CD and Book Reviews - my/maSCENA

Oktoecho: Transcestral (2021)

By Justin Bernard on 16 January 2022 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Indigenous, Vocal, World Music

Katia Makdissi-Warren, musical and electronic arrangements; Joséphine Bacon, Innu poet; Nina Segalowitz, Inuit throat singer; Hélène Martel, vocals. The blending of styles and cultures is a topic that comes up a lot when we talk about world music. The approach of Katia Makdissi-Warren and the Oktoecho team, followed by a host of musicians, is somewhat different. Their Transcestral project is, rather, the meeting of two world cultures, Sufism, on the one hand, and that of the First Nations, on the other hand, which is put forward with the notable contribution of Western styles. Needless to say,…

Antoine Laporte

Gabriel Pierné: Feuillet d’album (2021)

By Justin Bernard on 24 December 2021 CD and Book Reviews, Piano, Romantic

Gabriel Pierné: Feuillet d’albumAntoine Laporte, pianoSelf-produced with the support of CALQ (2021) The unique repertoire of this double album is reason enough to recommend it. It plunges us into the little-known musical universe of Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937), a French composer contemporary of Claude Debussy and Gabriel Fauré. The title Feuillet d’album, which appears on the cover of the box set, is also taken from Pierné’s Fifteen Pieces for the Piano. We remain in awe of the composer’s inventiveness, moving from fluid writing to more square writing, from lyricism or an almost aquatic atmosphere to a funeral atmosphere. The last piece…

Flute in the Wild (Centredisques, 2021)

By Justin Bernard on 24 December 2021 Canadian Music, CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Indigenous

Flute in the Wild Jaye Marsh, flutes; Heidi Elise Bearcroft, harp; Darren Hicks, bassoon; Andrew Morris, percussion; John Rice, storyteller; Christina Marie Faye and Richard Herriott, piano Label: Centrediscs, 2021 The album lives up to its name. Flute in the Wild, the flute in nature. Initiated by the flautist Jaye Marsh, this new release of Centredisques indeed immerses us in a rural universe, sometimes peaceful, sometimes intriguing, even scary. No need to know the music of Diane Berry, Elizabeth Raum, Richard Mascall and Richard Herriot to appreciate them as they awaken in us an imagination of…

Aux fenêtres du temps (Socan, 2021)

By Justin Bernard on 20 December 2021 CD and Book Reviews, Choral, Literature, Piano

Aux fenêtres du tempsClaudel Callendar, voice, piano and compositions; Maurice Carême, texts; Vox Luminosa Children’s Choir; The Young Voices of the Mills.Label: Socan (2021) For some projects, among other musical ones, the idea is sometimes more important than the result. Such is the case with this double-disc project, which translates to At the windows of time, named after a poem by the Belgian writer Maurice Carême (1899-1978). The composer and pianist Claudel Callender bring together here 33 texts by the same author that he set to music. The first part with choir immerses us in a family-type atmosphere in the…

Giorgia Fumanti: Mystic (Vega2, 2021)

By Justin Bernard on 19 December 2021 CD and Book Reviews, Opera, Vocal

MysticGiorgia Fumanti, voix; Stefano Galante, piano; Galante Media OrchestraLabel: Vega2 (2021) Giorgia Fumanti already has more than a dozen albumsù to her credit. Supported by her lifelong producers, her manager husband Maurice Velenosi, and Stefano Galante, who also provides musical direction, the Italian singer offers here a repertoire of cult songs and instrumental pieces arranged especially for her soprano voice. The album jumbles together several great classics such as Piazzola’s Libertango, Ravel’s Boléro, Albinoni’s Adagio, Orff’s O Fortuna and Puccini’s Nessun Dorma. Added to this are other classics closer to our time, such as Now we are free from the…

Bruce Liu: Chopin (Deutsche Grammophon, 2021)

By Justin Bernard on 14 December 2021 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Music Competition, Piano, Romantic

