Recent Releases No. 81 (CD Reviews)

by Karl Nehring

 

Martinu: (CD1) Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2; (CD2) Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 (CD3) Symphonies No. 5 & No. 6 “Fantaisies Symphoniques.” Bamberger Symphoniker; Jakub Hrusa, conductor. Deutsche Grammophon 486 7810

First, please allow me to apologize for not including the appropriate diacritical marks in the names of the composer and conductor; frustratingly enough, my computer did not make those available for me, alas. However, I hope that sharp-eyed readers will be able discern the correct typography from the album cover image. Moving on to another consideration, I was surprised to discover that (a) at the time I write this, there are only three listings for Martinu reviews on the Classical Candor website [it will show four when this review is posted, of course] and (b) of those three, none was for any of his symphonies. But what we have here is a fine new release that includes first-rate performances in excellent recorded sound quality of not just some but rather of all six of his symphonies. For fans of these works, this set will be a welcome breath of fresh air, something for which they have been waiting for a long time indeed. For those unfamiliar with Martinu’s symphonies, they are certainly pleasant, if not particularly memorable. To be honest, I have listened over and over and over again to this set, trying and trying and trying to get a handle on it. But the best I can say is what I just said: it is pleasant, at times quite interesting, but to these ears at least, is never quite memorable. For me, Martinu never quite seems to know just where he is going with his symphonies. I can enjoy them, but never do I feel they are moving me emotionally or intellectually. But having listened to other Martinu symphony recordings, I can recognize this one as especially fine; as a result, I recommend it highly to longtime Martinu fans as well as those newcomers looking to explore his music. It’s a superb account.

 

Walton: Orb and Sceptre; Symphony No. 1 in B flat minor; Symphony No. 2. City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Kazuki Yamada, conductor. Deutsche Grammophon 486 8227

The English composer Sir William Walton (1902-1983) wrote music in a variety of formats, including film scores, operas, concertos, and symphonies. Back in 2018, when my old friend and colleague from The $ensible Sound audio magazine days invited me to contribute to Classical Candor, my very first review (which you can read here) was of a recording of Walton’s Viola Concerto, which is a bit ironic, given that in the course of my otherwise quite positive review I did happen to mention that “although I have a fair number of recordings of Walton's music in my CD collection, I must confess that I seldom play any of them.” But one that I do play and enjoy from time to time is the Previn/LSO recording of the First Symphony. Compared to Previn, Yamada seems a bit less intense, missing some of the fire and drama inherent in the music, especially in the opening movement. The advantage of this new release from DG is having both symphonies on one disc, in excellent sound and smooth, professional performances. However, the vintage Previn recordings are still the gold standard. 

 

Marilyn Crispell/Anders Jormin: Memento. Crispell/Jormin: For the Children; Crispell/Jormin: Dialogue; Crispell/Jormin: Embracing the Otherness; Crispell/Jormin: Contemplation in D; Jormin: Three Shades of a House – Morning; Three Shades of a House – Evening; Crispell: Song; Crispell: Memento; Crispell: Beach at Newquay; Jormin: The Dark Light; Crispell: Dragonfly. Marilyn Crispell, piano; Anders Jormin, double bass. ECM 2867

American pianist Marilyn Crispell (b. 1976) was trained as a classical pianist, beginning her studies at age seven at Peabody Conservatory, then later graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1968. It was not until 1975 that she developed an interest in jazz, her interest having been triggered by her exposure to John Coltrane’s legendary recording A Love Supreme, which she found spellbinding. She began to hang with jazz musicians playing in an intense style that left little space between the notes. But this began to change in the early 1990s when on a trip to Europe she encountered an ensemble that included bassist and composer Anders Jormin (b. 1957). Hearing this more lyrical style of music touched something deep inside her, and before long she wound up touring and recording with Jormin’s Bortom Quintet. Since then, both Crispell and Jormin have appeared on numerous ECM albums, both as leaders and supporting players; in fact, we have reviewed some albums featuring Jormin on double bass, and those reviews can be found (here) and (here). Throughout Memento, you can feel the joy and empathy these two musicians share as they unite to create music. From Crispell’s opening piano notes of For the Children, soon joined by Jormin’s bowed bass, the music simply flows. Never is there a hint of note-spinning for the sake of virtuoso display from either player; rather, the atmosphere is one of contemplative beauty throughout. Memento is an ideal fusion of jazz and chamber music, recommended highly to fans of both genres.

