Category Archives: On record

Arcana’s best of 2022

Posted on by
Reply

by Ben Hogwood

How has 2022 been for you? It has been a difficult year for so many, and I don’t know about you, but I find music takes on an even more important part of our lives when the going gets tough. This year we have been able to rely on a consistently strong line of releases, giving us extra resolve and relief from the day-to-day.

Arcana has reviewed a lot of music this year. What we tend to do on these pages is concentrate on music and artists that we know are likely to be good – and we assemble our thoughts on them so you can then make your own investigations. Classical music is usually our starting point, but from there we travel afar to the outer reaches of electronica, dance and contemporary music.

It was another strong year for electronic music of an ambient dimension. Switched On is the area of Arcana concentrating on new music in this area, and without putting too many musical names on these albums, we really enjoyed a good deal of slower stuff. Starting with a single instrument, Vanessa Wagner’s Study of the Invisible (above) made an understated but lasting impression, particularly with Caroline Shaw’s Gustave Le Grey at its heart. Vanessa plays with poise and expression, and this wonderfully curated selection worked so well.

Meanwhile long term favourite Erland Cooper charmed with his pure, still music written to soundtrack the Superbloom installation at the Tower Of London, Music For Growing Flowers (above). Speaking of earthy sounds, Sonic Cathedral gave us twilight wonders from Pye Corner Audio and, with a little more country in the mix, Sunset Dreams from Mark Peters.

At the hottest part of summer, Arthur King’s music was extremely evocative in Changing Landscapes – as was that of Deepchord, making a return to the long player from Detroit with Functional Designs. Steve Davis, meanwhile (yes, that Steve Davis!) was busy enhancing his reputation as part of the electronic trio Utopia Strong and their excellent album International Treasure

More studied electronica gems should also be shouted from the rooftops – we are lucky to have British artists of the calibre of Bibio, Gold Panda and Plaid, each returning with excellent new albums. Meanwhile Clarice Jensen took her cello as a starting point on new album Esthesis, making music of great colour and descriptive power to counter the onset of lockdown. Also facing the elements head-on was Daniel Avery, whose new album Ultra Truth was a powerful statement indeed:

There were some very strong releases on the classical side of things, as record companies dusted themselves down and started to include orchestral recordings again on their release schedules post-pandemic. Leading the way were the Sinfonia of London under John Wilson, a throwback to the golden age of orchestral recording in their challenging schedules for Chandos. With Hollywood, British and French music all covered, one in particular stood out, with the orchestral music of John Ireland given its rightful place in the spotlight:

Speaking of French music, a charmer from the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and Pascal Rophé proved the ideal hot weather soundtrack as it explored orchestral versions of Debussy keyboard works. Their accounts of the Petite Suite, La boîte à joujoux and Children’s Corner were full of colour and character.

This year saw the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams, one of the finest British composers of the 20th century. Somm Recordings made a memorable tribute by way of the undervalued string quartets, these lovely autumnal works given vibrant performances from the Tippett Quartet.

Contemporary classical music put in some very strong appearances this year, and few more than Stuart Macrae, showing off the quality of his chamber music on an album from the Hebrides Ensemble on the excellent Delphian label. We enjoyed a number of online and in-person concerts from the English Symphony Orchestra and Kenneth Woods, which were capped by an outstanding recording of Adrian Williams’ Symphony no.1, a commendable raising of the flag for new British music

During 2022 we made a couple of visits to the outskirts of jazz, in the company of super group Flock – their excellent self titled debut – and a triumphant and experimental return from Szun Waves.

On the dancier side of things, Heavenly Recordings excelled themselves this year with no fewer than six collections of remixes! We loved the first two instalments, which acted as a prelude to the utterly essential third and fourth volumes which brought together remixes from the much missed Andrew Weatherall.

The Haçienda celebrated 40 years since its inception with a handsome package from Cherry Red, while the best DJ mix honour goes to Cinthie – her contribution to !K7’s DJ Kicks mix series really was a thing of pure dancefloor enjoyment. So, too, was a John Morales-edited compilation devoted to the art of Teddy Pendergrass, vocalist for Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes.

Cultured music for the discerning dancefloor came our way from Au Suisse, a welcome reunion for Morgan Geist and Kelley Polar, and also from Hot Chip, who further explored their emotions with an excellent and heartfelt eighth album. Moderat, returning after a long absence, went more for the jugular with the thrilling More D4ta

With all that said and done, what would an Arcana album of the year look like? Something like this…the most listened to long player of the year in these parts, Fleeting Future – a vibrant offering from Akusmi which channelled all sorts of intriguing influences into something wonderfully original:

We will have a few more reviews to come over this week – but for now, we thank all our readers for your visits and wish you a happy, peaceful and regenerative Christmas holiday season. Oh, and a Happy New Year for 2023!

On Record – BBC Concert Orchestra / Bramwell Tovey – Poulenc: Les Animaux modèles, Sinfonietta (Chandos)

Posted on by
Reply

Poulenc
Sinfonietta (1947-48)
Two movements from ‘Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel’ (1921, revised 1957)
Pastourelle from L’Éventail de Jeanne (1927)
Les Animaux modèles (complete ballet) (1940-42)

BBC Concert Orchestra / Bramwell Tovey

Chandos CHSA5260 [74’22″’]
Producer Brian Pidgeon Engineers Ralph Couzens, Alexander James
Recorded 10-12 March 2022 at Watford Colosseum

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

This collection of colourful works for orchestra by Francis Poulenc has as its main work the ballet Les Animaux modèles, based on The Fables of Jean de la Fontaine. A vibrant work, it clearly had huge significance for the composer, who started on its composition after the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940, his aim ‘to find a reason to hope for the future of my country’. It received its first performance at the Paris Opera in 1942.

The ballet is symbolic, summarised in Nigel Simeone’s excellent booklet note about ‘a celebration of France’s past at its most lustrous’ than a collection of charming animal stories. It does however bring the story to life from the outset, with a vivid description of the dawn cutting to sharply characteristic portrayals of The Bear and The Two Companions, the former portrayed through an excellent horn solo, The Grasshopper and the Ant, The Amorous Lion, The Middle-aged Man and His Two Mistresses, Death and the Woodcutter, The Two Cockerels and finally The Midday Meal.

Complementing the ballet is the Sinfonietta, written for the BBC Third Programme and first heard in 1948. Initially the main themes of the work were to be part of a String Quartet that Poulenc was working on in 1945, but after its abandonment his friend and fellow-composer Georges Auric recognised the potential of the musical material. The work is dedicated to him in acknowledgement.

Completing the disc are two movements from Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel, a collaborative single act ballet with Auric and the other members of composer collective Les Six, of which Poulenc was a leading member. There is also a soft-centred Pastourelle from another such collaborative piece, L’Éventail de Jeanne.

Very sadly this is the final recording made by the BBC Concert Orchestra’s principal conductor, Bramwell Tovey – completed just four months before his sad death from cancer at the age of 69.

What’s the music like?

In a word, colourful. Les animaux modèles is unquestionably the star turn, brilliantly played and characterised in this recording. Poulenc’s music is richly tuneful and beautifully orchestrated, often showing the influence of Stravinsky but realised with his own flair and mischievous humour. The central section of The Grasshopper and The Ant is a case in point, where a thrillingly brisk section cuts to an enchanting violin cadenza, the music briefly held in a spell until its release by shrill trumpets.

The Amorous Lion is a scene of great contrasts, with orchestral outbursts and volleys of percussion cutting to tender asides from string and woodwind choirs. The most substantial section – and arguably music – can be found in The Two Cockerels, where Poulenc realises music of great power and depth to portray the combat of the two birds. The surging climactic point, halfway through, is music of particularly strong feeling and resolve, Poulenc’s sentiments against the war reaching their heartfelt climax – before powerful exchanges between brass and the final toll on low piano. With passions largely spent, The Midday Meal provides a regal epilogue.

The slighter movements are no less fun, and The Middle-aged Man and his Two Mistresses scurries along furtively. Following Poulenc’s synopsis is enormously helpful, signposting the composer’s pictorial responses to the storyline as well as emphasising his wit.

In spite of its name, the Sinfonietta is one of Poulenc’s most substantial compositions. Far from being a slight, frothy work, it has a big-boned structure easily outdoing those dimensions, lasting nearly half an hour. Its convincing melodic arguments are led by the assertive first theme, drawing parallels with the Organ Concerto for its bite and resolve, while the second theme, beautifully realised here, brings mellow woodwind colouring. The second movement is a lively scherzo, balanced with tender asides that are fully realised in the slow third movement, a lyrical and colourful Andante cantabile. The brisk finale signs off with a flourish.

The two movements from Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel are short but mischievous and entertaining, with humourous trombone interventions, while the Pastourelle is a charming addition.

Does it all work?

