Nadah El Shazky – Les Damnes Ne Pleurent Pas
Nadah El Shazky; Various Artists
Asadun Alay Records (asadunalayrecords.bandcamp.com)

The British-Moroccan independent film director Fyzal Boulifa released his latest film, Les Damnés ne Pleurent Pas (The Damned Don’t Cry) in 2022. Already the winner of several awards, it is scheduled for release with English sub-titles in the near future. The music for the film was created by the Cairo-based composer, producer and vocalist Nadah El Shazly, and the vast majority of it is performed by a trio consisting of violin, double bass and electronically modified harp played by Nicolas Royer-Artuso, Jonah Fortune and Sarah Pagé respectively; El Shazly provides the vocals on one track, Adi. 

For a gritty mother-son drama set in Morocco, one might expect the film to feature some plaintive, evocative, Arab-scented music and you will find some lovely, complex examples of that on such tracks as Mausoleum, Haircut and End Credit. Special mention here goes to El Shazly’s deeply satisfying vocals on Adi and to beautifully effective moments where some non-Western tuning turns the harp into a sort of folk instrument. There are other tracks, however, like Claustrophobic Love and Fight with Auntie, that get quite darkly disturbing with Fortune’s expert bass roaring away like a raging bear. I’m a big fan of music that walks the line between strangeness and beauty and I’m sure these tracks work well in the context of the film, but just for listening, they’re pretty challenging. Still, you’ll find much interesting and evocative music on this disc, beautifully played and branching out in so many satisfying directions. I look forward to watching the film.

Editor’s Note: Montreal’s Asadun Alay Records is the brainchild of noted producer-musician Radwan Ghazi Moumneh and Amélie Malissard of act·art·mgt. The label was launched in late 2022 with Safala by acclaimed Lebanese electronic music producer, DJ and performer Liliane Chlela.

The Curious Badger
Marc van Vugt
Baixim Records BR F533 (marcvanvugt.com)

Many music fans can listen to a great deal of acoustic guitar without realizing how distinctive these instruments can be. For example, I’ve played several acoustic guitars for friends who are surprised by the differences among a mid-sized Collings OM (“orchestral model”), a larger Martin dreadnought or a 1956 Gibson archtop. Marc van Vugt pushes these acoustic differences to a very happy extreme with The Curious Badger, where he lists the nine guitars used on the album’s 12 tracks. 

The title piece features aggressive and rhythmic strumming on a Guild 12-string, showcasing its bold and open sound. Back to the Market Square is slower and sweeter, featuring a Lowden baritone guitar, which has a gorgeously full resonance. Black Belt has many exciting and jazzy runs and features van Vugt’s overdubbing of two guitars: a nylon string and an archtop. This piece is a virtuoso work with the guitars switching from rhythm to lead and several runs are played together adding to the excitement. Van Vugt is an excellent guitarist and each of the pieces is unique and compelling. It is a bonus that the album credits contain the complete list of guitars and tracks so that we can truly appreciate each instrument’s unique sonic properties.

Listen to 'The Curious Badger' Now in the Listening Room

As albums and live performances of creative music by solo instrumentalists become increasingly common, the novelty factor has almost completely disappeared. Instead the technical skills and original concepts of the players during these mostly improvisational sets become crystal clear, especially as the listener notes which strategies are used to create memorable sessions.

For instance, MOnuMENT (Bush Flash Records BUFCD 2201 mariafaust.com) by Estonian alto saxophonist Maria Faust, was recorded within various spaces of Kuressaare, a 14th century castle on the Estonian island of Saaremaa. Yet not only do the 14 tracks reflect the spatial qualities of the Gothic structure, but her use of affiliated electronic pedals also allows her to multiply, meld and mutate her output so that the aural textures can sound like several saxophones. This is especially pronounced on Fox Hole, where rhythmic pushes and ambulatory motion integrate short and long reed tones to the extent that Faust sounds as if she’s a multi-pitched saxophone section on her own. Variations of this are heard elsewhere. Man consists of a tremolo organ-like pulse which inflates to bounce off the stone walls and concludes with massive pulses that sound like all the organ’s ranks are simultaneously in use. At other points she’ll render her tones into elevated-turret brief bites and squeaks that undulate separately and in tandem until they blow away; or as on Waltzing Dust, expose lyrical trilling whose gentleness contrasts with the thick immovable stones around her. On a couple of occasions, notably on Moat, she vocalizes through her horn, adding bel canto hums alongside reed smears. All these unique abilities are put to use in splendid fashion on Fort. The processed sounds make it appear as if an entire saxophone section from soprano to bass is riffing below her as Faust’s alto saxophone honks and tongue slaps are heard at the same time as vocalized whoops. Finally as the tones shriek upwards they ricochet against the ancient masonry, ricochet back and are embedded among the reed textures.

Listen to 'MOnuMENT' Now in the Listening Room

Similar in conception to Faust’s disc, but recorded in an urban space in Stockholm is Split Series Vol.2 (Frim Records FRIM 6 frim-stockholm.se). Australian clarinetist Aviva Endean’s What Calls in the Quiet (Moths and Stars live set) takes up one extended track with a local turntablist improvising on the other. Adding sounds from field recordings, lo-fi electronics, plastic pipes and her voice to her reed, metal and wood expertise, Endean literally inflates the textures of her concert program. Thus she’s able to apply more tones to her exposition than would emanate from a clarinet even with her experience using extended techniques. With the electronics creating a rumbling echo as a continuum, she stretches pure air squeezes, chalumeau-sourced reflux and shaky clarion flutters into a polyphonic exposition which is further intensified with the overtones of pre-recorded flute trills. Maintaining symmetry among the elements, the performance pivots at one moment into rattling cogwheel resonation which overcomes the voltage murmurs, or at the next to delicate, almost ethereal reed purrs. At mid-point an interlude of almost-endless circular breathing manages to be sturdy and straight-ahead, watery and bubbling and chirping and hissing in turn without upsetting the track’s linear flow. By the finale the unexpected rarity of the emphasized timbres during her recital which mates motor-grinding buzzing with airy squeezed split tones confirms singular sound logic – in both senses of the word.

An even more precious demonstration of singular and atypical musical logic come from German- Japanese Eiko Yamada whose understated recital on soprano and bass recorders during This Summer (Hitorri 959 hitorri.bandcamp.com/album/this-summer) sounds nothing like the jaunty peeps usually heard from this simple antique woodwind played by amateurs or school children. Working her way from tonelessness to emphasized breaths, shaking hisses and metallic drones Yamada moves between the instruments, emphasizing thin penny-whistle-like tweets from one and basement level drones from the other. While her timbral detours include almost perfect replication of the sounds of nesting birds or spittle-encrusted flatulence whose reverberations could come from a kazoo, her flat-line exposition maintains consistency. Ingeniously by the improvisation’s final section she manages to output two interlaced but distinctive tones, a growly hum which resembles a motor-turning mechanism and an airy ethereal murmur. With the dual accents evolving in broken octaves maintaining individual tones as well as merging intermittently, her woodwind control is demonstrated. The singularity is confirmed when the piano plinks and patterns that join her second recorder recital seem entirely superfluous.

Solo explorations with horns doesn’t stop with woodwinds either. Using electronics and extended techniques, both Nicole Rampersaud and Hilde Marie Holsen create uncommon and cerebral paths for their trumpets. An ex-Torontonian, now-based in rural New Brunswick, Rampersaud’s 11 tracks on Saudade (Ansible Editions 008 ansibleeditions.bandcamp.com) are each invested with the same invention and proficiency no matter the length. While electronics allow her to flange, double track, overlap and deconstruct timbres, she doesn’t depend on plugged in extensions to create. Probably the best examples of this are the three sequential Concurrent Panoramas. Beginning with bagpipe-like timbres respired in and out into a portamento melody, the affiliated bass drone creates an ostinato, as splices of sour notes, flattened tones and half-valve whines judder decisively above it. By Concurrent Panorama 3, the resolution involves piccolo-trumpet elevated triplets intersecting with an oboe-like snarl as the stop/start waveforms vibrate below to cushion the elevated brass layer above. This layering and overlapping live and processed timbres is another method of expression, as is when Rampersaud cunningly integrates static crackles into the expositions. Suggestions of mellow French horn-like tones, ascending bugle-like peeps and tuba-resembling burps highlight some of the other tracks. So do unexpected turns, as on Nor Foresaking where sudden brass peeps cut across an aural landscape, already defined by overlapping and suturing distant cries and patterns. Rampersaud can build an entire track out of mouthpiece spits and horn shakes as on Erasure. Or in contrast, complete the session with the extended Interstitials that builds a sound edifice from human and processed whistles, concentrated toneless breaths and watery valve flutters until it climaxes and vanishes. Each piece confirms that a specific trumpet vocabulary is being defined and disseminated.

Norwegian Holsen’s three improvisations on Ediacara (Pelun PELUN CD 001 hildeholsen.com) contain similar resourcefulness and creativity as Rampersaud’s and as much use of extended techniques and electronic processing as on the Canadian’s disc. However, where Rampersaud’s formulations are usually sparse and pointed, Holsen’s are packed and more lyrical. This is especially true of the concluding Ordovicium, where from the top watery textures are mixed with tongue stops that reference mechanized pulsations. Although the multiphonics become increasingly claustrophobic so that textures begin to resemble those of an orchestral choir, timbres reflecting back onto themselves with vinyl needle-drop lacerations are eventually superseded by a mellow tone. The finale is as simple and moderated as it is linear. It’s the same with the other pieces, especially the protracted title track. Extended and uncommon brass techniques are exhibited and share space with hisses, crackles and static from the electronic oscillations. No matter how many turns there are to polyphonic timbres resembling shrill sirens, French horn-like mid-range notes or Baroque trumpet-like dusky tones – as well as tongue stops, squeaking triplets and distended breaths – they’re underscored by moderated textures. Evolution may be in broken octaves, but overall the stacked timbres are often rearranged into narratives that reflect melodiousness as well as multiphonics.

Each of these discs reflects how different musicians probe the intricacies of solo productions. Their sophistication in process and performance augurs well for many other players to make similar sound odysseys.

Record producer Zev Feldman has emerged as a leading figure in archival jazz, uncovering, restoring and releasing materials with a variety of labels, including Resonance, Jazz Detective and Elemental, often geared to Record Store Days for vinyl LP releases with CDs following shortly thereafter. For Spring of 2024, he has outdone himself, with a bevy of previously unknown recordings that cover a 40 year span of jazz history, with an emphasis on pianists, from Art Tatum to Sun Ra to Mal Waldron to Kenny Barron, and saxophonists as well, from John Gilmore with Sun Ra to Steve Lacy and Yusef Lateef. 

There’s something about the breadth of jazz, its musicians, audiences, histories and generations, that these sets reveal. While Tatum and Sun Ra might seem highly dissimilar, they were born within five years of each other: each entertains, one with flamboyant virtuosity and good manners; the other hectoring, shocking, pontificating. As brilliant as their divergent creations are, the music is immediately accessible. The others -- Waldron, Lacy, Lateef and their associates – are concert artists, almost anonymous apart from the music they create here, not coincidentally, for Belgian and French audiences.   

Art Tatum, virtually a transcendent pianist, can be introduced anecdotally. Fellow pianist Fats Waller once remarked of his presence, “God is in the house tonight.” A teenage Charlie Parker purportedly worked as a dishwasher at Jimmy’s Chicken Shack in Harlem to hear Tatum nightly. He also lends his name to the “tatum”, defined as the fastest pulse present in a piece of music. While best known for his solo recordings, Tatum worked frequently in a trio format, as heard on Jewels in the Treasure Box: The 1953 Chicago Blue Note Jazz Club Recordings (Resonance R3C-2064 3LPs/3CDs  resonancerecords.org). The sidemen supply comic interpolation as well as musical support. On I Cover the Waterfront, guitarist Everett Barksdale slyly inserts Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen, while bassist Slam Stewart, renowned for playing arco while humming in unison an octave higher, suddenly interpolates London Bridge. The music covers a broad musical and emotional range, but it’s essentially celebratory. Tatum possesses a joyous command of musical materials, happily doubling tempos, slowing to a dirge, then throwing in tumbling keyboard-long runs or brilliantly precise boogie-woogie. The trio achieves some remarkable three-way play on a blistering rendition of St. Louis Blues. 

Genius can have different periods of gestation, witness the contrasting cases of Tatum and Sun Ra. While decades separated their styles and celebrity, Sun Ra was only five years younger than Tatum, an obscure record producer and bandleader in Chicago when Tatum played at the Blue Note. After extended stays in Montreal and New York and permanent relocation to Philadelphia, Sun Ra occasionally returned to Chicago for triumphant performances, as evidenced by Sun Ra at the Showcase: Live in Chicago 1976-1977 (Jazz Detective DDJD-013 deepdigsmusic.com). Sun Ra was undoubtedly a genius, mixing musical and theatrical elements into a bizarre pageant that threw multi-hued lights on the African experience in America. For a period of some four decades, from the mid-1950s to Sun Ra’s death in 1993, Sun Ra and John Gilmore worked together, somehow Sun Ra’s mysterious electronic keyboard fantasias and prophetic pronouncements both contrasting and fusing with Gilmore’s hard-edged, intense tenor saxophone, his work particularly prominent here, rooting the music in urban reality. There’s also the collective squall of several alto saxophonists (among them Marshall Allen, the band’s current leader, who recently turned 100), percussionists and singers, totalling 19 in all. The sets are presented in reverse order, an early evening set from 1977 preceding a final set from 1976. The polyrhythmic Ankhnatan, first recorded in the 1950s, successfully encapsulates big band swing, funk and free jazz, while Ebah Speaks in Cosmic Tongue, a solo encore by trumpeter Akh Tal Ebah, is a manic vocal feature ranging from glossolalia to gospel to screaming, all propelled by the shouting audience.

As long-term American expatriates in Europe, pianist Mal Waldron and soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy worked together often, clearly complementing one another’s incisive minimalism and dark lyricism. However, The Mighty Warriors: Live in Antwerp (Elemental 5990446: 2LPs/2CDs elemental-music.com) has even more to recommend it than usual: the presence of visiting New Yorkers, every bit their equals, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille providing special stimulus. These are forceful performances, intense examinations of well articulated themes. Disc One is about roots, with Waldron’s What It Is and Lacy’s Longing alternating with Thelonious Monk’s Epistrophy and Monk’s Dream. It’s rock-solid music with every element sculpted in the compound legacies of bop and blues, each one focussed with watchmaker precision, with Lacy’s devotion to Monk’s music particularly apparent. Disc Two is highly exploratory. Workman’s Variation of III begins with an extended bass solo that develops a range of techniques, the instrument seemingly in dialogue with itself. Cyrille, too, creates tremendous drama, by contrasting volumes, densities and timbres. What comes through strongly here is a collective economy, even in free improvisation.

Yusef Lateef was a musician in whom immediate roots and visionary possibilities were always intertwined, from blues-drenched passion to explorations of alternative rhythms and pitches, even integrating Middle Eastern strings and reeds on his recordings from 1957. His studies in world music dovetailed with his work throughout a lengthy career as performer, composer and educator. Atlantis Lullaby: The Concert in Avignon (Elemental 5990450 elemental-music.com) was recorded for broadcast in 1972. Lateef’s huge tenor saxophone sound is apparent on the modal Inside Atlantis, the soulful Yusef’s Mood and the ballad I’m Getting Sentimental Over You, while several tracks stretch toward India. Contributing much to the music’s overall quality, its blend of polish, vitality and invention, is the band, Lateef’s working quartet from 1971 to 1975. Pianist Kenny Barron contributes several compositions, including the extended, constantly shifting The Untitled. Bassist Bob Cunningham is an exceptional soloist, with Roy Brooks’ exotic Eboness a feature for his creativity with bowed harmonics. Drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath, a model of support, comes to the fore playing Indian flute on Lowland Lullaby, a duet with Cunningham. 

Although you will not be reading this until April, or even May, as I write it is not yet March. While I try to keep on top of the many, many releases that have come in for consideration since our last issue, I am also having to consider a number of discs that we overlooked in the past year. While we will not know the results of the Juno Awards before we go to press, the nominations have been recently announced and although we have covered most of discs in the categories most relevant to The WholeNote, there are a few we overlooked. You’ll find a couple of these – Caity Gyorgy/Marc Limacher and Nick Maclean Quartet featuring Brownman Ali – in our Jazz and Improvised section, and two from the Classical Album of the Year (soloist) category right here. 

Matt Haimowitz is the soloist in the digital-only release Thomas de Hartmann – Cello Concerto Op.57 (Pentatone PTC 5187159 pentatonemusic.com/product/de-hartmann-cello-concerto). Dennis Russell Davies conducts the MDR Leipzig RSO in the first commercial recording of this work by one of the significant Ukrainian composers of the first half of the 20th century. De Hartmann (1885-1956) was an important compositional voice during his lifetime, but since then his colourful and compelling music has been largely ignored. This recording is part of a larger undertaking aimed to remedy that situation, and Haimowitz’s stunning performance bodes well for the success of the venture (thomasdehartmannproject.com). The concerto, which reflects the anxiety of the times, was composed in 1935 and first performed three years later by Paul Tortelier and the Boston Symphony under Serge Koussevitzky. Although not himself a Jew, de Hartmann was troubled by the acute antisemitism of the rising Nazi regime in Germany and the work incorporates Jewish musical folklore and other Eastern European folk traditions. Indeed the playful third movement, with its moto-perpetuo cello line, opens with a (presumably Hungarian) theme that Bartók would use in sketches for a viola concerto a decade later. The at times cinematic, 36-minute concerto is an excellent introduction to this often-overlooked composer, and with the current horrific situation in Ukraine its rediscovery is a timely reminder of the glorious musical heritage of that nation.

James Ehnes is the soloist for Carl Nielsen – Violin Concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic under Edward Gardner (Chandos CHSA 5311 chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHSA%205311). An extended slow introduction – likened by Paul Griffiths in the excellent booklet notes to a folk fiddler playing with “classical elegance,” gently fades away before an abrupt orchestral explosion into the Allegro cavallerésco, a “chivalric” episode evoking knights on horseback. The Poco Adagio begins gently with winds before morphing into a contemplative violin solo. The final movement is also gentle but quite mischievous where, in Griffiths’ words “comedy is overplayed […] making riot of its ebullience. [But] the cadenza goes another way, back to a moment of drone-accompanied melody, as if this had all been the dream of a wandering fiddler.” Nielsen began the work in Norway and Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang has said “I think every violinist should play this concerto, because you get challenged not only technically, but also structure-wise. You have to take a bird’s eye view of this concerto, you need this kind of perspective.” Ehnes seems to have had no problem attaining this vantage point. He rises to all the challenges and there are passages that shine like jewels. It’s easy to see why this performance was short-listed for a Juno. 

Gardner also leads the orchestra in a magnificent performance of Nielsen’s Symphony No.4 “The Inextinguishable” recreating the same pairing of works that Nielsen conducted in a program in London in 1923, 100 years before this recording was made. 

Another one that slipped through the cracks last year is a fabulous new recording of Ravel – Daphnis et Chloé complete ballet (Chandos CHSA 5327 chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN 5327) featuring the Sinfonia of London Chorus and Sinfonia of London. Director John Wilson used the COVID-19 lockdown period to prepare a new performing edition of the ballet that we are more familiar with from the two suites that the composer extracted from the near-hourlong original. It was conceived in 1909, the year Serge Diaghilev brought his Ballet Russe to Paris, as a collaboration between Ravel, Diaghilev and dancer/choreographer Michel Folkine. Although there were myriad complications and disagreements along the way, the project was eventually brought to fruition culminating in, much to Ravel’s chagrin, only two performances at the end of the 1912 season. Although Diaghilev did mount three more performances at the end of the following year, he never thereafter presented it in Paris. This new recording is accompanied by extensive notes by Wilson detailing the history of the ballet’s creation and his own challenges in recreating what he feels is an authentic version of the historic ballet. There is also a detailed libretto/mis en scene by Folkine, making a very impressive booklet in three languages totaling 42 pages. The performance is stunning and the recording itself is immaculate, with a dynamic range that has to be heard to be believed. 

One more disc lost in the shuffle before we move on. New Stories features saxophonist Joseph Lulloff and pianist Yu-Lien The performing works by colleagues from Michigan State University, Canadian Dorothy Chang and Americans David Biedenbender, Stacy Garrop and Carter Pann (Blue Griffin Records BGR607 bluegriffin.com). Chang’s lyrical title work is the earliest on the disc, dating from 2013. The composer says the commission “was the perfect opportunity to explore the combination of Eastern and Western influences in my music, a composition puzzle I was grappling with at the time.” Biedenbender’s one-movement Detroit Steel is an unaccompanied work intended to honour “the grit, strength and resolve of the people of the city.” Garrop’s Wrath is a follow up to her earlier Tantrum for alto sax and piano, and its three movement titles – Menace, Shock and Amok – aptly describe the moods of the piece. At 25 minutes, Pann’s Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano is the most extended and developed work on the disc, comprising six tracks of varied aspect from the opening This Black Cat to the closing Lacrimosa in memory of Joel Hastings. Throughout the disc Lulloff and The rise to every challenge and nuance pitched by the four composers, from languid and emotive melodies to brash, abrasive and sometimes jocular outbursts. 

And on to more recent arrivals… Another saxophone disc CONVERGENCE – Music for Saxophone and Mixed Media (Navona Records nv6608 navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6608) features Heidi Radtke in works for soprano, alto and tenor saxes in a variety of settings. The eight compositions – each by a different contemporary composer – span a plethora of moods and emotions, from raucous and playful, to morose and meditative. The disc opens with a lush reimagining by Jenni Watson of Debussy’s first Arabesque in which the sax is surrounded by a gorgeous wash of pre-recorded sounds, primarily those of violin and piano. Two particularly moving works are Andy Scott’s Wind Telephone, inspired by the 2011 tsunami in Otsuki, Japan and Rahsaan Barber’s Breonna Taylor (How Many More?), a gentle lament for a Black woman killed by police in Louisville, KY in 2020. It uses field recordings from Iroquois Park close to Taylor’s home in which calls of red-winged blackbirds are prominent. British-born Canadian composer Peter Meecham’s contemplative 3 Pieces for Solo Saxophone depict “A lonely man, on the New York subway, playing his saxophone, not for money, but for himself.” The title work is a 2011 collaboration between Radtke and Sang Mi Ahn in which the solo saxophone interacts with an electronic soundtrack generated from sounds made by Radtke’s sax. I might have expected an hour’s worth of solo” saxophone to be a bit “much of a muchness,” but to the contrary, Radtke’s compelling playing, the varying compositional palettes and diverse accompaniments made for an engaging listening experience throughout.  

