Vocal and Choral

Wagner – Siegfried
Simon O’Neill; Anja Kampe; Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Simon Rattle
BR Klassik 900211 (brso.de/en/cd-dvd/Richard-wagner-siegfried/)

Siegfried was the third in Wagner’s Ring Cycle; preceded by Das Rheingold and Die Walküre and followed by Götterdämmerung. Die Walküre ended with the pregnant heroine Sieglinde fleeing into the woods, and with the Valkyrie Brünnhilde condemned to sleep within a ring of fire until rescued.

This opera skips ahead: Sieglinde’s child is now a young man, Siegfried. Since Sieglinde died in childbirth, Siegfried was raised by a Nibelung, Mime. Siegfried is defiant, boastful and even arrogant. The role is played to the hilt by Simon O’Neill, his powerful tenor fulfilling all of the qualities with which Wagner had imbued Siegfried’s character. These are not negative traits. Instead, they reflect the unconquerable nature and innate heroism of the great Wagnerian character.

The finale, Act III, features exceptional music. Baritone Michael Volle is powerful, even majestic, playing Wotan, The Wanderer, and gives the performance of his life as he bares his soul to the goddess Erda. Meanwhile the sequence where O’Neill’s Siegfried expresses his feelings for Brünnhilde (sung by the lustrous soprano Anja Kampe) veers from plangent lyricism to flame-toned declamation.

Sir Simon Rattle conducting Symphonieorchester des Bayerischer Rundfunks is a strong contender for the finest Siegfried on CD in recent times. O’Neill is at his peak as Siegfried while Volle is uniquely authoritative as Wotan. Rattle is a less showy conductor than his rivals, but he offers a refreshingly unforced quality, one to which his performers are deeply responsive. 

Frati Uccelli
La Squadra di Genova
Alborada Editions (alborada-editions.com)

Musical recordings are most often self-contained microcosms, with everything that a listener needs to understand the material in question contained on a single disc or playlist. For those looking for greater information, detail and context, liner notes and booklets are included, but while these are undoubtedly helpful, they are not often required to listen to a particular piece of music.

What happens, however, when the music one is listening to is extracted from a larger artistic production, of which music is only a portion of the whole? Consider, for example, Wagner’s idea of “Gesamtkunstwerk” or Total Art Work, in which all the senses are engaged in the consumption of a work of art. While one can listen to Wagner’s music away from the stage, it is questionable whether he would be pleased with the thought of tearing his Total Art Work limb from limb into its constituent parts.

It is this reviewer’s conundrum that such a situation has arisen here, with La Squadra di Genova’s Frati uccelli, a small, five-track release that originally accompanied Nino Laisné’s visual and sound installation of the same name at the Saorge Monastery in France. This monastery was previously home to Franciscan monks and Frati uccelli attempts to revive their memory through the monastery’s physical space and these polyphonic vocal works.

The music itself is a blend of Genovese and early Baroque polyphony, playfully interpreted by La Squadra di Genova. Crafted specifically for the Frati uccelli exhibit, these works are adaptations of texts by historical figures including Luca Marenzio and Giovanni Legrenzi – both of whom were notable composers – as well as two Anonymous period compositions, all of which provide delightful forays into early Italian musical styles.

Wonderland
The King’s Singers
Signum Classics SIGCD739 (kingssingers.com/albums)

With his centenary year ending, at last there comes a vocal project worthy of one of the most iconic and adventurous composers of the 20th century, György Ligeti. That project comes in the name and shape of Wonderland, by the celebrated King’s Singers. To be exact, while the project is built around Ligeti’s eerily beautiful Nonsense Madrigals, the composer’s delightfully zany world is embellished by works – equally and beautifully daft – by seven other composers who take us through the rabbit hole of Ligeti’s making.

Makiko Kinoshita, Ola Gjeilo, Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, Joe Hisaishi, Judith Bingham, Malcolm Williamson and Paul Patterson give us equal cause for merriment and joy as they leap off Ligeti’s song cycle with marvellous works of their own. 

Together the seven composers create a parallel world evocative of Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland (that Alice tumbles into), as magical as Ligeti’s madcap world (not unlike his Breughelland – a world derived from the paintings of Breughel and Bosch – from his opera Le Grand Macabre). Only this Wonderland is one infinitely more light-hearted, evoking Ligeti’s inimitably personal manner with a lyric often expressed in a complex rhythmic style in which conflicting layers of tempi are used to drive narratives – and the music – ever onward.

In the wrong hands these works might sound merely odd. But The King’s Singers deliver the crazy lyrics with consummate musicality, allowing the narratives of their strange beauty to flower.

Afarin Mansouri – Dancing with Love
Afarin Mansouri; Various Artists
Centrediscs CMCCD 31923 (afarinmansouri.com/recorded-albums)

Toronto-based Afarin Mansouri (b.Teheran 1974) came to Canada in 2002 and studied composition, receiving her doctorate from York University. Singing in Farsi, she brings her vibrant mezzo-soprano voice to nine of this CD’s 12 selections, all involving aspects of “Love.”

Mansouri has drawn most of the texts from medieval Persian poetry. Verses by venerated 13th-century mystic Rumi and 14th-century Hafiz adorn three arias from her opera Zuleykha. Mansouri calls her libretto a revisionist “female perspective” on the biblical Potiphar’s wife, lovesick for Joseph. In addition to four solo songs, she’s joined in two duets by beguiling, velvet-voiced tenor Milad Bagheri, including the finale of her opera-in-progress The Endless Sea. Its about the tenth-century Rabia Balkhi, considered Persia’s first female poet, and incorporates Balkhi’s poetry. Bagheri also solos in two of Mansouri’s songs.

They’re variously accompanied by pianist Cheryl Duvall and other members of the Thin Edge New Music Collective, plus Padideh Ahrarnejad on the waisted-lute tar and Ali Masoudi on tombak and daf drums. Mansouri also adds atmospheric electronic soundscapes to three selections.

I can’t imagine anyone, whatever their musical preferences, not enjoying Mansouri’s richly melodic, vivaciously rhythmic and exotically scored compositions, inspired by traditional Persian music yet contemporary in sensibility. Her rapturous traversal of love’s joy, yearning and despair ends with the poignant A Lament for Love for solo flute, played by Terry Lim. It expresses, writes Mansouri, her “heartfelt love and nostalgia for the homeland.” Texts are included.

It Floats Away from You
Byrne:Kozar:Duo
New Focus Recordings FCR378 (newfocusrecordings.com)

A debut album from the Byrne:Kozar:Duo hits an impressive mark, with finely curated and exquisitely performed new works for soprano and trumpet.

Undoubtedly, this ensemble is a unique one. It unveils surprising tonal ecosystems and colouristic effects rarely heard, originating from an elliptic Renaissance sensibility. The duo endeavours to “guide the way, providing a template for integration across multiple parameters as a powerful vehicle for expression and depth.” Once moving past such novelties, the listener embraces a lustrous, generous universe of diptych-infused dedication, perfectly integrated in a concordant yet plural narrative. The skilled synthesis from these two musicians is one reason for this achievement. The other: the compositions themselves, boasting sensitive text settings and idiomatic constructions.

Austere, even stark, music like Li Qi’s Lonely Grave (with a fixed media component) sets a compelling foil to such pieces as Alexandre Lunsqui’s Two Patches and Jeffrey Gavette’s Proof of Concept for Floating Child, the latter exemplifying the duo’s textural and rhythmic possibilities, inspired by heavy metal music and Meredith Monk.

While each track is well ordered, the disc plays more as a recital rather than a coherent album. That is not necessarily scabrous, especially when considering a debut record. Indeed it might compel the listener to leave the audio space and seek live performances from this new duo, having whet the aural appetite with unexpected soundscapes. Let the armchair listener witness first hand the energy, intimacy and aired spell, the Byrne:Kozar:Duo so masterfully conjures.

Art Choral Vol. 4 – Classique
Ensemble ArtChoral; Matthias Maute; Ilya Poletaev
ATMA ACD2 2423 (atmaclassique.com/en)

Some choirs and their musical projects have clearly defined areas of focus. Others, such as Ensemble ArtChoral, directed by Matthias Maute, think bigger: the ArtChoral series is a unique and ambitious three-year, 11-volume project surveying the history of choral singing over six centuries, from the Renaissance to the present day. Classique, the fourth release in the series, focuses on the Classical era and contains music by Gasparini, Bierey, Haydn and Mozart, accompanied by fortepianist Ilya Poletaev. 

Much of the music on this disc was composed for liturgical use, including Johann Michael Haydn’s Agnus Dei, Bierey’s Kyrie (which is based on the first movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” piano sonata) and Mozart’s ubiquitous Ave Verum Corpus, as well as a set of fascinating vocal trios and quartets by Franz Joseph Haydn. This thoughtful programming provides a convincing overview of the era’s styles and sounds through smaller forms, at a time when much of the choral music being composed was large scale, such as the masses and oratorios of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

Ensemble ArtChoral is in fine form throughout, and their skillful approach to this music is apparent from the first notes. Using the fortepiano as the sole source of accompaniment is a thought-provoking choice, with its unique timbre and relatively inflexible dynamic range leading to an increased attention toward expressive boundaries; the listener must reorient themselves to understand that, while they are still hearing the juxtaposition of fortes and pianos, the extremes are less pronounced than might be expected from performances with modern instruments.

It is a monumental task to summarize six centuries of anything, let alone such a vast expanse of composers and their music; Ensemble ArtChoral continues to prove that they are up to the challenge with Classique.

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At First Light
Exultate Chamber Singers
Independent (exultate.net)

One of Canada’s top chamber choirs, the Exultate Chamber Singers is a Toronto-based ensemble dedicated to showcasing new Canadian choral music through commissioning and programming. While there are some who consider all music of the 20th century to be contemporary, Exultate commits itself to music that is truly contemporary, as demonstrated with their recent recording At First Light.

Consisting of eight works written by Canadian composers between 2018 and 2021 – seven of which were commissioned by Exultate – At First Light provides a glimpse into some of the wonderful music being written by both emerging and established composers in our country. There is a wide range of compositional diversity here, with texts taken from many sources including Malay lyricist Mohamad Fairuz bin Mohamad Tauhid, the Lebanese-American Kahlil Gibran, as well as Shakespeare and Yeats, set by an equally diverse range of composers.

Unlike the “modernist” music of Schoenberg and Stockhausen, this modern music is largely tonal, with a freedom of technique and expression that has been gathered and distilled from centuries of musical history and returned to its listeners in new, creative forms. Ethereal harmonic textures are the primary musical vernacular here, but each composer’s individual approach ensures that each work is unique unto itself. Whether Matthew Emery’s brief yet profound Be Still, My Heart, Mari Alice Conrad’s atmospheric At First Light, or the rhythmically delightful Speak to Us of Joy by Ecuadorian Canadian Sami Anguaya, there is a variety of styles and techniques on display which provide a distinctively wide-ranging and satisfying listening experience from beginning to end.

A robust and enthusiastic exposition of contemporary Canadian content, Exultate’s At First Light reminds us that there is much to celebrate here at home with regards to classical music. Although its death has been signaled many times over the last half-century, the presence of such gifted composers and interpreters indicates that there is indeed a future for this genre that will be defined not by survival, but rather by successes yet unimagined.

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