Storyteller
Tine Thing Helseth; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; Eivind Aadland
EMI Classics 0 88328 2

Seraph – Trumpet Concertos
Alison Balsom; Scottish Ensemble
EMI Classics 6 78590 2

Having received, within days of each other, two CDs with much in common, it was decided to include them in a double review. The first is Storyteller, trumpet solos performed by Tine Thing Helseth with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Eivind Aadland, piano. The other is Seraph, trumpet concertos played by Alison Balsom with various accompaniments. The commonality is that both contain performances by young women trumpet players and both depart from the “traditional repertoire” usually associated with trumpets.

Storyteller is an apt title for the first CD. Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth takes a very different approach to the trumpet and her repertoire. As she describes her approach in the program notes, “My sound is my voice.” There are no “show off” selections here. You won’t find Carnival of Venice or similar traditional trumpet technical challenges to display the soloist’s virtuosity. Without exception, the works performed were not written for trumpet. Most were originally for voice by such composers as Rachmaninov, Dvořák, Delibes. Sibelius, Grieg, Mahler and Saint-Saëns. The soloist is singing her stories to her audience through her trumpet.

As I scanned the list of titles on the disc, one stood out above all others for me. Here was my all-time favourite operatic aria with a different voice: “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” from Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila. Ms. Helseth’s trumpet voice came as a surprise. Rather than the usual tone with an edge usually associated with the trumpet, her tone is warmer and mellow, more like that of a cornet. Most of the time her lyric passages are smooth and appear effortless, but on occasion her tonguing is assisted by the technique of a slight bit of valve flicking. For me this did not detract in any way from my enjoyment. In all, it is an excellent departure from the usual trumpet fare.

Of the 22 tracks on the CD, Kurt Weill’s Je ne t’aime pas and Grieg’s eight-movement The Mountain Maid are with piano accompaniment. All others are with full symphony orchestra.

In contrast, Seraph, with one exception, contains works written for trumpet by such 20th-century composers as James MacMillan, Toru Takemitsu, Alexander Arutiunian and Bernd Alois Zimmerman. The one exception is a slow haunting arrangement of the Negro spiritual Nobody knows. That latter selection is followed by, and contrasted with, a trumpet concerto by Zimmerman entitled Nobody knows de trouble I see based on the same spiritual theme.

These are definitely not your standard trumpet fare, and for me at least, will require repeated listening to determine my level of approval. From a performance standpoint, as with her other recordings, Alison Balsom excels. As a passionate champion of contemporary music, she highlights the many voices of her instrument that are not normally heard, and introduces them to her audience.

Apart from the single-movement Sonatensatz written when he was just 15, Schubert’s works for piano, violin and cello all date from 1827, the year before he died. Two of the three works from that year — the E-Flat Major Piano Trio Op.100 and the single-movement Adagio or Notturno, also in e-flat — are featured on a new CD from Trio Latitude 41 (ELOQUENTIA EL 1129).

The Op.100 is a large, four-movement work that makes an immediate impression and clearly has a great deal of depth. The booklet notes quote Robert Schumann’s 1836 description of the trio as a work that “blazed forth like some enraged meteor,” with an opening movement “inspired by deep indignation as well as boundless longing.” The artists here — Canadian pianist Bernadene Blaha, violinist Livia Sohn and cellist Luigi Piovano — find all this and more in a memorable performance. A finely-nuanced and highly effective performance of the Notturno completes an excellent recital disc. Recorded at the Rolston Recital Hall in the Banff Centre, the balance and ambience are perfect.

The first thing that comes to mind whenever I receive a CD of the Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn Violin Concertos is: do we really need yet another recording of these classic works? Well, yes, of course we do: established artists often find something new to say, and all new artists have to measure themselves against these cornerstones of the repertoire. For the young violinist Ray Chen, the choice of these works for his second Sony CD (SONY 88697984102) — his first with orchestra — was easy: he won the Menuhin Competition in 2008 playing the Mendelssohn concerto, and the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 2009 with the Tchaikovsky.

