Classical Music

Track Listing
1. Battle Cry of Freedom, for voice, chorus & keyboard, The
2. Star-Spangled Banner, The (National Anthem, USA), for orchestra & voice/chorus, ad lib
3. Uncle Sam's Farm
4. Vaillance Polka Militaire
5. Drums and Trumpets
6. Weeping, Sad and Lonely, for voice & keyboard
7. Columbian Quadrilles, The
8. Girl I Left Behind Me, folk song, The
9. Beauregard's Retreat From Shiloh, for narrator, chorus & piano
10. We Are Coming, Father Abraham for voice & piano
11. Kingdom Coming
12. Grafted into the Army
13. Picture on the Wall, The
14. Daniel Webster's Funeral March
15. Tenting On the Old Campground
16. Battle Hymn of the Republic, The ("Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory," words by Julia Ward Howe; music attributed to Steffe)

D.C. Hall's New Concert & Quadrille Band: Kevin M'Dermott (vocals), James H. Johnston (violin), Patrick G. Jordan (viola), Peter H. Bloom (flute, piccolo), Steven Jackson (clarinet), Henry Peyrebrune (acoustic bass).

Recorded at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy, New York in November and December, 1993. Includes liner notes by Kevin M'Dermott.

On UNION & LIBERTY!, D.C. Hall's New Concert & Quadrille Band performs Northern popular music of the Civil War era on period instruments.

D.C. Hall's New Concert and Quadrille Band: Kevin M'Dermott (tenor); James H. Johnston (violin); Henry Peyrebrune (bass violin); Patrick G. Jordan (viola); Peter H. Bloom (flute); Steven Jackson (clarinet).
Personnel: Patrick G. Jordan (viola); Peter H. Bloom (flute, piccolo); Kevin M'Dermott (tenor saxophone).

Liner Note Author: Kevin M'Dermott.

Recording information: Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy, NY (11/1993-12/1993).

Editors: Kevin M'Dermott; Jonathan Marcus.

Arrangers: Kevin M'Dermott; Patrick G. Jordan; Peter H. Bloom; Moore.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by various composers. Soloist: Feodor Chaliapin.

Classical Music

This release was previously available under the title "Ave Maria".

Classical Music

The whole programme, the lively and the reflective, is very well performed.

The very welcome resurgence of the Nimbus and Lyrita labels has restored many treasures to the catalogue. This is emphatically one of them – an hour of music from medieval and early-Renaissance Provence on a recording to sit back and enjoy. Technically, this and the other recordings made by the Martin Best Consort and Ensemble are not reissues, since they are again available with their original catalogue numbers and still at full price. Almost five years after Nimbus got back on its feet, it is incredible that their recordings are not featured in the 2008 editions of either the Penguin Guide or the Gramophone Guide. I hope that the current review will partly redress that unfortunate situation.

The recording covers a number of themes, as stated in the sub-titles. The overall tone of the programme is lively, though with some reflective interludes. The texts are in Occitan, the medieval language of Provence, and Latin.

The first section deals with love, not always of the courtly type. In Ne l’oseray-je the woman laments that she is to be married off to an uncouth peasant; the man complains that everything in the home seems to be for his wife’s benefit. In Dessus la rive a sailor tries to have his way with a young girl, who appears to get the better of him.

Track 3 brings us to the theme of fin amors or courtly love, but with the boot on the other foot – the woman’s rather than the man’s. Beatriz, La Comtessa de Dia, or Comtesse de Die, was one of several independent-minded medieval Provençal women who fought their corner in a male-dominated world. In A chanter m’er de so qu’ieu non volria (I must sing of that which I would rather not), the only piece by any of the trobairitz, or female troubadours, to have survived with its melody, she adopts the role usually taken by the male lover, complaining that she is compelled to sing about a love that consumes her for someone who does not value her.

This work is also included on an excellent Hyperion recording, Bella Domna: The Medieval Woman (Stevie Wishart with Sinfonye on the budget-price Helios label, CDH55207 review – a well-deserved Musicweb Bargain of the Month). Sinfonye perform the work unaccompanied and at a slightly more leisurely pace. Both performances work well, capturing a tone of regret, rather than anger, at the indifference of the beloved. If I marginally prefer the Hyperion, it is a very close call – Lilly Crabtree on Nimbus sings excellently. All the versions which I know give the text as chantar, which would seem to be correct Occitan, but Crabtree clearly sings chanter, as per the booklet.

Those wishing to know more about the trobairitz should consult Klinck A L and A M Rasmussen (eds.), Medieval Woman’s Song: Cross Cultural Approaches (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002). References to A chanter m’er are on p.8. Vecy le mai is a carole in rondeau form, one of those countless medieval celebrations of the month of May, "the merry month which stirs our hearts." Ma charmante cadet belongs to the chanson d’aventure type, though it omits the usual prefatory matter in which the man’s riding out is described; it represents a dialogue between a knight and a peasant girl who, as so often in such chansons, is his intellectual superior.

