Wachner, Julian – Triptych;
Concerto for Clarinet
Scott Andrews; McGill Chamber Orchestra; Julian Wachner
ATMA ACD2 2319

Sparked by multiple talents of composer-conductor Julian Wachner, this disc succeeds on all fronts! In Triptych, commissioned for the 100th anniversary of St. Joseph’s Oratory, organist Philippe Bélanger and Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain offer an exciting, insightful performance. Out of orchestral chaos the organ enters with chordal grandeur in the introductory “Logos.” An introspective two-part organ passage plus its aggressive string response become the bases for the following allegro. I was especially struck by the quiet return of the organ passage over a pedal note, now continued effectively with chimes. Bélanger and selected instrumentalists are beautifully reflective again in the middle movement “Agape,” the violins serene and inspired in the closing melody. The organist shines in the final “Angelus,” building steadily with the orchestra through tricky metre changes to a great, moving conclusion. Himself a virtuoso organist, Wachner has created long sonorities, repeated chords, and busy passages that are static harmonically to suit the highly reverberant space. Producer Johanne Goyette and engineer Anne-Marie Sylvestre deserve special mention for the sonic results.

On a lighter plane, Wachner’s eclectic Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra receives loving treatment from St. Louis Symphony principal clarinettist Scott Andrews and the McGill Chamber Orchestra. Andrews’ clarinet manages to be Coplandesque, jazzy, klezmerish and more in the expressive introduction and motoric allegro. Highly recommended.

Me, Myself & I
Kenny Werner
Justin Time Records JUST 248

Kenny Werner has been around for a long time, is a brilliant pianist, accompanist, composer and educator, and yet somehow has never received the public recognition he deserves. This album was recorded at the Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill in June 2011 as part of the Montreal Jazz Festival and the choice of music ranges from such standards as Round Midnight, Blue in Green and Giant Steps, to Joni Mitchell’s classic I Had a King and the pianist’s own gem, Balloons. There is an ethereal quality to the music right from the opening bars of the first cut which is sustained throughout the album.

Balloons is literally inspired by the life and death of helium balloons. Balloons bought for his daughter’s birthday would float up and touch the ceiling, but eventually they’d come down. So the tune is sort of a musical joke — a balloon from the party to its end. If you recognize something familiar in the performance of Balloons, it has the recurring strain of Barbara Allen, a 17th century Scottish ballad inserted a couple of times, perhaps because the Werner original is about the life and death of a helium balloon and the ballad is about the death of a young love.

Giant Steps turns into a flight of fancy while A Child Is Born is a delicate, introspective voyage of sensitivity taken with haunting simplicity. There is nothing negative to say about this CD. I have been a Kenny Werner fan for many years and I have never heard him play better than he does on this recording.

Silent Movie
Melissa Stylianou
Anzic Records ANZ-0036
www.melissastylianou.com

On this, her fourth album, Toronto-born, New York-based vocalist Melissa Stylianou sings with endearing sensitivity and ample heart. Pleasing to the ear, her voice is higher in range than most jazz singers, occasionally soaring majestically but for the most part remaining understated, focused on the words she sings rather than the sounds she produces. Stylianou’s eclectic taste for repertoire here blends standards and originals with a range of contemporary material: James Taylor, Paul Simon, Johnny Cash, avant-garde folk singer Joanna Newsom and Brazilian pop star Vanessa da Matta. Brilliantly arranged to suit Stylianou, these covers provide some exquisite musical moments.

Perhaps the only downside to recording such excellent covers is that the artist’s own originals do not shine quite as brightly. But the album has numerous highlights including Simon’s Hearts and Bones, da Mata’s Onde Ir, Newsom’s Swansea and a stunning take on one of jazz’s most sentimental standards, The Folks Who Live on the Hill, delivered here with supreme sincerity. All four tracks benefit greatly from the vibrant work of multi-reed player Anat Cohen, appearing here on clarinet, bass clarinet and soprano saxophone. Guitarist Peter McCann is a sympathetic asset throughout, and cellist Yoed Nir is a nice added touch on a few tracks. That said, the entire band cushions Stylianou admirably throughout this beautifully produced, refreshing recording.

Heart First
Halie Loren
Justin Time JTR 8573-2

Singer Halie Loren’s Heart First is what I think of as get-out-the-hammock music. The evocation of lazy hours on the porch in a sultry locale hasn’t so much to do with the origins of the recording — Loren and crew are based in Eugene, Oregon — as with the easy, back-pocket singing style and lightly swinging support of the band. Gifted with a sometimes breathy, sometimes throaty and always gorgeous voice, comparisons to Norah Jones are unavoidable. I even hear a bit of Aaron Neville in the way Loren plays with the break in her voice, in particular on her pretty take of Bob Marley’s Waiting in Vain. It’s in these covers of newer standards and remakes of pop hits that the disc shines brightest, but Loren’s own songs fit in cozily with the classics and overall breeziness. The only time Heart First even comes close to what could be described as edgy is on the reharmonized All of Me, which cleverly blends tremolo guitar (William Seiji Marsh), malleted drums (Brian West) and a minor key for a Willie Nelson-goes-voodoo kind of vibe. Loren also occasionally unleashes a bit of French and Spanish to kick up the sex appeal a notch, but not so much to make you fall out of your hammock.

