Recurrence
ICOT Chamber Orchestra
Leaf Music LM256 (leaf-music.ca)

The ICOT Chamber Orchestra was founded by five Toronto-based composers and musicians of Iranian descent who set out to produce concerts that musically bridge Canadian and Iranian culture. Over the last 13 years it has produced operas, ballets and works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and voice. ICOT’s newest release Recurrence explores the many nuances of the notion of musical repetition through new compositions by Canadian composers Jordan Nobles, Nicole Lizée, Keyan Emami, Maziar Heidari and Saman Shahi. For this project ICOT consisted of strings (New Orford String Quartet), flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, upright and electric bass, piano and two percussionists. 

A notion such as repetition is an intriguing theme for a series of compositions – one which each of the composers decided to make their own via real-world lenses. Ecology, geological processes, social (in)justice, mathematics and fashion design were all themes harnessed. 

Two approaches caught my attention. Lizée cites visionary fashion designer Alexander McQueen as a direct inspiration for her Blissphemy. It reflects his work’s embrace of beauty in unexpected places and reach for artistic risks – much like the composer herself. Emami’s Kian in Rainbows is a moving musical memorial to those who died in 2022 in Iran, shot by government security forces during the crackdown on the Mahsa Amini protests. The nine-year old Kian Pirfalak was one of the victims, his memory evoking the innocence and fleeting beauty of childhood. Another sad inspiration for Kian in Rainbows: the sudden death last year of Canadian composer Jocelyn Morlock at 53.

Listen to 'Recurrence' Now in the Listening Room

Primavera IV the heart
Matt Haimowitz
PentaTone Oxingale Series (theprimaveraproject.com)

I was excited to find that the new Matt Haimovitz album The Primavera Project is based on a collaboration between two great works of art and 81 contemporary composers. The dynamic and athletic cellist’s latest release is number four in a cycle of six CDs; with his vast experience in contemporary and classical music, the cellist makes this major undertaking look easy. 

The two visual works in the spotlight are Botticelli’s Renaissance Primavera (c.1480) and contemporary artist Charline von Heyl’s triptych Primavera (2020). You could just dive into the CD with no reference at all, but I would recommend starting with the website accompaniment which displays the von Heyl painting and the accompanying map of the corresponding musical chapters: The Wind, The Rabbits, The Vessel and now the fourth in the collection, The Heart. Seeds of inspiration are sprinkled on von Heyl’s painting as live hyperlinks, which then open to each playlist. A stark contrast to the Botticelli version, Von Heyl notes “Kitsch is not ironic the way I use it. Kitsch, for me, means a raw emotion that is accessible to everybody, not just somebody who knows about art. That’s where kitsch comes from to begin with: it was basically art for the people.” (evenmagazine.com/charline-von-heyl)

Haimovitz tears into every nuance of colour from the compositions, and our journey takes on many of this decade’s greatest composers and musical storytellers. Each track references a particular motif notated in either painting. Justine Chen’s playful Iridescent Gest and Nina C. Young’s pentimento for solo cello and electronics are standouts, as are Tyshawn Sorey’s edgy and cinematic Three Graces and Canadian Vincent Ho’s jazz-inspired Blindfolded Cupid (which Haimovitz pulls off as if he wrote it). The album closes with Gordon Getty’s richly melodic miniature-sonata Winter Song.

Explore the website dedicated to the project. The creative and beautiful videos include visuals of von Heyl’s work on YouTube; they bring the artwork to life, anchoring the disc within the scope of the project. Haimovitz plays with an energetic and powerful core, and a dedication to each composition that only his stunning skills could match.

Jean Derome – La chaleur de la pensee
Various Artists (including Ensemble SuperMusique)
ambiences magnetiques AM 276 CD (actuellecd.com/en/accueil)

I looked at some images from the great early surrealist artist Francisco Goya while listening to the new release of quasi-improvisatory pieces by Jean Derome. Somehow the one activity made the other more terrifying. It’s hard to express praise or admiration for this composer’s output, but the effectiveness of his creativity is undeniable. This is high-concept and/or/but high-quality artistic material. 