The sequence of free organum which follows allows a temporary respite from secular concerns. The term organum refers not to an organ accompaniment but to an early kind of polyphony in which the voices move at an interval against each other, usually at a fifth; in this case the technique is applied to a sung Alleluia into which the psalm text Justus ut palma has been inserted – "the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree." Those seeking to understand terms such as organum and polyphony will find lucid explanations in the Oxford Companion to Music. In any case, don’t be put off by these technical terms; just enjoy the music. A l’entrada del tens cler takes us back to familiar troubadour territory, the return of Spring. Li gelos chastises jealous men, while the Air de Cheval gives us a brief instrumental interlude.

Lancan li jorn is one of the most celebrated of troubadour cansos; in Jaufré’s text the lover longs with what the notes aptly describe as Michelangelo’s ‘divine discontent’, for his beloved in a far-off country. This piece is no less effective for its being viewed from the conventional male perspective. The note-writer thinks that Beatriz’s female-orientated version in A chanter m’er is somehow more ‘real’, but long experience has taught me never to be wholly convinced by circumstantial detail in literature – as when Rousseau retells Montaigne’s account of being knocked out by a rampaging animal, as if it were his own experience. Jaufre is just as convincing when his canso is sung as affectively as it is here.

In Ara Lauzata a lascivious monk wishes that the pretty girl he sees could be a beautiful nun encloistered in his house; he is obviously second cousin to some of the worldly clerics in the Carmina Burana, best known in Carl Orff’s arrangement, though the original medieval music has survived. The Sequence to St Peter and St Paul recalls us to the joyful praise which the monk should have been offering to the saints instead of the scurrilous thoughts to which he has given voice.

The Montpellier Motets are not all religious pieces – the term did not have that limited meaning originally. Pucelete/Je languis, Aucun and Lonc tans are all secular motets but Alle Psallite, which closes the sequence, is another eked-out Alleluia in praise of God. If you would like to investigate further the manuscript from which these pieces came, you could do much worse than to try the Anonymous 4 in Love’s Illusion: Music from the Montpellier Codex – a different style from that of Martin Best but equally enjoyable (Harmonia Mundi HMX290 7109, budget price).

Nightingales figured largely in medieval poetry and music. The first of the pieces entitled Rossignolet du bois asks if the nightingale has heard the voice of a village boy who wishes to be married but doesn’t understand how to behave in love. In the second the nightingale announces the arrival of Spring-time and love. In le Sodard, the soldier hears the nightingale sing that his love is dead. The lyrics are worthy of Housman’s Shropshire Lad and the music a rousing martial theme, played here with gusto, which contrasts with the soldier’s loss.

The Epiphany sequence Epiphaniam Domino is one of many such pieces contained in medieval missals, lengthy pieces which replaced the Gradual between Epistle and Gospel, very few of which survived the reforming zeal of the Council of Trent.

The final piece, Reis glorios, is a dawn-song, alba in Occitan, aubade in standard French. The words are spoken as if by the watchman who has been keeping guard over his master as he made love, but they are religious words, in praise of the Glorious King and His Holy Mother. The fine performance of this wonderful alba by Guiraut de Bornelh, named by Dante as the Master of the troubadours, makes an excellent conclusion to a very worthwhile programme, combining the secular and the spiritual, as the medievals did effortlessly.

The singing and instrumental playing throughout are excellent, in both the lively music – the courtly and the not so courtly – and the more reflective pieces. I leave aside the thorny issue of the extent to which such music should be accompanied. Regular readers will know that I have consistently given the highest praise to Hyperion’s budget-price Helios reissues of the recordings of Gothic Voices, who very rarely include an instrumental accompaniment. I trust that I shall not seem illogical in praising the Martin Best Consort, who do regularly employ such an accompaniment, in equal measure. There is certainly room for both approaches when such fine performers are involved; in any case, the accompaniments here are not overdone. Apart from the fact that the Gothic Voices reissues are at budget price, comparisons are odious – and there is no overlap, as far as I am aware, between this Nimbus recording and anything that Gothic Voices recorded: they concentrated on a mainly Northern French repertoire.

The recording is good – a little close, but that is not inappropriate in such music. The notes are informative, offering a general overview and individual notes on the separate tracks. Nimbus offer translations of all the works, but not the original texts. If only one could be included, I suppose that is the right way round, but I still think it a pity – medieval Provençal is not exactly a common enough skill for the listener to pick it up from hearing the CD. Hyperion are more generous in this matter: they always offer texts, albeit in minuscule form, including that of A chantar m’er in the booklet accompanying Sinfonye’s recording of Bella Domna. For convenience of those who buy the recording – many of you, I hope – I have included such original texts as I have access to, in an Appendix to this review.

Until recently, this CD was available with other Martin Best medieval recordings in a bargain collection. If you hurry, you may find that some dealers are still offering that set – a wonderful bargain. It was the original intention that I should review the collection but, although it is deleted in that form, Nimbus have kindly sent me the individual CDs to review. Watch out for reviews of the remaining volumes in due course.

-- Brian Wilson, MusicWeb International

Chamber and Vocal Music (16Th-18Th Centuries, Scottish) - Ca

Kurtag, G.: Kafka-Fragmente (Kafka Fragments)

This recording received a 1998 "Critic's Choice" award from Gramophone
magazine.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Soloists: Ronn McFarlane, Julianne Baird, Antonin Kubalek.

Vocal Recital: Baird, Julianne - JOHNSON, R. / MORLEY, T. /

The Ladyes Delight is a program of "entertainment music" of Elizabethan England, performed with unserpassed musical matery and panache by the Baltimore Consort.

Includes work(s) by Anthony Holborne. Soloist: Ronn McFarlane.

Falla, M. De: Amor Brujo (El) / 7 Canciones Populares Espano

Foster, S.: Sweetly She Sleeps, My Alice Fair / Norman, C.:

In Scotland we are fortunate to enjoy a living oral tradition which features the performance of lengthy ballads to simple melodies in a manner which would certainly have been recognisable to our forebears in previous centuries, and it seems sensible to draw on this tradition when reconstructing a performance of 'Graysteil.' This cross-fertilisation between the traditional and art music of Scotland also serves helpfullly to undermine our modern habit of catagorising music, an irrelevance which would never even have occurred to James IV or his 'fithelaris'! - D. James Ross

Includes galliard(s) by Anthony Holborne. Soloist: Ronn McFarlane.

Frederica von Stade and French vocal music go together like peanut butter and jelly. For example, her Melisande remains unmatched in its depth of character and great musical profundity. Von Stade was meant to sing the arias on this compilation disc of recordings from her early career. Her years of living in France greatly influenced her interpretations and approach to the music. Equipped with one of the greatest mezzo instruments, von Stade sings with such natural ability and charm that it is easy to forget all that goes into preparing an aria.
A case in point is Offenbach's "Ah! quel diner je viens de faire" from 'La Perichole.' Often referred to as the "drunk" aria, it is one of von Stade's signatures, and she slyly portrays the plastered dinner guest trying to hide the extent of her intoxication. In dramatic contrast, von Stade passionately sings of desperate love in "Dieu! Que viens-je d'entendre?" from 'Beatrice et Benedict.' She seems to thrive on the intricate orchestration of Berlioz, and her flawless French diction is a delight to the ear. This is an important disc for those interested specifically in this repertoire, and von Stade sings it better than anyone else.

Christmas Celebration

One of the finest Christmas recordings ever made, this 1994 production by the Baltimore Consort makes a welcome return (complete with a new cover) along with the revival of the Dorian label. Glowing with the high, clear soprano of Custer LaRue and brimming with versatile, virtuoso instrumental work by Mary Anne Ballard (viols, rebec), Mark Cudek (cittern, Baroque guitar, viols, bandora), Larry Lipkis (viol, recorder, gemshorn), Ronn McFarlane (lute), Chris Norman (wooden flutes, pennywhistle), and Webb Wiggins (organ), this program literally lives up to the promise of its title.

Many of these 20 tunes/carols/dances are among the most familiar Christmas standards--Ding dong merrily on high; Greensleeves; Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen; In dulci jubilo; The Cherry Tree Carol; Tomorrow shall be my dancing day--presented in both vocal/instrumental and strictly instrumental arrangements. But whatever the tune, and however it's presented, the result is invariably engaging, artful, classy, and infinitely repeatable, which means it's perfect for multiple repetitions, whether at Christmas or any other time of year. Chris Norman's flute improvisation on "Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen" is a classic, and Custer LaRue's rendition of the beautiful "Rorate coeli desuper" is not to be missed. In fact, that last instruction applies to this entire disc. If you're a Christmas music fan (and who isn't?) and you don't already own this CD, you know what you have to do.

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

The true personality of American classical music in the 20th century has to be Leonard Bernstein. No one has done so much to spread the joy of music to audiences young and old as the late conductor of the New York Philharmonic.
Though this is the work for which he is best known, Bernstein was an accomplished composer and performer as well as orchestra leader and goodwill ambassador for the arts. His 'Jeremiah' Symphony launched his career in 1942, when Bernstein submitted it to a competition. Although it did not win, it was performed in Pittsburgh, Boston and New York City, where it was voted the outstanding new work of the season by the New York Music Critics Circle.
'The Age of Anxiety' is a tribute to the W.H. Auden poem of the same name, and aims to capture the disjointed, anxious, disaffected spirit of the postwar period. "I Hate Music!" and 'La Bonne Cuisine' are more lighthearted affairs, embodying the spirit that connected Bernstein so well with a children's audience. Performed by Bernstein himself, along with mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel and the New York Philharmonic, this recording is a beautiful memory.
REVIEWS:
New York Times (Publisher) (7/30/00, p.30) - "...These whimsical song cycles occupy just a small portion of this CD but are its real reward. Previously unissued, the recordings feature Tourel at her most charming, with Bernstein at the piano..."