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.

Fun string quartets from Chopin's teacher

Jozef Elsner: String Quartets, op. 8

The Silesian composer Jozef Elsner is best known as Chopin's teacher, but he was also one of the most distinguished administrators in both the theatrical and musical worlds in Poland. Still, on the evidence of these three string quartets published in 1806 his skill as a composer would have eventually Elsner put on the map; one hopes that this excellent album will help to do that very thing. The Equilibrium String Quartet is made up of talented young musicians playing period instruments, and their cohesion as a group is evidence of diligent work and knowledge of historical practice as well as musical skills. While obviously designed for the salon rather than the more lofty artistic reach of his contemporaries Haydn (who had finished all of his quartets by then) and Beethoven (who at the time was about to begin his middle-period Razumovsky Quartets, op. 59), Elsner's quartets have a concertante focus. They're all well-wrought and are designed to showcase the virtuosity of each instrumentalist in turn. More importantly, they're fun to listen to, and for that, I think, we have to thank the Equilibrium String Quartet as much as Jozef Elsner.

Strong Villa-Lobos solo guitar, and a great modernist chamber work

Villa-Lobos: Preludes & Etudes for Solo Guitar; Sextuor Mystique

I've always thought of Urania as a re-mastering and re-packaging company, and over the years I've enjoyed a number of their historic reissues (most recently, a fine album of Paul Hindemith conducting his own music). But they also do a lot of original recording in Italy, and there are many such discs to explore on their website. One that naturally caught my eye was this all-Villa-Lobos disc from guitarist Andrea Monarda. His version of Villa's Preludes and Etudes for Solo Guitar goes into the very, very long queue of recordings of these works. Popular works that fit nicely on a single LP or CD have a tendency to multiply. I'd rate Monarda a bit above the middle of this crowded pack, he delivers a lively performance that's especially well recorded. I often find that a particular guitarist will be stronger in one group or the other ("the classical guitar world is divided into two types of musicians..."), and Monarda, I think, is much more successful in the Etudes. A couple of the Preludes are perhaps a bit under-characterized, when compared with outstanding versions by Norbert Kraft or Timo Korhonen. But Monarda impressed me with the drama of the 1st and 12th Etudes, and the saudade of the 5th and 11th.

However, it's the title work which sets apart this album: the remarkable Sextuor Mystique (aka Sexteto Mistico), nominally written in 1917, though the score was lost and Villa-Lobos re-wrote it from memory decades later. The musicologist Lisa Peppercorn believes it was actually written during the 1920s, Villa's modernist period that includes some of his greatest music; I would tend to agree. Monarda has put together an ensemble named for the work, though it's unlikely the Sextuor Mystique Ensemble will be able to find anything else written for just this combination of instruments: guitar, flute, oboe, harp, saxophone and celesta. The SME do a marvellous job in this case, highlighting its Paris/Rio split personality.

The two decades before and after the Millennium were a golden age of Villa-Lobos recordings. The great composer's reputation was rising after its inevitable decline following his death in 1959, and his Centennial in 1987 primed the pump for a strong comeback. Soon there were multiple new discs released every month. Lately, though, there have been fewer and fewer new releases, with the notable exception of the recently completed Complete Symphonies series from Naxos. It's encouraging, then, to see this new project from Italy. I hope it's the sign of more Villa-Lobos activity to come.

This review was also posted at The Villa-Lobos Magazine.

A brilliant musical partnership

Palimpsest: Music for marimba & clarinet by Bach, McKinley, Piazzolla, Ravel & Zorn

Darius Milhaud introduced the marimba into the classical orchestra with his extraordinary 1947 Concerto for Marimba and Vibraphone, and composers from Leoš Janáček to Steve Reich were quick to introduce the striking colours this marvellous instrument can add to chamber and orchestral works. This new disc from marimbist Mike Stoltzman and her husband, clarinettist Richard Stoltzman, provides a great overview of various styles ("from Bach to Zorn" is a great way to talk about a wide range of music!)

Mika Stoltzman's own adaptation of Bach's perfectly adaptable Chaconne, from his D minor Partita for Solo Violin, shows the musical and emotional range of the instrument, as well as her own brilliant playing. Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte is another work that's made its way into many, many arrangements, and Richard Stoltzman's version for marimba & clarinet sounds exotic and familiar at the same time, in other words, just right for this kind of music.

For me the highlight of the album was the John Zorn piece which provides the title of the project. Richard Stoltzman describes the work in the liner notes:

Mika begins by playing quite tonal music, and then the clarinet jumps in with something abstract and arrhythmic, with crazy leaping intervals, almost as if Ornette Coleman had stepped into the room, and it keeps in conflict with the steady metre of the “old manuscript” underneath Mika’s part. It’s really fun to play, and it has been a surprise hit with audiences.

So many of the pieces here (including the Bach arrangements) are jazz- and blues- inflected. The Piazzolla works seem so natural, partly because the great composer from Argentina worked in his own jazz/classical idiom, but also because of the groove that the Stoltzmans and bandoneonist Pedro Giraudo are in throughout.

Mika and Richard Stoltzman play John Zorn's Palimpsest