Category Archives: On record

On Record – Arthur Lourié: Chamber and Instrumental Music Vol. 1 (Toccata Classics)

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Lourié
Sunrise (1957)a
Pastorale de la Volga (1916)b
Regina Coeli (1924)c
La Flute à travers le Violon (1935)d
Dithyrambes (1938)e
Deux Études sur un sonnet de Mallarmé (1945/62)f
The Mime (1956)g
The Flute of Pan (1957)h
Funeral Games in Honor of Chronos (1964)i

cCandy Grace Ho (contralto) iRaphael Leone (piccolo) adehBirgit Ramsl (flute), gPaolo Beltramini (clarinet), Egidius Streiff, bd(viola/violin) fiGottlieb Wallisch (piano)
Musicians of Arthur Lourié Festival, Basel [iLucie Brotbek Prochásková (alto flute), bcHansjürgen Wäldele (oboe), bNicolas Rihs (bassoon), cSimon Lilly (trumpet), bAgnès Mauri (viola), bMateusz Kamiński (cello), iNicolas Suter (percussion)]

Toccata Classics TOCC0652 [70’05’’]
Producer Mauro Piccinini Engineers Sergio Cossu & Riccardo Botta
Recorded 26 November 2021 (g) and 25 February 2022 (adeh) at Sacro Cuore, Bellinzona; 20/24 February 2022 (bcfi) at Studio 1, Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, Zurich

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Toccata Classics adds to the growing recorded representation of Arthur Lourié (1892-1966) with this first volume devoted to chamber and instrumental music, so extending appreciation of not only a culturally significant figure but a strikingly original composer in his own right.

What’s the music like?

Earliest here is Pastorale de la Volga – its pungent scoring for woodwind and strings, with its avowedly constructivist unfolding (what might be termed ‘additive form’), maintained across two continuous movements which do not develop linearly as evolve modularly; these motifs intensifying, as it were, through association and in a manner Stravinsky or Prokofiev drew on intensively around this time. Subsequently isolated in Wiesbaden, Lourié brought modernist and traditional facets into telling accord with his setting Regina Coeli; here, oboe and trumpet play off a vocal line that continues unaware of, or is indifferent to, their contrasting presence.

In essence a sonata ‘malgré-lui’, La Flûte à travers le Violon has its composer utilizing some of the more recondite aspects of Stravinskian neo-classicism – whether in the agile rhythmic displacement of its opening Allegretto, taciturn eloquence of its central Adagio or engaging repartee of the final Presto with its appealingly populist undertones. By contrast, the trilogy for solo flute Dithyrambes offers an avowedly Nietzschean take on the choral odes found in Greek antiquity – the graceful undulations of Le Sacrifice du miel duly complemented by the unfurling lament of Plainte d’Ariane, before the tonal and rhythmic intricacies of the relatively lengthy Labyrinthe make a potent corollary to that fabled if mythical construct.

Phrases, first of two études respectively commenting on and setting a sonnet by Mallarmé, finds this composer at his most unashamedly melodic – though there is nothing reactionary about its plaintive and at times capricious interplay between flute and piano. This is no less true of Mime, a study for clarinet which is dedicated to Charles Chaplin and which it is not unreasonable to think of as a portrait of this actor in his most enduring guise as the Tramp.

The programme had opened with the alluring strains of Sunrise, its (imagined?) evocation of the ‘dawn chorus’ just one of the aspects of this first cousin to pieces by Debussy and Varèse, and to which The Flute of Pan makes for a pointed contrast with its gradually but inexorably mounting activity to a febrile ending. From here to Funeral Games in Honor of Chronos is to encounter Lourié’s penultimate work, his latter preoccupation with ritual heard in a sequence of linked episodes conceptually of the ancient past yet aesthetically of the immediate present.

Does it all work?

Yes, notwithstanding that Lourié is a composer less occupied with any expressive or technical consistency than with imparting a ‘world view’ such as veers freely between past and present. These performances, recorded under the auspices of the Arthur Lourié Festival in Basel, are always attuned to his arresting idiom and have been recorded with the requisite spaciousness.

Is it recommended?

Indeed, and good to hear a follow-up volume from this source is forthcoming. In particular, Lourié’s music for string quartet would be necessary listening for anyone who has heard his epic first such work (recorded by the Asasello Quartett on Genuin GEN22745) in this genre.

