02 Sounds of NorthSounds North: Two Centuries of
Canadian Piano Music
Elaine Keillor
Gala Records
Gala-108
www.galarecords.ca

Canadian pianist and Carleton University distinguished research professor emerita Elaine Keillor shines in this four-CD collection of solo piano works by Canadian composers dedicated to the memory of Helmut Kallmann (1922–2012), the noted musicologist largely responsible for the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. Each disc features works from a specific time frame with many of the works drawing on Canadian landscapes and traditions for their artistic motivation.

The first disc opens with the 1807 composition General Craig’s March by F. Glackemeyer. Keillor’s delicate touch and florid lines set the mood for a selection of ragtime and parlour music so popular in the 1800s and early 1900s. Keillor is fantastic in her performances of rags, as her solid beating of the rhythm drives the melodic lines.

CD2, Developments to the End of WWI, continues with more of the same genre of works and lyrical performance. Alexis Contant’s Yvonne (1903) is especially enjoyable as Keillor’s sense of playfulness and joy creates a danceable waltz. In W.C. Barron’s Lullalo, An Irish Lullaby (1890), Keillor sustains a swaying Irish folk lilt that supports the more intense mood in the dramatic harmonic sections. More European compositional influences are evident in such selections as Mazurka Nos.1 and 2 (1890) by Clarence Lucas.

The third disc extends to the end of WWII. Here, even more European compositional influences are heard in a number of multi-movement works by such composers as Robert Fleming, Georges-Emile Tanguay and George M. Brewer. In Leo Smith’s Suite for Piano (1930s?), the mournful melody of the opening movement is transformed and developed in an almost jazz-like manner in each of four movements. Keillor has also included Two Pieces (1951–52) by Glenn Gould. Gould’s development of contrapuntal ideas is fascinating in the second piece.

The fourth disc, Canada’s Space in Sound, opens with Louis Applebaum’s A Northern Legend (1957), a four-section work that is programmatic in its successful aural depictions of such classic Canadian features as tundra, rocks and huskies. “Unfinished Rag,” the fourth movement from John Beckwith’s March, March! (2001), continues to delight with its bouncing rhythm. The last chord leaves the listener waiting for more. The disc ends with Jocelyn Morlock’s The Jack Pine (2010), a work inspired by a painting of the same name by Tom Thomson. At first, the colours and timbres seem to be played too brittle and shrill but as the piece progresses, the harmonies support this touch.

This is a monumental project. The sheer number of works is astounding. Keillor plays each with more than the expected necessary skill, accuracy and respect. Musically, the pianist is able to convey each composer’s sensibilities as she glides through the diverse styles. Her choice of works is interesting in both its inclusions and exclusions but the collection is a fitting tribute to Canadian composers past and present.

03 Franck and StraussFranck & Strauss – Violin Sonatas
Augustin Dumay; Louis Lortie
Onyx
4096

César Franck’s passionate and romantic Violin Sonata has been regarded as one of the greatest in the repertoire. Thanks to this disc however, I have fallen in love with Richard Strauss’s Violin Sonata Op.18, a work of his early years. It is lyrical and lush with all the hallmarks of his later style. It was written in 1887 and Strauss had studied both violin and piano from a very early age. He had already composed a violin concerto in 1882 so it is not surprising to hear superb writing for both instruments. This sonata is expansive in the grand manner using idiomatic writing for virtuoso performers but it is also melodic, tender and intimate. There are references to Brahms in several moments of the music and in the last few bars the piano part quotes from the Adagio of Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata. This is vigorous and adventurous music, full of bravura. The middle section seems to be invaded by the Erlking. However, the lyrical moments melt your heart as do the performances.

César Franck’s only violin sonata was written in 1886 as a wedding present for the virtuoso violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. It is a staple of all violinists. Both violinist and pianist get to flex their muscles in this unabashedly emotional and radiant work. The second movement is the most fiery music Franck ever wrote and lets the pianist display his virtuosic technique. However, the dolcissimo and rhapsodic, improvisatory nature of the Recitativo-Fantasia shows Franck at his most expressive with an intense but serene melodic line. No wonder this piece became a standard-bearer for French chamber music. These performances are poised, refined and exquisite. They match in their touch and in the pacing of the music. Both Dumay and Lortie sing the melodic line on their instruments in intense and sensitive unison. The two artists have chosen to highlight the music instead of their own technique and it is a journey well worth listening to. A highly recommended CD for lovers of French chamber music.

