Arnold: Clarinet Concerto No. 1 and Other Works (CD Review)

by Ryan Ross

 

Arnold: Commonwealth Christmas Overture Op. 64; Concerto No. 1 for Clarinet and Strings Op. 20; Divertimento No. 2 for Orchestra Op. 24/Op. 75; Larch Trees, Tone Poem for Orchestra Op. 3; Philharmonic Concerto for Orchestra Op. 120; The Padstow Lifeboat Op. 94A (March for Brass Band Arranged 2001 for Orchestra by Philip Lane). Michael Collins, clarinet; BBC Philharmonic; Yuri Torchinsky and Zoë Beyers, leaders; Rumon Gamba, conductor. Chandos CHAN 20152

 

As its fine liner notes by Mervyn Cooke state, this disc presents a “well-chosen selection of miscellaneous works” from across Malcolm Arnold’s orchestral output. The claim that these can be “just as revealing” as the better-known symphonies seems debatable, but the music recorded here certainly does offer much interest and appeal, every bit exhibiting the composer’s unmistakable stamp of character. These uniformly lively performances of them bespeak a spirited advocacy. On the whole I found this disc to be another successful example of Chandos’s ongoing and most welcome commitment to Arnold’s oeuvre. 

 

For those not familiar with the state of Arnold’s reception among critics and historians: the merits of his music, not to mention his historical place, are still contested. Advocates like me emphasize his melodic gift, stellar orchestration, blurred genre lines, and the sense of excitement he creates in relying upon these factors plus repetition, contrast, and variation to craft his forms. Detractors wedded to German (and especially Beethovenian) notions of ‘proper’ structure have found his music deficient. If you’re inclined to the latter camp, probably nothing I say here will win you over. But if you’re open to enjoying Arnold’s music on its own terms, I predict that this disc will please, if not delight. 

 

The recording begins and ends with its two most accessible works: the Commonwealth Christmas Overture and The Padstow Lifeboat march. It is a pity that the overture could not be included on Chandos’s previous disc of Arnold overtures (CHAN 10293), featuring the same orchestra and conductor. But as that disc runs to 75:43, the omission was probably unavoidable. In any case, the present overture (commissioned by the BBC to mark the 25th anniversary of King George V’s 1932 Christmas broadcast) shows Arnold’s priority of reaching mass audiences. He explicitly stated that its purpose was to fit into an atmosphere of families listening after dinner while their children play. Such knowledge could soften the impression of the work’s initial themes’ repetitions perhaps just starting to wear out their welcome by the end, despite being leavened by the jaunty Caribbean middle section. This issue is not a factor in the well-proportioned Padstow Lifeboat march, here effectively orchestrated by Philip Lane from the original band score. As an entry point to Arnold’s music, it’s as good a piece as any: tuneful, humorous (with the repeated foghorn effect), and just the right length.

 

To my sensibility, the best renderings on the disc are of three works, at least two of which are likely to be less familiar: the Clarinet Concerto No. 1, the Divertimento No. 2 for Orchestra, and the Philharmonic Concerto for Orchestra. While not as famous as its successor (much owing to that work’s “Pre-Goodman Rag” finale), the youthful clarinet concerto recorded here is engaging and already displays Arnold’s hallmark of building first-movement structures around an appealing, interspersed tune. The performers take things relatively quickly on the whole, which I think works in the music’s favor. The technically-sharp, articulative Michael Collins simply beats the available competition as soloist. He’s my new favorite interpreter. 

 

The Divertimento No. 2 of 1950 had a checkered history after its initial performance and was later revised. This is a vivid little creation that fully displays Arnold’s genius as an orchestrator. Not surprisingly, it was first composed for a youth orchestra; the themes and their recastings give off a feeling of childlike fantasy, which Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic duly bring off. The autumnal Philharmonic Concerto has a darker aesthetic, even though it shares with the lighter-hued Divertimento a chaconne-form finale. There is depth of feeling here, especially in the slow movement – one of Arnold’s best. And again, the performance is top-notch; easily the equal of its alternatives. 

 

This leaves the fascinating and underrated tone poem Larch Trees, the auspicious product of a 22-year-old composer already known as a brilliant trumpet player. For once, I do not think Gamba’s brisk approach is entirely conducive. Here is a work of delicious atmosphere, an homage to Sibelius (among a few others) in which Arnold proves himself quite capable of creating his own sonic world of natural mystery. Inferior though it may be in other respects, Mark Stephenson’s interpretation with the London Musici on the Conifer label (CDCF 211) runs nearly three minutes longer, allowing the listener to better savor music that shouldn’t be rushed. 

 

On balance, though, this is a wonderful disc, with even a quicker-than-I’d-like account of Larch Trees contributing to an overall success. The sound is clear and vibrant. The repertoire and performances invite re-listening. While we wait (let’s hope not in vain) for some of these works (especially Larch Trees, the Divertimento, and the Philharmonic Concerto) to be heard live in concert with the frequency they deserve, there is much to be thankful for here. 

Franck and Vierne: First and Last (CD Review)

by Karl Nehring

Franck and Vierne: First and Last. Franck: Grande Pièce Symphonique, op. 17; Vierne: Symphonie No. 6, op. 59. Christopher Houlihan, organ. Azica ACD-71356

 

The subtitle of our first album is “French Romantic Organ Symphonies.” Judging from that subtitle, and as you might guess from the fact that the two compositions are sufficient to fill an entire CD, these are both substantial compositions. Sharing his inspiration behind the album, the American organist Christopher Houlihan (b. 1987) begins his liner note essay by observing “The era of French Romantic symphonic organ music is bookended by the work of two composers, César Franck (1822-1890) and Louis Vierne (1870-1937).  Among this oeuvre, there are probably no two pieces that better represent the trajectory of this style than Franck’s Grande pièce symphonique and Vierne’s Symphony No. 6 – essentially the first and the last French Romantic organ symphonies.” Music lovers may well be familiar with Franck from his work in other genres, such as his symphony, chamber music, or piano music; perhaps some might even recall that he was in fact an organist, so are not surprised that he also wrote music for that mighty instrument. For many music lovers, though, the music of Vierne is much less well-known, for he specialized in music for the organ, for which he composed six of these organ symphonies. Both pieces on the program truly are grand works, the Franck in six movements and the Vierne in five. Perhaps because Vierne was the true organ specialist, it is the Franck piece that will most likely sound the more “symphonic” to the majority of classical music listeners, while the Vierne will sound more like what they would expect organ music to sound like.  

Holst:The Planets (CD Review)

 by Karl Nehring

Holst: The Planets. Daniel Harding, Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerische Rundfunks (Bavarian Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra). BR Klassik 900208 

Gustav Holst’s The Planets, familiar to most music lovers through its many recordings over the years (we all have our favorites, many of us more than one), was composed between 1914 and 1916. Its seven movements comprise musical portraits of the seven known planets of Holst’s time, but based more on astrology and mysticism than astronomy and scientific fact. Each "planet" can be seen as a kind of tone poem. The unusually informative liner notes point out that Holst had originally given the suite the certainly less colorful title, Seven Pieces for Large Orchestra. (As splendid as the music is, it is hard to imagine that it would be as popular as it is today with that title.) According to the background press release information that accompanied this release, the work had not been performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for almost three decades when British conductor Daniel Harding (who, fascinatingly enough, is also a commercial airline pilot) brought it back to Munich’s concert audience in February, 2022, when this live recording was made. 

20th Century Masterpieces for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Vol 2

 20^th Century Masterpieces for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Vol 2. Pierre Max Dubois: Concerto Italien for Two Pianos and Orchestra; Roy Harris: Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra; Arthur Benjamin: North American Square Dance Suite for Two Pianos and Orchestra; Walter Piston: Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra; Quincy Porter: Concerto Concertante for Two Pianos and Orchestra; Morton Gould: Dance Variations for Two Pianos and Orchestra. With Kirk Trevor/Slovak Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra; David Amos/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonic Society of Moravia  MS 1652 (2 CDs)

by Bill Heck

Huh? There are 20^th century works for two pianos and orchestra? (Never mind whether they all are masterpieces.) Who knew? Well, it seems that Joshua Pierce and Dorothy Jonas knew, as they had previously released a Volume 1 and now have moved on to Volume 2, reviewed here.

The brief but interesting program notes accompanying this 2-CD set nicely describe the confluence of factors that moved contemporary composers to write for the combination of dual pianos and orchestra at all, the factors being interest in the neo-Baroque and the revival of piano duos. The notes also hint that some of these works had to be rescued from obscurity by Jonas and Pierce (and others) – and given this sample, we can be happy that they did.

Mozart: String Quintets Nos. 3 & 4 (CD Review)

by Karl Nehring

Mozart: String Quintet No. 3 in C K.515; String Quintet No. 4 in G minor K.516. Quatour Ébène (Pierre Colombet & Gabriel Le Magadure, violins; Marie Chilemme, viola; Raphaël Merlin, cello); Antoine Tamestit, viola. Erato 5054197213328

 

Probably the string quintet that is the most familiar to the majority of classical music enthusiasts is the String Quintet in C major (D. 956) by Schubert. That quintet differs from these by Mozart, however, in that it is scored for string quartet plus an extra cello, while the Mozart quintets find the string quartet being augmented by an extra viola. How Quatour Ébène chose to add this particular violist (Antoine Tamestit) to form a quintet to play this music with them for this recording is explained in the liner notes by their cellist, Raphaël Merlin: “Little did we know when we signed up for the 2004 string quartet competition, that among the contenders  for the other three disciplines (flute, harp, and viola: inevitably evocative of Debussy and French music in general), we would be meeting our future regular collaborators at these, the Olympics of music… At an age when everything seemed possible, imbued with this newfound autonomy, we found in Antoine a young viola maestro: today still, he remains an enlightened and generous collaborator, a true beacon for our quartet. And it was in Mozart’s Quintet K.516 that our friendship was sealed – that eternal reference work, a measuring stick, a meeting place, a place of pilgrimage. 

Things Lived and Dreamt (CD Review)

 by Karl Nehring

Leoš Janáček (1828-1854): Sonata 1.X.1905 – Předtucha (Lepressentiment/ The Presentiment) Con moto; Smrt (La mort / The Death) Adagio; Josef Suk (1874–1935): Jaro (Printemps / Spring), Op. 22a, No.5 Vroztoužení (Ledésir/Longing) Allegro non troppo; Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) Humoresques, Op. 101 (1894) -- No. 4, Poco andante, fa majeur/F Major; No.7, Poco lento e grazioso–sol bémol majeur/G-Flat Major; No.8, Poco andante–si bémol mineur/B-Flat Minor; Suk: Životem a snem (Things Lived and Dreamt), Op. 30 -- I Allegretto moderato – S humorem a ironií, místy rozdurděně (With humour and irony, agitated in places); II Allegro vivo – Neklidně a nesměle, bez silnějšího výrazu (Restless and somewhat timid, without strongly marked expression); III Andante sostenuto–Tajemně a velmi vzdušně (Mysterious and light and airy); IV Poco allegretto – Zamyšleně, později stále výbojněji (Contemplative, then increasingly resolute in mood); V Adagio – K uzdraveni mého syna (For my son’s recuperation) – Klidně, shlubokým citem (Calm, with deep feeling); VI Moderato quasi allegretto – S výrazem tiché, bezstarostné veselosti (With quiet, carefree cheer); VII Adagio non tanto – Jednoduše, později s výrazem drtivé moci (Forthright, later with the expression of overpowering force); VIII Vivace – Jemně, švitorně (Delicate, warbling); IX Poco Andante – Šepotavě a tajemně (Whispering and mysterious); X Adagio – Zapomenutým rovům v koutku hřbitova křečovického (Dedicated to forgotten graves in the Křečovice cemetary – Snivě (Dreamy); Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915–1940): Dubnová Preludia (Préludes d’avril / April Preludes), Op. 13 -- I Allegro ma non troppo; II Andante; III Andante semplice; IV Vivo; Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884): Czech Dances 1, JB 1: 107 – Polka No.2 en la mineur/in A Minor – Moderato. Francine Kay, piano. Analekta AN 2 9004

