Early, Classical and Beyond

Royal Recorder Concertos – Music from the Court of King Frederik IV
Bolette Roed; Arte dei Suonatori
Dacapo 6.220630

With its focus on 18th-century Danish musical life during the reigns of Frederik IV and V and Christian VI, this disc shines a provocative light on uncommon repertoire and makes a refreshing addition to recorder music available on CD. On a more personal note, this delightful collaboration between the excellent Danish recorder player Bolette Roed and Polish ensemble Arte dei Suonatori had me smiling and humming along from its first note to its last.

The CD opens with Graupner’s Overture in F Major, reminiscent of Telemann’s Suite in A Minor for its similar instrumentation, style and length. Though less virtuosic than the Telemann, it presents interpretative challenges which these players meet with aplomb, finding for example a perfect, improvisatory tempo giusto for the movement “La Speranza.” Roed provides a lovely cadenza in the first movement of Scheibe’s Concerto a quattro, and a serene, easygoing yet beautifully expressive adagio. In vivid contrast, Graun’s Double Concerto in C bursts out of the gate with its virtuosic passagework and decidedly “yang” character. Graupner’s F Major Concerto and the suite from the music collection of Princess Charlotte Amalie, arranged by Maciej Prochaska, are two little gems.

The performances offer much variety of mood and colour, and thoughtful attention to details in the original scores provides a springboard to refined and imaginative interpretation. The instrumental balance is good, the booklet notes are excellent and the packaging is quite beautiful. Way to go, Denmark!

Handel – Serse
Stéphany; Joshua; Daniels; Summers; Harvey; Sherratt; Wolf; Early Opera Company; Christian Curnyn
Chaconne CHAN 0797(3)

Serse (aka Xerxes Great King of Persia) was first performed in 1738, at a time when Handel still believed he could win London audiences over to the Italian dramma per musica. For this he drew on Venetian poet Nicolò Minato’s libretto and Pier Francesco Cavalli’s music, originally performed back in 1655.

Xerxes attempted to invade Greece, but was defeated, not least when attempting to cross the Hellespont. After his first bridge was washed away, he beheaded the engineers and gave the Hellespont waters 300 lashes for good measure. Little wonder Minato and Handel were so focused on the volatility of Xerxes.

From the start one notices the carefree nature of this new performance; during Handel’s lifetime Serse was only performed five times and contemporaries commented on the lacklustre quality of the original singers.

This time, however, the interpretations are outstanding. Anna Stéphany, in the title role, is enchanting as a ruler subject to all manner of events, notably the unexpected over which he has no control, and the almost whimsical, which reflect his own character. This is not, on the face of it, a king setting out to conquer the known world.

Throughout Serse all the performers maintain this lighthearted quality. For example, Elviro, a servant of Xerxes’ brother Arsamene, is depicted as a panicky and nervous individual. Bass-baritone Andreas Wolf takes full advantage of this in his singing. There is definitely a liveliness to this version of Serse – over all 94 (!) of its tracks.

Handel – Belshazzar
Clayton; Joshua; Hulcup; Davies; Lemalu; Les Arts Florissants; William Christie
Les Arts Florissants Editions 001

When Handel came to London in 1710, he was primarily a composer of Italian operas. His first oratorio, Esther, dates from 1732 but it was from the late 1730s on, when Italian opera was losing its popularity in London, that English oratorio became central to his work. Belshazzar was composed in 1744. The libretto is largely based on the Book of Daniel and its central event is the writing on the wall which Belshazzar, the Babylonian King, does not understand and which only Daniel, the Jewish captive, can interpret.

In 1745 major changes had to be made because the contralto, Susannah Cibber, who was to sing Daniel, was not available. On these CDs William Christie gives us essentially the work as it stood before that emergency surgery, but he also includes some material that was cut before the first performance (cut no doubt because Handel was worried about the work’s length) as well as some numbers that Handel added or changed for the 1751 revival. The performance is magnificent: it is superbly paced and the soloists, the orchestra and the chorus are all very fine. I was especially taken with the soprano Rosemary Joshua as Nitocris, Belshazzar’s mother, and the countertenor Iestyn Davies as Daniel.

Over the years Christie and Les Arts Florissants have given us many fine recordings, but this is the first set of CDs issued by the orchestra itself. A great beginning!

Concert notes: While there are dozens of performances of Messiah in Toronto each year, chances to hear Handel’s other oratorios are infrequent. But we are in luck this year: Tafelmusik is presenting Saul (February 21 to 23) and the Canadian Opera Company is giving us a staged version of Hercules, directed by Peter Sellars (from March 5).

Mozart – Clarinet Quintet; String Quartet K421
Jörg Widmann; Arcanto Quartet
Harmonia Mundi HMC 902168

Ever since the final episode of M*A*S*H in 1983, I’ve realized that Mozart’s Quintet in A Major for clarinet and string quartet is more than a wonderful part of the repertoire for my instrument: it is a gift left for humanity. A luminous nearly perfect piece, K581 seems intended to assuage grief, to remind us that mortality is not so bad after all. Every new recording of it, indeed every performance, is a way of sharing the divine. In a recent release, Jörg Widmann and the Arcanto Quartet do justice to the music in a way that refreshes the ear with a bracing clarity in the strings and absolutely stunning playing in the clarinet. Widmann chooses to perform on the altered basset clarinet, allowing for some extra-low notes in some passages, but it makes little impact on the overall effect. More telling is the blistering tempo of the 16th-note variation in the fourth movement. Has this man no limits?

The strings adhere to a classical style: the near-absence of vibrato, the almost nasal colour of gut strings. Arcanto is a wonderful ensemble, playing as one, snapping back and forth between lead and accompaniment (the first trio in the third movement is Mozart’s little thank-you gift to the string players, a micro quartet while the tacet clarinettist swabs his horn). Do the five get carried away in the variations? Is the expression perhaps more coarse than necessary at times? Perhaps. But the violist, thank goodness, is not given to self-indulgence, and the piece ends in a flashy coda that few could manage with such a combination of wicked speed and beautiful style.

Arcanto performs K421 on their own in the companion piece. Worth hearing as well, and a welcome deviation from the usual inclusion of a lesser work for the same combination.

Concert note: Jörg Widmann is featured as both clarinetist and composer in New Music Concerts’ “A Portrait of Jörg Widmann” on April 18 at Betty Oliphant Theatre. 

Gold Medalist
Vadym Kholodenko
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907605

Silver Medalist
Beatrice Rana
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907606

Crystal Award
Sean Chen
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907607

Three winners emerged from the 14th Van Cliburn Competition in May/June 2013 to prove once again how unique and individuated such pianistic brilliance can be. A Ukrainian, Vadym Kholodenko, age 26, won the gold. Silver went to 20-year-old Italian Beatrice Rana and an American of 24, Sean Chen, received the crystal award. In addition, the winners also received three years of commission-free career management. These performances were recorded live in Fort Worth with audiences barely able to withhold their applause until the final chords faded completely. Considered together, these three young artists offer intriguingly different approaches to their music and its instrument.

Gold medalist Kholodenko chose an endurance program of Stravinsky (Petrouchka) and Liszt. The Transcendental Etudes, best known for the broad range of their technical demands, never seem to tax Kholodenko. He rises easily above them to allow himself generous interpretive ground. Here he plays wistfully with the melodies of Feux Follets and Harmonies du Soir, drawing out Liszt’s inner themes woven across left and right hand parts. His muscular approach to Mazeppa and Wilde Jagd leave no doubt about his power over the instrument as he makes it roar louder than either of his winning competitors. Similarly, his approach to Petrouchka demonstrates a remarkable clipped staccato in the very opening phrases that adds razor sharpness to the phrasing unlike what most other pianists are able to achieve. This power is beautifully contrasted with his playing of the second movement where a gentle legato and light touch confirm exactly why his medal was the gold.

Rana, the silver medalist, brings an elegant, dance-like style to her Schumann, Ravel and Bartók. Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes are very dense at times requiring the utmost in accuracy and articulation. Rana is wonderfully adept at drawing out melodies from within this quasi-orchestral score. The ninth etude, although only a few seconds in duration, is an excellent example of how she does this while sustaining a relentless driving pulse around the theme. Her performance of Ravel’s Gaspard meets every expectation for superbly fluid playing in the opening “Ondine.” “Le Gibet” and “Scarbo” each show us how well Rana can shift to a portrayal of darkness and mystery.

Perhaps most convincing is her primal and somewhat savage approach to Bartók’s Out of Doors. Despite the gentler requirements of the second and fourth movements, the opening almost puts the piano at risk as she astonishes the audience with her raw power. A performer with a demonstrably impressive interpretive ability, one understands why she also won the Audience Award.

Finally, Chen, winner of the crystal award performs a program of Brahms, Beethoven and Bartók. This young American pianist takes his Bartók just as seriously as his formidable Italian competitor but regards the composer’s rhythmic and harmonic angularity with more romance and less anger. A very different but very creditable approach. Chen is a thinker, a pianist who clearly appreciates clean structure. This is what informs all his playing. Nowhere is this more evident than in the closing epic fugal movement of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier. Adjectives simply fail to describe Chen’s grasp of how Beethoven built this complex edifice. He plays it brilliantly. The cheering audience reaction says it all.