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You can listen to sample tracks and purchase on the Toccata Classics website. Click on the names for more on composer Arthur Lourié

Published post no.2,165 – Wednesday 1 May 2024

On Record – Peter Herresthal, Jakob Kullberg, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, John Storgårds – Nørgård: Symphony no.8, Three Nocturnal Movements, Lysning (BIS)

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Peter Herresthal (violin) and Jakob Kullberg (cello) (Nocturnal Movements), Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra / John Storgårds

Nørgård
Lysning (2006)
Symphony no.8 (2011)
Three Nocturnal Movements (2015)

BIS BIS-2502 [54’20’’]
Producer Hans Kipfer Engineers Matthias Spitzbarth, Håkan Ekman (Nocturnal Movements)
Recorded 29 & 30 August 2019 (Nocturnal Movements), 4 & 5 February 2022 2022 at Grieghallen, Bergen

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

His activities as a composer may effectively have ceased, but Per Nørgård (1932-) remains a defining figure in post-war European music and this latest release from BIS collates three wholly characteristic pieces, including a double concerto which is also his last major work.

What’s the music like?

Playing a little over 25 minutes, the three movements of the Eighth Symphony each pursues its intriguing take on an established form (sonata, ternary then rondo) which emerge with a renewed fluidity and flexibility. The opening movement continually evolves its main ideas   in a gradual if cumulative curve of activity, culminating in the heightened crystallisation of motifs on tuned percussion. The central Adagio emerges across densely luminous waves of sound that recall earlier Nørgårdian practice from an arrestingly new perspective; one whose expression admits an almost confiding intimacy. The finale deftly complements this with its artfully ratcheting percussion and infectious rhythmic gyrations on route to a coda of purest radiance; the fitting close to a symphonic cycle that ranks with the finest of the post-war era.

A crucial factor of Three Nocturnal Movements is its having been a collaboration with cellist Jakob Kullberg and developed from the viola concerto Remembering Child of three decades earlier. The outcome comprises two substantial movements that frame a ‘nocturnal’ cadenza. The opening Allegro finds the solo instruments deeply embedded within an orchestral texture whose clarity enables motivic interconnections to emerge with due precision, underlining the airy momentum which carries this music towards its predictably unexpected close. Whatever its provenance, the central Andante is of a piece with those on either side – its limpid gestures and intonational punning a throwback to this composer’s preoccupations from more than half a century earlier, but now imbued with an aura no less affecting for its valediction. The final (undesignated) movement is the most demonstrative with its frequently percussive outbursts and those abrupt though never jarring changes in course that keep the attentive listener fully attuned to a discourse such as builds incrementally toward its wistfully fulfilled conclusion.

The earliest work here, Lysning makes for an ideal ending. Its title translating as ‘Glade’, this is the last of its composer’s pieces for strings and takes the Nordic miniature as template for a study in discreet yet potent contrasts of sonority and emotion that lingers long in the memory.

Does it all work?

Yes, not least because Peter Herresthal and Jakob Kullberg have premiered earlier concertos by Nørgård for their respective instruments, while John Storgårds had previously recorded the Second, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Symphonies and gave the premiere of the Eighth of which he is dedicatee. This recording ideally complements that from Sakari Oramo (Dacapo 6.220574), focussing less on its overall symphonic cohesion than on the continual unpredictability of its renewed Classicism, and it is difficult to imagine more persuasive readings of the other works.

Is it recommended?

Very much so, in the hope Storgårds may yet complete his Nørgård cycle with the First, Third and Seventh Symphonies. Sound is up to BIS’s customary standards in clarity or perspective, while Kasper Rofelt’s annotations evince long familiarity with the composer’s unique idiom.

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You can explore purchase options for this recording at the Presto website. Click on the names for more on the artists – John Storgårds, Peter Herresthal, Jakob Kullberg and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra – and for more on the composer Per Nørgård

Published post no.2,166 – Thursday 2 May 2024

On Record – Solarek Piano Trio – Henriëtte Bosmans: Early Chamber Music (Toccata Classics)

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Solarek Piano Trio [Marina Solarek (violin), Miriam Lowbury (cello), Andrew Bottrill (piano)

Henriëtte Bosmans
Arietta (1917)
Violin Sonata (1918)
Piano Trio (1921)

Toccata Classics TOCC0654 [55’22’’]
Producer Ian Dean Engineers Bárbara Santos & Carlos Jesús
Recorded 6-7 April 2022 at Arda Studio A, Porto

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Toccata Classics continues its exploration of neglected and overlooked figures with a release of early pieces for chamber forces by Henriëtte Bosmans (1895-1952), Dutch composer and pianist whose eventful life drew attention away from her substantial and distinctive output.

What’s the music like?

Although her later music has latterly enjoyed performance and recording, that from Bosman’s formative years has had little exposure, making the pieces recorded here the more welcome – not least for underlining that her journey toward compositional maturity was a successful one.

The Violin Sonata is certainly a statement of intent. Its first of four movements is a substantial sonata design, the impulsive then ruminative main themes duly repeated prior to an extensive development (the transition into which derives from this latter theme rather than being a new idea as such); one whose understated resourcefulness continues throughout an altered reprise then suddenly decisive coda. The other movements (shorter even when combined) comprise a tensile and agitated scherzo, its absence of any trio section making contrast with the ethereal ‘song without words’ of the Adagio the more potent, then a finale that fails less by recycling themes previously encountered as by being too emotionally temperate to round off the whole with quite the resolution needed. This is an appealing and frequently prophetic piece, even so.

