Grammy Award-winning bassist Christian Dillingham presents 'As It Relates To Now, ' out May 15, 2026 on CD and vinyl. With Greg Ward on alto saxophone and Jeremy Cunningham on drums, the trio delivers a groove-driven, emotionally charged modern jazz record shaped by the tensions of our time-powerful, searching and deeply human.
Valen: Orchestral Music Vol 3 / Smebye, Eggen, Stavanger SO
BIS
CD
$21.99Nov 01, 2008
This third and final disc of our survey of the complete orchestral music by Norwegian composer Fartein Valen includes three shorter one-movement works from the 1930s, as well as his last two orchestral compositions, his Fourth Symphony and the Piano Concerto. Kirkegården ved havet ('The Churchyard by the Sea'), which opens the disc, is among the most played of Valen's works and has been the inspiration for ballets as well as for a poetic film. As so often with Valen's shorter pieces, the composer had found inspiration in another work of art, this time the celebrated poem Le cimetière marin by Paul Valéry. The piece was conceived during a journey to Majorca, a journey which also bore fruit in La Isla de las Calmas ('The Silent Island'), based on a view of Palma de Mallorca, as the ship Valen was on departed for the mainland. Ode til ensomheten ('Ode to Solitude') is firmly based in the Norwegian landscape, however, its title referring to the solitude Valen sought at his isolated family homestead on the coast of Norway, where he spent his time composing and tending his beloved roses, but also worrying about the state of the world in the late 1930s and 40s. Christian Eggen and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra continues with Valen's last symphony, which contains something of a greeting to Johannes Brahms: like Brahms Valen ends his Fourth Symphony with a chaconne. For the final work - and Valen's last completed composition - they are joined by Einar Henning Smebye, the soloist in the piano concerto. Valen prepared for it by studying concertos by Mozart, and the three-movement work is classically simple in structure. It is restrained, almost anti-virtuosic with a solo part that is woven into the music.
Pettersson: Symphonies No 1 & 2 / Lindberg, Norrkoping Symphony
BIS
CD + DVD
$29.99Aug 01, 2011
2 discs for the price of 1: included on a separate DVD is an hour-long film by David Lindberg about Allan Pettersson’s First Symphony and the preparation of the score.
Born on 19th September 1911, Allan Pettersson was a singular voice in Swedish, and indeed European, 20th-century music. Raised in a poor neighbourhood in Stockholm, his first instrument was a fiddle made by one of his brothers from a tin box and some strings, and Pettersson immediately realized that music was his calling. In 1939 he won a place as viola player in what is today the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, but at this time he also began to compose – at first his Barfotasånger (Barefoot Songs) and chamber works. It was towards the very end of the 1940s, while he was working up the courage to leave his steady position, that he began to compose his Symphony No.1. In a letter he recounted how the symphony was growing and growing, and even threatened to swallow him up whole. Perhaps as a result of a study visit to Paris, where he had lessons with René Leibowitz and Arthur Honegger, Pettersson laid the work aside, but during the following years – and possibly as late as in the 1970s – he kept returning to the sketches. He certainly never abandoned the symphony, and in 1953 when he completed a second symphony, he insisted on calling that work his 'No.2'. On two previous discs, Christian Lindberg has conducted Pettersson's Three Concertos for String Orchestra as well as the orchestral versions of the Barefoot Songs. These were released to great acclaim, for instance in Fono Forum, whose reviewer dubbed Lindberg and the Nordic Chamber Orchestra 'more than ideal interpreters of Pettersson's music, which is as stark as it is fascinating'. Entrusted with the manuscript material – some 240 pages – of Symphony No.1, Lindberg was able to prepare a performable version and gave the work its world première in May 2010, conducting the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra. His recording of the work – and of Symphony No.2 – is accompanied by a DVD with an hour-long film by David Lindberg about Allan Pettersson's First Symphony documenting its genesis, the preparation of the performance edition and the path to the work's first performance and subsequent recording.
Meyerbeer: Le Prophete / Lewis, Horne, McCracken, Scotto, Bastin
Sony Masterworks
CD
$54.99Jul 29, 2010
The role of Fides calls for a Brünnhilde range with an Amneris-type voice, requiring extraordinary vocal flexibility and dramatic punch -- Marilyn Horne has them all, and she brings out the pathos of the part without sentimentalizing it.
...Whenever Marilyn Horne's Fides holds the stage, it matches the energy of the piece itself. The role calls for a Brünnhilde range with an Amneris-type voice: the vocal flexibility and dramatic punch needed are extraordinary. Miss Horne, as she has shown in her Decca discs of the character's most famous passages (SXL6149, 5/65 and SET309-10, 5/66), has them all, and she brings out the pathos of the part without sentimentalizing it. She opts for all the more difficult alternatives and executes them with a supreme confidence. In brief, I found hers a thrilling performance.
-- Gramophone [5/1977]
--------------------------------
...Of great voices the present recording can offer at least one. Marilyn Horne, even at this date (1976), was no longer singing with the firmness of earlier years, as is clear if this performance of "Ah, mon fils" and the Prison scene is compared with that included in her magnificent first LP recitals. Even so, much of the richness remains and the majestic virtuosity is unimpaired... The Royal Philharmonic under Henry Lewis play well, colourful orchestration being among the score's most attractive features...
