Cantata Contentment

Three Bach cantatas from my current favourite exponents of the form, Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe. The disk is titled Weinen, Klagen...and features three cantatas BWV12, 38 and 75. These are relatively downbeat in content, making use of the texts of Psalms 22 and 130, the De Profundis, or deal with the "weeping, wailing, lamenting, fearing" that are everyday fare in the vale of tears. Being Bach though, even doleful is beautiful and the final tone is that of resignation and consolation, bringing succour to souls in torment. The playing of Collegium Vocale Gent and the production values of Harmonia Mundi are impeccable. I think that Herreweghe's cycle benefits from the fact that he has no intention of being a completist and so selects those cantatas that he feels a particular affinity for and takes his time over the recording and programming of those he chooses. The soloists are again of the highest quality; the soprano Carolyn Sampson and the tenor Mark Padmore are now regular vocalists of choice for this repertoire but counter tenor Daniel Taylor and bass Peter Kooy also acquit themselves very well.

Ry Decides To Take A Little Break

Get Rhythm was the final Ry Cooder solo album for about 18 years until the release of Chavez Ravine and My Name Is Buddy in the last couple of years and arguably those are concept albums that don't really sequence naturally from the earlier body of work. Get Rhythm is a quite a hard driving album on the whole with more aggressive and distorted guitar from Cooder than he normally played on disk. It still followed the by now familiar path of plucking obscure ( Chuck Berry's 13 Question Method ) and the not so obscure ( Presley's All Shook Up ) gems from the rock catalogue, disembowelling them and putting them back together in an idiosyncratic way. The latin side gets a look in with the calypso-ish Women Will Rule The World and there is a beautiful ballad homage to the Tex Mex region, Across The Bordeline. The Johnny Cash written title track ( again totally reworked ) and Going Back To Okinawa are irresistably danceable and Let's Have A Ball is a totally apt way to finish off a fifteen year solo journey through the byways of Americana, like an encore to the world's longest gig.

Run the Voodoo Down

Bubbling electric pianos, sharp stabbing guitar chords, low rumbling oddly sinister bass clarinet, funky bass and drums, occasional soprano sax wails and running trumpet arpeggios. It must be Miles Davis, it must be Bitches Brew. Strange how unremarkable it now sounds, not in any way to diminish the quality and playing of Wayne Shorter, Bennie Maupin, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Larry Young, Joe Zawinul, Dave Holland, Harvey Brooks, Lenny White and Jack DeJohnette but the revolutionary nature of the album has become faded with time. Is that because it was successful in spawning many imitators or conversely because it proved to be a blind alley ? As so often with these things, the truth is probably somwhere in between. But I would urge any gainsayers to put on Miles Runs The Voodoo Down at top volume and then still try to say that the fire, passion and committment was a waste of time. What is slightly sad I think is that the album didn't really have a lasting connection with the constituency for which Miles really recorded it, that of urban black American youth. I expected the album to sound dated but it is far less so than most of what immediately followed such as Weather report or Herbie Hancock's Headhunters. In many ways it sounds just as timeless as Kind Of Blue and has the same right to stand on its' own as a fine piece of music.

Tuareg Quo ?

Another act being pushed very hard by the world music cadre of the music biz are Tinariwen. I bought this album, Amassakoul, before the hype went into overdrive and I have to admit that my opinion of it has been coloured a little since then and I don't have much desire to purchase the latest release. That may be my problem more than Tinariwen's though, I have always tended to shy away from the more commercial tendencies in rock and pop music and it just seemed a shame to see them begin to infoltrate the world music scene ( Tinariwen are by no means the only example ) looking at the album dispassionately, it is an excellent example of the desert blues genre where instead of a shuffle boogie you get the camel lope beat. There is a certain sameness to the material though, especially when you can't understand the lyrics ( translations are thoughfully included but I don't tend to listen with the notes to hand every time ) I would also say that they lack a truly distinctive vocalist. They are a very tight band though and it is churlish to criticise them for not turning down support band slots for the Rolling Stones and the exposure that brings. as I said, I don't feel the need for more than one Tinariwen album but if you are going for only one, the latest effort has slightly better production values and a more spacious sound.

The Heart Of The Kora

In the two years before his death in 2006, Ali Farka Toure produced two albums that he wanted to represent a culmination of his musical life. His own final album Savane will be considered here another time but he also wanted to make a collaboration with the master kora player Toumani Diabate. That album was titled In The Heart Of The Moon. It is an exclusively instrumental album apart from some shouts of encouragement and inter track chat. The record company for understandable commercial reasons trumpet the participation of both legends but this is predominantly Diabate's album. The kora takes the melodic and improvisatory lead with understated accompaniment from Ali Farka Toure that is almost akin to the role of a continuo in baroque classical music. The kora has a long and deep tradition among the griots of west africa, the keepers of the oral tradition of the ancient Mande empire. The possible links from west African music to the blues is well known and often cited but listening to the kora, I am always struck by the resemblance that the cascades of notes seem to have to the pealing of church bells and how that has permeated northern European folk music. This is basically a duo album with low key input from percussion and a relatively pointless contribution from Ry Cooder's guitar on one track, again more or less used as a drone. A fine disk but one that should really be regarded as a Toumani Diabate solo effort.

Hallelujah

Handel's oratorio Messiah has tended to become linked inextricably with Christmas in the UK but in fact only part of the work concerns the Nativity and there isn't any real reason why it can not be performed at any time of the year. When I first began to explore classical music, Messiah was a piece that I had a prejudice against because I bracketed it with some of Elgar's works as a kind of bastion of the British establishment and old fashioned early 20th century values. Certainly there are some hideous versions with massive choirs and full scale symphony orchestras but as I grew to love other Handel works, I began to re-evaluate Messiah and now realise what a great work it is, on a par with the other oratorios. This version on a double cd is a pared down period instrument recording with modest forces and it brings out the detail in the work very effectively and plays to my tastes in baroque performance. The players are Les Arts Florissants under William Christie and there is a fine cast of soloists with sopranos Barbara Schlick and Sandrine Piau, counter tenor Andreas Scholl, tenor Mark Padmore and bass Nathan Berg. It is also a beautifully presented release with in hardback format with extensive notes and lavish illustrations.

Soulful Recital

A very soulful recital by cellist Truls Mork and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Paavo Jarvi. The works on the disk are Schumann's Cello Concerto, Kol Nidrei by Bruch and Bloch's Schelomo. The Schumann concerto is a long elegiac monlogue for the cello with understated orchestral accompaniment responding to the inflections of the soloist and as such it fits well in recital with the two other pieces. The Bruch piece is informed by the solemn Jewish prayer Kol Nidrei which fascinated the Protestant Bruch. The form of the music similarly is coloured by Hebrew sacred music but is still steeped in a generalised romantic religious style. Bloch originally intended to set Schelomo to texts from Ecclesiastes ( Schelomo is Solomon ) as a meditation on the view that "all is vanity". He changed tack to entrust the "voice" of the preacher to the cello, backed by a big orchestra. There is a general soulful feel to the entire disk which Mork relishes and to which Jarvi provides apposite support.

Your Call Is Very Important To Us

Here's everybody's favourite telephone hold music ( yeah, right ! ) Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. They are part of this disk titled The World of Vivaldi and with a title like that you might be able to guess that it was another of my early purchases. The performance style is somewhat dated too with most of the tracks being recorded in the 1970s. It is a pity about the way in which the Four Seasons have been abused for so many commercial purposes, especially since the composer is in no position to benefit at all from it ! Familiarity can breed contempt but they are popular for a reason, being delightfully accessible with memorable tunes and if listened to dispassionately they seem to have a distinctiveness that some of Vivaldi's other numerous concertos lack. They are given a middle of the road performance on this disk by the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester under Karl Munchinger with Konstanty Kulka on violin and Igor Kipnis on harpsichord. The disk also features the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields led by Neville Marriner in the Concerto for Piccolo RV443 ( William Bennett on piccolo ) and the Concerto for Two Trumpets RV537 ( John Wilbraham and Philip Jones soloists ). The familar Concerto for Guitar RV93 is played by Eduardo Fernandez with the English Chamber Orchestra and George Malcolm and the disk is rounded off by the Concerto RV151 "alla rustica" performed by the Lucerne Festival Strings under Rudolf Baumgartner. To be honest, the kind of disk you might put on for undemanding background music while preparing a meal in the kitchen.

Thank You Mr Boulez

The performance piece Sinfonia by Luciano Berio is not titled after any classical meaning of the term but rather as the simultaneous sound of various parts ( eight voices and instruments ) and the interplay of a variety of situations and meanings. It is performed here by the New Swingle Singers directed by founder Ward Swingle and Orchestre National de France conducted by Pierre Boulez. The Swingles have been associated with the piece thorughout its' performing life, playing it again at this years BBC Proms in London. The text is made up of various snippets from Claude Levi-Strauss, Samuel Beckett and a tribute to Martin Luther King and there are musical nods towards the slow movement from Mahler's second symphony. The spoken words weave in and out of wordless singing from the voices and the clarity deliberately varies from crystal clear to blurred and indistinct. The orchestral colourings are similarly allusive but are far from intimidating. The other work featured on the disk is the single movement Eindrucke, a stark concentrated piece but with interesting depths and while not being exactly easy listening, it isn't as abstract and forbidding as the reputation of much modern music might imply.