 

The Canadian pianist Francine Kay is currently on the faculty at Princeton University, plus she also does some teaching in at an institute in France. On this new album, however, her focus is on music by Czech composers. The album opens with music by Janáček, who the liner notes point out was the most widely performed Czech opera composer. His composition for piano on this album, Sonata 1.X.1905, was inspired by a tragic event of which the composer was an eyewitness, the killing of an unarmed demonstrator by a German soldier. The sonata was originally in three movements, but the composer discarded the third before the work was premiered. The remaining two as played here give off an underlying sense of uneasiness, yet with an undeniable lyrical appeal that Kay illuminates with a deft touch. Next up is the first of two compositions on the program by Josef Suk, who not only was a student of the famed Czech composer but was also in fact his son-in-law. Longing is a brief selection lasting just under four minutes, but it packs  plenty of lyricism into that brief span, sounding much like one of the more romantic pieces of Liszt. It is music imbued with tender emotion, this piece that was inspired by the birth of Suk’s son.

Recent Releases No.48 (CD Reviews)

 by Karl Nehring

Impromptus. Fauré: Impromptu No. 1 in E-Flat Major, Op. 25; Chopin: Impromptu No. 1 in A-Flat Major, Op. 29; Fauré: Impromptu No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 31; Chopin: Étude in F Minor, Op. 25; Fauré: Impromptu No. 3 in A-Flat Major, Op. 34; Chopin: Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 66; Fauré: Impromptu No. 4 in D-Flat Major, Op. 91; Chopin: Impromptu No. 2 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 36; Fauré: Impromptu No. 5 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 102: Chopin: Impromptu No. 3 in G-Flat Major, Op. 51; Fauré: Impromptu No. 6 in D-Flat Major, Op. 86; Chopin: Berceuse in D-Flat Major, Op. 57; Fauré: Improvisation in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 84; Ismaël Margain: Improvisation. Ismaël Margain, piano, naïve V7860

 

The French pianist Ismaël Margain (b. 1992) says in the liner booklet that the idea for this new recording first came about “when I chanced upon Fauré’s impromptus four years ago, when I was looking for a repertoire. It is astonishing to see how rarely this composer’s piano music is played in his own country, and the impromptus are, with the exception of the third, largely unknown. Compared to Debussy and Ravel, Fauré  is much less in the limelight. On reading the impromptus, I was immediately struck by their beauty, by a desire to play them, and by how close the first three were to the language of Chopin… So I looked again at Chopin’s impromptus with the idea of juxtaposing them with Fauré’s.” Chopin wrote a total of four impromptus, while Fauré wrote a total of six. Margain has organized his program around similar tonalities, and to further balance the program and ensure the strict alternation between the two composers, Margain also adds the Chopin Étude op.25 no.2 in F minor, Berceuse op.57, and the Fantaisie-Impromptu. 

 My guess would be that many readers will also be less familiar with the piano music of Fauré (1845-1924) than they are with that of Chopin (1810-1849,). For those in that particular circumstance, this recording would serve as an excellent introduction to the charming, inviting work of the French master. Just listening to the first few bars of his Impromptu No. 1, which opens the program, should be enough to entice most listeners to want to hear more. With six impromptus by Fauré on the program, there is plenty more to hear, not to mention some excellent Chopin playing by the young Margain. The music of Chopin will no doubt sound familiar to many listeners, who will be pleased to discover that the Fauré pieces, although certainly different from the Chopin, do indeed blend seamlessly into the program, which is beautifully played by Margain and beautifully recorded by engineer/producer Alice Legros.

 

Margain closes out the program with an something out of the ordinary, an improvisation of his own – played as an encore as he might do in a concert performance. Margain says of this idea, “I wanted to do an improvisation if we had time at the end of the recording. After three days in the studio, with my head full of all of Chopin’s and Fauré’s music, I made a start, without really knowing how to approach it all. I didn’t want to make an exercise in style, nor did I want to include absolutely all the themes. In the end I began by taking up the theme of Chopin’s berceuse, which is just before this on the album, to play with it, transform it, and then mix it with other pieces of the program, sometimes merely hinted at, before gradually moving away from it.” It’s a delightful piece, by turns wistful and playful, clearly inspired by what has come before – especially Chopin – “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” – but original and imaginative as well, adjectives that apply fittingly to this entire release.

Tomer Cohen: Not the Same River. Not the Same River; Connecting Dots; Hithadshut (Regeneration); Empty?;Pastures; Sunrise; Probably More Than Two; First Laps. Tomer Cohen, guitar; Matt Penman, Bass; Obed Calvaire, drums. Hypnote Records HR028

 

The Israeli-raised New York-based guitarist-composer Tomer Cohen (b. 1996) makes his debut as a leader with Not the Same River, an album that serves as another example of how jazz can be viewed as a form of chamber music. Sometimes classical music folks have a misguided idea that jazz is mostly improvisation, played by people who really do not know much about music theory and are just kind of getting together and making it all up as they go along. This is most assuredly not the case; in fact, the majority of professional jazz musicians are well-versed in the nuances of music theory. Their ability to improvise grows out of their knowledge of chords, scales, modes, transpositions, key changes, meters, rhythms, and such – plus plenty of practice, practice, practice. And you’d be surprised at how many top jazz musicians are also fans of classical music. But I digress…

Although Cohen composed all of the selections on this recording, and his guitar takes the spotlight in term of melodic invention, Penman’s bass and Calvaire’s drums provide more than merely rhythmic support, as the three musicians listen to and play off each other with drive and intensity. Cohen plays his guitar with an unusual technique of playing single notes with a pick between his thumb and forefinger while simultaneously chording and playing counterpoint with his three remaining fingers, which allows him to play arpeggios and melody lines while comping for himself. This gives him a smooth, tuneful sound that has an easy, natural flow to it

There is a consistency of sound throughout the album, as Cohen does not strive for effects or far-out sounds from his guitar. He maintains a consistent guitar tone throughout. The overall mood of the tunes does not vary much, either. That is not to say they all sound the same; rather, that there is an overall feeling or mood to the album that seems to point to a point to a single vision. Cohen says of the album, “I used to play outside with my guitar, watching the fields and the blue sky. I believe some of that vibe is reflected in some of the tunes on this record.” For example, he points to the tune Pastures as an example of offering a sense of place. “I’m trying to get the listener to see the place where I wrote the song. Basically, I’m saying to the listener: ‘Close your eyes and imagine that you’re sitting on a high hill. You see the green fields and you can see the wind move them like the waves in the sea. Above you only cloudless blue skies. Far back you can see two rivers, one is a bit bigger than the other. On your right you see a green forest with some white birds flying above the trees.’ That’s the image I’m trying to convey in that piece. That’s exactly what I was trying to do on this record, trying to connect some stories, images and life philosophies that I have into one thing.” That’s an ambitious agenda, to be sure, but it certainly demonstrates a seriousness of purpose that belies the idea that jazz is just some guys just getting together and playing whatever happens to come into their heads. This is a fine album of well-crafted, tuneful, engaging music that should appeal to a wide-cross-section of jazz and classical fans alike.

Connecting Cultures: Four hand music from around the world (CD Review)

 by Karl Nehring

Dvořák: Slavonic Dance, Op 46. No. 8; Slavonic Dance, Op. 72 No. 2; Mozart: Andante and Five Variations in G major, K. 501; Wang Jianzhong: Colorful Clouds Chasing the Moon; Gong Huahua: Mountain Harvest: Manuel de Falla: Two Spanish Dances from “La Vida Breve”; Amy Marcy Cheney Beach: Summer Dreams, Op. 47; Florence Beatrice Price: Three Negro Spirituals – I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray; Lord I Want to Be a Christian; Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit; Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (arranged by Henry Levine). Deborah Moriarty and Zhihua Tang, piano. Blue Griffin BGR633

 

This is one of those releases about which I just wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The program looked to be a mix of composers both familiar and unknown, the performers were both unknown to me, and I wondered what the arrangements for piano four hands would sound like – especially Rhapsody in Blue. For piano four hands? Really?? But no matter what questions or doubts I or any potential listener might have about this or any other recording, the music itself is what actually counts, so I just popped the disc into the player, settled into my listening chair, grabbed the remote, and pushed the PLAY button.

 The familiar melodies of the two Dvořák Slavonic Dances open the program with energy and enthusiasm from the four busy hands at the keyboard, with the sound matching the performance, lively and assertive – just right for this music. The following Andante and Five Variations by Mozart are in a more stately, buttoned-down style, but they still have an element of the dance about them, which the two pianists clearly communicate. Colorful Clouds Chasing the Moon by Wang Jianzhong (1933–2016), turns out to be as perfectly pleasant as its title implies, with a rhythmic pulse beneath and some fluttering melodies in the upper registers. Mountain Harvest by Gong Huahua (b. 1978) makes a different impression with its more serious, slightly dissonant sound. That said, it is not a forbidding piece; if anything, it has moments of playfulness and mystery. Overall, it is an intriguing work, one that invites repeated listening. 

 

It's then back to more familiar names, although not all of the music will be familiar to most listeners. From Manuel de Falla we get Two Spanish Dances from his opera La Vida Breve, which as you might expect, receive a splashy, extroverted performance from the two pianists, who are both on the faculty at the Michigan State University College of Music. The two women pianists next bring us music by two distinguished  American women composers. Amy Beach (1867-1944) was the first American female composer to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra (the Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered her “Gaelic” Symphony in 1896), while Florence Beatrice Price (1887-1953) was the first African-American woman to have a composition performed by a major orchestra (the Chicago Symphony performed her Symphony in E Minor in 1933).  Beach’s Summer Dreams comprises a half-dozen short musical sketches titled The Brownies, Robin Redbreast, Twilight, Katy-dids, Elfin Tarantelle, and Good Night. The first (which is the longest at 3:46) is dance-like, the next four (none of which is lasts more than two minutes) are generally playful, and then Good Night (longer again at 2:59) is, as you might expect, calmer in mood. Price’s Three Negro Spirituals are simply her brief arrangements of three spirituals: I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray (1:53), Lord I Want to Be a Christian(4:03), and Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit (1:32). Hearing the first of these immediately brought to mind the gospel stylings of Keith Jarrett in some of his solo improvisations, such as in parts of his Köln Concert recording on ECM. The longest of these, Lord I Want to Be a Christian, is slower, more intense, and quite moving in its own way. 

 

The two pianists end their program with a rousing rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. This is a piece that has been played and recorded aa a concert piece for piano and full orchestra, as a more jazz-oriented piece for piano and jazz band – but who would have thought it would work so well as played on one piano by two pianists? These two artists did, and they were right. This is a marvelous performance of the work, exciting and involving from start to finish. With more than 74 minutes of well-recorded music from around the world including this revelatory performance of Gershwin’s showstopper, Connecting Cultures is an exciting new release.

Missy Mazzoli: Dark with Excessive Bright (SACD Review)

by Karl Nehring

Missy Mazzoli: Dark with Excessive Bright, Concerto for solo violin and string orchestra*; Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)**; These Worlds in Us**; Orpheus Undone**; Vespers for Violin (for solo violin with electronic soundtrack); Dark with Excessive Bright (arranged for solo violin and string quintet)***. Peter Herresthal, violin soloist; Bergen Philharmonic/James Gaffigan, conductor; **Arctic Philharmonic/Tim Weiss, conductor; ***Quintet from the Arctic Philharmonic (Oganes Girunyan, violin I; Øyvind Mehus, violin II; Natalya Girunyan, viola; Mary Auner, cello; Ingvild Maria Mehus, double bass);Tim Weiss, conductor. BIS-2572 SACD

 

The title composition of this release by American composer Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980), which opens and closes the program on this BIS SACD (I auditioned the CD layer only) exists in at least three versions. Mazzoli originally composed it as a concerto for double bass and string orchestra. As she explains about the two versions that appear on this recording, “in 2019, at the request of soloist Peter Herresthal, I transformed this piece into a concerto for violin and string orchestra, essentially flipping the original work upside-down… While loosely based in baroque idioms, this piece slips between string techniques from several centuries, all while twisting a pattern of repeated chords beyond recognition. ‘Dark with excessive bright,’ a phrase from Milton’s Paradise Lost, is a surreal and evocative description of God’s robes, written by a blind man. I love the impossibility of this phrase and how perfectly it describes the ghostly, heart-rending sound of strings. In 2019, again at the request of Peter Herresthal, I arranged this piece for soloist and string quintet.” Curiously, Mazzoli’s liner notes state that both arrangements were done in 2019, while the back cover gives the dates for both arrangements as 2021.  My guess is that both are half-correct: 2019 for the violin/string orchestra arrangement and 2021 for the violin/string quintet version. 

In any event, the arrangements for violin and string orchestra and violin and string quintet open and close the program, respectively. The former is intense, brooding, introspective, leaning more to the dark than the bright. The chamber-music scale of the latter arrangement somehow makes the piece much more inviting and involving. Both versions, however, are engrossing in their own way; moreover, having the two different arrangements on the same disc will afford the serious listener the opportunity to ponder the ways in which they differ in terms of both sonority and aesthetic/emotional appeal. Following the opening arrangement of Dark with Excessive Bright on the program comes Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres), which Mazzoli describes as “music in the shape of a solar system, a collection of rococo loops that twist around each other within a larger orbit.” That sounds rather imposing, but the music is not as ponderous as all that. Now with a full orchestra making music, we hear more contrasting sonorities, with brass and string sounds whirling and swirling. The next selection, These Worlds in Us, carries on with the whirling and swirling; if anything, even more exuberantly. The title may suggest introspection, but the sound is assertive and outgoing. Mazzoli writes, “this piece is dedicated to my father, who was a soldier during the Vietnam War. I  like the idea that music can reflect painful and blissful sentiments in a single note or gesture, and have sought to create a sound palette that I hope is at once completely new and strangely familiar to the listener.”

When I heard the woodblock at the beginning of the next composition, Orpheus Undone, I immediately flashed to Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams (see an Adams review here), which opens in the same way. But Orpheus Undone is far different from the Adams work. Throughout its two movements it bristles with restless energy. As Mazzoli describes the effect of the piece, “then listener feels Orpheus’s sense of timelessness and alienation, for a moment joining him in what Nietzsche called the hourglass of existence, turning over and over’.”  Next up is the highlight of the album – for these ears at least – a truly captivating work for amplified violin and electronics titled Vespers for Violin. Mazzoli writes of this this work that it “began as a reimagining of my composition Vespers for a New Dark Age. I sampled keyboards, vintage organs, voices and strings from that composition, drenched them in delay and distortion, and reworked them into a piece that can be performed by a soloist.” Her reference to drenching sounds in delay and distortion might tend to scare some potential listeners off, but I hope not, for the end result sounds at times as though Herresthal is performing in a cathedral along with an organ and an ethereal wordless choir. It is an utterly spellbinding performance. 

The program closes as Herresthal’s violin takes the lead once more, this time in the chamber version of the title piece, Dark with Excessive Bright, which in this more intimate arrangement communicates with a captivating intensity throughout its nearly 14 minutes. As we have come to expect from BIS, the engineering is impeccable, which combined with insights from the composer herself about her richly imaginative music – not to mention the virtuosic performances by Herresthal and the his accompanying orchestral and chamber players – make this a highly recommendable release indeed. 

Recent Releases No. 47 (CD Reviews)

by Karl Nehring 

Move: The Westerlies. Nico Muhly: Move; Caroline Shaw: Entr’acte (arr. The Westerlies); Mason Bynes: For Rosa; Andy Clausen: This Is Water I: Carmel; This Is Water II: Lopez; This Is Water III: Harlem River. The Westerlies (Riley Muhlerkar, trumpet; Chloe Rowlands, trumpet; Andy Clausen, trombone; Willem de Koch, trombone. Westerlies Music WST012

 

The Westerlies is a New York-based brass quartet consisting of four childhood friends from Seattle. The group has a varied and interesting recording history, including albums by Fleet Foxes (rock), Vieux Farka Touré (world music), Common (rap) and Dave Douglas (jazz). On their new album titled Move, they play music by three contemporary classical composers plus a suite composed by one of their own, trombonist Andy Clausen. About this newest release, The Westerlies said: "This album is a culmination of decades of friendship, music-making, and risk-taking, going all the way back to our days in the middle school band room in Seattle, to our first rehearsal at Juilliard ten years ago, to the countless hours in tour vans, rock clubs, and concert halls across the country... It's all about cultivating a sound and expressive palette that feels honest, exciting, and personal, regardless of where it comes from genre-wise, and regardless of whether or not it falls within the brass-chamber-music canon.”  

 

The album begins with the group’s arrangement of Nico Muhly’s 2017 solo piano piece, Move. The brass quartet version has a jumpy quality, charged with energy throughout its brief three-minute span, with trumpets on the left and trombones on the right recorded with startlingly realistic clarity and impact. Next up is the longest piece on the program at just a shade under 12 minutes, a reimagining for brass quartet of Caroline Shaw’s string quartet titled Entr’acte. The sonority that The Westerlies bring to this work is much different, with breathy sounds at times producing a particularly striking effect. The “Rosa” of Mason Bynes’s For Rosa is civil rights heroine Rosa Parks; his 11-minute “musically expressed love letter and tribute” that is in essence a miniature tone poem. The program ends with Clausen’s This Is Water, a 20-minute piece comprising three movements, titled respectively Carmel, Lopez, and Harlem River. Carmel is upbeat and bubbly, evoking sunshine on the waves; Lopez is quieter, moodier, darker; while the program-ending Harlem River brings a feeling of movement before slowing down and seeming simply to slip away. The sound quality is crisp, clear,  and dynamic, with a realistic perspective, but liner notes giving some background information about the music and musicians (for that, you can check out the group's website) would have been welcome. Overall, though, Move is a stimulating release both musically and sonically that would be well worth tracking down by fans of contemporary classical music.

 Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 (cadenzas by Jörg Widmann); Fragment from Violin Concerto on C Major, WoO 5. Veronika Eberle, violin; Sir Simon Rattle, London Symphony Orchestra. LSO Live LSO5094

 

The German violinist Veronika Eberle (b. 1988) is another of the amazingly talented young musicians who demonstrate that the level of virtuosity in the rising generation of classical musicians is as high or higher than it has ever been. It shows my age when I confess that there are moments when I still find myself as thinking of British conductor Simon Rattle (b. 1955) – now Sir Simon – as a conducting wunderkind. In this new release, the young violinist and by now seasoned conductor team up with the venerable London Symphony Orchestra to bring us a recording of one of the most beloved – and oft-recorded – violin concertos, that of Ludwig van Beethoven. There are of course numerous recordings of this work already available; in fact, there are many noted violinists and conductors who have made several recordings of the piece over the years, and most devoted fans of classical music no doubt have at least one and in many instances several favorite recordings already in their collections. What sets this new recording apart from all the rest on the market is that the performance features new cadenzas by the German composer, clarinetist, and conductor Jörg Widmann (b. 1973), whose Wikipedia page asserts was the world’s third-most performed contemporary composer in 2018. By the way, Widmann contributes a brief liner note essay in which he offers a brief explanation of his musical intentions, which is a welcome addition to the expected liner note material about the composer and the music. 

 

As you might expect from musicians of this stature, the performance is excellent, as is the live recording (note: the SACD includes a 5.1 surround mix and HD stereo mix, but listened to the CD layer). The question most listeners will have will concern the cadenzas, which are definitely different. At first listening, they might come across as a bit jarring, as they did for me – “the shock of the new” – but after listening to the performance a few more times, I found them interesting, if not completely convincing. Some readers may recall the controversial recording by Gidon  Kremer with Sir Neville Marriner and the ASMF in which Kremer chose to use cadenzas by Alfred Schnittke. It was considered pretty “out there” when it was released and in fact disappeared from the catalog for a while. But when you consider that one of the ideas of a cadenza was to give the soloist the opportunity to improvise on themes from the movement, the idea of using a cadenza other than Beethoven’s is not completely wrong. Some, as I do, might find this new release an interesting alternative recording of the Beethoven, well worth keeping on the shelf alongside (in my case, at least) the likes of Heifetz, Perlman, and yes, Kremer. Although it would not be my first recommendation for someone new to classical music, I would recommend that those familiar with the Beethoven Violin Concerto would do well to give it a listen – preferably more than one – and see what they think, then please let us know with a comment below.

Anne Akiko Meyers: Mysterium (EP Review)

 by Karl Nehring

J.S. Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (arr. Samuel Adler); Sheep May Safely Graze (arr. Len Rhodes); Wachet Auf, Sleepers Wake (arr. Len Rhodes); Morten Lauridsen: Magnum Mysterium (arr. Gershon/Lauridsen). Anne Akiko Meyers, violin; Los Angeles Master Chorale; Jaebon Hwang, organ; Grant Gershon, conductor. AVIE AV2601

 

I should be clear at the outset that what we have here is not a full CD with an extended program, but rather an EP released in compact disc format but available for a reduced price compared to a standard-length CD. The duration of the program that is recorded on this disc is less than 19 minutes, but a more glorious 19 minutes would be hard to find. Most listeners should be familiar with the three Bach works, and at least some listeners may have encountered the work O Magnum Mysterium by American composer Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943), which has been recorded many times in its original arrangement for chorus. According to the composer, “My first piece as the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s composer-in-residence was O Magnum Mysterium, premiered in 1994. It has become a signature piece for the Chorale, constantly performed throughout the world and recorded on well over a hundred CDs. Anne loved the a capella motet and asked me to provide a new version of it for violin/orchestra or violin/piano, both of which she has superbly recorded. This instrumental score retains the essence of the original choral version plus newly composed violinistic countermelodies to display Anne’s magnificent artistry. Grant’s splendid idea to combine the solo violin part with his sensitive adjustments to the original choral score is heard here in in its premiere recording by the Chorale and Anne, providing a new listening experience for this quiet song of profound inner joy…’ 

 

Conductor Gershon (b. 1960) adds, “It’s especially satisfying to marry the mysticism of Lauridsen’s music with the spirituality of three beloved works from the cantatas of J.S. Bach, also in newly created arrangements. We recorded this music in the glowing acoustics of Frank Gehry’s masterpiece, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, where we were able to utilize the 6,100 pipes of that hall’s iconic organ.” Don’t let his reference to the number of pipes in the organ mislead you: this is not an organ spectacular by any means – in fact, the organ is employed quite tastefully, never calling attention it itself. The arrangements of the Bach pieces manage to combine the sound of the Chorale, accompanied at times by the organ, with the sound of the violin seeming to float gracefully above it. 

 What is especially gratifying about these arrangements is that even though it is Anne Akiko Meyers (b. 1970) who is the featured artist, her violin playing is tastefully integrated into the fabric of the music, not calling attention to itself but rather adding texture and color. Kudos to the arrangers of the Bach selections, Samuel Adler and Len Rhodes, who respect the music of the master, using their arrangements to highlight the beauty inherent in the original rather than to make any radical changes. Likewise with what Lauridsen and Gershon have done with their arrangement of O Magnum Mysterium, working the violin into part into the mix with skill and grace, which is how Ms. Meyers performs it. This is music composed for the contemplation of spiritual matters, not as a vehicle for a violin virtuoso to display their flashy technique. Yes, Mysterium is a release that is less than 19 minutes long, but my goodness, it provides an album’s worth of musical satisfaction.

 

Rachmaninov Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 (CD Review)

by Karl Nehring 

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 in. C minor, Op. 18; Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30. Abbey Simon, piano; Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra; Leonard Slatkin, conductor. VOX-NX-3014CD

This new release is another in the “Audiophile Edition” series of releases from the old Vox catalog that the folks at Naxos are bringing back into circulation. (For a review of some previous releases in this series, please see here.)  Many experienced music lovers of a are probably familiar with Vox, a budget label that produced some real gems back in the day, such as the Vox Box of Ravel’s orchestral music featuring Stanislaw Skrowaczewski conducting the Minnesota Orchestra. Alth9ough Vox was a budget label, the sound quality on some of their releases was excellent (the main drawback was the questionable quality of their vinyl pressings), and this Ravel set, which was recorded by Elite Recordings (engineer Marc Aubort and producer Joanna Nickrenz), had beguiling sound. Those performances and recordings still hold up as you can see from reviews of subsequent digital rereleases of the Ravel recordings, such as a review from our own John Puccio that you can read here, or an article at the PS Audio website that provides some insight into the recording process, which you can find here.

Appearing on the back cover of the new “Audiophile Edition” releases is a highlighted statement stating that “The recordings of American orchestras produced for VOX by the legendary Elite Recordings team of Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be among the very finest sounding orchestral recordings ever made.”For this new series of reissues from the Vox catalog, the folks at Naxos have begun to pull some of those  tapes out from the vaults and carefully prepare these CDs for release, the end product of their labors being what they describe as “new192 kHz / 24-bit ultra high definition transcriptions of the original Elite Recordings analogue master tapes.”

 

This new recording, the original Vox version of which was released in 1979, features the American pianist Abbey Simon (1910-2019). Who is perhaps best known to classical music fans for his recording of the complete piano works of Maurice Ravel, also undertaken for Vox, a  set considered by many to be one of the finest ever recorded. Simon is accompanied on this recording by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the American conductor Leonard Slatkin (b.1944), who served as the orchestra’s Music Director from 1979 through 1996 and is now its Conductor Laureate. Their performance is lyrical and assured. There is excitement, but not hysteria. I found it quite enjoyable, although perhaps lacking that last bit of drama.

 

I thought it would be interesting to do a quick comparison of the Simon/Slatkin with another older recording that had long served as one of my favorites, largely because of its feeling of energy and excitement – the famous 1965 recording by pianist Earl Wild (1915-2010) with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jascha Horenstein (1898-1793), which was originally captured on analog tape by the legendary recording team of engineer Kenneth Wilkinson and producer Charles Gerhardt for RCA and later digitally remastered by Ralph Couzens and released in 1990 as Chandos CD CHAN 6507. (A quick aside: Over the years, I have owned and/or listened to many recordings of both concertos on both LP and CD. The Wild/Horenstein is not necessarily my absolute favorite – I’m not sure what is – but I always enjoyed the sheer excitement of the playing; moreover, the fact that Wild spent the last years of his life in Columbus, Ohio, the area where I moved in the late 1970s to attend graduate school and remain to this day probably swayed me toward his recording). 

 

As I began comparing the two recordings, a couple of things were immediately apparent: the Chandos CD was mastered several dB louder than the Vox disc, and the Wild performances were faster and more dramatic-sounding, especially in Concerto No. 3. Although the Wild CD has long been a favorite of mine, I found myself preferring the smoother approach of Simon; however; I plan to keep both recordings, just as there are some mornings when I prefer my caffeinated rich chocolate breakfast shake, but other mornings find me reaching for the noncaffeinated creamy chocolate version.

 As I pointed out in my review of the previous releases in this series, although the vintage analog recording lacks that last bit of transparency and definition that can be attained by modern digital recording technologies, Marc Aubort Elite Recordings knew where best to place their microphones and they did the very best with the technology of their day. In addition, advances in digital technology mean that it is not surprising that this restoration of a vintage analog master yields slightly superior (in the sense of less bright-sounding in brass and massed strings) sound quality for the Vox as opposed to the Chandos release. This release is another fine one in this new series; let’s hope there are many more to come!

