A Lesser Known Corner Of The Repertoire

A double cd of orchestral music by Enescu seems a bit of an extravagance from a major company ( EMI ) in these difficult times ( for majors ) even if the venture was spread over twelve years ! Disk one contains Symphony no 1 and Symphony No 2 played by the Orchestre Philharmonique De Monte-Carlo conducted by Lawrence Foster while on disk two, Foster conducts the Orchestre National de Lyon in Symphony No 3 and Vox Maris, which is described as a symphonic poem for soprano, tenor, voices and orchestra. The Choeur de Chambre Les Elements under Joel Suhubiette do the honours for the voices alongside soloists Marius Brenciu tenor and Catherine Sydney soprano. I found Vox Maris to be the most compelling work. It was only found and first performed after the composer's death. Based on a Breton poem and with a superficial sea influence but it expands into a much more metaphysical work. I would have to spend a bit more time with the symphonies, they are obviously works from the first half of the 20th century with overtones from Mahler on through such as Strauss, Sibelius etc, expertly scored but they didn't immediately grab me as much as his chamber music. There is also a lack of the Rumanian folk influence that sometimes colours the chamber music. Foster obviously has a strong feel for Enescu's symphonies but they have yet to fully establish themselves in the repertoire.

Expanding The Viola's Repertoire

This disk features two contemporary Russian viola concertos performed by Yuri Bashmet ( for whom they were comissioned ) with the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre conducted by Valery Gergiev. I found one of the concertos to be tremendous and the other to be slightly irritating. The irritating one is that by Giya Kancheli titled Styx. This also has a strong part for a chorus ( the St Petersburg Chamber Choir, chorus master Nikolay Kornev ) My irritation stemmed from what might be termed extra musical reasons. The piece is written with extremely marked changes in volume from very quiet solo segments on the viola to crashing loud eruptions from orchestra and chorus. Listening on headphones you get blasted out of your seat and listening without in a small flat makes you feel guilty concerning disturbance to neighbours. The idea is that the viola mediates between the choir and the orchestra, symbolizing the River Styx between the dead and the living. It is not without merit but did try my patience. On the other hand, I loved Sofia Gubaidulina's Concerto for Viola and Orchestra. The composer admits to being puzzled and inspired by the "strangely mysterious and veiled nature of the viola's timbre". Written in one thirty minute plus sweep ( as is Styx ) the piece uses a whole range of expressive devices including orchestral effects and featuring religious themes and her native Tartar history. Bashmet is obviously wholly committed to the work.

Nothing To Do With The Weather

I suppose that I could have played this double cd out of sequence a month or so ago since it does deal, at least in a major part, with the story of the Nativity. It seems to be sufficiently independant of any Christmassy feel to wait its' normal turn off the shelf however. The work in question is the staged oratorio El Nino by John Adams. I'm pretty certain that this is so far the only recorded version with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Kent Nagano, London Voices directed by Terry Edwards, and the Theatre of Voices with Paul Hillier. The impressive soloists are the much missed mezzo Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, soprano Dawn Upshaw and baritone Willard White. The work is about the Nativity as already mentioned but woven into that story are more general texts about the miracle of birth with a specific focus on Hispanic America, hence the title which has not climatic connections in this instance. Despite being most definitely an oratorio and not an opera there is drama, particularly in the human reaction of Joseph to the virgin birth, the story of Herod and the flight to Egypt. There are also telling juxtapositions of the slaughter of the innocents by Herod and similar acts of carnage in Latin America, from the conquistadors onwards. Musically, certain remnants of minimalism can be discerned but there is much rich orchestration and lyrical writing too, the final latin lilt of the fading choir being particularly poignant. The solists all convey the depth of feeling admirably.

Nymphs And Shepherds ( And Pirates )

Idiomatic recordings of the music of Ravel by Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal and the Choeur de L'Orchestre de Montreal conducted by Charles Dutoit. The main work is the ballet suite Daphnis et Chloe. It had a chequered start with ravel missing deadlines for the Ballet Russes and Diaghilev cutting the chorus music that is so distinctive, maybe because of cost. The concert suite has proved a popular mainstay however. A work of its' time, suitably impressionistic with one of the more famous depictions of a sunrise and nymph and sea music to rival Debussy. Dutoit eventually had a rather acrimonious exit from Montreal but prior to that the orchestra under him built a fine reputation in this kind of repertoire. There are two other works on the disk, the orchestral setting of the piano piece Pavane Pour Un Infante Defunte ( brief but gorgeous ) and La Valse ( the nightmare waltz setting so beloved of BBC Radio 3 producers as a stopgap in the schedules ).

A Visit To Arcadia

Two unambiguously upbeat symphonies on a feelgood disk to either reinforce a feeling of well being or engender one if that is what is required. Karl Bohm conducts the Wiener Philharmoniker in fine performances of Beethoven's Symphony No 6, the Pastoral and in Schubert's Symphony No 5. Beethoven's symphony isn't so much a tone poem painting sound pictures of the countryside, storms notwithstanding, but is more the description of a state of mind. In his turbulant life, it is good to know that Beethoven did experience such times of simple uncomplicated happiness and it is occasionally good for us to hear works that aren't overhung with shadows of darkness. Wonderful memorable tunes of course, as there are in the Schubert. The opening to Schubert's fifth symphony is in a similar sunny mood with a firm confident stride that seems to epitomise the young man embarking on a purposeful hike through either country paths or city streets. The whole piece and indeed the coupling, evoke a feeling of Arcadia and it is hard to think of them being better played than here, even though the recording is now approaching the vintage category.

Storytelling In Music

As I intimated, another BBC Music mag cover disk with some duplicate repertoire that I won't post much about now. In this case it is Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade, which only fairly recently came off the shelf in my Beecham recording. No hardship to hear the piece again, however, in this performance by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Titov with leader Elizabeth Layton taking the solo violin part of Sheherazade. There are some makeweights on the disk too, this time with Titov conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra in short works by Lyadov. The notoriously lazy Lyadov ( who couldn't be bothered to finish a comission for The Firebird and so gave Stravinsky a big break ) specialised in short works of course. The pieces here are Baba-Yaga, The Enchanted Lake and Kikimora. They are in fact all wonderfully well orchestrated in the style of his teacher Rimsky, all tone poems based on folk / fairy tales and utilising the feel of folk melodies. A good addition to the disk.

The Familiar And The Slight

I'm into a section of the BBC Music mag cover disk shelf that has a run of duplicate repertoire, so not much to say about them other than to register their existence in my collection. This one has Rodrigo's Concierto De Aranjuez, the commercial recording of which hasn't yet found its' way off the shelf although we have had Miles and Gil Evans. Also included here is Suite No 1 from De Falla's The Three Cornered Hat, which predictably is also the coupling on my commercial Aranjuez recording. There are two other works on this disk that I don't have elsewhere, Dances From Don Quixote by Roberto Gerhard and Three Spanish Dances by Granados ( orch De Grignon ). Both are pretty slight offerings if truth be told. The performers on the disk are the Ulster Orchestra, conducted by Josep Caballe-Domenech in the Gerhard, De Falla and Granados works and by Adrian Leaper in the Rodrigo where the soloist is Eduardo Fernandez.

Exercises In Exotica

Simon Rattle has been a strong advocate of the music of Szymanowski and he returned to his old band the City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for this disk of orchestral songs and ballet music. The central piece is Harnasie, a ballet-pantomime in two tableaux. There is much work for the CBSO Chorus to do in this piece under chorus master Simon Halsey and a tenor soloist ( Timothy Robinson ) also features. The tale is about the abduction of a bride on her wedding day by bandits and her subsequent infatuation with the bandit chief. The tale comes from the Tatras and Carpathians and Szymanowski has an obvious love for his native regions depicted here in sound. He also has something of a debt to Stravinsky and the piece also occupies similar territory to Prokofiev's Scythian Suite. It would be interesting to see it staged. The other two song cycles on the disk are Songs of a Fairy Tale Princess with soprano Iwona Sobotka backed by sparse orchestral settings and the more substantial Love Songs Of Hafiz sung by mezzo Katarina Karneus. The fairy tale settings are often wordless with the coloratura and melismas of the soloist dominating. The Hafiz songs are taken from translations of 14th century Persian poetry and the orchestrations have an ( imagined ? ) oriental tinge to them. An exercise in exotica, beautifully sung.

Against The Prevailing Mood

A representative album by the respected and influential English folk musician Martin Carthy from the late eighties called Right Of Passage. The instrumentation is mainly just Carthy accompanying himself on guitar or mandolin but there are occasional contributions from John Kirkpatrick on one-row melodeon or button accordion and from fiddlers Chris Wood and Dave Swarbrick. Carthy isn't a dazzling guitar stylist but he plays some effective instrumentals here. The main focus is on the songs however. There are inclusions which reflect the tradional English folk preoccupations such as innocent country girls waylaid by wandering sailors and got with child ( Eggis In Her Basket ), vengeful wives ( A Stitch In Time ) and vengeful husbands, murdered lovers and unrepentant wives ( Bill Norrie ) all sung with gusto by Carthy. The central theme of this release however is a trilogy of songs influenced by the then recent Falklands War. Carthy's own Company Policy is a brave indictment of Thatcher's callousness that went against the prevailing feeling for what was essentially a popular and triumphalist war in many English eyes and in fact saved her electorally. The 19th century Banks Of The Nile and 17th century Dominion Of The sword refer to earlier conflicts but resonate with more contemporary events to provide damning condemnations.

Book Him Danno

This is an album that I wouldn't buy nowadays but was an impulse buy when it appeared in the small jazz section of a classical mail order catalogue. The disk in question is called Kiss And Tell and is by guitarist Martin Taylor. Taylor is a fine guitarist and there is much to enjoy and admire on he record but it does stray a bit too close to smooth or cocktail jazz for my tastes. The sort of album that is played as background music in the early evening as the sun goes down at clifftop restaurants owned by gay couples on the Algarve. Having damned with faint praise, I'll admit to getting a lot of fun out of reworkings of things like the theme from the movie / tv series The Odd Couple and a witty slow drag version of Five - 0 ( yep, Hawaii, Jack Lord and all ) plus the Maria Muldaur hit Midnight At The Oasis. The standards Mona Lisa and The Nearness Of You are tastefully played and among the originals Ginger, written for a prize fighting great grandfather, is particularly striking. Apart from Taylor, there are solo contributions from piano, sax, and trombone although I have to admit that the names of the players mean nothing to me, Randy Brecker on flugelhorn excepted.

Soul From The Middle East

A fine atmospheric disk by Lebanese musician Abaji titled Nomad Spirit. There is a subtitle of the Deep Emotions of Nomad Blues, which aggravates one of my gripes against the loose usage of the term blues for musics from around the world but there is an underlying soulful feel ( the term I prefer ) throughout the album that is most evocative. Abaji writes interestingly about the way of life of the nomad in his notes to the disk, about how moving in space rather than time and in harmony with nature lends a certain mysticism and spirituality to any music performed. He is a multi instrumentalist of great skill and the sounds here range across influences from his birthplace but also neighbouring Syria and further afield to Greece, Turkey and Armenia. Abaji plays sitar-guitar, guitar ( occasionally slide ), bouzouki, bamboo saxophone ( ! ), bamboo flute ( rather easier to visualise ), clarinet, percussion and vocals ( more a kind of deep voiced recitative ). Other specialist percussionists are included and on two tracks he is joined by the duduk of the legendary Djivan Gasparyan, while Majid Bekkas adds oud and guembri. The state of the art production is used to serve rather than mould the music with a very clear spacious soiund enhancing the quality of the playing.

Let's Make A Sweeping Statement

It's difficult to find anything new to post about Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, simply an essential album. I'll try to find a few words to do it justice though. Part blues rock album with the band including Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper and songs like Tombstone Blues, From a Buick 6, Ballad Of a Thin Man and even the title track having basic blues structures but with Dylan's inimitable lyric gifts conjuring up strange parallel universes. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry has a country bluesish lilt and there are the acid put downs of Queen Jane Approximately and the ubiquitous Like a Rolling Stone. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues inhabits that Tex Mex border world Dylan sometimes strays towards for a sense of exotica and the stranger out of his element and through all these tracks the band provide sure footed and sensitive accompaniment. But the album ends with Dylan more or less on his own and the narrative tour de force that is the greatest song ever written, Desolation Row. What is it about ? Everyone witll have their own personal interpetation which is the power of the thing. I just know that it leaves me shatered each time I hear it and it can only be the closing track on the album since nothing could successfully follow it. What sort of world is conjured up for you ?

Most Agreeable

Some gorgeous palate cleansing early music on this disk by the ensemble Charivari Agreable called Harmonia Caelestis - Caprice and Conceit in Seicento Italy. Works featured are by Bassano, Cavalli, Farina, Piccinini, Cima, Mussi, Picchi, Stradella, Pollarolo, Strozzi and Terzi. The base instrumentation of the group is treble and bass viols, violone, chitaronne, lutes, baroque guitar, harpsichord and chamber organ but on this disk they are augmented by cornett and mute cornett on several tracks and also aditional violin and viola. The stated raison d'etre of the recording is the overlap of repertory for the cornett and violin, both the marriage of the two instruments and their interchangeability. The learned booklet notes detail the detective work and reconstruction that has gone into the performances of these pieces, suffice it to say that the result is a delight conjuring up images of a courtly refined existence ( though bearing in mind my comments when posting recently about the Haydn piano concertos, such images are at odds with the brutal reality of the times for most folk ) As for me, I'd love to be listening to this on the veranda of an Italian country villa accompanied by a fine red wine, rather than in the cold of an albeit sunny English winter afternoon. The music can transport me though.

Mighty Percussion Parts

I've earlier consodered the double cd containing the first three symphonies in the San Fransisco Symphony's outstanding cycle of Nielsen symphonies conducted by Herbert Blomstedt. That cycle is completed on this double cd with Symphonies Nos 4, 5 and 6. Nielsen was a discovery for me when I first began classical collecting, in that I was at least familiar with the names of the major composers and often had a good idea about their sound worlds but Nielsen I had literally never heard of. Blomstedt's is still regarded as one of, if not the, best surveys available of the symphonies. No 4 is subtitled "The Inextinguishable", depicting the elementary will of life to exist and survive. The completion date of 1916 adds another layer of meaning and the as well as containing Nielsen's best known tune, the symphony famously closes with the battle betwen two timpanists placed on either side of the stage. Percussion plays a large role also in No 5, with the violent attempts of the side drum in the first movement to totally undermine the musical progress of the rest of the orchestra. This is most definitely a war symphonyand the side drum is never completely silenced, recurring as a distant motive right through to the close of the entire work. Nielsen's final symphony, No 6, is another subtitled one "Sinfonia Semplice". His stated intention was to compose a sunnier work but there are many ambiguities and also notably more modernist and dissonant influences at times. The second disk also has two fillers played by the Danish National radio Symphony Orchestra under Ulf Schirmer. Little Suite is an early piece for strings that is almost neo-classical in feel while Hymnus Amoris is a cantata with the participation of the Danish National Radio Choir, Copenhagen Boy's Choir and soloists Barbara Bonney soprano, John Mark Ainsley tenor, Lars Pederson tenor, Michael W. Hansen baritone and Bo Anker Hansen bass. A bit too much early 20th century bombast in this work for my tastes but not to take anything away from the essential nature of this release as a whole.

Changing Tastes

One of the interesting things for me in this exercise is that it has crystalized to some extent how my tastes have changed and developed since I began collecting classical music. There aren't many ( any ? ) examples of things that I loved that I now hate but there are some where the passion has waned. On the other hand, things I was initially lukewarm about I now find to be most pleasurable. This disk is a case in point with Leif Ove Andsnes directing the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra from the piano in Haydn's Piano Concertos Nos 3, 4 and 11. Having had a misguided impression of Haydn as a worthy but somewhat "unsexy" unexciting figure, I 'm pleased to have seen the light. Ok, maybe he was more prolific than is good for a lasting reputation but those were the demands in his time. These concertos are fine examples of the less is more school of composing, probably influenced by Haydn's relative lack of virtusoity as a pianist compared to Mozart for instance. But in Andsnes he finds a like minded advocate who isn't bothered about subjugating his virtuosic gifts to the more refined cause of the music. Like much 18th century music, it always strikes me as being wonderfully civilised and sophisticated and it brings me up with a jolt to contrast this impression with the turbulent political, social and military background of the era.

Literary Inspiration

Liszt's orchestral music is often slighted but seems to be undergoing some kind of reappraisal. I certainly find much to enjoy in this back catalogue raiding double cd. Disk 1 features what is probably his most ambitious orchestral work A Faust Symphony, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Sir George Solti. Margaret Hillis directs the chorus and there is a solo tenor part sung by Siegfried Jerusalem. The symphony does not seek to tell the Faust story in sound but rather to portray the three central characters of the tale ( Faust, Gretchen and Mephistopheles ) in the three movements. Some might argue but I find it succeeds admirably and is a great showcase for any orchestra. Solti also conducts two of the three pieces on disk 2, this time with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. These two works are Les Preludes ( which was one of those "oh, so that's where that tune comes from" moments for me ) and Prometheus and mark Liszt's expansion of the overture form towards that of the hitherto unknown tone poem. The final work is the other big literary inspired piece the Dante Symphony. this is based on the Divine Comedy and is a two part work split between the inferno and purgatory. Obviously meaningful to the devout Catholic Liszt, it occupies similar territory to the Faust and is another strong piece. Performers for this are L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Jesus Lopez-Cobos and like the Faust there are choral contributions, in this case from Choeur de la section artistique du College Voltaire and L'Atelier choral de Geneve with director Philippe Corboz.

Not Such A Low Point

Sometimes revisiting disks I haven't played for a long time during this exercise has thrown up pleasant surprises and confounded my expectations. A case in point here is "Low" Symphony by Philip Glass from the music of David Bowie and Brian Eno. I have begun to find that a little Philip Glass goes a very long way and when taking this disk in rotation from the shelf was expecting a slightly opportunistic and pretentious project to attempt to appeal to a broader audience on Glass's part and to get arty kudos from Bowie ( Eno already has such cachet I suggest ) However, I found it to be an interesting and engaging piece, despite my incredulity on the occasions when the trademark Glass pulsing strings make their inevitable entrances. How does he get away with that almost manic obssesive repetition ? Despite that, there is enough orchestral colour of a more unusual kind for Glass from the brass particularly. And the melodic material is of interest, though presumably that is more to do with Bowie / Eno. The other advantage the disk has is that of brevity ( as in "a little Glass goes a long way" ) With the symphony being the only work featured and lasting just over forty minutes, it doesn't outstay its' welcome. The performers on the disk are the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.

A Long Time Coming

Rock solid performances of core Austro - Germanic repertoire by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan. The main work is Brahms's Symphony No 1 and this is coupled with Schumann's Symphony No 1, the Spring symphony. There are numerous well known features about Brahms's first; the interminable gestation period of the work, the shadow of Beethoven and the closing movement theme's similarity to Beethoven's Choral Symphony etc. But for all that, once it finally appeared, it took its' place among the giant symphonies of the 19th century and ushered in a relatively short but impressive cycle of symphonies from the composer. It was a symphony that Karajan felt a close affinity with and was the work performed at his final concert performance in London when he was already seriously ill. Schumann's reputation as an orchestral composer languishes behing that of Brahms and the contrast in the two works here perhaps backs that up. But it remains a fine work in its' own right with plenty of freshness in the orchestration which belies Schumann's alleged weakness in this area. The sort of disk that the Berlin orchestra seems much less likely to make in the curent music industry climate but at least this coupling is available.

So That's Where It Was

This particular BBC Music mag cover disk taking its' turn to come off the shelf and be played has solved a small puzzle for me. I knew that somewhere I had a recording of Liszt's monumental Piano Sonata in B Minor but had been unable to track it down when scouring my commercial solo piano recordings. The location for said performance is on this disk featuring a recital by BBC Radio 3 New Generation artist, the Welsh pianist Llyr Williams. It would be idle to suggest that Mr Williams's version would rank as any sort of benchmark preformance but it is very capable and I shall remember that this is where it is when I want to hear the piece again. It is a singular piece in more ways than one and I get much out of repeated hearings, with the long sweep and constant reworking of the same themic source material. Rather more conventional but still with a linking air of fantasy are the other two works that Williams plays here, Beethoven's Sonata Op 27 No 1 "Quasi Una Fantasia and Schubert's "Wanderer" Fantasy. A worthwhile recital, the Beethoven and Liszt being live concert performances from Wigmore Hall.

Papa Knows Best

Most of the BBC Music mag cover disks feature performances by the BBC orchestras or the then current New Generation Artists but occasionally they do a joint venture with an outside record company or ensemble. This disk is one of those with the Academy of Ancient Music directed by Christopher Hogwood playing Haydn Symphonies Nos 77 and 76. Perhaps these symphonies are a little neglected since they don't fit into any of the named groups but they are full of life and invention. Very civilised sounds of the kind that I often think epitomise "classical" music for those who aren't close followers of the genre. Maybe not so full of melody as Mozart but wonderfully inventive in their use and development of simple themes. I haven't purchased any commercial recordings of Haydn symphonies, maybe offput by the sheer number of works to choose from, so this is a valuable disk for me and the performances are of the highest quality, historically informed and played with love and care.

Play This And You Can Play Anything

Only a couple of Chopin recitals in my collection but this is a top of the range one from Murray Perahia playing the 12 Etudes Op 10 and the 12 Etudes Op 25, together with three Impromptus and a Fantasie Impromptu. I find it hard to post about solo piano recitals from the standpoint of a layman. I appreciate the artistry, enjoy the listening experience but can't really get into the detailed critical appraisal of each study. Unless there is a complete lapse in competance, my critical facilities aren't well enough attuned to pick it up. I think I am on safe ground by saying this is a very fine performance, however. The two books of etudes were dedicated to Liszt and represent formidable challenges in technique. It has been said that if a pianist can play the etudes they can play anything since Chopin set out to specifically explore the furthest extremes of keyboard virtuosity while retaining a poetic sensibility and even throwing in a few instantly recognisable tunes. It is hard to think of them being played with greater aplomb than by Perahia here.

The Essence Of The City

Although he is still going strong, this early 90s album by Dr John ( Goin' Back To New Orleans ) marks a culmination and a distillation of his career. Without labouring any concept album point, the music pays homage to the threads which permeate New Orleans music from Gottschalk through the very beginnings of jazz with Buddy Bolden, on to Louis Armstrong and then the Mardi Gras Indians, second line jazz funerals, Professor Longhair, the r 'n 'b of Fats Domino and Huey "piano" Smith and the craftsmanship of Allen Toussaint and the Neville Brothers. Not to mention Mac Rebennack himself. Dr John is on fine singing and piano playing form and is surrounded by the cream of New Orleans musicians including some of the aforementioned Nevilles. The whole album swings with that offbeat latin tinge so distinctive to the city with some incredibly propulsive drumming. Somehow in New Orleans the blues is never taken too seriously and there is always that upbeat optimistic love for life in the background. There is much humour on this record and I hope that light still burns fiercely somewhere post Katrina. If you are ever in need of cheering up, I recommend playing the track My Indian Red about the Mardi Gras Indian tribes and challenge you to keep still and to keep a smile off your face.

Flying Solo

The pianist Keith Jarrett may divide certain expert opinion in both the jazz and classical fields and his solo concerts in particular can stray a little close to being giant ego trips but I don't doubt that he is a remarkable performer and am glad to have this disk of The Koln Concert. I'm also happy that it is representative enough to be the only one that I need in the series of such recordings. It is now over thirty years since this concert but there is a certain timeless feel ( if you ignore the afro hairdo in the cover photos ) The music is stretched over three lengthy and one slightly more compact improvisations for solo piano. The improvising isn't on any known theme or standard but is basically tonal and does evolve in a compositional style with a logical ebb and flow into and out of a series of climaxes. The fact of it being an improvisation and the history of the performer mean that it gets the tag of jazz but there are only occasional recognisable jazz licks thrown into the mix. Not much evidence of the blues either, if forced to say what the base of the improvs were, I would suggest that they have an underlying gospel feel to the chords and modes with a touch of some kind of indeterminate folk heritage. They can certainly get funky at times and Jarrett adds his own percussive effects on the body of the piano, together with audible vocal accompaniment in best Glenn Gould fashion at moments of crescendo.

It's Those Griots Again

Another free disk acquired with an annual subscription to Songlines magazine, this album by Kasse Mady Diabate is a fine recording by any standards. Titled Kassi Kasse - Mande Music From Mali, it occupies the same territory as the Mandekalou project but this time concentrating on one named artist rather than a large collaborative ensemble. Having said that, the musicians and singers with Diabate on this record do sterling work and are an essential part of the disk's success. Again like the Mandekalou project, this is acoustic music in the griot tradition and is distinct from the desert blues style often associated with Mali. Diabate is from one of the main griot clans and keeps to the long established forms here. The spacious production is courtesy of Radio 3 broadcaster Lucy Duran who also contributes extremely informative booklet notes. Diabate is the singer and storyteller while the instrumentation revolves around multiple acoustic guitars, kora, balaphone, double bass, occasional flute to add colour and very impressive percussion of various forms. It's fascinating to try to hear the roots of later music styles when listening to much west African music and while this disk doesn't show much connection to the blues, there seem to be definite snatches of what we know as Cuban music.

The Danger Of The Double Album

Blonde On Blonde. I'm sure there are many obsessives around who will know why the album is called that but the title isn't of any great lasting significance. Most definitely a rock band album and perhaps at the height of any commercial success Dylan enjoyed in terms of record sales and the big record company push. This change is evident from the packaging. Gone are any of Dylan's poems or prose, to be replaced by a selection of quirky and soulful looking photographs. Originally a double vinyl album, although it now fits comfortably onto a single cd, it has some of the rambling self indulgence that double albums often brought. The band support from the Nashville Area Code musicians and such as Al Kooper and Jaime Robertson ( That's "Robbie" isn't it ? ) is excellent but not always necessarily appropriate. There are some disposable tracks here to my ears ( among them well known ones such as Just Like a Woman and I Want You ) but of course still some classics. There are the nonsense party time Rainy Day Women and Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat, the blues band style Pledging My Time and Obviously 5 Believers and the stream of consciousness surreal story epic that is Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. And of course the wonderful Visions of Johanna and Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, the latter showing a first indication of his deliberate change of voice style that was demonstrated much later in Nashville Skyline.

150 Years Of The Halle

The latest issue of BBC Music magazine arrived with a cover disk celebrating the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Halle Orchestra. The disk includes both newly recorded and vintage archive performances. Those newly recorded are conducted by Mark Elder and are of works by Sibelius, Butterworth and Debussy arr. Colin Matthews. The Sibelius is his Third Symphony, maybe my favourite and one whichj I also have played by the BBSO under Simon Rattle. This live Halle recording more than holds its' own with that. George Butterworth's A Shropshire Lad occupies that English pastoral territory but is none the less moving and evocative for that, a fine orchestral showcase and a work which adds to the thoughts of what might have been for the composer if WW1 hadn't intervened with such disastrous consequences. Colin Matthews is a composer in residence with the Halle and has transcribed several of Debussy's piano pieces for orchestra, the one in question here being Prelude - Les Collines d'Anacapri. The vintage recordings sound a bit rough but I'm sure will be appreciated by those for whom there is a significant nostalgia value. Hamilton Hardy conducts Dvorak's Carnival Overture, Leslie Heward conducts Elgar's quintessentially sentimental Salut d'Amour and the final movement of Bax's Symphony No 3 is conducted by probably the foremost of the Halle's principle conductors, Sir John Barbirolli.

Often A Subtext

A fine recital of Schumann piano music by Canadian pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin playing Carnaval, Fantasiestucke and Papillons. Papillons is early Schumann and reflects his love of Schubert and of the writer Jean Paul, particularly a novel Flegeljahre which featured twins who it might be argued Schumann associated with his own split alter egos of Eusebius and Florestan. Papillons comprises a series of miniature dance pieces with all the brevity and flightiness of the life of a butterfly. Like much of Schumann Carnaval has a non musical subtext, this one to do with the "League of David" the progressive body connected with his work as a critic and devoted to defeating reactionary forces in music. There are various musical cyphers scattered throughout but it isn't necessary to recognise all of these in what is often a waltz based progression retaining echoes of the skittish dances in Papillons. Literary connections also underpin Fantasiestucke, in this case E T A Hoffmann. This isn't such a unitary work as the other two but there is a rather more mature and thoughtful air to much of the writing. Hamelin is a virtuosic performer who can grandsatand with the best of them but who also knows how to best put his abilities to the service of the music.

Subtle Distortions

This is a most enjoyable disk of Berio Orchestral Transcriptions performed by the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Guiseppe Verdi conducted by Riccardo Chailly. The transcriptions featured are by Purcell, Bach, Boccherini, Mozart, Schubert and Brahms and display Berio's immense respect and love of tradition despite his somewhat fearsome avant garde reputation. Indeed, only the Mozart piece, Variations on the Papageno Aria "Ein Madchen oder Weibchen", is subjected to a thorough deconstruction into an almost unrecognisable modernist piece and even this is not that daunting a listen. For the other works on the disk, Berio adds subtle orchestral colouring which shades and enhances the sound world to make for a rewarding experience, as if the aural equivalent of viewing an image through a distorting mirror. This makeover is given to a short Purcell hornpipe, to Contrapunctus XIX by Bach, to Boccherini's Ritirata Notturna di Madrid, to Rendering For Orchestra ( the Schuberrt piece which perhaps has the widest exposure of all these works ) and to Brahms's Sonata for Clarinet and Orchestra in F minor, where Fausto Ghiazza is the accomplished soloist.

Neglected British Music

There is a small but vociferous pressure group that is forever bemoaning what they perceive to be the neglect of a number of English ( or more accurately British ) composers from the first half of the 20th century. Arnold Bax is something of a cult figure among this group and the most often cited as indicative of the excellence that goes unnoticed. I think it is fair to say that the work of independant labels such as Naxos and Chandos has put much of this music into the oublic domain, it is the neglect in concert halls and on radio that is still railed against. I tend to think that in most cases posterity has it right and there are no neglected giants but that is not to say the music being championed is without worth. A long preamble to discussing this disk of music by Bax performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by David Lloyd-Jones. The main work on the disk is his Symphony No 4, another symphony which claims the sea as inspiration. Bax wrote in a romantic mode and was out of step with the prevailing musical climate by the time of his death but the passage of time now enables it to be appreciated on a level with European contemporaries. The other two works on the disk are Overture to a Picaresque Comedy, with nods to Strauss, and Nympholet which is an evocation of a victim enraptured by pagan spirits of the wood. The performers have an obvious affinity with the genre being portrayed on this recording.

Best Of Britten

More recycling from a major label back catalogue, this time Decca with a disk of orchestral music by Britten. Two of the works and the main attraction of this issue are conducted by the composer himself, The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra with the London Symphony Orchestra and Four Sea Interludes and Passagalia ( from Peter Grimes ) with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. These are Britten's major orchestral writings, excepting concertos, and are very different in mood and intent. The YPG is famously based around an anthemic theme by Purcell and is an exercise in orchestral colour demonstrating the various sections of the orchestra for the benefit and illumination of children. Britten was a coastal dweller and the sea was the background to his two most successful operas, Grimes and Billy Budd. The Sea Interludes from Grimes can take their place among the most notable evocations of the sea in music, such as La Mer. In a similar way, they portray the varying moods of the sea such as dawn, moonlight, storm etc. but they don't occupy the same impressionistic musical world. The disk contains two other works played by the National Philharmonic Orchestra under Richard Bonynge. These are Soirees Musicales and Matinees Musicales and are witty arrangements of music by Rossini that were later choreographed.

A Definitive Take

This is aguably a definitive recording of Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony. Performed by the Orchestre de L'Opera Bastille conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, it was recorded in the presence of the composer and features his muse Yvonne Loriod playing the pivotal piano part and Jeanne Loriod on the distinctive ondes martenot. The score played here is also a revision by Messiaen that could be looked upon as a final thought on the piece. Not a symphony in the classical meaning of the term, Turangalila is a sanskrit word with meanings of play, love and time. Another attraction of this release is that the booklet notes are by Messiaen himself and he descibes the meaning as being all at once a love song, hymn to joy, time, movement, rhythm, life and death. As mentioned, the piano has a prominent part to play and there are the references to bird song and the night sky typical of Messiaen but also what appear to me to be jazzy touches. The quieter piano passages of the piece tend to be longer and there are brash exuberent linking passages featuring the orchestral colours more fully along with the weirdness of the ondes martenot, a very early electronic keyboard device. But really, the detailed explanation by the composer in his notes with this disk don't require much elaboration from me. In this retrospective trawl through my collection, I have found that I possibly have a couple more Messiaen disks than I need for my tastes but there's always time to listen to this and to the Quartet For The End Of Time.

The Icy North ?

Maybe it's just me but I get the impression the music of Sibelius has fallen a little out of fashion in the concert hall, certainly when compared to that of Mahler and Shostakovich. This disk is a vintage 1950s recording by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Hans Rosbaud and it features music other than his symphonies, including perhaps his best known works. The pieces are Finlandia, Valse Triste, The Swan of Tuonela, Festivo, The Karelia Suite and Tapiola. There are plenty of well known melodies amongst these, some of which are among my first childhood memories of any classical music because of their use as themes for tv series ( the famous Karelia march was used for a flagship UK current affairs show ) and also as almost light music before rock blasted apart sections of the BBC. There is of course, the connection of Sibelius with Finnish nationalism and landscape. Certainly the political cause and Finnish folklore inspired him, although I feel the symphonies sometimes show more of the icy feel of the north than do these tone poems. This mono recording is a bit rough around the ages but the playing is full of committment.

English Partsongs

The repertoire on this BBC Music mag cover disk is quite unusual, even if the composers are familiar enough. It features the BBC Singers in partsongs by Elgar, Delius and Holst. The Elgar and Delius songs are acapella, with solo contributions from oboist Richard Simpson cellist Susan Monks and harpist Sioned Williams on various of the Holst songs. Conductor for the Holst is Justin Doyle, while Stephen Cleobury directs the Elgar and Delius. There are just a few moments on the disk when the sound of the BBC Singers gets a little too close to a kind of barber's shop sound for my taste but most of the time it is suited to the material, which does have a kind of English pastoral feel without being cliched in that regard. I found the Holst songe particularly interesting, being based on old English and Welsh carols and folk songs and also on the writings of the Rig Veda, although the latter betray no real musical sense of India or the orient. A low key disk but a strangely attractive one.

Another Take On Those Hammer Blows

The longer I have been collecting classical recordings, the more the chance of duplication of repertoire from the BBC Music mag cover disks. This one features Sir Charles Mackerras conducting the BBC Philharmonic in a performance of Mahler's 6th Symphony, that's the one with the "hammer blows of fate". Nothing more to add about the piece from when I considered the recording I have by Boulez and the Vienna Phil. The BBC Phil do a creditable job and it is interesting that Mackerras's reading is four and a half minutes swifter than that of Boulez.

Late 20th Century Concertos

The very promising young English violinist Chloe Hanslip is joined on this disk by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin in a programme centred around John Adams's Violin Concerto and the Chaccone from The Red Violin which John Corigliano assembled from the music he wrote for that movie. There are also two other works contributed by Franz Waxman; an arrangement of Enescu's short Romanian Rhapsody No 1 and his own Tristan and Isolde Fantasia. The pieces featured offer a broad survey of American violin music. The Red Violin music is a set of variations that Corigliano has since expanded into a full blown concerto but this was the firsr attempt to turn the music into a concert piece. The Hollywood film composer Waxman was one of those who fles the Nazis prior to WW2 and the Enescu is an arrangement of an arrangement, the Romanian composer having taken a traditional melody for his rhapsody. The Tristan work contains a demanding obbligato piano part played on this recording by Charles Owen and was originally part of the climax to the film Humoresque. It is in the tradition of romantic emigre Hollywood film music and recognisable as such. The disk closes with Adams's popular concerto, a virtuosic tour de force in which the soloist almost never stops playing. Although closely associated with Leila Josefowicz, Chloe Hanslip does an admirable job on this recommendable budget disk.

More Than Just The Craic

One of those bargain retrospectives, The Very Best Of The Pogues is a good representation of what this Anglo-Irish band was about. Famous for chaotic booze fueled stage shows, there is an element on the record of songs glorifying pub culture and the Friday night craic but near the surface is always the dark side eptiomised by Shane MacGowan's lyrics. His non-voice can get a little wearing over more than an hour of music but he is in the tradition of Irish poets and raconteurs and has a compassion for the damaged characters that populate many of his songs. Musically too, the band had wider influences than Irish folk and jigs, sometimes sounding cajun, sometimes almost oriental, occasionally as if at a fiesta. A rock band they most certainly were not. There is an elegiac quality to some songs such as Misty Morning Albert Bridge and even the Christmas chestnut Fairytale Of New York and this contrasts with full on celebrations of drink such as Sally MacLennane and Streams Of Whisky. The Old Main Drag is a grim tale of the underbelly of central London but the group's masterpiece closes this disk, The Band Played Waltzing Matilda. This is a narrative about the survivors of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign of WW1 and is a poignant reminder of the futility of war.

Funking It

I commented on the phenomenal bass playing of Stanley Clarke on the original Return To Forever album. This solo album entitled East River Drive is much more of a funk album, that at times strays dangerously close to the dreaded genre of smooth jazz. I bought the album on the strength of a couple of tracks that appealed to me in terms of rhythmic drive and melody, Justice's Groove and Zabadoobeede. There are also a couple of outstanding solo funk bass workouts but much of the rest is only background listening fodder. There's a lot of electonic instumentation and various gizmos attached to Clarke's bass which do give some interesting sounds and textures. I'll be honest and admit that the only names among the other musicians on the album that mean a thing to me are George Duke and Hubert Laws. There is the feel of film muisc to much of the album and a couple of the tracks are from fairly forgettable movies. All in all, an album that I retain for some nostalgic reasons but will probably only ever play selectively in terms of tracks.

Great Cause, Shame About The Music

I acquired that various artists compilation album called Spirit Of Africa as a freebie for signing up to a subscription to Songlines magazine. Maybe it wasn't the best choice of the freebies on offer since it is a bit pop oriented for me, with many of the tracks suffering from synth laden eighties production values alongside any African rhythms and vocals. The disk certainly has its' heart in the right place, being a joint initiative of the Mercury Phoenix Trust and Real World records to help fight AIDS worldwide. Many of the lyrics apparently tackle this theme also but that isn't immediately apparent from the musical content. The musicians are mainly unknown to me too, apart from Papa Wemba on one track, Youssou N'Dour on another and the powerhouse Drummers of Burundi on a third. A further admirable feature is the way the compilation ranges over a wider area than is currently fashionable, so that alongside tracks from the familiar Senegal and Mali there are artists from Somalia, Algeria, Zimbawe, Congo, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

The Vandals Took the Handle

Next in line of the Bob Dylan albums is the wonderful Bringing It All Back Home. Backing off from "protest" and overtly political songs ( however you might like to interpret Maggie's Farm ) and heading off into more of an enigmatic stream of consciousness kind of poetry with the 115th Dream, Gates Of Eden and Mr Tambourine Man ( which I always think of as an earlier work than this somehow ) The first hints of electricity and band backings on several tracks too, notably the aforementioned Maggie's Farm and Subterranean Homesick Blues and also on more laid back numbers including Love Minus Zero/No Limit and She Belongs To Me. Mr Tambourine Man and It's Alright Ma ( I'm Only Bleeding ) retain acoustic roots and the other iconic song featured is It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, another song that could be seen as being in a continuing line through to Like A Rolling Stone, Positively 4th Street etc. The sleeve notes don't credit the musicians although I know the info must be out there on the net somewhere. If the famous performance of these songs at the Newport Festival is anything to go by, they probably include Mike Bloomfield and other members of the Butterfield Band. I know it is too early for Robbie Robertson and co.

The Musical Saint

This is a lovely record of celebratory music by Handel, performed by The King's Consort and the Choir of the King's Consort directed by Robert King, with excellent soloists in soprano Carolyn Sampson and tenor James Gilchrist. The main work is An Ode For St Cecilia's Day but the disk also features an Italian language cantata on the same theme, Cecilia Volgi Un Sguardo. St Cecilia is the patron saint of music and musicians, although as with many patron saints the connection seems a little tenuous to say the least. Nice to think that such an important human activity is suitably blessed though and she is celebrated in fine style by both works here, which are typically Handelian in style with borrowings from other of his works, another common feature. It is hard to think of them being given better performances than here either, the band and chorus drive along with vigour and verve and the two soloists are on top form in both the elongated coloratura displays and the more reflective lyrical moments, Sampson particularly touching here. The blameless members of the King's Consort seem to be surviving the troubles of their founder, another piece of good news since they are a band of distinction in this repertoire.

Brahms The Romantic

An enjoyable disk of prime romantic era writing by Brahms. Hard to listen to and give any credence to the image of Brahms as a dry academic. This is a live performance by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink. The works featured are Serenade No 2 and Symphony No 3. The first and final movements of the Third Symphony contain some of the most dramatic music he was to compose, yet both end serenely and enclose two beautiful and lyrical inner movements. The equally exquisite Serenade No 2, unusually scored for wind instruments, violas, cellos and double basses, was one of his own personal favourites. There may be cryptic references to his relationship with Robert and Clara Schumann hidden in the score to the symphony together with the motto "free but happy" but these are not really of any significance to listeners to the work. The recording comes from a recent late flowering of the partnership between the LSO and Haitink and despite being live is a recommendable contender in this repertoire.

A Wasted Opportunity

What could have been a truly exceptional disk ended up being undermined by a failure of nerve on the part of either the artist or record company. The album in question being Mysterium - Sacred Arias by soprano Angela Gheorghiu. The first quarter of the disk is devoted to performances of four Romanian pieces from the Orthodox tradition accompanied by the Romanian National Chamber Choir "Madrigal" conducted by Marin Constantin. She is obviously fiercely proud of this tradition and in conjunction with this recording made a documentary for BBC tv about the extraordinary painted churches of Romania. If the entire disk, or even just a more substantial part of it, had been dedicated to this unusual and soulful repertoire it would have been a major achievement but sadly the remainde of the record is given over to operatic style performances of such chestnuts as Schubert's Ave Maria, Pie Jesu from Faure's Requiem, Mendelssohn's Auf Flugeln des Gesananges and Brahms's Wiegenlied, together with arias of dubious worth by Mascagni and Niedermeyer. These items are supported by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Ion Marin and very mainstream middle of the road support it is. I had forgotten that the disk concludes with an over the top rendition of Adeste, Fideles which sounded out of place now the festive season is over. Well, it isn't quite twelvth night yet. Gheorghiu's star seems slightly on the want now, making it unlikely that she will get the opportunity to fully revisit the Romanian repertoire.

Cerebral Pianism

A recital of Schubert solo piano works by Arcadi Volodos, featuring Sonata in E major for piano ( Unfinished ) D157, Sonata in G major for piano D894 and Der Muller und der Bach arranged by Liszt. Volodos is one of those cerebral, slightly neurotic pianists. He recently took time out from recording because he didn't feel that he had anything of any significance to say but he seems to be now embarked on projects once more. To my layman's ears, this is certainly a fine recital. For a long time, virtuoso piano soloists ignored Schubert's sonatas as being too intimate, subtle and modest in demeanour and likely by their length to test the patience of audiences looking for spectacle and pyrotechnics. Fortunately, that tendency has now been overcome and they take their place in the canon of works that are regularly played, interpreted and appreciated for their below the surface qualities and symphonic scope. The arrangement of a Schubert song from Die Schone Mullerin is one of many that Liszt did. In this case it is the final song of that cycle where the young miller contemplates death by drowning having failed in his quest for requited love. An elegiac close to this disk that the booklet notes describe as appropriate since it was the final recording made in the space of the Sofiensall in Vienna before that venue burned to the ground.

Balancing That Organ

This disk is a further example of DG mining their back catalogue. This time it is on something they called the Centenary Collection and the featured artist is Daniel Barenboim. It's not clear what the centenary refers to, since it is obviously neither the record label or the artist and although the three compsers concerned were all alive together at some point in their lives, I don't think there's a particular centennial connection with the works. Whatever, the works on the disk are Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole with Barenboim conducting the Orchestre de Paris and Itzhak Perlman the violin solist, Saint-Saen's Symphony No 3 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Barenboim and the organ played by Gaston Litaize and the Rigoloetto Paraphrase by Liszt with Barenboim on solo piano. Perlman is ideally suited to the Lalo and proves a fine advocate for the work. The Saint-Saens organ symphony is notoriously difficult to balance in terms of sound between the organ and the orchestra. The solution here to record organ and orchestra seperately in different locations and then splice together would infuriate purists and isn't ideal but to be honest it works well enough and gives a most respectable account of the work. The Liszt makes a nice coda to the disk, although just over seven minutes of music is hardly enough to give much idea of the importance and quality of Barenboim as a pianist, if that was the intention.

When Last Was First

When I first began collecting classical recordings, I had an aversion to the operatic voice inherited from my familiarity with rock and soul voice styles. This disk was my first real introduction, apart from the final movement of Beethoven's 9th. A programme of Strauss orchestral songs by soprano Karita Mattila with the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Claudio Abbado, I acquired it by "mistake" when I forgot to cancel the recording of the month choice from a mail order company. It turned out to be a happy mistake however and began the process of a growing appreciation of the art of singing. The headline work on the disk is the Four Last Songs, although more substantial in terms of length are the accompanying Lieder fur Gesang und Orchester. It is in fact surprising to be reminded of the brevity of the Four Last Songs given their fame and frequent programming and recording. Written at the end of Strauss's life and that of his wife, they are seen as being an evocation of approaching death and a sad but resigned farewell to the beauty of life on earth and a hope for what will follow. The truth however is that they probably weren't even written as programmatically connected songs, they certainly weren't given the title Four Last Songs by Strauss and the order in which they are performed is not set in stone or pre-ordained by Strauss. The other orchestral song settings on the disk are equally romantic and sensual, using some fevered poetry from various sources. The Berlin Phil are in suitably lush form and Karita Mattila's singing is soulful and laid back, a fine contrast to any Wagnerian bellowing which would have put me off in my early classical listening career.

Nothing Wrong With English Pastoral

I won't spend too much time discussing this BBC Music mag cover disk of English music since that old repertoire duplication thing applies. There are three works on the disk, Elgar's Enigma Variations hasn't had its' turn off the shelf yet for the commercial recording I have but I will wait for that to roll around before discussing it. Tippett's Ritual Dances from the Midsummer Marriage has already been considered. Which just leaves the third piece, Vaughan Williams's sublime Five Variants of Dives and Lazurus. Maybe it is the sort of work which reinforces misleading impressions of VW only being an English pastoralist but it is another of his wonderful string adaptations of a collected folk tune and deeply soulful. It is played here by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales lead and directed by Lesley Hatfield. The other two works are also performed by the BBC NOW, with Tadaaki Otaka conducting the Elgar and David Atherton the Tippett.

Lindsay Swan Song

This BBC Music mag cover disk in conjunction with the record label Sanctuary Classics is a chamber music recital by The Lindsays. The usual slightly rough edged Lindsay sound but good natured enthusiastic playing. There are two works featured, Brahms's String Quartet in A minor op 51 no 2 and Schumann's String Quartet in A minor op 47 no 1. The Schumann is maybe my favourite string quartet work and while the version here doesn't compare with that I have by the Zehetmair Quartet, it is always good to hear. The Brahms work is one of his first two string quartets and like his first symphony, it was many years in gestation. Maybe that ghost of Beethoven haunting him again. Once completed, however, it is a fine work and this is again a useful freeebie from the magazine. It was released to fit with the timing of he Lindsays farewell tours.

To Be A Pilgrim

As a break from issuing their entire Bach cantata pilgrimage, John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir released this fine disk detailing another journey that they made, the Pilgrimage To Santiago. This was the traditional pilgrimage route across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela where supposedly the remains of the apostle James lie. Gardiner and the choir made part of the pilgrimage, singing appropriate sacred material at venues along the route, normally churches. The music on the disk is beautifully sung and stretches from Gregorian roots through to the acapella polyphony of the fifteenth, sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Alongside "anon" are works by Palestrina, Victoria, Dufay, Mouton, Clemens non Papa and De Lassus. The disk comes lavishly presented in hardback book style. Even divorced from the concept album nature of the pilgrimage, it is a most rewarding musical experience.

Feeling The Loneliest Man In America

The only fairly recent post prison and post drugs album by Steve Earle that I have is this one, Jerusalem. It is his "9/11" album with many of the songs being a reaction against the reaction and the "war on terror". This is done in an artistic way rather than a simplistic name calling way but there's little doubt as to where Earle's sympathies lie. His sleevenotes are dated July 4th 2002 and in them he states that he feels the loneliest man in America sometimes. Maybe he's a little less lonely these days. John Walker's Blues tackles the question of the American kid discovered amongst the ranks of the taliban in Afghanistan and other titles give an indication of the tone; Ashes to Ashes, Amerika v 6.0, Conspiracy Theory, The Truth, What's a Simple Man To Do ? The album concludes with a plea for hope and co-operation in the title song. Musically, it is recognisably a Steve Earle band production but is given a bright synthy sound with drums heavily to the front of the mix. He'll return to political matters in his songs I'm sure but he has recently taken a step back towards more personal songs which he can do just as well.

A Bird In Flight

More seventies jazz from the original line up of Return To Forever on this album of the same name buy Chick Corea. Light years away from the heavier rock incarnation of later versions of the band, this album has a light latin feel, due in no small part to the Brazilian couple Flora Purim on vocals and Airto Moreira on percussion, not to mention the soprano sax and flute of Joe Farrell and the bass of Stanley Clarke. There's a very live feel to the recording, complete with a few fluffs, that is again very different from the current house sound at ECM. Some of the material has served Chick Corea well in subsequent years, the ballad Crystal Silence played on solo electric piano becoming something of a standard and some of the themes of the extended piece Sometime Ago - La Fiesta cropping up later in the guise of the number Spain. That song has a very strong Spanish influence, he Brazilian flavour coming through on the remaining two tracks, What Game Shall We Play Today a gentle bossa nova style song and the title track with wordless singing from Purim. Joe Farrell sounds happier on flute than soprano but all his contributions are enjoyable and the bass playing of Stanley Clarke on both electric and double bass is of virtuoso standard and this album still represents some of his best ever work. It is also a high point in Chick Corea's long career and manages to subsume any hints of Scientology.

Griot Tradition

No hint of any crossover or fusion on this album entitled Mandekalou - The Art And Soul of the Mande Griots. The album is filled with impassioned declamatory singing and complex, interweaving instrumental patterns. The music of the Mande griots is arguably Africa's greatest claim to a significant cultural tradition as well as the source of some of the most vital popular music in the region. The Mande Empire stretched over vast swathes of west Africa, from the Atlantic coast in the west to Niger in the east and from Mauritania in the north to Ivory Coast in the south. The griots were the praise singers who kept alive the oral history of the people. The musicians assembled for this recording are maybe not "star" names in western eyes, the most well known probably being guitarist Djelimady Tounkara. But they are all hugely respected in Mali and the tradition of the music is reflected in the participation of so many with the same iconic family names; Kouyate, Camara, Diabate, Kante, Sissoko etc. Unlike many albums aimed at western audiences, the stress here is on the voacls. The instumental underpinnings revolve around balafon ( a kind of wooden vibraphone ) kora and acoustic guitars, with various kinds of percussion. Another interesting aspect is the inclusion of female griots to take some of the lead singing as well as backing harmonies.

Still Plenty To Protest About

The dated sixties tag of protest singer pinned on Bob Dylan is most apt when considering this album The Times They Are A-Changin'. The well known title track now sounds as dated as the idea of a protest singer, times are always changing and young rebel Dylan's now a grandad. But other tracks on the album remain searingly incisive indictments of injustices that still resonate today. There is the heartbreakingly bleak Ballad Of Hollis Brown and the icy North Country Blues which both blast the indifference of capitalism. Racism is tackled head on by Only A Pawn In Their Game and The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll and the contemporary relevance of With God On Our Side hardly needs remarking on. It's an angry record that doesn't have many light moments or much humour when compared to other albums. Even the folky Boots Of Spanish Leather tells of true love gone bad. A very fine disk but one where it is best to pick your mood before listening. Musically it is still just solo Dylan with guitar and harmonica accompaniment but he is in suitably clear strong voice given the material of most of the songs. A feature of Dylan's singing is his meticulous enunciation ( also a feature of his DJ style these days )

Top Of The Range Chamber Music Making

A well put together chamber music programme from Steven Isserlis on cello and Stephen Hough on piano, revolving around Brahms's Cello Sonatas Nos 1 and 2 but also featuring shorter pieces by Dvorak and his son in law Josef Suk. The two Brahms cello sonatas were written some twenty-five years apart but if the first is the work of a young man, the second is written by an older composer still displaying the passion of a young man. The first sonata has backward glances towards the classical style while retaining a romantic outlook. The second is a large scale symphonic chamber piece with some challenging writing for both performer and listener and despite ( or maybe in retrospect because of ) some mixed contemporary reactions, it now stands as a highpoint in late nineteenth century chamber music. Brahms famously supported Dvorak but he also showed favour to Suk. The Suk Ballade and Serenade featured here are his only works for cello and piano and have typically Czech flavoured charm. The two Dvorak works on the disk are Waldesruhe, arranged from what was originally a piano duet and Rondo in G minor which is a light tearted scampering piece. Both Czech works make sensible accompaniments on the disk to the Brahms. This disk won a BBC Radio 3 disk of the year accolade in 2006.