I'll Get Around To Finishing It

Although I didn't realise it when I bought this disk back in the early days, it is another example of DG milking their Herbert von Karajan back catalogue. To me, it was just an opportunity for another reliable Berlin Philharmonic performance of standard repertoire at a budget price, containing as it does two Schubert symphonies No 8 ( Unfinished ) and No 9 ( The Great ). It's probably true that the symphony isn't what Schubert is mainly remembered for but it can be argued that these two symphonies were early pointers to the Romantic style that was to follow through the remainder of the 19th century and but for his early death, he may well have been at the forefront of that movement. They were certainly advanced enough to obtain that universal seal of approval of being initially deemed too diffficult by the orchestral players of Vienna. There are also certain confusions and mysteries surrounding the numbering and chronology of these late Schubert symphonies. The number nine was affixed much later when it had obtained the superstitious significance of being a fateful number after Beethoven, Bruckner, Dvorak and Mahler. And was the Unfinished really unfinished ? It certainly wasn't lack of time prior to his death that caused Schubert not to add further movements. This is a relatively elderly recording by the Berlin Phil from 1965 and the sound quality shows its' age. But as I said above, it is a reliable enough performance.

More Tunes Than You Can Shake A Stick At

This two disk budget set is another of my early classical purchases when I was trying to tick off boxes in the core repertoire. It's a sort of greatest hits of Prokofiev, titled Favourite Orchestral Suites, and although a bit disjointed the two disks hold together quite well since the full works are played. It delivers what it promises with the suites from the ballets The Love For Three Oranges and Romeo and Juliet, Symphony No 1 ( Classical ), Lieutenant Kije, the children's tale Peter and the Wolf, and Ala and Lolly ( The Scythian Suite ). The performers are variously the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Bernard Haitink, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra with Andre Previn and the Rotterdam Philharmonic conducted by Edo de Waart. The narrator for Peter and the Wolf is Alec McCowen. Most of these works are very familiar and highlight Prokofiev's gift for memorable themes and orchestrations. Romeo and Juliet has the Montagues and Capulets theme, beloved of soccer and grid iron teams wanting to project a swaggering macho image, while Lieutenant Kije has the Troika which, thanks to tv advertisers and Greg Lake, has become associated with Christmas. Peter and the Wolf is a well loved tale used to introduce children to the various instruments in the orchestra, maybe Alec McCowen's actorly style of narration is a little dated these days. I also know from a teacher aquaintance that with very young children there is the sensitive problem of the fate of the duck ! The least familiar work is probably the Scythian Suite with Prokofiev reaching back to his Russian roots and influences from Rimsky-Korsakov and particularly Borodin.

An English Wanderer

Baritone Christopher Maltman, supported by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Thierry Fischer, is the featured artist on this excellent BBC Music mag cover disk from 2004. Titled Vaughan Williams Songs Of Travel, it also features music by Ravel and Debussy. Songs Of Travel was conceived by Vaughan Williams as a kind of English Winterreise based on poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. They are performed here in their orchestrated version, with some of the orchestrations being Vaughan Williams's own and the remainder being done by his assistant Roy Douglas after RVW's death. Sounding from more sturdy yeoman stock than Schubert's wanderer, the song cycle is still a moving one and Maltman is in excellent voice on this and all the works on the disk. The other substantial vocal work here is Le Livre de Baudelaire, an orchestration of four songs from Debussy's Cinq Poemes de Baudelaire completed by John Adams. Adams consciously orchestrates in the style of Debussy with that familiar languid and sensual feel and his additions do not sound at all out of place. The disk is topped and tailed by two pieces from Ravel. Maltman sings three brief settings of words by Paul Morand on the theme of Don Quichotte a Dulcinee and the disk ends with the BBCSO luxuriating in the orchestral showpiece Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, another subtle undermining of the waltz form without the savagery of La Valse.

Nothing To Say But It's Ok

I don't have much to say about this BBC Music mag cover disk of Bruckner's Symphony No 4 ( Romantic ), played by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Romanian conductor Ion Martin, because I have already considered the work when posting about the commercial recording that I have of it by the Vienna Phil under Karl Bohm. It is one of my favourite Bruckner symphonies though and if I didn't already have a copy I would find this live performance perfectly serviceable.

Cross Cultural Connections

Many of Jordi Savall's projects for his Hesperion XXI straddle that early music / world music divide and have plenty to appeal to lovers of both genres. This particular one, Orient - Occident 1200 - 1700, veers quite far into world music territory. It celebrates the shared cultural legacy of Arab and jew, Muslim and West and laments what was lost in the second half of the 15th century with the fall of both Sepharad And Al-Andalus in Spain and Byzantium in the east. The disk attempts to rebuild some of the bridges between shared heritages. There are pieces from Turkey, Afghanistan, Morocco, Iran and the Jewish diaspora, together with others from medieval Italy and Galicia and even courtly Spain. The musicians involved come from similarly disparate backgrounds; Afghanistan ( a wonder in itself post Taliban ), Israel, Greece, the wonderful oud virtuoso Driss El Maloumi from Morocco and the Catalan Savall himself. As well as the already mentioned ouds, the instrumentation includes rubab, transverse flute, santur, saz, viol and archlute plus the varied percussion effects of Pedro Estevan. I noted the east west connections on the disk of Armenian dances I posted about yesterday and those connections are made even more explicit here.

Nothin' But A Rubber Heel

Borderline can be considered as a companion album to Bop Til You Drop in Ry Cooder's solo output. It was a similarly "almost commercial" album and was toured extensively and very successfully by his then regular band, which again had the backing vocals of Bobby King and Willie Green Jr and the inclusion of John Hiatt. Not quite as complete an album as "Bop", there are two or three duff tracks, when it is good it is very good. There are excellent examples of the way Cooder would deconstruct an old r'n'b standard and come up with something entirely different ( Speedo, Crazy 'Bout An Automobile, Girls From Texas ), a couple of numbers featuring excellent bluesy slide playing ( Johnny Porter and Never Make Your Move Too Soon ) and two poignant and aching songs of damaged relationships ( Why Don't You Try Me and The Way We Make A Broken Heart ). Those familiar with the album can work out by a process of elimination which I consider to be the duff tracks since I haven't listed those. The Tex Mex border area had been a Ry Cooder pre-occupation but strangely, despite the album title, there isn't much of a border influence here musically.

Way To Go

It may not be as ubiquitous as Kind Of Blue but the Miles Davis album In A Silent Way is another of those that crosses the boundary of appealing to a strictly jazz audience and appears in many a general music collection. By now, the electric nature of the band was well established and it still contained Wayne Shorter on sax, both Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea on electric piano and Dave Holland now on bass guitar providing the rhythm section with the uniquely propulsive Tony Williams on drums. The new boys for the album were Joe Zawinul on electric piano and organ and guitarist John McLaughlin. Something that goes relatively unremarked about this period of Miles's music is that the inclusion of Zawinul, Holland and McLaughlin was the first time that non American players were an influence. The title track itself is a Joe Zawinul composition and it segues into and out of the compositions by Miles himself. The original vinyl album obviously was seperated into two sides but the music can be seen as a continuous evolving piece with long evolving lines, subtle rather than showy soloing and bubbling electric undercurrents. Although electric, it is a restrained record without any loud adrenelin fuelled passages. The start of a funk influence is there but in a laid back mode. And again, despite the electric instrumentation, it has a certain timeless feel.

Non Standard

Inside Out is the title of this live recording from a concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London in 2000 given by Keith Jarrett. It's a trio recording with Jarrett on piano, Gary Peacock double bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. This is a very experienced combination who have performed regularly together over a long period. Often, their long group improvicastions have been built around standards from the great American song book but on this occasion most of the tracks take off from original compositions. The numbers have titles but aren't formally composed but start from an improvisatory base. It isn't really accurate to call them free jazz either though, since there are melodies and riffs that drift in and out over a definite rhythmic pulse. As a final encore type feature there is one standard played, When I Fall In Love. Jarrett is the obvious solo leader in these settings with his Glenn Gould style vocal interjections alongside his endlessly inventive playing. But Peacock and DeJohnette are much more than just a rhythm section, soloing underneath the piano to give a many layered density to the sound.

File Under : World / Armenia

A wonderful recording by the Shoghaken Ensemble called Traditional Dances Of Armenia, reflecting a vibrant tradition that has endured through a terrible history of persecution and which still retains joy and celebration. Armenian dance is one of the country's cultural treasures and has a rich history. There are various types; the circle dance is rooted in Zoroastrian ritual, line dances derive from mountain battles, gesture and jump dancing can be traced to medieval mysteries as well as to 19th century fairs and festivities. The Shoghaken ensemble cover all these bases in their rhythmic and melodic variety. The instrumentation includes the primitive wail of the zuma, the beat of the dhol drum renowned from village weddings and virtuoso improvisations on the duduk, kamancha, kanon amd shvi. It is interesting to hear links both with neighbouring cultures such as Iran, Turkey and even Greece alongside echoes from further west in the Mediterranean like Sicily and Spain. The performers are excellent, with a couple of the tracks also featuring vocals. This fine release comes with a superbly informative and illustrated booklet.

Fit For The Queen Of Sheba

Handel wrote several dramatic oratorios based on Israeli history as told in the Old Testament and the early ones all covered tales and periods when the Israeli nation was threatened and struggling for survival. There was a contemporary subtext to these oratorios though with Handel's public seeing parallels between Israeli and British politics. And so he composed Solomon in relation to the end of a long intercontinental war in Europe because the reign of Solomon was an unusually peaceful time in Israelite history and was a perfect metaphor for the age of prosperity and stability that Britons looked forward to. This three cd set is by the Gabrieli Consort and Players conducted by Paul McCreesh who have produced an impressive series of these oratorio recordings. As usual, there is a fine cast of soloists including Andreas Scholl, Paul Agnew and Susan Gritton. There are some fine "numbers", including the joyous and famous entry of the Queen of Sheba. These oratorios are a unique and fine body of work in a field which Handel pretty much invented for himself.

