Editor's Corner

As I write this in the early days of January it is fitting that I speak about my New Year’s resolution to be a better friend to my cello this year. With this in mind I’m getting together with my friends Anne (violin) and Adam (piano) for trio sessions after a lengthy hiatus. Having previously played music by Mendelssohn and Mozart, this year we have embarked upon Beethoven’s Piano Trio Op.1, No.2. It’s a piece that I worked on extensively some 20 years ago and have been inspired to revisit by a new release, Beethoven Complete Piano Trios performed by the Weiss Kaplan Stumpf Trio (Bridge Records 9505A/C bridgerecords.com). Yael Weiss (piano), Mark Kaplan (violin) and Peter Stumpf (cello) all have notable solo careers and have been playing together as a trio for more than two decades. What I particularly like about this 3CD package – in addition to the fabulous performances – is that in lieu of program notes for the familiar trios, the booklet includes essays by each of the three performers about their own connections to the music. In the case of Weiss, this involves a lineage of teachers reaching all the way back to Beethoven via her mentor Leon Fleisher, a student of Schnabel, who worked with Leschetizky, a student of Liszt, who studied with Czerny, a student of the great master himself. Kaplan and Stumpf each share their personal takes on the trios, and the occasion of the recording. 

Although not as frequently heard as the string quartets which span Beethoven’s entire career (some of which are among the last works he would compose), the piano trios represent his early and middle periods very well, from his earliest published works, to the mammoth “Archduke” Trio Op.97 of 1811 (my own introduction to the genre some 50 years ago in a recording featuring Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan and Mstislav Rostropovich). This current recording reminds us however that Beethoven returned to the trio form in 1824 when he published the charming “Kakadu Variations” Op.121a, here paired with the very first trio from 1795. The eight trios therefore spanning three decades of Beethoven’s creativity, all in splendidly dynamic and idiomatic performances which kept me captivated for many hours over the course of the holiday season. 

It seems Beethoven also provided inspiration to composer Joan Tower whose 1985 Piano Concerto – Homage to Beethoven is the title track on a new portrait CD from Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP Sound 1093 bmop.org/audio-recordings). Soloist Marc-André Hamelin is in stellar form in the dramatic and often percussive work from 1985. Although there are no obvious quotations from Beethoven, Tower says “he had a huge influence on me in terms of how to try to create and motivate a strong dramatic structure.” She also says she included fragments from three Beethoven sonatas which are imbedded in the cadenzas. The most recent work is Red Maple, a bassoon concerto from 2013. Right from the extended solo opening, bassoonist Adrian Morejon establishes command, leading BMOP through the haunting quarter-hour virtuosic showpiece. There are two flute concertos bookending Red Maple, Rising for flute and string orchestra (2010, originally for flute and string quartet) and the 1989 Flute Concerto, both premiered by the outstanding Carol Wincenc who is the soloist here. This CD is a fitting tribute to Tower, the now 85-year-old American treasure whose successful career has spanned six decades. 

Joan Tower’s piano concerto put me in mind of one of my first exposures to modern (at the time contemporary) concertante works, more than half a century ago. I bought an LP of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G featuring Lorin Hollander with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf that also included the premiere recording of Norman Dello Joio’s 1961 Fantasy and Variations for Piano and Orchestra. I fell in love with the Ravel, especially Hollander’s tender performance of the slow movement, but it was the Dello Joio that really caught my attention. Although that recording has recently been remastered, it is a piano concerto by his son Justin Dello Joio that I want to write about here. Oceans Apart: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra features Garrick Ohlsson with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Alan Gilbert (Bridge Records 9583 bridgerecords.com). Composed in 2022, the title of the work refers, in part, to the “…the immensity, the oceanic vastness, of the polarization of our time. People seem to be moving irreparably apart. The waves of misinformation spreading relentlessly over the web, the belief that such a thing as ‘alternate facts’ can exist, and the swell of unharnessed power this has caused – these were in my thoughts.” Captured in a live performance, the work opens with “an unresolved tritone in the low register in the piano and the highest sounds, beyond any specific pitch, whispering incomprehensively and at the edge of audibility in the strings” which extends into a 20-minute dramatic contest between piano and orchestra. Ohlsson, for whom it was written, holds his own in a brilliant performance which, to paraphrase the composer, pits him like a surfer on a 100-foot wave against the daunting force of a large symphony orchestra. As the applause dies away we are treated to Due Per Due, two movements for cello and piano (Carter Brey and Christopher O’Riley), Elegia: To an Old Musician and Moto in Perpetuo. Written in 2011, three years after his father’s death, the first pays homage to Norman’s Prelude: To a Young Musician which Justin learned to play at the age of six. The second is as rambunctious and flamboyant as the title implies. This fine disc is completed by Blue and Gold Music written for the tricentennial of the Trinity School, in a sparkling performance by organist Colin Fowler and the American Brass Quintet. 

My first exposure to the music of Claude Champagne (1891-1965) was an educational LP on the Canadian Music Enrichment label, one side of which was an uninterrupted performance of Symphonie Gaspésienne and on the other the same work with cues for a slideshow depicting the landscape of the Gaspé peninsula that inspired the work. Although not much attention was given to him in English Canada, where his contemporaries included Healy Willan and Sir Ernest MacMillan, Champagne was an important figure in the annals of classical music in Quebec, where his students included Violet Archer, Roger Matton, Pierre Mercure, Serge Garant and Gilles Tremblay among other notables. I was very pleased to see a new recording of Champagne’s brilliant tone poem featuring L’Orchestre symphonique de Laval under Alain Trudel (ATMA ACD2 4053 atmaclassique.com/en). Starting eerily in near silence, Trudel leads his orchestra through the gradually building portrait of the fabled peninsula with dramatic turns and climaxes along the 20-minute journey. Although the program notes mention Debussy and the Russian school as influences, I also hear echoes of Delius and Vaughan Williams in this marvelous one movement work. You can access the digital-only recording for free on the ATMA website. 

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Chinatown (Leaf-Music LM281 leaf-music.ca) is a striking new opera featuring the words of Giller Prize laureate Madeleine Thien and music by multiple-award-winner Alice Ping Yee Ho. The project was initiated by City Opera Vancouver back in 2017 and developed over the next five years through a myriad of workshops and public consultations with Vancouver’s Chinese community. During that process the importance of the Hoisan language to the history of Vancouver’s Chinatown became evident as that was the province of China where many of the original immigrants came from. Writer Paul Yee was engaged to translate portions of the opera into the Hoisan dialect. The result is the first opera to depict a Canadian Chinatown, and the first libretto to combine Hoisanese, Cantonese and English. The orchestration features traditional Chinese and Western classical instruments. It tells the story of two families and a chorus of ghosts, beginning with the building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad through to our own times. It deals with “violence and despair, the Head Tax, the Exclusion Act, paper sons, and paper promises.” The opera was staged in 2022 under the direction of Mary Chun and this is the original cast recording of the groundbreaking milestone of the musical stage. The booklet includes a synopsis for each of the 12 scenes of the two-act opera, program notes and biographies in English, French and Chinese pictograms. 

