04 Alain LefevreRachmaninov; Haydn; Ravel
Alain Lefèvre
Analekta AN 2 9296

Ever since winning first prize in piano and chamber music at the Paris Conservatoire followed by first prize at the Alfred Cortot International Piano Competition, Alain Lefèvre has earned a reputation as an artist of the first rank. His performances have won him rave reviews in the press and he has appeared on concert stages as far reaching as New York, Berlin, London and Shanghai. Although born in Poitiers, France, Canada has long claimed him as a native citizen, owing to his long period in this country beginning with his first lessons at the Collège Marguerite-Bourgeoys in Montreal.

His newest disc on the Analekta label features an eclectic program of music by Rachmaninov, Haydn and Ravel. From the opening descending arpeggio of the Rachmaninov Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, the listener is made keenly aware that Lefèvre is in full command of this most challenging repertoire. Like Chopin’s sonata of the same key, this work is a study in contrasting movements. Lefèvre approaches the technical demands of the first and third with apparent ease, capturing the dark and dramatic spirit with much bravado, while the quietly introspective second movement is treated with much sensitivity. In total contrast is the Haydn Sonata No.38 in F Major, dating from 1773. Lefèvre’s interpretation is elegant and precise, demonstrating a particular clarity of phrasing as befits this music, clearly rooted in the classical tradition.

Ravel’s La Valse from 1918 has always been regarded as a tour de force. In this version for piano, Lefèvre adroitly captures the waltz’s kaleidoscopic moods, from the opening references to a gracious Second Empire ballroom to its final frenzy – a true musical depiction of a “harsh new world” brought on by the immense political and social changes of the early 20th century. Bravo, M. Lefèvre – once again you have proven yourself most worthy of the accolades bestowed by critics and audiences alike.

05 Prokofiev CinderellaProkofiev – Cinderella
Mariinsky Ballet & Orchestra; Valery Gergiev
Mariinsky MAR0555

Of late, with its ongoing confrontation in Ukraine, European trade sanctions and a worrisome intervention in the Syrian war, Russia is again starting to look like a frozen-in-time empire of the Cold War. There is no such freeze in the artistic life of the country however. Case in point: new, exciting choreography for Cinderella. This staple of traditional ballet, rendered beautifully by many artists, from Margot Fonteyn to Maya Plisetskaya, was a stylish piece, to be sure, but it has been in dire need of a makeover. The new Cinderella is simply brilliant. Contemporary and energetic, with smart costumes by Elena Markovskaya, it plays, as it should, as a modern parable of the triumph of good over evil. The sheer nervous energy of the performance highlights the beauty of the score. In typical Prokofiev fashion, the music reveals itself to be even more ahead of its time than we suspected.

The physically demanding new choreography illustrates perfectly the tension of the score and highlights Prokofiev’s uncanny ability to express movement through music. Filmed in the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, the work truly belongs in Mariinsky II, designed by the Canadian starchitect Jack Diamond. Fresh, exciting and triumphant, this recording leaves us hoping that Putin’s Russia is nothing but a phase in the history of a great artistic nation.

06 AcclarionShattered Expectations
Acclarion
Acclarion Records ACC3000 (acclarion.ca)

Review

Acclarion’s latest release showcases the phenomenal musicianship of clarinetist Rebecca Carovillano and accordionist David Carovillano. Partners both in life and in this 12-year duo project, they perform here with passion, elegance, wit and stylistic acuity.

Five tracks are composed by David Carovillano. It is always a joy and an ear-opening experience to hear a composer play his own works. Rooted in romantic and post-romantic soundscapes with touches of jazz flavours, the serene virtuosic opening and challenging fluid lines of Twilight of Shadows and driving momentum of the aptly titled Frenzy, especially showcase Acclarion’s tight ensemble awareness of balance, breath and colour, and the composer’s thorough knowledge of both instruments.

Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet for Two is a gorgeous performance by two exceptional classical players as the accordion proves itself to be a perfect instrument to join the clarinet in this transcription. Likewise the three short Vaughan-Williams English Folk Song tracks are welcome, soothing delights both in arrangement and the colourful lush sonic qualities.

Rebecca Carovillano is a star clarinet performer with solid breath control, superb varied tone and an unmatched musical ear sensitive to nuance. David Carovillano plays the accordion with the same qualities, and solid bellows control and technical mastery. Together they create detailed and interesting musical conversations. More varied dynamics and a bit more spontaneity would drive the duo toward a welcome future musical journey that will hopefully continue for many years to come!

01_Edison_Quintana.jpgPianist Edison Quintana has recorded an intriguing document that surveys Mexican piano music of the 19th and 20th centuries. Admittedly, we know only a modest amount of Mexican music history and most of us would be lucky to name more than one Mexican composer. What a surprise then to discover some familiar names in the programme notes and hear the marks of both European romanticism and serialism in México entre dos siglos (URTEXT JBCC243).

The new world’s independence of musical evolution from trends in the old world seems much less obvious in the Mexican case. There are, for example, strong echoes of Liszt in Ricardo Castro’s Vals-capricho. Manuel Ponce’s Intermezzo No.3 evokes a languorous Chopin waltz and José Pablo Moncayo’s Tres piezas para piano conjures up works by Bartók and Satie. But, lest I suggest that Mexican composers tend to be derivative, one should note how Silvestre Revueltas’ Cancion uses strong patterns of parallel fourths in a pentatonic mode to create an air of something uniquely indigenous. And who knew that Juventino Rosas’ Sobre las olas is immediately familiar as North America’s best known carnival tune?

Quintana selects a beautifully balanced program that moves through an artful variety of contrasts. He is a seasoned, mature performer and academic who breathes articulate authenticity into every piece he performs. Mexican composers are fortunate to have such a champion.

Review

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I’ve always enjoyed comparing piano performances of Bach’s Goldberg Variations because one learns so much about the essence that the pianist discovers in the opening Aria and how that informs the subsequent 30 variations. Lars Vogt brings an overall light touch to his performance and a highly disciplined tempo free of overly expressive rubato and dynamics. Instead he concentrates on pulling forward the contrapuntal material with satisfying clarity. On the few occasions where he does allow for pullbacks to emphasize contrast or underline an emotional point, he does so with measured reserve and the result is very effective. His Goldberg Variations (ONDINE ODE 1273-2) is   masterfully constructed with clear intent and informed by a rhythmic conviction that never wavers. The several toccata-like variations are delivered with speed and clarity at no cost to Bach’s inner voices. His performance of the closing Aria is possibly the most tender I have ever heard. A small point but one that made me smile was Vogt’s reversal of an arpeggio in the repeat of the Aria. An unexpected and lovingly cheeky moment. You should definitely add this CD to your Goldberg collection.

03_Olga_Paschenko_Beethoven.jpgAnother variations disc is Olga Pashchenko’s Beethoven Variations (ALPHA 201) which also includes the Sonatas 19 and 20. Pashchenko plays a modern fortepiano modelled after a Viennese instrument built ca. 1818. The recording is surprisingly good. One reason for its immediate appeal is that the instrument has been prepared in such a way as to offer tonal and pitch stability so often absent in other performances. Rather than sound like a saloon upright out of a cheesy western, this fortepiano actually establishes a credible voice with an astonishing range of colours across its dynamic range. Pashchenko deserves credit for understanding its potential and mastering the technique to realize it. This is the keyboard sound Beethoven would have known before he came to play the English Broadwood grands. It would have been the voice for which he first wrote.

Both sets of variations on this disc are based on original themes by Beethoven and so break with the more common practice of using material by other composers. Pashchenko treats the fugue at the end of the Prometheus Variations Op.35 rather independently from the main body of the set but her assertive playing is completely captivating through the development section where her technique truly shines. She’s equally dazzling in the Fantasia Op.77.