Bruce Liu: Chopin Bruce Liu, piano Deutsche Grammophon, 2021 Following his resounding victory at the 18th Chopin Competition last October, Montreal pianist Bruce Liu received honors from the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label. It has released a live recording of some of its performances from the Philharmonic Concert Hall in Warsaw (Poland). The opportunity to live or relive this event that marked musical life on a planetary scale, in a world still struggling with the pandemic. It all begins with the Andante Spianato in G major in an interpretation full of grace and elegance. Bruce Liu creates a feeling of comfort…

George Frideric Handel: Messiah (Leaf Music, 2021)

By Justin Bernard on 13 December 2021 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Choral

George Frideric Handel: MessiahEnsemble Caprice, Ensemble Vocal Arts-Québec; Matthias Maute, conductor; Karina Gauvin, sopranoLeaf Music, 2021 The new recording by Ensemble Caprice jointly with the Ensemble vocal Arts-Québec, under the direction of Matthias Maute, was released on the Leaf Music label. A work by Jaap Nico Hamburger to start, one by Matthias Maute himself to conclude and, as a main course, several excerpts from Handel’s Messiah. The voice and voluptuous timbre of Karina Gauvin are first highlighted in Rejoice greatly, a piece full of lyricism and virtuosity. It is with these same assets that the singer then approaches I know…

CD Review: Reconnaissance: Robert & Clara Schumann

By Justin Bernard on 12 November 2021 CD and Book Reviews

Reconnaissance: Robert & Clara Schumann Jeanne Amièle, piano – 2021 (self-produced disc) ★★★★★ The pianist and teacher Jeanne Amièle is still at the beginning of her career. She has just released her first self-produced album. For a first try, what could be better than performing youthful works? Amièle chooses to draw on the repertoire of Robert and Clara Schumann. The title of the album, Reconnaissance, refers to the 14th movement of Carnival Op. 9, which, in the words of the pianist in her booklet notes, evokes two characters who discover their true identity behind their masks and see each other as…

CD Reviews: Bach: Goldberg Variations

By Wah Keung Chan on 12 November 2021 CD and Book Reviews

Bach: Goldberg Variations Sarah Hagen, piano ★★★★☆ The first thing one notices about Sarah Hagen’s self-produced recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations is the length of 1:41:42, which requires two CDs and is longer than Angela Hewitt’s 78-minute recording (Hyperion) from 2018, and much longer than Glenn Gould’s landmark 1955 recording or his final 1981 recording. Hewitt’s was played with repeats, while Gould’s 1955 was notoriously played without repeats and was considered too fast by Gould himself, whose last recording was more introspective. As a fan of Gould’s 1981 version, with his underlying humming, I was reminded of the breadth of…

CD Reviews: Retro Americana/Vintage Americana

By Justin Bernard on 12 November 2021 CD and Book Reviews

Retro Americana/Vintage Americana Christina Petrowska Quilico, piano – Navona Records NV6384 ★★★☆☆ The Canadian pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico has released two new albums dedicated to music in America in various genres. Hence their titles: Retro Americana and Vintage Americana. The first begins with a troubling atmosphere where the music moves like a disjointed puppet. It’s not square and fixed in form. The second track plunges us into a race that nothing can stop, the piano spinning as if toward infinity. Then comes a return to a quieter atmosphere, but also more frightening, with certain melodic features more assertive than in the previous…

Browsing: CD and Book Reviews

Oktoecho: Transcestral (2021)

Gabriel Pierné: Feuillet d’album (2021)

Flute in the Wild (Centredisques, 2021)

Aux fenêtres du temps (Socan, 2021)

Giorgia Fumanti: Mystic (Vega2, 2021)

Bruce Liu: Chopin (Deutsche Grammophon, 2021)

George Frideric Handel: Messiah (Leaf Music, 2021)

CD Review: Reconnaissance: Robert & Clara Schumann

CD Reviews: Bach: Goldberg Variations

CD Reviews: Retro Americana/Vintage Americana

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