Early, Classical and Beyond

Une fête Baroque
Le Concert d’Astrée; Emannuelle Haïm
Virgin Classics 50999 730799 2 7

Le Concert d’Astrée celebrated ten years together with a commemorative event at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées last December, uniting 24 soloists in a gala fund-raising display of talents for the Gustave Roussy Foundation which seeks non-standard treatments for cancer.

Rameau is the first composer selected for the gala. Natalie Dessay and Stéphane Degout are the soloists leading the choir of savages in Rameau’s Les Indes galantes; there is nothing savage about the interpretations! Anne Sofie von Otter’s plaintive “Air de Phèdre” is greatly enhanced by the string-players in the song from Hippolyte et Aricie, an opera which also affords us Jaël Azzaretti as a shepherdess in “Rossignols amoureux.”

This double CD should not be misinterpreted as purely a collection of intense baroque arias; Patricia Petibon’s “La Folie” from the ballet-bouffon Platée and the audience’s live laughter prove this.

Sometimes there are pleasant surprises in this worthy anthology. “What Power Art Thou,” the “cold song” from Purcell’s King Arthur, is performed by Christopher Purves to, dare one say it, chilling effect.

Handel’s music dominates the second CD. Sacred and secular, his most popular operas are treated with passion by singers and instrumentalists. How better to end than with the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah — with audience participation?

And there is even a rendition of Purcell’s Sound the Trumpet which, I hope, would have appealed to Purcell’s sense of humour!

Bach – Goldberg Variations
David Jalbert
ATMA ACD2 2557

Bach – Goldberg Variations
Daniel Barenboim
EuroArts 2066778

We have so many “Goldbergs” to choose from. In fact Goldbergitis fever insures us that one or more new versions will be released each year. What differentiates each of these performances? There is also the question of whether any of the new CDs will ever replace the two iconic Glenn Gould recordings. Often the choice is subjective and sentimental. I grew up listening to the Gould version but I also love Andras Schiff, Murray Perahia and the very personal and unique performance by Simone Dinnerstein. What puts new CDs in the top echelon of Goldberg recordings? I believe it is the quality of tone, effortless technique, virtuosic control and command of the contrapuntal lines, orchestrating the piano and the indecipherable quotient of magic.

David Jalbert on the ATMA label certainly has the virtuoso technique and articulation to be in the elite few. The opening Aria was beautifully shaded and his control of quick passagework in succeeding variations was crisp and articulate. I enjoyed his smooth lines which created an extremely musical flow in spite of the many embellishments and busy counterpoint. His playing was always controlled, yet incisive without being metronomic. His sensitivity to the tempi for each variation made for engaged listening. Jalbert’s tonal quality is not as warm and sweet as Dinnerstein’s or Perahia’s but his command and power at the keyboard is unquestionable. I found his trills to be remarkably even and precise. What makes this recording work for me is that Jalbert discovered the thread that links each variation and he made the performance a cohesive masterpiece.

I also like the liner notes by Robert Rival. I found his writing very informative and revealing from a composer’s perspective. It brought to life Bach’s complex and virtuosic composition technique in creating this remarkable and timeless work of art.

Released this year, the DVD of Daniel Barenboim’s performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations was actually recorded in 1992 and I was surprised to hear such a sensitive and musical interpretation. Past performances have not always lived up to expectations in tonal quality. This performance exudes energy and deep emotional commitment to the work. Barenboim uses a wide range of dynamics and articulations to create the instrumental sounds from Bach’s time.

He makes pianistic references to the famous high trumpet, the oboe, the string family and the organ. Barenboim has created an orchestra from the piano. This is no surprise as he is a highly respected conductor and it shows in his “orchestration” of each variation. His faster variations are dance-like and real toe-tappers. However, despite the speed or tempo he never loses his refined touch and exquisite control of the rhythm and ornaments. Each variation breathes musically, dances, sings or speaks in a contemplative manner. Although linked, each variation tells a unique story.

Anthony Short in his excellent program notes wrote that if Bach’s early biographer Johann Forkel is to be believed, when Bach’s extended family got together they often struck up a chorale that would mix spiritual and serious songs with comic and scabrous popular tunes of the era. These improvising harmonies produced a quodlibet which is a contrapuntal combination of several different popular songs featuring a selection of lowly brassica vegetables such as the tune for “Cabbages and turnips have driven me away, had my Mother cooked meat, I’d have opted to stay.” I feel that Barenboim captured the spirit of this quodlibet in several of the variations as well as the reflective and spiritual quality of some of the other variations.

Both Barenboim and Jalbert have virtuosic techniques and the ability to cast a spell when performing this work. Both have the communicative and musical skills to take their place in the elite group of Goldberg performers. If I had to choose between Jalbert and Barenboim I would pick Barenboim. His playing had a greater range of tonal colour and dynamics. I don’t mean dynamics as simply loud and soft but dynamics that created different moods and instrumental soundscapes. I also thought his warm touch gave him a slight edge over Jalbert. I would love to hear Jalbert record the Goldberg many years from now. I was mesmerized by his recording now but what an amazing performance he will give in the years to come. We are so lucky to have an artist like David Jalbert in Canada.

Picking your favorite Goldberg CD is such a subjective experience. Do any of them knock Gould off his iconic pedestal? Depends on the day but I believe that these two recent performances join him in that special group with others which are certain to come. This is indeed a testament to the great J.S. Bach whose music continues to be such a joy and revelation that we forever keep searching and learning from his masterpieces.

Bach; Ysaÿe; Oesterle
Aisslinn Nosky
Independent IF004
www.aisslinn.com

Suite Inspiration
Jonathan Swartz
Soundset SR1039
www.Jonathan-Swartz.com

These are two fascinating discs both of which feature strong performances of the music for unaccompanied violin by J.S. Bach and other more modern pieces which reflect and refract the glorious light of Bach’s works.

The irrepressible and omnipresent Aisslinn Nosky is one of the Toronto music scene’s precious treasures. As this, her debut solo CD, proves, she is possessed of a rock-solid technique and an open and probing musical mind. Three extended pieces for solo violin make up the program: the Partita in E Major by Bach, Eugene Ysaÿe’s Sonata Op.27 No.2 and Stand Still, written especially for Nosky in 2011 by the German-Canadian composer Michael Oesterle.

Oesterle’s captivating piece is both minimalist and lyrical and exploits the “voice” of the violin to great effect. Nosky’s performance, with its varied dynamics and articulation, brings out the fanciful character of the music as well as its fragility. The Bach partita and Ysaÿe’s sonata are inextricably linked thematically and are both given luminous performances here. Nosky’s playing and musical intentions are crystal clear throughout and her free and bright sound is well supported by the fine production values of the disc.

The Toronto-born violinist Jonathan Swartz was educated at Rice University and Mannes College, and teaches at Arizona State University, where he is active as a soloist and chamber musician. His cleverly-titled CD Suite Inspiration is filled with dance movements for solo violin by Johann Georg Pisendel, J.S. Bach and the Canadian composer Kieren MacMillan. Following a chronological order, Swartz begins the disc with the weakest piece, unfortunately. Though it is given a convincing performance, Pisendel’s A Minor Sonata doesn’t have enough interest to either move or entertain. The highlight of the program is MacMillan’s Suite No.1 and intriguing Chaconne, which — with its hypnotic, circular patterns — provides a trance-inducing, deeply satisfying conclusion to Swartz’s program.

Both Nosky’s and Swartz’s performances of Bach’s works are brave and thoughtful. My fondest wish for both players – if it’s not too corny to say — is that they keep searching their hearts for ever deeper ways to bring this music across, and that they keep revisiting this repertoire, as I know they will, throughout their careers. There is a delicious sense of abandon in Nosky’s live playing that is captured thankfully in spades, in her recording of the E Major Partita, especially in the outer movements. Swartz’s performance of the D Minor Partita, with the biblically-proportioned final Chaconne, is a little more reserved and careful and is at times marred by questionable ornamentation choices.

These are two welcome additions to any violin-lover’s collection. Bravo to both players for commissioning new works from excellent, imaginative composers and for sharing their musical “voices” so generously.

Chopin Recital 2
Janina Fialkowska
ATMA ACD2 2666

Chopin – Volume 2
Louis Lortie
Chandos CHAN 10714

Two artists, each presenting a second instalment in their Chopin discography, invite us to ponder their muse through the music of Chopin.

While both Louis Lortie and Janina Fialkowska record on Steinway pianos, their sound is remarkably different. The Lortie/Chandos recording is dark, more heavily pedaled and given more room. Whether this darker tone is the result of instrument voicing or recording equalization is unclear. But the contrast to Fialkowska’s brighter, more present sound lays the groundwork for appreciating the difference between these two pianists.

Fialkowska is quick, articulate and generous with interpretive variations in her tempi. The impression her playing gives is of an artist revelling in the energy of Chopin’s pianistic dance forms. Her command of this composer’s language leaves no doubt about her convictions to follow Chopin through the turmoil of cascading note clusters and the depths of melancholic harmonies. Her playing gives the impression that she feels quite “in-charge” of this material but never surrenders herself entirely to the seduction of Chopin’s voice. Still, she performs very much from “inside” the music.

Lortie is no less an interpreter or technician. He is adept at fluidity of phrasing and coaxing Chopin’s menacing growls to emerge from the piano’s bass register. He favours a more weighty approach that blends keyboard articulation into longer ideas. Somehow, Lortie introduces a stronger element of mystery into this same music. We recognize the composer and his language but see him in less definite terms, with more unanswered questions.

The two recordings present different repertoire with Fialkowska playing waltzes, polonaises and mazurkas, along with the larger F Minor Fantaisie and the B-Flat Minor Scherzo. Lortie, by contrast, gives us nocturnes, ballades, the Berceuse and Barcarolle. Both, however, perform the Ballade No.2 in F Major Op.38 and here we find ground for a revealing comparison.

What appears to distinguish these two extraordinary artists is the extent to which they pull back the curtain to reveal Chopin. The opening ideas of the ballade are short and tender, supported by simple but artful harmonies that return as a coda to close the work. Between them lies a bombastic and turbulent middle section that demands breathtaking technique.

Fialkowska is ready to expose both the explosive and the deeply intimate by pushing the piano to its technical limits from massive volume to notes that are barely played. It’s an all-or-nothing approach with immediate impact. Lortie, by contrast, keeps back from the brink and doesn’t take us all the way to where we know the emotional journey must surely go. This distance of untraveled emotion may be the key to the mystique in Lortie’s art — the power of unfulfilled expectation.

Both these artists command complete attention. Their interpretations are mature and eminently credible. Which of these a listener favours may depend merely upon the mood of the moment. Any serious Chopin collector should own both of these recordings.

Legends
Caroline Léonardelli; Matthew Larkin
Centaur Records CEN1110

Now here’s something you don’t come across every day: an album of music for harp and organ. Harpist Caroline Léonardelli joins organist Matthew Larkin in a singular recital of celestial sounds from the post-Romantic era. The music of Marcel Grandjany, doyen of the French harp school in North America, opens the disc in an understated fashion with his solemn and dignified Aria in Classic Style. Russia is represented by the second movement from Glière’s Harp Concerto, a livelier work with some lovely registrations provided in the arrangement by Matthew Larkin. A heavyweight from Vienna incongruously appears in the form of the Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. I’m sorry to say the balance of the instruments here is frankly a travesty. The overstated harp part, copied verbatim from the orchestral version in an unimaginative transcription by Joachim Dorfmüller, is not, and was never meant to be, a concerto! (Mahlerians might care to seek out David Biggs’ mind-blowing performance of the complete symphony on the Gloucester Cathedral organ.) Two extended works follow by the equally obscure composers Rudolf Zingel and Alfred Holy, both entitled Légende. Athematic and teeming with arpeggios, they are well-nigh stylistically indistinguishable from each other. The Concerto for Harp by the American Leo Sowerby struck me as the most effective and imaginative work of the lot, providing numerous opportunities to demonstrate the registral varieties of the organ of Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa.

Mahler aside, the recording values are generally excellent and the artists are both at the top of their game. The packaging however is infuriating, replete with confusing layouts, virtually illegible English translations and no track timings. To add insult to injury, the identity of the very well-maintained organ is nowhere apparent until one removes the disc from its spindle. Here’s hoping Centaur gives the estimable Mr. Larkin his due in the future with a disc of solo organ music.