DISCOVERIES is a CD review section designed to complement and enhance our pre-eminent coverage of Toronto ' s live classical, jazz and new music concert scene, featuring reviews by WholeNote columnists and independent contributors. CDs are considered for review in the following categories: 1.. "Concert prep" - CDs, new or otherwise, which tie in with events being featured in the cprrent issue of the magazine. Many discs in the other cate.gories also relate to upcoming events ~s noted; · · 2. New and Recent Releases - newly released CDs relevant to our magazine's coverage of the music scene; · 3. "Worth repeating" - CDs newly re-issued, or previously released but still generally available, deemed particularly noteworthy iJ¥ a member of our editorial panel; IN THIS ISSUE CONCERT PREP pages 56-59 - Stefan Wolpe, Compositions for Piano, 1920-1952 - David Holzman - Warp IX · Time Warp - Britten: The Turn of the Screw· Bostridge, Rogers, Mahler Chamber Orchestra I Daniel Harding, conductor - Britten: The Canticles - Bostridge I Daniels I Maltman J Julius Drake - Rondino - University of Toronto Percussion Ensemble - Nightmare in Venice - Red Priest - Janacek: The Diary of One Who Disappeared - Ian Bostridge I Ruby Philogene I Thomas Ades . -·Delibes: Lakme - Natalie Dessay I Gregory Kunde/ Jose van Dam I Orchestre et Choir du Capitole de Toulouse - Handel: Italian Cantatas - Marie-Nicole . Lemieux I Luc Beausejour /Marie Celine Labbe J Amanda Keesmaat NEW AND RECENT RELEASES pages 59- 62 - Handel: Oratorio Arias - David Daniels I E·nsemble Orchestral de Paris I John Nelson, conductor 4. ;"lndie list" _ Small label and . - Hande.1; Arcadian Duets - Le Concert . " d'Astree and soloists I Emmanuelle mdep~nde?t ~el_ease CDs , often Harm, director • .fea_turmg md1v1duals _or groups - h.lban Berg: Violin Concerto; Lyric Suite; active on the local music scene. 5. "Disc(s) of the month" - Discs of special interest, often with a particular connection to the month's concert activities or editorial focus. This month, in keeping .with the holiday season, we highlight Christmas releases and incl4de a special sec"ti on of "Stocking Stuff ers " - discs recommended by our reviewers . We think DISCoveries is a logical and exciting extension to The WholeNote's coverage of the . Toronto music scene. We welcome your feedback and. invite submissions. Catalogues , review copies of CDs and comments should be sent to: The WholeNote, 60 Bellevue Avenue, Toronto ON, MST 2N4. We also welcome. your input via · our . website, www .thewholenote .com. David Olds Editor, DISCOVERIES Three Orchestral Pieces - Rebecca Hirsch, Violin I Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, cond. Eri Klas - The Noel Coward Songbook - Ian · Bostridge I Sophie Daneman I Jeffrey Tate - Mahler: Symphony No.1 O - realized Clinton A. Carpenter I Andrew Litton and The Dallas Symphony - Violons du monde - La Pieta I Angele Dubeau - Haydn Concertos - Pacific Baroque Or.chestra I Marc Destrube - What Goes Around - Dave Holland Big Band - Naida ·cale: Reflections - Ravel, Bartok and Liszt WORTH REPEATING pages 62- 64 - The Last Goncert: Rosemary Clooney with the Honolulu Symphony Pops ·The Indispensable: 1972-2002 String band - Opera Explaineyd I Classics• Explained . INDIE LIST pages 64 - 66 - Fiddlesong , Anne Lederman ·Tova t ive at The Top O' The Senator - Theresa Tdva - Visions - Timothy Minthorn - Dance of the Blessed Spirits - Daniel Ruqinoff & Christopher Dawes · Lifetime - Steve Koven Trio DISCS OF THE MONTH CHRISTMAS WRAP-UP , pages 66 I 67 - Les grands airs de Noel I Christmas · Greatest Songs · Choeur Les Rhapsodes I. Les Petits' Chanteurs de Mont-Royal I Lyne. Fortin /Orchestre symphonique de Quebec I · Angele Dubeau I Luce Vachon I Strada I La Bande Magnetik . - The First Noel: Ginette Reno · In Bethlehem Tonight - Chorona - Home for the Holidays - Oakville Children's Choir and Chamber Choir · A True North Christmas: True North Brass STOCKING STUFFERS pages 67 - 70 · ·- Musikfabrik: James Tenney - Toru Takemitsu A String Around Autumn Tadaaki Otaka and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales - Kabalevsky Violin Concerto; Cello ~ Concerto No.2 - Gems with an Edge: Christina Petrowska Quilico - The Complete Mozart Symp~onies - Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert - A ~aioque Feast - Jeanne Lamon and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra - Berlioz: Les Troyens - Sir Colin Davis and the London .Symphony Orchestra and Chorus - Pli Selan Pli: Pierre Boulez and the Ensemble lntercontemporain with Christine Schafer - Vengerov Plays Ysaye, Bach and Shchedrin - Great conductors of the 201h Century: Charles Munch ·Caruso: Italian Songs , · Chqpin Eludes Opp. 10 and 25 · Murray Perahia . - Leonard Bernsteio's West Side Story - Nashville Symphony Orchestra - Ferde Grote: Orcnestral Suites - Samuel Barber: Piano Concerto - Stephen Prutsman I Royal Scottish Orchestra, cond. Marin Alsop - Beethoven & Brahms Violin Concertos: Jascha Heifetz - Geminiani Concerti Grossi: Jeanne Lamon and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra - Leclair Sonatas for Violin: Trio Sonnerie - Don Byron: A Fine Line - Duke Ellington: Live At Newport - Dorati Conducts Prokofiev - Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy - Miles Davis: Kind of Blue - Ben Webster: Soulville - Thelonious Monk: Brilliant Corners ~ An Oscar Peterson Christmas - Jim and Jay's Christmas - Elliott Carter, The Four String Quartets; Duos for Piano and Violin: Juilliard String Quartet • - Elliott Carter, Chamber Music - Arditti Quartet with Ursula Oppens - Verdi: Rigoletto - Jussi Bjorling I Bi du Sayao /Leonard Warren - Louis Armstrong: The Complete Hot Fives and Sevens - Ornette Coleman: Beauty Is A Rare Thing, The Complete Atlantic Recordings CONCERT PREP Stefan Wolpe, Compositions for Piano, 1920-1952. David Holzman, Bridge9116 Cruel historical ·timing denied Stefan Wolpe (1902-72), until quite recently, his rightful recognition as one of the great modern composers. While other young composers estab l ished thei r { reputations in 1920's Germany, Wolpe wrote music for anti-fascist movements. When th e Nazis assµmed power in 1933 , he escaped to Palestine. Despite his lasting ~ontributions to Israeli art . music, Wolpe was'too.nidical for the interwar milieu and. emigrated to New York in 1938. l{e became a central figure of the New York School that redefined contemporary music and the visual arts during the 1940's and 1950's. Just as Wolpe was garnering Guggenheim awards, accolades at ·Darmstadt and a tenured university posi tion in the !'ate 1950's, Parkinson's disease deprived him of his prime creative years . Magnificent music pliiyed magnificently is how I would sum up David Holzman's new CD, issued in conjunction with dozens of celebrations of the Wolpe centenary on both sides of the A tlantic. 'Wolpe was a sk illed pianist, composed at the keyboard and wrote much of his best music for this instrument. Holzman focuses on."early mature" Wolpe, 1938-1 952, when the composer synthesized his experiences w·ith the Second Viennese school, social m?vements, jazz and Middle Eastern music into a unique abstr()ct expressionism : atonal music that swings, extremely complex music that is eminently liste!lllble. Selec-tions from earlier years show the lasting heritage of Busoni's inclusive modernism , Bauhaus radicalism and Dadaist · satire. Philip Ehrensaf! 56 www.thewholenote.com D ecember 1 2002 ~ February 7 2003
-================= Concert Note: Wolpe's Enactments for Three Pian'os is the centerpiece of New Music Concert's Stefan Wolpe Centenary Concert at the Music Gallery on December 1. Warp IX Time Warp Cornerstone Records Warp IX celebrates the twentieth birthday of Time Warp. The CD confirms their standing as one of Canada's' ,very best ensembles. Founding members Al Henderson and Barry Elmes have known each other since high school days in Galt (now Cambridge), Ontario dµring the mid-60's, and then as students in York University's. ·new jazz program. Inspired py Charles Mingus' band, which was driven by the tightly coordi.nated Concert Note: The Sound of Toronto British tenor Ian Bostridge is rhythm section of Mingus on bass jazz. series presents Time Warp on being welcomed as the heir to andDannyRi~hmondondrums,their December 2. Peter Pears, for whom. Britten new band eliminated comping instru- wrote this work, and who first ments. ·Kevin Turcotte came on recorded it with the composer. bpard in 1988. The young Kelly Britten: The Turn of the Screw Bostridge' s precise delivery, iefferson, arriving by way of 'Bostridge, Rogers laconic manner, and archly McGill'sjazz program and finishing Mahler Chamber Orchestra beautiful ·voice are certainly ideal school on the New York jazz scene, Daniel Harding, conductor for the sinister Quint. Joan Rogers recently replaced tenor whiz Mike EMI 5 455212 O as the governess conveys her Murley. From what I heard during desperation in a thrilling "Lost in Time Warp's gig at the Senator and my labyrinth I see no truth". this CD, Jefferson is l!P to the The two children, Caroline Wise challenge offilling Murley's shoes. as Flora and Julien Leang as Miles, Time Warp's purposefully non- are remarkably clear and touching. doctrinaire tastes run from . swing Lea,ng' s Malo is poignantly . . through Ornette Coleman. Elmes' unsettling, and his final accusatory distinctive drumming is linked to . line, "Peter Quint, you devil", is initial self-teaching by a left-hander truly horrifying. that led to playing right-handed on a Young conductor Daniel Harding left-handed set of drums! He captures the otherworldly atmoemphasizes the drums' tonal sphere of Britten's brilliant scoring, qualities and imaginatively patterned, Britten: The Canticles which includes a menacing piano moderately p;iced pulses. Henderson Bostridge, Daniels, Maltman part. The terrific sound quality often plays his bass like another horn. Julius Drake, piano • reveals 'the textural details of the · 1 There~s a stimulating dose of Virgin 5 45525 2 6 sco~e. and helps make clear why Turcotte and Jefferson improvising The Turn of the Screw is one of the this chamber opera is often against one another. All nine tracks most. disturbing operas in the . considered Britten's masterpiece. are original compositions by repertoire. The story deals with The Five Canticles were written ensemble members, Time Warp's innocence, corruption. and evil. for Pears over 'a w.ide span of preferred practice. The knockout in Two of the main characters are Britten's career, from 1947 to to aknockoutalbumisEimes' brooding, ghosts. But what is really going on ·1974. The third of these chamber funky Feelings in E:xile. is never straightforward. · · cantatas, Still Falls the Rain, dates Philip Ehrensaft l Ronald Beckett, A Beck.ett Miscellany available in stores now A Beckett Miscellany is the latest CD of music by Canadian composer Ronald Beckett. · Featuring a wide variety of in,strumental selections ranging from chamber music to orchestral music to solo piano pjeces, A Beckett Miscellany is a wonderful showcase of the breadth of talent displayed by this innovative composer. The Quintet for Winds displays a mastery of chamber writing; harmonic" and melodic ideas abound in the Trio for Winds; and the remarkable orchestral . Fantasia . is . magnificent. A Beckett Miscellany ser\les as a wond.erful introduction to one of Canada's most brilliant composers displayed in works · of beauty and imagination. Canadian Classical music on Phoenix Records www.thewholenote.com 57