Hit The Road John

John Adams is mainly known for his orchestral works and operas but this disk features chamber music played variously by the violin / piano duo of Leila Josefowicz and John Novacek and by pianists Nicolas Hodges and Rolf Hind. The disk is titled Road Movies after the piece performed by Josefowicz and Novacek. It is described as travel music, passing through harmonic and textural regions as one would pass through a landscape on a car journey, presupposing that car journey is in America. the motoric pulse of minimalism is there beneath the surface but there is also the weight of tradition too. Hallelujah Junction is a work for two pianos played by Hodges and Hind and it occupies similar rhythmic and structural territory as the title piece. The solo piano works have more of a Debussy inflected feel with touches that remind of jazz improvisation also. Hodges plays China Gates and American Beserk while the disk closes with a return to the eternal pulse in the three part Phrygian Gates performed by Hind. All in all the disk succeeds in being idiosyncratically American in conjuring up those wide open spaces of the road.

That Inevitable Concerto Coupling

It sometimes seems that every budding international solo violinist has to record a coupling of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and the Bruch Violin Concerto No 1 ( he did write another though you would be hard pressed to find a recording of it ) The coupling here is a classic recording reissued as an EMI great recording of the century. The soloist is Yehudi Menuhin with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Efrem Kurtz in the Mendelssohn and Walter Susskind in the Bruch. These two works have become ubiquitous because of their great romantic sweep and memorable melodies, as well as for the opportunites that they afford for the soloist to show off his virtuosity. It's easy to say that because they are so popular and appeal to the casual Classic FM daytime listener they must be without worth but like most such classics, they have fine musical qualities that transcend mere kitsch. Menuhin had recorded the works as a child prodigy in the thirties but these are re-recordings made to take advantage of advances in sound technology by the late fifties. The sound and performance practice stand up well.

Giving The Text Its' Due

Gluck Italian Arias by Cecilia Bartoli and the Akadamie Fur Alte Musik Berlin led by Bernhard Forck, is another of her lavishly packaged and thoroughly researched "project" disks. As well as presenting several arias from Gluck operas, the hook on which to hang the project is the way in which Gluck is very respectful and conscious of the libretti written by Pietro Metastasio. Both of these 18th century artists can be seen to share the same ideas and creative development, rejecting the sort of abuses which reduced poetry to a mere support for outrageous displays of virtuosity with no basis in the logic of what was being expressed. Gluck and Metastasio both wished to establish the true function of music as they saw it; to clarify and intensify the changing emotions in the human heart. The quality of the poetry isn't immediately apparent to the non-Italian speaker of course but the full translated libretti are provided and the feeling put into the singing by Bartoli is clear to anyone. The Akademie Fur Alte Musik provide suitably appropriate and heartfelt support.

Now That's What I Call Baroque Etc

I bought this disk early on in my classical collecting and it isn't the sort of disk that I would now bother with. But it still makes pleasant listening on a grey and dreary November afternoon. Entitled Baroque Favourites, it is a bit of a Classic FM style production and I had assumed that it was cobbled together from various earlier releases. I now see that all of the pieces are played by the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester under Karl munchinger, however, which indicates it was a specially recorded release. Many of the pieces are familiar in the extreme; Pachelbel's Kanon, Dance of the Blessed Spirits by Gluck ( you'll know the tune if not the title ), Boccherini's Minuet, Bach's Air on a G String and what is known as Albinoni's Adagio but is in fact a 20th century confection by Italian musicologist Giazotto, referencing various Venetian baroque composers. There are also two fine oboe concertos by Handel, with soloist Lothar Koch, and Handel's organ concerto the Cuckoo and the Nightingale, with soloist Martin Haselbock. There's one of Handel's Water Music suites and the disk ends with the novelty Toy Symphony by Wolfie's dad Leopold Mozart, which it must be said, does tend to outstay its' welcome.

Pa - Pa - Pa - Pa

This is the only disk that I have of a mainstream full length opera, although I have a baroque opera from Rameau and a one act opera by Ibert. Audio disks aren't really the best medium for opera but if you are going to have one I would argue that this makes the most sense; Mozart's The Magic Flute. Having said that, "making sense" and The Magic Flute are not terms that readily come together, since the plot seems to make little sense at all. It is supposed to be full of Masonic overtones but since I know little about the inner workings of the secret society, these pass me by. There may well also be satirical allusions to contemporary politics in the Habsburg Empire but these too have become blurred with the passing of time. it has a lot in common with many Shakespeare plays that are ostensibly about those of noble birth but when some of the most enjoyable parts revolve around the antics of the lower classes, roles fulfilled here by Papageno and Papagena None of the impenetrability of the plot seems to matter however when the staging is right. And the music is packed with memorable arias and orchestral writing, plus solo roles for the title instrument. This recording is solid down the middle traditional by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Karl Bohm. The mainly German cast is excellent and includes Hans Hotter, Fritz Wunderlich and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Papageno. The fearsome Queen of the Night aria is taken by Roberta Peters. The recording includes the spoken dialogue and since there is a full libretto, this adds to the atmosphere and plot development, such as it is in this opera.

Christmas 2007

I've just received the new December issue of the BBC Music mag and as is often the case, the cover disk is another selection of Christmas orientated music. The performers are The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists directed by John Eliot Gardiner and the music heavily features recordings made during their mammoth Bach pilgimage of 2000, when they played all of his cantatas on their appropriate feast days throughout the year. There is a complete performance of one of the Christmas cantatas for Leipzig, BWV 110, plus extracts from BWV 40, BWV 133 and BWV 190. Fortuitously, there's only one slight duplication in the case of the BWV 133 extract with the commercial disk I have by Collegium Vocale Ghent. These are live recordings and do not have quite the luxury casting ( the soloists here are taken from within the choir ) and recorded sound of the Belgians but it is still a worthwhile listen. The disk also has some fine extra items. The Familiar Shepherd's farewell from Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ is given a moving performance and there are two excellent examples of unaccompanied 16th century motets, one by the french composer known as Mouton and one by Clemens Non Papa. The booklet notes don't mention where he comes from, I'd guess the low countries without doing a search on the net.

The First Guitar Hero ?

Occasionally, the BBC Music magazine cover disk is a joint promotion with a small independant record company, instead of an in house production using the BBC orchestras or Young Generation artists. That is the case here, with a disk that is a co-production with ARTS Music. The disk features two Haydn symphonies, No 6 ( Le matin ) and No 8 ( Le soir ), plus Guitar Concerto No 1 by Mauro Giuliani. The performers are the Wiener Akadamie under Martin Haselbock and the guitarist in the concerto, using Giuliani's original guitar, is Edoardo Catemario. It is much preferable to hear the Haydn symphonies played by a chamber orchestra on period instruments rather than a full blown modern BBC symphony orchestra as might otherwise have been the case. These two symphonies are part of a set of three written to illustrate the times of day and were composed at the request of his Haydn's first Esterhazy patron who wanted a response to Vivaldi's Four Seasons. They incorporate many solos for several of the ensemble's instruments and evoke a suitably civilised Haydnesque ambience. Giuliani was renoened as the guitar virtuoso of his time ( contemporaneous with Beethoven ) when the guitar was first coming to prominence. It is notoriously difficult to balance an acoustic guitar with a full orchestra, so again the chamber orchestra forces here are ideal. The work follows the classical conceto style of Mozart but has many individual touches designed specifically for the instrument in question. The Neopolitan Catemario is a fine advocate.

Christmas 2003

Most years, the December issue of BBC Music mag includes a disk of Christmas themed music. I'm going to wait a month before playing the more overtly seasonal ones but this disk from 2003 seems generalised enough to give a spin today, the days are getting darker anyway ! There are three pieces featured, the first of which I've already talked about in connection with a commercial disk of Respighi's music, L'adorazione dei Magi from the Trittico Botticelliano featuring the ancient and mysterious tune of the Advent hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel. The second piece is by Britten, the song collection A Boy Is Born, and the disk concludes with Une cantate de Noel by Honegger. The Britten piece is a student work written when he was 19. Sung acapella, it is a virtuoso choral showpiece with a distinctive English feel. As opposed to this student piece, Honegger's cantata was his final major work. With organ and other instrumental accompaniment, it is a sentimental and consoling work that conveys the warmth of Christmas without featuring any generally well known themes. The performers on the disk are the BBC Singers, the Choir of King's College Cambridge and the BBC Concert Orchestra under Stephen Cleobury in the Respighi and Honegger and Trinity Boys Choir and the BBC Symphony Chorus directed by Stephen Jackson in the Britten. Soloists in the Honegger are treble Oliver Perkins, baritone Stuart MacIntyre and organist Robert Quinney while the solo singer in the Britten is treble Alexander Main-Ian.

Music Of Spirituality And Life

Hesperion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya under Jordi Savall provide the third disk of the Latin American baroque for consideration after earlier ones I've posted about by Ex Cathedra and the Harp Consort. There is some duplication of material on all three disks but there's also enough variety and the differing approaches make them all viable. The title of this disk is Villancicos y Danzas Criollas De La Iberia Antigua Al Nuevo Mondo 1550 - 1750. The approach taken by Hesperion XXI lies between the more strictly academic one of Ex Cathedra and the looser improvisatory and exuberant Harp Consort. There is plenty of instrumental improvisation from Savall et al too but the vocals are maybe a little closer to a classical than a folk tradition when compared with the Harp Consort. That is certainly the case with the male vocals, the female voices led by Montserrat Figueras aren't quite so uptight. I've written before about what lies behind this music, the effect of the rhythms and inflections of the indigenous music of Mexico, Bolivia and Peru on the sacred music imported from Spain and the need the church felt to entice the locals in by making the music more akin to what they were used to. Lyrically too this music moves away from the latin mass and into the vernacular. Like all releases on the Alia Vox label, the packaging and sound are luxurious.

Crawl Into Bed With A Rattlesnake

Bop Till You Drop was Ry Cooder's most commercially successful album without exhibiting any particular concessions to popular taste. It was an r 'n' b based album and made particular use of the backing voices of Bobby King and co. King actually sings lead beautifully on the closing track I Can't Win. Chaka Khan also makes a couple of guest vocal appearances and there are deluxe LA session men like Jim Keltner and David Lindley enhancing the production values and making the feel slightly less down home than on the earlier releases. It retains the quirkiness for which Cooder's records were renowned however and there is an element of acting out the lyrics which enhances songs like Down In Hollywood and Trouble You Can't Fool Me. But the heart of the album perhaps lies in the opening three tracks; the almost hit Little Sister, the aching Go Home Girl and the brooding The Very Thing That Makes You Rich. Cooder and the band toured the album to death and he has subsequently said that he wasn't comfortable with this phase of his career but anyone who caught the live shows would be hard pressed to think that he wasn't having a ball.

Miles Goes Electric

Miles goes electric. Oh, Bitches Brew ? Er, no actually. Yeh, I forgot, In A Silent Way ? Well, in fact before that in 1968 came Filles De Kilimanjaro, the disk up for consideration here. Mainly still the quintet of Miles, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, the album saw the introduction of electric bass and the addition of Chick Corea and Dave Holland to replace Hancock and Carter respectively on some tracks. Both Hancock and Corea also began using electric piano. In some ways the music flowed naturally on from Nefertiti, in that there wasn't much in the way of showboating solo fireworks, the improvisations were more on a group level and evolved slowly and atmospherically. The sound was bluesy and edging towards funk and the title implied a growing interest in African music. Geographically it was a little off kilter though, the influence contained being more South African than Kenyan, especially in the closing Mademoiselle Mabry. I think Miles had been listening to Hugh Masakela, though he name checked influences closer to home like Hendrix and the blues of Muddy Waters. Incidentally, unlike Miles, the packaging shows a certain insular American feel, thinking it necessary to translate the title ( Girls Of Kilimanjaro ) and to tell us that the track Mademoiselle Mabry in fact means Miss Mabry !

Cretan Tradition

Ross Daly may seem to be an unlikely name for a recognised master of Cretan national music but this Irish born musician has lived on the island for more than twenty years after exhaustive travels and research throughout the Near East and Central Asia. This disk, Selected Works, is a kind of best of compilation. Daly has been championed in the UK by the Radio 3 programme Late Junction but his disks aren't that easy to track down. There are six extended instrumental pieces, mainly featuring traditional Cretan and Greek instruments but with occasional touches of further afield in the percussion and a sitar used on one track. Daly himself is adept on many stringed instruments, particularly the Cretan lyra. Amongst fairly common instruments like the oud and the saz and conventional instruments like the violin, double bass and clarinet, we also get cura, rababa, sarangi, bendir, laouto and naqarat. These require some research on the net to find out exactly what they are but the sound world isn't as alien as it may sound with improvised riffing on a generally soulful ( will avoid that word "bluesy" ) feel. Most of the pieces are Daly originals but strictly in the Cretan tradition. A fine reminder that there is more to the music of Greece than Zorba and also that, despite the cultural legacy it gave the west, the country has as much in common with the east.

Eighties Brit Jazz Revival

To a certain extent I rebought this album on cd for nostalgic reasons regarding a certain period and people in my life but it still holds up pretty well as music. The disk is Working Week - Working Nights by the band Working Week. A jazz fusion combo, the nucleus of Working Week was sax and flute player Larry Stabbins, guitarist Simon Booth and vocalist Julie ( now calling herself Juliet ) Roberts. But for this album they surrounded themselves with a big band of eighties British jazz luminaries with striking solo contributions from Guy Barker and Harry Beckett on trumpets and Annie Whitehead on trombone to supplement Stabbins's sax and flute. There's quite a heavy latin influence throughout and very strong songs both lyrically and melodically. Standouts are Solo and Sweet Nothing but the showstopper for me is the magnificent I Thought I'd Never See You Again, with evocative words, big brassy arrangement with a Spanish tinge and a blistering trumpet solo from Barker. There's a long final track, Stella Marina, featuring poet Jalal. This could be looked upon as early rap but has more in common with sixties black US outfit the Last Poets. The only dud is the cover of Marvin Gaye's Inner City Blues with a squirm enducing rap from Julie Roberts.

Hooray For Hollywood

The title of this BBC Music mag disk is The Golden Age Of Hollywood, with music performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under their then chief conductor Leonard Slatkin who has a Hollywood pedigree himself via his parents. Most of the works are classic thirties and forties romantic extravaganzas in a line down from Rachmaninov. There are three of these pieces, all by composers seeking refuge from Hitler in one way or another. Korngold's Cello Concerto with soloist Frederick Slotkin isn't a full blown concerto but is an extract that was used for a concert performance by the lead character in the movie Deception. Miklos Rozsa's Spellbound Concerto features pianist Simon Mulligan and is again not so much a concerto as a short concert piece compiled from the film music. Spellbound was a typically suspenseful Hitchcock movie and it also uses the weird sound of the theremin. Franz Waxman wrote the Tristan and Isolde Fantasy for the film Humoresque, another script with a musician as a leading character, this time a violinist. There are solo contributions here from Stephen Bryant on violin and Simon Mulligan on piano once more. There is a short Broadway style number from Gershwin, Walking The Dog ( I'd prefer Rufus Thomas ) and the odd one out, since it dates from much later in the fifties, is the Symphonic Suite that Bernstein put together from his music to the tough brando movie On The Waterfront. Jazz elements surround a more menacing and violent feel overall.

Pretty Damn Obscure

This must be the most obscure disk that I have and I would hazard a guess that it is the smallest selling too. It also falls into the "why on earth did I buy this" category. The reason I did was that it had a glowing review in one of the classical music magazines ( later countermanded by one in another but after I had bought it ) and I had enjoyed another disk by the duo performing ( which hasn't had its' turn off the shelf yet ) The release is entitled Herzogenberg Piano Music and the performers are Goldstone and Clemmow piano duo on some pieces and Anthony Goldstone solo piano on the remainder. Heinrich von Herzogenberg was a friend of Brahms, who was his musical hero but who was more disparaging about his friend's work. That may well have been because of unrequited feelings that Brahms had for Herzogenberg's attractive wife. Whatever the gossipy side of things, nobody would make any claims for this music as the work of a great master, Herzogenberg himself said he had little originality but aimed to pass on the fine tradition. The performances here are well played and the works engaging enough without showing any great passion or absolute need for Herzogenberg to have written them. So, damning with faint praise maybe but no need to deny them a hearing.

Discovering Music

This BBC Music mag cover disk resembles an edition of the Radio 3 programme Discovering Music, in that it features nearly half an hour of detailed explanation of the music together with examples. The music in question is the familiar Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart and violinist / conductor Andrew Manze gives extremely interesting explanations into how this is more than an easy flowing melodic makeweight. To my knowledge, this is the only time the cover mag has taken this approach. I guess the Eine Kleine is just the right sort of length for this treatment. The disk does also include Manze and the English Concert playing two other short Mozart pieces, Divertimento in F, K138, and Adagio in E for violin and orchestra, K 261. Further examples of the way that Mozart's music just seems to proceed in such an effortless perfectly apposite progression. Manze's Nachtmusik examples help shed light on the other works too, however and show the genius behind the apparent ease of composition. Good to have a complete version of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik too rather than an extract which I had elsewhere.

Spanish Farce

This BBC music mag cover disk is of recordings made live at the BBC Proms in 2002 when one of the themes of the season was Spain. Both works are by Ravel, who despite being French was a Basque with connections on both sides of the Pyrenees. The first piece is the four section orchestral showcase Rapsodie Espagnole, played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Tadaaki Otaka. Wonderful colours as usual with Ravel and the piece moves from mystery through to exuberance. The second work is the one act opera L'Heure Espagnole, set in a clock makers shop and a comic tale of a cuckolded husband, thwarted lover, successful lover, people hiding in grandfather clocks etc. I remember seeing this semi staged version in the tv broadcast and it was great fun with finely performances, especially from mezzo Sarah Connelly as the object of several desires and with her own libido to satisfy. Audience laughter attests to the enjoyment being had but by the very nature of the piece, it isn't as successful as a purely auditory experience on this disk. Gianandrea Noseda conducts the BBC Philharmonic and the male leads parts are sung by tenors Charles Castronovo and Jean-Paul Fouchecourt, baritone Brett Polegato and bass Peter Rose.

Leila, And Other Assorted Violin Works

A very interesting recital lasting 86 minutes, and stretching to a second disk for the price of one, by violinist Leila Josefowicz and her regular partner on piano John Novacek. Jocefowicz states that she wanted to tour a recital that would be a complete programme and that would stretch her cerebrally, emotionally and technically. The recital covers three distinct areas, beginning with France in the 20th century in the form of Theme and Variations by Messiaen and the Violin Sonata in G Major by Ravel. The Messiaen is an early piece and so still shares some preoccupations with Ravel, although it is a more austere work than the more playful and jazz inflected work of the older composer. The recital then moves to two works for solo violin by contemporary composers, San Andreas Suite by Mark Grey and Lachen Verlernt by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Grey wrote his piece on guitar and the transposition to violin is an interesting one. Salonen's work is an updating off the chaconne and both pieces are virtuosic and involving. To conclude, the recital disk moves back to core repertoire with Beethoven's Violin Sonata No 10, from his heroic middle period, and the dramatic Scherzo in G minor by Brahms. This was one of a clutch of releases rushed out by Warner Classics when it pulled the plug on any new recordings. I think that Josefowicz will continue to have a successful recording career in spite of that industry decision, however.

It's Czech Mate

After a run of outstanding BBC Music mag cover disks, this one is a little more run of the mill. It features Czech conductor Jiri Belohlavek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Czexh repertoire prior to his appointment as their chief conductor. The works on the disk are Dvorak's Symphony No 6 and the symphonic poem Eternal Longing by Dvorak's pupil Vitezslav Novak. Dvorak's sixth is an accomplished symphony which was popular and well received in its' time but was then later eclipsed by his final three symphonies. Posterity tends to have got these things right more often than not and while it is a good symphony it isn't as outstanding as those that followed in terms of invention and memorability. Novak's tone poem draws on folk themes and a prose piece by Hans Christian Andersen concerning the moonlight flight of a swan. It's an engaging, optimistic work and may be the more interesting piece on the disk, the craftmanship of Dvorak's symphony notwithstanding.

The Status Quo Of String Quartets

Rather unkindly, I tend to think of the Lindsays as the Status Quo of string quartets. They had a comparably long career and discography but listening again to this cd ( the only one that I have by them ) I realise that any negative associations such a description may have do not apply. This disk is of the three Haydn String Quartets in Op 76. These are relatively late quartets, written once he was freed of his kapellmeister duties with the Esterhazy court, and show an increasingly symphonic style. They are full of invention, fire and good taste. It is interesting to hear the use in the third quartet of the theme from the Austrian National Hymn that Haydn had composed for the birthday of the Emperor in 1797 and which has eventually evolved into Deutschland Uber Alles the current German national anthem. There are fewer rough edges than is sometimes the case with the Lindsays, who are well suited to Haydn.

Rememberance

It's November 11th, Armistice day and Rememberance Sunday combined this year. So it is fitting to play this BBC Music mag cover disk titled The Pity Of War, Songs and Poems of Wartime Suffering. A superb project of songs setting the works of several of the English war poets from WW1 but also honouring the dead of other countries and other conflicts with songs from French and German composers as well as Charles Ives. WW1 perhaps has the richest heritage in this field but works on the disk also come from WW2, The Napoleonic Wars, the Boer War and the American Civil War. Another feature of the disk is that there are occasional interruptions for readings of other poems and prose pieces by the actor Simon Russell Beale. The project was put together by pianist Ianin Burnside who handles most of the accompanist duties together with Roger Vignoles. The singing cast could hardly be more distinguished in the current British scene with soprano Sally Matthews, tenor Mark Padmore and baritone Christopher Maltman. The song settings are by Arthur Somervell, Kurt Weill, James Macmillan, Gustav Mahler, Charles Ives, Francis Poulenc, John Ireland, Hans Eisler, Michael Tippett, Gerald Finzi, Reynaldo Hahn, Benjamin Britten, Ivor Gurney and George Butterworth, while the readings come from works by Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves, Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon. Everyone concerned with the project gives of their best. Originally geatured in the Radio 3 series Voices, that programme is now much missed.

What's Your Impression ?

The BBC Music mag cover disks infrequently use performances from their archives. These normally involve one of the orchestras but on this disk they are solo performances recorded in 1968 and 1970 by pianist Vlado Perlemuter. The title is self explanatory, Debussy and Ravel Piano Music. The Debussy works are Pour le Piano and Images ( Sets 1 and 2 ), while the featured piece by Ravel is Le Tombeau De Couperin. It seems that posterity is going to forever link the music of these two French composers, even if the similarities aren't as close as they are sometimes said to be. Together they did radically change writing for the piano, however. The two Debussy works are before and after pieces, the event they straddle being Ravel's Jeux D'eau which enabled Debussy to write with more freedom in Images and become more radical than Ravel in the end. Ravel's homage to Couperin and the baroque also straddles an event but one of much greater significance. It was begun before the start of WW1 but not completed until after and that is reflected in the work which begins playfully but ends in disillusion. Debussy's impressionistic style sometimes finds blue notes independant of any knowledge of jazz, whereas Ravel was aware of developments in the US from ragtime on. Perlemuter was a remarkable link back to Ravel. Born in what is now Lithuania, he moved to Paris in 1917 and entered the conservatoire. He was befriended by Ravel and was the first to play many of his pieces in public. His performance on this recording is very fine and he continued to give concerts until just before his 90th birthday, dying aged 98 in 2002.

Mystical Sound World

Of the several disks of the music of Arvo Part that I have, this was the first I bought and it remains my favourite. Much of Part's work is choral but this instrumental disk is extremely powerful. With the possible exception of the memorial to Benjamin Britten, this disk contains the most well known of his instrumental works, Fratres and Tabula Rasa. There is also a performance of Symphony No 3 by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi. Fratres is a piece for violin, string orchestra and percussion with violinist Gil Shaham and percussion by Roger Carlsson. It inhabits a similar soundworld to Tabula Rasa, a feeling of infinitude and loneliness, mystical and mysterious. Shaham is joined on Tabula Rasa by a second violinist Adele Anthony and the prepared piano of Erik Risburg which adds a particular other worldy texture. Part's music offers a sense of repose, simplicity, peace and beauty and something deeper than mere diversion and enjoyment. He has become something of a cult figure despite himself. I feel those who are simply cult followers prefer instrumental works such as these, which they can give their own spiritual spin and connection to the elemental in an almost Rite of Spring way, as opposed to Part's own preference for sacred choral music with more of a link to the orthodox tradition. The performances here are of benchmark quality from Shaham and co. The symphony also builds on the same kind of sound blocks as the two chamber pieces and this disk is the one to get if you only want a taster of Part.

Court And Tavern, Bruges To Venice

Every now and again, the BBC Music mag cover disk moves away from the usual perfectly acceptable level to produce a little gem of a recording and that is the case with this one. The disk is titled The Glory Of Venice and is performed by the ensemble Concordia directed by Mark Levy. The music featured is from the early to mid 16th century and reflects the arrival in Venice from Bruges of the catalyst Adrian Willaert, who paved the way for the achievements of Giovanni Gabrieli and Monteverdi. It also concentrates on the sort of secular music that would have been heard away from the grandiose setting of St Mark's. There are quite bawdy street songs courtesy of Willaert and Francesco Silvestrino plus more courtly madrigals by Willaert, Andrea Gabrieli, Cipriano De Rore and Baldassare Donato. The solo voices and chorus of Concordia sing these with relish and sensitivity as appropriate and the songs are interspersed with beautifully played instrumental pieces for viols, lute and harpsichord from composers such as Claudio Merulo, Silvestro Ganassi, Giovanni Bassano and Diego Ortiz. Some of the songs are acapella but most feature accompaniment from various combinations of those instruments. A very classy disk.

That Stalinist Cat And Mouse Game again

One of the superior BBC Music mag cover disks with their regular workhorses the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda playing Symphony No 5 by Prokofiev. As an aside, it is interesting how more frequently the BBC Phil crop up on these cover disks as opposed to the Beeb's other house orchestras. I think it is generally thought that they have been the strongest outfit for some time now. Anyway, back to Prokofiev. The fifth was written towards the end of WW2 and the composer describes it as a symphony of the grandeur of he human spirit. But although Prokofiev's output isn't dissected to the same degree as that of Shostakovich for subtle nuances and hidden subtexts, it seems that there is an ambiguity to this symphony with hints of sarcasm and darker forces. Being Prokofiev, however, it can't help but be stuffed with memorable melodies and these help givee it the popularity it retains in the repertoire. He certainly stands comparison with Shostakovich and should in no way be in his shadow. The disk also includes the overture and two waltzes from his opera War and Peace, a particularly fraught project to try and bring off in Stalinist times.

Ludwig's Mass

I had formulated a few ideas on what to write about this work, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, and on scanning the booklet notes found my thoughts repeated; that it is generally respected rather than loved and receives relatively few performances considering the composer and the type of work that it is. The notes then go on to make the case for the greatness of the work, which I don't doubt, and the way in which the setting transcends the traditional mass to consider the overwhelming power and grandeur of God set against the insignificance of man. I take all that on board but can't get away from my own reaction, which has been that it is a work I return to infrequently. It certainly took Beethoven an inordinate amount of time to complete. Admittedly this coincided with a general writer's block, illness and personal problems but I maybe think that it was a work Beethoven felt strongly that he SHOULD write but which there wasn't the driving compulsion saying that he HAD to write it. It certainly doesn't have anything transcendental like the Ode To Joy. This performance is by The Monteverdi Choir and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique directed by John Eliot Gardner with the solo voices Charlotte Margiono soprano, Catherine Robbin mezzo, William Kendall tenor and Alastair Miles bass. A period instrument performance, they make a strong case for the work and I think I shall return to it a little more often to try to get a better handle on it.

Denmark's Finest

This double cd set of Nielsen symphonies by the San Fransisco Symphony conducted by Herbert Blomstedt has long been looked upon as the benchmark recording and is still holding its' own against more recent contenders. The cycle is spread over two double cd sets, the second of which I will consider when it is next in line on the shelf. This first set proceeds chronologically with Symphonies 1 to 3 plus the short overture to the opera Maskarade and the Aladdin Suite. Nielsen holds a curious place in posterity. To classical enthusiasts he is well known and at least some of his symphonies are concert hall regulars and well represented in recording catalogues. Outisde of the classical world however, his name is hardly known at all, that was certainly the case with me when I first embarked on investigating this repertoire. Many of his symphomies are programmatic to a greater or lesser extent. The first could be looked upon as a self portrait, the second had a sub title of the Four Temperaments representing the different aspects of character to be found in all men. The third is subtitled Sinfonia Espansiva and the gorgeous allegro finale is hugely expansive. The second pastoral movement contains sung contributions from soprano Nancy Wait Kromm and tenor Kevin McMillan. The Aladdin Suite is also a crowd pleaser, influenced by the Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov school of what was supposedly oriental in sound and melody but with plenty of interest in both those aspects. Simply because of being Danish, Nielsen is often lumped into a Scndinavian or Nordic category with Sibelius but it should be remembered that Denmark shares a border with Germany also and the Austro-Germanic tradition is carried on in his music as much as it is in that of Richard Strauss for instance.

Master Chamber Quintets

The BBC Music mag cover disks are always worth having when they feature Radio 3 New Generation artists. Featured on this disk of core repertoire chamber music are the Karol Szymanowski Quartet who are joined by clarinettist Ronald van Spaendonck on Brahms's Clarinet Quintet in B minor and by violist Laurence Power in Mozart's String Quintet in D. The Clarinet Quintet was written towards the end of Brahms's life and he was inspired to come out of planned retirement to compose it for clarinettist Richard Muhlfeld. It is an intellectual, emotional and poignant work given its' due by the performers here. With his string quintet, Mozart was following a path started by the younger, less celebrated Haydn, Michael. It is another work written near the end of the composer's life but of course with Mozart, there was no reason for him to believe that the end was close a year before it came. It has the hallmarks of a work commissioned for a connoisseur, thought to be a Hungarian merchant, highly sophisticated yet concealing its' art.

The Vanity Of Man

A fine recording from the Italian baroque, Vanitas Vanitatum by Giacomo Carissimi, perfromed by La Fenice with the Choeur de Chambre de Namur directed by cornet player Jean Tubery. Carissimi's work marked an early move into including recitative in religious settings. Vanitas Vanitatum is half oratorio, half motet with alternating solo and chorus parts supported by two violins. The texts consider the fragility and vanity of human existence and encourage the contemplation of the folly of too much of the latter. The disk also contains two other works with fuller instrumental accompaniment including organ, cimbalo and cornet. The secular cantata Sciolto Havean Dall'alte Sponde depicts two lovers on a storm tossed shore which acts as a metaphor for the turbulence of love. The final work is a setting of the mass, which has a similar name to the cantata and re-uses certain of the material in reworkings. An influential musician in his time, Carissimi was well known in France and it is interesting to have a Franco-Italian take on his work from these performers.

Latin Lilt

The BBC Concert Orchestra aren't exactly the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra more's the pity. They make a reasonable fist of this BBC Music mag cover disk however, which is titled Fiesta ! and includes music by various Latin American composers. The conductor on most pieces is Miguel Harth-Bedoya. He conducts Huapango by Jose Pablo Moncayo, a latin showcase that I think was played by the Bolivars at this year's Proms which in part prompted my earlier remark. Next is the ballet suite Estancia by Alberto Ginastera which is the most "classical" piece, along with Seven Popular Spanish Songs by Manuel De Falla ( ok, Spain's not in the Americas but the influence is the same, mezzo Anne Murray sings ). The final piece with Harth-Bedoya conducting is Piazzolla's Tangazo, performed here without bandoneon and the poorer for it. The disk concludes with the BBC Concert Orchestra running through Gershwin's Cuban Overture with Barry Wordsworth this time and there is a small bandoneon fix in Nocturna by Julian Plaza, played by a combo of bandoneon, violin, double bass and piano. A lightweight offering on the whole but ok.

Resurrected

Mahler's Symphony No 2, Resurrection, another massive work sprawling over two disks and played on this recording by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Simon Rattle with chorus master Simon Halsey and soloists soprano Arleen Auger and mezzo Dame Janet Baker. The crude outline of the symphony ( variously confirmed and repudiated by Mahler ) is that the first movement represents the death of the hero, with second movement a nostalgic rememberance of his life, followed by a third in which he despairs of his belief in God. Mahler then sets the song Urlicht from his recurring obsession the Wunderhorn poems, and this rediscovers a naive faith which reaches apotheosis in the resurrection text of the finale. This final text, sung by the chorus and soprano, begins with lines from Klopstock but is completed by lines written by Mahler himself. Urlicht it sung by the mezzo or contralto soloist, a rather hooty operatic performance here by Janet Baker of the kind that I find it hard to warm too. Otherwise, the forces here play and sing with committment, if in slightly dated sound. perhaps more than any other composer, Mahler's symphonies contain a consistency of the same themes and concerns and mark a definite progression, though without marking any great musical advance from first to last.

Out Of Step With The Critics

Critical received wisdom seems to place Chicken Skin Music at the top of the list of the first wave of Ry Cooder albums. Perhaps typically, it is my least favourite. Not to say that it is a bad album or that I don't enjoy it but there are a few duff tracks with I Got Mine, Smack Dab In The Middle and Stand By Me not working particularly well. Otherwise, it is a disk that shows how Cooder is not afraid of sentimentality and an old fashioned vintage feel, such as pervades Always Lift Him Up, Yellow Roses, He'll Have To Go and the chirpy instrumental Chloe. Sentimentality doesn't preclude genuine emotional weight in these songs. Musically, the disk marked the first inclusion of the Mexican accordion maestro Flaco Jimenez who helps give the album a Tex Mex feel even if the material isn't specifically from that region. The other ethnic influence here is from Hawaii with slack key and steel guitars featuring from Cooder himself and guests Gabby Pahinui and Atta Isaacs. I can see why the album is highly rated, put it down to personal taste that it doesn't quite take off as far as I am concerned.

Nile's Miles

I remember back in the late sixties a school friend who was a couple of years older than me had the album Nefertiti by Miles Davis and it seemed to come form such a cool, sophisticated world with a striking photo of a brooding Miles on the cover shot in such a way as almost to resemble the Egyptian queen herself. it remains a great album to this day. By this time, Miles had moved on to another extremely important quintet lineup of younger musicians with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Shorter and Hancock take the composer credits here and Miles inverts the standard setup on several tracks, whereby the horns restate the theme repeatedly and the rhythm section are busy underneath them, shifting the beat's emphasis, stretching the time and offering a full dynamic and emotional range. As is becoming apparent from this journey through Miles's music, there isn't that much virtuoso soloing going on. The most virtuosic thing on offer here is the stunning drumming of the teenage Tony Williams. The title track has been described as almost a drum concerto. The album is still acoustic but the move away from standard jazz traditions of performance was under way.

Prophetic ? Or Just Casting Around ?

Prophesy by Nitin Sawnhey is a very powerful and political album. Depending on my mood, it can reinforce my prejudices or irritate the hell out of me. It is basically an anti-technology record with the message developed world bad, developing world good. But it is packed with advanced recording techniques wholly reliant on the latest technology. It was recorded at various locations around the world at the expense of a pretty hefty carbon footprint. Crucially, it was recorded in early 2001 i.e. before September. Fundamental truths remain despite that event but the world subsequently must be viewed from that changed standpoint and allowances made for it. What of the music ? The album is a collage that runs together and mixes many genres; Indian, Latin, blues, rap, soul. Samples, found sounds and soundbites from unknowns and political heavyweights are scattered thoughout. Sunset, The Preacher, Street Guru, Prophesy itself are all impressive tracks. The playing and singing are outstanding apart from the irritatingly twee female vocals on a couple of the cod soul pieces ( Natasha Atlas is on the disk but don't think it's her, I think she handles the Sunset vocals ) Prophesy is Nitin Sawnhey's most complete work yet but I think he will better it eventually. He needs to use less of a scattergun approach though, eclectic is fine but unfocussed isn't.

Giving The Compilation Album A Good Name

World music is bedevilled by the curse of the compilation album, there are some unspeakably naff ones out there when the marketing men have been given free rein ahead of the creatives. I only have a couple in my collection and although the packaging of this double cd is not the most tasteful, it is full of great music. The title is another aspect with which I would quarrel, Sahara Blues Of The Desert, since I have spoken before about the laziness of sticking the blues label onto various world musics. But it does have more relevance here; even if the links aren't as direct and close as many would have it, the soulful and bluesy feel is undeniable. Among the 21 tracks are some of the usual suspects ( Tinariwen, Ali Farka Toure, Baaba Maal, Youssou N'Dour ) who are all on good form with judicious track selection in the cases of those who aren't so inherently bluesy as a rule, such as Maal and N'Dour. Most of the artists come from countries bordering the Sahara, with just two from Ethiopia and one from Madagascar plus American Markus James and the English Robert Plant and Justin Adams collaboration who are caught playing live at the Festival in the Desert. The only totally incongruous track is the Bill Laswell new age remix effort from Ethiopian Gigi. Inspired standouts for me would be Oumou Sangare and Boubacar Traore and the oud workout from Compagnie Meskaoui. It's also good to hear several powerful female voices included.

