One for gentle, lyrical listening.

This is the music ‘for a daydream, or the twilight accompaniment for a romantic dinner.’ Bear that in mind the next time you’re subjected to an evening of Muzak or a trawl of Eric Clapton’s Greatest Hits. Instead Lars Hannibal has arranged all these pieces – bar the Paganini – for violin and guitar, and has recorded them with Yi Chen. They’ve performed together before, though you may well recall Hannibal’s longstanding partnership with violinist Kim Sjøgren as well, of course, with Michala Petri, his wife.

One casts a jaundiced eye over the programme, but given that the medium is the message, and that violin-guitar recitals – whilst hardly rare – are inevitably engaging, then it’s better to enjoy what we have. Strong points include Hannibal’s harp-evoking sonorities in his accompaniment to the Thaïs Meditation which are delectable. Yi Chen engages in some little expressive intensifications of the line without imperilling it through too dragged out a tempo. Kreisler features in two selections. Liebesleid is quite slow though the B section is strummed more energetically. Schön Rosmarin however is rather metrical and could do with a great deal more caprice. The playing in Ombra mai fu is direct and discreet, and slow. There were times when I yearned for a touch of Albert Sandler and his luscious portamenti, but that’s a personal matter.

Yi Chen reserves her greatest weight of tone for the Schubert though even here, possibly because of the all-string combination, the ethos is emollient, even bordering on the laid-back. One notices however that in evergreens of yore, but ones that are not so often espoused, such as the Paradies Sicilienne, her playing is more buoyant and unfettered, and she responds with more allure than to the trusted standards. The Lalo derives from his Symphonie espagnole, and Hannibal has already transcribed and recorded the whole thing with Sjøgren. The Handel Larghetto comes from the Op.1 set of sonatas. Rather more interesting is the Grieg folksong diptych; fine dynamic variance on repeated phrases in the Cow-Call. The Satie trio make for pleasant listening and the Paganini original invariably brings out the best in performers due to its soaring buoyancy.

The recording has an intriguing engineering twist. It was recorded in Karlebo Church and then the acoustic of Chicago’s Symphony Hall was added and further tinkering ensued. Clearly spaciousness but no loss of detail was on the agenda. When Sjøgren and Hannibal recorded the Lalo mentioned above for the same label the players’s sound filled the acoustic quite dramatically.

One for gentle, lyrical listening.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Composer and arranger Michael Bojesen has selected hymns and carols from across the world to ring in the holiday season. Includes both familiar songs such as "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear", "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" and less familiar holiday songs from around the globe like the Basque plaint "Gabriel's Message", from Poland "Infant Holy, Infant Lowly" and Czechoslovakia's "Zither Carol". With special guest Michala Petri, the brilliant young recorder player providing piquant accompaniment, the release is available in Super Audio format ensuring superior sound quality.

“You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind–a journey into a wondrous land bounded only by imagination…” Although that was an introduction to the strange new world of the classic 1960s television series The Twilight Zone, it came to mind as an equally apt intro to the music of Olivier Messiaen. Although his world isn’t exactly the Twilight Zone’s unfathomable, unpredictable “middle ground between science and superstition”, in his choral music the composer definitely did create his own special, unique, alternately mystifying and frightening, ultimately exhilarating “zone” of sound, a realm of ensemble vocalism that challenges all who will hear.

The Three Liturgies–for female voices, piano, ondes Martenot, celeste, vibraphone, percussion, and string orchestra–is as radical in every aspect as anything today’s composers offer, but at its core there is a passionate heart and a musical purpose beyond merely making noise. You keep listening, not because you’re charmed and comforted–but rather because your senses are so deeply stirred, the familiar conventions of choral sound and rhythmic form and expression so profoundly and movingly redefined.

Long before composers such as Arvo Pärt or György Ligeti became known for works whose rhythmic and harmonic effects sparked descriptions such as “soundscape” and “suspension of time”, there was Messiaen’s motet O sacrum convivium! (1937), which not only embodies those concepts but remains an unforgettably moving, perfect realization of this oft-set sacred text.

Once again we approach the very edge of the boundaries of musical time and space–not to mention the edge of what’s humanly possible, vocally speaking–with the Cinq Rechants (Five Refrains), written for 12 solo voices. The subject is a part of “the myth of Tristan and Isolde”; the music deals in extremes, in all aspects, from dynamics and rhythmic forms to virtuosic vocal technique. You don’t forget this music once you’ve heard it. And fortunately Marcus Creed and his Danish singers and players–along with pianist Marianna Shirinyan and ondes Martenot soloist Thomas Bloch (in the Three Liturgies)–are more than just able advocates for Messiaen’s music: they are musicians of exceptional ability and admirable commitment, who leave no doubt that we are hearing performances that will stand alongside or above any in the catalog.

Whether turned up or at a lower level, the sound is full and vibrant and well-balanced in both the combined choir/instrumental and a cappella pieces. While this program and repertoire may not be for everyone, if you’re a serious choral music fan and you don’t already have these works in your collection, you need to hear this, and this recording most invitingly opens the door.

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

All good musical duos are conversations, and when Lars Hannibal and Michala Petri play together, they create an extraordinary, intimate space where you want to sit on the edge of your chair and listen more attentively as each next exchange provides endless moments of sonic joy to delight your ears! From their first concert in the Monastery La Cartuja de la Sierra in Andalusia, Spain in the summer 1992, they have toured throughout Europe, North and Central America and Asia, giving more than 1.500 concerts from a repertoire spanning from the late renaissance and early baroque, the classical and romantic periods, to contemporary music written especially for them. In celebration of their 25th Anniversary, Michala and Hannibal have selected a very special program of some of the pieces they have have played live so many times – to share that intimate “fleeting moment” they have perfected in the live performances. Featuring musical sketches and character pieces by Carl Nielsen, Edvard Grieg, Edouard Lalo, Asger Lund-Christiansen, Lars Hannibal and a new arrangement of an ancient Chinese melody, “Garden Party” perfectly captures the spirit of “Conversation, Companionship and Communication” that has defined their quarter-century long musical partnership. You are hereby invited to join the party!

This is one of the best CDs of recorder music that I have ever heard.



HARVEY Concerto incantato. ARNOLD Recorder Concerto. JACOB Suite for Recorder and Strings • Michala Petri (rcr); Jean Thorel, cond; City CO of Hong Kong • OUR 6.220606 (SACD: 59:06)


Titled English Recorder Concertos , this release presents three works of that genre, the first being a premiere recording by its original performers, who gave the first public performance of it in October 2009. The Concerto Incantanto of Richard Harvey (b. 1950), who is primarily known as a composer of music for films and television, is touted as “a new concerto for the Harry Potter generation.” Scored for the solo protagonist and a chamber orchestra of strings, woodwinds, piano, celeste, and percussion, its five movements (in an alternating fast-slow-fast-slow-fast sequence) sketch musical portraits of magic and spirits. Fortunately, it is mostly much better than what such an advertisement might lead one to expect; while definitely lighter fare, it is tuneful, atmospheric, and thoroughly enjoyable. As part of both the mood coloration of each of the movements and a display of virtuoso pyrotechnics, the soloist switches off at various points between sopranino, soprano, treble, and tenor recorders. The opening “Sortilegio” (Sorcery) requires use of the first three of those, with the soloist whooshing about in rapid runs and similarly tricky passagework. In the succeeding “Natura Morta” (Still Life), the composer turns to the deeper-toned tenor instrument and draws upon chiffs and other sounds and techniques from folk instruments such as the end-blown flute of North American Indians and the Chinese xiao. This is the one movement I do not care for, as portions of it sound too much like clichéd film music accompanying shots of African savannahs or dawns in East Asia and the western American plains settings. “Danza Spiriti” (Dance of the Spirits) is a scherzo that returns to both the use of sopranino and soprano recorders and to the flitting strains of the opening movement. The quiet “Canzone Sacra” (Sacred Song) that follows employs the lower register of the treble recorder and a stately hymnlike tune known as the “English Theme.” Finally, the concluding “Incantesimi” (Spells) brings the proceedings full circle with the soprano recorder chattering away in double-tonguing articulations and exhilarating flight in double-time.


Malcolm Arnold likewise composed his three-movement concerto for Petri, albeit back in 1988. It is a terrific piece, and there is no mistaking its sturdy British contours. A slightly waggish first movement in sonata form alternates between major and minor modes. The subdued second movement, a passacaglia, has an air of mystery, but again somehow suggests that it not be taken too seriously. Skipping triplets and sextuplets dominate the march-like finale.


The 1957 Suite for Treble Recorder and Strings of Gordon Jacob, a sequence of seven movements modeled upon a Renaissance dance suite, was reviewed by me in Fanfare 34:5 in a version for string quartet. Having now heard it both ways, I actually prefer the fuller-bodied chamber-orchestra version offered here.


Michala Petri hardly needs any praise from me to add to her critical laurels. Given the subject of the first work, suffice it to say that her playing here is appropriately bewitching, and the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong and conductor Jean Thorel provide excellent support. The SACD recorded sound is exceptionally spacious and full-bodied; the booklet is lavishly illustrated with color photos of scenic English countryside, Stonehenge, and shots of the performers in Hong Kong. This enchanting disc has my spellbound recommendation.


FANFARE: James A. Altena


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Let’s deal with the top and bottom lines first. This is one of the best CDs of recorder music that I have ever heard. Full stop. However, four things need to be said. Firstly, that this particular instrument is not my favourite: it comes a long way down my personal batting list which is crowned by piano and cello. I guess that I associate it with my own excruciating attempts to play Greensleeves as a nine year old scholar. My contemporaries were not much better either. Secondly, the tone of the ‘English flute’ is something that needs to be heard in relatively small doses. To this end, I advise taking each of these works one by one – with small refreshment breaks in-between. Thirdly, I have never heard of Michala Petri – I ought to have. She is utterly brilliant. Finally, notwithstanding ‘point one’ above, I have long regarded the legendary John Turner as the master of recorder music. It is rare for me to listen to any work for this instrument that is not played or recorded by him. So this is, for me at any rate, new territory.
 
The Richard Harvey Concerto Incantato is officially billed as a ‘world premiere recording’. However I have not heard the Arnold or the Jacob before. I have discovered that Michala Petri did record the Jacob in 1984 on Philips Digital.
 
If I am honest, I have never heard of Richard Harvey either. Once again, I should have. For one thing he contributed to Hans Zimmer’s score for the Da Vinci Code. Born in 1953, he graduated from the Royal College of Music in 1972. He has involved himself with many genres of music – from medieval to rock – he had a progressive rock and folk band called Gryphon. One point of note: his ‘modest’ web-site (Richard Harvey: Renowned Composer, Arranger Conductor and Multi-Instrumentalist) is very difficult to read – white text on black!
 
Harvey’s Concerto is interesting, if not totally satisfying. When I read that he was a film-music composer, I did wonder if it would suffer from sounding like a compilation from his film scores and to a certain extent I believe this is true. However, the Concerto is a valid work in its own right. The listener needs to remember that Harvey is an accomplished recorder player – and other instruments too. His website notes that he can play some 700 different instruments from around the world! I would be delighted to manage just one well.

The Concerto Incantato was written specifically for Michala Petri and was commissioned by Leanne Nicholls for the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong’s tenth anniversary concert.
 
The sleeve-notes suggest an eclectic stylistic background to the work and this is exactly what we hear. The composer quite clearly draws extensively on his television and film score background, although this is supplemented by his interest in medieval music.
 
The concerto is written in five movements and makes use of the full set of recorders. The first movement is entitled Sorcery and I must admit does have a distinct Harry Potter mood to it. The orchestration fairly shimmers. The second is entitled Natura Morta - Still Life. Here the composer has used the tenor recorder and has had recourse to ethnic music derived from China and the native North-American flute. It is a thoughtful, almost static piece that lulls the listener into a dream-like world. The following Danza Spiriti (Dance of the Sprits) destroys the reverie. This is exciting music that chases itself around in circles. The next movement is the meditative Sacra Canzone featuring what the composer has called the English Theme. This leads to the finale which once again nods to Harry Potter – Incantesimi – Spells. This, for me, is the least impressive part of the work. The minimalist recorder figurations become tedious. However the music builds up to a hectic dance, before the English Theme is reprised. I am not sure I like the ‘medieval’ mood in parts of this movement.
 
In the round this is a reasonably impressive and virtuosic work – however I hold it to be a little unbalanced between the parts. If this is music for the ‘Harry Potter’ generation, as billed in the liner-notes then I am not quite convinced.
 