Yes. These are fresh, vibrant performances given with evident affection by the BBC Concert Orchestra. Bramwell Tovey brings out the colourful orchestrations, allows the lyrical melodies a bit of heart-on-sleeve approach where appropriate, and brings rhythmically sharp responses too. Poulenc’s colourful writing is brought to the fore, along with the melancholic undertones his music often carries.

Is it recommended?

Yes, on many levels. The quality of the music, the excellent Chandos recordings from Watford Colosseum and some very fine performances from which Bramwell Tovey takes his lead. The icing on the cake is the choice of Henri Rousseau’s Monkeys and Parrot in Virgin Forest as cover art. It is the ideal complement for a wonderful album.

Listen

Buy

For more information and purchasing options on this release, visit the Chandos website

On Record – Vanessa Wagner: Mirrored (InFiné)

Posted on by
Reply

by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Vanessa Wagner has been quick to follow up her March release, Study Of The Invisible, where she thoughtfully compiled an album of modern piano music that might be described as ‘minimal’ but which led to a series of inventive and rewarding compositions, imaginatively sequenced.

Mirrored is a collection of studies for solo piano, largely contemplative spaces that leave plenty of room for meditation and a get-out clause from today’s fast-moving world. Normally a listener might associate piano studies with application of technique; functional pieces rather than emotive; but this collection is very much studies in the form of moods and mental images.

What’s the music like?

Introspective, yet wholly rewarding. Particularly engaging is Wagner’s selection of music by Philip Glass, well-chosen and beautifully played. The Poet Acts is a sombre, thoughtful piece, opening out like an uneasy berceuse. Etude 4 is very different, a turbulent and agitated piece generating a large amount of nervous energy. By contrast Etude 2 is a thoughtful contemplation with a hint of darkness, led as it is by the low left hand, before building to a forceful conclusion.

Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Solitude has a similar profile, though its plaintive right hand melody leads the way. Plaintive is also the word that could be used for Nico Muhly’s Quiet Music, though this has an inner power generated through a soft but meaningful chorale, which makes it sound like a deeply spiritual statement. Melaine Dalibert’s Six + Six has gentle undulations that go on their way in watery figurations, while Sylvain Chauveau adopts a still profile for the simple and meaningful Mineral.

Moondog’s Sea Horses is short but descriptive, an active piece flitting this way and that. A similar freedom is afforded to the right hand in Léo Ferré’s Opus X, where the melody is free to travel up and down in the treble as it wishes.

Does it all work?

It does. Once again Vanessa Wagner has chosen a logical and rewarding sequence of pieces, and her affinity with the music of Philip Glass in particular makes these compelling recordings. She has an unusual and vivid sensitivity for this music, creating many different keyboard colours in the course of the collection.

Is it recommended?

Yes – provided you also have Study Of The Invisible, which is the ideal complement to these pieces.

Listen

Buy

On Record: David Childs, Jonathan Scott, Black Dyke Band / Nicholas J. Childs – The World Rejoicing: The Music of Edward Gregson Volume VII

Posted on by
Reply

Gregson
Concertante for Piano and Brass (1966)
Variations on ‘Laudate Dominum’ (1976, rev. 2007)
Fanfare for a New Era (2000, rev. 2017)
Euphonium Concerto (2018)
The World Rejoicing – Symphonic Variations on a Lutheran Chorale (2020)

David Childs (euphonium), Jonathan Scott (piano), Black Dyke Band / Nicholas J. Childs

Doyen DOYCD414 [78’14”]

Producer Adam Goldsmith, Engineer Melissa Dee

Recorded 2021, 2022, Town Hall, Morley and Conservatoire, Leeds

reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Doyen releases its seventh volume devoted to the music for brass band by Edward Gregson, featuring two of his numerous concertante works and two sets of variations that confirm his all-round versatility in a medium which has not always been synonymous with innovation.

What’s the music like?

The programme begins with Fanfare for a New Era, written to mark the opening of Stoller Hall at Chetham’s School and filling the sound-space through its antiphonal exchanges. The Concertante for Piano and Band remained unheard for 50 years following its premiere, but the deftness of this combination amply justifies its revival. The Prelude suggests a passing acquaintance with Rachmaninov’s Fourth Concerto, the Nocturne makes affecting use of the hymn Escher and the Rondo alludes to a more famous such tune before its lively close.

Jonathan Scott despatches the solo part with no mean panache, as does David Childs that of the Euphonium Concerto. Among the latest in Gregson’s more than a dozen concertos, this denotes the more angular style of his recent music with its eventful interplay of soloist and ensemble in the initial Dialogues. The B-A-C-H motif underpins a wide-ranging cadenza which makes way for a Song Without Words, whose ruminations are not of an unalloyed tranquillity, before A Celtic Bacchanal sweeps all before it in its unbridled effervescence.

In between these concertos, Variations on ‘Laudate Dominum’ confirms Gregson’s always imaginative approach to this too often predictable form. Merely hinted at in the introduction, Parry’s theme is invoked to varying degrees and from different perspectives during those six variations which follow (the third and fourth were added over three decades later) – taking in an eloquent hymn then a virtuosic fugue whose accrued energy makes possible the return of the underlying theme, for a peroration that rounds off the sequence with fervent affirmation.

Even more impressive is the closing work. Commissioned by a consortium of bands to mark the composer’s 75th birthday, The World Rejoicing is subtitled Symphonic Variations on a Lutheran Chorale which duly confirms its highly integrated structure. A subdued Prelude precedes five continuous sections that play fast and loose with the chorale Nun danket alle Gott, while encompassing the spectrum of compositional devices and technical ingenuity. This is intoned as a powerful apotheosis and subsequently rendered as a decisive Postlude.

Does it all work?

Very much so. Gregson has enjoyed a long association with the brass band movement, such as is evident in the expertise and absence of inhibition of his writing. Nor is there any risk of routine or predictability in music which is almost always as gratifying to listen to as it must be to play. It helps that the performers are so demonstrably attuned to his idiom – the Black Dyke Band, which is evidently on a roll some 167 years after its inauguration, here giving   its collective all in this music under the expert and attentive direction of Nicholas J. Childs.

Is it recommended?

Indeed. The sound could not be bettered for detail and overall presence within a sympathetic ambience, and Paul Hindmarsh has contributed informative notes. Whether or not this is the best of Doyen’s releases devoted to Gregson, it is an ideal place to begin exploring his music.

Listen & Buy

You can listen to clips and get purchase options from the Chandos website

On Record: s t a r g a z e – ONE (Transgressive Records)

Posted on by
Reply

by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

s t a r g a z e is both an innovative ensemble crossing borders between classical and modern music, and a typist’s nightmare! The group was founded in Berlin and Amsterdam, and prides itself on a flexible and collaborative musical approach.

Collaboration was certainly the name of the game with ONE, whereby five different composers from around the world wrote a piece remotely in lockdown-imposed isolation. The music was then arranged for and with the help of the s t a r g a z e group, who recorded it online, part by part.

What’s the music like?

Engaging. Greg Saunier’s Metaphor begins in reserved fashion, with serious intonations that grow into more colourful statements, the wind section of the orchestra taking the lead. The orchestration has a timbre suggesting the 1920s, though as it progresses the music becomes more animated and a little playful, before an extended chorale led by the piano.

Arone Dyer’s Voicecream is much less conservative in its output, with sweeping statements suggesting an orchestra on the edge, with melodic movements that are much more difficult to predict or trace. A series of punchy block chords takes over half way through, stalling the momentum but adding impressive gravitas to the music.

Vacancy, written by Tyondai Braxton, is a compelling conversation between very different viewpoints – one, a series of swirling motifs, another a more relaxed but authoritative series of chords, yet another voice given out in flurries of woodwind. Nik Colk Void’s Recollection Pulse #3 is similarly convincing, though uses much more minimal material in its percussion. Just the one chord, repeated in syncopation, pushes this music forward over bass notes that effectively stand for the strokes of the oars on a boat. Gradually and inevitably the piece moves forwards before grinding into the dust somewhat, reaching an eerie and evocative conclusion.

Finally Descend, from Aart Strootman, evolves under a haze of orchestral light, some beautiful colours extracted from relatively coarse string and wind textures. A drone-like effect is cast, but with largely consonant harmonies that transport the listener into a comforting cloud, growing ever denser as they progress and then relaxing to softer, wind-based colours and a gently oscillating coda.

Does it all work?

Yes. It is tempting to say that a bit of spontaneity is lost in the recording method, but great credit should go to musicians and composers alike for ensuring that more often than not the musicians and instruments feel like they were recorded in the same room.

Is it recommended?

Yes. An intriguing suite for sure – with music that successfully sits at a junction between modern classical and improvisation, evading categorisation with grace, poise and a welcome dash of humour.

Listen

Buy