls. As eloquently precise as he is focused in his percussive responses, the drummer later limits himself to offside rim clattering and cymbal rubbing as his associates rappel through reed challenges. When Vandermark circular breathes strident clarinet tones, Baars’ shakuhachi puffs judder sympathetically. When one saxophonist explores the limits of altissimo bent notes, the other revels in penny-whistle-pitched chirps and squeaks. Eventually the apotheosis of pummelling split tones and forced glossolalia that the two attain subsides into tonal interaction confirming Nilssen-Love’s discreet accents throughout.
           
Vandermark confirms his far-reaching rhythmic sophistication and welcoming of worldwide improvisers on The Resonance Ensemble’s What Country is This? (NotTwo MW 885-2 www.nottwo.com). This is a program which balances his baritone saxophone and clarinet style plus the input from six additional horn players with the synergic percussion skills of two Chicago-based drummers, Tim Daisy and Michael Zerang. Veterans of many bands with Vandermark and others, both know exactly how to both lead and accompany an ensemble of American and Northern European players, including three more saxophonists, three brass players and one bassist. Tracks such as Fabric include rapidly changing pitch and speed sequences where, for instance, salient drum rolls from one percussionist and clattering rim shots from the other underline the inchoate power essayed by Vandermark’s baritone sax and Dave Rempis’ tenor saxophone, underlined by pedal-point blasts from Per Åke Holmlander’s tuba. By the finale shimmering cymbal and drum plops lessen the density and solidify a now well-balanced melody, leaving ample subsequent space for Devin Hoff’s walking bass solo, Magnus Broo’s plunger trumpet lines and mid-range clarinet sluices from Waclaw Zimpel. Stop-and-start rather than stop-time, the distinctive Acoustic Fence likewise mixes unique forms of expression from a swing-era-styled saxophone section riffing to a hearty tenor sax solo by Mikolaj Trzaska that’s just this side of rock music. Still the sinewy arrangement calls for the former to be accompanied by perfectly timed percussion slaps and clattering cymbals and the latter by tough shuffles and opposite sticking from the drummers that would be equally appropriate on a soul music session. Eventually, extended blustery trombone brays by Steve Swell prefigure the session’s only protracted percussion solos, as rolls, rumbles and ruffs open up into a restrained yet powerful display of thrusting textures and pinpointed smacks, with the narrative ricocheting from one drummer to the other.

If that CD underlined the expressive power of two inventive percussionists then Fire! Orchestra Exit! (Rune Grammofon RDCD 2138 www.runegrammofon.com) ups the ante with four drummers contributing. Exit is a two-part multiphonic showcase for this massive band featuring 27 of Scandinavia’s top improvisers, including Holmlander and Broo; plus one ex-pat Canadian, bassist Joe Williamson. The ensemble is directed by tenor saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, a frequent associate of both Vandermark and Nilssen-Love, who played Toronto in May. Although part of the performance is devoted to wordless or unconnected phrase-making vocals from three singers – most prominently Sofia Jenberg – they’re part of the improving process, as their vocal cries, yodels and rasps intersect or soar over the often dense instrumental cacophony. While there’s never any doubt about the beat emanating in hearty unison from percussionists Raymond Strid, Andreas Werlin, Thomas Gartz and Johan Holmegard, like Nilssen-Love on Live at Café Oto, there’s sensitivity in their accompaniment. Designated space is also available for soloists who include Sten Sandell’s piano-pumping glissandi in addition to frenetic split tones and broken octave jumps from saxophonists Gustafsson and Frederick Ljungkvist. The percussionists shatter the finale of Exit! Part One with their collection of miscellaneous instruments of ratchets, rattles, gongs, bell trees and wood blocks. Then, if anything the CD’s second track is more intense and powerful than the first. It features string-shredding reverb from three guitarists, massed cadences from the vocalists, deep-pitched tuba burbling and a vamping reed section. Only as the piece reaches a fortissimo crescendo is it clear that the entire band has been steadily motivated by the drum quartet’s nearly inaudible clanks, clicks and drags, which have been present throughout. Eventually the harmonized percussionists’ conclusive thundering, echoing and booming make it clear the sonic miasma has been breached for the finale.
           
Hearty demonstrations of new percussionists’ taste as well as power, plus the ascendency of European musicians, these discs also suggest names to watch for when they next gig in Toronto.

Embrace
Lenka Lichtenberg with Fray
Sunflower Records

Bridges - Live at Lula Lounge
Lenka Lichtenberg and Roula Said
SR CD 005

Songs for the Breathing Walls
Lenka Lichtenberg
(lenkalichtenberg.com)

Fray (Free), the Czech born Toronto-based singer-songwriter Lenka Lichtenberg’s breakout 2011 album, embraced the city’s world music aesthetic and its musicians. Embrace, her outstanding new production, continues to explore and expand that artistic direction.

The title lyric of the Lichtenberg song Peace Is the Only Way is a central theme of Embrace. Its refrain is the personal motto of the Israeli violinist, oud player, songwriter and peace activist Yair Dalal. A leading musician on the global world music scene his ideals and spirit, bridging Arabic and Israeli – and other – divides, permeates this album. The spirit of peaceful coexistence among loss and struggle is also present as well in the earlier CDs, the live-off-the-floor Bridges: Live at Lula Lounge and the Songs for the Breathing Walls recorded on site in the Czech Republic.

