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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Canadian and Russian Improvisers

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

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

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

Uncharted Waters
Ensemble Polaris
Pipistrelle Music PIP1212

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unheard of: Memoirs of
a Canadian Composer
by John Beckwith
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
408 pages, photos, musical examples; $29.95 paper

At 85 years of age, Canadian composer John Beckwith can look back from a singular vantage point. Because his life is so intertwined with the development of modern music in Canada, and since he has been so productive in many aspects of it, his memoir has a particularly wide range of material to cover. He describes his early childhood years in Victoria, his complicated first marriage and family life, his experiences as a professor and Dean of the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, his years working at the CBC during its heyday, his extensive writings as a music critic, most recently reviewing CDs for this magazine, and, above all, his achievements as the composer of over 150 works.

In describing his most significant works, he offers a revealing glimpse into how he created them. Taking a Stand, which he wrote for the then newly-formed Canadian Brass, shows the spirit of adventure that he brought to a great deal of his music. It’s interesting to see how operas like Crazy to Kill, Night Blooming Cereus and Taptoo! were born out of a deep friendship. Beckwith wrote them with poet James Reaney, whom he describes as “a writer who understood music.” In the case of his Quartet, written for the Orford Quartet, “Ideas came rapidly, as if I had a quartet inside me waiting to be written down.”

Throughout his career, Beckwith’s writings have been marked by his outspokenness — what he himself calls his “habitual critical bitchiness.” But here, though he is uncommonly candid about his own shortcomings and outright failures, he is surprisingly tolerant of the shortcomings of others.

Since Beckwith has already written extensively about figures in Canadian music he knew best, it’s understandable that he is reluctant to cover the same territory again here. He recently contributed a delightful portrait of his teacher John Weinzweig to the collection of essays about Weinzweig he edited with fellow Weinzweig student Brian Cherney. And he has explored his relationship with Glenn Gould extensively, especially in his biography of Alberto Guerrero, who taught both of them piano.

Yet the experiences with friends and colleagues he does recall here — such as the time fellow Canadian composer Barbara Pentland demanded that Beckwith be given a free ticket for a concert which featured one of his compositions — tell so much about the characters and issues involved. These are stories that would otherwise never be heard, and I’d love to hear more.

The extensive endnotes, index, and score excerpts all contribute to the considerable pleasure of reading this beautifully-written memoir. The collection of photos includes a terrific ad from 1968 for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. It features a photo of a Volkswagon Beetle, and reads, “The bug and John Beckwith.” By the end of this memoir Beckwith is ready to admit that he does, perhaps, exaggerate his obscurity. “Unheard Of”? — hardly. “Unheard” — undoubtedly; though what Canadian composer feels otherwise? “Essential” would be more like it.

The Beauty of Belaieff
by Richard Beattie Davis
Clef Publishing
384 pages, colour plates; $125.00
available at www.beautyofbelaieff.com

While researching late 19th century Russian music, musicologist Richard Beattie Davis was struck by the elaborate title pages that adorned many of the original scores. He soon recognized how the chromo-lithographed title pages published by Mitofan Petrovich Belaieff stood out for their exquisite artistry. It wasn’t just that they were so beautiful. As Davis points out in this definitive study of Belaieff’s title pages, they were clearly intended to be more than decorative, since they revealed important information about the music itself. At their best, he writes, they can “illuminate one’s comprehension, even intensify one’s appreciation” of the music.

Belaieff was a wealthy timber merchant, music lover and amateur violinist living in St. Petersburg. By the time he started publishing music in 1885, he had already been supporting composers like Glazunov and Scriabin, organizing concerts, and hosting his legendary Musical Fridays — get-togethers where a string quartet, usually with Belaieff playing viola, would try out new compositions by composers like Taneyev, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov.

During a period of 16 years Belaieff published some of the most important orchestral, chamber, operatic, vocal and instrumental works of this immensely rich period in Russian music, including 80 full scores of orchestral works alone. Combining the expertise of a scholar with the obsessiveness of a collector, Davis managed to track down most of the original scores Belaieff published. Of the almost 200 title pages that Belaieff is estimated to have produced, over 150 are reproduced here.

Balakirev’s influential collection of folksongs, which introduced the Volga Boat Song, bears a surprisingly simple title page. But the intricate title page for Borodin’s Prince Igor manages to encapsulate the story of the opera. The unusual title page for Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol features a dedication to the orchestra which performed at the premiere under the composer’s direction. Underneath, the names of all 67 orchestra members are engraved. Davis notes that for the second performance Tchaikovsky played the castanets (so his name is not on the list).

The detailed essays that Davis pairs with each artwork add up to a veritable history of late-19th-century Russian music. But some details do nonetheless get left unexplained because of the format. He mentions that Belaieff published many operas, including seven by Rimsky-Korsakov alone. And according to Davis, Belaieff considered his edition of Prince Igor to be the jewel among his publications. Yet elsewhere Davis writes — with no further explanation — that Belaieff had an aversion to opera.

An epilogue to this beautifully-produced volume points out how Belaieff’s publishing venture, which had ceased by the time of his death in 1904, once again thrives in Germany today as M.P. Belaieff Musikverlag, publisher of Blacher and Pärt — though they no longer produce such magnificent title pages.

Pamela Margles is a Toronto-based journalist and frequent contributor to The WholeNote. She can be contacted at bookshelf@thewholenote.com.

Silence: Lectures and Writings – 50th Anniversary Edition
by John Cage
Wesleyan University Press
310 pages; $30.00 US

Antonio Carlos Jobim: An Illuminated Man
by Helena Jobim
translated by Dàrio Borim Jr.
Hal Leonard Books
314 pages, photos; $27.99 US

Like John Cage, Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim was as much an inventor as a composer. But what Jobim invented was a new style, rather than new sounds. By infusing traditional Brazilian samba with jazz rhythms, he came up with what became known as bossa nova.

Jobim’s sophisticated melodies, complex rhythms, and unusual harmonies proved irresistible, and his popularity soon reached far outside of Brazil, with songs like Girl from Ipanema, Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars) and Desifinado becoming huge international hits.

Poet and novelist Helena Jobim has written a tender portrait of her older brother, who died 18 years ago. She is able to offer insights into the anguish and self-destructive insecurities that drove him. With her special access to his spiritual life she is equally able to reveal the deep sensitivities of a man who thrived on a tight-knit family atmosphere, and who, even after the break-up of his first marriage and subsequent marriage to a woman younger than his daughter, managed to maintain professional as well as emotional ties with his adult children.

Helena Jobim sets the stage for Jobim’s disarmingly elegant and cool music of the 1950s and 60s by introducing the circle of gifted poets, musicians and intellectuals who contributed to his songs, like João Gilberto, whose 1958 recording of Vinícius de Moraes’ and Jobim’s Chega de Saudade marked the first time bossa nova was put on disc. It was Gilberto’s wife at the time, Astrud Gilberto, who created a sensation with her singing on the legendary 1964 recording of the English versions of The Girl From Ipanema and Corcovado, with Stan Getz joining Gilberto and Jobim.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this biography is the way Helena Jobim shows the direct influence of Jobim’s physical surroundings on his music, especially in Rio de Janeiro, where he spent most of his life. She describes his overwhelming need to be able to see Corcovado mountain from his window wherever he lived in Rio, and she evokes the atmosphere of the neighbourhood of Ipanema, where the family lived when Helena and Carlos were growing up.

Though Helena Jobim doesn’t overplay her own role in Jobim’s life story, she does have an essential part in it. So I was confused by the way she sometimes refers to herself as “I,” and at other times as “Helena.” Her focus is clearly on her brother, which leaves little room for a broader perspective on the development of bossa nova, the volatile political and intellectual currents it reflected, and its eventual decline. Yet Helena Jobim’s writing, here sensitively translated by Dàrio Borim Jr., resonates with the power and sweep of a great romantic family saga centred around an altogether extraordinary musician.

Concert Note: The Art of Time Ensemble, with singers Guinga, Monica Whicher and Luanda Jones, presents “Brasil,” a programme of Brazilian music featuring songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim, on March 3, 8pm at Koerner Hall.

The big news this month is the launch of Tafelmusik Media, a new initiative which will include CDs and DVDs, a digital concert hall and internet television productions, all under the auspices of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir. By launching its own record label Tafelmusik is taking charge not only of its back catalogue, re-releasing the best of previous Sony and CBC recordings, but also its march into the digital future. This month sees the release of a DVD+CD set of the stunning multi-media Galileo Project (TMK1001DVDCD) conceived and programmed by Alison Mackay, along with re-issues of the 1995 JUNO award winning Bach Brandenburg Concertos (TMK1004CD2) and the critically acclaimed Vivaldi Four Seasons (TMK1007CD) both originally released by Sony.

Having already enjoyed these recordings for years, as is the case for many Tafelmusik fans I’m sure, for me it is the new material that is of most interest. If the production values on the Galileo Project are any indication, there are good things in store indeed. Upcoming projects include Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony and a full-length audio recording of Handel’s Messiah. As a precursor to this, a DVD of a live “Sing Along” performance of Messiah is scheduled for release in April. Tafelmusik has also launched a new “Watch and Listen” section on its website www.tafelmusik.org where you can find a host of streaming videos and full details of the label’s developments, including highlights of Alison Mackay’s latest extravaganza, House of Dreams, which premiered in Banff and Toronto last month and which Tafelmusik is currently touring in the U.S.A.

Concert Note: The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir can next be heard in Toronto March 29 through April 1 at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre. “Choral Anniversary: Celebrating 30 Years” includes works by Bach, Charpentier, Purcell, Rameau, Handel, Poulenc, Saint-Saëns and Rolfe. Ivars Taurins, directs.

Other news of course includes the announcement of the 2012 JUNO nominations. A week of festivities will take place in Ottawa this year, culminating with the April 1 awards ceremony broadcast. You can visit WholeNote columnist Ori Dagan’s blog at www.thewholenote.com for a full list of nominees in the categories relevant to our magazine and links to the reviews of these discs which have appeared here over the past year. With Robert Tomas’ enthusiastic assessment of Marie-Josée Lord’s debut CD, Daniel Foley’s “the home team wins” review of Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s Bruckner Fourth and Allan Pulker’s appreciation of Susan Hoeppner’s American Flute Masterpieces to be found further on in these pages, I’m pleased to note that we have reviewed all but one of the 20 contenders in the classical categories. And that missing one? I will rectify that right now. The Saint John String Quartet’s latest recording, Saint John String Quartet & Jacques Dupriez (www.sjsq.ca) includes one of the five nominated works in the Best Classical Composition category, String Quartet No.2 Op.50, written in 1991 by the late Jacques Hétu. Hétu (1938-2010) was perhaps the foremost “Romantic” composer of his generation and although his music always showed strong ties to the past there was an innate modernity to his language that belied any sense of anachronism. The second string quartet is an apt example of this in his mature style. The dark and sombre opening movement, with viola lines that almost sound like an oboe, is haunting. This gives way to a rhythmic scherzo somewhat reminiscent of Shostakovich. The finale returns to the lush and pensive mood of the opening movement and sustains this sense of introspection to the quartet’s end. The other works on the disc include Brahms’ Quintet in B Minor Op.115, written exactly one hundred years before the Hétu, and a mid-20th century string quartet by Belgian composer Flor Alpaerts. It is a nicely balance programme, with Hétu’s quartet growing seamlessly out of the Brahms and the sunny opening of the Alpaerts, with its more complex but still quite tonal palette, providing relief from the doleful music that comes before.

Of special note in the Brahms is the use of a baritone violin in place of the original clarinet. This rare 18th century instrument, which fell out of favour due to its large size, is tuned an octave below the violin – halfway between viola and cello – and has a dark tone particularly well suited to this repertoire. Paganini, who had exceptionally large hands, was evidently the last major champion of the baritone violin and it is thanks to Jacques Dupriez that the instrument has come to light again in modern times.