Derome provides a visual reference to Onze Super (petit) Totems: pictures of his own somewhat crude sculptures; protections, per the liner notes, against various evils. A through-composed sectional work, the totems are distinct sonic explorations, with one or two segues. The first one is full of mad birdsong alternating between chaotic twittering chirps and sustained chords of close treble voices, punctuated by deep huffing yells that spur the switching between those textures. 

The Tombeau de Marin Mersenne provides relief of a kind. Three movements (Tombeau, Rigaudon, Galope), materially determined by the arcane formulae of a16th century mathematician. At first blush they just seem a bit mechanical and dispassionate. Perhaps that’s the point. I’m not sure how flattered I’d be by this Tombeau if I were the ghost of Mersenne, but Derome has a fascination with the crossover of music and math. The inaptly titled Galope hobbles from slightly up-tempo to the near opposite, like a click track disturbed by the percussive interjections to continuous running hemi- or semi-quavers in the piano. 

The title track features improvisatory responses to a middle C doinked or plunked out at varying intervals, a sort of torture for any mind given to expectation. Allowing one’s thoughts to warm up around the steady pitch is a more receptive attitude. And stay away from Spanish painters.

Jürg Frey – String Quartet No.4
Quatuor Bozzini
Quatuor Bozzini CQB 2432 (quatuorbozzini.ca/en)

About his String Quartet No.4 (2021), Swiss composer Jürg Frey (b.1953) laconically observed, “My music is slow, sometimes static, often delicately shifting between standstill and movement. And yet, after more than an hour, this music has arrived at another place.” Music critic Alex Ross aptly compared Frey’s music to a “Mahler Adagio suspended in zero gravity.”

One of Canada’s leading string quartets, Bozzini specializes in contemporary music with an impressive 36 releases to date. Fostering a long and deep working relationship with Frey, their premiere recording of his sprawling five-movement Quartet No.4 is a remarkably poised musical testament to their collaboration. Beginning with whisps of sound the Bozzini morphs into a virtual, though still totally acoustic, orchestra. From pianissimo sustained string chords ghostly instrumental resemblances emerge; they sound like a French horn, harmonica, woodwinds, bandoneon and a soft pipe organ in succession. In Frey’s expansive soundscapes, timbral colour takes centre stage in the sonic field.

“… little happens – it is this atmosphere from which my music emerges and to which it always returns,” explains the composer. Listeners can choose to lay back and relax in Frey’s sound world observing the timbral transformations, the attractive chord and shifting mood changes. But then – just as we were enjoying the slowly scuttling clouds on a sunny Swiss summer day – those mysterious insistent pulsed cello pizzicati at the very end emerge to remind us of … what? … the passage of time?

Problematica
India Gailey
People Places Records (peopleplacesrecords.bandcamp.com/album/problematica)

As a huge fan of cellist India Gailey’s first album, I was lucky to be in town for the launch of her latest release Problematica (“…used for organisms whose classification can’t be decided”) at the Canadian Music Centre. I was pleasantly surprised to see that even the most heavily multi-tracked or added effects were performed solo with laptop at hand. The final product is just as polished live as it is on the album. 

A more personal work than her previous album, Gailey gathers her closest collaborators to surround herself with a musical and spiritual base which she uses to launch herself into a plural universe. Beginning with Sarah Rossy’s I Long, gorgeous ethereal, long tones expand into harmonies and voice, growing and evolving into a beautiful vocal space-out before returning to Earth, deeply grounded in self. 

Nicole Lizée’s Grotesquerie employs foot stomps, loops, vocals and breath to become, as described, “a four-minute opera” of an amusing story best read in the notes. (There is also a video on Gailey’s website.) The subtle opening of Julia Mermelstein’s Bending, breaking through layers strand upon strand of delayed and effected cello, sneaking out quietly to leave a wonderous after-vision. Joseph Glaser’s Joinery uses an interesting combination of soundwalks and nature, to culminate into a question posed to a cello made from a tree: “did it hurt?”  Andrew Noseworthy’s supremely delicate Goml_v7….Final.wav is a testament to the collaborative partnerships Gailey continues to build. Fjóla Evans’ Universal Veil is exquisitely played, beautifully layered acoustic cello. The album closes with Thanya Iyer’s — Where I can be as big as the Sun, another opportunity for Gailey to circle back to her personal grounding. The whole album is coloured in textures, harmonies and vocals that continues Gailey’s path to be open and genuine.

Wanderings
Andree-Ann Deschenes
Independent (aadpiano.com)

The peripatetic pianist Andree-Ann Deschenes, possessed of a most wonderfully restless creative instinct, has put her prodigious musicianship on the line once again. She could be forgiven, of course, for plunging herself – body and soul – into the that tumbling ocean of Brazilian rhythm. The album that results is titled Wanderings although, truth be told, this is anything but an aimless journey into the musical heartland of a country brim-full and flowing over with the most extraordinary rhythm-driven musical culture.

Displaying the mind of a wizened musical apothecary Deschenes knows exactly where to go for the ingredients that make from this music a potion so potently magical that listeners are – in one elegantly executed rippling rhythmic phrase of her left hand – permanently seduced to enter her world of “brazilliance.” This she fashions out of hands that are delicate enough to lend themselves to the wondrous colourscape of Brazilian melody and harmony – powerful enough to handle the sinewy rhythm of the forró and the maracatu, even the mysticism of capoeira. 

The pianist reveals an intimacy with the poetics of Brazilian music that often eludes even the most well-meaning musicians. Moreover, she assiduously avoids the well-worn route to Brazil, taking, instead, the road less travelled. Music such as Andanças (Cassio Vianna), Chardi Kala (Jasnam Daya Singh), Two Moons (Bianca Gismonti), Nalad Ochun (Jovino Santos Neto) – and especially – Tanguinho (André Mehmari) suggest that Deschenes bears the mark of a maverick.

American Counterpoints
Curtis Stewart; Experiential Orchestra; James Blachly
Bright Shiny Things BSTC-0200 (brightshiny.ninja)

I’m writing this quickly so I can get back to hearing the music of Julia Perry (1924-1979) and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004), the two absurdly neglected Black American composers featured on American Counterpoint. Included is a brief finale from Curtis Stewart, the violin soloist for several tracks, with orchestra leader James Blachly co-curator of the album.

Both composers were recognized and successful to a degree in their lifetimes. So why does one hear about Barber and Ives and Copland and Bernstein but not Perry and Perkinson? Guess. 

It sure isn’t because they weren’t excellent at their craft. Just compare the first cut, Perkinson’s Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk with his Sinfonietta No.1 two tracks later. It would be impressive to have either piece in one’s catalogue, but having the range shown by owning both puts one in the company of the greats. With his skills in conducting and performing, the obvious comparison is with Leonard Bernstein. Two maestros, one celebrated, the other overlooked. The neo-classical Sinfonietta opens with a Sonata Allegro movement in which Perkinson deploys counterpoint that might put Copland’s to shame (but evokes Hindemith); the third movement, Rondo-Allegrf furioso, doubles down on rhythmic energy; in between he summons Romanticism à la Samuel Barber in Song Form: Largo. 

Then there’s Perry, who composed in a thoroughly modernist and individual style, had studied with Luigi Dallapiccola and Nadia Boulanger, but went largely unregarded by mid-century audiences. How audacious, to write a serious string orchestra work, Symphony in One Movement for Violas and Basses, sans violin and cello voices. Astonishing dark colour, beautiful and sad or angry utterances. All respect to Perkinson, who achieved material success as a commercial composer, but Perry’s light is brighter, or deeper. 