The main directions on Embrace are multifold: world music blendings, songs in the Yiddish theatrical tradition, klezmer instrumental touches and Jewish liturgy. It’s all skilfully linked by Lichtenberg’s effective song writing and unaffected vocals, as well as very effective yet unfussy, lush-sounding, instrumentation. Yair Dalal shares co-composition credits with Lichtenberg on the atmospheric track Perfume Road which begins with an environmental recording of birds outside the recording studio backing Dalal’s free-metre Middle Eastern-inflected oud introduction, segueing seamlessly to Lichtenberg’s crystalline singing of her own Yiddish lyrics. Also to savour: the superb performances by Lichtenberg’s band, Fray, and guest musicians comprising Toronto’s world music and jazz scene A-listers, as well as those from beyond the GTA. Album guests include the well-known Hindustani sarangi player Druba Ghosh, violinist Hugh Marsh and Kevin Turcotte on trumpet.

Some of the same material is assayed in Lichtenberg and Roula Said’s 2012 release Bridges, with many of the same musicians. The major difference here is Said’s authoritative Arabic language vocal contributions and the inclusion of songs in the Arabic lineage. I moreover enjoyed the freedom and straightforward arrangements in this live concert recorded at Toronto’s Lula Lounge, as compared with the tightly sculpted Embrace studio magic. This contrast is particularly clear in the extended open-feel instrumental solos in Bridges, giving the virtuoso musicians a change to groove and express themselves.

The deeply affecting album Songs for the Breathing Walls refers to the 12 historic synagogues scattered throughout the Czech Republic whose Jewish populations were decimated by the mid-20th century Holocaust. These settings of Jewish liturgical songs reflect the varying onsite interior acoustics of the synagogues, their outside soundscapes (on track 18 Lichtenberg remarks “…birds, cars, bells…everything…”) as well as their history, intimately connected to their congregations. For instance, accompanied by a sole violin, El Maley Rachamim was recorded in a synagogue hidden within the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The personal connections are palpable in her voice: this is the place Lichtenberg’s mother and grandmothers were interned during the Second World War. The exemplary liner notes with translations of the lyrics, photos of the synagogues and notes about their history add immensely to savouring this musical experience. It’s an achievement for which Lichtenberg was honoured as Traditional Singer of the Year at the November 2012 Canadian Folk Music Awards.

Mercury Living Presence guarantees on the label that the recording, from performance to finished product, has maintained a sonic integrity that could very well mirror the Hippocratic Oath to “do no harm.”

The first of their recordings came to us in Australia on the HMV label and I can still recall the excitement generated by the astounding realism of the 12” LP of the 1951 performance of Rafael Kubelik conducting the Chicago Symphony in Pictures at an Exhibition. That performance remains a first choice in every respect. It mattered not that the recording was superior to the commercially available pick-ups and electronics of the day. Mercury has come a long way since then but the truthfulness of all their recordings remains and we hear what was heard at the sessions, without an engineer spotlighting or rebalancing the dynamics as chosen by the performer or conductor.   

Mercury Living Presence: The Collector’s Edition, Volume 2 (028947 85092, 55 CDs) in a limited edition is now available, filling in some of the omissions in Volume One. (Issued 15 months ago Volume One is now out of print and copies offered on-line range from $500 to a ridiculous $1900). In addition to some usual repertoire items, including Beethoven’s Fifth, Sixth and Seventh (Dorati), complete ballets: The Nutcracker, Coppelia, Sylvia and Le Sacre du Printemps (Dorati, 1953); there are many composers and compositions that could only appear in a collection so diversified as this one. There are eight discs of Paul Paray’s superb performances of French music with the Detroit Symphony including a ripping version of the Saint-Saëns Third Symphony with Marcel Dupré, Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé, his own Mass for the 500th Anniversary of the Death of Joan of Arc, plus all the overtures and bonbons you could wish for by Ibert, Ravel, Gounod, Saint-Saëns, Bizet, Berlioz, Massenet, Thomas, Herold, Auber, Debussy and lots of Chabrier. Also works by Liszt and Richard Strauss. Marcel Dupré has a disc of Widor and Franck. Harpsichordist Rafael Puyana has three CDs containing works by Picchi, Frescobaldi, Telemann, Scarlatti and the Bachs, JS, JC and WF. The third disc, The Golden Age of Harpsichord Music from anonymous to Couperin le Grand is quite enchanting. Howard Hanson with the Eastman Rochester has no less than ten discs, eight of which are devoted to American composers including, to my great pleasure, Chadwick’s 30-minute Symphonic Sketches that comprise four pieces including Jubilee. Also two volumes aptly titled Music for Quiet Listening. 

And that’s not even half of what’s in the box. For detailed contents go to deccaclassics.com/us/cat/single?PRODUCT_NR=4785092.

Today millions of people around the world, sitting comfortably in their local cinema, are seeing live performances direct from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Previous generations only heard live Met performances at home, sitting around their radios and for the most part not visualizing the settings but simply listening to the music and enjoying the artistry of a favoured singer and conductor.

Recently, Sony Music has issued a few single CDs of complete operas from the radio era derived from the Met’s own archives. Now they have a 25-CD boxed set of nine renowned performances of Wagner’s music dramas from 1936 to 1954. 

