08 Higdon Cold MountainJennifer Higdon – Cold Mountain
Gunn; Leonard; Fons; Hunter Morris; Honeywell; Santa Fe Opera; Miguel Harth-Bedoya
PentaTone PTC 5186 583

The PentaTone series continues with yet another world premiere recording, this one better known as an award-winning novel (and a Hollywood movie starring Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger). A Civil War epic detailing the desertion and journey home of confederate soldier W.P. Inman and the struggles of his faithful wife Ada, Cold Mountain is much admired by both readers and filmgoers. This creates a problem of its own – the towering libretto, faithful to the book, seems to subjugate Jennifer Higdon’s music and almost relegates it to a form of soundtrack. Higdon is a well-regarded composer and recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, a Grammy and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Here, the constraints of the opera bear heavily on her, stifling full creative freedom. She still delivers a score full of beautiful moments and mesmerizing violin writing, managing to endow each character with a musical signature of their own. While listening to this recording, one can only imagine how much greater the music could have been if only it were burdened with a lesser-known libretto.

I have no doubt that Cold Mountain was more successful on stage. In fact, the visuals would have helped greatly and perhaps this release should have been a DVD film. For listeners familiar with the book and the movie, it will be a fine reminder of their experience. For the rest of the audience, it may remain a mystery – an opera hesitant to assert itself beyond the libretto. The cast is uniformly good, and we must add a shout-out to Toronto’s own Robert Pomakov, whose agile bass is a pleasure to hear.

01 Pardessus de violePardessus de Viole
Mélisande Corriveau; Eric Milnes
ATMA ACD2 2729

The elegant music featured on this recording was written for a now largely abandoned instrument – pardessus de viole. This smallest member of the viola da gamba family originated in France at the end of the 17th century and had a brief life span of just over 100 years. While pardessus de viole exemplified French aesthetics and their sophisticated musical tastes and values, it was forsaken with the arrival of the Revolution, which did not stand for the same ideals. Featured composers – Barrière, Caix D’ Hervelois, Boismortier and Dollé – are among many prominent French composers who wrote for this instrument at the height of its popularity. However the selection of pieces on this recording is mostly unpublished and carefully chosen from the microfilm collections of the Bibliothéque nationale de France.

What grabbed me immediately was the sound of the “woman’s violin” (as it was nicknamed once upon a time) – pure, light yet robust at times, textured as a crossover between the flute and the violin. Mélisande Corriveau elicits an array of emotions out of her instrument. The virtuosic passages in Jean Barrière’s Sonata in G Major suit her very well but she is equally colourful in depicting the feelings of sorrow in Dollé’s Les Regrets. Eric Milnes is a resourceful and imaginative harpsichord player; together they offer a charming array of ornamentations, making this music a gesture of nobility from the past.

02 Abel and HasseComposed to the soul: Abel; Hasse – Concerti; Quartetti; Arie
Dorothee Mields; Hamburger Ratsmusik; Simone Eckert
CPO 777 911-2

This beautifully programmed recording offers two quartets, a concerto and an aria by the esteemed 18th-century gambist Carl Friedrich Abel, and an aria by his contemporary Johann Adolf Hasse. Not household names, perhaps, but well worth a listen. The quartets, contemporary transcriptions of two standard string quartets from 1768, make for most pleasant listening. The shift in sonic balance created by giving the first violin part to the bass viol gives a welcome depth and richness to the ensemble sound. The group’s playing is expressive and focused, and it’s also nice to hear tempos that are more laid-back than today’s breakneck norm: the humour and variety of musical gesture in the Allegro con spirito of the Quartet in B Flat, for example, isn’t trumped by the technical mastery required to play it. Michael Fürst plays the solo part of Abel’s two-movement harpsichord concerto with wit and thoughtful brilliance, and his colleagues of the Hamburger Ratsmusik are stylishly eloquent throughout. Soprano Dorothee Mields joins the group for two substantial arias, Abel’s sole surviving vocal piece, Frena le belle lagrime from Sifari (1767), and an aria from Hasse’s La Didone abbandonata (1742). As always, Mields sings with extraordinary musical grace and suppleness. The latter aria is also a contemporary transcription, giving the original obbligato flute part to the viol, which Eckert plays beautifully. Composed to the soul, indeed. I’ll be listening to this one again, and I hope you do too.

03 17531753 – Livre de Montréal
Yves-G. Préfontaine
ATMA ACD2 2717

Review

The brand-new organ in this recording is a replica of an instrument (no longer extant) built in 1753 in Paris for the Cathedral in Quebec City. It contains ten stops, all but two of which are divided, offering different timbres to the upper and lower halves of the keyboard.

The repertoire features works likely known to 18th-century Quebec players, including a six-movement Magnificat from the so-called Montreal Organ Book, the manuscript transported to New France in 1724 and discovered in the 1980s. The composers of the nearly 400 pieces in this collection are not named, but a couple of dozen are definitively attributed to Nicolas Lebègue. Appropriately, a further group by Lebègue (not from the MOB) follows, alongside representative compositions from his period by Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers, Louis Marchand and Jean Henry D’Anglebert.

There are 34 tracks; each piece lasts on average just over two minutes. Generally in classical French keyboard music one anticipates descriptive titles but there is only one, Lebègue’s “Les Cloches,” with its descending four-note scale suggesting bells. The rest are either liturgical pieces or fugues and other abstract types. The divided stops show to advantage in several pieces with prominent bass solos or based on dialogue between registers. Préfontaine demonstrates remarkable variety of approach and a good deal of freedom within the French baroque style, recalling the comment of a great figure in this music, François Couperin: “We write differently from what we play.” The performances are intelligently lifted off the page. The disc is well produced and a pleasure to hear. Listeners curious about how the Chapelle instrument looks as well as how it sounds may be disappointed however: front and back cover photos show portions of it, but the only artist photo shows Préfontaine at a much larger console, unidentified.

01 Abbado last concertThe Last Concert: Mendelssohn – Incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Berlioz – Symphonie Fantastique
Berliner Philharmoniker; Claudio Abbado
Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings BPHR 160081

Claudio Abbado was conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra from 1990 to 2002, succeeding the iconic Herbert von Karajan who had died in 1989. On an evening in May 2013 Abbado returned to conduct his last concert with the orchestra and as such it was a rather special event. What to program on such an occasion? There is no absolute answer but after hearing and seeing the concert one must agree that the choice was a right one. This wasn’t an audition for anyone but a final get-together of equals to make some music. This isn’t wishful thinking but there was a oneness between conductor and the orchestra here that produced a solidly romantic view of the shenanigans in the Mendelssohn and solidified the passing phantasmal delusions in the Berlioz. This really was a splendid event.

To commemorate the second anniversary of Abbado’s death, his last concert with them has been issued by the Berlin Philharmonic with full documentation of the evening in a very fine cloth-covered hardcover edition, 24.5cm X 15.5cmX 2.3cm. Inside are two CDs and a Blu-ray disc containing the complete concert in HD audio plus an HD video of the event with choice of stereo or 5.1 surround sound. On the same Blu-ray disc are bonus videos including full documentaries, Claudio Abbado in Berlin – The First Year and Members of the Berlin Philharmonic Remember Claudio Abbado. There are lots of discussions, rehearsals and human interest events plus the reason Abbado had to wait eight months after assuming the post to receive a contract. A personal code to download high resolution audio files is also included.

A well-produced 56-page multilingual booklet the size of the package contains information about the two works on the program and how they are tied together. There are interesting articles with many colour photographs. Also there are the names of the personnel of the orchestra in May 2013.

01 Pierrot LunaireSchoenberg – Pierrot Lunaire; Max Kowalsky – Pierrot Lunaire
Ingrid Schmithüsen
ATMA ACD2 2734

Review

Arnold Schoenberg’s celebrated 1912 song cycle Pierrot Lunaire is justly regarded as a masterpiece of his mid-period atonal works. Don’t let the bogeyman of atonalism scare you away; this is an extremely compelling work that exudes an atmosphere of exuberance and playfulness. Originally conceived to be performed by an actress and an ensemble of five instruments, the vocal quality that Schoenberg calls for in this multifaceted jewel of a work is unique: not quite sung, not quite spoken, but somewhere in between. The texts consist of 21 poems by the Belgian symbolist Albert Giraud in the German transliteration by Otto Erich Hartleben published in 1892. Many others have set these texts to music, including the persecuted composer and lawyer Max Kowalski (1882-1956), whose cycle of 12 of these poems included here were conceived and published in the same year as Schoenberg’s. Kowalski’s charming and supple settings are cast in a neo-romantic style and are conventionally sung.

Having presented the work some 70 times during her career, it’s fair to say that soprano Ingrid Schmithüsen has become the very embodiment of Pierrot and delivers an admirably nuanced account of Schoenberg’s opus. In most cases this complex work involves a conductor; here however, it is clear that the soloist is calling the shots (and incidentally owns the recording copyright). This emphasis on the voice no doubt explains the frustratingly recessed sound of the ensemble, which left me pining for the vivid instrumental presence in just about every other recording I’m familiar with, notably the outstanding 1971 LP by Jan DeGaetani. By contrast, the Kowalski song cycle with pianist Brigitte Poulin is perfectly balanced.

02 ShoujounianNoravank: Petros Shoujounian – String Quartets 3-6
Quatuor Molinari
ATMA ACD2 2737

Composed to mark the centenary of the Armenian genocide, Noravank’s title is derived from a homeland monastery that was Petros Shoujounian’s inspiration. Its 14 sections, divided into string quartets of three, three, three and five movements, are symbolically named after rivers and are based on liturgical chants.

Quartet No.3 was the most affecting for me, through its tiny echoes of melodies and treatments heard in Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe and Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel; it concludes with the provocative Dzoraget. The contradictions of Quartet No.4’s depressive second movement, the energetic third and Quartet No.5’s lamentoso first movement brought to mind the power of nature and the current plight of evacuated Fort McMurray folks – if that’s not the musical equivalent of theological proof-texting. The balance of Quartet No.5 and all of No.6 more overtly reflect the influence of eastern folk songs, both in the keys and the lilts they comprise. Another memory of song, from Chopin’s “Raindrop” Prelude in D-Flat Major No.15 Op.28, is heard in the onomatopoeic burbling waters of the Vedi.

This CD was suggested to me, a Pärt fanatic, as a possibly similarly contemplative recording. While these aren’t tracks for mindful meditation, there is an introspective quality to all the movements. Maybe the invoked theme of migration is apt, after all: fires, oppression, the liturgical life – these all involve movement and change. But this introvert was soothed rather than discomfited via the talent of the Quatuor Molinari, who commissioned this work that is ultimately about renewal. Fine liner-note editing and the eponymous cover photograph round out a very marketable product.

03 Finding a VoiceFinding a Voice: The Evolution of the American Sound
Walden Chamber Players
Independent (waldenchamberplayers.org)

Review

This new disc from the Walden Chamber Players features compositions which might be described as the linking species of the American music family tree. Ably performed here are works by little-known composers (Marion Bauer 1882-1955), lesser-known works by composers well known (Aaron Copland’s Threnodies), and works by modern composers who write close enough in time to us that they might remain in our blind spot (Ned Rorem).

Rorem is best-represented here, and rightfully so – after all, he is a still-living and underappreciated American composer whose healthy sense of deference to American musical heritage is best exemplified by his Ives-tinged The Unquestioned Answer (2002). But it is actually Virgil Thomson’s ghost that looms largest over this recording. In the middle of the 20th century, Thomson achieved more infamy as cantankerous critic than fame as a composer. As far back as 1944, he took aim at the cult of the warhorse, noting that “the enjoyment and understanding of music are dominated in a most curious way by the prestige of the masterpiece.” In that same essay, he wrote, “this snobbish definition of excellence is opposed to the classical concept of a Republic of Letters.”

These words could serve as this disc’s manifesto; it demands that we re-evaluate these works which might have otherwise been lost to the murk of history. They may not be capital-M masterpieces (whatever that actually means), but they are nonetheless worth hearing.

04 FinnissyWAM
Michael Finnissy; Michael Norsworthy
New Focus Recordings FCR157 (newfocusrecordings.com)

While it may not move you to tears or laughter, the music of Michael Finnissy should hold you in a kind of rapt fascination, like an elaborate mechanism with multi-coloured parts moving according to mysterious laws. This new release features American clarinetist Michael Norsworthy. The composer provides the piano accompaniment; also performing are violinist William Fedkenheuer and the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble.

Brief liner notes by the composer offer some helpful information: his substantial Clarinet Sonata unfolds calmly, the piano part presenting a cantus firmus derived from a late Beethoven piano sonata (Op.110). There is no obvious link, but each bar of the original is presented in retrograde (but presumably in the original order) while the clarinet line swans about lazily above. The second track, for E-flat clarinet, two pianos and two bass drums, uses a chance element: though the material is defined, its synchronicity is not. The E-flat colour is shocking; one at first wonders if Norsworthy has forgotten his better reeds at home.

Track three introduces cat screeches (yes, literally) and still more chance elements. I do believe my allergies were acting up so I found it hard to concentrate. I kept waiting to sneeze at the next feline interjection. As cute as the kitties are, I preferred the jazzy final track with wind ensemble: Giant Abstract Samba is fun.

Just as Finnissy recomposes  Beethoven earlier, on the title track his musical source is Mozart. He obviously has no fear of vengeful ghosts seeking him out. WAM moves the performers on- and offstage, a theatrical effect somewhat diluted on record. You’ll hear the violin and later the clarinet at a distance at different moments. I have no idea what it all means, but it’s…fascinating.

05 Sirius QuartetPaths Become Lines
Sirius Quartet
Autentico Music AMCDA00004 (autenticomusic.com)

Far from being a spin-off or a clone of the Kronos Quartet, the Sirius Quartet is a fiercely – individually and collectively – creative ensemble that explores an aural landscape with no definable borders. Violinists Fung Chern Hwei and Gregor Huebner, violist Ron Lawrence and cellist Jeremy Harman are composers who worship at the altar of creativity. These are musicians who enter the very grain of the wood of their instruments, emerging after being subsumed in the mysterious vibrations of the air within. Wave after wave of sound forms rippling tonal colours that come alive swathed in the timbres of their instruments. Each time their music is heard one can’t help being impressed by their devilishly good virtuosity.

The present recording offers ten classic selections – including a four-part suite – from recent, original repertoire and also furnishes further evidence of the development of the ensemble as they mine an impossibly deep world where jazz meets the classics. Alongside the high spirits of Huebner’s Racing Mind, for instance, a profound contemplative tone is struck in Huebner’s composition, The Wollheim Quartet, a remarkable piece of visceral drama as well as sweetness of tone, with superbly poised rhythm in its Presto movement. Harman’s Paths Become Lines bursts out in expansive chords and heaving with thick-textured agitation before the music builds into a heated climax. And that is just the beginning of a disc full of excitement and drama.

06 Tower MusicTower Music – Bertolozzi Plays the Eiffel Tower
Joseph Bertolozzi
Innova 933 (innova.mu)

American composer/percussionist Joseph Bertolozzi’s Tower Music is the culmination of a ten-year project to “play” Paris’ Eiffel Tower using various percussion mallets, etc. The over 10,000 samples recorded live by contact microphones were then reduced to 2,800 descriptively named sounds which he then used to compose the nine exciting tracks. Bertolozzi stresses that only tones made by playing the actual surfaces of Eiffel Tower are heard, and that no added effects were utilized.

The to-be-expected rhythmic percussive sounds are heard on A Thousand Feet of Sound and the jump-up-and-boogie grooves of Tower Music. A big surprise is the range of pitches and dynamics comprising the ear-worm melodies of the lilting waltz Elephant on the Tower. Especially intriguing is Evening Harmonies, in which the composer abandons rhythmic and melodic compositional traditions and lets the Tower play for its own sound sake. The rich sonorities and soundscapes of this composed yet free-improvisational-feel-piece turn the Eiffel Tower into a musical instrument of inherent deep tone, abrasive power and wide dynamic range. An informative bonus track has Bertolozzi explaining the ins and outs of the recording, production and details of this project.

This is more than just a raised eyebrow joie de vivre sound installation. Bertolozzi is a sensitive musician attuned to quality sound production and dynamic rhythmical nuances. His compositions are concise, clear and accessible. There are plans for a future live performance. For now, listen and enjoy!

01 Debbie FlemingFull Circle
Debbie Fleming
Independent (debbiefleming.ca)

I need to confess right off the top that I’m a sucker for a Bacharach-David song. I consider them to be one of the top pop songwriting duos in an era when songwriting was king and duos like Lennon-McCartney, Elton John & Bernie Taupin and so many others were putting out great music. So when veteran Toronto singer Debbie Fleming announced she was working on an album of Bacharach-David covers I was pumped. Fleming’s background as an in-demand studio and group singer equips her not only with strong vocal skills but also with arranging expertise. I’m also a sucker for covers that put a twist on the original song. (Otherwise why not just listen to the original?) So the takes on these songs – several of them arranged by Mark Kieswetter, who also plays keyboards on the album – feel fresh. Standout tracks for me are his arrangement of I Say a Little Prayer and Fleming’s arrangement of The Look of Love. The latter has a Gene Peurling-esque vocal accompaniment with the stunning voices of Suba Sankaran, Dylan Bell and Tom Lillington (who, along with Fleming, make up the a cappella singing group The Hampton Four). Peter Mueller’s searing guitar solo on Anyone Who Had a Heart adds to the epic rock ballad feel of the piece. The more laid-back (from the original), slightly bossa-ish feel of Promises, Promises is enhanced by percussion from Art Avalos and Ted Quinlan’s lovely nylon-string guitar playing. All in all this is a finely crafted album with a lot of heart and sensitive, solid work from everyone involved.

02 Sam BrovermanFeelings of Affection
Sam Broverman
Independent (brovermusic.com)

Review


With this release, exquisite vocalist/composer Sam Broverman has continued his theme of presenting the work of the world’s finest tunesmiths. Broverman has assembled a fine quintet, and selected five superb standards as well as one excellent original tune, I Want Everybody to Love Me. Skilled keyboardist/arranger Mark Kieswetter serves as producer here; also present are John MacMurchy on sax, Tony Quarrington on guitar, Jordan O’Connor on bass and Ernesto Cervini on drums.

Broverman’s rendition of On A Clear Day is a huge standout, and his sumptuous baritone (reminiscent of the late, great Mark Murphy) soars and swings with both intimacy and intensity, all the while honouring this marvelous Lerner and Lane Broadway title tune with his flawless interpretation and adherence to the original melodic line. In fact, happily, the listener will find no uninformed, empty-caloried and gratuitous scat singing on this recording.

Also of note is Broverman’s take on Michael Franks’ Underneath the Apple Tree, which is languid, bluesy and sexy, displaying a range of emotions that Franks himself never chose to express. The closing track, The Ballad of the Sad Young Men, comes from the pens of genius composer/lyricists Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf. Rarely performed and deeply moving, this song of longing, loss and the dream of redemption can only be properly done (as it is here) by an artist who has lived and experienced life.

This EP is eminently satisfying on every level, and underscores the fact that Broverman continues to be one of the most intriguing, skilled and consummately tasteful jazz vocalists on the scene today.

03 Mike MurleyShip Without a Sail
Mike Murley Trio
Cornerstone Records CRST CD145 (cornerstonerecordsinc.com)

Among tenor saxophonist Mike Murley’s group configurations, the trio has a special status, a vehicle for consummately lyrical jazz with chamber music dynamics. Launched in 1998, the group included bassist Steve Wallace and guitarist Ed Bickert until his retirement in 2001. The guitar chair has since been filled by Reg Schwager, who invariably sounds like the only other person for the job. Resembling the instrumentation of the original Jimmy Giuffre 3, it’s a demanding format that requires everyone to do more than they usually might – from piano-like comping to counter melody – while appearing to do less.

The repertoire tends toward seldom-heard jazz and show tunes with a certain harmonic subtlety. Murley’s timbral shifts are a highlight, as he modulates his sound from piece to piece, even bringing different tones to adjacent ballads. Don Sebesky’s You Can’t Go Home Again has something of the airiness of Stan Getz but brought closer to earth, while there’s a slightly harder, metallic edge to Kenny Wheeler’s Ever After, a sound just as beautiful, but different.

Though it’s the ballads and their stronger melodies that stand out, like the gorgeous samba Folhas Secas, the group is just as happy at up-tempos, the instrumentation lending a special lightness and clarity to Charlie Parker’s Dexterity and Murley’s own Know One, the latter highlighting the way Schwager and Wallace interact creatively, exchanging lead and accompanying roles with aplomb. John Lewis’ Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West points to the group’s cool jazz roots and provides an outlet for everyone’s blues impulses.

04 Barry GuyThe Blue Shroud
Barry Guy
Intakt Records CD 266 (intaktrec.ch)

British bassist and composer Barry Guy has enjoyed an unusual career, as a member of original instrument baroque ensembles, as a force in European free improvisation and as a leader of large ensembles (like the London Jazz Composers Orchestra) exploring multiple compositional methodologies. His 71-minute Blue Shroud is an extraordinary work that integrates all of those practices.

It’s inspired by Picasso’s Guernica, the title commemorating the moment in 2003 when a reproduction was covered up at New York’s U.N. building as Colin Powell argued for the invasion of Iraq. A work of furies and lamentations, The Blue Shroud stretches from tumultuous collective improvisations to moments of melodic grace and reflection, some coming from Guy’s own pen, others from J.S. Bach and H.I.F. Biber’s Mystery Sonatas. To execute the work, Guy has drawn on the breadth of his musical associations to create a 14-member group that includes violinist and Bach/Biber specialist Maya Homburger; distinguished free improvisers like pianist Agustí Fernández and the percussionists Lucas Niggli and Ramón López; and others fully at home in both worlds, like Michel Godard on tuba and serpent and Michael Niesemann on wailing alto saxophone and baroque oboe.

The work includes songs on texts by Irish poet Kerry Hardie that delineate the figures in Guernica and a polyglot declaration of the Iraq invocation, all performed by Savina Yannatou, whose expressive and musical voice brings a sharp focus to the work. At one point she and the accompanying instruments become bird song; an orchestral passage juxtaposes manic conducted improvisation with sudden interruptions of silence, invoking the soundscapes of war and concomitant death. Guy repeatedly combines different techniques to maximize the impact of this singular work, as alive to the possibility of beauty as it is to terror, somehow making it all cohere.

The Blue Shroud hammers out its own terrain, one that transcends its parts and deserves to be heard widely.

05 Alex GoodmanBorder Crossing
Alex Goodman
OA2 Records OA2 22130 (originarts.com/oa2)

Composition and improvisation flow freely into each other on guitarist Alex Goodman’s Border Crossing. For his latest recording Goodman has assembled what can best be described as a jazz chamber group. His writing is ambitious and complex, making full use of the wide range of colours available from this outstanding ensemble. Andrew Downing, who doubles on bass and cello, and vocalist Felicity Williams contribute to the group’s ability to cross genres as does Goodman’s extensive use of the acoustic guitar.

Acrobat opens the album with acoustic guitar and percussionist Rogerio Boccato’s unique and inventive textures. Williams glides through the tune’s moody melody, its lyrics equating a man’s searching nature with an acrobat’s skills. Vibraphonist Michael Davidson’s judicious phrasing builds the intensity of his solo and Goodman demonstrates virtuosity, making use of wide intervals in a highly lyrical fashion.

With Thanks is an epic composition that displays the full range of Goodman’s writing skills as well as the band’s remarkable ability to interpret them. Williams effortlessly negotiates the intricate melody and solos are individually framed to provide contrast and variety. Drummer Fabio Ragnelli improvises fluidly over unpredictable rhythmic shots as the piece segues smoothly through what could be a disparate series of events. Pure Imagination, the only other tune with lyrics on the album, might offer an answer to the yearning expressed in Acrobat. Williams sings of the power of imagination to shape the world, nicely bookending this impressive and beautiful recording.

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