Early, Classical and Beyond

Being Golden
Suzanne Shulman; Erica Goodman
Wolftone (shulmangoodman.bandcamp.com/album/being-golden)

Leading Canadian musicians on their respective instruments, flutist Suzanne Shulman and harpist Erica Goodman first played together in 1972. They’ve since enjoyed illustrious careers, performing with several generations of musicians. To commemorate their abiding musical friendship they commissioned Canadian-Scottish composer Eric N. Robertson to write The Rings to serve as an eight-movement centrepiece of Being Golden, their latest joint flute and harp album.

Robertson’s The Rings not only celebrates Shulman and Goodman’s 50th anniversary, but also the golden wedding anniversary of Shulman and her husband Peter. Robertson’s music features colourful arrangements of Scottish rhythms and dances such as reels and strathspeys arranged in a straightforward manner. Geometry of Love (Bells), the title of the final movement, takes an entirely different tack. The strikingly effective interpretation of change ringing (the practice of ringing a set of tuned bells in a sequence) is an outstanding track.  

The balance of the record is devoted to French repertoire for the two instruments. Eloquently composed short works by “impressionist” composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel follow the retro-sounding and peppy 20th-century works by neoclassicists Jacques Bondon and Jean Françaix.
Four pensive works by Ravel defiantly alter the album’s mood, particularly the concluding Deux mélodies hébraïques. Shulman shines in a melismatic near-vocalise in Kaddisch, while the all-too-brief L’énigme éternelle questions the puzzle of existence with bi-tonal passages and a repetitive accompaniment. Is Ravel suggesting that pursuing the topic is futile? Whatever the answer, there’s much to listen to, think about and enjoy here.

Bach Concertos
L’Harmonie des saisons; Eric Milnes
ATMA ACD2 2853 (atmaclassique.com/en)

The talented combination of Quebec-born viola da gambist Mélisande Corriveau and American harpsichordist and conductor Eric Milnes is a truly fortuitous one, which 12 years ago resulted in the formation of the Baroque ensemble L’Harmonie des saisons. Founded in Granby, Québec the group has since earned considerable critical acclaim and has appeared at festivals throughout Canada, the United States, Europe and South America, and has been the recipient of two Juno and two Opus awards. This newest recording presenting an all-Bach program is further evidence of the group’s merit.

The Concerto for Two Violins BWV1043 and that for solo violin BWV1041 were probably written for a concert series Bach organized as the director of the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig. Soloists Julia Wedman (from Toronto’s Tafelmusik) and Jessy Dubé (with Wedman in the solo concerto) deliver stylish and spirited performances, the phrasing always thoughtfully articulated, while the ensemble provides a solid partnership.

The Concerto BWV1055 is most often performed on a keyboard instrument, but scholars indicate that it was probably originally scored for oboe d’amore as is heard here. There is much to admire in oboist Matthew Jennejohn’s bright and clear tone both in this concerto and in BWV1060 where he’s joined by Wedman.

Milnes takes his place at the harpsichord for the Concerto in D Major BWV1054, the third of seven Bach wrote for solo keyboard. Here, soloist and ensemble are a formidable pairing with Milnes playing with a solid assurance and the slow movement particularly well rendered.

Fine sound quality further enhances a fine performance of some familiar repertoire. Bien fait, one and all – let’s hear from you again.

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Mozart – Complete Piano Sonatas Vol.2 & 3
Orli Shaham
Canary Classics CC21 (canaryclassics.com)

For trumpeters studying and performing Western Art Music, at a certain point the extant literature of canonic repertoire gets somewhat thin. “How many times,” a classical trumpeter may ask themselves somewhat frustratedly, “do I need to perform the Brandenburg?” This is not so for pianists who have what seems like a bottomless pit of challenging, crowd-pleasing and technically instructive repertoire to mine as part of their studies or professional concertizing. As such, it is inspiring when you encounter a pianist, such as the talented and newly minted Juilliard faculty member Orli Shaham, who has taken on the yeoman’s task of releasing multiple-disc Mozart recordings in order to put her own stamp on this well-known and beloved music, and establish herself, as The Chicago Tribune noted, as a “first-rate Mozartean.” 

With her latest double-disc release, Complete Piano Sonatas Volume 2 & 3 on the Canary Classics label, listeners find the gifted musician in fine form, picking up from where she left off with volume one and setting the stage for the remaining recordings to be released next year. Exhibiting a deft touch and the sort of keen eye for specific nuance and detail that these piano sonatas require, fans of top-shelf-piano performance and solo classical repertoire will find much to enjoy here. Particular mention should be made to the beautiful sound, acoustic purity and recorded 24-bit capture of Shaham’s Steinway at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. 

Notebook – Chopin & Janáček
Domenico Codispoti
Eudora Records EUD-SACD-2203 (eudorarecords.com)

As a teenager, when I was doing my best to convince myself that I liked to smoke clove cigarettes, wear vintage secondhand clothing and watch the “artsiest” of art films at the Revue, Fox or Carlton Cinemas, I remember liking Philip Kaufman’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being with Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliette Binoche. Upon initial viewing, I subsequently rushed out to get my hands on Czech beer and a well-thumbed copy of the original Milan Kundera novel, released a few years before the film. And while much was memorable about that movie, I remember being particularly struck by how effectively the film used music (almost exclusively Leoš Janáček’s On an Overgrown Path). Accordingly, it is nice to rediscover Janáček’s haunting cycle of piano pieces, paired here with the 24 Preludes of Frederic Chopin, for a satisfying new release on Eudora records. 

Although their lives almost overlapped briefly – Chopin died in 1849 while Janáček was born in 1854 – they did not. That said, the extraordinary compositions and musical talents of the more famous Polish composer and those of the Czech composer and theorist are united here in the capable hands of Italian pianist Dominico Codispoti. If, as the liner notes to this terrific new recording suggest, Codispoti views himself as a kind of earthly vessel through which the music and composer intentions flow while guided by Chopin’s ghosts and demons, as well as, one supposes, Janáček’s spirit leading him down a silent street in Moravia, 2022 auditors are encouraged to listen in on these two master composers presented in this most excellent translated form.

Franz Liszt – Rhapsodies, Etudes and Transcriptions
Sophia Agranovich
Centaur Records CRC 3955 (centaurrecords.com)

Now here is a disc I would listen to over and over again, never wanting it to end. An award-winning very talented Ukrainian-American pianist, Sophia Agranovich plays Liszt as it should be played, totally imbued in Romantic spirit and with “interpretation daring to be different” and “superior musicianship” (American Record Guide). Funny, I remember British critics around the 50s who poo-pooed Liszt, held him second rate and overtly emotional. They should eat their words when they hear this performance.

This is her tenth release and entirely devoted to Liszt showing the many sides of the composer’s genius and all devilishly difficult pieces. Imagine a Budapest cafe with an ever present gypsy (Roma) band and the lead violinist coming to your table and playing his heart out for your wife or girlfriend. This is what we hear when Agranovich plays the slow middle section of Hungarian Rhapsody No.6. The style is unmistakeably Hungarian with the rubatos, hesitations, sudden eruptive accelerandos and syncopations and we even hear the tremolo of the cimbalom in the background. It’s interesting that then she chooses the slow, quiet, melodic No.13, seldom performed but in her hands probably the most beautiful of all the Hungarian Rhapsodies

This is followed by three Schubert Transcriptions, (Ständchen, Erlkönig and Die Forelle); when I was listening to the famous Ständchen (Serenade) I was so transported that I felt like exclaiming “wow, this is soo beautiful!”

Agranovich’s astounding technique is further evident in the dramatic and exciting Mazeppa of the Transcendental Etudes based on the story of a Ukrainian nobleman punished by being dragged by a wild horse across the steppes. We hear the lightning flashes of the whip and the syncopated galloping rhythm in this immensely difficult piece, which provides a fitting end to this unique, opulent and rewarding new issue.

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