The earliest of these is Götterdämmerung from January 11, 1936 boasting the incomparable Wagnerian heldentenor of the day, or maybe any day, Lauritz Melchior as Siegfried and Marjorie Lawrence singing Brunnhilde. Friedrich Schorr was Gunther and Ludwig Hoffmann sang Hagen. Artur Bodanzky conducted. Lawrence made history when she surprised and thrilled the audience and horrified the Metropolitan management by mounting and riding a live horse into the flaming Valhalla. I had hoped that the sound on the Götterdämmerung transfers would be cleaner than the Naxos edition but it is not. Clearly they are each based on the same source. The valorous decision to include this performance was an artistic choice, not a technical one. The sound of Götterdämmerung is atypical of the rest of the Ring and the other five dramas which are all eminently listenable and enjoyable. As a matter of interest, the selection of the repertoire was discussed between the Metropolitan Opera and Sony Masterworks who came to a joint agreement on the performances.

Very briefly, the others are Das Rheingold (1951) with Set Svanholm singing Loge, Hans Hotter is Wotan, Jerome Hines is Fasolt, and Jarmila Novotná is Freia. Fritz Stiedry conducts. Siegfried (1937) has Melchior at the anvil with Kirsten Flagstad’s Brunnhilde and Friedrich Schorr as Wanderer. Die Walküre (1940), complete with a wind machine in the opening, has Melchior and Lawrence as Siegmund and Sieglinde with Flagstad as Brunnhilde. Leinsdorf conducts.

Another Flagstad/Melchior collaboration is Tristan und Isolde (1938) and while the original discs are not quite pristine, the voices are clear. Bodanzky conducts. Lohengrin (1943) stars Melchior with Astrid Varnay as Elsa conducted by Leinsdorf. Fritz Reiner conducts Der Fliegende Holländer (1950) with Hotter, Varnay and Svanholm. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1953) is conducted by Reiner with Hans Hopf as Walter, Victoria de los Angeles is Eva and Paul Schöffler is Hans Sachs. Finally, Tannhäuser (1954) has George Szell in the pit with Varnay as Venus, Raymón Vinay as Tannhäuser and George London as Wolfram.

This impressive collection of legendary performances, Wagner at the Met (88765 427172, 25 CDs) includes a 128-page booklet with historic photographs, etc. but, of course, no libretti. The Met is quite serious about bringing their archives to life: Grace Row, the producer who oversaw the restoration and mastering of these performances, was previously a producer at Sony Classical in the 1990s and is now the in-house producer at the Met.

A similar collection of Verdi at the Met will be issued this fall… a welcome prospect of hearing further legendary voices in their prime.

In 1941 Deutsche Grammophon was purchased by Siemens Electronics and following WW2 in 1947 it was proclaimed that DGG, Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft, had formed Archiv, a special division to document Germany’s rich musical culture. Performances were to be historically correct in every detail with musicians playing on authentic period instruments following the performing practice of the time. Their first recording was of Helmut Walcha playing works by Bach on a small baroque organ built in 1636 housed in the Lübeck Jacobikirche. Those first sessions are to be found on the first disc of an important, strictly limited edition, Archiv Produktion 1947-2013 (00289 4791045, 55 CDs) that contains delicious performances of treasures from Gregorian Chant to Beethoven. Sometime after 1947 it was reported to “Mister Siemens” that the Archiv division was losing money. His emphatic response, I am told, was that this was of no concern as they were not in it to make money! Meticulously assembled, the early LPs were in fold-out jackets with a certificate enclosed, signed by the persons involved in the production of the disc! The 55 CDs are housed in a silver presentation box that contains a 200-page booklet detailing all the particulars of each disc plus a history of the label and lots of colour photographs of the artists. I’m sure many will find this package, subtitled “A Celebration of Artistic Excellence from the Home of Early Music,” irresistible… and rightly so. For full details check deutschegrammophon.com/en/cat/single?PRODUCT_NR=4791045.

During the 100th birthday celebrations for the “Dean of Canadian Composers” at Walter Hall last month, I had the pleasure of hearing the Cecilia String Quartet performing John Weinzweig’s String Quartet No.3, a rare treat indeed. I hope now that they have taken that wonderful, but sorely neglected, work into their repertoire we will have other occasions to hear it in the future. In the interim we can content ourselves with the second release in their 4-CD contract with Analekta. The Cecilia, named after the patron saint of music, is quartet-in-residence at the University of Toronto where they were founded in 2004. They have not spent the last decade on campus however and their world travels and accomplishments have included winning international string quartet competitions in Osaka in 2008, Bordeaux in 2010 and, perhaps most famously, First Prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition that same year. Winners of a Galaxie Rising Stars Award in Canada, the CSQ have held residencies at the Austin Chamber Music Festival, San Diego State University, McGill University, QuartetFest at Wilfrid Laurier University, the Summer String Academy at Indiana University and were Quartet Fellows at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory. In addition they have presented educational programs for elementary and high schools across Canada, the USA, Italy and France.

But back to the matter at hand. Amoroso (AN 2 9984) includes classic European works from the first quarter of the 20th century: Leoš Janáček’s String Quartet No.1 (“The Kreutzer Sonata”), Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite and Anton Webern’s Langsamer Satz. The premise of the recording is that all of the works included reflect love stories in one way or another. Janáček based his quartet on the tragic novella by Leo Tolstoy which gives the work its subtitle. Berg, whose Lyric Suite was incidentally one of the seminal works that affected Weinzweig while studying at the Eastman School and led to his interest in serialism, which in turn would influence several generations of Canadian composers through his teaching, was evidently inspired by a long-lasting illicit love affair. An autograph copy of the score which came to light in 1977 includes many personal annotations to Berg’s beloved. Webern, primarily known for a small output of miniature gems that distill musical ideas to their crystalline essence, was actually quite prolific in his student days. The Langsamer Satz (slow movement), is one of about a hundred finished and sketched works from the time of his studies with Arnold Schoenberg which remained unpublished during his lifetime. The lushly romantic score, reminiscent of his teacher’s Verklärte Nacht, was written at a time when Webern was “head over heels” in love with his cousin Wilhelmine. This and the other love stories are well explained in Keith Horner’s very readable and detailed liner notes.

