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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—Richard Haskell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On the Nature of Electricity & Acoustics
Electro-Acoustic Music from Ireland
Curated by Daniel Figgis
Heresy 010
www.heresyrecords.com

Imagine the sound of a traditional Irish jig or reel in the hands of someone who loves playing with electronic instruments and recording devices. Think of all the possible combinations that could arise. That’s exactly what you will hear on the CD On the Nature of Electricity & Acoustics. Curated by Daniel Figgis, this album is a compilation and sampling of 23 pieces, each created by a different Irish composer or musician. And to add to the mix, these musicians come from a wide range of backgrounds and influences: contemporary classical composers, rock musicians, sound experimentalists, traditional music virtuosi and visual artists. The fascinating images in the accompanying booklet offer glimpses into early instruments — both acoustic and electric in nature.

Over the last three or four decades, traditional Irish music influences have swept across the globe, bringing their unique identity to the pop, rock and world music genres. With this album we are treated to the inimitable Irish sound under the influence of experimentation and boundary pushing. It opens with a very early electroacoustic work, created in 1978 using classic tape techniques, by one of the country’s leading composers, Roger Doyle. We immediately land in the familiar soundworld of the piano presented with a driving rhythmic force so characteristic of the Irish essence. These strong rhythmic qualities, along with looping and repetitive melodic or harmonic patterns, textural layering and the presence of a recognizable instrument are present in almost every work on the album. The distinctive instrumental sounds heard include the fiddle, bagpipes, bodhrán, accordion, electric guitar, cello, as well as a few flashes of a Celtic vocal presence. Electronic sounds include the presence of lush synthesizer textures, wild electric guitar riffs, static and noise articulations and gliding filter sweeps.

The final track by the curator Daniel Figgis really sums up the spirit of the whole album. If I were to lift a pint of beer to my mouth and close my eyes, I could easily imagine I was sitting in a traditional Irish pub, tapping my toes in time with the music. Yet my ears would be overjoyed to hear the unusual and mind-bending twists and turns that unfolded before me. There would be no denying that I was in the presence of an ancient musical tradition whose indelible spirit penetrates through time, technologies and trends.

Kris Davis
Capricorn Climber
Clean Feed CF 266 CD
www.cleanfeed-records.com

Creating a cohesive program that moves from experimentation to straight-ahead swing and lush inventions — often on the same track — pianist Kris Davis outlines a series of moods on this program of her own compositions. Calgary-born Davis has made a reputation for herself as an arranger as well as a soloist and each of her compositions displays her sidefolk — some of New York’s most accomplished players — to their collective best advantage.

Take for instance Pass the Magic Hat, which starts off as a swirling and spiralling exposition for her piano plus the bass of Trevor Dunn and the drums of Tom Rainey, but soon evolves to a contrapuntal duel between her metronomic comping and Ingrid Laubrock’s pulsating tenor saxophone. A spikier secondary theme developed by violist Mat Maneri arrives, eventually to be harmonized with piano and reed slurs. On the other hand, Bottom of a Well is a cohesive recital-styled track with low-pitched piano clunks underscoring the chromatic string sets. Before a legato finale, Dunn vibrates a solo in the cello range while the violist harshly rubs his strings. With Davis’ narrative literally more low-key and impressionistic, Pi is Irrational balances Maneri’s tremolo stridency with Rainey’s rugged ruffs and taps, until Laubrock’s gentle arpeggios presage a brief, rhythmically sophisticated bass solo.

Davis who studied at Banff and Toronto defines her program enough to give her soloists the freedom to interpolate everything from strident reed bites and fiddle scratches to extended cymbal vibrations into the nine tracks. But she reins them in enough with strategies ranging from inner piano string plucks to keyboard jabs and cohesive chording to maintain the integrity of her compositional vision.

Upstairs
Matt Herskowitz
Justin Time JUST 249-2
www.justin-time.com

This CD was recorded before an audience at the Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill in Montreal where Matt Herskowitz has made his home since 2000 and the first thing that struck me was the phenomenal technique possessed by this Albany-born pianist.

