Tag Archives: cd

James Rolfe – Breathe

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Breathe - Front Cover_300This review first appeared in the print edition of Opera Canada.

This new CD of music by James Rolfe on the Centrediscs label contains three works for voices and a small “early instruments” ensemble. Two; Europa and Aeneas and Dido, were written as companion pieces for Toronto Masque Theatre performances of the similarly titled works by Pignolet de Montéclair and Purcell. The third, Breathe, was written for Trio Mediaeval and the Toronto Consort.

Breathe is a setting of words by Anna Chatterton and Hildegard of Bingen on the theme of the four elements. It feels quite meditative with high voices (Suzie LeBlanc, Katherine Hill and Laura Pudwell) weaving patterns with the band. It’s rhythmically inventive, almost jazzy in places but always quite ethereal.

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The Vagabond

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vagabondI usually only review CDs on first release but I came across one on the weekend that I need to rave about.  I guess it’s not exactly a secret that I’m a huge fan of early 20th English art song.  So, when I found a CD with most of favourites sung by one of my all time favourites it was pretty much bound to be a hit.  It’s a 20 year old recording by Bryn Terfel and Martin Martineau and it’s called The Vagabond and other songs.  The disc includes Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel, Finzi’s Let Us Garlands Bring, both of Butterworth’s Housman cycles and three settings of John Masefield texts by John Ireland. The young Bryn’s voice is a touch lighter than today but it’s still a brooding dark thing though with delicacy enough for, say, Is my team ploughing?  Martineau is a most skilled accompanist and the recording, made in Henry Wood Hall, is very good indeed.  I can see this getting played a lot!

Innocence/Experience

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innocenceAmerican mezzo-soprano Jennifer Rivera, with pianist Myra Huang, has recently released a CD of songs by contemporary American composers titled Innocence/Experience.  There are four , fairly contrasting, sets of songs by different composers.  The first group are settings of texts by Garrison Keillor with music by Robert Aldridge.  The texts are predictably sentimental and the music is rather retro.  It sounds like it might have come from a musical comedy in the 1940s.  It’s not inappropriate for the texts but seems a little out of time.  It suits Rivera’s voice though.  Her strength is definitely in the lower register where there is a pleasing smokey tone.

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New Voices

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newvoicesNew Voices is the latest CD from the Brooklyn Art Song Society.  It features songs by Glen Roven, Michael Djupstrom, James Kallenbach and Herschel Gerfein.  What most struck me was the retro feel of all four composers’ works.  We are in a tonal sound world with occasional jazz/folk inflections and the piano line is clearly written to support the voice.  One might be listening to, say Ned Rorem.  I say this because it’s such a contrast with the songs being written by contemporary Canadian composers with their chromaticism, experimental and frequently changing time signatures and often almost adversarial relation between voice and piano.  Which one prefers, of course, is a matter of taste.

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I Dilettanti

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dilettantiI Dilettanti is an album from Catalan countertenor Xavier Sabata accompanied by members of the Greek baroque group Latinitas Rostra  with Markellos Chryssicos at the harpsichord.  The works on the disk are all from the late 17th and early 18th century and are by, as the title might suggest, people who aren’t primarilyknown as composers such as the singer  Vincenzo Benedetti and the nobleman/adventurer Emanuele d’Astorga.  The format of the pieces too is relatively unfamiliar.  All but two tracks are chamber cantatas, probably intended for domestic entertainment rather than theatre or concert hall.  The exceptions are two arias from Ruggieri’s Armida Abbandonata though as they are presented here, like all the other works, just basso continuo accompaniment they don’t sound obviously different.

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Jabberwocky

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jabThis is maybe the first time a classical CD “single” has come my way.  There are just two tracks, each clocking in at six minutes and sixteen seconds and both are versions of Elliot Goldenthal’s 1975 work Jabberwocky.  The first is a setting of the the well known Lewis Carroll poem for bass-baritone and woodwind quartet (bassoon, clarinet, oboe and horn).  In the second the singer is replaced by a second bassoon.

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Rob Kapilow’s Christmas offering

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PolarGertrude pr FINAL VERSIONSo it’s that time of year when Christmas records start appearing.  The latest to come my way consists of musical settings by Rob Kapilow of Chris Van Allsburg’s The Polar Express and Dr. Seuss’ Gertrude McFuzz.  Yes, it’s American and aimed at kids and if you were to place it on a spectrum of Christmas music that ran from Frosty the Snowman to Carols from King’s it would be decidedly closer to the former. Continue reading →

O Gladsome Light

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gladsome lightThis review first appeared in the print edition of Opera Canada.

O Gladsome Lightis a collection of sacred songs, hymns and meditations by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and his pupil Edmund Rubbra. They are performed by various permutations of Lawrence Wiliford, tenor, Stephen Philcox, piano and Marie Bérard and Keith Hamm, respectively Concertmaster and Principal Violist of the COC Orchestra.

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Ash Roses

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ashrosesThere’s some pretty exciting news from the Canadian Art Song Project (CASP).  It’s their first commercial CD release featuring Ash Roses; songs for Soprano and Tenor by Derek Holman. The artists are soprano Mireille Asselin, tenor Lawrence Wiliford, pianist Liz Upchurch and harpist Sanya Eng. This is the first recording entirely dedicated to the songs of Canadian composer Derek Holman; one of the very few who have made art songs an important component of their output.

There is a CD release party on March 7th at the Canadian Music Centre (20 St. Joseph St., Toronto) and the program for the evening will include The Four Seasons, Ash Roses, Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal and Three Songs for High Voice and Harp.  Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 on the door, $20 students. More details can be found about the CD and the release party at www.canadianartsongproject.ca

The Good Soldier Schweik

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Among the goodies I won from Chicago Opera Theatre in a recent Twitter! contest was a 2001 recording of Robert Kurka’s 1956 opera The Good Soldier Schweik based on the novel by Jaroslav Hašek.  It’s a very interesting piece.  It’s on an odd sort of scale with 26 solo parts, here managed by a team of 12 singers, plus chorus.  It uses a fifteen piece woodwind and brass band with no strings at all.  I’m guessing it could easily be presented in quite a wide range of theatres.

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