The Cecilia String Quartet shine in these nuanced and moving performances which were recorded at the Banff Centre last December. Their first Analekta recording (AN 2 9892) featured works of 19th century giant Antonin Dvořák and this, their second, works of the early 20th century. Dare I hope that they will continue their march toward the present day and that a future disc may include the Weinzweig and perhaps the required works by Gilbert Amy and Ana Sokolović that were integral parts of their successes in Bordeaux and Banff?

Icicles of Fire (Centrediscs CMCCD 18813) is one of the latest slew of releases from the Canadian Music Centre (discs of music by Ann Southam and T. Patrick Carrabré will be reviewed in next month’s WholeNote). It features music written for cellist Shauna Rolston by Heather Schmidt with the composer at the piano. There are numerous Banff connections with this disc as well. Rolston literally grew up at the Banff Centre where her parents Tom and Isobel were the teachers and directors from the mid-1960s. Calgary-born Schmidt, who is now based in Los Angeles, enjoyed numerous residencies at the Banff Centre over her developing years and composed the required work for the 1995 Banff International String Quartet Competition.

There are three works included here, presented in reverse chronological order. Synchronicity (2007) begins with a meditative chant-like introduction which is followed by a dramatic movement that begins with dense chords and tremolos and builds to a fiery conclusion replete with eerie animal-like squeals and glissandi from the cello. It was written for a documentary film by Paul Kimball about the collaboration between Rolston and Schmidt. Fantasy (2006) again begins in calm, this time in a minor tonality. After an extended meditation there is a lyrical interlude with tintinnabulations in the piano line overlaid by a gentle flowing cello melody that gradually gains momentum and intensity before returning to the darkly placid waters of the opening. Icicles of Fire (2003) is the most extended work presented here; at 21 minutes it is more than the length of the other two pieces combined. It was inspired by the composer’s participation in the governor general’s state visit to Finland and Iceland and the latter’s glacial landscapes and fiery volcanoes are reflected in the name. The first movement is quiet and delicate in its depiction of icicles while the second mixes soaring lyrical lines with the fiery molto perpetuo passages so well suited to Rolston’s style and temperament. There is obviously a strong bond between these two fine artists and Schmidt’s music is tailor-made to illustrate this.

Although just being released now, these performances were recorded at the Banff Centre in 2007 by the late Tom Rolston who died in 2010.

There is also a nominal connection to Banff with the next disc as Poland’s Royal String Quartet placed third in the 2004 quartet competition there. But it is in the United Kingdom that the group has had most success with a nomination for the Royal Philharmonic Society chamber music award and an invitation to participate in the BBC’s New Generation Artists program. Founded in 1998 at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, they are currently quartet-in-residence at Queen’s University in Belfast. Although well versed in and well respected for their interpretations of the standard repertoire, the Royal Quartet specialize in music of their native Poland as attested by their three recordings on the Hyperion label. Following on the success of their Górecki and Szymanowski discs the latest CD (CDA67943) features the quartets of Penderecki and Lutosławski. The three quartets of Penderecki span nearly half a century and the changes in style are substantial. The first, dating from 1960, is from the same period as his seminal Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima and bears the hallmarks of that experimental time, full of extended and “non-musical” techniques — bows are nowhere in evidence in the first two minutes of the piece, with the body of the instruments providing as much fodder as the strings. The second, from 1968, is still in the realm of the avant-garde, with abrasive passages alternating with eerie sounds of glissandi complemented by whistling from the musicians and extremely quiet, almost sub-audible sections.

There is a gap of 40 years before Penderecki’s next full foray into the quartet idiom. String Quartet No.3 bears the subtitle “Leaves of an unwritten diary” and reflects the post-romantic language that has permeated the composer’s work since the Polish Requiem completed in 1984. The opening passage is reminiscent of the Lacrimosa movement from that large-scale work, a motif which I have heard time and again in Penderecki’s later years. This is followed by a rhythmic section with close harmonies perhaps harkening back to the earlier quartets, but this is quickly replaced by a more lyrical sensibility that permeates most of the work. All three of the quartets are performed effortlessly and with conviction. This is obviously music close to the hearts of these fine young musicians. One omission that I find curious: in 1988 Penderecki wrote another brief piece for string quartet, Der Unterbrochene Gedanke (The Broken Thought), a miniature in homage to Schoenberg and the New Viennese School, which I am aware of from a 1994 recording by the Penderecki String Quartet. I think this would have provided a welcome bridge between the two early experimental works and the lyricism of the mature Penderecki.

The disc concludes with a masterful performance of one of the most important pieces of 20th century chamber music, Witold Lutosławski’s String Quartet from 1964. I look forward to hearing much more from the Royal String Quartet.