The varied program begins with a long — over 13 minutes — interpretation of the Dave Brubeck composition, Dziekuje which means “thank you” in Polish, and was modelled on Chopin’s Prelude in E Minor. He also includes Cantabile by Michel Petrucciani, Traumerei by Robert Schumann, music by J.S. Bach, two originals, Waltz In Moscow and Bella’s Lament plus a couple of Gershwin songs for good measure — But Not For Me and I’ve Got Rhythm.

Herskowitz’ classical training permeates the music, sometimes at the expense of “jazz feeling” but then there are also passages of delicate beauty as shown in Bella’s Lament and Traumerei.

To make a comparison between visual art and music, Herskowitz is like, say, a Dali rather than a Mondrian.

I have a non-musical complaint on behalf of all of us with less than perfect eyesight. The liner notes are in deep blue against a black background, making them all but impossible to read. I, and a few others I have spoken with, find it extremely frustrating. Designers of CD sleeves please take note.

Guitarist Reg Schwager has worked with some of the most famous performers in jazz, including Diana Krall, George Shearing and Peter Appleyard. In addition to being a distinguished sideman, though, he’s also genuinely adventurous. Schwager has just released two contrasting CDs that testify to the range and quality of his work.

His duet with pianist David Restivo, Arctic Passage (Rant 1346), presents two musicians gifted in the myriad permutations of melody and harmony, etching work of glittering lyricism. Most of the compositions are Schwager’s own, themes worthy of further exploration, but there are also distinctive accounts of Poor Butterfly and Alexander’s Ragtime Band, each enlivened by thoughtful chordal extensions that are bound to surprise. The dialogue is inevitably reminiscent of the perfect duos recorded by Bill Evans and Jim Hall in the 1960s.

Schwager and drummer Michel Lambert, one of Quebec’s finest free improvisers, make Schwager’s outer limits more apparent on Trio Improvisations (Rant 1245). It’s a special trio, with three different musicians occupying the third spot. The recordings come from sessions during a six-month period between 2001 and 2002 and include the powerful Coltrane-influenced Toronto saxophonist Michael Stuart, Amsterdam’s anarchic and brilliant pianist Misha Mengelberg (an early influence on the Dutch-born Schwager) and trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, perhaps Canada’s greatest contribution to international jazz. The music is all free improvisation, though in this case that means harmonic and rhythmic structures arise and dissolve with frequency and ease. What makes the set most remarkable is that it’s anything but pastiche. While many CDs from different sessions sound like patchwork quilts, this one sounds like a suite, with a consistent approach that expands outward from Schwager and Lambert and embraces their various guests.

Cellist Kye Marshall has a broad musical background ranging from extensive studies in jazz composition and positions as principal cellist with Toronto’s New Chamber Orchestra and assistant principal cellist with the National Ballet Orchestra. She’s worked extensively both in jazz and improvised music, and she brings all of those skills and inclinations to her Jazz Quartet’s Pencil Blues (Zephyr/Westwind Productions www.kyemarshall.com). It’s lively, infectious work and Marshall has thoughtfully constructed a string band around her still rather unusual jazz cello, with Don Thompson on bass, Andrew Scott on guitar and Ethan Ardelli on drums. When the group expands for textural reasons, she adds violist Kent Teeple and percussionist Mark Duggan to the ensembles. The feeling’s not unlike the Hot Club of France, and the clear star is Thompson, whose bass playing should be declared a national treasure.

Pianist Steve Koven is a crisp modern stylist, an ebullient musician who can move handily from infectious Latin jazz to probing ballads and complex three-way dialogues with the members of his long-standing trio. In fact that’s what has given Koven’s work its greatest dimension, something celebrated on SK3 20 (Bungalow Records SK 009 3), commemorating the 20th anniversary of the group with bassist Rob Clutton and drummer Anthony Michelli. It would be remarkable enough if Koven had held together a band that long with anybody, but he’s done so with two of the most creative musicians that the Toronto scene could provide, evident in the playful funk groove of Lolaland. The CD also comes with a bonus DVD of the group in performance.

Curtis Nowosad is a 24-year-old drummer who recently graduated from the University of Manitoba’s Jazz Studies Program. Clearly Nowosad enjoys many kinds of music, and there’s plenty of pop repertoire to go with the hard bop on his debut, The Skeptic & the Cynic (Know-a-sad Music KSM-001 www.curtisnowosad.com), with songs made famous by Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, Joni Mitchell and 2Pac Shakur. Nowosad’s band is made up largely of University of Manitoba faculty, with trumpeter Derrick Gardner, saxophonist Jimmy Greene, bassist Steve Kirby and Will Bonness on keyboards (covering piano, Fender Rhodes and Hammond B3) lending tremendous lustre to the proceedings. Clearly Nowosad has been an outstanding student, sounding right at home in this band of veterans, who for their part seem to be enjoying playing signature hard bop on tunes as unlikely as The Way You Make Me Feel and Three Little Birds.

Another musician employing distinguished talent is saxophonist Cameron Wallis. Calling Dexter (www.cameronwallismusic.com) features pianist André White, bassist Alec Walkington and drummer Dave Laing, who have functioned as the André White Trio for the past 25 years. Wallis is a skilful traditionalist, smoothly negotiating chord changes and swinging with aplomb. If anything, he’s a little too respectful, from the title dedication to Dexter Gordon to liner note invocations of Don Byas and “my two favourite Sonnys.” One of them is definitely Stitt, but Rollins seems too aggressively modern even in his 1950 form to qualify as the other. Wallis demonstrates more flexibility than identity by playing soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and even C melody saxophone, making it hard for a listener to get a sense of a distinctive voice.  

Of all the instruments that needed the advances of free music in the 20th century to show off its true character, it has been the double bass which benefitted most from this situation. Relegated to decorative, scene setting or mere rhythmic functions in conventional classical and jazz performances, it was only when bassists were able to express themselves without restraint that their role grew. By the 21st century in fact, solo bass recitals became as commonplace as those by other instrumentalists. The reason, as these CDs demonstrate, is the arrival of performers who can extract a multiplicity of novel tones, timbres and textures from four tautly wound strings.

Take Paris-based Joëlle Léandre for instance. Early in her career she played pieces composed specifically for her by the likes of John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi; now she’s fully committed to free expression. Wols circus: 12 compositions pour contrebasse d’après 12 gravures de Wols (Galerie Hus HUS 112 joelle-leandre.com) is particularly fascinating. Using only a bow, the strings, her instrument’s body and her own vocal inflections, Léandre interprets musically engravings by Surrealist artist Otto Wols (1913–1951). Created from 1942–1945, when the Berlin-born Wols was interned as an “enemy foreigner” in France, where he lived from 1932 until his death, the images are as abstract as they are affecting. Making no attempt to literally replicate the drawings in music, Léandre’s sound interpretations move from stentorian to muted, with indistinct, spiccato scrubs as common as Jew’s harp-like twangs. Especially noteworthy is the build-up and release reflected on the successive Topographie, Drei Vingnetten auf einem Blatt and Keiner Fleck. With each sequence three minutes, first abrasive then mellow string sawing fades into occasional arco slides and sul tasto pops with the air vibrated by the bow audible as well. The climax occurs as unison basso string strokes and Léandre’s vocal growls give way to a contrapuntal duet between sharp instrumental lines. Throughout, the bull fiddler provides personalized a view of Wols’ sketches with additional string inventions ranging from squeeze-toy peeps to tremolo bass slaps. Nonetheless the defining performance occurs with Dunkle Stadt, when with intensifying torque she moves from miniscule below-the-bridge plucks to staccato string chirps contrapuntally layered with vocalized faux lyric soprano accents. 

Unlike Léandre, whose 12 acoustic selections were recorded at one live concert, French-Israeli bassist JC Jones’ Citations: Solo Bass (Kadima Collective KCR 36 kadimacollective.com) is made up of 17 untitled compositions and improvisations from 2008 to 2012 using acoustic bass or electro-acoustic bass with live electronics. To be honest the computer processes aren’t that prominent; but are mostly used to provide a constant pizzicato undercurrent, while Jones’ arco buzzes add multiphonic sweeps or balladic decorations to the selections. More individual are the improvisations, which sometimes had been created to accompany dancers. On the 11th track for instance, rosin seems to be sliding off the bass strings as Jones slaps them agitato and tremolo so that soundboard thumps resonate throughout the instrument’s body. Buzzing spiccato action with banjo-like plucks from below the bridge succeed spanked string rhythms on the 15th track; while on the fifth Jones manages to sound as if he’s manipulating two basses at once without overdubbing. Here he plucks and shakes the strings in the instrument’s top range while ruggedly double- and triple-stopping from the bottom, resulting in snaps, knocks and pops ricocheting back onto one another. Moreover a track such as 17 sums up all the preceding strategies as Jones manages to isolate three separate theme variations. Not only are stentorian thumps and undulating bow motions heard, but so too is a third tremolo impulse harmonized alongside the first two.

If Jones’ electronic interface is limited, Montreal-based Alexandre St-Onge and Norwegian-in-Austin Ingebrigt Håker Flaten draw more textures to their finger tips by utilizing amplified electric basses on their solos sessions. A member of bands such as Klaxon Gueule, as well as studying for his PhD in art, St-Onge describes himself as a sound performer and the six selections on Ailleurs (&records ET18 etrecords.net) are studded as much with signal-processed drones and splutters as reflective string modulations. Layering the sequences with loops that replicate sounds ranging from ring-modulator whooshes to bell ringing and distorted flanges, the basic double bass-like rhythmic qualities of the instrument are muted. Only on the fifth track does the tremolo, dial-twisting exposition pull back enough for a semi-acoustic interlude. Here juddering bass-string plucks can be heard contrapuntally advancing the narrative, which is still decorated with additional droning lines and wiggling voltage-affiliated cries. The achievement of Ailleurs is that by mutating its intonation and freeing the bass from its limitations as a purely rhythmic instrument a new interface appears. The reverberating result is of an expansive formula that evocatively builds on expected bull fiddle timbres the way a realistic photograph could be the basis for a surrealistic art

As abstract in execution as St-Onge and as familiar with as many electronic extensions, on the six tracks which make up Birds – Solo Electric (Tektite Records ingebrigtflaten.com), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten at least follows the convention of titling his tracks. Known for his membership in bands such as The Thing and Atomic, he’s able to play the electric bass in such a way to suggest multiple instruments. The most breathtaking instance of this occurs on Chicago. Pulsating the top string of his highly amplified bass with spiccato pressure, Flaten produces timbres that could as easily have come from a bagpipe chanter or a piccolo trumpet. At the same time modulated feedback decorates the exposition, while a legato theme is heard from the top guitar-like strings. Eventually this broken-octave display fades into measured stops. Mercurial and rubato, many of the other tones in his improvisations sound as if they are extended by an e-bow. Take a track like Lucia. Here string slaps alternate with flanges that could come from backward running tapes, until a vigourous melody surmounts those sounds. Whistles, whooshes, crackles and other amplified flutters predominate throughout, but when Flaten strikes or scrapes the strings with firecracker-like resonation, he confirms the true instrumental origin of the performances.

With the creativity on display on any one of these CDs so obvious, hearing the bass used merely for decorative or rhythmic functions in the future will likely be disappointing for many.

Espejo
Eliana Cuevas
Independent EC003
www.elianacuevas.com

In continuing her stellar trajectory as an award-winning songwriter and vocalist (2007 — Toronto Independent Music Award for World Music Artist of the Year, 2008 — nominated Canadian Folk Music Awards for Best World Music Solo, 2009 — National Jazz Award for Latin Jazz Artist of the Year), Eliana Cuevas spent the past three years creating this dynamic and soulful fourth CD release. Her partnership with producer/pianist Jeremy Ledbetter, along with a great line-up of Latin and jazz musicians including George Koller and Mark Kelso, makes for an eclectic mix of styles performed with artistry and heart.

The vocals are rich with new experience, the musical arrangements sophisticated and savvy. From the sultry blues/torch song Lamento to the quirky, playful and humourous El Tucusito with its traditional Venezuelan joropo rhythm performed at lightning speed, she and her collaborators move deftly through a great variety of moods and tempi. The first track Estrellita is most danceable — full of joy and exuberance — and the penultimate track, Melancolía, is the jewel in the crown, evoking a wistful yet deeply powerful longing in its portrayal of the hardships of immigration. All in all, a collection of songs fairly bursting with life and energy. I can’t wait for the live show.

Concert Note: Eliana Cuevas will launch Espejo at Lula Lounge on May 15.

In its june 1935 issue, the opinionated periodical Etude ranked Myra Hess among the twelve greatest pianists of all time and more recently she was included in the Philips omnibus edition, Great Pianists of the 20th Century. Julia Myra Hess was born in London in June 1890. At the age of seven she was the youngest person ever to receive a certificate from Trinity College. She next studied at the Guildhall School where she was awarded the coveted Gold Medal and then went on to the Royal Academy of Music where she studied with Tobias Matthay, with whom she had been awarded a three-year scholarship, and where she befriended fellow pupil Irene Scharrer. Hess made her debut, aged 17, playing the Beethoven Fourth Piano Concerto with the 29-year-old, newly knighted Thomas Beecham conducting. She concertized extensively and in 1922 made her debut in the United States, instantly becoming a concertgoers’ favourite as she was in Europe.

Myra Hess – The complete solo and concerto studio recordings (Appian APR 7504, 5 CDs) presents her once-prized recordings to a new audience. Disc 1, the American Columbia recordings from 1928 to 1931, has 21 selections beginning with her celebrated transcription, Jesu, joy of man’s desiring, that became her signature piece. It was the first and also the last (in 1957) piece she recorded. These early performances are immediately captivating as the music appears to simply emerge, drawing the listener into a private, one-on-one appreciation of the composer. Lots of Bach, Schubert, Schumann and Debussy concluding with, surprisingly, Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance! Here are only some of the highlights of the four other discs: Disc 2 has the four English Columbias from 1933 and the HMVs from 1937–1949 including the 21st Mozart concerto conducted by Leslie Heward (1942). The HMVs from 1937–1949 continue on disc 3 with Schumann’s Carnaval (1938) and the Concerto in A Minor under Walter Goehr (1937), Franck’s Symphonic Variations under Basil Cameron (1941) and Howard Ferguson’s F Minor Sonata (1942). The HMVs from 1952 to 1957 on the last two discs include the Beethoven Sonatas Opp. 109 & 110 (1953), another Schumann A Minor Concerto with Rudolf Schwarz (1952) and his Symphonic Etudes Op.13 (1953). A final session took place on October 12, 1957 that included an inspired performance of Granados’ Maiden and the Nightingale, concluding as mentioned with her Jesu, joy of man’s desiring.

The generous liner notes are typical of Appian, being very readable with ample biographical material, recording dates and original matrix numbers, etc. The transcriptions are exemplary. This set is issued as a commemoration of the artistry of Myra Hess and while not every performance herein is equally praiseworthy, complete means complete; all 397 minutes! Those who revel in and look for the latest, fastest and loudest fingers around must look elsewhere.

