by Audiophile Audition | Jan 31, 2019 | Classical CD Reviews
In a Strange Land: Elizabethan Composers in Exile – John Dowland, William Byrd, Richard Dering, Peter Philips, Philippe de Monte, Huw Watkins, Robert White. – Stile Antico (vocal ensemble) – Harmonia Mundi HMM 902266 – 62:00 [Distr. by PIAS] ****1/2:
The theme behind early music vocal ensemble Stile Antico’s latest album is “Elizabethan composers in exile.” Nine tracks capture some “best hits” (as much as we can describe religious music as “hits”) from composers put into conflict during a rapid change of religious climate. The penultimate track, composed by Huw Watkins, was debuted by Stile Antico and based upon a text from William Shakespeare. The excellent liner notes by bassist Matthew O’Donovan capture the strange culture during and around Elizabeth’s time, when England was being thrust out of Catholicism.
I had the opportunity to hear Stile Antico live a number of years ago and was impressed by their cohesion—they worked very well as an ensemble. The group now has a number of releases on the Harmonia Mundi label. This recording was made in a London church and the recorded sound is nearly ideal. There is a both an immediacy to the sound with close miking but the authentic reverb is also captured, most noticeable when the ensemble sings with its fullest intensity. I could only wish that every recording I have of choir music had equal treatment with this engineering team.
The most familiar piece to me is the opening track by John Dowland, Flow, my tears. While it may be familiar to listeners as an instrumental piece for viols, it is even more brilliant sung by multiple singers. Both imitation and the harmonic “crunches” seem most appropriate in a setting for choir. The second piece by Dowland, In this Trembling Shadow, is perhaps even more arresting. The contrast of Dowland’s musical language with the album’s last track, the Lamentations a 5 by White, is remarkable as an illustration of the diversity of style explored (and tolerated) during this time. The quick changes and frequency of words in Dowland’s piece are absent; White’s earlier work feels like pulled taffy, and while harmonically less adventurous, the effect is no less profound. In both examples I felt Stile Antico did well with utilizing their expressive power through dynamic contrast.
Stile Antico
Photo: Marco Borggreve
While the ensemble makes a connection with the other composers and Shakespeare’s supposed sympathies for Catholicism, the piece by Watkins is quite different, stylistically, from the rest. It’s not that I dislike this contemporary piece, which lasts just over five-and-a-half minutes, but it does sit oddly within the program. The piece does highlight the versatility and artistry of this ensemble. Stile Antico’s solid intonation, sharp diction, and expressive power is put to great effect.
Three pieces express to me a very optimistic tone, Philips’s Gaude Maria virgo from 1612; Byrd’s Quomodo cantabimus from 1589, and Philips’s Regina cali laetare from 1612. The harmonic language and rhythm of Byrd’s music feels a generation older. The style Philips employs is not too far removed from the newest style alive in Italy. Altogether, I think the album was well-conceived to reveal the diverse treasures of repertoire from this period.
What’s always interesting to me is how this music is enjoyed by modern listeners. Not in Philips’s or Dering’s wildest dreams might they have expected us to be enjoying their music in 2019, nor outside the context for which it was composed. Does this music have a legitimate place outside the church? Or outside the function of devoting one’s self to God? Dowland may be the exception here, his text poetic and personal. I am not attempting to argue that efforts are wasted at reviving this music, or exposing more contemporary listeners to it. But I will say that recording holiday carols might be more lucrative, in terms of album sales (or listens, however the record companies are counting their successes nowadays).
But even if we take away the text, the meaning, and historical context to this music, it is worth our time, I’d argue, for its sheer beauty of sound. I applaud Stile Antico for bringing this album and this canon of music to light. There is a modicum of disappointment I have for recommending this album for its utility as a “sonorous curtain” of sound (to quote Copland), but the reality is it ought to be heard by more of an audience beyond budding music historians, and those interested in English religious conflict.
Beauty comes in a variety of guises.
—Sebastian Herrera
More information and music samples at the Stile Antico Website.
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 28, 2019 | Jazz CD Reviews
In Common – In Common – Whirlwind WR4728 37:04 [11/9/18] ****:
The 37-minute, ten-track In Common album is the eponymous debut of the group In Common, a quintet with superb improvisational skills, dynamic musical dialogue and well-defined compositional aptitude. In Common is not a no-name band. Tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III is a member of the Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet and has performed and/or recorded with pianist Taylor Eigsti, trumpeter Christian Scott, pianist Aaron Parks and others. Smith has issued five albums as leader. Guitarist Matthew Stevens has played and/or recorded with Scott, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and bassist Esperanza Spalding. Vibraphonist Joel Ross has collaborated with Herbie Hancock, bassist Christian McBride, fellow vibraphonist Stefon Harris and others. Bassist Harish Raghavan’s credits include Kurt Elling, Eigsti and more. And drummer Marcus Gilmore has been a member of Vijay Iyer’s group and played with saxophonist Steve Coleman, pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and more. Together, these five musicians have created a mostly understated collection of concise, inventive tunes which share a communal musical vernacular. The longest cut goes to five minutes and the shortest is just over a minute. In Common was released as a 12-inch, 180-gram vinyl LP; six-panel CD digifile with a velvety soft-touch laminate finish; and various high-quality digital download files. This review refers to the CD version.
Matthew Stevens
In Common begins with the brief, 1:14 introductory “freefive.” The tune’s title is deliberately all-lower case. Stevens’ “Unsung” follows. The compositional name denotes and celebrates our societally overlooked people. Gilmore and Raghavan craft some deep harmonic and rhythmic patterns, while Stevens showcases his single-note and expressive style. The soulfulness (both musical and philosophical) is hallmarked by Ross’ vibes and Smith’s soaring sax. Another standout is the five-minute “ACE,” which commences with a simple ‘musical box’ effect which becomes the track’s foundation. As the rhythm instruments deliver a sustaining cadence, Smith supplies an alluring melody while Ross slips in a sinuous, marimba-esque vibe solo. The deceptively modest structure in “ACE” provides an approach which allows the music to stay memorable long after the music concludes. One of the most beautiful selections is the four-minute “foreword,” which starts with a sax/vibes duet, and then the other instruments drift seamlessly and impeccably into the mix. “foreword” (the title is also all-lower case) displays how this quintet can let its music unfurl intuitively and develop slowly and gracefully. On the other hand, when In Common wants to animate the proceedings, they do so admirably, especially on the too-short, bop-ish “Baron” and the equally energetic “About 360,” where Stevens and Smith both offer consistently engaging solos, while Raghavan furnishes sprightly and alert bass lines and Gilmore propels on his drums with fervent percussive elements.
Matthew Stevens
Near the record’s end In Common present a stirring translation of the late Geri Allen’s “Unconditional Love,” which is sprinkled with an off-the-beat rhythmic balancing act (Gilmore and Raghavan’s exchanges are magical) and some interesting interaction between vibes, guitar and sax. The album finishes with a sax/guitar duet on a restructured cut called “ACE (reprise),” where Stevens plucks out a rhythm on his guitar while Smith flows on sax. There’s not much more which can be said about the material: this is obviously sensitive and aware music by perceptive and attentive jazz artists who can produce insightfully full music. If you missed this when it came out in late 2018, give it a go.
Musicians of In Common:
Walter Smith III – tenor saxophone; Matthew Stevens – guitar; Joel Ross – vibraphone; Harish Raghavan – double bass; Marcus Gilmore – drums
TrackList:
freefive
Unsung
YINZ
ACE
foreword
Baron
13th Floor
About 360
Unconditional Love
ACE (reprise)
—Doug Simpson
More Information and Music Samples through Whirlwind Recordings:
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 27, 2019 | Jazz CD Reviews
John Fedchock Quartet Live – Reminiscence – Summit Records 49:08****
( John Fedchock – trombone; John Toomey – piano; Jimmy Masters – bass; Dave Ratajczak – drums – #1-6; Billy Williams – drums #7)
John Fedchock, is a bop oriented trombonist, who prior to leading his own big band and small groups, may be best remembered for his seven year stint with the Woody Herman band in the 1980s. During that time his was the band’s music director, a prominent soloist, and one of Woody’s key arrangers behind such numbers as “Blues For Red” and “Come Sunday”.
This current release on Summit Records Reminiscence is a bookend to the 2015 album Fluidity, in that it pulls together other material from the three nights the group performed at Havana Nights club in Virginia Beach VA in 2012 and 2013.
The opening track is an upbeat original from Fedchock entitled “The Third Degree”. It is filled with a delightful sense of informality and free flowing interactions that are neither simple nor locked down.
J.J. Johnson has always been looked upon as the epitome of trombonists. He was also a composer of some distinction as exemplified by his composition “Lament”. Fedchock and the group add to the interest of this number by combining its ballad roots with a Latin touch. Fedchock’s mellow and generous sound is in keeping with the interpretation of the composition. Pianist John Toomey provides a musical gracefulness to the proceedings.
“The End Of A Love Affair” was written by Edward Redding in 1950 and may have been composed for one of those cabaret revues that were all the rage in New York in the 1950s. Mabel Mercer was the first performer to record the number for her album Songs By Mabel Mercer Vol. 1. for Atlantic records in 1951. Fedchock takes the number at an up-tempo pace which enhances the amusing and breezy identity of the tune.
Tadd Dameron was one of bop’s most influential composer/arranger who died at 48 after having been caught up in the era’s drug culture. One of his signature numbers is “If You Could See Me Now” which was specifically written for vocalist Sarah Vaughan, which she introduced in 1946 and it became an integral part of her repetoire. Fedchock and his cohorts deliver a beautiful reading of the number never losing the composition’s sureness or connection.
John Fedchock is a trombonist of finesse and elegance and he and the band have delivered a release filed with gratifying engaging music.
TrackList:
The Third Degree
Loose Change
Lament
The End Of A Love Affair
You’re My Everything
If You Could See Me Now
Brazilian Fantasy
—Pierre Giroux
More Information and Track Samples at Summit Records website:
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 26, 2019 | Classical CD Reviews
RACHMANINOV: Preghiera (arr. Kreisler); Trio elegiaque in D minor, Op. 9; Trio elegiaque in G minor – Gidon Kremer, violin/ Geidre Dirvanauskaite, cello/ Daniil Trifonov, piano – DGG 479 6979. 67:03 (2/24/17) [Distr. By Universal] ****:
To celebrate his 70th birthday, violinist Gidon Kremer (rec. 1-3 May 2015) collaborates with members of his Kremerata Baltica in music by Rachmaninov, mainly those two trios that pay deep reverence to the spirit of Tchaikovsky. The eponymous Preghiera refers to an arrangement by Fritz Kreisler in agreement with Sergei Rachmaninov—with whom he recorded works by Grieg and Beethoven—of the Adagio sostenuto main theme from the Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18. Kreisler, of course, loved to show off his sweet cantabile: here, even beyond Trifonov’s own liquid legato and voluptuous arpeggios, repeated in mesmeric nocturne, Kremer sings through the range of his instrument. By degrees, the passion between the two instruments builds, much in the manner of the Concerto, into a thunderous declaration of tormented ecstasy, only to diminish in those Wagnerian wisps we know from the Liebestod.