04_Beethoven_fortepiano.jpgAmerican pianist Penelope Crawford on Beethoven Sonatas Opp.78, 81a, 90 & 101 (musica omnia MO-0510) also uses a fortepiano in her recording. This one, however, is not a modern copy but an original 1835 instrument by Viennese builder Conrad Graf. Its sound is surprisingly modern and different from that of Pashchenko’s recording. One of Beethoven’s last instruments was by this same builder, though by then Beethoven’s deafness would have prevented him from appreciating its finer qualities.

Crawford’s approach to this repertoire is well-founded on her years teaching at several American institutions. Her performance credentials, too, are varied and impressive, having played much period music with ensembles dedicated to historically informed interpretations. Her program traces the evolution of Beethoven’s style from the (late) middle period sonatas to the denser, more complex later works with longer thematic ideas. She does a splendid job with increasing aggressiveness in the Opp.90 and 101 sonatas. One of her more fascinating techniques is how she uses the pedals to both mute and sustain specific passages in a tonal colour not possible on modern pianos.

This is a very fine recording with special significance to those who value historical authenticity.

05_Angela_Hewitt_Beethoven.jpgAngela Hewitt’s recording of Beethoven Piano Sonatas (Hyperion CDA 68086) puts a pair of early works up against two considerably later utterances in the form. Hyperion produced this 2014 concert recording on a Fazioli in a Berlin church with an acoustic that offers a perfectly balanced space around the piano. One only ever hears more of the room when the music rises above forte and, even so, the intimacy of the performance is never lost.

Following Hewitt on Facebook, one stays in touch with her travels, rehearsals, recording sessions and performances. It makes listening to her CDs rather like going to a friend’s home for a private recital. She is a fastidious player when it comes to articulation and her phrasings are masterful in both the Op.2 and Op.10 sonatas where echoes of classical structure are quite pronounced. Hewitt delivers everything from the crispest staccatos to the gentlest lifts in defining the inner voices that Beethoven weaves throughout. The Adagio of the C Minor Sonata is especially engaging because Hewitt understands how Beethoven wants to unsettle its pretty little thematic idea. She does this beautifully.

Hewitt’s approach to the A-Flat Major Sonata Op.110 second movement is a good deal less frenetic than many pianists often take but never lacks for convincing energy. The final movement is, however, the most arresting. Here Hewitt creates a profound air of mystery around the extended Adagio that sustains the listener for about eight minutes until she breaks into the closing fugue. A terrific disc.

Concert note: Angela Hewitt performs work by Scarlatti, Bach, Beethoven, Albeniz and De Falla in Kingston at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts on October 11.

Review

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Pianist Andras Schiff has taken an historic approach to Franz Schubert (ECM New Series 2425/26 481 1572) and documents a wide variety of the composer’s works on a fortepiano. He deliberately begins his notes with an intriguing “Confessions of a Convert” chapter that lays out his rationale and passion for this choice. Using his own instrument, built by Franz Brodmann in Vienna ca.1820, Schiff launches into repertoire most of us have only ever heard on a modern piano.

Opening the 2-CD set with Ungarische Melodie in h-moll D817, Schiff cleverly gives his zither-like instrument a culturally Eastern selection that gets our immediate attention. Small action clicks and an intimate voice make this recording’s premise very persuasive. While capable of the softest pianissimos and mellowest hammer strikes, Schiff’s fortepiano still delivers some powerful full-throated chords and he uses this capability masterfully throughout his program.

The familiar Moments musicaux D780 and Impromptus D935 take some getting used to but hearing them this way eventually suggests that a smaller performance conception is actually credible and perhaps this is closer to what Schubert had intended. The Sonata in B Major D906, however, is perhaps the most difficult to accept in this sonically smaller way. Too many years of hearing it from large concert grands have left a mark not easily erased.

If this project and its argument were in the hands of someone less a pianist and musician than Schiff it would be far less persuasive. But it seems the 1820 Brodmann has become Schiff’s new muse and that he has found a new voice. We are bound to pay attention.

07a_Michael_Lewin.jpgMichael Lewin has recorded Debussy’s Préludes Book 1 and Book 2. As separate CDs, Starry Night (Sono Luminus SL 92190) and Beau Soir (Sono Luminus DSL 92175) both add other Debussy works to fill the discs. The set also includes the first recording of a Beau Soir transcribed for piano by Koji Attwood.

07b_Beau_Soir.jpg

Anyone undertaking a recording project on this scale has to understand the composer at the most profound level. Brilliant technique is not enough to play through all the Préludes and explore Debussy’s 24 character constructions using his unique keyboard vocabulary. Lewin’s approach seems to be one that allows the music to take all the time it needs to unfold. He never rushes a phrase or resolution but prefers to let it hang until it completes itself as in Des pas sur la neige. By contrast, he drives the Steinway through the impossibly rapid repetitions that Debussy demands in La danse de Puck, Jardins sous la pluie and other similar tracks. Lewin also draws key motifs effortlessly out of Debussy’s familiar pools of swirling harmonies.

His performance avoids the pitfall of self-indulgence, so tempting with this repertoire. He never loses himself in the hypnotic but stays in complete control. This gives him the advantage when delivering the rhythmic angularity of La sérénade interrompue and Golliwog’s Cake Walk. Recorded a year apart, the set should be owned together. Each recording also includes a Blu-ray Pure Audio Disc.

Review

08_Kuhnau_Organ.jpgItalian organist Stefano Molardi has undertaken an ambitious project with Kuhnau Complete Organ Music (Brilliant Classics 95089). The 3-CD set contains all the Sonatas, Preludes, Fugues and a single Toccata. Kuhnau was Bach’s immediate predecessor at the Leipzig Tomaskirche and made a significant impact on the music of his time.

The entire project was recorded in the summer of 2014 on two different instruments that might well have been known to Kuhnau. Both built by Gottfried Silbermann, the 1714 cathedral organ in Freiburg and the smaller 1722 organ of the St. Marienkirche in Rötha both show the typically bright mixtures and overtone-rich reeds of the German Baroque.

Molardi approaches the Six Biblical Sonatas in a way that exploits their highly programmatic content. Using all the colours and effects available on the Freiburg organ, he retells the numerous Old Testament stories that Kuhnau portrays. As late baroque style goes, there is an amazing freedom of expression in the writing that includes great fantasia-like sweeps as well as rigid fugal architecture. Kuhnau must have had a ball writing these.

Even more impressive are the individual Preludes, especially the Prelude in E Minor and the Prelude alla breve in G Major. Both are regal in presentation and use the full scale of their instrument to fill the Freiburg cathedral. Both organs are, of course, trackers and so give us some audible mechanical action noise during soft passages. This a wonderful document for serious organ buffs.

01_Duo_Concertante.jpgDuo Concertante, the Newfoundland-based duo of violinist Nancy Dahn and pianist Timothy Steeves, have followed up their outstanding set of the complete Beethoven Sonatas with an equally satisfying CD of Double Concertos for Violin, Piano and Orchestra by Felix Mendelssohn and Andrew Paul MacDonald (Marquis Classics MAR 81463). Marc David conducts the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, apparently in their recording debut.

The Mendelssohn D Minor Concerto is a remarkably assured work written – quite astonishingly – when the composer was only 14 years old. It is performed here in the version with winds and timpani that Mendelssohn added to the original string scoring shortly after the first private performance of the work in 1823. There are clear stylistic links with Mozart and Beethoven, but the grace and lyricism of the mature composer are already in evidence. Dahn and Steeves both display the perfectly judged tone and style that made their Beethoven set such an outstanding success, as well as shining in the virtuosic passages.

The MacDonald Double Concerto Op.51 was commissioned by Duo Concertante some 15 years ago after they heard the composer’s Violin Concerto and was premiered with the NSO in 2000. It really is a very attractive and convincing work, essentially in traditional concerto form but cast in a single movement with the three sections separated by cadenzas. The Duo has performed both concertos numerous times since then, and the two works are perfect companions on a really attractive CD.