Footnotes: by definition, not included is the 1927 Columbia recording of the Schubert Trio D898 with Jelly d’ Arányi and Felix Salmond or the 1935 d’ Arányi and Gaspar Cassadó Brahms Trio, Op.87 that Appian issued on APR7012. At the 1960 Edinburgh Festival she and Isaac Stern played sonatas by Brahms, Schubert, Ferguson and Beethoven that were recorded by the BBC and issued by Testament (SBT1458, 1 CD). There are a few other live performances to be found on Sony, BBC and Music and Arts CDs. Myra Hess died in London in 1965.

In audiophile circles, the reference recording of the Sibelius Symphony No.2 is usually the Sir John Barbirolli 1962 version for Readers Digest now on Testament. A new Barbirolli performance that sweeps the field has appeared on an ICA Classics release of a concert from February 7, 1969 with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra (ICAC5096, 2 CDs). The program opens with an elegant reading of Schubert’s Fourth Symphony followed by Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings. The tenor for the Britten is Gerald English whose voice has a texture and timbre different from Peter Pears’ for whom the work was written. Although Decca recorded the definitive version of the work in 1944 with Britten conducting the Boyd Neel Orchestra with Pears and, who else but Dennis Brain as the horn soloist, this version from Cologne is absolutely gorgeous, beautifully nuanced and abetted by the virtuoso horn soloist, Hermann Baumann.

Barbirolli’s reading of the Sibelius is exceptional even by his own high standards. He may have thought, “I’m not holding back any longer ... it’s now or never.” Perhaps not, but it certainly sounds like it. From the confidently measured opening to the closing measures this is a mighty performance from one of the very best orchestras around. In the coda of the Finale Barbirolli unexpectedly broadens the tempo as if to hold back the inevitable. The effect is stunning, a real lump-in-the-throat experience. The recording of all three works is state of the art, crystal clear and dynamic with wide open tuttis. 

One of the less talked about Shostakovich works is the Symphony No.8 Op.65, written in 1943 during World War Two. Of one hour’s duration, on first hearing it may feel to be an enigmatic, sprawling work… the first movement alone lasts nearly 25 minutes. This impression should be dispelled by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky in a live performance from The Royal Festival Hall on October 30, 1983 (LPO 0069). Rozhdestvensky is intuitively in sync with the Shostakovich of the time and is perfectly suited and able to pass it on to the audience and to us, 30 years later. The performance, while rather straightforward, is flavoured with many empathetic moments, but the most arresting surprise is the very long fermata in the percussion a few bars from the end of the third movement. The effect is still chilling after many hearings. As the final movement closes I feared that there would be an outbreak of applause to shatter the tranquility but happily there is none. Perfect!

The White Spot
Way Out Northwest
Relative Pitch RPR 1006 (www.relativepitchrecords.com)

Perhaps it should be called a North American Free Improv Agreement or NAFIA. Every time experimental British saxophonist John Butcher plays in the northwestern part of this continent his trio is made up of two Vancouver-based players: bassist Torsten Müller and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Listening to the nine pitch-perfect improvisations on this disc demonstrates why this configuration has been maintained since 2007.

The veteran bassist, who is perfectly capable of atonal string-stretching and scrubbed pulsations, is careful to maintain a connective pumping throughout. Liberated by that stance, the drummer has the freedom to make strategic moves involving everything from cymbal snaps and woodblock clipping, the better to complement Butcher’s narratives.

Probably the easiest entry point to the poised intensity from this balanced trio is Earlianum. With Müller’s accompaniment low-pitched and rhythmic, Butcher’s tenor sax exposition is so well-modulated it could be from Coleman Hawkins, until he opens up the piece with shaking vibrations and quivering multiphonics, which are shadowed by the drummer’s clicks and clatters. As the saxophonist’s part evolves to reed bites plus staccato split tones, van der Schyff introduces muscular ruffs and the bassist’s part is transformed from stentorian tremolo strokes to razor’s edge slices and stops.

This interaction is emphasized throughout the disc. No matter how many triple-stopping bass runs, drumstick-on-cymbals shrills or strident reed-shattering banshee wails are heard, skilful equilibrium allows the tunes to impress as they flow chromatically. Comparison of NAFIA with NAFTA makes it clear that cooperation involving disparate musicians easily trumps any tripartite agreement dreamed up by politicians

Dompierre – 24 Préludes
Alain Lefèvre
Analekta AN 2 9292-3

Canadian composer François Dompierre has had an eclectic career to say the least. Born in Ottawa in 1943, he studied music at the University of Ottawa and the Conservatoire de Montréal in addition to his private lessons with Claude Champagne, Clermont Pépin and Gilles Tremblay. Since then, his career has taken him on several paths, including those of conductor, composer, CD producer and travel writer. His own compositions demonstrate a myriad of genres – soundtracks for more than 60 films, a full-scale opera and upwards of 30 concert works.

Dompierre’s 24 Préludes were inspired by longtime family friend “Bob” whose keyboard dexterity and interest in boogie-woogie were a source of great fascination to the young François. Hence, it was with Bob in mind that Dompierre created this enticing collection of miniatures, engagingly performed here by Alain Lefèvre on a two-disc Analekta recording.

The set opens with a prelude aptly titled Frénétique which features a rollicking boogie-woogie style bass, very much à la 1940s. From here, many of the preludes pay homage to a particular dance or pop style, one for each of the major and minor keys of the tonal system, and all as diverse as the set of 24 preludes by Frédéric Chopin. For example, the eighth, titled Déterminé (Tango) is a rhythmic and bombastic interpretation of the famous Argentinean dance form, while No.12, Immobile (Cool) lies at the other end of the spectrum, minimal and introspective. Lefèvre demonstrates a real feeling for the music, capturing the mood of each piece with great panache. Many of them contain complex cross rhythms, syncopations and chromatic harmonies, elements best addressed by only the most musically adept of pianists.

In all, the disc is an appealing case of “new wine in old bottles” with composer and performer perfectly complementing each other. Bob would surely have approved!

Rihm, Wolfgang – Oedipus
Schmidt; Pell; Dooley; Carlson; Murray; Golden; Deutsche Oper Berlin; Christoff Prick
ArtHaus Musik 101 667

Oedipus Rex, the tragedy by Sophocles, seems a perfect subject for an opera: prophecy, patricide, incest, suicide, self-blinding – it is all here. This well-known story receives a special treatment from the composer and librettist, Wolfgang Rihm. He was fascinated by post-structuralism and Derrida, so simply following the Greek play would not do. Additional texts came from the interpretation of the Oedipal myth by Nietzsche and Heiner Müller. The resulting “musical theatre” (Rihm initially refused the "opera" label) was created in collaboration with Götz Friedrich, who was the been the artistic director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1981 to 2000. Aside from deconstructionism, Rihm favoured incorporating the classical humanities, a trait he shared with Friedrich. It is more of a meditation on the human condition and human frailty represented in the Oedipal urges in all of us, as interpreted by Freud, than a straight retelling of the myth. To add to the originality of the work, it is scored for the most part exclusively for wind instruments, with two violins making a guest appearance when Oedipus gouges his eyes out. Rihm, who is as innovative as he is prolific, shows the influence of both Luigi Nono and Karlheinz Stockhausen, with whom he studied in the 1970s. Deserving of special mention is Andreas Schmidt (himself a student of Fischer-Dieskau and Schwartzkopf) and the offstage Greek chorus of 16 individual singers from the Deutsche Oper ensemble (rather than chorus members). 

It is hard to believe that this DVD is a recording of an event that took place 26 years ago. The music sounds fresh and contemporary, and the staging is sumptuous and reminiscent (or prescient) of Robert Lepage's recent work. Some of the principals, like Andreas Schmidt (Oedipus), have advanced their careers to become regulars at, among others, the Bayreuth Festival. Others have passed away (the elegant baritone-turned-tenor, William Pell [Kreon]), or continued in relative obscurity, despite an extensive performance schedule (Emily Golden [Jokasta]).