 

Miroslav Vitous: Mountain Call. Miroslav Vitous/Michel Portal: New Energy; Second Touch; On the Way; Vitous: Unexpected Solutions; Tribal Dance; Vitous/Portal: Rehearsal in Theatre; Discussion; Vitous: Epilogue; Vitous/Portal: Delusion; Vitous: Evolution – Path Begins/Nature Opening/Fulfillment Final; Rhapsody – In You/Fun and Games/Africa/In Me/Lullaby; Mountain Call. Miroslav Vitous, double bass; Michel Portal, clarinet, bass clarinet; Jack DeJohnette, drums; Bob Mintzer, bass clarinet; Esperanza Spalding, voice; Gary Campbell, soprano and tenor saxophones; Members of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Miroslav Vitous. ECM 2763

It was quite a pleasant surprise to find this CD by the veteran Czech bassist Miroslav Vitous (b. 1947), who had a long and distinguished career in jazz having played with a veritable who's who of jazz stars such as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Herbie Mann, Roy Ayers, Billy Cobham, Jan Garbarekand others. In 1970, he teamed with keyboardist Joe Zawinul and saxophonist Wayne Shorter to form the core of Weather Report, the jazz fusion super group. Recent back problems have forced Vitous to give up playing the double bass, although he is still active as a composer. Mountain Call consists of music that was recorded in by Vitous in Prague at various sessions from 2003 through 2010. Sadly enough, the two musicians given top cover billing along with Vitous are no longer with us, French clarinetist and composer Michel Portal (1935-2026) the revered American drum demigod Jack DeJohnette (1942-2025). Such a delight it is to hear the interplay between Portal and Vitous as the dance and weave their way through the first four tracks; DeJohnette proves that he too is an able dance partner. Some listeners may find themselves put off by Spalding’s vocals; those tracks are brief, and then the album end with an impassioned duet featuring Portal on bass clarinet and Vitous wringing sheer passion from his bass. For the many fans of Miroslav Vitous who have missed hearing him for quite some time now, ECM has given us quite the treasure.

Rautavaara and Martinů: Piano Concertos (CD Review)

by Ryan Ross

Rautavaara: Piano Concerto No. 3 ‘Gift of Dreams’; Martinů: Piano Concerto No. 3. Olli Mustonen, piano; Lahti Symphony Orchestra; Dalia Stasevska, conductor. BIS-2532

The unexpected coupling of these two compositions is already creating some buzz for this recording. What do they and their composers at all have in common anyway? According to the liner notes by Jean-Pascal Vachon, both men “adopted an attitude free from any musical puritanism, constantly finding new sources of inspiration which they explored without taboos.” Right. But these are also both very accessible compositions in a 20th-century musical landscape where accessibility still isn’t a particularly prestigious value, even in hindsight. It was one thing for Martinů to be composing neo-Romantic music (Vachon notes his Third Concerto’s links with Brahms) as late as 1948, but what of Rautavaara cranking out works that are at once so individual and yet so unabashedly easy on the ears, decades after having forsaken a much harder-edged idiom? This wasn’t the academically prescribed course for music history, and he wasn’t alone in demonstrating so. Maybe Olli Mustonen, Dalia Stasevska, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, and BIS weren’t all going for this effect, but that’s just what their splendid offering here reinforced for me. 

 

Completed in 1998, Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Third Concerto, subtitled “Gift of Dreams” (which is exactly what the work sounds like), arrives in the early half of his “late style,” which includes many spiritual/metaphysical themed compositions situated somewhere between postmodernism and neo-Romanticism. I love every one that I have heard, and this is no exception. This is music of quiet strength (even somewhat in the quicker finale). Dissonances and enriched sonorities coax and engage the listener, rather than repel. The label of “contemporary music for those who think they don’t like contemporary music” might sound patronizing, or even ghettoizing. But in this case (as with other late Rautavaara works such as Angel of Dusk or the Eighth Symphony [subtitled The Journey]), it’s very much not so. This Third Piano Concerto is more than respectable as a rejoinder to claims that the classical tradition wrote itself out by the late 20th century.  

 

By my count this is the third commercially available recording of the Rautavaara. None of them are losers, but I would place this BIS disc and the initial release – Ashkenazy (the work’s dedicatee) with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (Ondine ODE 905-2) – in the recommended category. Between those two, it depends on whether you like the slightly deeper, more booming sound of Ashkenazy and company, or you think the music sounds better with what (to me) is the lighter touch of Mustonen, Stasevska, and the Lahti forces. I think I prefer the latter, but you’d be fine either way. Whether you want the Martinů concerto or more content by Rautavaara (Autumn Gardens plus a ‘conversation’ between Ashkenazy and the composer) as couplings might subsequently be a prime consideration in which disc you choose if you must obtain only one. 

I’ve always found Bohuslav Martinů’s music to be hit-or-miss. His bounteous talent is undeniable, as is the strong, attractive artistic personality present at his best. But sometimes he seems to get lost in extended stretches of noodling. He can also be mercurial to a fault. Nonetheless, he has a way of pulling you back in with the next work (and sometimes even the next passage within a work), just when you’re considering listening to something else. If you’re like me except that you haven’t heard the Third Piano Concerto yet, it has a good chance of becoming one of your favorite Martinů compositions. Its energy, melodic interest, and inter-movement connectedness hold the attention very well. And if you’re new to Martinů, this is certainly not a bad place to start exploring his music.

 

The present recording joins a number of other Martinů Third Piano Concerto options. To my ear, the best of the older ones is the performance given by the concerto’s dedicatee, Rudolf Firkušný, joined by the Czech Philharmonic under Libor Pešek (RCA 886447630020). Firkušný’s tone is warm, and his reading is a touch more expansive than Mustonen’s. But what makes the latter an equal in my mind is his comparative crispness and liveliness, and also this BIS disc’s terrific sound quality. Ideally, both offerings would be in the Martinů enthusiast’s collection. But for those of us who are not necessarily Martinů fanatics, this BIS release is very attractive on its own. Along with the other reasons given here, the Rautavaara pairing makes it hard to resist.   

Recent Releases No. 43 (CD Mini-reviews)

by Karl Nehring

Theory of Becoming. Evgueni Galperine: This Town Will Burn Before Dawn; Cold Front; Oumuamua, Space Wanderings; Soudain, le vide; Kaddish; The Wheel Has Come Full Circle; Le letter d’un disparu; After the Storm; Don’t Tell; Loplop im Wald. Evgueni Galperine, electronics, sampling; Sergei Nakariakov, trumpet; Sébastien Hurtaud, violoncello; Maria Vasyukova, voice. ECM New Series 2744 485 7282

 

This fascinating album is hard to categorize, lying as it does somewhere between classical, jazz, and electronica – but to these ears at least, it can reasonably be classified as classical, or at least as strongly classically influenced. Russian-born French composer Evgueni Galperine (b.1974) writes that “the sound world of this album can be regarded as a kind of ‘augmented reality of acoustic instruments.’ It is created from recordings I make from recordings I make with real and virtual instruments, which I subsequently alter. The numerous transformations the instruments undergo allow me to capture their acoustic nature while also adding techniques and colours that are completely impossible to produce in reality. This process leads to new and unexpected, yet organically grounded sounds.”  Not just the sounds, but the music also seems organically grounded. Galperin provides brief notes on four of the tracks, explanations that make each piece sound as though it was conceived as a brief tone poem. Theory of Becoming is boldly imaginative, musically captivating, and sonically stimulating, regardless of how you decide to classify it. It’s classical enough for me.

 Gems from Armenia: Aznavoorian Duo. Komitas Vartabed: Chinar Es; Tsirani Tsar; Garoun A; Al Ailux; Krunk; Aram Khachaturian: Ivan Sings (arr. Antti Hakkarainen); Yerevan; Arno Babajanian: Elegy; Aria & Dance; Avet Terterian: Sonata for Cello and Piano; Serouj Kradjian: Sari Siroun Yar (Traditional); Alexander Arutiunian: Impromptu; Vache Sharafyan: Petrified Dance; Peter Boyer: Mount Ararat. Ani Aznavoorian, cello; Marta Aznavoorian, piano. Cedille CDR 90000 209

 

The Aznavoorian Duo comprises two sisters of Armenian descent who hail from the Chicago area. On this new Cedille release, they present compositions by seven Armenian composers, plus one composition by an American composer, Peter Boyer, who wrote Mount Ararat especially for this album and project. The Duo have been presenting concert programs based on the Gems from Armenia theme, and when they performed it in Chicago, Boyer was on hand to explain the inspiration for and ideas behind his composition to the audience. It is a dramatic piece, closing the program on a serious note after it had begun with much lighter fare. The opening tracks on the disc by Komitas (1869-1935), Khachaturian (1903-1978), and Babajanian (1921-1983) are all relatively brief, melodic, and folk-based. Two of the pieces, Garoun A by Komitas and the Elegy by Babajanian are for solo piano, played by Marta; all the other compositions are for both cello and piano. (The liner notes state, by the way, that Marta is a Steinway Artist, while “Ani proudly performs on a cello made in Chicago by her father, Peter Aznavoorian.”) The sonata by Terterian (1929-1994) is the longest selection (20:41), but it continues in the same populist musical spirit as the preceding pieces, suffused with melody, as are the next two tracks by Serouj Kradjian (b. 1973) and Alexander Arutiunian (1920-2012). The penultimate piece on the program, Petrified Dance by Vache Sharafyan, has a brooding, haunted quality to it, setting the stage for the dramatic opening bars of Boyer’s Mount Ararat. As usual with Cedille, the engineering is flawless and the liner notes are helpful.

Bohuslav Martinu: Concerto for Harpsichord and Small Orchestra; Hans Krása: Kammermusik for Harpsichord and 7 Instruments; Viktor Kalabis: Concerto for Harpsichord and String Orchestra, Op. 42. Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord; Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Liebreich, conductor. Hyperion CDA68397

 

This refreshing release presents unfamiliar music with energy and enthusiasm. Iranian-born harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani (b.1984) grew up in the United States and now lives in Prague. He has been a rising star on his instrument (he first came to my attention with his energetic recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations) and he is a passionate advocate for its more widespread recognition. The most familiar figure among the three Czech composers represented on this release for most listeners will no doubt be Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959), although this particular composition of Martinu’s will likely be unfamiliar to most. Despite being titled as a work for harpsichord and small orchestra, the piece opens sounding as if it is going to be a piano concerto. The harpsichord does eventually gain the spotlight, its distinctive sound seemingly offering a reflective commentary on what has come before. It is interesting to hear how the piano sound emanates from the left rear of the soundstage while the harpsichord is placed forward, but still the sound of the piano threatens to dominate. Musically, it is a sparkling piece, the diminutive sound of the harpsichord drawing the listener in closer to the heart of the music.

The relatively brief (14:24) two-movement Kammermusik for Harpsichord and Seven Instruments by Hans Krása (1899-1944), who was murdered at Auschwitz, another tragic victim of the Holocaust, is by turns jaunty, witty, tart, and playful (is that a bit of Bolero we hear being snuck in there?) as it moves energetically along through it exuberant first movement. The second movement begins slowly but soon picks up speed and becomes downright jaunty, with some energetic playing by Esfahani setting the pace, before finally ending more peacefully. Concerning the Concerto for Harpsichord and String Orchestra by Viktor Kalabis (1923-2006), Esfahani writes: “Of the three works on this recording – indeed, of all modern harpsichord works – Viktor Kalabis’s 1975 Concerto for Harpsichord and String Orchestra, Op. 42, is the most personal. It certainly has an intense personal connection for me ii I was, after all, the last student of the work’s dedicatee, who was herself the wife of the composer.” This is the work of the three that stands out most distinctly as a bona fide harpsichord concerto, and Esfahani makes a convincing case for it, playing exuberantly in the outer movements and more introspectively in the middle movement. All in all, this is an album that deserves to win a wider audience for both Esfahani and his chosen instrument, the harpsichord.

 

Last Decade: Benjamin Lackner. Where Do We Go from Here; Circular Confidence; Camino Cielo; Hung Up on That Ghost; Last Ghost; Last Decade; Remember This; Open Minds Lost; Émile; My People. Benjamin Lackner, piano; Mathias Eick, trumpet; Jérôme Regard, double bass; Manu Katché, drums. ECM 2738 389 9024

 

Last Decade is another of those ECM albums that exemplify the overlap between chamber music and jazz. Although it is clearly a jazz album, the way the musicians interact, the balance among the various parts, the way all seem to be working toward a common goal rather than trying to showcase their own individual talents – it calls to mind the interaction of, say, a string quartet and pianist getting together to perform the Brahms Piano Quintet. Although pianist Lackner is listed as the leader, his piano does not dominate. Eick on trumpet weaves some spellbinding melodies, but never to the extent of unleashing any kind of splashy virtuosic, attention-grabbing display. Nor does Lackner indulge in any flashy displays, but rather plays subtle, pastel melodic lines. For classical music fans who might want to widen their musical horizons, this is an album well worth an audition.  

 

Exiles’ Cafe (CD review)

Music of Bartok, Chopin, Prokofiev, Martinu, Stravinsky, Rachmaninov, Korngold, Weill, Still, Bowles, Sahl, Milhaud, and Fairouz. Lara Downes, piano. Steinway & Sons 30016.

“If one lives in exile, the cafe

becomes at once the family home,

the nation, church and parliament,

a desert and a place of pilgrimage,

cradle of illusions and their cemetery.”

--Hermann Kesten

The idea behind Steinway concert artist Lara Downes’s album Exiles’ Cafe concerns the many celebrated composers who have, for one reason or another, found refuge away from their homelands, writing some of their best work as expatriates--in exile, so to speak. The composers listed above fit into such a category, some of them finding shelter in Paris, in England, in America, when they found it difficult to return to their native countries. Perhaps living in a new land helped their creative spirit, who knows. What Ms. Downes has done is record a series of brief piano works from thirteen such displaced emigrates, all of the pieces benefiting from her gentle yet virtuosic playing style and from Steinway’s excellent sound.

The first composer we encounter in this metaphorical cafe is Bela Bartok, represented here by three Hungarian Folksongs from the Csik District. They are quiet, serene, slightly melancholy, always appealing pieces, like most of the music on the album. In playing them, Ms. Downes’s technique seems to disappear into the music, her performances direct, straightforward, unadorned, and the better for it.

Next up, we hear the first of two mazurkas--Op. 6, No. 1 and Op. 68, No. 4. They contrast somewhat with the relative simplicity of the preceding Bartok, yet through Ms. Downes they communicate the same semisweet spirit. After that, we get Prokofiev’s Pastoral Sonatina in C major, which has a lovely gait, charmingly exploited by Ms. Downes. And so it goes, each composition a little gem, exquisitely, lovingly played, each conveying a varying sense of longing, perhaps the composers’ lingering regrets about days gone by.

I particularly liked the two little dumkas (Slavic folk songs that alternate between gaiety and sadness) by Bohuslav Martinu, as well as Stravinsky’s surprisingly old-fashioned but effective Tango. Then, too, Korngold’s Moderato from his Sonata No. 2, Op. 2, reminds us why he achieved his greatest success in Hollywood with his highly Romantic music. While Ms. Downes in no way hesitates to expand upon its Romantic inclinations, she never over-dramatizes it, either. She is, above all, a subtle pianist whom I have yet to hear unnecessarily glamorize or sensationalize a subject.

All of the music on the program glistens with a subdued radiance, the tunes reflecting a quietly hopeful, hardly veiled sorrow. American composer Michael Sahl sums up the album’s unique appeal when he writes, “Perhaps it is only naive fools who keep returning to the kitchen door of beauty and tears, whining and scratching to be let in. I don’t think so. I think that we all return time and again to that kitchen door because beauty, wherever and however, is what we need to survive, and, ultimately, to triumph.”

Steinway & Sons made the recording at Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce, Virginia, in 2012. Rich, warm, and ultrasmooth, the piano sound they obtained is not so close as to spread the instrument across the room yet provides a realistic width and dimensionality. A good, clean transient attack helps the verisimilitude, the overall response ideally suited to the refined, comforting, if sometimes heavy-hearted nature of the music involved.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:


JJP