A highlight of my listening this past month has been an ebullient two piano recording by local artists Attila Fias (www.attilafias.com) and John Kameel Farah (www.johnfarah.com). Pieces of the Earth (AFJKF-01) was recorded at the Music Gallery last year and intersperses four formal compositions by each composer with brief, often playful improvised interludes. The disc opens in full minimalist fashion with a lively piece entitled Fluttering by Fias. This motoric romp sets the pace for the bulk of this presentation, but there are moments of contemplation such as Farah’s My Parents’ Garden with its quiet jazzy treatment of some Messiaen-like harmonies, and of foreboding in Warning and Plumes, two works that consider the devastation that oil spills wreak on our oceans. These two accomplished artists have been collaborating for a number of years and it shows, especially in the spontaneous improvised bridges between the composed works. With technical abilities to spare, Fias and Farah delight us with virtuosic panache and thoughtful musicality.

The following discs caught my eye as a result of my activities as general manager of Toronto’s New Music Concerts.

Next year will be the centenary of one of the giants of 20th century composition, Witold Lutosławski, and I am sure there will be a wealth of recordings to mark the occasion. Chandos may well be first out of the gate with Muzyka Polska Volume Three featuring the BBC Symphony Orchestra performing works of Lutosławski under the direction of Edward Gardner (CHSA 5098). Subtitled “Orchestral Works II” the disc spans the entirety of Lutosławski’s creative life from the early Symphonic Variations, completed at the age of 25, to the Symphony No.4, one of the very last works he would finish before his death in 1994. Of particular interest are the works with piano performed by Louis Lortie and once again covering a broad timeframe. The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, completed in 1988, is a prime example of the composer’s mature style. We hear the piano gradually rising up out of a primordial ooze of squealing wind instruments and muted strings to eventually dominate the landscape. Variations on a Theme of Paganini, on the other hand, is much more traditional, orchestrated by the composer in 1978 from a virtuosic work composed for two pianos in 1941. “Paganini Variations” has become a classic of the genre and is one of Lutosławski’s most performed works (along with the Concerto for Orchestra). It is the late symphony however that is the crowning jewel of this collection. Once again we begin in near silence, but this time it is a haunting clarinet, followed by flute and then a brief trumpet fanfare that leads us toward the light. On a local note, another work dating from these final years, Chantefleurs et Chantefables (not included here), was part of the last concert Lutosławski ever conducted. This took place in Toronto in 1993 at the Premiere Dance Theatre, Harbourfront, presented by New Music Concerts, featuring soprano Valdine Anderson and violinist Fujiko Imajishi. That historic performance is available on the Naxos release Lutosławski’s Last Concert (8.572450).

Another work with near-local connections is the Bird Concerto with Piano Song written in 2001-3 by Jonathan Harvey in homage to Olivier Messiaen. I say “near-local” because the poor health of the composer forced the cancellation, back in March 2010, of a residency at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music and a planned performance by New Music Concerts with guest pianist Hideki Nagano. Fortunately there is a new recording by the London Sinfonietta of this extended and eccentric work featuring Nagano on the British NMC label (NMC D177). The bird songs of the title are programmed into an electronic keyboard, controlled by the soloist, which is piggy-backed on the grand piano. Some of the sounds seem convincingly authentic, but most are distinctly synthetic and only suggestive of the avian world. The orchestration is for large ensemble, single winds and strings, but calls for some unusually low instruments including contra-bassoon and contra-bass clarinet. This is a live performance from the Warsaw Autumn Festival of 2009 conducted by David Atherton and it gives Toronto audiences a chance to hear what they missed. Harvey is well known as a pioneer in the field of live electronics and the disc also includes works for solo oboe, trumpet and cello with interactive media.

We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and comments should be sent to: The WholeNote, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4. We also encourage you to visit our website www.thewholenote.com where you can find added features including direct links to performers, composers and record labels, “buy buttons” for on-line shopping and additional, expanded and archival reviews.

David Olds, DISCoveries Editor
discoveries@thewholenote.com

Marie-Josée Lord
Marie-Josée Lord; Orchestre Métropolitain; Giuseppe Pietraroia
ATMA ACD2 2649

“A star is born” should be the headline in The WholeNote on the occasion of the announcement of the 2012 JUNO nominees. I speak in particular of one contender for Classical Record of the Year, Vocal and Choral Category, the self-titled Marie-Josée Lord. Alas, it takes a long time to become an overnight success. Lord has been charming Quebec audiences with her magnificent voice since her debut in the fall of 2003. Be it Liu, Mimi, Nedda, Suor Angelica or Carmen – passionate, dispossessed or heartbroken heroines are her royal domain. But there is also Gershwin’s Bess and Marie-Jeanne of Plamondon’s super-hit Starmania. Each of these roles gets transformed by Lord’s smoky, fascinating voice. Soft and velvety in the lower registers, it has a lovely, robust and crystalline quality in the upper range. To call her “a soprano” is like describing Mozart as “a composer.” Her voice has the power to send shivers down your spine, make you grip the armrest and lean forward in your seat. This artist is all her own, not emulating anybody else’s style, rendering her instantly recognizable and unforgettable. With all this attention on the vocals, one barely notices the competent, if sometimes ham-fisted playing by the Orchestre Métropolitain under Giuseppe Pietraroia.

These selections are well known, but you have never heard them sung like this. I have yet to see Lord sing on stage, but if this recording is anything to go by, it will be a memorable occasion.

Fauré - Requiem; Cantique de Jean Racine
Philippe Jaroussky; Matthias Goerne; Choeur et Orchestre de Paris; Paavo Järvi
Virgin Classics 50999 070921 2

Fauré once described his requiem mass as “gentle in temperament, as I am myself.” He believed that a funeral service should provide comfort and solace to those in mourning, and therefore chose the liturgical texts “which are prayer-like, which plead for something and which look towards the heavens rather than towards hell.” For example, Fauré abandoned the fiery “Dies Irae” except for a fleeting appearance in the “Libera me” and conductor Paavo Järvi, despite large forces at his disposal, respects Fauré’s intention, bringing forth the transcendent beauty of the piece by using a light touch throughout. At the start, the orchestra and chorus are barely perceptible with the subsequent crescendo sublimely subtle and gradual. It is within the harmonic framework that the composer imbues this work with emotion and Järvi ensures a warm and lush delivery through the subtle metamorphoses. Warm, rich and deep tones from baritone Matthias Goerne mirror the orchestration perfectly, while a delightfully unconventional twist is provided by engaging the pure, yet mature timbre of countertenor Philippe Jaroussky for the “Pie Jesu.”

The other choral works included on this CD are the deeply inspirational and gorgeously performed Cantique de Jean Racine, the playfully quirky Pavane and the recording debut of a youthful (and hence more volatile) work, Super flumina Babylonis (By the rivers of Babylon). There is one instrumental work, the magnificent Elégie for cello and orchestra, featuring Orchestre de Paris’ superb principal, Eric Picard.

Concert Notes: The Hart House Singers present Fauré’s Requiem and Tavener’s Three Songs with soloists and orchestra under David Arnot-Johnston, in the Great Hall, Hart House, on March 24. The Choir of the Church of St. Nicholas Birchcliffe features Fauré’s Requiem and Messe Bass in a programme of music for Lent on March 30 at 7:30pm. The Amadeus Choir will perform Fauré’s Requiem at All Saints Kingsway Anglican Church at 4pm on April 1.

Ponchielli - La Gioconda
Deborah Voigt; Elisabeth Fiorillo; Ewa Podles; Richard Margison; Carlo Guelli; Carlo Colmbara; Gran Teatre del Liceu; Daniele Callegari
ArtHaus Musik 107 291

This latest video production of La Gioconda from 2005 is most notable for its staging and sets by architect and theatre designer Pier Luigi Pizzi. The stylized set of interconnecting stairways and a colour scheme dominated by greys with accents of deep blue, scarlet and orange creates an all-pervasive sense of approaching death in decaying Venice during the terror of the dreaded Council of Ten. The effect is so dazzling that one is reminded of frescoes of the 16th century Paolo Veronese.

It is an extremely difficult and expensive opera to produce mainly for its demand of top singers, six in all, in all vocal ranges. In today’s world there are no more Callases, Tebaldis, Bergonzis and Pavarottis (even Domingo is now a baritone), the great stars of the late 20th century who brought their glory to this formidably demanding opera. Today we have Deborah Voigt, one of the few remaining dramatic sopranos with stamina and power to cope with the gruelling title role. Her voice and characterization have what it takes and it’s a great thrill to hear her carry over the top of the choruses and the orchestra. In terms of power Canadian tenor Richard Margison surely belts out the murderous high notes, but the Italianate inflection and charm of the likes of a Pavarotti is unfortunately missing. Still … the beautiful aria “Cielo e il mar” is very successful and warmly applauded. Another great credit to the performance is Ewa Podles, familiar to Toronto audiences, whose sympathetic portrayal and mellifluous alto voice of the abused blind mother is simply heartbreaking. Neither Carlo Guelfi as the evil Barnaba nor Elisabetta Fiorillo as Laura measures up to the historic legends in these major roles, but the conducting of Daniele Callegari is outstanding especially in the exquisitely choreographed, beautifully executed “Dance of the Hours.”

Mahler - Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen; Kindertotenlieder
Julie Boulianne; Ensemble Orford; Jean-Francois Rivest
ATMA ACD2 2665

The emerging Canadian mezzo-soprano Julie Boulianne makes her debut solo recording on the ATMA label with an exquisitely sung pair of orchestral song cycles by Gustav Mahler, in relatively unfamiliar chamber versions, along with five lieder by Mahler’s wife/muse and notorious Viennese femme-fatale Alma Schindler-Mahler-Gropius-Werfel.

The arrangement of the first of the song cycles, the formative Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer, 1884-5), was prepared by Arnold Schoenberg in 1920 for his short-lived concert series, the ultra-exclusive Society for Private Musical Performances. Though the glowing canvas of the symphonic original has been reduced to a monochrome ensemble of ten instruments (including the rarely-heard harmonium, uncharacteristically perfectly in tune and unobtrusive in this recording) the integrity of the composition still shines through. The same can be said for conductor Reinbert de Leeuw’s masterful reduction for Amsterdam’s Schoenberg Ensemble of the Kindertotenlieder cycle (1901-4), Mahler’s settings of the elegies poet Friedrich Rückert wrote commemorating the tragic deaths of his two children.

Boulianne’s voice, precise and well balanced with a voluptuous lower register, is ideally suited for this repertoire. Jean-François Rivest conducts a well-balanced though emotionally reticent ensemble. The album closes with five very attractive songs by Alma Mahler which her husband, upon the advice of Sigmund Freud, edited and arranged to have published in 1910 as recompense for his ill-considered ban on her own composing career upon their marriage in 1902. Accompanied by pianist Marc Bourdeau, Boulianne brings to life the captivating charm of these scarce remnants of Alma’s youthful dreams.

The Flute King - Music from the Court of Frederick the Great
Emmanuel Pahud
EMI Classics 0 84230 2

The programme of this two-CD set of music from the court of the flute-playing Prussian emperor Frederick the Great provides an intriguing snapshot of a significant time and place in the flute’s repertoire. The first disc features concertos by C.P.E. Bach, Benda, Frederick II himself and his flute teacher Quantz, in which flutist Emmanuel Pahud is accompanied by the geographically appropriate Kammerakademie Potsdam. The playing from everyone involved is pleasant enough, though a sameness of musical character and lack of nuance pervade the performance of these pieces, some of which require extra imaginative “juice” to bring them completely off the page. On the other hand, the inherent dynamic theatricality of CPE Bach’s Concerto in A Minor isn’t exploited well enough.

Disc Two presents us with J.S. Bach’s Musical Offering trio sonata and sonatas by Frederick, his sister Anna Amalia, J.F. Agricola and C.P.E. Bach and here the playing is imbued with greater creativity of spirit. Pahud, perhaps inspired by his colleagues, harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock, cellist Jonathan Manson and violinist Matthew Truscott, plays with increased variety of colour and articulation. J.S. Bach’s inestimable trio sonata receives an affectionate and thoughtful rendition, and of special note are Anna Amalia’s Sonata in F Major and the opening Siciliano of Frederick’s Sonata in B Minor.

Although it’s unfortunate that this recording doesn’t take more of Quantz’s own interpretive advice into account, it’s still a worthy compilation of music from 18th century, flute-focused Potsdam.

Concert Notes: Alison Melville curates and performs in “A Musical Bestiary” featuring vocal and instrumental music about creatures of earth, sea, sky and myth for the Toronto Consort at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre March 23 and 24. Melville is also involved in “The Bird Project” which will be featured in a noon-hour multi-media presentation at Walter Hall, University of Toronto on March 15.