Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensembles: Pomerium Musices, Baltimore Consort, Altramar Medieval Ensemble, Les Violons du Roy, La Rondinella, Apollo Ensemble. Conductors: Alexander Blachly, John Hsu. Soloists: Julianne Baird, Ronn McFarlane, Colin Tilney.

Playford, J.: Tunes and Their Ballads (A Trip To Killburn)

The archguitar is a modern instrument, invented in the early 1980s by guitarist Peter Blanchette (the main performer on this disc) and Boston-area luthier Walter Stanul. The idea was to build an instrument that "feels like a guitar but sounds more like a lute." Importantly, the new instrument would address the two guitarists' frustration with the standard version's lack of bass strings, and thus would enable one player to perform works with wider range, vastly extending the repertoire possibilities. Rather than just build a bigger instrument, Stanul came up with an 11-string model that's closer in size to a standard guitar, but as you hear immediately on this recording, the sound is rather imposing, and the extra strings give a tremendous vibrancy to the instrument's natural resonance. (Incidentally, the website listed in the disc's liner notes, www.archlute.com, was not accessible when I tried it, but there is some sketchy information available at Stanul's site, http://babel.massart.edu/~carrie/yoshikosuga/Home.html, and at a few others that turned up in a web search.)

Primarily because of Blanchette's enthusiastic advocacy, world-wide concertizing, and several recordings, the archguitar has developed quite a following--including an additional cadre of performers--and this has resulted in the creation of countless transcriptions and many new compositions. The pieces heard here, taken from two different locations (a church in Copenhagen and a studio at University of Massachusetts, Amherst) and recorded in two different years (1983 and 1985), are primarily arrangements by Blanchette. He performs with fellow archguitarist Peter Michelini, who's also a touring partner. While most of these works are Bach keyboard pieces, it's best to not concentrate on the original versions as you listen. In these fresh, cleanly articulated, and very enjoyable readings we can hear all sorts of new sounds, strikingly vivid colors, and a kind of energy that's different from a keyboardist's fingerwork, but equally affecting and often very exciting. With two archguitars, there's also an incredible depth and richness of texture that's surprising if you're used to hearing Bach transcriptions played only by an ordinary guitar. The performance of Domenico Scarlatti's G major Sonata K. 105 is dazzling, showing the amazing range both of notes and sounds that virtuoso players can achieve.

Blanchette's technical and interpretive credentials have been well documented and highly praised, and on evidence of these performances the citations are deserved. There's a strange little one-note melodic glitch about one minute into his beautiful rendition of Bach's famous "Largo" from the F minor harpsichord concerto BWV 1056, and the balance in the well-loved C major Prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier Book I oddly skews toward the lower-register part, but otherwise the program goes along without a hitch. The sound from the Copenhagen sessions is warmer than those recorded at UMass, which are slightly edgier and brighter and reveal more of the inevitable finger-scraping and squeaking noises. Try this if you're a guitar fan, or if you're looking to hear some really fine, fresh-faced performances of Bach--with a little Scarlatti, Handel, and Vivaldi thrown in.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

An American Tapestry

Langston Hughes wrote his poem “Let America Be America Again” in 1938. The country was crushed by the decade of depression that had squashed so many American dreams, and was threatened by the gathering clouds of the impending war in Europe. Birth right and skin color posed restrictions to the justice and liberty which rest at the heart of American promise, and America was a country divided. Today, we still live in troubled times, where circumstances and skin color still keep the American promise out of reach for so many. The music featured on this release is a tribute to the generations of American men and women, both black and white, both immigrants and pioneers, who dreamed and accomplished the impossible. American music is made of everything that we are, coming from so many different people and places and expressing so many dreams. Lara Downes is a best-selling pianist, who with this release makes her Sono Luminus debut. She performs constantly across the United States, and has also been featured on European stages. This important collection of American repertoire includes three world premieres, and is a unique program which will resound with listeners in today’s world.

