the music-only
the music-only performance. The other works on CD1 are the Concerto in F Major, Il Proteo o sia il mondo al rovescio, RV544 and the Concerto in E-flat Major, La Tempesta di mare, RV253. CD2 opens with the L’Estro armonico, Op.3, Concerto No.10 in B Minor, RV580, and the second movement Andante from the Concerto in B-flat Major, RV583. All performances are beautifully judged throughout this outstanding release. On PIAZZOLLA: Buenos Aires violinist Tomás Cotik pays homage to his birth city with his third Piazzolla CD for Naxos, accompanied by the Martingale Ensemble under Ken Seldon (tomascotik.com). The central work on the CD is the now familiar Leonid Desyatnikov concerto arrangement of Las cuatro estaciones porteñas (“The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires”), the four movements of which were written in 1961 and 1969 and originally conceived as individual compositions rather than a single suite. Desyatnikov’s arrangement incorporates quotes from the Vivaldi work. The remaining seven pieces are all 2021 arrangements by Ken Seldon of pieces that Piazzolla wrote for his Quinteto Nuevo Tango: Chin, Chin; Ressurreción del Ángel; Mumuki; Soledad; Zita; Celos; and Fugata. Transcribed from printed sources but incorporating improvisations from original Piazzolla recordings, they work brilliantly. Cotik, as usual, is in his element here on a CD of just over an hour of gorgeous playing of captivating music. Yuri Zhislin is the outstanding violin and viola soloist on BARTÓK, an Orchid Classics CD featuring one early and one late concerto that were both premiered after the composer’s death. Valery Poliansky conducts the State Symphony Capella of Russia (orchidclassics.com/releases/orc100304-bartok). Bartók had moved to the USA in 1940, and by late1944 was in failing health and poor financial straits. William Primrose commissioned a viola work from him, and by early September 1945 Bartók reported that a concerto was “ready in draft . . . only the score has to be written.” He died on September 26 with the work unorchestrated, leaving piles of un-numbered pages and scraps of paper with corrections and revisions. Tibor Serly undertook the enormous task of shaping and orchestrating the concerto, which was premiered by Primrose in December 1949, Primrose feeling that the finished work was “very, very close” to what Bartók intended. The work was revised by the composer’s son Peter and violist Paul Neubauer in 1995, with that edition now foremost. The Violin Concerto No.1 was written in 1907-08 for the young violinist Stefi Geyer, with whom Bartók was in love; his feelings were not reciprocated, however, and she rejected the concerto. He presented Geyer with the manuscript, but it was not published until 1958 after both principals had died. The first of the two movements is rhapsodic and simply gorgeous. Zhislin’s own arrangement for violin and string orchestra of the Six Romanian Folk Dances from 1915 completes a disc full of superb playing by all concerned. On the ECM New Series release Songs of Fate violinist Gidon Kremer, along with his Kremerata Baltica and soprano Vida Miknevičiūtė, presents works by three contemporary Baltic composers and by Mieczysław Weinberg. Many of them are premiere recordings in a programme that has its roots in Kremer’s Jewish heritage and his personal ties to the Baltic states (ecmrecords.com/product/ songs-of-fate-gidon-kremer-kremerata-baltica-vida-mikneviciute). This too shall pass, a recent work for violin, cello, vibraphone and strings by Raminta Šerkšnytė (b.1975) opens the disc. Giedrius Kuprevičius (b.1944) is represented by David’s Lamentation for soprano and orchestra and Postlude: The Luminous Lament for soprano and violin, both from 2018’s Chamber Symphony “The Star of David” and by Kaddish-Prelude for violin and percussion and Penultimate Kaddish for soprano and orchestra. The Weinberg pieces – Nocturne for violin and strings (1948/49), Aria, Op.9 for string quartet (1942), Kujawiak for violin and orchestra (1952) and three excerpts from Jewish Songs, Op.13 for soprano and strings (1943) – are strongly tonal and quite lovely. Lignum (2017) for string orchestra and wind chimes by Jēkabs Jančevskis (b.1992) provides a gentle ending to an immensely satisfying CD. Haydn: Cello Concertos and Hétu: Rondo is the latest ATMA Classique CD from Canadian cellist Cameron Crozman, with Nicolas Ellis leading Les Violons du Roy (atmaclassique.com/en). Haydn’s Cello Concerto No.1 in C Major was written in the early 1760s and presumed lost for 200 years before a copy of the score was discovered in the National Museum in Prague in 1961. The Cello Concerto No.2 in D Major, conversely, was not lost but believed to have been written by Anton Kraft before the 1951 discovery of a Haydn autograph manuscript. The warmth and grace of Crozman’s playing make for delightful performances, with idiomatic support from Les Violons du Roy that features some particularly nice continuo touches. Jacques Hétu’s brief but animated Rondo for Cello and String Orchestra Op.9 was written in 1965, when the composer was 27 years old; this is its world premiere recording. With this impressive and highly enjoyable release Crozman continues to establish himself as simply one of the finest young cellists around. VOCAL Marie Hubert: Fille du Roy Karina Gauvin; Pierre McLean; Valerie Milot; Etienne Lafrance; Quatuor Molinari; Pentaedre; Clauce Lapalme ATMA ACD2 2827 (atmaclassique.com/en) ! In 1889, Oscar Wilde asserted: “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life,” arguing that rather than merely copy, life imitates art because life craves the expression found in great art. Karina Gauvin has turned this maxim on its head playing one of the most fascinating dramatic roles. Indeed, in Gauvin’s case, “art imitates life” – the life of Marie Hubert. Gauvin traced her lineage to Hubert, one of the 46 (of 327) “Filles du roi” that Monsieur de Bretonvilliers priest of the parish of Saint- Sulpice, selected to sail from Dieppe to New France, by royal decree of King Louis XIV. This is an enthralling story, and Gauvin tells it eloquently – before a single note, or phrase is sung – with charming booklet notes based on her great-ancestor’s diary entries. Gauvin then employs her fabled lyric soprano to turn the diary entries – 21 in all – into songs, the lyrics and music of which propel them into a rarefied realm. Gauvin is a priceless gift to music, an artist of the first order, broadening out from the Baroque repertory for which she is celebrated across the world. Her instrument is gorgeous: lustrous, precise and feather-light. Her musicianship is fierce as she digs into the expression of each word, brings ceaseless variety to soft dynamics and gives every phrase grace. 40 | September 2024 thewholenote.com
She is accompanied by pianist Pierre McLean, harpist Valérie Milot, contrabassist Étienne LaFrance, Quatuor Molinari and the wind quintet Pentaédre. Claude LaPalme conducts and arranged the music. Raul da Gama Concert note: Karina Gauvin and Marie- Nicole Lemieux are featured with Les Violons du Roy at Koerner Hall on October 27. R. Murray Schafer – You Are Illuminated Coro Volante; Brett Scott; Krista Cornish Scott Centrediscs CMCCD 31523 (cmccanada.org/shop/cmccd-31523) ! This terrific new album of choral music by the late R. Murray Schafer stands simultaneously in both the past and present. I suppose this blurring of old and new is one reason why Schafer is often referred to as a postmodernist (in addition to being called an avant-gardist who coined the term schizophonia, a soundscapist or an acoustic ecologist). But with You Are Illuminated, a beautifully captured 2024 recording by the Cincinnati-based choir Coro Volante under the keen direction of conductor Brett Scott, the music not only defies classification, but requires little explanation or illumination beyond what a simple listen can provide. Although eminently enjoyable, Schafer’s music often challenges listeners to expand beyond their comfort zones and to confront his above-mentioned musical theories and concepts. But with Scott at the helm, who, in 2019 penned an authorized biography of Schafer and who enjoyed a two-decade long friendship and musical relationship with the Canadian composer, listeners are in expert hands. As such, Scott, along with an impressive roster of soloists, ensemble choral singers and an excellent percussionist, has put together a stylistically divergent, but always musical program of Schafer’s choral works that span 45 years of compositional creativity. A self-described “labour of love,” this valuable new addition to the Canadian Music Centre’s already impressive discographic output focuses primarily on works of Schafer’s that have never before been recorded (or in some cases even performed), adding much to both the legacy of Schafer’s contributions to the choral canon, and to Canadian music more generally. Andrew Scott Messiaen Barbara Hannigan; Bertrand Chamayou; Vilde Frang; Charles Sy Alpha Classics ALPHA 1033 (outheremusic.com/en/albums/messiaen) ! Sensuality and – yes – spirituality don’t so much ripple as burst in the waves of ecstatic, convulsive melisma from Barbara Hannigan and Bertrand Chamayou’s magical, mystical Messiaen recording. It is in the imagination of the programming and the bold, almost cheeky intelligence that guides the choice and juxtaposition of repertoire, and the duo’s homage to the greatest 20th-century French composer after Debussy and Ravel. Terms of endearment and hallelujahs tumble, rise and fall from Hannigan’s pliant lips through the sparkling song cycles. Chants de Terre et de Ciel is aglow, particularly in Bail avec Mi, Danse du bébé-Pilule, Antienne du silence and the ecstatic Résurrection. The music Is incandescent right out of the gate. And it only gets better with Poèmes Pour Mi before reaching the tidal crescendos of La Mort du Nombre with the eloquent sonorities of Vilde Frang’s violin and Charles Sy’s magnificent tenor. The scintillating elegance of Olivier Messiaen’s music is incandescent as it comes from an explosion at the heart of the nuclear corona of the sun. The luminescence of Hannigan’s voice gives these works an operatic freedom and scope that makes sense of these fragrant texts and their amplified emotions. It seems unimaginable that anyone but Hannigan, with her lustrous lyric soprano and unbridled dramatic abilities, could give the song cycles by Messiaen such life. She is marvellously served by Chamayou’s shimmering pianism throughout. Raul da Gama Concert note: Barbara Hannigan and Bertrand Chamayou perform at Koerner Hall on November 28. Lainie Fefferman – Here I Am Vocal Soloists; Transit New Music New Focus Recordings FCR403 (newfocusrecordings.com/catalogue/ lainie-fefferman-here-i-am) ! Who do you report to when you wake up in the morning? We have had anywhere between two thousand and seven thousand or so years to think about it. Lainie Fefferman, the composer of this deeply meditative big ensemble piece didn’t always punch in the “right name” when she woke up until the political climate in the USA (and far and wide) began to take its toll on her state of mind. Her short introduction describes the rude awakening of American Jews. There are six people in ancient scripture who uttered the words: “Here I Am (Lord).” The patriarchs Abraham and Jacob, the prophets Moses, Samuel, Isaih and Ananias, who was called to minister to Saul. However, What we're listening to this month: thewholenote.com/listening Haydn: Cello Concertos Hétu: Rondo Cameron Crozman Crozman plays the long thought lost, Cello Concerto in C by Haydn and Hétu’s Rondo for Cello and String Orchestra, Op. 9. Marie Hubert - Fille du Roy Karina Gauvin This album brings Quebec and French folklore to life by recounting the life of one of the King's daughters recruited to populate New France Here I Am Lainie Fefferman The album embodies the culmination of the composer’s 15-year journey with Hebrew Bible texts, writing music in response to her immersive creative process. Canadian Suite Celebrations Duo Majoya Canadian Suite Celebrations showcases three outstanding Canadian composers, Edmonton’s world-class concert hall and Davis organ, and the charisma and musicianship of Duo Majoya. thewholenote.com September 2024 | 41
