Recent Releases, No. 10 (CD Mini-Reviews)
By Karl W.
Nehring
Rachmaninoff:
Symphony No. 1; Symphonic Dances. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, The Philadelphia
Orchestra. Deutsche Grammophon 483 9839.
One of the
pleasures of following Classical Candor is reading reviews by fellow
reviewers John Puccio and Bill Heck not only to enjoy their insights and
recommendations about various recordings but also to delight in their deft and
descriptive deployment of the English language. They always seem to find just
the right words with which to craft their insightful and delightful prose. In
sad contrast to those distinguished gentlemen, after listening to this new
recording numerous times all I can say is that the music, the performances, and
the and the engineering are all totally kickass. Rachmaninoff’s Symphony
No. 1 suffered a disastrous first public performance in 1897 by an
ill-prepared orchestra conducted badly by an apparently drunken Alexander
Glazunov. The resultant fiasco and humiliating press coverage so unnerved Rachmaninoff
that he suffered a nervous breakdown that stifled his creative energy for three
years. But in this recording we have the “Fabulous Philadelphians” at the
height of their powers under the baton of a conductor in full possession of his
faculties; together, they make a persuasive case indeed for this oft-overlooked
symphony, a work full of passion and excitement. Its disc-mate is the more
widely known Symphonic Dances, a rousing piece that has long been a
favorite of audiophiles. Old-timers may remember the old Donald Johanos/Dallas
Symphony recording, one that seemed exciting at the time, especially in light
of its being on a budget label, but in retrospect was maybe not really all that
great (the low price may have perhaps tainted our judgment). Other audiophiles
might have fond memories of the David Zinman/Baltimore Symphonic Dances
on Telarc, which still sounds darned good. Whatever your preference might be,
this new DG recording is right up there with the best in terms of both sonics
and performance, with plenty of energy in both those dimensions (and with, yes,
Telarc-worthy bass). As I said above, kickass. Enough said…
Pat Metheny: Road
to the Sun. Metheny: Four Paths of Light; Road to the Sun;
Arvo Part: Fur Alina. Jason Vieaux and Pat Metheny, guitar; Los Angeles
Guitar Quartet (John Dearman, Matthew Greif, William Kanengiser, Scott
Tennant). Modern Recordings 538639322.
The first
concert I ever took my young sons to was the Pat Metheny Group sometime back in
the early 80s – may even have been the late 70s. Over the ensuing decades,
Metheny has made some memorable music, never resting on his laurels or content
to play his familiar tunes over and over again, always striving to create
something new, pushing himself as a composer and arranger as well as a
guitarist. From his earlier albums with his Pat Metheny Group (Still Life
Talking and We Live Here are noteworthy examples highlighting his
melodic gift, along with that of his gifted keyboard companion, the late Lyle
Mays) through his ultimate album with that group, The Way Up, which is
virtually a through-composed symphonic piece by Metheny that strains against
the limitations of a small jazz ensemble, Metheny followers could sense that he
was more than just a guitarist, he was a composer whose chosen instrument was
the guitar. Then in 2020 he returned to the studio with a new group to release From
This Place, a flowingly lyrical album that included some symphonic
accompaniment. At 76 minutes, it was an amazing achievement, emphasizing once again
Metheny’s gift for composition as well as his prowess on the guitar.
Each month, the
final page of BBC Music Magazine features an interview titled “Music
That Changed Me,” in which some public figure, typically someone connected with
the arts, is asked about the music that has had a significant influence in the
course of their life. Imagine my surprise – and joy! – when I reached the final
page of the most recent issue to reach my humble abode (May 2021) and saw a
photo of a smiling, curly-headed American guitarist by the name of Pat Metheny.
What a wonderful surprise! The interviewees are always asked to list a few key
recordings, and Metheny’s list of five pieces began with three that were not
particularly surprising: “And I Love Her” by the Beatles (as a teenager he
loved George Harrison’s guitar work, and later in his career he recorded the
piece himself on acoustic guitar), “Seven Step to Heaven” by Miles Davis
(Metheny says that his brother brought home Davis’s Four and More album
and that “hearing this cut was like being hit over the head by a two-by-four,
and instant life-changing moment. At the time I didn’t know anything about form
and chord changes, I just heard the sound…”), and Wes Montgomery’s “If You
Could See Me Now” (which Metheny says contains “the greatest guitar solo of all
time, including Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Segovia”). His next selection was
something of a surprise, Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians (Metheny
notes that “among the best phone calls I ever got was Steve Reich asking me to
play his solo work for electric guitar, Electric Counterpoint. I’d been
a fan for years: his Music for 18 Musicians changed everything – Steve
had somehow captured the worldwide polar-magnetic shift from triple to duple
time”). But it was his final choice that really surprised me, none other than
Furtwangler’s recording of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (“Filling in
blanks, particularly in the world of written music, is an ongoing process for
me. I’m lucky to live across the street from Lincoln Center in New York and I
had the chance to see Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde conducted by Sir Simon Rattle
at the Met. It was a life-changing experience to rival ‘Seven Steps to Heaven.’
I knew the piece because it is famous in my world as being this four-hour
exploration of a minor seventh, flat five chord, of the ‘Tristan’ chord. I went
three night in a row, and each night it just got better”). I really did not see
that one coming…
Something else
that I did not see coming was that the next recording that Metheny would
release after From This Place would be his first release ever to feature
his work not as a performer, but rather as a composer. The album leads off with
classical guitarist Jason Vieaux performing a Metheny composition for solo
guitar titled Four Paths of Light. Naturally enough, the composition
comprises four parts, each possessing a depth of expression and emotion that
long-time listeners of Metheny’s music will recognize; however, Vieaux’s style
of playing and the sound of his guitar does come across as more traditionally
classical most of the time – still, there are passages where you can really
hear Metheny ringing through. The next composition is the title piece, Road
to the Sun, a six-part work written for and performed by the Los Angeles
Guitar Quartet (with some “guest strumming” by Metheny on a couple of the
parts). This is of course a more ambitious undertaking, more complex in
structure, more formal sounding, but not without phrases that make you think
that yes, this sounds like something that Pat Metheny could have composed. It
truly is a delightful work, one that rewards repeated listening.
The album closes
with a bonus track, and once again I can honestly say that just like I never
see it coming that Pat Metheny would list Furtwangler conducting Tristan and
Isolde as one of his favorite recordings, neither did I ever foresee him
playing an Arvo Pärt tune on one of his recordings, but Road to the
Sun concludes with Metheny offering a haunting version of Pärt’s Für
Alina on his custom-made 42-string guitar. My friends, hearing Pat Metheny,
one of my all-time favorite musicians, play the music of Arvo Pärt, one of my
all-time favorite composers, on his amazing instrument with its incredible
range of sounds made me feel that my life was now complete and had not been
lived entirely in vain. To be sure, this recording may not have anywhere near
the same profound sort of spiritual effect on you, but still, there is some
genuinely fine music here that I can recommend without reservation.
Bonus
Recommendation:
Images of
Metheny. Jason
Vieaux, guitar. Azica Records ACD 71233.
On this
recording from 2005, classical guitarist Jason Vieaux presents 13 songs by Pat
Metheny in arrangements for classical guitar, including taking five songs and
arranging them into the form of a baroque suite. Unfortunately, the CD is now
hard to find; it can be streamed, however, for those so inclined.
KWN
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor
Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.
Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.
Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor
For more than 20 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.
For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2022 Accord EX-L Hybrid I stream music from my phone through its adequate but not outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through the phone into a Vizio soundbar system that has tolerably nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence. And finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technology that enables us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.
William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor
Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.
The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.
Ryan Ross, Contributor
I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.
I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.
Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst
I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.
Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.
Mission Statement
It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.
When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.
So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio
Contact Information
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