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Upon learning of the death of Tchaikovsky on 25 October 1893, Rachmaninov isolated himself to compose his D minor Trio “to the memory of a great artist,” much as Tchaikovsky had expressed his own grief on the passing of Nicholas Rubinstein. Massive in scope and sculpted in shades of mourning, lamento, the work follows the Tchaikovsky Op. 50 design using a grandly mounted theme and variations in the second movement. From a plodding, opening Moderato, the music—by way of Trifonov’s stunning block chords—accelerates into a passionate Allegro vivace. Later, Trifonov’s dominant piano part erupts yet once more, quasi cadenza, after having already demonstrated by any number of moods and contrasting sentiments. A three-note, lilting theme haunts all three instruments as part of the development section. This relatively calm sequence explodes into a fevered march whose blistering piano runs seem to echo aspects of the Tchaikovsky B-flat Minor Concerto. The funereal affect of the piece manages to recall the solemn moments from Chopin.
Peter Tchaikovsky
The keyboard announces the extended theme—taken from the symphonic poem The Crag, Op. 7—for the Quasi variazione movement, whose proportions – in eight variations—becomes as massive and imposing as those in movement one. Trifonov holds us in thrall in the second variation, for piano solo. The remaining variations, quite differentiated in color and texture, nostalgic and scherzando, loom before us in a sweeping emotional panorama as broad as the first movement, so that the finale, opening in punishing Allegro risoluto – Moderato seems unable to bear the unequal weight distribution. After a fierce and competitive climax, the lamento of the first movement returns in chromatic descent for a cyclical conclusion, much in the Tchaikovsky spirit. The last page combines Kremer and cellist Dirvanauskaite for a most intimate recollection of times past.
The 1892 Trio elegiaque, Rachmaninov’s graduation piece, Tchaikovsky knew and admired. The work proffers a single movement of twelve minutes whose tenor seems entirely dependent upon Tchaikovsky’s Op. 50 Trio, but whose Lento lugubre and appassionata energies owe as much to Liszt. When Rachmaninov wishes, the textures can become gossamer and limpid, besides gloomily Russian. Beginning and ending with a funeral march, the work demonstrates both economy and fertile imagination, whose keyboard part signifies much of the rich virtuosity that lies in the composer’s future. The sonic vitality of the recording recommends these performances to any connoisseur of Russian chamber music.
—Gary Lemco
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 26, 2019 | Streams and Podcasts
Conductor/Composer Wilhelm Furtwängler will be featured on The Music Treasury this week, hosted by Dr Gary Lemco. Furtwängler needs little introduction, as he was one of the foremost conductors in the 1900s. The show is in honor of Furtwängler’s birthday, exploring his musical legacy and style.
The show airs from its host station KZSU at Stanford University, with concurrent streaming at kzsu.stanford.edu. The show time is from 19:00 to 21:00, PST.
Wilhelm Furtwängler birthday tribute:
Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler (January 25, 1886 – November 30, 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century.
Furtwängler was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic between 1922 and 1945, and from 1952 until 1954. He was also principal conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra (1922–26), and a guest conductor of other major orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic. He was the leading conductor to remain in Germany during the Second World War, although he was not an adherent of the Nazi regime. This decision caused lasting controversy, and the extent to which his presence lent prestige to the Third Reich is still debated.
During World War II
During the war, Furtwängler tried to avoid conducting in occupied Europe. He said: “I will never play in a country such as France, which I am so much attached to, considering myself a ‘vanquisher’. I will conduct there again only when the country has been liberated”. He refused to go to France during its occupation, although the Nazis tried to force him to conduct there. Since he had said that he would conduct there only at the invitation of the French, Goebbels forced the French conductor Charles Munch to send him a personal invitation. But Munch wrote in small characters at the bottom of his letter “in agreement with the German occupation authorities.” Furtwängler declined the invitation.
Furtwängler did conduct in Prague in November 1940 and March 1944. The 1940 program, chosen by Furtwängler, included Smetana’s Moldau. According to Prieberg, “This piece is part of the cycle in which the Czech master celebrated ‘Má vlast (My Country), and […] was intended to support his compatriots’ fight for the independence from Austrian domination […] When Furtwängler began with the ‘Moldau’ it was not a deliberate risk, but a statement of his stance towards the oppressed Czechs”. The 1944 concert marked the fifth anniversary of the German occupation and was the result of a deal between Furtwängler and Goebbels: Furtwängler did not want to perform in April for Hitler’s birthday in Berlin. He said to Goebbels in March (as he had in April 1943) that he was sick. Goebbels asked him to perform in Prague instead, where he conducted the Symphony No. 9 of Antonín Dvořák. He conducted in Oslo in 1943, where he helped the Jewish conductor Issay Dobrowen to flee to Sweden.
In April 1942, Furtwängler conducted a performance of Beethoven’s ninth symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic for Hitler’s birthday. At least the final minutes of the performance were filmed and can be seen on YouTube. At the end, Goebbels came to the front of the stage to shake Furtwängler’s hand. This concert led to heavy criticism of Furtwängler after the war. In fact, Furtwängler had planned several concerts in Vienna during this period to avoid this celebration.] But after the defeat of the German army during the Battle of Moscow, Goebbels had decided to make a long speech on the eve of Hitler’s birthday to galvanize the German nation. The speech would be followed by Beethoven’s ninth symphony. Goebbels wanted Furtwängler to conduct the symphony by whatever means to give a transcendent dimension to the event. He called Furtwängler shortly before to ask him to agree to conduct the symphony but the latter refused arguing that he had no time to rehearse and that he had to perform several concerts in Vienna. But Goebbels forced the organizers in Vienna (by threatening them) to cancel the concerts and ordered Furtwängler to return to Berlin[110] In 1943 and 1944, Furtwängler provided false medical certificates in advance to be sure that such a situation would not happen again.
It is now known that Furtwängler continued to use his influence to help Jewish musicians and non-musicians escape the Third Reich. He managed to have Max Zweig, a nephew of conductor Fritz Zweig, released from Dachau concentration camp. Others, from an extensive list of Jews he helped, included Carl Flesch, Josef Krips and the composer Arnold Schoenberg.
Furtwängler refused to participate in the propaganda film Philharmoniker. Goebbels wanted Furtwängler to feature in it, but Furtwängler declined to take part. The film was finished in December 1943 showing many conductors connected with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, including Eugen Jochum, Karl Böhm, Hans Knappertsbusch, and Richard Strauss, but not Furtwängler. Goebbels also asked Furtwängler to direct the music in a film about Beethoven, again for propaganda purposes. They quarralled violently about this project. Furtwängler told him “You are wrong, Herr Minister, if you think you can exploit Beethoven in a film.” Goebbels gave up his plans for the film.
In April 1944, Goebbels wrote:
“Furtwängler has never been a National Socialist. Nor has he ever made any bones about it. Which Jews and emigrants thought was sufficient to consider him as one of them, a key representative of so-called ‘inner emigration’. Furtwängler[‘s] stance towards us has not changed in the least.”
Furtwängler’s conducting is well documented in commercial and broadcast recordings and has contributed to his lasting reputation. He had a major influence on many later conductors, and his name is often mentioned when discussing their interpretive styles. This evening, The Music Treasury explores Furtwängler’s approach in music not often associated with his strict adherence to the Great German Tradition, including performances in venues other than Berlin and Vienna. [Adapted from Wikipedia. LK]
Program:
Handel: Concerto Grosso in G Minor, Op. 6, No. 10 (1954 Caracas)
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice: Act III: Piu frenarti non posso; Che faro senza Euridice? (Milan)
Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47 (w/Kulenkampff, 1943)
Wagner: Lohengrin: “In fernem land” (w/Voelker, 1936 Bayreuth)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 “Pathetique” (1951 Cairo)
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 25, 2019 | Jazz CD Reviews, SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews
Jamie Saft, Steve Swallow, Bobby Previte – You Don’t Know the Life – Rare Noise RNR 101LP – Vinyl audiophile LP – 41:09 – ****:
(Jamie Saft – Hammond organ, Whitehall organ, Baldwin electric harpsichord; Steve Swallow – electric bass; Bobby Previte – drums)
Jamie Saft has cast a wide musical net over the last few years. We’ve covered a heavenly solo piano excursion (Solo a Genova), a blues driven piano trio (Blue Dream), and another trio outing with guest vocalist Iggy Pop (Loneliness Road).
Saft now sets his sites on exploring the possibilities of the classic organ trio (Hammond, bass, and drums), once again entering new territory with bassist Steve Swallow, and drummer, Bobby Previte. Just released on Rare Noise Records on a gorgeous pristine green vinyl, as well as CD, You Don’t Know the Life, has ten tracks. Three were written by the trio, two by Saft, and the remaining five ranging from Bill Evans (“Re: Person I Knew”); a Roswell Rudd tune (“Ode to a Green Frisbee”); and two standards. The title track is from a ZZ Top number by Billy Gibbons, an early favorite of Saft.
The one constant throughout Jamie’s trio group releases is an open canvas provided with minimal musical “paint” leaving each instrumentalist to work as a team to complete the vision, whether it be easily recognized/digested by the listener, or subject to a “Jackson Pollock type” splatter fest, open to multiple interpretations. In other words, improvisation rules…
The LP opens with “Re: Person I Knew,” and Jamie is on an electric Baldwin harpsichord. It’s a psychedelic funky treat, propelled by Previte’s shuffle beat. It has an ominous vibe, and would be great for a Halloween haunted house theme. “Water From Breath” highlights the trio’s symbiotic strengths, with Steve Swallow’s electric bass deeply vibrating, and Bobby Previte’s assertive drumming.
The title track features some soulful organ lines, and effective tension and release. It sets a mood, both mysterious and imploring. Saft pulls out all the stops on “The Cloak.” Like a mad scientist let loose, Saft opens a smorgasbord of organ effects.
We next get a straight forward soul jazz reading on “Stable Manifold,” and Jamie shows he can hold his own with Dr. Lonnie Smith and Joey DeFrancesco, should he choose to.
The LP closes with a reworking of two standards. “Moonlight in Vermont” opens in a straight manner, but soon evolves into more complex territory primarily due to Previte’s escalating intensity. “Alfie” provides a lyrical close to an adventurous forty plus minutes of organ trio re-definitions.
This session was recorded at the heralded Sear Sound studio in New York City. The acoustics are resonant, and bass and drums are fully upfront meeting Saft’s percolating organ head on.
If you are a jazz organ trio fan, open to explore the sonic adventures that free improvisation can bring to this often easily predictable organ grouping, then you are in for a real ear opening treat..
Tracklist:
Side A:
Re: Person I Knew
Dark Squares
Water From Breath
You Don’t Know the Life
Side B:
Ode to a Green Frisbee
The Cloak
Stable Manifold
The Break of the Flat Land
Moonlight in Vermont
Alfie
—Jeff Krow
More Information and Track Samples at Rare Noise Records Website:
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 24, 2019 | Classical CD Reviews
WET INK Large Ensemble – Wet Ink: 20 – (Braxton, Soper, Mincek, Pluta ) Carrier Records – (9/18/18): ****:
From the Wet Ink Website:
For 20 years, the Wet Ink Ensemble has been programming and presenting concerts of adventurous new music at the highest level in New York City and around the world. Wet Ink: 20 is a collection of work rooted in an interconnected community of contemporary music – a synthesis of the performance practice developed in the “band” atmosphere of Wet Ink’s core septet of composer-performers, and of over a decade of multifaceted work with the frequent collaborators of the Wet Ink Large Ensemble, a collection of 28 renowned NYC-based new music performers whose breadth of experience ranges from performances with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and Yarn/Wire to Peter Evans Ensemble and the Evan Parker Electroacoustic Ensemble.
This visionary music calls for a poetic response. Audiophile Audition has enlisted Portland poet and avant-garde illuminatus Casey Bush. You don’t have to put the poem under the microscope to see his appreciation of the music of Wet Ink: 20. The four stars awarded this latest project underscores our high commendation.
Wet Ink
Ian Antonio, Erin Lesser, Sam Pluta, Alex Mincek, Kate Soper, Eric Wubbels, and Josh Modney.
Wet Ink: 20
Stick that nose ring in a circuit and turn on the juice. Where did all these parentheses come from? Modular forms are the enemy of whimsy, betrayed by the treachery of rhyme. There can be no break in this dark season of cacophony, one storm front falling on top of another. A sonic symmetry haunts the bestial provinces.Malformed umbrella helpless against the driving rain. The phrenologist rudely examines a priest’s cranial bumps during the middle of his sermon. You have to believe that there is something worth seeing from the heights, otherwise you would not climb first one mountain, and then the next and then the entire range. There are blank pages in my survival manual. Be patient with the hunted animal and it will come your way.
—Casey Bush
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 24, 2019 | Jazz CD Reviews
Dustin Carlson – Air Ceremony [TrackList follows] – Out of Your Head OOYH002 52:39 [11/9/18] ****:
Guitarist Dustin Carlson’s 52-minute, six-track Air Ceremony is about many things. Carlson’s music shows a fascination with time: how it is perceived, felt, seen and heard; and the name Air Ceremony is reminiscent of music’s temporary and temporal nature: how it is here and gone but can also be around forever. Carlson—who has collaborated with Ches Smith, Matt Mitchell and Anna Webber—created a singular sextet to bring his neo-modernist jazz to life. Carlson’s six-member band includes alto saxophonist Nathanial Morgan (who has worked with trumpeter Joe Moffett, saxophonist Angela Morris, and others); baritone saxophonist Eric Trudel (credits include trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, guitarist Tim Motzer, and more); trumpeter Danny Gouker; keyboardist Matt Mitchell (his background experience includes Tim Berne’s Snakeoil, John Hollenbeck’s Large Ensemble and Claudia Quintet, and others); bassist Adam Hopkins (his extensive resumé includes Henry Threadgill, Hollenbeck, Webber, and other likeminded artists) and drummer Kate Gentile (she has also recorded or done live gigs with Mitchell, Hopkins, and a host of musicians).
Throughout Air Ceremony you can tell these are performers who love to improvise together, especially on lengthier cuts such as “Sun Squelch,” the almost 11-minute opener. In the CD liner notes, Carlson mentions nearly the entire composition maintains one rhythmic duration, “So, it’s definitely about layering, spreading out phrases and shrinking them, macro micro, closing in and opening up.” Morgan’s soloing is a standout. Carlson says Morgan is an ensemble player and soloing, per se, is not what he’s known for. But Morgan’s improvisation over the repeating rhythmic foundation proves he’s an inventive saxophonist. Mitchell’s Prophet 6 synthesizer acts as a virtually avant-garde undercurrent, providing a tension which counterbalances the saxophone’s utterly free release. The tune’s coda showcases how Carlson likes to skew the sense of time: the head out is rearranged and played in half time and altered somewhat.
The 6:27 “For Your Safety and Convenience” has some offbeat source material. First, Carlson looked at a spectrograph of Winchester cathedral bells and sorted out a guitar chord that could be derived from the light-based wavelengths. He then utilized an intricate tuning (CGDGBE). The pieces’ first half began as a solo segment which Carlson re-arranged for quartet; the heavier-sounding second half was influenced by listening to specific doom metal music. Interestingly, Carlson’s guitar is not pyrotechnical (except for the final minute or less). Rather he uses his guitar to echo the bass and trumpet at the same time. This supplies a unique harmonic disposition. Another long track, the 11:20 “Daytime Rituals” concerns natural tempo, such as organic beats or the physical movement of dancers. “Daytime Rituals” has an elaborate blend of order and disorder. There are crosshatched and dissonant slices of synth and guitar; difficult-to-follow drumming and percussion; and horns which are mixed so densely into the arrangement that it’s hard to decipher what they’re sometimes doing. Carlson admits that “Daytime Rituals” is “meant to be heard on the third or fourth listen. I was trying to make something that even I wouldn’t fully understand until I heard it many times. There’s a lot that’s ugly, though I find the harmonies to be beautiful in a multicolored sort of way; each movement for me has its own identity which I like. There’s some humor in there too…”
The album gets more epic on the concluding, 15-minute opus, “Hands that Feed,” which commences with a psychedelic Prophet 6 solo which would not be out of place on an ambient prog rock project. Carlson then enters with a tilted groove riff, and after that the composition turns into an unusual, full-jazz ensemble performance. One highlight is Gouker’s solo which demonstrates his persevering and unrestricted personality. Carlson affirms that often Gouker likes to play himself into a place where Gouker doesn’t even know where he’s going. Listeners can hear as Gouker crafts a trumpet line which seems to go beyond his own inclinations and just follows it anyway. “Hands that Feed” dips into an atmospheric respite near the midpoint, and then wends into chaos. Carlson’s unchecked guitar has the force of three or four different guitars playing at the same time, and the sextet pushes the musical boundaries into an unhampered and huge closing section.
Performing Artists:
Dustin Carlson – guitar; Nathanial Morgan – alto saxophone; Eric Trudel – baritone saxophone; Danny Gouker – trumpet; Matt Mitchell – Prophet 6; Adam Hopkins – bass; Kate Gentile – drums
TrackList:
Sun Squelch
For Your Safety and Convenience
Watherson
Daytime Rituals
Three Parts In(ter)vention/Lattice Fingers
Hands that Feed
—Doug Simpson
More Information and music samples at Out of Your Head Records website:
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 23, 2019 | Classical CD Reviews
MENDELSSOHN: Symphonies Nos. 1-5; Overtures: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Ruy Blas; The Hebrides; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (complete) – Lucy Crowe, sop./ Jurgita Adamonyte, mezzo/ Michael Spyres, tenor/ Ceri-lyn Cessoni, Alexander Knox, Frankie Wakefield, Actors & narrators/ Monteverdi Choir/ London Sym. Orch./ John Eliot Gardiner – LSO Live multichannel Pure Audio Blu-ray & SACD LSO0826 (5 discs, DTS-HD MA 5.0 or PCM 2.0 on audio-only Blu-ray + downloadable digital files), 276:14 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi] ****:
First, what you don’t get: the “Scottish” symphony on the original release was coupled with its better, a wonderful Schumann Piano Concerto with Maria Joao Pires. LSO Live should really have included this, because it means unnecessary duplication for those already in ownership.
Otherwise, this set’s a smoker. I am not sure what happened to Gardiner the day he recorded the “Scottish”, but although it is not bad, it’s not among the best either. Neither is its cousin, the Hebrides Overture–also on the aforementioned disc–though it is tolerable. I go into more detail in the review on this website, so check it out if interested. Also, previously reviewed, is the sparkling First Symphony, which I called one of the best available, coupled with an effervescent and delightful “Italian”.
The cantata-symphony No. 2, Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise), was Mendelssohn’s last completed symphony, published a year after its completion in 1840. It was composed for a festive celebration marking the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg’s invention of the moveable-type press, with its text taken from the scriptures. It has not had as good a reception in modern times as it did in the composer’s, which is a shame since the work itself is a cornucopia of contrapuntal and harmonic invention, its last-movement nine sections as original and inventive as anything he ever wrote. This account matches even the superb effort by Andrew Litton on a BIS SACD.
Symphony No. 5, the Reformation, was the composer’s second symphony, predating both symphonies 3 & 4, and to me always sounds like it. It is one of the trickiest to bring off, is a little pretentious in nature, though also a tribute of sorts to Bach, whose St. Matthew Passion Mendelssohn had revived in 1829, the year the symphony was started. Gardiner does a fine job with it, nearly equaling the recording by Bernard Haitink from 40 years ago—also in sterling sound on Philips.
Felix Mendelssohn,
by James Warren Childe
By the time Mendelssohn was sixteen, he had completed an astounding corpus of work that still holds up today—twelve string symphonies, six operas, and the amazing Octet for Strings—yet no one was prepared for the stunning Overture to a Midsummers Night’s Dream finished the next year at the still-tender age of seventeen. But when the King of Prussia decided to commission incidental music for the entire play in 1842, the composer easily returned to his overture as the prelude for a sensational set of pieces that remain among the highlights of his entire corpus of work. What is even stranger is the fact that the overture itself suffers little—if any—in quality from the much later Shakespearian completion. Gardiner, besides turning in an engaging and gripping account, makes two very wise decisions—to include spoken dialog from the play, and to present the work in English. There are many excellent versions out there, my favorites being Ormandy on RCA and Ozawa on DG, but this recording by Gardiner deserves a place among the best.
