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Volume 12 - Issue 9 - June 2007

  • Text
  • Jazz
  • Toronto
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POT POURRITout passe -

POT POURRITout passe - Chants d' AcadieSuzie LeBlancATMA ACD2 2522Following on thetheme that beganwith the 2004 CD"La Mer Jolie", SuzieLeBlanc has releasedanother successfulforay into thetreasures of Acadianmusic. Travellingfrom Newfoundlandto P.E.1. and her native New Brunswick LeBlancmet with some of the key keepers ~f thistrove to discover some rich collections of traditionalmusic.The title track, Tout passe conveys the deepsad~e ss of.Acadians forced to leave everythingbehmd dunng the 1755 deportation. Other selectionsdeal with the harsh realities of scraping togethera living, love, marriage, family and othertrials as well as those of pure fun and even nonsense.For central toAcadian life was music anddancing and interspersed amongst the chansonsan.d ballads are a fairnumber of reels, jigs, quadnlles,and waltzes most skilfully rendered byDavid Greenberg on violin, Chris Norman, flute,Betsy MacMillan, violadagamba, Sylvain Bergeron,guitar, David McGuinness, keyboards andShawn Mativetsky, percussion. And following goodcountry practice ofusing whatever's best at hand,there's some interesting instrumentation thrown intothe mix: namely harmonium, shruti box and tabla.T.he result is an earthy, vibrant, emotive accompanimentto LeB!anc's superb vocal work, withinwhich she harnesses the rough-hewn style of themusic without sacrificing the artistry she is knownfor. This recording will be equally popular withearly music aficionados and folk music fans alike.Dianne WellsConcert Note: Reviewer Dianne Wells, contralto,can be heard with soprano Serena Kemball as"the Whirling Divas" in a benefit performance atSt. Matthew's United Church on June 9.Ready Aye ReadyBand of the Royal Regiment of Canadaand friendsIndependent RRC006(www.rregtcband.honour.ca)J!jThis potpourri coversa broad spectrumof selections by theband and its guests,the Pipes and Drumsof the 48th Highlanders,organist ThomasFitches and vocalistDanielle Boum\. Itwould be impossibleto do justice to all of the diverse genres includedin this recording, so I have chosen to focus onthe selections most representative of a modernconcert band. There is no better test of aband's capabilities as such Alford selections asThe Army of the Nile and Colonel Bogey on Pa-60rade with their many complex inner parts and countermelodies. The band passed this test with flyingcolours.The one track which stood out for me was atranscription for flugelhom and band oftheAda­¥io f~om Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez. Havmglistened the previous day to the original versionof this work, for guitar and orchestra, I hadsome misgivings about such a transcription. Thesewere quickly dispelled. This is a very tasteful adaptationand performance by Musician MurrayShadgett. Equally tasteful, but in a very differentstyle is As Time Goes By from the Oscar winningfilm Casablanca. Here it is in the form a trombonesolo, very much in the jazz idiom, by CorporalYanmck Malboeuf. Also included are HowardCable's Cape Breton Moments and even a renditionof the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's NinthSymphony played by the combined pipes anddrums and concert band.Jack MacQuarrieConcert Note: The Pipes and Drums of the 48thHighlanders perform in Scotland the Brave atRoy Thomson Hall on June 16, repeated in Hami !­ton on June 17, and, also in Hamilton, with NationalAcademy Orchestra at the Brott Music Festival's"Summer Evening at the Proms" on July 25."''

Sir John Barbirollisuccessively heldthe posts as permanentconductor ofThe Scottish Orchestrain Glasgow,The New York Philharmonic(succeed- /ing Toscanini), and11 "1l,,(,;ffl!I .... ""The Halle Orchestra. He recorded Mahler withThe Berlin Philharmonic and Brahms with TheVienna Philharmonic. His recordings have withstoodthe onslaught of later recording technologiesand EM! continues to feature his performances.Guild offers the Brahms 1st and Haydn'sThe Uninhabited Island Overture with the HalleOrchestra live from the Proms on 24 August 1954(GHCD 2320). On second hearing, "GloriousJohn," as he was dubbed, offers personally conceived,well recorded performances.Well over half a century has passed since SergeKoussevitzky left the Boston Symphony and thisworld and yet his name is still very familiar torecord collectors. And with good reason. Heraised the Boston Symphony to a level of outstandingvirtuosity which was unsurpassed on thiscontinent. It was he who commissioned the ailingand destitute Bela Bartok to compose his Concertofor Orchestra,now his best knownopus. Koussevitzky,of course, conductedthe first performancein December 1st1944 and a performancelater that monthis heard here. AlsoDon Juan, the firstKOUSSEVITZKYnH.\'11\~KTOJi•FkfMrG\t"I11.n1U,t,"SS$rmr'->

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