VIVALDI Stabat Mater

Conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini's historical-instrument recordings of Vivaldi and other Italian Baroque composers, originally recorded around the turn of the millennium for the Opus 111 label, are being reissued on Naïve, complete with the fashion-forward graphics for which that label is known. Any and all remain completely distinctive, but this all-Vivaldi disc makes perhaps the ideal place to start. It comes with a pretty substantial booklet essay (in French, English, and Italian, although the texts of the vocal pieces are only in Latin, English, and French) by Alessandrini himself, providing the historical background for his unorthodox readings; this is highly readable and touches on such subjects as visual art and theatrical history. Alessandrini's contention, in a nutshell, is that in Vivaldi's time, even in church and in instrumental music, the musical point of reference for an Italian audience was opera. His interpretations might be called hyper-dramatic, and the second good reason to choose this Alessandrini disc is that here he has a true vocal diva to help him realize his vision: contralto Sara Mingardo, whose presence in the Stabat Mater in F minor for contralto, strings, and continuo is stunning. Alessandrini often uses an organ continuo as a sort of extra string layer, adding syncopated stabs of emotion, and when he gets into step with Mingardo the effect is very powerful even in the absence of vocal fireworks; this is a stately Stabat Mater rather than a fiery one, even in the "Fac ut ardeat cor meum" verse. The entire program builds to this point, with a little-heard alto motet and an unusual trio of church-oriented concertos with a variety of unusual solo wind instruments. Arresting from the first stroke, this is a classic of Baroque music-making. (September 15, 2010 by James Manheim, Rovi)

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741)
Concerto per la solennità di S Lorenzo, for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 recorders, 2 violins, bassoon, strings & continuo in C, RV 556
1) Largo - Allegro molto [5:00]
2) Largo e cantabile [3:03]
3) Allegro [3:51]
Clarae stellae, scintillate, solo motet for voice, strings & continuo in F major, RV 625
4) (Aria) Allegro [5:13]
5) Recitativo [0:43]
6) (Aria) Allegro [2:20]
7) (Alleluia) Allegro [2:39]
Concerto for violin & organ or violin ad lib & cello, strings & continuo in C major, RV 554a
8) (Allegro) [4:13]
9) (Largo) [3:50]
10) Allegro [3:32]
Concerto funebre, for violin, oboe, chalumeau, 3 violas all'inglese, strings & continuo in B flat major, RV 579
11) Largo [2:33]
12) Allegro poco [2:59]
13) Adagio - Allegro [2:21]
Stabat Mater, hymn for voice, strings & continuo in F minor, RV 621
14) Stabat Mater dolorosa. Largo [3:49]
15) Cujus animam gementem. Adagissimo [2:30]
16) O quam tristis. Andante [1:50]
17) Quis est homo. Largo [3:03]
18) Quis non posset. Adagissimo [2:55]
19) Pro peccatis suae gentis. Andante [1:50]
20) Eja Mater, fons amoris. Largo [3:23]
21) Fac ut ardeat cor meum. Lento [1:55]
22) Amen [1:16]
Sonata à 4 al Santo Sepolcro, for 2 violins, viola & continuo in E flat major, RV 130
23) Largo molto [3:27]
24) Allegro ma poco [2:15]

Rinaldo Alessandrini (Conductor)
Concerto Italiano
Paolo Ciociola (Violin)
Francesca Vicari (Violin)
Sara Mingardo (Contralto)
Antonio De Secondi (Violin)
Luigi Piovano (Violoncello)
Andrea Mion (Oboe)
Luca Cola (Double Bass)
Ettore Belli (Viola)
Mauro Lopes Ferreira (Violin)

1999 Opus 111
2002 NAÏVE
1 CD DDD
OP 30367

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Anna Prohaska SIRÈNE

Anna Prohaska was born in 1983 and began her musical training with the conductor Eberhard Kloke at the age of 14. Later she studied singing with Brenda Mitchell at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik in Berlin and made her highly successful debut in 2002 in Britten’s Turn of the Screw at the Komische Oper. In 2006 she won the hearts of Berlin Staatsoper audiences as Frasquita in a production of Carmen conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Since the 2006/07 season she has been a company member of the venerable opera house on Unter den Linden and has already appeared in a wide range of roles: under Philippe Jordan she sang Blonde in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Oscar in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, with René Jacobs on the podium she portrayed Poppea in Handel’s Agrippina, and under the musical direction of Ingo Metzmacher recently she was an enchanting Anne Trulove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. Anna Prohaska, who has also been making her name as a recitalist, has been repeatedly invited to sing with conductors including Claudio Abbado, Sir Simon Rattle, Mariss Jansons and Daniel Harding, and she is a regular guest at concerts of the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Salzburg Festival. The singer’s repertoire extends from the Renaissance to music of the 20th century. For her first solo album, she has taken inspiration from Andersen’s famous fairytale The Little Mermaid. Joined by pianist Eric Schneider and lutenist Simon Martyn-Ellis, she has programmed songs ranging from the English old masters Dowland and Purcell, by way of Haydn, Mendelssohn, Schubert and Schumann and turn-of-the-century composers Fauré, Mahler and Wolf, to the early-modern works of Debussy, Szymanowski and Honegger.

Anna Prohaska, how are today’s super-enlightened, cosmopolitan types meant to wrap our minds around the water nymph Ondine, a semi-divine mythical creature?
That’s an interesting question. It was the mythical creature herself – whether called Ondine, Rusalka, nixie, mermaid or siren – who captured my imagination because of her highly ambiguous nature: she harbours both extraordinary goodness and evil. I regard Ondine, taken to extreme, almost as an epitome of womanhood. In this recital her allure is generated by artistic means, with the voice . . .

You could call it the “original seduction” . . .
Exactly. We’re all familiar with the story of Odysseus: of singing as seduction and destruction at once. While his sailors plugged their ears with wax, the husband of Penelope had himself tied to the mast. (There’s something slightly sadomasochistic about that.) Odysseus was desperately curious to hear the Sirens’ song but just as anxious not to be seduced by it. And there you have the eternal game in seduction: the wanting and not wanting. There’s also another side to this mythical creature: here is a character coming from a completely different world who’s seduced by the illusory appearances of earthly life. And there’s yet a further aspect that caught my attention: isn’t it even possible that this discrepancy between life in the sea and life on earth stands for the dichotomy between paganism and Christianity?

Why makes you think that?
In Andersen’s fairytale, it isn’t clear whether the Little Mermaid is motivated by her love for the prince or by her wish to have an immortal soul like humans.

Doesn’t she simply want to become human?
There’s that too. But only through love does she get an immortal human soul. Perhaps that has to do with a longing for immortality – as a Christian ideal. But then she’s a pagan creature, and so it doesn’t work. Because she goes about it in the wrong way and is condemned to be mute. With people it is exactly the same. It’s hard to fall in love if you haven’t heard the other person’s voice yet, if there’s no communication. It doesn’t matter how beautiful one may look. It’s not just about externals . . .

You’re saying that several themes and several levels are combined in the figure and story of Ondine.
Yes. First of all, there’s the psychological question: what happens between two lovers in a relationship? Then there’s the metaphysical level the story touches on.

Let’s talk about the songs themselves. The selection ranges from the Renaissance by way of Classicism and the huge realm of Romanticism to early modernism at the beginning of the 20th century – Debussy, Szymanowski and Honegger. What’s the dramaturgical idea behind your programme?
At first I considered trying to tell the story through songs. As a kind of musical tale of woe. But that didn’t work because the keys and moods didn’t fit. So I finally decided in favour of a musical dramaturgy where the tonalities went together well, where individual motifs meshed: like travelling through a maze, where you proceed step by step.

Your accompanist in this recording is the noted pianist Eric Schneider. How did this collabora­tion come about?
We met when I was 17. I was involved at the time in my very first student production at the Hochschule, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. Eric was the répétiteur, as part of his conducting studies. One day he rang me up and asked if we could rehearse together. We immediately hit it off, both musically and personally. Eric is simply a great listener, and I’m deeply impressed by his brilliant pianistic command. (Anna Prohaska was talking with Jürgen Otten 4/2011)

Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911)
Lieder und Gesänge aus der Jugendzeit
1. Phantasie (from Tirso de Molina: "Don Juan") [2:05]
Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)
3 melodies de Verlaine
2. La mer est plus belle [2:10]
Anna Prohaska, Eric Schneider
Henry Lawes (1596 - 1662)
3. Slide soft you silver floods [2:05]
John Dowland (1562 - 1626)
A Pilgrim's Solace (1612)
4. 18. My heart and tongue were twins [2:08]
Anna Prohaska, Simon Martyn-Ellis
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)
5. The Mermaid's Song - Hob.XXVIa:25 (1794) [3:31]
Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
6. Der Fischer D225 "Das Wasser Rauscht Das Wasser Schwoll" [2:08]
Am See, D746
7. In des Sees Wogenspiele [1:58]
Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875)
Seize mélodies (1886)
8. No.1 La Sirène [2:41]
Karol Szymanowski (1882 - 1937)
Piesni Ksiezniczki bosni, Op.31
9. 1. Samotny ksiezyc [3:47]
Piesni Ksiezniczki bosni, Op.31
10. 3. Zlote Trzewiczi [2:19]
Piesni Ksiezniczki bosni, Op.31
11. 5. Piesn o Fali [3:07]
Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856)
Romanzen und Balladen op.53
12. 2. "Loreley" [1:08]
Zwölf Gedichte aus F.Rückerts "Liebesfrühling" Op.37
13. 1. "Der Himmel hat eine Träne geweint" [2:11]
Fünf heitere Gesänge op.125
14. 1. "Die Meerfee" [1:09]
Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
15. Des Fischers Liebesglück, D.933 [7:57]
Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924)
3 Mélodies, Op.85
16. 2. La fleur qui va sur l'eau [2:05]
Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903)
Mörike-Lieder
17. 47. Die Geister am Mummelsee [3:51]
18. 42. Erstes Liebeslied eines Mädchens [1:31]
19. 45. Nixe Binsefuss [2:20]
Arthur Honegger (1892 - 1955)
3 chansons - Extraites de "La petite Sirène" d'Andersen
20. 1. Chanson des Sirènes [1:30]
3 chansons - Extraites de "La petite Sirène" d'Andersen
21. 2. Berceuse de la Sirène [1:09]
Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847)
Schilflied, Op.71, No.4
22. "Auf dem Teich, dem regungslosen, weilt des Mondes "Auf [2:59]
Anna Prohaska, Eric Schneider
Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695)
King Arthur, or The British Worthy (1691)
Act 4
23. Two Daughters (Syrens) [2:10]
John Dowland (1562 - 1626)
Second Booke of Songes, 1600
24. 3. Sorrow, stay [2:59]
Anna Prohaska, Simon Martyn-Ellis
Antonín Dvorák (1841 - 1904)
Rusalka, Op.114
Act 1
25. Mesicku na nebi hlubokém [4:57]
Anna Prohaska, Eric Schneider
Gregorian Chant
26. Ave maris stella [2:09]
Anna Prohaska

2011 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg

1 CD DDD

477 9463 9 GH

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ROSSINI Stabat Mater

After his hugely successful release of Verdi’s Requiem a year ago, Pappano stakes his claim to another Italian choral masterwork in Rossini’s Stabat Mater and the results are magnificent. Pappano, in fact, sees the Stabat Mater as a forerunner of the Verdi Requiem saying, “The desperation and the drama is already there”. And how! As with Verdi’s Requiem any conductor has to make his decision about whether this is a work of spiritual devotion or operatic drama. Pappano nails his colours to the mast from the outset: he sees this as a work of red-blooded Italian passion, a natural successor to Rossini’s operas. Listening to it I only once felt drawn towards the devotional: everywhere else Italian passion courses and burns through this work, and it is all the better for it!
Pappano drives the music forwards with red-blooded vigour but it never sounds coarse. After the eerie opening the main chorus and quartet beat with strident fervour, and the control of both orchestra and soloist in Pro peccatis is energetic and purposeful. The Inflammatus is hair-raising and the final fugue utterly electrifying. Only in the final quartet, Quando corups morietur, did I feel him drawn more towards the devotional end of things, but this was welcome in the midst of the surrounding drama. The orchestra play for him like gods, utterly in tune with his concept of the piece and finer, even, than they were in the Verdi Requiem. He has done a wonderful job with them since taking over as their director and this disc is their finest achievement to date.
We are lucky indeed that Pappano can tempt such a starry line-up of soloists to join him in Rome. Anna Netrebko gives her all in a hell-for-leather account. I’ve never been convinced by Netrebko as a bel canto singer, but that isn’t a problem here as she wears her heart on her sleeve like a true Romantic. She also blends well with her companions, though, most especially Joyce DiDonato in the Quis est homo. DiDonato’s voice carries beautiful purity in contrast to Netrebko’s lustrous silkiness and her Fac, ut portem really pulls on the heartstrings. Lawrence Brownlee has a marvellous ring to his voice, rising to a great climax in the Cujus animam but blending into the ensembles well, while Ildebrando d’Arcangelo brings dark grandeur to the bass solos, most notably the Pro peccatis.
The Santa Cecilia chorus sing magnificently too, most especially in the unaccompanied Eja Mater, and their vocal colour burns with unmistakably Italian energy. If you want the Stabat Mater as a prayer then look somewhere else, but I found this disc absolutely enthralling: after the final bars had stormed out of my speakers I even found myself letting out an involuntary “bravo”! An excellent release and yet another feather in the cap of all the performers. (Simon Thompson, MusicWeb International)

Gioachino Rossini (1792 - 1868)
Stabat Mater
1) Stabat Mater dolorosa (Introduction) [9:27]
2) Cujus animam gementem [6:16]
3) Quis est homo [6:20]
4) Pro peccatis suae gentis [4:44]
5) Eja, Mater, fons amoris [4:32]
6) Sancta Mater, istud agas [7:17]
7) Fac, ut portem Christi mortem [4:35]
8) Inflammatus et accensus [4:44]
9) Quando corpus morietur [4:16]
10) Amen. In sempiterna saecula [5:44]

Anna Netrebko
Joyce DiDonato
Lawrence Brownlee
Ildebrando d'Arcangelo
Antonio Pappano
Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

2010 EMI Classics
1 CD DDD
64052922

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Gidon Kremer - Kremerata Baltica HYMNS AND PRAYERS

Listened to ‘blind’ this is a rather odd programme. Concert programmes often slip in a ‘modern’ work between a more popular or familiar set of ticket-selling masterpieces, but in this case the better known César Franck finds himself sandwiched between recent compositions. Gidon Kremer and ECM know what they are doing however, and while the character of the newer works contrasts sharply with the Franck Piano Quintet, the general sentiment and genre is one of tonal romanticism.
Yugoslavian born composer Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer’s piece is a commemoration of a film director: Eight Hymns in memoriam Andrei Tarkovsky. The piece is haunting in atmosphere - literally. My first thought on hearing the work was to turn down the lights, light some candles, and read something spooky. There is a good deal of very expressive writing here, but without access points it’s sometimes not easy to tell where each hymn starts and finishes - the music runs without stopping. I particularly like the chorale section, but wonder why its first manifestation starting at 6:05 is also its strongest. For a start I would have done without the breaks in this marvellous material at 7:19 and 8:25, allowing the chorale to build forever, or at least until everyone had melted entirely into their seats. In this world of cut and paste I would probably have placed the less distinct later material earlier to extend its development, but there is a logic to the progression of the whole which the composer can no doubt argue convincingly. I just think he’s missed a trick. My only real problem with the piece is that it has an inchoate feel - a sense of restraint imposed: a feel of effect rather than the true development which the material in the piece could have seen, could still see grow in substance and blossom into something world-shaking.
Leaping over the Franck for a moment, Giya Kancheli wrote the piece on this disc for the occasion of the 80th birthday of Mstislav Rostropovich and the 60th birthday of Gidon Kremer in 2007. After Rostropovich died in that same year, the composer entitled the recently completed work “Silent Prayer.” ECM fans will no doubt already have come across Kancheli’s name, and may know his knack for creating atmosphere and drama. The first thing which hits you with this piece is the pre-recorded singing of Sofia Altunashvili, which coincides with a ghostly and surrealist effect with the performers - the sound of a fragile voice projected on a vast screen behind the instruments like a timeless black-and-white film. The music is not all gentle and quiet restraint, and there are some dramatic climaxes. There is a bass guitar which adds its own ‘groove’ here and there, and there is a big-boned section at 15:05 which has real Nymanesque drive, something Kancheli seems reluctant to extend beyond a few seconds. He keeps things relatively simple, building and dropping build-ups with Bruckner-like gestures, chasing up and down with scales in contrary motion and adding little elements of salon music familiarity or colours which would fit easily into a Hollywood movie. Despite giving the impression of being able to lose a fair bit of weight in terms of its duration, Silent Prayer remains nothing less than a fascinating aural spectre-cle.
The central work in this programme, César Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor, is one of the first chamber pieces Gidon Kremer’s repertoire. He first performed it in Latvia at the age of 16, and it also pops up in the first volume of his ECM ‘Edition Lockenhaus’ with a powerful 1984 performance by Alexandre Rabinovitch and a quartet which doesn’t include Kremer but does include two of the Hagen family. It may have something to do with the works context between its contemporary bedfellows on this CD, but hearing it here seems to emphasise those elements which have had their electrifying effect on composers since. It comes across as a contemporary work, a sustained expressive statement ‘in stile romantico’. Having this aspect of a work from the not so dim but distant past pointed out in this way is a good thing, making it vibrant, unexpected, alive and relevant. There are a fair few decent recordings of this ‘king of piano quintets’, and you could do worse than punt for Christina Oriz and the Fine Arts Quartet on Naxos, but this performance is pretty special - passionate and deeply committed, without being overheated or overcooked in terms of rubati. The music is presented with attractive transparency and a moving sense of flow and grace.
This is a typically unusual ECM disc, and I would especially urge those with an angst for contemporary music to try it. The Franck is a rich but deeply rewarding filling to what might seem a ‘modern’ sandwich, but the outer works are special and memorable - at times jaw-droppingly beautiful, and always performed with infectious conviction by the musicians of Kremerata Baltica. The recording is detailed and resonant at the same time, with ECM’s usual fine quality of presentation. (MusicWeb International)

Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer [1963 - )
1) Eight Hymns
In memoriam Andrei Tarkovsky (1986/2004)[11:47]
I. Calmo
II. Tranquillo
III. Pesante
IV. Sereno
V. Molto tranquillo
VI. Pregando
VII. Dolce
VIII. Molto semplice
César Franck (1822 - 1890)
Piano Quintet in f minor (1878/79)
2) I. Molto moderato quasi lento. Allegro [15:55]
3) II. Lento, con molto sentimento [10:45]
4) III. Allegro non troppo, ma con fuoco [8:40]
Giya Kancheli (1935 - )
5) Silent Prayer (2007) [26:40]

Gidon Kremer, violin
The Kremerata Baltica
Roman Kofman, conductor
Khatia Buniatishvili, piano
Andrei Pushkarev, vibraphone
Marija Nemanytė, violin
Maxim Rysanov, viola
Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė, violoncello
Sofia Altunashvili, voice on tape

2010 ECM Records GmbH
1 CD DDD
ECM 2161
476 3912

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Hilary Hahn - Valentina Lisitsa CHARLES IVES Four Sonatas

Charles Ives wrote many memorable works, but the first of his compositions I ever heard was his set of lyrical and evocative sonatas for violin and piano. Something about the way they juxtaposed melodies—some familiar, some not—with unexpected harmonies and rhythmic themes captivated me. At the outset I was particularly drawn to Ives’s Third Sonata, so when I was assembling my next recital program with my duo partner Valentina Lisitsa, that piece was a natural choice.
When we got our hands on the sheet music, we attempted to read through it. That effort quickly stalled. Ives’s music may sound at times transparent, but his notation turned out to be tremend­ously complex, filled with exacting markings for accents, articulations, disjointed dynamics, rhythmic intricacies, and changes of tempo. Clearly Ives knew what he wanted at every point—and he wanted to make sure his performers would know, too. Squinting together at the piano score, Valentina and I struggled to understand which notes went together with which, where phrases began and ended, and how to produce the expression Ives wanted while at the same time playing the notes he had written. It felt like we were deciphering a musical code that was only vaguely familiar. As we attended one by one to the details, however, the big picture of each movement and then of the whole sonata emerged as if of its own accord.
A piece of music eventually has to get out onstage, in front of audiences, for its performers to see its true colors. That time came for us in 2008, when we took Ives’s Third Sonata on tour around the world. The more we played it for various audiences, the more the details and refinements Ives wrote into his score became ingrained in our musical consciousness, and the freer we became to explore additional expressive possibilities. Since we were attempting diffe­rent approaches with every concert, the piece became for us a shape-shifter: always evolving, ever intriguing. All along the way, audiences—for whom this century-old sonata was a new discovery—let us know that they would welcome more Ives.
So we returned the following season with a tour program that featured the remaining Ives sonatas (nos. 1, 2, and 4). Performing three of the four on one concert was terrific. We could sink into the similarities among them while having fun playing up the differences. What is remarkable about Ives’s writing from an interpretive perspective is the sense it gives that something tangible and interesting is always happening, or has just happened, or is about to happen. That may seem inconsequential, but, for a performer, that makes the music a pleasure to play night after night: expression can take any number of turns at any given moment.
Late in that second tour, realizing how attached we had become to these four sonatas, Valentina and I began planning this recording. Ultimately, in June 2010, we reconvened in upstate New York for four days to immerse ourselves in the musical world Ives had created. Recording sessions, monomaniacally focused, have the power to drain one’s enthusiasm for even the most touching and carefully crafted pieces. But for us, these sonatas never flagged. Their brooding, plotted beauty, their wit, their quicksilver modernity, and the dreams they evoke of a changing time and place, drew us through every hour. As we release this album, Valentina and I hope that the many virtues of the Ives sonatas will come through clear and heartfelt, and that listeners will join us in our affection for these rich and original pieces for violin and piano. (Hilary Hahn 9/2011)

Charles Ives (1874 - 1954)
Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1
1. 1. Andante - Allegro vivace [6:08]
2. 2. Largo cantabile [5:56]
3. 3. Allegro [8:06]
Sonata for Violin and Piano No.2
4. 1. Autumn. Adagio maestoso - Allegro moderato [5:10]
5. 2. In the Barn. Presto - Allegro moderato [4:03]
6. 3. The Revival. Largo - Allegretto [3:18]
Sonata for Violin and Piano No.3
7. 1. Adagio (Verse I) - Andante (Verse II) - Allegretto (Verse III) - Adagio (Last Verse) [12:21]
8. 2. Allegro [3:30]
9. 3. Adagio (Cantabile) - Andante con spirito [8:02]
Sonata for Violin and Piano No.4 "Children's Day At The Camp Meeting"
10. 1. Allegro [2:04]
11. 2. Largo - Allegro (con slugarocko) [4:50]
12. 3. Allegro [1:43]

Hilary Hahn, violin

Valentina Lisitsa, piano

2011 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg

1 CD DDD

477 9435

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The Hilliard Ensemble THOMAS TALLIS The Lamentations Of Jeremiah

I remember first hearing The Lamentations of Jeremiah of Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) as performed by the Deller Consort on an old Vanguard LP. Needless to say, my fifteen-year-old ears were awestruck by the ache of their eponymous emotion. In the hands (or should I say mouths?) of the Hilliard Ensemble the music of Tallis has become something else entirely. What the Deller recording displayed in brooding sensibility, the Hilliards have matched tenfold in the sheer expanse of their craft and in the ways in which that craft unfurls in a realm of earthly care. Composed during the latter half of the sixteenth century, the Lamentations are of the utmost spiritual refinement. Yet Tallis scholar Paul Doe asserts that the Lamentations “were not conceived as church music at all, but rather for private recreational singing by loyal Catholics.” Nevertheless, their masterful shifts in harmony and register make for a challenging “recreation” to say the least. Tallis has forged a delicate balance between each vocal line, and recreating this balance requires astute attention to many intricacies beyond the printed score. This the Hilliards pull off with dutiful concentration in a fluid and precise performance. The sheer sense of continuity and retrograde motion in these motets lends itself well to the shape and mood of their source texts. Each voice is clearly heard, rising intermittently above the others in slow waves in one of the most stunning examples of polyphony ever composed.
A languid tenor line spins the second setting into a gorgeous tapestry and intensifies the sonic textures. Here, Tallis constructs his voices much like cells: each one seems to subdivide until it develops into a living, breathing organism in its own right. Bodies individuate, shedding skin and emotional excess. In this pollinated space the Hilliards display an almost intuitive control of dynamics, and the way they ease into minor-to-major shifts at the ends of phrases is a perfect example of their ability to restrain at near silence, letting syllables breathe on their own without losing any harmonic tension. And perhaps this is exactly what these cells are: “pure” morphemes building into larger texts that become more recognizable with age. By the end they have successfully rendered the words of God’s subjects, who themselves interpret audible impulses of spiritual awareness into concrete blocks of meaning to be transcribed and notated by the faithful composer living through the religico-musical gesture alone. In this manner Tallis caresses the text, laying his hands upon the words with every note, and in doing so lays them also upon the listener. For this recording of the Lamentations the Hilliards have used a score tuned to modern pitch—which requires a deeper, more demanding sound palette—avoiding the pitfalls that transposed renditions often create when breaching into soprano territory. The countertenor is ideally suited to the haunting quality of the work, and in this regard David James paints a lower ceiling toward which the other voices may waft.
After these juggernauts come Salvator mundi and O sacrum convivium, two shorter motets that pave the way for the monumental Mass for Four Voices. In these pieces the alto line becomes more than a thread, but a thick, heavy cord that anchors the music down with its gravid faith. The music climbs and waits in the rafters to breathe in preparation for the Mass-ive descent to follow. Where the Lamentations are a tightly meshed macramé, in the Mass they resemble a lattice through which the wind blows freely. The voices are like water caught in a cove—sometimes they crash against the rocks; others they trickle between them, eddying in eroded pockets, splitting in infinitesimal directions. As such, they remain divinely ordered, flowing to the rhythm of some invisible articulation that can only be implied through the sounds of the sea, the trickle of a stream, the rush of a geyser, the tranquil violence of a waterfall.
This album represents a collection of music that has been “left behind,” having survived centuries of upheaval. In order to be heard and experienced, it must be transmitted from paper to voice, from materiality to intangibility, from the mundane to the sacred, only to be reinscribed onto a compact disc and sold as a commodity. Either way, the music outlives its creator. From the opening strains of the Lamentations to the harmonic gumbo of the closing Absterge Domine, we are treated to a veritable feast of sounds upon which the mind and body may gorge in abstract mastication. The recording is flawless—with just enough sheen from the highs and a touch of earthly muddiness in the lows—and couched in just the right amount of reverb. David James never fails to amaze throughout, while the two tenors (and Rogers Covey-Crump in particular) outdo themselves in the Mass. Like a freshly broken geode, the music they create surprises with its inner wealth. Its intense complexity and dissonant grinds make its moments of resolution all the more breathtaking. Those unsettling harmonies shake the listener down to the feet, underscoring the fallibility of the body. They also characterize the turbulent era in which Tallis lived, marking humanity at the center of music that is otherwise ecclesiastical. In listening to this disc one loses all sense of time and place, and in doing so begins to latch on to whatever individual voices are discernible from this beautifully ordered cacophony. The sheer variety of color shifts is beyond comprehension: it seems inconceivable that one could sit at a piano or organ and pluck these sounds from the ether. It is a music of dreams, of visions, and I daresay a music of divine inspiration. As such it lays itself bare as a supremely constructed object, though like any object it can be used to create magic. With all the formative elements nested in this world—earth, water, wind, air, fire—this music reminds us that, to that list, we must also add: light. (ECM Reviews /May 16, 2010)

Thomas Tallis (1505 - 1585)
The Lamentations of Jeremiah
1) Incipit lamentatio [8:42]
2) De lamentatione [12:51]
3) Salvator mundi [2:45]
4) O sacrum convivium [3:42]
Mass for Four Voices
5) Gloria [5:39]
6) Credo [5:41]
7) Sanctus [2:54]
8) Benedictus [2:33]
9) Agnus Dei [3:57]
10) Absterge Domine [5:29]

The Hilliard Ensemble

1987 ECM Records GmbH
1 CD DDD
ECM 1341

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Boulez SCHOENBERG Pelleas and Melisande

Only three years separate the first sketches of Arnold Schoenberg's only symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande, Op. 5 from the string sextet Verklärte Nacht of 1899; yet in some ways the distance traveled during this brief span is greater than that traveled by many composers during an entire lifetime. While the musical roots of Pelleas are, by and large, the same as those of the sextet—the most immediate being debts to the underlying "Leitmotiv" techniques of Wagner and the surface-level luxuriousness of Richard Strauss' own tone-poems—the contrapuntal web that Schoenberg weaves in Pelleas is so dense and of such chromatic complexity that the music is transfigured into something wholly new. To be sure, Pelleas is not an entirely successful score: the manner in which tonal and hyper-chromatic idioms interact throughout the score is perhaps not as fluid and natural as it had been in Verklärte Nacht, and the piece sometimes runs the risk of collapsing under its own weight. But during the early twentieth century, Schoenberg's musical language was developing at so rapid a pace that he could scarcely keep up with himself, and it is entirely understandable that, in his effort to give birth to such a remarkably new style of musical expression, he would overstretch himself a bit; before the decade was out, the path to which Pelleas clearly points had been followed, with consequences that would shape an entire century of music.
In 1902, Debussy's opera based on Materlinck's Pelleas and Melisande was hot off the press; Schoenberg, however, had no knowledge whatsoever of the French composer's effort, and proceeded to plan his own opera after the play. He rapidly discarded this plan in favor of a purely instrumental study of the work, feeling that his emerging style would be better served if the music were allowed to shape its own course in a way that a strictly text-derived work could never do. The rich scoring of Pelleas reflects the same late Romantic tendency towards inflation that marks the nearly contemporaneous scoring of Gurrelieder: 17 woodwind players, 18 brass, more than a half dozen percussionists, and a reinforced contingent of strings and harps are all on call. Pelleas und Melisande is cast as a single large body of music, in which the four traditional symphonic movements are still vaguely discernable, but which puts more stress on the myriad structural and expressive possibilities that result from juxtaposing several levels of motivic detail than on the well-worn shadows of "arbitrary" formal outlines.
And so, after the sober, chromatic melody that begins the narrative, we are offered a tragic theme representing the beautiful Melisande and an energetic, soaring Pelleas theme. Like Verklärte Nacht, Pelleas draws a large-scale D minor tonality; on the local scale, however, it is even more chromatically far-flung. From time to time, more conventionally "Romantic" passages crop up, such as the love scene that appears as a kind of adagio movement. The epilogue, in which Schoenberg reflects on the death of Melisande, is a masterstroke, as is the final, resigned descent back into D minor. (All Music Guide)

Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883)
Tristan und Isolde, Act 1
1. Prelude to Act 1
Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951)
Pelleas und Melisande op.5
2. Die Achtel ein wenig bewegt - zögernd
3. Heftig
4. Ciff. 9: Lebhaft
5. Ciff. 16: Sehr rasch
6. Ciff. 33: Ein wenig bewegt
7. Ciff. 36: Langsam
8. Ciff. 43: Ein wenig bewegter
9. Ciff. 50: Sehr langsam
10. Ciff 55: Etwas bewegt
11. Ciff. 59: In gehender Bewegung
12. Ciff. 62: Breit

Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester
Pierre Boulez

2011 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
477 9347 2

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Wendy Sutter - Dante Anzolini - Orchestra of the Americas PHILIP GLASS Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 1

In this new recording, Philip Glass' 2001 Cello Concerto No.1 gets a vivid and exciting new interpretation by cellist Wendy Sutter, with conductor Dante Anzolini, and the Orchestra of the Americas. Glass' concerto was previously recorded by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic with Julian Lloyd Webber under Gerard Schwarz. The piece was composed in 2001 and premiered in Beijing with Lloyd Webber, however Glass couldn't attend because of travel fears immediately following the terror attacks in New York. Eventually, seven years later, Glass finally heard his concerto performed live at its United States premiere in La Jolla with Wendy Sutter and the La Jolla Symphony under Steven Schick. The concerto has since found a second life with Sutter performing the piece in Belgium, Holland, at the Cabrillo Festival of Music under Marin Alsop, and on tour in South America with the Orchestra of the Americas. It was on this tour, in Quito Ecuador that this Michael Riesman produced recording was made.
The divergent paths chosen by minimalism's pioneers in later life are endlessly fascinating. Philip Glass has chosen to interpret minimalism in the most populist way, finding widespread performances for many of his ten concertos for solo instrument and orchestra. Whether or not you like these works is likely to depend on what you thought of Glass in the first place, but what's intriguing about them is the way they derive the impression of historical styles from Glass' basic arpeggios and large areas of harmonic stasis. Several of the concertos have explored the affinity between minimalism and the Baroque; this cello concerto is a nifty three-movement work in which late Romantic style -- think Dvorák -- is drawn out of typical Glass material in several different ways. Sample the opening movement, where the cello part (mostly intertwined with the orchestra rather than aggressively soloistic) evolves from arpeggio into melody, punctuated by stopping points and various gestures. This concerto had the bad fortune to have its premiere planned for October 2001; the premiere went ahead in China, but the U.S. premiere did not take place until 2007, with the present cellist, Wendy Sutter, as the soloist. She has championed several of Glass' works and is well attuned to his style. The concerto stands alone on this disc, resulting in a sparse sub-34-minute program, but Glass fans will enjoy it. The sound, recorded at the Casa de la Música in Quito, Ecuador, displays the attention to detail common to most of the releases on Glass' Orange Mountain Music label despite the remote location. (James Manheim, Rovi)

Philip Glass (1937 - )
1. Movement I [10:15]
2. Movement II [14:24]
3. Movement III [7:09]

Orchestra of the Americas
Dante Anzolini, conductor
Wendy Sutter, cello

2011 Orange Mountain Music
1 CD DDD
OMM0076

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ONSLOW Quatuor Diotima

Fans of the string quartets by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Mendelssohn should by all means try this disc of string quartets by George Onslow. British-born and Bohemian-trained composer spent most of his career in France, and aside from their tonal language and their four-movement structure, his quartets have little in common with his German contemporaries. In fact, they have little in common with the music of his French contemporaries, who concentrated mostly on stage works. But in these overwhelming persuasive performances by the Quatuor Diotima, Onslow's quartets come across as fully formed, wholly confident, and enormously expressive works. There is tremendous power in the fast movements: the rip-roaring Scherzo, from his "D minor Quartet, Op. 55"; immense pathos in the slow movements: the heartbreaking Andante con variazioni from the "E flat Quartet, Op. 54"; and awesome intensity in the opening movements: the monumental Allegro maestoso ed espressivo from the "C minor Quartet, Op. 56." Like the Quatuor Diotima's earlier recording of Lucien Durosoir's completely different but entirely compelling quartets, this disc will hopefully serve to introduce these splendid works to music lovers who might ordinarily ignore them. Naïve's digital sound is crisp yet evocative. (James Leonard, Rovi)