It is tempting to think of Nathaniel Shilkret?s Trombone Concerto as Rhapsody in Blue light, as there are many similarities, and the Swedish composer openly expressed his debt to Gershwin. According to the liner notes, it was, in fact, Shilkret himself who conducted the premiere of Rhapsody in Blue, after Paul Whitman, who usually gets the credit, could not agree on tempos with the composer. But the works are not really kissing cousins. Shilkret?s opening movement owes more to central European light dance music than to American jazz, sounding as if it would be right at home at a Viennese pops concert, or even as a Hollywood soundtrack from the 30s (most of which were written by central European émigrés). The next two movements are filled with blue notes and syncopation, conjuring the jaunty swagger of An American in Paris more so than the Rhapsody. The Concerto was first performed, in 1945, under the combined direction of Tommy Dorsey and Leopold Stokowski, who commissioned the work. Lindberg?s performance sounds spot-on, casually virtuosic, with wonderful expressivity and tonal luster.
This CD is worth acquiring for the Shilkret alone, which is a good thing, since the rest of the program is, well, a bit weird. Please notice I didn?t say bad; this is a matter of taste. My colleague William Zagorski enjoyed an earlier BIS recording of Lindberg?s Helikon Wasp, among other pieces, seeming to enjoy the iconoclastic bent of the composer, for whom ?arid musicological debate is excoriated.? Indeed.
The contemporary Swedish composer Fredrik Högberg gives us the campy concerto subtitled ?The Return of Kit Bones,? with English dialogue, supposedly inspired by Spaghetti westerns, but with heavy doses of schlocky Broadway musical mannerisms as well. Sensitive listeners should be prepared for the occasional scatology. Charming and rather goofy stuff this, and, musically, as light as a feather.
Trombone fanciers will surely want to hear the fabulous playing of Christian Lindberg showcased on this CD, and the Shilkret Concerto is a veritable revelation. Suggestion for a future release; the Shilkret along with the equally neglected and completely delightful Trombone Concerto of Nino Rota.
Milhaud’s La création du Monde used to be quite popular, at least on disc, but it seems to have vanished from the discography recently, at least until now. Christian Lindberg has assembled a varied and interesting program built around Milhaud’s jazz ballet masterpiece, and featuring solo saxophonist Claude Delangle. He’s featured in a splendid performance of Paul Creston’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Band (another unfairly neglected work), Roger Boutry’s really charming Divertimento for Alto Saxophone and Winds, John Williams’ rather commercial Catch Me If You Can, and the obligatory Piazzolla arrangement (Escualo).
The Swedish Wind Ensemble by itself stars in Anders Emilsson’s witty and harmonically entertaining Salute the Band, and in the Milhaud, which receives a performance of exceptional virtuosity, but also extreme mellowness. At the opening the sound is simply gorgeous, but as the work proceeds it would have been nice to hear a more “dirty” sound from the ensemble. Today’s players are so technically adept that they can do anything smoothly, but there are times when the music demands a certain edge that’s not generously evident here.
It’s not a huge problem, to be honest, especially when the program is so much fun, and BIS’s engineering is absolutely demonstration quality. In context, the playing is all of a piece, and it’s pretty excellent.
-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
-------
Here’s a colorful, sophisticated program showcasing the marvelous alto saxophonist Claude Delangle, who’s collaborated with Piazzolla, Boulez, Berio, Takemitsu, and Salonen and who has been singled out for praise on MusicWeb International before. His new album with the Swedish Wind Ensemble is consistently ear-catching.
The appetizer is a suite of three numbers from John Williams’ film score Catch Me If You Can, one of my favorites of Williams - it avoids cliché and captures the movie’s spirit well. Then it’s on to the title work, Darius Milhaud’s La création du monde. Delangle is absent, but some friends of the players join for the string parts. It’s a delightful, jazzy performance with spirited solos.
Roger Boutry’s Divertimento for saxophone and band has a seductive French swagger and incredible songlike slow movement which make its appeal instant. Boutry arranged the piece for this recording; it was originally for sax and strings, and the rescoring includes great touches like muted trumpets in the andante.
The introduction to Paul Creston’s concerto makes it sound like the American response to Khachaturian (xylophone!), but the solo saxophonist’s lyrical instincts take over the proceedings, including a great duet with flutes. The finale is bursting with wit; it feels like something I know and love and can’t quite put my finger on.
Anders Emilsson’s Salute the Band is the odd piece out, a mosaic of ideas: some pulsate, some clash, some have Elgarian pomp, some are tense, some are grindingly dissonant … and Piazzolla’s Escualo is a wonderful encore.
With good sound and BIS’s usual classy presentation - although this is not an SACD hybrid - I find this absurdly easy to welcome. Anyone interested in the saxophone or jazzy, snappy modern repertoire will find much to enjoy. It’s a cosmopolitan, sophisticated album to put on while enjoying a glass of red wine and some witty conversation.
