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CD Review | Schubert: The Complete Sonatas and Major Works for Piano (Analekta, 2022)

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By on CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Piano
July / August 2022

Schubert: The Complete Sonatas and Major Works for Piano Mathieu Gaudet, piano Analekta, 2022 The three-part Sonata in A major, D.664 is perhaps one of Schubert’s most played works, and Mathieu Gaudet does a fantastic job of showing why in his newest album. The pianist allows the works to thoroughly explore their respective emotions: the first movement’s erratic melodic jumps and quick tempo establish a sense of urgency, the second movement offers a period of respite with a slower and more contemplative passage, and the third movement bursts into a joyous celebration of all that is good. But Gaudet is…

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CD Review | Canadian Soundscapes (Live) (Centrediscs, 2022)

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By on Canadian Music, CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Orchestral
July / August 2022

Canadian Soundscapes (Live) Carmen Harris, Eeva-Maria Kopp, soprano; Guy Few, trumpet; Jaeden Izik-Dzurko, piano; Melissa Williams, violin; Okanagan Symphony Orchestra Centrediscs, 2022 The three concertos on the album Canadian Soundscapes have been plucked from the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra’s years of live performances with several guest performers. The orchestra begins with its astounding rendition of R. Murray Schafer’s The Falcon’s Trumpet, replete with a sense of urgency that makes 22 minutes feel very short. Guy Few inserts himself seamlessly into the wild cacophony of string instruments with a trumpet performance whose evoked feeling of uncertain bravery guides the listener through the…

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CD Review | Almost Touching (People Places Records, 2022)

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By on CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Contemporary
July / August 2022

Almost Touching An-Laurence Higgins, guitar and voice People Places Records, 2022 Rarely has anything similar been heard. This new album by Montreal guitarist An-Laurence Higgins offers an explosive mix of several musical styles. The work by Kim Farris-Manning that lends its name to the album, Almost Touching, gives as much importance to the voice as to the guitar in a very contemporary language. Several effects are exploited: full resonance strings, metallic friction, harmonics superior to the guitar, breaths, strong inspirations, hoarse voice, etc. Similar vocal effects can be found in Amy Brandon’s Artificial Light, but here they mingle with a…

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CD Review | Martha Argerich Live Vol. 6 (DOREMI DHR-8173/4 – 2 CDs)

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By on CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music
July / August 2022

Martha Argerich Live Vol. 6. Chopin: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, Mozart: Piano Sonata K. 576, Bach: Partita No. 2, Schumann: Piano Sonata No. 2, Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit, Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 7 DOREMI DHR-8173/4 (2 CDs) Argentine-born pianist Martha Argerich won the International Chopin Competition in 1965 when she was 24 years old. She went on to confirm her stature as one of the finest Chopin interpreters. This new set includes superb live performances of the Piano Concerto No. 1 (Amsterdam, 1968) and the Piano Concerto No. 2 (Hamburg, 1969). Argerich shows off a superlative technique…

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CD Review | to you through (Redshift Records, 2022)

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By on CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Contemporary
July / August 2022

to you through India Gailey, cello Redshift Records, 2022 This new album by cellist and American-Canadian multidisciplinary artist India Gailey is unique to her. It brings together the musical works that have been important in her life and which, with time, have taken on a particular significance. As she explains in the text that accompanies the album, Gailey feels that these works are now a part of herself. She is capable of appreciating them to a different degree than other works of art to which she has been exposed. It is, therefore, a desire to share across borders that motivates…

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CD Review | Virtuosa (Leaf music, 2022)

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By on Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music
June / July / August 2022

Virtuosa Alexa Raine-Wright, flute; Sallynee Amawat, violin; Andrea Stewart, violoncello; Rona Nadler, harpsichord Leaf Music, 2022 In 2017, Infusion Baroque released the Virtuosa Series, a collection of videos highlighting the musical careers of fourteen women from the 18th and 19th centuries. Still infused with the desire to emphasize female composers’ accomplishments in the face of sexism, Infusion Baroque have released their new album Virtuosa. The 14 works on the album, derived from a variety of composers, most of them women, display the ensemble’s tonal flexibility: in their performance of Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 17 they contrast…

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CD Review | Bach and Bartok (Leaf music, 2022)

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By on CD and Book Reviews, Violin
June / July / August 2022

Bach and Bartok Karl Stobbe, violin Leaf music, 2022 Juno Award winner and violin soloist Karl Stobbe has released the album Bach and Bartok to illustrate the profound influence of Bach’s sonatas on the world of classical music. In the first half of the album, Stobbe presents his rendition of Bach’s Sonata No. 3 in C Major for Solo Violin, BMV 1005, which is both serendipitously calm and dramatically tense. Listeners are often left longing for a resolving note, and when they finally reach it, they’re dragged back into a melody whose syncopations masterfully re-establish the anxiety of waiting. Listeners…

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CD Review | Shanties! Live: La Nef & Chor Leoni (Leaf music, 2022)

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By on CD and Book Reviews, Folk, Vocal
June / July / August 2022

Shanties! Live: La Nef & Chor Leoni La Nef, Chor Leoni, vocal ensembles; Seán Dagher and Erik Lichte, artisticc directors Leaf music, 2022 Canada’s motto A mari usque ad mare (From Sea to Sea) would suit this recent Leaf Music release to a T. On Feb. 22, 2020, Vancouver’s Chor Leoni and Montreal’s La Nef joined forces at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in B.C for a concert of sea shanties, arranged for the occasion by one of the event’s artistic directors, Seán Dagher. Shanties! Live recaptures the magic of that evening. La Nef is well versed in…

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CD Review | Night Light (Leaf music, 2022)

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By on CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary
June / July / August 2022

Night Light Philip Chiu, piano; Lara Deutsch, flute Leaf Music, 2022 As the central inspiration behind Chiu and Deutsch’s album Night Light, the concept of the “dream” takes on many forms, though some of these forms work better than others. The flutist and pianist take turns as the lead musicians in Takashi Yoshimatsu’s Digital Bird Suite, Op. 15 and Jocelyn Morlock’s I conversed with you in a dream to evoke the contradictory emotions associated with flying in a dream—the euphoria at having achieved an impossible task, and the disappointment at the task’s falsity that settles in after waking up. The…

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CD Review | iFugue: A World of Fugues (ODEG, 2022)

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By on Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary
June / July / August 2022

iFugue: A World of Fugues Ensemble Vivant Opening Day Entertainment Group (ODEG), 2022 Do you know what fusion is? A mix of rock and jazz probably leaps to mind. But there is classical fusion, too. That is exactly what Ensemble Vivant deals with in this recording as it steps into the world of fugues with a selection of 15 pieces that come from both the baroque (Vivaldi, Bach) and more modern times (with the likes of Aldemaro Romero, Astor Piazzolla, Dimitri Shostakovich, Heitor Villa-Lobos and César Franck). Rounding out this 300-year sampling are three world premières by two Canadian composers:…

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