Here's Punch But No Sign Of Judy

Stravinsky's one act ballet with song, Pulcinella, is not just a reworking of music by Pergolesi and , it has subsequently been unearthed , other 18th century Italian composers. He uses the originals as a springboard for experimentation, transforming the music into a 20th century work by means of quirky instrumentation ( such as the jazzy slides of the double bass solo ), ostinato melodies and other devices. This recording is by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Stravinsky's musical confidant Robert Craft with soloists Diane Montague mezzo, Robin Leggate tenor and Mark Beesley bass. The other item on the disk is The Fairy's Kiss, again conducted by Craft but this time with the London Symphony Orchestra. This ballet is at another extreme and is largely an original composition. Stravinsky greatly altered, developed and elaborated melodies from early piano pieces and songs by Tchaikovsky, expanding them into sizeable ballet numbers to form a continuous dance symphony. Some may find it curious that a major composer would wish to spend such time utilising source material from others but the idea of variations and adaptations is an old and honourable one.

It's A Mystery

Throughout the Catholic world, there are examples of old venerable celebrations and pageants depicting various of the feasts of the holy year. This example from La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Jordi Savall recreates the Mystery Play of Elche. As I occasionally do (hopefully not too often ), I am going to fall back on the start of Jordi Savall's comprehensive booklet notes to give the explanation. "A people's spiritual identity, expressed throughits love and veneration for the Virgin Mary, together with the mystery of the Virgin's deathand assumption, are the main inspiration for the wonderful Mystery Play of Elche. Like the ancient Song of the Sybl, so deeply rooted in Catalonia, Valencia and , in particular. Majorca, this sacred musical drama is a rareand extraordinary example of an outstandingly beautiful musical treasure kept alive over the centuries by the determination, tradition and fervour of an entire people" The official title of the disk is Homenatge al Misteri d' Elx La Vespra. The music contained ranges from acapella singing through to simple single plucked instrument accompaniment ( with a sephardic feel ) to a few instances with a larger ensemble and sound effects such as fireworks and bells. My is sung by Montserrat Figueras and the angel by her daughter Arianna Savall. The saints are sung by Lluis Vilamajo and Pascal Bertin and there is also a trio of apostles. As always with the Alia Vox label, the presentation is superb.

Inappropriate Choice Of Conductor ?

This is one of those multitudes of disks that DG put out recycling their back catalogue of Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker. The hook here is a compilation of 19th century central European repertoire from Smetana, Dvorak and Liszt. The pieces are all symphonic tone poems; The Smetana pieces are extracts from Ma Vlast, including the popular Vltava, from Dvorak there is the Scherzo Capriccioso and from Liszt Les Preludes and Hungarian Rhapsody No 4. I'm sure more idiosyncratic versions can be found from Czech bands but the Berlin Phil are always reliable and it fills a hole in my collection. Knowing what I know now and didn't when I bought the disk a few years ago, it is a litle sickly to think of von Karajan playing such nationalistic pieces from Czech and Hungarian sources given his dubious wartime history. Such considerations don't effect the sound of the music though which I guess is the main thing. The only slight disappointment playing wise is a slightly laboured Hungarian Rhapsody.

Glory Of Baroque Worship

The main selling point of this disk of fine baroque sacred music was the premiere performance of the then ( 2001 ) very recently rediscovered Gloria for solo soprano, violins and bass by Handel. The solo soprano entrusted with the recording was Gillian Keith, who does a more than adequate job, and the performers on the entire disk are the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. The work has all the appeal of an aria from one of Handel's operas or oratorios and raises the interesting point that most people now listen to this music for intellectual stimulus and laid back enjoyment rather than for the purposes of worship for which it was originally written. There is another Handel work on the disk, a setting of Dixit Dominus, which is a setting for full choir and such solo duties as there are, are taken by members of the Monteverdi Choir. This is Handel at his most Italianate and this makes for a logical programme on the disk since the other work is another setting of the Gloria by Vivaldi. The Red Priest, despite the nickname, rarely composed sacred works since his reputation and operatic and concerto works precluded a position as official church composer. So the sacred works that he did write came from occasional commissions or when the official choirmaster was absent for whatever reason. This Gloria is typically exuberant and contains many recognisable touches from his secular works. The English Baroque Soloists play excellently throughout, giving fine support to the choir. Just occasionally, the choir members sound under powered when asked to solo.

Sicilian Culture With No Hint Of The "M" Word

This is a lavishly produced release of music by Berio in the usual austere ECM house style. There are two major Berio works, Voci and Naturale, and in between these works are fascinating recordings of Sicilian folk music from the Ethnomusicological Archives of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Rome. Voci is subtitled Folk Songs II and is performed by the solo viola of Kim Kashkashian and the Radio Symphonieorchester Wien conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. Berio reflects and amplifies the songs through his orchestrations and Kashkashian plays very soulfully. The archive recordings show the archaic Sicilain folk styles to be very modal and harshly sung, with connections back to traditions of street vendors and a world away from the ballad tradition of northern Europe apart from the occasional use of pipes as accompaniment. Sicily has been subject to many different cultural influences over the centuries of course, because of its' crossroads location in the Mediterranean. Naturale ( Su melodie Siciliane ) again features Kaskashian on viola with taped extracts from further archive recordings and percussion played by Robyn Schulkowsky. The presence of the archive voices gives a much more obvious and direct link to the source material but Berio again is able to expand and embellish what was originally conceived as a theatrical performance. The diverse percussion and committment off Kim Kashkashian provide their own theatrical element and once the listener adapts to the sound world it makes a most accessible entry into Berio.

A Child Of His Time ?

A budget reissue, this is the only disk I have ( so far ? ) of music by Michael Tippett. Three pieces are featured, the Concerto For Double String Orchestra, the Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli and Ritual Dances from The Midsummer Marriage. The performers are the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Sir Andrew Davis with violin soloists Michael Davis and Jacqueline Hartley and cell soloist Paul Watkins in the Corelli work. The Concerto for Double String Orchestra is a fine piece, the use of bluesy harmonic inflections no doubt being one reason why it appeals to me. There are also folk and jazz influences as well as nods towards Beethoven and Bartok. The Corelli Fantasia does what the title would imply, viewing the baroque through a distorted 20th century mirror but retaining he integrity of the original works. The Midsummer Marriage is an opera and Tippett was commissioned to produce a suite by Swiss conductor, mover and shaker Paul Sacher. Ritual Dances moves through hunting scenes and chases from the animal kingdom to altogether more carnal human relations in the finale, with the latter sections featuring wordless singing from the chorus. The BBCSO can be an awkward orchestra but Andrew Davis had a happier rapport with them than many and their playing on this selection can't be faulted. A listener friendly introduction to Tippett.

Fairy Tale Mayhem

The BBC Philharmonic conducted by Gianandrea Noseda perform music by Dvorak on this BBC Music mag covermount disk from 2002. It includes Symphony No 8, which I won't say much about since I have another commercial recording that can be considered when it has its' turn off the shelf. Suffice it to say that the performance by the BBC Phil is a classy one. The disk also contains he symphonic poem The Golden Spinning Wheel which at half an hour in length is as long as many symphonies. It is in a single movement span and is a bit like wordless word setting of the fairy story in verse by Czech poet Karel Jaromir Erben. It's a pretty gruesome tale of royalty and waifs, wicked stepmothers, murder and mutilation, magical restoration and happy ever after ( apart from murderesses fed to wolves ) You don't need to know the programmatic detail to appreciate the melodies and orchestrations and with the 8th symphony it makes another excellent freebie.

Dawn Of The Guitar

An disk by baroque guitarist Gordon Ferries entitled La Preciosa explores the guitar music of Gaspar Sanz ( c.1640 - c.1710 ) The disk comes with extremely erudite and comprehensive notes by Ferries which I won't replicate here to any great extent. They cover the history of the instrument during this time when it was first approaching its' modern design and the conservative and religious elements in Spain looked upon it as the work of the devil, evoking as it did the tavern, popular ballads and dancing. The notes also go into great detail about tuning and describe the various dances depicted, many of which have cropped up in other disks I have considered such as the folia, the villano, the chacona and the zarabanda, as well as some more localised steps. These pieces by Sanz now seem to epitomise Spain, there ar pre-echoes of flamenco in places and Rodrigo utilised some themes in his concerto Fantasia Para un gentilhombre. One of those releases that some world music fans would appreciate as well as baroque specialists, it is hard to imagine the pieces being better played than by Ferries here and the recording quality is spacious and resonant. Not sure what the cover has to do with the music but it's very fetching.

For Those Who've Had Enough

In many ways, it is hard to listen to this wonderful disk, Bach Cantatas BWV 82 and 199 by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music conducted by Craig Smith. The reason for the difficulty revolves around the sad death of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson from cancer and the subject matter, particularly of BWV 82 which is the words of Simeon from Luke and the setting "Ich habe genug" ( roughly translated as I've had enough ) , a monologue about the readiness to die. Putting sentimentality to one side, it is an excellent collection and BWV 199 can be said to complete the reconciliation to what life throws at us. When these two cantatas were staged by director Peter Sellars, BWV82 had Hunt Lieberson wearing a hospital gown with medical tubes emerging from her body, an image adding to the weird prescience of the piece. But BWV199 saw her clothed in a traditional Chinese dress treating the cantata as a journey from self hatred through to love, release and freedom. Aside from all these considerations about the soloist, who sings superbly, the Emmanuel ensemble play beautifully and there is of course, always Bach's glorious music. Amongst the plethora of Bach cantata releases, this is a special one.

Don't Mention The Movie

Four major works on The Ligeti Project IV. Ligeti provided his own comprehensive booklet notes which I admit to using for most of this review since it is useful to have the composers own input and that isn't available with historic repertoire on the whole. The Hamburg Concerto is played by horn solist Marie Luise Neunecker with four obligato natural horns and the Asko Ensemble chamber orchestra. Ligeti dedicated the work to Neunecker and although the consanant and dissonant harmonies are weird, the sound is soft and mellow and like all the works on this disk not at all "difficult" for those prepared to give it a chance. The Double Concertto for flute, oboe and orchestra is played by Heinz Holliger on oboe and Jacques Zoon on flute with both the Schonberg Ensemble and the Asko Ensemble. The two instruments have clashing sonorities but the subtly differentiated beats help them to mesh . Ramifications for 12 solo strings from the Schonberg and Asko Ensembles has six of the instruments tuned a quarter tone lower than the other six and has a web like structure. Reinbert De Leeuw directs the ensembles in these three works. The longest piece on the disk is Requiem performed here by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Jonathan Nott with the London Voices and soloists Caroline Stein soprano and Margriet van Reisen mezzo. Ligeti doesn't mention it in his notes ( I believe he was at best ambivalent about it, not least because he wasn't asked for permission ) but Requiem remains famous for the use made of it by Stanley Kubrick in the movie 2001, A Space Odyssey. Ligeti goes into very interesting detail about how the piece was conceived and how it is written and I can see that it must be a little galling to have it now thought of as some kind of psychedelic relic from the sixties. It sets three segments from the traditional latin mass od the dead and is also inspired by the work of the artists Brueghal, Bosch and Durer. The orchestration is compact but the choral resources need to number at least a hundred singers. If you only want one disk as a taster of Ligeti, this could be the best choice.

Crossing Continents

When talking about Bill Frisell's "best of" compilation on ECM, I was a little harsh on his more recent world music type collaborations. Listening afresh to this disk, The Intercontinentals, it scrubs up quite nicely. The main influence is African but there are also tracks with a middle eastern feel and even a Brazilian flavoured number. It also has the feel of a group project, the musicians toured as a band calling themselves the Intercontimentals, and although Frisell is the name and the leader he is always a generous collaborator. There are other guitarists in the band and they are given solo space as well as Frisell. Pedal steel adds a distinctive feel from Greg Leisz and Vinicius Cantuaria is responsible for the latin moments. Christos Govetas contributes oud and bouzouki, African percussion is courtesy of Sidiki Camara and the solo violin of Jenny Scheinmann crosses all boundaries. The music has an improvised feel around core arrangements but it doesn't have a jazz flavour, being more akin to a freewheeling sixties west coast rock band updated for today. Nothing to scare the horses and well worth a try.

Afternoon Delight

This is a double cd of Orchestral Works by Debussy performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Haitink except for the brief Berceuse Heroique where Eduard van Beinum conducts. It is a fine compliation which fills in several gaps in my collection, although it does give me a somewhat redundant third copy of La Mer. In fact, I bought the double cd for just eleven minutes of music, Prelude a L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune. Based as the langourous and sensual interpretation of Mallarme's poem, it is often cited as the beginning of 20th century music. It was the first piece I heard dissected on the radio 3 programme Discovering Music when I embarked on my own discovery of classical music and it was a perfect entry point for me since I could connect with slightly jazzy, blue notes and that famous impressionistic feel. Definitely a piece whose significance far outweighs its' apparent brevity. Although I bought the disk for that one piece, there is plenty more to admire and enjoy. The wonderful Nocturnes and Images, which continue the impressionistic style, and the ballet music Jeux are all substantial and influential works. There is also the Rhapsodie pour orchestre et clarinette principale with George Pieterson on clarinet and Danses pour harpe et orchestre a cordes in which Vera Bades is the harp soloist. All in all, a comprehensive overview of Debussy's works for orchestra.

More Than A Journey Across The Lake

On the haphazard journey that I am taking through Mahler's symphonies in this blog, we come to Symphony No 7 played by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Claudio Abbado in a live performance from Berlin. This is one of the Mahler symphonies without any vocal contribution and it is also maybe the most unambiguously affirmative. He was suffering some kind of composer's block when writing it but was apparently kick started by a boat journey across a lake and the sound of the oars which gave him a rhythm for the opening movement. It isn't really the classic journey from darkness into light but the mood and colour of the symphony does lighten progressively as the journey proceeds. Familiar elements from the symphonies are there, the pastoral, the country dances, some more brooding elements. But it is the soaring use of bells in the finale that give the ultimate affirmation that man is capable of triumphing on his journey and there is a point to making the effort. Throughout this particular series of reecordings, the Berlin Phil and Abbado are in excellent form and the live recording ends with applause and the compulsory appearance of braying "bravo" man a millisecond after the final chord.

Close Of A Trilogy

Boomer's Story was Ry Cooder's third solo album, all released in quick succession in 1972 and arguably producing a Depression Era trilogy. This is the bluesiest of the three albums with interpretations of songs by Skip James and Sleepy John Estes, who also guests on one of his own tracks, John Kennedy. There's some fine slide and mandolin playing from Cooder, although he still holds back from guiter hero grandstanding and all the playing serves the song. There's an early indication of his affinity with latin music with a version of the standard Maria Elena, plus an instrumental version of Dark End Of The Street, a song he featured heavily in live shows with a full vocal performance and extended slide solo. His flair for choosing the unusual to interpret comes to the fore with the Civil War anthem Rally Round The Flag and the WW2 bomber crew song Comin' in on a Wing And a Prayer. Another interesting touch is the use of horns in a kind of early New Orleans style on several tracks. After these stylistically similar initial releases, there is a gradual progression in Cooder's solo style but certain core values remain throughout his output.

How Far Ahead Was That ?

I may have got my self imposed chronology wrong when working through the Miles Davis disks on the shelf and should have dealt with Miles Ahead last time but I'm not enough of an anorak to worry about that. This is the third of the trilogy of albums that Miles ( it's always "Miles" isn't it, never "Davis" ) made with orchestrations by Gil Evans. Unlike Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain, there was no specific theme to Miles Ahead, although it does retain a little of a Spanish tinge left over from the latter. Evans did envisage it as a kind of suite however and the numbers merge one into another with virtually no break, years before any rock concept album. The compositions are mainly taken from various fellow jazzers like Brubeck, Jamal, Johnson and Carisi as well as Gershwin and even Delibes. Like the other Evans collaborations and unlike the small group albums, the focus is on Miles as soloist and he is in lyrical mood, even on the blues based numbers. All three of the Miles Davis / Gil Evans projects stand the test of time and have wide appeal but the feeling was beginning to emerge that Miles was ready to move on to more radical and less constrained ventures.

Folk Jazz

Folk rock is a now long established genre but this may be the first and only venture into the field of folk jazz. Especially comissioned by the Bath Festival, this occasional combo calling themselves Northern Lights is based around trombonist Annie Whitehead and Geordie concertina wiz Alistair Anderson. The album is called Airplay and the material is all written by either Whitehead or Anderson. They also recruited Scottish violinist Chris Stout to share soloing duties and the solid rhythm section of Ian Maidman on guitar and Liam Genockey drums provides the requisite base for the music. The whole album has a feelgood feel, much of it is decidedly danceable but the musicianship involved makes it much more than disk to leap around to. The trombone provides the jazz feel and the concertina and violin are rooted in folk but both camps manage to crossover effortlessly and when listening there is no thought that it is an awkward fit or at all experimental. Everything seems a natural fit. This project is now four or five years old and I haven't heard of any follow up. Maybe it is something that functions best as a one off and Anderson, Whitehead and Stout certainly have various things keeping them busy. But it is a fine disk to have left as a legacy.

I'm Not Calling This Iranian Blues

I dislike the lazy way in which world music criticism likes to label fado as Portuguese blues, rembetiko as Greek blues, desert blues from Mali ( although that has a little more substance behind the tag ) and so on. I feel some would call this Iranian blues but I have my own store of cliches to apply such as "deeply spiritual". The disk is a recording of a live concert from I think Tehran, although most of the booklet notes are in farsi so I can't be sure. Titled Endless Vision, it is a collaboration between Armenian maestros Hossein Alizadeh on shourangiz ( one of the many lute like instruments from the region ) and Jivan Gasparian on duduk ( a vaguely clarinet like wind instrument ) There are supporting musicians on other plucked instruments and percussion and both male and female vocals with the lady sounding oddly like a Persian Grace Slick to my ears. There are three instrumental tracks, the four with vocals set a song by Gasparian called Mama, which is presumably self explanatory as far as subject matter is concerned, and mystical sufi lyrics from the likes of Rumi. The playing of the two co-leaders is very emotional ( bluesy ? ) and the project illustrates the shared cultural and musical aspects of Armenia and Iran which also spread in that crescent through Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey and even down to Crete. Very accessible stuff for those with open ears and essential listening to those who would make snap judgements about life in these countries.

Now That's Jubilation

The big Mozart 250th anniversary year in 2006 saw the market flooded with releases. One of my token purchases to reflect that was this fine recital ( I think the first under her own name ) by Carolyn Sampson with the Choir of the Kings Consort and the Kings Consort conducted by Robert King. I don't want to comment on the recent criminal conviction of Robert King except to say that I wasn't tempted into a knee jerk reaction to jettison any recordings of his that I had. The title track to the disk is Exsultate Jubilate which is the obvious showstopping piece with the biggest vocal fireworks. Sampson stands up to the demands excellently. She has the kind of sweet soprano voice that I prefer to the full on operatic diva style. It is a voice best suited to early baroque music and Mozart isn't that far removed from those times in many ways. The compositions here are all works written for the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg when Mozart was in his employ, setting various sacred texts. But being Mozart, he can not avoid melody and there is a decidely operatic feel to the pieces. The example of Haydn preceded him and the style is similar to his sacred settings but Mozart takes it that step further towards display and virtuosity. I think the enterprise of the Kings Consort is continuing under another name and direction which is good news since the standard of musicianship they show is outstanding.

The Title's Mundane, The Playing Isn't

This disk could take some sort of prize for the most mundane title, Piano Works. It is in fact a very fine debut recital from the Macedonian pianist with the unpronounceable surname, Simon Trpceski. The disk concentrates on Russian repertoire with two transcriptions of ballet music and two sonatas. The extreme promise of Trpceski shines through in his performances. I have heard that his live performances recently have been patchy but that may come with the territory for a young player finding his strengths and weaknesses. The ballet transcriptions are a concert suite from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker as put together by Mikhail Pletnev and the familiar melodies work well in this setting. Slightly more robust are Stravinsky's own settings for solo piano from Petrushka, a favourite work of mine anyway and reminiscent in this form of Mussorgsky's Pictures. The sonatas are by Scriabin and Prokofiev. The Scriabin ( Sonata no 5 ) is in one movement and is prefaced by lines from The Poem Of Ecstasy with which it shares a fevered sound world. Prokofiev's Sonata no 6 is in traditional four parts with something of a neo-classical feel but also touches of more radical comtemporaries like Bartok and the whole works wonderfully. Available at budget price since it is introducing a newcomer, this disk is something of a bargain.

Mao Trips The Light Fantastic

The Chairman Dances is another interesting selection of the music of John Adams by the San Fransisco Symphony conducted by Edo De Waart. Like the Shaker Loops cd, this is fairly early Adams and the influence of minimalism is clear but not as overt as in the other compilation. The title track is an instrumental interlude from his opera Nixon In China. It portrays Mao and his wife dancing with the Great Leader represented by chugging music and his wife by a more seductive swaying melody. Christian Zeal and Activity reminded me very much of Gavin Bryars's Jesus' Blood or Titanic and it was interesting to read that Adams admitted influence from Cornelius Cardew and the Scratch Orchestra which is contemporaneous with Bryars. Adams's piece features tape of a fire and brimstone revivalist preacher overlaid by a slowly moving hymn like theme aka the Bryars works already mentioned. The disk also features two fanfares for orchestra, Tromba Iontana and the popular programme filler Short Ride in a Fast Machine.The final longer work is Common Tones in Simple Time is described as a pastorale with pulse, admiting again minimalist roots but with plenty of colour and shading. It's interesting that these earlier John Adams compositions seem to have a longer shelf life than the works he has been coming up with over the last decade. Whether that will be the case over a longer time period remains to be seen.

Patience Rewarded

Here we have a current favourite to be programmed in concert halls around the world, Bruckner's 7th Symphony played by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. I still think that Rattle achieved better results with the CBSO than he does now with the Berlin Phil but that's another story. This is a fine symphony, gloriously affirmative as the booklet notes say. The architecture and grandeur of Bruckner are there and the opening is thought to be an elgiac piece written in dedication to Wagner who wasn't thought to have long to live. Melancholy but not mournful, the symphony moves on to that brighter affirmative end. The English composer Robert Simpson stated that Bruckner's music doesn't just need patience, it expresses it and this symphony unwinds in a thoroughly rewarding way. There may be more definitive versions played by Austro-German orchestras and conductors but the forces here make a perfectly acceptable stab at it and the recording quality is also excellent.

A Touch Egocentric ?

Something of a companion piece to their Happy Birthday cd, this offering from Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica is entitled Kremerland. Hmmm....a touch egocentric with all the "kremers" ? It is a bit of a twee concept that the musicians of the ensemble have created some unique land built by their imagination, "their intellectual drive and choice of repertoire". The new "land" could be superimposed on the old Soviet Union to some extent but not exclusively. In fact what is served up is a pot pourri of shortish pieces mainly featuring Kremer's violin leading the largely string ensemble but also some solo contributions from cello and piano. The ideas move from pastiche and parody, through vaguely jazzy, to tango and a couple of avant garde skits. Apart from the opening arrangement of a Liszt sonata, all the other works bar one are by living composers. Leonid Chizhik contributes Fantasy Variations on a Theme by Mozart and their are original pieces by Alexander Vustin, Giya Kancheli, Alexander Bakshi and Georgs Pelecis. The disk closes with an arrangement by Isaak Dunayevsky ( 1900-1955 ) of film music for Circus, which is slight in the extreme. Fun in very small doses but I hope they have now got this genre out of their system, it's a bit of a dead end artistically.

How Fantastic

Sir Colin Davis is acknowledged as perhaps the principle living conductors of Berlioz and here he leads the London Symphony Orchestra in the Symphonie Fantastique and Le Carnaval Romain Overture, recordings that in this instance are admittedly forty years old. I said regarding my other Berlioz disk that he was a composer that I had struggled to "get". For those like me, the Symphonie Fantastique is an obvious user friendly starting point with some memorable themes and a clear programmatic path through stories of balls, witches sabbaths, gallows etc. Strangely though, contemporary audiences in Paris at the time of the premiere found it far from user friendly but time lends a distance and expectations change. The orchestrations utilise a large band and the piece had a great influence on some succeeding composers while others fell into the "nay saying" camp. Berlioz himself didn't directly follow the work up with others in a similar vein. The overture here does what an overture is designed to do and provides a fine warm up piece for audience and orchestra without remaining fixed in the memory.

Hey, Another Russian Symphony

Yesterday, I posted about a BBC Music mag cover disk from 2002 featuring the BBC Philharmonic under Vassily Sinaisky in Russian music. By one of those coincidences that seems to crop up during this exercise, the current issue of BBC Music that has just arrived has as the cover disk the BBC Philharmonic under Vassily Sinaisky in Russian music. This disk has a couple of tuneful pieces by Borodin that I have on that "best of" Borodin double cd, the Prince Igor Overture and In The Steppes Of Central Asia. Somewhat longer is the Hamlet : Fantasy Overture by Tchaikovsky, not as popular as the Romeo and Juliet but still typical of thre composer with plenty of angst that is justified by the source material. The main work on the disk however is Glazunov's Symphony No 5. It shares similarities with the early Scriabin symphony discussed on the 2002 BBC disk, in fact this Glazunov symphony could be said to have ushered in a decade of Wagnerian theme-park approach to Russian symphonism. It's not a work I knew before and although it isn't an indispensable piece of music, it is worth hearing.

Orgasmic

BBC music mag covermount cd time again. From back in 2002, the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Vassily Sinaisky play music by Scriabin, The Poem Of Ecstasy and Symphony No 2, in a live concert recording. Scriabin's composing career can be divided up into periods and the second symphony marks the close of his first traditional period. It's a patchy work in many ways, there are bits of Wagner, pastoral sections and an ending that borders on the banal and that Scriabin himself said was more like a military parade than the kind of translucence he was aiming at. If it is ultimately unsatisfactory though, it is an honourable failure. Scriabin stopped calling his large orchestral works symphonies after the third but there are plenty of arguements for calling The Poem Of Ecstasy a fourth. It is the first of the late period of mystical works and utilises large forces, although still in the context of a traditional orchestra. The writing is lush and virtuosic and comparisons to Strauss and Wagner are appropriate but it remains its' own beast. Maybe the title influences me but it conjures up nothing more than an image of a sweat streaked body thrashing about all night in a bed in the throws of some mixture of joy and anguish. The whole is decidedly filmic in the way that Hollywood was to develop. Unlike the banality of the end of the second symphony, this time the finale achieves the translucent effect and the victory theme hits the C major key spot on.

Opulent French Lyricism

More somewhat neglected repertoire on this double cd of music by French composer Charles Koechlin, another of those who straddled the 19th and 20th centuries. Heinz Holliger conducts the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart and the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart with soprano soloist Juliane Banse in Vocal Works With Orchestra. The texts set here are from a group of French poets known as the Parnassiens, who were moving away from romanticism to more virtuosic wordspinning an formal structures with an emphasis on themes from antiquity. The orchestrations are impressionistic in that distinctly French turn of the century manner and the overal impression is a languid and sensual one with just the occasional more vibrant outburst, normally at the commencement of a piece. The creamy vocal tones of Juliane Banse are ideal in this repertoire and the German orchestra aren't at all phased by having to adopt such a French style. Some of the harder edged sections recall the orchestral song settings Mahler or early Schoenberg but Koechlin wrote most of these pieces before being aware of their compositions. This is part of a worthwhile project by Holliger and the label Hanssler Classic to promote the work of Koechlin.

Oboe To Die For

There are several recorded cycles of the complete canatatas of J. S. Bach either in progress or just completed. Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent do not take a completist approach however and are only recording choice selections from the copious cantata output. This double cd box contains the Leipziger Weihnachtskantaten, the Christmas cantatas composed in Leipzig, BWV63, 91, 121 and 133, together with the Magnificat BWV243a. This is another case of me playing a Christmas disk outside the festive period since their is nothing inherently Christmassy in the music, apart from the generally upbeat . It is a gorgeous release, Herreweghe's approach suits my taste, historically informed without being fundamentalist about it. The playing is superb; beautiful woodwind, in particular the trademark Bachian oboe, immaculate strings and subtly understated organ. He has also assembled a fine cast of singers, including two personal favourites of mine, soprano Carolyn Sampson and tenor Mark Padmore. ut the other soloists are equally fine, Dorothee Blotzky-Mields, Ingeborg Danz, Peter Kooy and Sebastian Noack. I don't feel the need to have Bach cantata after cantata after cantata in my collection but I may be tempted to get at least one other in this particular series.

Studies For The Modern Age

Back in the days when major record labels still embarked on such ventures, Sony ran the Gyorgy Ligeti Edition with a series of releases devoted to his music. this disk is number 3 in the series and is taken up with solo piano pieces played by Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Ligeti wrote numerous etudes for piano and featured here are book 1 and Book 2 in their entirety, plus an premiere extract from Book 3 which was a work in progress at the time of the release. In his own sleeve notes, Ligeti mentions influences ranging from Chopin through to Debussy, African modes, jazz such as bill Evans and Thelonius Monk and the player piano studies of Nancarrow. But he stresses that the results are his own and refuse to be pigeon holed, not tonal or atonal, avant garde or traditional. What they are is undoubtedly virtuosic and Aimard is a specialist in this field. There is another work on the disk, again a series of eleven studies titled Musica Ricercata. These are more readily identified as tonal and some can definitely be said to have jazz swing and harmonics about them. I think the disk is better taken in bite size chunks, one of the three segments at a time, rather than being indulged at one sitting.

No More Heroes

Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben ( A Hero's Life ) is looked upon by many as an autobiographic ego trip of monstrous propoortions. It is certainly a tempting weapon to use if you happen not to be favourably disposed to Strauss for musical or extra-musical reasons. It is certainly a massive sprawl;ing effort for huge orchestral resources and epitomises late romantic style to such an extent as to border on kitsch. But here it finds perhaps its' ideal interpretors in the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Christian Thielemann. Thielemann himself has an ambiguous public image with some political controversy and more than a hint of teutonic arrogance but he makes a vigorous defence of the piece in his sleeve notes and if you want to luxuriate in a de luxe orchestral sound, here it is. The other piece on the disk is the Symphonic Fantasy From "Die Frau Ohne Schatten". This is another lushly orchestrated romantic piece formed from themes in the opera to produce a concert piece that would have an independant life and again it finds the right band and leader to do it justice.

Acoustic Is Best, At Least In This Case

Salif Keita is one of the iconic voices of the first wave of African superstars but in common with many of his peers, he made some pretty duff albums over the years in attempts to really break through into the mainstream. This album, Moffou, marked a return to acoustic roots and to top form vocally and musically. There are no translations to the lyrics supplied in the booklet but the soul shows through and judging from a short sleeve note by Keita, they reflect a positive outlook and an exhortation for Africans to take responsibility for their own continent and build their own happiness. There are a number of bouncy dance numbers with backing from a full but still mainly acoustic band. The two tracks that simply feature Salif Keita accompanying himself on acoustic guitar are the most notable however and really show him grasping and growing into the role of distinguished elder statesman. Recommendable as the Salif Keita album to get if you only want to have one and thankfully not a synth in sight !

Best Of Bill

Another in the ECM :rarum series where artists pick their own best of compilation. This time it is Bill Frisell Selected Recordings, just a single cd unlike the double for Jan Garbarek. The recordings cover the period 1981 to 1996 and Frisell proves a generous compiler, selecting many tracks that are on disks by other performers where he is a sideman and where he doesn't even take the spotlight lead in soloing. Having said that, there are plenty of examples of his eclectic and diverse guitar sound but you can also hear prime playing from the likes of Garbarek, Joe Lovano, Kenny Wheeler, Paul Bley, Paul Motian and John Surman. Frisell even picks one track by the Gavin Bryars Ensemble on which he doesn't apear at all, although the track does have a bracketed subtitle (dedicated to Bill Frisell ) His selection is tailored towards a more hard edged jazz context for the most part with just a couple of examples of his more "world music" flavoured side. These sides represent the best of Frisell to date I feel, some of his more recent efforts have been more style over substance to my taste ( one of those coming up next time around in this section of the shelf however ! )

Paintings In Sound

This cd presents a fine lesson in the art of orchestration featuring music by Respighi. The Bournemouth Sinfonietta are conducted by Tamas Vasary with solo contributions from mezzo Linda Finnie on Il Tramonto and cellist Raphael Wallfisch on the Adagio Con Variazioni. This is melodious music, easy to listen to without being "easy listening". The two main features are Gil Uccelli, a suite for small orchestra and Trittico Botticelliano for small orchestra. Gil Uccelli ( The Birds ) utilises themes from the baroque era for the variations, including an aria by Pasquini and the Hen, a harpsichord piece by Rameau. The Three Botticelli Pictures are inspired by artworks of Botticelli, The Spring, The Birth Of Venus and The Adoration of the Magi. The Spring has hints of Vivaldi without quoting directly, while the Magi uses the wonderful tune from the Epiphany hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Wallfisch plays the romantic cello adagio beautifully and the song setting is of a poem by Shelley, The Sunset, in an Italian translation. Not the most profound music amd Respighi has similar problems to Strauss regarding his allegiances in WW2. But all that notwithstanding, this is a very pleasant disk.

Impressionistic Opera

Music from a somewhat neglected 20th century French composer Jacques Ibert. The main work on the disk is an opera in two acts, Persee et Andromede. The obvious musical influence is that of Debussy but Ibert has moved things along a little too. The story of the opera is that Andromede is alone on her island with a "monster" who is devoted to her acting as her guardian. Perseus a conceited hero turns up mounted on Pegasus and despite Andromede's protestations he kills the monster. Girl won't leave monster, conceited youth stalks off, dead monster metamorphoses into handsome prince. Rarely if ever staged, not least I suspect since Andromede is supposed to remain naked throughout, it could make a good addition to the repertoire as part of a double bill of shorter operatic works. The performers are the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig. The singers are soprano Annick Massis as Andromede, bass-baritone Philippe Rouillon as the monster, tenor Yann Beuron as Perseus and mezzo Melanie Moussay as a sea nymph. The other substantial work on the disk is a tone poem based around Oscar Wilde's Ballad Of Reading Gaol. The piece isn't tragic or mournful but exhibits a languid beauty that is meant to reflect the poet more than the poem. The disk concludes with a brief Sarabande extract from Ibert's ballet music. Without pushing the Debussy connection too hard, anyone who admires that composer will find plenty to enjoy here.

Bimm Bamm

Continuing the recent run of Mahler symphonies coming off the shelf, this is Symphony No 3 by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Claudio Abbado with contralto soloist Anna Larsson, the London Symphony Chorus directed by Stephen Westrop and the City of Birmingham Symphony Youth Chorus directed by Simon Halsey. It is a two disk cd release and was recorded live in 1999 at the Royal Festival Hall in London. the three minutes plus applause track at the end is totally appropriate. The third is another of the giant Mahler symphonies. A long first movement is almost a symphony in itself with plenty of light and shade and contrast. It is followed by a gentle pastoral movement and then the voice settings, the soloist sings an extract from Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra and the choruses and solist bimm bamm their way through the Three angels Song from Mahler's perennial influence Das Knaben Wunderhorn ( bimm bamm is one of the refrains and I remember hearing a chorus member say how it palls a little with constant rehearsal ). The massive finale eventually settles on a triumphant D major key but Mahler backs off from making it a 100% joyful affair and the hint of dark and conflict still lurks in the background. The sound of the Berlin Phil is wonderful and they respond to Abbado with complete conviction.

Roots, Themes, Strings, Slides

The second Ry Cooder album from 1972 was this one, Into The Purple Valley. It marked a move forward from the debut album in terms of production and instrumentation. There is again a loose theme to the disk which centres around Depression era USA. There are songs by such central writers as Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash but, especially in the case of the Guthrie and cash songs, the songs are dismantled and reinterpreted in a very impressive way. Cooder again is very restrained in showing off his prowess on the guitar but there is some great slide playing on Vigilante Man and his mandolin work is showcased on Denomination Blues and Billy the Kid. The calypso F. D. R. In Trinidad signposts his later interest in music from the Caribbean and the short instrumental Great Dream From Heaven is an early indication of the fil soundtrack work he would do on movies such as Paris Texas. Each song is a little story vignette and the whole album transports the listener to another time and place in a way that makes this itself something of a timeless album.

Underrated Miles Album ?

Progressing through Miles Davis's recordings, this time the album Milestones is up for consideration. A classic sextet linup with Miles joined by Coltrane and Cannonball Adderlley on tenor and alto with the rhythm section of Red Garland, piano, Paul Chambers, bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Kind Of Blue may hold the iconic album status but Milestones is also a very important step along the way ( a milestone even ). The playing is mainly uptempo classic bebop and hard bop but there are important standout tracks. The title track itself begins the placing of modality in a jazz context, Billy Boy is a joyful romp especially for pianist Garland, and the reworking of Monk's Straight No Chaser is another fine vehicle for the bands. As ever, Coltrane's solos burst from the speakers but the underrated Adderley certainly holds his own. And Miles holds it all together as always.

Master Of Indian Music

There are some musicians whose status in their particular field is unchallenged and one of those must be Ravi Shankar. This is a double cd compilation that the record company chose to title Vision Of Peace - The Art Of Ravi Shankar. Looking beyond the new age title and artwork, this is a fine release with a few surprises on the first disk where some tracks don't even feature Ravi Shankar. The first track on disk one is a solo on the Japanese instrument the koto, played by Susumu Miyashita. There is a tabla feature for Alla Rakha and another for Japanese instrumentation, this time the shakuhachi of Hozan Yamamoto. All these musicians then join Ravi Shankar on an improvisation, the sparse plucked instrument and the woodwind contrasting with the full plush sound of the sitar, and he also performs a track entitled Tribute To Nippon. This disk ends with another, more traditionally Indian contribution, in homage to his own teacher Baba Allaudin. The second disk is more along the lines of what would be expected of a Ravi Shankar compilation with two full length ragas with the sitar supported by tabla and tanpuras. A great value starter for those interested with the bonus of that Japanese element to some of disk one.

How Cool Is That Zither ?

This is quite a special album by Andrew Cronshaw called Ochre. I guess it would be pigeon holed in the world music slot. Certainly the instrumentation would lead to that; Cronshaw principally plays zither but also fujara, ba-wu, gu-cheng, whistle, overtone whistle, dizi and quenacho ( I have no idea what most of those are but apart from the whistles they sound like various plucked instruments with an oriental tinge ). Abdullah Chhadeh plays oud and qanun, Ian Blake bass clarinet, soprano sax, clarinet and prepared piano, Bernard O'Neill double bass, Llio Rhydderch triple harp and Matthaios Tsahourides Pontic lyra. Natasha Atlas sings on two tracks ( I think in Turkish, certainly not in English ). The concept of the album is to base each track on an old collected English ballad tune and extrapolate from there. The improvisations from this base lead into oriental and more often eastern European or middle eastern musical territories with the belief that although there is something distinctively English about the tunes, the lyrics often didn't originate in England and they express universals that can transcend boundaries , language and cultural frameworks. Listened to casually, you might not even realise the connection to the English ballads but the knowledge of that adds to appreciation as the disk unwinds. The playing of the musicians is virtuosic and it is beautifully recorded.

Here Comes That Tune Again

I love Jordi Savall's ensemble Hesperion XXI and their Alia Vox record label but have to admit that this disk isn't the most successful project they have come up with. The disk is titled Altre Follie 1500-1750 and each track taken individually is delightful. I heard one on the radio which is what prompted me to get the disk. I knew that the concept was to highlight the Folia, a Renaissance courtly dance, and the sound and feel of the music of that period is right up my street. So, I was expecting an album of items in similar dance style but wasn't expecting all the items to be variations on the very same tune. Now variations on a theme is an honourable musical concept but when listened too in one sitting, the variations here don't really provide variety enough. There are differences in instrumentation from track to track with violin, cello, viols, baroque guitar, clavecin, harp and theorbo for instance but the colours are fairly similar throughout. There are a couple of anonymous tracks together with compositions from around the courts of the Mediterranean by composers ranging from the almost totally obscure to the celebrated such as Corelli and Vivaldi. Everything is beautifully played and recorded but to get maximum enjoyment it is definitely one to dip into from time to time rather than to sit through in one go.

Little Known But Pretty Good

Given the way in which the major record labels have responded to commercial pressures in recent years ( as opposed to the ever resourceful independants )it was something of a suprise to see this release on a Universal outlet only a couple of years ago. It features Symphonies Nos 6 and 7 by Johann Wilhelm Wilms performed by Concerto Koln led from the violin by Werner Erhardt. Wilms was a German-Dutch composer whose dates, 1772 to 1847, span the period from Classical to Romantic symphonic form and his own music made that journey with his youthful work adopting Haydnesque forms and his late work taking on Romantic colours, atmospheres, shapes and melodies. The symphonies featured here are his last two and so they have more of a Romantic feel. They were neglected for some 170 years and the 7th was indeed lost for some time. Being in thw what was then relative backwater of Amsterdam must have had something to do with this state of affairs but the music stands up well to comparisons with any contemporaries. it will be interesting to see to what extent this disk provokes follow up interest. he'll never achieve the stature of a Schumann or Mendelssohn but there should be more of his work recorded.

A Period Piece ?

Another snatch of vintage US minimalism from Steve Reich and Musicians with the Chorus and Members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. This piece is The Desert Music and it sets texts taken from poems by William Carlos Williams concerning both music and the dilemmas facing man and his relationship to technology. It evolves over five movements, although the central third movement is split into three parts. The music also moves from fast to moderate to slow, through moderate and back to fast for the finale. As with most minimalist music, the idea of the pulse is predominant. The final movement in particular has a lot in common with Shaker Loops by John Adams. An interesting comment by Reich in the booklet notes rejects the idea of writing trance or hypnotic music, stating instead that he wants the listener to be wide awake to hear details they have never heard before, rather than spaced out and receiving a lot of ephemeral impressions. I somehow think that a lot of listeners might be in some kind of enhanced state however ! Is it me, or are minimalist works of this era now beginning to sound like period pieces every bit as much as any Edwardian romanticism ? Without implying that either Edwardian romanticism or mimimalism are without merit.

More Deep Russian Soul

The Bells was reportedly Rachmaniov's favourite of all his compositions. He described it as a poem for soprano, tenor, baritone, chorus and orchestra. It is played on this disk by the Russian National Orchestra, Moscow State Chamber Choir, Marina Mescheriakova ( soprano ), Sergei Larin ( tenor ) and Vladimir Chernov ( baritone ) conducted by Mikhail Pletnev. Although the text set is by Edgar Allen Poe, the sound world is unmistakably Russian. The four parts portray four kinds of bells; sleigh bells, wedding bells, alarm bells and funeral bells, with the musical settings getting progressively more lugubrious but effecting. The second piece on the disk is much less well known but is a gem. It is a cantata for chorus and orchestra by Taneyev titled John Of Damascus. Again the feeling of the Russian soul is paramount in this setting of text by Alexei Tolstoi, although Taneyev's aim was to incorporate a fusion of Russian folk and liturgical music with Bachian counterpoint. This is especially evident in the closing fugue but the Russian sopund of that choir wins out in the end. Unlike the Bells, the ending here is more upbeat than the beginning as the soul heads for heaven.

Sounds Of The Temple

The Veil Of The Temple by John Tavener was commissioned as an All Night Vigil lasting many hours by the Temple Music Trust for performance in the the Temple Church by the Choir of the Temple Church, the Holst Singers and soprano Patricia Rozario under the direction of Stephen Layton. The entire overnight premiere performance was recorded in June 2003 and from those recordings the composer made this edited two and a half hour concert length version, released here as a double cd package. There are also instrumental contributions from organ and Indian harmonium, duduk, Tibetan horn, Tibetan Temple Bells and brass from the English Chamber Orchestra. The vast resources rarely play together, the piece is heavily segmented with repeated motives and sections coming round again and again but in different forms and combinations. The aim is an east meets west type project, with the east mainly represented by the orthodox church but also elements of sufism creeping into the texts set. The connection between the commissioning church and the Knights Templar and the Crusades is significant to the project. Tavener may leave himself wide open to charges of pretention and holy minimalism and this is obviously not a work for frequent casual listening. The sincerity can't be doubted though and in the right circumstances it can be extremely moving.

I Know It's Not Christmas But....

On a couple of occasions I've postponed posting about the next disk on the shelf because it has been a disk of Christmas related music and I only feel like playing such offerings in the month of December. I'm making an exception with this one though since the music itself doesn't have anything overtly Christmassy within it, at least to secular English ears. The title is A Venetian Christmas - Music By G.Gabrieli and De Rore, performed by the Gabrieli Consort and Players directed by Paul McCreesh. The stated concept is to recreate the first mass of Christmas in St Mark's as it might have been celebrated in venice around 1600. Having said that it can be enjoyed at any time of the year, I have made a habit over the last few years of playing it as afternoon fades to twilight on Christmas Eve ( now that it no longer seems compulsory to spend those hours in a pub with rather too much liquid refreshment ) The music evolves over eighty minutes through a mix of plainchant, choral settings, instumental interludes on solo organ and from period instrument ensemble and ambient sound with church bells. it has the feel of a genuine service and the choral works of Gabrieli and De Rore fit perfectly with the chants which were researched from original Venetian sources. Now, where are the mince pies ?

Not Half Bad For A Bonus Disk

The BBC music mag cover disks that feature chamber music are often the most rewarding and this one from 2002 is a fine live concert recital titled The Romantic Cello. The performers are cellist Ralph Kirshbaum and pianist Roger Vignoles. Interesting to hear Roger Vignoles in this context, I normally associate him with lieder recitals. The recording was made at the Bath Festival in the Assembly Rooms there. The three works featured are the brief Cello Sonata by Debussy, Beethoven's wonderful Cello Sonata in A Op 69 and Brahms's substantial Cello Sonata No 2. The Debussy and Brahms works are both slightly introverted but of high quality and they sandwich the Beethoven which is one of his most inspired works, written around the time of the 5th and 6th symphonies. An exceptional disk, beautifully performed and a real bonus to purchasers of the magazine back then. I remember cellist Julian Lloyd Webber complaining about the magazine giving away free disks of complete works in, as he saw it, competition to commercial releases. Maybe it was this fine recording of his kind of repertoire that he had in mind ?

I Think I'll Write Another Sonata !

A fine reissue of a recital by pianist Andras Schiff of 15 keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. Famously born in the same year as Bach and Handel, these sonatas of Scarlatti bear comparison with those giants in originality and imagination. They were mainly written once he had left Italy and joined the court Portuguese court where he became master of the Royal Chapel and harpsichord teacher to the King's eldest daughter. When she married the heir to the Spanish throne, Scarlatti moved with her and remained in Spain for the rest of his life. These sonatas were written for Maria Barbara who must have been a very accomplished musician. Scarlatti wrote 555 in all and they have gradually come to light over the centuries from a variey of sources. For this recital, originally from 1989, Schiff plays a modern concert grand rather than a harpsichord or fortepiano. He plays with such taste and skill however, that any thoughts of inauthenticity are soon forgotten and the disk makes for very rewarding listening.

Hush Little Baby

Here is a deceptively gentle recital of lullabies, from circa 1500 to 2002, called Ninna Nanna and sung by Montserrat Figueras with Hesperion XXI. I say deceptively gentle because although all the tracks are lullabies, some mothers didn't spare their children the harsher facts of life while singing to them and some of the subject matter is quite melancholy. There are anonymous tunes of Portuguese, English, Spanish, Greek, Sephardic, Berber and Israeli origin as well as songs composed by the likes of Byrd, De Falla, Mussorgsky, Milhaud and Reger, through to Arvo Part of today.The version of Hesperion XXI put together for this disk is a small ensemble with the members varying from song to song according to the context with sometimes only a single accompanist behind Figueras. They are a distinguisged bunch though, such as Paul Badura-Skoda on piano, Andrew Lawrence-King and Figueras's daughter Arianna Savall on harps, Driss El Maloumi on oud as well as players on flutes, psaltery, santur, baroque guitars and a consort of viols led by Figueras's husband Jordi Savall. Despite the material covering several centuries, the overall feel of the disk is of a lost unanimity in Mediterranean culture that could just be starting to make a comeback.

Also Sprach Rameau

I have very few full opera recordings, in fact discounting Handel oratorios I only have this one and the Magic Flute. This one is triple cd presentation of a baroque opera by Rameau, Zoroastre, by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants. The main "name" amongst the several soloists is Mark Padmore who sings the part of Zoroastre, the founder of the magi. The plot doesn't have much to do with the reality of the ancient religion of zoroastrianism and the composition, of course, pre-dates Nietzsche and Strauss ! By pure coincidence however, their are masonic overtones to the plot as is the case with my only other opera recording. The plot here revolves around magic, lost love, spurned love, revenge and envy, the battle between good and evil priests with matching magic powers. In other words all good stuff but not immediately apparent simply by listening to the music unless you follow the full synopsis throughout ( which is thankfully provided ) Musically, the performances are as ou would expect from these specialiast performers. There are interludes of ballet music which lighten the at times wearing periods of recitative. I think that recitative often suffers when divorced from the visual theatrics.I wouldn't listen to the full two and a half hours plus straight through that often but a good package to have and to dip into in order to complement the disk I have of Rameau and Charpentier ballet music.

That Russian Bass Sound

The St Petersburg Chamber Choir directed by Nikolai Korniev on a double cd performing Rachmaninoff's Vespers of the all night vigil and the Liturgy of St John Chrystostom. Soloists in the Vespers are Olga Borodina, mezzo and Vladimir Moztowoy, tenor. While in the Liturgy, soloists are tenor Alexander Ranne, baritone Sergey Tsipcalo and soprano Natalia Kornieva. The sacred music of the Russian Orthodox church is very austere and Rachmaninoff was criticised in ecclesiastical circles for over elaboration. It is true that the Vespers in particular are more frequently performed in the western concert hall than the Orthodox church but there is no doubting the sincerity and feeling for the text, even in someone who wasn't entirely bound to the church. The Liturgy is maybe closer to Orthodox chant but it follows on from Tchaikovsky's pioneering work with the same texts in a most affecting way. Even richer booming bass sounds might be expected from a Russian choir but the familiarity of the forces here with the tradition is a definite plus.

Hammer Blows

Mahler's Symphony No 6 by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Boulez. Reaching areas on the shelves with a concentration of Mahler, which makes it slightly difficult to find much to say about each individual symphony that isn't just repeating commonly held views and assumptions about their composition. This is the symphony that is considered the most tragic with the three hammer blows at the end which have been given the status of a premonition about three personal tragedies to come. There is one section in the booklet notes here which struck home; "what is the power with which Mahler's symphonic heroes are forced to contend and to which they often succumb as is the case at the end of the sixth symphony ? It is a struggle that Mahler himself had to face as he makes clear in a striking remark when, after the final rehearsal a friend asked him how someone so good could portray so much cruelty and harshness in his work, to which he replied that they were the cruelties he had suffered and the pains he had felt." The disputes about the best recorded Mahler symphony cycles are endless, suffice it to say that Boulez and the Vienna Phil is a pretty luxurious combination.

Kamancheh Master Class

This disk is of a live concert recording by the group Ghazal titled The Rain. There is a sub-title of "Persian and Indian Improvisations" and that pretty much sums it up. Ghazal comprises Kayhan Kalhor on kamancheh ( spike fiddle ), Shujaat Husain Khan on sitar and vocals and Sandeep Das on tabla. All of these musicians have independant careers with Ghazal being an occasional ensemble. The concert consists of three improvisations on traditional Indian and Persian repertoire; Fire, Dawn and Eternity. They are aptly named since Fire storms along at speed and blazes with great intensity, Dawn is more restful and Eternity suitably contemplative. The Persian contributions of Kayan Kalhor add distinctive middle eastern colours to the Indian feel in much the same way as Persian culinary additions enhance the traditional Indian restaurant here in the UK and all three musicians seem quite at home in each other's company. A fine album representing the very best of the world music ideal. Kalhor is also prominent on the Yo-Yo Ma Silk Road project I recently posted about.

Ra Ra Ra For Gar

A few years ago, the ECM label began a series of eleases which it called :rarum. I'm not sure what that term means precisely but the idea was that artists who had a long running relationship with the label were invited to compile a "best of" selection for release in the series. This is a double cd release in that series titled Jan Garbarek Selected Recordings. If there is one artist that epitomises ECM for many, then it would be Garbarek, with all that implies good and bad. Some would argue with the labelling of Garbarek as a jazz artist too. Certainly some of the tracks roam far from a standard combo but others, especially when he is featured as a sideman on other people's recordings, are definitely jazz sessions. The featured tracks cover over twenty years but the trademark ECM recorded sound means a uniformity over that period. Garbarek's work falls into three broad categories which are all in evidence here; the work previously mentioned as a sideman to such as Keith Jarrett, collaborations with more of a world music feel in latin and Indian modes and solo work where he is a multi instrumentalist producing ambient sounds with what is now thought of as a distinctly Nordic feel. One final track also represents the collaboration with the Hilliard Ensemble on sacred choral works. Far more than some kind of superior smooth jazz, he remains an interesting musician for all that a certain blandness can creep in.

How Many Variations Can You make ?

I enjoy listening to disks of solo piano recitals but find them among the most difficult to write much about. This disk features Maurizio Pollini playing Beethoven's Diabelli Variations. I could recount the old tale about how Diabelli invited numerous composers in the Habsburg Empire to write one variation on his rather banal waltz theme and how Beethoven at first declined but then wrote 33 variations just on his own. The earlier example of Bach's Goldbergs is obvious and the booklet note details exactly how the variations were structured and built up. Not as obviously attractive as the Goldbergs they are nonetheless rewarding to listen to and reflect a variety of moods from the serious to the playful. As I recently wrote regarding the Kissin Schumann disk, I'm not qualified to critically dissect piano performances. Pollini does have the reputation of being something of a cold, calculated player but I didn't find anything on this disk to support that view in any derogatory sense.

Making Baroque Music Sexy

This disk is a real favourite, Missa Mexicana by Andrew Lawrence-King and the Harp Consort. I've already considered a similar disk by Ex Cathedra and other ensembles including Florilegium and Hesperion XXI have investigated this area of baroque music from Spanish America after the conquest of the Conquistadors. The Harp Consort take a scholarly approach as do the others but there is a looser feel to their performances, they swing more and in some cases are just downright sexy. Which is important to the material since the idea was that the church would encourage the local populace into services by including local dance like rhythms in the religious settings. The disk includes the exuberant setting of the mass by Juan Guitierez de Padilla plus secular songs that are the original source material of the dances. The singing style adopted by the Harp Consort is similarly more natural, less obviously in the western choral tradition. Similar to the approach used by groups like L'Arpeggiata to early music. The instrumentation used on the disk includes Mexican baroque guitars, theorbo, gamba, lirone, sackbut, bajon and percussion alongside the Spanish harp, organ and psaltery of Lawrence-King. This disk ideally demonstrates the cross currents of intellectualism and sensuality of the Hispanic baroque.

When Is A Song Cycle Not A Symphony ?

I don't know exactly how much truth there is in the tale that Mahler resisted calling Das Lied Von Der Erde his ninth symphony because of the superstition that a composer's ninth symphony will be his last. He did after all compose a ninth symphony which did in fact turn out to be his final completed one. It is certainly true that Das Lied ( the song of the earth ) has a symphonic scope and utilises many of the themes and techniques of his symphonies. But that is also true of earlier verse settings such as the Wunderhorn poems. The poems set in Das Lied are translated from Chinese sources. The music has only the faintest of traces of the oriental but it is distinctly pastoral in feel. There are themes of varying seriousness and light heartedness but the final farewell is by far the lengthiest setting and could be taken as some sort of goodbye to the world from the composer with a hint of resignation and acceptance rather than a railing against the fading of thee light. This is a budget recording with relatively unknown performers but they cope admirably. The solo singers are tenor Thomas Harper and mezzo Ruxandra Donose and the National Symphony Orchestra of Irelend are conducted by Michael Halasz.

Benchmark Selection

A fine recording of standard concerto repertoire with Gil Shaham playing Brahms's Violin Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Claudio Abbado and then being joined by Jian Wang on cello for the Double Concerto with the same forces. Shaham's version of the violin concerto here is the current selection for the BBC Building a Library segment of the CD review programme. The concerto was written by Brahms for his virtuoso friend Joseph Joachim ( who wrote the cadenza to the first movement ) and it is typical of the symphonic style of concerto and as such is ideally suited to the sound of the Berlin Phil. As a contrast, Abbado, the band and the solists succeed in bringing out the essentially chamber music characteristics of the double concerto. This is an engaging work that would I'm sure be programmed much more frequently if it wasn't for the economic fact that it would need the participation of two "name" soloists. The coupling of the two concertos here make a very attractive disk.

Depression Era Revisited

Now moving to a part on one of the shelves where Ry Cooder disks will make regular appearances. This one is his firsr solo album from 1970, just called Ry Cooder. It received a mixed reception way back then. At the time, Cooder was known as an ace session guitarist, adding his slide to such as Captain Beefheart and the Rolling Stones. The expectation for a solo album was for blues rock and guitar pyrotechnics but what was produced was much more understated and would only appear in context as subsequent albums were released over the coming few years. Cooder's disks always focused on the songs rather than just concentrating on his peerless guitar playing. As with the style of the albums, it took a while for his voice to be appreciated. It isn't the greatest but it sells a song very well and he learnt to make the most of what he had. This first album had a theme around depression era America and hard times with songs such as One Meat Ball, Do Re Mi and How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live. There is also some country blues and a couple of acoustic slide instrumentals. A couple of the tracks have additional arrangements by Van Dyke Parks who continued to contribute to many of the later records also.

Sun Drenched

Another of the Miles Davis / Gil Evans joint projects, this one is Sketches Of Spain. There is a popular conception that the entire disk is a reworking of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez but in fact only the adagio of that work is included and represents about a third of the album which also has a piece by De Falla and Gil Evans originals. Apparently Rodrigo hated the interpretation, strangely given the inherent musicality of it which you would have thought a fellow professional would recognise. There's certainly no sense of ripping up the original, the orchestrations and jazz nuances of Evans are understated and Miles plays a restrained mute that evokes the atmosphere of the work. The whole album is a disciplined work, the orchestra plays Evans's arrangements straight ( not all of them are strict jazzers ) and it is only Miles who improvises to any extent and he isn't exactly cutting loose. Apart from the Concierto, the other extended number is Solea, written by Evans, which is a rhythmically intricate march with flamenco and blues interlinked. The shorter tracks all retain the Spanish ambience of the disk and while this is a one off project, it did point the way to the inclusion of more exotoc influences on jazz players ( ok, there had been odd instances before but this kick started it ).

Joyful Spiritual Jazz

I've used the term "life affirming" before and hope that it isn't turning into a personal cliche but it's difficult to always come up with a unique phrase amongst so many postings. What can't be doubted is that this music, the aptly titled Celebration by Bheki Mseleku, is joyful and life affirming. It was a surprise to realise that this disk is now almost 16 years old and the early nineties now seem something of a golden age for English jazz ( Bheki is South African but was London based at the time of this recording and the other musicians are from the London scene )It is mainly straight ahead modern jazz but with memorable themes. Apart from the sublime Closer To The Source ( with soprano sax contribution from Courtney Pine back in the days when he was still a serious musician ) the material doesn't have a particularly African feel. If anything, there are more latin influences similar to early Return To Forever, a feel enhanced by the flute of Eddie Parker. Mseleku plays both piano and tenor sax with equal facility. This album produced a deserved stir during one of those periodic spells when the music biz thought it could market jazz profitably. A South Bank Show was broadcast devoted to Bheki around this time. I'm not sure how his career now stands since his return to South Africa, he hasn't made the big international splash once anticipated but this is maybe my favourite jazz album, sacrilege though it may be to say that when set alongside all the American legends.

Spiritual Combination

This disk is a curious combination, typical Late Junction territory and it was in fact that Radio 3 programme that alerted me to it. The disk is called Meeting Of Angels and features the Gregorian chant of the Ensemble Gilles Binchois directed by Dominique Vellard with the sitar and tambura playing of Ustad Nishat Khan. There is one solo raag for morning played in the middle of the recital but otherwise the material consists of sacred chants by the ensemble; alleluias, introits and an offertorium. The playing unfolds as a kind of call and response with the refrain of the chant being answered and interpreted by the sitar. The justification for the idea as extrapolated by the booklet notes is that they are two musical cultures of the highest spirituality with secret affinities and the hypothesis of a common origin. There are undeniable similarities in modality, atemporality and suspension in sound but whether the entire theory holds up is more doubtful. The respect and mutual regard of the performances makes it a most satisying disk though, even if there probably isn't much of a shelf life in the collaboration beyond this example.

Outdone By The Packaging

There would seem to be something wrong when more time is spent talking about the packaging of a disk than about the music and there is a danger of that here with The Rose, The Lily And The Whortleberry - Medieval And Renaissance Gardens In Music by The Orlando Consort. It comes complete with a lavishly illustrated 116 page book in a cd sized hard cover sleeve detailing the place of the garden as a rendezvous for courtly love and the differing ways in which it was treated in France, Spain, England, Italy and the Low Countries. There are learned essays by such as Sir Roy Strong and even a specially created garden design. A lot of the songs featured are anonymous but are definitely courtly in nature, this isn't folk music of any kind. Lyrics range from the sacred to the suggestive but the music doesn't always reflect the change in subject matter. Composers that are listed are pretty obscure with a few exceptions who have some reputation such as Guillaume de Machaut, Guerrero, De Rore and Gombert. So does the music live up to the packaging ? Sadly I must conclude, not quite. The Orlando Consort are a male four piece vocal group augmented on some tracks by a guest bass and as well and as expertly as they sing, they can't avoid a certain sameness to much of the sound which makes over 76 minutes in one sitting a little heavy going. Sampled in smaller doses while reading the book is probably the best way.

Romance And Neurosis

A budget reissue disk of Evgeny Kissin playing Schumann, Kreisleriana and Fantasie in C. I can't pretend to be a critical expert on pianists or judge the exact quality of a performance unless it is something way out on the margins ( in either direction ) This performance by Kissin, which the label seems coy in dating, is fine by me and fits into the core repertoire that suits him best. It is in his solo piano music that the split in Schumann between his two souls of Eusebius and Florestan is most evident. Romantic and slightly neurotic, it's tempting to maybe read more into the music than is there given the sad medical history of mental health. In the Fantasie, Schumann stretches classical sonata form to the absolute limit but such is his influence on piano composition, with the passage of time it doesn't sound anything like so radical to modern ears, while remaining a work of great stature. Kreisleriana is more episodic, inspired by skethces from the writer / composer E T A Hoffmann and his quasi autobiographical creation Johannes Kreisler.

There's Always That Damn Pulse

How does Philip Glass get away with it ? I know that over the centuries many composers have had stock in trade phrases and techniques that they have fallen back on but surely nobody has regurgitated the same thing so often and with such unrelenting consistency ? That same thing is represented on this disk by Symphony No 2 played by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies. Continually pulsing strings with slowly unfolding minimal melodies over the top. So why do I have the disk ? Well, in small doses and taken occasionally there remains something attractive, especially when given performances of quality. And the other two pieces on this disk do vary the straightjacketed theme a little. There is an Interlude from his opera Orphee played by the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra which actually has a couple of melodies. And while the Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra can't resist pulsing in the background orchestral accompaniment from time to time, there are jazzy and lyrical moments for the players that are very fine indeed. The performers for this work are again the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Rascher Saxophone Quartet.

Popular, But Is It Any Good ?

Carl Orff's secular oratorio Carmina Burana is somewhat of a controversial work. Hugely popular, often programed by amateur choirs since it is such a good "sing" and beloved by advertising agency execs and researchers for background music to tv programmes, because it is packed with memorable tunes. Hard core classical fans tend to be disparaging about its' musical worth but it hangs together ok for me as a portrayal of village life in some vaguely situated middle ages location, occupying similar ground to other folk inspired epics. What may be more problematic is the case of Orff himself. Very much a one hit wonder in terms of preformed material, a cloud hangs over the extent to which he collaborated and sympathised with the Nazi regime. To such an extent that some commentators attribute some kind of crypto-fascism to Carmina Burana itself, which I really can't see. I haven't researched Orff's background sufficiently closely, similar doubts hang over the reputation of Richard Strauss and many conductors and performers, not to mention the big elephant Wagner. Maybe it's a cop out but I'm content to occasionally enjoy the spectacle of the piece for what it is. This recording is from the sixties by the Chor und Orchester Der Deutschen Oper Berlin conducted by Eugen Jochum with soloists soprano Gundula Janowitz, tenor Gerhard Stolze and baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Scordatura Tour De force

Some remarkable music on this double cd by Andrew Manze on violin and Richard Egarr on organ and harpsichord playing the entire Rosary Sonatas by Biber. One sonata also has a cello part which is played by Alison McGillivray. There are fifteen Rosary sonatas based on the life of Christ and divided into five "joyful" sonatas, five "sorrowful" sonatas and five "glorious mysteries". The differences in tone and mood aren't necessarily connected to those designations in a any crass happy or sad way but the entire work is obviously spiritual and wouldd be a great meditation aid which was probably the original conception. It is now however a wonderful display piece for the violin. Each sonata has a different violin tuning using the technique of scordatura. There is a bonus track at the end of disk two where Manze explains this technique with sound examples. Basically, it involves reconnection of the vilin strings to different stops so that the player's figuration remains the same but the sounds are radically altered. Akin to a modern day guitarist using slide or electronis pedal effects to change the sound of the instument. It is really a violin players tour de force ( there is another bonus track of an unaccompanied passagalia )but the understated contributions on the two keyboard instruments by Richard Egarr shouldn't be underestimated and add to the very atmospheric recording which places just enough space around the instruments in the acoustic.

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Anyone wishing to get an idea of American minimalism could do much worse than starting here with this disk by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra led by Edo de Waart. The two works featured are Steve Reich's Variations For Winds, Strings and Keyboards and John Adams's Shaker Loops. I feel the Reich work holds up a lot better decades later even if it isn't so familiar now from concert performances or radio plays. He uses a technique adapted from medieval religious music by such as Perotin of holding notes for an exceptionally long time to bind together and create three statements of a huge harmonic progression on which are laid increasingly intricate variations. It has much more varied tone colours than the Adams piece. Shaker Loops is very early John Adams and I wonder if he regrets composing it, since it is by far his most obviously minimalist work and whatever he has done since and no matter how far he has moved, the minimalist tag still gets applied. It doesn't really have any links with the Millenial Church ( Shakers ) who tremble or shake in moments of religious ecstasy but instead plays with the musical term shake or trill and incorporates techniques of tape loops as played by live musicians. These were premiere recordings of these works by musicians committed to them and they have the sense of authority that comes out of that.

Inspired By The Rhine

Time for another BBC Music mag cover disk from 2002, this one featuring orchestral music by Schumann played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Walter Weller. The disk is topped and tailed by two overtures, Manfred ( after Byron's poem ) and Genoveva ( from his only little performed opera ). The overture is a curious form but these miniature tone poems are expertly scored and orchestrated. The main work on the disk though is Schumann's Symphony No 3 ( Rhenish ). Inspired by the countryside of the Rhineland and musically by Beethoven. The principle mood is full of new energy and optimism with no trace of the darkness and depression that was to overwhelm him later ( with the Rhine ironically playing a prominent part ). Although not rated as a supreme symphonist, this work gives the lie to that and stands with any mid 19th century contemporary.

A Sense Of Loss

An austere collection called String Quartets by the Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian and perfomed by the Rosamunde Quartet. The disk contains Mansurian's String Quartet no 1 and String Quartet No 2 plus a short piece called Testament. Both of the string quartets are dedicated to musician friends who died young and the entire disk is a tribute to his recently deceased wife, so the downbeat mood is not a surprise ( Testament is dedicated to ECM label boss Manfred Eicher who is still very much with us ). The works are not without elegiac and mystical passages though and it isn't all bleakness and grief. A melody by legendary Armenian art music figure Komitas is used in one of the quartets and there is also the influence of sacred music from the region in the middle ages. It is hard to escape the feeling of loss however which can apply as much to the history of the Armenian people, not exactly the most fortunate of groups, as to the personal mourning of Mansurian. The Rosamunde Quartet, which includes cellist Anja Lechner who is becoming something of an ECM regular,have an innate feel for this music.

Galicia But Not In Spain

I love this remarkable disk, Night In Galicia as compiled by Vladimir Martynov and performed by Ensemble POSTH and Folk Ensemble D. Pokrovsky. I saw them performing an extract on a fine BBC4 documentary made by Orlando Figes on Russian cultural history and was captivated, not just by some fine looking ladies. The adaptation takes lyrics by Velimir Khlebnikov, a turn of the 19th / 20th century writer and are steeped in ancient Slavic folklore. The music takes the world of Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring and Les Noces and takes it a step further back from art music towards the essential folk roots. That's not to say that this is a pure work of folk music without any artifice, the piece is a contrast between modern instruments and the folkloric singing and the whole produces a wonderful theatrical display of life in a remote village in some timeless past. The region of Galicia has been ruled by many different countries and power blocks and is currently in fact not in Russia but is a western province of Ukraine. The late Dimitri Pokrovsky who founded the folk ensemble called these songs a window into the Russian soul. the disk may not be easy to track down but it will repay any effort made. I wish they'd repeat that tv series too.

Spirit Of The Dance

A fabulous disk by an expert in the genre; this was released as a 20th anniversary offering for William Christie and Les Arts Florissants and is titled Musique de Ballet by Rameau and Charpentier. The balance is skewed towards Rameau by approximately two to one. The Rameau pieces are taken from Les Fetes d'Hebe and Hippolyte et Aricie and reminded me of the glorious prom concert this year given by John Eliot Gardner featuring dancers from France and South Africa which featured much of this music. Rameau was ideally suited to that prom because the music just urges the dance onwards with energy and joy and an infinite variety of rhythms. Les Arts Florissant fully demonstrate the skill in this music that they have developed and the whole thing is a total delight. The Charpentier extracts from La Descente d'Orphee, Plaisirs de Versailles and Medee are more courtly and restrained but they have their own charm. Rameau perhaps dwelt more with the common people and Charpentier with the toffs, at least musically speaking.

Finding A Way In

Berlioz is another of those composers with the reputation that you either "get" him or you don't. And thus far, I have had difficulty in getting him but think that in time that could maybe change. This disk is an easy one to get a handle on ( I do also have the Symphonie Fantastique elsewhere on the shelves ). By the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique led by John Eliot Gardner, the main work is Harold En Italie with viola soloist Gerard Causse and there is a coupling of Tristia featuring the Monteverdi Choir. Harold En Italie is part symphony, part viola concerto, part tome poem based on the tale of Childe Harold. The use of a central motive for Harold on the viola predates Wagner and Strauss by a considerable degree. Tristia, although a makeweight on the disk, is the work that could give me a gateway further into Berlioz because the soft choral writing begins to appeal and maybe would open the way for something like L'enfance Du Christ. The themes tackled in Tristia are a religious poem by Thomas Moore and Shakespearean ideas around Ophelia and Hamlet.

Epoque Making

The coincidences keep coming on this circuitous route around my various shelves with a second successive disk featuring Yo-Yo Ma. This one is totally different, a chamber recital with Kathryn Stott on piano and Yo-Yo Ma of course on cello. The title is Paris La Belle Epoque, highlighting music from the years around 1900 and the salon culture of the time. Most of the music written for such gatherings featured violin and Yo-Yo Ma has transcribed the pieces here for cello. There are two famously melodic short pieces, Massenet's Meditation from Thais and Saint-Saens Havanaise, plus more weighty sonatas by Faure and Franck. These two sonatas both had impact beyond the purely musical world, a feature of la belle epoque being the interaction between music, art and literature. Proust was particularly enamoured with them. On first listening, it is the cello part that dominates and holds the attnetion but the music is a genuine partnership and Kathryn Stott's piano soon shows how important the interweaving of the themes is. Shared music making of the highest level.

A Long And Winding Road

I'm surprised this disk, Silk Road Journeys - When strangers Meet by Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, didn't make more of a splash, at least here in the UK. Some world music purists sniffily dismissed it as a classical muso not having the freedom to relate to ehtnic music and in some classical circles it was thought of as being simply a crossover venture. Both views are nonsense, it is a deeply serious project with mutual respect on both sides and outstanding musicianship. The Chinese, Iranian and Indian players are all steeped in long classical traditions anyway; not that there is anything wrong with more folksy approaches but they aren't in evidence here. The concept is a musical journey along the ancient silk road route from Beijing to Venice ( with an odd and lengthy detour to play a couple of Finnish Folksongs on piano and cello ) Yo-Yo Ma features heavily as a performer on some tracks but on others he hardly plays at all, his role in the entire project being more that of a facilitator. This particular recording is biased towards Chinese and Persian flavoured works, with the aforementioned Finnish detour and an early baroque Italian piece but the whole Silk Road Ensemble project is one of collaboration by in this case 24 players from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the US, with other tradiions getting more of a look in live and on subsequent recordings.

Bass Refractions

An album of solo bass music may not sound the most enticing of prospects but this disk by Eberhard Weber, Pendulum, might confound expectations. His aim is to feature the bass as orchestra and to this aim, incorporates echo effects, tape delays and amplification to alter tones. There aren't any synthesizers though, thw music could be reproduced live on stage given the requisite hardware. So what of the actual musical content ? Weber would be put into a bag labelled "jazz", mainly because of past associations and band membership, although many jazzers might froth at the mouth at such a suggestion. There certainly isn't much connection to the American jazz tradition but it gets bracketed there by a process of elimination since it certainly isn't pop or folk, nor in any way traceable to a classical tradition. Mainly slow to mid tempo, it has a gentle melodic and hypnotic ease. Chill out ? It could be used as such, there are also occasional hints of exoticism and world influences. Vaguely fitting that Nordic Jazz bag that can get tiresome but is also refreshing if taken in small enough doses and this album is digestible enough for me.

Feeding The Soul In Extreme Circumstances

Coincidence time again. I've just posted about Arvo Part and how I have several disks, some of which really grab me and others that don't. I can say the same thing about the music of Olivier Messiaen and today's disk happens to be one of those that I really appreciate, Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps ( Quartet For The End Of Time ). Quite a high powered quartet has been assembled for this recording too, Gil Shaham on violin, Paul Meyer on clarinet, Jian Wang on cello and Myung-Whun Chung on piano. This is a piece of music that is difficult to divorce from its' conception, written by Messiaen while he was in a German prisoner of war camp in WW2 ( nb Prisoner of war camp, not concentration camp but unpleasant enough ) The work was scored for the available resources both in terms of players and instruments. Messiaen's stated inspiration was as ever spiritual but the religiosity isn't immediately apparent. As would be expected it is essentially a serious, downbeat piece but not without hope for the eventual triumph of the human spirit and the love of God. What seems remarkable now is that this very serious work was looked forward to so much and received with such enthusiasm by the first audiences in the camp, both of prisoners and camp commandants, when it might have been expected that some sort of escapist variety show would have gone down better.

Holy Minimalism At Its' Most Effecting

I have several disks featuring the music of Arvo Part, three of which find to be wonderful, while the others I can have more of a take it or leave it approach to, having been tempted to invest after enjoying the three "goodies" so much. This disk is one of the three that I fully appreciate. Entitled Miserere and performed by the Hilliard Ensemble and the Orchester Der Beethovenhalle Bonn conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, it has three pieces featured with the title track being the longest. It is in the tintinnabuli style but the inclusion of instrumental contributions between and within the slowly unfolding vocal lines adds welcome colour and depth. The use of carefully spaced silences, as in another of his Easter settings Passio, is particularly effective. There is then a short adagio for strings and harp called Festina Lente, with divided musical resources it is a kind of canon based around certain numerological considerations. The disk ends with Sarah was Ninety Years Old ( one of the more curious Old Testament passages ) a very sparse work wrrittn for three vocal soloists, organ and percussion with the latter very much to the fore but in a very restrained and regimented way, with no hint of improvisation, just providing a steady unravelling pulse that is most effective.

The Elephant In The Room Mk II

As far as classical music is concerned, for me the elephant in the corner of the room that nobody wants to discuss is Wagner. I have a problem with Wagner. He wasn't the nicest of men in his personal dealings, well he isn't alone there among great composers. But his politics are to be deplored and he is forever tainted by association, albeit posthumously, with the Hitler regime. But the bottom line for me is that I don't "get" the operas. They seem to me to be the epitome of the comedy cliche that it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings and it seems almost a requisite of being a Wagnerian soloist to be of substantial girth. Still and all, his influence and stature are enormous and so to that end I have this one double cd compilation release that lets me off the operatic hook a little by being titled Wagner Orchestral Favourites. And the performers could hardly be more prestigious, the Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Sir George Solti. The pieces featured are mainly overtures and preludes to various operas, plus the famous Siegfried Idyll and Siegfried's Funeral March. It is obvious that the use of such vast orchestral forces led onto much that followed and the handling of those forces is expert but I still find it easier to admire than to like and I still don't know if that is for purely musical reasons or for reasons of prejudice. Jumbo's still there !

Walking That Soviet Tightrope

I have read some extremely disparaging remarks about the Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin dismissing him as a party hack during the Soviet regime. To which the answer has to be "walk a mile in my shoes". I haven't heard enough of his music to make a judgement but this disk is engaging enough and he has been championed by the conductor here of the Russian national Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev. The main piece is the "Carmen" Suite, written for a commissioned ballet and orchestrating and sampling Bizet's music from the opera and also from Arlesienne. It uses many orchestral colours and is an enjoyable way to take in the tunes and moods of the work. The disk also has Shchedrin's Concertos For Orchestra Nos 1 and 2 ( subtitled Naughty Limericks and Chimes ) which are highly contrasting. Essentially light hearted, the first one has a jazzy feel akin to Bernstein and then evolves into almost a Carry On film soundtrack with braying brass part. I recall it being used to accompany a rampaging dog in a UK insurance commercial. The second suite is altogether more sober, playing with trends such as serialism. The orchestra gives spirited performances throughout.

West Coast Sixties Weirdness At Its' Best

During the psychedelic rock period there were bands called Kaleidoscope on both sides of the Atlantic. This album, Infinite Colours, Infinite Patterns - The Best of Kaleidoscope, is the Californian band. They trecked constantly up and down the west coast in the late sixties appearing on bills with all the other notable LA and Frisco bands of the time but they never got close to making it big. The main reasons for that were a fairly shambolic lifestyle, weak vocals and the lack of a charismatic front man. They produced some superb music though which is featured on this compilation alongside a little dross. More than enough great stuff to make it well worth acquiring, however. Where many west coast bands of the era utilised Indian musical influences and instrumentation for added colour, Kaleidoscope took a more middle eastern route using saz, bazouki, oud and clarinet courtesy of David Solomon Feldthouse. The other major player in the band and best known susequently was David Lindley who had his own band El Rayo X and also has been a serial studio and stage collaborator with people like Ry Cooder, Warren Zevon and particularly Jackson Browne. Lindley contributes banjo, mandolin, fiddle and slide guitar and as that instrumentation indicates, he brought bluegrass and the blues and infleunces to the band. Standout tracks include the cajun workout Petite Fleur which was repeatedly played over the PA to the half million crammed onto the Isle of Wight to see Dylan in 1969, a storming version of the traditional song Cuckoo, Lindley's bajo workout imaginatively called Banjo and the lengthy Seven - Ate Sweet, so called after the time signature and the track with the strongest middle eastern influence.

Miles at his Bluesiest

Listening again to Porgy and Bess by Miles Davis with the gorgeous orchestrations of Gil Evans, I was a little surprised to realise that it contains some of Miles's most overtly bluesy playing. This is most evident on the raw and powerful Prayer ( Oh Doctor Jesus ) but it is a feel that pervades the whole enterprise. Something else that strikes me about the Evans albums in general and it certainly applies here, is that Miles has to shoulder the main soloing responsibility and he does so superbly. On most of his more collaborative smaller group sessions, he is often content to be the catalyst who takes a back seat to his band members' more extrovert playing. Specifically going back to Porgy and Bess, this is almost a new score constructed by Evans from the Gershwin original and includes ont totally original piece, Gone, written by Evans. Tunes like Summertime and It Ain't Necessarily So are perfectly recognisable but are put into a totally new musical context and, dare I say it, a more authentic one as far as representing black America is concerned. Music making of a very high quality by any standards.

Laebrack The Net

Traditional music from the Shetland Islands played by Chris Stout on violin and Catriona McKay on harp. The title of the disk is Laebrack, which is apparently a Shetland word for surf. The disk is entirely instrumental and beautifully played. The Shetland music showcased here is more lyrical and less in your face than the diddley eye die die Irish school of jigs and reels. The emphasis is on tunes and melody rather than speed freak virtuosity. There are just a couple of occasions when McKays harp strays into an almost oriental mode to hint at maybe more adventuroous work to come. For now however, they seem content to pay dues to and to promote their own heritage. A good disk to enable world music freaks to investigate traditional sounds from communities a little closer to home but with just as much to offer ans the more overtly exotic.