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Edmonton-born, Juno Award-winning composer Vivian Fung first studied with Violet Archer, went on to receive her doctorate from the Juilliard School and is currently based in California. Insects & Machines – Quartets of Vivian Fung (Sono Luminus DSL-92270 sonoluminus.com) features the Jasper String Quartet – who have admired Fung since first performing one of her quartets in 2019 – being “immediately captivated by the visceral energy and impeccable craft of her writing.” The four works included span 18 years of her chamber output. Fung, whose family survived Cambodian genocide, has travelled extensively in the Far East and drew on folk music of certain parts of Asia, including China and Indonesia, for her String Quartet No.1. It began as a short movement written on assignment at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in 2001 for performance by the American String Quartet. The success of that reading inspired her to add three more movements, also drawing on Eastern themes, to complete the quartet in 2004. To my ear is it reminiscent of the “night music” style of Béla Bartók, especially in the original pizzicato movement. (What young composer would not be influenced by Bartók’s incredible contribution to the string quartet genre? And, having spoken of musical lineage earlier in this column, I will mention that Fung’s teacher Archer was herself a student of that Hungarian master.) Fung states that “issues of my Asian identity underscore much of my work.” String Quartet No.2 (2009), also uses a Chinese folksong for its base, and String Quartet No.3 (2013) evokes “a non-Western song […] highly ornamented, powerful, and tuned to suggest the microtonal tendencies found in many non-Western scales.” String Quartet No.4: Insects & Machines is likewise inspired by travels to the Orient, this time Cambodia, where “I was especially attuned to the persistent noises of buzzing insects that accompanied my walk through the thick jungle.” The subtitle aptly describes the divisions of this one-movement work: Buzzing… whirring… glitching… ringing… thumping…. The members of the Jasper String Quartet – named after Canada’s Jasper National Park, although I cannot find another Canadian connection to the group – rise to the multiple challenges posed by Fung throughout these works, but especially in the unrelenting and virtuosic tour de force of this final quartet. But final is not the right word: Fung has recently completed a fifth for Victoria’s Lafayette String Quartet. 

Speaking of string quartets, later on in these pages you will find Terry Robbins’ take on Quatuor Molinari’s latest installment of the quartets of Philip Glass. The Molinari is not the only Montreal-based ensemble to have an ongoing interest in the American minimalist master, and Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà have just released a follow-up to their 2008 Philip Glass: Portrait album. Signature: Philip Glass (Analekta AN 2 8755 outhere-music.com/en/labels/analekta) is comprised of 16 short movements drawn from a dozen “signature” works spanning most of four decades. Dubeau says that for many years she has found Glass’ music “nourishing intellectually and musically” and for this, her 48th album, she chose works she finds “significant and compelling” from his vast oeuvre. Opening (appropriately) with Opening from 1981’s Glassworks, the earliest work on the disc, we journey through the years with stops at such classics as Symphony No.3, Koyaanisqatsi, The Somnambulist, A Brief History of Time, Candyman Suite and several movements from Bent. New to me, and of particular interest, is the extended movement from the 2018 Piano Quintet and two Duos for Violin and Cello from 2010 (featuring Dubeau and Julie Trudeau). The arrangements and adaptations are by Dubeau and François Vallières and they are compelling indeed. 

Around the same time that I was discovering the music of Philip Glass in the late 1970s I was also intrigued by the ambient compositions of Brian Eno such as Music for Airports. Glass had a seminal influence on Eno who, in 1971 along with David Bowie, heard Glass perform at the Royal College of Art in London. Glass would later acknowledge a reciprocal influence, composing three symphonies based on Eno and Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy of albums. In 2015 Bruce Brubaker released Glass Piano and with his latest, Eno Piano (infiné iF1088 infine-music.com) the connections continue. Whereas Eno used a variety of techniques and tape loops to create the drones and sustained notes of his ambient creations, in effect making the studio his instrument, with aid of new technologies such as the EBow (an electromagnetic device used to make long notes on the strings of a guitar or piano) and the latest spatialization techniques from IRCAM, Brubaker has effectively turned the grand piano into a studio to be played in real time. It’s quite a stunning achievement. The tracks on offer are the three parts of Music for Airports along with three shorter works, The Chill Air (from Ambient 2 with Harold Budd, 1980), By This River (Before and After Science, 1977) and Emerald and Stone (Small Craft on a Milk Sea, 2010). 

Another contemporary take on the ambient genre, Skjálfti (Quake) by composers Páll Ragnar Pálsson and Eðvarð Egilsson (sonoluminus-com/store/skjalf) extrapolates a 15-part suite from their soundtrack to the 2021 Icelandic film of the same name. Written and directed by Tinna Hrafnsdóttir, the film tells the story of Saga, an author and mother who, after an epileptic seizure, experiences memory loss at the same time as hidden memories of family secrets begin to resurface. The psychological drama the film explores is hauntingly realized in this effective expansion of the original soundtrack that comprised 40 very brief segments, developing them into a strikingly atmospheric stand-alone work. 

Having begun this column with Beethoven’s impressive cycle of piano trios, I will close with the world premiere recording of one of the latest contributions to that time-honoured genre. Renowned Danish composer Poul Ruders (b.1949) had written some two dozen orchestral works (including five symphonies), as many concertante works, and countless chamber pieces (including four string quartets), before embarking on his first Piano Trio in 2020. Written for the Trio Con Brio Copenhagen, featured here in a performance that lives up to the group’s name, the composer describes it as a Kantian “thing in itself” with no hidden agenda. As per the accompanying press release, “The outer movements zip by in a flurry of heightened virtuosity that verges on the ecstatic (or hysterical, depending on your mood).” The contemplative central movement, Slow Motion, provides some much-needed respite from the at times abrasive opening, and a chance to catch your breath before the whirlwind finale. This is a fine example of how older forms can serve contemporary purposes. Cudos to all involved in this exceptional project (Our Recordings 9.70892 ourrecordings.com). 

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We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4 or to discoveries@thewholenote.com.

After a career of 47 years the renowned Emerson String Quartet is calling it a day and they have enrolled Canadian superstar Barbara Hannigan for their farewell offering, Infinite Voyage (Alpha 1000 outhere-music.com/en/albums/infinite-voyage). The disc opens gently with Paul Hindemith’s four-song cycle Melancholie, Op.13 which Hannigan’s pure soprano is the perfect vehicle for the poems of Christian Morgenstern. Set in memory of Hindemith’s friend Karl Köhler, whose death on the Western Front in 1918 left the composer devastated, noting “Everything is dreary and empty. I feel deathly sad.” This is followed by Alban Berg’s String Quartet, Op.3, with its references to Tristan und Isolde as a tribute to the composer’s beloved – and later its eerie prefiguring of the madness depicted in his own opera Wozzeck – in a deeply moving performance by the quartet. Pianist Bertrand Chamayou joins the others for Ernest Chausson’s Chanson perpétuelle, a setting of abridged verses from Charles Cros’ Nocturne in which the narrator, abandoned by her lover, prepares for suicide. At nearly half an hour, Schoenberg’s String Quartet No.2, in F-sharp Minor, Op.10 is the most substantive work presented here. The first two movements are scored for traditional string quartet. The first movement expands the tonality of the key signature without venturing too far outside the lines. Things begin to go astray in the second movement, when toward the end a fractured, but recognizable rendition of the popular song O du Lieber Augustine with it’s refrain “All is over” is heard. The third and fourth movements both feature soprano and the poetry of Stefan George: Litany built on motives from the previous movements using a text that opens “Deep is the sadness that gloomily comes over me”; and Ecstasy, in which there is no longer a key signature and the words begin “I feel air from another planet” as the work indeed leads us into a new world of tonality. Once again Hannigan’s is the perfect voice for this powerful and haunting work, which provides a fitting end to the Emerson Quartet’s “infinite voyage.” Their journey lasted most of half a century and they produced nearly three dozen recordings. The Emersons will be missed, but what a legacy!

Transfigured featuring the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective and soprano Francesca Chiejina (Chandos CHAN 20277 chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2020277) presents a program of chamber music from the turn of the 20th century with and without voice. The disc begins with Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Maiblumen blühten überall for soprano and string sextet from 1898, a setting of Richard Dehmel’s gruesome poem that translates to Lilies-of-the-valley blossomed everywhere, which ends “and the sun burned him to death in the corn.” Anton Webern’s 1907 Quintet for Piano and Strings, at 13 minutes is one of the composer’s most sustained works. Written early in his studies with Schoenberg, it shows some influence of Zemlinsky, his orchestration teacher, and certainly an appreciation of Brahms, as well as an understanding of his new mentor’s ideas. Zemlinsky, Schoenberg’s teacher and later his brother-in-law, also numbered among his students Alma Schindler, who became his lover before her marriage to Gustav Mahler in 1902. She wrote a variety of compositions before her marriage, but Mahler decreed that his wife would have to give up composing. He later relented somewhat and in 1910 sent her music to Universal Edition who published some of the songs recorded here. Kaleidoscope pianist Tom Poster has arranged them quite effectively for soprano and string sextet and in this form they perfectly complement the other repertoire on the disc. Chiejina’s dark, dramatic voice is well suited to these songs which actually show more affinity with the world of Zemlinsky and Schoenberg than that of Mahler. In 1899 Schoenberg wrote the string sextet Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) which remains his most celebrated work, with the possible exception of the mammoth Gurrelieder published a decade later. Like Zemlinsky’s Maiblumen and the first of Alma’s songs presented here, Die stille Stadt, it is based on an emotionally charged poem by Dehmel. In this case however, the text is interpreted solely through music in an extended and gripping tone poem replete with sturm und drang. As the notes tell us, “indebted to Brahms in its string sextet form, the work seemed to be a deliberate repudiation of such a soundworld and its harmonic rules.” Although still some years away from his development of the “atonal” 12-note system of composition, and still using a traditional key signature (D minor), in this seminal work Schoenberg expands the tonality, stretching it almost to the breaking point while still conveying the depths of emotion in this star-crossed love story. Kaleidoscope rises and falls exquisitely with all the rollercoaster twists and turns of the plot until eventually, a half hour later, the quiet and compassionate resolution brings this very satisfying disc to a resplendent close. 

I have spent some time in recent months sorting through several thousand LPs in my basement and came across Glenn Gould’s two iconic recordings of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. I took the opportunity to give them both a spin and was surprised at just how much I appreciated Gould’s “mature” 1981 version (51 minutes) with its leisurely approach versus the sprightly, often breakneck tempos of his youthful 1955 debut (38 minutes). A few days after this comparative listening session a new recording of the Goldbergs by Icelander Vikingur Ólafsson arrived at my desk (Deutsche Grammophon 486 4553 vikingurolafsson.com) and to my surprise, I now have a new favourite of this much-recorded work. As the opening Aria began, I got the impression that, as with the elder Gould, I was in for another treat and settled in for a smooth and relaxing ride, but soon had to fasten my seatbelt; a number of the 30 variations proved to be as nimble and breathtaking as the young Gould’s renderings. It is simply astounding to me that fingers can actually move that quickly and articulately. That notwithstanding, the relationship between the slow and fast movements and overall arc of the trajectory from opening aria to closing reprise gave the impression of a thoughtful, relaxed and balanced performance. It has always surprised me that a work commissioned by an insomniac to ease him through long, sleepless nights is quite so active and engaging. I would have expected the intention to be more of a sleep-aid than an entertainment. In spite of his virtuosic dexterity in the faster variations, I found Ólafsson’s interpretation to be more in keeping with my own sensibilities in this regard. I was quite surprised to find that this new recording is virtually twice as long as Gould’s original, despite Ólafsson’s equally fast tempos in some of the variations. I had to refer to the score to confirm my suspicion that, as is somewhat common practice, Gould omitted the second (and I think even some of the first) repeats, whereas Ólafsson plays them all, giving an outstanding performance that lasts some 74 minutes.

One of my great pleasures this past summer was reading Ma vie heureuse (My Happy Life) by Darius Milhaud (1892-1974). I was quite surprised to discover that this prolific French composer, a member of Les Six, is sadly underrepresented in current commercial recordings and on websites like YouTube and Spotify. My own collection, built over the past half century, is thankfully more complete than what’s out there currently, so I was nonetheless able to revisit some of Milhaud’s wonderful compositions in conjunction with his delightful memoire. That being said, I was pleased to receive a new disc from clarinetist Yevgeny Dokshansky recently featuring Milhaud’s Suite for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano Op.157b (1936), comprising charming movements excepted from the music for a play by Jean Anouilh. Around the World: Trios for Clarinet, Violin and Piano performed by Ensemble Next Parallel (Heritage Records HTGCD170 heritage-records.com) also includes work by Milhaud’s contemporary, Armenian Aram Khachaturian, and living composers Peter Schickele (USA) and Roger J. Henry (Trinidad and Tobago). Khachaturian’s trio has a Romantic sensibility, and its final movement draws on an Uzbek folk melody. In Serenade for Three, Schickele is up to his usual tricks, particularly in the final movement’s perpetually rising variations on a theme from his alter ego PDQ Bach’s oratorio Oedipus Tex. Henry’s Caribbean infused music is actually not dissimilar to the sounds of Brazil that so inspired Milhaud most of a century earlier. 

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Yevgeny Dokshansky also included his earlier Heritage release featuring another of my mid-century favourite composers – From Jewish Life: The Music of Ernest Bloch – on which he is accompanied by pianist Richard Masters. Another welcome addition to my collection.

Regional Roots Roundup

As I write this in early November, I have just enjoyed a heady evening at the new Hugh’s Room Live. It was my maiden voyage to the venue on Broadview Avenue, and I must say I was mightily impressed with the layout and the acoustics of the former Broadview Avenue Congregational Church, an 1894 structure designed by iconic Toronto architect E.J. Lennox. Unfortunately the venue is not yet wheelchair accessible, but press releases assure us it is a priority to rectify this as soon as possible. 

The occasion of my outing involved the launch of the Andrew Collins Trio CD The Rule of Three (andrewcollinstrio.com). The musicianship of this band is outstanding; between the three of them they cover mandolin(s), mandola, mandocello, string bass, guitar and fiddle(s). As to what kind of music they play, Collins is the first to admit it’s hard to describe. He’s even written a song about it that you can check out on YouTube: I Don’t Know (But I Like It). The influences are diverse. While leaning heavily to bluegrass, there’s a healthy mix of western swing, old-time, folky singer/songwriter, a bit of pop – including a tune by Pink Floyd – and straight up classical, with a remarkable rendition of Debussy’s Clair de Lune on this new album. Although mostly a string band, not all of the repertoire is instrumental. Vocals are mostly taken care of by Collins, with bass player James McEleney providing sweet harmonies and occasional leads. The Rule of Three opens with Contranym, which Collins explained refers to words which are also their own opposites, such as cleave or sanction. It’s not a word I was familiar with, but in one of life’s little synchronicities Contranyms came up as a category on the episode of Jeopardy I watched the very next day. Other highlights for me include the raucous How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall, the balladic title track, the dizzyingly virtuosic Fleabag and That Jethro Really Burns!, a swinging tribute to Kenneth C. “Jethro” Burns of Homer and Jethro fame. 

Collins also spoke about the strange experience of sheltering in place during the pandemic, a time spent playing alone and writing mandolin tunes. The result was the 2022 solo release Love Away the Hate on which he performs admirably as a one-man band, combining mandolin, mandola, mandocello, violin and guitar arrangements of ten tunes also available in notation and tablature in an accompanying book of sheet music. I look forward to using this to hone my own mandolin skills!

The new Hugh’s Room doesn’t have a kitchen, so rather than the dinner club aspect of the original venue, focus is on the intimate concert hall setting so well appreciated by the audience. One potential casualty of this format is Ken Whiteley’s Gospel Brunches, a treasured monthly feature at the old location. Fortunately, Whiteley has adapted his approach. The first Gospel Matinee took place on Sunday November 12 and presumably will continue in the new year. The first installment served as a launch for Whiteley’s latest CD So Glad I’m Here (kenwhiteley.com) featuring a special guest – Iranian tar and oud master Davod Azad – giving an ecumenical take on the gospel genre. On it, Whiteley plays a host of instruments, including guitar and resophonic guitar, accordion, mandolin and Hammond organ among others, with George Koller on bass, Bucky Berger on drums and half a dozen supporting musicians and singers, all making “a joyful noise unto the Lord.” The repertoire involves traditional gospel tunes adapted and arranged by Whiteley, along with several originals, including the anthemic (My God Is) Bigger Than That (a sentiment I much prefer to the one more common in this troubled world, “My God is Bigger than Yours!”). One of the real rockers is Gospel Ship which is kind of a family affair with brother Chris Whiteley on harmonica and son Ben on bass, along with full chorus. Azad’s ethereal introduction to Reverend Dan Smith’s This Is The Lord’s House sets the stage for a truly welcoming invitation for everyone to come in and “taste the bread of life.” Each of the nine songs is a treasure, but a highlight is the title track with Whiteley’s finger style guitar intro and Azad’s solo, which is a true stunner. The penultimate track, It’s Gonna Rain, is superb. 

There are several connections to the preceding in Constellations, the new album by Canadian Appalachian clawhammer-style banjo playing, guitar picking singer/songwriter Meredith Moon (True North Records TND807 meredithmoon.com). The CD was recorded, mixed and mastered by Andrew Collins and the Toronto launch took place at Hugh’s Room Live back in October. Eight of the ten tracks are self-penned, mostly self-accompanied ballads with an old-time feel. One exception is Soldier’s Joy including bass and subtle drums and a fiddle break from Tony Allen, with strangely dark lyrics about the whiskey/beer/morphine concoction used in the 19th century in lieu of anesthetic for battlefield surgeries. I had not heard the words before and only knew it as an upbeat traditional fiddle tune. Quite a surprise! The other is Needlecase Medley, another traditional offering, in this case solo banjo with Moon accompanying herself with podorythmie (foot tapping common in Québécois and Acadian music). Other highlights include the beautiful title track, a nostalgic look back at the wanderlust of Moon’s earlier days, and the closer, Slow Moving Train, a haunting depiction of time rolling on. 

I’m surprised and a little embarrassed to say that I had never heard of Canadian singer/songwriter Noah Zacharin until his ninth CD Points of Light (noahsong.com) landed on my desk. I’m sorry to have come so late to the parade because Zacharin is really something. In addition to his solo career in which he has opened for the likes of Odetta, Dave van Ronk and Fairport Convention, he has appeared as a musician or producer on some 65 albums by artists from across North America. This latest disc showcases his outstanding finger-style guitar chops accompanying his solo vocals in storytelling ballads, as well as full band versions of another half a dozen songs in various styles from the gentle and gorgeous (My Love is a) Red Red Bird featuring Denis Keldie (B3) and Burke Carroll (pedal steel) to some rollicking blues and honkytonk tunes to me reminiscent of the late Mose Scarlett and (Chris and Ken Whiteley’s) Original Sloth Band, with help from Gary Craig (drums), Russ Boswell (bass) with cameos from Kevin Turcotte (trumpet) and Roly Platt (harmonica). The disc opens in solo mode with Ten Tons of Road, a paean to love and the call of the road, and continues with one of my favourites 17 Minute, an anti-lament of sorts for past loves. Zacharin seems content to let the past go, with no hard feelings putting me in mind of Tom Rush’s iconic No Regrets. Something Like a River is a solo acoustic guitar instrumental depicting a stretch of the York River in the Canadian Shield where Zacharin spends time in an off-grid cabin. The disc ends quietly with the lovely Been a Long Day, just guitar and voice complemented by an inobtrusive, though lush, string arrangement by Drew Jurecka. I’m so glad that Points of Light found its way to me.

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We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4 or to discoveries@thewholenote.com.