A few years later and the Piano Trio finds such promise being amply met. The initial Allegro maintains unflagging impetus that is by no means offset in the second theme, with its sultrily modal colouring, and abetted by the cello’s playing for much of the time in its higher register. After this, the central Andante ably fulfils its role within the overall scheme – the undulating moodiness of its main theme twice contrasted with livelier music, before finding repose at its bittersweet last hearing. It thus remains for the finale, prefaced by a cadenza-like passage, to restore the earlier energy with a dance-like theme which draws an almost orchestral sonority from the three instruments. A secondary idea elaborates on the material of that introduction, while the main theme returns to see this work through to its conclusion with some abandon.

Between these works comes the brief but enticing Ariëtta which is of interest for inhabiting the lower reaches of the violin’s compass (thereby making performances on viola the more common), and which adds to the solemn if not unduly earnest aura of its expressive profile.

Does it all work?

Not entirely, though such failings as there are constitute part of the interest here and the Piano Trio is evidently a minor masterpiece. Performances by the members of the Solarek Trio are never less than sympathetic, but would have benefited from a more sympathetic ambience, as that here has a narrow perspective such as robs them of any subtlety or finesse (those having spent numerous evenings at the British Music Information Centre in London will know what to expect). What is never in doubt is the dedication or the commitment of this music-making.

Is it recommended?

Yes, with reservations as outlined above. The two main works now have rival recordings by the Brundibar Ensemble (Fineline Classics FL72416) but this Toccata release is not thereby outclassed, while its annotations from violinist Marina Solarek are succinct and informative.

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You can listen to sample tracks and purchase on the Toccata Classics website. Click on the names for more on the Solarek Piano Trio, and on composer Henriëtte Bosmans

Published post no.2,165 – Wednesday 1 May 2024

On Record – George Lloyd: A Litany & A Symphonic Mass (Lyrita)

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George Lloyd
A Symphonic Mass (1990-92)
Brighton Festival Chorus, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra / George Lloyd
A Litany (1994-5)
Janice Watson (soprano), Jeremy White (baritone), Guildford Choral Society, Philharmonia Orchestra / George Lloyd

Lyrita SRCD.2419 [two discs, 60’44” and 49’30”] Latin and English texts included

Producers Ben Turner (A Symphonic Mass), Christopher James (A Litany)
Engineers Harold Barnes, Alan Mosely (A Symphonic Mass), Tony Faulkner (A Litany)

Recorded 19 & 20 June 1993 at Guildhall, Southampton (A Symphonic Mass), 24 & 25 March 1996 at Town Hall, Watford

George Lloyd
Requiem (1997-8)
Psalm 130 (1995)

Stephen Wallace (countertenor), Jeffrey Makinson (organ), Exon Singers / Matthew Owens

Lyrita SRCD.420 [63’22”] Latin and English texts included

Producer Ben Turner Engineer Harold Barnes

Recorded 31 August – 2 September 2000 at Church of St Alban the Martyr, Holborn, London

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Lyrita continues its reissue schedule of George Lloyd-related recordings for the Albany label – the ‘Signature Edition’ – with those three late choral works which, between them, constitute a worthy culmination to a composing career with few parallels in the annals of British music.

What’s the music like?

While three operas and twelve symphonies are the backbone of Lloyd’s output, choral music came to the fore during his final decade. Few would have demurred had the composer called A Symphonic Mass his ‘Thirteenth Symphony’, given its formal cohesion and harnessing of its liturgical text to a structure in which thematic consistency and cumulative momentum are uppermost. Hence the opposing conflict and consolation in the Kyrie anticipates a struggle reflected, in the Gloria, by the music’s juxtaposing of fervent outbursts with a luminous and otherworldly calm. The Credo becomes an extended development of motifs and expression, informed by an acute relating of textual imagery to musical content – its strenuousness offset by a brief if potent orchestral interlude that is the Offertorium. The piece climaxes with the Sanctus and Benedictus, its rapt intensity heightened by the blazing affirmation at Osanna; after which, the Agnus Dei passes through doubt and apprehension before achieving a new-found though hard-won serenity at Dona nobis pacem. Certainly, a Mass of its time and ours.

Three years on, and A Litany is less inclusive but equally involving – even with Lloyd’s aim of composing a ‘repertoire’ piece likely undermined by the size of its orchestral forces or the demands of its vocal writing. Its words are the first 12 (out of 28) verses from John Donne’s eponymous poem, as set by Lloyd from a spiritual yet non-specifically religious standpoint. Despite being in four movements, this is not an overtly symphonic conception – though the formal follow-through is nothing if not cohesive in its relating of music to text. The opening Allegro Dramatico pursues its respectively passionate then sombre traversal of the first two verses, the ensuing Allegro being akin to an extended intermezzo in its setting the third and fourth verses with a deft yet often oblique eloquence. The brief Adagio focusses on the fifth verse in an intimate acapella setting, then the final Vivace sets the sixth to twelfth verses as   a cumulative sequence in which passing anxiety is gradually overcome; the music accruing the energy needed to hit the ground running for what becomes a decidedly affirmative close.

Written in the months before his death, with a dedication to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Requiem is an understated if characteristic swansong with, at almost 55 minutes, a scale comparable to those earlier works. This follows the expected liturgical text with just a few pointed modifications (no Libera me at the end), its 16 designated sections falling into three main parts. Requiem and Kyrie sets the reflective if by no means unvaried tone of the whole and highlights the role of the countertenor – occupying the lower end of its compass so that it becomes the subdued complement to choral writing notable for its textural clarity and inwardness. The Dies irae sequence (itself in two halves) has a notably perky Tuba mirum and songful Rex tremendae, while the Lacrimosa seems consoling rather than elegiac. The third part takes in a whimsical Hostias, brief but vibrant Sanctus, elegant and supplicatory Agnus Dei, then a Lux aeterna as sees the whole work through to its close with the voices gradually receding in gently undulating chords for what is a serene yet poignant valediction.

Three years earlier, Lloyd had composed two pieces for unaccompanied choir – of which his setting of Psalm 130 (Out of the depths) is notable for its often circumspect while never aloof manner, the emergence of a soprano in the later stages pointing up its mood of tentative hope.

Does it all work?

Yes, and not least owing to the persuasiveness of recordings made soon after their respective premieres. Lloyd secures a dedicated response in the Mass from the Brighton Festival Chorus (under the redoubtable László Heltay) and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra while, in the Litany, the Guildford Choral Society (for whom it was written) and Philharmonia Orchestra are no less committed. In the latter piece Janice Watson gives a thrilling contribution, but Jeremy White is not wholly at ease for all his warm nobility. As for the Requiem, the Exon Singers sound tonally assured and Stephen Wallace copes ably with his distinctively conceived role, while Jeffrey Makinson applies a light touch to organ writing as evinces a continuo-like dexterity, though it might yet be worth transcribing this part for woodwind and brass so as to open-out its expressive ambit.

Is it recommended?

Indeed, not least as these reissues come with full texts and detailed notes from Paul Conway. Inherently unoriginal while unequivocally sincere, Lloyd’s late choral works are far removed from the facile disingenuity of much current choral music and are the more appealing for this.

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For further information visit the dedicated George Lloyd page at the Nimbus website

Published post no.2,164 – Tuesday 30 April 2024

On Record – Kasper Bjørke – Puzzles (hfn music)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Kasper Bjørke is proving himself to be an extremely versatile songwriter and producer. His new album Puzzles, described as a love letter to early 2000s New York, is in direct contrast to two collaborative EPs recently released on Live at Robert Johnson and Mule Musiq, not to mention a second ambient album as Kasper Bjørke Quartet for Kompakt.

Puzzles is sprinkled with collaborations, too, as Bjørke looks to combine a love of disco with jazz, funk and conventional songwriting. The finished article, admits the press release, is ‘the album he was most proud of and wished he had made 20 years ago’.

What’s the music like?

Kasper Bjørke certainly is a puzzle – for just when you think you have him pinned down and cornered musically, the Danish producer pops up to add another string to his bow!

This is a thoroughly enjoyable album of really effective tribute and pastiche, yet it is done in such a way that none of the music sounds second hand or done as a poor imitation. Instead there are some quality songs and memorable hooks to savour.

Top of the pile is Corridor Of Dreams, the first track featuring Sísý Ey, Systur & Oilly Wallace, a track 1980s Bryan Ferry or Erasure would have been proud of, bearing a little similarity to the latter’s Blue Savannah and featuring a lush saxophone solo from Wallace. Equally smooth is Ugle (Drømmen Om Møn), where Wallace transfers his talent to the flute.

Bjørke’s disco beats are irresistible, whether he applies them to instrumentals or to some of the well-crafted songs. Conversations is most definitely one of those, Sísý Ey channelling her inner Stevie Nicks for a breezy chorus line.

The instrumentals work really well, too – with a special mention for the chunky synths and wiry bass of the excellent Club Paradisco.

Does it all work?

It does – Bjørke’s craft is impeccable.

Is it recommended?

Very much so. This is airy, springlike pop music with an electro tinge that makes the listener yearn for better weather ahead in the year. Here’s hoping!

For fans of… Fleetwood Mac, Empire of the Sun, Gus Gus

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Published post no.2,160 – Friday 26 April 2024