The NSO apparently includes student and community members as well as professionals, but you’d never know it – the playing here is never less than top-notch.

02_Mordkovich.jpgThe Russian violinist Lydia Mordkovitch, who died last December at the age of 70, lived the second half of her life in Britain and was a founding artist for Chandos Records, for whom she made over 60 recordings. The 2-CD set of British Violin Concertos is one of four re-issues of her recordings that the label released in July as a Lydia Mordkovitch Tribute, and it’s simply stunning (CHAN 241-53). The four concertos are by Sir Arnold Bax, recorded in 1991 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra; Sir George Dyson, recorded in 1994 with the City of London Sinfonia; Sir Arthur Bliss, recorded in 2006 with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales; and John Veale, recorded in 2000 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Bryden Thomson conducts the Bax; Richard Hickox the other three works.

The concertos by Bax (1938) and Bliss (1955) are exactly what you would expect from two main-stream mid-20th-century English composers in their prime: wonderfully strong, richly melodic works with outstanding idiomatic solo parts and brilliant orchestration.

The music of John Veale was completely new to me, which was somewhat puzzling given that I was still living in England when he would have been in his prime; his romantic tonal music, however, had been swept aside by the avant-garde movement in England in the mid-1960s, when the likes of Stockhausen, Boulez and Henze ruled the roost, and there were virtually no performances or broadcasts of his work. As a result Veale wrote nothing for 12 years, and the striking Violin Concerto from 1981-84 marked his return to composition. Certainly his style hadn’t changed: you can hear echoes of his work in the British film industry in the 1940s and 1950s, and also more than a hint of two of his favourite composers, William Walton and – in particular – Samuel Barber. The slow movement is absolutely beautiful.

The real gem here, though, is the Dyson, again someone whose orchestral music will be new to most people. It’s a simply glorious four-movement work from 1941: large (44 minutes), expansive, sweeping, lushly orchestrated, and quite symphonic in feel. Mordkovitch’s playing is simply sublime, as it is throughout the entire set.

If this issue is in any way indicative of Mordkovitch’s contribution to the British music scene then it magnifies the loss – but what a marvellous way to be remembered. It’s a wonderful set, and an absolute must-buy for anyone even remotely interested in 20th-century violin concertos.

03_Waley_Cohen.jpgThe new CD by the English violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen and the Welsh pianist Huw Watkins of Works for Violin & Piano by Hahn & Szymanowski (Signum Classics SIGCD432) was a real revelation in two ways: I don’t recall having heard the performers or the works on the disc before.

My not knowing Waley-Cohen is the more difficult to explain; she has issued five previous CDs, enjoys a wide-ranging career and has garnered a great deal of critical acclaim. When Ruggiero Ricci calls you “the most exceptionally gifted young violinist I have ever encountered,” you’re clearly headed in the right direction. It’s easy to hear why: her dazzling technical assurance and interpretative subtlety are clear from the outset.

You may know the two violin concertos by Karol Szymanowski, but possibly not the Violin Sonata in D Minor, Op.9. It’s a lovely melodic early work in the Romantic vein, written when the composer was 21. I’m not sure what the connection between Szymanowski and Reynaldo Hahn is supposed to be – the booklet notes call it “a somewhat tenuous one,” which is putting it mildly – but it really doesn’t matter when it means that works like the Romance in A Major, the Violin Sonata in C Major and the Nocturne in E-Flat Major are given wider exposure, especially in performances like these. The Sonata in particular is a beautiful work full of French refinement and harmonic subtlety and some particularly lovely piano writing.

A terrific performance of Szymanowski’s Nocturne and Tarantella, Op.28 provides a passionate and brilliant end to a CD that features outstanding playing from both performers.

Since 2007, incidentally, Waley-Cohen has played the Stradivarius violin previously owned by Lorand Fenyves, so long a fixture at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music.

Concert note:  Szymanowski’s Sonata in D Minor Op.9 will be performed by Annette-Barbara Vogel and Durval Cesetti  at the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University on October 16 and at the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society on November 4.

04_Dana_Zemtsov.jpgRomantic Metamorphoses is the second of three CDs the 23-year-old Netherlands-based violist Dana Zemtsov will be recording for the Channel Classics label and features the Dutch pianist Cathelijne Noorland as accompanist (CCS SA 37215).

The Sonata in B-Flat Major Op.36 is one of four works that the violinist/composer Henri Vieuxtemps wrote for the viola. It’s a lovely work that clearly shows what Zemtsov calls his lyrical romanticism, and one that eschews virtuosity for its own sake: Vieuxtemps’ pupil Eugène Ysaÿe quoted the composer as saying “Not runs for the sake of runs – sing, sing!” Zemtsov’s big, warm tone and effortless technique certainly enable her playing to sing here.

Evgeni Zemtsov’s Melodie im alten Stil for viola and piano has a very special meaning for the soloist: it was written by her grandfather for the young viola player who would become his fiancée, and who would give birth to Dana Zemtsov’s father a year later. It’s a short piece, but simply lovely.

The Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch, who was a pupil of Ysaÿe, has rarely received the attention his compositions merit. His Suite ‘1919’ for viola and piano was written a few years after his first move to the USA in 1916, and won him a Coolidge Prize in 1919. It’s an expansive and fascinating piece with some exotic subtitles for the four movements: In the Jungle: Life in the Primitive World and Grotesques: Simian Stage, for instance. Zemtsov describes it as a “romantically fantasized adventure through savage nature and tribes under the sun in the jungle.” It gives both players ample opportunity to shine.

Mention a Carmen Fantasy for violin and orchestra and Sarasate’s composition based on Bizet’s melodies usually comes to mind, but a different one by Franz Waxman has long been a cult favourite with violinists. It’s played here in a Mikhail Kugel arrangement for viola and piano, and provides a spirited end to the CD.

Review

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While he was on the faculty at Cleveland’s Mannes School of Music from 1917 to 1920 Ernest Bloch taught a number of young American composers, among whom was Quincy Porter. Porter’s String Quartets Nos.5-8 feature on a new CD from Naxos (8.559781), which continues to issue terrific recordings of music that, if not exactly off the beaten track, thrives along the sides of the main musical highways. Quartets Nos.1-4 were issued on Naxos 8.559305 in 2007, to glowing reviews.

Porter was a professional string player in the 1920s, and the four works here, written between 1935 and 1950, show just how well he understood the medium: they are idiomatic and immediately accessible, very appealing, strongly tonal and highly expressive.

Recorded between 2008 and 2012, the performances by the Ives Quartet are of the highest quality.

06_Jerusalem_Beethoven.jpgThere’s another beautiful set of Beethoven string quartets available, this time from the Jerusalem Quartet, which is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary. Their main focus for the 2015/16 season is the six quartets of Béla Bartók, which they will be presenting in three different concert formats; one of these will be a four-concert cycle combining the Bartók with the six Beethoven String Quartets Op.18. The new 2-CD set of the Op.18 works on Harmonia Mundi (HMC 902207.08) is the first of two album releases which will mark the ensemble’s anniversary; Bartók’s Quartets Nos.2, 4 and 6 will be released in early 2017.

Beethoven came relatively late (he was 30) to the string quartet genre, but you would never know it from the quality of these works – hardly surprising, perhaps, given that he carefully studied the late quartets of both Mozart and Haydn before setting to work. These performances by the Jerusalem Quartet are everything you could wish for and everything you would expect from an ensemble that has been playing together for 20 years. It’s a terrific set.

07_Avalon_Quartet.jpgIlluminations is another fascinating CD from Cedille Records, featuring the Avalon String Quartet in works by Debussy, Britten, Osvaldo Golijov and Stacy Garrop (CDR 90000 156). There’s a lovely reading of Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor Op.10 to start things off, followed by four quite fascinating short pieces by the young Benjamin Britten. The Three Divertimenti (a March, Waltz and Burlesque) were written in 1933 by the 19-year-old composer as part of a projected five-movement suite and are startlingly modern – the March sounds like Dag Wirén meets Bartók. Revised in 1936 under the present title, they remained unplayed during the composer’s lifetime after the initial unsuccessful performance. Alla marcia is in the same vein and from the same period and was originally planned as the opening movement for the suite.

Golijov’s evocative and effective Tenebrae from 2000 ends the CD, but the focal point is the String Quartet No.4: Illuminations, the 2011 work by the Chicago-based Garrop that gives the disc its title. It’s a charming piece that is essentially a meditation on five stunning illustrations from the 15th-century Book of Hours known as The Hours of Catherine of Cleves, now in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. Eleven short pieces depict the opening of the book, the five illuminations with two interludes, and finally the closing of the book at the end of prayer.

The Avalon Quartet has been together for 20 years now, but this is their first recording for the Cedille label. They’re in top form throughout a lovely disc.

02_Doni_Lute.jpgLivre de Luth de Gioseppe Antonio Doni
Sylvain Bergeron
ATMA ACD2 2724

This lovely album has the poetry and wisdom needed to fuel the imagination of all romantics out there. But that is not all – it is also a fine display of Sylvain Bergeron’s mastery on a 14-string archlute and a testament to the abundance and variety of Italian lute music from the onset of the 17th century.

Gioseppe Antonio Doni was most likely an amateur lute player, possibly of noble descent, who compiled the manuscript of early 17th-century lute pieces into the collection known today as The Doni Lute Book. This collection, well known among lute players but relatively obscure among larger music circles, consists of almost 100 pieces by several different composers, including Doni’s teacher and lute virtuoso Andrea Falconieri as well as Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, Giuseppe Baglioni and Archangelo Lori.

According to the liner notes, Sylvain Bergeron first encountered the book in his early days as a lute student and has continued to enjoy the collection ever since. For this recording Bergeron chose 25 compositions from the manuscript and grouped them into five sets, according to tonality and mood, thus creating a musical portrait of characters and colours. All sets but one contain Toccatas (some of them virtuosic and with daring modulations) and among many Correntes, there are some that are alluring illustrations of dreamy tenderness.

The relative simplicity of these pieces brings out the delicacy of Bergeron’s marvellous sound – here is the refined and astute player who brings tales from the past to his captivated audiences.

03_Rameau_Indes_Galantes.jpgRameau – Les Indes galantes
Les Talens Lyriques; Christophe Rousset
Alpha 710

It has always surprised me that, whereas musicians are concerned with the use of baroque performance practices in their realizations of 18th-century music, so few directors are interested in the use of baroque stage conventions. Of the operas I have seen, those directed by Gilbert Blin at the Boston Early Music Festival provide the only exceptions. In this production of Rameau’s Les Indes galantes, it is always clear that this is a modern conception by the director, Laura Scozzi. The opera opens with Hébé, the goddess of youth, dressed in a very revealing slip. She is joined by a troupe of nude dancers who give physical expression to their sense of joy. But on two occasions, an apple is tasted, a not too subtle warning that the fall is imminent. The fall arrives when Bellone, the goddess of war (the part is scored for a baritone) arrives on an all-terrain motorized vehicle. He is followed by a motley crew of ecclesiastics and men in football shirts. The male dancers are then given chainsaws and they move away. The main scenes in Rameau’s opera present us with exotic worlds: Turkey, Peru, Persia, America. In this production we see these worlds in terms of modern tourism in which faraway countries are linked through air travel. At the very end of the opera the dancers return and they are now joined by a very pregnant woman, also nude. Is there a suggestion here that we have moved beyond experience to a higher innocence?

Christophe Rousset conducts with real bite, unlike William Christie, stylish but sedate, in the earlier CD (Harmonia Mundi), in which Rousset played the harpsichord continuo. The outstanding singer is the French-Algerian soprano Amel Brahim-Djelloul. We hear her as Hébé, as the Inca princess Phani and as the slave-girl Fatima. The Canadian baritone Nathan Berg is good in the role of the Inca priest Huascar.

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