The Emily Carr String Quartet (emilycarrstringquartet.com) released its second album in January. Portraits, a digital release on Leaf Music “is inspired by the work of Emily Carr. […] It is through music, one of the most abstract of art forms, that we can connect ourselves to her. The rhythm of a piece can be likened to the movement of brush strokes. The musical notes can be described as the pigments of colour chosen to convey the deep, dark and wild nuances of B.C.’s coastal rainforest. Musical phrases can begin to suggest Emily’s connection with the land and the First Nations she was friends with.” Four Canadians – Tobin Stokes, Jocelyn Morlock, Jared Miller and Iman Habibi – have written works that reflect their feelings about or inspired by the iconic artist. Stokes’ Feathers is a nine-movement work with each brief sketch, with such titles as Nesting, Nightingale and Hummingbirds, prefaced by a short quotation from the writings of Carr. Morlock’s Big Raven evocatively reflects Carr’s desire to “bring loneliness to this canvas and haunting broodiness, quiet and powerful.” Miller was inspired by another of Carr canvas, Strangled by Growth, which juxtaposes a human construction (totem pole) with the natural world (forest). Habibi’s Beloved of the Sky pays homage to the painting of the same name in the second movement, with impressions of Carr’s depictions of Forest, her pet monkey Woo and an introspective Self Portrait completing the work. The disc concludes with Stoke’s suite Klee Wyck, interpretations of five stories from the book of the same name. Each of the composers bring their own frame of reference and personal language to the project and the ensemble successfully bridges the divides effectively and convincingly, make for a truly enjoyable disc. 

Listen to 'Portraits' Now in the Listening Room

The Fine Arts Quartet was founded in Chicago in 1946 so of course there have been personnel changes over the decades. The current violinists, Ralph Evans and Efim Boico, have been members since 1982 and 1983 respectively, with violist Gil Sharon and cellist Niklas Schmidt joining in 2018. The ensemble is still going strong and has just released the tenth and final volume of the complete string quartets (plus other related works) of Antonin Dvořák, Dvořák – String Quartet No.2; Bagatelles; Rondo (Naxos 8.574513 naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.574513). String Quartet No.2 in B-flat Major was one of three quartets written in 1869 during a period when Dvořák was markedly influenced by Wagner. He later destroyed the scores and the quartets were thought to have been lost until sets of parts were discovered after his death. According to the website antonin-dvorak.cz/en, although there had been a private performance in Prague back in 1932, the first public performance of Quartet No.2 was not until September 2021 in that same city by the Zemlinsky Quartet. This recording of the 50-minute work took place just over a year later in Marienmunster, Germany. It is hard to tell why it languished so long without acceptance, or for that matter why it was rejected by the composer. It’s a lovely and fully developed work, if, according to Paul Griffiths, a bit “prolix.” [I had to look that up.] The disc is completed by the humourous Bagatelles of 1878 for two violins, cello and harmonium (Ryoko Morooka) and the rollicking Rondo in G Minor from 1891 for cello and piano (Stepan Simonian). With Dvořák in its rear-view mirror and a discography of some 200 other works spanning the history of the string quartet genre, I look forward to seeing what the future holds for this fine (arts) quartet. 

The Neave Trio is back again – five reviews in these pages since 2017 – and their latest, A Room of Her Own (Chandos CHAN 20238 chandos.net), features four turn-of-the-20th century composers Lili Boulanger, Cécille Chaminade, Dame Ethyl Smyth and Germaine Tailleferre. It’s a bit of misnomer to designate Tailleferre as turn-of-the-century however as she lived and remained active as a composer until 1983. As a matter of fact, although her Trio originated in 1917, she reworked the version included here in 1978, replacing the middle movement and adding a fourth. These new, ebullient movements add a sunny quality to the work while still maintaining the characteristic voice she had established some six decades earlier. Boulanger completed her Deux piéces en trio in 1918, the year of her untimely death at the age of 24. The first of these is a cheerful, brief depiction of a spring morning. The second is a sombre, more extended exploration of a sad evening. The other two trios date from almost 40 years earlier, both composed in 1880. Chaminade’s Trio No.1, Op.11 in G Minor is a fetching work in four movements, with a particularly charming Presto leggiero featuring waterfall-like textures in the piano. British composer Smyth is the only non-French national included here and her formative studies took place in Leipzig, grounding her firmly in the Austro-German romantic tradition. She was born one year later than Chaminade, in 1858, and both died in 1944. Her Trio, at 31 minutes the longest offering here, like her coeval’s is also in a minor key, in this case G Minor. In spite of this there are many bright moments, especially in the scherzando section of the second movement and throughout the Scherzo. Presto con brio third. The Neave Trio in, as always, in top form and is to be commended for bringing these rarely heard gems to light is such stellar performances.   

Poet and author Robert Priest has been active on the Toronto scene as long as I can remember, going back to the early 80s when we were both denizens of Ye Olde Brunswick House open mic nights. I’ve often thought of him over the years, fondly remembering a line (with a tip of the hat to Allen Ginsberg) “I saw the best minds of my generation falling off streetcars” or something to that effect. [Priest tells me the phrase may have actually been “the best mimes of my generation.”] He’s obviously been active in the years since, with half a dozen albums, myriad poetry collections and novels to his credit, as well as co-writing Alannah Myles’ hit Song Instead of a Kiss. I was disappointed to miss his recent album launch at Hugh’s Room – I was asleep at the wheel I guess – but am glad to have received a copy of People Like You and Me (vesuviusmusic.com/robert-priest). It’s a combination of spoken word and song, all accompanied by some fine players from Toronto’s jazz community including Kevin Breit, Alison Young, Great Bob Scott and George Koller, who also share writing credits with Priest. The music is diverse, running a gamut of styles. Most surprising to me is the jazzy torch song You and I and Faraway co-written with Allen Booth and featuring Young’s honey-dripping sax, in which Priest turns in a convincing Brian Ferry-esque performance. Some of the clever turns of phrase I particularly enjoyed were “In my country we don’t have free speech, but the speech we do have is really, really cheap” and “I’m so prophetic I get pre-traumatic stress disorder!” from [I strive for] Outer Peace and “Love is a many gendered thing” from a tune of the same name. I wish I hadn’t missed the show! 

Listen to 'People Like You and Me' Now in the Listening Room

Concert note: I do intend to be at Priest’s next performance at the Great Sunday Night Folk Off at the Tranzac on April 21 (5pm start). 

We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4 or to discoveries@thewholenote.com. 

The three French sonatas that form the bulk of Le Temps retrouvé, the new CD from the brilliant husband-and-wife duo of violinist Elena Urioste and pianist Tom Poster, were all published during the decade 1916-26, a period of great change in the musical landscape (Chandos CHAN 20275 chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2020275).

Despite initial parental opposition and a life of domestic upheaval Mélanie, Bonis (1858-1937) composed a huge amount of music, most of which still lies unexplored. Her Violin Sonata in F-sharp Minor Op.112 is a fascinating and profoundly musical work.

Fauré’s Violin Sonata No.2 in E Minor Op.108 from 1916-17 is from his late, forward-looking period, but those typical sweeping piano arpeggios and flowing melodies still abound.

Apart from the remarkable Veloce middle movement (literally a short ride in a fast car) Reynaldo Hahn’s lyrical and warm Violin Sonata in C Major from 1926 looks back nostalgically to a gentler time.

Lili Boulanger’s popular Nocturne, published in 1914, provides a suitably dreamy ending to a superb disc.

On A Lionel Tertis Celebration the violist Timothy Ridout, winner of the 2016 Lionel Tertis Competition, pays tribute to the legendary English viola player with an outstanding 2CD recital featuring compositions and arrangements by Tertis himself as well as works by his friends and students. Frank Dupree is the pianist on CD1, and James Baillieu on CD2 (harmonia mundi HMM9053767.77 harmoniamundi.com/en/albums/a-lionel-tertis-celebration)

Stirring performances of two major works by Tertis students bookend the recital, York Bowen’s Viola Sonata No.1 in C Minor Op.18 opening CD1 and Rebecca Clarke’s Viola Sonata closing CD2. Sunset and Hier au Soir are Tertis originals, and there are arrangements by him of short pieces by Brahms, Schumann, Fauré and Mendelssohn, as well as by John Ireland and William Wolstenholme.

Other composers represented are Frank Bridge, Eric Coates, Cecil Forsyth, Vaughan Williams, Bowen and Wolstenholme again, and W. H. “Billy” Reed of Elgar violin concerto fame, whose lovely Rhapsody opens CD2. Two Kreisler works close CD1: Ridout’s own arrangement of Liebeslied; and a stunning performance of Alan Arnold’s arrangement of the Praeludium and Allegro.

That same tumultuous period is central to Upheaval, with cellist Janne Fredens and pianist Søren Rastogi presenting compositions by four female composers active around the First World War years (OUR Recordings 6.220683 ourrecordings.com).

The Dutch pianist and composer Henriëtte Bosmans (1895-1952), whose career was disrupted by the Nazi occupation in the1940s and never recovered, is represented by her 1919 Cello Sonata in A Minor. The reputation of the prolific Croatian composer Dora Pejačević (1885-1923) continues to grow following the recent revival of her terrific Symphony in F-sharp Minor. Her 1913 Cello Sonata in E Minor Op.35 is a striking and substantial late-Romantic work, showing the clear influence of Brahms and Dvořák.

Two pieces by the Boulanger sisters, Lili’s Nocturne again and Nadia’s Trois pièces from 1911 complete an excellent disc full of sensitive and finely judged playing.

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William T. Horton’s fantastic image The Path to the Moon was the inspiration for the new album from cellist Laura van der Heijden and pianist Jâms Coleman, their CD Path to the Moon including music relating to the moon and the night, as well as works evoking mankind’s striving for new heights (Chandos CHAN 20274 chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2020274).

It’s an eclectic program anchored by three 20th-century sonatas: the 1957 Cello Sonata by the American George Walker; Britten’s Sonata Op.65 and Debussy’s 1915 Cello Sonata. 

Fittingly, given the singing nature of van der Heijden’s playing, virtually all of the transcriptions are of vocal music: Korngold’s Schönste Nacht; Lili Boulanger’s Reflets; Florence Price’s Night; Britten’s Sonetto XXX; Debussy’s Beau soir; Fauré’s Clair de lune; Takemitsu’s Will Tomorrow, I Wonder, Be Cloudy or Clear?; and Nina Simone’s take on Jonathan King’s Everyone’s Gone to the Moon. Debussy’s Clair de lune ends a lovely disc.

The South Korean double-bassist Mikyung Sung is the remarkable soloist on The Colburn Sessions, a brilliant two-disc set where she is ably supported by pianist Jaemin Shin, the two having worked together in the Artist Diploma course at the Colburn School in Los Angeles in 2017 (Modus Vivendi Media MVM 2301 mikyungbass.bandcamp.com/album/the-colburn-sessions).

Bottesini’s Tarantella is a dazzling opening track, Sung displaying stunning facility and clarity. The same composer’s Capriccio di Bravura and the more lyrical Elegy No.1 are followed by a transcription of the Meditation from Massenet’s Thaïs. Hindemith’s Sonata for Double Bass and Piano and the impressive 1967 Sonata for Double Bass and Piano by Hungarian composer Vilmos Montag (1908-91) end disc 1.

The second CD is even more impressive, with the Andante from Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata Op.19 sandwiched between two outstanding sonatas: Mendelssohn’s Cello Sonata No.2 Op.58 with an astonishing final movement that takes your breath away, and Franck’s Violin Sonata in A Major in the composer-endorsed transcription for cello by Jules Delsart, Sung playing direct from the cello part – which she presumably also does with the Mendelssohn. 

Superb playing from both performers is beautifully captured in single continuous takes live to stereo. Complete performances of the Hindemith, Mendelssohn and Franck sonatas can be viewed on Sung’s website, mikyungbass.com. 

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Wanchi Huang is the violinist on Imagining Worlds – Music for Solo Violin, a CD that features new music by composers described as compelling voices in contemporary American music (Navona Records NV6592 navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6592).

The recital comprises Adolphus Hailstork’s rather bland Suite for Solo Violin, Judith Shatin’s somewhat oppressive For the Fallen – for Amplified Violin and Electronics, Meira Warshauer’s Jewish-influenced In Memoriam and Brach (Blessing), and Jeffrey Mumford’s an expanding distance of multiple voices, the five movements totaling only 11 minutes. John Corigliano’s Red Violin Caprices completes the disc.

There’s interesting writing on display here, but only the Corigliano really leaps out and separates itself from the crowd; it certainly brings by far the best playing from Huang.

The music of a Brazilian composer who lived from 1943 to 2010 is explored on José Antônio de Almeida Prado Works for Violin and Cello, a new addition to The Music of Brazil series featuring violinist Emmanuele Baldini and cellist Rafael Cesario (Naxos 8.574459 naxos.com/Search/KeywordSearchResults/?q=Almeida%20Prado%20-%20Works%20for%20Violin%20and%20Cello).

Only two works – Le livre magique de Xangô from 1985 and Das Cirandas from 1999 – are duets. The 2004 Praeambulum for solo cello was commissioned as an intro to Bach’s Cello Suite No.3 in C Major BWV1009, while The Four Seasons for solo violin was written for a young performers’ national competition in 1984, each brief movement a study in various violin techniques.

The lyrical and extremely brief – under two minutes – Capriccio für Constança und Ana Luiza from 1998 and the Solo Violin Sonata from 2000, dedicated to his daughter, one of Brazil’s leading violinists and the most substantial work on the CD, end a recital of solid performances but with few real musical high points.

The Trio con Brio Copenhagen, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year performs piano trios by Mieczyslaw Weinberg and Franz Schubert on The Passenger, a CD that surveys two young composers whose compositions offer poignant reflections on life, mortality and ethereal beauty (Orchid Classics ORC100282 orchidclassics.com).

Weinberg was a Polish Jew who fled Warsaw when the Nazis invaded. His Piano Trio Op.24 was written in Moscow in 1945 when he was 25; characterized by unrest and despair, it occupies much the same sound world as that of his friend Shostakovich. The finale features a waltz that foreshadows his opera The Passenger, where a waltz links the evil of a concentration camp to an uncertain future.

Written in 1827, just a year before his early death, Schubert’s Piano Trio No.2 in E-flat Major Op.100 grew from Schubert’s encounter with the Swedish song Se solen sjunker, which describes the sinking sun and all hope being chased away by night’s shadows. The funeral march of the second movement, based on the song, is the emotional centre of the work.

The Weinberg work is also heard on Piano Trios of Weinberg, Auerbach & Dvořák, a top-notch debut CD by Trio Zimbalist intended as “a heartfelt response to the enduring human struggle unfolding around the world” (Curtis Studio curtis.edu/curtis-studio).