The two remaining overtures are very nicely done and fill out the set. Though this is the London Symphony Orchestra, it is also Gardiner, which means some period-adaptations must be accommodated, but all is tasty and tasteful. I still think it is a little odd to include a Blu-ray disc with everything on it, and four other SACDs, but at $25 for the entire set, this hardly matters. Plus, you get the option of downloading all the works here in DSD Stereo, 24-bit 96kHz FLAC, 16-bit 44.1kHz WAV, or 320kbps MP3 files. Great price, great stuff, great sound.
—Steven Ritter
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 22, 2019 | Classical CD Reviews
REBECCA CLARKE: Viola Sonata; FRANK BRIDGE: Cello Sonata, Serenade, Spring Song, Scherzo; RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Six Studies in English Folk Song – Natalie Clein, cello/ Christian Ihle Hadland, piano – Hyperion CDA 68253, 60:07 [Distr. by PIAS] ****:
This disc is a mini survey of tonal English chamber music for cello and piano written in the first quarter of the 20th century. The three composers’ music reveal its Romantic, and English folk song roots. Yet, there’s enough modern influences in the works that make it of interest to contemporary listeners. The soloist, Natalie Clein was the BBC Young musician of the year at age 16, studied with Heinrich Schiff and has gone on to develop a career as an orchestral and chamber music performer.
Rebecca Clarke was raised in a musical family—all her siblings learned musical instruments. She attended the Royal Academy of Music as a violist and composer. An early composition, Danse bizarre, won her a scholarship to study with the eminent British composer Charles Villiers Stanford, a devotee of Brahms. However, arguments with her abusive father over his affairs with women, caused her to leave after two years, losing the money from her father needed to complete her musical education. She played the viola in chamber music ensembles and performed in Henry Wood’s Queen Hall Orchestra. Her Viola Sonata (1919) is her best known work, and is a staple of chamber music violists today. Clarke called it a Cello sonata when performed by a cellist, as it is here.
It’s easy to ascertain its popularity today from the first movement, “Impetuoso.” The energetic opening cello fanfare catches the listener’s attention and the following Romantic and folk-song melodies flow easily. The fast moving scherzo reveals the influence of the Jewish composer Ernst Bloch. The emotional center of the work is the final movement that starts with a sad but beautiful melody and ends with a virtuosic and dramatic finale, reprising the opening fanfare. Clein and pianist Hadland play with the requisite force and lyrical intensity that the work demands.
Frank Bridge (1879-1941) was the mentor to Benjamin Britten, the most prominent British composer of the 20th century. Like Rebecca Clarke, Bridge was a violist and received a scholarship to study composition with Charles Villiers Stanford at the Royal College of Music. Bridge played in one of his father’s theater orchestras, most likely playing beside Clarke in the Queen Hall Orchestra. He began his music career in 1903, performing in quartets and composing short ‘salon’ pieces for performance in the home and concert hall. Serenade, Spring Song, and Scherzo are melodic examples of these Romantic works, lusciously performed here.
Bridge’s Cello Sonata (1913-1917) parallels World War I and the divide between the composer’s Romantic and modern compositional periods. He was shocked by the carnage of the Great War and couldn’t reconcile it with his pacifistic sentiments. The gorgeously Romantic first movement was written before the outbreak of the War, but even here there is a sense of loss of a world that has passed. The second movement begins with a despairingly beautiful cello melody that reflects its composition during the Great War. The nervous scherzo that follows reflects and increasingly distraught composer. The work ends with a sober reprise of the musical material of the first movement. Clein mentions that the classic Britten-Rostropovich recording of 1968 “held a special place in my imagination.” Her realization is profoundly heartfelt and moving.
The disc ends with Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872-1958) Six Studies in English Folk Song, a tribute to English folk songs which had an influence on Clarke and Bridge. It’s a mellifluous conclusion to a very satisfying disc of superbly performed and recorded British chamber music.
—Robert Moon
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 22, 2019 | Classical CD Reviews
SCHUMANN: Five Pieces in Folk-style, Op. 102; Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70; Fantasy Pieces for Cello and Piano, Op. 73; Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129 – Sol Gabetta, cello/ Bertrand Chamayou, fortepiano/ Basel Chamber Orchestra/ Giovanni Antonini – Sony 88985352272, 57:54 (11/30/18) ****:
Schumann’s cello works, 1849-1850, occupy this recording–the chamber music pieces having been captured 10-11 October 2018 and the Concerto 2-4 June 2016–with Sol Gabetta’s soaring 1725 Goffriller and 1759 Guadagnini instruments. Gavetta opens with Schumann’s concession to popular taste, with his Five Pieces in Folk-style, the first of which Schumann subtitles vanitas vanitatum, likely a reference to favorite poem by Goethe that sings of a drunken, one-legged soldier, here in faintly Hungarian mode. Three and four-bar phrases mark the F Major Langsam movement, in the form of a rocking lullaby. The third movement, Nicht schnell, mit viel Ton zu spielen, provides the dramatic kernel of the set, a rather tragic and poignant utterance close in spirit to Ich hab im Traum geweinet from the Poet’s Love cycle. After a comparatively aggressive and optimistic Lebhaft, the last of the set, Stark und markirt, sounds like a grim narrative, replete with a “fate” motif.
The Op. 70 Adagio and Allegro originally bore the title Romance and Allegro, and the work reflects good spirits in the composer’s outlook in 1849 Dresden. The piece—originally for horn but adapted to the cello’s hearty range—fluctuates between the two main Schumann personae, Florestan and Eusebius. The opening section, deeply passionate and introspective, yields to the vigorous Allegro, the two sections providing ample testimony to the expressive range in Gabetta’s art. Both lyrical and explosively vehement, the music displays Schumann’s high capacity for lyric outpouring and for tricky agogics that make both players earn their upkeep.
Robert Schumann
The Op. 73 Fantasy Pieces had been intended for clarinet and piano, and the form of three inter-related movements will carry over into the Concerto. The Zart und mit Ausdruck designation signifies the refined poetry of Eusebius, whose motion carries a drooping interval in triplet rhythm. The move to A minor carries its own pathos. The second movement—Lebhaft, leicht—conveys the breezy confidence in Florestan, Schumann’s outgoing self. In two sections, the sudden shift into F Major lifts the level of optimistic energy higher. The modes of A Major and minor compete in the emotionally charged last movement, Rasch und mit Feuer, which opens with a sense of fevered urgency. Pianist Chamayou’s triplets more than convey the intensely lyric drama of the piece, in which the Master Raro–the synthesis of Clara and Robert Schumann’s cohesive personalities–find their quintessential balance.
Schumann’s friendship with cellist Roberrt Emil Bockmuehl helped to inspire the A minor Cello Concerto, Op. 129. The woodwinds lead Gabetta into her first exposition of the main theme, which she intones with singular force. Marked Nicht zu schnell, the music moves with luxuriant gravity and lyric sweetness. The martial element, too, has the capacity to lunge forward and sing while the horn accompanies with the opening motto. Like all late-Schumann concerted, through-composed works, a degree of obsessive repetition occurs, but the heartfelt sincerity of the music transcends the much-exploited motifs. The poetic expressivity extends to the Langsam movement. The resonance of the orchestra’s gut strings add a decided angularity and bite to the tutti passages. The last movement, Sehr Lebhaft, allows a degree of playful virtuosity into the otherwise meditative landscape, including much pert and carefully modulated workmanship from the rich cadenza that segues to the marvelous coda that ends this gratifying performance.
—Gary Lemco
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 20, 2019 | Uncategorized
This week, The Music Treasury is presenting recordings of the conductor Josef Krips. Krips was a significant figure in the world 20th century conducting, leading orchestras and opera houses in Boston, San Francisco, Vienna, London, and Berlin. Quite comfortable with the standard literature of the day, Krips also championed new composers, and featured many world premiers under his baton.
The show is aired on KZSU in the Bay Area on Sunday evening, from 19:00-21:00 PST, and is streamed concurrently on the web through the host station at Stanford University, kzsu.stanford.edu. As always, the show is hosted by none other than Dr Gary Lemco.
Josef Alois Krips, conductor
Josef Alois Krips (8 April 1902 – 13 October 1974) was an Austrian conductor and violinist. Krips was born in Vienna. His father, Josef Jakob Krips, was a medical doctor and amateur singer; his mother was Aloisia, née Seitz. Krips was one of five sons. He became a pupil of Felix Weingartner and Eusebius Mandyczewski. From 1921 to 1924, he served as Weingartner’s assistant at the Vienna Volksoper, and also as répétiteur and chorus master. He then conducted several orchestras, including in Karlsruhe from 1926 to 1933. In 1933 he returned to Vienna as a resident conductor of the Volksoper and a regular conductor at the Wiener Staatsoper. He was appointed professor at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1935, and conducted regularly at the Salzburg Festival between 1935 and 1938.
In 1938, the Nazi annexation of Austria (or Anschluss) forced Krips to leave the country. (He was raised a Roman Catholic, but would have been excluded from musical activity because his father was born Jewish.) Krips moved to Belgrade, where he worked for a year with the Belgrade Opera and Philharmonic, until Yugoslavia also became involved in World War II. For the rest of the war, he worked as an “industrial clerk” in a food factory.
On his return to Austria at the end of the war in 1945, Krips was one of the few conductors allowed to perform, since he had not worked under the Nazi régime. He was the first to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic and the Salzburg Festival in the postwar period. Working with fellow conductors Clemens Krauss and Karl Böhm, Krips helped restore the Vienna State Opera and Vienna Philharmonic to their prewar levels.
From 1950 to 1954, Krips was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. From 1954-1963, he led the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Under his leadership, the orchestra lengthened its performance season and increased its number of musicians. Krips took the orchestra on tours in the eastern U. S. and Canada. During his time with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Krips largely eschewed recent compositions and “concentrated largely in European classical and romantic literature.” Later, during his final seasons, he began to program “a few contemporary works.”
Krips guest conducted many other orchestras. For example, in February 1960 he conducted the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in works by Mozart and Brahms. He appeared as guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic in 1964, performing works by Brahms, Copland, and Schumann. From 1963 to 1970, Krips served as the Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, conducting 210 works during this tenure. Of these, 91 were by twentieth century composers. In San Francisco, Krips conducted several world premieres, e.g., the First Symphony of Kirke Mechem in 1965, and William Walton’s Improvisations on an Impromptu of Benjamin Britten in 1970.
