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.

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.

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.