Editor's Corner

Marc Minkowski first came to the attention of Toronto concert-goers through his highly successful collaboration with Opera Atelier of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas back in 1995. But he has been an important force on the “period performance” scene for much longer than that, having founded Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble at the age of 20 in 1982. With dozens of recordings under his belt it seems strange that Minkowski has waited more than 25 years to tackle any of the major works of J. S. Bach. With the recent release of the Mass in B-minor (Naïve V 5145) all that has changed and Minkowski has embarked on a long-term projected “Bach cycle”. In the Mass Minkowski uses sparse forces which he feels reflect those which would have been available to Bach, had the work seen the light of day during his lifetime. Instrumentally there are just thirteen strings, pairs of winds and trumpets, solo horn for the famous duet with the bass voice in the Quoniam tu solus sanctus, timpani and continuo alternating between organ and harpsichord. The ten vocal soloists do double duty as one-voice-per-part choristers as required, and we are presented with an intimate, crystalline performance lasting one hour and forty-one minutes. Recorded last July during the fledgling Via Stellae Festival (Festival of Music of Compostela and its Ways of Pilgrimage) in the gothic San Domingos de Bonaval Church, Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the reverberant acoustic belies the small ensemble and we are treated to a glorious full sound without losing any of the intimacy of the performance. The predominantly young vocal soloists are all outstanding, with highlights for me being alto (and former soprano soloist in the Vienna Boys’ Choir) Terry Wey in the Qui sedes ad dextram patris with oboe d’amore provided by Emmanuel Laporte and in the duet Et in unum Dominum with soprano Lucy Crowe; and Canadian tenor Colin Balzer’s Benedictus with flute soloist Florian Cousin. Beginning the cycle with what has been called the culmination of Bach’s life’s work will prove to be a tough act for Minkowski to follow, but on the evidence of this maiden voyage there are future treasures in store. Packaged as a one hundred page, trilingual hardcover book (thankfully with CD-case dimensions for easy filing) including program notes, an interview with Minkowski, texts with translations and full artist biographies, this handsome set is a welcome addition the catalogue and to my collection.

Bach: B Minor 'Mass

At Grigorian.Com

Last month the National Youth Orchestra of Canada announced the 100 members of the 2009 edition of the orchestra selected from some 550 applicants across the county. If Selections from the 2008 National Tour (NYOC2008CD www.nyoc.org) is any indication, audiences have a treat in store in August when this year’s orchestra, under the direction of Alain Trudel, tours Ontario and Quebec with stops including the National Arts Centre and Roy Thomson Hall. Last year the baton was held by Trois-Rivières native Jacques Lacombe, who is currently making his mark on the opera stages of Europe and will make his debut at Covent Garden this summer. Lacombe leads the 2008 NYOC in very strong performances of late 19^th, 20^th and 21^st century works. The two disc set begins with Kelly-Marie Murphy’s Through the Unknown, Unremembered Gate, a work which, as I suspected but is not attributed as such in the disc’s liner notes, was commissioned by the NYOC in which orchestra members are required to vocalize as well as play their instruments. It is quite an effective, dramatic work and Toronto audiences will have a chance to hear the TSO perform it during the New Creations Festival in February 2010. Murphy’s piece is followed by convincing performances of Mahler’s First Symphony “The Titan” (with my compliments to the excellent horn section) and Prokofiev’s “Scythian Suite”, but where the orchestra truly shines is in Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben. Concertmasters Aysel Taghi-Zada and Kenny Wong turn in stellar performances in the solo roles, but the work, which leaves each section of the orchestra exposed in turn, is testament to the fact that there are simply no weak links in this well-oiled machine. These discs make it easy to see why a third of all the players in professional Canadian orchestras are alumni of the NYOC which next season will celebrate 50 years since its founding by Walter Susskind back in 1960.

A couple of months ago in this column I noted the 20th anniversary release by Catherine Wilson’s Ensemble Vivant. Not content to rest on their laurels, the ensemble has just released Fête Française (Opening Day ODR 9379 www.openingday.com). Over the years I must confess that I have tended to ignore the group’s recordings simply as bomboniere, collections of lighter fare, all dessert and no main course. I am very pleased to find their latest release contains a much more substantial menu, with little known works by familiar composers to which we have not been overexposed in the past. Of particular note for me is the Debussy Piano Trio in G Major, an early work which was suppressed by the composer and only came to light in 1980. Having had a go at this one with my own amateur trio I was very happy to find a wonderful performance of it on this new recording. Although Debussy decided that this was not something he wanted to send out into the world to represent him, it does provide a pivotal glimpse into his development and the world he was leaving behind with the new ideas that would lead him to Impressionism. The CD also includes two other rarities, a charming collection of Alsatian folk melodies set for piano, violin and cello by Charles-Marie Widor, a composer known to most only for his organ works, and a Septet by Camille Saint-Saëns. This latter is a backward-looking work which had it been composed 50 years later – in 1930 instead of 1880 – would have been called neo-classical, or more accurately neo-baroque. Scored for the unusual combination of string quintet (with double bass), piano and trumpet, it was commissioned by the organizer of a society of wind players called La Trompette, and consists of a suite of dance movements including a menuet and gavotte. Congratulations to Ensemble Vivante for uncovering these works and presenting them with their usual flare.

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

A new Centrediscs release, Lament in the Trampled Garden (CMCCD 14009), presents a beautiful cross section of chamber works spanning two decades. The Penderecki String Quartet is joined by Erica Goodman, Nora Shulman and Shalom Bard (harp, flute and clarinet) for Angels in Flight, a 1987 triptych inspired by an Italian Renaissance Annunciation scene by Fra Filippo Lippi, and by Christopher Dawes (harmonium) for the contemplative Hymn of Ascension (1998). The title track was written as the mandatory piece for the 1992 Banff International String Quartet competition and as such entered the repertoire of 10 outstanding young ensembles, including that year’s grand prize winning St. Lawrence Quartet. In the intervening years Lament has enjoyed countless performances but I believe this is the first commercially available recording. It is a brilliant work that 17 years later is still fresh and exhilarating, especially in the hands of the consummate musicians of the PSQ. The final work dates from just 2 years ago and was commissioned by the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival for the Gryphon Trio. Scales of Joy and Sorrow is another triptych, with outer movements that respectively build from slow and expressive to fast and exhilarating and vice versa, surrounding a gentle and lilting Arabesque, making an effective A-B-C-B-A arc. The Gryphon Trio is in fine form as always, working together like a well-oiled machine.

While Mozetich’s music is generally painted in pastel shades, that of Marc-André Dalbavie, while still concerned with colour, uses a broader palate. Since first hearing the music of this French “spectral” composer at a Continuum concert in 2005 I have encountered a number of his intriguing works, always with great appreciation. The most recent to come my way is a brilliant Piano Concerto commissioned and performed by Leif Ove Andsnes on a new EMI recording (2 64182 2) with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst. While it seems to be central to the thesis of the recording, this disc is not devoted to music of Dalbavie. It also includes the powerful concerto of Witold Lutoslawski, whose music was in many ways a precursor to the spectral pioneers Grisey and Dufourt. While I would not recommend this performance over the 1992 DG recording (431 664-2) with dedicatee Krystian Zimerman as soloist and the composer conducting the BBC Symphony, I welcome this “second opinion” and am happy to be reminded what a striking work it is. These two entrées are book-ended by contemplative works for solo piano by Bent Sorensen and separated by selections from György Kurtág’s playful Játékok (Games). All in all a very well balanced and thoroughly contemporary disc.
Leif Ove Andsnes - Shadows Of Silence

At Grigorian.com

While quite familiar with the career of Québec pianist Alain Lefèvre, I was not aware of his brother, violinist David Lefèvre, who has spent most of his career in Europe in the first chair at the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, and later the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, and as Guest concertmaster with the Lisbon Gulbenkian Orchestra. David returned to Montreal last summer, at least long enough to record a CD with brother Alain. The Analekta disc (AN 2 9982) features the familiar (and always welcome) Sonata in A by César Franck, along with a lesser-known G Major Sonata by Franck’s Belgian protégé Guillaume Lekeu (1870-1894) and the Ballade-Fantaisie by André Mathieu. Lekeu lived a tragically short life and composed his sonata at 22, just two years before his death. The work was commissioned by Eugene Ysaÿe and thanks to him it “traveled the world” and was picked up by some of the greatest violinists of the first half of the 20th century. The dramatic, if somewhat melancholy, work has not stayed in the repertoire however and so we come upon it here as something of a hidden treasure. I expect this fine performance will bring some well-deserved attention to the near-forgotten gem. Alain Lefèvre has been instrumental in reconstructing and promoting the works of Québec child prodigy André Mathieu (1929-1968) whose European career was cut short by the outbreak of the Second World War. Written at the age of 13, the same year Mathieu won first prize in the New York Philharmonic’s centenary young composers’ competition, this charming, if somewhat anachronistic, lyric piece is a perfect Canadian companion for the sonatas of these earlier European masters.

Alain & David Lefevre: Violin Sonatas Of Franck, L

At Grigorian.com

The final disc this month is also one of violin and piano duos, but this time more eclectic and somewhat lighter fare. Violinist Nancy Dahn and pianist Timothy Steeves, hail from Newfoundland where they are professors at Memorial University. They have shown a strong commitment to Canadian composers during the twelve years they have been playing together as Duo Concertante and a previous CD included works written for them by Chan Ka Nin, Kelly-Marie Murphy and Omar Daniel. In June they will record their fifth CD at Glenn Gould Studio, another all-Canadian disc, featuring a work by R. Murray Schafer which they premiered last year. Their current offering, It Takes Two (Marquis Classics 81401), is meant as more of a crowd pleaser, an album of encore-type pieces. With repertoire ranging from a medley of Gershwin tunes through Dizzy Gillespie’s A Night in Tunisia and de Abreu’s Tico Tico to classical show-stoppers like Rondo alla Turka and Sabre Dance and more melancholy fare such as Solveig’s Song and Valse triste, there is literally something for everybody. While thoroughly international in scope, even this project has a strong Canadian component. All the works were arranged for Duo Concertante by Clifford Crawley, a British-born Canadian who is Professor Emeritus at Queen’s University and now makes his home in St. John’s. In the words of the Duo, the title of this disc might more accurately be “It Takes Three”.

Duo Concertante: It Takes Two

At Grigorian.com

Concert Note: Duo Concertante will perform a free noon-hour concert in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at the Four Seasons Centre on May 5.

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, www.thewholenote.com, where you can find added features including direct links to performers, composers and record labels and “buy buttons” for on-line shopping.

David Olds

DISCoveries Editor

discoveries@thewholenote.com