Volume 30 Issue 4 | December 2024 & January 2025

With Robertson as

With Robertson as conductor and AdriennePost as concertmaster, The Thirteen presents ameticulously historically informed performanceof Monteverdi’s sacred work. Theensemble is comprised of eight singers andseven instrumentalists, including violin,organ, cello, cornetto and theorbo. The songsalternate in the typical style of a vespers,generally between joyful celebrations andsolemn reflections.The carefully considered musical choicesare reflected throughout the album; theexquisite push-pull of pure sonorities thatrepresents different parts of a vespers; theword painting, specific shape of soundsand rhythms executed with craftsmanshipand precision, especially noteworthy in theMagnificat primo and in the Nisi Dominus;and the virtuosity that not only creates theexpected beautiful outcome of technicalcapacities, but also a deeply intimate andaffecting musical experience.The liner notes of the album provide a valuablesource of information on the project.Robertson first shares the journey that ledto the recording of The ‘Lost’ Vespers andDr. Steven Plank, Professor of Musicologyat Oberlin College and Conservatory, thenprovides a wealth of information that canguide or enhance the listener’s experience.The ‘Lost’ Vespers was recorded at theFranciscan Monastery of the Holy Land inAmerica in Washington, DC in October 2023.Sophie BissonRemember – 130 Years of Canadian ChoralMusicToronto Mendelssohn Choir; Jean-Sebastien ValleeATMA ACD2 2882 (atmaclassique.com/en/product/remember-130-years-ofcanadian-choral-music)! Fifteen acappella works,variously sung inEnglish, French,Latin, German,Hebrew and Arabic,offer what RenaRoussin, TorontoMendelssohnChoir’s musicologist-in-residence, calls inher booklet notes “a time capsule of musicaltouchstones and reflections across 130years of Canadian choral music history,”the span of the choir’s existence. (Sevenselections are performed by the choir’s24-member professional nucleus, the TorontoMendelssohn Singers.)The two-CD set opens with the collection’stitle work, Stephen Chatman’s hauntinglybeautiful Remember, the second ofhis Two Rossetti Songs. It’s followed bythe gentle hymn, Jesus, Lover of My Soul,by the TMC’s founder and first conductor,Augustus Stephen Vogt. The one piecenot by a Canadian, Mendelssohn’s robustsetting of Psalm 43, Richte mich, Gott, wasperformed at the eponymous choir’s debut onJanuary 15, 1895.Other standouts are Harry Somers’ elaboratearrangement of She’s Like the Swallow,Healey Willan’s much-loved An Apostropheto the Heavenly Hosts (at nine minutes,the collection’s longest work) and ImantRaminsh’s luminous Ave verum corpus. Alsorepresented are Ernest MacMillan, Srul IrvingGlick, Peter-Anthony Togni, ChristopherDucasse, Andrew Balfour, Jocelyn Morlock,Stuart Beatch, Shireen Abu-Khader andStephanie Martin, the last six by piecescomposed between 2018 and 2022.At only 84 minutes, this wide-rangingcollection could easily have been augmentedwith works by three significant Canadianchoral composers, surprisingly absent – R.Murray Schafer, Ruth Watson Henderson andEleanor Daley. Nevertheless, there’s muchlovely music and lovely singing here to enjoy.Michael SchulmanJohn Burge – The Mata Hari songbookPatricia O’Callahan; John BurgeCentrediscs CMCCD 34424 (cmccanada.org/shop/cmccd-34424)! The early 20thcentury eroticJavanese dancerand European courtesan,Mata Hari(1876-1917) is stillsurrounded by anaura of mystery,more than a centurysince her passing atthe hands of a French firing squad, followingher rather dubious and hasty conviction oncharges of spying for Germany during WorldWar I. Notorious is the word irrevocably tiedto this fascinating and complex character…was it her so-called traitorous activities thatcaused her downfall, or was it a generalizedmale fear of her seductive, political powers?Thrilling, versatile and accomplished sopranoPatricia O’Callahan in a creative partnershipwith composer/pianist John Burge andwriter/director Craig Walker explore thesequestions (and more) in their brilliant onewoman,two-act, high-end cabaret productionOne Last Night with Mata Hari. Therecording of that presentation has resulted inthe stunning ten-song collection presentedhere, focused on the night before Hari facedher death.The plot sees Hari recalling her life andtimes for the staff and holy sisters in the placeof her internment. First up is the lilting AnOfficer to Marry where O’Callahan deftlycaptures the irony of young Hari’s desire toupgrade her social situation by her assignationwith the sadistic and vile RudolphMcLeod. Burge’s superb pianistic skill injectseach composition with energy and verity,while the equally superb libretto by Walkerpaints a sometimes terrifying and complexpicture of Hari’s life. Of special beauty is thelove song to her sickly child, You’ll Be MySun, where Burge and O’Callahan performwith a near telepathic communication andO’Callahan soaring to the outer reaches of herremarkable register.Each of the compositions here containundeniable elements of German Art Song.O’Callahan creates a three-dimensionalportrait of a survivor, traumatized by hertimes as well as by her peripatetic andunstable reality. This is a thoroughly compellingand satisfying cycle of songs – expertlyperformed and recorded.Lesley Mitchell-ClarkeD.D. Jackson – Poetry ProjectD.D. Jackson; various artists and vocalistsIndependent (ddjackson.bandcamp.com)! D.D. Jackson isa JUNO and Emmywinning composer,producer and jazzpianist. In thespring of 2021,eminent Canadianpoet George ElliottClarke commissionedJackson to set music to one of hispoems. This initial collaboration snowballedinto The Poetry Project, an album of 13 songsmostly arranged for piano and voice withsmall ensembles of varying instruments.The last song in the set, Daedalus’ Lament(Giovanna Riccio) is performed by D.D.Jackson and the Czech National SymphonyOrchestra via Musiversal.In addition to Clarke and Riccio, The PoetryProject features poems by Canadian writersAyesha Chatterjee, Luciano Iacobelli, IrvingLayton, Micheline Maylor, Bruce Meyer, AlMoritz, Libby Scheier, Choucri Paul Zemokholand Chinese poet Xiaoyuan Yin. Theperformers on the album include many wellknownnames, including Laila Biali, DeanBowman, Yoon Sun Choi, Ethan Cronin,Sammy Jackson, John Lindsay-Botten andRaina Sokolov-Gonzalez.The Poetry Project includes a variety ofthemes. For example, I call (Zemokhol)is about the poet rediscovering his mother’sEgypt. Daylight Shooting in little Italy(Iacobelli) is about an incident Iacobelli andhis family witnessed. On Silence (Chatterjee) isa layered and imaged interpretation of silenceand how in its stillness we can truly hear. Self-Composed (Clarke) is a song from a father tohis daughter and 2641 Fuller Terrace (also byClarke) is an homage to guitarist Gilbert Daye.For all of the intensity of the words chosenfor The Poetry Project, Jackson writes surprisinglydynamic and rhythmic music with bothfluid and, at times, challenging vocal linesthat sway in all of the right places. Kudos tohim for transforming sometimes long pagesof poetry with its own rhythmical pacing intosong length material that has retained thewriters’ intentions and emotions.Sophie Bisson56 | February & March 2025 thewholenote.com

Song of SongsAnastasia Minster; Canadian StudioSymphony Orchestra; Felipe TellezIndependent (anastasiaminster.com)! The title ofthis disc Song ofSongs by AnastasiaMinster maysuggest it containsworks based onThe Song of Songs,that biblical booksometimes attributed(albeit erroneously) to King Solomon,legendary for his superlative wisdom andextraordinary wealth. But don’t let thatdistract you for it does – in a not-so-obliqueway – reference themes of love, the heart andsoul and metaphor of its biblical namesake.Moreover, what the recording is may alsonot be everyone’s idea of an orchestral one –although it is quite extraordinary. Survey theperformance of pianist and vocalist Minster,and you will discover someone incapable ofbeing temperamentally innocuous, blandor emotionally disengaged from the blackvelvet-darkcontent. With her silvery timbre –lustrous in the high notes and like molten lavain the lower ones – Minster rises to the challenge;nay she bursts through the glass ceilingof this impassioned, shadowy repertoire.In the artistic execution – vocal and orchestral– and in the warmth and detail of itsrecording, the disc is flawless. I do missprinted lyrics and believe (too punctilious ademand on my part perhaps) that every vocaldisc ought to come with a booklet of texts. Inher defense, I have to say that this gorgeouslypoetic disc may be a worthy exception.Minster is an uber-articulate vocalist and itis not particularly difficult to follow thesecontemporary art songs without the guide ofprinted lyrics.Raul da GamaBenedict Sheehan – AkahistChoir of Trinity Wall Street; ArtefactEnsemble; Novus NYBright Shiny Things (BSTC-0210brightshiny.ninja/akathist)! BenedictSheehan’s epicoratorio came tobe as a poignantreminder of thedark days of theStalinist purges.The language of thiswork has at its heartAkathist: Glory to God for All Things, anEastern Orthodox service in plainchant, as ahymn of thanksgiving. However, the musicaltopography traversed by Sheehan’s workreferences all of fallen humanity – from theearliest times to that of our day.The sweeping chorales on two discs centreon the theology of Ecclesia (the community ofthe church) and Sapientia (holy wisdom) andappear to proffer the blinding light of God’sinvisible spiritual wisdom emanating fromthe Heavens as a salve to heal the grief of theevils on earth.Melding liturgical songs (antiphons,responsories, sequences and hymns) sungby the glorious voices of several soloistsand choral groups, accompanied by aninstrumental ensemble into a modern-daysymphonia harmoniae caelestium revelationum(a symphony of heavenly revelations)Sheehan has created a harmonious combinationof different musical sounds, woven intothe divine cosmic harmony.In fact Sheehan has created a powerfulmetaphor that unites the physical and thespiritual realms that brings both participantand listener into a closer – mystical – relationshipwith the divine. The Choir of Trinity WallStreet, the Trinity Youth Chorus, combinedwith the voices of the Artefact Ensembleand the Downtown Voices, together withinstrumental ensemble NOVUS NY bring thespontaneity of Akathist to life.Raul da GamaZibuokle Martinaityte – Aletheia: ChoralWorksLatvian Radio Choir; Sigvards KlavaOndine ODE 1447-2 (ondine.net/index.php?lid=en&cid=2.2&oid=7307)! On Aletheia,celebratedLithuaniancomposer ŽibuoklėMartinaitytė hasused the wordlesslanguage of theheart to drive theemotional spiritualityof these four outstanding choral works.Using thrillingly sensuous music of brightacoustic colours and resonant fades, shehas created a vocabulary defined by notedurations, attack and intensities throughthroat-singing, drones and other vocaldevices. In fact, she has brought new meaningand beauty to the mystique of spiritual music.In the titular first work on this discMartinaitytė evokes the horrors of the Russianinvasion of Lithuania, a personal trauma thatwas triggered by the more recent Russianinvasion of Ukraine. Ululations is a worksimilar to Aletheia. Although it is not born ofthe despair and trauma of the latter work, it isborn of an elemental, “ululating” wail.Chant des Voyelles employs voices tomimic the curves of sculptures by the cubistsculptor Jacques Lipchitz. And although TheBlue of Distance has no particular setting,this sweeping Whitmanesque piece completesthe exquisite cycle of mystical chorales vividlyinterpreted by the Latvian Radio Choirconducted by Sigvards Kļava.Raul da GamaWhat we're listening to this month:thewholenote.com/listeningHushRoberta MichelThe five pieces engage in adynamic dialogue, ranging fromacrobatic passagework to deeptimbral excavation, each expandingthe instrument's sonic footprint.TryptiqueFern Lindzon, Colleen Allen, GeorgeKoller“Tryptique combines the talents ofthree extraordinary performersinto a sweeping musical fusion thatdelights, inspires, and blazes its ownunique path. Highly recommended!”Midwest Book ReviewCannonDan FortinAn electric bass and synthesizerdriven collection of duets withsome of Canada’s leadingimprovisers.You Are The Right LengthExit PointsCelebrate Toronto's improvisedmusic scene with Exit Points:You Are The Right Length, agroundbreaking vinyl LP featuring35 musicians. Available now!thewholenote.com February & March 2025 | 57