New Classical Recordings, Part 1

PS Audio · Oct 16, 2013

I almost titled this column “Grab Drawer.”
You probably had one in your household. Somewhere in the kitchen, or in a hallway that provided easy access from the rest of the house. It was not a “junk drawer.” It didn’t contain actual junk, just assorted stuff that sooner or later nearly everyone would need. Scotch tape; scissors. String. Labels. Glue. Pens, pencils, a crayon or two. Screwdrivers. Old padlocks. Old keys.
Over the past year, my listening room has come to resemble that. Strewn over the floor: dozens of new or recent recordings I always meant to review and never quite did. Stacked up in the corners: recordings I’ve been listening to, or heard last month, or meant to hear again. Neatly shelved along the walls: hundreds more, some of them calling out to me every time I enter the room. Play me, play me. 
Well, today I’m going to make amends. Below I discuss some very good—or at least interesting—recordings that have appeared recently. Are they the “best”? You decide.
(Also, because this column became so long, I divided it into two segments. Part 2 will appear in a couple of weeks.)
Americana
What is American music, anyway? Not since Copland’s heyday have we seen so many musicians scrambling to re-define “American.” Here are four new definitions, along with a nostalgic reminder of the best in our past.
Michael Daugherty (b. 1954) emerged in the late 1980s as yet another “accessible” neo-Romantic composer willing to blend cinematic and pop styles with the European tradition. He was part of a growing crowd who promised they wouldn’t make concertgoers run screaming from the hall midway through their latest “world premiere.” (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!)
But Daugherty also had a sense of humor. He frequently chose edgy subject matter or seasoned his travelogues with sardonic asides. This didn’t always result in music that stood up to repeated hearings. I loved Dead Elvis, for solo bassoon and chamber ensemble (1993), but neither Jackie O (1997) nor Sunset Strip (1999) will ever make it onto my Top Ten (or Top Two Hundred) list.
So it’s a pleasure to report that Daugherty’s latest collection, Mount Rushmore (Naxos 8.559749), dispenses with weak humor. He tackles three big subjects—Mount Rushmore and its iconic four faces; the rise and fall of charismatic evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson; and Arturo Toscanini, the Italian who emigrated to these shores in 1937 and launched the NBC Symphony. If you prefer red-blooded, straightforward Romantic music, with an unlimited supply of thundering climaxes and lots of catchy, somehow-already-familiar melodies, you’re gonna love this.
Here is a taste, from “George Washington,” the first movement of Rushmore:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Yes, that was William Billings’ “Chester,” sung in traditional shape-note style, and a bit of “Yankee Doodle.” Here’s some of the second movement, which alternates the poetry of a love song written to Jefferson in Paris by one Maria Cosway with his own reply to her, a “Dialogue of the Head vs. the Heart”:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Rushmore ends with a choral-orchestral setting of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. (No one can accuse Mr. Daugherty of aiming low.) The performances, by Carl St. Clair leading the Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale, are every bit as enthusiastic and un-subtle as the music. The other standout work on this disc, The Gospel According to Sister Aimee, is scored for organ, brass, and percussion, and it makes a joyous noise pretty much from beginning to end. Recent Grammy winner Paul Jacobs is the skillful organist. The live recording contains random noises from the audience, but nothing that really gets in the way—Sister Aimee was unstoppable, and so is this three-movement tribute.
<a href="http://www.pstracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Rushmore_Shelter.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-12002" alt="Rushmore Shelter New Classical Recordings, Part 1" src="http://www.pstracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Rushmore_Shelter.jpg" width="527" height="240" title="New Classical Recordings, Part 1" /></a>
Moving about as far from Daugherty as possible, we come upon the latest from the Bang On A Can collective, their Canteloupe CD entitled Shelter (CA21083). It’s a group collaboration: Julia Wolf, Michael Gordon, and David Lang all contribute movements to a work that deconstructs a basic, universal human need—dwelling places, whether real, imaginary, past, present, hoped-for, or doomed-to.
Bang On A Can made its name by combining the raw power of DIY rock with Minimalism and a dash of uptown academic pretense. That has served them very well, collectively and individually. (Lang won the Pulitzer Prize in music a couple of years ago for The Little Match Girl Passion.) Like their previous collaboration Lost Objects, Shelter is an oratorio. The libretto, by Deborah Artman, ranges far and wide, as does the music, delivered powerfully by conductor Brad Lubman and Ensemble Signal. Here is one representative excerpt:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
before I enter my house I step up high and then bow low I pat my pockets for my keys I leave my shoes at the door I push aside the skin of the door I adjust my eyes to the dark I put the keys in a bowl I kiss my fingers and pat the scroll I have no key I have no door. . .
And here is another: Is the wind at my back? / Do I face the sun? / Can I see my enemy?
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
One of the vocal soloists on this album, <a href="http://carolineshaw.com/o/" target="_blank">Caroline Shaw</a>, is also a Pulitzer Prize winner—how about that?
Two other new recordings show the lure, and the pitfalls, of incorporating non-Western ethnic styles into forms and genres of essentially European origin. Both of them reflect an old practice—renewing classic structures with infusions of folk spirit—but neither shows that the composer has found a consistent way to integrate the two voices.
<a href="http://www.pstracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Fairouz.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-12006" alt="Fairouz New Classical Recordings, Part 1" src="http://www.pstracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Fairouz.jpg" width="279" height="240" title="New Classical Recordings, Part 1" /></a>
Mohammed Fairouz (b. 1985) is the youngest composer on our list, but he’s written four symphonies and an opera, not to mention numerous solo and chamber works. As an Arab-American, he naturally draws upon Middle-Eastern expressive modes, but he doesn’t stop there. His debut Naxos album (8.559744) is essentially a calling-card meant to produce even more commissions, grants, and mutually beneficial relationships. In it he attempts to show off his cosmopolitanism by dabbling in several styles and genres, not always effectively.
Here’s a clip from the best track in the album, Tahwidah, a spellbinder for soprano and klezmer clarinet to a text by Mahmoud Darwish:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
If you’ll not be a rain, my love, then be a tree drenched in fertility . . . and if you’ll not be a tree, my love, be a rock . . . and if you’ll not be a rock, my love, be a moon in the sleep of lovers . . . be a moon (This is what a woman told her son at his funeral.)
The piece owes a lot to the singular talents of clarinetist David Krakauer and soprano Mellissa Hughes. Elsewhere Fairouz enlists the aid of the Imani Winds, the Borromeo String Quartet, violinist Rachel Barton Pine, and singers Christopher Thompson and David Kravitz. Pines’ piece, Native Informant, displays both the strengths and weaknesses of Fairouz’ approach. Its five movements encompass “an art song with secret lyrics,” a tribute to Arabic fiddling, a lament for lives lost in the 2011-12 Egyptian Revolution, a “Lullaby of the ex-Soldat” (Pines’ historic violin), and a playful nod to the New York cabaret scene back in the day (Fairouz names Porter and Gershwin, but what I hear are snatches of Ashkenazic folk music and polite ragtime).
It’s well written for the instrument, with plenty of opportunities for the soloist to shine. But it’s also somewhat uneven and derivative. Here’s a sample of the “cabaret” movement:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Elsewhere, the Imani Winds get a four-movement work that attempts to chronicle events from the Lebanese Civil War. The obvious gravity of the subject matter is not always a good match for wind-quintet scoring, which lends itself more readily to depictions of the pastoral, intimate, or sprightly. A song cycle, Posh, to texts by Wayne Koestenbaum, shows craftsmanship but little individuality.
<a href="http://www.pstracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Puts_Ellington.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-12008" alt="Puts Ellington New Classical Recordings, Part 1" src="http://www.pstracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Puts_Ellington.jpg" width="482" height="240" title="New Classical Recordings, Part 1" /></a>
From Harmonia Mundi comes an album by another American composer, Kevin Puts (b. 1972), like Lang and Shaw a Pulitzer winner. His new recording comprises three recent works, the Symphony No. 4 “From Mission San Juan” along with two unaccompanied choral pieces, To Touch the Sky and If I Were a Swan. The choral works, performed by Conspirare and conductor Craig Hella Johnson, offer the best demonstration of Puts’ talents. Here is a moment from To Touch the Sky, a nine-song meditation on the idea of the “divine feminine.” (All the texts are by women.) Listen to the way Puts uses harmonically adventurous voicings to suggest spiritual transcendence:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Unbreakable, O Lord, Is the love That binds me to You: Like a diamond, It breaks the hammer that strikes it.
My heart goes into You As the polish goes into the gold. Like the lotus lives in its water, I live in You. . . .
Symphony No. 4 “From Mission San Juan” treads more carefully. Puts had been asked by a patron of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music to write a work “inspired” by the history of San Juan Batista. As he writes,
<blockquote readability="9">Its founding friars . . . baptized thousands of Mutsun Indians and took it upon themselves to teach them to sing church music. They were disturbed by the Mutsuns’ failure to abandon their own music in favor of that which the friars presumably considered to be more civilized. Once I read this, I became immediately interested in tracking down any remnants of this Mutsun musical ancestry.</blockquote>
But Puts didn’t actually find many authentic remnants, so he was forced to rely upon an “imaginary compendium of Mutsun tunes,” with these results:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The symphony’s four movements portray the clash of cultures, followed by a “healing song of nigh-Mahlerian intensity” (Gavin Plumley’s program note). Nigh-Mahlerian, mind you. Marin Alsop, usually a reliable provider of musical excitement, leads the Baltimore Symphony in a well-mannered performance that fits the music—sturdy and heartfelt within its conservative idiom.
Readers hungry for a slice of less-filtered Americana could do worse than the new Duke Ellington collection from JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic (Naxos 8.559737). All the familiar orchestral arrangements are included: Harlem; Black, Brown, and Beige; Three Black Kings; and The River. Ellington’s orchestral arrangement of Take the “A” Train is also thrown in. Compared to the fleet three-minute masterpieces that Ellington recorded with his own Famous Orchestra, these symphonic arrangements have a certain lumbering quality, but their tunes and timbres offer no “imaginary compendium.” They’re the real thing. The Buffalonians give spicy, committed performances of these oft-recorded works, and the sound is vibrantly full.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Mystery Composers
For a couple of years now, I’ve been laying aside recordings that I thought would make terrific ingredients for another column on “mystery composers”—people whose music deserves to be better known, or familiar composers who wrote some stubbornly unfamiliar things. Well, time to stop hoarding my treasures. Here are a couple of “mystery” guys that deserve their moment in the sun right now, darn it.
<a href="http://www.pstracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Villa_Lobos.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-12010" alt="Villa Lobos New Classical Recordings, Part 1" src="http://www.pstracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Villa_Lobos.jpg" width="486" height="240" title="New Classical Recordings, Part 1" /></a>
Candidate No. 1: Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959). Practically every music student has heard of Villa-Lobos, a nationalist composer out of Brazil. But aside from the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, what do we really know of his music? For instance, he wrote twelve symphonies. Isaac Karabtchevsky and the São Paulo SO have launched a series for Naxos that brings us these works in lively, well-recorded performances at budget prices.
Symphony No. 6 “On the Outline of the Mountains of Brazil” (1944) derives its themes from Villa-Lobos’ process for obtaining a melody from an image. In this case he used transparent graphs of photos of the Órgãos Mountains, also Corcovado and Sugar Loaf, outside Rio de Janeiro, to suggest the pitches and durations of the tunes in the symphony. They are variously developed, of course. All this was part of the experimentation that Villa-Lobos undertook in the 1940s as he witnessed Brazil’s rapid modernization, a trend that undoubtedly made the Romantic-folkloric nationalism of a previous generation seem outmoded. But listen to the music that resulted:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Included with that work is Symphony No. 7, scored for strings, a massively enlarged wind section, extra percussion, keyboards, and synthesizer (in 1945, no less!). It’s definitely worth a listen.
Lately maestro Karabtchevsky and the SPSO have turned to earlier Villa-Lobos. Their newest Naxos release (8.573151) gives us Symphonies No. 3 “War” and 4 “Victory.” (Symphony No. 5 “Peace” was never performed, and perhaps never finished—the score has vanished.) Written in 1919, they reflect a fascinating hodgepodge of influences: one hears bits of Debussy, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, with splashes of modernist harmony and rhythm. The effusive, emotionally generous nature of the music wins one over in spite of its lack of stylistic or formal unity. Listen to the compelling way the “War” symphony gets underway:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Mystery Composer No. 2: Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921). Okay, I can see you shaking your head in scornful disbelief. Saint-Saëns is, after all,*celebrated. A*handful of his pieces are among the holiest of holies for audiophiles. I mean the great “Organ” Symphony and other orchestral showpieces, like the Danse bacchanale from Samson et Dalila. (There’s a very nice <a href="http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/7975" target="_blank">recent Chandos SACD</a> that collects all Saint-Saëns’ shorter orchestral works, and I recommend it.)
But what about Saint-Saëns’ chamber music?
<a href="http://www.pstracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/le_carnaval.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-12011" alt="le carnaval 300x300 New Classical Recordings, Part 1" src="http://www.pstracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/le_carnaval-300x300.jpg" width="300" height="300" title="New Classical Recordings, Part 1" /></a>
Ha! Gotcha! Several years ago I came upon a terrific chamber-music album on Virgin Classics that featured not only Le Carnaval des animaux but also some wonderful works for violin and harp, cello and piano, and septet (piano, trumpet, and five-part strings). It had been put together by the Capuçon brothers and featured the cream of young French instrumental talent. Listen:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
So imagine my delight when I came across two recent releases that allowed me to exercise my curiosity further. The Fine Arts Quartet and pianist Cristina Ortiz collaborate on his Piano Quartet in B flat and Piano Quintet in A minor (Naxos 8.572904). They make some gorgeous music, as in this slow movement from the Quintet:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Equally deserving is the first volume (!) of the complete music for violin and piano, from violinist Fanny Clamagirand and pianist Vanya Cohen (Naxos 8.572750). Of course, they begin with the notoriously difficult Violin Sonata No. 1—and they nail it. Listen to the finale:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Don’t worry, there’s a lot of heart-melting melody elsewhere. I found myself returning repeatedly to a wistful Sarabande:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW" title="Download Adobe Flash Player">here</a>. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Beautifully recorded too. We eagerly await volumes 2, 3, and 4 or more.
Next time: Two from ECM, Three from Sono Luminus, Choral Medalists, and more.
<a href="http://www.pstracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Saint_Saens.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-12013" alt="Saint Saens New Classical Recordings, Part 1" src="http://www.pstracks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Saint_Saens.jpg" width="488" height="240" title="New Classical Recordings, Part 1" /></a>
<center><a href="http://www.pstracks.com/classical_corner/classical-recordings-part-1/11976/emailpopup/" onclick="email_popup(this.href); return false;" title="Forward to a friend and help us engage more readers" rel="nofollow"><img class="WP-EmailIcon" src="http://www.pstracks.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-email/images/email.gif" alt="email New Classical Recordings, Part 1" title="New Classical Recordings, Part 1" /></a>*<a href="http://www.pstracks.com/classical_corner/classical-recordings-part-1/11976/emailpopup/" onclick="email_popup(this.href); return false;" title="Forward to a friend and help us engage more readers" rel="nofollow">Forward to a friend and help us engage more readers</a></center> <center><a href="http://eepurl.com/eSzBY">Get new and fresh stories like this each morning by joining the folks reading Paul's Posts. Click here </a></center>


[Source: http://www.pstracks.com/classical_corner/classical-recordings-part-1/11976/]

New Classical Recordings, Part 1

PS Audio

New member