Sunday 21 December 2008

Fantastical Tales

This month's BBC Music magazine cover disk goes under the title of An Enchanted Christmas with music by Ravel, Prokofiev and Suk. In truth, there isn't much that is inherantly Christmassy about the pieces, it is just that they are based on folk / fairy tales that for some reason are looked upon as being seasonal. The Ravel and Prokofiev pieces are familiar enough and I have both in other commercial recordings. They both get perfectly serviceable workouts; Ravel's Mother Goose Suite from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov and Prokofiev's The Love For Three Oranges ( Symphonic Suite )from the BBC Philharmonic under Sir Edward Downes. Incidentally, the accompanying notes claim that the march from the Three Oranges suite is Prokofiev's most famous melody. Really ? The troika from Lt Kije ? The Montagues and Capulets ? Peter and the Wolf ? Whatever, the work which I didn't know is the one by Suk, Pohadka - A Fairy Tale. This is championed here by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jakub Hrusa. It is a symphonic poem telling the tale of an ill starred love affair, powerful curses and unfortunate transformations and ultimate redemption and happy ending. Because of his family connection it is easy to think of Suk in terms of his father in law Dvorak but the melodic and folk influenced writing and orchestration prefigures Strauss and has more in common with the 19th century Russian school.

Sunday 30 November 2008

France and French Influence

The BBC Music Magazine offering this time around has a French theme with music by Poulenc, Messiaen and Stravinsky. Stravinsky ? Well, the excuse is that he was resident in Paris when the work concerned was composed. That work is the Symphony of Psalms performed here by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Sir Andrew Davis. I already own two other recordings of this work but hearing it in the context here reveals certain connections with the sound world of Messiaen that had previously not occured to me. Stravinsky had magpie tendencies but which way any influence may have gone I am not expert enough to suggest. The Poulenc piece is his Gloria, also played by the BBCSO and Chorus under Davis and with soprano Christine Brewer taking the solo part. Poulenc had ambiguous relations with his religious beliefs and that is reflected by the less than reverent settings of some of the texts here. Not really my cup of tea but given a decent performance. The most compelling performance on the disk however is reserved for the instrumental piece by Messiaen, L'Ascension, performed by the BBC scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. Some of Messaien's indiosyncracies are evident, such as bird song interludes, but the piece has a sober relentless drive that is most impressive.

Thursday 30 October 2008

Quintessentially English ?

Another new BBC Music magazine cover cd, this one going under the title Visions Of England and featuring music by Vaughan Williams, Delius, Butterworth and Finzi. Largely familiar fare presented in decent enough performances and hanging together quite well as a programme without being in any way essential. The disk commences with Delius's orchestral setting of the folk tune Brigg Fair played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis, quintessential English pastoralism but more to do with the source material than with Delius. There follows song settings of the verse of A E Houseman by respectively Vaughan Williams and George Butterworth. The VW is On Wenlock Edge sung by tenor Andrew Kennedy accomnpanied by the Royal String Quartet and pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips, while the Butterworth settings are also from A Shropshire Lad sung by baritone Jonathan Lemalu accompanied by pianist Iain Burnside. Both of these suites seem to be rights of passage for any rising English ( or English speaking ) singer. The disk concludes with a collection of Finzi orchestral songs Let Us Garlands Bring, also sung by Lemalu with The BBCSO under conductor Jac van Steen. Finzi isnb't exactly neglected but is perhaps under performed when compared with the other works on this disk. He does not suffer in any comparison that might be made.

Tuesday 30 September 2008

Rising Mezzo

I'm a bit late posting about the latest BBC music magazine cover disk which features mezzo soprano Christianne Stotijn. The works featured are Brahms's Alto Rhapsody with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Jac van Steen, Mahler's Ruckert-Lieder with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Yasuo Shinozaki and Mahler Songs accompanied by pianist Julius Drake, the latter items extracted from a commercial release. There are no texts supplied in the booklet for obvious reasons of room in such a free giveaway but Stotijn sings expressively throughout. Brahms famously never wrote an opera but there is an operatic intensity to the Rhapsody that makes a very effective work. The Ruckert-Lieder fit into Mahler's Knaben Wunderhorn sound world and that of several of the symphonies. Certain recurring themes and motifs also crop up in the piano accompaniment. All in all, this is a worthwhile release and another of the superior magazine offerings.

Wednesday 13 August 2008

Jazz Influenced But Not Jazz

Another month, another BBC Music mag cover disk. This one features two piano concertos with links to jazz. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales plays Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F ( conductor David Charles Abell and soloist Peter Donohoe ) and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G ( Francois Xavier Roth conducting and Jean-Philippe Collard at the piano ). The Ravel is a favourite piece about which I posted back near the beginning of this blog. I don't have any other recording of the Gershwin and have to admit that it isn't repertoire that appeals to me, a bit too close to music theatre in which he was obviously a master but which I can take in only small doses when in a particular mood. Donohoe swings nicely though and even if the BBCNOW are a bit insecure at times in the live concert recordings,the Ravel receives an accomplished performance from Collard. Ravel's subtle use of jazz inflected chords and blue notes convinces much more than Gershwin's pastiche, the very Rhapsody In Blueish brass and woodwind motif in the first movement of the Ravel notwithstanding !

Sunday 20 July 2008

Proms Commissions By Numbers

The BBC Proms season got under way this weekend and the current edition of BBC Music magazine is the spcial Proms issue. Of course the cover disk reflects this and is given the title Great Proms Premieres. I think there is a certain hyperbole in the use of he term "great" here. The most celebrated work featured is Walton's Viola Concerto. I have a version by Maxim Vengerov that I have already posted about and this performance by Nobuko Imai with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Tadaaki Otaka from the 1990s is very competitive. Another 1990s recording is of John Ireland's Piano Concerto played by Kathryn Stott accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis. The actual premiere of this was in 1930, a year after the Walton, and apparently was a Proms staple for many years. Hard to see why now, a reflection of changes in programming fashion I guess. It is easy to see why it would appeal to soloists and the slow movement is particularly characterful but on the whole it sounda routine to modern ears. The other two works on the disk are recordings of the actual premieres. From 1942 we have another Ireland piece, Epic March, with Proms founder Sir Henry Wood conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Of obvious historic interest and recorded in the Albert Hall shortly after the destruction in the Blitz of the original Proms location the Queen's Hall, the music itself is reminiscent of the film music then current and seems imbued with the stoicism and defiance of the time. The disk concludes with a work premiered just last year, ...onyt agoraf y drws...by Welsh composer Guto Puw. In many ways, this is contemporary proms commissioning by numbers, the sort of work of which there are maybe half a dozen examples each year. It ticks the local outreach box ( Welsh composer, Welsh title, Welsh mythological theme, played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by David Atherton ) it is of the requisite length ( a 17 minute pipe opener ) and contains presentational gimmicks ( three piccolos situated in different locations around the arena to represent the birds of the witch Rhiannon who inhabit the story ) The title translates as ...unless I open the door... refers to a story from the Welsh epic the Mabinogion and has a Duke Bluebeardish " don't open the door" tale at its' heart. The music contains spells of static shimmering sound interrupted by violent eruptions, another modern music commonplace that gets a bit wearing. There is a feeling that there is a certain amount of "does the face fit" involved in contemporary Proms commissions but it is nevertheless admirable that such commissions are still undertaken.

Thursday 26 June 2008

Ancient And Modern

The latest edition of BBC Music magazine is a commemorative issue marking the 50th anniversary of the death of Ralph Vaughan Williams and the cover disk obviously ties in with that. The main work is a performance of Symphony No 5 recorded live at last year's Proms by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. A very fine performance of the symphony it is too but as is my practice I won't spend time discussing the work again here since it has been covered earlier in this blog. The other work on the disk is one that I do not have any other recording of however, the unaccompanied Mass In G Minor sung by the BBC Singers under the direction of Andrew Carwood. There is a timeless feel to the work, drawing on the English Tudor tradition but with subtle modern shadings and inflections. Comparisons could be made with the instrumental Tallis Fantasia, even down to the seperation of forces around the performing venue to produce special spacial and acoustic effects. It is also interesting to consider what performance practice should be for a work based on early music but written in the second decade of the twentieth century when accepted choral valuiues would have been very different. In the early 21st century, some might consider this performance from the BBC Singers to be a little heavy on the vibrato, particularly from the slightly matronly sounding female members. But maybe that is the sort of sound that RVW would have been familiar with anyway ? It certainly isn't sufficiently intrusive on this recording to distract from the profound spiritual quality of the work.

Saturday 24 May 2008

French Ballet Music Of Wildly Varying Quality

A fallow time in acquiring new cd's, hence the hiatus in posting. But there is the monthly BBC Music mag offering to consider. This month's isn't one of the more inspiring. It presents French ballet music from Debussy, Satie and Roussel. The BBC Symphony Orchestra play Prelude a L'apres-midi d'un Faune ( conducted by David Robertson ) and Jeux ( conducted by Peter Eotvos ) By far the most imprseeive music on the disk and Prelude is of course of great lasting significance but I have posted about them before when a Debussy "best of" compilation came off the shelf. To be honest, the only Satie I know is as a piano miniaturist and Parade as played here by the BBCSO under David Porcelijn doesn't encourage me to investigate further any orchestral music. All a bit of a music hall pastiche. It does raise the question of how well ballet music survives when divorced from the dance. We all know masterpieces that have crossed over and almost transcend their balletic origins ( a case in point on this very disk ), while others appear empty as concert pieces. The latter is the case for me with Parade and also the Roussel Bacchus et Ariane Suite No 2, conducted here by Walter Weller with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. There is enough in the Roussel to make me want to see a preformance of the ballet but I wouldn't revisit the music alone very often.