 

Recent Releases No. 46 (CD Reviews)

by Karl Nehring

Steve Reich: The String Quartets. Reich: WTC 9/11; Triple Quartet; Different Trains. Mivos Quartet (Olivia De Prato & Maya Bennardo, violins; Victor Lowrie Tafoya, viola; Tyler J. Borden, cello). Deutsche Grammophon 486 3385

 

American composer Steve Reich (b. 1936) once said that he “never expected to write a string quartet,” but as music author/radio host John Schaefer notes in his liner note essay, “that all changed in 1988, and the solution was as simple as it was elegant: Reich treated the string quartet as a single, composite instrument. Suddenly, the format of soloist with recorded tracks, used in the ‘Counterpoint’ works, made sense. The result was Different Trains… the piece wove together voice samples with multiple layers of string quartet, three of them pre-recorded and the final layer performed live. It was the first of three pieces Reich would compose for the Kronos Quartet. The purely instrumental Triple Quartet followed in 1998, and WTC 9/11, built around voice samples relating to the World Trade Center attacks, in 2010. This recording marks the first time that all three have been gathered in one place, and it was the composer himself who suggested that the Mivos Quartet take on the challenge.”

 

When I mentioned I was reviewing this CD to Bill Heck, he said that he just could not bring himself to listen to the first selection on this recording, finding it too emotionally upsetting. I understand his feelings. WTC 9/11, with its recorded telephone sounds and voices bringing back memories of that tragic day, truly does pack quite an emotional wallop. But it also connects on a musical level, as the quartet echoes the speech patterns of the voices while also providing a pulse that drives the music forward with a restless, relentless sense of energy. Reich says of his Triple Quartet that it was inspired by the energetic ending of Bártok’s String Quartet No. 4. The work is not for twelve strings, as the title might seem to imply, but rather is a relatively brief string quartet in three movements. The opening movement begins with a rhythmic pulse that shifts toward a dance rhythm, the second movement at times has a hint of Middle Eastern sounds and at times incorporates a striking echo effect, and then the third movement begins tentatively but gathers energy that builds into a frenetic dance. Different Trains once again features the quartet playing over the sounds of a prerecorded soundtrack, this time of train sounds and voices from America before WWII, Europe during the war, and finally after the war. The pulsing sound of Reich’s writing for the strings lends itself well to evoking the feeling of trains, and the members of the Mivos Quartet seem to be able to lean right into this music with full conviction. The idea of mixing prerecorded sounds with voices might sound gimmicky, but it works; moreover, the engineering team has done an excellent job of making everything cohere. Fans of Steve Reich should rejoice at having these three works brought together in these three first-rate performances.

Chicago Clarinet Classics. Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977): Sonata in One Movement for Clarinet and Piano; Stacy Garrop (b. 1969): Phoenix Rising for Solo Clarinet; Leo Sowerby (1895-1968): Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, H 240a; Shulamit Ran (b. 1949): Spirit for Solo Clarinet (in memory of Laura Flax); Teresa Reilly (b. 1976): The Forgiveness Train (for two clarinets)*; Robert Muczynski (1929-2010): Two Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 43. John Bruce Yeh, clarinet; Patrick Godon, piano; *Teresa Reilly, clarinet. Cedille CDR 90000 218

 

John Bruce Yeh (b. 1957) joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1977 as bass clarinet by Georg Solti at the age of 19, the first Asian musician ever appointed to the CSO. Two years later, he was named assistant principal and E-flat clarinet. He is now the longest-serving clarinetist in CSO history, so it is not surprising that a series of events including being asked by the Chicago-based Cedille label about recording the Leo Sowerby’s Wind Quintet would eventually lead to this album. In the course of researching Sowerby, Yeh discovered his Sonata, a large (26:32) four-movement work that forms the centerpiece of this album. It is a solidly entertaining work; given that it was first published in 1944, I am surprised not to have come across a recording of it before. While doing his research, Yeh next discovered the Tcherepnin Sonata, the sprightly little (5:04) piece that leads off the program with a burst of joyous energy. 

 

Yeh notes that “with these two contrasting Sonatas, grouped with Robert Muczynski’s 1983 Time Pieces, already a classic with clarinet players, my long-time piano collaborator, Patrick Godon, and I had the basis for an album. Jim [Ginsburg, producer at Cedille] agreed that diversity in the form of three 21^st-century clarinet works by outstanding composers with whom I’ve had decades-long associations, would be the ideal complement to this collection. Accordingly, we are delighted to present the first recordings of Stacy Garrop’s 2017 Phoenix Rising for Solo Clarinet, Shulamit Ran’s 2017 solo clarinet work Spirit, and my wife Teresa Reilly’s recent clarinet duet, The Forgiveness Train(2020).” All the composers have ties to Chicago – thus the album’s title. Although the whole album is enjoyable, especially if you are happen to be as big a fool for a clarinet as I am other highlights include the three pieces by women composers: Stacy Garrop’s colorful and evocative Phoenix Rising, in which Yeh is able to produce some startling tones from his instrument; Shulamit Ran’s Spirit, dedicated to a dear friend of the composer and expressing a wide range of emotion; and Teresa Reilly’s Train of Forgiveness, on which Yeh and Reilly play together, clearly enjoying the opportunity. 

 All of the music on this generously-filled (76:51) CD, though, is enjoyable. Don’t let the fact that this is music from the 20^th and 21^st centuries from composers with names that may be unfamiliar give you the idea that this must be music that would be harsh and forbidding. This is not music that is dissonant, strident, screaming, or screeching. No, it is music that is enticing to the ear. Not syrupy sweet, but rather thoughtful and enduring. There are liner notes with helpful essays on the music and background information about the performers, and the sonics are up to the usual high Cedille standard.