The first words I wrote down while listening to the Tchaikovsky were “relaxed tempo/approach in first movement,” so it was interesting to read “relaxed and peaceful … that is also what Ray Chen demands of his interpretations of the two concertos” in the booklet notes. That’s very much how the works come across, although that certainly shouldn’t be taken to imply any absence of line or a lack of intensity when needed. Chen’s playing is expansive, warm and sympathetic, and he communicates a clear empathy for these works.

The conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra is the outstanding Daniel Harding, whose name on a CD virtually guarantees a top-notch accompaniment, and that’s certainly the case here. Great balance and a lovely recorded ambience make for an impressive CD that promises a great future for Chen.

The latest CD in the outstanding Hyperion series The Romantic Violin Concerto is Volume 11. It features the works for violin and orchestra by Max Reger in terrific performances by Tanja Becker-Bender and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin under Lothar Zagrosek (Hyperion CDA67892).

Reger, who was only 43 when he died in 1916, trod a highly individualistic road as a composer. As was the case with Mahler, who had died exactly five years earlier, his main exponents and interpreters left Germany in the 1930s, but, unlike Mahler, his music and reputation failed to gain a foothold on foreign soil after the Second World War.

The Violin Concerto in A Major, Op.101, from 1907, is a simply huge, melodic and immediately accessible work, almost an hour long, and clearly in the post-Brahms tradition. The Two Romances in G Major and D Major, Op.50, written in 1900 and scored for a smaller orchestra than the concerto, were a deliberate attempt to secure more concert performances in the major German cities. Wolfgang Rathert’s excellent booklet notes refer to their “fusion of contrapuntal texture and flowing melody,” which is a pretty good description of Reger’s music in general. They are simply gorgeous works, reminiscent of Brahms and Bruch, and they receive sympathetically beautiful performances by Becker-Bender and Zagrosek.

Reger still tends to be criticized for the complexity and turgidity of his compositions, but it’s really more a case of an overabundance of creative ideas making it difficult for the listener to discern the overall shape and form. It’s quite beautiful writing, however, and if you don’t know any of his music then the three lovely works on this terrific CD offer the perfect opportunity to put that right.

It’s really difficult to know what to say about Silence, on joue! A Time for Us, the new CD from Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà (ANALEKTA AN 2 8733). It’s a collection of movie themes quite clearly aimed at a mass market — and, sure enough, it’s already being enthusiastically played on a certain Toronto FM radio station.

Film music is an extremely important area of contemporary composition, of course, and the big names are here in force: John Williams, James Horner, Howard Shore, Erich Korngold, Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, John Barry. The problem is that there seems to be little of any real substance: of the 20 tracks, 12 are under four minutes in length, and only one exceeds five minutes — just. It’s unrelenting easy listening, with no real “bite” anywhere, although this may well be due to the fact that virtually all of the 15 basic tracks (there are five “bonus” tracks from previous Dubeau CDs) are – hardly surprisingly — transcriptions, adaptations or arrangements.

Tracks include My Heart Will Go On, Over the Rainbow, Smile, the Love Themes from Romeo and Juliet and Cinema Paradiso, and music from The English Patient, Lord of the Rings and Dances with Wolves. The bonus tracks include the “Cavatina” from Stanley Myers’ The Deer Hunter and the main themes from Schindler’s List and The Mission.

Dubeau, clearly a top-notch player, is apparently the only Canadian “classical” musician to have earned two gold records for album sales exceeding 50,000 in one year. This CD will probably do equally well, although one may hopefully be excused for pondering the relationship between quantity and quality, and wondering whether or not Dubeau’s undoubted talents could be put to better use.

Strings Attached continues at www.thewholenote.com with the latest from the New York orchestra The Knights with works by Schubert, Satie and Philip Glass among others.

Child’s Play – Stories, Songs and Dances
Kelly Johnson
Potenza Music PM1014
www.potenzamusic.com

The crossover set of American contemporary music which features solo clarinet and at the same time appeals to the young (the post-infant, pre-tween) crowd, must be very small indeed. To hold any appeal for wee ones, the music must have a degree of bounce and action. These qualities can be found in the more rhythmically intricate offerings on Child’s Play, a well-executed selection of challenging pieces recorded by Kelly Johnson.