The final disc I will mention is something completely different. Canadian actor David Calderisi has developed a wonderful entertainment based on The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (okdac.net). The CD is in two parts. The first is Calderisi’s introduction to the work, the author (an 11th-century Persian mathematician) and the 19th-century “translator” Edward Fitzgerald who produced what went on to become the most widely published poem in the English language. The second is a stunning performance of 93 of the four-line poems (rubaiy’i) selected by Calderisi from the five collections authorized by Fitzgerald. Calderisi’s mellifluous voice and nuanced interpretation bring a wonderful life to these paeans to the author’s beloved and praises to his preferred libation: “Wine! Wine! Wine! — Red Wine!” The reading is interspersed with short and evocative musical interludes composed and performed on the kamancheh, a traditional Persian stringed instrument, by Kousha Nakhaei.

In his introduction Calderisi states that he has found people react in one of three ways when asked if they know The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: the first take offence at the very suggestion that they might not be well versed in the subject; the second admit to some knowledge if not an intimate acquaintance; and the third say “what?” I firmly fell into the second category before coming across this disc, but am pleased to say I feel I’ve moved a notch closer to knowledge now. Whatever your relationship to this 1000-year-old treasure, I think you will delight in Calderisi’s scholarship and presentation of one of the great works of “English” literature.

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—David Olds, DISCoveries Editor

discoveries@thewholenote.com

In the 19th century when no TV, radio or celebrity-driven pop music existed, musical theatre was the chief entertainment for the newly formed middle classes and its creators became the celebrities. The greatest of these emerged simultaneously: Verdi and Wagner, both born in the same year, 1813. Verdi continued the tradition of writing operas as musical entertainment, albeit raised to a level of perfection. But Wagner took it as his purpose in life to revolutionize the genre by the infusion of his own ideas, ambitions, problems — all that occupied his thoughts — and turning the music and drama, with a new emphasis on the orchestra, into one coherent unit. The end result was a distillation of his thought processes set to music that became a new entity, with words no longer depending on someone else but written by himself. So each of the works became autobiographical in a sense and dealt with universal issues giving them a timeless quality. There are dozens of fine recordings for every one of these operas, but in the following paragraphs I have selected just one CD set for each. Most of these are my favourites or, if more recent, are considered the best by renowned authorities.

Psalms and Motets for Reflection
Choir of St. John’s Elora; Michael Bloss; Noel Edison
Naxos 8.572540

Canadian church choirs usually consist of amateur singers. If a church can afford it, it will try to get four professional section leaders. The Choir of St John’s, Elora, however, is a fully professional 22-voice choir. The disc under review is its fifth CD.

This new CD contains eight settings of psalms and ten items that are described, somewhat loosely, as motets. Some of the psalms I would describe as serviceable but a few are rather more than that and I was especially taken with Thomas Handforth’s setting of Psalm 145 (I will magnify thee, O God my King). Only one of the motets is something of a chestnut: God so loved the World by John Stainer. I have sung that a number of times and I would be content to live without it.

The oldest work on the disc is a fine Renaissance motet in the Lutheran tradition (When to the Temple Mary went), sung here to a 19th-century English text. Otherwise the most interesting motets are the modern and contemporary works: those by Poulenc, Tavener, Paulus, MacMillan, Harvey and Halley. The last-named is of special interest as it was commissioned by the Choir of St John’s. Its melodic source is a 16th-century Lutheran hymn by Johann Walter.

This is clearly a very fine choir. I have not yet heard it live, but the choir performs every week as part of the 11am Sunday service. Elora is easy to get to from Toronto and I hope to make the trip soon.

Handel – Concerti Grossi Op.6
Aradia Ensemble; Kevin Mallon
Naxos 8.557358-60

Toronto’s early music Aradia Ensemble, under the energetic direction of conductor/violinist Kevin Mallon, performs with grace and momentum in this three-disc collection of George Frideric Handel’s 12 Concerti Grossi, Op.6.

 Composed over the period of a few weeks, the first seven Concerti are scored for the concertino solo group of two violins and cello, and ripieno orchestra of strings and continuo. Mallon’s first violin solos are impeccable, with Genevieve Gillardeau and Cristina Zacharias taking turns in the second chair. The rich cello concertino solos are well performed by Allen Whear and Katie Rietman. As the liner notes explain, Handel began composing oboe parts later, possibly for the theatre, but never completed them. Aradia oboists Stephen Bard, Chris Palemeta and Kathryn Montoya play these wind parts in Nos.8 to 12. The richness of the winds adds a welcome extra layer of texture. In the compositional style of the day, there are numerous references to Handel’s other works, as well as a nod to composers such as Domenico Scarlatti, and folk music idioms including the Sicilian dance and English hornpipe.

This is music to listen to intently in order to marvel at Aradia’s phrasing, ornamentation and stylistic interpretation. And as background music, the drive and spirit of the performances will brighten even the most drab of days. The strings shine, especially in the cohesive descending lines of No.2 and the triumphant trumpet-like opening of the Overture of No.5,while the resonating double bass of J. Tracy Mortimore adds depth and support, especially in the Musette of No.6.

The sound quality is clear, with each instrumental line carefully balanced. The liner notes are informative and concise. Mallon has brought out the very best in his Aradia ensemble as their passionate performances radiate Handel’s inquisitive artistry.