Routine Trundle

Another BBC Music mag offering, this one shows the passing of time since it was an introduction to the then newly appointed chief conductor to the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov, whose term is now winding towards its' end. To be honest, this is a perfectly competant but somewhat routine trundle through mainstream classical repertoire. The disk commences with Die Schone Melusine Overture by Mendelssohn, features Haydn's Symphony No 46 and concludes with Schubert's Symphony No 3. Such pieces are more often heard in some kind of period performance these days, particularly Haydn, but here we get a modern day symphony orchestra approach. A nice enough disk to have, especially since it is essentially a freebie, but not one I would return to as often as many others from the same source. The Haydn is the strongest piece here and shows the invention that many of his symphonies have and that tends to be overlooked given the number that he came up with through his long career. Schubert was still working towards mastery of the symphonic form at the time of his third, written in a year when he was most prolific in his real forte, that of the song.

Cecilia Without The Heartbreak

We are at least in the vicinity of the feast day for St Cecilia ( 22nd of November, she is the patron saint of musicians of course ) so it seems reasonable to pick off this BBC music mag cover disk from 2002. The disk includes a full performance of Purcell's Hail ! Bright Cecilia and then moves on to Bright Cecilia Variations, specially commissioned by BBC Music magazine from a number of contemporary composers. Celebrating the feast was a big deal in late 17th century London and Hail ! St Cecilia was Purcell's fourth setting, this time to a text by Nicholas Brady. It is a fine example of his work and is played here in a live concert performance by the King's Consort directed by Robert King with solo singers Susan Gritton soprano, James Bowman countertenor, tenors Rogers Covey-Crump and Mark Milhofer, Colin Campbell baritone and bass Michael George. The Variations were commissioned to celebrate ten years of the magazine and Colin Matthews was given the role of co-ordinating the project, allocating a section to set in a variety of moods. Matthews himself launches the theme and it moves through changes produced by Judith Weir, Poul Ruders, David Sawer, Michael Torke, Anthony Payne and Magnus Lindberg. The sections segue one into another and the piece is played here by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. The variations are brief and don't outstay their welcome but offer a link between the spirit of musicians over the centuries, even if Cecilia's link to the art is at best a little tenuous.

A Pivotal Figure

The excellent performing trio of John Holloway violin, Jaap ter Linden viola da gamba and Lars Ulrik Mortensen harpsichord are the featured artists on this disk of the chamber music of Buxtehude. The works in question on this disk are the Seven Trio Sonatas Op 2. Having been born half a century after Heinrich Schutz, "the father of German musicians", and a little less than half a century before J S Bach, Dietrich Buxtehude was a living link between the founder of Protestant Baroque music and its foremost practitioner. Bach famously walked for several days to hear Buxtehude perform. The Seven Sonatas Op 2 possess a very personal stamp of unpredictability, virtuosity and expressive power. Of particular note are Buxtehude's use of stylised dances in the first sonata and his quasi-improvisatory passages in the "fantastic" style in the fifth sonata. Holloway is a superb interpretor of this repertoire and his colleagues always offer the most appropriate support. This release is now on Naxos, it was originally recorded by Dacapo and lacks just a little of the sound quality of this trio's ECM releases.

Bloch Party

The shadow of WW1 hangs over much of the music on this disk of the chamber music of Ernest Bloch, the Swiss born Jewish composer who spent his latter years in the US. The performers here are the violinist Hagai Shaham and pianist Arnon Erez. The works are Violin Sonatas Nos 1 and 2, Melodie, Nuit Exotique and Abodah, all written in the 1920s when Bloch was located in various parts of the US. The first sonata is the most extreme work, jagged and frantic, written closest to the end of WW1. As a reaction against that the second sonata is more mystical and melodic with a mix of Jewish themes and themes from Christian Gregorian chant. The later named works are soulful, more melodic pieces again with a sense of the Jewish tradition to them. Without labouring the point of Jewishness, the Israeli performers do share an obvious affinity with this material. The general feeling of the disk is quite austere and bears obvious scars of the 20th century, even if Bloch escaped many of the immediate traumas of the time.

Minimal Percussion

This BBC Music mag cover disk from 2002 is one of their rare forays into contemporary music with works by John Adams and Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales play Short Ride in a Fast Machine under Mark Elder and the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Barry Wordsworth perform The Chairman Dances, both pieces I have considered elsewhere. The core of the disk is a very fine performance of Harmonium by the BBC National Orchesta and Chorus of Wales plus the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus under Grant Llewellyn. This sets works by the poets John Donne and Emily Dickinson and is in three parts, Negative Love or The Nothing, Because I Could Not Stop For Death and Wild Nights. The work is tonal and harmonic which was a big break for Adams at the time in 1980 and the almost hymn like feel is both beautiful and exciting. The Andriessen work is De Snelheid ( which means velocity ) which is performed here by the ASKO Ensemble under Oliver Knussen. This is mainly a pulsing percussive work with varying and shifting rhythms and minimal instrumental interjections.

Operatic Overtures

A disk of operatic overtures from Rossini and Verdi by the Berliner Phikharmoniker and Herbert von Karajan, more recycling of the back catalogue by DG. A nice disk to have without being in any way essential. Slightly dated sound too. I was surprised by the familiarity of much of the music, probably dating from my childhood when many of these pieces served as light music on the radio since they contain much melodic invention and are of the requisite length. Interesting to note different approaches to the overtures with some containing material from the opera to come while others are unique pieces serving as scene settings while the audience gets comfortable. The Rossini overtures on the disk are from Il Barbiere di Siviglia, L'Italiana in Algeri, La Gazza Ladra and La Scala di Seta. Those by Verdi featured are Nabucco, La Traviata, I Vespri Siciliani, Un Ballo in Maschera, La Forza del Destino and Aida.

Faith Through Beauty

Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques are responsible for this beautiful disk which also highlights counter tenor Andreas Scholl and soprano Barbara Bonney. The music is by Pergolesi, his setting of the Stabat Mater which is probably his best known work and two settings of Salve Regina. Pergolesi is just about the shortest lived of notable composers, dying aged only 26 in 1736. He spent his short working life in Naples and Rome but after his death, appreciation of the music he had produced spread among Italianophiles in France, Spain and England. This led to some unscrupulous publishers misattributing the work of others to Pergolesi but these works are indisputably his. There is a sweetness and warmth to these sacred settings and the voices of Scholl and Bonney blend perfectly in the Stabat Mater, where they also shine in the solo parts. Scholl sings one of the versions of Salve Regina in F minor while the setting in A minor is sung by Bonney alone. Both bring a sense of luminescence to their parts. Les Talens Lyriques show great taste and sensitivity in their interpretations of the music which is a demonstration of the idea prevalent at the time of showing faith through beauty.

No Thought Of Compromise

Harrison Birtwistle is an uncompromising and single minded composer, ploughing his own course with no thought of diversions into the occasional simple or neo classical piece. This is the only disk of his music that I have and it contains two instrumental theatre pieces, Theseus Game and Earth Dances. This recording of Theseus Game was made at the world premiere in 2003 at the Ruhr Triennale by Ensemble Modern and two conductors, Martyn Brabbins and Pierre-Andre Valade. Two conductors are required because of the theatrical way in which the players move about the stage, the continuous theme of the work being passed around from one solo instrument to the next as they stroll around and the ensmble continues to provide a stark background. There is no theme to the theatricality as such, just the spectacle being enacted on stage by the orchestra. Earth Dances was also recorded live for this disk in Frankfurt, again by Ensemble Modern this time under Pierre Boulez. There are no stage effects for this work but there is a dramatic sense to the shifting layers and blocks of sound that evoke something ancient and mysterious, like the earth itself. The often repeated critical quote is that it is a Rite of Spring for the 1980s. I don't think the public ear has managed to become as accustomed to the sound world of Earth Dances as quickly as it did to the Rite eighty years earlier but it will be interesting to see if such acceptance does ultimately come ( given that the Rite is still too far out for some ).

Vocal Seasons

A superstar package from Decca for Cecilia Bartoli on this disk, The Vivaldi Album. I don't begrudge it in her case though since she puts a lot of work and research into her projects to avoid the commonplace and routine flogging of warhorses. Vivaldi may not be a little known composer but there is so much to his output and much of the material on this disk was neglected or undiscovered. There are six world premieres while another couple of arias strongly resemble movements from the Four Seasons. Bartoli is in fine vocal form but the text and acting of the various arias takes precedence over pure sound quality. Some of the aspirates can get a little wearing but it is an affectation I can forgive. Much of the drive and enjoyment on the disk comes from the "backing band" Il Giardino Armonico conducted by Giovanni Antonini. Playing on period instruments, they are delicate where appropriate and bumptious and exuberant when necessary. Occasionally, a chorus is called for and these duties are undertaken by the Arnold Schoenberg Chor, chorus master Simon Schouten. Forget any hype, the musicianship can take it.

We're The Young Generation

I think I'll visit the BBC Music mag cover disk section of the shelf with a bit more regularity from now on, since I've completed the journey through a couple of the smaller shelves. So, considering another from back in 2002, this is a disk featuring performers who at the time were BBC Young Generation artists in mainstream concerto repertoire. An impressive cast too. Elisabeth Batiashvili on violin and Alban Gerhardt on cello play Brahms's Double Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic under Yan Pascal Tortelier while Ashley Wass performs Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 3, again with the BBC Phil but this time under Vassily Sinaisky. The Double Concerto doesn't quite reach the heights of the commercial recording that I have with Shaham, Wang and the Berlin Phil conducted by Abbado but that is pretty much a benchmark recording. Batiashvili and Gerhardt certainly don't suffer too much in comparison. Wass also acquits himself very well in Beethoven's third concerto in what is I think the only recording I have of it. It would be idle to suggest that this is the foremost choice for the piece but it serves perfectly adequately. The disk is a bit like having a BBC Radio 3 Afternoon Performance to play whenever you feel like it.

