Vocal and Choral

Arias
Jonathan Tetelman; Orquestra Filarmónica de Gran Canaria; Karel Mark Chichon
Deutsche Grammophon 486 2927 (deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/arias-jonathan-tetelman-12721)

Remember in 1990 the famous Three Tenors concert from Rome? An historic occasion that suddenly turned the world’s attention towards opera, especially the tenor voice, the star of just about every opera. Since then there were countless open air concerts with audiences in the thousands cheering wildly in many countries. I just watched one from Sweden, the star being Jonathan Tetelman a rising new tenor. He sang that wonderful love duet from Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera with joy and passionate abandon, a beautifully shaded voice with tenderness and power in all registers.

Tetelman is an American of Chilean origin. Interestingly he was a disc jockey in New York before he found his voice and now, after rigorous training, is a dedicated versatile artist in great demand. This is his debut album – on DG no less! – and we look forward to many more.

The scene is exotic. A gorgeous space-age auditorium with fabulous acousticsin the Canary Islands  with a well-respected figure in the operatic world, British conductor Karel Mark Chrichon, as music director. The 16 arias are well selected to show a cross section of the many sided versatility of Tetelman from gentle lyricism (the flower aria from Bizet’s Carmen) to powerful dramatic outbursts (Puorquoi me reveiller from Massenet’s Werther) of the Italian and French repertoire. This would include Verdi and his followers, Ponchielli, Giordano and Cilea, the Italian Verismo of Mascagni and Puccini and the French Romanticism of Massenet and Bizet as mentioned above. The journey ends suitably with the famous stretta, Di quella pira from Il Trovatore with a glorious high C at the end, every tenor’s dream.

The Joan Beckow Legacy Project
Various Artists
Independent (joanbeckowlegacy.com)

The Joan Beckow Legacy Project commemorates the musical works of composer Joan Beckow who passed away at 88 in January 2021. The album was conceived and musically directed by one of Beckow’s close and longtime friends, Wendy Bross Stuart and her daughter Jessica Stuart. With the composer’s blessing, Bross Stuart, also a pianist on the album, and Jessica Stuart, both a vocalist and producer for the project, recorded and orchestrated 22 of Beckow’s songs. 

Born in Chicago, Beckow was a prolific composer, pianist and singer. She relocated to Canada in her 30s, where she worked with many theatres as a composer and music director. Beckow’s compositions have been performed on stage countless times, but this posthumous album marks the first time her music was professionally recorded. Her legacy includes both liturgical and musical theatre works, and the double disc is divided as such; one focusing on materials more closely related to musical theatre and the other on classical and spiritual songs which include several pieces set to text from the Jewish liturgy. 

The Joan Beckow Legacy Project is a premium offering. Both discs are carefully crafted, from the chosen repertoire and the orchestration to the order of presentation and the combination of singers and instrumentalists. Beckow’s considerable gifts as a composer and lyricist are revealed via numerous songs on the album, notably The Woman I’ll Be, Dwelling Places, Oseh Shalom, A Christmas Wish, Once There Was a Tailor and On the Other Side of Nowhere.

More information on The Joan Beckow Legacy Project, which includes a 25-minute documentary, can be found on the project’s website.

Alice Ping Yee Ho – A Woman’s Voice
Jialiang Zhu; Vania Chan; Katy Clark; Maeve Palmer; Ariadne Lih; Alex Hetherington; Tong Wang; Andrew Ascenzo
Leaf Music LM254 (leaf-music.ca)

One of the most acclaimed composers writing in Canada today, Hong Kong-born Alice Ping Yee Ho continues to write in many musical genres, and her compositions for voice, known for stretching the skills of the most accomplished singers, are complex and colourful. Having enjoyed her Venom of Love Ballet in 2020, Ho’s recent work A Woman’s Voice – Songs and Duets for Voice and Piano is a beautiful and timely addition to the repertoire of contemporary vocal works. Based on texts including ancient Chinese poems from the Tang Dynasty, a war poem by English poet Charlotte Mew, as well as Ho’s collaborations with seven Canadian writers from across the country, the 18 songs are a very full listen. 

Reflecting the multicultural fabric of Canadian women, Ho writes in multi-lingual lyrics of English, French and Mandarin reflecting a wide variety of historical styles, using an all-Canadian cast of pianist/vocalist Jialiang Zhu and singers Vania Chan, Katy Clark, Maeve Palmer, Ariadne Lih and Alex Hetherington, with support from pianist Tong Wang and cellist Andrew Ascenzo. Celebrating the “female spirit,” this album enjoys a concert feel, highlighting the varied relationships between women, with song titles ranging from Self-abandonment and Chit-Chat Café to The Madness of Queen Charlotte. A Woman’s Voice is exquisitely delivered, ripe with history and humour.

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Mark Abel – Spectrum
Hila Plitmann; Isabel Baayrakdarian; Various Artists
Delos DE 3592 (delosmusic.com)

Even before you begin to listen to Mark Abel’s Spectrum – a generously packaged double disc of vocal works – you know you’re in for a rare treat. Not only do we meet Isabel Bayrakdarian, a haunting soprano singing emotionally in praise of three women artists we might never have known if Abel had not set their lives to song, but we find ourselves in the thrall of the Jewish heroine Esther, whose strength and cunning prevented the extermination of a fifth-century Jewish community by Haman, the powerful vizier of the Persian King Xerxes.

As if modern Lieder on disc one and the operetta Two Scenes from The Book of Esther aren’t enough, Abel also puts his considerable compositional prowess to work on instrumental music performed with immense integrity and authority by Trio Barclay, and other strings, horn and woodwinds, musicians of the highest order, on each of the two discs. 

Spectrum is spotlighted by Bayrakdarian and pianist Carol Rosenberger who celebrate the lives of Anne Wiazemsky (1947-2017), Pina Pellicer (1934-1964) and Larisa Shepitko (1938-1979), three icons of modern film on Trois Femmes du Cinema. Abel’s work tells of their courage in holding their own against the power of patriarchal misogyny in the film industry. Meanwhile, soprano Hila Plitmann and mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich glorify the story of Queen Esther. Scharich returns to partner pianist Jeffery LaDeur in the soul-stirring song cycle 1966 to close out the absolutely unimpeachable Spectrum of music by Abel.

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Mysterium
Anne Akiko Meyers; Los Angeles Master Chorale; Grant Gershon
Avie AV2585 (avie-records.com/releases/mysterium-anne-akiko-meyers)

A four-track release featuring arrangements of seasonal favourites, Mysterium shines a spotlight on two of America’s finest performers, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, in works by J.S. Bach and Morten Lauridsen.

The first three tracks are arrangements of chorales from Bach’s church cantatas: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, Sheep May Safely Graze and Wachet Auf. These are not faithful transcriptions of the original works, but rather adaptations that allow both the choir and soloist to be front and centre, which can occasionally come across as rather heavy-handed when compared to the relative simplicity of Bach’s original material.

The highlight of this release is undoubtedly Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium, in a new arrangement by Lauridsen himself. Recorded in Walt Disney Concert Hall, this version incorporates Meyers through a soaring and lyrical descant which, when combined with the Master Chorale, provides a robust and voluminous sound that accentuates the depth of Lauridsen’s writing.

Although a smaller-scale release than most, these 18 minutes of music are full of beauty and affect. From Advent chorales to manger-side musings, Mysterium is both a delightful way to begin ushering in the Christmas season and a fine introduction to Meyers, the Los Angeles Master Chorale and conductor Grant Gershon.

Uġis Prauliņš – L’homme Armé
Ars Antiqua Riga; Péteris Vaickovskis; Jānis Pelše
LMIC SKANI 142 (skani.lv)

One of the most frequently quoted melodies in Renaissance history, L’homme armé is a secular song from the Late Middle Ages used in over 40 separate settings of the Ordinary of the Mass. Two masses by Josquin, as well as compositions by Pierre de la Rue, Guillaume Du Fay, Palestrina and other luminaries of the time, have ensured that L’homme armé continues to be remembered and recognized by audiences and aficionados even today.

Rather than simply being an artifact from the past, composers still use this melody in their works, as demonstrated in Ars Antiqua Riga’s recent release of Uģis Prauliņš’ L’homme armé, a time-bending journey through plainchant, Renaissance-style polyphony and modernism. Instead of trying to simply reimagine the historical sounds and styles of previous composers, Prauliņš integrates this immediately recognizable tune into his own inimitable style, incorporating organ, sackbut and electronic instruments to great effect.

To say that Prauliņš’ L’homme armé is a revelation is an understatement, especially when one considers that this work is structured around the Ordinary of the Mass. Unlike Renaissance settings which were restrained by the required inclusion of certain movements, Prauliņš expands the standard structure of the Mass, incorporating additional texts to overcome both the dramatic and temporal limitations of the traditional form. 

While much of Prauliņš’ music is “atmospheric,” the aural impact of L’homme armé is stunningly indescribable, and there is not enough space in this review to include a suitable number of superlatives. Ars Antiqua Riga and its director Pēteris Vaickovskis give an extraordinary performance; a treasure for all who appreciate choral music executed at the highest level.

Anthony Davis – X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X
Davóne Tynes; Whitney Morrison; Boston Modern Orchestra Project
BMOP Sound (bmop.org/audio-recordings/anthony-davis-x-life-and-times-malcolm-x)

The story of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X is eerily similar to the life of its lead protagonist. Before he became “Malcolm X” he was a controversial figure who preached racism and violence, until he embraced the civil rights movement after his pilgrimage to Mecca. Largely a forgotten American, Malcolm X reclaimed some of the spotlight when he collaborated with Alex Haley on his autobiography. This brings us to the history of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X – the opera, which was premiered at the American Music Theatre Festival in September 1986.  

Did Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones performed by the Metropolitan Opera provide the much-needed breakthrough for Christopher Davis’ story and Thulani Davis’ libretto after lying dormant for 36 years? Possibly, but it also certainly took a particularly finely wrought score by pianist/composer, Anthony Davis, writing his eighth opera, to celebrate X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X again, entirely justifying the Pulitzer Prize for Music that he earned in 2020.

Davis’ score is a mighty one; its heft is brilliantly carried by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) under the baton of Gil Rose who makes full use of dark symphonic sounds to enhance a grim and tragic period atmosphere. Kenneth Griffith brings uncommon skill in marshalling the chorus for the epic narrative. 

The transformation of a frightened Malcolm Little who comes to terms with his father’s death in the recitative Reverend Little is Dead from Act I Scene 1 through Malcolm’s Aria, “You want the story, but you don’t want to know” in Act I Scene 3, another recitative We Are a Nation in Act II Scene 4, Betty’s aria When a Man is Lost in Act III Scene 2, to the tragic dénouement in the Audubon Ballroom. The achingly pure soprano of Whitney Morrison is stoic and utterly convincing as Betty Shabazz, and best of all, Davóne Tines’ velvet-toned bass-baritone brings power and nobility to the role of Malcolm X.

BMOP’s 2022 revival of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X is to be followed by productions by Opera Omaha, Seattle Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Metropolitan Opera (to be presented in 2023-24 season), marking it as one of the most significant American operas of the 20th century,