Beethoven – Symphony No.9   
Erin Wall; Kendall Gladen; William Burden; Nathan Berg; San Francisco Symphony; Michael Tilson Thomas      
SFS Media 821936-0055-2

Beethoven symphonies hold a special place in my heart, having been my point of entry into the world of classical music, starting with the Sixth Symphony at the tender age of seven or eight. The very sweep of the master’s compositions sent shivers down my spine. But it was the Ninth that truly shocked and disturbed me, providing enough nervous tension and pent-up force-under-the-surface to forever etch itself onto my mind. Later on, in high school, during my mercifully short career as a chorister, I remember the difficulty of singing the last movement at breakneck speed, as the music hurled towards a climax. Granted, the Ninthdoes not sound much like the rest of Beethoven’s symphonies, but who knew that Louis Spohr described the first three movements as “inferior to all eight previous symphonies” and the Fourth as “so monstrous and tasteless ... that I cannot understand how a genius like Beethoven could have written it.” As I always say, consider the source: Louis who?

All joking aside, there was enough experimentation in the Ninth to disturb Beethoven’s contemporaries. Nowadays, what makes it great still is that raw, exposed nerve; the passion and relentless thrust forward that still break convention. In keeping with its nature, the Ninth is best experienced as a live performance or recording thereof, here with Michael Tilson Thomas steering the orchestra with a steady hand and with passion to spare. When the murmur of the “Ode to Joy” theme grows into a vocal and choral crescendo, the old shivers down my spine are back again.

Brahms – Klavierstucke, Op.76;
Fantasien, Op.116; Drei Intermezzi, Op.117
Peter Longworth
Azica ACD-71279

I really enjoyed the warm tone and elegant interpretation of these Brahms works as recorded by Toronto pianist Peter Longworth. This was a mature and introspective performance. There was a real sense of intimacy between the music and the performer. This came across in fluid music making and exquisite attention to detail. Longworth plays this music with a sense of integrity and delicacy that speaks to the nature of this music. You sense that these Brahms pieces are like Longworth’s treasured old friends and it shows in the care he takes in shaping the musical lines and phrases. The music is personal and tells an intimate emotional story. This is not the virtuosic, flashy Brahms of the sonatas or concerti, but there is enough difficult technical detail to keep the pianist working hard. Longworth makes it sound easy and I never once thought about technique while I listened. I was too enthralled and mesmerized by the music.

I also appreciated hearing these works on one CD, almost like one large piece. The three sets of Klavierstucke, Op.76, Fantasien, Op.116 and Drei Intermezzi, Op.117 are comprised of capriccios and intermezzi and it is revealing to hear Brahms’ own spiritual journey revealed in these tender gems of music. Longworth has long championed chamber music and you can hear this influencing his texture and mastery of tonal colour. He wrote in the program notes that “this music remains relevant, and grows increasingly rich as we savour more of life. I look forward to playing these pieces 40 years from now.” I will definitely be looking forward to hearing him play them again.

Pavel Kolesnikov – Live at Honens 2012
Pavel Kolesnikov; Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra; Roberto Minczuk
Honens 201203-4CD
www.honens.com

Like a particle accelerator, the triennial Honens Piano Competition is a highly charged event probing the secrets of the stars. Ten semi-finalists compete for five coveted spots in a final round. These rarities are all in their 20s, unimaginably gifted and ready to explode from their orbits. Meanwhile, audiences sit breathlessly on the edge of their seats in Calgary’s Jack Singer Concert Hall to witness flashes of genius and streaks of energy that rival the deepest mysteries of subatomic physics.

Is there a Honens particle? It seems so. Every three years the competition’s laureate receives $100,000 cash and a half million dollar career launch with recording and support. Now that’s a career accelerator.

2012 Honens laureate Pavel Kolesnikov emerged from his field with a blazing technique and a moving interpretive ability. His winning performances, captured in live concert recordings, demonstrate why. With a program of Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn, Kolesnikov proves how note-perfect technique can coexist with the most bombastic and the most tender keyboard expressions. His Schumann Kinderszenen Op.15 is utterly convincing in portraying the composer’s impish, nostalgic and heartfelt vignettes. These may, despite their lack of musical heft, be the most beautifully interpreted pieces on the two CDs.

Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No.1 is innovatively light and playfully energized and contrasts markedly with the darker, heavier performances that have become historical standards. Similarly, Chopin’s Sonata in B Minor, Op.58 is reborn in an astonishing new lightness.

Kolesnikov has conquered the Romantics. He is still very young. His next conquests should be equally surprising.

Bruckner – Symphony No.6
Orchestre Metropolitain du Grand Montréal; Yannick Nézet-Séguin
ATMA ACD2 2639

Ludwig Spiedel, the 19th-century German writer on music and theatre, once referred to the music of Anton Bruckner saying: “It is no common mortal who speaks to us in this music.” This was high praise indeed, particularly as the Austrian-born composer who lived from 1824 to 1896 has sometimes been unfairly compared to his more renowned contemporary Johannes Brahms. Yet Bruckner now seems to have come into his own, and among his many admirers is the Quebec conductor extraordinaire Yannick Nézet-Séguin who has already recorded Symphonies Nos. 4, 7, 8 and 9 on the Atma Classisque label, and has now turned his attentions to the Sixth, again with the Orchestre Métropolitain.

Written between 1879 and 1881, this symphony is the music of a composer at mid-life, confident in his abilities and looking to the future with optimism. The large four-movement work reflects this forward-looking attitude, and is treated here with great aplomb. From the bold and passionate opening movement through the languorous Adagio, a lively Scherzo and the exuberant Finale with its prolific use of brass, the orchestra demonstrates a deep engagement with the music, displaying rich tonal colours and a full dynamic range. This is indeed music making with a true sense of grandeur. It seems that everything Nézet-Séguin and the OM choose to play turns to gold, and this disc is no exception. It’s a must-have for devotees of Bruckner’s music, and it may even sway those who up to now have stayed away. Highly recommended.

