CD and Book Reviews - my/maSCENA

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,…

National Arts Centre Orchestra and Alexander Shelley : “Darlings of the Muses” (Analekta)

By Arthur Kaptainis on 21 May 2020 CD and Book Reviews

“Darlings of the Muses.” Brahms: Symphony No. 1. Schumann: Symphony No. 1. Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto Op. 7. Gabriela Montero: Five Improvisations. Gabriela Montero, piano. National Arts Centre Orchestra/Alexander Shelley. Analekta AN 2 8877-8. Total Time: 122:17. Clara, Johannes and Robert (Schumann, Brahms and Schumann) have long been a source of voyeuristic fascination. In 1947 there was a sentimental movie, Song of Love, supposedly based on the triangle. Now there is Darlings of the Muses, a serious-minded album from the National Arts Centre Orchestra under Alexander Shelley combining orchestral music by all three with a set of improvised piano miniatures intended to…

Coronation gets the royal treatment

By La Scena Musicale Team on 2 March 2020 CD and Book Reviews

by Paul-James Dwyer Le Sacre Royal de Louis XIV (the Coronation of Louis XIV). Antoine Boesset, Etienne Mouliné, Jean Veillot, Roland de Lassus, Henry Du Mont, Francesco Cavalli, Charles d’Helfer, Anonymous. Les Pages du Centre de musique baroques de Versailles/Olivier Schneebeli. Ensemble Correspondances/ Sébastien Daucé. Harmonia Mundi CV5017 Total time: 108 minutes. Ensemble Correspondances seems to move from summit to summit. With the 2018 DVD Ballet Royal de la Nuit release, they vaulted into international stardom, and a subsequent invitation to founder/director Sébastien Daucé to direct the London Early Music Festival in 2018. Such is the finesse that the viewer…

Record Roundup : Continental drifts

By Marc Chénard on 2 December 2019 CD and Book Reviews, Scena Jazz

American Grooves Michael Formanek Very Practical Trio Even Better – Intakt CD335 While the musicians on this recording are identified with the experimental jazz scene, they have produced an album accessible enough for a more mainstream-minded audience. Alto saxophonist Tim Berne and the leader of this date, double bassist Michael Formanek, are established outcats, while guitarist Mary Halvorson is a new force to reckon with on the New York scene. From the first notes of this 57-minute side, this unit hits its stride and maintains the momentum through eight pieces by the bassist and one cover, Scott La Faro’s Jade…

CD Review – Mia Brentano’s River of Memories: A Mystery Trip

By Justin Bernard on 21 November 2019 CD and Book Reviews, Uncategorized

Mia Brentano’s River of Memories: A Mystery Trip Benyamin Nuss, piano, Andy Miles, clarinets & bass clarinets and friends Mons Records, 2019, MR874621 After Hidden Sea, released in 2018, Mia Brentano comes back with a new album, named River of Memories: A Mystery Trip. Over the course of 15 pieces, the composer alternates between a vast array of styles. From various forms of jazz, using piano and clarinet, to almost pop-sounding music, using electric guitar; from aquatic sounds – underwater and rain, more specifically – to what we would be tempted to call “modern music.” With its warm and sensual…

Browsing: CD and Book Reviews