green edge sky, green edge sun

Mark Kieswetter; Ross MacIntyre

Independent (www.cdbaby.com/cd/markkieswetter)

It’s always nice – and a relief – when the playing you hear on a CD is as elegant and evocative as its title (and title track). Indeed, that is the case with pianist Mark Kieswetter and bassist Ross MacIntyre’s newly released CD, ever-so-evocatively entitled, “green edge sky, green edge sun” (no clumsy caps, here). It is a beautiful album, exquisitely executed by two outstanding musicians who clearly “get” each other. Kieswetter and MacIntyre have captured the true essence of what the best piano/bass duos are all about: elegance, economy, precision, fluidity, style, intimacy, grace, and that magical, intangible chemistry – the simpatico.

Indiana-born Kieswetter spent a chunk of time in Toledo, making quite a name for himself – he was referred to in one article as “Toledo, Ohio piano legend Mark Kieswetter” – prior to arriving in the Big Smoke in 2002. And the accolades didn’t stop at the border. He’s been the pianist-of-choice for many Toronto-based, talented jazz artists (with obvious good taste), including Heather Bambrick, Emilie-Claire Barlow and The WholeNote’s own Ori Dagan. I have it on good authority that at the May 31 CD Release (at the very hip Gallery 345), there were at least two dozen singers in the room who regularly work with Kieswetter. That, in itself, speaks volumes about the man’s skill.

The other guy’s skill ain’t nothing to sneeze at, either. Ross MacIntyre (born, raised and based in Toronto), is one of the most in-demand side musicians in Canada. When he’s not in the studio, or playing in town alongside local luminaries like Reg Schwager and Mike Murley, to name but a few, he’s touring the world with the likes of Matt Dusk, Elizabeth Shepherd and Barlow. He’s also the house bassist for Lisa Particelli’s weekly “Girls Night Out Vocalist-Friendly Jazz Jam” at Chalkers Pub. The man is busy.

Despite their whirlwind schedules, it was meant to be for these two highly respected musicians to take a breath and take the time to make some great music together. We’re lucky that they did. They’ve gifted us with 13 tracks including gorgeous and creative arrangements of classics such as Green Dolphin Street (chosen in keeping with the CD cover’s “green theme” perhaps?), Lerner and Loewe’s The Heather on the Hill and, the final track, Bill Evans’ We Will Meet Again, as well as Kieswetter’s original title track and his harmonically haunting Ask Alice. Let’s hope they’ll consider producing a second CD down the road.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Kieswetter’s six-year old grandson, Isaac, provided the enchanting – and yes, evocatively “green-hued” – cover art for the album. Hmmm… a serious artistic streak appears to run in the family. Ya think?

Let Me Off Uptown

Anita O'Day

Mr. Music MMCD-7027 (www.worldsrecords.com)

For those of us who believe Anita O’Day was one of the most important among jazz singers, this brand new release of previously unavailable live material is a divine treat. Those not in the know should Google O’Day’s mind-blowing renditions of Sweet Georgia Brown and Tea for Two, filmed by Bert Stern at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. With these two cuts as bonus tracks, this CD features four other selections from that famous set, including a brilliantly phrased Have You Met Miss Jones and a droll ditty referred to as the novelty number, Varsity Drag.

Also included are several impressive performances from the late 1950s, O’Day’s heyday. Take The Man I Love recorded at the 1957 Timex All-Star Jazz Show: she starts off rubato, decorating phrases expertly with dissonance; then, improvising like the finest of horn players, she swings the melody to Mars and back, but never loses the lyric in the process. Four Brothers and Love Me or Leave Me demonstrate O’Day’s incredible ease with fast tempos; her time feel is infectiously on the money and she is never rushed, always relaxed. The singer’s cool, tongue-in-cheek approach is best exposed on vehicles like Honeysuckle Rose, which she performed literally thousands of times in her career, but never the same way twice. Personnel includes Benny Goodman, Jack Sheldon, Lionel Hampton, Flip Phillips and others jazz greats. This CD is a worthwhile jazz history lesson. A bargain at any price.

à l’inattendu les dieux livrent passage

Mecha Fixes Clocks (Michel F. Côté)

& Records ET 09 (www.etrecords.net)

Atmospheric and ambient, but also audacious, Montreal percussionist/keyboardist and electronic manipulator Michel F. Côté uses a variety of sonic strategies to construct an exuberantly original nine-part sound world on “à l’inattendu les dieux livrent passage.” Accomplished in transforming directors’ and choreographers’ ideas into sound, as well as leading ad hoc bands such as this one, which generate a new meaning from his initials, the composer/arranger pushes and pulls the textures in a multi-stylistic fashion so that seemingly bland surfaces turn out to contain tough, multi-faceted cores.

Case in point is a track like ferveur fossile, where chunks and clicks from signal-processed timbres splutter and shrill while commenting upon Gordon Allen’s irregularly vibrated trumpet lines and the twangs from Bernard Falaise’ guitar. Arco string runs maintain the theme, although variants become looser, more strident and discordant as they come in contact with the buzzing electronics. Other pieces offer interludes of pseudo classicism via Pierre Yves-Martel’s viol de gambe or Jean Derome’s harmonized bass flute, only to have them sabotaged by Lori Freedman’s harsh bass clarinet slurs or abrasive wood scrapes from the percussionist. Overall it seems that sonic disruption is as much a part of Côté’s compositions as legato continuum.

This post-modern strategy is sardonically confirmed on au-delà de l’espace des petits oiseaux and more obviously on the concluding entre idéal et mental. On that track, string-laden samples, likely sourced by turntablist Martin Tétrault from Gone with the Wind composer Max Steiner LPs, are interrupted by plinking from live string players, motor-driven whines and clanks plus the percussionist’s cross pulses and opposite-sticking beats.