From the first few seconds of this new recording from Brian Jones and his Trinity Choir, you know it's Christmas. The flute and bell sounds, the dancing rhythm from the organ, the prodigiously joyful voices, and the catchy, unmistakably Rutter-esque melody combine to set off the sparks that promise a bright, happy, thoughtfully and lovingly compiled program. I say "lovingly" because this is the type of programming that, as usual with Jones, is not made with the "snooty" or "snobbish" in mind, but comes purely from the heart and from the experience of a director who knows and cares about the real listening tastes of his audience. (You've got to admire anyone who convincingly and with conviction programs "The Holy City" alongside works by Britten and Vaughan Williams, as he did on an earlier recording for Gothic Records.) And, as reflected here, those tastes, especially in Christmas music, cover a fairly wide range--from Rutter (three pieces) to Poulenc (O magnum mysterium) to Luboff (his well-loved arrangement of the Austrian carol Still, still, still).


The opening tune indeed is by John Rutter, a setting of the 15th-century text "Sing we to this merry company", and it's quickly followed by the Luboff arrangement, Gerald Near's setting of Ding! dong! merrily on high, and the well-known Pearsall version of In dulci jubilo. The combination of familiarity and audience-favorite continues throughout the rest of the 21 selections, with classics such as Rutter's all-time most-popular What sweeter music, Elizabeth Poston's Jesus Christ the apple tree, and Poulenc's motet O magnum mysterium. But mixed in among these revered gems are many less well-known pieces, including a snazzy, bluesy Noël nouvelet arranged by Stephen Jackson, Michael Head's charming and lovely The little road to Bethlehem, and of course a Charles Wood arrangement, Once as I remember (Wood is a Jones favorite).


The choir, one of North America's treasures, always is a treat to hear, displaying not only an enormous stylistic command but also uncommon technical range and interpretive sensitivity. I've said this before, but it's still true: The soprano section would be the envy of any choir. However, the entire ensemble manages a consistent cohesiveness and sonic refinement that's rare among amateur choirs in any part of the world. Even in small details, the choir shows extraordinary care and attention--for instance, in the perfectly rendered endings to the simple but so-often-troublesome "Gloria" line in Ding! dong! merrily on high. And for sheer strength and unity of sound, listen to the choir's rendition of Holst's On this day earth shall ring. Other highlights include Bob Chilcott's Mid-winter, a setting of the Christina Rossetti text "In the bleak mid-winter" that's become an instant favorite all over the world. Jones himself contributes a very effective arrangement of O little town of Bethlehem that joins the two "competing" tunes St. Louis and Forest Green. Although I would prefer a warmer, softer-edged sound in the Poulenc to really capture the "mysterium" in the work, and slightly better-tuned tenors in some places (What sweeter music, for example), this is a first rate recording that will satisfy all listeners looking for an ideal all-around Christmas choral collection. The sound, made in Boston's Trinity Church, captures the detail of choir, organ, and occasional percussion while faithfully capturing the fullness and resonance of the church's magnificent space.
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

The revival of the lute and its repertoire in the later twentieth century has been so thorough that it is difficult now to remember how much a "distant shore" the instrument seemed to musicians even a few generations ago. Like the cornett or the viola da gamba or the harpsichord, it was an instrument - and a repertoire, and a set of performance practices - that was all but dead for many years, that needed to be revived more or less from scratch. As for the lute music of the later Baroque period, it represents an instrument long past its heyday: even late-Baroque musicians themselves considered the lute a distant shore - an anachronism.

Includes work(s) by Jean-Baptiste Lully, Henry Purcell, various composers, F-André Danican Philidor. Ensemble: New York Kammermusiker. Conductor: Ilonna Pederson.

AEQUA presents a varied constellation of recent chamber pieces for smaller forces by composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir, orbiting the large ensemble work Aequilibria.

The album takes the listener on a journey through Thorvaldsdottir's soundworld, where sounds and nuances are as much part of the meticulously structured tapestry of the music as harmonies and lyrical material. The works are performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, with two works conducted by Steven Schick and a work for solo piano performed by Cory Smythe.

“Internally, I hear sounds and nuances as musical melodies and in my music I weave various textures of sounds together with harmonies and pitched lyrical material. The music is written as an ecosystem of sounds and materials that are carried from one performer — or performers — to the next throughout a progress of a work. As a performer plays a phrase, harmony, texture or a lyrical line it is being delivered to another performer as it transforms and develops, passed on to be carried through until it is passed on again to yet another. All materials continuously grow in and out of each other, growing and transforming throughout the piece. My music is often inspired in an important way by nature and its many qualities, but I do not strive to describe or literally incorporate elements from nature in my music. To me, the qualities of the music are first and foremost musical — so when I am inspired by a particular element that I perceive in nature, it is because I perceive it as musically interesting. The qualities I tend to be inspired by are often structural, like proportion and flow, as well as relationships of balance between details within a larger structure, and how to move in perspective between the two — the details and the unity of the whole. The pieces for smaller forces on AEQUA orbit the largest work Aequilibria, which is written for a chamber ensemble of 12 performers. Aequilibria was inspired by various states of balancing forces — by the natural breath between expansion and contraction, and the perspectives of translucence and opacity. This inspiration can be applied to the whole collection of pieces on AEQUA — the works breathe in and out of focus, expand and contract within their individual characters but reflect on each other through their various internal connections from beginning to end. Warmest thanks for listening.” (Anna Thorvaldsdottir)

REVIEW:

This collection of Thorvaldsdottir chamber works is a tour of vivid sound worlds nimbly navigated by members of the International Contemporary Ensemble. At the album’s heart is “Aequilibria,” a piece with rich contrast and surprising balance between spaciousness—conveyed through airy fifths—and knotty smallness.

-- New York Times (Joshua Barone)

Rupert Boyd writes: “This is an album of love. But also of despair. And some things in between. Largely conceived, arranged, rehearsed and recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic, Songs of Love & Despair contains the music that we were drawn to during this time -- a time of unprecedented stillness and solitude, traveling at most a few miles from our home for months on end. As a married couple we were fortunate to be able to play music together every day, and this collection of repertoire is half love, half longing; from the delicate beauty of Debussy and the joyousness of Boccherini, to the anguish of Messiaen and heartbreaking Appalachian folk songs, which tell the stories of love, life and loss. The album is a testament to this time, and we welcome you to join us as we traverse the emotions that have enveloped us all.” The album encompasses music from Luigi Boccherini to The Beatles to Beyoncé, from Franz Schubert to Florence B. Price to Radiohead.

REVIEW:

Guitarist Rupert Boyd and his wife, cellist Laura Metcalf, have released their second recording and it includes transcriptions of well-known pieces such as Debussy’s ‘Arabesque No. 1’ with delicately articulated arpeggios by the guitar providing a graceful accompaniment to the lyrical cello melody. Schubert’s ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade’ is delivered fluidly with deep romantic passion in an arrangement by Napoleon Coste (1805–83).

‘A New York Minute’ by Marian Budos, is bursting with energy and close coordination between the two players. Metcalf’s sense of drama and razor-sharp intonation combine to achieve a powerful delivery.

Two arrangements by Lennon and McCartney are pleasantly performed and would be crowd pleasers in concert.

The recorded tone of each of the two instruments is realistic, but the cello is somewhat overpowering on some tracks.

Liner notes are informative and entertaining. All in all, this is an effective project, mixing known works with the new ones—always a plus!

-- American Record Guide (Jim McCutchen)

Saúl Bitran writes of the present release: “Ruperto Chapí’s String Quartet No. 3 could well be subtitled Tragic Quartet. Here’s a work of a stormy nature, containing atmospheres of drama, anguish and loneliness. Out of the four quartets written by the composer, this is perhaps the one which has the least Spanish features… String Quartet No. 4, in B minor, was premiered by the Cuarteto Francés on February 22nd, 1907, and was dedicated by the composer to “my very dear friend and disciple Manuel Manrique de Lara”. On that evening’s printed program it was mentioned that “Chapí continues with the aesthetic tendency shown on his previous quartets. Without resorting to specific popular forms, the composer manages to give his work a genuinely national character, picturesque and free, dressing his own thoughts with rhythms and procedures of natural and traditional harmonies. The form matches, in general terms, that of a traditional string quartet but, within it, the composer is able to transit with absolute independence, and to present the thematic elements according to his own phantasy and to the whims of his personal temperament.”