01 WispelweyThe dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey has lived with the Bach Cello Suites for virtually his entire professional career, having explored them and played them in recital close to an astonishing 1,000 times. He has already recorded them twice, 14 and 21 years ago, but decided to celebrate his 50th birthday last September by recording them for a third time; the new 2-CD plus DVD set on Evil Penguin Records Classic (EPRC 012) is the result. Given Wispelwey’s ongoing relationship with the pieces, however, he readily admits that this won’t be the end of the road. “Six suites, six recordings,” he says in the DVD; “Why not?” Wispelwey also took this opportunity to “take the plunge,” in his own words, and do something he had done in private but had never dared to do in concert: tune his cellos down from the standard 415 baroque pitch to 392, the contemporary pitch in Cöthen, where Bach wrote the suites around 1720. This dropped the tuning a semi-tone; it gave him, he says, “the sensation of entering rooms that I hadn’t been in before or didn’t know existed.”

Wispelwey plays a 1710 Pieter Rombouts baroque cello for the first five suites, and an anonymous 18th-century five-string violoncello piccolo for the sixth. His familiarity with this music is obvious from the free-flowing opening bars of the Suite No.1 in G Major; there’s a great sense of flow and structure here, and a confidence and assurance in the playing that doesn’t preclude a sense of joyful exploration; it’s as if we are fortunate enough to be joining Wispelwey on yet another of his journeys through these wonderful works, and are witness to his new discoveries.

The DVD, entitled 392, Pieter Wispelwey and the Bach Cello Suites, is an entertaining 52-minute documentary filmed during Wispelwey’s dress rehearsal for the recording, a concert performance of all six suites at the Holywell Concert Room in Oxford in May of last year; excerpts from the recital are interspersed with discussions and observations about Bach and contemporary performance issues — particularly for the dance movements — with Bach scholars Laurence Dreyfus of Oxford University and Glasgow University’s John Butt. Fascinating booklet notes and an attractive presentation box format help to make this a set to treasure.

02b Bach Lute 202a Bach Lute 1The Six Cello Suites also turn up in transcriptions on two naïve CDs from American lutenist Hopkinson Smith, Bach Suites Nos.1, 2, 3 (E 8937) being performed on theorbo, and Bach Suites Nos.4, 5, 6 (E 8938) on lute. Despite the consecutive numbers, the two CDs are not issued as a set; the first is in an attractive cardboard Digipak, while the second is in a traditional plastic jewel case. There’s a quite different feel to the suites in these performances — they’re softer and gentler, for a start, with Suites 1 to 3 transposed up a fourth and Suite 4 up a fifth — but the music doesn’t seem to suffer; indeed, the opportunity for fuller accompaniment and added bass lines serves to clarify and expand the harmonies implicit in the solo cello writing. And again, there’s that sense of journeying and exploring, of participating with an interpreter in an intimate personal experience that underlines yet again just how much depth these works have. Detailed booklet notes explain the choice of instruments, tunings and transpositions.

03 Bach Violin Manson KoopmanIt would be hard to imagine a more suitable pair of performers for the Bach 6 Sonatas for Harpsichord and Violin BWV 1014–1019 than Catherine Manson and Ton Koopman, or a better performance than they give on a new Challenge Classics 2-CD set (CC72560). The Dutch Baroque specialist Koopman, now nearly 70, founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in 1979; Manson became its leader in 2006.

As the excellent and detailed booklet notes by Christoph Wolff point out, this set of innovative sonatas forms a pivotal link between the baroque trio sonata and the classical duo sonata of the late 18th century. There is true partnership in the writing, as there is in these outstanding performances. Koopman’s harpsichord sound is strong, deep and warm; Manson’s violin sound is the perfect companion and counterpart: light, but never lacking in depth.

Beautifully recorded, this is intelligent playing full of sensitivity, energy and drive.

Paul Hindemith was a world-class viola player, so it’s not surprising that there is a significant amount of music for viola in his chamber output, nor is it surprising that it brilliantly exploits the instrument’s full range and character.

04 Hindemith ViolaTwo of his three sonatas for viola and piano and the second of his four sonatas for solo viola are presented on Paul Hindemith Retrospective: Viola Sonatas, in outstanding performances by Yuri Gandelsman and pianist Ralph Votapek (Blue Griffin BGR277). The duo works are theSonata Op.11 No.4 from 1919, the year that Hindemith decided to change to viola from violin, which until then had been his primary instrument, and the final sonata of the three, dating from 1939. The solo sonata is the Op.25 No.1 from 1922. A short Capriccio, arranged by Gandelsman from Hindemith’s Op.8 No.1 work of the same title for cello and piano, concludes a marvellous CD.

Gandelsman’s tone is full and rich across the complete range of the instrument – hardly surprising, given that he plays a 1748 Paolo Testore viola – and what a range it is in Hindemith’s hands! Add faultless technique and a lovely range of dynamics from both players and you have a real winner. The CD was recorded thanks to a grant from Michigan State University, where Gandelsman is professor of viola at the College of Music. The sound quality is absolutely top notch.

05 Weber Violin SonatasThe ever-reliable harmonia mundi label has added another winner to its catalogue with the Sonatas for Piano & Violin and the Piano Quartet ofCarl Maria von Weber (HMC 902108). Violinist Isabelle Faust andAlexander Melnikov, playing an original ca.1815 fortepiano, are in great form in the sonatas and are joined by violist Boris Faust and cellist Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt for the piano quartet.

Weber (1786-1826) is mostly known for his early German Romantic operas and a few clarinet pieces, but he composed over 300 works during his short life. The Six Violin Sonatas Op.10 were written in 1810 on a commission from the publisher André, who had asked for pieces of only moderate difficulty suitable for performance in a domestic setting. Restricted by this limitation, Weber experienced a great deal of trouble with the composition and was clearly annoyed when André rejected the sonatas for being too good. The works were eventually published by Simrock under the title Progressive sonatas for fortepiano with obbligato violin, composed for and dedicated to amateur musicians. They certainly get off to a dazzling start, and it’s clear from the brilliant opening of this CD that these sonatas are quite something, even if there’s not necessarily a great emotional depth to them. And don’t be fooled by the statement in the booklet notes that “the technical demands on the performers, especially the violin, (my italics) are fairly modest…,” although they do acknowledge that the real musical difficulty lies in having to interpret the constantly changing array of styles; the sonatas aren’t in the virtuoso league by any means, but the keyboard part in particular is clearly challenging. I’d be surprised if many amateur players could handle these charming pieces at all, let alone as brilliantly as Faust and Melnikov.

The Piano Quartet Op.8 is from the previous year, although the Adagio was apparently written in 1806. The work fully deserves the description “unjustly neglected,” even if there are clearly echoes of Beethoven throughout.

The Argentinean cellist Sol Gabetta has two new CD releases, both of them of very high quality.

06a Gabetta 1On Shostakovich Rachmaninov (Sony 88725435752) she is supported by the Münchener Philharmoniker under Lorin Maazel in a live concert performance of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No.1 – well, live in so far as its having been recorded over three concert dates in Munich in September 2011. There’s a complete absence of any audience sound or ambience, but the recording certainly has the electricity of a live performance. The Rachmaninov work is a regular studio recording of his Cello Sonata in G Minor Op.19, in which Olga Kern is the pianist; again, it’s a first-class performance in all respects.

06b Gabetta 2On DuoGabetta makes a guest appearance on the Deutsche Grammophon label for a recital with pianist Hélène Grimaud (479 0090).The two met at the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad in 2011 and formed an immediate bond; the program on this CD, the first specific duo recording for either artist, is apparently the recital program they performed in Gstaad.

Schumann’s Drei Fantasiestücke Op.73 opens the disc, followed by three cello sonatas: Brahms’ No.1, Op.38; the Debussy; and the ShostakovichOp.40. The jewel case blurb quotes a review of the original concert, noting “Magical intensity and intimacy,” and it’s an extremely accurate description of the CD recital as well. From the interview conversation in the booklet notes it’s quite clear that these two performers share a very special musical relationship; the mutual understanding and the sharing of nuances is evident throughout an outstanding CD.

The exceptional violinist Tianwa Yang has been featured in this column several times over the past few years in reviews of her two separate Naxosseries of the complete works of Pablo Sarasate for violin and piano and violin and orchestra; both series are due for completion this year. Yang is the soloist on two recent unrelated Naxos releases.

07a Mendelssohn Violin CtosThe most recent is her recording of the Mendelssohn Violin Concertos, coupled with the Violin Sonata in F minor (8.572662)Patrick Gallois leads the Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä, and Romain Descharmesis the pianist in the sonata. There are so many recordings of the Mendelssohn E minor concerto that it seems as if there can’t possibly be anything new to say with it, and yet it remains almost a rite of passage for all soloists. It’s not too difficult to come up with reasons: this is, after all, the most perfect of violin concertos, and a true test of technique, tone, sensitivity, artistry and musicianship. Yang certainly displays ample technique and musical intelligence in this work, as she does throughout the CD, although her tone can tend to be somewhat nasal in the middle and lower registers. The D minor concerto is a work from Mendelssohn’s youth, written in 1822 when he was only 13; Yehudi Menuhin obtained a manuscript copy in 1951, and was essentially responsible for its revival and publication. Scored for violin and string orchestra, it contains flashes of the mature Mendelssohn, but is generally closer in style to the works of Mendelssohn’s older contemporaries Kreutzer and Rode.

The violin sonata is another early work, from 1823, but the music, from the violin’s plaintive unaccompanied solo beginning, through an affecting slow movement to a quite Beethovenian Allegro Agitato finale, belies the composer’s age.

07b Rihm ViolinYang’s other recent Naxos release is the Complete Works for Violin and Piano by the contemporary German composer Wolfgang Rihm, with pianist Nicholas Rimmer (8.572730).

Despite his prolific output, I don’t recall ever hearing any of Rihm’s music. I’m sure the fault is all mine, but it may also possibly be because his music doesn’t seem to lend itself to standard radio or recital programming; it’s not always an easy listening experience, not strong on melody and with a good deal of stop/start passages in some of the pieces, and with some odd effects at the extremes of the violin’s physical range and also in the piano writing. Rihm is very highly regarded though, particularly in Europe, and although the jewel case is typically over-effusive in describing Rihm’s style as “…almost unique in today’s music in marrying contemporary technique with emotionally powerful resonances” this is obviously a very strong voice with a distinct character. Yang and Rimmer are clearly very much at home in these pieces, and give strong, assured performances throughout the CD. The five works span Rihm’s career, from Hekton (1972) and Eine Violinsonate (1971/75) through two pieces from the early 1990s, Antlitz and Phantom und Eskapade, to the world premiere recording of Über die Linie VII for solo violin, from 2006. I found the latter to be the most accessible and effective work of the five, although Phantom und Eskapade has some beautiful moments.

01 MehulMéhul – Le Chant du depart
Les Jacobins; Mathieu Lussier
ATMA ACD2 2659

Etienne-Nicolas Méhul — now there’s a name we don’t encounter all that often these days! But if you were an enlightened citoyen and a patron of the arts during those stormy days following the French Revolution, his name would probably have been quite familiar. Born in Givet in 1763, Méhul is now regarded as the first French Romantic composer, his operas enjoying considerable acclaim from the 1790s until the first decade of the 19th century. Today, his music has fallen undeservedly into obscurity, but what better way of re-introducing it than through this delightful ATMA recording of woodwind arrangements titled Le Chant du départ performed by the Montréal-based ensemble Les Jacobins under the direction of Mathieu Lussier?

Comprising Quebec’s top woodwind and brass players, Les Jacobins is a group of variable size that comes together to explore the little-known music of the French Revolutionary period. And what a wonderfully resonant sound they produce! The eight members delive r a thoughtful and well-balanced performance of these fine arrangements, all of which capture the dramatic intensity and orchestral colour of the original scores. Included on the disc are several of Méhul’s operatic overtures, including Mélidor & Phrosine, Joseph and La Chasse du jeune Henri. The CD also contains a number of patriotic songs for which Méhul was renowned, his most famous being Le Chant du retour, spirited music from 1797.

For those who look upon arrangements with slight disdain, it must be remembered that operatic overtures, arias and patriotic songs were frequently popularized by small woodwind ensembles in the same manner as Mozart’s Harmoniemusik. Hence, Les Jacobins has not only succeeded in recreating a sound from the streets of revolutionary Paris, it has also brought to light repertoire that definitely deserves greater recognition. Grands felicitations for some splendid music making!

03 AndsnesThe Beethoven Journey –
Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3
Leif Ove Andsnes;
Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Sony 88725420582

One of my favorite pianists, Leif Ove Andsnes came to record this CD by way of an elevator in São Paulo, Brazil. He loved hearing short fragments of these concertos playing on a loop in the hotel elevator. Lucky for us, Andsnes fell in love again with Beethoven’s music as we will in listening to this CD. I find it difficult to believe that this is his first recording of Beethoven.

Andsnes also directs the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in this seamless journey in rediscovering the diversity of ideas and expressions in Beethoven’s mesmerizing masterpieces. Andsnes feels the music in a deeply spiritual way which he communicates in sublime phrasing, especially in the slow movements. His shaping of the melodic singing lines captures Beethoven’s soul-wrenching humanity and desire to change the world through his music.

The Piano Concerto No.1 in C Major reflects the style of Haydn and Mozart. However, Beethoven uses spaciousness and basic rhythmic patterns to create fresh and intense musical rhetoric. The slow movement which is immense is also one of the most beautiful of the concertos. The first theme in the third movement feels like a Turkish march, popular in Vienna at that time. Andsnes has the rhythmic articulation and drive, crisp runs and a sense of humour to make this movement sparkle like a gem.

The Piano Concerto No.3 in C Minor is much grander in scale, with something like a military march in the first movement. There is a rich layering of motifs building tension that results in an extreme dramatic impact. The slow movement is heart wrenching in its beauty and Andsnes milks every nuance of emotion in his performance. The technical virtuosity of Andsnes’ playing is flawless. Stylistically it is impeccable. His fingers dance over the keyboard, caress the keys with a velvet touch and display his exquisite musicianship in a myriad of tonal colours. I look forward to the rest of his Beethoven journey with anticipation.

05 Michael KolkPlatero y Yo: An Andalusian Elegy
Michael Kolk
Independent
michaelkolkguitar.com

As I write this, the weather outside is seasonally grey and cold — so a disc titled Platero y Yo: An Andalusian Elegy featuring 20th century guitar music from sunnier climes performed by Michael Kolk seems the perfect antidote. Kolk’s first two recordings were as one half of the Henderson-Kolk guitar duo, but this is his first solo endeavour, presenting music by Manuel Ponce, Eduardo Sainz de la Maza, Augustin Barrios Mangoré and Joaquin Rodrigo. A native of Vancouver, Kolk studied at the University of Toronto where he earned a Master’s degree in guitar performance. Since then, he has appeared in Europe and North America, and has been the recipient of numerous first prizes in guitar competitions.

This disc is a gem! Taking for its title the name of an eight-movement suite by de la Maza, it opens with Ponce’s set of variations Theme varié et Finale from 1926. The mood is quietly introspective, and even in the brisker movements, Kolk achieves a wonderful sense of intimacy. De la Maza’s suite that follows comprises an appealing set of contrasts, apparently inspired by a book by Spanish author Juan Jiménez. Four charming waltzes by Paraguayan composer Barrios Mangoré precede Rodrigo’s Introdución y Danza, a brief but notable example of that composer’s affable style.

While all of these pieces were composed during the 20th century, there’s nothing avant-garde about them and Kolk’s sensitive and technically flawless performance further enhances their charm. Platero y Yo, (with its attractive packaging) is indeed the perfect disc to savour on a cold winter’s day — or for that matter, any time of year.

04 Kuerti-MendelssonMendelssohn
Anton Kuerti
DoReMi CD DDR-6610

As was evident from his earlier Mendelssohn CD containing the two concertos and Capriccio Brilliante, Op.22, Anton Kuerti has as wonderful a way with Mendelssohn as he has with Schumann, Beethoven and Schubert. In this new CD he is a master in all of the pianistic and artistic demands and his playing is transparent, sparkling and joyful ... a man happy at his work.

This disc presents a cross section of Mendelssohn’s solo piano pieces recorded August 25, 2009, in the Willowdale United Church and 1970 in Walter Hall, beginning with the evocative Variations Serieuses Op.54. The Fantasy Op.28, Scherzo a Capriccio in F-Sharp Minor, Andante and Rondo Capriccioso Op.14 and Three Preludes and Fugues Op.35 follow, and the miniscule Scherzo in B Minor without opus number closes this attractive recital. The sound is remarkably realistic. A welcome addition to the catalogues of both Kuerti and Mendelssohn.

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