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Myriam Leblanc

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By La Scena Musicale Team on 13 November 2020 CD and Book Reviews

By Justin Bernard, Arthur Kaptainis, Norman Lebrecht, Paul E. Robinson Vivaldi: Luce e ombra Myriam Leblanc, soprano. Grégoire Jeay, flute; Antoine Malette-Chénier, Baroque triple harp; Marie-Michel Beauparlant, cello (Ensemble Mirabilia) Analekta AN 2 9137 Total time: 60:47 3/5 Equated in the public mind with peppy concerti, Vivaldi was similarly prolific (and predictable) as a vocal composer. This program spotlighting the young lyric soprano Myriam Leblanc mixes melancholy and uptempo numbers with instrumental entr’actes by a trio of flute, cello and harp (the last standing in for a harpsichord and sounding much like a lute). The opening track, an extended aria…

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Ofra Harnoy finds a new home and makes a recording that really rocks

By Michael Schulman on 5 November 2020 CD and Book Reviews

In the summer of 2018, cellist Ofra Harnoy and her husband, classical and jazz musician Mike Herriott, went on vacation to Newfoundland, where the British-born Herriott had lived between the ages of 7 and 21. That same year, they left Toronto and moved to St. John’s. “I was struck by the beauty of the place,” recalls Harnoy, “and the wonderful energy of the people there. Mike and I discussed it, and we decided to look at houses during that visit. We had a few criteria that we wanted to fulfill. Mike needed to have a space that could be used…

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony: Landmark Recordings

By Pierre Chénier on 5 November 2020 CD and Book Reviews

In the space of a single-page survey, it would be impossible to give a comprehensive overview of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on record, so we will devote the following lines to some of the more outstanding versions on disc, both old and new. Among those of older vintage, Wilhelm Furtwängler´s 1951 performance and Arturo Toscanini’s a year later are benchmarks. While the first of these took place at the Bayreuth Festival at its re-opening six years after the end of World War II, the second is part of the 85-year old conductor’s late-life undertaking of committing the complete cycle of Beethoven’s…

Lebrecht’s Album of the Week: Britten – Sinfonia da Requiem (DG)

By Norman Lebrecht on 23 October 2020 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Lebrecht Weekly

Like Beethoven’s Mass in C major which is overshadowed by the mighty Missa Solemnis, Benjamin Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem is sometimes mistaken for the War Requiem although the two works have nothing in common. The Sinfonia, a work for orchestra alone, last just 20 minutes and is riddled with personal ambivalence. Britten was commissioned to write it in 1939, having recently settled in New York and been exposed to its cosmopolitan lifestyle, s much more colourful than London’s greys. The commission came from the Japanese Government, to mark the 2,600th anniversary of its ruling dynasty. Japan had brutally invaded China.…

Lebrecht’s Album of the Week: Malcolm Arnold – The Dancing Master (Resonus)

By Norman Lebrecht on 9 October 2020 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly

The most popular and prolific composer of his time, Malcolm Arnold was shunned by the British music establishment for being, mostly, too popular and prolific, and therefore a potent threat to the nonentities who were not. Arnold (1921-2006) had other crosses against his name. He was a former orchestral player (working class), an Oscar winner (disgraceful), a tonal symphonist (non-BBC-pc), an alcoholic and a philanderer who suffered repeated bouts of mental illness. In short, he was everything the suits hated. Proof of their power is attested by this one-act opera which, written in 1952, was rejected by a panel of…

Lebrecht’s Album of the Week: Franz Schmidt – 4th symphony, &c. (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings)

By Norman Lebrecht on 2 October 2020 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly

The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra has issued an oblong boxed set of its inaugural concerts with music director Kirill Petrenko. The new chief’s performances of Tchaikovsky’s fifth and sixth symphonies cannot be praised too highly; they set the benchmark for these works in the coming decade as Herbert von Karajan’s recordings did for the 1970s. I find Petrenko’s Beethoven 7th memorable and the 9th appropriately resplendent. But what grabbed my attention was his inclusion of works by Franz Schmidt (1874-1939) and Rudi Stephan (1878-1915), the former a marginal figure, the latter a frontline casualty of the First World War. Of the two,…

CD Review: Dame Ethel Smyth: The Prison

By Paul E. Robinson on 24 September 2020 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music

Dame Ethel Smyth: The Prison (symphony for soprano, bass-baritone, chorus and orchestra) Words by H.B. Brewster. Dashon Burton, bass-baritone (The Prisoner). Sarah Brailey, soprano (His Soul). Experiential Chorus and Orchestra/James Blachly CHANDOS CHSA 5279 Total Time: 64:00 Just recently I finally got around to reading Jan Swafford’s authoritative biography of Brahms. In the book there were several references to Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) and her comments about Brahms. I then turned to Smyth’s autobiographical Impressions That Remained to learn more. As a young woman Smyth had gone to Leipzig in 1878 to study music and became a pupil of Heinrich von…

Lebrecht’s Album of the Week: Nostalgia – The Sea of Memories (Accent)

By Norman Lebrecht on 18 September 2020 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly

So much nonsense is being spouted these days about ‘decolonising’ western music that we’ve forgotten it’s not western at all. It’s southern and eastern, arising around the Mediterranean Sea and spreading upwards into the European continent by a process of conquest and cultural supremacism. Europe was successively colonised by the Greeks, the Romans, the Mongols and the Arabs before it ever thought of spreading ‘civilisation’ to other parts of the world. This new release is a blessed relief from the decolonising agenda. It blends music from the major seaboard cultures – Greek, Italian, Judeo-Spanish and Arab – with arias from…

Lebrecht’s Album of the Week: Christopher Rouse – 5th symphony (Naxos)

By Norman Lebrecht on 24 July 2020 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly

When Christopher Rouse died ten months ago, aged 70, it seemed to spell the end of a line of American composers who placed the symphony at the heart of their art. And not just Americans. Apart from Kalevi Aho and Leif Segerstam in Finland, David Matthews and Philip Sawyers in the UK and one or two Russians and Germans, composers seem to have given up on the symphony in the 21st symphony. The assumption is that audiences have lost interest. Is that really the case? In these Covid times, we have no way of judging except on record. Rouse, an…

CD Reviews

By LSM Calendar on 15 July 2020 CD and Book Reviews

André Mathieu: Concerto de Québec and works for two pianos Alain Lefèvre et Hélène Mercier, pianos. Warner Classics 9029548866 Total time: 65:24 ★★★★★ For his second album on Warner Classics, Alain Lefèvre returns to repertoire he knows well, but this time with an accomplice, Hélène Mercier, in works for two pianos by André Mathieu. We can strongly recommend this album, which includes a new transcription of the famous Concerto de Québec as well as works written when the prodigy was as young as five. The program begins with the Rhapsodie romantique, which bears witness to the composer’s virtuosity (octaves, chromaticism,…

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CD Reviews

Ofra Harnoy finds a new home and makes a recording that really rocks

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony: Landmark Recordings

Lebrecht’s Album of the Week: Britten – Sinfonia da Requiem (DG)

Lebrecht’s Album of the Week: Malcolm Arnold – The Dancing Master (Resonus)

Lebrecht’s Album of the Week: Franz Schmidt – 4th symphony, &c. (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings)

CD Review: Dame Ethel Smyth: The Prison

Lebrecht’s Album of the Week: Nostalgia – The Sea of Memories (Accent)

Lebrecht’s Album of the Week: Christopher Rouse – 5th symphony (Naxos)

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