CD Review

CD Review, early music, File Under?

Fabio Biondi plays Vivaldi Concertos “Per Anna Maria”

Concerto per Violino XI, “Per Anna Maria”

Fabio Biondi, violin; Europa Galante

Naive Records

 

Anna Maria (1696-1782) was one of Antonio Vivaldi’s principal muses. She was a pupil of his at Ospedale delle Pietà, where he taught for forty years. A child prodigy, Anna Maria was a violinist of enormous talent. Vivaldi recognized this and composed at least twenty-four concertos dedicated to her. 

 

Judging by the concertos performed by soloist Fabio Biondi, the composer entrusted Anna Maria with works requiring enormous facility and musicality. The D Major concerto that opens the recording begins with a brief snatch of a simple theme that is a red herring for the vigorous soloing to come. The ensemble plays with rhythmic verve and dynamics that, while terraced, bring an expressive character, powerful in the forte sections and dulcet in the soft. The middle movement is a harmonically twisty theme accompanied by the continuo, which includes a portative organ and lute. The finale is a gigue with quick-paced sequential passages for the soloist. A brief minor interlude is followed by a fleet-footed cadenza, played with nimble virtuosity by Biondi, then a bold conclusion. 

 

The concerto in B-flat is subtitled “il corneto da posta” (the post-horn). The first movement is filled with zesty double-dotted rhythms. The second has a flexible  solo part with an emotive minor middle section. The concerto does indeed make use of post-horn calls, albeit in strings, in its buoyant finale movement.

 

The Concerto in E-flat, RV261, is a particular standout, featuring a bustling Allegro in which the tutti are a muscular foil for Biondi, who plays ricocheting lines with a glimmering tone. The Adagio is a plaintive minor key movement, with the ensemble again emphatic while the solos are played with supple grace. The final movement is taken at a breathtaking tempo and is a showcase for both soloist and ensemble.

 

The concerto in C-major supplies some of the most regal-sounding music I have heard from Vivaldi in an instrumental context: it is as if he has borrowed Handel’s wig. Biondi demonstrates his talent for period-informed bespoke ornaments in the Largo movement. A separate track at the end of the recording demonstrates the score’s original ornaments. Touches like this make “Per Anna Maria ” an estimable contribution to Naive’s Vivaldi collection. It is one of my favorite recordings of 2023.

 

-Christian Carey



by Christian Carey
Awards, CD Review, CDs, Composers, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, LPs

Eno Voiced and Voiceless

Brian Eno – solo tour, FOREVERANDNEVERMORE and FOREVERVOICELESS

This past Saturday, Brian Eno played the first show of his 2023 tour at the Venice Biennale Musica. The Guardian posted a review of the concert, indicating that it spotlighted Baltic Sea Philharmonia Orchestra, an opportunity presented to Eno as part of his winning Venice’s Golden Lion Award. The centerpiece of the concert was The Ship, a compelling piece that was recorded for Warp in 2016. Eno’s song catalog was also explored, mostly recent material, but reaching back to 1977’s “By This River,” from his fantastic album Before and After Science. 

Eno’s concern with the environment has played an important role in two recent recordings, FOREVERANDNEVERMORE (Universal, 2022),  which consists of songs about environmental collapse, and its 2023 companion, FOREVERVOICELESS, instrumental versions of the material. Eno’s voice has darkened since the days of “By This River,” but it remains an expressive instrument. “We Let it In” is a persistently repeating melody that morphs over time with the addition of vocal harmonies. “Garden of Stars” uses overdubbed vocals throughout, with text rhythms shifting, quick glissandos, and the instruments playing a long crescendo of sliding tones and repeated notes on strings. “There Were Bells” is perhaps the most emotively I have heard Eno sing in some time. With distant thunder as a background, Eno croons, modulates his vibrato, and leans into a fluid sense of rhythm.