Bruckner – Symphony No.6
Orchestre Metropolitain du Grand Montréal; Yannick Nézet-Séguin
ATMA ACD2 2639

Ludwig Spiedel, the 19th-century German writer on music and theatre, once referred to the music of Anton Bruckner saying: “It is no common mortal who speaks to us in this music.” This was high praise indeed, particularly as the Austrian-born composer who lived from 1824 to 1896 has sometimes been unfairly compared to his more renowned contemporary Johannes Brahms. Yet Bruckner now seems to have come into his own, and among his many admirers is the Quebec conductor extraordinaire Yannick Nézet-Séguin who has already recorded Symphonies Nos. 4, 7, 8 and 9 on the Atma Classisque label, and has now turned his attentions to the Sixth, again with the Orchestre Métropolitain.

Written between 1879 and 1881, this symphony is the music of a composer at mid-life, confident in his abilities and looking to the future with optimism. The large four-movement work reflects this forward-looking attitude, and is treated here with great aplomb. From the bold and passionate opening movement through the languorous Adagio, a lively Scherzo and the exuberant Finale with its prolific use of brass, the orchestra demonstrates a deep engagement with the music, displaying rich tonal colours and a full dynamic range. This is indeed music making with a true sense of grandeur. It seems that everything Nézet-Séguin and the OM choose to play turns to gold, and this disc is no exception. It’s a must-have for devotees of Bruckner’s music, and it may even sway those who up to now have stayed away. Highly recommended.

—Richard Haskell

Hidden Treasure – Viola Masterpieces
Rivka Golani; Michael Hampton
Hungaroton HCD 32721-22

I well remember riveting Toronto performances by now London-based violist Rivka Golani, and cherish this disc. York Bowen’s Phantasy is flamboyant English post-romanticism, with a rich harmonic palette and ecstatic climaxes. Golani’s trademark fiery style and Michael Hampton’s mastery of the florid piano part mark this performance. George Enescu’s Concert Piece is also a knockout; Golani’s virtuosity shows in both expressive double-stopped passages and rapid filigree work. In the masterly In Memoriam (1949) by her teacher Ödön Pártos (1907–1977), dedicated to victims of the Holocaust, the duo captures evocatively the sense of an anguished funeral procession.

Golani is noble in the opening and fleet of finger in the ensuing Allegro of Henri Vieuxtemps’ Sonata in B-Flat Major. The duo projects a remarkable Barcarolla as though from a distance, and paces it extremely well. This is a very fine performance of an undeservedly neglected work. Anton Rubinstein’s Sonata in F Minor is a weaker piece, with uninspired melodies and tedious sequences in the first two movements. Things improve with Rubinstein’s third movement, a Scherzo, with Hampton producing delicious double-thirds in its Turkish-style trio section.

Mendelssohn’s precocious Sonata in C Minor composed at age 15 is notable as the earliest sonata for viola and piano, and a delightful rendition of Efrem Zimbalist’s Sarasateana suite of Spanish dances rounds out the recording.

There’s a lovely new 3-CD set of the Beethoven Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano from Canada’s own Duo Concertante, violinist Nancy Dahn and pianist Timothy Steeves (Marquis MAR 81517). The two have been playing together since 1997 — Beethoven’s “Kreutzer Sonata” was the first thing they played together, and they took their duo name from the composer’s inscription above the title — and the Beethoven sonatas have apparently always been a part not just of their repertoire, but of their daily lives. My first impressions were that for all the clean playing and fine ensemble work these were still fairly low-key performances, but they quickly won me over. By the second CD, with lovely readings of the “Spring” and “Kreutzer” sonatas placed around the Sonata in A major Op.12, No.2, I was more than convinced.

There are certainly more high-powered versions available — the Ibragimova/Tiberghien Wigmore Hall set I reviewed in December 2011, for example — but the sensitivity and musical intelligence of these performances more than compensate for any lack of sheer technical fireworks. Dahn and Steeves play these wonderful sonatas as if they are visiting old friends, and the sense of intimacy and emotional involvement is palpable throughout the three discs.

I’ve received several CDs of the Bach Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin BWV 1001-1006 over the past few months, all of which feature some quite stunning playing. There are two complete 2-CD sets and one half-set.

Cecylia Arzewski, whose performances are available on Bridge Records (9358A/B), enjoyed a stellar orchestral career with the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony for almost 40 years. Her playing here is of the highest quality — warm, sensitive, intelligent, and with a great feel for phrasing and tempo; even in the fastest movements there is always a clear sense of pulse, and room to breathe at the beginnings and endings of phrases. Rhythmic articulation is crisp and clear, the multiple stopping handled with clarity and apparent ease, and the sense of line always secure.

Exactly the same can said for the complete recording by the French Baroque specialist Amandine Beyer (Zig-Zag Territoires ZZT110902), although there is a somewhat lighter tone and an added rhythmic snap and vitality to her playing that makes it an even more rewarding listen; even the Sonata movements have a dance feel to them. The one major difference — not immediately apparent unless you have perfect pitch or play the two versions back-to-back — is that Beyer apparently tunes to Baroque pitch, so her performances are a semi-tone lower than Arzewski’s.

Beyer’s set also includes a Solo Sonata by Johann Georg Pisendel, a German virtuoso and exact contemporary of Bach’s; the two met in 1709, and Pisendel may (depending on which set of booklet notes you choose to believe) have owned a copy of Bach’s Sonatas & Partitas, and may even have influenced their composition.

The half-set is the second volume of the complete recording by Isabelle Faust, now available on harmonia mundi HMC 902124; the three works, however, are the first half of the set of six. Again, there is wonderful playing here, with some terrific presto movements, relaxed and almost meditative slower movements, and clean, beautifully controlled playing in the fugues.

Perhaps surprisingly — or maybe not, given the huge advances in the understanding of period performance techniques — all three performers take essentially the same approach to the choices of ornamentation and the interpretation of some of the chordal configurations, although obviously there are some differences in tempo, bowing and phrasing.

If you are interested in these wonderful works you probably already own one or more versions; if you do, you can add any one of these to your collection without reservation. In an interesting aside on the issue of modern or period instrument, Arzewski says that her goal was to be as true as possible, using a modern (my italics) violin and bow, to Bach’s style, although her instrument is the 1714 Petrus Guarneri of Mantua, which in its original condition pre-dates the Sonatas & Partitas themselves. Beyer, meanwhile, plays a Baroque violin, but one made by Pierre Jaquier in 1996, with an Eduardo Gorr bow from 2000; both were made over 275 years after the works were written.

There is more outstanding Bach playing from the ever-reliable Jennifer Koh on Bach & Beyond Part 1, her latest CD from Cedille Records (CDR 90000 134). I’ve commented before on Koh’s imaginative programming as well as her marvellous playing, and this CD is more than up to her own high standards. It records the first of a three-part series of recital programs that Koh initiated in 2009 to explore the history of solo violin works from Bach to the present day. Each recital features two of the Bach Sonatas & Partitas paired with solo compositions from the subsequent centuries.

I really can’t say enough about Koh’s playing or her programming; it’s a perfect marriage of ability and intellect that puts her on a different level than most performers, and this CD is a classic example of that. It opens with Bach’s E Major Partita No.3, which is followed by Ysaÿe’s Sonata No.2, a work which quotes both the preceding Bach Partita and the Dies Irae chant. Kaija Saariaho’s short Nocturne, a tribute and memorial to the composer Witold Lutosławski, also quotes the E Major Partita and the Dies Irae, while Missy Mazzoli’s Dissolve, O My Heart (the title is taken from Bach’s St. John Passion) takes its material cue from the Chaconne from Bach’s Partita No.2 in D Minor. The complete D Minor Partita fittingly closes a marvellous CD that Koh describes as a journey from light through darkness, and back to light.

The playing throughout is exemplary, with a wonderful purity in the Bach and a clear empathy in the contemporary works. The remaining two volumes of this fascinating project should be well worth waiting for. 

The Cedille label is dedicated to promoting musicians from the Chicago area, and cellist Ani Aznavoorian is joined by the composer on another new issue, Celloquy, which features the music of the Russian-born American Lera Auerbach (CDR 90000 137). Auerbach is a prodigiously talented individual: a concert pianist, composer, librettist, author and visual artist. Two of her poems are featured in the CD booklet. The three cello and piano works here are the 24 Preludes,the Cello Sonata and the brief

The 24 Preludes from 1999 are short, virtuosic and extremely effective pieces that explore the extreme ranges of both instruments. Auerbach writes that “re-establishing the value and expressive possibilities of all major and minor tonalities is as valid at the beginning of the 21st century as it was during Bach’s time.” This is especially true given the way that tonality has been treated over the past 100 years or so, and she certainly covers a good deal of stylistic ground in the Preludes. No.12 is a simply beautiful melody, albeit one with disturbing undertones; No.13 is a Bach-style cello solo; No.14 is a diabolic variation on Mozart’s Magic Flute Overture; No.16 is a grotesque waltz. No.24 quotes the themes from all the preceding movements, “as in a final stream of memories,” in the words of the excellent booklet

The Cello Sonata is another terrific piece, written in 2002. Again, warm, lyrical passages are found alongside sections of dissonant and technically challenging writing, in what is clearly a very emotional work. The Postlude is a reprisal of No.12 of the Preludes, but with a prepared piano that gives the music a distorted and quite bleak sound; it’s a haunting ending to a simply outstanding CD.

At the time of writing, the renowned Tokyo Quartet has just given its farewell performances in Toronto, a city it has visited some 45 times during its long career. Its final concert will be at Yale University in June. The ensemble’s farewell CD of quartets by Dvořák and Smetana has just been issued by harmonia mundi (807429), with impassioned performances of Dvořák’s Quartet No.12, Op.96 (“The American”) and Smetana’s painfully personal Quartet No.1 in E minor, “From My Life.” It certainly wasn’t their final recording, however. While these quartets were recorded in 2006, the glorious performance of the autumnal Brahms Clarinet Quintet, also on the harmonia mundi label and reviewed here last December, was recorded in 2011, and if anything, has a much greater feeling of wistful farewell about it. Still, either CD will stand as a testament to the standard this remarkable group attained, and to the loss their retirement represents to the chamber music world.

There is another beautiful recording of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet, again on the harmonia mundi label, this time by the Jerusalem Quartet with clarinettist Sharon Kam (HMC 902152). It’s a bit breathy at times, but very warm, albeit with not quite the same wistfulness as the Tokyo Quartet version with Jon Manasse, mentioned above. The string playing in particular is really quite lovely. There is equally gorgeous playing in the Brahms String Quartet No.2 in A minor, Op.51 No.2. This is full-blooded Brahms, rich and expansive, warm and passionate, thoughtful and contemplative, and with a wonderful dynamic range.