When Mike Murley enters the heroic tradition of tenor sax trios, you’d better listen. The star hornman has linked with two quality veterans in a new band playing bandsmen originals that makes its recording debut on Broadview Trio - Two Of Clubs (Addo Jazz Recordings AJR008 www.addorecords.com). Taped at Toronto clubs Chalkers and The Rex, the appropriately titled opening track Rich Murlted soon morphs into a thriller, with fleet and pungent bassist Rich Brown and smart, energizing drummer Ted Warren revelling in an open, loose structure that lets them stretch. All eight cuts have something to recommend them, Lullabye showing off the serious intense groove impact Brown generates, Open Spaces brewing nicely beneath Murley’s seamless phrasing cruise and International Idle a feast for Warren’s rapid-fire excursions around the kit. Murley’s caressing of Winter Flower is the saxman at his spellbinding best, the off-kilter Tango Ruby bounces giddily, On The Lemonade is an out-and-out swinger while Hibiscus rambles with purpose, illuminating trio members’ vast skills as they blend ingenuity and emotional depth.

The threesome led by inspirational Quebec alto saxist François Carrier indulges avant-garde motifs crammed with repetitive notes, long tense solos and a sound that’s wildly uneven yet most agreeable, at least to these ears. François Carrier/Alexey Lapin/Michel Lambert - Inner Spire (Leo Records CDLR601 www.leorecords.com), recorded in Moscow last December, has the boss wailing like Albert Ayler while regular drummer Lambert and thunderous Russian pianist Lapin pursue manic notions of their own, together creating freewheeling music that’s always teetering on the precipice. Lapin suggests Cecil Taylor or Matthew Shipp, the irrepressible Lambert only himself. Five “tunes” here, none hummable, but it’s always fascinating to hear how bold sonic explorations develop – it makes 20^th century classical revolutionaries seem distinctly tame.

Kirk MacDonald, noted tenorman and now noted composer, has put together a top-drawer collection of musicians to play eight of his tunes on Kirk MacDonald Jazz Orchestra - Deep Shadows (Addo AJR009 www.adddorecords.com), with trombonist Terry Promane and trumpeter Joe Sullivan (who also conducts) sharing chart duty. The leader’s in the sax section, soloing at length in signature powerful manner on the opening New Piece and with considerable acumen and authority elsewhere. His compositions pack the passion in, though it’s not always obvious. The intro to Goodbye Glenn has elements of the lustrous Miller sound but the ballad is a delightful showcase for saxists P. J. Perry (alto) and Pat LaBarbera (tenor) and ever-present lush section work, while the thrusting Greenwich Time offers fine moments from guitarist Lorne Lofsky. Jazz waltz Calendula puts the chief back in the solo saddle to deliver a well-rounded gem, and it’s the turn of Sullivan, Promane and driving drummer Barry Romberg to achieve blowhard honours on the effective minor-chord Eleven. High standards throughout are maintained, right up to the showcase title tune closer.

Drummer Kevin Brow graduated from U of T’s jazz program but now is based in Copenhagen. Koptor - Fire Sink (Fresh Sound New Talent FSNT 384 www.kevinbrow.com) is his band Koptor’s second album and it’s really good. The forceful, imaginative Brow composed 10 originals for a session featuring three Danish players – avant-garde saxist Lotte Anker, pianist Jacob Anderskov and bass Jeppe Skovbakke. The music’s all stop-time rhythms, unpredictable sequiturs and cool sonic provocation, like some ECM recordings, and nods relentlessly to Euro classical structures. Brow maintains exceptional grooves, often exciting though never overstating his case while his companions offer up jazz ranging from lavishly melodious to suggestively raw. The rousing Intellectual Sex, the fascinating soloing of sax and piano and crafty underpinning by drums and bass on the title cut and the weird eruptions on Penny Crushing are just three examples of creative minds in high gear.

Young bands are stirring interest in Hogtown. One has twenty-somethings making their debut recording on Brent Mah/Alex Goodman - Convergence (www.alexgoodman.ca), a most promising album demonstrating maturity, flexibility and a cohesion so acute that on occasion it almost throttles freshness. Accomplished guitarist Goodman penned four tunes, saxist Mah three and the 68-minute session is fleshed out with a jazz standard and contributions from Radiohead and Pink Floyd. Booming bassist Dan Fortin and drummer Karl Schwonick make a solid rhythm team. The opening Momentum is sort of chamber-bop in 5/4, a measure of the writing challenges met and the other material is never dull, though while I appreciate Mah’s range and agility I don’t care much for his restrained and thin alto/soprano tones. Other entertaining tracks are Persistence Of Memory and Missed Opportunity.

The next shows bassist Ken McDonald making big strides with his second album as leader Ken McDonald Quartet - Pay What You Can (www.kenmcdonaldjazz.com) that features saxist Paul Metcalfe, guitarist Demetri Petslakis and drummer Lowell Whitty. He’s composed six thoughtful originals that are performed with energy and confident flair, for starters Detroit which especially shows off his strings agility and bright-toned Metcalfe’s rich vein of ideas. Beyond it are smart and subtle creations that let bandsmen expand their horizons and conjure up novel, sometimes striking, jazz – it’s a pity there’s just 39 minutes of it.

Besides gaining a reputation for its demographically diverse and eminently liveable neighbourhoods, when it came to improvised music starting in the early 1970s Toronto was actually a world-class city in more than civic boosterism. That’s because on the initiative of photographer/musician Bill Smith, Sackville records was issuing LPs by some of the most significant avant-garde players from New York, Chicago and St. Louis. Recorded for the most part in local studios, these discs – and affiliated concerts – documented these emerging stylists and designated Toronto as part of the international free jazz firmament. Now Chicago’s Delmark label is distributing CD reissues of the original Sackville records.

Probably the most significant session was the label’s one two-disc package, saxophonist and flautist Julius Hemphill’s Roi Boyé & the Gotham Minstrels (Sackville SKCD2-3014/15 www.delmark.com). It’s a solo session that’s a pioneering example of using multi-tracking to create a compelling audio drama. Best known as a founder of the World Saxophone Quartet (WSQ), Hemphill (1938-1995) was interested in programmatic story telling not reed bravado. One observation is that the often-delicate timbres of the reedist’s overdubbed flutes were showcased at a time when the cliché of advanced jazz imagined every player a discordant eardrum-assaulter. Even when playing astringent alto saxophone, as on the second track, Hemphill is so in control of his material that he doesn’t lapse into glottal punctuation. Instead he replicates a New York subway journey through an overdubbed choir of yelping saxophones. Exactly one year later, Hemphill and his WSQ colleague Oliver Lake recorded the duo disc, Buster Bee (Sackville SKCD2-3016 www.delmark.com) in Toronto. As notable as their teamwork was, it lacks the revolutionary force of the solo set. On “Roi Boyé” for instance, Hemphill devotes the final track to a narrative about a black artist’s life in a materialistic society, punctuating his story-telling with harsh squeals, discordant whorls and split tones. Another track replicates a butterfly’s attraction through stacked and harmonized reed tones that meander linearly; while a third is practically a capriccio, with the theme bouncing along, propelled by carefully stacked, overdubbed horn vamps, while reed-biting and pressurized vibratos from the alto saxophone come in-and-out of aural focus for contrast, ending with a distinctive contralto textural upturn. Hemphill doesn’t neglect jazz’s bedrock, the blues, either. One extended piece positions a soulful alto saxophone riff, basso lip-bubbling from the flute and a heavily breathed soprano saxophone line that could come from a country blues harmonica, while discordant pitches slide contrapuntally among them. Eventually the track reflects both the guttural despair and altissimo promise of the music.

Another pace-setting session took place a year earlier, with George Lewis’ The Solo Trombone Record (Sackville SKCD2-3012 www.delmark.com), the first session under his own name by the musician now as famous for his computer-directed music as for his brass mastery. Audacious to the nth degree, the disc’s Tonebursts is another example of overdubbing. But while Hemphill was 39, with years of gigging behind him when “Roi Boyé” was recorded, Lewis was all of 24. In spite of his youth, the 20-minute track is another tour-de-force with the trombonist evidentially able to stylistically replicate key attributes of older brassmen, calling upon the color of Tricky Sam Nanton, the sophistication of Lawrence Brown and the speed of J. J. Johnson at will and blending them as needed. Here expressive lines are sometimes replaced by a sudden staccato brays, or mid-improv, a trombone choir harmonizes, with its parts segmented among bass trombone pedal-point, alto trombone open-horn linearity, and the highest textures strained though a cup mute. There are even times during which you could swear a supple saxophone is soloing accompanied by phantom guitar strokes. Besides expressive glissandi, timbres are sourced from deep within the trombone body; capillary lines are lobbed from one ‘bone to another; or rubato tones share space with polyharmonies and polytones. Eventually techniques such as oscillated mouthpiece kisses are replaced with resonating runs that maintain an almost conventional jazz-styled line while at the same time making room for growling ostinatos and altissimo cries. Lewis also provides a solo interpretation of Lush Life, but more impressive are other tracks such as Untitled Dream Sequence. Taken at the same tempo as that Billy Strayhorn classic, the Dream Sequence’s note-slurping, double-tongued accents and speedy glisses from every part of the horn demonstrate that exciting improvisation doesn’t have to be fortissimo, super-fast or discordant.

Lewis was also more than just present a year previously when saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell’s Quartet on Sackville (SKCD2-3009 www.delmark.com) was recorded live at Toronto’s long defunct A Space gallery. The momentous session not only captures a then-rare example of the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s saxophonist performing without the other band members, but puts him in an all-star context. Other quartet members are pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, probably the most respected Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians founder, and Detroit guitarist Spencer Barefield. Mitchell and Lewis expose sonorous counterpoint on one duo track and the trombonist alone turns Mitchell’s Olobo into another brass tour-de-force, blending a near ballad exposition with guttural sniggers, near-silent breaths and a coda of overblowing. Group dynamics are memorable as well. Sonic tension is almost visible on Tnoona. With the theme built up from the saxophonist’s tongue flutters and split tones, guitar vibration, Lewis’ sliding plunger work and Abrams’ focussed note clusters, it finally dissolves without release. Aleatory as suggested by its title, Mitchell’s Cards is the CD’s most fully-realized composition. Chromatic forward motion is due to the pianist’s expressive low-frequency runs, but the linear form is punctuated by Barefield’s oscillating amp reverb. Meanwhile Mitchell’s reeds bark with clown-horn-like blasts and dilating split tones, as the trombonist contributes plunger grace notes and discursive pedal point. A coda of stentorian guitar strums completes the improvisation.

Other 1970s group sessions involve a rare excursion into focused European improvisations on All Kinds of Time (Sackville SKCD2-3010 www.delmark.com), by a duo of German pianist/vibist Karl Berger and British bassist Dave Holland, who now follows a more mainstream course; plus pianist Anthony Davis, best-known for operas such as X and Amistad, expressing himself with a suite and shorter composition backed by violin, cello and percussion. But it is Brahma (Sackville SKCD2-3023 www.delmark.com) from 1980 which best demonstrates the musical future which was partially ushered in by these earlier discs. Led by veteran drummer Barry Altschul, the unusually constituted trio introduced two players now in the prime of their career: trombonist Ray Anderson and bassist Mark Helias. Improvising jazz is never static, and unlike uncompromising abstraction that characterizes earlier discs in this set, swinging elements are now mixed with the risk-taking solos. These rhythmic components still go far beyond the conventional. Altschul’s solo on the 17-minute title track may hit a groove, but his bulls-eye beat is amplified with timbre scrambles using mallets and sticks, ratamacues and drags on toms and snares, plus numerous interjections that bring in cymbal shaking, bell-tree resonation, waterphone scrapes, cow bell thwacks and shrills from slide whistles. The finale involves shaking a thunder sheet for fortissimo oscillations; the mid-section is based on a martial beat from the percussionist and wide-angled stops and thumps from Helias. Overall, this drum finesse is synchronized with elephant-like grunts from Anderson’s sousaphone when the brassman isn’t altering themes with flutter-tonguing, freak note whinnying and gutbucket slurs. Capable of smooth balladry on Altschul’s mid-tempo Irina, Anderson also whistles and slurs his way through his own Spanish-tinged Con Alma de Noche backed by woodblock bops and opposite sticking from the drummer. And he enlivens the bassist’s Lism with triplet-extended brassiness, allowing Helias to hand pump and sluice his way up-and-down the strings with guitar-like expressiveness as the stop-time tune evolves.

Advanced improvisations featuring out-of-towners, not to mention the burgeoning local free music community, continue to be recorded in the GTA. These historically important and musically impressive albums show how one series of discs successfully captured musical changes.

That Certain Chartreuse

Lori Cullen

Independent LC2011 www.loricullen.com

Lori Cullen is a steadfast presence on the music scene in Toronto, consistently producing fine albums and appearing in and putting together live shows that bring together dozens of talented local artists. Although her songwriting is strong, I like her best as a song stylist and her latest, “That Certain Chartreuse,” is dominated by examples of that unique talent. Along with guitarist/partner Kurt Swinghammer, bassist Maury Lafoy, drummer Mark Mariash and keyboardist David Matheson, everyone from the Bee Gees to Suzanne Vega to King Crimson gets the careful caress of Cullen's interpretations. Rainy Day People is given an emotional depth it never had at the hands of Gordon Lightfoot (as un-Canadian as that may be to say). While Baubles, Bangles and Beads gets a delightful and crazy mix of sitar-like guitar sounds, a hint of Optimistic Voices-style vocal arrangements, and trumpet playing, courtesy of Bryden Baird, that has the distinct Cullen/Swinghammeresque imprint. The Shania Twain hit that she wrote with her now very ex husband, Forever and For Always, is done without irony and restores our faith in the possibility of love and loyalty.

Unspoken Dreams - Stories from Rumi

Ariel Balevi; William Beauvais

Independent WLCD 012010

Storyteller Ariel Balevi and guitarist/composer/improviser William Beauvais are a creative team to be reckoned with. “Unspoken Dreams - Stories from Rumi” is concurrently perplexing and interesting in its content and presentation.

Balevi “reads” five stories from the Masnavi, a collection of stories and stories within stories that Rumi, the 13th century Sufi poet and mystic, used in his teachings. Balevi's diction is clear, and his timing is impeccable. Most surprisingly, he has the uncanny knack of drawing the listener deep into the text when least expected to create a powerful listening experience. He is an excellent storyteller with a distinctive voice that brings the stories he so loves to life.

At times, Balevi risks becoming a bit over the top in his sentiment. This is where guitarist William Beauvais weaves his magic. Clearly relishing his musical supporting role, Beauvais’ improvisations, compositions and performance provide the perfect backdrop/soundscape while simultaneously creating clear boundaries to prevent a sonic crash. Between stories as musical interludes, his renditions of the simple Yoruban and Bantu songs are beautiful moments which prepare the listener for the next story.

The sound of the voice and guitar blend with ease and colour. Production qualities are superb. Fans of storytelling should be impressed by “Unspoken Dreams - Stories from Rumi.” The rest of us open minded enough to give this Balevi/Beauvais collaboration a listen should be pleasantly surprised. The disc is available through the Canadian Music Centre Distribution Service (www.musiccentre.ca).

The high point of the 1964 Vienna Festival must surely have been the sold-out performance in the Musikverein Grosser Saal on June 14th of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Josef Krips conducting the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and soloists Fritz Wunderlich and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. The Austrian Radio’s original tape cannot be found but the copy from the Krips family archive provided the source for this unique and extraordinary performance now available on DG (4778988, mono). In addition to his fame as a superb Mozart interpreter, Josef Krips, a fine Mahlerian, had a complete intimacy with the Mahler score and directs a total performance without the swooning, heart on the sleeve emotions that inhabit many others. This attentive, stoic reality is more telling and decisive when the soloists and conductor are in complete accord. There are exquisite passages when the conductor seems to be and probably is listening to and heeding the soloist. Listeners familiar with other versions will be taken aback to hear such astonishing gravitas from both singers, especially if you know the language or are following the translations provided. In this performance, Wunderlich is more fervent than he is in the Klemperer version which was recorded in London during the same year. He is positively ardent and comprehends the texts, totally conveying their determination. Fischer-Dieskau, too, is markedly expressive in all his songs. The final song, Der Abschied, The Farewell, is a profoundly moving experience the equal of which I have not heard from Fischer-Dieskau, Kathleen Ferrier, Christa Ludwig or anyone else. Fischer-Dieskau is deeply focused on the thoughts and feelings of the poet(s) as he faces the inevitable. He is quoted as saying that of all his performances of this work, this stands out as the very finest. What a convergence of talent that was and how fortunate that the Krips tapes have been faithfully restored by the Emil Berliner Studios in Berlin generating a CD that is clear as a bell, articulate and dynamic. It matters not that is monaural.

ARTHAUS has released a Winterreise sung by Fischer-Dieskau with Alfred Brendel live in Siemensvilla, Berlin in 1979 (DVD 107229). Even though pianist and singer have each performed and recorded this cycle many times, both together and with others, this studio production, without an audience, is very special. Their combined insights, eagerly shared between the two as seen in the 56 minute rehearsal sequences, produce a memorable experience.

A reminder of the superlative, must-have Verdi Requiem recorded live in the Liederhalle, Stuttgart on November 2, 1960 with Hans Mulley-Kray conducting the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra, The Stuttgart Bach Choir, The Stuttgart Singing Teachers’ Association Choir, with Maria Stader, Elizabeth Hoffgen, Fritz Wunderlich, and Gottlob Frick (DG 476638, 2CDs). The performance is uniquely communicative, being more a requiem mass than an operatic outing. Try your local classical specialist or get it from Amazon.de.

The Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache made but a few recordings in the late 1940s and early 1950s at which time he was regarded as something of a firebrand. In 1946, awaiting the return of the banned Furtwangler, he was elected to the post of acting chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, then an orchestra in disrepair, remaining in that position until 1954. He hoped to follow Furtwangler as chief conductor but Karajan won out and was appointed to the position for life. Celibidache moved on, now refusing to record, believing, rightly so, that no one performance can ever contain a performer’s definitive view of the work. He did, however “authorize” some videos for general distribution. Only after his death were many live performances issued on CD. However, he was not the same quixotic conductor of the forties and fifties. AUDITE has a set of all the Celibidache performances recorded by the RIAS, Berlin between 1948 and 1957 (AUDITE 21.406, 3CDs). The orchestras are the Berlin Philharmonic (BPO) and the RIAS Symphony (RIAS) and the repertoire is quite unusual. There is a Rhapsody in Blue (RIAS) from 1948 with Gerhard Puchelt, piano, that is totally unidiomatic... played in the manner of a nebulous English movie soundtrack. The conductor went on to be an ardent fan of Gershwin’s music. Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole (BPO) from 1948 is interesting but clearly a non-French performance. Four performances from 1949 with the BPO are a perfect fit: Busoni’s Violin Concerto, Op.35 with Siegfried Borries; Cherubini’s Anacreon Overture and Hindemith’s 1945 Piano Concerto again with Puchelt. Also there is the world premier of Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling’s Introduction and Fugue for String Orchestra. Harold Genzmer’s 1944 Flute Concerto with Gustav Scheck (BPO) from 1950 is followed by a surprise! A fine reading of Copland’s Appalachian Spring with the BPO. Finally, three works by Heinz Tiessen (1887-1971), the conductor’s former teacher, recorded live on October 7, 1957 with the Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin. Heard are The Hamlet Suite, Op.30, The Salambo Suite, Op.34a and the Symphony No.2 Op.7. Some of the pieces in this collection may be new to collectors but are well worth investigating, particularly the Tiessen works. The sound throughout runs from good to very good.

I do enjoy some rehearsal videos and often find them very absorbing and informative. I can enthusiastically recommend a new DVD, Celibidache Rehearses Bruckner’s Ninth (ARTHAUS MUSIC 101555, 1 CD). In his late years the conductor took the time to perfect minute details of balance and tempo. “I breathe with you, and that is the secret of phrasing: where you breathe and how you breathe.” This video is only of the Adagio movement and is interlaced with Celibidache’s appreciation of Bruckner the composer and visionary. Profoundly satisfying, this should not be missed by a thoughtful person who gets Bruckner.

Sari Biro, born in Budapest in 1912 was an exceptional pianist whose talent was recognized from the age of four when she would play from memory pieces that her older sister had performed. She won a scholarship to the legendary Franz Liszt Academy. Composer Vincent D’Indy said that “To hear Sari play makes one a better human being.” Biro left Hungary in 1939 and arrived in New York with her concert gowns and sheet music and very little money. It was on 4 May, 1941 that she made her New York debut and the critics fell over themselves heaping praise on her playing. The New York Times: “Sari Biro plays the piano as well as she looks, which is saying a lot.” The New York World Telegram: “Definitely belonging in the front group of the contemporary pianists, male or female.” She concertized from coast to coast, also South America, Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, always generating rave reviews for her playing, her consummate artistry and sensitivity. She was heard from coast to coast on the NBC radio network, appeared on many television programs and in 1958 she presented 13 live programs on KQED, San Francisco’s Public television station. She was not a stranger to radio or television for about the next two decades. After 1974, she retired from the concert platform but continued to conduct master classes until 1990, the year of her death. Listening to a recent set from Cambria Recordings (CD 1174, 4 CDs) gives the listener a pretty fair idea of her varied and enormous repertoire, from Bach to Scarlatti, Rameau, Kodaly, Milhaud, Beethoven, Bartok, Kabalevsky, Mussorgsky, Mozart, Prokofiev, Gershwin... two dozen composers in all. Her playing has intimacy. Her textures are transparent. Where appropriate, her touch is remarkably non percussive but with full dynamics. She embraces and adapts to the various styles with apparent ease: for example listen to her Bach and immediately play a 20^th century opus and you may find it hard to believe it is the same pianist. But you will certain that that pianist is an astounding interpreter of whatever she plays. The CDs in this omnibus collection are derived from Remington Records LPs and from recitals. Considering the dates and circumstances under which these were made it is somewhat surprising that the sound is free of any artifacts and is consistently excellent without reservation. This set has a holy mission to bring back a once important, extraordinary and superb musician who otherwise has slipped out of memory. I am pleased to note that Cambria has done it most successfully.

Since the release of Volume 1 of Aida Stucki in May 2009 we have awaited Volume 2. At last it’s here and the repertoire is mixed: Brahms, Schumann, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Dvorak (DOREMI DHR-8006-8, 3 CDs). Volume 1 (DHR-7964-9, 6 CDs) was all Mozart, concertos and sonatas, and Stucki demonstrated her close affinity with the composer with interpretations that are second to none including Grumiaux and her own student, Anne Sophie Mutter. Incidentally, that set won, most deservedly, the 2010 Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten German Critics Award. The new set opens with the three violin sonatas by Brahms in which she is accompanied by Walter Frey from a live broadcast from Zurich in 1972. These are the most musically engaging performances and the purest violin sound imaginable... the kind that you want to immediately play again. Also heard are Brahms Second String Quartet and the complete F.A.E Sonata both of them live and inspired... as are all but one work, the Schumann Fantasie for violin and orchestra, op.131 which is from a Vox disc of 1971. Along with works by the other composers this set is of unquestioned merit.

Lili Kraus, one of the most respected pianists of the 20^th century was a distinguished interpreter of the classics... Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. She was, however, best known for her recordings of the Mozart concertos and sonatas, including the violin sonatas. Her 1935-1937 recordings of the violin sonatas with Szymon Goldberg gained her a top place among classical performers. In 1954-1957 she re-recorded them with violinist Willi Boskovsky who is also the conductor on a new set from DOREMI which includes Mozart’s Piano Concertos nos.9 and 20 (DHR-7929/30, 2 CDs). These concertos date from early 1950’s derived from LPs made by the Discophiles Français and this is their first appearance on CD. They are, in my opinion, superior to her later recordings, the piano moving forward gracefully in a pure Mozart style and yet laced with refreshing expression. Also from Discophiles Français are three monumental chamber works, the Clarinet Trio K498, the Piano and Winds Quintet, K452 (which at the time Mozart considered to be his best work) and the charming Adagio and Rondo for Glass Harmonica K607. Kraus was contracted to record all the Mozart piano works for DF but the company ceased operations in 1955. A pleasant surprise is a set of Bach works. Whereas she is known for her Mozart recordings on various major labels, her Bach recordings were made for a small American company, EDUCO, as educational tools for teachers and intermediate students. She plays 22 familiar keyboard miniatures, Minuets, Polonaises and Preludes and the like, pieces usually heard from students. Each piece is a perfect gem, beautifully articulated and stylistically faultless. What a pleasure they are. Kraus made several EDUCO LPs and perhaps they will be transferred, too.

African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston
Composed by Randy Weston and arranged by Willard Jenkins
Duke University Press
352 pages, photos; $32.95 US

• “IF YOU WERE to ask who is Randy Weston, it would be like making a stew. You throw in some Ellington, some Basie, some Monk, some Tatum, and some Nat Cole; throw in Africa, throw in some Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo. You put all of those ingredients in the pot, you stir it up, and you have Randy Weston.” Add this idiosyncratic autobiography to the mix and you have an even more vivid picture of who Randy Weston is – not just his influences, but his passions, experiences, and justifiable sense of having accomplished something worthwhile. On each page his personality comes through directly, especially since his “arranger” Willard Jenkins has taken care to preserve the rhythm and flow of Weston’s voice as he told Jenkins his story during the lengthy series of interviews they did for this book.

Weston is now eighty-five years old. Apparently he has always had the singular vision that suffuses his compositions like Hi Fly and Little Niles as well as his playing. That, he explains, is why he was never an enthusiastic sideman.

Weston discusses the development of his technique as a pianist, recalling experiences with great musicians like Charlie Parker, Ellington, Basie and especially his mentor, Monk. But mostly he wants to show the influence of African traditional music not just on his own music, but on the very roots of jazz. This approach may be common now, but back when he first started looking to Africa rather than New Orleans as the birthplace of jazz, it was controversial. In 1967 he went as far as to move to Morocco, where he lived for a number of years, immersing himself in the music of traditional people like the Gnawa in Tangier. “The African concept of music,” he writes, “is much deeper than the western concept and it’s based upon very powerful, spiritual values and supernatural forces, and pure magic.”

Inevitably, the meanderings that occur naturally in conversations make for some repetitions or fragments. But the voice that emerges here sounds convincingly like Randy Weston should – direct, passionate and utterly compelling.

Randy Weston is playing a solo concert at the Glenn Gould Studio on Sunday, June 26 at 6:00pm as part of the TD Toronto Jazz Festival.

The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess:
A 75th Anniversary Celebration
by Marc Thompson;
forward by Marc Gershwin
Amadeus Press
200 pages, photos; $29.99 US

• AFTER THE FIRST full rehearsal of Porgy and Bess for the premiere in 1935, George Gershwin commented, “I think the music is so marvellous – I really don’t believe I wrote it!” As Robin Thompson shows in this history of the opera, Gershwin was hardly alone in his enthusiasm for what has come to be regarded as the great American opera. Even though opening night led to misunderstandings over whether it promoted racial stereotyping, and confusion over whether it was in fact an opera, audiences cheered – and it had a remarkable run of 124 performances.

The librettist Dubose Heyward was an aristocratic white Southerner whose great–great-grandfather had signed the Declaration of Independence, and the Gershwin brothers, composer George and lyricist Ira, were Jewish New Yorkers. Yet they had carefully based Porgy and Bess on the authentic dialects and songs of the descendants of African slaves who lived in Heywood’s hometown, Charleston, South Carolina. They insisted that only African-Americans could play the roles on stage, and refused to let Al Jolson play Porgy in blackface.

Their remarkably harmonious collaboration resulted in something entirely new – an operatic synthesis of European classical music and American jazz and blues. Thompson quotes Gershwin saying that that he hopes Porgy and Bess will combine the drama and romance of Carmen and the beauty of Die Meistersinger. It’s a great story, and although Thompson uncovers nothing new, he tells it with style. But the most interesting aspect of his book is the way he describes the performances of Porgy and Bess throughout the years. With his own perspective as a stage director, he analyzes the performers, director and designers of the various stagings with uncommon insight.

This book has been beautifully produced (apart from the spotty index), and illustrated throughout with a wonderful collection of photos of productions and casts, letters between Heyward and Gershwin, and paintings by the multi-talented brothers themselves, including some startlingly revealing self-portraits.

Lorin Maazel, who in 1975 conducted the first performance of the complete version of Porgy and Bess since the premiere, will lead his Castleton Festival Orchestra and soloists in selections from the opera at the BlackCreek Festival on Friday, July 22 at 8.00 pm.

It is fitting that the first DVD release by the Canadian Music Centre’s Centrediscs label, as part of the “A Window on Somers” line, should be the opera Louis Riel (CMCDVD 16711) with music by Harry Somers and libretto by Mavor Moore and Jacques Languirand. While it would be a mistake to consider Louis Riel the first modern Canadian opera – a host of others come to mind including Willan’s Dierdre (1946), Beckwith’s Night Blooming Cereus (1953-58) and Somers’ own The Fool (1953, produced 1956) – it would be less so to acknowledge it as the most significant. Commissioned by the COC with funds from Floyd Chalmers (who also funded the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada and provided the CMC with its wonderful home at 20 St. Joseph St.) the opera was staged at O’Keefe Centre as part of Canada’s Centennial celebrations in 1967 with subsequent performances at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier in Montreal. The COC revived Louis Riel in 1975 with performances in Toronto, Ottawa and, in its American debut, at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. where it received rave reviews. Broadcast tapes of this Washington performance were later used to produce the first commercial release of the opera, a three LP set for Centrediscs in 1985.

In 1969, which was incidentally the 100^th anniversary of Riel’s original Red River Uprising, the opera was adapted for CBC television by producer Franz Kraemer and directed by Leon Major (who had also directed the stage performances). Although hard to tell from the Centrediscs packaging, it is this CBC production that is presented on the DVD, featuring most of the original cast, notably Bernard Turgeon who is brilliant throughout both vocally and as an actor in the title role. Patricia Rideout stands out as Riel’s mother; Mary Morrison is his sister and Roxolana Roslak his Cree wife (singing the now-familiar lullaby Kuyas). Joseph Rouleau is compelling as the dramatic and conflicted Bishop Taché, the Catholic priest who was charged with the role of intermediary between Riel and the government in Ottawa, with Cornelis Opthof, the originator of the deceitful John A. MacDonald role, replaced here by a suitably slimy Donald Rutherford.

Although the production values are somewhat dated (particularly the obvious use of “green screen” technology, presumably in its infancy) the production as a whole has withstood the passing of more than four decades admirably. The singers are in fine voice, many of them in their prime, and it is a joy to hear and see them at such close range. The music, which is a clever and compelling mixture of traditional melodies, lyrical arias – for the most part unaccompanied – and modern technique, including a very sparse but focussed orchestration with extensive use of percussion, is as convincing now as when it was first heard. The story, one of minority rights and duplicitous government action, not to mention a charismatic “visionary” leader who claims to hear/speak with the Voice of God is still a timely one, well told.

I do have a number of complaints however. The otherwise thorough booklet, which includes full plot synopsis, bilingual scene descriptions and libretto in four languages (English, French, Cree and church service Latin), makes no mention of the television production other than the CBC 1969 copyright notice. And while it is admirable that the opera is truly bilingual – i.e. the Métis often sing in French and the Anglos all in English – it is quite surprising to me that there are neither subtitles nor translations. The diction of the singers is surprisingly clear, so that those who do understand the languages can indeed understand the words, but what of those who might otherwise benefit from a bit of linguistic help? It is understandable that the opera stage of 1967 did not yet have the option of surtitles, but for the television production and, more to the point, the 2011 DVD release, surely it would have been a simple matter to add (optional) subtitles.

Other missed opportunities include the bonus features. We are given Mavor Moore’s introductions to parts one and two of the opera, but not as they would have appeared in 1969 as actual, and helpful, set-ups to the broadcast, but rather as afterwords. The other feature is a welcome discussion between Somers and Moore moderated by Warren Davis (who would go on to become the voice of new music in English Canada as host of CBC Radio’s Two New Hours). What we are not given is any present day commentary. Although the main creative forces are no longer with us – Harry Somers died in 1999 and Mavor Moore, although not noted in the biography provided, in 2006 – there are numerous luminaries (i.e. Bernard Turgeon, Joseph Rouleau and Mary Morrison) still alive and active. Surely these auspicious personalities could have shared some insights about this important Canadian achievement four decades on.

We know that “A Window on Somers” is basically a labour of love with a shoe-string budget - and kudos to Robert Cram for doing as much as he is able with it – but surely for a project of this magnitude with so much historical significance further funding could have been found to supplement the existing materials. That being said, we are thankful for the opportunity to revisit this glorious moment in Canada’s musical development and a time when our national broadcaster took pride in promoting and preserving our cultural heritage.

We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and comments should be sent to: The WholeNote, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4.

David Olds

DISCoveries Editor

discoveries@thewholenote.com

Caldara - La Conversione di Clodoveo, Re di Francia

Allyson McHardy; Nathalie Paulin; Suzie LeBlanc; Matthew White; Le Nouvel Opera; Alexander Weimann

ATMA ACD2 2505

Le Nouvel Opéra, a company directed by Suzie LeBlanc and Alexander Weimann, has contributed a stellar performance of a gem seldom heard. This oratorio by Antonio Caldara relates the story of the first Frankish king to convert to Christianity. It is characteristic of Caldara’s later Roman oratorios, set in the galant style for a small instrumental ensemble with singers chosen from the higher vocal ranges. Thus we have a cast of four: the pagan King Clovis sung by mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy; his devoutly Christian wife Clotilde sung by soprano Nathalie Paulin; his captain Uberto sung by countertenor Matthew White and the bishop Remigus sung by soprano Suzie LeBlanc.

The artistry of the ensemble and the vocal beauty of these four voices and their marvellous interpretive skills in conveying dramatic changes (whilst somewhat confined to the da capo form) are remarkable. McHardy is a superb foil as the forceful warrior to Paulin’s tender charms as wife, LeBlanc’s patient and saintly monk and White’s steadfast captain. The small size of the ensemble and Weimann’s direction from the harpsichord and organ provides a masterful but sensitive accompaniment, allowing these superb voices to shine through brilliantly. Nowhere is this more evident than in the king and queen’s duet which takes place after the baptismal ritual, the two voices intertwining and signifying a true union of spirit.

Hommage - Joseph Rouleau

Joseph Rouleau

Analekta AN 2 9874-6

This collection of songs and arias provides a splendid tribute to the Canadian bass Joseph Rouleau. It also serves as an introduction to a great singer whose voice is less familiar than it ought to be. Rouleau spent most of his career performing at Covent Garden or touring around the world, though he did return frequently to Canada. In Toronto he remains best-known for his role as Bishop Taché in the landmark 1967 Canadian Opera Company premiere of Harry Somers’ Louis Riel.

The sheer beauty of Rouleau’s voice on these three discs is enthralling. But what’s most striking in the excerpts from operas, like Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor with Joan Sutherland, and Boito’s Mefistofele, is how he dramatically shapes and colours his voice to create believable characters. In the songs, especially the complete cycles like Brahms Four Serious Songs, Mussorgsky’s Chants et danses de la morts, and Ravel’s Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, he achieves an exciting sense of emotional urgency, even in the most lyrical moments.

Two songs by Rodolphe Mathieu, the sultry L’automne and the adventurous L’hiver, are the only Canadian works here. But unfortunately, the booklet provides no information on them, or on any of the selections, all of which were chosen by Rouleau. Nor are the texts supplied. But there are archival photos, a short biography of Rouleau, and comments from the singer himself who, at eighty-two, remains active today as national president of Jeunesses Musicales.

Great Canadian Hymns

Pax Christi Chorale

Independent (www.paxchristichorale.org)

In August 2009, Pax Christi Chorale invited both professional and amateur Canadian composers to enter their inaugural Great Canadian Hymn Competition. Chosen from sixty-eight entries, this recording, lovingly performed by the choir, features eleven hymns composed by the winners and finalists from all across Canada. Included is a nod to tradition with Healey Willan’s Eternal, Unchanging, We Sing to Your Praise thrown in for good measure. Most provinces are represented and there is a good mix of new settings of traditional texts and texts written for these new pieces. The First Prize winner, Henry Boon of Windsor, Ontario composed I Heard that God Was Power, the text for which was written by his wife Susan Boon. Second Prize was awarded to Judith Snowdon of Saint Joseph de Kent, New Brunswick for Do You Not Know, Have You Not Heard? Third Prize was awarded to Scott Bastien, also of Windsor, for his composition God of All Nations.

Thoughtfully included in this package is an easy-to-read book of scores; an excellent resource for organists and choirs who wish to introduce more contemporary Canadian compositions to their services. Although a few of the works might pose quite a challenge for congregational singing, they would, nonetheless, make fine choral anthems.

Early Dreams

Constantinople; Françoise Atlan

Analekta AN 2 9989

Constantinople has been specialising for ten years in exploring Mediterranean oral tradition and medieval musical manuscripts. A vast area in terms both musicological and geographical, not least with the export of Spanish music to the New World! And it is (very) early New World-based composers who feature here.

“Early Dreams” unites Constantinople’s core of sétar, percussion and viola da gamba with a guest baroque guitarist and, above all, the voice of Françoise Atlan, herself of Judeo-Berber origin.

One must single out Detente, sombra de mi bien esquivo (based on Spagnoletta, a Renaissance “dance hit”), which brings together Ms Atlan’s clear enunciation, a magnificent combination of impassioned da gamba and lute playing, and the words of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the first great Latin-American poetess.

Eventually, Françoise Atlan’s voice does come to dominate this CD, not only with her interpretations of baroque settings of de la Cruz’s poetry but also those of modern Canadian composer Michael Oesterle. Her clarity of voice alone would make these recordings special.

One pleasant question to decide is whether Oesterle’s settings or those of the Latin composers are more inspiring. But first listen to the Fandango of Mexico-based Santiago de Murcia. We speak of Spain enjoying a golden age of its music in the mid-16th century; we are only now discovering the musical legacy of Spain’s conquests of Latin America.