 

FOREVERVOICELESS is quite moving in its own right. Where pop artists often lay down an instrumental bed, adding vocals last, here Eno removes the vocals and reworks and remixes the songs as instrumentals, frequently as commentary on the former by the latter. “Inclusion” is a highlight, mixing Eno’s classic ambient approach with sustained upper-register string melodies, bubbling prog textures, and a lyrical cello solo. “Sherry” and its complement “Chéri” takes a smoky, chromatic vocal melody and, in its remix, allows chords and bassline to create a gentle, undulating piece, almost like a 4/4 version of a Gymnopedie by Satie. Over time, the melody is revisited, with chromatic scales mimicking Eno’s vocal inflections. The song “Icarus or Biérot,” with a harrowing vocal referencing the former’s fall,  is reconfigured as “Who Are We?,” with the synth chordal ostinatos given an edge that provides a more syncopated construction. Occasional bell-like timbres provide boundaries for the sections. Gradually, sinuous strings and high sine tones embellish the soundscape. A disjunct tune wends its way through, completing a thoroughly new impression of the music.

 

Both recordings sound fantastic on vinyl. As a pair, they demonstrate Eno’s talents as a songwriter, and also remind us of the intricacies that lurk beneath their surface. FOREVERVOICELESS is one of my favorite releases of 2023.

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Composers, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Justin Dello Joio – Oceans Apart (CD Review)

Justin Dello Joio – Oceans Apart (Bridge Records)

 

Composer Justin Dello Joio enjoys a top flight slate of performers on Oceans Apart, his latest recording for Bridge. The title work is a piano concerto, performed live here by the Boston Symphony, conducted by Alan Gilbert, with Garrick Ohlsson as soloist. A short bit of applause is left on the tail end of the recording, otherwise one would never be the wiser. The quality of the rendition and recording are excellent.

 

Dello Joio conceived of Oceans Apart when watching surfers being challenged by massive waves. The concerto translates this image into a piece with a muscular orchestration trying to overwhelm the soloist. The scoring is vivid and varied, with imaginative use of harp, percussion, muted brass, and string effects to create the undulating feel of the surf. As the piece builds, it swells and indeed threatens to subsume the pianist. It is appreciated that Dello Joio has his own take on “water music:” no ersatz Debussy here. 

 

Ohlsson is a marvelous interpreter, undertaking the role of vying against the orchestra instead of, as is traditional, being supported by it. That said, in places where the soloist is intended to blend in with certain cohorts of the ensemble, such as pitched percussion flurries, shimmering and well-coordinated passages result. His solo turns reveal formidable virtuosity. The final cadenza finds the pianist challenged over and over again by violent interruptions, which is succeeded by a supple denouement. Not to overstress the program, but I have to wonder if the surfer went underwater. Oceans Apart is one of Dello Joio’s best orchestral pieces to date, with a versatile language and well-planned trajectory. 

 

The other two works on the CD are for chamber forces. Due per Due is played by NY Philharmonic principal cellist Carter Brey and pianist Christopher O’Riley. The first movement, “Elegie (To an old musician),” is dedicated to Dello Joio’s father, Norman Dello Joio. One can hear a clever co-opting of the elder composer’s use of pantonality and dissonant counterpoint. At the same time, Justin Dello Joio’s voice is an unmistakable part of the piece; it is far more intricately shaped and complexly hued than any piece by his father. The second movement is a moto perpetuo, but one that is far more developed and intricate than many pieces written in this style. Brey and O’Riley are an excellent pairing of performers. One could easily imagine them recording and touring a program of contemporary works.

 

Blue and Gold Music concludes the recording (the title takes the colors from Trinity School, a K-12 preparatory school that Dello Joio attended). The American Brass Quintet and organist Colin Fowler are ideal interpreters for the ebullient, fanfare-filled piece. It demonstrates how far Dello Joio can stylistically stretch while retaining his own distinctive approach. Copland-esque Americana with a twist is an ideal vehicle for the American Brass Quintet, and Fowler is a good addition to the proceedings.

 

The concerto is one of my favorite works of 2023, and the entire recording is highly recommended.

 

-Christian Carey



by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, Minimalism

John Luther Adams – Darkness and Scattered Light

Cold Blue Music has announced the release of Darkness and Scattered Light, a new CD of solo works for double bass by John Luther Adams. The album contains three pieces that capture the impressive grandeur of nature from the unconventional perspective of the double bass. Darkness and Scattered Light is extraordinary music, masterfully performed on this CD by the late Robert Black, a long-time collaborator of the composer. John Luther Adams is a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer whose work has long embraced the natural world and chronicled its unsettled relationship to humanity.

