It’s an interesting idea for a CD to couple an exuberant early Strauss tone poem with a extremely introspective Mahler song cycle and that’s what L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal have done for their upcoming release with conductor Rafael Payare. I’m not especially familiar with Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben Op. 40 but it sounds suitably Straussian and it gets a full blooded treatment from Payare with the solo violin part played quite beautifully by Concertmaster Andrew Wan. Continue reading
Strauss and Mahler
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After discovering a rare Viktor Ullmann video, the Shoah Songbook concert and seeing Ute Lemper live I decided to go off and have a look for more music from Weimar, the Holocaust and resistance to Nazis; past and present. It was an interesting haul and included a 2018 album from English cabaret singer/comedienne Melinda Hughes.
Handel’s Theodora is probably performed more nowadays as a staged opera than as an oratorio. The same is true for several of his other English language oratorios; notably Semele. It was in that format I was introduced to Theodora by 
4×10: Four Ten Minute Operas is a new record from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and composer/conductor Jonathan Sheffer. It’s a bit like a Tapestry “shorts” show but with orchestral accompaniment. There are, indeed, four operas which last roughly ten minutes each. All are to English language texts.
Known to Dreamers: Black Voices in Canadian Art Song is a new CD from Centrediscs and the Canadian Art Song Project containing Canadian art songs composed by or setting lyrics by Black Canadians, sung by Black Canadians. The first set on the disk is Robert Fleming’s The Confession Stone (Songs of Mary) which sets texts by Owen Dodson’s texts about the life of Christ from his mother’s point of view. It’s a very beautiful piece and must be in the running for the most performed Canadian song cycle of all time! Curiously though it’s only been recorded commercially once before (by Caroline Gélinas on ATMA Classique). The singer here is Measha Brueggergosman-Lee. She wouldn’t be my first choice for this piece but she sings it pretty well. I find her style a bit mannered but she’s accurate and her diction is good. Steven Philcox accompanies with great skill (as he does on all the tracks).
Kamp! – Songs and Satire from Theresienstadt is a 2016 album recorded by Amelia DeMayo, Curt Buckler & Sergei Dreznin (piano) under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress. It’s a collection of 25 more or less satirical songs written in the Theresienstadt camp/ghetto by the likes of Leo Straus and Ilse Weber. They are presented here in English translation and in a breezy cabaret style which is very apt and which I liked very much.
What Brings You In is an album of music for violin and electronics that consists mostly of work that was composed for performance as part of an art installation or a site specific performance or as therapy rather than a conventional concert hall experience. It features violinist Leslie Ting and various collaborators on percussion and live electronics. It’s one of the most “experimental” records I’ve listened to. There are five tracks and I’m going to describe each piece as best I can. Conventional music vocabulary; melody, harmony, rhythm etc isn’t much help! 
Invocazioni Mariane is a new CD from counter-tenor Andreas Scholl and his long time collaborators the Accademia Bizantina and their conductor Alessandro Tampieri. It consists of 18th century music from Naples; all of which is in some way connected with the Virgin Mary and is mostly drawn from oratorios or similar pieces designed to be performed during Holy Week. Back in the day, with women not permitted on the stage in Naples (or the Papal States) the high parts would have been sung by castrati. That, of course, is where Scholl comes in.
It’s an interesting idea for a CD; couple the well known (and original) orchestral version of Richard Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder with the less well known piano version (the first three songs are arranged by Max Wolff and Im Abendrot by John Gribben). It’s exactly the sort of bold, slightly off the wall idea one might expect from Asmik Grigorian. So how well does it work?
I’m not entirely sure how to categorise Nicholas Weininger’s All Is Mere Breath. I guess, essentially it’s an oratorio inspired by the COVID pandemic when “breath” was very much on people’s minds. It’s written for three soloists; soprano, mezzo-soprano and baritone, men’s chorus and instrumental ensemble. It mostly sets texts from the Old Testament with the soloists singing in English and the chorus in Hebrew. It concludes with the Hebrew prayer “Oseh Shalom”. It begins though, in Hebrew, with the opening of Lamentations; “How she sits alone, the city once great with people.” which I guess sums up how many of us felt in 2020. when I remember walking down an utterly deserted Bay Street in the middle of a work day. The selection of texts really does reflect “desolation” which covers quite a bit of the Old Testament really.
operaramblings 