Early, Classical and Beyond

10
tenThing
EMI Classics 088326 2

A few months ago I reviewed the CD Storyteller by Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth with orchestra and piano accompaniment. Now she is back with a ten member all woman brass ensemble called tenThing. This group, in instrumentation and sound, more closely resembles an enlarged brass quintet that a small brass band. The group consists of four trumpets, three tenor trombones, one bass trombone, one French horn and one tuba. The opener is a rousing version of a Carmen Suite arranged for the group by Roger Harvey. The group’s precise articulation comes to the fore in their rendition of Asturias by Albéniz. It’s not just the trumpets; the trombone and tuba always come through crisp and clean.

For me, a welcome inclusion is a seven movement suite from Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera. The trombone playing in particular captures the spirit that Weill would have wanted; Mack the Knife and Polly come to life. Two impressionistic works by Astor Piazzolla add a bit of Latin flavour, and a spirited rendition of Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca provides the real fiery component of this compilation.

There is no attempt to showcase the leader or any other member on this recording. Throughout, Helseth and her cohorts are members of the tight ensemble. The recording quality is top notch with 68 minutes of varied listening pleasure. Unfortunately, the disc is devoid of any biographical information, which is particularly annoying for the lesser known figures such as Dutch composer Jan Koetsier, who gets no mention although his three movement Brass Symphony, Op.80 and another shorter work are included.

Baroque specialist Rachel Podger is in magnificent form on a new 2-CD set of Vivaldi’s La Cetra – 12 Violin Concertos Op.9, with matching support from the Holland Baroque Society (Channel Classics CCS SA 33412). Podger is technically superb in all respects in concertos which demand a very high level of playing, managing to make them sound effortless but never empty and crystal clear and precise without ever lacking warmth. The outstanding accompaniment is lively, bright and full of dynamic contrast, with a continuo group consisting of organ and two lutes in addition to the usual cello and harpsichord sounding particularly effective in the solo violin passages. There’s the usual Vivaldi display of seemingly endless circles of fifths, scale and arpeggio passages and sequences, of course, plus the false familiarity — there are moments when you could swear you’ve put the Four Seasons on by mistake — but these are concertos that have enough variation to easily hold your interest throughout the two discs.

Recorded in Amsterdam, the wonderful sound quality adds to the enjoyment of a marvellous issue; this is simply one of the best Vivaldi sets you are ever likely to hear.

t’s been a long time since any string quartet CD had an impact on me to equal that of the latest issue from the Barcelona-based Cuarteto Casals, but stunning performances of the Schubert String Quartets D.87 and D.877 (harmonia mundi HMC 902121) left me quite lost for words.

Despite his tragically short life — or maybe because of it — Schubert managed to plumb depths in his later music that few composers have ever matched, let alone exceeded. The two quartets on this CD are from opposite ends of his career: the E-Flat Major D87 is the work of a 16-year-old who regularly played quartets at home with his family members, while the G Major D887 is Schubert’s final quartet, written in 1826 just two years before his death. The string quartet genre hadn’t really been around all that long at the time — only 50 or 60 years or so — but the emotional and technical distance that Schubert traveled in the 13 years that separate the two works is simply remarkable. The e-flat quartet is a charming and interesting work that owes much to Haydn and Mozart, but the g major is a worthy contemporary of the late Beethoven quartets. And what an astonishing work it is! — powerful, turbulent, full of wonderful theatrical and symphonic effects, and given a rich, fully committed performance by the Cuarteto Casals, whose passion and dynamic range perfectly match the emotional range of the music. Their wonderful playing is beautifully recorded, with perfect balance and just the right amount of resonance. A simply outstanding disc.

I’m sure most of us have a favourite composer whom we feel is unjustly neglected or underperformed. One such for me is the Belgian-born Guillaume Lekeu, who was just establishing himself in Paris after studying with César Franck and Vincent d’Indy when he died suddenly of typhoid fever the day after his 24th birthday in 1894. ATMA has released a CD of his Trio et Quatuor avec piano (ACD2 2651) featuring the Canadian Trio Hochelaga with the TSO principal violist Teng Li. Both works are very much of their time and clearly in the same style as those of Franck and d’Indy. The Piano Trio is the larger work, and the only completed one of the two; the Piano Quartet was unfinished at Lekeu’s death, and needed an additional few bars from d’Indy to make the second movement performable. It’s a shame it’s incomplete: Lekeu was a late starter, despite his early demise, and it’s clear that a more personal voice was beginning to emerge in this work. The Trio Hochelaga — violinist Anne Robert, cellist Paul Marleyn and pianist Stéphane Lemelin — give full-bodied and committed performances, although I found the violin vibrato to be a bit too wide and heavy at times, threatening to compromise the intonation and making the unison runs with the cello sound a bit out of synch. Overall, the feeling here is not so much one of masterpieces all too few, but more one of future masterpieces unfulfilled and of huge promise cruelly cut short.

It’s interesting to note how, in recent years, a good deal of contemporary composition in the U.S. appears to have swung back to works with a strong tonal base, often with a strong cinematic feel to them. A recent Naxos CD (8.559723) in their excellent American Classics series features performances by the London Symphony Orchestra under JoAnn Falletta of five works by Kenneth Fuchs, who was born in 1956. This is actually the third Naxos album of Fuchs’ works by this team — Falletta and Fuchs have been collaborating for over 25 years — and it shows a lyrical composer with great imagination and a fine ear for orchestral colour. Two orchestral works — Atlantic Riband and the overture Discover the Wild — open and close the disc. Falletta is joined by her Buffalo Philharmonic concertmaster, the outstanding Michael Ludwig, for American Rhapsody (Romance for violin and orchestra) and by the LSO’s Paul Silverthorne for Divinum Mysterium (Concerto for viola and orchestra), which was written for the performer. Both soloists are in top form, with Ludwig’s beautiful tone again fully evident. The Concerto Grosso for string quartet and string orchestra completes the CD. Despite the occasional suggestion of an English influence — Britten’s Sea Interludes in the Atlantic Riband and the Divinum Mysterium, for instance, or Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending in the Rhapsody — this is music firmly in the American mainstream tradition. There are more than a few hints of Copland and the American pastorale; at times, though, you could be forgiven for thinking that you were listening to music for a major motion picture or a top level television news or sports program.

OPUS 1 (Azica ACD-71274) is the impressive debut recording by the Israeli Chamber Project, a group of distinguished young Israeli musicians that was founded in 2008. All of the six members featured on this CD — Itamar Zorman (violin), Shmuel Katz (viola), Michal Korman (cello), Tibi Cziger (clarinet), Sivan Magen (harp) and Assaff Weisman (piano) — are established and experienced performers in their own right, with very impressive backgrounds and résumés. The playing, not surprisingly, is of the highest quality throughout a varied but always interesting program. The Saint-Saëns Fantasie for Violin and Harp, Op.124 from 1907, is one of several pieces that the composer wrote for the harp; it’s a simply lovely work that beautifully illustrates his understanding of the instrument. Martinů’s Chamber Music No.1, written only five months before his death in 1959, is the only work to use all six players. It’s full of folk rhythms, with a slow movement reminiscent of Bartòk’s “night music.” Matan Porat’s Night Horses was commissioned for, and dedicated to, the Israeli Chamber Project, who specifically requested the instrumentation of clarinet, violin, cello and piano to match that of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour le fin du temps. This is its first recording. Sivan Magen arranged Debussy’s 1915 Cello Sonata for cello and harp in 2010, and it works extremely well. Again, this is a premiere recording. A spirited performance of Bartòk’s Contrasts for clarinet, violin and piano rounds out an excellent disc. 

Two Lutes – Lute Duets from England’s Golden Age
Ronn McFarlane; William Simms
Sono Luminus DSL-92155

Lute duets form some of the most enchanting and at the same time most demanding recitals. Imagine a selection of 27 such duets!

La Rossignal has always been a testing but satisfying example of the genre. Both lutenists bring out the disciplined yet exuberant quality of this piece; they follow immediately with the stately and measured Delight Pavan of John Johnson, 15 years Queen Elizabeth’s “royal lewter.”

Ronn McFarlane and William Simms have gone well beyond formal compositions by Elizabethan composers — the anonymous Robin is to the Greenwood Gone is performed with a dedication and passion which Dowland and his contemporaries would have felt honoured by.

Then there are the sadly less well-known composers. Who can listen to the complexity of John Danyel’s Passemezzo Galliard and not wonder not just at the complexity of the galliard but also the performance to which we are treated? Listeners can even enjoy Thomas Robinson’s Passamezzo Galliard and compare the two, notably their slow almost laboured opening bars.

Johnson it is, however, who contributes the most duets. His Chi Passa (which differs considerably from the Commedia dell’arte version normally found), Queen’s Treble and Flatt Pavan and Galliard (was ever a composition so inappropriately named?) are interpreted so as to lend no doubt as to how long the players have been a duet.

This reviewer tried to make notes while listening to the duets. He was persistently but very happily prevented by the sheer pleasure of their content.

Vivaldi – New Discoveries II
Modo Antiquo; Federico Maria Sardelli
Naïve OP 30534

The story behind this disc is a fascinating one. As explained in the handsome and comprehensive accompanying booklet, the recording is made up entirely of newly-discovered operatic and instrumental music by Vivaldi, found over the past 20 years in various private and public collections in England, Scotland, Belgium and Germany. These include a flute concerto, two sonatas and one concerto for violin, and four arias from the opera L’inganno trionfante in amore.

The CD opens with an exuberant flute concerto titled “Il Gran Mogol,” found in Edinburgh in the archives of the 18th century amateur flutist Lord Robert Kerr. The violin sonatas (from the Foundling Museum in London) and concerto (found in Dresden) are exciting, virtuosic and inventive works. The opera arias date from around 1725, when a documented performance of L’inganno trionfante in amore took place in Venice. These arias, from a score long thought lost, turned up in 1995 in the Royal Library of Belgium!

The performances on the disc are of a uniformly high quality, with special mention going to the brilliant transverse flute playing of Alexis Kossenko and the fanciful and endlessly varied playing of violinist Anton Steck. Risk-taking like this is imperative to bring Vivaldi’s music off the page.

While we are familiar with Vivaldi’s deep impact on composers such as J.S. Bach, this recording is another reminder of how wide-reaching Vivaldi’s influence was across Europe in the early 18th century.

Glenn Gould plays Bach
Bruno Monsaingeon
Sony Classical 88691975049-01/2/3

It was with trepidation that I undertook this review of Glenn Gould’s three films directed by Bruno Monsaingeon. For many musicians, including myself, Glenn Gould was an icon. We grew up listening to his prodigious recordings of Bach and other composers. In fact, my first contemporary music experience as a pre-teen was listening to the Gould recordings of Schoenberg, Berg, Webern and Krenek. These and the inimitable Bach performances by Gould influenced my future repertoire choices and inspired me to adore Bach. I was mesmerized by Gould’s intelligence, wit, genius and effortless charisma in front of the camera or microphone. The question for me was whether he would still continue to seduce musically and charm conversationally today. There is an abundance of excellent Goldberg Variations in the market now and with everyone attempting to be a star on YouTube, being on camera is not necessarily such a special event anymore.

The first DVD, The Question of Instrument, allayed my fears. Glenn Gould shall remain on his pedestal. This is an excellent and invaluable clinic in voicing. In spite of the occasional harsh tone and lots of singing, the contrapuntal lines always flow naturally with an unerring articulation and precision. The voicing feels free and flexible as if being composed on the spot. The levels of dynamics are rich and varied with unique characteristics that force you to follow the lines to the resolution. The conversation in this DVD is a must for all musicians, teachers, scholars and performers. It is the question of harpsichord or piano.

Glenn Gould could have been a lawyer because he wins his argument easily. He supports playing Bach on the piano. Bach was into structure and his music adapts to any instrument. Gould also believes that the piano can get you closest to Bach’s conceptions of form, structure, harmony and counterpoint. He performs several pieces, demonstrating alternate versions of phrasing and sonority. He discusses various instrumentations that can come from one piece and gives relevant examples. Gould dismisses critics of the piano by calling their arguments “musicological overkill.” Brilliant, virtuosic music is also offered as an argument to favour the piano over the harpsichord (in spite of Scarlatti’s efforts). To demonstrate, Gould performs the Chromatic Fantasia in D Minor and although he calls the piece a “monstrosity” he played it with emotion and impeccable technique. This is a very improvisatory piece, almost like background film music according to Gould, and with his singing he sounded like an opera star with an over the top accompanist from a horror film from the 40s. This was a moment of welcome levity and reminds us of Gould’s comic acting abilities. He refers to this kind of music as Bach for people who do not like Bach. The other work on his “hit” radar was the Italian Concerto, another overplayed work on student recitals. Gould compared the Italian Concerto to Georgian architecture but insisted that Handel wrote this kind of music better. In performing this piece Gould says that it is best not to destroy the structure with too many crescendos and pianistic affectations. For comparison Gould performed the Sarabande from the Partita No.6 in E Minor to demonstrate a freer form and showed us different tempos that all seemed to work. His performance of the entire Partita No.4 in D Major was a marvel. The ornaments are crisp and exciting; the counterpoint is articulate and the voicing impeccable with a tapestry of texture and touch.

The second DVD is called An Art of the Fugue and appropriately begins with the Fugue in B-Flat Major on the name BACH. Again, what a wonderful masterclass in fugues for any musician; everything complicated is explained with clarity and ease by Gould. The program notes, which are excellent, by the way, say that Gould rehearsed everything. It doesn’t matter, it still sounds spontaneous and the information is invaluable. The fugal structures become a dramatic journey through harmony, counterpoint and resolution. What a majestic performance and deep understanding Gould brings to all the fugues he performs in this DVD. For those who find fugues boring, listen to and watch this DVD. Highlights include the E Major from Book 2, a cantabile Ricercare, which was also Arnold Schoenberg’s favourite. Preludes are missing from this fugue extravaganza. Gould has some demeaning comments on the Preludes but gives a nod to the one from the Prelude and Fugue in A Major,Book 2. Gould speaks for the artistic and creative merits of fugal structures. Fugal adventures were not popular in Bach’s time. Gould mentions minuets as the hot form of the day. However, Bach turned his back on this and other forms to borrow concepts from the last 100 years such as Flemish devotional music. There is a piece in the Art of the Fugue which also shows Bach’s far-reaching chromaticism in an infinitely expanding musical universe. It sounds like Schoenberg. The astonishing and ear-opening comments and playing inspired me to immediately go to the piano and play some fugues.

What to say about the third DVD The Goldberg Variations? I enjoyed the introduction which showed Gould picking his takes and explaining why he chose them. He also spoke about his reasons for recording the Goldberg Variations again for the second time. He said that the technology of 1955, due to the lack of stereo and Dolby, invalidated the process of the first version. What a coup for musicians to have Gould’s two versions, but it made me wonder if he had lived would he have recorded it again? The DVD concludes with the entire performance of the Goldberg Variations.

Teary eyed and blissfully involved with the music, I can only say that Glenn Gould shall remain an icon and a legend with his awe inspiring genius. I know that there are a lot of recordings, books and DVDs about him but I highly recommend this trilogy.

Dreamers Renegades Visionaries:
The Glenn Gould Variations is a two-day festival of new work, new interpretations and new collaborations, from Argentina, Britain, Canada, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Japan and the USA at Convocation Hall, University of Toronto, September 22 and 23. It features more than 50 participants including Canadian luminaries Brent Carver, Adrienne Clarkson, Adam Egoyan, François Girard, Norman Jewison and Mark Kingwell to name but a few. Full details are available at www.glenngouldvariations.ca.