Three High Places is the first work of the album and its three movements revisit string quartet music first heard on Adam’s 2015 CD, The Wind in High Places. On that album, the needle-sharp pitches in the violins and craggy passages in the lower strings brilliantly captured the Alaskan winds in all their snowy magnificence. Three High Places was originally composed for solo violin and Robert Black is the first to play it on double bass. Adams writes that this piece “…contains no normal stopped tones (created by pressing a string against the fingerboard of the instrument). Instead, all the sounds are natural harmonics or open strings. So, the musician’s fingers never touch the fingerboard. If I could’ve found a way to make this music without touching the instrument at all, I would have.”

“Above Sunset Pass” is the first movement of Three High Places and was inspired by one of the most fiercely inaccessible places in North America. Sunset Pass is located in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge near the shore of the Arctic Ocean in the very far north of Alaska. The area is uninhabited, has no roads and is reachable only on foot. It would be hard to imagine a more forbidding place, especially in the winter. The opening of “Above Sunset Pass” is a combination of deep, sustained tones with slow moving notes in the middle registers. As lovingly played by Robert Black, there is a suitably distant and lonely feel to this, but it is never intimidating. Despite the obvious climatic intensity of Sunset Pass, the music is beautifully warm and welcoming. With its broad foundational tones and primal harmony, “Above Sunset Pass” has a hospitable feel and powerful pastoral sensibility that invites the listener to experience the extreme Alaskan nature on its own terms.

“The Wind at Maclaren Summit”, the second movement, follows, and this is a portrait of another Alaskan high mountain pass. This begins in a deep rumbling with a bouncy melody in the middle registers that is active but never rushed. There is a layered and mystical feeling to this, skillfully played and very effective. High pitches fly by that suggest the stinging wind in a snow squall. The string quartet version includes many sharp tones but the double bass version here is wonderfully burnished. Despite its roiling texture, “The Wind at Maclaren Summit” manages to evoke the intensity of mountain storm without the menace.

The final movement is “Looking Toward Hope” and this opens with low, growling sounds and a rugged texture accompanied by an elegant smoothness in the middle registers. Overall the feeling is warm, solemn and marvelously expressive, especially in the deepest tones of the double bass. There is a sense of craggy magnificence, as if looking at a rugged mountain face. All the movements of Three High Places deliver a compelling musical argument that counters our traditional adversarial relationship with nature. The compassionate viewpoint of the music and the sensitive playing by Robert Black bring a new level of expressive power to this important conversation.

Darkness and Scattered Light is the second work on the album and this is scored for five double basses. All parts are performed by Robert Black. This opens with a deep and sustained tone that is somewhat rough around the edges. More notes join in, long and low with a gradual crescendo – decrescendo dynamic. The tones move in phrases that layer into each other and this produces a somewhat alien feel. The piece continues in this way, the phrases multiplying in a series of comings and goings. There is mystery but also a sense of power in their movement and tone. The texture of five double basses overlapping is impressive to the ear and evokes a sense of greatness.

By 7:30 a bit of tension has seeped in, with the phrases rising in pitch. The anxious feelings increase as the notes climb higher and higher, finally arriving at a hint of desperation. The pitches soon turn lower again, with the rough edges of the opening. By 13:00 every voice is now active in the lower registers, and express a more confident feel. Some of the pitches are very low, more like a grumble or a growl, and all are reduced in tempo with simplified phrasing and a smaller dynamic change. These sequences trail off with a solid, grounded feeling before fading out at the finish. Darkness and Scattered Light is a marvel of massed double bass timbre and resonance, masterfully played by Robert Black.

The final piece of the album is Three Nocturnes, scored for solo bass and employs the standard double bass tuning of perfect fourths. The piece was commissioned by the Moab Music Festival and the premiere performance was by Robert Black, to whom the work is dedicated. “Moonrise” is the first movement and opens with a deep, grumbling chord and continues with slow, deliberate tones. The sounds are sustained and darkly mysterious. The very lowest notes occasionally have a brassy timbre and sound almost as if they came from a euphonium. The chords gradually rise in pitch – just as the moon rises – but overall the sound is deep and satisfying. Towards the finish, the tones are less mysterious and more purposeful, just as the moon seems to sharpen itself in the clear night sky as it ascends above a hazy horizon. A long sustained note marks the finish.

“Night Wind”, the second movement, follows, and this is filled with rapidly jumping notes and arpeggios played over several strings. A nice groove develops that enhances the active feel. There are no sustained notes and this makes an effective contrast to the smooth bass lines present in the other pieces. There is the sense of the organic, as if listening to the buzz of busy bees. This is elegant playing; always precise and accurate despite the brisk tempo and widely scattered range of the notes.

“Moonset” is the final movement and this nicely book-ends the piece. High, thin notes open along with a series of deeper sounds in the lower registers. “Moonset” proceeds at a slow and deliberate pace with an interesting contrast developing between very high and very low tones. Everything takes place at opposite ends of the normal registers, always with a solemn and serious feel. The playing is extraordinary; reflective and thoughtful, but never melancholy. Towards the finish the tones soften somewhat, as if the moon is disappearing into a murky horizon while trying to maintain its previously bright countenance. Robert Black and “Moonset” stretch the expressive limits of the tones that can be conjured from the double bass.

Darkness and Scattered Light artfully extends the environmental dialog that is the signature theme of composer John Luther Adams while at the same time establishing a lasting testament to the expressive virtuosity of bassist Robert Black.


Darkness and Scattered Light is available from Cold Blue Music, Amazon and other music retailers.



by Paul Muller
CD Review, File Under?, jazz

Russ Lossing and King Vulture (CD Review)

Russ Lossing and King Vulture

Alternate Side Parking Music

Aqua Piazza Records

Russ Lossing, piano, keyboards; Adam Kolker, soprano and tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; Matt Pavolka, bass; Dayeon Seok, drums

Photo: Marie Bissétt

 

Pianist Russ Lossing has been a fixture on the New York jazz scene for over thirty-five years. His latest recording, Alternate Side Parking Music on Aqua Piazza, employs a new quartet, called King Vulture, in a set of vibrant compositions. Lossing has worked with saxophonist Adam Kolker and bassist Matt Pavolka for years. It is the addition of the abundantly talented drummer Dayeon Seok that brings a fresh perspective. King Vulture understands Lossing’s musical vocabulary well. Moreover, they inhabit these compositions in a way that stretches their seams, each player bringing their own distinctive approach to the proceedings. 

 

“Honk” begins with the rhythm section in a fiery opening, Lossing playing a free solo and Seok drumming assertively, with fills piling on top of one another over the underlying pulse. Kolker enters, with stentorian lines. On “Cloned” distorted electric piano and octave melodies between saxophone and bass clarinet suggest an affinity with early fusion. “Next 3 km ” opens with a beautiful bass clarinet solo, followed by a melody played by Pavolka and mysterious scales from Lossing on Rhodes and piano. An angular solo and distorted fragments ensue while Pavolka double times: His facility with fast passages and twisty melodies is extraordinary. The opening tune reappears, doubled by piano, with cymbal shimmers and walking bass adorning the proceedings. It closes with repeated octaves from sax and piano, a sideways move that serves as punctuation.

“Parallel Park,” a daunting challenge in NYC. Over a nervous groove, Kolker plays an energetic soprano saxophone solo. Lossing’s solo turn has extended triadic changes and a funky suaveness: this driver does not fear a fender bender. Pavolka plays glissandos in a brief spotlight moment right before the piece’s close. “Double Park” is a move far more likely on Manhattan streets. And the “Meter Maid” is likely watching. While one doesn’t want to overly programmatize the pieces based on their titles, there are often clever connections afoot. “Double Park” begins with a chromatic bass clarinet solo, once again doubled with piano in octaves, the rhythm section subdued. The music trends bluesy, continuing an assured pose as the rhythm section begins to build. Things get angsty, with an energetic Rhodes solo and Seok building to a thunderous climax. A bass ostinato looks into a rock groove with the drummer, with the bass clarinet returning, this time trading phrases with the piano. As the piece concludes, we are back to octaves and a long decrescendo. 

 

“Meter Maid,” on the other hand, is filled with overlapping grooves that don’t quite interlock. Fistfuls of piano clusters land on a complex melody at the same time as the saxophone and drum thwacks. The rhythm section lays out, and prestissimo exchanges between piano and saxophone are dizzying. This is succeeded by a strutting funk section that supports Kolker squalling with abandon and a fierce Fender solo from Lossing. The music presses forward, the octaves between saxophone and keys returning, with a mad dash at the conclusion. One senses that the driver didn’t feed the meter in time. 

 

The final track, “Turn,” overlaps fourth leaps, a bass ostinato, and heavy drumming. Once again, fleet exchanges between keyboard and saxophone flurry the atmosphere, with each vying for the foreground. Lossing provides a spacey, distorted solo. Over a pressing ostinato, the saxophone breaks off to share the tune one last time, and the music evaporates. 

 

Lossing has great chemistry with King Vulture. One hopes they will make music together for a long time.

 

-Christian Carey



by Christian Carey
CD Review, Chamber Music, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, Songs

David Biedenbender Portrait CD on Blue Griffin (Review)

“I remember first reading Robert Fanning’s poetry in 2014; it was as if he was able to give voice to feelings and experiences in a way that made them feel like my own. His words reveal a world of profound beauty that transcends the page.” 

– David Biedenbender

 

Shell and Wing – YouTube

 

 

David Biedenbender

All We Are Given We Cannot Hold

Blue Griffin CD

Lindsay Kesselman, soprano; 

Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Kevin Noe, Artistic Director;

Garth Newel Piano Quartet with Mingzhe Wang, clarinet; Haven Trio. 

 

If a composer is able to find a poet who is a muse, they are fortunate indeed; a living poet, doubly so. David Biedenbender engaged in close collaboration with Robert Fanning in creating two vocal pieces that are programmed on his Blue Griffin CD All We Are Given We Cannot Hold. Soprano Lindsay Kesselman has bonded with these works in a special way as well, imparting both words and music assuredly, her beautiful voice, dynamic control, and impressive upper register making her an ideal advocate for Biedenbender’s work. 

 

Shell and Wing is for soprano and chamber group, here the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. Kesselman treats Fanning’s poetry sensitively, delivering a rousing performance in “Shell” and imparting “Wing” with touching delicacy. The use of pitched percussion and piano is noteworthy here and elsewhere in Biedenbender’s music, with Ian Rosenbaum’s vibraphone and pianist Oscar Mikaelsson performing overlapping rhythms. Strings and winds create corresponding passages, with multiple strands of activity yet a strong sense of support for the vocal line. The piece ends in a hushed fashion, Kesselman’s singing down to a whisper.

 

Biedenbender composes in a language that encompasses extended tonality and chromaticism, with a particular interest in varieties of rhythmic expression. “Red Vesper,” performed by Garth Newel Piano Quartet and clarinetist Mingzhe Wang, doubles a sustained string harmonic and repeated piano notes, to which a clarinet melody and pizzicato are added. Quickly, the sense of repeated notes is supplanted by a modal chord arpeggiated in various ways with pitches slowly accumulating. String harmonics once again take notes from the harmony, extending them into a sustained melody. Sliding tone in the strings and the clarinet tune surround a wide-ranged version of the piano’s harmonies. The intensity builds, with the repeated patterns corruscating into a multifaceted surface. Thick piano chords and an emphatic cello solo begin the last section, which then concludes with each separate strand successively evaporating.  

 

Solstice was composed for the Garth Newel Piano Quartet. The four-movement piece depicts the seasons’ solstices. Each has a different demeanor: “Summer” lazily and gradually unfolding into exuberance, filled with harmonics, repeated note patterns, and added note harmonies; Autumn elusive, replete with colorful chords, string glissandos and more repetition of single notes, with a romantic melody arriving partway through; Winter mournful, rife with dissonant intervals in pointillist textures and sul ponticello strings; Spring glistening with post-minimal figuration and slabs of bright harmony. One of the most interesting facets of this piece is the composer’s use of varieties of rhythmic overlap: Hocketing figures, doublings, contrapuntal interactivity, and ostinatos that land together and apart. Biedenbender’s love affair with the voice notwithstanding, his instrumental music is equally compelling.

 

Kesselman is part of the group Haven Trio. Joined by clarinetist Kimberly Cole Luevano and pianist Midori Koga, the soprano performs all we are given we cannot hold, a song cycle with settings of Fanning. “The Darkness, Literal and Figurative” features an oscillating two chord pattern in the piano, descending lines in the clarinet, and a delicately delivered yet rangy vocal line. “One and a half miles away” is declamatory, with repeated piano bass notes. “Watching my Daughter through the One Way Mirror of a Preschool Observation Window” is one of the most touching of Fanning’s poems, analogizing the view of his young child with the view he hopes to get of his grown children from the beyond. A duet between Kesselman and Luevano alternates segments of the main melody, while Koga plays swaths of harmony. The distant thunder of bass octaves and a clarinet cadenza accompany a recitative from Kesselman in “Model Nation,” ultimately replaced by piano ostinatos and scalar mirroring from the clarinet to reframe the high-lying singing into flowing melody. The cycle’s final song begins with dissonances from piano and clarinet; upon Kesselman’s entry these are filled in with pantonal harmonies. There is a winsome character present, with the narrator observing the clippings from his children’s haircuts; rather than sweeping them up, allowing the wind to take them. “The wind will take what we forget to sweep. And cannot keep.” An allied sentiment to watching his daughter in preschool, the sense of impermanence delivered with seamless line from Kesselman and lyrical rejoinders from Luevano and Koga. all we are given we cannot hold is one of the finest song cycles I have heard this year. Biedendbender’s music should gain wider currency. Recommended.

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Classical Music, File Under?, Piano

Su Yeon Kim – Mozart Recital (CD Review)

Mozart Recital

Su Yeon Kim

Steinway & Sons CD

 

During her studies, pianist Su Yeon Kim has kept Mozart close. She studied for a decade at Mozarteum University, won first prize at the Concours international de Montréal in 2021 and second place in the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg. Kim has lived for some time in Salzburg. In 2023, she will also reconnect with her hometown Seoul as Artist-in-Residence of Kumho Art Hall. 

 

For her Steinway & Sons Mozart Recital, Kim plays two sonatas and a number of smaller pieces, some obscure and seldom performed. Even in these latter works, her artistry makes a strong case for their relevance to Mozart’s legacy. Eine Kleine Gigue, which opens the recording, is filled with thorny counterpoint and syncopations, which the pianist imparts with fleet zest. The Allegro in G minor is also delivered at a quick pace, but with clarity in every motive and passage.

 

 Four of the Twelve Contredanses for Count Czernin are presented in a variety of tempos with elegant ornamentation. Variations on “Unser dummer Pöbel meint” is a substantial set. Kim outlines the original theme with forceful clarity, accompanying it in assured fashion with countermelodies and passagework, in later variations never obscuring the tune’s mutable game of hide and seek. Her rendition of Adagio in B minor is poignant, employing rubato to good effect, as does her performance of Franz Liszt’s transcription of Ave Verum Corpus.

 

Kim plays two sonatas, Sonata No. 9 in D and Sonata No. 12 in F Major. Her tempos are well-selected and use of embellishment judicious and executed with finesse. The D major sonata is enthusiastically imbued with the con spirito marked in the first movement. The Andante con espressione is played tenderly, with lovely dynamic shadings. Kim’s playful interpretation of rubato lends to the Rondo finale’s appeal, as do the whirling dance rhythms and quick scalar passages. The Sonata in F is played with as much drama as its relatively compact framework will hold, each of the motives unfurling like a miniature aria. The second movement Adagio is not taken too slowly, and is played with suavity. The Rondo finale shows off Kim’s considerable chops, as well as the joyous demeanor with which this whole program is played. Recommended. 

 

  • Christian Carey
by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Laura Strickling’s 40@40 Project (CD Review)

 

Laura Strickling

40@40

Laura Strickling, soprano, Daniel Schlosberg, piano

Bright Shiny Things

 

Soprano Laura Strickling was nominated for a Grammy in 2022 for her last CD, Confessions, and has followed this up with forty art song commissions to celebrate her fortieth birthday: the 40@40 project. The eponymous recording features the first twenty of the commissions, with a second volume to follow. 

 

40@40 is already gaining considerable, well-deserved notice. Upon its release, it landed on the top of the Traditional Classical category on the Billboard Charts. Art song doesn’t often garner such a distinction, and Strickling’s advocacy for the genre is laudable. She is a talented vocalist with a wide range, warm in her low register and powerful in an impressive upper register. Moreover, her interpretive gifts are considerable. This is certainly true of collaborative pianist Daniel Schlosberg, who also has chops to spare for the most challenging passages of the songs. He pairs beautifully with Stickling. The twenty composers featured on the recording include some of the leading lights of American song, as well as fine composers who may have thus far flown under the radar of critical acclaim, but more than hold their own with the heavyweights. 

 

“Wind Carry Me,” by James Primosch is a setting of Susan Stewart’s poetry. Primosch was an expert crafter of art songs and the poem clearly resonated with him. The song is given a poignant and assured reading by Strickling, with clarion climaxes and operatic declamation. Tom Cipullo’s setting of “At Spring’s End,” by Ezra Pound, has a wistful piano prelude and long, sinuous legato vocal lines with quick, sometimes surprising, harmonic changes. “Let Us Remember Spring ” by Andrea Clearfield, presents Charlotte Mew’s poem with a slow build that eventually arrives at the top of Strickling’s range with an exultant demeanor. 

 

Myron Silberstein set’s Karen Poppy’s poem “Prometheus’ Monster” with a pleasing, light touch, providing Schlosberg with a fleet-fingered piano part and Strickling with long lines juxtaposed against it. The piano slows, moving into the same lyrical demeanor as the singer, in a coda that is given one spicy dissonance at its conclusion to remind us of the opening. Lori Laitman sets Caitlin Vincent’s “Thanks a Latte” in an arioso that adroitly moves through various sections and tempos that respond to the poem with skilful text-painting. Laitman gives Strickling ample opportunity to explore drama and humor. The soprano has fun with the song, providing a welcome diversion from the moodier pieces. Likewise, Julian Hall supplies “Two Old Crows,” a poem by Vachel Lindsay, with a puckish accompaniment and playful melismatic vocal lines. It culminates with energetic, humorous singing, the piano playing a quote from “Flight of the Bumblebee.”

 

Daron Hagen’s setting of Christina Ramirez’s “Benediction” is flat out gorgeous. Hagen is not only sensitive to word-setting and poetic form, he also shapes art songs to have a design that is elegant, crafting melodies that both paint local words and are part of a larger framework. The recording closes with “Song of Solitude (Alone),” a poem by Nikos Valance, is given a sumptuous setting by H. Leslie Adams, unspooling memorable melody after memorable melody. 

 

Laura Strickling is one of the best advocates for art song performing today. One eagerly awaits the next installment of 40@40 and, with fingers crossed, a songbook containing all forty. Recommended.

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Choral Music, File Under?, Twentieth Century Composer

Every Living Creature (CD Review)

Every Living Creature

Choral music by Kenneth Leighton

Rebecca Lea, Nina Bennet, soprano; Ciara Hendrick, mezzo-soprano; 

Nick Pritchard, tenor

Finchley Children’s Music Group, Grace Rossiter, music director

Londinium, Andrew Griffiths, director

SOMM Records

 

Kenneth Leighton (1929-88) was a distinguished composer and academic. He taught at various places, including Oxford where he had studied as an undergraduate, spending the bulk of his academic career at the University of Edinburgh. He wrote in many genres, but it is his music for choirs that is most prized. His choral music is rigorous in construction with vibrant rhythms and skilful formal designs; tonal, but never overly sentimental. Every Living Creature, performed by Londinium, the Finchley Children’s Music Group, and a quartet of vocal soloists, conducted by Andrew Griffiths, is one of the finest recordings I have yet heard on the SOMM imprint, with a lively reverberant acoustic and wide dynamic range. It also contains a number of first recordings. Prior to the recording, some of the scores were not even published, languishing in library collections. 

 

The centerpiece of the recording, Laudes Animantium, Op. 61 (1971), is a celebration of animals, with a variety of poets’ observations of creatures real and fanciful. Leighton himself was an animal lover, with a cat, rabbit, and dog who he often watched playing with his children in the yard. His faithful labrador retriever would sit at his feet while he composed, only stirring when Leighton played a chord or two that displeased him.

 

The piece’s Prelude is from Song for Myself by Walt Whitman, the author describing animals as peaceful, ideal companions. Tenor Nick Pritchard, who gives several standout performances on the recording, sings the Whitman poem with a sweet-toned lyrical voice and excellent diction. Rebecca Lea sings with purity and beauty, animating the subjects of many of the movements. Soloists from the choir, Arielle Lowinger and Madeleine Napier, deserve plaudits as well for their singing, performing with fetching delicacy in “The Lamb.”

 

The mood of the cycle shifts between movements, with a lively scherzo, “Calico Pie,” a dramatically imposing “The Tyger,”  and a truly terrifying depiction of “The Kraken.” Throughout, the choir is expressive and finely honed in its accuracy. Griffiths’s direction keeps the counterpoint clean and the tempos fluid. The end of the cycle, “Every Living Creature,” is impressive, with soloists and choristers joining in a piece that could well be an excerpted anthem to conclude a celebration of animals in any Episcopal church with the performing forces to attempt it. Griffiths and company have set a high bar. 

“An Evening Hymn” and “Lord, When the Sense of Thy Sweet Grace” also feature Lea as soloist, her tone and dynamic control impeccable. Hushed singing begins the Evensong anthem, gradually growing, with free counterpoint juxtaposed against  lush verticals. 

 

“London Town” is a powerful piece, with the choir opening up to clarion fortissimos in its climaxes. “Three Carols” are quite lovely and would enhance many a Christmas Eve service. “Nativitie” features homophonic polychords alternating with tight canons. As the piece progresses, the lines get longer and are buoyed by chords, ending with a well executed pianissimo cadence. The final piece on the recording is “The Hymn to the Trinity,” which explores Lydian melodies and staggered cadences, a repeating homophonic passage tying things together. The latter half features brisk overlapping melodies. The Lydian returns, followed by a bright amen cadence, It is a moving close to a disc of great discoveries. Someone please publish this music and distribute it widely. 

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, early music, File Under?

Orlando Consort Continues Their Machaut Edition (CD Review)

Orlando Consort

Machaut: The Fount of Grace

Hyperion Records

Matthew Venner, countertenor; Mark Dobell and Angus Smith, tenors; Donald Greig, baritone

 

Guilliame de Machaut (1300-1377) was a supremely talented poet and composer. He was an innovator, creating the first polyphonic Mass and developing polyphony in chansons as well. After Machaut, there is little evidence of composers in the Medieval era who set their own words to music. Works devoted to courtly love make up the majority of his output. Fount of Grace adds several topics to that of love poems: devotional and historial components loom larger than on other recordings of Machaut by Orlando Consort. 

 

After thirty-five years, Orlando Consort gave their last performance on June 7, 2023. The Fount of Grace is the tenth of eleven recordings of Orlando’s survey of Machaut. The title references a name for the Virgin Mary, to whom some of the programmed works offer devotions, explicitly or in a veiled fashion.

 

Le lay de la fonteinne is the most overtly religious, petitioning the Blessed Virgin for love and grace. Like traditional lays, the rhythm scheme and melodic framework are complex, with different rhythms and melodies in each couplet, apart from the first and last, which provide a refrain to begin and end the piece. Odd-numbered lines are monophonic, while even-numbered lines are performed as three voice unison canons; a reference to the trinity that, late in the piece, is supported by an evocation of its formula. The singing of the canons is quite beautiful, with the overlapped lines delivered with clear diction and vivacious rhythms. At over twenty-four minutes in duration, it is by far the program’s longest work and, thematically, its centerpiece.

 

Machaut also references occurrences of his day, a particularly fraught time in France, beleaguered with plague, pestilence, and the Hundred Year’s War, which at the time of these compositions was going quite badly for the French. The motet Tu qui gregem/plange regni/Apprehende arma is an example. It references taking up arms against the foe at a point during the Hundred Years War when the nobles of France were in desperate straits, with some taken hostage by the English forces. Likewise, Christe qui lux/Veni creator spiritus/Tribulatio proxima est implores Christ to be with those in danger. The counterpoint, which includes canonic and free passages, is finely knit, with upper voices Matthew Venner and Mark Dobell leading off the proceedings with an ardent duo that, soon enough, is accompanied by the other voices in fascinating overlapping relations. The ballade Donne Signeurs, urges noblemen to be good to their subjects. A sustained tune sung by tenor Angus Smith, an upper register melody performed by Venner, and harmonies incorporated by the other vocalists, with a sonorous bass line by Donald Greig, create a fascinating, vibrating texture. 

 

Courtly love is not neglected on the program. Two versions of the Rondeau Tant doucement me sens emprisonnez are included, one for two voices and the other four. The theme of being imprisoned by love is a venerable one among chansons, and this text expresses it well. The duet’s two voices move at different rates, with a fetching melismatic top voice. The quartet is even more varied in rhythmic activity. With Tant doucement … Machaut creates a tour-de-force times two in the chanson genre.

 

The Orlando Consort still sound in fine voice and will be sorely missed. At least we have one more Machaut recording to which to look forward. 

 

-Christian Carey



by Christian Carey