In concert – Elizabeth Llewellyn, CBSO Youth Chorus & Orchestra / Jérémie Rhorer: Debussy, Ravel & Stravinsky

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Elizabeth Llewellyn (soprano, below), CBSO Youth Chorus (chorus-master, Julian Wilkins), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Jérémie Rhorer

Debussy Nocturnes L98 (1899)
Ravel Shéhêrazade M41 (1903)
Debussy Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune L86 (1894)
Stravinsky Symphony in Three Movements (1945)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 9 May 2024

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Picture of Jérémie Rhorer (c) Caroline Doutre, Elizabeth Llewellyn (c) Frances Marshall

Programmes featuring no Austro-German content are rarer than might be thought these days, so making this evening’s concert from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with the highly regarded conductor Jérémie Rhorer not only more unexpected but also more welcome.

There could be few more understated openings to such a programme than the Nocturnes that Debussy completed near the start of the 20th century, when the ‘impressionist’ tag randomly applied to his music was at its most relevant. Without denying its essentially rarified quality, Rhorer brought out the ominous undercurrents in Nuages, its emotional eddying abetted by Rachel Pankhurst’s soulful cor anglais while duly complemented by those fervid imaginings of Fêtes, where the central processional felt tangible in its implacability. Nor was there any undue reticence in Sirènes, the CBSO Youth Chorus here repeating its contribution from a couple of seasons ago with a response whose androgynous sound-world did not preclude an expressive poise coming to the fore through the remote ecstasy of this piece’s closing pages.

Among the most potent expressions from its composer’s early maturity, Ravel’s Shéhêrazade made for a natural follow-on. Less a cycle than a sequence of songs, it tends to be dominated by its initial Asie, which made Elizabeth Llewellyn’s performance the more admirable. Not that she ever under-characterized the images of wonder and terror such as pervade the poem’s ‘‘outdated language and cultural depictions’’ (to quote the rider in tonight’s programme), but these were harnessed to a cumulative build-up of intensity that held good over the capricious elegance of La Flûte enchantée, as enhanced by the artful finesse of flautist Marie-Christine Zupancic, then on to the sensuous ambiguity of L’Indifférent with its predictably equivocal close. Rhorer secured playing of subtlety and refinement throughout this memorable reading.

A suitably enervated if never flaccid account of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune launched the second half. Distinguished once more by Zupancic’s playing as well as an airily euphonious response by CBSO woodwind, Rhorer teased out the purpose behind any inertia.

Although it could not have made other than a jarring impression in this context, Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements provided an instructive contrast (Roussel’s Third Symphony would have been more apposite – maybe another time?) in its presaging of rhythmic tensility over harmonic langour. Rhorer had the measure of the opening’s movement’s animation, for the most part simmering rather than overt (and some not quite spot-on entries a reminder that this music remains a stern test of technical accuracy), but the highlight was a central Andante whose alternating between the whimsical and beatific confirmed the film-world’s loss as the concert-hall’s gain. The transition into the finale saw a frisson of expectancy, duly confirmed by its remorseless progress toward what is the most visceral outcome in latter-day Stravinsky.

A fine showing, then, from the CBSO and a notable appearance by Rhorer who will hopefully return soon. Next week sees a welcome reappearance by Joshua Weilerstein, major works by Bernstein and Dvořák being set in relief with shorter pieces by Pavel Haas and Caroline Shaw.

Click on the link to read more on the current CBSO concert season, and on the names for more on soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn, conductor Jérémie Rhorer and the CBSO Youth Chorus

Published post no.2,177 – Monday 13 May 2024

Let’s Dance – Various Artists: Balance presents Dave Seaman & Quivver (Balance)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

For their contribution to the esteemed Balance Series, Dave Seaman and Quivver have gone down the exclusive route. Each of the tracks chosen for the pair of mixes has not been released before, and both artists have cast the net across their network of contacts to ensure the quality remains high throughout.

That means exclusive tracks from the likes of Einmusik, Timo Maas, Just Her and Anthony Pappa, as well as a long sought-after and seldom-heard remix from Seaman, that of Underworld’s Low Burn.

The two friends have also locked horns on five new tracks which they present throughout the mixes.

What’s the music like?

When I say ‘solid’, that’s not meant as an insult – more an observation that while house music goes down some weird and wonderful avenues you can rely on these two for a consistently good mix. Their experience shines through in the pacing each mix receives, setting an airy atmosphere early on and then building inexorably to a strong finale.

The pair secure a typically atmospheric, smoky start, before the music gets progressively more full-bodied through tracks like Murat Uncuoglu’s Magico. Horizons, a collaboration between Kamilo Sanclemente, Anthony Pappa and Jamie Stevens, flickers atmospherically, then the sounds sharpen and the pace quickens for AIKON’s Hurricane and the excellent, moody Walensee from Einmusik. We then move through the gears for the excellent Seaman / Quivver co-productions Mushroom Embargo and Make This Disappear, with a feel of Dave Gahan in the vocals from Quivver, before Robert Babicz’s smouldering Mystik.

The second mix has impressive urgency from the start, toughening up with Timo Maas’ remix of pølaroit’s Apart, then leading through a shimmering breakdown from Jamie Stevens’ The Peace Machine before getting a shift on through Stas Drive’s Hold Me Tight.

The Low Burn remix is certainly worthy of the hype, Seaman sprinkling star dust over a strong beat with brooding interventions from the bass and Karl Hyde’s ‘be bold, be beautiful’ imprint whispered against the grain. From there to home there is more darkly magnificent music, the closing trio from Jamie Stevens (Verlaine), Chicola (Dust Coins) and Ron Flatter (Ovid)

Does it all work?

It does – the pair using all their dance music knowhow to get the pacing right, so that each mix feels like a single chapter of the night.

Is it recommended?

It is – quality house music delivered with style and polish.

Listen

Buy

You can explore purchase options and listen to excerpts from the mix on the Balance website

Published post no.2,175 – Saturday 11 May 2024

On Record – Peter Herresthal, Arctic Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra – Missy Mazzoli: Dark with Excessive Bright (BIS)

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abfPeter Herresthal (violin); bMembers of Arctic Philharmonic [Oganes Girunyan, Øyvind Mehus (violins), Natalya Girunyan (viola), Mary Auner (cello), Ingvild Maria Mehus (double bass)]; cdeArctic Philharmonic / Tim Weiss; aBergen Philharmonic Orchestra / James Gaffigan

Mazzoli
Dark with Excessive Bright (2021 – versions with string orchestra (a) and string quintet (b)). Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) (2013)c
These Worlds in Us (2021)d
Orpheus Undone (2021)e
Vespers for Violin (2014)f

BIS BIS-2572 [66’22’’]
Producers Jørn Pedersen, Hans Kipfer Engineers Gunnar Herfel Nilsen, Håkan Ekman

Recorded 4 June 2021 (a) at Grieghallen, Bergen; March 2022 at Storman Concert Hall, Bodø

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

BIS issues the first release to be devoted to the orchestral output of Missy Mazzoli (b.1980), New York-based and firmly established among the most significant opera composers of her generation, recorded with a stellar cast of musicians at venues on the west coast of Norway.

What’s the music like?

In his prefatory note, American author Garth Greenwell characterizes Mazzoli’s music thus – ‘‘Each piece is a journey no step of which is forgotten, so one arrives in a place that feels at once familiar and absolutely new’’, which seems a fair description of its audible connection with the past while, at the same time, absorbing accrued influences into an idiom wholly of today. That each of the works bears this out, albeit in different ways and with unpredictable outcomes, says much about the effectiveness of her modus operandi these past two decades.

Earliest here is These Worlds in Us – its title drawn from a poem by James Tate concerning the wartime death of his father, leading to music whose interplay between feelings of pain and elation is abetted by a tightly focussed evolution. An identical duration aside, Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) could hardly be more removed in its formal corollary to that of the solar system; such abstraction offset by the ‘sinfonia’ connotations with a Medieval hurdy-gurdy whose modal drone, recreated here on an electronic keyboard, underlies the headily increasing velocity of this piece. Nominally the paraphrase of a larger work, Vespers for Violin combines solo violin with an electronic soundtrack where overtones of keyboards, voices and strings subsumed into a texture such as proves at once rarified and evocative.

Framing this release are two versions of the title-track. Having started out as a concerto for double bass and strings, Dark with Excessive Bright was reworked for violin at the request of Peter Herresthal – a quotation from Milton being the catalyst for a piece that refashions Baroque techniques from a present-day vantage, and one which succeeds equally well with orchestral strings or string quintet. Most compelling, though, is Orpheus Undone – a suite whose two movements (respectively 10 and five minutes) open-out that emotional trauma    of Eurydice’s death with a methodical while always cumulative inexorability as to suggest that Mazzoli could distinguish herself in the symphonic domain were she to take time-out from that of opera. Certainly, one of the most absorbing orchestral pieces of recent years.

Does it all work?

Pretty much always, though the composer is fortunate to have had such advocacy from the musicians heard here. Herresthal reaffirms his standing as go-to violinist for new music, his playing as subtle and as resourceful as this concerto requires. The much in-demand James Gaffigan gets luminous playing from the Bergen Philharmonic, as does Tim Weiss from the Arctic Philharmonic of whose Sinfonietta he is artistic director. Sound of spaciousness and clarity, along with succinctly informative notes by the composer, are further enhancements.

Is it recommended?

It is, and those suitably drawn into Mazzoli’s sound-world are encouraged to check out other releases – notably the powerful and unsettling opera Proving Up (Pentatone PTC5186754) or the endlessly thought-provoking Vespers for a New Dark Age (New Amsterdam NWAM062).

Listen

Buy

You can explore purchase options for this recording at the Presto website. Click on the names for more on the artists – Peter Herresthal, Tim Weiss, James Gaffigan, Arctic Philharmonic and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra – and for more on the composer Missy Mazzoli

Published post no.2,174 – Friday 9 May 2024

On Record – Hensel: Lieder (First Hand Records)

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Fanny Hensel
Wenn ich ihn nur habe. Die Schönheit Nicht, Mädchen, Wohl deinem Liebling (all 1820). Der Abendstern. Die sanften Tage, Der Sänger. An die Entfernte (all 1823). Auf der Wanderung. Abschied. Mond. Sehnsucht, HU190 (all 1824-6). Sehnsucht, HU192. Maigesang. Seufzer. An den Mond. An die Ruhe. Sehnsucht, HU203. Sehnsucht, HU205. Umsonst. Suleika (all 1827). Sehnsucht, HU217. Nacht. In der Ferne (all 1828-33). Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh’. Ach, die Augen sind es wieder. Das Meer Erglänzte. Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen (all 1835-8). Der Fürst vom Berge. Traurige Wege. Dämmrung senkte sich von oben. Traum. Mutter, o sing mich zur Ruh’ (all 1840-44). Erwache Knab’. Vorwurf (both 1846).

Jennifer Parker, Stephanie Wake-Edwards (mezzo-sopranos), Tim Parker-Langston (tenor), Jâms Coleman, Genevieve Ellis, Ewan Gilford (pianos)

First Hand Records FHR148 [82’25’’]
German texts and English translations included. Producers and Engineers Tim Parker-Langston, David Jones
Recorded 3-8 January 2023 at Mendelssohn-Haus, Leipzig, Germany

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

First Hand Records expands its already enterprising catalogue with this release of Lieder by Fanny Hensel (1805-47) – Felix Mendelssohn’s elder sister – who has recently come into her own not least through her prolific song output, many of which are only now being recorded.

What’s the music like?

Hensel left some 450 individual works, with songs comprising over half this total. A handful of these appeared under her brother’s name, while she had published just three collections of songs and piano pieces at the time of her death: a measure of the extent of her composing is that half of those songs featured here are being recorded for the first time. Covering some 26 years, this selection feels representative of her musical development in terms of its evolving approach to harmony and word-setting, together with the range and type of authors being set.

Although other sequences are perfectly feasible, the decision to proceed chronologically is justified by relative unfamiliarity of Hensel’s songs. Starting with the appealing gaucheness of the Novalis setting If I could only have him, this continues with such relatively ambitious numbers as the Ludwig Uhland ballad The Gentle Days (at almost five minutes the longest item here) or wistful eloquence found in Ludwig Tieck’s Parting. A highlight is her setting   of Ludwig Hölty’s May Song, notably the subtle variations of tone and texture drawn from its 12 verses. The songs from the late 1830s include a striking treatment of Heinrich Heine’s I wondered beneath the trees and those from the early 1840s include the sustained intensity found in Nikolaus Lenau’s Sorrowful Paths, which poet’s Reproach is almost her last song.

A good way into Hensel’s songs is through comparing those five items (from a total of nine) all entitled Sehnsucht (Longing) and written during the mid-to later 1820s. First, a setting of Johann Voss which never ventures far from its subdued opening; next, a setting of Hölty that points up this poem’s conflicting images with real acuity, followed with two briefer settings by these poets (that by Hölty the shortest here at barely 50 seconds) such as amply turn such succinctness to expressive advantage and, finally, a poem by Friedrich Märcker whose overt pantheism inspires a setting of gentle profundity. Here, as in almost all these songs, Hensel never forces the issue with regard to ‘interpreting’ the words at hand – rather, her approach is to tease out its meaning through a dialogue between voice and piano in which inference is all.

Does it all work?

Almost always, not least owing to the advocacy of these artists. The lion’s share is entrusted to Tim Parker-Langston (not unreasonably so given his masterminding of this project), whose mellifluous tenor is eminently suited to Hensel’s music. Of the two mezzos, Stephanie Wake-Edwards’s soulful contralto is duly complemented on three numbers with the lighter tone of Jennifer Parker. The 34 songs are divided almost equally between three pianists who, between them, confirm Hensel wrote as idiomatically as any more illustrious peer for this combination.

Is it recommended?

It is, given this release is a significant contribution to the ongoing dissemination of Hensel’s music. The booklet, too, is admirably produced with its succinct introductory note alongside full texts and translations. Those looking for an overview of these songs need look no further.

Buy

You can explore purchase options on the First Hand Records website Click to read about Hensel Songs Online, and on the artist names to read more on Jennifer Parker, Stephanie Wake-Edwards, Tim Parker-Langston, Jâms Coleman, Genevieve Ellis and Ewan Gilford

Published post no.2,173 – Thursday 9 May 2024