The album is cast in the spirit of the Dumka, a Ukrainian term meaning “thought.” In music, Dumky were sung by traveling minstrels, and often expressed the laments of oppressed people. It was this form that Dvořák used as the basis for his Piano Trio No.4 in E Minor Op.90, “Dumky”, an extensive six-movement work that closes the disc. 

We have already noted the circumstances surrounding the composition of the Weinberg trio. Lera Auerbach’s quite brief but striking three-movement Piano Trio No.1 Op.28 with its impassioned middle Andante lamentoso movement and eerie and aggressive finale, was written following her defection from the Soviet Union in 1991. The Dvořák also fits in here: it is often overlooked that performances of his works were suppressed in the Czechoslovak Republic for a while after 1945.

There are two Stravinsky Violin Concerto CDs this month, one featuring James Ehnes with the BBC Philharmonic under Sir Andrew Davis (Chandos CHSA5340 chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHSA%205340) and the other with Frank Peter Zimmermann and the Bamberger Symphoniker under Jakub Hrůša (BIS-2657 prestomusic.com/classical/products/95571 – Igor-stravinsky-bartok-martin).

Written for – and premiered by – Samuel Dushkin in 1932, the concerto is a four-movement work in Stravinsky’s neo-classical style. Ehnes is his usual flawless self in a supremely confident performance, as smooth as ever and with a clear, pure tone, especially in the two middle Arias. The rest of the Chandos Stravinsky disc is orchestral music in really fine performances: the Scherzo à la Russe, a showpiece written for the Paul Whiteman band on the composer’s arrival in California in the early 1940s; the Suites Nos.1 & 2, arranged from piano duets from the 1910s; and Apollo Musagète, a ballet in two parts for strings from 1927-28 that marked a complete rejection of his previous ballets and a move to pure form.

The Zimmermann disc, on the other hand, is all violin and orchestra, linking composers who put down roots in the West without abandoning their Eastern European identities. Zimmermann’s Stravinsky concerto is another outstanding performance, albeit a fair bit faster than Ehnes: the Zimmermann timings for the four movements, which only range from four to six minutes in length, are a significant 20 to 30 seconds shorter than those of Ehnes. There’s no real sense of a faster or spikier approach here though, with Ehnes and Davis possibly just more relaxed in tempo. Dushkin also premiered Bartók’s Rhapsodies Nos.1 & 2, given outstanding performances here, as well as the 1943 New York version with piano of Martinů’s Suite concertante, which has two versions. The second, heard here, was started in 1938 in Paris before Martinů left Europe, and completed in New York and orchestrated in 1945. While still in Paris Martinů apparently wrote three movements for another version of the suite, one of which – Méditation – completes a terrific CD.

Eugène Ysaÿe: Rêves features world-premiere recordings of two newly discovered concertos by the Belgian virtuoso and composer in performances by Philippe Graffin and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Jean-Jacques Kantorow (Avie Records AV2650 avie-records.com).

Following the recent discovery of a first movement of an early Violin Concerto in E Minor a fully orchestrated second movement and a third movement in violin and piano score both came to light, the latter being orchestrated by Ysaÿe expert Xavier Falques to complete the concerto. Composed in 1884-85 it was apparently intended to establish a new approach to instrumental technique, which Ysaÿe felt had stagnated since the works of Vieuxtemps.

It’s not clear why he abandoned the concerto, but in 1893 Ysaÿe wrote his Poème concertant, a single-movement work imbued with love for his student Irma Sèthe. Recently discovered in manuscript form, it was orchestrated by Erika Vega with advice from Falques.

Pianist Marisa Gupta joins Graffin for the 2 Mazurkas de salon Op.10 and the Rêve d’enfant Op.14 that close a fascinating CD.

There’s a glorious CD of Vaughan Williams music that would normally be well outside the limits of this column, but Vaughan Williams: Retrospect with the London Choral Sinfonia under Michael Waldron contains not only some simply beautiful works for voices and string orchestra but also a lovely performance of the Violin Concerto in D Minor – Concerto Accademico with the always reliable Jack Liebeck as soloist (Orchid Classics ORC100289 orchidclassics.com).

It’s not a substantial work – only about 16 minutes long – but the glorious middle movement, which takes up almost half of the work, is Vaughan Williams at his pastoral best and Liebeck is in his element. As an added bonus, cellist Thomas Carroll is the lovely soloist in the world-premiere recording of the composer’s arrangement of Bach’s Schmücke dich,o liebe Seele. 

On ALAS cellist Patrick Langot and violinist Alexis Cardenas and the Orchestra de Lutetia under Alejandro Sandler pay tribute to the Argentinian music so dear to their hearts by presenting world-premiere recordings of works by three contemporary Argentinian composers (Évidence Classics EVCD108 orchestredelutetia.com/alas). 

The title track, the 2021 Alas – fantaisie for violin, cello and string orchestra by Gerardo di Giusto (b.1961) is a strong, strident work with malambo and baguala rhythms, while the atmospheric 2020 Descaminos for solo cello, string orchestra and percussion by Gabriel Sivak (b.1979) was inspired by the vast Pampas region. Both works were commissioned by the orchestra.

The fascinating 1986 Llorando silencios, six Quechua songs for solo cello by Alejandro Iglesias Rossi (b.1960) evokes ancestral sonorities, the cello sounding in turn like the traditional instruments the quena, charango and erke.

The remainder of the CD is given over to the 1953 Variaciones concertantes Op.23 by Alberto Ginastera, the cello and harp being joined by various orchestral soloists to develop the thematic material, with an explosive malambo finale.

In a 1953 essay the Domenico Scarlatti biographer Ralph Kirkpatrick (who implemented the K. numbering system) noted the clear influence of the Spanish guitar on Scarlatti’s music, and the extent to which it permeated his keyboard works is beautifully illustrated on the digital-only release Scarlatti 12 Sonatas by the two guitarists Matteo Mela and Lorenzo Micheli (Evidence EVCD107 soloduo.it).

As Micheli’s booklet notes point out, Scarlatti’s language often echoes guitar playing, the Hispanic character stemming from timbres, techniques and stylistic traits derived from the guitar, and the light, volatile style of writing in the sonatas, most often for two voices is perfectly suited to the nature of the guitar. The 12 sonatas here are those numbered K.8, K.24, K.32, K.87, K.99, K.162, K.202, K.386, K.455, K.466, K.519 and K.531.

Superb transcriptions (uncredited, but by the performers, presumably) and simply outstanding playing, beautifully recorded, result in a truly captivating release.

Claudio Monteverdi – Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria
Soloists; I Gemelli; Emiliano Gonzalez Toro; Mathilde Etienne
Gemelli Factory audiobook (gemelli-factory.com/nos_releases/il-ritorno-dulisse-in-patria)

There are as many ways to perform Claudio Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria as there are performances. The earliest known score contains just the vocal parts, the text and the bass line. Even the instrumental passages indicate nothing about what instruments are to play. So vital decisions about basic elements like orchestration and harmonization must be made.

Terrific recordings have appeared in recent years – those under Gardiner, Cavina and Fuget come happily to mind (not to overlook Harnoncourt’s landmark recording from 1972). But none for me has matched René Jacobs’ 1992 recording for momentum and spirit – that is, until this production from I Gemelli, led by musical director Emiliano Gonzalez Toro and artistic director Mathilde Etienne (with both performing as singers). 

A fine-tuned sense of early Baroque style and an adventurous sense of theatre have shaped this recording. The cast here is large – it includes nine tenors! That means remarkably few doublings, so characters are easily distinguishable. And every performer, whether singer or instrumentalist, projects the kind of commitment that gives their time in the spotlight, no matter how brief or extensive, dramatic impact. 

It’s unlikely Monteverdi’s instrumental ensemble for the first performance in 1640 would have been as large, or as varied. Historically authentic instruments like the gorgeous triple harp of Marie-Domitille Murez and the delightful trio of mellifluous cornetts add colour. But they never swamp the singers, since they are featured in smaller groups. Instead, they provide vivid counterparts to the resonant phrases of Giacomo Badoaro’s libretto, a skillful adaption of the final verses of Homer’s Odyssey.

Monteverdi gives the gods the most florid passages. Emőke Breath as Minerva ravishes with her lucid elegance. Philippe Jarroussky is an eloquent Fragilitá Umana (Human Fragility), Juan Sancho an impassioned Mercurio. Jérôme Varnier’s petulant, vindictive Nettuno captivates with his rich, agile basso profundo.  

Among the mortals, Gonzalez Toro’s Ulisse is deftly theatrical as he disguises himself as an old beggar, and affectingly tender as he pleads with Penelope to recognize him. Rihaieb Chaib brings highly charged urgency and a complex range of emotional states to the role of the faithful Penelope. The exciting Canadian mezzo-soprano has not been known for Baroque opera. But that is bound to change with her powerful performance here. Right from the opening phrases of her heart-rending lament, she commands our empathy. When she does recognize Ulisse – and they finally sing together – it’s all the more expressive for the contrast in their voices. The word “yes” has never sounded more sensual than in their magnificent duet, “Yes, my life, yes, my heart, yes!” 

       I love how Alix Le Saux as Ulisse’s old nurse Ericleia colours the word “languise” (languishes). Fulvio Bettini’s virtuosic Iro delights as he moves from comedy to tragedy. Zachary Wilder creates a poignant Telemaco, while Etienne brings playful charm to Melanto. Her extensive background essays are bound with the libretto – more than 200 pages in all – with three CDs in an attractive hardbound case. It’s certainly indicative of the loving care that has gone into this superb recording.

Penitence & Lamentation (Gombert; Byrd; Tallis; Crecquillon; Ramsey; Muhly; Carver)
Byrd Ensemble; Markdavin Obenza
Scribe Records SRCD12 (byrdensemble.com/recordings)

Ten Renaissance pieces set to religious texts expressing, say the booklet notes, “guilt and grief” are movingly performed by the Seattle-based Byrd Ensemble under artistic director Markdavin Obenza. Four selections are by the a cappella group’s inspiration, William Byrd. Particularly affecting are Emendemus in Melius and Byrd’s elegy for his late friend, Thomas Tallis, Ye sacred muses. Tallis himself is represented by two pieces – Absterge Domine and In jejunio et fletu, the latter darkly solemn, sung by only one alto, two tenors and two basses.

Nicolas Gombert’s intense Lugebat David Absalon dramatically sets David’s howling lament over his rebellious son, while Robert Ramsey’s How are the mighty fallen effectively expresses David’s anguish over his beloved Jonathan. Thomas Crecquillon’s earnest Pater peccavi presents the Prodigal Son’s rueful plea to his father. Although only five to ten singers perform the forementioned works, the reverberant acoustic creates the illusion of much larger forces.

American composer Nico Muhly’s Fallings, especially commissioned for this CD, involves 12 singers. Set to verses from Isaiah describing the destruction of Solomon’s temple, the music is often tumultuous and discordant, yet not out of place among the Renaissance works. Ending the CD, 19 singers – 14 of them tenors and basses – join in the longest selection, Robert Carver’s grandiloquent, 12-minute O bone Jesu. The male-heavy sonorities add depth and richness to this cry for mercy – “O good Jesus, let not my sin destroy me.” Texts and translations are included.

Wagner – Dei Meistersinger von Nurnberg
Soloists; Orchestra and Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin; John Flore
Naxos DVD 2.110766-67 (naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=2.110766-67)

Deutsche Oper has always been famous for thought-provoking, even iconoclastic, productions so this latest incarnation of Wagner’s lengthy masterpiece comes to us certainly as very different from anything I’ve ever seen before. The scene is a Conservatory with the Masters as professors, the Apprentices as students, all in a modern setting. The school is owned by the wealthy Veit Pogner (Albert Posendorfer, bass) who intends to turn it over to the public by organizing a singing contest but stipulating that the winner must be a Master and should marry his only daughter Eva (Heidi Stober, soprano). The contest is held on Midsummer Day and there are numerous complications, but we all know the story. In this provocative staging the music and the text remain unchanged; there is constant action, and the show is entertaining throughout. But the question remains for someone who has never seen/heard this opera before should I recommend this production rather than an opulent, glorious traditional one such as I grew up with?

The directorial team has decided to “remove the deadweight of previous productions to get closer to the opera itself” which is all about music, the composition and delivery of music. This translates itself into composing a master song and it all comes together beautifully in the wonderful third act. The master song is composed by Walther von Stolzing, the tenor lead (beautifully sung by the latest German heldentenor sensation, Klaus Florian Vogt, who aspires to be a Master and is in love with Eva. The elderly Hans Sachs (Johan Reuter, baritone), a Master and the real hero of the opera, is also in love with Eva but having to give her up, realizes Walther’s song is, although different, truly beautiful. He magnanimously offers advice to improve the song according to the established rules. The master song is then baptized (on St. John’s day) by the glorious quintet Selig wie die Sonne, with all five principals, and later Walther wins the contest and Eva’s hand. A happy ending, indeed.

Deutsche Oper’s giant orchestra pit much resembles the one at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus and the large orchestra is led by John Fiore, an internationally famous American conductor from Seattle. He is much praised by the world’s opera houses as a respected leader with unusual musical sensitivity. The show was enthusiastically received. What more can we ask ?

Fire-Flowers
Luminous Voices; Timothy Shantz
Leaf Music LM275b (leaf-music.ca)

The Calgary-based choir Luminous Voices, directed by Timothy Shantz, is a diverse and prolific ensemble, performing and recording a range of repertoire with consistently excellent results. In 2023 they released Ispiciwin, with music by Indigenous composers Andrew Balfour, Sherryl Sewepagaham and Walter MacDonald White Bear, which is followed now by Fire-Flowers, featuring Johannes Brahms’ stunning Requiem.

Originally written for chorus and orchestra, this performance uses Brahms’ own alternative version of the full seven-movement work, performed with piano duet accompaniment, which gives this rich and robust composition an introverted and subdued atmosphere. It also makes the choir’s task much more challenging, as the warm (and rather more forgiving) tones of strings and woodwinds are replaced by the percussive keys and hammers of the piano. Any indiscretion in pitch or rhythm would be immediately apparent, and the lack of asynchronicity is a testament to Luminous Voices’ collective talent.

In addition to these general hazards, there are a few notably challenging moments in Brahms’ Requiem that serve as a barometer of an ensemble’s skill, including the “Herr, du bist würdig” fugue at the end of movement VI. Rather than being in peril, the choir gives a masterclass in phrasing and fugal execution, turning potential danger into five minutes of sonic bliss.

While Brahms is the centrepiece of this recording, it is bookended by two works by Zachary Wadsworth, including his dramatic Battle-Flags with text by Walt Whitman, and Fire-Flowers, based on an excerpt from Emily Pauline Johnson’s Flint and Feather. Both pieces are extraordinarily compelling reflections on life, loss and hope, and this recording is highly recommended as what will undoubtedly be one of the best choral discs of this year.

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In the Crystalline Vault of Heaven
Luminos Ensemble; Dr. Margot Rejskind
Leaf Music LM290 (luminosensemble.com)

Writing about second-wave feminism in 1970, Carol Hanisch either created or popularized the phrase “the personal is political.” Since that time, the aphorism has expanded in both meaning and application to point out the shared synergies and interactions that exist between political and personal issues. In many ways, the arts, such as music, have become a lightning rod for these kinds of conversations. Music makers in 2024, whether they like it or not, are making choices often read as political simply by the repertoire they choose, venues at which they perform and the ensemble company they keep.

The Luminos Ensemble, a terrific Charlottetown-based choir of 16 East Coast voices that was formed in 2017 by artistic Director Dr. Margot Rejskind, seems acutely aware of this fact. In fact, articulated on their website is a mission statement and an expansion of values that suggests that a kind of Canadian East Coast social justice (albeit one that is married to beautiful choral voices) is their very raison d’être. Living the stated value that PEI voices “deserve to be promoted and supported,” the ensemble has released a fine new recording, In the Crystalline Vault of Heaven that features several tremendous Atlantic Canadian compositional talents deserving of wider recognition. While the title track by Nova Scotia composer Derek Charke is moving indeed, the work of Prince Edward Island composers David Buley and EKR Hammell, who contribute meaningfully to this recommended recording, was particularly captivating. 

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Arvo Pärt – Odes of Repentance
Cappella Romana; Alexander Lingas
Cappella Records CR428 (cappellarecords.com)

Esteemed senior Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s current idiomatic musical style is rooted in Gregorian chant and later European polyphonic liturgical music, yet his early career compositional language embraced 20th century serialism and then minimalism. In addition, his use of Christian liturgical texts triggered censure from Soviet cultural authorities in the 1960s, leading to a personal reckoning. After years of personal renunciation, Pärt emerged in the 1970s with a new compositional style he dubbed “tintinnabula.” 

In an unexpected twist of history, his often austere, meditative, faith-based music has found a wide audience in the decades since. He’s frequently ranked among the world’s most performed composers, particularly of choral music. And that’s what we hear on the Odes of Repentance album: a prayerful suite of choral works over 12 tracks. The selections were compiled by Alexander Lingas the music director of Portland Oregon’s Cappella Romana, a professional mixed choir known for its rigorous historically-informed performances of Orthodox church music. For example, Cappella Romana hired an Old Church Slavonic coach to aid in pronouncing that language for these performances.

Cappella Romana is an ideal match for Pärt’s sacred music. For example, The Woman with the Alabaster Box is a Gospel reading; there are also Orthodox hymns, heartfelt prayers and psalmody, all capped by Prayer after the Kanon. The album feels like a timeless liturgical service, the elegant leanness of its musical language kept in aesthetic tension and given additional meaning by the ritual lyrics and frequent short pauses for silent reflection.

Dall’Abaco and the Art of Variation
Elinor Frey; Accademia De’Dissonanti
Passacaille 1141 (passacaille.be)

While the term “supergroup” is usually applied to bands like The Traveling Wilburys and Temple of the Dog, the term also suits the Accademia de’ Dissonanti, composed of members who are each gifted performers in their own right and come together to make consistently stunning recordings.

This disc features music by Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco (1710-1805), and is the premiere recording of his two cello trios and three cello sonatas. If the name is unfamiliar, that is because Dall’Abaco’s compositions are relatively new to modern audiences: The musical output of this cellist-composer has only emerged in recent decades, and its craftsmanship and charm have won over both performers and listeners alike. 

Born in Brussels, Dall’Abaco spent the majority of his childhood at the Bavarian court in Munich, where his father, composer Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco, was employed as Kapellmeister. Throughout the 1730s and 1740s, the cellist’s reputation grew as he began to travel and perform in important European cities such as London, York, Paris and Vienna, eventually becoming renowned as Europe’s most gifted cellist.

Featuring the equally gifted (and very much alive) cellists Octavie Dostaler-Lalonde, Elinor Frey and Eva Lymenstull, as well as harpsichordist Federica Bianchi and theorbist Michele Pasotti, each work on this recording is a delight to listen to. The cello trios are rich and complex, with intertwining melodic lines and timbral blends that create fascinating polyphonic effects. The cello sonatas, with variations composed by Elinor Frey, are grin-inducing in their joviality, but never superficial.

This recording is a revelatory introduction to one of history’s “newest” composers, and a welcome return to the masterful musicians that make up early music’s own supergroup, the Accademia de’ Dissonanti.

Fantasia
Igor Levit
Sony 19658811642 (igor-levit.com)

Notated improvisatory style has been a facet of western music as far back as the Renaissance and this two-disc Sony recording simply titled Fantasia featuring pianist Igor Levit in an attractive exploration of piano repertoire following this principle spanning a 300-year period. The Russian-born soloist began his musical studies at the Salzburg Mozarteum and in 2005, was the winner of the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv.

An arrangement of the Air from Bach’s Orchestral Suite No.3 may seem an unusual opening for a recording of music focusing on extemporization, but Levit’s interpretation is refined and understated. In contrast is the renowned Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue BWV903, very much a bravura piece of formidable invention. Levit delivers a compelling and well-balanced performance, his phrasing always clearly articulated. Even more challenging is the Piano Sonata in B Minor by Liszt, a composition of herculean difficulties. Levit is seemingly unfazed by the technical challenges and easily fashions the ever-contrasting moods into a cohesive whole.

Disc two opens with Berg’s angular and at times unsetting Piano Sonata Op.1, a fine example of his early style. Nevertheless, the magnum opus of the disc and the set itself is Busoni’s 34-minute Fantasia Contrappuntistica. The piece is truly substantial in scope and borrows from several musical styles involving a subdued and introspective opening, a complex Bach-like fugue followed by a dramatic section with dissonant chordal progressions leading to an unexpectedly quiet conclusion. Kudos to Levit for tackling this oddity and making the most of it. 

The inclusion of shorter pieces such as Liszt’s Der Doppelganger and Busoni’s Nuit de Noel further contribute to a well-balanced program.

Beethoven – Hammerklavier Sonata; Stockhausen – Klavierstück X
Marc Ponthus
Bridge Records 9584 (bridgerecords.com)

The French pianist Marc Ponthus is a fascinating individual, devoting much of his career to the performance of the 20th century’s most demanding avant-garde music. Known for presenting monographic recitals in which only compositions by Stockhausen, Boulez or Xenakis are performed, Ponthus has carved a unique niche for himself in a pianistic world overrun by repeated presentations of Mozart, Schumann and Chopin.

Not that there’s anything wrong with canonic repertoire, of course, and Ponthus demonstrates this first-hand with his latest recording, putting Beethoven’s monolithic “Hammerklavier” Sonata on the same program as Stockhausen’s landmark Klavierstück X. Aside from the fact that both works are performed on the same instrument, these pieces – composed nearly 150 years apart – are decidedly different: one is the pinnacle of classical sonata form, while the other is a masterwork of contemporary piano literature, an eruption of ordered disorder.

Ponthus’ performance of Klavierstück X is thrilling, his control of this physically and intellectually demanding score immediately apparent. (There are so many glissandi that the pianist is required to wear gloves with the fingers cut off.) Although the first impression of this music may be of chaos, every component of this music is highly prescribed and structured, and Ponthus wrestles Stockhausen’s complex ideas into a profoundly convincing performance. 

If the “Hammerklavier” receives a shorter mention here, it is only because of its status as one of Beethoven’s most renowned and striking piano works. Ponthus approaches this music like a chameleon, and it is difficult to believe that this is the same person who was tackling Klavierstück  X only a few moments prior. The rhythmic vitality of Beethoven’s writing is brought to the forefront here, and this performance is full of vigour and bravado, while never becoming a caricature of itself.