George Onslow (1784-1853)

String Quartet No. 28 in E flat major Op. 54

1) Introduzione. Adagio - Allegro moderato

2) "Preghiera". Andante con variazioni

3) Scherzo. Allegro

4) Finale, Allegro non troppo

String Quartet No. 29 in D minor Op. 55

5) Allegro

6) Scherzo. Presto

7) Adagio cantabile

8) Finale. Allegro vivace

String Quartet No. 30 in C minor Op, 56

9) Allegro maestoso ed espressivo

10) Minuetto. Moderato

11) Adagio cantabile e sostenuto

12) Finale. Vivace

Quatuor Diotima:

Yun-Peng Zhao, violin

Naaman Sluchin, violin

Franck Chevalier, viola

Pierre Morlet, cello

2009 naïve

1 CD DDD

V 5200

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Joanna Kurkowicz BACEWICZ Violin Concertos Nos. 2, 4 and 5

Grażyna Bacewicz, a distinguished Polish composer of the twentieth century and anaccomplished violinist and pianist, bridges the gap between the neo-romanticism of Karol Szymanowski and the modernism of Witold Lutosławski. Despite her premature death, at the age of fifty-nine, she left an impressive oeuvre of more than 200 compositions, including four symphonies, seven violin concertos, seven string quartets, and five sonatas for violin and piano, as well as concertos for piano and numerous works for both chamber orchestra and full orchestra.
The recording of Bacewicz’s Violin Concertos Nos 2, 4, and 5 is similar to that of Violin Concertos Nos 1, 3, and 7 (CHAN 10533) in that it comprises three stylistically diverse concertos. Written over the period of ten years between 1945 and 1955, they display the contrasting influences that formed Bacewicz’s compositional idiom. Following the example of the previous volume, this disc uncovers hidden gems of music – works that, once presented to a broader audience, could easily become favourites.
The centrepiece of the recording, Violin Concerto No. 4, was written in 1951 and dedicated to her violin teacher, Józef Jarzębski, a prominent Polish pedagogue. The concerto has quite a monumental character: it is a full-fledged symphonic work whose rich instrumentation includes a beautiful display of brass chords as well as sweeping lines within the strings in the concerto’s tutti sections. These tuttis demonstrate that, had she lived longer, Grażyna Bacewicz might have become one of the great symphonists of her time.
It is clear that, compositionally, Bacewicz wanted to write a big violin concerto with a definite leader (the solo violin) which is always positioned above the orchestra – a protagonist rather than an equal partner.
Violin Concerto No. 4 has a very powerful emotional content. One may sometimes hear hints of Russian influences in the grandioso approach to the orchestral material, or even in the melodic contour of the solo line, as in the beautiful main theme of the first movement. When not sweet and lyrical, the music becomes very dark – particularly in the orchestral parts – or, sometimes,
especially expressive – as in the short and unconventional cadenza in the second movement.
This concerto is technically brilliant and offers many opportunities for the soloist to shine, notably in the cadenzas of each of the three movements, and in fact in the entire third movement which is strikingly virtuosic. Polish folk material is used a few times in this dance-like Vivace. In the Andante tranquillo, as in her other slow movements, Grażyna Bacewicz creates a unique atmosphere that for me personally often brings to mind familiar feelings or images of the Polish landscape. But in as much as Violin Concerto No. 3 exudes an air of Polish folk culture, Violin Concerto No. 4 shows signs that it wants to escape from it. It is more European or cosmopolitan. Violin Concerto No. 5 is even further removed from the Polish aura. I can sense almost immediately that Bacewicz had been exposed to the Parisian school of composition, and perhaps to the influence of Nadia Boulanger. Now she was open to new ideas and experiments. That new approach is quite striking in the Andante, which starts with mysterious pianissimo bitonal chords in the orchestral strings. The colour palette here is delicate and impressionistic, the use of dynamics very effective. The solo violin part wanders around – sometimes soloistic, sometimes as an airy counterpoint to a glamorous horn melody. It is one of Bacewicz’s most sophisticated slow movements. The folk motifs are this time scattered around in the first and third movements, but while previously Bacewicz had been proud to incorporate these motifs very openly, now she only hints at folk style as one of many threads in her outstanding instrumentation. The language of the whole concerto is more modern than that of any of the preceding concertos. The melodic line is contemporary, not linear but vertical in its approach. It seems as though Bacewicz is on her way towards the inventiveness of Violin Concerto No. 7. The breath of fresh ‘new’ air is felt throughout. I wonder about Violin Concerto No. 6, which survives in manuscript but which Bacewicz never performed and never published. How does it sound? It is a mystery I hope one day to solve.
Violin Concerto No. 2 was written in 1945. It is abundant in relentless energy. A visceral simplicity seems to be the important element here. The opening Allegro ma non troppo is definitely a tour de force for the violinist. Millions of fast notes, or so it seems, run at incredible speed. It almost feels as though Bacewicz is a composer here and now, expressing the cruel features of our times: speed, haste, and the chasing of something, no matter what. The perpetual motion seems never to end, and there is yet a long, fabulous cadenza, which at times reminds me of the first movement, ‘Obsession’, of Eugène Ysaÿe’s Solo Violin Sonata No. 2. Then comes repose, at least for a moment: the heavenly, gorgeous Andante. It longs for something –nostalgia – or is perhaps simply an afterthought, a thing of pure beauty. Yet another energetic thirdmovement, with cascades of semiquavers, this time in 6 / 8 metre, breaks the silence. Bacewicz is surely obsessed with the motion of fast notes. ‘I run, not walk. I speak fast, even my pulse beats faster than normal, and I was born two months premature’, she used to say. It is evident here, the music exemplary of her style.
The project to record all the published violin concertos of Grażyna Bacewicz (Nos 1, 3, and 7 in Volume One and Nos 2, 4, and 5 in Volume Two) has been for me a tremendous journey through the incredible music of this fascinating composer. It has also been a journey that put me in touch with my Polish heritage. It proved deeply personal, and satisfying on many levels. I hope that violinists around the world will take up these concertos and that listeners will enjoy them. They are like rare stones. You have to find them, but once found they prove to shine brilliantly.
I would like to thank Łukasz Borowicz, Bogna Kowalska and the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw, my sound engineers, Gabriela Blicharz and Lech Dudzik, and of course Ralph Couzens and Chandos Records. They made it happen. (2011, Joanna Kurkowicz)

Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969)
premiere recordings

Concerto No. 4 for Violin and Orchestra (1951)
1) I Allegro non troppo - Poco meno (non troppo) - Poco più - Tempo I - Cadenza - [Tempo I] [11:12]
2) II Andante tranquillo [8:00]
3) III Vivace - Poco meno mosso - Poco avvivando - Tempo I - Poco meno - Tempo I [7:22]
Concerto No. 5 for Violin and Orchestra (1954)
4) I Deciso - Più mosso - Poco meno (ma non troppo) - Poco a poco avvivando - [9:20]
5) II Andante - Molto tranquillo - Espressivo - Meno mosso - Tempo I - Meno mosso (Tempo II) - [7:47]
6) III Vivace - Energico - Meno mosso (ma non troppo ) - Tempo I [5:28]
Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Orchestra (1945)
7 I Allegro ma non troppo - Cadenza - [Tempo I] [14:18]
8 II Andante [6:29]
9 III Vivo [10:05]

Joanna Kurkowicz, violin
Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Lukasz Borowicz

2011 Chandos Records Ltd

1 CD DDD

CHAN 10673

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Esa-Pekka Salonen STRAVINSKY Le Sacre du printemps

A delicious irony links the seemingly disparate names of Igor Stravinsky and Walt Disney, extending back well over six decades. In 1938 the Russian composer, his renown well established by a string of startling masterpieces in which the notorious Rite of Spring of 1913 held an ancestral position, was approached by the Disney Studios for permission to use that fearsome work in an innovative high-cultural venture. It was to be a classical-music-omnibus animated film called Fantasia, with Stravinsky’s music standing cheek-by-jowl with masterworks by Beethoven, Bach, Tchaikovsky and – coincidentally – a hoked-up version of Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain. Disney’s offer, by the way, made clear the fact that, since works by Russian composers were unprotected by copyright in the United States, it would make no difference if Stravinsky should decide to withhold permission – which, in the event, he did not.
To the composer’s further discomfiture, the Disney version of The Rite was cut back from the original 32 minutes to about 20 and tricked out with a scenario that replaced the original pagan dance ritual with a panorama of dinosaurs, volcanoes and terrestrial upheavals. Stravinsky, needless to say, was rendered livid by the abuse of his masterwork, an insult only intensified by Disney’s ludicrous offer, as palliative fee, of a paltry $5,000. Infinitely more satisfactory was the restitution six decades later, when the searing, throbbing strains of The Rite of Spring – every note in place this time as Stravinsky had conceived them – resounded through the welcoming new space of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, magnificently endowed by Disney’s widow Lillian to the City of Los Angeles.
Esa-Pekka Salonen was the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s proud conductor on that inaugural night in October 2003. When the final strains of Stravinsky’s mighty phantasmagoria had receded, he came onstage to share, with architect Frank Gehry and acoustic designer Yasuhisa Toyota, the triumphant dedication of one of the world’s truly great structures for the arts. With the coming of Disney Hall, a city proverbially lacking a center had blossomed into one with a downtown that everybody wanted to see, to visit, to become a part of. And Salonen himself, during the long, sometimes frustrating, years of building, planning, postponement and completion, had himself become enmeshed in this process and allowed it to govern his own future. “To be completely honest,” he said after the inaugural, “I worked hard trying to get the hall built. Now it’s there and I want to enjoy the harvest. People ask how I reconcile the distance between L.A. and the European culture of my upbringing. But I find it liberating.”
Some two years later – before another capacity Disney audience and, on this occasion, Deutsche Grammophon’s microphones – the sonic miracle repeats itself, as the climactic event in a vibrant program of three major works which share a fascinating history of emergence through struggle. St. John’s Night on Bald Mountain, Modest Mussorgsky’s first and only tone-poem, has only achieved acclaim in its true orchestral form more than a century after it was written. Béla Bartók’s pantomime The Miraculous Mandarin so enraged German authorities at its world premiere in 1926 that it had to be withdrawn after a single performance. (Bartók extracted the concert suite performed here – essentially the first two-thirds of the score – two years later for Budapest, which had to wait until 1945 to see the scandalous piece staged.) And at the end there’s The Rite of Spring, whose familiar story of mass condemnation and eventual mass acclamation – in which, let’s face it, even Disney’s butchery played a role – rings gloriously in the annals of musical criticism.
There is a further connection, Esa-Pekka Salonen notes, that links these extraordinary works. “All three have a coarse, crude vitality that relates to their place of origin: Eastern Europe, not at all shaped by the more formal designs of the German or Austrian symphonic tradition. The Russian folk rhythms of Mussorgsky and Stravinsky share quite a lot of background. And the irregular folk rhythms that Bartók studied and notated in Hungary are cut from the same cloth. All this music has a wonderful primitive slash which – I needn’t add – seems exactly right in our new Walt Disney Concert Hall.”
Concert audiences worldwide are convinced that they know Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain; nine times out of ten, they’re wrong. The best-known concert work by that title is actually a pastiche glued together by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. What Rimsky did in this case was to take fragments from a tone-poem by Mussorgsky which, with all its rough edges, added up to a bright and powerful musical portrayal, running some 13 minutes, of the traditional Witches’ Sabbath of Eastern European legend. Rimsky combined shards of this music with material from other Mussorgsky works, including the delightful folk opera Sorochintsï Fair, brought in a musical rooster-call and a happy sunrise to end proceedings on a brighter tone. (The Disney version goes even further, with a segue to Schubert’s Ave Maria.) Mussorgsky’s original orchestral work did not see publication until 1968, 101 years after its composition.
Post-Armistice Budapest afforded little security to the struggling Bartók. By 1918 the young composer had a savage, slashing dance piece on his hands, involving an indomitable Mandarin and a violently passionate prostitute – and no hope of bringing it to performance. Only eight years later did the score achieve its premiere – in Cologne – and that was the start of its troubles. A chorus of whistles and catcalls greeted the work at the final curtain, and these were echoed the next day by another chorus of critics. None other than Konrad Adenauer, then the Oberbürgermeister of Cologne and later leader of post-1945 Germany, demanded the work’s immediate withdrawal; the violence of the music and the degradation so graphically depicted in the scenario apparently portended, in the eyes and ears of a 1926 Cologne audience, a return to the bad old days of The Rite of Spring’s premiere in Paris 13 years before.
That work by Stravinsky, indeed, continues to cast its mighty shadow over the musical world – through the 1920s and onward into our own time. How could it not – as that solo bassoon at the onset confronts our imagination with sounds never before heard or even imagined; as the gentle intertwining for winds of those first magical minutes are swept aside by the brutal stomping of strings turned percussion and – a truly amazing moment – the “Adoration of the Earth” near the end of Part 1, a gleam as of a centuries-deep pileup of harmonies, reduced to the edge of a deathlike silence before it erupts into the savage “Dance of the Earth”. Modern music, it has been often noted, began with The Rite of Spring. Even more remarkable is the sense that, hard upon its 100th year on this blessed earth, it still sounds like the most modern music there is. (Alan Rich)

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881)
1. A Night on the Bare Mountain [12:14]
Béla Bartók (1881 - 1945)
The Miraculous Mandarin, BB 82, Sz. 73 (Op.19)
2. Suite [18:47]
Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971)
Le Sacre du Printemps
Revised version for Orchestra (published 1947)
Part 1: The Adoration of the Earth
3. 1. Introduction [3:16]
4. 2. The Harbingers of Spring, Dance of the Adolescents [3:11]
5. 3. Mock Abduction [1:17]
6. 4. Spring Rounds [3:56]
7. 5. Games of the Rival Tribes [1:46]
8. 6. Procession of the Sage [0:38]
9. The Sage [0:23]
10. Dance of the Earth [1:12]
Part 2: The Sacrifice
11. 1. Introduction [4:09]
12. 2. Mystical Circle of the Adolescents [3:10]
13. 3. Glorification of the Chosen One [1:28]
14. 4. Evocation of the Ancestors [0:42]
15. 5. Ritual of the Ancestors [3:30]
16. 6. Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One) [4:22]
Los Angeles Philharmonic

Esa-Pekka Salonen

2006 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, hamburg
1CD DDD
477 6198 3 GSA

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ESA-PEKKA SALONEN - LA Variations - Five Images After Sappho - Mania - Gambit - Giro

To know Esa-Pekka Salonen as a conductor who also composes is, as the booklet accompanying the first CD of his music says, ". . . to consider his story in reverse." But that's not entirely true, because the Salonen who heads the orchestra clearly informs the Salonen who writes music: in these pieces you can hear the icy grandeur of Sibelius, the eccentricity of Ligeti, the sparkle and bite of Stravinsky, the modal wash of Debussy, and even the "tonality" of Reich. From this distinguished roster (all of whom, with the exception of Reich, Salonen champions with brilliant results) comes music that is innovative without being obviously eclectic. Rather, it is clear, direct, and wholly original. This composer really knows his way around the orchestra--and what's more, he can write a melody.
The LA Variations is a 20-minute work for Salonen's own orchestra that teems with parental pride. Aside from being an enthusiastic meditation on life in L.A. (which we all know is fast and chaotic, but not without its laid-back side), Salonen riffs on fellow Finnish composer Sibelius, but with modernist eyes. And his orchestral innovation is endless: although you're convinced, especially during a moment halfway through when the percussion joins a frantic bass clarinet, that there is a tape component to this piece, there is not; it's just the consequence of a clever composer with a spectacular ear for his medium. The "Big Machine" portion of the work is relentless without being repetitive, a technique the composer uses to equal effect in the cello concerto Mania.
The Five Images After Sappho, gorgeously sung by Dawn Upshaw, are beautiful little song fragments in the spirit of the poet. Each is a little glimpse into a specific emotion, drawing on the modal pentatonic beauty of Debussy and the cool distance of Stravinsky (think Three Japanese Lyrics but more romantic). Salonen's ability to extract the sound of an entire orchestra from only 14 players is as baffling as his capacity to get his larger ensemble to sound lush and modern without sounding either "Hollywood-ish" or too dry.
Giro is the most modernist work on the disc, coming right out of the "spectral" school of another fellow countryman, Magnus Lindberg. Here, orchestral timbres bounce off one another to create non-orchestral sounds--voices, for example--which Salonen uses to striking effect. The ice-cold opening is stately and evocative of Sibelius, though Salonen uses this same device more successfully in Gambit. It's a piece that is at once playful and pensive (this duality might be the most Finnish of characteristics) and uses many of the now-defined Salonen musical traits: very clear and straightforward musical ideas, brilliantly orchestrated though not dependent on specific timbral effects to achieve their purpose. The pacing of the music is unpredictable in the best sense and doesn't lack for a sense of humor. When I heard that Salonen was scaling back his conducting efforts in order to concentrate on composing, it was with a feeling of sad loss. But now that this disc is available, here's to a nice long hiatus so he can give us more. (Daniel Felsenfeld)

Esa-Pekka Salonen (1958 - )

1) LA Variations [20:06]

Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen

Five Images After Sapho

2) 1. Tell Everyone [2:06]

3) 2. Without Warning [3:33]

4) 3. I'ts No Use [3:17]

5) 4. The Evening Star [3:04]

6) 5. Wedding [7:55]

Dawn Upshaw, London Sinfonietta, Esa-Pekka Salonen

7) Giro, for orchestra [10:10]

Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen

8) Mania, for violoncello solo and ensemble [17:01]

Anssi Karttunen, London Sinfonietta, Esa-Pekka Salonen

9) Gambit, for orchestra [9:00]

Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen

2001 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

1 CD DDD

SK 89158

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STEVE REICH WTC 9/11

Steve Reich's WTC 9/11 marks the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Commissioned for and recorded by Kronos Quartet, WTC 9/11 is scored for three string quartets and pre-recorded voices. The album also includes Reich's Mallet Quartet, performed by So Percussion, and Dance Patterns, featuring members of Steve Reich and Musicians, as well as a DVD with a live performance of Mallet Quartet by So Percussion.
WTC 9/11 reflects on the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001, when Reich and his family lived only four blocks away from the site of the tragedy. "On 9/11 we were in Vermont, but our son, granddaughter, and daughter-in-law were all in our apartment. Our phone connection stayed open for six hours and our next-door neighbors were finally able to drive north out of the city with their family and ours. For us, 9/11 was not a media event," the composer says.
The piece is scored for three string quartets; Kronos recorded all three parts for the album. WTC 9/11 also uses pre-recorded voices, the speakers' final vowels and consonants elongated in a stop-motion sound technique that Reich says is the "means of connecting one person to another-harmonically." Those voices and their texts belong to NORAD air traffic controllers, as they raised the alert that the airplanes were off course; FDNY workers on the scene; friends and former neighbors of the Reichs, recalling that day; and women who kept vigil, or Shmira, over the dead in a tent outside the Medical Examiner's office, reading Psalms or Biblical passages. The relationship between Steve Reich and Kronos Quartet spans more than 20 years. This is the third quartet the composer has written for Kronos; all three have been recorded by Nonesuch.
Mallet Quartet (2009), co-commissioned and performed by So Percussion, is scored for two vibraphones and two five-octave marimbas. The New York Times said of a Carnegie Hall performance: "So Percussion's energetic account...pointed up one of Mr. Reich's current modes of propulsion: a two-tiered approach in which the rhythmically repetitive backdrop that listeners hear as Minimalist (and as the music's distinctively Reichian signature) is offset by restless, melodically adventurous top lines. There were other contrasts here: the repeating figures, for marimbas, were dark and subdued, with a warm, wooden tone; the themes, played on vibraphones, were cool, bright and lively."
Dance Patterns (2002) is Reich's contribution to Thierry de Mey's film Counter Phrases of Anne Terese de Keersmaeker's Choreography, for which several composers wrote short pieces. While the film was shown, the music was performed live by the Ictus Ensemble, which commissioned all the music. Scored for vibraphones, xylophones, and pianos, Dance Patterns features members of Steve Reich and Musicians on the Nonesuch recording.

Steve Reich (1936 - )

WTC 9/11
1) I. 9/11
2) II. 2010
3) III. WTC
Mallet Quartet
4) I. Fast
5) II. Slow
6) III. Fast
7) Dance Patterns

Kronos Quartet

So Percussion

Steve Reich

2011 Nonesuch

1 CD DDD

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Robert Sadin ART OF LOVE Music of Machaut

A conversation with Robert Sadin
How was this album conceived?
I had finished working on two major projects - Gershwin's World with Herbie Hancock and Alegría with Wayne Shorter - and was speaking with Chris Roberts.

Our conversation turned to David Munrow, whose early death was a great loss to this world. Munrow had a tremendous vitality - he mastered an astonishing array of instruments and devoted himself to bringing the treasures of medieval and Renaissance music to the awareness of today's listeners. His recordings have a vibrancy and a sense of adventure which no one who has heard them will ever forget.

Chris raised the intriguing idea of revisiting Munrow's great album "The Art of Courtly Love," which features the music of Machaut, Dufay and others. This struck a very responsive chord in me.
At about that time my colleague and long-time friend Charles Curtis was spending the summer in New York. Charles is an extraordinary musician whose intensity of presentation stems from his intense concentration.
We started thinking about this music, especially the music of Machaut. And soon we were embarked on a journey of exploration.
Tell us something about Guillaume de Machaut.
We know Machaut died in 1377 and was probably born around 1300. He lived in the time of the plague and the Hundred Years' War. He served as a secretary and aide to various noble figures including the King of France, but he was never employed as a musician. He was well-known as a poet and as a composer. He wrote the lyrics to all of his songs and his poetry had a great influence on later generations.
How much do we know about how his music was originally performed?
Not a lot. People who are devoted to reenacting this music in a literal way have to rely on re-mote clues, such as a painting of a singer whose neck muscles may hint at the type of tone pro-duced. Recent studies suggest that the performing style of the time was not as pristine or as "classical" as once was believed. In any case, we were looking for a far-reaching, free-form approach to the music.
The music on "Art of Love" sounds very much of the present time - how much Machaut is included in the final result?
We preserved every musical line that Machaut wrote. A little ornamentation here and there - but actually very little.
So where does it diverge from the original manuscript?
The solo songs by Machaut consist of a melody and a lyric. There is no specified accompaniment of any kind - nor are there any hints as to possible additional musical parts or instrumentation. We approached these songs as if they were newly written. That is to say we created harmonic accompaniment, counterlines and instrumental solos.
And there are no indications regarding rhythm instruments in Machaut's manuscripts. So the rhythmic foundations are another new element.
In the three-part songs, all of the surrounding elements - Cyro's infectious percussion parts, Lionel's guitar obbligatos, Hassan's vocal interjections - are unique to this album.
You mention that there are no harmonies for the solo songs. How were the harmonies created?
The harmonic outlines were established in advance, but the fluid passing tones and the details of the voicings were improvised by Brad Mehldau and Romero Lubambo.
On one song, I didn't write harmonies at all. "Force of Love" is a trio for Charles, Brad and Cyro. Brad has such a superb range of harmonic expression that I simply gave him a copy of the mel-ody and let his ear be his guide.
Which was the first song you tackled?
"Tu, meu sonho vivo." This song has a magnificent mournful melody. Charles and I were at my studio. We started by creating a bed of sine waves. This is really Charles's thing. Then Charles recorded his cello part. As soon as we listened to the melody enmeshed in the sine tones, we knew this was something to pursue.
How did you bring Milton Nascimento into the process?
Milton is an incomparable vocalist and an adventurous spirit. From the moment that production began on the album, I started to hear his voice and feel his presence.
We recorded him in Rio. I can hardly describe the intensity in the studio: Milton asking for "one more take" and then "one more," his voice pouring out such profound beauty, such emotion, that I wish we could release an album of every one of his interpretations.
The Portuguese lyric which Milton wrote captures the flavor of Machaut and at the same time is pure Nascimento.
How did you approach the texts?
All of Machaut's lyrics are devoted to the medieval concept of "Courtly Love." In this tradition, a knight would develop an idealized love for a married lady within the court. She became an obsession for him, and her unavailability fueled his devotion. Although this custom put a premium on idealized, non-physical love, it seems that from time to time the wooing knight was success-ful, putting a very different slant on the whole concept. The lyrics of Machaut's songs are about hopeless, unrequited love in which the beloved is perfect beyond all imagining.
Machaut wrote in a French that only medieval specialists understand today. The force behind the translations into modern French was Yves Beauvais, an outstanding record producer and a good friend. Our only real departure from the sense of the original text was in "Python." We diverged from the mythology of the original to go in a more risqué direction. Lionel Loueke's understated, sly interpretation was a gift to the lyric in this new form.
Is this your first collaboration with Natalie Merchant?
Yes. I have always loved her singing and songwriting.
We rehearsed at her house in the woods. Her generosity, her warmth, her humor - unforgettable. During one of the rehearsals she put the words aside and started humming the melody. Romero and I exchanged a certain look. We never returned to the lyrics again - only to Natalie's voice.
It was a surprise to hear Madeleine Peyroux in a speaking part.
I have known Madeleine for many years, since she first came to New York. When I called to ask her to read the text of "Amour me fait désirer," she made time even though she was about to leave on a long European tour. That's just the kind of person she is. Her recitation of the poem has the same sense of rhythmic nuance, the same subtlety of color which characterizes her singing.
Jasmine Thomas is a new name to me.
Jasmine is a young American singer. She has retained a very precious sense of directness and simplicity. The words come alive when she sings. I think her future is very bright indeed.
There are a lot of African sounds on the album. How did that become part of the concept?
Everyone realizes how much African music shaped American music, but African music also had a huge influence on the music of Europe. Is it an accident that the virtuosic vocal ornaments and coloratura of Europe found a home in Italy, so close to North Africa? I don't think so.
For some time historians believed that there was an important Arabic influence in medieval music. This is subject to some debate now, but it's an attractive concept. I am not a scholar in these matters by any stretch of the imagination, but I like to think that the Arabic presence in the Iberian peninsula left reverberations in the French-speaking regions of Europe as well.
What do you feel links these musicians from so many traditions?
Of course their excellence - but there is another thread which runs through the choice of musicians. Although many of them have had tremendous public success and acclaim, they have consistently resisted the blandishments of fame. They have determinedly, even stubbornly, pursued their personal vision.
In his harmony textbook, Schoenberg advises his students to take the path of most resistance. I think that applies to the participants on this album.
Cyro could have easily established himself as a touring percussionist. Charles could have settled into life as an orchestral principal cellist. Mark Feldman could have been content to play re-cording sessions in Nashville, or play in jazz groups in New York. But the musicians and singers on this album have a professional and artistic profile which includes seemingly conflicting and even contradictory elements. They refuse to be pigeon-holed. They reject conventional characterization.
After being immersed in this album, what are your feelings about Machaut's music?
What is most amazing to me is how his melodies just bury themselves in the memory and the psyche. How is it that more than 700 years later these sequences of notes can have such an impact? This is a mystery to me. Although the original lyrics often seem overwrought, the music is extraordinarily fresh. The melodies and harmonies are far from today's classical music conventions, yet they speak even more directly and profoundly.

Traditional
1. Song of the Dawn [5:11]
Milton Nascimento, Jasmine Thomas, John Ellis, Brad Mehldau, Charles Curtis, Cyro Baptista
Guillaume de Machaut (1300 - 1377)
2. Douce Dame - arranged by Robert Sadin [3:22]
Hassan Hakmoun, Mark Feldman, Charles Curtis, Seamus Blake, John Ellis, Cyro Baptista
3. Natalie's Song - arranged by Robert Sadin [3:36]
Natalie Merchant, Romero Lubambo, Cyro Baptista
4. Python - arranged by Robert Sadin [5:00]
Robert Sadin, Lionel Loueke, John Ellis, Cyro Baptista
5. Amour me fait désirer - arranged by Robert Sadin [5:12]
Madeleine Peyroux, Hassan Hakmoun, Mark Feldman, Charles Curtis, John Ellis, Cyro Baptista, Robert Sadin
6. Tu, meu sonho vivo - arranged by Robert Sadin [5:39]
Milton Nascimento, Charles Curtis, Seamus Blake
7. Comment - arranged by Robert Sadin [5:32]
Matt Shulman, John Ellis, Robert Sadin, Dan Weiss, Cyro Baptista, Lionel Loueke
8. Brad's Interlude - arranged by Robert Sadin [1:17]
Brad Mehldau
9. Dame, si vous m'êtes lointaine - arranged by Robert Sadin [5:04]
Robert Sadin, Matt Shulman, Graham Haynes, Brad Mehldau, Romero Lubambo, Charles Curtis, Cyro Baptista
10. Force of Love - arranged by Robert Sadin [4:04]
Charles Curtis, Brad Mehldau, Cyro Baptista
11. Doux visage - arranged by Robert Sadin [3:29]
Celena Shafer, Mark Feldman, Charles Curtis, Brad Mehldau, Cyro Baptista
12. Hélas - arranged by Robert Sadin [3:35]
Charles Curtis, Romero Lubambo
13. Evocation - arranged by Robert Sadin [1:11]
Milton Nascimento

2009 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
4774 1952 5 GH

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Anna Netrebko Live at The Metropolitan Opera

Ever since her 2002 debut at the Met in Prokofiev’s War and Peace, under the baton of her early champion Valery Gergiev, Anna Netrebko has been a singer worthy of pursuit. When I was first appointed General Manager of the Met in 2004, I tracked her from Vienna – where the audience cheered her for what felt like an hour when she sang in L’elisir d’amore – to Salzburg, where she overwhelmed the public with one of the most memorable performances of La traviata ever.
Over plates of Wiener schnitzel in the coffee shop of the Imperial Hotel in Vienna, I attempted to persuade her to make the Met one of the focal points of her future career. Since then, her roles at the Met have piled up in a relatively short time: Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Musetta and later Mimì in La Bohème, Gilda in Rigoletto, Norina in Don Pasquale, Elvira in I Puritani, Juliette, Lucia, and Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann.
In the prime of her career, she is our reigning superstar diva.
Why? Because she has it all – a sumptuous, lustrous voice that one can never get tired of hearing, an extraordinary ability to dramatically absorb every role she embraces, and the intangible star charisma possessed by only the chosen few.
If she were not to sing another note, Anna’s place in operatic history would already be assured. Fortunately for her many thousands of fans at the Met and elsewhere around the world, she is only at the threshold of one of the great careers, with many new roles that she will bring to life in the future. Here on this CD are the roles she already has made her own, recorded in unforgettable live performances at the Met. (Peter Gelb, General Manager, Metropolitan Opera 8/2011)

It would be happy news for opera fans if this release indicated the beginning a trend for the Metropolitan Opera: releasing albums of excerpts of operas from its vast archive that showcase the work of individual singers. Recitals of operatic arias and scenes recorded in the studio are a dime a dozen (and for a rising star, a practically obligatory rite of passage). The results can easily sound sterile and formulaic; the same repertoire for each voice type gets endlessly recycled, the supporting singers are seldom of the highest quality, and the orchestral accompaniment is a wild card, sometimes stellar and sometimes barely adequate. A series of releases from the Met would guarantee a high quality of orchestral and choral support, excellent soloists in the extended scenes and ensemble pieces, and the dynamic charge of live performance that's rarely captured in the studio. This release is all of those things, besides being a glowing testimony to Netrebko's artistry; her immersion in her roles and easy dramatic flair for both comedy and tragedy, the breadth of the repertoire in which she excels, and her remarkable voice: velvety, lustrous, beguiling.
This collection was released in celebration of the tenth anniversary of Netrebko's Met debut in 2002 as Natasha in Prokofiev's "War and Peace," and includes a rhapsodic scene (with Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ekaterina Semenchuk) from that production. Every track is fully satisfying. The Mad Scene from "Lucia" is chilling in Netrebko's haunted and haunting performance. The two scenes from "Roméo et Juliette" are high points. There's real chemistry between Netrebko and Roberto Alagna, and their duet, "Huit d'hyménée," is vocally gorgeous and saturated with sensuality. The delightful trio from "Don Pasquale," which also features Juan Diego Flórez and Mariusz Kwiecien, offers ample evidence of the performers' sly humor. This is a release that will be indispensible for Netrebko's fans. There is some variability in the sound quality and ambience between tracks, but its impact is negligible because it's never less than very fine. (Stephen Eddins, Rovi)

Vincenzo Bellini (1801 - 1835)
I Puritani
Act 2
1. Qui la voce sua soave [3:59]
Anna Netrebko, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Patrick Summers
Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953)
War and Peace, Op.91
2. Ya ne budu ... Duet: Kak solntze za garoi [5:38]
Anna Netrebko, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Valery Gergiev
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Don Giovanni, ossia Il dissoluto punito, K.527
Act 2
3. "Vedrai, carino" [3:57]
Anna Netrebko, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Sylvain Cambreling
Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848)
Don Pasquale
Act 3
4. "Senz'andar lungi...La morale in tutto questo" [4:04]
Anna Netrebko, Juan Diego Flórez, Mariusz Kwiecien, Simone Alaimo, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Maurizio Benini, Metropolitan Opera Chorus
Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)
Rigoletto
Act 3
5. "Ah, più non ragiono!..." [6:17]
Anna Netrebko, Nancy Fabiola Herrera, Eric Halfvarson, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Asher Fisch
Charles Gounod (1818 - 1893)
Roméo et Juliette
Act 4
6. Nuit d'hymnénée! [11:04]
Anna Netrebko, Roberto Alagna, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Plácido Domingo
7. "Dieu! quel frisson" / "Amour, ranime mon courage" [6:00]
Anna Netrebko, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Plácido Domingo
Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848)
Lucia di Lammermoor
Act 3
8. "Il dolce suono" - "Ardon gl'incensi" [12:59]
Anna Netrebko, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Marco Armiliato, Metropolitan Opera Chorus
Jacques Offenbach (1819 - 1880)
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Act 3
9. "Pourtant, ô ma fiancée" ... "C'est une chanson d'amour" [3:59]
Anna Netrebko, Joseph Calleja, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, James Levine
Giacomo Puccini (1858 - 1924)
La Bohème
Act 3
10. "Donde lieta uscì" [3:29]
Anna Netrebko, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Marco Armiliato
Act 1
11. "O soave fanciulla" [4:33]
Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczala, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Marco Armiliato

2011 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
1 CD DDD
477 9903 o GH

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PASSWORD: elhenry.MusicIsTheKey