Topic: "New" Music Log

[Todd]

Krystian Zimerman playing Strauss, now there’s something I thought I should get around to hearing, so I bought the DG Galleria reissue of Strauss’ and Respighi’s Violin Sonatas played by Mr Zimerman and Kyung Wha Chung.  Aside from hearing Mr Zimerman perform more chamber music, this disc also offered the first chance to hear this music.  Really, when I think Strauss I think huge orchestral works, and when I think of Respighi at all, it’s usually about Pines of Rome, and how little I like the piece. 

This is a fine disc.  Both pieces are unabashedly romantic in nature, the Strauss in a youthful, smaller than normal scale kind of way, and the Respighi in an almost gaudy, oversized sort of way.  The Strauss is filled with beauty everywhere, and the slow movement is filled with tender – perhaps too tender – music and both Chung and Zimerman deliver rich, tonally lustrous playing.  The Respighi almost makes Korngold seem reserved in comparison, and the writing isn’t as elegant as Strauss’ (no surprise, really), but it is easy enough to listen to, and can almost be seen as a guilty pleasure.  Again, both Zimerman and Chung play splendidly.

I can’t say that either of these violin sonatas rates among my favorites, but both are quite enjoyable, and hearing two top flight performers play them is nice.  Throw in excellent sound, and this is a nice little disc, one to return to from time to time.

[abidoful]

Krystian Zimerman playing Strauss, now there’s something I thought I should get around to hearing, so I bought the DG Galleria reissue of Strauss’ and Respighi’s Violin Sonatas played by Mr Zimerman and Kyung Wha Chung.  Aside from hearing Mr Zimerman perform more chamber music, this disc also offered the first chance to hear this music.  Really, when I think Strauss I think huge orchestral works, and when I think of Respighi at all, it’s usually about Pines of Rome, and how little I like the piece. 

This is a fine disc.  Both pieces are unabashedly romantic in nature, the Strauss in a youthful, smaller than normal scale kind of way, and the Respighi in an almost gaudy, oversized sort of way.  The Strauss is filled with beauty everywhere, and the slow movement is filled with tender – perhaps too tender – music and both Chung and Zimerman deliver rich, tonally lustrous playing.  The Respighi almost makes Korngold seem reserved in comparison, and the writing isn’t as elegant as Strauss’ (no surprise, really), but it is easy enough to listen to, and can almost be seen as a guilty pleasure.  Again, both Zimerman and Chung play splendidly.

I can’t say that either of these violin sonatas rates among my favorites, but both are quite enjoyable, and hearing two top flight performers play them is nice.  Throw in excellent sound, and this is a nice little disc, one to return to from time to time.

Agreed- one of my fav. recordings. And the Respighi sonata is the only Respighi i have enjoyed...!

[Todd]

I figured it was about time that I delved into some old liturgical music again, so I decided to try some more sacred music penned by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber.  My guide would be the ever reliable Paul McCreesh.

The disc includes both Biber’s Mass in B flat for six voices and his Requiem in F minor.  However, apparently in accordance with period practice (I’ll leave that to experts), brief compositions by other composers are included, including some orchestral movements and polyphonic a cappella pieces.  The other composers include Georg Muffat, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Abraham Megerle, Orlando de Lassus, and the ubiquitous Anonymous. 

Anyway, the Mass is quite nice.  It’s a bit sprightly and upbeat.  No dour, heavy music here.  It’s also nicely small scale.  Here Biber’s pieces have movements by others intermingled, and if it can lead to a sense of discontinuity, it works well enough.  The real attraction for me is the Requiem.  It’s decidedly weightier, as befits the subject matter, but it, too, is infused with energy not always found in such works.  It’s dramatic and tense without being too ponderous or draining.  At under thirty minutes, it’s also taut.  And as a bonus, the extra movements by other composers (Anonymous and Lassus) flank the work, rather than mix with it. 

Singers and instrumentalists all acquit themselves nicely, and Mr McCreesh, a real favorite of mine, seems in his element.  The recording is spacious and warm creating a blended, not especially detailed sound that works well in this context.  A superb disc.

[Todd]

About a decade or so ago I went through a brief phase of buying recordings of works by Erwin Schulhoff, which was augmented by a couple recordings later on.  I sampled chamber works and orchestral works, and even his opera Flammen, a modern, jazz-era retelling of the Don Juan story with a bit of Faust thrown in.  Much of Schulhoff’s music is jazz infused or jazz inspired, and some is Dadaistic as well.  Some of the jazz inspired works are quite good – the Hot Sonata for saxophone and piano is a real favorite of mine, for instance – but it is for strings where he shines most, whether one considers his works for string quartet or sextet.

I recently got an itch to try more of his music, and since I haven’t tried any of his piano music, I decided to go for some.  I settled on a budget twofer on the mighty Phoenix Edition label with Margarete Babinsky the soloist, paired with Maria Lettberg and Andreas Wykydal for some of the works.  Alas, this set is a dud.

One might be tempted to say the problem is the music itself, and that may very well be the case, but I’m inclined to think it’s the performances.  The set includes both more “formal” works like two of the sonatas, as well as collections of miniatures.  The sonatas fare best.  Ms Babinsky displays fine technique and clean articulation, and the sonatas come across as nicely serious, if perhaps a bit disjointed and of less than, say, LvB quality.  In other words, the sonatas sound emphatically OK. 

The other works, or collections of works, have titles like Burlesken, Grotesken, Ironien (for piano four hands), Vortragsstuke (including an almost two minute silent movement predating Cage’s 4’33” by many years), and a set of jazz improvisations for two pianos.  All of them share one thing in common: all sound mostly dull and heavy handed.  Only in the jazz improvisations, and then only rarely, do the pieces sparkle with life.  That’s not to say that the pianists play poorly.  It just seems that they aren’t in their element.  Where is the bite and sparkle and boogie?  And even though the jazz improvisations do sound a bit better at times, they don’t sound jazzy.  To be sure, Schulhoff’s other jazz inspired works sound a bit formal to be proper jazz, but performances in other recordings have more life and jazz-like energy.  In some ways this brings back memories of the Schoenberg Quartet’s recording of Schulhoff’s string quartets in comparison to the Petersen Quartet’s recordings.  The Schoenberg Quartet play well, but their recording is leaden, dull, lifeless and ponderous.  (Awful doesn’t begin to describe it.)  The Petersen, in contrast, are vital and sharp and buoyant.  I get the feeling Babinsky and company are the pianistic equivalent of the Schoenberg Quartet. 

In addition, the sound is rather poor for a recording made in 2008.  The high frequencies are noticeably rolled off for some reason.  As a result, definition and bite are a bit lacking, though dynamics and lower register heft are not. 

Blech.

[Todd]

Yowza!  I’d never heard the Missa Salisburgenis until now, and all I can say is Yowza!  This vast, proto-Mahlerian choral work from the seventeenth century knocked my socks off.  Apparently authorship isn’t certain, but Heinrich Biber is the generally accepted author.  If so, this could be his magnum opus. 

A gigantic mass setting, with multiple choirs and groups of instruments, and plenty of trumpets, everything about this is, well, it’s grand, perhaps bordering on over the top.  That’s understandable since it’s meant to celebrate Salzburg’s 1100th anniversary as a Christian center, something that doesn’t come along every day.  Accordingly, the mass has a largely celebratory feel.  No dour, heavy, somber mass here.  No!  It’s party time.  The trumpets blare, the choirs unleash heavenly paeans to the Lord, the strings produce lustrous sounds.  And while grand, perhaps even grandiose, the music is also more or less straight-forward.  One needn’t marvel at the compositional mastery (though one can) to enjoy the work.  It’s enough to just let the music envelope whatever listening space is in use.  The performance is fully up to the great event, to boot.  Singers and instrumentalists all perform superbly.  Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort and Reinhard Goebel and the Musica Antiqua Köln join forces, along with hired guns I must assume, and it sounds like a great match.

The only potential issue with the disc has to do with the sound.  Recorded in a large church, this large work takes full advantage of the space, but that means there are some balance issues.  The trumpets are largely in the back of the church, so as to not overpower everything else, but this makes them sound very distant.  (In addition, the opening movement reveals this distance, and one is tempted to turn the volume way up, but the eruption of the Kyrie reveals the size of the forces and can threaten to deafen the listener.)  Individual singers can sound small and distant and everything runs the risk of being overpowered by the choirs.  The distant perspective also results in less detail than I generally enjoy, but the compromises are small and the overall benefits significant. 

 This is a great work and great recording. 

[Todd]

Having a hankerin’ for some more early Baroque music, I decided to try the now super-cheap recording of three oratorios by Giacomo Carissimi led by Paul McCreesh and his Gabrieli Consort and Players, formerly on the Meridian label, now on the mighty Brilliant Classics label. 

Each of the three oratorios is a based on biblical stories, as the titles indicate: Jephthah (with an organ intro written by Frescobaldi), The Judgment of Solomon, and Jonah.  Each of the works has a light, theatrical feel, and each is well proportioned.  Not one of the works seems too long, and each one moves along at a nice clip.  The small forces for each works also lend a very intimate air to the proceedings.  Dare I say, given the serious nature of the works, that the recordings sound fun?  They do.  And the sound of birds in the background of Jephthah  even adds a nice, if unplanned touch.  (This was not recorded in a sterile studio).  As expected, McCreesh and his forces generally do fabulously, with only one of the sopranos not sounding maximally appealing to my ears in Jonah.  Sound is spacious and blended, with only occasional hardness giving away the mid-80s recording vintage. 

A delightful disc.

[Todd]

I like modern music.  I am enjoying vocal works more as time goes by.  Why not try something that combines both?  As luck would have it, Stephen Hartke has written just such music, and given how much I’ve liked the other discs of his music that I’ve heard, I figured I should give this one a shot.

The disc contains two works.  The first, Tituli, is written for five male voices, violin, and two percussionists.  The seven movements are based on different, fragmentary, really ancient Latin, Etruscan, and Greek texts – ancient as in BC composition dates – covering topics like the First Punic War, sacred law, oracles, and so on.  Hartke himself performed some of the translations, and if the texts can be a bit wanting in their translated form, in the context of the music they are quite entertaining.  The first thing to note about this piece is that it is slow and quiet and soothing.  Had a rough, stressful day?  This may calm you down some.  The instrumental writing is generally spare (how could it be otherwise?) and while nicely “modern,” it doesn’t overpower the singing. 

The second work, Cathedral in the Thrashing Rain, for four male voices (one of which is a countertenor) is an English translation of a Japanese poem about being awed by Notre Dame cathedral during, yes, a rainstorm.  The text is ecstatic in a Messiaen sort of way, and so is the setting, though with four voices, there isn’t much in the way of grandeur.  The work is notably more vibrant that Tituli, and surprised me in how affecting it is.

No, this isn’t the best music by Hartke I’ve heard, and it isn’t something I’ll listen to very frequently, but it is quite good and offers a nice, calming detour.  The Hilliard Ensemble sings superbly, as one would expect, and ECM delivers fine sound. 

[Todd]

It’s been a while since I last tried some Cristóbal de Morales, so it seemed a good time to try some more.  Paul McCreesh seemed a good guide, so I went with the Brilliant Classics reissue of the DG recording of the Mass for the Feast of St Isidore of Seville. 

First things first: the music is not all by Morales.  Rather, this is a reconstruction of how a celebration for St Isidore may have gone in the 16th Century, which means there are musical preludes and interludes composed by various other composers, a motet by Francisco Guerrero, and some Gregorian chant along with the mass by Morales.  The mass setting is not a standard liturgical mass, either; it is a parody mass.  So, all told, only about half the music is given over to music by Morales. 

Now to the music itself.  The accompanying musical pieces and Gregorian chant are all nice, but Morales is really the main attraction, and it’s abundantly clear that his music is more than a cut above the other music, with only Guerrero’s motet approaching the same level of perfection.  Whenever the glorious polyphonic choir starts up one is transported to a world of unyielding sonic beauty and grace, with the harmonies and melodies washing over the listener in a most pleasing way.  Alas, one must return to the more mundane music of the celebration before enjoying more Morales.  Fortunately, CD players come with program functions, so one can bypass all the music by others and focus only on Morales. 

So I suppose I must gripe mildly about the inclusion of lesser music, but I cannot help but reveling in the glory of the main attraction.  Sound is like many other McCreesh recordings in that it is a bit distant, creating a blended sound, but that’s quite alright.  All players and singers do a superb job.

[Todd]

I needed another Morales fix, and I figured it made sense to try the Tallis Scholars in this repertoire, so the disc of the Missa Si bona suscepimus seemed the way to go.  This time the disc centers around a Morales mass without interruption, but the work is flanked by a couple smaller works by other composers. 

Most important is the opening work, called Si bona suscepimus, by one Philippe Verdelot.  This small work serves as the thematic inspiration for Morales’ mass setting.  The small work is quite appealing, with beautiful harmonies and melodies – I can hear why Morales chose to write a parody mass based on the piece.

The mass itself is predictably beautiful and displays Morales’ mastery of polyphony, though in a more restrained subtle way than in some of the other works I’ve heard.  It doesn’t quite create the nearly hypnotic beauty and otherworldly feel of some of Morales’ other work.  It seems more earthbound, as it were.  That’s not really a criticism so much as an observation.  The piece still hits the spot.

The closing work on the disc is Andreas Christi famulus by Thomas Crecquillion, a name new to me.  Apparently, this work used to be attributed to Morales, and it’s easy to understand why: it sounds eerily close to Morales’ style.  As a result, I think it is supremely fine, and I may very well be investigating more music by Mr Crecquillion.

Excellent sound and superb singing round out another fine disc anchored by an extraordinary work by Morales.

[Todd]

I’ve been on a mini-Biber binge this year, so I decided to add to add one more recording.  Since I really liked Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr’s recording of the great Rosary Sonatas, I thought I ought to give Andrew Manze, John Toll, and Nigel North, collectively known as Romanesca, a shot in the Violin Sonatas.  I’m immensely glad I did. 

As with the Rosary Sonatas, the eight violin sonatas are scored for different mixes of instruments, though here the variety is wider.  Organ, harpsichord, lute, theorbo: all get there shot, sometimes more than one at a time.  A couple of the sonatas even use scordatura for the violin as well – shades of the Rosary Sonatas.  The music is generally vibrant, often exciting, and at times just plain fun.  Sometimes one gets the feeling that Biber was writing purposely showy, virtuosic music, but that’s quite fine in this context.  No unduly solemn music here.  (Apparently Biber also lifted some tunes in one of the additional included works as a way of (possibly) mocking rival composers.)  Oh, and those other works.  In addition to the sonatas, a solo lute piece is thrown in, and yes it is fine, as well as a couple other sonatas, and a passacaglia for solo violin that was an additional Rosary Sonata that was never finished.

Messrs Manze, Toll, and North all acquit themselves quite nicely indeed.  Sound, too, is quite fine.  This is one of my purchases of the year.

[Todd]

I needed a bit more religion, so I figured I might as well sample some music by Tomás Luis de Victoria.  I settled on the new release of the Lamentations of Jeremiah by the Tallis Scholars.  As expected, it’s good stuff.  The harmonies and melodies are quite beautiful, and not a little haunting in some cases.  There’s a bit of variety in sound as well since the works are written for different sizes and mixes of ensemble, from five to eight voices, with a general tilt toward the higher end of the spectrum.  There’s also a Lamentation for Maundy Thursday by Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, a name new to me, that’s of equally high quality. 

While I enjoyed the disc quite a bit, I must say that I am noticing a trend.  I seem to like Cristóbal de Morales more than any other Renaissance composer I’ve heard, and any comparisons, whether intentional or not, always favor him.  The only potential exception for me thus far is Palestrina.  Anyway, that doesn’t so much detract from the quality of this release as show how good Morales is.

Sound and singing are top notch.

[karlhenning]

Very interesting, Todd; I need to check de Morales out.  I've often felt similarly about de Victoria (comparisons, without devaluing others, favoring de Victoria).

[petrarch]

I seem to like Cristóbal de Morales more than any other Renaissance composer I’ve heard

The Pie Jesu Domine closing segment in the Sequentia from Morales' Missa Pro Defunctis sung by Jordi Savall's vocal ensemble La Capella Reial de Catalunya brings tears to my eyes. Outstanding 2 minutes of music.

The original CD is rare and expensive:


Reissued more recently in a 3-CD box:

[Todd]

This is my first exposure to the music of baroque composer Marin Marais.  I didn’t even know the name until a few weeks ago, when I decided to try some Jordi Savall recordings and noticed that Marin Marais shows up several times in Savall’s discography.  I opted for the Suitte d’un Goût Etranger for no other reason than it offered more music than the other discs.

This twofer turned out to be quiet fine.  The suite is a collection of dances for Viola de Gamba and various other instruments in various combinations, Jordi Savall playing the Viola de Gamba and, presumably, leading the ensembles.  Apparently, Marais is something of a labor of love for Savall, and it shows.  Savall’s playing strikes me as supremely fine, though I could be wrong given that my collection has no other recordings of Viola de Gamba to compare to.  (No, I’m pretty sure his playing is of extremely high quality.)  All of the other artists, including the fine harpsichordist Pierre Hantaï, play superbly and everyone seems to be in sync.  There’s also a somewhat leisurely overall feel to the music making; no one seems out to outshine the other players, and everyone seems to luxuriate in the music.  Perhaps this is the one, true, “authentic” approach, or perhaps not, but I enjoy it.  Indeed, I think I shall try some more Marais.

Sound is amazing.  It is a bit close, and some hard breathing can be heard, but it is incredibly detailed and warm sounding.  No etched, harsh brightness is to be heard at any time.  Each instrument shines through with timbral distinction and individuality.  If only all chamber recordings were this good.

Top notch stuff.

[Todd]

After years of hearing only (some of) his keyboard works, I figured I should try something a bit larger in scale from François Couperin.  I settled on Les Concert Royaux as played by Le Concert Des Nations and led by Jordi Savall.  It ain’t too shabby. 

The disc contains four chamber concerts written for the Sunday entertainment of no less a personage than Le Roi Soleil.  The works can be thought of almost as French Brandenburg Concertos, though they are decidedly lusher and calmer, indeed calming, in nature.  They don’t sound as rigourously structured, either, and the instrumentation changes markedly between movements, but it seems an apt comparison.  Really, these are quite fine works, and Savall and crew play with admirable virtuosity, albeit in a (presumably suitably) languid way.  It does seem like the kind of music one could enjoy whilst also enjoying Sunday brunch. 

Sound is as good as it gets.

Another peach from Savall and crew.

[Todd]

Repeated cravings for Heinrich Biber’s music keep popping up, and I just got to satisfy the cravings.  To satisfy the most recent craving, I bought this disc of Battalia à 10 and Requiem à 15 in Concerto performed by Jordi Savall and his musicians.  Yet again, Maestro Biber’s music is hard to resist.  Nay, impossible to resist. 

The disc opens with the small Battalia à 10, which is an early baroque musical depiction of battle, but one that is more focused on delivering light (at least at times), lively entertainment than something heavy-duty.  As with many other works I’ve heard, Biber shows his mastery of mixing and matching instruments in unusual combinations.  And he shows himself to be ahead of his time.  The second movement weaves eight then popular tunes together in a most dissonant form.  It sounds very much like something Ives would have written, but it’s a few hundred years older.  Astonishing.  Then there’s some snappy pizzacati later on that one could swear would have been penned by Bartok.  The entire little work is a delight first note to last, and is startlingly, well, modern.

The main work, the big old honkin’ Requiem, is not as ear opening, and does not necessarily match up to some of Biber’s other choral works, but it is something to hear nonetheless.  Written for the death of Archbishop Maximilian Gandolph, the work is not as dark and grim as some requiems.  Rather, it strikes me as more of a serious, almost stately, celebration of life and the heavenly rewards due such a personage as the Archbishop.  That doesn’t mean the work sounds trite or pandering in any way; it’s just another way to write a requiem.  The work is somewhat gimmicky, if you will, in that the forces are divided into five different spaces in the cathedral.  The resulting sound is unique, and the spatial effects quite compelling.  The gimmick works.

This disc is another winner.  Biber is fast becoming my go-to composer for early Baroque music.  Nary a bad work have I heard, and each new disc makes me want to hear more.  What more can one ask for, other than more?

Savall and crew do a fine job, as expected, and sound is sumptuous.  Why, oh why, can’t all recordings sound at least this good?

[Todd]

I’ve been listening to a fair amount of Renaissance and early Baroque music lately, so I figured I should sample something from a different era.  I decided to try something earlier.  I settled for some ballades by Guilluame de Machaut as performed by Ensemble Musica Nova on the Aeon label.  The disc includes twelve works by Machaut and a work by that most prolific of composers, Anonymous. 

The ballads on this disc are all pretty much about courtly love, and they are quite fine examples, showing that at least one subject matter hasn’t changed in the last seven centuries.  The works are polyphonic, but they don’t sound as sophisticated as the works of the Renaissance and later masters.  That written, most of the melodies are quite appealing, if a bit strange sounding to modern ears.  The instrumental accompaniment is spare and very antique sounding; for those who find Baroque era instruments too modern sounding, the ancient flutes, harps, and vieles add a sound you just really don’t hear very often.

Sound is good if perhaps a smidgeon bright, and the performers all seem to do a good job, though I have nothing to compare to at this point.  While this isn’t music I’ll listen to frequently, it’s something I’ll pop in from time to time to chill.  Not bad, not bad at all.

[Todd]

Jordi Savall is turning out to be as reliable a guide of early and/or lesser known baroque music as Paul McCreesh.  It’s hard to think of a bad disc from either artist.  The latest Savall disc to catch my ear is the second book of pieces for viola de gamba by Marin Marais.  This disc contains two long suites, one dedicated to Jean-Baptiste Lully, and one dedicated to Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe (whose first name is apparently a mystery).  Both offer varied instrumentation for the various movements, both alternatively boogie or move along languidly in an early 18th Century sort of way, and both display high levels of virtuosity married to plain old good taste.  No, it’s not Earth Shakingly great music, but it is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.

Sound is perhaps a bit too close, offering perhaps a bit too much insight into breathing patterns, but is otherwise SOTA. 

Yep, another superb disc.

[Todd]

Continuing on with ancient liturgical works, I decided to try some Guillaume Dufay for the first time.  I settled on the Pomerium recording of the Mass for St. Anthony of Padua and Veni creator spiritus.  It ain’t none too shabby.  Both pieces move along slowly and mostly rather quietly, with attractive melodies and quite fine singing.  It is a very calm, and calming, piece.  It’s like profound 15th Century chill music.  When I think of near-ish contemporaries, I cannot say that I find Dufay quite as compelling as Morales or Palestrina, but that is setting the bar pretty high. 

The singing is all quite fine, and the sound is warm and blended and generally very good. 

A nice little disc.

[Clever Hans]

Continuing on with ancient liturgical works, I decided to try some Guillaume Dufay for the first time.  I settled on the Pomerium recording of the Mass for St. Anthony of Padua and Veni creator spiritus.  It ain’t none too shabby.  Both pieces move along slowly and mostly rather quietly, with attractive melodies and quite fine singing.  It is a very calm, and calming, piece.  It’s like profound 15th Century chill music.  When I think of near-ish contemporaries, I cannot say that I find Dufay quite as compelling as Morales or Palestrina, but that is setting the bar pretty high. 

The singing is all quite fine, and the sound is warm and blended and generally very good. 

A nice little disc.

Dufay has variety, secular chansons and motets as well as masses. Personally, I love earlier Franco-Flemish polyphony. All these discs are pretty amazing and up to date, plus you have the Gothic Voices selections on The Garden of Zephirus, The Medieval Romantics, etc.



This one received a great review in Early Music. Haven't picked it up yet but intend to.