Monday 21 April 2008

Dowland Without Any Dowland

Another ECM new series release which gives a contemporary improvisatory spin on early music, this time from the Dowland Project on a disk called Care-Charming Sleep. The Dowland Project here consist of the voice of John Potter, Stephen Stubbs on chitarrone and baroque guitar, John Surman on soprano saxophone and bass clarinet, Maya Homburger on baroque violin and Barry Guy on double bass. Oddly, there isn't any Dowland on this particular disk which features songs and madrigals by Monteverdi, Purcell, Robert Johnson ( not the blues ! ), John Wilbye, Cipriano de Rore, Benedetto Ferrari, Giovanni Felice Sances, Riccardo Rognoni and Cherubino Busatti. Potter sings the songs straight and gives fine performances that bring out the melancholy of the lyrics. The players improvise in totally apposite ways and remain faithful to the spirit of the original music. Surman has long learned to rein in his jazz sensibilities when appropriate and just occasionally Guy begins to "swing" a little. Homburger duets convincingly with Surman on a couple of occasions and otherwise plays with real period authenticity. A disk to which I'll return often and for now, the final disk on this amble through my record collection. It's taken just over a year and I am now going to forsake the "next off the shelf" philosophy and be a little more selective about which disks I want to revisit and when. As and when any new disks are acquired I'll post about them here, so the blog isn't defunct just yet !

21st Century Baroque

This is another of those disks occupying the area between early music and world music with some jazz tinges thrown in. On ECM new series, it is by Rolf Lislevand and called Nouve Musiche. As the sleeve note states, this is music from early baroque sources adapted and arranged by Lislevand. Lislevand himself plays archlute, baroque guitar and theorbo and he is joined by Arianna Savall on triple harp and vocals, Pedro Estevan on percussion, Bjorn Kjellemyr on double bass, Guido Morini on organ and clavichord, Marco Anbrosini on nyckelharpa and Thor-Harald Johnson on chitarrone. That instrumentation will give some idea of the sound world but the recording is very contemporary with the various pieces running together in a continuous improvisatory segue. The sources are from Italy, Spain and England from such as Kapsberger, Frescobaldi, and Piccinini. The modern influences brought to bear on the source material are predominantly Spanish and Latin American with the occasional celtic touch. Certainly not a disk for purists, those with an adventurous state of mind whose tastes are more eclectic will find much to enjoy. Lislevand's playing is certainly richly virtuosic and he is supported admirably by his colleagues. If you like L'Arpeggiata you will enjoy this.

Sunday 20 April 2008

Baroque Violin Par Excellence

Violinist John Holloway is responsible for this wonderful disk, the centrepiece of which is Johann Heinrich Schmelzer's Unarum Fidium. A work for solo violin, it is in the form of six sonatas and is elegiac, meditative, serene and improvisatory. It has virtuoso aspects in common with the Italian violinist - composers of the 17th century and it sets the scene for the later arrival of Biber. For this recording, Holloway has experimented with the addition of a basso continuo sound which has harpsichord and organ played simultaneously by two players who each realise the figured bass to the full capability of their instruments. The organ part is played here by Aloysia Assenbaum, while longtime Holloway musical partner Lars Ulrik Mortensen takes the harpsichord part. The Schmelzer work is bookended by two complementary pieces. Opening the disk is a Chiacona for solo violin by Antonio Bertali, an brilliantly exuberant dance piece with dazzling playing from Holloway and the extremely odd device of a pop music style fade at the end; Manfred Eicher's idea maybe, the disk is given a distinctively reverberant ECM recording. The disk closes with an anonymous piece in sonata form for Scordatura Violin and Basso Continuo that is unattributed but may well be by Biber. A superb disk all round.

Feelgood With A Capital "F"

The three musicians featured on this album called Stories are all named individually with no collective band name, implying that this collaboration may be a one off. It certainly produces joyous celebratory music that draws from the many musical sources to be found in Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean region, with traces of jazz, blues and soul. From Madagascar, Regis Gizavo plays accordian and contributes vocals as does Zimbabwean guitarist Louis Mhlanga. The third musician is French drummer and percussionist David Mirandon. Gizavo and Mirandon are a long established duo act and the sparkling jazz tinged runs of Mhlanga's guitar add many colours to the sunny mood of the music. The accordion reminds me a little of cajun and zydeco music from Louisiana but Gizavo has wider influences than that and makes a very big sound with the bass runs on the instrument making up for the lack of a bass player in the ensemble. The problems of the Africa are many and well documented but this music reflects another side of the continent with joyful good humour and irresistible rhythms. The problems are not ignored in the lyrics but there are no direct translations, only brief synopses of what each song is about. If you want a feelgood album, this might well be it.

Idealism And Mysticism

John Tavener is a composer that is open to criticism with his "holy minimalist" approach and the similarity of much of his output in terms of both style and content. Maybe it is just the result of a cynical age when any sincere expression of faith is suspect. Tavener doesn't help himself in that respect with his changes of position through various stages of mysticism. Whatever, I think I now have about all the Tavener music that I will ever need unless there is a radical change from him. This final disk to consider is a recording of Lament For Jerusalem performed by the Choir of London and Orchestra conducted by Jeremy Summerly with soprano Angharad Gruffydd Jones and countertenor Peter Crawford. Tavener describes this piece as a mystical love song comprising of Christian, Judaic and Islamic texts sung in Greek and English. It is both a lament for the loss of peace in the holy city but also an affirmationof the power of love to bring together all who seek God from whatever tradition they come. Idealistic to be sure but a point of view worth promoting. Although Tavener has shifted away slightly from his Orthodox Christian stance, there is still a Byzantine feel to the musical content which the choir and soloists are at pains to bring out. If you know anything of Tavener, you will know what to expect from this and if that appeals, it is a recommendable version.

An End Or A Beginning ?

A disk of 17th century chamber music by Matthew Locke called The Broken Consort in a performance by The Parley of Instruments directed by Peter Holman. Locke became chief composer for the Restoration court of Charles II by which time court composers were expected to provide entertainment over and above sacred music. It is possible to imagine this music burbling gently in the background as worthies eat or converse about matters of state but it is also music which repays careful listening in a modern context, whether live or on disk. Locke writes these fantasias with the novel use of a slow introduction, followed by an air and a dance movement. Works in miniature, the six Broken Consort suites here are augmented by performances of four suites of Duos for Bass Viols and a Fantasia and Courant. The Parley of Instruments here consists of two Renaissance violins, two bass viols, three theorbos and Holman himself on chamber organ. Unfortunately for Locke, his music was too sophisticated for the taste of Charles II who preferred music he could beat time to in a militaristic manner. Locke's music is sometimes thought of as a not fully formed version of the idiom later perfected by Purcell, whereas it might be kinder to look back and consider it as a culmination of the style begun by Byrd a century before.

Saturday 19 April 2008

Championing A Maverick

It is a little ironic that one of the final ventures of the Warner Classics label, before Warner pulled the plug and abandoned any new recordings, was the exploration of little known 20th century British composer John Foulds. Championed by conductor Sakari Oramo, two disks were released of which this is the second. Oramo conducts the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in five pieces, the most substantial of which is Dynamic Triptych for piano and orchestra, a kind of piano concerto played here by Peter Donohue. Foulds was a maverick character who lived a colourful much travelled life and suffered an untimely death from cholera as a result of his travels in India. His works covered a wide range from an interest in orientalism, to a feeling for British folk music, to a more bland and accessible kind of light music. Dynamic Triptych is recognisably a work of the first half of the 20th century. Written in 1931, it is coming out of the same sound world as a Shostakovich or Prokofiev might have inhabited. Donohue plays with verve and committment. April - England is more akin to contemporaries like Bax and Moeran with a melodic, dare I say pastoral, feel. Music - Pictures Group III is one of those works coming from the light music direction and as such sounds more dated and anchored to a particular time and place. Two short pieces close the disk, The Song Of Ram Dass which aims at an Indian style but ends up more in the Rimsky-Korsakov / Borodin area of orientalism ( none the worse for that ) and Keltic Lament which could almost be a traditional Scottish folk tune. A very interesting character but once the novelty of the rediscovery has worn off, I think the consensus must still be that he is ultimately a minor figure.

A Pivotal Figure In Russian Music

Putting together an all star group to perform chamber music isn't a guarantee of success but it works wonderfully on this disk of Taneyev Chamber Music. The disk is the idea of Mikhail Pletnev who plays piano throughout on the two works featured, the Quintet for Piano, 2 Violins, Viola and Cello and the Trio for Piano Violin and Cello. The violinists are Vadim Repin and Ilya Gringolts ( it is Repin who also plays on the trio ) while Nobuko Imai plays viola and Lynn Harrell cello. Pletnev makes a strong case for Taneyev's pivotal role in Russian music, calling him the greatest polyphonist after Bach no less and noting his pupils included Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Scriabin. Both of these chamber pieces are very long works ( as a point of trivia, I think it clocks in comfortably as the longest single disk I have at over 82 minutes when received wisdom is that the capacity of one cd is 80 minutes ) The piano trio could be said to be Brahmsian in concept and realisation but it is still an individual and arresting work. The Quintet is the masterpiece on offer here, however, an eloquent and original work. Based around a massive sonata structure, it retains coherance and grandeur with an almost Brucknerian sense of architecture. The unusual combination of instruments places it outside of the realm of most permanent performing ensembles, so thanks are due to Pletnev for putting this project together. It's also pleasing the DG can still occasionally get behind a less obviously commercial proposition and one that was rewarded with award winning status.

Tales Of Empire

Mandekalou II - The Art and Soul of the Mande Griots is a second volume follow up to the initial disk about which I have already posted. This second album is in exactly the same vein and could almost have been a double album with volume one, so I don't have much to add to what I wote in the previous post. It maybe worth a little quote from the booklet to remind of the context; "Mandekalou vol 2 is an ode to the legendary Mande Empire which stretched from Mauritania to the Ivory Coast, a symbol of the past glory of medieval Africa. Every day the Djelis have to learn more about their past and Mandekalou enables them to relive it 700 years on." The music is again totally acoustic with hypnotic guitar, kora and balafon combining over rhthmic percussion and setting the stage for the declamatory and dramatic singing style of the griots which could almost be likened to operatic recitative. A sizeable cast of members from famous griot clans such as Camara, Kante, Diabate and Sissoko contribute to a project that has proved to be most rewarding. The orchestra, for such it is, is conducted and led by guitarist Djelimady Tounkara who is perhaps the starriest name on offer in what is essentially an egalitarian enterprise.

A Worthy Tie In To A Fine TV Series

The current BBC Music magazine cover disk is an excellent release, titled Renaissance Choral Music and featuring works by Allegri, Palestrina, Anerio and Byrd in performances by The Sixteen conducted by Harry Christophers, Stile Antico and the Rose Consort of Viols recorded at the York Early Music Festival. I presume that the disk has also been selected to tie in with the superb BBC4 television series Sacred Music that covered Papal Rome and Tudor England as well as the Notre Dame school and Bach. The disk kicks off with Allegri's Miserere, the famous and much disputed piece. It seems clear that the version now commonly performed bears little resemblance to anything Allegri originally wrote but it remains an affecting piece of music whatever the legitimacy of it. The Sixteen sing it here and the solo top C's, proved to be a modern addition, are handled with aplomb. It is good that there are other pieces by Allegri on the disk that are certainly all his own work. These are also sung by the Sixteen, as are the Magnificat by Anerio and the Gloria from the Missa Papae Marcelli by Palestrina, all examples of the Roman papal style of the 16th cenury. There are three selections by Byrd sung here by Stile Antico and these are combined with three instrumental In Nomines played by the Rose Consort of Viols. All playing and singing of the highest quality and worthy of a commercial release.

Wednesday 16 April 2008

The Spirit Of 67

Resplendent in its' remarkably garish psychedelic cover, the album The 5000 Spirits Ot The Layers Of The Onion by the Incredible String Band epitomises 1967 and the first Summer of Love. Originally a trio and later expanded to include various family members, this album is the one which simply features most concentratedly the two talents which were the core of ISB, Mike Heron and Robin Williamson. I still remember reading the review in Melody Maker that persuaded me to buy the album, in which it was called a "folk Sgt Pepper". Not a particularly apposite description, although two other Beatle connections do occur to me. Like Lennon and McCartney, it is easy to tell which is a Mike Heron song and which a Robin Williamson song. And like those two Beatles, the influence of girlfriends on the progress of the band was disruptive to say the least. Heron's contributions tend to be more light hearted and whimsical, with talking clouds and hedgehogs, and a largely positive outlook on life. The songs of Williamson are more serious and darker but the yin and yang of the two together works wonderfully. Both have strong distinctive folk oriented voices and are excellent acoustic guitarists. The ever reliable Danny Thompson provides double bass underpinnings ( how many recordings has he made ? it must number in the thousand surely ? ) and both Heron and Williamson are proficient enough on such as oud, flute and sitar to provide touches of exotica which again are very 1967. A lovely album that was followed by two or three more recommendable releases before it all went a bit weird thanks to adherence to Scientology.

Sunday 13 April 2008

See If You Can Play These Friedemann

The complete 48 preludes and fugues of the Well Tempered Clavier by Bach, performed over three cds in this box set by Vladimir Ashkenazy. At nearly four hours of music, this isn't really something to be devoured at one setting. Indeed it may be argued that the settings, written as teaching aids for for Bach's first born son Friedemann, weren't designed to be listened to as performance pieces at all. They progress through all the major and minor keys of the keyboard and are played here by Ashkenazy on a modern concert grand. As ever, arguments range as to whether they might be better heard on a clavichord, harpsichord or fortepiano but there is plenty of interest in having a conventional modern piano put through its' paces. And although ostensibly "only" teaching aids, there is much magical writing among the ingenious variations and it is also possible that Bach expanded the latter part of the book ( that known as book two ) with a wider auduence than Friedemann in mind. Having said that, as a modern day listening experience, it is more sober and heavy going than such as the Goldbergs or concertos. Ashkenazy's performance is on the sober side too but considered and contemplative and not without its' merits.

More Music Theatre Than Opera ?

This disk is a recording of a new opera by Osvaldo Golijov titled Ainadamar. It is set in the time of the Spanish Civil War and tels of the friendship between the poet Federico Garcia Lorca and Margarita Xirgu and the murder of the former by Franco's men. The part of Xirgu dominates the action and is sung by Golijov's "muse", soprano Dawn Upshaw. Other parts are sung by Kelley O'Connor, Jessica Rivera, Jesus Montoya, Eduardo Chama, Sean Mayer, Robb Asklof, Anne-Carolyn Bird and Sindhu Chandrasekaran with support from the Women of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Robert Spano conducts the atlanta Symphony Orchestra but much of the musical content is also provided by Gonzalo Grau on latin percussion, Adam Del Monte on flamenco guitar, other guitar parts by William Kanensiger and Andrew York plus electronic sampling from Jeremy Flower and Gustavo Santaolalla. Golijov is touted in some quarters ( mainly in the US ) as the saviour of classical music and has therefore become somewhat controversial. I feel that claim is nonsense but also feel that his recent works are interesting and worthwhile pieces of music theatre. I would in fact prefer to use that term rather than opera, the latter term possibly only being applied for marketing purposes and because of the presence of Upshaw. But her singing is again far removed from the classical mainstream with her voice often being pushed into more theatrically dramatic folk and ethnic areas while retainig its' undoubted quality. The music has much guitar and trumpet colourings with obvious Spanish connotations and there is a powerful libretto concerning art, love, war and politics with the final fatal denouement softened by a closing call to liberty. Despite the serious content, rahter than being called an opera, I feel the contemporary music content places it more alongside that bastardised form the "rock opera" or even a 21st century successor to the works of Bernstein in music theatre. Further elements reminded me of John Adams's El Nino.

Nostalgia, Disillusion And Defiance

Following on in the honourable tradition of such as Bruce Springsteen and Steve Earle is current Americana artist James McMurtry. This album, Childish Things, is another that portrays life in the badlands of the US, the "white trash" areas that fall through the cracks of the national consciousness. There is also a duality about the album, many tracks have a nostalgic feel looking back to childhood and a seemingly better time when the family values of such places still held strong. Songs like See The Elephant, Memorial Day and Holiday are in this vein. They are contrasted with songs about the current state of decay and despair, nowhere more tellingly than in the searing keystone track on the album We Can't Make It Here Any More, where making it is used in the sense both of manufacturing and of surviving the day to day. This is played in a talking blues style with biting guitar, relentless beat and lyrics which both describe the hardship and castigate those responsible. There are also a couple of more personal relationship songs. Musically, McMurtry takes the lead with his vocal, guitar and keyboard work, backed by solid rhythm accompaniments and understated modern production values. The settings meld country, folk and blues influences in a familiar but effective way. He has a warm distinctive voice, not great but suited to the material and falling somewhere between Leonard Cohen and Lou Reed. A fine example of how music that can vaguely be termed "rock" can survive into a kind of maturity.

Saturday 12 April 2008

A Humanist Take On The Holy Spirit

More sacred choral music from the 16th century on this double cd of Penitential Psalms by Orlando Lassus. The performers are an English ensemble called Henry's Eight directed by Jonathan Brown. As the name would imply, this is an eight voice male choir of contertenors, tenors and basses. There isn't much information about the choir in the booklet notes and they don't seem to be currently active ( this recording was originally made in 1997 although this release of it dates from 2006 ). Despite the relative anonymity, they provide fine interpretations on thies two disks. Lassus was born in what is now Belgium but like many of his contemporaries he led a somewhat nomadic existence finding work and inspiration where he could in various courts and church settings. What made his music individual at this time was the close attention that he paid to the text and how he tried to mould the music in such a way that it expressed the thoughts and emotions of that text in sound. The penitential psalms are texts begging for understanding and forgiveness from God as well as offering praise and these are serious works that nonetheless still manage to show the indefatigability of the human spirit even when humbling itself. A minor complaint is that both these disks "jump" towards the end of the final track on one of my two cd players, a not uncommon fault with Hyperion pressings in my experience.

Thursday 10 April 2008

Multi-National Influences

From the early days of the period instrument movement, this reissue disk by the Parley of Instruments directed by Roy Goodman and Peter Holman presents music by Georg Muffat from his first published work Armonico Tributo dating from Salzburg in 1682. The works in question are five sonatas for small ensembles of strings and continuo, the latter provided by either harpsichord or organ. Although in the second rank of baroque composers, Muffat's work is well worthy of investigation. Generally considered as a German composer, he was in fact born in Savoy near Mont Blanc and had spells under the influence of both French ( Lully and Couperin ) and Italian music ( Corelli ). His sojourn in Salzburg coincided with that of Biber and if there was any kind of contest or rivalry it was won by Biber but again, Muffat was sufficiently well thought of to continue to get work and commissions from various other German courts. Performance and interpretation of this repertoire have moved on since the early eighties when this was recorded but this recording was highly thought of at the time and it is still an enjoyable experience and a worthwhile representation of Muffat's contribution.

Songs From the Badlands

A collection of songs from the badlands of the USA, redolent of trailer parks and long lonely windswept roads as opposed to an urban city landscape. I came across this album towards the end of my interest in any new rock music, probably from one of the last times that I bought a magazine like Mojo. Although dating from 1991, it was still "new" and "relevant" in my mind and so it was a bit of a shock last year to hear of the death through cancer of the by then middle aged Chris Whitley. This album, Living With The Law, may well have been his debut and I didn't keep up with his career which never made a major breakthrough to a mass market but which seemed to have developed a solid cult following through to the end. It's a very atmospheric album, recorded in New Orleans and with that echoey Daniel Lanois style sound world typical of the era, although Lanois' only direct involvement was to play guitar on one track. Whitley plays distinctive National steel guitar as well as regular electric. The steel guitar settings are expert and the electric sounds rely more on atmosphere and effects than on clusters of notes. The whole disk could be the sound track to some low budget alternative movie set on the Louisiana Texas border, undoubtedly bluesy without being in any way a blues album. Despite having lost track of his subsequent career, I think Living With The Law remained a career high and one to be proud of.

Not Showing Its' Age

There are many recommendable cycles of Beethoven Piano Sonatas, both historic, contemporary and ongoing but since I don't have the luxury of time to sample all of them I have settled for now on this disk which highlights three of the more popular ones. A budget re-release of re-mastered vintage recordings, the pianist is Arthur Rubinstein and the sonatas played are the Pathetique, Moonlight, Appasionata and Les Adieux. These feature some familiar melodies of course and are favourites for the "bleeding chunks" treatment on commercial classical music stations but they make much more sense heard in the context of the complete work. The re-mastering is tastefully done and it is hard to guess the age of the recordings from the sound quality provided. Rubinstein's playing is of the kind that defined these works in the first half of the last century and nowadays, more "out there" approaches are tried to give individuality or quirkiness or historic validity. But there is something comforting about these mainstream interpretations which are nonetheless full of intellectual rigour. I may investigate the sonatas further in the future but for now, this disk is a good representative selection for my collection.

For The Glory Of God

This is a double cd of the complete 1610 publication of Monteverdi's Vespers, including the six part Magnificat and Missa In Illo Tempore. The performers are the Choir of the King's Consort and the King's Consort conducted by Robert King with solid solo contributions from sopranos Carolyn Sampson and Rebecca Outram, tenor James Gilchrist and bass Peter Harvey among others. This was also the final disk released by the King's Consort under Robert King before his spectacular fall from grace in the court case which I will not go into again here. Regardless of how you might feel about that, the performance here is very fine and the performing edition put together by King makes sense. Monteverdi's pieces are a sacred bridge between the madrigals and fledgling operas, with elements of both in them but nevertheless being clearly devoted to the glory of God in the magnificent sound that they make. Native Italian choirs have recently been reclaiming Monteverdi and releasing what may be more earthy and idiomatic versions with more grit to both the singing and playing but the English choir and players here make perfectly valid alternative points with an undeniable beauty of sound. These are works that are perfectly able to take a variety of interpretations.

Not A Palace In India

I know that Muddy Waters was really McKinley Morganfield, Howlin' Wolf was Chester Burnette, Sonny Boy Williamson was Rice Miller and so on. But I've no idea what the real name of the artist known as Taj Mahal is. The answer's probably out there on the net but it is of no importance. TM ( it seems a bit odd to refer to him as "Mahal" ) has had a long and distinguished career and has gone well beyond the realm of pure blues to dabble in many other forms of "world music" in various collaborations. But to me, this early album is a distillation of his art and has never been beaten. The Natch'l Blues only has nine tracks ( although three outtakes are included as bonus items on this cd ) but each is a superbly crafted gem. The feel is mainly thay of country blues, which remains intact and authentic despite there being a small electric band setting with very tasteful contributions on guitar from Jesse Edwin Davis and keyboard guesting from Al Kooper. TM provides national steel bodied guitar to give that country blues feel and stellar harmonica work, as well as strong characterful vocals. The final two tracks on the original album veer away from pure country into more of a Stax / Otis Redding feel, with the anguished You Don't Miss Your Water proving that TM can be a soul shouter of some note. She Caught The Katy, Corrinna; there are many wonderful tracks on this album which if anything has grown in stature over the years because when it was first released it stuck out slightly against the heavy blues rock of various guitar heroes in vogue at the time. It is those records that now seem the more dated.

Sunday 6 April 2008

New Kids On The Block

This BBC Music mag cover disk brings me back to the point where I began this blog just under a year ago, completing the backlog and just leaving the new issues to come to be considered in their turn. This one goes under the title French Chamber Classics and is one of those featuring BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists. The disk begins with Debussy's Syrinx, a short virtuosic piece for solo flute played here by Sharon Bezaly and occupying the same sound world as the Prelude De L'Apres-Midi. Bezaly is the coming voice of the flute in classical music and negotiates the piece wonderfully. Next up is Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major played by violinist Alina Ibragimova and pianist Cedric Tiberghien. One of my favourite chamber pieces, full of melody and invention and again the young performers are up to the task of presenting it in its' best light. Written as a wedding present for Ysaye, the glowing finale is an appropriate gift to a great violinist at a time of happiness. The least successful works on the disk follow, tenor Andrew Kennedy ( accompanied by pianist Julius Drake who is just a little too mature for the Young Artists scheme but makes a guest appearance ) singing songs by Faure. Kennedy is in good voice and the songs are passionate but his French isn't yet that of a native and he doesn't seem so comfortable as he is in English repertoire. The disk concludes with Tiberghien again, solo this time playing Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit. Based on lurid prose poems about a seductive nymph, a corpse swinging on a gibbet and a malevolent dwarf, the three piano pieces are full of impressionistic and occasional pre-echoes of jazz and it is obviously repertoire that tiberghien has grown up with.

Sacred Links

Probably the best disk that I have of choral music by Arvo Part and the second by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, this time directed by Paul Hillier and with the participation of Christopher Bowers-Broadbent on organ on some tracks. This selection is titled Da Pacem and is a collection of motets. It can be listened to strictly as chill out music, there is certainly a feeling of peaceas the title would imply but it is also more deeply spiritual and even those who find Part's "holy minimalism" too simplistic can't doubt his sincerity. If anything the choir is in even better voice under Hillier, I would love to hear them in work other than that from their fellow Baltic composers. Listening to this disk having just been exposed to the BBC tv documentary series on sacred music, I was struck by the connection between Part and early practioners in the Notre Dame and even English Tudor styles. That same sense of the transcendent is there and I don't see why in this cynical age it should be felt that such writing is inappropriate or even opportunistic. These Estonian recordings are the ones of Part that I will frequently be returning to, at least as far as his vocal music is concerned.

It's A Chicken, Boy

Another album of contemporary blues from the southern USA by Guy Davis entitled Skunkmello. Nothing to do with drugs, Skunkmello refers to a legendary chicken thief from around 1900 and the fact that he was eventually hanged for his misdeeds somehow looses its' tragic nature when aligned with the delightfully silly track Skunkmello's Dance of the Chickens, with fiercely plucked banjo giving the best chicken impersonation this side of Rameau. The album is in the main free of any electronic gimmickry while retaining fine modern production values. Musically, the album alternates between classy blues band settings with the help of musicians such as guitarist John Platania and keyboard player Mark Naftalin and country blues stylings that feature Davis alone or with sparse acoustic rhythm section. The band songs are fine but the albums distinction revolves more around the older country blues type tracks which develop something of a theme around such diverse topics as soul food and the tyranny of slavery days. Plenty of double entendres too. Davis has a warm if not outstanding voice and his banjo picking and blues harmonica playing is exemplary. The bonus track, Uncle Tom Is Dead, features a conversation between Davis and a cynical youth who dismisses blues as a dead old man's music. While the track is reasonably light hearted, let's hope at least a few black kids might realise the cultural legacy that it in fact holds.

Darkness Into Light

I'm very happy to have this BBC Music mag cover disk of works by Shumann. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins play the Piano Concerto with pianist Lars Vogt and the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda perform Symphony No 2. As is often the case with Schumann, there are many subtexts and background stories to the Piano Concerto concerning his mental health and wife Clara. The first movement was written prior to a periodic bout of severe depression and the other two movements during subsequent recovery. A mix between intimacy and display, it is a deservedly popular piece and Vogt is an emerging soloist who gives a fine live performance. Schumann's symphonies have a reputation for not quite being of the first rank and for his struggle to "do" orchestration but to my inexpert ears these opinions are unduly harsh. Symphony No 2 has a repeated motif that I find powerful rather than overdone and written as it was during another bout of despair, it is another example of the classic Beethovenian symphonic concept of a journey from darkness back into light. The playing of the BBC Phil confirm their current status as the BBC's top band, with Noseda proving an inspiring principle conductor.

Thursday 3 April 2008

King Of The Oratorio

Another of the recordings of Handel oratorios made by Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort and Players, a three disk set of Theodora this time.These are very fine recordings and the cast is as usual of high quality. The title role is sung by Susan Gritton, while other roles are taken by Susan Bickley, Robin Blaze, Paul Agnew, Neal Davies and Angus Smith. The work is a story of early Christian persecution in Rome and the stance of death before dishonour taken by the heroine. It is also quite a convoluted story involving Roman converts, near escape and ultimate sacrifice. As usual, Handel has written some ravishing music, although because of the sheer length of the work there is an element of recycling going on too. McCreesh interestingly includes an alternative take of part two scene two which is included as a bonus at the end of disk two. The period informed playing of the Gabrielis is a perfect backing for the drama, the chorus is excellenbt and all the soloists acquit themselves very well. Susan Gritton conveys the piety of her role without making it bloodless and Robin Blaze and the convert who seeks to rescue her makes the most of his countertenor showcases. With the current climate amongst the "majors" in classical music recording, it is to be hoped that McCreesh and the Gabrielis are able to continue with their various ventures.

Back Porch Session

I posted way back about a two disk "best of" compilation that I have of Bruce Springsteen. I was also persuaded to buy the fairly recent We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions, where a largely acoustic outfit performs back porch style a number of vaguely folky songs somewhat associated with the career of Pete Seeger. The overall feel of the album ( and certainly of the live gigs that accompanied its' release ) is that of a good time party, with plenty of opportunity to sing along and dance around to extended choruses and instrumental breaks. The band is a mix of folk elements ( violin, mandolin etc ) and a kind of Dixieland horn section. Springsteen's voice has become gruffer with age but is well suited to most of the tracks, only becoming more exposed in the slower numbers like We Shall Overcome itself and Shenandoah where he needs the support of several back up singers to carry them off. These are also the least successful songs on the disk, those that work best being the extended singalongs like Pay Me My Money Down and Oh Mary Don't You Weep. There's also a slight incongruity to the upbeat settings being applied to some less than upbeat lyrics ( My Oklahoma Home, Erie Canal, John Henry and Mrs McGrath ) but all in all it's a worthwhile venture. Possibly just a one off, since Springsteen is now back reunited yet again with the E Street Band for another round of stadium touring with a new album.

Tuesday 1 April 2008

Got These Already

Very little to say about this BBC Music mag other than to note it, since the repertoire duplication that it contains is total. Music by Respighi, Fountains Of Rome and Pines Of Rome played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Tadaaki Otaka and The Birds performed by the BBC Philharmonic under Patrick Thomas. All respectable live concert performances from a few years back.

Monday 31 March 2008

A Russian Legacy

A selection of Russian music on this BBC Music mag cover disk from the issue which coincided with the Tchaikovsky week that BBC Radio 3 did last year. The main featured work is by Tchaikovsky, Symphony No 2 "Little Russian", played by the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda. Tchaikovsky always had more feeling for the European tradition than for any kind of Russian nationalism but the influence of his homeland still permeates most of his music and this symphony is no exception with some Ukrainian folk songs being used as a basis for the finale. It is also a predominantly sunny work with none of the angst and shadows of his later work. The Ulster Orchestra play the other two works on the disk. Alexander Anissimov conducts them in Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky, while Takuo Yuasa conducts Tamara by Balakirev. The theme used by Arensky is from a Children's song by Tchaikovsky and is a typical melody given characteristic Tchaikovskyesque orchestrations by Arensky. Balakirev's symphonic poem is based on a gory tale from a poem by Lermontov set in the Caucasus and it foreshadows Rimsky-Korsakov with certain passages reminiscent of Sheherazade.

Sunday 30 March 2008

It's That Riff Again

Elmore James was a huge infuence with young white musicians in the blues boom of the sixties but whereas many of his contemporaries such as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf lived long enough to enjoy at least some benefits from this unexpected interest and popularity, James died of a heart attack in 1963 while still in his forties. A master of the electrified slide guitar style, he has been made gentle fun of for the remarkable number of times that he re-recorded his signature tune Dust My Broom with just the very slightest of variations. It is a great number regardless, and there are enough slow blues and a few other differing up tempo tracks to make this compilation disk of 22 tracks, called The Sky Is Crying, a feast of late fifties / early sixties hard driving Chicago blues. As well as his slide, the songs often benefit from forceful horn sections. His distinctive harsh voice falls somewhere between Robert Johnson, who he is rumoured to have met, and Howlin' Wolf while another old companion Sonny Boy Williamson occasionally contributes harmonica. Because his death just per-dated the blues explosion and because there doesn't seem to be any film footage of him performing, he retains something of the air of mystery that surrounds Robert Johnson but as long as blues is played, someone somewhere will be churning out that riff and uttering those short asides of encouragement.

A Freebie That's Almost A Benchmark

This will not be a lengthy post because the BBC Music mag cover disk in question consists of just one work, Messiaen's monumental Turangalila Symphony about which I have already written when considering the commercial recording I have. I do happen to know however that many Messiaen enthusiasts rate this performance very highly indeed and listening to it again now, it certainly sounds of the highest quality. The performers are the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Thierry Fischer. I have rarely heard the ondes martenot, played here by Jacques Tchamkerten, so distinctly articulated in a recording, all the more remarkable since it is taken from a live concert. The piano part is also superbly played by Messiaen specialist Roger Muraro. If you don't already have a performance of the Turangalila and are at all interested, this is well worth tracking down from the byways of the internet.

Classically Oriented

A classically oriented BBC Music mag cover disk of music from Mozart and Haydn performed by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. The disk begins with the Overture from the Magic Flute which leads into four Concert Arias sung by soprano Sally Matthews. The arias in question are Vado, ma dove ?, Voi avete un cor fedele, Ah sie in ciel and the recitative and aria Bella mia flamma and Resta, oh cara. Matthews is a lyric soprano ideally suited to this repertoire and she puts across very well the passion and soul that these arias contain. The BBC Phil is slightly restrained in the overture but backs Sally Matthews expertly and then gives a fine modern instrument interpretation off Haydn's Symphony No 3 "Drum Roll" to close the disk. An uncaharacteristically solemn opening follows the drum roll which names the symphony and also unusual is the use of a Croatian theme in the second movement, Croatia not being known as a hot bed of classicism. The symphony eventually unfolds in typically classy Haydn fashion however and since I don't have any commercial Haydn symphonies it is another useful addition.

A Little Bit Of Politics

At the time of posting, the "results" of the latest elections in Zimbabwe are not finalised but it seems an apposite time to be writing about an album by Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited entitled Rise Up. The tragedy of Zimbabwe is all the more poignant because of the way in which the hope of independence, heralded by a joyous Bob Marley concert in Harare and the first crack in the edifice of white supremacist power in Southern Africa, was so totally debased and degraded by the Mugabe regime. Mapfumo as a performer is emblematic of the problems, spending much of his early career in exile from what was then Rhodesia and singing songs of the struggle for freedom, returning for a while to enjoy the fruits of independence before being forced into exile again and to return to composing protest songs. Listening to this album without the benefits of understanding the language, the music comes across as sunny dance music in the main with interweaving hypnotic rhthyms, rippling guitar and mbira ( thumb piano ), often soulful brass and female backing vocals to Mapfumo's gruff voice all adding to the mix. But a glance at the translated titles of the songs ( Suffer In Silence, I'm Not Afraid, It's Payback Time, I'm Mad As Hell, Diseases, What Are They Dying For ? and The Earth's Hunger Is Insatiable being among them ) makes the theme of the album clear. Let's hope he can soon return home once more to help in rebuilding what should be a prosperous and proud nation.

Saturday 29 March 2008

Guitar Hero Throwback

The late sixties and early seventies were the heyday of the guitar hero in rock music. Mainly blues based, the English line led through Clapton, Green, Beck, Page, Taylor and a myriad of other talented but less charismatically endowed characters. Hendrix towered over all and there were idiosyncratic American offshoots from the world of roots and psychedelia, not to mention originators like Buddy Guy who were born survivors. These days, becoming proficient on an instrument is a bit too much like hard work when you can sample everything on a laptop but a little niche area still exists for throwbacks to continue to carve out a nice little career and please a hard core of enthusiasts of the genre. Such a throwback is Joe Bonamassa and this album Blues Deluxe hits the spot when I'm in the mood for a little nostalgia with a contemporary twist. Very much a blues album and very much a showcase for heavy wailing guitar, the roots are deep in the soul of America but the surface feel is British with the guitar work reminiscent of Gary Moore and the vocals of Paul Rodgers , despite Bonamassa hailing from New York. Probably the only Joe Bonamassa album I'll ever need, it nevertheless fills a little gap as a leftover from my rocking past.

Rare Repertoire Worthy of A Hearing

This is definitely one of the more unusual of the BBC Music mag cover disks. For a start it features a first ever recording of a work by Britten which given the place he holds in 20th century British music must be surprising. The piece in question is Plymouth Town, written as ballet music by the teenage Britten and already showing the influence of the sea which was to permeate through his entire career, even if Plymouth is geographically a little removed from his native east coast. The story is a rather more genteel version of something like the Miraculous Mandarin, with a drunken sailor on shore leave being taken advantage of by the "Bad Girl". Much of the scoring is in the vein of his work for documentary film and the sea shanty A-Roving plays a prominent part. Not a major discovery but worth a place in the recorded annals which it is given here by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Grant Llewellyn. The other Britten piece on the disk is Nocturne, played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Douglas Bostock with tenor Andrew Kennedy. Kennedy is going through the Radio 3 New Generation Artist scheme and it seems a rite of passage for any aspiring young English tenor to tackle the Britten / Pears repertoire. The settings here are certainly from premier league sources such as Shelley, Tennyson, Coleridge, Keats, Wordsworth, Wilfred Owen and that upstart Shakespeare. The orchestrations are typical Britten. The disk concludes with more rare repertoire, Ballads For Orchestra by Grace Williams played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Baldur Bronnimann. Very interesting colours, timbres and textures with 20th century flavours from jazz, bluesy chords and a hint of the east in the writing. Much could be written about the dearth of major female composers, I admit to an almost total lack of knowledge of Grace Williams's work but would seek out more after hearing this.

Friday 28 March 2008

A Great American Symphony

A BBC Music mag cover disk that they decided to title American Landmarks, though I'm not sure why since the pieces vary from the well known to the virtually unknown. In the well known to the extent of being criminally over exposed category comes Copland's Appalachian Spring, played here by the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Thierry Fischer in a live concert recording. I've already posted about the Bernstein version of this that I have and I also have an alternative recording of the other Copland work featured, the Clarinet Concerto. The performance here by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Eric Stern with soloist Robert Plane is very competitive with the Sharon Kam version I have. I don't have alternatives of the other two works on the disk, Ives's Central Park In The Dark and Symphony No 3 by Roy Harris. The Central Park of 1906 that Ives would have hoped to evoke was presumably a different kind of place to that which we now think of but it is an atmospheric piece, beginning spookily and then building to typical clashing Ivesian themes battling against each other. Harris is one of those composers whose stock was very high during his lifetime but who has disappeared off the radar since his death, at least outside the US. So much so that he is a barely recognisable name to me coming to classical music from the standpoint that I've outlined in these posts. The third symphony is written as one continuous piece and made a very favourable impact, utilising as it does pre-classical European forms but managing to infuse them with that "Big Country" outdoors feel mainly associated with Copland and Hollywood. It is played on this disk by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lawrence Foster.

Thursday 27 March 2008

A Living Tradition

Holy Heathens And The Old Green Man looks like it will be the final Waterson:Carthy album with Tim Van Eyken as a permanent member of the band alongside the family members of Norma Waterson, Martin and Eliza Carthy. It is another cleverly programmed album with the traditional material featured based around the theme of old English carols. These are carols in the original sense of the term, songs commemorating various strategic points in the year and a much older and more mysterious tradition than the standard Christmas service of 12 lessons and carols. Many of those featured do have a Christmas theme but just as important are New Year and winter solstice carols, together with a nod to harvest time and St George. The wassailing tradition is also very much to the fore and there is a real sense of community to the songs. This is very much a vocally oriented album, with the sheer pleasure and gusto in the singing shining through. The four band members are augmented by the young vocal group The Devil's Interval and alongside the violin of Eliza and Tim Van Eyken's melodeon the small guest brass section also adds telling touches of authenticity. This is a living tradition, the version of While Shepherds Watched is one that can still be heard in pubs in Sheffield each December. It was also good to hear Martin Carthy giving a traditional reading of the Cherry Tree carol used by Vaughan Williams in his Nativity Play, The First Nowell. Recorded around the same time as the solo album from Tim Van Eyken I talked about a few posts back, it makes a fine companion piece.

African Aristocracy

The secondary strap line of "King of the Desert Blues Singers" attached to the album Savane by Ali Farka Toure is an obvious and deliberate reference to the famous Robert Johnson "King of the Delta Blues Singers". AFT was a completely different character to the itinerant Johnson though, preferring to shun the kind of Buena Vista promotion that his record company could have given him to continue to farm in rural Mali and become mayor of his community. His influence nevertheless spread well beyond the confines of his home patch of desert, he was a role model for future generations of African musicians and this final album before his death from cancer is a fitting culmination of his musical life. There is still debate about exactly how closely the music of the west African griots can be linked to the blues of the deep south of the USA, certain guitar riffs are decidedly familiar but there are other influences in this music that don't correspond so readily. In what may be a concscious attempt to play up the link, their are guest appearances on this album from Little George Sueref on harmonica and James Brown alumni Pee Wee Ellis on saxophone but the core of the sound revolves around the guitar of Ali Farka Toure and the interplay with such as the ngoni of Bassekou Kouyate and the multiple percussionists. Even if he didn't take his ambassadorship on the road very often, Ali Farka Toure was a supreme ambassador for his region and his continent.

Precocious Talent

This BBC Music mag cover disk is one of those featuring chamber music played by the current crop of Radio 3 New Generation Artists. Two very substantial pieces feature, Mendelssohn's Octet and Schubert's Trout Quintet. I have already posted about a commercial recording of the Trout Quintet but this version by up and coming young players is well worth a hearing. The quintet is made up of Martin Helmchen piano, Alina Ibragimova violin, Antoine Tamstit viola, Christian Poltera cello and luis Cabrera Double bass. I was considering purchasing a recording of the Mendelssohn Octet when this disk arrived and the performance here by the combined forces of the Royal String Quartet and the Psophos Quartet is of sufficient quality to make another purchase superfluous. Previous attempts at writing an octet, such as that by Spohr, tended to have the two string quartets as seperate entities but in his piece, Mendelssohn fuses all eight instruments into a performing whole. It maybe a commonplace to state that it is a remarkable work to have been produced by a 16 year old but when you give serious consideration to that fact, it does remain noteworthy. One of the more rewarding of the magazine's monthly ventures.

Wednesday 26 March 2008

Tenuous Links

The hook on which the rather disparate repertoire on this BBC Music mag cover disk is hung is that of the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. The three ensembles that call this hall home ( The Halle Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and Manchester Camerata ) each perform a live concert piece. The Halle conducted by Mark Elder play Strauss's Four Last Songs with soprano Anne Schwanewilms. The BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda play excerpts from the concert suites of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. Both of these I already have in commercial recordings. The contribution from the Manchester Camerata directed by Douglas Boyd is Mozart's Piano Concerto No 20 with soloist Kathryn Stott. I do have the middle movement romance on a "Mozart's Greatest Hits" style compilation from the early days of my collecting but it is good to have a performance of the full concerto. The entire disk is of a good standard but as I remarked at the outset, there is no linking theme in the programming. Schwanewilms is now a noted Strauss exponent, has sung with the Halle before and captures the mealncholic resignation of he songs. Kathryn Stott directs the sporadic piano festivals held at the Bridgewater hall and gives a languid interpretation of the Mozart.

Moby Has A Lot To Answer For

I've posted several times about disks that have been much better than I remembered them to be on revisiting them for this exercise. Sadly, here is an occasion where the opposite is the case. It is a contemporary blues album by Booboo Davis called Drew, Mississippi. It's not a dreadful album by any means but on listening again I find that it is a bit of a case of style triumphing over substance. As the sleeve note says, Booboo is the real deal in that he was born and raised in the delta heartland of the blues and retains the authenticity of the past masters from Robert Johnson and Charley Patton on through to Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker. The only problem is that he isn't as good and a fairly slight talent is surrounded on most tracks by a boogieing bar band and sub Moby recording gimmicks of the sort that are becoming a bit of a cliche in southern blues albums since the modest success enjoyed by R L Burnside. That all makes it sound like a bad album, which it isn't and I'll no doubt still play it occasionally when in the mood for a blues session. But it isn't essential and I think I was seduced into buying it on the basis of hearing one track on the radio, always a risky business.

Career Defining Album

Every so often a performer will come up with a career defining album and that is the case with English folkie Tim Van Eyken and the album Stiffs Lovers Holymen Thieves ( no commas on the cover ). Van Eyken has been an established component of Waterson:Carthy but the success of this album, both artistically and commercially, has prompted him to now pursue a full time solo career. The album features English traditional songs given a respectful contemporary twist in the production and featuring a cast of characters falling into the categories of the disk's title. The basic band lineup is Van Eyken includes electric and acoustic guitar, telling vocal violin and viola contributions from Nancy Kerr and a bass and drums rhythm section. Van Eyken plays either acoustic guitar or accordion and there are telling guest appearances, particularly the brass section on the magnificent Twelve Joys Of Mary which closes the disk in triumphant fashion. The opening is equally impressive with new life being breathed into the old chestnut John Barleycorn and all tracks in between are a delight with topics ranging over brutal murder, military misfortune, lusty country lads and comely country lasses, the injustice of the judiciary and all driven along by a couple of medly folk dance tracks. If you want confirmation of the rude health of English traditional music in the first decade of the 21st century, then the proof is here.

Sunday 23 March 2008

A Very Specialist Area

The current issue of BBC Music mag comes with a cover disk of Organ Symphonies, Vierne Symphony No 3 and Widor Symphony No 5, played by David Briggs. The world of the organ symphony has always seemed a curious little backwater to me. I have never quite bought into the "king of the instruments" idea and all the multiple stops labelled flute, saxophone or whatever all just seem to come out sounding like an organ to me. The idea of this world being inhabited by musical train spotters isn't helped by the discussion around the instrument used being as or more important as the music ( here it is a Cavaille-Coll organ in the basilica of St Sernin, Toulouse ) Having said that, it is valuable to have a genre / repertoire gap filled by this magazine freebie which is clearly beautifully played by Briggs. This is a particularly French area of the repertoire and both symphonies occupy similar ground, the final movement of the Widor is the famous toccata that even non-organ enthusiasts will know. I found myself much more appreciative of the lower key more meditative movements than the noisy flamboyant blasts with all the stops pulled out ( strange how that phrase "pulling out all the stops" has entered the language ) There is a neat bonus track at the end of the disk where Briggs improvises on the bell chime of St Sernin, improvisation having been traditionally such an important part of the organist's armoury.

Old Enough To Be Called Vintage ?

I guess it is a sign of age when you are surprised to see a recording from a 1976 Proms performance described as "vintage" but that is the case with this BBC Music mag cover disk. The recording in question is of Elgar Symphony No 1 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. I don't have another recording of this work and this is an excellent example to have, the sound quality isn't at all in what I consider to be the vintage category and it is clear that Boult has an expert feel for this repertoire, being of an age to have been present at the premiere. I have posted before about problems I have with those works of Elgar that have been highjacked by the establishment but I am now able to appreciate much of his other music. This symphony is dominated by the long motto theme which to modern ears now sounds nostalgic of a past Edwardian age and can carry purely English connotations but careful listening shows the symphony to belong squarely in mainstream European tradition and worthy of comparison with any of Elgar's contemporaries. The disk also includes a more recent recording by the BBC Symphony of the overture In The South under Leonard Slatkin. Slatkin's tenure with the band wasn't the happiest, coinciding with a severe dip in the motivation of the orchestra and various political skirmishes not of his making, mostly around the wretched spectacle of the Last Night. He is an enthusiast of this repertoire however and the performance of this vivid tone poem fits in well with earlier recording of the symphony.

Friday 21 March 2008

Two First Symphonies

There really isn't much for me to say about this particular BBC Music mag cover disk since both works have already been considered when posting about commercial recordings that I have. For the record, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Joseph Swensen play a respectable performance of Sibelius Symphony No 1 and the Ulster Orchestra under Janos Furst give a perfectly reasonable account of Nielsen's first symphony. It's also of interest to have these two works in close proximity for comparison purposes. Both are live concert recordings.

Another "What Might Have Been"

A recording of instrumental music by Purcell, Ayres For The Theatre showcases much of the incidental music he wrote to accompany plays in the Restoration when theatre was once again allowed in England following Cromwell's tenure. The performers here are The Parley Of Instruments directed by Peter Holman, a combination that did much sterling work in the early days of the period instrument movement. Music here comes from such productions as Abdelazar ( which includes the famous Rondeau used by Britten for the Young Person's Guide ) Timon of Athens, The Gordion Knot Unty'd, Bonduca and The Virtuous Wife and it is fair to say that the music has long outlived the dramatic "inspiration" if such it was. Much of the conjecture about the forces Purcell had available to him is guesswork but the band here comprises natural trumpet ( Crispian Steele-Perkins ) violin, violas and bass violin ( including Pavlo Beznosiuk ) theorbo, archlute and harpsichord. Music that leads into the coming baroque style and again highlights a "what might have been" story had Purcell been granted a longer life.

A Lost Giant

It seems almost a given that if there is a poll to discover the "best", "greatest" or whatever jazz album of al time, then the accolade inevitably falls to Kind Of Blue. However, when readers of UK magazine The Wire were asked a few years ago, they came up with the answer of Out To Lunch by Eric Dolphy. That is the album up for consideration here. In a genre littered with sad stories, Dolphy is one of he greatest "might have beens" were his life not cut short in what remain murky circumstances. A multi instrumentalist, his alto sax was formidable, his flute playing idiosyncratic and maybe the most remarkable contributions came on bass clarinet. All are featured on this album in a quintet setting with Richard Davis on bass, Tony Williams on drums, Freddy Hubbard on trumpet and Bobby Hutcherson on vibes. The music begins to stray towards the freer end of modern jazz and some critics think that Hubbard is slightly a fish out of water in this company but he is solid enough. The rhythm section really has a feel for what Dolphy was beginning to do and the inclusion of vibes instead of piano is key to the move away from standard jazz comping, with Hutcherson in inspired and individual form. With the passing of time, this isn't as challenging music to find a way into as it once seemed but it remains impassioned and a great, if not greatest, album.

Growling Basses

This is an album of Arvo Part choral works entitled Beatus and is probably as authentic a performance as you could get since it was recorded in the presence of the composer by a native choir, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir directed by Tonu Kaljuste. Part has been well served in recordings by top vocal ensembles from around the world, often with him in attendance but it has to be said that there is something special about the performances given here and even if it is a bit of a cliche, the quality of the bass singing in particular is remarkable and doesn't seem to be replicated by choirs outside of the old Soviet sphere. As to the music, it is the familiar Part style, sparse in his tintinabuli vein and occasionally perilously close to the chill out zone but retaining enough passion and integrity to place it well above such considrations. The settings are all of sacred texts and the performances mostly acappela with just the occasional instrumental colour supplied by an organ accompaniment. Anyone wanting something other than the more well known Part pieces could do worse than investigate this cd.

Uncharacteristically Upbeat

In my haphazard trek along the shelves of my collection, we now arrive at the final Mahler symphony to be considered which happens to be No 4 in a recording by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Chailly. The most upbeat of Mahler's symphonies, it is probably also the one most connected to the Wunderhorn settings that were such an important part of his work. There is a pastoral feel to much of the music, without too many of the dark shadows that threaten any idyllic passages in many of the other symphonies. The virtuosic solo violin part is played by Alexander Kerr. The concluding song in the fourth movement is an ecstatic childlike depiction of heaven and is given luxury casting here as sung by soprano Barbara Bonney. There is an additional work to fill out the disk which also features Bonney singing Seven Early Songs by Berg. There is a Mahlerian influence to these song orchestrations but they also contain early indications of the move away from strict tonality. They are settings of Germanic verse from the 19th and early 20th century, names that I am not erudite enough to recognise apart from Rilke but receiving fine performances here.

Monday 10 March 2008

Just Logging This One

More repertoire duplication with this BBC Music mag cover disk, so I'm just noting in passing the performance of Bruckner's Symphony No 7 by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Petri Sakari. The commercial recording I have is by the CBSO under Rattle but I would have been perfectly happy with this fine version if I hadn't already purchased that. Sakari is slightly swifter than Rattle, never a bad thing in Bruckner I feel which can tend to almost grind to a halt at times with too studied an approach.

One Of The Less Essential Cover Disks

This BBC Music mag cover disk features more music by Debussy, in this case orchestral works played by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Ilan Volkov conducts them in the longest piece, Images, of which I also have a commercial recording on a double disk Debussy compendium. This is a competitive version of the piece which ranges over what Debussy thought was a Scottish theme ( The Keel Row ) but which is in fact from the north east of England, to Iberian influences. The other two works I don't have elsewhere. They are both scores that now exist only as piano duets in Debussy's hand but are here performed in the orchestrated versions by Henri Busser. Busser's arrangements of Printemps and Petite Suite are suitably impressionistic in typical Debussyan style. Volkov is again the conductor for Printemps, while Petite Suite sees the BBC SSO under Pierre-Andre Valade. A slightly run of the mill monthly offering to be honest

Left Field Chamber Music

An excellent budget release of Russian chamber music by an English ensemble calling itself Capricorn. The recording is from 1984 and Capricorn seem to have long ceased to function as a performing entity, although I recognise some of the individual names of the players. The two works featured are Grand Sextet in E flat major by Glinka and Quintet in B flat major by Rimsky-Korsakov. Neither work strikes me as having a particularly Russian feel, or not at least what we have come to think of as Russian. They were composed over forty years apart with the Glinka being the earlier. It is more from the mainstream European tradition with the occasional gypsy touch. Certainly enjoyable chamber music for piano, string quartet and double bass. The Rimsky-Korsakov quintet is more interesting to me, a work for the unusual lineup of piano, flute, clarinet, horn and bassoon. the opening allegro con brio sounds for all the world to me like the latin jazz of early Chick Corea and Return to Forever, although Rimsky thought it to be in the classic style of Beethoven. The flute drives this movement while the slightly more Russian sounding modal style of the subsequent andante is a feature led by the clarinet. A hopping bassoon accompaniment goes on throughout the closing movement in which each of the other four instruments enjoys a short cadenza. An unexpected little gem of a disk.

Saturday 8 March 2008

Through A Glass Darkly

Richard Thompson doesn't exactly have "greatest hits" but one of his most popular and enduring songs, 1932 Vincent Black Lightening, appears on this album from ( I think ) the early nineties Rumour and Sigh. A Leader of the Pack style live fast and die young saga, 1932 Vincent is given a simple folky setting with fine guitar picking from Thompson and the narrative tale obviously struck a strong chord with his audience. Taken as a whole though, Rumour and Sigh is quite a dark album, especially lyrically. Relationship songs invariably centre on failure ( Read About Love, I Misunderstood, Keep Your Distance, Backlash Love Affair, Why Must I Plead, You Dream Too Much ), Mystery Wind speaks of unseen malevolant forces and I have always taken Mother Knows Best, with its' violent guitar work, to be an anti-Thatcher rant. The outwardly cheery musical setting of Feel So Good in fact contains lyrics about wanting to take someone apart and Grey Walls is almost unbearably sad in its depiction of the treatment of mental illness. Having said all that, these songs are set in fine melodies with excellent guitar playing and the assistance of a fine band containing notable contributions again from Aly Bain and John Kirkpatrick on violin and accordion / concertina. Keep Your Distance contains deliciously painful memories for me since it perfectly sums up a situation I found ( find ) myself in. I will just say that the album contains 14 tracks and I could happily do without the final two, the irredeemably maudlin God Loves a Drunk and Psycho Street where the disturbing nature of the lyrics finally oversteps the mark for me. Fortunately, since these are the last tracks on the disk they can easily be bypassed.

Whiskers On Kittens

My Favourite Things is one of the most famous of John Coltrane's recordings. Is it the incongruity of the leader of cutting edge jazz taking on material previously only associated with the wholesome witterings of Julie Andrews surrounded by a troupe of adoring kids ? Is it the prominance of the soprano sax, at the time still an under used instrument as a lead solo ? Is it the modal piano accompaniment of McCoy Tyner ? Probably a combination of all those reasons and then more. It certainly provided a gentler introduction to the genius of Coltrane without in any way diminishing the power, fire and originality. The title track is undoubtedly the main attraction of this album but the other three tracks, also standards, are equally fine. For the record, these tracks are Every Time We Say Goodbye, Summertime and But Not For Me. As well as Coltrane and Tyner, the quartet comprises bassist Steve Davis and Elvin Jones of course on drums. Many soloists in jazz have mentioned the importance bearing in mind the lyrics when interpreting standards and that is especially noticeable with Coltrane on Every Time We Say Goodbye. The other two tracks can seem more straightforward run throughs on first listening but the rhythm sections particularly have much to offer in these and occasionally burst through over the piano or sax to be the dominant sound. If the thought of Coltrane is still challenging after all these years, this remains a most accessible place to begin.

The Viola Holds The Key

Is it jazz ? Well, not really, although where do you categorise it if you are one who needs to have categories ? World music ? Ambient ? More the latter than the former I would suggest. What am I talking about ? In Praise of Dreams by Jan Garbarek. Garbarek has committed the cardinal sin amongst jazzers of being commercially successful ( relatively speaking of course, he hardly sells rock star quantities of albums ) His chosen instruments being the tenor and soprano saxophone, there remain jazz traces of course but there isn't much, if any, straight ahead improvising going on, the music being much more compositional. What gives this disk a particular individuality and attraction to me is the substantial contribution from viola player Kim Kashkashian, whose voice is often the most dominant and gives a soulful, yearning sense to the music and some much needed humanity. That feel is backed up by drummer / percussionist Manu Katche. Very much a typical ECM house style release and as such easy to parody but there is a musical direction and spirit that is rewarding when in the right mood to be receptive to it. Although not in the accepted classical sense, these short pieces could be called tone poems and portray a sense of landscape and the natural world of the north.

Roman Epics

I've been a little defensive about having so many recordings by Herbert von Karajan in my collection ( because of the critical hammering that Karajan habitually gets these days as both a musician and as a man) explained by the record club special offers in the early days of my classical collecting. I still find most of them to be acceptable recordings of core repertoire and a few to be outstanding because of the sound of the Berliner Philharmoniker. This is in fact the final such offering to come off the shelf, a disk mainly of music by Respighi featuring the Fountains of Rome, the Pines of Rome and Ancient Airs and Dances for Lute ( which are orchestrated lest there be any confusion ). Both the Fountains and the Pines are programmatic works with strong narratives behind each section and they are showpiece tone poems. Respighi doesn't have any overtly Italianate style, being in a more general European tradition, but he was a master orchestrator. Karajan was no early music authentic instrument practitioner, so the anachronistic orchestrations of the lute pieces are to his taste. The disk is filled out by Boccherini's Procession of the Military Night Watch in Madrid, a quintettino that follows logically from the Respighi lute arrangements, and by what to me is a largely redundant plod through of Giazotto's take on the "Albinoni Adagio" with an organ part taken by Wolfgang Meyer.

Works That Need No Defending

I have a few issues with Sir Roger Norrington as a conductor. His evangelical and fundamentalist approach to banning vibrato ( I've always been a creature of compromise and moderation ) and some of his more ingratiating behaviour on the podium. But I am prepared to forget about all that for the wonderful introduction he writes in the booklet notes to this cd in which he pays tribute to Ralph Vaughan Williams. The entire piece would bear repeating but a couple of snippets; following an anecdote about the eighty year old VW kissing all the female members of the cast of Sir John In Love prior to going home on the underground, Norrington writes that "these were important clues to the composer as well as to the man who was passionate and idealistic, a natural socialist and man of the people; a marvellously individual composer who just happened to be English but chose his tonalities as freely as Debussy and Ravel and his rhythms as deftly as Stravinsky and Bartok; he may have worn tweed and liked cream buns but his soul was ablaze with glory, pity and anger; he was the greatest man I am ever likely to meet." I quote these remarks at length here since the disk in question is of Symphony No 5 and Symphony No 3 ( Pastoral ) performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Norrington and the two symphonies most likely to be pilloried with the ill considered "cow looking over a gate" criticism. The packaging can't resist a cover photograph of rolling English countryside but to any careful listener it is clear that the symphonies concern much more than a nostalgic depiction of a fading era. And anyway, what's wrong with a little beautiful and evocative orchestral scoring ? Happily, I think a stage has been reached when it is no longer necessary to defend aspects of VW's output from these criticisms.