Malcolm Arnold’s 1988 Concerto was composed specifically for Michala Petri. I know that there are mixed views about the quality of this work. It is not one of my favourites from the composer’s pen. Yet there is plenty of interest and one or two touches of the ‘old’ Arnold. I guess that I am a little concerned that the balance of work is faulty. There is such a difference stylistically between the complex passacaglia of the second movement and the ‘St Trinians’ mood of the finale. And I cannot quite weigh up the opening movement. Yet the concerto has some interesting things. It probably deserves its place in the repertoire.
 
Gordon Jacob needs no introduction to readers of these pages. However, I think it fair to say that his music is largely under-represented in the catalogues with only nine CDs containing his music. This compares to 159 for Malcolm Arnold. The present Suite was commissioned by Arnold Dolmetsch in 1957. It has been rightly regarded as a ‘divertissement’ rather than anything more serious. It is presented in seven well-balanced movements. The Suite opens with a delightfully ‘pastoral’ Prelude. This is followed by a lively English dance which is just way too short. Then there is a Lament. However, this is not too depressing and has a ‘smoochy’ feel to it rather than one of heartbreak. The string writing here is particularly beautiful. It is the longest movement in the suite. I love the exciting Burlesca alla Rumba which is all sunshine. This is followed by an epitome of English pastoral – the Pavane. Here are impressions of fields and rivers and up-and-down dales. The penultimate movement, an Introduction and Cadenza is also illustrative of the landscape although this time in valedictory mood. For me it is the heart of the work. The finale, Tarantella is fun all the way. Jacob calls for the soprano recorder to give brightness and sparkle to the last moments of this Suite.
 
Michala Petri has some sixty CDs listed in the Arkiv catalogue. The range of music covered is phenomenal. From Bach to Ole Bull and from Fauré to Frederick the Great, she has recorded a huge variety of works. Noted as a child prodigy, she began playing recorder aged three, took serious lessons at five and by 11 years she made her concerto debut. She often played together with her mother Hanne, a harpsichordist and her brother David, cellist as part of the Petri Trio. Nowadays, she often gives concerts with her husband, the lutenist and guitarist, Lars Hannibal. Both Petri and her husband run their own record label – OUR Recordings. The present disc is one of more than a dozen released in the past eight years.
 
However, it is not just Michala Petri who has given a superb performance. Jean Thorel at the helm of the City Chamber Orchestra has contributed a sympathetic accompaniment to these three concertos.
 
This is an enjoyable CD that is well played and features a diverse programme. In spite of my reservations about the Malcolm Arnold Concerto and the stylistic balance of the Richard Harvey I feel that it will be essential listening for enthusiasts of recorder music. The presentation of the disc is impressive: it looks and feels good. The sound quality is excellent. I enjoyed the liner-notes – they are both informative and entertaining.
 
My favourite work, by a long shot, is Gordon Jacob’s Suite and I will turn to this recording to enjoy this piece on many occasions.

-- John France, MusicWeb International

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.



It's rare to experience the level of artistic rapport heard on this recording from [Petri and Esfahani]… In Petri's capable hands, the recorder becomes a medium through which she conveys a more vocal interpretation of thematic material than ever a violin could… Esfahani crafts the most imaginative and engaging accompaniments and repartee I have ever heard.

– Gramophone Magazine

Petri and Esfahani's is an invigorating ensemble effort, with each sparking off the other.

– BBC Music Magazine

Arcangelo Corelli was "world famous" even in the world of his day. Copies of Corelli's works appeared in St. Petersburg as well as in Constantinople, Stockholm and even in America, where Thomas Jefferson spoke of being charmed completely by Corelli's music.

Despite its popularity only a handful of his original manuscripts exist today and the Violin Sonatas Op. 5 have a place of honor. The pieces on this album were drawn from the second half of Op. 5 and in the original edition of 1700, published as "Parte seconda: Preludii, Allemande, Correnti, Sarabande, Gavotte, e Follia." Baroque sonatas having been inspired by dances, and playable on violin and harpsichord or ona variety of instruments, in this case, recorder and harpsichord.

The easy-held nature of the sonatas allows great freedom for ornamentation and improvisation, which Michala Petri and Mahan Esfahani savor with pleasure.

CHINESE RECORDER CONCERTOS • Michala Petri (rcr); Lan Shui, cond; Copenhagen P • OUR 6.220603 (SACD: 71:29)


TANG JIANPING Fei Ge. BRIGHT SHENG Flute Moon. MA SHUI-LONG Bamboo Flute Concerto. CHEN YI The Ancient Chinese Beauty


Once a busy recording artist for Philips and RCA Red Seal, Danish virtuoso Michala Petri (with guitarist and lutenist Lars Hannibal) launched her own label in 2006. This is OUR Recordings’s 13th release, and the third in its Dialogue—East Meets West series. This collection of Chinese recorder concertos is, to enlist a perhaps overused word, delightful, and deserves to be brought to the attention of a broad audience.


If you don’t believe me, try the opening work by Tang Jianping, who was born in 1955. The title’s English translation is Flying Song, a reference to a style of folk singing indigenous to a region of southwest China. As a courtship song intended to be projected over long distances, it must be both penetrating and appealing—think of the songs from the Auvergne region set by Joseph Canteloube. With its rich scoring and tunefulness, Fei Ge also seems to be motivated by the same forces that led George Enescu to compose his two Romanian Rhapsodies. The languages are very different, of course, but the impact is quite similar. This will go to the top of my list of musical pick-me-ups. Tang Jianping composed this work for bamboo flute and a ensemble of various Asian instruments; the arrangement for Western instruments performed here is the composer’s own.


Bright Sheng and Chen Yi are more familiar to Western listeners. The first movement of the former’s Flute Moon (“Chi Lin’s Dance”) is an athletic and often thunderous toccata in which the dancing of the mythical Chinese unicorn or “dragon horse” is evoked. The combination of the piping recorder with the heavy stamping of the orchestra creates an effect that is both bizarre and beguiling. The atmospheric second movement (also titled “Flute Moon”) is based on a classical melody dating from the Song Dynasty. After a tensely quiet opening, the movement erupts with dramatic gestures and a strong melodic profile, and then returns to the opening mood. Chen Yi currently teaches at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The Ancient Chinese Beauty was composed specifically for Michala Petri, who premiered it in Beijing in 2008. Its language is more difficult, and what grabs the ear most, at least initially, is the composer’s employment and combining of instrumental timbres in much the same way that an abstract painter uses a variety of paints and brushes. The three movements are “The Clay Figurines,” “The Ancient Totems,” and “The Dancing Ink.” Less than 15 minutes long, The Ancient Chinese Beauty is just the right length for its materials. The tenor recorder is used in the middle movement, and the alto recorder in the first and third. The third movement is an exciting moto perpetuo characterized by the composer’s insistent use of repeated notes.


The Bamboo Flute Concerto by Ma Shui-Long (b.1939) blends traditional Western gestures—particularly those associated with the genre of the romantic concerto—with melodies in a traditional Chinese style. As the title suggests, Ma composed it for the bang di , but of course here it is performed on a recorder—a sopranino, unless I am mistaken. It is not a very adventurous concerto, but it is appealing, and it is an appropriate foil for the works by Bright Sheng and Chen Yi that frame it.


Michala Petri recently turned 50 and shows no signs of relinquishing her enthusiastic yet serene mastery over her instruments of choice. She plays all of these works, not just The Ancient Chinese Beauty , as if they were composed just for her. If anyone still doubts the recorder’s place as an instrument worthy of the same attention as its cousin the flute, Petri’s playing here should put that to rest. The Copenhagen Philharmonic accompanies her idiomatically, and with sensitivity to this music’s many shapes and colors. Kudos to Lan Shui, its chief conductor since 2007, for making this happen. Finally, the booklet notes (in English and Chinese) thoughtfully guide one through the program, and the SACD technology makes a spectacular noise, from the recorder’s most piercing upper registers to the granitic power of the orchestra’s lowest notes.


This is Want List material.


FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle

Who can resist the casual, seductive, ingenious and multilayered music of Brazil? A country of continental dimensions where all of Europe could fit within her borders! But size isn't everything! From the lithesome, musical elegance of the choro to the hypnotic sensuality of the Bossa nova, and a kaleidoscope of subtle rhythms wrapped in sophisticated jazz harmonies, the sound of Brazilian music is unforgettable unmistakable, and best summed up by the Portuguese word ''saudade,'' which mingles yearning, sadness and memory. The leading recorder-player for decades, Michala Petri returns to take us on a new musical journey to Terra do Brasil through the music of Jobim, Nazareth, Gismonti, Villa-Lobos, Hermeto Pascoal and others. Joining her are two exciting musicians in their fields: the young guitarist and composer Daniel Murray and award-winning percussionist/composer Marilyn Mazur. A natural guitar prodigy, Murray has established himself at a young age as both a masterful interpreter of the music of Tom Jobim and as a leading voice in the contemporary Brazilian music scene.

The smallest fluctuations and nuances in Axel Borup-Jørgensen’s music can have the impact of an earthquake. It is a music born out of stillness. It is a quiet modernism, where the silences speak just as insistently as the few, but decisive, outbursts.The present recording provides an overview of Borup-Jørgensen’s small but highly distinctive oeuvre for organ. Borup- Jørgensen’s unique – and surprisingly numerous works for the “King of Instruments” set him apart from many of his contemporaries. In addition to writing highly individual solo works, six of the pieces recorded here call for additional musicians from Strophen (1962), an expressionistic setting of a text by Rainer Maria Rilke for voice and organ, to Portal for percussion and organ Opus 181 (2009), a work composed for concert in honor of his 85th birthday. Joining organist Jens E. Christensen on this sonic journey is percussionist Mathias Reumert, mezzo-soprano Pia Rose Hansen, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, bass-baritone Jakob Bloch Jespersen, and Lars Sømod, second organist on organo per due Opus 133.1 (1989). Christensen plays the historic organ at Vor Frelsers Church, Copenhagen, a glorious Baroque instrument built by the Botzen Brothers 1698-1700. Even silent, the instrument is an imposing structure, with over 4000 pipes, housed in an ornately decorated case sculpted by Christian Nerger, featuring a bust of King Christian V at the center.

A journey into the heart of the Danish soul. Kim Larsen (1945-2018)-the much-loved Danish rock musician and multifaceted artist-captures in music and words the Danish soul. With his 500 recorded songs and 40 albums he is known by all Danes of all ages. Guitarist, and head of guitar department at The Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, Jesper Sivebæk, had 2 heroes in his youth: Andrés Segovia and Kim Larsen and they have followed him ever since. For more than 10 years Jesper Sivebæk has worked on the pieces on this album. With his great experience he uses the possibilities of the guitar to the utmost, and follows the classical tradition of making instrumental versions of folk songs as in Miguel Llobets arrangements of Catalan folksongs, Benjamin Brittens English and Chinese folksongs arrangements, and Bela Bartoks Hungarian folk songs. Sivebæk is true both to the beauty and the simplicity of Kim Larsens songs, and to his instrument the classical Spanish guitar. In these arrangements classical guitar players around the globe now have 12 new pieces to discover and put on their concert programs.

Since his emergence on the musical scene in 2002 when his Symphony No. 1, “Oceanic Days” was the winner of The Nordic Council Music Prize, Faroese composer Sunleif Rasmussen has continued to make a name for himself and his island home on the world music scene. Among his many striking compositions is a growing corpus of works featuring the recorder. Beginning with his expansive concerto for recorders and large orchestra, Territorial Songs (2008-09), Rasmussen sought to expand the instrument’s persona and possibilities, freeing it from its historic associations with the music of the Renaissance and Baroque, pushing it into new territories. In this mission, the composer has been exceptionally fortunate to have as muse and musical partner one of the greatest recorder players ever, Michala Petri. The current project represents an overview of works composed from 2009 to 2020. All are scores featuring the recorder: as concerto soloist with a symphony orchestra, (Territorial Songs), a string ensemble (Winter Echoes), an obbligato in a complex choral setting (“I” ), chamber music (Flow), and unaccompanied (Sorrow and Joy Fantasy), each work a milestone in Rasmussen’s musical development . As always, Michala Petri brings each score to life with consummate artistry and is perfectly matched by each of the ensembles performing with her.

Although Robert Schumann’s public role in the Bach revival is less well known than that of Felix Mendelssohn, Bach’s music would play an influential effect throughout his life. Schumann would in turn, arrange and perform many of Bach’s works including adding piano parts to the Solo Violin Sonatas and Cellos Suites and trumpets to the St. John Passion! In 1843 he and Clara rented a custom-made pedalflügel - a dreadnought of an instrument combining a Friedrich Wieck grand piano with a pedal keyboard that enabled Schumann’s to play Bach’s organ music at home. During one of his periodic bouts of depression, Schumann became gripped by what he called Fugenpassion and shortly thereafter his obsession with Bach would blossom in the Canons and Fugues of Opp. 56 and 58. The curious name of this album references Carl Nielsen’s advice to fellow composer Ture Rangström, namely, to get down to the roots of a piece so that it would truly flower. And so following Nielsen’s advice, acclaimed organist Jens E. Christensen, a master of styles ancient and modern, dug deep to uncover the roots of Schumann’s imagination for this truly extraordinary program, a lovingly cultivated German-Danish, Piano-Organ, Baroque-Romantic hybrid, that will no doubt become a perennial favorite for fans of Schumann’s most florid contrapuntal creations.

When I read the word “Siesta,” I picture a recumbent Mexican wearing a multicolored serape snoozing under his extravagantly brimmed sombrero. For Lars Hannibal, however, a siesta offers a break from work which doesn’t have to be spent sleeping. Instead, it’s a good time to listen to music. You certainly wouldn’t want to doze through this CD, as even in the familiar pieces the recorder’s woody rusticity shines a new light on the old tunes. Piazzolla’s Histoire du tango—a four-movement suite chronicling the evolution of tango in Argentina—expresses itself with humor, melancholy, and in the last movement, irony. Joan Albert Amargòs’s Tango català has a Spanish title, but I hear Brazil in its mood, melody, and harmony. After the guitar sets the scene, the recorder joins in, substituting for a sultry singer in a work “having the quiet sadness of many a Jazz ballad” (from Leo Black’s notes). Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Sonatina is the work of a classicist in love with Spain; Ravel’s Pièce en forme de habanera sways to its endlessly seductive rhythm; and Entr’acte, Ibert’s swirling mini-travelogue, recalls the old cliché that some of the best Spanish music is by French composers. Three works by Villa-Lobos close the recital: Modinha (literally, little song), a lyrical, syncopated melody; Distribução de flores, a haunting tune (especially when played by the tenor recorder), with an unmistakable South American Indian sound; and the Cantilena from the well-loved Bachianas brasileiras No. 5. The recorder and guitar probably won’t displace the voice and cellos of the original in listeners’ affections, but the melody is as beautiful as ever, even if the recorder sometimes sounds a bit shrill. Overall, a very enjoyable disc that introduced me to some unfamiliar music while providing a fresh look at some perennials.

FANFARE: Robert Schulslaper

THE NIGHTINGALE • Michaela Petri (rcr); Stephen Layton, cond; Danish Nat’l Vocal Ens • OUR RECORDINGS 6.220605 (59:22)


PRAULINS The Nightingale. BÖRTZ Nemesis Divina. RASMUSSEN I. BRUUN 2 Scenes with Skylark


Would that all “concept albums,” particularly those of new music, came out as well as this. Recorder player Michaela Petri, a veteran of at least two decades’ worth of performances around the globe, was absolutely thrilled with the 2007 world premiere of Daniel Börtz’s Nemesis Divina in Stockholm, so much so that she began to think of doing an album of modern music including the recorder with a vocal choir. A year later, composer Ugis Praulins was asked to write a similar piece, and he chose Hans Christian Andersen’s famous tale, The Nightingale . When they told conductor Stephen Layton of their plans, he surprisingly suggested not his own group, Polyphony, but the newly established Danish National Vocal Ensemble. Serendipitously, the ensemble’s director, Ivar Munk, told them that he had been thinking of working with Petri for some time, and so gave his full support to the project.


This disc is the result, and I don’t think it is going too far to say that more than half of the record’s success is due to Layton’s greatness as a choral director. Those who have read my few reviews of his group know that I am a huge fan of Polyphony and, by inference, of Layton. He really knows how to get the best out of a choir, not only the usual things like good blend and phrasing but also the unusual things like rhythmic acuity, flawless diction, and a deep knowledge of how to get the most and best out of all of his singers.