Krips made his Covent Garden debut in 1947 and his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1966, guest conducting frequently from then on. He made his first appearance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the 1968 Berkshire Festival. In 1970, he became conductor of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, and from 1970 to 1973, was the principal conductor of the Vienna Symphony.
Josef Krips
Krips was twice married. His first wife was Maria “Mitzi” Wilheim, a singer whom he had coached, and then married in 1947. They remained together until her death on April 8, 1969. In October, 1969, he married his second wife, who, according to The New York Times, was “the former Baroness Marietta von Prohaska,” whom the paper noted that was his “29‐year‐old secretary.” Other sources list the name of Krips’ second wife as “Harrietta Krips.” In Krips’ Reuters obituary notice, her name is given as “the Baroness Henriette Prochazka.” The Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives has a photograph of Krips and his second wife attending a Tanglewood concert, where she is identified as “Baroness Harriet Prochazka.” Krips’ second wife died on January 12, 2015.
Krips’ brother, Henry Krips, emigrated to Australia and was the chief conductor of the South Australian Symphony Orchestra (later known as the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra) for 23 years (1949-1972). Both brothers appeared together as conductors at a 1963 concert of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.
Krips’s first recording was made for Odeon Records in Vienna on 13 January 1937, conducting the Orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper in two Rossini numbers from the Bernhard Paumgartner operetta Rossini in Neapel. Krips had conducted the Vienna premiere of the work ten days earlier. In 1950, Krips and the London Symphony Orchestra made a well-received recording of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony (London LPS 86). In 1955, he made a critically acclaimed recording of Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Vienna State Opera. Krips conducted Symphony of the Air stereo recordings of the five Beethoven piano concertos with Arthur Rubinstein for RCA Victor in 1957. With the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra, Rubinstein and Krips also recorded Brahms Second Piano Concerto in 1958.
During the years 1950-1958, Krips recorded various works by Mozart, Brahms, Dvořák, Schubert, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Richard Strauss, Haydn, and Felix Mendelssohn. These performances included the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic. In January 1960, he recorded Beethoven’s nine symphonies for Everest Records with the London Symphony Orchestra.
During the 1970s, Krips and the Concertgebouw Orchestra recorded Mozart’s late symphonies for Philips Records. These have been reissued by Philips and Decca. Krips did not make any commercial recordings with the San Francisco Symphony, although many of his concerts were broadcast in stereo by San Francisco station KKHI.
Krips died of lung cancer at 72 in Geneva, Switzerland in 1974. [adapted from Wikipedia]
Program List:
Honegger: Symphony No. 2 for Strings
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 16 (w/Shura Cherkassky)
Mozart: 2 Arias from “The Abduction from the Seraglio,” K. 384 W/L. Popp)
Stravinsky: Excerpts from “The Firebird” – Suite
Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 19, 2019 | Jazz CD Reviews
Jeb Patton – Tenthish, Live In New York – CellarLive CL040818 55:50***1/2
( Jeb Patton – piano; David Wong – bass; Rodney Green – drums)
There is no shortage these days of stylish, commanding, inventive jazz piano players. Regrettably not all of them are blessed with the attention they rightly deserve. Nevertheless, these individuals persevere in the belief that their talent will out. With his most recent release Tenthish on CellarLive Records, Jeb Patton demonstrates the melodic prowess of consistent new confidence which will add to his growing resumé.
Recorded live at Mezzrow in New York City on March 20, 2018 Patton and his sympathetic cohorts have delivered an engaging session that was built to showcase the piano trio tradition, and the talents of the group both collectively and individually. The recital starts with a Thad Jones composition called “Zec” which harkens back to the style of the Tommy Flanagan Trio. Strong single note lines are filled with a swelling spiritedness and intricate interplay among the band. Drummer Rodney Green has several robust interjections.
Jeb Patton’s own compositions are limited to the title track “Tenthish” and “Third Movement”. The former is a more complex work with a brawny tempo and slashing drum work from Rodney Green. The latter swings but with a laid back groove but filled with Patton’s erudition and strong toned bass solo from David Wong.
There are three numbers from the Duke Ellington-Billy Strayhorn songbook including “Reflections In D”, “Sophisticated Lady” and “Johnny Come Lately”. Each number gives Patton an opportunity to demonstrate his understanding and facility of ever changing harmonic forms and structures. Bassist Wong plays a prominent role in the middle number that he fulfills wth deftness and command. In the final tune, Patton is ever mindful of playing with clean expression yet maintaining a pulsating groove.
The penultimate and longest track is a double play of “Royal Garden Blues and Kelly Blue”. The former is done in solo piano form and takes the style of the period in which it was written namely, 1919 by Clarence Williams and Spencer Williams ( no relation). As a number, it gained most of its recognition from the 1927 recording by Bix Beiderbecke. “Kelly Blue” is both the title track and name of the 1959 release by pianist Wynton Kelly.
Patton keeps the blues feel of the original number, but imbues it with his own sensibility and rolling energy.
TrackList: Zec; Tenthish; Third Movement; This can’t be Love; Reflections In D; Sophisticated Lady; Johnny Come Lately; I’ll Never Stop Loving You; Royal Garden Blues/Kelly Blue; Overtime
—Pierre Giroux
JEB PATTON – Tenthish, Live In New York
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 19, 2019 | Jazz CD Reviews, SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews
Jan Garbarek/Keith Jarrett – Belonging – ECM Records ECM 1050 ST (1974/2015) [distr. by Universal Music Group] 180-gram stereo vinyl, 46:30 ****1/2:
(Keith Jarrett – piano; Jan Garbarek – tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone; Palle Danielsson – double bass; Jon Christensen – drums)
Keith Jarrett’s stardom is routinely associated with his brilliant catalog of solo recordings. The pianist’s stellar improvisational talent has elevated him to iconic status. However, he began his distinguished career as a part of various jazz ensembles. In particular, his earliest sessions included work with Art Blakey, Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. In the 1970’s, Jarrett collaborated in a trio with Jack DeJohnette and Gary Peacock. He also recorded in a trio with Paul Motion and Charlie Haden. Eventually Dewey Redman was added to what became known as Jarrett’s “American Quartet”. This ensemble recorded for approximately eight years. Amazingly, Jarrett formed a “European Quartet” that he led concurrently with the American one. Not surprisingly, Manfred Eicher and ECM Records became the vehicle for this group that included Jan Garbarek (saxophones), Palle Danielsson (bass) and Jon Christensen (drums). The musical framework shifted from avant-grade and pure improvisational jazz to one that embraced classical and folk influences.
ECM Records has released a 180-gram vinyl re-mastering of Belonging. This was Keith Jarrett’s first (of four) projects with Jan Garbarek and his trio. The musical interaction is refined with a nod to contemporary erudition on six Jarrett compositions. Side 1 opens with a finger-snapping arrangement on “Spiral Dance”, kicked off with a punctuated bluesy vamp. Garbarek handles the first solo with assured emphasis, as Jarrett, Danielsson and Christensen form a gritty rhythm section. Next, Danielsson solos nimbly, almost like a guitar. The quartet reprises the opening refrain as Jarrett muscles up on the left hand. Many Jarrett fans will recognize “Blossom” from his live performances. His ethereal intro flows into Garbarek’s fluid lead on this lyrical ballad. Jarrett counters with impeccable chord phrasing, as Christensen shades with his reticent cymbal work. Jarrett’s solo captures the tender essence of the melody. There are sparkling right hand runs, with unusual higher-register notation. After a double bass solo. he returns with a spiritual-infused run. When the sax rejoins, there is a silken elegance that permeates the jam. In a stark contrast, “‘Long As You Know You-re Living Yours” is funky and hook-driven. From the opening gospel rhythms to the full-bodied tenor solo, this arrangement approximates rock/jazz agility and coolness. (Note: Some astute listeners may pick up the melodic “coincidence” to a more popular song by a prominent rock band). The overall soul groove is sustained with a nuanced tempo uptick.
Side 2 changes the band dynamic again. The brief (2:12) title track is a complex piece. After an achingly beautiful piano intro, the remainder of the song has jazzy chording and a ruminative light vibrato saxophone lead that explores some classical motifs. “The Wind Up” is a high-octane soulful romp with crisp rhythms. Drummer Christensen manages to sustain the momentum with great timing. Jarrett kicks off a solo featuring extensive right hand notation. As the bass joins in, it is like a post-bop piano trio. Jarrett has another spirited run before Garbarek reunites in a dual lead. There is an aggressive flourish at the conclusion. The finale (“Solstice”) represents the complicated and improvisational prowess of the quartet. Jarrett begins with a “free-jazz’ classical riff while Garbarek’s harsher timbre explores an avant-garde context. He can stretch out the tonality and then dial it back Jarrett solos with some dissonance. Double bass and drums create a poly-rhythmic fusion leading into a meditative Jarrett solo. A classic “repeat” accent is also a nice touch.
ECM has done its customary “open space acoustics” production and engineering. The pristine mix glows with refinement and allows for bursts of edgy resonance. The intimacy of the music is palpable. The 12” album cover with Tadayuki Naito’s striking design is compelling. There are no hisses, pops or surface noise on this vinyl pressing.
TrackList:
Side 1: Spiral Dance; Blossom; ‘Long As You Know You’re Living Yours
Side 2: Belonging; The Windup; Solstice
—Robbie Gerson
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 18, 2019 | Classical CD Reviews
GROSLOT. Concerto for Orchestra, Violin Concerto. Joanna Kurkowicz (violin), Brussels Philharmonic, Robert Groslot, conductor. [August 10, 2018]. CD. Naxos Records. 60:06 [Dist. Naxos] *****:
His music is just starting to get distributed in this country. However, many European listeners know of him, not only as a composer but as a Belgian conductor who was the lead honcho for the famed Night of the Proms concert series. (He ended his 880 concert run in 2015.) As a composer, he’s particularly adept in the media of chamber music and concertos (currently over twenty!). In addition to the Concerto for Orchestra and Violin Concerto, two more of his chamber music CDs are distributed by Naxos.
Like an Olympic diver, Violinist Joanna Kurkowicz plunges into the bracing pool of Groslot’s Violin Concerto. The first note she plays is the highest one she can and it’s an eerie opener to this unconventional (albeit amiable) piece. It sets the tone for a perky carnival ride of sudden tempo and dynamic shifts. Kurkowicz’s formidable experience in performing modern works aids her in her anabasis over the piece’s craggier peaks. The cadenza is well-timed at not-too-short-or-too-long. It also displays an exploratory nature. There’s no telling what will happen next in this succinct one-movement piece: quavers, pizzacatos, adumbrated scalar runs. The orchestra slyly gets away with a quirky accompaniment. For example: first, there’s a stately dance theme, which the violin gleefully joins in on, then at the end we hear Wagnerian declarations, stentorian and stolid, which the violin whimsically answers with the same high note on which it began. Groslot has obviously learned from Alban Berg (and maybe Paul Hindemith), so it’s only right that future composers may soon learn from him.
Groslot’s Concerto for Orchestra has two other notable concertos to maneuver around, Béla Bartók’s and Witold Lutosławski’s. Fortunately, the composer doesn’t try to best them but instead moves in an entirely different direction. It begins placidly enough, as if nudging furtively around corners, but soon it’s punctured by outbursts from the brass and kettledrums. A deceptive calm emerges as Groslot explores more bristly musical structures and lurking rhythms, reminiscent of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for their implied violence and sidelong aural assaults. In II, no placidity thrives long before there’s another outburst of some sort. There’s a brief respite in III, with its reassuring title of “Nachtmusik,” but even here there are frothing waves of romanticism that nobody should take that seriously. By the time we hear IV, there are rattling sforzandos of frustration and what a din they all make! Don’t miss out! This Concerto for Orchestra is hot date music.
Don’t get me wrong. I for one love outbursts and conflicts in art. If you think about it, they’re all around us: letters to the editor, presidential tweets, divorce court proceedings, labor disputes, surprise endings. They never seem to last very long, but they do get our attention and sometimes they even bind us together. Outbursts are the rubber cement of life. How charming to hear them expressed so well in a modern musical piece.
—Peter Bates
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 18, 2019 | Jazz CD Reviews
Cannonball Adderley – Swingin’ in Seattle: Live at The Penthouse 1966-1967 – Reel to Real RTRLP 001 – 180 gm vinyl 2LP – limited edition 2000 copies – ****:
(Cannonball Adderley – alto sax; Nat Adderley – cornet; Joe Zawinul – piano; Victor Gaskin – bass; Roy McCurdy – drums)
The Penthouse jazz club in Seattle was a hot spot in the Northwest during the 1960s. Located in the historic Pioneer Square area downtown, the club had its headliners spend a full week, something that you’d never find today, with the exception of iconic clubs in New York City. Over 200 of its shows were recorded by KING, a radio station in town. Jim Wilke, a DJ at the station, broadcast the gigs live, giving the club both publicity as well, as the hopes that jazz fans would show up to catch the performers live later in the week.
Luckily, some of these recordings are now being released. In 2016, Resonance Records, through its visionary, Zev Feldman, issued Groovin’ Hard, from Gene Harris and The Three Sounds, from 1964-1968. (We reviewed that CD on Dec. 18, 2016). The latest rediscovery, a limited edition 2 LP set, from 1966-1967 dates at The Penthouse, features Cannonball Adderley’s Quintet. The quintet at that time had Cannonball and his brother, Nat, teamed with pianist Joe Zawinul (pre-Weather Report), bassist Victor Gaskin, and drummer, Roy McCurdy.
Cory Weeds, Vancouver B.C saxophonist, and promoter, has teamed with Zev Feldman, working with Adderley’s estate, to launch his new label, Reel to Real, with this audiophile issue, mastered by Bernie Grundman from Wilke’s original tape reels. It’s a limited edition of 2000 copies (the CD version will be released in mid- January). Four microphones were set up for these recordings by the radio station. The resulting sound mix is generally fine, but the piano is a bit distant at times, as is Gaskin’s bass. The Adderley brothers are well recorded.
During this time period, Julian and Nat had moved on from Riverside Records, and onto an off and on relationship with Capitol and OJC. Their best selling album, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, had been issued during this time period, and had reached #1 on the R & B charts.
Cannonball Adderley, and brother Nat,
by Bruno of Hollywood
The June 1966 and October 1967 dates, from which the tracks for this double LP are utilized, find the quintet back squarely in the bop based idiom. They had not entered their funk oriented stage from which they found much success, along side their soul jazz catalog. Fans of straight ahead alto sax/ cornet playing with an avant edge will find much to like here.
There are eight tracks presented with extended time, in comparison to previous recorded versions. Cannonball’s solos reach heights that are not found on their other studio recorded sessions from that time period. A special treat are the intros and outros, where Julian’s hip pithy comments stand out.
Stand out tracks include the burning “Big P,” and “The Morning of the Carnival,” from Black Orpheus, where Cannonball takes the theme in new directions, pushing the envelope. Bernstein’s “Somewhere” from West Side Story is dedicated to troubled youth, and is a passionate ballad.
“74 Miles Away” from Zawinul is a blend of the soulful and modal, with Nat’s cornet solo pushed by Roy McCurdy’s assertive drumming. Charlie Parker’s “Back Home Blues” will be bop heaven for Cannonball fans.
Included with the LP set is a seven page LP sized booklet with essays from music journalist Bill Hopp, Julian’s widow, Olga Adderley Chandler, surviving member, Roy McCurdy, and an homage to Cannonball from saxophonist, Vincent Herring. An interesting tidbit is the origin of Julian’s nickname. It was originally “Cannibal” given for his prodigious appetite, and later morphed into Cannonball…
Here’s hoping that there are more unreleased gems to come from The Penthouse recordings from the 1960s. The quality of The Three Sounds recordings, as well as this new Adderley Quintet release, will hopefully keep the pump primed for future live treasures from our departed jazz heroes…
Tracklist:
Side A:
Jim Wilke Introduction
Big “P”
Spoken Introduction
The Girl Next Door
Side B:
Spoken Introduction
Sticks
Spoken Introduction
The Morning of the Carnival
Spoken Introduction
Somewhere
Side C:
Jim Wilke Introduction
74 Miles Away
Spoken Outro
Back Home Blues
Side D:
Hippodelphia
Set-Closing Outro
—Jeff Krow
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 17, 2019 | Classical CD Reviews, Classical Reissue Reviews
Marius-Francois Gaillard: Complete Debussy Recordings 1928-1930 – Works by Ravel, Faure [complete list of pieces below] – Marius-Francois Gaillard, piano/ Carmen Guilbert, piano – APR 6025 (2 CDs) 73:10; 76:23 (1/4/19) [Distr. By Naxos] ****:
Recorded 1928-1930, these recordings of piano music by Claude Debussy by Marius-Francois Gaillard (1900-1973) return to us by way of Mark Obert-Thorn, who assembles what at the time had been the largest body of Debussy piano repertory on disc prior to WW II. The reissue coincides with the 2018 centenary of the composer’s birth, and it reveals a dry, literalist style much in contrast with the more impressionistic approach from Walter Gieseking, whose 1950s recordings would somewhat usurp Gaillard’s contribution. Deft and transparent finger work well defines the Gaillard’s interpretations, which like quick tempos. The sonority remains supple and plastic, suavely fluid in the rhythmic flux, especially in Arabesque No. 1 in E (22 March 1928) and the Reflets dans l’eau (20 July 1928), where an exotic sensibility achieves an erotic patina. The bell-tone staccatos and strummed-guitar effects of La soiree dans Grenade enjoy a frothy energy, the sensuous nocturne’s proceeding in broad periods. The performance of the piano monument from Y’s, La Cathedrale engloutie (22 November 1928), reminds me of the interpretation by another famed student of Louis Diemer, Robert Casadesus, though Gaillard’s touch seems more crisp and detached. Perhaps more of a curio, the 1890 Ballade, originally entitled Ballade slave, invokes through variation a Russian water-world, much in the manner of Liadov. Several of the harmonies point to the orchestral tone-poem Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.
The recordings from 1929 begin with the “Prelude” from Pour le piano (28 January 1929), which invokes a small toccata or test-piece pregnant with glistening runs and fateful, whole-tone block chords. The remainder of the suite, “Sarabande” and “Toccata,” respectively, communicate an intimate “Javanese” sense of sound, parlando, in the style of Satie’s 1887 piece of the same name. The final movement, however, rings with exuberantly light energy, nobly alert and thoroughly transparent. The scale passages proceed like silver pearls, and the melodic line unfolds pure legato. As the music assumes more rhythmic aggression, the tricky agogics trouble Gaillard not at all, and he adds a militant dimension to this dazzling display piece. From April 5 we may savor Gaillard in four of the Preludes, Book I: Delphic Dancers, The Girl with the Flaxen Hair, Interrupted Serenade, and Minstrels. His pedaling not so intricate as that of Gieseking in Dancers, Gaillard still imparts their exotic grace and plastic ephemerality. The plain-chant allure of La fille unfolds in suave parlando, pointed and balanced in smoothly arched phrases. The quirky filigree of the Interrupted Serenade bears a decidedly Spanish lilt, but the poor guitar plays suffers interruptions, masterfully executed. The precision of the performance seems worthy of Ravel the musician. The jazzy-bluesy Minstrels moves with “careless” aplomb, its second half a mock-militant layering of tunes and percussive effects.
The 1930 series opens with Debussy’s Mazurka (3 February 1930), more of the music-hall than the salon. Its open fifth alerts us that folk influences pervade the impish piece and its brief, dotted rhythm, but the national identity does not appear Polish. Rather, the 1890 work seems a sweet parody, a Scherzando in B minor that wants to be F-sharp Minor, but whose melancholy may not be quite sincere.La plus que lente (1910) provides Gaillard more fodder for parody, this the Romantic, 19th Century waltz style. Spare pedal and rubato keep the Gaillard motion consistent, while the sudden modulations and dissonances, receiving their due, pinch our ears as to the novelty of Debussy’s effects. Is it possible to hold tied notes on the piano? Perhaps Debussy wished for the pianist to envy a violin partner, if one were available. Inspired by a postcard of “The Moorish Gate of Wine,” La Puerta del Vino from Preludes, Book II, abounds in parallel chords, exotically hued by Flamenco habanera rhythm but interrupted by guitar strumming and sudden, passionate (cante jondo) outbursts. General Lavine – Eccentric celebrates an American clown and entertainer, Edward Lavine, a forerunner of Charlie Chaplin. The General executes a cakewalk, tumbles, and pirouettes to hints of “Camptown Races.” Arthur Rackham had illustrated the legend of Ondine, the water nymph, as told by the writer Fouque, published in 1912. Gaillard performs the prelude on 6 June 1930, evoking the eddied waters from which the nymph rises in search of a husband to claim his soul. Her fruitless quest calls for alternations of touch and tempo, even a wispy dance, that all vanish in a quicksilver mix of illuminated waves. Debussy’s fondness for the work of Charles Dickens inspires Hommage a S. Pickwick, with its D Major triplets and intimations of “God Save the King. Pickwick goes whistling down the lane, pompously oblivious to those around him: not such a rare event, in our own self-absorbed era.