Sunday 2 March 2008

It's Almost That Time Of Year

I've posted about quite a lot of Stravinsky's music on this blog but finally it's time for the most famous. But because The Rite Of Spring is such a famous piece with such a familiar tale about the premiere, it does make it hard to think of what's worth saying about it here. Well, I can start by saying that it is given a very fine performance by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antal Dorati in good modern sound with plenty of the drive and passion that the piece needs and to my mind perfectly judged tempos, another crucial aspect. Of course it was originally composed as ballet music, it was given controversial choreography by Nijinsky, there was a riot ( of sorts ) at the premiere, it concerns ancient pagan fertility rites announcing the ending of winter and the beginning of spring through a young virgin dancing herself to a sacrificial death. So much so familiar but I think it remains a unique piece, the culmination of Stravinsky's three great youthful ballet scores and although steeped in a feeling of Russia it remains outside the tradition. As opposed to the other work on the disk, Firebird, which is the first of the three great ballet scores, is a very fine work but retains noticeable links with the school of Rimsky-Korsakov etc. It surprises me when people talk about what can be done to introduce a younger generation to classical music ( a generation so used to pounding rhythms ) that the obvious visceral attractions of the Rite aren't more widely suggested.

A Journey To the Darkest Realms

A work of central core repertoire that has taken a while to have its' turn off the shelf. Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6, Pathetique, performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan. The Pathetique is another of those works that has much myth making surrounding it, partially because of the nature of the music but mainly because of the circumstances of the proximity of the premiere to the composer's death under possibly dubious circumstances. There is no denying the utter bleakness of the closing movement which seems to signify nothing other than total disillusionment, despair and defeat. Other of his works including earlier symphonies had fate motifs associated with them but the sixth uses fate more subtly as a means of painting a wholly pessimistic view of life. The finale is all the more surprising coming as it does after movements that contain much typical Tchaikovskian melody and elegance. Much has been made of whether or not Tchaikovsky's death was a kind of semi suicide but it is interesting to ponder how he might have followed on from the sixth symphony if he had been granted an extended creative life. The lush sound of Karajan's Berlin Phil works well for me in this work, Karajan does bleakness pretty well, in Metamorphosen for instance. The work also raises questions about listening to such naked pain portrayed in music for purposes of relaxation and entertainment. But music can convey so many moods and experiences and this is but one of them.

The Suitabilty Of Voices

And more repertoire duplication on this BBC Music mag cover disk which features two settings of the Stabat Mater, the one by Pergolesi of which I have a magnificent recording and one by Domenico Scarlatti that I don't otherwise have. The pergolesi is performed here by The Choristers of New College Oxford and the Academy of Ancient Music ( leader Pauline Nobes ) directed by Edward Higginbottom. I have to admit that I find the boys voices totally unsuitable in this work, they lack the life experience for the subject matter musical tradition for the Baroque settings. The Scarlatti version is performed by the BBC Singers directed by Harry Christophers with solo contributions from soprano Elizabeth Poole and tenor Neil NacKenzie. The instrumental backing is provided by small forces; David Miller ( theorbo ), Frances Kelly ( baroque harp ) and Gary Cooper ( organ continuo ). Not as melodically memorable as the Pergolesi, it is nevertheless the more satisfactory in this instance because of the maturity of the singers.

From Romantic To Ironic

With the passage of time, it becomes inevitable that the monthly BBC Music mag cover disks will produce more duplications in repertoire in my collection and that is the case here with this offering from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov. The centre piece of the disk is Brahms Symphony No 1 and a good solid performance it is too. There are two brief makeweights on the disk of music that I do not otherwise have. It begins with Schumann's Faust Overture to his oratorio like work scenes From Goethe's Faust, which concentrated on the final part of Faust's redemption. The overture was in fact written after the main work and often forms a short concert piece with its' depiction of intense inner struggle. The final work on the disk is Kleine Sinfonie by Hanns Eisler. Eisler was a lifelong Marxist and being born Jewish at the turn of the 20th century in Leipzig, those factors condemned him to a wandering life lived variously in the USSR and the USA. He was a one time pupil of Schoenberg and also involved with Brecht and wrote works ranging from strict 12-note method compositions to film scores. Expelled from the USA by McCarthyism, he settled in East Germany where he became an important figure in musical life in that neglected era. The Kleine Sinfonie is short but embraces 12 note methodology in a parodic style with Shostakovichian irony and cartoonish elements.

Saturday 1 March 2008

Not Damned By Faint Praise

It sounds like damning with faint praise to describe this as a very pleasant record but there is a place in life for small pleasures and beautiful sounds that can be appreciated without too much stenuous thought. The disk in question is a budget release titled Five Italian Oboe Concertos and these are played by the Peterborough String Orchestra under the direction of the oboe soloist Nicholas Daniel. The Peterborough ensemble may not be among the world's most stellar groups but they are representative of the sterling work done by many provincial outfits around the world, not only in England. The playing here is fine and provides good accompaniment to Daniel, a former BBC Young Musician of the year winner. Daniel plays a modern oboe in these performances but writes about how his playing has been informed by period instrument practitioners. The composers whose concertos are featured here mainly straddle the 17th and 18th centuries ( Vivaldi, Albinoni, Marcello and Cimarosa ) with only Bellini straying into the early part of the 19th. I am very fond of the sound of the oboe in any repertoire but especially in the baroque. Maybe a full disk is a little too much of a confection but the sunshine sound goes down well for stress free afternoon listening.

Friday 29 February 2008

Darkness And Light

Richard Thompson ( notice I didn't say "ex Fairport Convention guitarist Richard Thompson" ) has a hugely impressive body of work built up over forty years from those early Fairport days. This album Hand Of Kindness is now ( I am astonished and a little taken aback to find ) twenty five years old and so is well into his career. It is one of those few old rock albums that I decided to replace from vinyl to cd since it had personal nostalgic value over and above the quality of the music, hence my dismay to realise that it is now 25 years old. I think I am correct in saying that it was the first album since his final split from his wife and erstwhile performing partner Linda and a couple of the tracks ( Tear Stained Letter and A Poisoned Heart and a Twisted Memory ) might well relate to that famously volatile breakup. Musically a lot of the album is a kind of English version of a cajun band, maybe due to the extensive contributions from John Kirkpatrick on accordion and concertina. Fairport cronies Dave Mattacks, Simon Nicol and Dave Pegg provide solid rhythm section support, there is a beautiful Aly Bain violin solo on the most overtly folky track Devonside and Ry Cooder band alumni John Hiatt and Bobby King make cameo appearances. Apart from the relationship songs, which also include How I Wanted To, there are a trio of dark edged songs at the albums heart, Where The Wind Don't Whine, The Wrong Heartbeat and the title track. Devonside, with its' angel of death undertones, is also not a barrel of laughs despite the beauty of the playing but the album isn't without typical Thompson humour, displayed in Both Ends Burning and Two Left Feet. All this and I haven't even mentioned his guitar playing which is as fiery and unique as ever.

Continuing To Explore The Jazz Trio

An album by one of the leading lights of the current jazz scene, Anything Goes by the Brad Mehldau Trio. Jazz purists of the old school are suspicious of any level of popular success by contemporary performers and rightly so in the vast majority of cases. But while Mehldau may not be cutting edge enough for some tastes, I found this disk to be rewarding and inventive, all the more so given what could be the somewhat restrictive form of the piano trio. Most of the material on the disk consists of reinterpretations of standards, a time honoured tradition in jazz but again given a surprising freshness here. Mehldau is the obvious leader but he is generous in the space alloted to what is more than a rhythm section with the bass of Larry Grenadier sometimes taking the melody line and the drums of Jorge Rossy pushing to the fore over the piano on other occasions. This approach is instead of the older one whereby the bassist and drummer get one fixed spot in a set to stretch out on a solo. Mehldau's own playing is more in the thoughtful line of Monk or Bill Evans than in the flashy technique driven tradition of Tatum or Peterson. The standards include Get Happy, The Nearness Of You, Anything Goes, Smile and I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face. There is a Monk piece, Skippy, and Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years adds another viewpoint. Some critics have found the inclusion of a number by the esoteric rock band Radiohead to be worthy of particular comment ( Everything In It's Right Place ) but to me it sounds neither out of place nor especially groundbreaking. Mehldau has recently branched out to perform with another current "name" Pat Metheney and it would be interesting to hear him play with horn players of similar stature at some point.

Highlighting The Similarities

This disk represents the genre of world music in the form that appeals most to me. It is called Under The Olive Tree : Sacred Music Of The Middle East by the Yuval Ron Ensemble featuring Najwa Gibran. There are descriptions od each track and the breadth of vision is best illustrated by quoting some of these; a Jewish Moroccan song, a prayer for the artisans by the Egyptian composer Darwish, three Jewish prayers from Spain, Bosnia and Israel in a medley with a Sufi song from Turkey, a Yemenite Jewish prayer, an Iraqi love song, a lament from the late 5th century dedicated to the Armenian hero Vartan, a folk dance melody from the people of Laz in Turkey, a folk song from the gypsies of the Nile. The playing and singing are extremely soulful and reach to the very depths of this music, with a precussive swing that sounds utterly contemporary and at the same time timeless, with no resort to electronics beyond that of strategically placed microphones. Yuval Ron is the ensemble leader and plays both oud and saz. Najwa Gibron is one of the two featured vocalists and the sound is soulful but a little smoother than some more folk oriented performers from the region. Apart from much percussion and some keyboard fills, the other musical inspiration beyond that of Yuval Ron is supplied by Norik Manoukian on duduk, shvi ( flute ) and clarinet. The booklet notes "the Yuval Ron Ensemble is dedicated to fostering an understanding of Middle Eastern cultures and religions". Amen to that. This disk highlights similarities rather than emphasising differences.

Another Useful Retrospective

Another of the ECM artist retrospectives in the :rarum series where the performers themselves select the featured tracks. This one is John Surman Selected Recordings. Surman is an English saxophonist who started out as a great white hope baritone sax player in fairly straight ahead modern settings post Coltrane but who over the years has developed something more akin to the European ECM house style, gravitating more often to soprano sax and using more varied settings for his playing. Surman also plays bass clarinet and dabbles with various synthesizers, although the synths normally provide insistent background riffs over which to double track solos on one or more of the reed instruments. The selections show a good cross section from basic trio settings to those synth based numbers and a couple with folk influences which acknowledge Surman's west country roots. Some Bachian influences can also be detected; Surman had wide musical training as a child. Some of the tracks come from sessions where Surman was a sideman on someone else's project ( Barre Phillips and John Abercrombie for instance ) and the London based Brass Project also have a track. Other names that crop up include Paul Bley, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette, Terje Rypdal and Miroslav Vitous. The :rarum series is most definitely a great place to start if you become interested in any of the musicians featured.