Praulins, a Latvian composer, is one of those whose developing years were spent listening to as much rock as classical music, particularly King Crimson and Gentle Giant. He also formed his own rock band, Vec?s M?jas. According to the notes, the surge of Latvian cultural nationalism that arose from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led him to delve into the music and traditions of pre-Christian Latvia, which deeply influence his work. While rejecting formalism, Praulins nevertheless seeks to join folk songs, Renaissance polyphony, and “a confident theatricality to create music that entertains and uplifts.” The Nightingale is both an unusual piece and an appealing one, using the chorus in a highly virtuosic manner, ranging from the bass low D to soprano D above high C. Of course, Petri’s recorder is the nightingale, and her “voice” is heard signaling the most important events and changes in the story.


Börtz is known for his film scores for Ingmar Bergman, and like the filmmaker he uses an intuitive and modern approach to matters of structure and form. As a result of working with Bergman, Börtz has also absorbed what the notes call “the metaphysical darkness” of Bergman, which he then processes through his music. His earlier works were strongly influenced by the Polish avant-garde, composers like Penderecki, but beginning in the 1980s he changed to a more melodic and linear style. This led to his operas Bacchanterna and Marie Antoinette, and oratorio And His Name Was Orestes. Nemesis Divina is based on two texts by 18th-century botanist-physician Carl Linnaeus, Respiratio Diaetetica (The Dietitics of Respiration) and Nemesis Divina, a lengthy treatise on theodicy, written to help his son. The composer describes the setting of Linneaus’s words as largely episodic, with the recorder working as an auditory form of “theatrical lighting.” To this end, Petri moves step-by-step from the dark sound of the tenor recorder to the piercing sound of the sopranino. I find Börtz’s choral writing absolutely fascinating, breaking the sound into little shards of color by using neutral syllables. The rather enigmatic nature of Linnaeus’s text, questioning the existence of God because it cannot be seen or touched yet can be intuited like the ego itself, lends itself perfectly to Börtz’s musical panorama. The choir continues to divide itself until it is in eight parts, singing the words in a rhythmically complicated, hocket-like style. The music becomes chromatic, spiked with tritones, gradually emerging as a sequence of three chords. (The notes say this, but so do my ears.)


Sunleif Rasmussen’s I is the musical setting of Danish modernist poet Inger Christensen’s self-reflective response to Wallace Stevens’s Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Rasmussen uses Christensen’s verse as a reflection on the human condition, intimacy, freedom, and creativity. The music starts with Petri playing mournfully on a bass recorder before the chorus enters, singing “A man and a woman are one” (and here, as unfortunately elsewhere, the Danish choristers’ inability to properly enunciate English comes to grief). I won’t quote more of the poem in detail here, but suffice it to say that Rasmussen’s music matches it in mood and structure. All through the piece, Rasmussen puts the sopranos opposite the rest of the choir, sometimes in call-and-response patterns but more often in imitative passages while the recorder never really stops, but continues to play an unfolding and developing melody. As in Börtz’s work, Petri keeps moving up through different ranges of the recorder, eventually sounding a shrill note in the section “Grasping the bird’s speech / Calling am I woman.” I find the composer’s masterly use of glisses through the chromatic scale particularly arresting in that they often obscure the actual pulse of the music.


The album concludes with Danish composer Peter Bruun’s Two Scenes with Skylark, based on the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. The first, “The Sea and the Skylark,” opens with overlapping melodies that create a rich yet turgid texture reminiscent of the ocean. Petri gives us the rhapsodic song of the skylark through rippling arpeggios that provide gentle dissonance with the chorus. As Hopkins’s poetry turns to humanity’s inability to truly appreciate nature’s beauty, Bruun make the music even more dissonant. In the second part, “The Caged Skylark,” stuttering rhythms and fragmented textures depict the plight of the caged bird, which is compared to the plight of the soul.


Much of this music, but especially the Börtz piece and parts of The Nightingale, puts me in mind of P?teris Vasks’s Plainscapes, broadcast on St. Paul Sunday in 2005 by the Seattle Chamber Players with a wordless choir, but has still never been commercially recorded (according to ArkivMusic, anyway). I was mesmerized by Plainscapes, and I am similarly mesmerized by much of the music on this CD as well. Highly recommended.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley