Classical Music

This is the third volume of Centaur's integral edition of the complete Pieces de Clavecin of Francois Couperin, performed on harpsichord by Mark Kroll, who has made a specialty of this literature. Mark Kroll has been acclaimed as one of the world’s leading harpsichordists and fortepianists. During a career spanning more than fifty years, he has performed on four continents, winning critical praise for his expressive playing and virtuosity. He has appeared with noted soloists and ensembles, played under the batons of conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, James Levine, Kurt Masur and Charles Dutoit, and has served as harpsichordist for the Boston Symphony since 1979.

Passion, excitement, sorrow, and celebration all fill the room with this new exciting release of Biber: Mystery Sonatas by Julia Wedman. Though the Mystery Sonatas (also called the Rosary Sonatas) weren’t discovered until the late 19th century, these master works of violin virtuosity that employs extensive scordutura (multiple tunings) for the performer have become a favorite of Baroque Music lovers and violinists the world over. After 2 years of research leading up to the recording, Ms. Wedman has brought a new life and impassioned vision to these works.

R E V I E W S:

The music sparkles, and the liner notes are both visually appealing and extremely informative, with comprehensive historic description as well as Julia’s musical impressions of each of the 16 sonatas. What fun, for a lover of Baroque music!

-- Laurie Niles, Violinist.com

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Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber's Mystery Sonatas, composed in the 1670s and 1680s, have almost as many interpretations as there are violinists. They're sometimes known as the "Rosary Sonatas," for the "mysteries" involved are the so-called Mysteries of the Rosary, episodes from the life of Christ that furnish material for meditative prayers undertaken with the devotional aid of Rosary prayer beads. Engravings of these episodes appear in Biber's original presentation manuscript of these works (whose cover is missing), and Canadian violinist Julia Wedman, inspired by paintings of the Mysteries of the Rosary she saw in the Aula Academica in Salzburg, emphasizes the sonatas' programmatic detail in her readings. There's no firm evidence that Biber himself was inspired by these paintings, but the idea isn't implausible. Wedman makes two unusual choices in implementing her programmatic idea. The first she shares with Andrew Manze and a few other violinists: instead of switching off among violins as Biber's scordatura or retuning directions become progressively more bizarre, she continues to play the same violin, forcing it into contortions as it approaches Christ's crucifixion and other, well, crucial episodes. This is not the usual approach, but it is persuasive if only because violinists in Biber's time did not possess a rack full of instruments. Wedman's second procedure may be less justifiable historically: she enlists the continuo players in her attempt to make these sonatas into detailed representational works. The same logic that supports her single-violin approach puts the continuo in question: would Biber or other violinists presenting these piece have had the luxury of trading off among gamba, theorbo, archlute, organ, harpsichord, cello, and harp as Wedman's accompanists do here? It's not likely, and it takes the focus off the violin in true virtuoso works. Her realization is never unmusical, however, and it builds nicely to the Crucifixion and Resurrection movements. She has plenty of technical resources to bear on the Passacaglia "The Guardian Angel," which on this and several other recordings is deployed as a finale to the Mystery Sonata cycle. This is an unusually speculative set of Mystery Sonatas, but one that will appeal to those who have come under the work's spell (if that word is permissible here). Notes, partly by Wedman herself, are in English only.

-- James Manheim, All Music Guide

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

DVORAK: CHAMBER MUSIC VOL. 1

...Elie Siegmeister's Western Suite fits right in, being a thoroughly Copland-esque bit of Americana, albeit more heavily orchestrated and less rhythmically lithe, and its issue on a single disc probably missed most collectors. Abravanel's performance catches the music's liveliness...

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
reviewing the Siegmeister, previously reissued on Vox 5182

LORCA MUSICA PER CELLO SOLO F

DUO CONCERTANT ARABESQUE MEN

This recording is a manifesto from the world of one man, Jo l Grare... evoking concepts like modernism, culture, temporality, style, and improvisation with a singular vision. Percussion) forms a rich musical base to this invitation to travel, and play magnificent themes stemming from Spain, Turkey, China, and ancient music like pro-jazzmen play standards.

SONATES POUR PIANO

This breathtaking DVD and aural meditation on Antarctica, with original score, was produced by photographer/videographer Brooks de Wetter-Smith.

Classical Music

Classical Music

An aristocratic background, Eastern philosophies, private study with Modernist luminaries of the early 20th century and a determined pursuit of solitude: all in their ways contribute to the unique soundworld of Giacinto Scelsi’s music. Despite shunning personal publicity, however, the composer surrounded himself with friends and favorite performers, among them the American-born, Dutch cellist Frances-Marie Uitti who came to represent Scelsi on the world stage in his latter years. To her care he entrusted Trilogy, which forms the main work on this album of solo cello music. Comprising Triphon, Dithome and the Sanskritinspired Ygghur, the Trilogy is still to some extent dependent on the Expressionist language he had learnt from disciples of Schoenbergian serialism, yet already personal to him, and now a classic of 20th-century solo cello repertoire. The album is completed by the two fleeting movements of Voyages from 1974, which deploy disembodied harmonics and other techniques familiar from Scelsi’s music.

Edouard Ferlet has already explored intriguing byways for the Alpha label: in 2015 he and Violaine Cochard recorded ‘Plucked Unplucked’, an album associating piano and harpsichord – a successful venture that will soon see a follow-up. The bassist Stephane Kerecki has already made several recordings for Outhere, including ‘Nouvelle Vague’, a prizewinner at the Victoires de la Musique. The career of the trumpet player Airelle Besson has been on a high since 2015, when she won both the Prix Django Reinhardt of the Academie du Jazz and the ‘Revelation’ Award at the Victoires du Jazz. These three jazz musicians met and decided to form a trio in order to combine their universes and their ambitions. Here is the fruit of their first year of companionship, a programme presenting compositions by each of them, an album wearing the colours of jazz but featuring several tracks directly inspired by great standards of the classical repertoire, including ‘Es ist vollbracht’ from Bach’s St John Passion, the Pavanes of Ravel and Faure, the Valse sentimentale of Tchaikovsky, and Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance, which can be recognised behind the ‘Stances du sabre’. The refinement of the compositions and the playing and the musicians’ capacity for listening to each other are a source of endless pleasure and fulfilment.

Considered among the finest of contemporary vocal ensembles, the London-based Tenebrae conducted by Nigel Short have gained renown for their powerfully commanding recordings that range from medieval to contemporary works. Their latest release is no exception as Tenebrae give movingly gorgeous and intricate performances of a selection of motets by Johannes Brahms and Anton Bruckner. A portion of the proceeds from sales of this recording will be donated to MacMillan Cancer Support.

This was L’Opéra Harmonique’s first production at Opéra de Rouen. It is a singularly thought-provoking take on Purcell’s famous piece. The extended duration is due to various inserts along the way in the manner of the period. The orchestra, using period instruments, is wonderfully polished throughout, making the pointed dances a particular delight.

Here, the sea is the ‘matrix of the action’, to quote the booklet notes. As a “reflection of the protagonists’ souls”, it shadows the fluidity of the action and the characters’ response to the travails of doomed love. Cécile Roussat and Julien Lubek have done a sterling, hyper-imaginative job of direction, choreography, sets and costumes. The stage deliberately seems to invoke the mythic, a magical time before ours, artificial in its immediate effect but, via this distancing, allowing the core emotions of the drama to shine forth. The production sets out to depict all characters involved in the action, even those merely mentioned in the libretto (like Diana). Also Cupid draws his bow in stylised movements onstage during the course of the dramatic and beautifully expressive Overture. The excellent choir is offstage throughout, a disembodied Greek chorus capable of the greatest delight as well as the deepest pathos (“Great minds against themselves conspire”). Replacing them onstage, perhaps, are the dancers and acrobats. Prepare for a raft of the interpolations mentioned above; gird yourself for example, also for trapeze artists, swing from the ceiling as the lovers’ hands seek to touch, a scene that moves effortlessly into “Let the triumphs of love and of beauty be shown”.

Vocally, the first thing to note is that this international cast delivers the English text astonishingly well. As much care has gone into diction as has been lavished on any other performance aspect and indeed on the production.

The Dido is Alaskan soprano Vivica Genaux, stunning in her expressivity and decidedly feisty in her final scene with Aeneas. Yet she is truly touching in her Lament, beginning with her arms fully extended as if to reflect the length and beauty of her phrasing. Finally, she is enveloped by the sea, the sea that has provided such a powerful metaphor throughout. At last, also, we the DVD viewers see the chorus, now in the orchestra pit. Feathers fall at the end — traditionally a sign of angelic presence – is this the reference?

Portuguese soprano Ana Quintans is a fresh-voiced, charming Belinda, wondrously nimble at “Haste, haste to town”. Perhaps the surprise is a male singer for the part of the Sorceress, a high baritone, Marc Mauillon, who also takes the role of the Sailor. The use of a male voice was suggested by a 1706 prompt book, and 'hir' (to use a conflation of “his” and “her”) scenes are augmented by dancers. S/he is a sort of camp octopus. Don’t buy the DVD on this information alone, but I admit that it sounds intriguing.

As Aeneas, Henk Neven is vocally superb although perhaps his stage presence does not quite suggest Aeneas’ magnetism. However, this is altogether a most fascinating DVD, superbly performed. The camera-work is good, if not excellent — sometimes sudden close-ups can seem rather random. Not by any means your run-of-the-mill Dido, but for those that already own the William Christie Glyndebourne on Opus Arte (or that same conductor’s version on Fra Musica with Hilary Summers), or Hogwood’s ROH DVD (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with a cast that includes Sarah Connolly), this DVD still acts as a necessary complement.

-- Colin Clarke, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Classical Music

This production shows for the first time in two centuries Molière and Lully's comédie-ballet in its original and unabridged 1670-version, with the sung and danced interludes interwoven into the action, recreating the atmosphere of unbridled hilarity, which is the hallmark of comédie-ballet.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Ruberto Chapí (1851-1909) is best known for a string of splendid Zarzuelas, the most famous of which is probably La Revoltosa, but he composed works in many different media and was a very well-trained composer generally. Naxos has a fine disc of his orchestral music, including his only symphony. Toward the end of his life he wrote four magnificent string quartets, two of which are presented here. Hopefully the rest will follow.

These are major works, full-length, and ambitious in scope–they play for about 35 minutes each. The First Quartet’s first movement features about a billion repetitions of its principal motive, but even there Chapí’s powers of invention are pretty astonishing. The music is insistent, but never dull. The master lyricist is always in evidence, with tunes that always sing, while the treatment of texture is astonishingly colorful. There’s plenty of pizzicato for variety, while the layout of the four instrumental lines is consistently airy and spacious. Combine that with the obviously Spanish melodic idiom, and the result is enchanting from start to finish.

The Cuarteto Latinoamericano plays with typical incisiveness and verve. However, the ensemble smartly tempers its trademark sharp sonority in a manner consistent with the music’s elegance and warmth, especially in the two slow-ish movements (Andante mosso and Allegretto, respectively). The truth is, there is very little actual slow music in these quartets. They quite literally seethe with energy, but the players differentiate and characterize each section notably well. Superb engineering from Sono Luminus captures every inflection with natural fidelity. A great release.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassocsToday.com