"Collection" CDs tend to get buried in the bins, but here's a lovely selection of French music for violin and orchestra that spotlights the artistry of James Ehnes, the award-winning virtuoso whose Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Analekta caused a sort of mini-sensation among lovers of great violin playing a couple of years ago. Here he offers interpretations of remarkable poise and purity in the two Saint-Saëns gems (Havanaise and Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso), along with a really gorgeous, dusky, but flowing account of Chausson's popular Poème--and he lets his hair down a bit in Milhaud's jazzy Cinéma Fantaisie.


Berlioz's rarely-encountered (live, at least) Rêverie et Caprice makes a welcome appearance (how marvelously Ehnes floats those rhythms in the Caprice!), and a remarkably un-tacky Méditation from Thaïs closes the program. Yoav Talmi leads the Quebec Symphony in fine accompaniments and also gets to strut his stuff in a lively Le Corsaire Overture (okay, it's not Beecham or Munch, but then who is?) and in Ravel's orchestration of Debussy's Tarantelle Styrienne. Superb sonics top off a disc that makes for really satisfying listening straight through, which is certainly more than you can say for most collections of this sort. First class. [12/21/2002]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Considered to be one of the best trumpeters of his generation, Paul Merkelo is reputed for his “unusual lyrical gifts” (Gramophone). With the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, he presents three rarely recorded masterpieces for trumpet and orchestra. One work is by the rigorous Alfred Désenclos, a favorite of the academy. Henri Tomasi by contrast, was ever the pragmatist, eschewing systems and methods in favor of a popular aesthetic. Meanwhile André Jolivet belonged to a movement that valued the spiritual aspect of music. The works presented here offer a nuanced perspective on French musical thought and the growing importance of the solo trumpet in 20th century music. On this recording, Merkelo offers a performance that will cement his reputation as one of the better trumpeters today.

Solo trumpet with the Montreal Symphony Orchestrasince 1995, Mr Merkelo is regularly praised by the Montreal press as “a spectacular soloist...a most impressive master of his instrument” (Montreal Gazette), a “great virtuoso...dazzling” (La Presse). He has been featured frequently with the OSM, including tours to South America and Lincoln Center in New York. Paul Merkelo has been featured with orchestras, and in recital, throughout the US, Canada, Russia, China, Japan, Portugal, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, France and Thailand.

Kent Nagano is renowned for interpretations of clarity, elegance and intelligence. He is equally at home in music of the classical, romantic and contemporary eras, introducing concert and opera audiences throughout the world to new and rediscovered music and offering fresh insights into established repertoire.

Encount3rs is an unprecedented project, event and recording which has resulted in remarkable new one-act ballets and original orchestral scores. This new album consists of the music from this landmark NAC commission which pairs three of Canada’s outstanding choreographic talents with three of the country’s most exciting composers. Alberta Ballet’s eminent and prolific Jean Grand-Maître joined forces with multiple award-winning new music visionary Andrew Staniland; Ballet BC’s trail-blazing Emily Molnar met her musical match with innovative composer Nicole Lizee; and Guillaume Côte, gifted dancer and choreographic associate with the National Ballet of Canada, was perfectly paired with noted emerging composer Kevin Lau.

Classical Music

Alone or in the company of other instruments, the harp’s unique sonority can evoke either the wind blowing or the heart beating. So it is not surprising that such an instrument inspired the poet Alfred Tennyson to write, “Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might; / Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass’d in music out of sight.” This recording takes the listener through the 20th century, building in intensity as it reveals the harp’s many facets, whether in a solo, accompaniment or chamber music setting. Through the works presented here, the V of Valérie becomes the roman V, the soloist becoming part of a quintet.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the chaconne was generally indistinguishable from the passacaglia, the two musical forms being so similar in nature. In both, the repetition of a single harmonic motif evoked a sense of time stretching far beyond the limits of our physical world, thus creating an illusion of eternity!

This recording collects some of the most beautiful examples from the literally hundreds of such pieces composed during the baroque period. Since the attempt to create the illusion of eternity in music was generally linked to the principle of melodic variations – whether it be variations on a theme or variations over a repeated harmonic motif – two famous examples of Folias composed by Falconiero and Vivaldi are also included.

Ensemble Caprice has made a habit of entering into dialog with composers of the past. For this recording, they have added several short vocal pieces written by the ensemble leader based on poems by the 17th century mystic Angelus Silesius. These brief verses in alexandrine meter are a perfect expression of the dichotomy experienced by the human being torn between life and death, between this world and the invisible world.

A superb Canadian guitarist - Classical Guitar Magazine, 2017 Few national musical styles are as related to an instrument as Spain is to the guitar. It is an instrument that expresses wonderfully the colors and spirit of this beautiful country. We find this musical expression on Canciones, the excellent new album guitarist Adam Cicchillitti, whose program consists of works of the great Spanish composers of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such as Isaac Albeniz, Manuel de Falla, Joaquin Rodrigo and Joaquin Turina. Canciones is a sublime musical representation of the regions and contrasts of Spain, it's sources of inspiration and it's many influences. And to evoke Spain and it's "soul", the guitar is the instrument of choice. Adam Cicchillitti is an exciting young talent emerging on the classical guitar scene in Canada. Originally from Montreal, Adam's recent competition successes have placed him on concert stages across Canada and the United States.

Classical Music

Here's a new album that brings together two of Canada's most prominent young musicians, Andrew Wan, concertmaster of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since 2008, and Charles Richard-Hamelin, Silver medalist and winner of the Krystian Zimerman award at the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015. For this first studio collaboration, they recorded the three sonatas of Beethoven's Op. 30, one of the most important works for violin and piano. Wan and Richard-Hamelin’s playing is dynamic and expressive and the result is nothing short of impressive. These works by Beethoven highlight three facets of the composer’s personality. While Sonata No. 6 shows Beethoven’s calmer side, Sonata No. 7 reveals a more tempestuous and tormented man, and the charming Sonata No. 8 displays a touch of humor. This is the first album of three by Wan and Richard-Hamelin that will cover the complete sonatas for violin and piano of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Tafelmusik's recording of Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth with conductor Bruno Weil a few years ago was an Earth-moving revelation, thanks to its rhythmic liveliness. The Seventh and Eighth are equally beautiful, but Tafelmusik's excellent interpretations are no longer sensibility-altering. Filled out to double its normal size, the orchestra remains agile and Weil creates a thrilling sense of underlying momentum in the music. The recording, made in George Weston Hall, glows. A DVD with rehearsal footage and interviews with Weil and Tafelmusik boss Jeanne Lamon is included.

-- Toronto Star

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The intelligence, sensitivity, and innate musicality distinguishing violinist James Ehnes' terrific unaccompanied Bach carries over to his first volume of the composer's sonatas with harpsichord. What immediately strikes you is the ideal balance between Ehnes and harpsichordist Luc Beauséjour--not just sonically speaking, but in how they effortlessly proportion their phrases and perfectly synchronize trills, turns, and other ornaments. Beauséjour's discreet and effective registrations complement the subtle variations in Ehnes' tone, especially in slower, sustained writing (the quicker-than-usual A major sonata's Andante is a good example). Also notice how Ehnes manages to project a full, rounded, and beautiful tone even when he employs vibrato sparingly. In other words, Ehnes achieves an organic synthesis of period-instrument practice with the virtues of modern violin technique, all to the music's expressive, dance-oriented good. Among numerous world-class Bach violin sonata recordings of disparate stylistic stripes, Ehnes and Beauséjour deserve room at the top. May their second volume prove equally nourishing. [2/14/2005] --Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Born in 1998, Karin Kei Nagano is the daughter of conductor Kent Nagano and pianist Mari Kodama, and has been performing in public since childhood. Making one’s solo CD debut with Bach’s Inventions and Sinfonias is an audacious gesture, yet overall Nagano’s solid technique and tasteful musicianship yield fine results.

To be certain, Nagano does not quite match the refined articulation, the sense of dance, and the liveliness of character that András Schiff and Angela Hewitt bring to their respective Inventions and Sinfonias cycles, nor does she capture the brooding tension that Simon Dinnerstein divines from similarly slow tempo choices in certain pieces (the F minor Sinfonia, for example). Still, there are excellent moments, especially in the Sinfonias.

Note, for example, Nagano’s conversational unfolding of the C major’s imitative writing, the lilt of the B minor’s repeated-note motive, or the D major’s understated yet perceptible swagger. The two-part B-flat Invention receives a brisk and slightly brash reading, while the E major Invention’s chromatic motive is intensified by way of Nagano’s thoughtful use of dynamics. Trills and embellishments, however, could be more assertive.

Incidentally, Nagano orders the pieces according to the 1720 Clavierbüchlein’s symmetrically ascending and descending cycle of keys, rather than the more frequently recorded numerical sequence as set out in Bach’s 1723 edition of the score. It’s a musically wise decision that others might wish to emulate.

– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)

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Classical Music