Aug 4, 2021

Recent Releases, No. 14 (CD Mini-reviews)

By Karl W. Nehring

Randall Goosby: Roots. Xavier Dubois Foley: Shelter Island; Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson: Blue/s Forms for solo violin; George Gershwin (arr. Joshua Heifitz): Porgy and Bess selections; William Grant Still: Suite for Violin and Piano; Florence Price: Adoration; Fantasie No. 1; Fantasy No. 2; Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (arr. Maud Powell): Deep River; Antonîn Dvorák: Sonatina. Randall Goosby, violin; Zhu Wang, piano; Xavier Dubois Foley, double bass. Decca B0033878-02.

From the opening notes of the first cut, Shelter Island, with violinist Goosby (b. 1996), a protégé of Itzhak Perlman, swinging along in blues-tinged fashion with the young composer Xavier Foley (b. 1994) on bass, you know this is not going to be yet another virtuosic display by a violinist out to stake a claim in the classical landscape. A glance at the program, with its emphasis on music by African-American composers (the liner notes point out that Goosby also “included works by two non-Black composers, Antonîn Dvorák and George Gershwin, because of the admiration and respect they showed for African-American and Native American people during their time, and in their music”). Throughout the recording, Goosby makes a case for this music with his sensitive but always enthusiastic playing. He can make it swing, he can make it sing, he can make it cry, he can make it fly... We seem to have here a major new musical talent, and we should salute him (and the folks at Decca) for presenting us with such a fresh and fascinating – not to mention timely and important – musical program for his debut. Kudos to all concerned!

SIGNUM Saxophone Quartet: Echoes. John Dowland: Lachrimae Antiquae (Arr. Knoth); Max Richter: On the Nature of Daylight; Philip Glass: 1957: Award Montage (from String Quartet No. 3 “Mishima”); Gabriel Fauré: Pie Jesu (from Requiem) (Arr. Knoth); Peter Gregson: Allemande (after J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite No. 4); Joep Beving: Ab Ovo (Arr. Knoth); Remo Giazotto: Adagio in G Minor (Attrib. T. Albinoni); Paul Hindemith: Chorale (from Trauermusik); Peteris Vasks: Then Time Stopped (from Songs of Love); Guillermo Lago: Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) (from Ciudades). SIGNUM Saxophone Quartet (Blaz Kemperle, soprano saxophone; Hayrapet Arakelyan, alto/soprano saxophones; Alan Luzar, tenor saxophone; Guerino Bellarosa, baritone saxophone); Hila Karni, cello; Grace Davidson, soprano. Deutsche Grammophon 486 0582.

Most people today associate the saxophone with jazz, but in its early days (it was invented around 1840) it was employed primarily in classical ensembles and wind bands. It was not until the 1920s that the saxophone began to take off as an instrument featured in jazz bands. Still, we don’t really tend to think of the saxophone as a classical instrument, and although the typical classical music fan could rattle off the names of any number of string quartets (Juilliard, Guarneri, Budapest, Emerson, Hagen, Takacs, etc.), I doubt that only a very few could name any saxophone quartets. Enter the SIGNUM Saxophone Quartet with their new DG recording titled Echoes, playing music spanning nearly 500 years and making it sound like the most natural thing in the word for it to be played by four saxophones (augmented on a couple of selections, the Richter and the Hindemith, by a cello, and on the Fauré by the voice of soprano Grace Davidson). Never does this sound like some sort of novelty album; every cut sounds natural and musical, as though it were written for these instruments, which is only literally true for the final cut on the album, Sarajevo. From the 16th-century music of Dowland through the contemporary compositions of Richter and Gregson, this collection is sheer delight both musically and sonically. My only reservation about this release is its length, which is just over 39 minutes. Rest assured, all 39 minutes are really wonderful, but yeah, there really could have been a lot more. Sigh…

Mozart Momentum 1785. CD1: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor K 466; Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major K 467. CD2: Fantasia in C minor K 475; Quartet for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello No. 1 in G minor K 478; Masonic Funeral Music in C minor K477; Piano Concerto No 22 in E-Flat Major K 482. Leif Ove Andsnes, piano and direction (concertos); Matthew Truscott, violin and direction (Masonic Funeral Music); Joel Hunter, viola; Frank Michael Guthmann, Cello; Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Sony Classical 194397462.

Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes brings us a two-CD set of music composed by Mozart in the year 1785. The liner notes explain that in1784, Mozart had written six piano concertos to play at subscription concerts in Vienna, but then in 1785, “he changed gear… Over the next two years, Mozart significantly reduced his quantitative output of piano  concertos but massively increased their depth, expression and architectural imagination in inverse proportion.” Certainly the two concertos found on CD1 are probably the best-known of all the Mozart concertos, having been paired together on LP and CD countless times by countless musicians, and for good reason – they are both splendid works. Most music lovers are already going to have their favorite recordings; all I can say is that these performances by Andsnes and the MCO are very good both musically and sonically and would be a good introduction to these works for someone new to classical music as they avoid any interpretive excess. CD2 brings more variety, with some solo piano music, a short and somber bit of funeral music, a piano quartet that sounds like a reduced piano concerto – I do not mean that at all negatively; it is a wonderful piece of music bursting with melody, and finally, a piano concerto (No. 22) that is not encountered as often as those found on CD1. All in all, this is a splendid collection of some of Mozart’s most inspired music, and a follow-up release (Mozart Momentum 1786) is said to be scheduled for later in 2021.

Ramon Humet: Llum (Light). Tanca els ulls (Close Your Eyes); Camina endins (Walk Inside); Baixa al cim de l’Anima (Descent to the Summit of the Soul); Pedra nua (Naked Stone); Pau al Cor (The Peaceful Heart); Engrunes de Llum (Luminous Crumbs); Alleluia (Alleluia). Sigvards Klava, Latvian Radio Choir. Ondine ODE 1389-2.

In his brief liner notes, Spanish composer Ramon Humet (b. 1968) invites his listeners to “take a journey inward, to travel to the immense space which is, precisely, what makes us human, to that silent place which exists within us, to the deep wellspring that is the birthplace of everything, to the bright sapling of Peace; to the infinite, which announces the Mystery; to the gift of Life, Peace and Love.” For many potential listeners, that might sound like pretentious twaddle; however, I hope it does not dissuade you from giving this release an audition, for I have found it to be one of the most beautiful recordings I have heard in quite some time. The Latvian Radio Choir sings Humet’s challenging score quite beautifully. As the composer elaborates, “the texts which accompany each of the seven stages of this inner pilgrimage were written by my friend Vicenç Santamaria, a monk from the monastery of Montserrat. The words have been set to music for a variety of choral formations – mixed choir, female voice choir, double choir – and for different soloists. All the pieces are composed to be sung a cappella, and in Luminous Crumbs, crotales and bar chimes have been added.” The variety of sounds and vocal textures projected by the choir over the course of the program truly do enhance the sense of movement and change as the work progresses. (The liner booklet, by the way, contains the text, both in Spanish and English translation.) Regardless of what you might think of the text, the music is superb. Just close your eyes, look inside, and let the sound take you away…

KWN

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Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff
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 nearly 30 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 2024 Honda CRV Sport L Hybrid, I stream music from my phone through its adequate but hardly outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through a Roku Streambar Pro system (soundbar plus four surround speakers and a 10" sealed subwoofer) that has surprisingly nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence and reasonable price. Finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker and a pair of Google Pro Earbuds 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 technologies that enable 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

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"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa