Up to 1948 when Columbia Records introduced Long Playing discs, 78rpm recordings were the medium for home use. These discs had a limited frequency response but in 1945 British Decca astounded the industry and the record buying public around the world with their Full Frequency Range Recordings. Thus was born the Decca Sound and the logo FFRR on the label guaranteed state-of-the-art fidelity. The FFRR technology was even better realized on their new long playing discs which sonically eclipsed the Columbia product. Later FFRR became FFSS for Full Frequency Stereo Sound. Today, as always, Decca on the label is an assurance of excellent sound.

THE DECCA SOUND (DECCA 4782866) is a Limited-Edition, 50-CD set of outstanding performances and recordings dating from 1957 until 2009 packaged in a cube taking only five and a quarter inches of shelf space. As to be expected, there are many familiar works and a wealth of off the beaten track items. A very important factor in this particular collection is the roster of artists, many exclusive to Decca, heard at their distinguished best in their chosen repertoire. Even though there are no subsequent re-mastering dates revealed, in no cases did any performance sound less than freshly minted with spacious, translucent sound clarifying textures from top to bottom. The complete list of contents may be seen on the Decca web site www.deccaclassics.com. Each of the 50 CDs is sleeved in a fine board facsimile of the original CD cover. The 198 page booklet gives complete details of recording dates, venues, producers, etc., together with an extensive history of Decca from 1937 when Edward Lewis assembled a hand-picked collection of experienced sound engineers including the inspired and inspiring, forward-looking Arthur Haddy who headed the Decca team for decades. Given the excellence of the contents and presentation, at about $2.50 per disc this package is just about irresistible.

EILEEN JOYCE: The complete Parlophone & Columbia solo recordings 1933-1945 (Appian Publications & Recordings APR 7502, 5 CDs). Today, only collectors and archivists recognize her name, but in the 1930s, 40s and 50s Eileen Joyce was a pianist held in high esteem by her fellow musicians, critics and record collectors. She was born in Tasmania in 1908 and grew up in Boulder City, Western Australia. Her talent was recognized at an early age. Later Percy Grainger described her as “the most transcendentally gifted child he had ever heard.” She studied in Leipzig from 1927 until she moved to London early in 1930 where she was accepted by Tobias Matthay, one of the great musical pedagogues of his time, whose methods had produced many successful pianists including Myra Hess and Clifford Curzon. Her career took off in 1933 and she was in demand both as a recitalist and in concertos, appearing with such conductors as Beecham, van Beinum, Karajan, de Sabata, Celibidache, Ormandy, Wood, Szell and the rest. In those days it was still accepted and indeed expected that performing artists would have their own signature style and sound. Therefore there was more variation between them, as to how they produced their sounds and how they projected it in the music. The collectors of historic recordings are fascinated by this individuality which has become rare in the last half century. Eileen Joyce’s style can be characterized as bold, assured, and confident, and from these recordings could be classified as being on the dry or percussive side, although that may be attributable to the recording. She demonstrates, however, that she delivers a singing quality when she selects to do so. As a result, her communication to the listener is not always as immediate as we find in some of her contemporaries. Bryce Morrison states in the informative liner notes that “Virtually all of her recordings in this issue have the power to reinvent themselves so that you seem to be forever hearing them for the first time.” Joyce’s public most wanted to hear her play Schubert, Liszt, Chopin, Debussy and Grieg but, as we hear here, she played Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich – the list goes on – together with such fashionable salon pieces as The Rustle of Spring, Melody in F, Lotus Land, Widmung, etc. Also included in the 94 tracks is Mozart’s Concert Rondo K386 with orchestra. Although the repertoire is attractive, this set is primarily aimed at the specialist collector of historic pianists. For those who may be interested in Eileen Joyce and her times, there is a fascinating and revealing 264 page biography written by Richard Davis and published by the Freemantle Arts Centre Press titled, Eileen Joyce: A Portrait (ISBN 186368333-X).

JOAN SUTHERLAND - The complete Decca Studio Recordings (DECCA 4783243, 23CDs, Limited Edition). The late Joan Sutherland (1926-2010) was one of the outstanding sopranos of the last century and she was known to the millions who were never privileged to hear her live through her many Decca recordings of operas and recitals. She was a commanding figure in person but it was her voice alone that won her a devoted following. To honour her, Decca has assembled every one of her studio recitals and packaged them in this attractive set. Her husband Richard Bonynge was, progressively, her pianist, coach and conductor. They married in 1954 and he directed her towards the baroque repertoire, the bel canto period and French works of the 19th century. The turning point in her career came on the evening of February 17, 1959, when she sang the title role in the first production at Covent Garden in 35 years of Lucia de Lammermoor. The performance was a well-deserved triumph for Sutherland and immediately her name was recognized in operatic circles around the world. She retired from the stage in 1990. Included in the 23 CDs are Art of the Prima Donna, Command Performance, Age of Bel Canto, The Noel Coward Album, Songs My Mother Taught Me, The Mozart Album and many more. The albums date from 1959, Operatic Arias through to 1986, Talking Pictures – Songs from the Movies and finally from 1987, Romantic Trios for soprano, horn and piano, with Barry Tuckwell and Bonynge (all born in Sydney – a nice ending to her recording career). The enclosed booklet contains full recording details and a short biography. In 1995 she acted in an Australian movie with Leo McKern and Geoffrey Rush entitled Dad and Dave on our selection. Sutherland plays Mum (a non-singing role) with no makeup or made-up to appear not to be wearing any. Set in rural Queensland, the characters are familiar to Australians. It’s a very dreary film.

Eugen Jochum: Rare Recordings (TAHRA 720) It was with singular pleasure that I listened to the second suite from Daphnis et Chloé played by the Bavarian Rundfunks Orchestra on this new release from Tahra. Jochum founded the orchestra in 1949 at the bidding of Bavarian Radio, creating one of Europe’s very finest ensembles. The often played Ravel suite is an excellent example of the composer’s meticulous craftsmanship and this virtuoso performance from October 1950 is played with an unexpected subtlety of timbre worthy of the finest French interpretation. Annelies Kupper was a German operatic soprano, well known and admired in her day as an interpreter of Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss. Her repertoire on CD is quite extensive but here, from December 1950 is her only recording of The Four Last Songs, richly sung with assurance and ardor and sumptuously supported by Jochum. The overture to Die Fledermaus is played with a sparkling exuberance that is usually heard only from the pit. The overture to Handel’s Agrippina is followed by Mozart’s Rondo K382 for piano and orchestra played with Edwin Fischer at the 1954 Wurzburg Festival. There are no complaints about the sound which is full-bodied, often with a natural, front to back dimension and with virtually no recording artifacts. This is the latest release from Tahra devoted to performances conducted by Jochum and all the works are new to his recorded repertoire.

Some years ago in Dallas we interviewed Andrew Litton who was then music director of the Dallas Symphony. He stated that very soon all symphony orchestras will sound the same. Well, it is very close to being true now as orchestral musicians move from orchestra to orchestra and from country to country, as do conductors. But there can be no denying that there was a unique sound to the French School of string quartet playing, such as the Calvet, Loewenguth, Parrinen, Krettley and Pascal quartets. All were characterized by their elegance and purity of style, immaculate intonation and humility in the face of the music. DOREMI has issued 22 Mozart String Quartets performed by the Pascal Quartet, circa 1952 (DOREMI DHR-8001-5, 5CDs). Mozart string quartets, particularly the ten mature ones, are arguably among the finest gems in classical music. In listening to the Pascals playing one senses that they are playing for the love of the music and that the microphone just happens to be listening in. The juvenile quartets are played with the same respect and appreciation. The original recorded sound was ideal in every respect and the meticulous transfers from the Musical Masterpiece Society LPs restore these radiant performances to life. This set is essential Mozart.

With The Goat Rodeo Sessions (SONY 88697891862) being touted as Yo-Yo Ma’s most successful release to date, it likely doesn’t need my help with promotion. But I can’t help but mention it as it touches on so many of my own musical interests. Evidently a “Goat Rodeo” is something which depends on an improbable number of high risk factors all coming together at once. Hyperbole aside, this recording is the confluence of four very busy musicians from across the musical spectrum and it is a treat from start to finish. Of course we are aware of Ma’s diverse interests in the field of classical music, and his world and roots music projects like Silk Road and earlier collaborations with Mark O’Connor and Edgar Meyer. On this outing bassist Meyer also plays piano and gamba. The other contributors, Nashville session-man Stuart Duncan and bluegrass star Chris Thile, respectively add fiddle, fretless banjo, mandolin and plectrum banjo; and mandolin, guitar, gamba, fiddle and vocals to the mix. Meyer, Duncan and Thile also share writing credits on all the tunes leaving Ma the odd man out simply playing his cello. But with the bottom end so ably anchored by Meyer, Ma gets to exploit the upper reaches of his instrument and the resulting ensemble is an extraordinary string band. Add the lovely voice of Anife O’Donovan on a couple of tracks and you have a wonderfully diverse album which, while firmly rooted in American folk traditions, incorporates a wealth of influences.

Local cellist Nick Storring was also the 2011 recipient of the Canadian Music Centre’s Toronto Emerging Composer Award. Like Ma, Storring works in a variety of genres, but unlike his mainstream counterpart, pretty much all of Storring’s excursions are far from the beaten path. Rife, a recent solo release on the adventurous British label Entr’acte (121 www.entracte.co.uk), features electronic compositions created over the past six years. Artifacts, takes as its main sound source a “near-broken” 7/8 size violin given to the composer by his grandmother. After nearly 22 years as a wall ornament the instrument became the inspiration for this extended suite. Although we are occasionally aware of the sound of the violin being plucked or bowed, for the most part the source is obscured by extensive electronic processing, computer manipulation, recording onto a dictaphone whose power supply was shorting out and the use of intentionally damaged CDRs and deliberately corrupted MP3 files. You wouldn’t know this from the liner notes however, which are literally non-existent. The distinctive packaging — a silver foil heat-sealed sleeve with purple lettering listing the tracks, brief credits and the websites of the publisher and the composer — is certainly eye-catching and presumably cost-effective, but ultimately does a disservice to the product. I think Storring is of the same opinion because when he sent the disc he followed up with a note saying that given the “peculiar style of the packaging” he felt he should provide an info-sheet with background about himself and the pieces. Although the information is available on the Entr’acte website, this fact is not mentioned on the packaging. The other works are Indices of Refraction (2005-2011) which uses various instruments, field recordings and mixer feedback, and Outside, Summer is Bursting at the Seams which cites only cello but the sounds here are every bit as varied as those in the other compositions. This is an intriguing release by a young composer/performer well worthy of our attention.

Dialectics – Expressions in Solo Percussion is a new CD by Richard Moore (www.richardmoore.ca). It juxtaposes works for relatively pitch-less instruments — kettle drums, bass drums, drum set and maracas — with pieces for melodic instruments including vibraphone, marimba and two members of the hammered-dulcimer family: the large Eastern European cimbalom and its tenor counterpart, the Austrian hackbrett. The opener, March for Two Pairs of Kettledrums was written more than three centuries ago by Jacques Philidor. Originally intended for two players placed antiphonally, Moore uses overdubbing to play the duet with himself in a convincing manner. The title track is a 1999 composition for two large bass drums by Moore himself. The driving first movement Thesis is reminiscent of the surf-rock classic Wipeout. Antithesis is introspective, combining hand drumming with the eerie sounds produced by drawing rubber mallets across the skin of the drum heads. Without a noticeable break Synthesis grows out of the quiet and builds back to the opening movement’s frantic pitch. Moore’s transcription of Max Roach’s The Drum Also Waltzes is an extended drum solo using a traditional jazz kit which features a bass drum and high-hat theme alternating with improvised sections. Moore is one of very few cimbalom players in our midst and interspersed with these percussive offerings we are treated to his own adaptation of an Andante for solo piano by Bela Bartok on this distinctive instrument, plus an original work by the Bavarian composer Frederik Schwenk who takes melodies from the folk repertoire of the Finnish kantele, yet another ethnic dulcimer, and adapts them for the hackbrett in a suite that features hammered strings in the outer movements and plucked strings in the middle. This is followed by an unusual piece by Mexican composer Javier Alvarez in which the performer is instructed to improvise using maracas over an electronic track which varies from environmental to industrial sounds and gradually transforms into a gentle folk melody. Moore’s improvisation is so well integrated that it is hard to realize it is not a part of the original soundscape. Frankly, I wish the disc ended there. Moore is an accomplished musician and these tracks demonstrate his command of many aspects of the contemporary percussionist’s arsenal. The disc however continues with Bach’s Third Suite for Solo Cello performed on a marimba. Perhaps it is just my prejudice as a cellist, but I feel there is simply not enough resonance, especially in the lowest register of the marimba, to do the music justice. Certainly Bach can withstand being translated into virtually any instrumental form, but the question for me is does the music benefit from the translation and in this instance my answer is no.

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, DISC discoveries@thewholenote.com

Pieces in My Hands
by William Aide
Oberon Press
87 pages, score reproductions, CD enclosed; $38.95 cloth,  $18.95 paper

Canadian pianist William Aide has spent most of his illustrious career as a performer and teacher. Yet during the past 15 years he has published a memoir and two books of poetry. In this new collection of poetry he continues to confront the “habitable pain and pleasure” of life through the prism of music. While beguiling us with his distinctive poetic voice, he creates resonant images that deepen our relationship with the music itself.

At the heart of this collection are two sets of poems based on large-scale pieces by Liszt and Schumann. B Minor Sonata probes Liszt’s fascination with the Faust legend and its various implications. Aide’s cycle closes with a moving Coda, which begins:

Who’ve lasted through the days and nights

are shriven:

The theme of peace bestowed on humankind

Restores benignity, the pact re-signed,

With one D sharp, all sinners are forgiven.

Mephisto murmurs low his final warning,

memorial tremors, epic myths recede;

each pianist plays out of his human need

for abstract music’s deep abyss of meaning.

The poems based on Schumann’s Carnaval offer pithy evocations of the characters the composer created in these short pieces. They zoom, leap, waltz and laugh, reminding us that “suffering seems unreal once it has passed.” Each poem in these two cycles is printed facing a page from the piano score on which Aide has scribbled comments such as, “Love these stentorian BLASTS!”, “This page wearies with age …” and “Hard to bear this note.”

Composers like Chopin (as always) and William Byrd, pianists like Janina Fialkowska and Claudio Arrau, painters like Delacroix and Uccello, and writers like George Eliot and Günther Grass, along with specific events from Aide’s own life, are woven into the fabric of the remaining poems.

The CD included with this book is truly a bonus, since it offers the opportunity to hear the music that means so much to Aide as interpreted by the poet himself. Yet these poems do stand on their own, able to provoke, amuse, teach and move us quite apart from the music that inspires them.

My Nine Lives: A Memoir of Many Careers in Music
by Leon Fleisher and Anne Midgette
Anchor Books
334 pages, photos; $18.00 paper

It has been almost 50 years since pianist Leon Fleisher started losing the use of his right hand. This candid memoir takes us through all the ways his world fell apart while he struggled to find a cure for what was eventually diagnosed as focal dystonia. He kept performing by playing works written for the left hand alone, many newly commissioned by him. He taught, and took up conducting. But the emotional impact was devastating. Yet, after untold experimental procedures and false hopes, Fleisher, finally found a treatment that worked. Now 83, he has been performing with two hands for a number of years.

Fleisher offers colourful portraits of some of the remarkable “individuals of strong character” he has worked with over the years, like Leonard Bernstein and George Szell, who conducted Fleisher’s legendary recordings of the Beethoven concertos. The most memorable figure to emerge here is his beloved teacher, the great pianist Artur Schnabel. But it’s a shame there’s no index to be able to track down references to all these musicians, among other things.

Over the years, Fleisher has been regularly giving masterclasses in Toronto at the Royal Conservatory of Music. In five separate chapters he describes how he teaches specific works that have meant most to him, including Brahms’ Concerto in D Minor and Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major. He offers insights on what the music is about, and how to communicate that without sounding “as if feeling were being injected into the music, as through a syringe. You hear that kind of thing a lot, and it’s ghastly.”

There are plenty of funny moments here. But the issues Fleisher is dealing with are serious — physically, emotionally and musically. “At my lowest point,” he confides, “I seriously considered killing myself. But I didn’t kill myself. I stayed alive. And, just as I was stuck with being alive, I was stuck with my love of music.” This memoir is inspiring and brave, though at times I found the breezy tone Fleisher and his co-author, journalist Anne Midgette, invariably assume at odds with the gravity of what’s going on.

Concert Notes: January 11 and 12 at 8pm in Roy Thomson Hall, Leon Fleisher conducts the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and performs Mozart’s Concerto for Three Pianos K242 with his wife, Katherine Jacobson Fleisher, and former student, Stewart Goodyear.

Fleisher also conducts the Royal Conservatory Orchestra and performs Prokofiev’s Concerto No.4 with Uri Mayer conducting, at 8pm February 17, 2012, at Koerner Hall.

Gustav Mahler
by Jens Malte Fischer
translated by Stewart Spencer
Yale University Press
758 pages, photos; $50.00

In Gustav Mahler’s own mind, his life and his music were “inexhaustibly” bound up together. By filtering his biography of Mahler through the direct relationship between the two, Jens Malte Fischer is able to shed light on what makes Mahler’s music so utterly his own. “Using a vocabulary that seems familiar and sometimes even intimately colloquial,” he writes, “Mahler expresses all that is unheard of and uncanny, all that is unsettling and upsetting. What was alien sounds familiar, and what is familiar now seems alien.”

Mahler’s life was as complex as his music, mostly because, as Fischer shows, he was such an intense, complicated and brilliant character. Admiring though he is, Fischer doesn’t shrink from describing how condescendingly insensitive Mahler could be with colleagues, friends and, especially, his much younger wife Alma. But Fischer, like most Mahler biographers, is equally tough on Alma. Even from her own diaries she emerges as narcissistic, humourless and willful. But, as she wrote, Mahler “lived a life of torment and inflicted torments a thousand times worse on me.” She even gave up her own dreams of being a composer at his insistence, though Fischer seems unnecessarily harsh when he disparages her talent on the evidence of her surviving compositions.

In 1910, just months before he died, Mahler finally realized how unhappy Alma was. When he discovered she was having an affair with Walter Gropius, he contacted Sigmund Freud for help. No notes from the session, which took place as they wandered the picturesque streets of Leiden, Holland, have survived. But among Freud’s writings Fischer found interesting references to a patient who could only be Mahler. Fischer even managed to track down the bill Freud sent to Alma after Mahler’s death.

As a theatre historian, Fischer is able to offer fascinating perspectives on various aspects of Mahler’s work, such as the detailed and often idiosyncratic performance instructions Mahler wrote in his scores (which Fischer compares to playwrights’ stage directions). He is especially good at describing the literary, artistic, political and religious currents of his day, above all the prevailing climate of anti-Semitism that drove Mahler, who was Jewish, to convert to Catholicism. But there are occasional lapses in musical judgment. Explaining Mahler’s famous remark, “My time will come,” he inexplicably downplays the popularity of the works of Mahler’s supposed rival, Richard Strauss.

The translation by noted scholar Stewart Spencer flows well, especially when dealing with such vivid descriptions of Mahler’s works as, “His First Symphony is a tempestuous, urgent, rebellious work, the composer’s first contribution to the medium and without doubt the boldest symphonic visiting card in the whole history of western music.”

Concert Notes: The University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra under David Briskin performs Mahler’s First Symphony on Thursday, February 2, at 7:30pm in the MacMillan Theatre.

James Levine: 40 Years at the Metropolitan Opera
edited by Ellen Keel
Amadeus Press
230 pages, photos; $35.00 US paper

This attractive book marks conductor James Levine’s 40 years working with the Metropolitan Opera. It’s a celebration, but there’s a poignant undercurrent, since, after this book went to press, lingering health problems forced Levine to give up his position as music director of the Met and withdraw from conducting assignments.

Singers and orchestra musicians talk about working with Levine, and he, in turn, offers comments on his experiences conducting them. We begin to understand what makes a great opera conductor. But all that mutual admiration stifles discussion of the controversial issues — and inevitably there have been plenty during his tenure — that would make these comments more incisive. Levine himself remains elusive.

We get an inkling of the power Levine wields at the Met when he says that for the revival of director Robert Wilson’s polarizing Lohengrin in 1998, “I insisted on a few changes.” But by all reports here, Levine exercises his power with sensitivity, support and inspiring passion. So it’s hardly surprising that singers love working with him. Sherrill Milnes says, “For me, Jim was the first ‘love conductor,’ versus the old-time ‘fear conductors’” …

The 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s were the halcyon days of the CBC. During those years the Corporation produced programs of the highest calibre for both their radio and television networks. All the Arts were covered: theatre, ballet, opera, etc. including live concerts, recitals and intelligent and informative talk shows. In those years, Glenn Gould developed from a young pianist of obvious talent into the world famous re-interpreter of Bach and Beethoven and others and, from time to time, he shared his views with the TV audience.

SONY has issued a 10 DVD set of Glenn Gould on Television – The Complete CBC Broadcasts 1954-1977 (886979 52109). This collection could correctly be dubbed The Wit and Wisdom of Glenn Gould, for it contains every one of those original, well-prepared programmes that centered around Gould playing music close to his heart. From 1961 performances were preceded by Gould’s spoken introduction and elaboration. I hurried into the set to watch disc five containing the 1966 Humphrey Burton Interviews in which Gould very persuasively argues for his radical, in some degree or another, performances of Bach and Beethoven. On the second disc of the Burton interviews, broadcast a few weeks later, Gould argues the case for Arnold Schoenberg as the composer whose music he places above Bartók, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, or anyone else in the 20th century (up 1966, of course). Finally, Gould chooses the music of Richard Strauss to discuss and find a place for in 20th century music.

The earliest surviving video of Gould dates from December 1954 in which we hear and see him playing the first movement of Beethoven’s first piano concerto. On the same disc we jump to February 1957 and find him conducting an orchestra accompanying Maureen Forrester singing Urlicht. Sehr feierlich, aber schlicht: “O Roschen rot!” from the Mahler second symphony followed by Bach from 1957 and 1958 and from 1960 Beethoven’s “Tempest” sonata. Next, from 1961 The Eroica Variations and the third cello sonata with Leonard Rose, both of which are introduced and analysed by Mr. Gould.

Throughout these 10 DVDs, although he painstakingly prepared his spoken comments he never comes across as a fussy pedant or a know-it-all. But, as we know, he did know it all. The mind boggles when faced with the breadth of his interests and passions. We find him working and playing with Yehudi Menuhin (1966), then the famous 1970 bicentennial concert when he stepped in at a moment’s notice to sub for Michelangeli playing the Emperor Concerto with the TSO under Karel Ancerl. There really is too much wonderful music and talk about music in this set to write about here. Other artists seen or heard in this collection include James Campbell, Roxolana Roslak, Boris Brott, Adele Armin, Suzanne Schulman, The Orford String Quartet, Russell Oberlin, Julius Baker, Oscar Shumsky, Lois Marshall, Elizabeth Benson-Guy, Gordon Wry, Vladimir Golschmann, Albert Pratz, Zubin Mehta and many others. The Judith Pearlman film The Idea of the North, narrated by Gould is here, too. This is a unique collection of unique performances and commentaries. Whether you remember Glenn Gould or not really doesn’t matter.

Although available throughout the rest of the world, curiously, Sony Canada apparently declined to release the quite recent collection of Gould’s recordings of 12 Beethoven Sonatas and all five Piano Concertos. Newly re-mastered in an attractive six CD set at super-budget price, it would also have been a natural tie-in to the DVD set where many of them are referred to or discussed.

I am lost to the world is the title of an extraordinarily moving DVD (Cmajor DVD 705608) which attempts, successfully so, to outline the life and career of Carlos Kleiber and perhaps understand why he was predictably unpredictable. He was well known for not showing up or walking out of rehearsals, not showing up for concerts, and generally eccentric, unprofessional behaviour. By the end of this barely sixty minute presentation the viewer can somehow empathise with him and understand him... well, not really but get very close or imagine that you do. We see him as the son of the exalted conductor, Erich Kleiber who was, as we have been told elsewhere, also moody and easily offended. There can be no doubt that the son outdid the father in his quest for perfection (as he saw it) in the finished performance. He abhorred the press and the glitz that went with being a superstar. He is seen in rehearsals and in a non-commercial video of what seems to be a final run-through of Tristan at Bayreuth. The intensity is electrifying. Players from the Vienna Philharmonic and others give us a fair idea of the man, illustrated by videos of rehearsals and performances. His stick technique and his whole “body technique” were exuberant and flamboyant, communicating to the players exactly what he wanted to hear. It is a revelation for us in the audience to see what the musicians saw. The title of this DVD, Ich bin der Welt elt abhanden gekommen (I am lost to the World) is the title of the third song from Mahler’s Rückert Lieder.

A second documentary on Kleiber, Traces to Nowhere, covers much of the same ground and interviews some of the same witnesses but also others. We learn that he visited Karajan’s grave every time he went to Salzburg. These interviews flesh out the sequence of events and often fill in the gaps between one incident or another and the ensuing behaviour that, to an outsider would appear to be thoughtless and uncalled for (ARTHAUS DVD 101553). Both films take us to Kleiber’s final hours but I am lost to the world left me feeling very sad for him. Both films are recommendable and are complementary. As a footnote... a friend of mine in England, when in the employ of a major record company, received a letter from Kleiber expressing his admiration for, and the earnest desire to conduct, Gilbert and Sullivan.

Yet another DVD (running 102 minutes) finds Kleiber rehearsing and performing the overtures to Der Freischütz and Die Fledermaus. Until you have seen it, you cannot imagine the meticulous attention given to even the slightest passing notes and the perfection of the performances where these felicities pass fleetingly by (Arthaus DVD 101063).

Land and Sea
Sarah Slean
Pheromone Recordings PHER CD 1019

The contrast in styles between the two discs that comprise Sarah Slean’s “Land and Sea” is remarkable. Although why the monikers “Land” and “Sea” were chosen is not readily apparent, nothing much is readily apparent on this recording. And I mean that in a good way – a lot of Slean’s songwriting needs to be sat with before its beauty and meaning can be gleaned. The music on the two discs has basically been divided into hard-scrabble, guitar-prominent pop/rock on “Land,” while “Sea” is all swelling strings (arranged by Slean and Jonathan Goldsmith) and rolling melodies.

I confess I preferred “Sea,” largely because Slean’s Kate Bush-esque soprano is softened on the more languorous tempos. But there is still a lot of drama and gutsiness to “Sea,” especially on Napoleon and Attention Archers. “Land” features the same intelligent, worldly lyrics as “Sea,” while Joel Plaskett’s production choices draw out the fun side of Slean’s work. So the advice to get rid of baggage in Set it Free comes off as cute and non-preachy, and the gospel touches on Amen are subtle and nuanced. Slean is touring extensively throughout Southern Ontario and Canada in November. Check www.sarahslean.com.

Enhanced freedom in music over the past 60 years has involved more than the addition of new instrumental techniques and compositional strategies. Recasting of gender roles has also taken place. No longer are women instrumentalists expected to play traditionally delicate female instruments such as violins or flutes; or those where they sit demurely such as the piano, harp or cello. This change is most obvious in improvised music, where the number of women who stand up to play has multiplied exponentially. Many have chosen to become brass players, adapting their skills to apparatuses which demand power and stamina.

Take Toronto trumpeter Nicole Rampersaud for instance. The high-quality improvising she exhibits on Halcyon Science 130410 (Barnyard Records BR0323 www.barnyardrecords.com) in the company of saxophonist Evan Shaw, drummer Jean Martin, bassist Wes Neal and percussionist Tomasz Krakowiak doesn’t distinguish in any way between her talents and those of her colleagues. During seven group compositions, the quintet vaults back-and-forth from high-energy anthems to more cerebral explorations with equal skill. Take me To Your Leader is an example of the latter, as clattering friction from Krakowiak’s noise-makers evolves in stacked counterpoint alongside Shaw’s irregularly squeezed vibrations plus the mouthpiece suckles and tremolo emphasis of Rampersaud. Her rubato slurs and valve squeaks intersect perfectly with the baritone saxophonist’s tongued percussiveness as Martin’s ratamacues, pops and drags presage harmonizing vamps and a final quivering dissolve. Meantime the title tune and Dirigible move with a chromatic gait. The former resembles an Eric Dolphy line, with repeated climaxes interrupted by mid-range honks from Shaw and stuttering pitches from the trumpeter. Dirigible stacks timbres so that space between Rampersaud’s staccato and heraldic tone and Shaw’s juddering tempos are obvious. Still a near-bugle call on the trumpeter’s part in the final sequence signals a slowdown to barely there flutter tonguing on her part, accompanied by the reedist’s smooth obbligato, until together they dovetail into muted tones framed by drumstick-rubbing friction from the two percussionists.

Atonal textures are even tougher and more staccato on Bay area saxophonist Rent Romus’ Lords of Outland quintet’s Edge of Dark (Edgetone EDT 4112 www.edgetonerecords.com). But trumpeter CJ Borosque only really makes an impression on that instrument when she blends her tongued triplets and tremolo flutters with the reed work from Romus and Vinny Golia on pieces such as Night Nova and Over the Rift. Otherwise the emphasis is on Golia’s peeping piccolo intersecting with double tonguing from Romus, plus electric bassist Ray Shaeffer’s powerful plucks and pops on the former tune or Romus’ irregular split tones plus percussionist Philip Everett’s rolls, drags and smacks on the latter. That’s because Borosque performs another role here, patching in blurry whistles and wavering flanges from manipulated electronics, most noticeably on Over the Rift and Edge of Dark. Contrapuntal when needed and interactive at other junctures, these jittery and wiggling oscillations outline sequences like Golia’s low-pitched reed slurps, or high energy soprano saxophone lines from Romus, providing the unifying accompaniment that Borosque’s brass obbligatos do elsewhere. Overall, the CD’s texture is as dense and exultant as the fantasy writings which inspired it.

Electronic impulses in microtonal settings characterize the improvisations advanced by Hamburg-based trumpeter Birgit Ulher in a duo with Argentina-born reedist Lucio Capece on Choices (Another Timbre at41 www.anothertimbre.com). Reducing her horn’s output to muted shakes, buzzes and vibrations amplified by a radio set up, Ulher proves that cunning can be substituted for stamina to produce notable improvisations. With the timbres of Capece’s bass clarinet or soprano saxophone filtered by preparations as air is harshly forced through the body tube, Ulher’s capillary pressures and metallic reverberations produce sympathetic polyphony. Chance is the most extended example, with both sound sources juddering and undulating as they combine for both chalumeau growls and strident squeals. With sonic suggestions of a hamster running on a wheel or of wisps of wind wafting upwards, the results are collective not individual. Although distinct strategies such as Ulher's use of a metal plate as a mute to create maximum vibrations, or Capece’s reed bites and tongue stopping elongating tones without resorting to electronics appear, fascination results from tracing the evolution of this disassociated and dissonant sound picture not the ending. Yet the bubbling, shaking, straining and squeaking eventually produce tones that are satisfyingly cumulative and cooperative.

There’s no hint of electronics in Instinct & The Body, British trombonist Gail Brand’s duo with drummer Mark Sanders (Regardless Records R01 www.gailbrand.com). Plus her inventive attack is powerful enough to banish any thoughts of delicacy. Utilizing sudden brays and nephritic dips into the horn’s lowest tubing, she’s as comfortable with staccato line extensions as bulky plunger swoops. Meantime Sanders uses brushes-on-snares pressure, ruffs and rim shots to advance his part. Under Orders finds Brand slithering from one pitch to another and from loopy tailgate burlesque to rapid-fire slide stops without missing a breath. Sanders backbeats and rumbles are just as relaxed. Then on Tread Softly… as the drummer slaps and clatters, Brand trades high-pitched whinnies for emphasized pedal-point, blowing chromatically until attaining a variant of serene romanticism.

Women brass players may stand up to improvise. On the evidence of the work here, many also should do so to acknowledge applause.

It’s difficult to be stirred nowadays by much new jazz from young musicians, especially if led by a guitarist, but Alex Goodman has done that with his third album as leader. The Alex Goodman Quintet - Bridges (www.alexgoodman.ca) benefits considerably from his compositional ability – he contributes eight attractive cuts, three intros and arranged tunes by Chopin and Bartók. It’s no surprise that classical music’s virtues figure prominently here, underscored by the degree of group intimacy, cohesion and elegant execution – take a bow Nick Morgan (woodwinds), Darcy Myronuk (piano), Dan Fortin (bass) and Maxwell Roach (drums). Their subtle chemistry points to a collective understanding mindful of the iconic Modern Jazz Quartet. The plethora of enterprising, shape-changing structures has real appeal, as does the evident attention to detail – the only bust is a Chopin nocturne that inhibits invention (the Bartók dance fares better.) The complexities are never excessive, the cerebral soloing is superb and Tristano Bach has to be the coolest bebop ever.

Canadian tenor saxophonist John Tank has exiled himself for decades in New York, but on occasion sneaks back to tour. One recent visit spawned the excellent John Tank Group - Jazz Live From The Registry (OlivOr 20112 www.johntank.com), a weighty 75 minute session at the Kitchener venue that illuminates the talents he displayed while a Toronto staple in the early 1970s. Backed by contemporary staples in Bernie Senensky (piano), Jim Vivian (bass) and Ted Warren (drums), his bold technique and big, warm sound expressing consistently creative ideas is very appealing, though aggressive notions are never out of control. Think Sonny Rollins, as well you might during the long, boiling opener Johtanson. Senensky as always is a perfect and often-exhilarating foil throughout the seven long tunes, four by Tank and two by him. The joint jumps with Tank’s bruising What Is That Thing With The Swing and hard-nosed New Irk, New Work. This band crackles from start to finish.

