01 NYOCThe National Youth Orchestra of Canada has released a 2-CD set documenting its 2012 adventure under the baton of Alain Trudel. Russian Masters – Canadian Creations (nyoc.org) includes sterling performances of selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and Shostakovich’s Symphony No.10 in E Minor alongside new works from young(ish) Canadian composers Nicolas Gilbert and Adam Sherkin. If the playing on this disc is any indication, the future of orchestral music in this country is in good hands. The playing is dynamic and nuanced with strong attention to detail and line. Trudel is to be commended for his work bringing these young musicians from across the country into a cohesive and convincing whole. My only complaint is with the lack of musicological information. There is a booklet with extensive details about the organization — mission statement, audition process, training and touring programs — and a biography of Trudel, a complete list of the musicians and even the recording personnel, but not a word about the composers or the music. Perhaps the “Russian Masters” need no introduction, but this is a real disservice to the Canadians. I assumed that they were commissioned to write these works specifically for the NYOC and a visit to the website confirms this was the case for Gilbert’s Résistance but that is the only information I can find there. Sherkin’s Terra Incognita remains “unknown” with no mention of its origin or context. (A Google search turned up the information that this work was developed at an orchestral workshop of the Buffalo Philharmonic and a revised version was performed in 2005 at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto under Trudel’s direction.) Both works make full use of the orchestra’s resources skilfully although neither breaks any particularly new ground.

Montreal’s Nicolas Gilbert’s chamber music has been heard in Toronto in several contexts, performed by the Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, New Music Concerts and Continuum, and in recent years he has served as host on the ECM’s cross-country “Generation” tours. Sherkin is a Toronto-based composer and pianist with a burgeoning international career whose new Centrediscs release of solo piano compositions is reviewed by Nic Gotham further on in these pages. It is great to have the opportunity to hear large scale orchestral compositions by these two; I only wish we were given some background information.

02 Robert BakerThere is no shortage of information on the CD Sharp Edges featuring music of Toronto composer Robert A. Baker (robertabaker.net) who completed his doctorate at McGill University in 2009 and now makes his home in Maryland. The notes start with an Artistic Statement which states in part “At the heart of my musical imagination is a fundamental contradiction. On the one hand I want to hear music of the distant past, maintain a sense of connection to my musical heritage, and in this way feel a part of humankind. On the other hand, I feel an irresistible curiosity; a need to consider sound in as objective a manner possible, embrace any sonic option that is relevant and practical, no matter how unconventional, and attempt to hear what I have not yet heard, and say what I have not yet said.”

In addition to his activities as a composer, pianist, conductor and teacher, Baker is an active researcher on contemporary music analysis and philosophies on the perception of musical time. These concerns are exemplified in the seven compositions showcased on this excellent recording. A series of four works titled Valence,ranging from solo piano to an ensemble of six instruments, are interspersed with independent pieces including the title track for four strings and percussion, another piano solo and a string quartet. This last which “evokes an array of references ranging from the distant to the recent past in Western musical history” was premiered at the Canadian Contemporary Music Workshop in Toronto in 2004. This recording of the two part ethereal then angular piece features Toronto’s Elgin Quartet. The Valence series was composed between 2008 and 2011 and is presented here in reverse chronology. The disc begins with the final instalment, scored for clarinet, trumpet, piano, percussion, violin and cello, and ends with the solo piano precursor. It is intriguing to hear how the treatment of the material changes from incarnation to incarnation. Sharp Edges is not only the title of a 2009 composition for violin, viola, cello, double bass and percussion, but also an apt description of Baker’s uncompromising music which encompasses the past while embracing the future.

In March 2012 the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s New Creations Festival was curated by Hungarian conductor and composer Peter Eötvös. During the week Toronto audiences had the opportunity to hear a number of his works thanks to both the TSO and New Music Concerts. One of the highlights was the Canadian premiere of the Eötvös’ violin concerto Seven, a memorial to the astronauts of the Space Shuttle Columbia. The number seven provides the shape of not only the musical materials of the piece, but also the layout of the orchestra into seven mixed instrumental groups and the placement of the six tutti violins (seven violins counting the soloist) throughout the hall, distant from the stage, “in space” as it were.

03 EotvosA new recording of this stunning work appears on Bartók/Eötvös/Ligeti featuring violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and Ensemble Modern under Eötvös’ direction (Naïve V 2585). The 2-CD set also includes Bartók’s Violin Concerto No.2 dating from 1939 and the five-movement version of Ligeti’s Violin Concerto from 1992, the premiere of which was conducted by Peter Eötvös in Cologne. Spanning roughly 70 years, this recording effectively brings together works by the most important Hungarian composers of the 20th century in sparkling performances by the young Moldovan violinist.

The Bartók concerto has of course become a classic of the repertoire and this recording reminds us why. The Ligeti, scored for a chamber orchestra of 23 players including natural horns and four winds doubling on ocarinas, is an extremely challenging work first heard in Toronto with Fujiko Imajishi as the soloist with New Music Concerts in 1999. (She later reprised the work with Esprit Orchestra.) Described in the notes as “a characteristic example of Ligeti’s late work ... Elements of music from the Middle Ages to the Baroque, Bulgarian and Hungarian folksong, polyrhythmic superimpositions as in the piano rolls of Conlon Nancarrow and an exorbitantly difficult solo part are forcibly yoked into complex constructs that liberate undreamt-of sonic energies and make listening into an adventure.” It is all that and more.

04 Tan DunMy final selection for the month also has a (perhaps tenuous) Toronto connection. Chinese born American composer Tan Dunwas selected by Glenn Gould Prize laureate Toru Takemitsu for the City of Toronto Protégé Prize in 1996. A recent Naxos release, Tan Dun – Concerto for Orchestra (8.570608) includes two compositions from 2012, the title work and the Symphonic Poem on Three Notes, juxtaposed with 1990’s Orchestral Theatre performed by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under the composer’s direction. This disc provides a welcome entrée into the concert music of the composer who came to international attention with the score to the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The Concerto, which employs material from Dun’s opera Marco Polo, is especially effective in its extended percussion cadenzas and its blending of vocalization with instrumental accents. With nods to Stravinsky, Bartók and Lutosławski while referencing his Asian heritage, this work is very effective.

We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and comments should be sent to: The WholeNote, 503–720 Bathurst St., Toronto ON, M5S 2R4. We also encourage you to visit our website thewholenote.com where you can find added features including direct links to performers, composers and record labels, and additional, expanded and archival reviews.

Through my association with New Music Concerts I had the pleasure and privilege of meeting the iconic American composer Elliott Carter on a number of occasions, most recently in May 2006 when we presented two concerts under the banner “Elliott Carter, Double Portrait.” It was therefore with personal sadness that I noted Mr. Carter’s death last month, just weeks before his 104th birthday. While of course his passing was inevitable, we had somehow come to think that he just might go on composing forever – he was active right up until the last month of his life.

01 WeilersteinI’m sure it was a coincidence, but nevertheless it came as some consolation to receive a new recording of Carter’s 2000 Cello Concerto just days after the sad news. Elgar, Carter: Cello Concertos marks the Decca debut for Alisa Weilerstein, recorded here with the Staatskapelle Berlin under Daniel Barenboim (B0017592-02). Weilerstein was one of the recipients of the so-called “Genius” award, worth $250,000 over five years, from the MacArthur Foundation in 2011, one of very few musicians to have ever been so honoured. The extensive liner notes by Helen Wallace draw on Weilerstein’s personal impressions of the pieces and her relationship with them, which in the case of the Elgar stretches back to the age of seven or eight when she first heard Jacqueline du Pré’s historic recording. Her performance is wonderfully robust and in some ways charmingly old-fashioned with an occasional swooping portamento and large romantic sound. Barenboim initiated this project and we can only wonder about his mixed feelings as we realize that this young woman may well have inherited the mantle of the late du Pré who was his wife for the last 20 years of her life.

Weilerstein’s approach to the Carter Concerto is thoroughly modern, with spot-on intonation and crisp attacks. Evidently she “played and discussed with the vivacious 104-(sic) year-old composer” and I believe it shows in her interpretation. The piece was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony for cellist Yo-Yo Ma who premiered the work in 2001 but has yet to record it. There is one previous recording featuring frequent Carter collaborator Fred Sherry on the Bridge label (9184) but it is great to have this new performance in a more mainstream context that will bring the work much well-deserved attention. Carter shows his brilliance as an orchestrator throughout with a transparency that never overshadows the cello, dynamic tutti interjections notwithstanding. Of particular note are passages with the bass clarinet and (contra?) bassoon accompanying the cello in its singing upper register. In a day and age when some composers request the soloist be amplified to better hold their own against the forces of the modern symphony orchestra, Carter shows there is no need for this when the balance is skilfully managed. The disc is rounded out by a very moving performance of Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei.

02 Gryphon MessiaenIn recent months I have mentioned a number of recordings of music by Elliott Carter’s coeval Olivier Messiaen (born one day before Carter on December 10, 1908) and I’m pleased to say there is a new local release that is a welcome addition to the catalogue. For the End of Time (Analekta AN 2 9861) features the Gryphon Trio and clarinettist James Campbell performing, as might be expected, Messiaen’s famous Quatuor pour la fin du temps. What is surprising is the context in which it is presented. The disc opens with Echoes of Time, a ten-minute work by Alexina Louie inspired by the Messiaen which she calls “the greatest piece for chamber ensemble that’s possibly ever been written.” It is intended as an introduction to an evening’s entertainment that will include a 40-minute play about Messiaen’s creation of the work as a German prisoner of war (it was first performed in a prison camp in Silesia in 1941) by London-based playwright Mieczysława Wazacz with incidental music by Louie and will culminate with a performance of the Quatuor. Evidently the production will eventually become part of the trio’s touring repertoire. I hope that Toronto audiences will have an opportunity to experience what promises to be an enlightening and moving performance in the near future.

But back to the recording at hand. Louie’s piece does indeed include echoes from its progenitor, but not in an imitative way. There are textures and timbres that are reminiscent of the original, but Louie has obviously absorbed the music thoroughly and it re-emerges in her own voice. Here and throughout the Messiaen, from the quietest entries to the ebullient birdcalls, Campbell’s clarinet melds seamlessly with Annalee Patipatanakoon’s sweet violin, Roman Borys’ rich cello and the tintinnabulations of Jamie Parker’s piano.

There is no shortage of great recordings of the Quatuor pour la fin du temps, including another fabulous local contender on the Naxos label (8.554824) featuring the Amici Ensemble and Scott St. John, but as far as I’m concerned, the more the merrier. To paraphrase Daniel Foley from his “Too Much Mahler?” article further on in these pages, there can never be enough Messiaen for me.

I have mixed feelings about the inclusion of the final selection on the disc however, Valentin Sylvestrov’s Fugitive Visions of Mozart. Commissioned by the Gryphon Trio in 2007, I can understand why they wanted to record it, but when I first heard it following directly on the Messiaen it just seemed like so much bomboniere. It is a lovely piece, and after repeated listenings I have come around and quite enjoy hearing it separately, but I still feel that the context is wrong. We don’t need dessert after such an exhausting main course. Thank goodness CD players are programmable.

03 RegehrAnother thing that I can’t seem to get enough of is good cello discs. Full Spectrum (CMCCD 18112) is one of a recent spate of new recordings on the Centrediscs label and it features cellist Vernon Regehr.The Winnipeg native did his undergraduate work in Toronto at the Royal Conservatory, went on to obtain masters and doctoral degrees at Stony Brook and now teaches at Memorial University. He has obviously cultivated an interest in contemporary and specifically Canadian repertoire and this solo disc is real gem. Beginning with Larysa Kuzmenko’s extended Fantasy for Solo Cello from 2009 we are immediately drawn in to a lush and emotionally charged landscape with soaring lines and rich bass passages. As the work unfolds over the next quarter hour we are transported through intense drama and moments of quiet introspection. The final movement bursts forth with toccata-like precision and keeps it up with only momentary respites along the way to a wonderfully executed bravura ending.

The delicate opening of Matthew Whittall’s From the Edge of Mist with its use of harmonics quickly heralds us into another kind of soundworld, with ethereal passages and drones. Different again is the angular and abrasive opening of Stigmata by Vincent Ho. This gradually gives way to more contemplative “moments of loneliness and desolation” but always with a hard edge. Clark Winslow Ross’ Lamentations lives up to its name and we hear the cantorial voice of the cello alternating with high wailing lines and wonderfully warm pizzicato passages. Interlude I by François-Hughes Leclair explores the deep and resonant range of the cello in its opening passage and then overlays a high melody upon the drone of the lower strings. Interlude II centres around an ostinato bass line with occasional melodic interruptions. Kati Agócs’ Versprechen, composed when she was studying with Milton Babbitt, applies 12-note techniques to Bach’s harmonization of the Lutheran chorale God is my shield and helper. What begins in the realm of academe gradually sheds its serial trappings and in the end we are left with a simple and beautiful rendition of Bach’s original.

As the title suggests, through his choice of repertoire Regehr presents us with a full spectrum of the cello’s natural sound capabilities. Admittedly there are no extra-musical extended techniques employed (bowing on the tail piece or scraping the body of the instrument for instance) and no microtonal playing involved, but within the traditional range of the instrument we are taken to its outer limits, with Regehr a very able guide.

04 Berio SequenzasThere is a Naxos recording that dates from 2006 that I’d like to mention. New Music Concerts’ first event back in January 1972 featured the music of Luciano Berio and for months in advance there were cryptic announcements in the press simply stating “Berio is coming.” Elsewhere in these pages you will find an article by Paula Citron about a marathon performance coming up in January at the Faculty of Music at U of T featuring the complete Sequenzas by that seminal Italian composer. This cycle of solo works spans more than four decades ofBerio’s output beginning in 1958 with Sequenza I for flute(to be performed by Robert Aitken) and ending in 2002, the year before the composer’s death, with Sequenza XIV for cello(to be performed by David Hetherington). The in-between works will be performed by a host of Toronto’s finest musicians including Joseph Petric (accordion), Guy Few (trumpet), Wallace Halladay (saxophone), Xin Wang (soprano), Sanya Eng (harp) and Adam Sherkin (piano). The Naxos recording (8.557661-63) features some of these same players (Petric, Few and Halladay) and other local notables (Nora Shulman, Erica Goodman, Steven Dann, Jasper Wood and Joaquin Valdepeñas to name a few). While all of these works were written for specific performers (Severino Gazzelloni, Cathy Berberian, Heinz Holliger, Rohan de Saram, etc.) and many have been recorded individually by the dedicatees, this is a comprehensive collection of all 14 (and includes variants of number seven and number nine as well) in very convincing performances. Listening to this set would be a good way to prepare for the upcoming marathon.

Editor’s Corner continues with more Elliott Carter on the website.

05 Carter 100Having declared my involvement with New Music Concerts (I have been its general manager for more than a decade), I hope you won’t mind if I draw your attention to our Naxos recording Elliott Carter – 100th Anniversary Release (8.559614). It features performances recorded at the two concerts mentioned above during Carter’s last visit to Toronto in 2006 and was released two years later on the occasion of his centenary. There are a variety of solo works spanning 1984 through 2001 performed by Robert Aitken, Fujiko Imajishi, David Hetherington, Max Christie and Carter’s associate Virgil Blackwell, and more recent concertante works featuring Erica Goodman, David Swan and the New Music Concerts Ensemble under Robert Aitken’s direction. The package includes a separate DVD of Carter in conversation with Aitken from the stage of Glenn Gould Studio and video of the performances of the concerted works Mosaic and Dialogues. It provides a welcome reminder of the musical genius and sparkling good humour of this wonderful human being. He will be sorely missed.

We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and comments should be sent to: The WholeNote, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto, ON M5S 2R4. 

David Olds, DISCoveries Editor
discoveries@thewholenote.com

As i sit down to write this I have just read the shocking news of Jeanne Lamon’s announcement of her intention to retire as music director of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in 2014. After more than three decades at the helm of this flagship Canadian orchestra it is hard to imagine the organization without her. Although stepping down from the first chair (or stand as the case may be), she will evidently be staying on to help with the creation of the Tafelmusik International Baroque Academy. Of course the orchestra is such a well-oiled machine that there is no doubt it will continue to flourish, but the search is on for a new leader.

01-TafelmusikUnder Lamon’s direction a fledgling semi-professional ensemble grew to become one of the world’s great period instrument orchestras and we are blessed with a wealth of recordings documenting her tenure. Although many of the original Sony releases have been discontinued, a number of key titles are now available again on the orchestra’s own imprint Tafelmusik Media which was launched earlier this year. The bulk of the early TM releases have been reissues of such important classics as Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, but this month marked an important new phase with recent live recordings from Koerner Hall. You will find a review of the 2011 Handel Messiah in next month’s issue but in recent weeks I have been enjoying performances of Beethoven’s Eroica and Mendelssohn’s Italian symphonies recorded in May of this year under the direction of Bruno Weil (TMK1019CD). The glorious sound of both the orchestra and the concert hall are captured expertly by German tone-meisters Stephan Schellmann and Peter Laenger. While Beethoven is not unfamiliar territory for Tafelmusik — they have recorded all of the concertos for Sony’s Vivarte label and Symphonies Five through Eight for Analekta — I believe this is their first recording of the music of Mendelssohn. I will leave the question of whether a baroque orchestra has any business venturing into the 19th century for others to debate. For my ears these brilliant and lively performances are totally satisfying. On this occasion the orchestral forces were supplemented to include 7-6-4-4-3 players in the string section with double woodwinds and trumpets and four horns. These latter are particularly worthy of note: Scott Weavers, Ronald George, Stéphane Mooser and David Parker for their impeccable intonation on that most difficult to control instrument, but well-deserved kudos go to all involved.

02-MatsuevThere is a Koerner Hall connection to the next disc as well, Shostakovich & Shchedrin – Piano Concertos with Denis Matsuev and the Mariinsky Orchestra under the direction of Valery Gergiev (Mariinsky SACD MAR0509). By the time this goes to print Valery Gergiev’s performance with the Stradivarius Ensemble will have come and gone, but we can look forward to Matsuev’s Koerner Hall debut in an all-Russian program on December 2. On that occasion the dynamic young pianist, winner of the 1998 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, will perform a solo recital of music by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky. On the current recording he is featured as soloist in more recent Russian works, including the introspective Piano Concerto No.5 by Rodion Shchedrin (b.1932) which was written around the same time as Matsuev’s Tchaikovsky competition win. The disc opens with the familiar Piano Concerto No.1 which Shostakovich wrote in 1933, with its ebullient rhythms and obbligato trumpet, and continues with his Piano Concerto No.2 from 1957. As the extensive liner notes in four languages point out, these works reflect rare happy periods in the composer’s often troubled life. Their allegro and even allegro brio movements seem almost out of character to my ears which are more accustomed to the languor and angst of his later compositions (culminating in the final string quartet with its five adagio movements only broken up by the inclusion of an adagio molto Funeral March). Matsuev seems to enjoy this playful side of Shostakovich and embraces the jollity of these works in crisp and exuberant performances. The unfamiliar Shchedrin concerto is more pointillistic and subdued, with darker colours from both the piano and the orchestral accompaniment. It is an extended work — more than half an hour in duration — with a slow middle movement of touching lyricism and hints of gamelan melodies. The rousing finale uses modal scalar passages, but this time allegro assai, in a pianistic molto perpetuo, with orchestral interventions somewhat reminiscent of Messiaen, that builds and builds over a nine minute crescendo. The soloist’s playing is superb and Gergiev’s control of the orchestra outstanding. Like the virtuoso ensemble itself, the Mariinsky Theatre boasts wonderful sound and it is captured here in all its splendour. Concert goers at Matsuev’s upcoming Toronto performance can look forward to a similar sonic treat in the acoustic of Koerner Hall.

03-Saariaho-TriosLast month I wrote about a disc of chamber music by Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg which featured cellist Annsi Karttunen on each of its tracks. Karttunen appears again this month on a disc of Trios by Kaija Saariaho (Ondine ODE 1189-2), once again in every piece with otherwise diverse instrumentation. In May 2011 the Toronto Symphony Orchestra presented the Canadian premiere of Saariaho’s Mirage for soprano Karita Mattila and cellist Karttunen with orchestra, a work written in 2007. Concurrently Saariaho produced a trio version of the haunting piece for soprano, cello and piano which was premiered in 2010 by, and dedicated to, the musicians who join Karttunen to reprise their performance on this disc, soprano Pia Freund and pianist Tuija Hakkila. The intimacy of this chamber version of Mirage is simply stunning. Another near-TSO connection occurs in the next piece, Cloud Trio, performed by the Zebra Trio which includes former TSO principal violist Steven Dann, Karttunen and violinist Ernst Kovacic. The eerie ethereal string timbres in this aptly named work have to be heard to be believed. Dann, Karttunen and Hakkila are featured in Je sens un deuxième coeur, a five movement work based on Saariaho’s 2003 opera Adriana Mater. It was originally intended to create musical portraits of four characters from the opera but when “she began to adapt the material for viola, cello and piano — a darker version of the traditional piano trio — the music began to distance itself from the opera.” It is certainly an effective chamber work not dependent on the programmatic inspiration for appreciation. The other offerings are Cendres for alto flute, cello and piano which involves extended techniques and vocalisms from the flutist (Mikael Hesasvuo), and Serenatas for percussion (Florent Jodelet), cello and piano. The latter once again draws on other Saariaho works as points of departure, in this case the cello concerto Notes on Light and, bringing the disc full circle, the opening piece Mirage. The simplicity of the title Trios notwithstanding, this recording presents a wealth of diverse textures and instruments with definitive performances by musicians who have collaborated extensively with Saariaho, one of the most distinctive voices in the music of our time.

04-Jaffa-RoadIn brief:Toronto’s premiere Middle Eastern-South Asian fusion band Jaffa Road have just released Where the Light Gets In (JR0002 www.jaffaroad.com), a welcome follow-up to their 2009 release Sunplace. The distinctive vocals of Aviva Chernick, singing in English, Hebrew, French and Ladino, are complemented by multi-instrumentalists Aaron Lightstone, Chris Gartner, Jeff Wilson and Sundar Viswanathan playing a plethora of Western and Middle Eastern plucked, blown and struck acoustic and electric instruments. All share writing credits for the bulk of the material, although one notable exception is Through the Mist of Your Eyes by the group’s “friend and teacher Yair Dalal, a master Iraqi-Israeli musician who lives in Galilee.” The text is sung in Hebrew by Chernick and repeated in Arabic by guest artist Hazan Aaron Bensoussan. It is quite striking how different the same poem sounds in the two languages. All in all Jaffa Road’s creative blending of sacred and secular Jewish songs, classical Arabic and Indian influences with a variety of Western musical styles makes them an innovative force on the Toronto scene and Where the Light Gets In is a worthy testament to this.

05-Glenn-GouldAs noted in September’s issue, 2012 marks the 80th anniversary of Glenn Gould’s birth and the 30th of his untimely death. Sony seems determined to make every note that he ever recorded available to us on compact disc and the commemorative sets have begun arriving in volume. You’ll find Dianne Wells’ take on his Richard Strauss recordings further on in this section but one set that I reserved for myself is Glenn Gould plays Sonatas, Fantasies, Variations (88725413742), four CDs that include a lot of music that doesn’t necessarily come to mind when we think of Glenn Gould. Of particular interest to me are the Canadian composers included: Istvan Anhalt, Jacques Hétu, Oskar Morawetz and Barbara Pentland. The disc which includes these pieces also features Alban Berg’s Piano Sonata Op.1and Ernst Krenek’s Sonata for Piano No.3,providing an interesting mix of modern Romantics and some spikier fare. Another disc is devoted to Russians Alexander Scriabin and Sergei Prokofiev while Finland and Norway are represented on another with music of Sibelius and Edvard Grieg, a composer Gould claimed to be related to through his maternal great-grandfather. Perhaps most out of character is the inclusion of Robert Schumann’s Quartet for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello with members of the Juilliard String Quartet. Although Gould did record the complete Hindemith brass sonatas with members of the Philidelphia Brass Ensemble and the Bach gamba sonatas with cellist Leonard Rose, there really isn’t much in the way of chamber music in his discography, and as far as I know, no other music of Schumann. This final disc also includes another surprise — the Premiere Nocturne and Variations chromatiques de concert by Georges Bizet. While all of this material has been previously released over the years, it is an impressive list of rarities when collected together in a set like this, providing a timely reminder of Gould’s eclecticism and innate curiosity.

We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and comments should be sent to: The WholeNote, 503–720 Bathurst St., Toronto ON M5S 2R4. We also encourage you to visit our website, thewholenote.com, where you can find added features including direct links to performers, composers and record labels, and additional, expanded and archival reviews.  

— David Olds, DISCoveries Editor, discoveries@thewholenote.com

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