As judged by my own four year old, the more action the better. He lost interest quickly during the more languid pieces, and had no time at all for the cutesy revisionist nursery tales called Story Hour, by composer Phillip Parker. No wonder. Poet Sara Hay ought to know that irony is a tricky sell with children. Kids laugh at The Simpsons, but most only start really getting the humour when they leave childhood behind.

Johnson has a deft technical ability, her rhythm is tight and her tone fluid. She has a good stable of collaborators, notably Drew Irwin as the violinist in the opening duo. Another work by Phillip Parker, Merry Music sounds like Bernstein and Milhaud had drinks and then went dancing. Parker’s Grooves is also successful if once again derivative, this time of jazz and rock styles (Sultry Waltz should have been called “Take Five Plus One”).

Eric Mandat’s piece The Moon in My Window was inspired by one of the great understated works written for the disc’s target demographic: Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson. Mandat’s music is direct and fun for kids, and danged difficult to boot. It features extended techniques that Johnson (the performer, not the children’s author) handles with only occasional trouble, mostly with impressive ease.

Packaging notwithstanding, this is not so much a children’s disc as it is a resource for clarinettists looking for new and difficult recital repertoire from the United States. Is it just me or does most of it sound the same?

Philip Glass; Michael Nyman –
Works for Saxophone Quartet
sonic.art Saxophone Quartet
Genuin GEN 11222

The second recording of sonic.art Saxophone Quartet (based in Germany) features minimalist music of Philip Glass and Michael Nyman.

Glass’ String Quartet No.3 “Mishima” is a suite of music from a film documentary about a novelist who — fearing an increasing Western influence in Japan — embraced a samurai life that ended in a ritual suicide. I do not find Glass’ music programmatic, but as concert music it exudes the “high minimalism” of the composer mid-career. The homogeneity of the saxophone quartet lends itself well to transcription, especially considering that the artists can circular breathe.

With writing that is much more idiomatic, and allows the individual players to diverge from the texture as soloists, Glass’ Saxophone Quartet is a reworking of the Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra. I find the lack of orchestral accompaniment to be more intimate, as the writing is more contrapuntal than we might normally expect from Glass. (I compared this with the Raschèr Quartet recording with orchestra, on Nonesuch).

Songs for Tony by Michael Nyman also features previously composed Nyman material, although the work is originally for saxophones. Again, the individuals shine in aria-like sections, and in the last two movements the alto switches to baritone; the deep sonority is haunting and mournful.

This is excellent saxophone quartet playing. Clean articulation and superb intonation help to explain sonic.art’s numerous accolades, including Best New Ensemble at Germany’s Jeunesses Musicales in 2010.

Concert Note: Reviewer Wallace Halladay is the featured saxophone soloist with Orchestra Toronto in concertos by Glazunov and Yoshimatsu on April 15 in the George Weston Recital Hall at the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts.

John Cage – Variations VII
John Cage
E.A.T. & ARTPIX
www.9evenings.org/variations_vii.php

In October 1966 the series “9 Eve­nings: Theatre & Engineering” took place at New York City’s 69th Regiment Armoury. A collaboration between ten New York artists and 30 engineers and scientists from Bell Telephone Laboratories, the performances featured dance, music and theatre. All were documented, and are now released in a series of ten DVDs.

Variations VII by John Cage is an important archival, educational and entertaining DVD release from this artistic happening. Cage wanted to use “only those sounds which are in the air at the moment of performance” so ten hooks-off telephones were positioned around the city to pick up the “music” and fed into a sound modulation system, along with six onstage contact microphones.

The resulting performance is filmed with sensitivity and detail. Watching Cage and his engineers manipulate, mix and alter the latest technology amidst the monstrous amount of cables on tables is a feat of coordination and a modern dance piece in itself. The power of the “soundscape” of musical sounds and lighting is reflected in the amazing clips of audience member facial reactions. Most amazing is how the sense of the vast space of the Armoury setting is captured on film.

A documentary section includes recent interviews with some of the participants and a lengthy audio-only track of the music.

Cage’s pants apparently started smouldering from the stage lights during this performance. This DVD is equally hot and smouldering in its successful documentation of the great John Cage.

Editor’s Note: This year marks the centenary of John Cage who was born on September 5, 1912, and we anticipate a wealth of recorded material and live performances celebrating the iconic composer/philosopher in the coming months.

Cycles – New Music for Tabla by Ledroit, Lizée, Paquet, Hiscott & Frehner
Shawn Mativetsky; Marie-Hélène Breault; Catherine Meunier; Xenia Pestova;
Windsor Symphony Orchestra;
Brian Current
ombu 1015
www.shawnmativetsky.com

Montreal percussionist Shawn Mativetsky has made a specialty of performing on the tabla (twin hand drums), not only in music indigenous to its Hindustani (North Indian) roots but also with dance, Western instruments and orchestras. As a leading Canadian disciple of the renowned Sharda Sahai he has serious tabla street cred. On Cycles however Mativetsky presents his culture mash-up side in six commissions dating from the last decade by mostly Quebecois composers. The works admirably showcase his timbral, temporal control and musical sensitivity on the tabla alone, and as supported by a series of duo, chamber music and orchestral forces.

While individual pieces variously draw inspiration from Western and Hindustani musical sources, they also clearly reflect the personalities and musical aesthetics of their composers. Metal Jacket (2005) for tabla & harmonium by the busy Montreal composer Nicole Lizée is an excellent example. This smart, crafty and playful work pushes boundaries of groove, drone, repetition, phrase augmentation and diminution — all essential features of traditional Hindustani music — and overlaps them with characteristics found in electronic mediated music: glissandos, fades and extreme distortion effects.

Mativetsky’s project reflected on this CD is not unlike that of other Canadians who have combined musical instruments and genres from afar and presented them alongside the classical music traditions of the “West.” Toronto’s Evergreen Club Gamelan’s 1980s pioneering work and that of the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra in the 2000s come to mind. Cycles will delight both world music and new music aficionados alike.

Steal the Night
Holly Cole
Alert Music Inc. 61528-10449

For a performer with as much stage presence as veteran Toronto jazz singer Holly Cole, a DVD-CD package of a live performance seems like an ideal vehicle. Steal the Night was recorded live at Glenn Gould Studio in 2011, and is a fine representation of the gamut of musical charms of Cole and bandmates John Johnson, reeds, Davide DiRenzo, drums, Rob Piltch, guitar, Aaron Davis, piano and David Piltch, bass.

We’re treated to some of her classic repertoire such as Calling You and I Can See Clearly Now plus the newer You’ve Got a Secret and a smokin’ version of Charade. However with most of her between-song patter edited out of the footage, Cole’s big personality doesn’t come through as much as one might hope. So where the DVD really shines is in the short documentaries in the extras section. Holly in Japan is a fascinating glimpse into a slice of Japanese culture and Cole’s many fans there. Coming to Toronto is a mini-biography with interviews of Cole, jazz broadcaster Ross Porter and, most revealingly, Cole’s family. Best of all The Trio digs into the evolution of the unique sound of the band and provides a well-deserved tribute to the contributions long-time collaborators Aaron Davis and David Piltch made to the musical force that is Holly Cole.

Kaeshammer Live!
Michael Kaeshammer
Alert Music Inc. 61528-10439

Michael Kaeshammer is a prolific guy. Since 2001 he has released six studio albums, the latest in 2011, and much of them populated with his own songwriting. Add to that this DVD-CD of a live performance, and that’s quite a body of work for someone of his relative youth. The other striking thing about Kaeshammer is his love — one might even say obsession — for New Orleans-style music. It comes across in his songwriting as well as in his philosophy toward performing, which, despite his monster skills on piano, is more about having a good time than extended jazz soloing.

Having seen Kaeshammer play live, I have first-hand experience of what a joyful performer he is. Even when it’s just him at the piano, he can command a room with his charisma and energy. Watching a DVD of one of his concerts isn’t a substitute, but it comes close. Especially since Kaeshammer Live! was recorded in an “in the round” setting in an intimate hall in Toronto, so the cameras were able to get in close and capture a variety of angles of the band (which includes three horns and two backing singers). Drummer Mark McLean’s expressive playing is especially fun to watch, and the “cutting contest” between him and Kaeshammer on a Fats Waller tune is one of the highlights of the concert.

Kaeshammer Live provides a concise sampling of the personal and musical journey this ever-evolving musician has taken from smokin’ hot boogie woogie piano player, to romantic balladeer and back again to a musical place that is uniquely his.

Boomerang
Andrew Boniwell and the Uncertainty Principle
Independent
www.andrewbonniwell.com

I enjoyed this CD — I have to admit that very often when I see a release with all original compositions I approach it with some trepidation, but there is no uncertainty with this recording. The compositions are inventive and the musicians all bring a cohesive and creative energy to the music. I hope that the leader/composer doesn’t mind if I say that some of the pieces bring to mind the work of Horace Silver; it is certainly meant as a compliment.

The musicians who lend their talents to the music of Mr. Bonniwell are bassist Mark Cashion, drummer Mike McClelland, Kevin Turcotte on trumpet and Richard Underhill on alto sax.

This recording is yet another good example of the fine talents right here on our own doorstep.

Anatomical Signatures
Gia & The Unpredictable Update
Independent GIA 00008
www.giaionesco.com

Don’t let the somewhat unwieldy title put you off. This is a double CD of music described by Romanian born Gia as “jazz meets symphonic meets rock meets balkanic meets world music.” And indeed it is an eclectic program of original compositions by the leader. Approach it with open ears and you will find much to enjoy.

The group comprises Pat LaBarbera (saxes), Johnny Johnson (saxes), Levon Ichkhanian (guitar), Wilson Laurencin (drums), Alan Hetherington (assorted percussion), Pat Kilbride (bass), Clifford Ojala (saxes/clarinet) and Gia Ionesco on keyboards. An all-star line-up indeed and I would have liked more information in the sparse liner notes.

There are, not surprisingly, European influences in the music and while you won’t end up singing many of the themes, you will be moved by the musicianship on this album.

Dusted Machinery
John Butcher; Toshimaru Nakamura
Monotype Records mono 041
www.monotyperecords.com

Classic man versus machine improvisation: British saxophonist John Butcher matches his skills against the distinctive audio feedback produced from a so-called no-input mixing board given near-anthropomorphic cunning through the manipulations of Japan’s Toshimaru Nakamura. By connecting the board’s input to its output, Nakamura’s blurry oscillations evolve in ever-changing textural pitches from grinding croaks to ear-splitting yowls. It’s a tribute to the talents of Butcher that his perceptive reed thrusts and rejoinders evolve as appropriately as they do. Although by the final track he adopts a mechanized strategy by adding feedback loops to his reed playing, on the other pieces Nakamura’s signal processing, oscillations and indistinct mechanical static confront what Butcher can produce only with tongue, lips, mouth, throat and fingers.

On Maku for instance, while motor-driven drones pulsate from thunderously loud to blurry fuzz tones, Butcher’s tenor saxophone sequences involve smears and expansive vibratos so that each Nakamura-originated texture meets a responsive sonic action. Moreover, while the machine’s voltage flanges may be so powerful that they’re nearly visible, the reedist’s multiphonic overblowing produces equivalent timbres that in split seconds leap from dog-whistle-like altissimo to basso growls, and from pianissimo to fortissimo. Overall, Butcher uses flutter-tongued intensity to chip away at the board-created solid sound block.

Using the soprano saxophone on Knead and Nobasu respectively, Butcher’s nasal split-tones, nephritic growls, key percussion and surprisingly lyrical interludes substantiate his human-ness. Conclusively he demonstrates that with original ideas and profound techniques man can lead machine to cooperate in creating a memorable sound program.

Because She Hoped
Benoît Delbecq; François Houle
Songlines SGL 1592-2
www.songlines.com

Dazzlingly interactive, this third duo disc by Vancouver clarinettist François Houle and Parisian pianist Benoît Delbecq exposes rugged as well as impressionistic textures. Delbecq, who often prepares his strings with implements, and Houle, whose extended techniques include circular breathing and split tones, are modest as well. They allow the improvisations to evolve organically rather than calling attention to their skills.

Yet two versions of the clarinettist’s Pour Pee Wee end up being completely distinct. Houle smears intense vibrations atop Delbecq’s uninterrupted wooden key clicks in 120 seconds during the first variant; the second, three times as long, finds the pianist’s sour and percussive motifs enlivened by passing chords and staccato asides, as circling glissandi and tremolo flattement presage a final swinging pulse from Delbecq. This unforced jauntiness is also expressed on the un-clichéd Clichés, composed by saxophonist Steve Lacy who influenced them both. Delbecq’s marimba-like string pops are perfect down-to-earth accompaniment to the concentric and jaunty melody elaborated by Houle. When reed squeaks and syncopated lines unite for the finale the textural release illuminates the note-perfect, yet moderated playing of both.

Throughout, unmatched textural command from the two maintains a melodic flow. Whether the base performance encompasses atmospheric liquid clarinet runs and sympathetic keyboard chording on Duke Ellington’s The Mystery Song, or turns Delbecq’s castanet-like polyrhythms plus Houle’s tremolo pitchslides on the pianist’s Ando atonal, a final variant reveals an innate modern tonality. The reedist’s title tune similarly demonstrates that sympathetic romanticism can eventually result from a narration that begins with tongue slaps and key clipping.

Canadian and Russian Improvisers

Unlike many Canadian improvisers, François Carrier is no homebody. Peripatetic, the Montreal-based alto saxophonist spent months gigging in Italy and England, was one of the few Westerners to play the Kathmandu Jazz Festival, and most recently has put out discs recorded during his 2010 Russian concert tour. A session such as All Out (FMR CD 321-0911 www.fmr-records.com), recorded with his long-time associate, Toronto drummer Michel Lambert, and St. Petersburg pianist Alexey Lapin, is not only notable musically, but also shows how erudite players from two of the world’s northern hemisphere nations have much in common.

Carrier’s reed strategy includes elements of Cool Jazz note gliding as well as avant garde dissonance, and the Russian pianist constructs proper responses with alacrity. Ride, for instance, leaves the bomb dropping and clattering to Lambert’s kit as Lapin’s multi-fingered kinetic runs syncopate alongside Carrier’s spiky vibrations and false-register nasality plus dexterous explorations in the tenor register. Despite the saxophonist squeezing out multiple theme variants until he reaches conclusive downward runs, Lapin stays the course with unflappable chording as the drummer balances both men’s lines with military precision. In the solo spotlight, Lambert approximates the power of Art Blakey on Wit with cross-sticking rim shots and bass drum thumps, the better to later mix it up with Lapin’s dynamic cadenzas plus Carrier’s stuttering rubato lines and quivering split tones. The percussionist also asserts himself on Of Breath with a mallet-driven solo of whacks, bangs and ruffs, leading to the crescendo of high intensity further propelled by Lapin’s metronomic pulsing and Carrier’s flattement and triple tonguing.