Opusjazz
Julie Lamontagne
Justin Time JTR 8570-2

I’ve never been a big fan of the “crossover” — opera divas singing jazz; rock stars performing opera; classical artists playing Hendrix — ouch. To my ear, it usually hasn’t worked all that well (unless you’re Keith Jarrett playing Bach). So, it was with some trepidation that I approached pianist/composer Julie Lamontagne’s third and latest album, Opus Jazz.

Turns out I needn’t have been so trepidatious. Lamontagne’s efforts in “revisiting” favourite classical music pieces — “a meeting between the jazz world I currently inhabit and the classical repertoire of my youth” as she explains in her liner notes — have proved, by and large, quite successful in this CD of music for solo piano.

With an early and firm grounding in classical music, Lamontagne ultimately went on to study with Fred Hersh in New York in 2000. (Truthfully, that’s what made me look twice at the CD. I mean, the sublime Fred Hersh, for heaven’s sake — the jazz pianist’s jazz pianist, and exceptional composer.) According to Lamontagne, Hersh encouraged her “to learn the works of Brahms in order to make the connection between jazz and classical.”

Given Lamontagne’s well-executed “adaptations” of works by Fauré, Chopin, Bach, Debussy and Brahms, among others, it seems she paid close attention to the teacher; her Brahms/Hersh-inspired Waltz for Fred does him (Hersh) justice. Bach’s Prelude No.1 in C Major (WTC Book I) is given a fluid and beautiful treatment on track three. And in Chopineries, Lamontagne takes us on a brief, though mellifluous and moving, tour of a Chopin nocturne (Op. posth.72 No.1), ballade (No.1 Op.23) and waltz (No.1 Op.18).

Lamontagne is an accomplished and creative musician, no — uh, make that “yes” — two ways about it.

Less Than Three
Ori Dagan
ScatCat Records ODCD02
www.oridagan.com

In the follow up to his well-received 2009 debut, S’Cat Got My Tongue, Israeli-born Toronto jazz vocalist Ori Dagan has imbued his latest recording with a healthy dose of intriguing material, cool musical sophistication and superb musicianship. The title, Less Than Three, refers to the online symbol of a heart — illustrating Dagan’s theme of “love” in its many guises.

Recently named “Canada’s Next Top Crooner” by CBC Radio, Dagan’s rich and sonorous baritone plumbs a depth of feeling above and beyond what his title would indicate. The CD boasts a line-up of gifted musicians, notably the Bill Evans-influenced pianist Mark Kieswetter and recent Order of Canada recipient, the luminous Jane Bunnett on soprano sax. All of the impressive arrangements are by Dagan and Kieswetter, including eclectic takes on tunes from Madonna, Elton John, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Lady Gaga, as well as two original compositions — the entertaining and witty Googleable, and a moving ode to peace, Nu Az Ma?, sumptuously rendered in his native Hebrew.

Noteworthy is a rhythmic and wickedly sensual version of Madonna’s disco-era hit Lucky Star, as well as Eretz Zavat Chalav — sung with energy and authenticity (as only a “Sabra” can) and elevated to a thrilling level by Jane Bunnett’s stirring improvisations. Other tasty tracks include a scat-o-riffic roller coaster ride on Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance and a pure and elegant rendering of Elton John’s and Bernie Taupin’s first big hit, Your Song. No doubt there will be many more treats in store down the line from this talented and inventive vocalist.

Frère Jacques: Round about Offenbach
Gianluigi Trovesi; Gianni Coscia
ECM 2217

Writing about opera in 1856, composer Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880) ascribed verve, imagination and gaiety to Italian composers and cleverness, good taste and wit to French ones. Who better then to provide a new take on the music of the father of the French operetta than two veteran Italian improvising musicians?

Accordionist Gianni Coscia and Gianluigi Trovesi on piccolo and alto clarinet create stripped-down reconfigurations of 12 of Offenbach’s familiar themes. They often meld those lines with their own droll commentaries producing tracks that are post-modern yet jaunty and swinging, with the gaiety implicit in the French composer’s best work. Trovesi especially, known for his membership in the Italian Instabile Orchestra, can interject blues tonality in such a way that his echoing glissandi reflect the 21st as well as the 19th centuries. Intensely pumping, Coscia’s squeeze box not only provides tremolo rhythms throughout, but adds dance-like slides and jerks which link Offenbach’s favoured Belle Epoque can-can to the rustic Italian tarantella.

These affectionate homage-spoofs are frequently expressed in title juxtapositions as well. For instance, Offenbach’s lilting merry-go-round styled Et moi is coupled with the duo’s No, tu, no, which includes flutter-tongued reed slithers, while their Sei italiano encompasses wide-bore reed cadenzas and comic bellows timing that plays up the thematic lyricism in Offenbach’s No! … Je suis Brésilien. The piece also links his operettas to what will become musical theatre songs.

By including staccato tongue flutters and polyphonic glissandi in their renditions, Trovesi and Coscia confirm that their languid and lyrical extensions of Offenbach’s themes are treated as seriously as they would the work of any composer or improviser. This impression is fortified on the original Galop … trottrellando when the clarinetist’s virtuosic trills only attain decisive bel canto expression alongside the squeeze box interpolating distinctive can-can rhythms.

Oscar Peterson’s Easter Suite
Oscar Peterson; Niels-Henning Orstedt Pedersen; Martin Brew
ArtHaus Musik 107 063

The music on this DVD was recorded in 1984 for London Weekend Television, commissioned by the BBC and broadcast on Good Friday, April 24, 1984. It is one of the least known compositions by Oscar Peterson, even though virtually all sources mention it as one of his major works. The eight movements follow the events related in the gospel story. Long-time associates, bassist Niels-Henning Orstedt Pedersen and drummer Martin Drew, accompany Peterson and, as might be expected, the playing is of an exceptionally high standard.

The DVD also features an interesting interview with Peterson in which he admits to an initial scepticism about interpreting such a topic in the medium of jazz and his relation to spiritual music. He also describes in detail the various motifs of the work and I recommend playing the interview before listening to the Suite

The passion and resurrection may seem surprising topics for a longer jazz work, but Oscar Peterson with his Easter Suite joins a number of significant other jazz greats — artists such as Mary Lou Williams, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck introduced religious themes in their later works as a way of expressing their spiritual beliefs. But religion-inspired jazz has been around for some time. In fact one could present a case that there has been a connection right from the early days in New Orleans with the street parades and the interplay of musical and religious traditions.

The Easter Suite will make an interesting addition to your Peterson collection and we have to thank BBC for making it possible. It is hard to imagine an American network producing such an event.

Mercury is the latest major record label to issue an omnibus collection of their recordings packed into the now familiar 5½ inch box format, in this case entitled Mercury Living Presence Collector’s Edition (4783566) (50 CDs, a 63-page booklet plus an interview CD with Wilma Cozart Fine, Mercury’s producer). Mercury was founded in 1945 in Chicago as a pop label, then jazz, and in 1951 Mercury emerged as a company of major classical interest with their ground-breaking Olympian Series with the Chicago Symphony under Raphael Kubelik. The era of high fidelity was about to emerge and their adopted logo, Living Presence, became a beacon familiar to record collectors and in particular the nascent, yet to be named, audiophiles. Music lovers around the world soon looked for new Mercury recordings from Chicago … or anywhere else. Mercury’s Olympian Series boasted “single microphone” recordings updated to three microphones with the advent of stereo in 1958. Their production of the 1812 Overture with Antal Dorati and the Minneapolis Symphony, with overdubbed cannons and bells, exploded onto the scene, racking up unheard of worldwide sales. To this day, it has never been out of print. Inevitably, Mercury’s engineers and their equipment went overseas to make recordings, including an historic trip to Russia in 1962 where they documented their “house pianist” American Byron Janis playing with Kiril Kondrashin and the Moscow Philharmonic. Mercury made the first complete Nutcracker with ballet conductor Dorati, a stalwart figure in their catalogue along with Paul Paray (Detroit), Howard Hanson (Eastman-Rochester), Frederick Fennell (Eastman Wind Ensemble) and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski (Minneapolis). Soloists, including Janos Starker, the Romeros, et al., along with the complete contents of this absurdly inexpensive collection, are detailed at www.deccaclassics.com. This is not intended to be a basic collection, but it is a well-chosen array of sparkling and rousing performances of alternate repertoire.

My introduction to Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony was on an RCA Victor Long Playing Record (“LP” was the property of Columbia) recorded in 1949 by Toscanini and the NBC Symphony. It remains for me the performance against which all those that followed have been weighed. None has equaled the intensity of that 1949 performance, particularly, but not only because of, the ferocity of the closing pages of the first movement. Unequalled until now.

On the evening of 26 August, 1992 at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, Yuri Temirkanov conducted the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in an extraordinary performance of Manfred, telecast by the BBC and now on a new DVD from ICI Classics (ICAD 5065). Temirkanov was Mravinsky’s assistant when the orchestra was known as the Leningrad Philharmonic and in 1988 he became their music director and chief conductor. Following the drama of the first movement, the two middle movements depicting romantic ideals and aspirations are played without bathos but with passion and often lace-like delicacy. What makes this performance unique is the re-introduction of the entire first movement coda to bring the work to an over-the-top conclusion reflecting absolute despair rather than Manfred’s redemption and consolation in Tchaikovsky’s original. The program includes Berlioz’ Corsair Overture and several, worth the price of admission, encores including a Mravinsky specialty, the pas de deux from the second act of The Nutcracker. Also an inspired “Nimrod” from Elgar’s Enigma Variations and finally the “Death of Tybalt” from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Wide open sound and faultless video makes this stunning DVD a must-have.

1940 saw the beginning of a six year association of the New York Philharmonic and Igor Stravinsky as conductor during which they recorded many of his popular ballets and shorter pieces. A new release from Naxos contains brilliant transfers of the three best known ballets, Firebird, Petrushka and Le Sacre du Printemps (8.112070). This may not have been particularly significant except for the fact that these are the most vital and close to artifact-free transfers of these historic performances to find their way to CD. Somewhat surprising are the perspectives, so clearly heard here. The orchestral playing is immaculate and the musicians are alert and enthusiastic. Stravinsky’s tempi and drive are compelling and a revelation, arguably definitive.

The Firebird is the 1945 suite (26 minutes), Petrushka is a suite of eight sections from the 1911 score (16 minutes) and Le Sacre is the complete 1913 original. Actually “original” is not exactly accurate. Some half dozen years after the premier Stravinsky was asked to correct the many copyist’s errors in the existing originals. As it happened, Stravinsky had some second thoughts and new ideas that he substituted for the original passages. In 1947 he would publish a new revision which would take it out of the Public Domain. In addition to achieving a miraculous recovery of the details within these old 78s, shaming the other re-issues over the years, an unsuspected mistake in the accepted recording date of Le Sacre has been corrected.

Being obsessive and believing that the recording date of Le Sacre was April 29, 1940, I questioned April 4th as shown on this CD. Naxos’s Director of Media Relations, Raymond Bisha forwarded Mark Obert-Thorn’s reply: “My date came from James H. North’s discography, The New York Philharmonic – The Authorized Recordings, 1917–2005 (The Scarecrow Press, 2006). Under the date of April 4th that he gives for this recording, he has a reference to the following note: “The misreading of a single Columbia fact sheet (now in Sony’s archives) led to the incorrect dating of all Philharmonic recordings in the spring of 1940 [ … ] Those erroneous dates have persisted over decades of record issues — including the Dutton and Andante CDs — and discographic listings. The dates on that sheet are for “re-recording,” a further step in the process [i.e., transferring from the 33 1/3 rpm lacquer masters to 78 rpm wax masters], not for orchestra recording sessions. The correct dates, taken from the orchestra personnel manager’s hand-written weekly reports, are listed here. So, the April 4th date for Stravinsky’s recording of Sacre is correct, and the date of April 29th refers to the re-recording process.” Sometimes you just have to ask!

The Trumpet
By John Wallace and Alexander McGrattan
Yale University Press
ISBN 978-0-300-11230-6
$40.00 hardcover, 360 pages
Publication Date: May 15, 2012

“What mouthpiece do you use?” is the usual conversation opener, one trumpet player to another. So now we have another opener: “Have you read The Trumpet by John Wallace and Alexander McGrattan?” This book is a most welcomed addition to the libraries of seasoned professional trumpeters (like me), a “must-have” for any aspiring trumpet student or for anyone wishing to follow the evolution and vibrant history of one of the world’s oldest instruments.

The Trumpet follows a broadly chronological pattern, starting by highlighting the prehistory through civilizations of the ancient world. Summaries of developments in the instrument and its playing techniques follow, setting the stage for more in-depth investigations of these topics in subsequent chapters. The Trumpet then chronicles a period of more than a thousand years, from the fall of the Roman Empire in the West in the fifth century through to the end of the 16th century. Wonderful inclusion of articles by Don Smithers and Peter Downey provoke fresh interest and controversy regarding this relatively neglected period in the history of the trumpet.

Further chapters explore the trumpet in the 17th and 18th centuries, often referred to as “the golden age” of the natural trumpet. I find particular interest in the attention to detail regarding sophisticated performance conventions and the virtuosic repertoire of the Baroque, including detailed studies of the trumpet parts in the works of Bach and Handel. Exploration of the new-found chromatic possibilities toward the end of this period leads beautifully to a detailed analysis of the concerti for the keyed trumpet by Haydn and Hummel. As these are staple audition, examination and performance repertoire, so the insights shared here by master teachers Wallace and McGrattan are invaluable.

Commentary outlines 19th and early 20th century development of valved instruments which redefined the possibilities of the trumpet and the ways in which it was understood by players, composers  and audiences. The charting of detailed and useful technical developments and focus on the implications of these innovations for performance is followed by discussions of the often complex relationships between natural and valved instruments, trumpet and cornet, as well as the development and use of the piccolo trumpet in solo and orchestral contexts.

In discussion of the development of the trumpet as an orchestral and a solo instrument since the early 20th century, homage is given to Maurice André who significantly extended the solo trumpet repertoire by commissioning new works and by performing transcriptions of baroque music. From the 1960s, collaborations between trumpeters and avant-garde composers led to an expansion of classical solo repertoire; a very useful appendix of 20th-century solo works is included as well as numerous orchestral excerpts to provide further clarity.

The role of the trumpet in jazz is a principal theme in the final chapter, with analysis of the early recordings of Louis Armstrong, a fascinating discussion of the more mainstream fields of popular music, brass chamber music and the use of the trumpet in scores for television and the motion picture industry. A welcomed inclusion is the consideration of the image of the trumpet player, exploring, among other things, the significant role of female trumpeters in jazz and classical music. Finally, the future direction of jazz is considered through the prominence of Wynton Marsalis and other influential jazz trumpeters, inspiring the re-emergence of the trumpet as a solo instrument in music today.

Author John Wallace was for nearly two decades principal trumpet of the Philharmonia Orchestra, London, and is principal of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Alexander McGrattan is on faculty at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, is a freelance trumpeter, and a leading exponent of the natural trumpet.

Perhaps worth consideration is the British (er, Scottish) perspective inherent within this work. While for some, this gives it a special appeal, for others, it may result in references which are less immediately accessible. It has been suggested that this is the first major book devoted to the trumpet in more than 20 years. In this reviewer’s perspective, and as a trumpeter, I would have to agree.

Trumpeter Garry Page, The WholeNote’s recently appointed director of marketing, is “subbing” for regular BookShelf columnist Pamela Margles who will return next month.

Thirty-Two Short Films about Glenn Gould was, I think, the first film I ever saw at the Toronto International Film Festival where it received a special citation back in 1993. Subtitled “The Sound of Genius” this outstanding portrait by François Girard, produced by Niv Fichman for Toronto’s Rhombus Media, went on to win four Genie Awards including Best Film and Best Director that year. It was a great pleasure to find a DVD re-issue (SONY 88691912129) in my in-box last month and to revisit Colm Feore’s canny portrayal of Gould in this docu-dramatic recreation of some of the more iconic moments of the artist’s controversial career. While much is indeed dramatic reinvention, we are also presented with commentary by some of Gould’s colleagues including film maker and violinist Bruno Monsaingeon (who is also seen in a performance of Gould’s String Quartet Op.1), Yehudi Menuhin and CBC broadcaster Margaret Pascu among others. Loosely structured on Bach’s Goldberg Variations, we are presented with a series of vignettes featuring Gould in monologue, in dialogue with himself and on occasion in interaction with others. Feore carries the bulk of the performance but there are a few supporting actors including a cameo by screenplay co-writer Don McKellar. Some of the variations involve no commentary, combining music with film montage and in one case an animation sequence by Norman McLaren. If you missed this in the theatre first time around I highly recommend you catch it on DVD now. I only wonder why it has taken two decades to bring it to the home market.

Gould was no stranger to the art of documentary making and some of the scenes presented in Thirty Two Short Films are adapted from his own television and radio productions. Last fall SONY released the 10 DVD set Glenn Gould on Television – The Complete CBC Broadcasts 1954-1977 (886979 52109). You can find Bruce Surtees’ review of that set in the November 2011 Old Wine in New Bottles archive on our website.

In 1990 the great violinist and pedagogue Yehudi Menuhin, mentioned above, became the second laureate of the Glenn Gould Prize, awarded every three years by the Glenn Gould Foundation in recognition of outstanding achievements in music and communication. This year the ninth iteration of the prize will be bestowed on Leonard Cohen at a concert at Massey Hall on May 14 featuring a veritable “Who’s Who” of the pop world which has been so influenced by Cohen’s output over the past half century.

The announcement of the award prompted me to revisit a DVD that was issued in 2010 of a film by Tony Palmer entitled Leonard Cohen – Bird on a Wire (TPDVD166). This documentary was shot during Cohen’s 1972 European tour which also took him to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I found it very interesting to hear the then 37 year old singer talking about how some of the songs were written 10 and 15 years previously and how hard it was to continue to relate to them so many years later. I wonder what his perspective is now, 40 more years on. The film is very candid and we see some less than winning sides of the artist, baiting stage (state) security forces at a concert in Tel Aviv, petulantly refusing to return to the stage on a night when he feels there is no magic in the performance and demeaning (while seeming to reason with) disappointed fans after a concert in Berlin. It is a surprising portrait in many ways, of a successful artist in mid-career, warts and all.

Tony Palmer’s film was made in 1972 and as I mentioned Cohen at that point acknowledges that the songs were written long ago. Yet seven years earlier when the National Film Board of Canada produced Ladies and Gentlemen… Mr. Leonard Cohen (all but the last six minutes of which are available for viewing on YouTube), music was incidental to his career as a poet and novelist and merited mention only in passing in that 45 minute documentary. His droll delivery from the stage however suggests Cohen could have had a career as a stand-up comic.

The most surprising aspect of this film to me was the realization that so many of the iconic songs that we know Leonard Cohen for, Hallelujah and First We Take Manhattan notwithstanding, were written as a young man and, perhaps more surprising, that the voice we never considered “good” was actually quite musical in those early years.

Of course Cohen has had a long and successful career and in recent years has continued to release albums and tour extensively. The 2008 documentary Live in London and a tribute concert at the Montreal Jazz Festival that year are testament to his ongoing influence in the music world. Most recently Old Ideas (Columbia 88697986712) has been very well received although this critic will reserve judgement on the recent output until cover versions of the songs begin to appear. Evidently there have been 150 renditions of Hallelujah, in many different languages and genres, but I have my doubts that the new Amen will achieve such glory.

Another Glenn Gould Prize laureate who has caught my attention this month is Pierre Boulez who won the $50,000 award in 2002. A new recording of Mémoriale and Dérive 1 & 2 featuring Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain under founder Daniel Kawra (naïve MO 782183) presents interrelated works from the mid-1980s. The last of these has continued to occupy Boulez since its conception with the most recent revision dating from 2006; the first is based on a movement from the 1972 work … explosante-fixe … written in response to the death of Stravinsky. So in effect the pieces here reflect three and a half decades of Boulez’ compositional output.

The disc seems organic in the way it progresses. It begins with Mémoriale for solo flute, two horns, three violins, two violas and cello, dedicated to the memory of Canadian flutist Lawrence Beauregard who worked closely with Boulez in the development of interactive computer/instrument interfaces at IRCAM, Mémoriale exists in two versions: with and without technology. I had to listen very carefully to this recording to realize that this is the purely acoustic rendition. The strings using metal practise mutes produce an ethereal shimmering that sounds almost electronic.

Although composed in 1984, a year earlier than Mémoriale, Dérive 1 seems to grow out of the opening piece. Only this time the strings are not muted and it is as if familiar material has been amplified, or rather magnified.

This is taken a step further in the 50 minute Dérive 2. I was surprised to realize that although using a much larger ensemble than the opening pieces, the orchestration here involves just 16 players. My initial impression was of a concerto for orchestra but the basic one per part instrumentation produces a deceptively full spectrum of sound. The addition of harp, piano, vibraphone and marimba to the bare bones ensemble contributes to the effect. I found the bassoon, English horn and clarinet cadenzas especially intriguing.

This recording will provide a good introduction to the music of one of the most important composers of our time for those not yet familiar with Boulez. It is also an important addition to the discography for those who already realize the scope of this master.

Associated with the Glenn Gould Prize is the City of Toronto award of $15,000 to a “protégé” as designated by the winner. We do not yet know who Mr. Cohen will name, but I would like to mention in passing that the most recent GGP laureate, José Antonio Abreu, picked the young Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel. Dudamel has gone on to an illustrious career at the helm of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in addition to currently serving as music director of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (Sweden) and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. His recording of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony with the LA Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon digital release 0289 477 9459 2) won the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance.

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 online shopping and additional, expanded and archival reviews.

—David Olds, DISCoveries Editor, discoveries@thewholenote.com

TSO principal cellist Joseph Johnson and his section mates were featured during the recent New Creations Festival in the North American premiere of the Cello Concerto Grosso by festival curator Peter Eötvös. Johnson took that occasion to launch his first compact disc which features two staples of 20th century cello repertoire, the Rachmaninov Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor Op.19 and Sonata No.2 in D Minor Op.40 by Dmitri Shostakovich. Johnson is accompanied by Victor Asuncion with whom he has been performing since 2009. The partnership seems to have been made in heaven if the music making heard here is any indication. Balance and interplay are impeccable and these interpretations are obviously from the heart. As it says on the homepage of Asuncion’s website (www.victorasuncion.com) “Victor is a collaborator. Don’t get lost in a forest of blandness. Opt for an enthusiastic artistic partner working with you, not just for you.” Joseph Johnson (www.joecello.com) has obviously done just that.

The independent release (JVCD-01) was recorded last winter in Minneapolis where Johnson previously played in the Minnesota Orchestra and the Minneapolis Quartet. As the very personal liner notes tell us, the session took place just days after what could have been a disastrous accident at Roy Thomson Hall when Johnson’s cello fell out of its case and the neck of the 1747 Guillami instrument snapped off. Thanks to the experts at Toronto’s Geo. Heinl and Co. temporary repairs were made and the session was able to proceed. There is no suggestion of distress in the sound of the cello captured on this beautiful recording. My only criticism is the assumption that this music is so well known it speaks for itself. There is not a scrap of information about the pieces or the composers to be found in the notes.

The latest from the Canadian Music Centre is Still Image – Music by Owen Underhill (Centrediscs CMCCD 17412) which features works involving string quartet performed by Quatuor Bozzini. They are joined by François Houle and Jeremy Berkman on clarinet and trombone respectively. Still Image is an apt description of the disc as well as being the title of a piece commissioned in 2007 by Houle and revised in 2011 for this recording. Underhill’s music generally has an underlying stillness although it is often tinged with tension. Quarter-tones and multiphonics in the clarinet writing extend the tonality here.

There are two one-movement string quartets which represent the earliest and most recent works on the disc. Both are very personal and emotional offerings. String Quartet No.3 – The Alynne was written in 1998 after the birth of a daughter with chromosomal abnormalities. String Quartet No.4 – The Night was commissioned by Quatuor Bozzini in 2011. It takes its title and inspiration from a poem by Henry Vaughan which includes the lines “There is in God (some say) / A deep, but dazzling darkness.” Underhill says “The striking contrast and integration of darkness and dazzling light in the poem helped guide the overall concepts of alternating slow and fast sections.”

The opening of the Trombone Quintet which dates from 1999 is suggestive of a distorted Renaissance consort of viols whose microtonal chord drones could be mistaken for an accordion over top of which the long tone melody of the trombone soars. The second movement has the strings in a dance-like accompaniment as Berkman sings into his muted trombone. A contemplative and lyrical third movement is followed by an extended fourth which begins percussively but gradually gives way to stillness which brings the disc to a close. Quatuor Bozzini has an obvious affinity with this music and Underhill is very well served by this disc.

Concert Note: Quatuor Bozzini performs music of Stravinsky, Oesterle and Britten in Music Toronto’s Quartet Series at Jane Mallett Theatre on April 5.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a new disc by the Spanish Trio Arbós and find that it contained an extended work by Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich. Scales of Joy and Sorrow was commissioned by the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival and Roger D. Moore for the Gryphon Trio who premiered it in 2007. The three-movement 20 minute work has obviously gone on to have an international life of its own and listening to this rollicking performance it is easy to see why. The Non Profit Music release (NPM 1012 www.nonprofitmusic.org) is entitled Play it Again and it is full of attractive and approachable contemporary works for piano trio. Not quite “bonbons” but certainly designed as crowd pleasers, this repertoire — including works by Kenji Bunch, Jorge Grundman, Elena Kats-Chernin, Paul Schoenfield and Chick Corea — is enthusiastically embraced and ebulliently played by Trio Arbós.

Concert Note: The Penderecki String Quartet will perform Marjan Mozetich’s JUNO award winning Lament in a Trampled Garden along with works of Beethoven for the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society on April 18.

ATMA Classique of Montreal continues to put out excellent discs at a prodigious rate. One of the more recent releases is particularly appropriate to the Easter season this month, Bach’s St. John Passion (ACD2 2611). Featuring Les Voix Baroques and Arion Orchestre Baroque under the direction of Alexander Weimann, international soloists include tenor Jan Kobow as the Evangelist and three basses, Stephan MacLeod as Jesus, Joshua Hopkins as Peter and Nathaniel Watson as Pilate. All are in great form here, with particular kudos to chorister soprano Shannon Mercer who shines in the aria “Ich folge dir gleichfalls mit freudigen Schritten.” From the motoric opening “Herr, unser Herrscher” through the recitatives, arias and choruses of the “Betrayal and Arrest,” “Denial of Peter,” “Interrogation and Scourging,” “Condemnation and Crucifixion,” “Death of Jesus” and “Burial” of Christ to the peaceful final chorale “Ach Herr, lass dein leib Engelein” (Ah Lord, let thine own angels dear…) almost two hours later, our attention is held without flagging in this glorious performance. The comprehensive booklet includes thorough program notes and texts in three languages.

Concert Note: Although I was unable to find any local performances of the St. John Passion this month, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion will be presented by the Grand Philharmonic Choir at the Centre in the Square in Kitchener on April 6.

And a final local concert note. On April 11 Toronto audiences can experience the pure tones of the predominantly medieval group Anonymous 4 at Koerner Hall. This a cappella female ensemble has been charming audiences for 25 years and the “Anthology 25” program will highlight ancient, traditional and modern works from their repertoire. The recent Harmonia Mundi release Secret Voices (HMU 807510) features chant and polyphony from the Huelgas Codex, c.1300 with selections divided into “First Light,” “Morning,” “Mass,” “Evening” and “Night.” If you are not already familiar with Anonymous 4 this would be a great place to start.

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

Dowland in Dublin
Michael Slattery; La Nef
ATMA ACD2 2650

Was Dowland Irish or English? We will probably never know but it has not stopped tenor Michael Slattery from working with La Nef in giving some of Dowland’s compositions “a simple, Celtic flavour.” Slattery in turn looked for a drone sound to accompany himself. He found it in the shruti box associated with Indian prayers …

The contrasts in this selection emerge early; the second track, Now, O Now, a stalwart of Elizabethan farewells, is sung unchanged but its musical accompaniment is composed by Slattery and La Nef! Behold a Wonder Here is slightly altered — slowed down — but again the accompaniment is far from the courts of Europe.

This is no conventional recital of Dowland. Some of his songs are performed as purely instrumental pieces — but effectively. Fine Knacks for Ladies is one such; its setting would grace any Elizabethan ball. And then there are those thoughtful, introspective and melancholy songs for which Dowland is most often remembered which are included despite the artists’ aim of “lightening up” his music. Come Heavy Sleep is performed by Slattery with the dignity its words deserve, equally respectfully accompanied by flute, lute, cittern and viol da gamba — there are some songs (His Golden Locks is another) that can never be changed.

Tenors are often the unsung heroes of Dowland’s music, overshadowed by bass, soprano or countertenor parts. Whether or not listeners approve of the arrangements here, Michael Slattery’s tenor voice excels.

Duetti
Philippe Jaroussky; Max Emanuel Cencic; Les Arts Florissants; William Christie
Virgin Classics 5099907094323

Les Arts Florissants date from 1979. Founder William Christie has identified two of the finest younger countertenors, Philippe Jaroussky and Max Emanuel Cencic, and devoted a whole CD to 24 duetti from the Italian Baroque. It is encouraging that many of the composers included are being rediscovered. There is, for example, a magnificent stately quality to the opening piece, Pietoso nume arcier, a duet by Giovanni Bononcini.

Longest of the tracks is the eight-minute duet Quando veggo un’usignolo by Francesco Bartolomeo Conti. Demonstrating the countertenors’ skills at their most testing, its dialogue is a clever “echoing” of the two sets of lyrics, in turn accompanied by the baroque ensemble at its most expressive.

Two further composers, Nicola Porpora and Benedetto Marcello, supply five and eight more duets, respectively. While relatively short in duration, they combine cheerfulness and interpretative difficulty and are, perhaps, a fine introduction to the Italian baroque countertenor. The informative notes describing the importance of each composer reinforce this.

Sometimes the tracks feature one singer only, but there is accompaniment in various combinations of violin, cello, lute, theorbo, harpsichord and organ. This is demonstrated clearly in Philippe Jaroussky’s performance of Francesco Mancini’s Quanto mai saria piu bello.

Full credit to William Christie for researching the composers, realising the talent of both countertenors and selecting pieces that so amply display their skills.

Remember
Guelph Chamber Choir; Gerald Neufeld
Independent GCC2011-6
www.guelphchamberchoir.ca

In this fifth recording by the Guelph Chamber Choir, we are invited to remember loved ones and pay homage to our country and the roots of those who built it through choral arrangements of favorite folk songs, spirituals and art songs. As director Gerald Neufeld writes in the informative and well-researched liner notes, “Music is a potent medium for remembering our past, our joys and sorrows, and those we love. Songs marry poetry to music’s passion, thus conjuring a strong potion that takes us back in time to where we feel the thoughts of a bygone era.”

The title track is delivered by the choir with all the heartfelt sentiment and sensitivity Christina Rossetti’s famous verse and Steven Chatman’s setting deserves. Similarly, Kurt Besner’s Prayer of the Children is deeply moving in its portrayal of war’s innocent victims. A Canadian landscape is evoked beautifully through Eleanor Daly’s Paradise (Song of Georgian Bay) and we experience all the thrilling sounds of the railway in Jeff Smallman’s setting of E. Pauline Johnson’s Prairie Greyhounds. Ian Tyson’s Four Strong Winds and James Gordon’s Frobisher Bay work especially well in choral arrangement.

The men’s chorus demonstrates its a cappella strength and range admirably in Stan Rogers’ Northwest Passage. A nod to the underground railroad is given with the inclusion of escape song Wade in the Water followed by Worthy to be Praised which (though some of the syncopations and hemiolas could benefit from a more natural delivery) provides a rousing finale to a well-crafted program.