Not so long ago if one wanted to do interesting electronic music things one needed a studio full of enormously expensive equipment, access to which was likely restricted to a fortunate few. Now with a few relatively inexpensive mikes, a laptop and some speakers one can create all kinds of cool stuff and perform it in almost any venue. The recording ‘m going to talk about here was made a few years ago but it’s good and pretty typical of what I’m talking about.
Problematica is an upcoming solo CD with some interesting twists from Canadian cellist+ India Gailey. I can’t call it a solo cello CD because Gailey contributes vocals as well as some truly virtuosic cello playing and there’s lots of electronics and electronic processing involved. There are also some unusual presentation options. There are seven works by younger Canadian composers on the disk and recording engineer John DS Adams of Stonehouse Sound makes a major contribution.
L’Étoile du Nord is an 1854 opera written by Meyerbeer for the Opéra-Comique. It follows on from a series of successful grand operas for L’Opéra de Paris. To some extent it’s an attempt to create something lighter than the early works but the composer doesn’t quite seem able to let go and the work combines comic and serious elements in a way I cannot describe as successful. Format wise it’s pretty much an opéra-comique with no ballet (though some folk/social dancing) and spoken dialogue. Continue reading
Michael Hersch is a very distinct musical voice. His subject matter tends to be disturbing and his musical style is abrasive. One of his most recent works is the one act opera Poppaea which is based on the life of historical Poppaea after the point at which the Monteverdi opera leaves off. Strictly, it’s not set in Nero’s Rome but rather in a time and place inspired by it. The very effective libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann includes a distinctly non-classical take on space and time. It’s an exploration of overweaning ambition and where it leads which is about as relevant to today’s world as any theme could be.
Unremembered is a cycle of thirteen songs by Sarah Kirkland Snider to poems by Nathaniel Bellows about his childhood in rural Massachusetts. But this is the darker side of childhood. There are ghosts, witches and houseguests freezing to death. It’s not Anne of Green Gables with baked beans!
It’s scored for voices, chamber orchestra and electronics and is pretty eclectic. The voices are Padma Newsome, DM Stith and Shara Worden and none of them perform in a “classical” vocal style. The band is the Unremembered Orchestra, which includes members of ACME, Alarm Will Sound, ICE, The Knights and So Percussion and is conducted by Edwin Outwater of the late lamented Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.
Ecstatic Science is the fourth album from New York sextet yMusic. They are a young group of really excellent instrumentalists noted for their collaborations with composers who defy easy classification. There is plenty for a composer to work with in terms of palette. The group consists of Alex Sopp – flute, Mark Dover – clarinet, CJ Camerieri – trumpet and horn, Rob Moose – violin and guitar, Nadia Sirota – viola and Gabriel Cabezas – cello. The music on the record is all by young(ish) American composers noted for their eclectic styles. So everybody involved is a first rate classically trained musician who isn’t afraid to go to non-traditional places. Continue reading
Daron Hagen’s The Art of Song is a cycle of 24 songs for voices (various) and piano grouped thematically into four “seasons”. The texts are drawn from a wide variety of sources from Sappho to Donald Trump via, among others, Dante, Blake, Rossetti and Yeats plus various modern poets including members of the composer’s family.
“Summer” deals with the political degradation of the United States since the civil war. Hence the ark from Whitman and Crane to McCarthy and Trump. It’s textually and musically complex with pieces being “mashed up”. Fort example lines from Stephen Crane’s “War is Kind” are interlaced with Yeats’ “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”. Continue reading
Cherubini’s Médée of 1797 is undergoing something of a revival at the moment albeit in an Italian version. But there’s an earlier and less known version of the same story with a libretto by (as opposed to based on) Corneille. It’s Charpentier’s Médée of 1693. It’s a tragédie lyrique with all the expected elements; an allegorical prologue in praise of Louis XIV, a classical subject, five acts, gods, spirits and demons and lots of spectacular theatrical effects. The Lully formula in fact. Continue reading
To round out this mini survey of the early discography of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas I’m going to fast forward a bit to the 1995 recording by Tafelmusik. The most striking thing about this version is the very small instrumental ensemble; two violins, viola, violincello and harpsichord led by Jeanne Lamon. One quickly gets the feel for how they are going to perform with a very fast and rhythmically sprung overture.
It’s perhaps a surprise then that Dido is sung by a very dark mezzo with some vibrato; Jennifer Lane. who also doubles up as the Sorceress. It does make for a very marked contrast with Ann Monyious’ quite bright Belinda. It also sounds like the full Tafelmusik Choir is used which is a much bigger group than Parrott uses. It’s also interesting to hear a young Russell Braun as a very characterful Aeneas.
And so we come to the third in our historical sequence of recordings of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. We are talking about Andrew Parrott’s recording with the Taverner Players and Choir recorded at Rosslyn Hill Chapel in 1981. It’s a record that I bought when it first came out and has been a point of reference for me ever since.
It’s a consciously academic affair in some ways. It was produced in conjunction with an Open University course ; “Seventeenth Century England: A Changing Culture”. It’s also musicologically rooted in scholarship. The album booklet even lists the provenance of the instruments used; mostly modern copies of 17th century models and we are told that the work is performed at pitch A=403. The band and chorus are realistically sized; six violins, two violas, bass violin with bass viol, archlute and harpsichord continuo. A guitar is used in some of the dance numbers. The chorus is six sopranos; some of whom do double duty as witches, the Sailor and the Spirit, four tenors and two basses.
operaramblings 