Lambert’s talent is given full reign on the Maïkontron Unit’s Ex-Voto (Rant 1140 www.jazzfromrant.com). Although he and Carrier often seem like the inseparable Damon and Pythias of Canadian Jazz, this trio CD features the drummer with bassist/cellist Pierre Côté and saxophonist/clarinettist Michel Côté. Both Lambert and reedist Côté also play the maïkontron, a valves and keys reed instrument with a range below the bass saxophone’s. Lambert has divided the CD into tableaux based on images from Hieronymus Bosch, although the performance is actually less programmatic than intuitive, with straightforward pulsing as well as dissonant timbre extensions. Despite a forbidding title, a track such as Marinus (Tableau 9) for instance, is an out-and-out swing piece. It features pin-pointed snare work and clean cross sticking from Lambert, unbroken vibrations from the bassist and Michel Côté’s clarinet exploring the theme with mid-range chirping and tonguing. Other tunes such as Votivae Noctes (Tableau 4) are slow paced and constrained, as Côté’s supple clarinet line contrasts markedly with the maïkontron’s blurred snorts and an at first quivering, then walking, cello line from Pierre Côté. As reed split tones accelerate, they’re exposed nakedly beside splayed string motions. The reeds’ burbling and puffing plus the string player’s sul tasto strumming end up creating other tableaux elsewhere, with sly references to half-recalled ballads, or in contrast, intricate multiphonics. Lambert’s drum versatility is given expanded showcases on Fluctus …, the first part of Tableau 10, and Praestigator, the introduction to Tableau 19. Praestigator features kettle drum pops and faux gamelan-like resounds playing off rhino-like snorts from the maïkontron; the irregular counterpoint of Fluctus … matches clarinet shrieks with hand slaps and pats, suggesting congas and steel drums.

Uncharted Waters
Ensemble Polaris
Pipistrelle Music PIP1212

With their third and latest release, Uncharted Waters, Toronto-based, multi-cultural, multi-instrumental, quantum world music group Ensemble Polaris continues to delight on all levels — conceptually, musically and creatively. Co-produced by Patrick Jordan and the ensemble, the CD continues the group’s mandate of exploring the “idea of the North” and includes 18 intriguing and visceral tracks that embrace the folk music of Scandinavia, the Balkans, France, Italy and even Venezuela. Utilizing a mind-numbing array of ethnocentric instruments (including Swedish pipes, bouzouki, recorders and accordions) as well as the rich, sumptuous voice of Katherine Hill, the ensemble achieves a musical cohesion and level of communication and symmetry that might not seem possible on paper, given the diversity of the elements involved.

One of the strongest tracks is guitarist Marco Cera’s Ninin. This stirring violin feature is dedicated to his Italian great uncle — an avid violinist. Also of note is a traditional Orkney Islands air, re-worked as Get Him, and sung stunningly by Hill in her soulful, pitch-pure alto. The rhythmic Dry Toes Waltz is an infectious (dry?) toe-tapper, re-imagined by Jew’s harpist Ben Grossman, and the haunting Norwegian Lullaby Jeg Legges I Min Vugge Nu is a precisely set gem, presented simply and beautifully as a moving duet between Hill and Alison Melville’s recorder. Also noteworthy are the sensual El Domador De Tarenque (a fusion of an Argentinean Tango and an Italian Tarantella) and Steklat Fran Sarna — a traditional Swedish wedding banquet song, rendered masterfully on Swedish pipes by Kirk Elliott.

EMI continues to issue well-chosen performances by the greatest musicians of the recent past in artist-driven compilations of recordings from the 1930s forward.

Their most ambitious collection was the 2008 issue of the complete EMI audio recordings by Herbert von Karajan in two boxes: the complete orchestral recordings on 88 CDs and the operas and vocals on a second box of 72 discs. In all of these compilations the most up to date transfers from their own archives are utilized making these boxed sets the ultimate source for acquiring and listening to the individual performances by deservedly legendary artists doing what they did best. All of the sets come in neat clam-shell packaging with informative booklets at about $5 per disc.

It was said of Bruno Walter that he could make any orchestra he conducted sound like the Vienna Philharmonic. In Bruno Walter – The Early Recordings (EMI 679026 2, 9 CDs) we hear him with the Vienna Philharmonic in performances from 1935 to 1938. These performances set the standard by which others were judged for years to come and music lovers everywhere argued the “correctness” of Walter versus Toscanini, particularly in Mozart. This collection includes some recordings with the British Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony and the Paris Conservatory Orchestra but the real gems are with the Vienna Philharmonic, recorded in the Musikvereinssaal. In addition to works by Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, Johann Strauss and Wagner with Lotte Lehmann and Lauritz Melchior, there are the celebrated recordings of Mahler, including Kindertotenlieder with Kathleen Ferrier and Das Lied von der Erde, live from 1936 with Kerstin Thorborg and Charles Kullmann. Also that remarkable live Mahler Ninth dating from January 1938 when the atmosphere in Vienna before the Anschluss was fearfully chaotic. I still find this performance utterly devastating although, after the war, Walter expressed some discomfort with how his inner turmoil and apprehension was clearly reflected in the recording. Those sentiments elevate this Ninth from an historic performance to an irreplaceable historic document. The final CD, Remembering Bruno Walter is an interesting appreciation.

Not as widely appreciated as he well deserved to be was Rudolf Kempe (1910–1976), born in Dresden and in 1929 appointed first oboe of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. He was a master conductor in every sense of the word. An engagement in 1951 by the Vienna State Opera spring-boarded him to international acclaim and he was soon in demand in opera houses and concert halls around the world. He declined the earnest invitation to become music director of Covent Garden. The knowledgeable listener will be, I believe, delighted with the instrumental balances in familiar works which emerge here as ensemble pieces involving every player without the necessity of any spotlighting of a particular instrument or section for heightened effect. The various engineers involved over the many orchestras featured appear to have documented exactly what they heard. I confess that I did not fully appreciate these qualities in the performances/recordings as they were issued over the years. Beethoven’s First, Third, Fifth and Sixth Symphonies (Munich Philharmonic) are followed by the Third and Fourth of Brahms (Royal Philharmonic). One needs only to hear the beautifully turned and polished account of the usual four excerpts from Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Royal Philharmonic), particularly the feather-like transparency of the Overture, to know that there is indeed something very special about the conductor. In the four Richard Strauss tone poems, Don Juan, Don Quixote (with Paul Tortelier), Till Eulenspiegel, Ein Heldenleben, and in Tod und Verklärung plus Dance of the Seven Veils (all with the Staatskapelle, Dresden), we again hear the transparency, even in the tuttis, that is one of Kempe’s trademarks. It takes a very rare sensibility to have the closing moments of Heldenleben unfold across the orchestra and bloom rather than merely getting louder. Karajan could do it and so does Kempe. EMI included generous helpings of Wagner, both orchestral and operatic, and two discs of what Beecham termed lollipops, all in full-range correctly balanced sound. This admirable collection, Rudolf Kempe, Shy Genius of the Podium (EMI 629557 2) contains 11 CDs and this listener wishes there were more.

Frederick Delius (1862–1934), for those who may not know, was an English composer who spent his last years in France where he gradually became blind, relying on his amanuensis Eric Fenby to write down the scores as he dictated them. In the pre-LP days the music of Delius was esoteric, the recordings were few and far between and almost exclusively conducted by Beecham on Columbia 78s funded by the Delius Trust which was financed by Delius’ late widow Jelka who had willed her entire estate to the dissemination of her husband’s music (phew!). Beecham was named to have complete authority over every aspect. Some of these Beecham recordings have been assembled, together with others from the 1930s forward, in a Delius 150th Anniversary Edition (EMI 8417527) comprising 18 mono and stereo CDs. Included are critically esteemed performances of concertos, tone poems, operas, choral and chamber music. Conductors include Beecham, Barbirolli, Sargent, Groves, Meredith Davies, Mackerras, Hickox, Marriner, Handley and the aforementioned Fenby. The complete details of this definitive edition with detailed track listings can be found at emiclassics.com.

DECCA also has a commemorative edition of Delius essentials in contemporary recordings on eight CDs (4783078) which will satisfy the less committed collector. Check this package on deccaclassics.com.

In 1968 the late Ken Russell made a remarkably sensitive movie of Delius’ last five years in collaboration with Eric Fenby, with Max Adrian as Delius and Christopher Gable as Fenby. The Song of Summer is available on DVD in Ken Russell at the BBC (300001708), a collection of six of Russell’s BBC films. Whether you care for Delius or not, this is a must see.