Better Not Let Stalin Hear This

A live recording from the BBC Proms features on this BBC Music mag cover mount disk by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Vassily Sinaisky. The work is Shostakovich's Symphony No 4. This is the only recording of the fourth symphony that I have but despite being a freebie, it is of a good standard. Being a Shostakovich symphony there is, of course, a story attached. This is the symphony that he was writing at the time of the criticism of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk with all the dangers that posed. Shostakovich therefore withdrew it and set about the fifth symphony instead, his response to justified criticism or whatever the phrase was. The implication was that the fourth symphony was anti Soviet realism, Shostakovich himself said it suffered from "grandiosomania". It didn't surface until the relative safety of the early sixties, by which time it didn't sound in any way outrageous nor particularly grandiose. It is lengthy and it does need a large orchestra but it is full of musical invention and overwhelming musical force. What was clear, however, was the tragic message implied and it seems fair to say that the Stalinist authorities of the thirties would also have picked up on this with fatal results. Ranking Shostakovich's symphonies in terms of worth isn't the most meaningful exercise but the fourth is one of those that is right up there and as a "lost child" it held particular sugnificance for the composer himself towards the end of his life.

Medieval Magic

Unusual repertoire that would appeal to a large audience if it had the right exposure, this disk by the Dufay Collective is subtitled medieval instrumental music. The full title is rather less prosaic, A Dance In The Garden Of Mirth. It's over a dozen years old now but good to see that it is still in the catalogue. The twelve pieces featured are mainly from France and Italy with a single English example. The whole area of medieval instrumental music is shrouded in some mystery because of the lack of notation. Any work that did have any kind of documentation from that era tended to be sacred choral work. There are two treatises that did survive however and from which much of the material on this disk was taken ( by Jerome of Moravia and Johannes de Grocheo ) Whatever the uncertainty, the music here somehow has a very authentic feel and if it is perhaps a romanticised view, it is a most enjoyable one. The spirit of the dance pervades most of the pieces and although these come from the troubadour and trouvere heritage, there are connections apparent with the surviving folk tradition. There are also decidedly eastern sounding timbres and modes in may of the dances. The Dufay Collective are expert in this field and play with zest and enjoyment on a collection of instruments; slide trumpet, recorder, pipe and tabor, vielle, rebec, shawm, gittern, flute, bagpipes, lute, harp, organ and percussion. The whole disk is a delight.

One More Selection From Ligeti

This disk isn't part of the Ligeti Project series but follows a similar selective approach. The piece for string orchestra and 12 solo strings Ramifications is the only duplicate item with the other disks I have, played here by Ensemble InterContemporain under Pierre Boulez. The same forces perform the Chamber Concerto for 13 instrumentalists and Aventures for 3 singers and 7 instrumentalists. The Chamber Concerto illustrates Ligeti's interest in composing with layers of material in different metres and different tempi. The scoring is for woodwind, brass, two keyboards and string quartet. Aventures is a singular work with vocalising around a text without meaning but with an implied theatrical thrust to it. It is almost like a drastically compressed opera buffa. There are two other works on the disk which don't feature Boulez's ensemble. The Lasalle Quartet play String Quartet No 2. This is a five section work, which contains many of Ligeti's preoccupations such as the interlocking of various layers on a kind of grid or grill system. The work is not thematic in any way but the links with the tradition of the genre can be sensed, as can the passion in the music. The final work on the disk is Lux Aeterna for a 16 voice acapella mixed chorus, a role fulfilled by the Chor des Norddeutschen Rundfunks Hamburg directed by Helmut Franz. This sets another part of the mass for the dead that was omitted from requiem and like that piece, it was used by Coppola in the film 2001. Certainly the weird other wordly feel of the vocals fits that context. On a more musical note, it marked the return of harmony to Ligeti's work.

The Long Goodbye

Time for Mahler's Symphony No 9 performed here by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Claudio Abbado. The third Abbado recording of Mahler that I have and the last one to post about. There are still three Mahler disks to come off the shelf but not with Abbado. The chronology is a little out too, since this was Mahler's final completed symphony but there are others in my collection I haven't got around to yet on the shelf. Anyway, enough of that pedantry, what about the ninth symphony ? Mahler didn't live to see a live recording of the work and he often refined his symphonies in the rehearsal period prior to a premiere, so that aspect is lacking here. He was superstitious about writing a ninth symphony since Beethoven, Schubert and Bruckner had all succumbed after writing their ninth and it is easy to see this as some sort of farewell. The themes are farewell and death but direct comparisons of that nature with real life should be avoided. The two lengthy outer movements contrast with the outwardly more dance like inner movements but these are some kind of macabre dance of death. The final movement of farewell isn't necessarily farewell to the world, just a taking leave that could fit other contexts. It can still be seen as a kind of requiem though with an almost silent conclusion. This is again a live recording as the others in this Abbado cycle have been and whereas the other two disks that I have finish with braying "bravo man" launching straight into the applause, I have to commend the Berlin audience here who remain absolutely silent for almost a minute until Abbado gives the sign that all is concluded.

Lunch Date With Ry

Paradise and Lunch was the Ry Cooder album that began to see the beginning of his regular touring band as a recording entity with the soul / gospel backing voices led by Bobby King and the rhythm section of Jim Keltner on drums and Chris Etheridge on bass. It also marked a subtle shift away from the depression era songs that had dominated the first three solo albums, with only perhaps Jesus On The Mainline and Tamp 'Em Up Solid fitting that category. Otherwise there was more of an r 'n' b feel, although Cooder always put a slight off kilter skew on straight ahead r 'n' b, with touches such as the cod reggae rhythm to It's All Over Now. Mexican Divorce was a pointer to an influence that would grow in subsequent albums with the addition of Flaco Jimenez and the old blues chestnut Ditty Wah Ditty is graced by a delightful piano contribution from veteran legenc Earl Hines. As was now becoming expected, Ry Cooder once again concentrates more on the selection and arrangement of the songs than on guitar hero virtuosity but his playing still gives much to admire.

The Definitive Jazz Album ? Kind Of

Well, the time had finally rolled around to take Kind Of Blue off the shelf for a spin. But what to write about it ? It's a bit like Beethoven's 5th, in that what new is there to find to say ? I think it's the biggest selling jazz album of all time. It manages to chart very high in "best of the 20th century lists" that are otherwise very Beatles centric along with whatever is the current flavour of the month indie rock band. Desert Island Disks ? Yep, it crops up there on a regular basis, as it does on Radio 3's Private Passions. The one token jazz album in any record collection of what used to be called yuppies ? Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis. If there has to be any one album afforded this status, then you could do much much worse than this one. What do I think ? It's wonderful, don't play it as often as I might since it is so ubiquitous but it's always good to become reaquainted with. Random thought, you only need ears to discern the difference between a superb jazz saxophonist ( Cannonball Adderley ) and a genius ( John Coltrane )

Vikki, Play Misty For Me

Violinist Viktoria Mullova has developed into a very broad minded and adventurous musician. So far this album, Through The Looking Glass, has been a one off but she may yet revisit this kind of repertoire in future. It is normally described as a jazz album because of the prominent participation of pianist Julian Joseph and the presence of numbers by such as Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Joe Zawinul, Jaco Pastorius and Errol Garner's evergreen Misty. Jazz is probably a fair enough description, there is certainly plenty of improvisation and Mullova proves herself most adept at it. But she is joined by her partner cellist Matthew Barley on some tracks and as producer, while percussionists Colin Currie and Sam Walton also come from a mainly classical background. The influences on the other percussionist Paul Clarvis and guitarist Steve Smith are more diverse. On some tracks, Mullova retains a Bartokian sparkiness to her playing, on others she can sound like she belongs in a sixties west coast psychedelic improvising situation and on yet others she moves into Stephane Grappelli Hot Club territory. It was this last side of her playing on the George Harrison song For You Blue that I felt just occasionally seemed a little unnatural for her. The Ellington workout is excellent though and the Weather Report tracks retain a dance feel, as does the Youssou N'Dour number Life. The biggest surprises are the transformations of the cheesy seventies pop songs How Deep Is Your Love and particularly The Air That I Breathe, which becomes a sublime piece of music by any standards, rhapsodic with a lilting latin feel that Joseph even gives a subtle gospel twist. The whole album is an object lesson in how to do it for any artist considering any form of crossover.

Motian In Motion

The album I Have The Room Above Her by Paul Motian is a typical ECM jazz production. It is a trio outing for Joe Lovano on tenor saxophone, Bill Frisell on guitar and drummer Motian. All compositions are by Motian apart from the title track which is a Jerome Kern / Oscar Hammerstein standard and the Thelonius Monk number Dreamland. It is the type of chamber jazz that is beginning to get quite divorced from the original Afro-American roots of the music. The improvisatory feel is there with the band members sparking off each other in the generally slow moving, drifting type of compositions but Motian's drumming doesn't have the drive or swing or rhythmic momentum of roots music but is instead more of a tuned percussion soloist throughout. Lovano and Frisell add subtle colours and shading without ever really cutting loose into any virtuoso displays. There aren't any of the folk elements that sometimes influence the European jazzers on ECM, this is altogether more cerebral. It could serve as background dinner party jazz but also repays more considered listening.