Disc 2 opens with Gaillard’s rendition of Masques (1904), a demanding, Iberian piece that fuses disparate keyboard styles, especially influenced by the paintings of Watteau. Rhythms and colors merge in startling, angular patterns, vital and palpitating in its almost relentless tension. Gaillard infuses the work with “Eastern” effects, as if pagodas were easily within our purview. So, naturally enough, Pagodes from the collection Estampes (1903) ensues, in which the black notes invoke a pentatonic scale whose Javanese roots vibrate with gamelan and mellophone effects. Gaillard manipulates the two and four-bar phrases so that within the fluid motion a sense of repose exists, marked presque sans nuance. The Valse romantique (1890), first revealed to me by Gieseking, pays distinct homage to Chabrier, with its joyous indulgence in contrary motions between the hands in various voicings. Gaillard gives it an aggressive, melodious allure. Gaillard’s contribution closes with 23 October 1930 extended excerpt from Suite bergamasque, which lacks the final Passepied, due to fiscal constraints from the Depression. Gaillard’s sec approach imposes clarity and rive on the arabesques and block chords of the first movement Prelude. The slow, staid approach to the Menuet grants the movement dignity, staid poetry, and girth. Gaillard’s contribution concludes with Clair de lune, appropriately filled with pregnant pauses and a pedal technique that clarifies rather than distorts the shimmering, liquid textures.
The remainder of the set devotes itself to the Debussy recorded by Carmen-Marie-Lucie Guilbert (1906-1964), a pupil of Marguerite Long and Joseph Morpain, the latter a student of Gabriel Faure. Her opening Minstrels (c. 1931) enjoys a light touch and a restrained pedal technique. She makes Bruyeres purr in a way unique to this listener, a parlando that easily flows forward seamlessly. The Sarabande from Pour le piano conveys poise, clarity, and spaciousness, with sensitive adjustments to harmonic-rhythm. The Toccata from Pour le piano exudes facility and secure dexterity, though her tone seems less voluptuous than that of Moiseiwitsch in this piece. Her strong suit, the music of Faure, has five sturdy examples, included the first recording of the 1895 Theme and Variations in C-sharp minor, Op. 73 (19 January 1938). This knotty work, a martial tune and eleven variations, owes much to Schumann’s Op. 13 Symphonic Etudes. Guilbert holds the threads together, moving in the spirit of a Bach invention that takes its own harmonic course into strange venues.
Guilbert’s swift rendering of Faure’s Impromptu No. 2 in F minor, Op. 31 (c. 1933) allies Faure to the plastic spirit of Chabrier. Barcarolle No. 6 in E-flat Major, Op. 70 combines water filigree, Chopin’s etude style, and Faure’s idiosyncratic, modal harmony. The wistful Nocturne No. 3 in A-Flat Major, Op. 33, No. 3 (8 February 1938) gains passionate force combined with poetic ecstasy from Guilbert. The expansive Nocturne No. 6 in D-flat Major, Op. 63 (26 November 1936) clearly pays debts to Chopin, but its structure, flying sixteenth notes, counterpoint, and occasional harmonic excursions in modality—seconds and parallel sevenths—nod to Schumann while retaining Faure’s own flights of fancy. The last piece of the recital, the Ravel Alborada del gracioso from Miroirs (22 November 1934) must, perforce, cede to Lipatti the greater technical audacity, but that does not discount Guilbert’s lightning fingers and pertly suave attacks. Guilbert creates a richly potent atmosphere that tingles with erotic expectation and glistening excitement.
DEBUSSY:
Jardins sous la pluie;
Reverie
Deux Arabesques
Reflets dand l’eau
La soiree dans Grenade
La Cathedrale engloutie
Ballade
Pour le piano
Danseuses des Delphes
La fille aux cheveux de lin
La serenade interrompue
Minstrels
Mazurka
La plus que lente
La pierta del Vino
General Lavine
Ondine
Hommage a S. Pickwick, Esq.
Mazurka
Pagodes
Valse romantique
Suite Bergamasque – excerpts
Bruyères
Sarabande & Toccata
FAURE:
Impromptu No. 2 in F minor
Barcarolle No. 6 in E-flat
Nocturne No. 3 in A-flat
Nocturne No. 6 in D-flat
Theme and Variations, Op. 73
RAVEL:
Alborada del gracioso
–Gary Lemco
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 16, 2019 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews
Henning Sommerro: Ujamaa & The Iceberg – Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Choir/Ingar Heine Bergby, conductor,Lena Willemark, kulning and vocal, John Pål Inderberg, saxophones, Rik De Geyter, bass clarinet , Espen Aalberg, percussion , Eir Inderhaug, soprano, Florin Demit, baritone – 2L 2L-146-SABD (2 discs with multiple formats, including SACD, Blu-ray and FLAC/MQA for your servers or other playback devices (9/01/18) TT: 59:00 ****:
2L gives us 2 contemporary works from composer Henning Sommerro. These are two large-scale works for soloists and orchestra: Ujamaa and The Iceberg. Both are composed as cantatas. In Ujamaa we move, as if in a series of dream-pictures, between the world’s five continents. In The Iceberg interpersonal relationships are manifested through the voice of Eva Sars, wife of the explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanist and Nobel laureate Fridtjof Nansen. In these works there is a tension between large-scale and small-scale spheres – this in a background narrative in which hope is a steadfast element.
As usual with discs from 2L, the sound is impeccable. And as usual, 2L gives us multiple ways to consume and appreciate this music. I think it would be also fair to say we ‘interact’ with this music if we listen in the surround modes on offer.
2 discs are included in the jewel box. Disc one includes a hybrid CD and SACD combination. The SACD offers 5.1 DSD audio, stereo DSD, as well as the new MQA format if your equipment supports it. Disc 2 contains a Pure Audio Blu-ray with 2.0 LCPM audio at 192/24. It also offers a DTS HDMA 5.1 mix and 192/24, and a 7.1.4 Auro 3D mix at 96 kHz, and a Dolby Atmos mix at 48 kHz. If your computer has a proper disc drive to read it you can download MQA and MP3 versions of the music.
I listened to the 5.1 mix on the Blu-ray disc. It was a stunning recording of interesting contemporary music. It may not be an ‘easy’ listen for people looking for background music. The directionality and sometimes startling dissonances will command your attention. Although sometimes lovely and delicate, at times the music is avant-garde in the fullest sense.
On balance I liked the music and the sound was a realistic as I could ever hope to hear from my moderately high end system. Strings are realistic, the brass have a realistic punch, and the deepest bass is there to rattle your windows.
So if your taste runs to very modern contemporary music, and you have a multi-channel setup you really should hear this disc. It benefits from multiple listening sessions and it tended to grow on me.
I’d also recommend listening on good headphones. You’ll lose the multi channel sound, but gain in increased definition.
—Mel Martin
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 15, 2019 | Classical CD Reviews
“Songs from Chicago” – Thomas Hampson, baritone/ Kuang-Hao Huang, piano – Cedille CDR 90000 180, 60:31 *****:
It’s been a while since I have heard a new album by the now-venerable Thomas Hampson, so it came as a double pleasure to encounter Songs from Chicago both from a re-acquaintance and new label experience—New label to Hampson, not to me, as Cedille has long been a personal favorite. I was a bit perplexed in the Hampson/Chicago connection, but the notes explain that Hampson has long been a fan of Cedille, and a conversation with president and producer James Ginsburg led to the formulation of this album, the composers linked together by their connections with the city of Chicago.
I must confess I had never given this connection much thought—yet the prolific Ernest Bacon, Chicago born and bred, ranks as one of America’s finest song composers, though that moniker hardly defines him. These seven Whitman settings are a marvel of wedded text to music, and evocative of an America long past yet not forgotten.
John Alden Carpenter was a lifelong resident of the Windy City, and after studies at Harvard he returned home to compose and work in his father’s business. Despite some success in the orchestral realm, it is his songs that endure, and his Gitanjali and Four Negro Songs (three included here) are his most famous.
Teacher, student, and friends, Florence Price and Margaret Bonds, were dedicated to the poetry of Langston Hughes. Price, whose Symphony in E Minor was the first composition of a black woman to be performed by a major American orchestra (the Chicago Symphony), was born in Little Rock Arkansas, but moved to Chicago post-1927. She was prolific (over 300 songs) though most are unpublished. Hopefully this album will change that. Bonds, as mentioned a student of Price, was the first black woman to perform a concerto with a major American orchestra, in this case also the CSO. The work performed: Price’s Piano Concerto. Her friendship with Hughes led to many compositions setting the poet.
Finally, the short work by Louis Campbell-Tipton (1877-1921), a Chicagoan who settled in Europe, rounds out the program, his Whitman Elegy a beautiful miniature. Hampson is in fine form here, hardly in his prime, but always the most intelligent of singers, and knowing what music to sing at this point in life, and how to sing it. It is always a pleasure to hear this remarkable voice from such an incredible artist. Pianist Kuang-Hao Huang proves himself equally enthusiastic with his perceptive pianism.
Tracklist:
Ernst Bacon (1898–1990) – Poems by Walt Whitman
1 Lingering Last Drops
2 World Take Good Notice
3 The Last Invocation
4 On the Frontier
5 The Divine Ship
6 Darest thou Now, O Soul
7 Grand Is the Seen
Florence Price (1888–1953) – Poems by Langston Hughes
8 Song To The Dark Virgin
9 My Dream
John Alden Carpenter (1876–1951) – from Four Negro Songs, poems by Langston Hughes
10 Shake your brown feet, honey
11 The Cryin’ Blues
12 Jazz-Boys
Margaret Bonds (1913–1972) – Three Dream Portraits, poems by Langston Hughes
13 Minstrel Man
14 Dream Variation
15 I, Too
16 The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Louis Campbell-Tipton (1877–1921) – poem by Walt Whitman
17 Elegy
John Alden Carpenter (1876–1951) – Gitanjali, poems by Rabindranath Tagore
18 Credo (reading)
19 When I bring to you colour’d toys
20 On the day when death will knock at thy door
21 The Sleep that flits on Baby’s Eyes
22 I am like a Remnant of a Cloud of Autumn
23 On the Seashore of Endless Worlds
24 Light, My Light
25 Epilogue (reading)
More information and music samples at the Cedille website:
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 14, 2019 | Classical CD Reviews
“Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers” – w Rachel Barton Pine and Matthew Hagle – Cedille Records CDR 900000 182—75:51, ****1/2:
Rachel Barton Pine—in this release with pianist Matthew Hale, who joins her in some of the pieces—once again shows off her versatility and wide-ranging interest as a musician. And while “the blues” are the omnipresent thread that links this recording by black composers, the corpus isn’t a unified at all stylistically. These are mostly newly-written pieces, not arrangements of familiar tunes.
