Original premieres played with style and musicality

Gossec: Symphonies op. IV

François-Joseph Gossec's six Symphonies from his op. IV collection were published in 1758. While one might be reminded of Haydn at times, there was certainly no chance that the Belgian composer had heard Haydn's earliest forays into symphonic music. This is highly original, if not profound, music, full of charm and wit. I especially like the 5th Symphony in E major, subtitled "Pastorella." This looks back to the French pastourelle of the troubadours, with its shepherdesses and nostalgia for a simpler time. Simon Gaudenz and the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss capture all of this complexity within its relatively simple forms with admirable style and musicality. These are world premiere recordings, which are well worth a listen, or two.

Jean-Antoine Watteau, Fête champêtre (Pastoral Gathering) - Art Institute of Chicago

Gossec wrote many works very much similar to this in the 1760s and 70s, often in groups of six symphonies like opus IV, until Haydn's huge popularity in Paris in the 80s made him look to other musical genres. Gossec wrote more than 50 symphonies in all, but there's only one I've heard that's a true masterpiece. It came after the composer reinvented himself as a revolutionary artist in 1789, and his exposure to the revolutionary art of Beethoven early in the next century. His Symphonie à 17 parties, from 1809, takes the formulae that makes the music on this album so appealing, and ramps the music up close to even the best of its Viennese models. As modest as his earlier symphonies are, one must admire them for their originality and for the way they point to Gossec's later genius, in his sacred and operatic music, as well as that final Symphonie.

A perfect American pops concert in Vienna

2019 Sommernachts Konzert: music by Bernstein, Johann Strauss II, Gershwin, Max Steiner, Sousa, Barber, Ziehrer, Dvorak, Copland

Gustavo Dudamel has chosen a great program for an American-themed Sommernachts Konzert with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Like every great pops concert, this has something for everyone. The Candide Overture of Leonard Bernstein is a great opener; it still sounds fresh after hearing it so many times during last year's Centennial. And it sounds absolutely fabulous as played by this great orchestra. That, by the way, goes for the entire 70 minutes of this CD. Other highlights for me include the 8-minute suite from Casablanca, prepared, I believe by the composer Max Steiner. The suite begins with the great Warner Brothers Fanfare, which is probably Steiner's greatest work. Steiner's own, relatively modest, atmospheric music for the film is soon forgotten every time the two great non-Steiner songs appear: La Marseillaise and Herman Hupfeld's As Time Goes By. Umberto Eco's summary of Casablanca applies very much to this musical pastiche:

It is a hodgepodge of sensational scenes strung together implausibly; its characters are psychologically incredible, its actors act in a manneristic way. Nevertheless, it is a great example of cinematic discourse, a palimpsest for the future students of twentieth-century religiosity, a paramount laboratory for semiotic research in textual strategies.

If I were choosing an American-themed pops concert, I would have kept going with this movie theme; Dudamel has done such a great job over the years presenting the music of John Williams, Bernard Herrmann, and other great film composers. But there are fine pieces from the concert repertoire as well: Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings sounds predictably sumptuous when played by the Vienna string players, and it provides a serious centre of gravitas in the middle of the program. An American work with a central European flavour is a natural for this venue: Antonin Dvorak's New World Symphony. And if there's not enough star power with just The Dude, how about Yuja Wang playing a vivid, sparkling Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue?

Of course, you can't have a Sommernachts Konzert without some waltzes. Dudamel leads the orchestra (or do they lead him?) in two fetching works by Johann Strauss II and Carl Michael Ziehrer. A final encore of Aaron Copland's Hoe-Down from Rodeo ties things up with a red-white-and-blue ribbon. This was fun! Bravo to these fine musicians.



This disc will be released on August 16, 2019

Pleasing, infectious Haydn

Joseph Haydn: Symphonies no. 90, 91 and 92 (Wallerstein Symphonies)

Joseph Haydn was an important figure in the evolution of the composer's status from court lackey to free-lance entrepreneur, and I've always really admired how well he managed that process. Along the way, though, he wasn't above a little sharp dealing. Haydn in fact came very close to perpetrating a fraud; maybe let's say that the composer finessed the commission from Prince Kraft Ernst for three new symphonies for his Court Orchestra at Wallerstein Castle in Bavaria. The Prince was under the impression he had exclusive rights to the new music, but Haydn sold them at the same time to the Concert de la loge olympique in Paris. From our vantage point it's easy to see why everyone was clamouring for this music, and that Haydn, after years of loyal service at the Esterhazy court, was ready to cash in on his new Europe-wide fame. This is pleasing music, even infectious, but at the same time it has a serious side and, for me at least, a surprisingly strong, and cumulative, emotional impact.

Back in 2016 I gave a positive review to another disc of music from Wallerstein, played by the same orchestra, the Bayerisches Kammerorchester Bad Brückenau, also conducted by Johannes Moesus. But Ignaz von Beecke, who wrote the piano concertos I quite enjoyed, is no Haydn. Indeed, in my review I stated that "Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ... both elevate the standard, stereotypical forms of the day to the highest level of art." In this new disc, then, the stakes are considerably higher. This is vibrant playing, alive to Haydn's often thrilling pulse, and Johannes Moesus's choice to opt out of Haydn's trumpets and timpani added after the original performances gives an open, chamber-like sound to these symphonies. But in the end this disc is not in the top echelon of performances for this special repertoire, a place where I'd put, for example, The Orchestra of the 18th Century under Frans Brüggen, and the Austro-Hungarian Orchestra under Adam Fischer. But there is much pleasure to be received from this album.

This album will be released on September 13, 2019.

Both timeless and completely in the moment

Francisco de Peñalosa: Lamentationes; works by Francisco Guerrero & Pedro de Escobar

Francisco de Peñalosa is the link between the great Flemish composer Josquin des Prez (his senior by 15 or 20 years) and the full flowering of Spanish Renaissance music, represented by Alonso Lobo, Tomás Luís de Victoria and Francisco Guerrero. This new disc from New York Polyphony presents two Lamentationes by Peñalosa, along with a number of his Mass segments. As well, we have a short Stabat Mater by his contemporary Pedro de Escobar, and two pieces by Francisco Guerrero, who was born the same year (1528) that Peñalosa died.

Peñalosa's music can sound strikingly modern while retaining its antique patina. In his fine liner notes, Ivan Moody quotes Ken Kreitner's praise of the 'kaleidoscope" effect of the Gloria of Peñalosa's Missa 'L'Homme Armé", whereby "... the tune is broken into little bits which are scattered everywhere and audible somewhere all the time in a rather dazzling display of wit and invention." The process, and its effect, is positively post-modern!

New York Polyphony recording in Princeton Abbey. Photo: Joanne Bouknight

The superb singing, impressive acoustic space (of the Princeton Abbey in the former site of the Saint Joseph's Seminary in Plainsboro NJ), and perfectly captured audio all come together to provide an experience that is both timeless and completely in the moment. Another impressive project from New York Polyphony!




This album will be released on September 6, 2019.

Remastered classics

Chopin: Ballades, Scherzo, Polonaise, Impromptu, Nocturne, Waltz, Mazurka

This new disc from IDIS includes the early studio recordings of Philippe Entremont playing Chopin, from a Concert Hall/Musical Masterpiece Society 10" LP from 1955, and the famous Columbia Masterworks Ballades LP from 1959.




Entremont was a true prodigy, growing up in a musical family, and his early brilliance is on display in this music, recorded when he had just turned 21, and later, when he was 25. Just last month Sony released a 34 CD set of Entremont's complete solo recordings, but I don't think there is more perfect pianism on display than in these four Ballades.

Philippe Entremont with his family (complete with dog). Manuel Litran, Paris, 1955

Exactly fifty years after he recorded the Ballades, in July of 2009, Philippe Entremont played them at a concert in New York. Here's the third Ballade, which naturally has a valedictory quality that the impetuous original lacked. I've quoted this passage from André Gide's Notes on Chopin before; I think it's very much relevant here:

Each modulation in Chopin, never trivial and foreseen, must respect, must preserve that freshness, that emotion which almost fears the surging up of the new, that secret of wonderment to which the adventurous soul exposes itself along paths not blazed in advance, where the landscape reveals itself only gradually.

This is Chopin playing that's fresh and alive, and the 2019 remastering by Danilo Prefumo preserves an important document of mid-20th century artistry.




This album will be released on August 23, 2019.

Two great quartets, plus a potent "trou"

String Quartets by Debussy, Tailleferre, Ravel

The Debussy and Ravel String Quartets have been paired for so long on records - one to a side on LPs, and then side-by-side on CDs - that they begin to resemble each other, like old couples or dogs and masters. Once the two works were matched as twins of the "Impressionist" family, but now the challenge is to differentiate them: each a classic, to be sure, but representing two very different composers. The Stenhammar Quartet clearly contrasts Debussy's whole tone scales with Ravel's Basque-inspired tonality; Debussy's ambiguous rhythms with Ravel's strongly accented folkloric ones; and Debussy's colourful ambiguity with Ravel's precision and clarity. These are two highly characterized works, well-paced, and played with style and wit.

In the serious world of French gastronomy, it's customary to serve a glass of Calvados between courses of an elaborate meal. "Le trou Normand", it's called; the idea is to create a "hole" in the stomach to make room for the delicacies to come. More than a mere palate cleanser, the String Quartet of Germaine Tailleferre is short but as potent as the fiery apple liquor, digging a hole in our musical repast to allow the proper perspective on our two major works. Tailleferre and her colleagues of Les Six inhabit a faster, more modern world than the pre-World War I quartets of their elders, but they are their true heirs. This is clever programming by the Swedish group, with a sparkling performance reinforcing Tailleferre's rising reputation.

A fluid fusion of melody and dance

Dance: Music for guitar and string quartet by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Aaron Jay Kernis and Luigi Boccherini

When I listened to this new CD from guitarist Jason Vieaux and the Escher Quartet, I was reminded of a phrase of John Eliot Gardiner, who said of the Baroque music of Bach and Rameau that it had "the fluidity of gesture and step and the fusion of melody and dance". Though the music of Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Luigi Boccherini and Aaron Jay Kernis is a bit later (disco was after the Baroque, right?), this is definitely what's happening on this album, from the first habanera to the last fandango.

Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Quintet for Guitar & Strings earns its place on this dance-card with the tarantella & habanera in the finale, but the entire work is delightful. It has that perfect balance of folkloric and erudite music of the best chamber works of Villa-Lobos, for example, or Bartok. Vieaux and the Eschers judge everything just right.

The title of Aaron Jay Kernis's 100 Greatest Dance Hits is a very funny reference to the K-Tel TV ads of the 1970s, but the music itself begins in a mainly serious mode. The elaborate percussive effects of the Introduction set the stage for a most interesting and unexpected 20 minutes of music. It might not remain serious, but it's always clever. The 3rd movement, "Middle Of The Road Easy Listening Slow Dance Ballad" contains absolutely gorgeous melodies, but Kernis keeps turning the screw, and the piece veers hilariously, and then perhaps seriously, off the rails. The laughs come fast and furious in the final movement, "Dance Party on the Disco Motorboat," with its slapstick coda. I was reminded throughout this music of the Brazilian composer Gilberto Mendes, whose Ulysses in Copacabana Surfing with James Joyce and Dorothy Lamour for orchestra is somewhat in the same vein. Successful classical music humour is rare indeed, so it's nice to have Mendes and Kernis to give us some comic relief every now and then. Vieaux and the Escher Quartet must have had a ball performing this - I expect if the musicians don't, everyone will notice.

Take a moment before moving on to the Boccherini Guitar Quintet, so that it doesn't sound fussy and old-fashioned after the Kernis. Because it isn't fussy, and the musicians play it with perfect sensitivity to its Enlightenment ethos, making it sound fresh and alive, but always civilized. Still, Boccherini really lets his inner Tony Manero out in the Fandango Finale, which has been a crowd pleaser, I'm sure, since the 18th century. It's introduced by a lovely little mock-serious movement that for a moment crosses over into Mozartian pathos. This Boccherini Quintet is a triumph for Jason Vieaux and the Escher Quartet; it brought me as much pleasure as many a more substantial chamber work by Haydn or Mozart or Beethoven.