DISCOVERIES | RECORDINGS
DISCOVERIES | RECORDINGS REVIEWED DAVID OLDS I first heard Ian Tamblyn’s (Once Was A) Village, sung by our publisher David Perlman in my backyard one lovely summer day several years ago. He had learned the song after hearing it performed in Kensington Market by the SPECIAL INTEREST group. The Spark (independent KBG1905 thespecialinterestgroup.bandcamp.com/album/the-spark) is the debut CD by this self proclaimed “cultural/political project dedicated to playing music with a progressive message and providing a playlist for labour and activist groups.” Originally published digitally during the pandemic, it has now been released in physical form. The disc begins with that same Tamblyn song celebrating the small-town aspects of communities within large cities, with some added lyrics by Rebecca Campbell. As in most of the group’s repertoire the song is combined with another to make an effective medley, in this case Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays’ (Cross the) Heartland. The quintet is comprised of Campbell (lead and backing vocals, guitar and percussion), Kevin Barrett (various acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, loops, lead and backing vocals), Jim Bish (various saxophones and flutes, backing vocals), Ian de Sousa (bass, loops) and Rakesh Tewari (drums and percussion). They are supplemented by the nine-voice People’s Chorus on two of my favourite tracks, Willie P. Bennett’s (Who’s Gonna Get The) Last Word (In) and Ed McCurdy’s classic Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream, here interpolated with John Lennon’s Give Peace A Chance. Also of particular note are Mimi Fariña and James Oppenheim’s Bread and Roses, Steven Stills’ For What It’s Worth, with Harris Seaton’s Peace, Love and Understanding, and a brilliant interlacing of Bruce Cockburn’s If I Had A Rocket Launcher and Talking Heads’ Listening Wind where Campbell’s voice, channeling David Byrne, is eerily reminiscent of both Laurie Anderson and Kate Bush. That track also includes an excerpt from Elijah Harper’s historic address to Parliament demanding that Indigenous voices be included in any changes to the Canadian Constitution. I also must mention the title track, Campbell’s own The Spark, an anthem of sorts that proclaims, “the spark, ignites the flame, that sheds a light, on all we once held true.” This disc is a heady throwback to the protest era of the sixties and early seventies, while addressing contemporary concerns, and with a great backbeat to get you up on your feet. Anne Lindsay tells us in the notes to Soloworks 2 (annelindsay.bandcamp.com/ album/soloworks-2-2), “This record is dedicated to St. Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto where it was recorded in November 2021 during the global pandemic. St. Anne’s was built in 1907 and contained a Byzantine dome with spectacular acoustics. Murals by the Group of Seven and sculptures by Frances Loring and Florence Wyle were added in the 1920s. Sadly in June 2024 the church suffered a devastating fire and all that remains of this historic Canadian cultural gem are parts of the exterior walls. I am grateful to share a record of this outstanding acoustic space with you.” Lindsay’s violin (or is it a fiddle?), nyckelharpa (a “keyed” and bowed hurdy-gurdy-like instrument from Sweden) and voice fill this wondrous space with joyous and contemplative reverberant sounds. The music is lyrical and mostly folk-based, at times rhythmic as in the Celtic-sounding Carolina Parakeet where the jig-like fiddle is accompanied by the hand drumming of Mark Mariash. Fitting for the venue, several of Lindsay’s compositions - did I mention they are all originals? - are religious expressions, including the opening Votum Mane (morning vow or promise), Credo, The Lord’s Prayer and Benedictus which is introduced by the sound of the church’s bells. Others are inspired by water: Down by the Noisy River, Headwaters Ramble and The Sea and the Sky. Throughout we are treated to a thoughtful and melodious journey, with Lindsay the buoyant and entertaining guide. It is great to have this testament as a reminder of what a precious space we lost with the demise of St. Anne’s. It continues to serve the community, holding services in the Parish Hall on Dufferin at Dundas. From its website I take the following: “We are grateful for your continued support to our church community following the devastating loss of our historic church. Help us rebuild our ministry and create a church that reflects our faith through contemporary Canadian art and through ministry to all people. You can contribute directly to us by visiting our Canada Helps page. We are most in need of support for our general fund, which helps us with our day-to-day operations.” A truly worthy cause. I’m a sucker for the Doppler effect, so I was immediately captivated by the title work of The White Birds, a new release from the Latvian Music Information Centre featuring String Trio Baltia (SKANI 171 lmic.lv/en/ skani/catalogue?id=254). Composed by Gundega Šmite, the birds in question are mute swans, collared doves, seagulls and white storks. I was a bit surprised to realize that the siren-like opening movement depicted “mute” creatures. Also, that Baltic seagulls are quite subdued compared to local denizens of our lakefront, although they do have that same characteristic glissando cry. In between, the doves coo and peck as might be expected and in the finale the storks mostly scratch and tap rhythmically, with no discernible song. The real reason I was drawn to the CD is the inclusion of Latvianborn Canadian composer Tālivaldis Ķeniņš’ (1919-2008) Trio for violin, viola and cello written in 1989. That’s the same year that he visited Latvia for the first time since fleeing the country during the later days of the Second World War. At that time he returned to Paris where he had been a student before the outbreak of the war, and after completing studies (with Messiaen and Tony Aubin, among others) he emigrated to Canada in 1951. Ķeniņš was active as an organist, administrator for the Canadian League of Composers and as lecturer and professor at the Faculty of Music, U of T, retiring Emeritus in 1984. He was one of Canada’s most prolific composers, whose orchestral output included eight numbered symphonies, and more than a dozen concertante works, as well as myriad solo vocal, choral, chamber and keyboard pieces. Although commissioned by the Toronto Latvian Concert Association and the Ontario Arts Council almost half a century ago, like so much of Ķeniņš’ output, the trio has remained unrecorded until now. The three-movement work is lyrical and occasionally dark, beginning with a Moderato con moto where the “motor” sounds are like footsteps. Adagietto teneroso is sparse, with a mournful violin melody 46 | September & October 2025 thewholenote.com
over simple lower string chords, which grows into counterpoint between the three players. The final Vivo e marcato starts playfully enough, with each of the instruments in turn leading a game of tag. This gives way to a sombre middle section before returning to the chase, and after another contemplative pause ends in a flurry of activity. Although the trio receives a thoroughly professional performance here, I think the work is straightforward enough to be tackled by accomplished amateur performers and I may use it as inspiration to return to my own cello, which has been mostly languishing in its case since the COVID lockdowns. The disc also includes Castillo interior by Latvian Pēteris Vasks, a tribute to Saint Teresa of Avila originally for violin and cello and revised for string trio in 2021. In it, quiet quasi-medieval melodies alternate with rhythmic passages representing the seven courtyards through which the soul must pass to enter “the castle,” a journey that requires “prayer, perseverance, self-knowledge and awareness of sin.” This is followed by the Gran duo funebre for viola and cello by Gundaris Pone who says, “My intention was not to write mourning music but to show how Latvians regard this big, final question […] approaching the issue of death with a sunnier outlook.” I think the references to Shostakovich perhaps belie this sunny outlook, but nevertheless it is a compelling work. One of the first instances, and still the most prestigious in my career as a music journalist (The WholeNote notwithstanding), was the publication (in French translation) of an article about Pierre Boulez that I wrote for the Université de Montréal’s journal Circuit: Revue Nord- Américaine de Musique du XXe siècle (Volume 3 Number 1, 1992). It was an analysis of a workshop/rehearsal of Mémoriale that Boulez gave at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto during a Canadian tour in conjunction with his residency at Festival Nova Scotia in 1991. The performers were flute soloist Robert Aitken and members of the New Music Concerts (NMC) ensemble who had first performed the work some six weeks earlier under the direction of frequent Boulez collaborator Jean-Pierre Drouet. This was almost a decade before my own association with NMC, where I served as general manager from 1999 until 2019. During my tenure there I met many of the world’s most illustrious composers, but the absolute epitome of this was the time I spent as escort to maestro Boulez when he became the laureate of the Glenn Gould Prize in November 2002. In the concert at Glenn Gould Studio mounted to honour the recipient of the prestigious prize, Christina Petrowska- Quilico performed Piano Sonata No.1, Fujiko Imajishi was featured in Anthèmes for solo violin, and Aitken and the NMC musicians reprised their performance of Mémoriale. Other works on the programme included Messagesquisse (with Boulez’s protégé Jean-Guihen Queyras as cello soloist), Éclats, Dérive and Pli selon pli (featuring Patricia Green). Boulez attended the final day of rehearsals, and although he was only scheduled to conduct one piece on the programme, he evidently felt that sufficient preparatory work had been done by Aitken in the preceding week and he decided to conduct the entire concert. It was a truly memorable performance and a career highlight for many of the musicians. Well, that was a rather lengthy introduction to set up my final review for the issue. Boulez lived from 1925 until 2016 and to mark the centenary of his birth Deutsche Grammophon has released Pierre Boulez: The Composer (deutschegrammophon. com/en/catalogue/products/pierre-boulezthe-composer-9905). It’s a commemorative box set including 11 CDs of recordings hand-picked by Boulez representing virtually all of his output spanning more than half a century. There is also a disc of historic recordings of Le Marteau sans maître, Le Soleil des eaux (second version 1950) and a 1956 performance of Sonatine for flute and piano featuring Severino Gazzelloni and David Tudor, along with an hourlong conversation between the set’s producer Claude Samuel and Boulez recorded at IRCAM in 2011. The interview is in French, but there is a complete translation in the 252-page booklet that also includes an homage by Laurent Bayle, an introduction by Samuel, detailed bilingual programme notes (including some provided by Boulez himself), texts of the poetry Boulez set to music and photographs. It’s a very impressive and informative package. Boulez, who came to prominence shortly after the Second World War along with Stockhausen, Xenakis and a host of other seminal composers of the avant-garde, was a complex and sometimes cantankerous individual. After initially bonding with such senior composers as Messiaen (with whom he studied) and René Leibowitz, he turned on his former mentors with contempt, eschewing all that came before including the likes of Stravinsky and Schoenberg (see his essay Schoenberg is Dead). Boulez took Schoenberg’s 12-tone principle that no note should be repeated until all the other 11 semitones had appeared, and applied this to the other parameters of music such as rhythm, duration, attack and dynamics. In later years, as he blossomed into a worldrenowned conductor, not only of the music of his contemporaries but also of earlier periods particularly in the realm of opera, in his own compositions he relaxed his strictures somewhat. ANDRÉ LEDUC This collection, containing virtually all the music Boulez acknowledged and even a few pieces he had not previously allowed to be performed, is presented in more or less chronological order, although this is complicated by the fact that he almost never stopped revising his works. It begins with the craggy pieces of the “angry young man,” Douze notations for piano, Sonatine, the three piano sonatas, Livre pour quatuor and Structures Livre 1 for two pianos. While most of the recordings date from the 1990s there are numerous exceptions, including the abovementioned Structures featuring Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky recorded in 1960, Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna from a 1982 Sony recording, the 1989 “definitive” version - a rare designation by Boulez - of Pli selon pli from 2002 and sur incises with Boulez conducting soloists of l’Ensemble intercontemporain (EI) in 2012. Virtually all of the ensemble pieces are conducted by Boulez, most performed by EI, but some featuring larger groups including the BBC Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic and Ensemble Modern Orchestra. One exception is Domaines for clarinet and instrumental groups. The soloist is Michel Portal with Musique vivante under Diego Masson in a recording from 1971. Portal also performs the solo version of Domaines. There are also two versions of Anthèmes; the solo version is performed by violinist Jeanne-Marie Conquer and the version with electronics, realized at Boulez’s IRCAM facility at the Centre Pompidou, features Hae-Sun Kang. As in the Toronto performance I mentioned earlier, Jean-Guihen Queyras is the soloist in a 2000 performance of Messagesquisse, sur le nom de Paul Sacher. I have missed some important works in this list but make no mistake they are all contained in this fabulous centenary tribute to one of the most significant figures of our time, a musical genius with whom I am privileged to have spent a memorable weekend. We invite submissions. CDs and DVDs should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4. Comments and digital releases are welcome at discoveries@thewholenote.com. thewholenote.com September & October 2025 | 47