Need a lift from still-mourning-summer gloom? The versatile pianist and jazz entrepreneur relives his personal jazz and blues roots on The Bill King Trio - Five Aces (7Arts 0021 www.billkingpiano.com) on a bustling dozen tracks (eight strong originals by him) that feature skilled sidemen in electric bassist Collin Barrett and everywhere-man drummer Mark Kelso. This jazz journey gathers R&B, soul, swing, gospel and boogie under its entertaining wing, with King also exercising considerable chops on B3 organ and offering specific nods to James Brown and Eddie Floyd along the way, plus a rollicking treatment of Otis Redding’s I Can’t Turn You Loose opening the account. There’s oodles of short, sharp phrasing, spot-on emphases and rhythmic drive alongside slow and sure, churchified entries such as Come Walk With Thee and I’ll Chase That Rainbow. My favourites: the definitive B3 workout on Stax ‘em High and the muscular King City Stomp.

Jim Heineman’s Dream Band Rh Positive - Live @ Lorraine’s(Tima Town Productions www.jimheineman.com) has the rarely-recorded Toronto veteran Heineman directing a lively, often cheerfully raucous set at an Ossington Avenue venue. It’s very welcome. He plays tenor saxophone, flute and saxello, composed the 12 wide-ranging tracks, many with a Latin flavour, and sings a bit, with fine jazzers in support – pianist Stacie McGregor, bass Brandi Disterheft and drummer/vibist Mark Hundevad. Also on hand are (son) Sam Heineman and frequent guests who back the leader’s tough, grainy-toned and always swinging horn, heard to great effect on alluring tunes like Stingy and the bluesy Some Things Never Change. McGregor and Disterheft are in excellent form throughout. Best on disc: Them Shape Shifting Reptilians.

Long-time collaborators bassist Michael Herring and guitarist Don Scott are important members of the contemporary jazz picture and they flourish within their able quartet. It’s to be enjoyed on Peripheral Vision Spectacle: LIVE (Step3 – 004 www.peripheralvisionmusic.com), taped at Vancouver’s Cellar Club. Joined by tenor saxist Trevor Hogg and avant-jazz veteran Nick Fraser, their eight-tune set is infinitely better than the unit’s self-titled debut, always sophisticated and accessible despite liberties taken with conventional forms and ideas. That’s helped by the compositional quality (five Herrings, three Scotts), the confident soloing by all, notably the ever-improving Hogg, and the way individuals mesh before emerging from often-dense ensembles. The inspired Butter Side Down, the agile Living The Dream and the seductive harmonies of Abide are particularly memorable.

Also worth noting: Benoit Delbecq/Francois Houle - Because She Hoped (Songlines SGL1592-2) is a joyous, esoteric improvised music workout by long-time colleagues and veteran avant-jazzists, pianist Delbecq and clarinettist Houle, that swoops and soars and reflects in astonishing sonic ways. Lester McLean - LM 4321 (LME002 www.lestermclean.com) showcases the many talents of saxist/vocalist/songwriter McLean on 15 mostly upbeat pieces, a dozen of them his smart creations. The soulful, groovy atmosphere is aided by solid companions in his ace brother Mark on drums, guitarist Michael Occhipinti and bassist Louis Simao. Turtleboy - Smart Matters (Songlines SGL 1590-2 www.songlines.com) is a threesome adept at re-imagining the sound of a sax trio, with Jonathan Lindhorst (tenor), Ryan Butler (guitars) and Adam Miller (drums). Good melodies, integrated playing, pop and free jazz sensibilities abound.

Let's Go
Han Bennink; Brodie West + Terrie Ex
Terp Improv Series IS 16 www.terprecords.nl

Unfazed by the decades of musical history represented by his Dutch associates – Han Bennink, probably his country’s most recorded jazz drummer, and guitarist Terrie Ex, who has been a punk-rocker since its first spit – Toronto alto saxophonist Brodie West leaps into the fray in this session with youthful inspiration and the skills resulting from constant improvising. The result reflects the title: the three create at a high, interactive level from the get-go until they finally exhaust all sonic possibilities.

Known locally for his gigs with trumpeter Lina Allemano, West has played with the two Dutchmen in different configurations. But here his febrile reed variations, that range from trilling obbligatos to eviscerating honks, spiced with split-second quotes from pop and jazz tunes, invigorate Bennink and Ex, pushing them to take more chances.

Ex, a frenetic if rudimentary guitarist, stays away from simple rhythms to use slurred fingering, amp distortion and scraping frails to augment his responses to the saxophonist’s flattement, penny-whistle-like shrills and reed bites. Bennink, who has worked with major jazz players since the early 1960s, is as unpredictable in his beat-making as always. But there are times here where his crunches and slams move into violent, near-Hard Rock territory to relate to Ex’s chunky strums and shakes, while at the same time using rattles, nerve beats and rim clicks to join West in deconstructing the material. For his part, West’s techniques, including deliberately schmaltzy vibratos, circular breathing and dagger-sharp reed bites, help keep everyone off balance, but allow him to improvise at his inventive best.

Home
Shirley Crabbe
www.shirleycrabbe.com

New York City jazz vocalist Shirley Crabbe’s initial CD offering is a tasty collection of tunes associated with Broadway and elsewhere. The well-produced and conceived recording features saxophone legend Houston Person as well as Shirley’s pitch-perfect vocal instrument and a quintessential New York City rhythm section of Jon Burr on bass, Alvester Garnett on drums and Jim West and Donald Vega on piano.

Ms. Crabbe fortuitously returned to singing following major surgery on her vocal cords and has rendered each carefully chosen track with emotion, skill, theatrical flair and a complete reverence for the melody (something to be kept in mind by emerging jazz singers). A protégée of the late, great Etta Jones, Ms. Crabbe shows us a depth of meaning that can only be realized through life experience and devotion to your art. The moving title track from the hit musical The Wiz is a standout, as is Not While I’m Around, Sondheim’s harmonically complex ballad from Sweeny Todd, featuring an inspired trumpet solo from Brandon Lee. Oscar Brown Jr.’s Strongman is another highlight, replete with an elegant and bluesy solo from special guest (and long-time Etta Jones collaborator) Houston Person. On Leonard Bernstein’s Lucky to Be Me – another gem - Crabbe channels the incomparable Irene Kral and on Herb Ellis’ rarely performed Detour Ahead, the whole company swings sumptuously with a lilting, uptempo horn-infused arrangement from Matt Haviland.

A brilliant debut, this recording should be required listening for any jazz vocalist.

Dream Maker, Heartbreaker - Sam Broverman sings Johnny Mercer
Sam Broverman
Independent BR002 www.brovermusic.com

It’s clear from the first cut of his debut album – and the well researched, informative liner notes – that Sam Broverman adores, respects and loves singing Johnny Mercer. Making “Dream Maker, Heartbreaker” was a dream come true for Broverman and how nice for us that he realized his dream with 13 terrific tracks, backed by 18 of Toronto’s finest, including Chris Gale on tenor sax, pianists Peter Hill and Mark Kieswetter, cellist Roman Borys, Reg Schwager, guitar, Kevin Turcotte, trumpet and those wonderful Whiteleys – Chris on harmonica and trumpet and Ken, multi-tasking as always, this time on at least four instruments and playing producer.

Knowing he would inevitably invoke those titans of style and interpretation – Sinatra, Bennett, Tormé – I’ve got to hand it to this actuarial mathematics professor by day/jazz singer by night for his bravery, dedication and careful attention in taking on some of Mercer’s most beloved and recognizable songs. Impressively, Broverman has put his own stamp on them. His Laura is lovely and evocative; he swings like the best of them in Day In, Day Out; broods with depth and intelligence in I Wonder What Became of Me. And I was moved by Moon River. Broverman sings it with just the right amount of sweetness, yearning and poignancy, managing to keep this nugget fresh and unhackneyed. (Oh, and the title of the CD? That’s right – third line, first verse.)

Bravo – and Mazel Tov – to Sam Broverman, a fellow Winnipegger-living-in-Toronto. Ya done “The Peg” proud!

Concert note: Sam Broverman will perform material from “Dream Maker, Heartbreaker” at the Green Door Cabaret on December 3.

To Brazil with Love
Diana Panton
eOne Music DIA-CD-1293 www.dianapanton.com

“To Brazil With Love” from vocalist/composer Diana Panton is a perfect jewel of a CD. Each delightful track is an exquisitely manicured musical facet, set firmly in the Brazilian idiom and seamlessly sung in French and English by Panton. Her diaphanous vocal sound never insists and her high speed vibrato is like the beat of a hummingbird’s heart – natural, untainted and pure. The Brazilian-infused material is an eclectic mix, including compositions from Panton, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Paul McCartney (check out the moving interpretation of And I Love Her/Him featuring Don Thompson on piano rendering chord changes that never entered McCartney’s mind).

On the recording, Panton has cleverly surrounded herself with superb musicians – including multi-instrumentalist and producer Thompson on bass, piano and vibes. Guitarist Reg Schwager makes a stellar contribution with his exquisite solos, as does flautist Bill McBirnie. The rich, sonorous linear lines of Kiki Misumi’s cello also enhance the arrangements. Highlights include Panton’s Is it Really You, Samba Saravah (from the 1966 film A Man and a Woman, with authentic vocal and percussion from Maninho Costa), Jobim’s So Nice replete with a lovely, breezy vocal and a take on the 1963 Bobby Vee hit, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes – demonstrating that Diana Paton certainly knows her way around a standard, Brazilian or otherwise. This is a stunning recording on all levels, and we should all look forward to more from the lovely Ms. Panton.

Makii Ishii Live
Ryan Scott; Esprit Orchestra; Alex Pauk
Innova 809 www.innova.mu

With a strong international reputation, Maki Ishii (1936-2003) stands among the foremost Japanese composers in the avant-garde concert hall tradition. Ishii had a strong predication for the purity and drama inherent in percussion sounds and the three concerti on this CD, first recordings all, place them and the percussionist front and centre.

Ishii’s idiosyncratic musical universe revealed in these works reflects his mature style, one that straddled two musical worlds - combining the language, compositional methods and sound palette of European and Japanese musical traditions.

The solo parts are here masterfully performed from memory by the Toronto percussionist Ryan Scott. Twice nominated for a Juno, Scott has built a career playing percussion with many Toronto and American ensembles and orchestras.

Saidoki (Demon) (1989-1992) features new instruments called Cidelo Ihos, metal sculptures created by Kazuo Harada and Yasunori Yamaguchi for this work. They are sounded by striking and bowing, creating unpitched metallic soundscapes, framed dramatically by the Esprit Orchestra spread out throughout the hall. Adding to the metal sounds is a battery of wood and skin instruments constructed for this work by Ryan Scott. The orchestral writing emphasizes its concerto nature, clearly revealing the voice of the percussion soloist. By the rumbling ghostly ending Ishii’s programmatic aim, to evoke the vigour and energy of a “rough demon” with the “inner soul of a human,” has been imaginatively evoked.

The earlier, equally virtuoso Concertante for Marimba (1988) was composed for a 5-octave marimba solo accompanied by an ensemble of 6 percussion instruments. It is overall more transparent in texture than Saidoki, though possessing no fewer theatrical gestures. The third Ishii concerto, South-Fire-Summer (1992) utilises a large battery of standard orchestral percussion instruments. Initially framed with sparse orchestral accompaniment with plenty of sonic room for soloist Ryan Scott to display his mallet control and fine musical taste, it builds to a roaring climax.

The clear live sound, recorded over a number of years by CBC Radio 2, clearly reveals the timbral and textural details of these works. Kudos to producer David Jaeger and recording engineers David “Stretch” Quinney, Doug Doctor and Steve Sweeney.

Concert Note: Ryan Scott is featured in Maki Ishii’s South-Fire-Summer at the Esprit Orchestra concert at Koerner Hall on November 30.