Fine playing by Stewart and the Experiential Orchestra. Great disc.

Samuel Jones – Three Concertos
Joseph Alessi; Jeffrey Khaner; Michael Ludwig; Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Gil Rose
BMOP Sound 1095 (bmop.org/audio-recordings)

“My music always has a lyrical basis,” writes American Samuel Jones (b.1935). That’s evident as three superb soloists join with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project conducted by Gil Rose.

Montreal-born Jeffrey Khaner, principal flute of the Philadelphia Orchestra, ranges from haunting plaintiveness to breathless exuberance in Flute Concerto (2018). Lament memorializes two brothers – Jones’ and Khaner’s. Interludio is a cheerful scherzo. Dream Montage – The Great Bell: America Marching incorporates familiar patriotic tunes, Jones’ hymn The Great Bell Rings for All and a jubilantly ascending, final flourish from the flute.

New York Philharmonic principal trombone Joseph Alessi brings mellow tone and technical wizardry to Jones’ Trombone Concerto, subtitled Vita Accademica (2009). The trombone represents a university student and Jones has composed what he calls “a universalized ‘Alma Mater’ and a stylized ‘Fight Song’.” Andante vigoroso is warmly sentimental; Romanza: Andante amabile is a tender love song. Chimes launch Allegro moderato, the student’s triumphal graduation.

Violin Concerto (2014) begins darkly. Andante con moto features ominous, softly throbbing timpani, grumbling winds and menacing orchestra tuttis, the violin alternating between a sombre, upward, yearning melody and agitated downward figurations, all ending in tentative serenity. In Larghetto con moto: Largo cantabile the violin sings a long-lined, sweetly nostalgic melody over a gentle chordal cushion. Allegro inquieto ed appassionato mixes rapid violin passagework with yet more extended lyricism. Michael Ludwig, former Buffalo Philharmonic concertmaster, brilliantly masters the expressive and virtuosic extremes of this splendid concerto.

Russell Hartenberger – Arlington
Ryan Scott; Russell Hartenberger; Various percussionists
Nexus Records 11053 (russellhartenberger.bandcamp.com/album/arlington)

Despite Ionisation (1931), that great work for percussion by Edgard Varèse, and many other fine works by the great Michael Colgrass, David Saperstein, Henry Cowell and Charles Wuorinen (to name but a few), literature written specifically for percussion remains relatively rare. One reason could be that outside of contemporary blues and rock ensembles with prominently featured drum sets, in classical music, string instruments are often called upon to play pizzicato and col legno battuto to simulate percussion.

But the paucity of literature is not the reason why we must praise Russell Hartenberger’s disc Arlington; for it is a disc where melody, harmony and certainly rhythm are all celebrated in abundance. Hartenberger is a composer and a virtuoso percussionist as well. A founding member of Nexus, he is also what you may call a musical anthropologist who has mined the art and sculppure of percussion of drummers from West Africa and Europe and Indigenous drummers from the Near and Far East to North and South America.

However, it is not simply uncommon scholarship that informs the two large works for percussion on this disc. Hartenberger’s works seem not simply designed to show off the instruments that play them but also to illuminate the music itself: Arlington rises above being a funerary tattoo to celebrate the spectral spirits dancing in the rarefied air above every tombstone. The symphonic Red River is a large-scale musical metaphor that gushes with exuberance celebrating earthly life in all its protean variety.

Heino Eller – Works for Violin and Piano
Andres Kaljuste; Sophia Rahman
First Hand Records FHR149 (firsthandrecords.com)

Estonian composer/teacher Heino Eller (1887-1970) is considered the founding father of Estonian professional instrumental music. He primarily composed small form instrumental works but did compose some larger canvasses including three symphonies. This release is the first to feature only Eller’s violin works, including ten premiere recordings. Violinist/violist/teacher Andres Kaljuste has a diverse career in Europe and champions music by fellow Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, with whom he and his duo pianist Sophia Rahman have a long working association. Heino Eller was Pärt’s composition teacher!

Three divisions of musical style may be made.  Eller’s early works written 1907-1920 are simpler.  Canzonetta (1912) is a fun, easy to listen to, slightly upbeat duet with unexpected extremely high violin pitches. Emotional Moment musical (Muusikaline moment) (1912) is rubato in feel with late Romantic tonalities. 

Eller tried to combine modern sounds with his personal aesthetics in mid-career works1920-1940.  Fantasy for Solo Violin (1931) is the first Estonian work for violin alone. Kaljuste shines creating a symphonic sound blending contrasting lines from lower dark to higher rhythmic ones with exciting fast descending lines. Pines (Männid) (1929) is an Estonian chamber repertoire favourite. Eller combines folk intonation and inflections in lyrical music about Estonian nature. 

Late career works (1940-1970) include Cross-stick Dance (Ristpulkade tants) (1953) with Estonian folk-like rhythmic melodies in conversations and accented notes breaking up the phrases.  

My Estonian parents introduced me to Eller’s Pines. Here I have heard more of his music as Kaljuste and Rahman perform with an amazing understanding of Eller’s artistry. 

they/beast
Pat Posey
Avie AV2638 (avie-records.com)

The Belgian inventor and musician Adolphe Sax is responsible for the saxophone being one of the few instruments to have a clear patent date (June 28,1846). He built different sizes of saxophones but the most familiar are the soprano, alto, tenor and baritone models. The bass saxophone is much rarer and, although the contrabass exists, its size and structure made it almost unplayable. The Tubax is a new version of the contrabass created by the German instrument maker Benedikt Eppelsheim in 1999 and is smaller with a much better fingering mechanism. 

Pat Posey’s solo album they/beast displays the Tubax›s incredible sound with a wide variety of materials, from Bach cello suites to Philip Glass› Melodies for Saxophone. If listening to Paul Desmond’s alto sax is like sipping a fine white wine, Posey’s Tubax is like drinking a delicious porter. Its lows are glorious and Posey dexterously wrestles ithrough some very complex material. they/beast is a unique and sonically adventurous treat. 

Ispilu – Works for Quarter-Tone Accordion
Lore Amenabar Larrañaga
Metier mex 77108 (divineartrecords.com)

Talented accordionist Lore Amenabar Larrañaga researched and self-designed her microtonal quarter-tone accordion. The sounds are produced in both left and right hand manuals, with the range and timbres expanded by 15 right hand and 7 left hand registers. Custom built by Bugari Armando, this is her first recording playing it. She commissioned eight composers to write collaborative solo compositions to explore her organ’s capabilities between 2020 and 2022, during her PhD studies at the Royal Academy of Music.

Fleeting Puddles by Claudia Molitor is an accessible minimalist work. The sounds below water are created with fast repeated notes like ripples or waves while slower chords, subtle atonal held notes with added melodies and intriguing low-pitched notes create water stillness. My Time Is Your Time by Donald Bousted has fast, ringing high notes, detached lower chords, meditative held-notes, descending lines and held clusters separated by welcome reflective silences. Lore’s held-notes bellow control at different volumes is amazing. Feast by Mioko Yokoyama features percussive accordion hits mixed with pitched and quarter tone accented chords, glisses and lower notes. Der Stimme der Stadt composer Christopher Fox writes his work grew out of a series of bell resonances exemplified by extended rippling atonal/quarter-tone chords, repeated intervals, then slower calming held-chords with slight tonal changes and melody. Compositions by David Gorton, Electra Perivolaris, Michael Finnissy and Veli Kujala are also performed.  

Lore’s musical virtuosic performances make this a must-listen release for all.

Night Flight
Barry Elmes Quintet
Cornerstone Records CRST CD 168 (cornerstonerecordsinc.com)

Renowned musician and composer Barry Elmes has again gathered up the best of the best in the Canadian jazz industry and released a captivating new record. The quintet he started in 1991 has seen a couple of changes recently with Chris Gale on sax and Pat Collins on bass added to the existing lineup of Brian O’Kane on trumpet and Lorne Lofsky on guitar. The album is a compilation of standards by greats such as Charles Mingus and Keith Jarrett, which Elmes and crew have revived in an enticing manner. Also featured in the tracklist is a new composition by the drummer himself, which starts off the record with a mellow and catchy groove. 

The bandleader has this to say about this latest release, “Each of these songs left a deep impression on me and this album serves as both a tribute to the composers and an opportunity to present new arrangements of their music.” Elmes’ appreciation and respect for these tunes and their composers is evident throughout the album, especially in the way that each piece has a unique, new take on it without changing the feel and charm found in the original songs. An example of that is Mingus’ Opus 3, which takes on a more laid-back feel in Elmes’ arrangement, but the drive and rhythmic prowess of the original is not lost in this relaxed version. A great album as a whole, perfect for any jazz-lover!

Ballads
Brian Dickinson
Modica Music (modicamusic.bandcamp.com/album/ballads)

Although I have not had the good fortune to perform with the great pianist Brian Dickinson often, I do remember one opportunity in Vancouver that was both memorable and instructive. Between tunes, the band fielded questions from an audience that was comprised largely of music students. After one particularly inspired cascading passage of improvised up-tempo 16th notes by Dickinson, a student asked the Canadian pianist how he approached these sorts of speedy extemporizations. His answer, which was both practical and hilariously banal, was that one should take all the musical language that one knows how to do using eighth notes and simply play them twice as fast. I have learned a lot from Brian over the years, both as a colleague at work, but also by listening to him play live, and I found this advice to be eminently prudent.

I was reminded of this exchange while enjoying Dickinson’s terrific new recording Ballads, which features nine gorgeous solo piano pieces recorded on a beautiful Yamaha C7 during the COVID lockdown of 2020. I wondered if Dickinson would describe playing solo piano as like playing with a rhythm section, but only without one. Although I have not asked Brian about this, I imagine that the answer would be “no.” As is evident on this recommended 2023 release, Dickinson is fulfilling many roles as a solo pianist, coaxing forward the expansive and expressive range of the instrument as only an artist of his level of accomplishment is capable. The entire listening experience is pleasurable. Dickinson plays with the dependable greatness that jazz fans have come to expect from him, and the fact that this recording is a touching dedication to the late great jazz vocalist and educator Shannon Gunn makes it all the more special. 

Moment to Moment
Bernie Senensky; Eric Alexander; Kieran Overs; Joe Farnsworth
Cellar Music CM080923 (cellarlive.com)

The pandemic knocked the performing arts into a near-total hiatus, and many speculated on whether we’d see a post-pandemic renaissance, or a tepid return to “normal.” Jazz’s return has been one marred with ups and downs, but it does feel like it’s brought the global community together in the highs and lows of the new normal. Veteran pianist Bernie Senensky’s Moment to Moment was recorded pre-pandemic at the CBC back in 2001 with two live tracks from 2020 added, and released in 2023. Today it sounds as current as ever, while maintaining a connection to the “before times.”  

Andrew Scott’s liner notes are also quick to point out Moment to Moment’s modern yet classic duality, for which Senensky selected the perfect personnel. American cohorts Eric Alexander and Joe Farnsworth are both sought-after leaders and sidemen in the New York area, where the group’s Canadian contingents have all paid their respective dues at one point or another too. Alexander and Senensky are featured on each of the album’s eight tracks, with Morgan Childs and Farnsworth alternating the drum chair, and Kieran Overs and Dave Young trading bass duties. Overs’ and Childs’ contributions to the quartet are from a live hit in Waterloo, Ontario and sound right at home amongst the six studio tracks.  

During my initial listening, I noted that Moment to Moment features more than one blues and a few tracks at similar tempos. With a less creative and engaging band, this could feel repetitive, but not in the hands of these masters!