In the opening track by David Baker, Blues (Deliver my soul), a piece for violin and piano, might be as easy an opening as we might expect. There’s no question about its origin as a “blues piece,” and one that might be easily imagined with both violinist and pianist smiling as it opens and when it closes.
I will highlight some of the album’s diverse pieces in more detail.
William Grant Still’s Suite for violin and piano is cast in three movements, each one referencing a piece of sculpture. Both the composer’s writing and Barton Pine’s rendering evoke blues playing, but this is clearly a different piece, stylistically, from what opened the album. The ending of the first movement is an arresting moment, showing off the composer’s expert ability of writing effectively for the violin.
In a Sentimental Mood, an arrangement by Wendell Logan of a Duke Ellington standard, elevates our expectations again. Logan’s treatment employs specialty effects on the piano, which for me, put real focus on Matthew Hagle’s contribution. The piece works well with Barton Pine’s soulful, dark sound when playing from the lower register of her instrument.
Daniel Bernard Roumain’s Filter for Unaccompanied violin is yet another stylistic step (or two) away from the opening track. It requires a number of different sounds from Barton Pine, who executes the challenging work well.
Finally, the piece lending the album its name, Dolores White’s Blues Dialogues for solo violin, is a four movement suite; the opening is entitled “Blues Feeling” and is presented here as a dramatic and poetic cascade of moods. The contrast of ideas and sonic effects are extended in the second movement. “Fast and Funky,” the third movement, continues an intelligent juxtaposition of ideas, accelerated with a faster tempo. The closing movement evokes, for me, something nodding to Paganini in its opening, only to be revealed as something very different, underpinned with classical and blues elements (especially in its harmonic language). The liner notes indicate that the last movement was added more recently, and Barton Pine identifies Béla Bartók as an inspiration.
The album’s final piece, by Charles Brown (1974) seems a fitting coda to the album’s opening. It’s a treat to enjoy yet another sound Barton Pine pulls from her instrument.
This recording includes twenty-three tracks, and bonus material is also available online, which conceivably wouldn’t fit on the physical CD. As a celebration of music for violin alone and violin with piano by black composers, Barton Pine has pulled together a diverse set of pieces. As with any recording that mixes different styles of music, some pieces may resonate with us more than others, as was the case for me. Rachel Barton Pine, however, shows no indication of playing favorites, giving each piece its due with conviction, polish, and excellent intonation. As much of this music may be new to many listeners, the recording is also coupled with excellent notes.
—Sebastian Herrera
More information and music samples at the Cedille website:
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 14, 2019 | Classical CD Reviews
CHOPIN: The Late Mazurkas – Todd Crow, piano – MSR Classics MS 1629, 73:15 ****:
Just for reference: the “late” mazurkas begin with Op. 41, the two A Minors of KK IIb/5 and 4, opuses 50, 56, 59, 63, Op. 67 nos. 4 and 2, and the posthumous F minor work often considered the final Mazurka, but in reality composed before the G Minor Op. 67/2. Arthur Rubinstein said that the Mazurka, for him, was “Chopin at his highest”, and since this form runs directly through Chopin’s career as a composer from first to last, one cannot easily disagree with the great pianist. Rubinstein also stated that when he played these works it felt as if he were directly communicating with his audience in a very intimate manner, even though we know that as a composer preference, Brahms was his favorite.
Nevertheless, from the initial yearning of the mazurka fixated on folk elements, to the middle period when both tonality and its antithesis evolving around increased chromaticism seem to be equally emphasized, and finally again to the purely folk aspects of the genre, Chopin worked his magic in this form as no other. The dance element is never absent, yet the composer expanded the vision of this type of music to such an extreme that dance seems to fade away into something more esoteric and even dreamlike, as form dissolves into substance far more profound, and emerges only in rhythmic hints to keep us grounded in the remembrance of where we started.
The mazurka itself found its origins in the province of Mazovia, the place where Chopin was born, so it was in his blood from the beginning. The dance is a strange amalgamation of societal interaction of the sexes, yet Chopin’s vision revolves around the idea of poetic dancers as opposed to the dance per se. It took him a while to completely solidify his expressive capabilities in this form, and we and he owe it to lover George Sand, whose country estate Nohant in rural France provided seven consecutive seasons of productive composing activity wherein these works found gestation. Though only 22 when he composed his first mazurka, by the first Nohant summer in 1839 he was well established as a composer, albeit somewhat reclusive even then (never seeking Liszt-like audience opprobrium), and when 1846 was attained the world of the mazurka would never be the same. There would be others, as there had been before Chopin, but there would never be any quite like his.
On this CD—and I hope the “early” ones will be forthcoming—Todd Crow, currently Professor of Music on the George Sherman Dickinson Chair at Vassar College, shows a remarkable adeptness at presenting these miniatures in a highly communicative light. These are not the Etudes or even the Preludes, and the technical facility required does not match what is needed in those often barn-burning works. But sensibility, firmly established rubato, and an underlying sense of unyielding rhythmic stability are essential prerequisites in this music, and Crow has them all. Rubinstein is probably still the best bet in this music for a sense of authenticity and overarching understanding, but Todd Crow plays a lot like him, and has sound that Rubinstein never enjoyed—don’t let anyone ever tell you that sound on a piano recording is not important! Try this, whether ignorant of the Chopin mazurkas or expert in them. There is much to enjoy.
—Steven Ritter
More information and music samples at the MSR website:
by Audiophile Audition | Jan 12, 2019 | Jazz CD Reviews
Eraldo Bernocchi – Like a Fire That Consumes All Before It [TrackList follows] – RareNoiseRecords RNR099 73:09 [11/30/18] ****:
Who was Cy Twombly? For non-art aficionados who may not know, Twombly was an American painter, sculptor and photographer; and a contemporary of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. He also influenced younger artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Julian Schnabel. In addition, Twombly is the inspiration for guitarist Eraldo Bernocchi’s 73-minute, 18-track ambient/electronic instrumental album, Like a Fire That Consumes All Before It, which also acts as the soundtrack to Cy Dear, director Andrea Bettinetti’s documentary on Twombly. Like a Fire That Consumes All Before It evokes Bernocchi’s previous ambient release, 2005’s Winter Garden. They are both individual statements which have psychological and emotional elements but Bernocchi’s new recording is more compelling and personal. Bernocchi says: “This work bears my signature. It’s a side of me that’s always been there. Note after note, take after take, I became part of this story. I brought my memories.” Like a Fire That Consumes All Before It was issued in various formats: as a double-sided, 180-gram vinyl LP in gatefold cover; as a compact disc; and as high-quality digital download files. This review refers to the CD version.
The pieces have a thorough range which belies the production method. It might not seem like it, but 80% of the sounds heard on Like a Fire That Consumes All Before It were generated by guitars which were masked by Bernocchi through echo, delay, reverb and other digital techniques. Bernocchi explains, “I used guitars mainly as a tool and when I really wanted to ‘sing’ a theme. So, I approached the guitars like an orchestra, layering part after part, singing aloud what I was hearing in my head and heart.” Although the album title denotes a specific Twombly artwork which is reproduced on the album cover, none of the tracks were named for Twombly paintings. “The titles are related to moments in the film,” Bernocchi reveals, “to my personal experience/story, to people that were important for Cy Twombly and to words or phrases they said in the movie.” The first composition, “Meet Me Where You Know,” has an evocative setting which brings to mind other ambient-inclined performers such as Michael Brook, Mark Isham or Harold Budd. What at first appears to be a piano is a treated guitar (unless someone did not include piano in the credits), while distorted electronics and a swaying rhythm filter through the arrangement. The third cut, “From a Distance,” also features a piano-like sound, while an ambient scrim rises and develops, accentuated by electronics which emulate a choir. “From a Distance” showcases how adeptly Bernocchi maneuvers his processed tiers of sounds and effects to craft an expressive impression.
Bernocchi mentions the haunting “Like I Wasn’t There” is as an example of how he utilized sound processing to create suggestive feelings. Bernocchi declares, “This is one of the most touching pieces of the soundtrack. It’s about the whole relationship between father and son, the absence, the omnipresent art, the emptiness of rooms and palaces, the memories that slowly creep one after another until they build a story that is true, but its communication form has been shaped by time and events.”
Two numbers are dedicated to artists not connected to Twombly. The throbbing “Out in the Blue” is dedicated to photographer Sally Mann, who gained notoriety with her 1990s monograph of intimate photos, Immediate Family. However, the darkly-tinged “Out in the Blue” seems more akin to Mann’s later, manipulated landscape photography. The concluding “Near by Distance” is dedicated to Bernocchi’s friend, the trance music producer and DJ Robert Miles, who passed away in 2017. Notably, it’s the only tune which supplies a regular, rhythmic pulse. Bernocchi discloses, “The pulse just happened by chance. I liked it and I kept it. The piano theme reminded me of Robert’s melodies. I often think that I’d love to play it for him.” There is a defined simplicity to most of the material on Like a Fire That Consumes All Before It. Bernocchi deliberately edited his compositions to single notes, thematic riffs and other bits so the music would stay focused on certain responsive essentials. The result is one of the finer ambient projects of the past year and should be heard by fans of Brian Eno, Roger Eno, Budd, Tycho and similarly-slanted musicians.
Performing Artists:
Eraldo Bernocchi – guitars, treated guitars, electronics, arranger, producer, mixer
TrackList:
Meet Me Where You Know
To Make Things Float
From a Distance
White
The Silver Laugh
A Child and a Pencil
The Gold House
Like I Wasn’t There
A Letter and a Place
The Never Ending Pier
1-10” of Happiness
Swirling Colours
We Had a Good Time
A Crack in Time
The Space Between
Out in the Blue
Like I Wasn’t There (reprise)
Near by Distance
—Doug Simpson
Music samples and more information:
