CD and Book Reviews - my/maSCENA

CD Review | Niebla — Ramon Chicharron

By Hassan Laghcha on 17 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews

Niebla Ramon Chicharron Independent, 2024 Contrary to what its title might suggest, Niebla (mist, fog), the fourth album by Latin-Canadian artist Ramon Chicharron, brings plenty of sunshine and joy. Above all, it is a beautiful invitation to sing and dance with a child’s heart in communion with nature, and to forget our daily worries and sorrows. Cumbia, Colombian champeta, Jamaican reggae—these are just some of the musical genres intertwined in a tropical electro-pop sound universe that distinguishes the musical offering of this Montreal artist of Colombian origin, who has won three World Music Album of the Year awards (ADISQ and…

CD Review | Sibelius: Violin Concerto, Serenades, Humoresques, Earnest Melodies, Suite — James Ehnes

By Paul E. Robinson on 16 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews

Sibelius: Violin Concerto, Serenades, Humoresques, Earnest Melodies, Suite James Ehnes, violin; Bergen Philharmonic; Edward Gardner, conductor Chandos, 2024 James Ehnes has quickly become the most-recorded Canadian violinist ever. He has recorded virtually all the major concertos, most of the important violin and piano repertoire, and much else besides. And he has done it all with consummate skill. This latest Ehnes release brings together all the music written by Sibelius for violin and orchestra. The Violin Concerto of 1903 is the best-known of these pieces and, unfortunately, there is no other solo work for the violin of Sibelius’s that comes even…

CD Review | Voix jetées — Paramirabo

By John Gilks on 16 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews

Voix jetées Paramirabo ATMA Classique, 2024 Paramirabo is a Montreal-based chamber ensemble specializing in contemporary music. Their new album, Voix jetées, features five pieces, each by a different composer with his/her own distinct musical personality. Nico Muhly’s Doublespeak is a sort of tribute to 20th-century minimalism. The violin and cello lay down a repetitive, minimalist ground and the piano and other instruments (flute, clarinet, percussion) play melodic fragments over the top. Sometimes piano and strings change roles. It’s well paced, has momentum and doesn’t drag. Missy Mazzoli’s Still Life with Avalanche starts out with harmonica drones with high-energy melodic bursts…

CD Review | Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande & Verklärte Nacht — Orchestre symphonique de Montréal

By Paul E. Robinson on 16 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews

Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande & Verklärte Nacht Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; Rafael Payare, conductor Pentatone, 2024 Arnold Schoenberg was born Sept. 13, 1874. Musicians all over the world are celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth. Audiences and music-lovers not so much. Schoenberg’s name is still associated with music that is often dissonant and incomprehensible. But as a composer Schoenberg passed through several phases in his career. In his younger days he wrote music that was comparable in sound and style to the works of Richard Strauss. In other words, he was a Romantic heavily influenced by Wagner and Brahms.…

CD Review | Rigel : Le souffle de la Révolution — Arion Baroque Orchestra

By Justin Bernard on 15 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews

Rigel : Le souffle de la Révolution Arion Baroque Orchestra; Mathieu Lussier, conductor; Magali Simard-Galdès, soprano; Nicholas Scott, tenor; Mélisande McNabney, fortepiano ATMA Classique, 2024 This new album by Arion Baroque Orchestra introduces us to the work of Henri-Joseph Rigel, a largely forgotten composer from the second half of the 18th century. Produced in collaboration with the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, it covers a sufficiently wide range of vocal and instrumental repertoire to give a general idea of Rigel’s style, still very much influenced by French music of the time of Louis XIV. The musicians of Arion, conducted…

CD Review | Haydn Symphonies 43 & 49: Mercury & La Passione — Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra

By Kristen Whittle on 15 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews

Haydn Symphonies 43 & 49: Mercury & La Passione Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra; Rachel Podger, Principal Guest Director Tafelmusik Media, 2024 The latest release from Tafelmusik, featuring Haydn’s Symphonies No. 43 “Mercury” and No. 49 “La Passione,” is a masterful exploration of two of the composer’s lesser-performed works. Directed by Rachel Podger, this album – performed on period instruments – offers a fresh and historically informed perspective of these two contrasting works. Symphony No. 43, known as “Mercury,” is a delightful example of Haydn’s inventive spirit. Composed in 1771, the symphony is characterized by its elegance and charm. The opening Allegro…

Photo: George Garnier

Lebrecht Weekly | Doric String Quartet Strikes a Perfect Balance Between Beethoven’s Early Quartets and Later Milestones

By Norman Lebrecht on 11 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Lebrecht Weekly, Strings

The fashion these days is to remix the 16 Beethoven quartets, selecting one from each period – early, middle and late – in concert and record cycles. It doesn’t always work, but the latest release from the Doric String Quartet, a mid-career UK ensemble, strikes a perfect balance between two of the opus 18 quartets and major milestones from later on. Opus 18/2 in G major is one of Beethoven’s invitations to the dance, a proposition more in the mind than on the floor. Opus 18/5 in A is all in the mind, one of his most self-contemplative works, so…

CD Review | Where Waters Meet — Canadian Chamber Choir

By John Gilks on 10 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews

Where Waters Meet Canadian Chamber Choir Independent release, 2024 Where Waters Meet is the most recent CD from the Canadian Chamber Choir. It’s the culmination of a number of exploratory Indigenous/settler initiatives exploring our relationship to water in music and song. At the heart of the record is the five-movement work by Carmen Braden that gives the album its title. This piece deals very directly with water as a source of life and, tragically, due to settler indifference, death and disease for many communities. It’s most explicit in the third movement that sets a Toronto Star article on water advisories…

Record Reviews

By Félix-Antoine Hamel on 1 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews, La Scena Online, Scena Jazz

Fresh sounds… AnchorsJason Stein, bass clarinet; Joshua Abrams, bass; Gerald Cleaver, drums; guest artist/co-producer Boon. TAO Forms (TAO 16), September 2024 Musicians who dedicate themselves solely to the bass clarinet are not legion. In jazz, it is possible to count them on the fingers of one hand; one thinks mostly of European reedmen, like Rudi Mahall, Thomas Savy, or the late Michel Pilz. Jason Stein is a rare American clarinetist who practises only the bigger horn, but he’s not exactly a newcomer. Twenty years ago, he was already teaming up with Ken Vandermark in the Bridge 61 quartet. The trio on…

CD Review | Ensemble ArtChoral — Art Choral, Vol. 1: Renaissance

By Kristen Whittle on 5 September 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Choral, Classical Music, Vocal

Art Choral, Vol. 1: Renaissance Ensemble ArtChoral; Matthias Maute, artistic director ATMA Classique, 2024 Ensemble ArtChoral’s newest installation to its collection spanning the history of choral singing returns to the origins of polyphony in Art Choral, Vol. 1: Renaissance. Under the direction of Matthias Maute, the ensemble performs early choral repertoire by composers from across Europe, including Cristóbal de Morales, Josquin des Prés, and William Byrd, to name a few. The album opens with No. 5, Adoramus te, Christe from Palestrina’s Recueil des morceaux de musique ancienne. Given Palestrina’s role in creating polyphonic technique, ArtChoral’s expert use of the push…

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