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Music Reviews from Issue 38

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Barber: Cello Concerto, Medea Ballet Suite, Adagio for Strings
Marin Alsop, RSNO
Wendy Warner, Cello
Naxos 8.559088 Reviewed by RP
For many, having the famously elegiac and deeply moving Adagio at this budget price will be reason enough to buy the disc. It is also expertly played by the RSNO and nicely engineered courtesy of an old warhorse in Tony Faulkner. However, if you are prepared to listen more extensively then the rewards will continue to flow well beyond those timeless string chords. Barber’s animated Medea Suite with its repeated tension raising climaxes, acerbic instrumental exchanges and eruptions of musical colour and tactile rhythmic responses all add to a perceptibly disturbing tale. The score at every twist and turn, be it through those brazen opening fanfares on brass and xylophone or that syncopated piano in the vengeance dance, hauntingly develops towards the revelation - Medea’s crime of infanticide. Marin Alsop, both in the Suite and the infrequently heard Cello Concerto provides us with telling readings. She expressively handles the complex melodies, eloquent and incisive solo and orchestral passages and is eminently supportive in the cello soliloquies, the Concerto’s sombre and thoughtful tone reflecting a post war mood. Soloist Wendy Warner (a Rostropovitch prizewinner) is acutely sensitive to its demands - dramatic , plaintive, harmonically secure and vigorous as required.

Bach: Goldberg Variations
Miki Skuta, Piano
Hevhetia
HV 0006-2-131 Reviewed by RP
Czechoslovakian pianist Miki Skuta is a versatile performer and one who is also very active on the jazz scene. Bach’s music has of course had an irresistible attraction for improvisational musicians outside the classical circle (jazzmen included) throughout the ages, so don’t be put off by Skuta’s genre switching inclinations. He is a technically accomplished and canny classical virtuoso who taps into these joyous, spiritually engaging and sensual vignettes in some style. His emotional depth, keyboard fluidity and a freshness brought to all thirty two of the Goldberg Variations played here provides us with a really strong account on a recording made at the Bratislava Concert Hall that possesses excellent definition and clarity as it presents the piano’s colour and sonority. Consequently, that complete and exceptional array of contrapuntal, rhythmic and harmonic devices employed by Bach are persuasively revealed through a subtle and tastefully illuminating advocacy. Miki Skuta’s energy, dexterity and cultured approaches are neither excessive nor trapped by rigid conformity to earlier and more famous readings. It makes for an imaginative and eminently likeable CD where the varied textures and choice of tempi are nigh on perfect.
Supplier: cmd@czecheverything.co.uk

Brahms & Bruch: Cello Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2, Kol Nidrei
Jacqueline Du Pre, Cello
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
EMI 7243 5 57750 0 9 Reviewed by RP
If I had to describe the Brahms sonatas in a single sentence then I’d call them “strong, romantic and poetic” chamber pieces. On this 1968 recording Du Pre and Barenboim give us an ardent and youthfully passionate perspective that often focus intently and somewhat self-indulgently upon unexpected details in these scores. It makes the first sonata in particular a highly individual reading that will not appeal to everyone. There are unusual and blatant changes of tempo between the first and second subjects that also count against it. However, the sense and quality of ensemble, that essential musical rapport is undeniable throughout. On the second and most taxing of these cello sonatas they excel in revealing the classic warmth, flair and dramatic proportions found in a Brahms score. This one will win over more of the traditionalists. The prayerful, almost introverted Bruch Kol Nidrei Op.47, which closes this recital disc, is quite a contrast to those much more expansive moods heard elsewhere within the sonatas. A solid, well-proportioned and nicely balanced recording delivers realistic cello and piano images. There is also an accompanying DVD of the Beethoven Sonata and Piano Trio, which together with the finale of a Barenboim conducted performance of the Elgar Concerto make this mid-price release, a more attractive proposition.

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McKay: Violin Concerto, Sinfonietta No.4 and Song Over the Great Plains.
John McLaughlin Williams and the NRS Ukraine
Naxos 8.559225 Reviewed by RP
George Frederick McKay was a neo-romantic and nationalistic composer who created a distinctive body of work deeply influenced by the cultural and musical melting pot of the American Northwest.
That said his Violin Concerto from 1940 (so generous in its ravishing and poetically written solo parts played here by Brian Reagin) is heavily reminiscent of Max Bruch. Suite on Sixteenth Century Hymn Tunes (1962) was homage to the French Psalmist, Louis Bourgeois. This transcription for orchestra, where the string parts are so lovingly and sweetly scored, is one of the mature McKay works.
The Sinfonietta No.4 (1942) has a modern and quite astringent opening but in later movements it is punctuated by some superbly written parts for clarinet, bassoon and flute. They bring with them those Native American folk images that give this an idiomatic flavour. His versatility and strong compositional techniques and instincts can be heard through the lovely dialogues between woodwinds, violas and cellos. The closing Great Plains song, which features pianist Ludmilla Kovaleva, musically mimics the soaring bitonal call of the Meadowlark (carried by the piano) as it flies above the rugged orchestral landscapes. Once again congratulations to Naxos in doing for American composers much of what Lyrita did for their minor but musically significant British counterparts.

Bréville – Violin Sonata No. 1
Canteloube – Suite: Dans la montagne
Graffin / Devouyon
Hyperion CDA67427 Reviewed by SG
During the early part of the Twentieth Century, the world of the avant-garde was gripping both France and Germany. The schools of late Romantic composition were being virtually dismissed, regarded as too conservative; yet this disc shows just how much the French in particular were missing. Pierre de Bréville is best known as a songwriter, but his epic Violin Sonata No. 1 puts him in the same compositional class as either Chausson or Franck. Its four capacious movements reveal tremendous weight and body; yet there are also those ingredients typical to French instrumental writing: namely fluency and melodic charm. Canteloube’s early work Suite: Dans la montagne clearly hints at the Songs of the Auvergne, but there is also some pure Debussy in the opening of the last movement that is rather reminiscent of the Préludes. With both works sublimely performed by Philippe Graffin and Pascal Devoyon, in a particularly intimate presentation, there is little to criticise here, although the recording balance just favours the violin, which in turn enhances the more delicate music of Canteloube over the richer sound of Bréville. In fact, this beautiful release can simply be regarded as a most welcome addition to the French music catalogue.

Beach: Gaelic Symphony, Piano Concerto
Kenneth Schermerhorn, Nashville Symphony. Alan Feinberg, Piano
Naxos 8.559139 Reviewed by RP
New Hampshire born Amy Beach was the first successful American woman composer. She taught herself orchestration and was by repute a fine concert pianist although her performances were severely curtailed by marriage and incumbent domestic duties. Both works here (and they are amongst her strongest) were written in the last decade of the Nineteenth Century. The Piano Concerto in C concentrates upon tragic themes – the third movement being a lament to her late husband. There is a melodic orchestral opening to the Concerto and then the piano part brilliantly composed in sonata form dominates the development of the principal subjects. Alan Feinberg playing at the Andrew Jackson Hall in Nashville is superbly recorded. Every last ounce of passion, intensity and reflection is beautifully revealed. Publishing a symphony is a defining event in the life of any composer and this Gaelic influenced E minor work was no exception. Its muse is drawn from Beach’s Irish heritage. She presents us with a romantic and expressive view of Celtic life.
This is a lyrical Symphony created with conviction and no little skill. A finely drafted score cleverly makes use of instrumental pairings in the flutes, clarinets, oboes, trumpets, and bassoons and Kenneth Schermerhorn’s musicians lovingly and evocatively play it throughout.

Michael Camilo - Triangulo
Telarc SACD 63549 Reviewed by RP
Michael Camilo is a versatile and fluid jazz pianist who as an arranger and for five tracks here a writer of songs goes on to deliver clever and sometimes quite cute grooves that cut across varied musical themes and colours. The early numbers ‘Piece of Cake’, ‘La Comparsa’ and ‘Mr. C.I.’ gyrate to a Latin beat much of which is generated by the rhythmic freedom and idiomatic percussion courtesy of the evocatively named drummer Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez. The first two of these songs lock you into those infectious, fun filled and frivolous flavours, while ‘Mr. C.I’ has a deeply brooding and darkly lit Latin blues feel to it. Camilo sustains the mood with subtle shifts and carefully held notes, with Anthony Jackson’s resonant bass softly reinforcing the delicately framed sentiments.
Elsewhere there are introspective and pensive tracks like ‘Anthony’s Blues’ and ‘Afterthought’, they find the understated piano in a more circumspect and speculative role. Dizzy Gillespie’s ‘Con Alma’ adds a classic jazz note or two and the odd track such as dotcom-bustion has a modern shimmer. The clarity of this recording, its sharply etched keyboard images and bold splashes of percussion matched to those belly warming and vibrant strings are all artfully reproduced-enhancing the musical palette.

Rory Block - Last Fair Deal
Telarc SACD-63593 Reviewed by RP
There are few white women musicians who can play a predominantly male genre known as the Delta blues with the same passion, range, vision, understanding, authority and reverence of Rory Block. The last album of this quality that I can think of was Maria Muldaur’s quite outstanding Richmond Woman Blues on the Grooveland label. The country blues and gospel standards recorded here provide a marvellously vibrant canvas for Block’s instinctive approach. Rory combines impassioned, soulful and tender singing with a terrific slide technique that cuts to the very heart of an immortal Robert Johnson cover like ‘Traveling Riverside Blues’. Upping the tempo and hooking you in with a powerful and moving style of guitar playing, that with superb rhythmic control, fantastic riffs, blistering slide and fret board work develops all those staple themes and emotions hungrily played by blues men and women down the decades. There’s the sadness and anger at a cheating husband on ‘Sookie Sookie’, an introspective and strikingly personal insight heard in ‘Mama’s Stray Baby’ and the uplifting spirituality of ‘Amazing Grace’, ‘Hallelu, Hallelu’ and ‘Look What The Lord Has Done’. All of these grooves invoke a classic range of emotions from joy and heartache, through yearning and sorrow on an album dripping with authenticity. Superbly recorded guitar and vocal textures are another of Last Fair Deal’s tremendous assets.

Monty Alexander - Rocksteady
Telarc SACD-63581 Reviewed by RP
Since the mid-1960s Monty Alexander has had an enviable reputation as a technically brilliant and dynamic pianist. He remains a popular live performer - one who is still prepared to use his native West Indian musical heritage as an inspiration. Rocksteady is no exception. Monty combines jazz piano precision with a rocking reggae groove, ska/blues beat and cowboy spirit.
The results are a composite of textures; images and idioms whose tonal and melodic colours are yet further invigorated by some duelling gunslinger styled exchanges with lead guitarist Ernest Ranglin. This Jamaican jamboree (an all live recording without over-dubs) is a feather light and enjoyable celebration. Its inclusion of island classics such as Desmond Dekker’s ‘Israelites’ and ‘Double Barrel’ by Dave and Ansel Collins, together with a number of tributes - Bob Marley and Ken Booth in ‘Redemption Song’ and ‘Freedom Street’ - make this an eminently accessible album that always echoes to a distant but familiar tune. A great band of sideman with rhythm guitarist Junior Jazz, Quentin Baxter on drums and the keyboard player Gary Mayone really connect.
Although I personally find this to be a little frothy - this disc continually teases you with musical aromas but lacks a certain belly filling substance - many Alexander devotees will disagree and be in rapture.

Baker - Singers of Songs-Weavers of Dreams, Sonata for Cello & Piano
Janos Starker, George Gabor and Alain Planes
Classic DAD 1032 Reviewed by RP
For this format you will need to have the services of a universal player like the McCormack or a DVD machine. My Tube Technology Fusion 64 was simply having none of it. That said this is a spine tingling recording that immerses you in a bold, tactile and unblemished series of images. In the Singers of Songs-Weavers of Dreams (a seven movement jazz suite that was written for Janos Starker and George Gabor and scored for cello and seventeen percussion instruments) we are treated to virtuoso readings of these abstract portraits and impressions of musicians like Ellington, Gillespie, Rollins and Davis penned by Indianapolis born composer David Nathaniel Baker. The persuasive and pervasive classical, jazz and blues influenced Sonata for Cello and Piano is a synthesis of forms that only a soloist with an impeccable technique, supreme intelligence, discipline and blinding virtuosity could carry off. Even this extraordinary Starker display cannot make the Sonata an easy work to digest. Far from it in fact, but jazz rhythms and blues lines that are clearly influenced by the works of John Coltrane and Wes Montgomery do have an attraction all their own. The French pianist, Alain Planes provides a seamless counterpoint to the brilliantly rich bow work captured by engineer Herschel Burke Gilbert at the Opera House of Indiana University, Bloomington.
Supplier: Vivante - www.vivante.co.uk (44)(0)1293-822186

Shostakovitch / Schnittke: Chamber Symphony & Concerto for Piano and Strings
Constantine Orbelian
Moscow Ch Orch
Delos SACD 3259 Reviewed by RP
These works are dedicated to the victims of war and terror. For conductor and pianist Constantine Orbelian this represents an extremely personal musical investment. His grandparents were victims of the Stalinist purges in the 1930s and he brings this baggage with him to the podium. Severe almost callous and emotionally draining scores symbolically reflect the dual horrors of Stalinism and the war on the Eastern Front. The Chamber Symphony is an orchestration of Shostakovich’s Eighth Quartet. In either form it is a testimony to the suffering of the Russian people both at the hands of Nazism and their own masters in defence of the Motherland. The Schnittke Concerto is characterised by a series of dramatic variations that when combined with a sonata form it represents an endless search for truth.
Complex, sometimes dissonant, always challenging and culminating in an intense moment of revelation, this is an exceptional and quite spiritual work whose imagery opens a Pandora’s box of conflict and struggle. This is a deeply moving account awash with meaning. The recording starkly details the human tragedy and peels away successive musical layers in this intellectually exhausting quest.

Buddy Guy - D J Play My Blues
JSP Records JSP5104 Reviewed by RP
Tough and rugged, his voice full of power and authority, Louisiana born guitarist Buddy Guy (one of the last truly great blues men) cut these grooves back in 1981 at the Soto Sound studios, Chicago. Blistering and fiery guitar licks and a mean and soulful Chicago blues shape that comes from so deep down inside the man that you can’t help but be moved by his gripping vision of the World form an astounding and unmistakable combination. The band - Mike Morrison bass, Ray Allison drums and guitarists Doug Williams and Phil Guy - are a tight, really focused and dynamic crowd that help make this music live and breathe.
But it’s Buddy, the inventive, most dangerous of performers working out there on the edge, who twists his barbed hooks into us with classic songs like ‘Just Teasin’, ‘Girl Your Nice And Clean’ or even a wryly observed ‘Garbage Man Blues’. The re-master, like the man, is a live wire show and extremely hard act to follow. Transparent and highly detailed, it dramatically and dynamically builds-keeping pace as Buddy cuts loose. This is one of those brilliant recordings that re-creates all the energy, grit, aching pain and intensity of a stellar performance without unduly drawing attention to the process.

Various Soloists - 88 Keys – An Evening of Piano
Weber State University Reviewed by RP
Occasionally a Hi-Fi Company will lend its support to a worthwhile cause. In this instance Ray Kimber, in the shape of IsoMike and Kimber Kable can be proud of his association with this live recital on the 15th October 2003 at the Mark Evans Austad Auditorium, Weber State University. This recording is lovely and the performances for a varied evening of music are quite enchanting. The Steinway, the viola, violin, bassoon and a four-piece rhythm section on ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’ are all reproduced with vibrancy and clarity. Instruments have a beguiling and lifelike sense of immediacy. It helps to cement these interludes and fragments of larger works into a surprisingly satisfying programme. There is the Heifetz violin and piano transcription from Porgy and Bess that features pianist Yu-Jane Yang and violinist Shi Hwa Wang, where we are treated to a sumptuous and sprightly account of ‘Summertime’, ‘A Woman Is A Sometime Thing’ and ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’. Thomas Priest (bassoon) joins them on that sugary presto taken from Poulencís Trio, while the Shostakovich Sonata for Viola and Piano moderato is sympathetically and attractively played courtesy of Michael A. Palumbo and Laura E. Bronson respectively. For the Debussy Ariettes Oubliees and Kurt Weil Buddy On The Nightshift Diana Page (piano) and Karen Brookens (soprano) combine for cultured and highly articulate readings that have real presence.

The Johnny Coles Quartet - The Warm Sound
Classic Records / Epic BA 17015 Reviewed by DD
Coles, despite being a major talent and being around the jazz scene for decades, released very few titles under his own name. Having played and recorded with the likes of Mingus, Herbie Hancock, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles and notably with Gil Evans including featuring on his classic Out of the Cool, Coles never really made a name for himself as a solo artist. On the evidence of this album it’s very hard to see why.
His confident, distinctive tone leads this fine set whether in numbers like the hard driving bluesy opener ‘Room 3’, or in more plaintive pieces like the Randy Weston ballad ‘Where’. Here Coles is at his most melancholy delivering a particularly lyrical solo in the second chorus. Accompanied throughout by Kenny Drew (piano), Peck Morrison (bass), and Charlie Persnip (drums), the band can do no wrong providing exactly the right platform for Coles in each number. Other standouts include a sprightly reading of Weston’s ‘Hi-Fly’ and another of his ballads ‘Pretty Strange’ where Coles’ yearning tone is given full reign.
The pressing is exemplary and the recording full-bodied and ‘in the room’. Coles has proved a real discovery and this fine set is warmly recommended.

Clair Marlo - Let It Go
Cisco Records CLP 7008 Reviewed by RP
Originally released by Sheffield Labs in 1989 this West Coast audiophile classic, in its latest 180g guise, lives up to the sonic star billing. Let It Go was recorded and mixed direct to two-track with some spectacular results. Clair’s voice (similar to that of a Nancy Bryan but working far less conflicted material) is beautifully presented as she caresses love songs like ‘Lonely Nights’ and ‘All For The Feeling’. Cisco have recaptured her range and depth of feeling through a translucent, tactile and incredibly detailed piece of re-mastering. The array of keyboards, strings and percussive effects on an instrumental side two opener ‘A Major Technicality’, with its sheer presence and startling dynamics are of demonstration quality. However, I do have some reservations about these arrangements mainly because this music is very much of its time.
The synthesizers, electric guitar and background vocals for ‘Til They Take My Heart Away’ and the electronic wind instruments on ‘Without Me’ have an anachronistic feeling about them. This brought back all those memories of Dave Grusin film scores like that penned for Tequila Sunrise in the mid ‘80s.
That said, Clair’s singing and an intelligent approach to her own songs and a pair of durable covers in the Richard Thompson ‘It’s Just The Motion’ and Stevie Wonder ‘I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)’ are more enduring.
Supplier: Vivante - www.vivante.co.uk (44)(0)1293-822186

Willie Nelson - Me & Paul
S&P Records SPR-713 Reviewed by RP
In those days before country became hip and endlessly switched between genres there were gunslingers and weathered old outlaws like the prolific Willie Nelson who consistently delivered strong, tightly knit and sensitively performed albums like Me & Paul which was first released in the mid 1980s. Here Willie is joined by drummer, Paul English and guitarists, Jody Payne and Grady Martin on a dozen acutely felt songs about anguish, instability, reflection and the regret that strikes to the very heart of a wandering country musicianís dilemma. He revels in the classic material on offer here. The lost loves, missed opportunities and that deep sense of musical camaraderie can be found in Nelson originals such as ‘Forgiving You Was Easy’, ‘She’s Gone’ and ‘One Day At A Time’. While the career low points described in the whiskey haze of a title track, and those Billy Joe Shaver covers like ‘Black Rose’ and ‘Old Five & Dimers Like Me’ give up yet more personal and memorable insights. Gutsy, straight talking and evocatively sung, this audiophile re-master of the original Columbia tapes majors on cleanly reproduced vocals, bass and guitars chiselled out of a focused acoustic.

Skrowaczewski: Concerto Nicolo & Concerto for Orchestra,
Skrowaczewski, Minnesota Orchestra, Gary Graffman, Piano
Reference Recordings RR-103CD Reviewed by RP
These are intriguing Concertos dedicated to Paganini and Bruckner respectively. The technically demanding Nicolo written for piano left hand and orchestra was commissioned for soloist Gary Graffman. It makes great use of glockenspiel, vibraphone, celesta, marimba and gong as well as providing cascading piano notes in the largo. This music is built upon stark images and although they remain quite stirring and are brilliantly played and stunningly recorded it is a work that seems devoid of warmth. Vast dynamic shifts, a solid and resounding piano sound together with those naturally hard edged yet vibrant percussive instruments create an aggressive and slightly uneasy feeling. Appropriately enough in the Concerto for Orchestra – once you get beyond the trademark nocturnal imagery of the prologue – Skrowaczewski develops those spiritual and heavenly themes normally associated with the eminent Austrian composer. Virtuoso passages and concentrated colours often employing exotic instruments, burn with an intensity that will have you in raptures.
There is also a jubilant and majestic climax after which the conductor reintroduces half a dozen muted violins and the closing horn solo. Here the instrumental sequence reinforces that overriding sense of affection and veneration found within this musical celebration of Bruckner’s spirit.

Dave Mason - It’s Like You Never Left
Dave Mason - Dave Mason
S&P Records SPR-705 Reviewed by RP
A double helping from Dave Mason’s American sojourn at CBS Records which brought the melodic flair and distinctive R&B progressive pop music sound of Traffic into the 1970s with these solo albums. His strong musical instincts and fine guitar playing lie at the core of both records, while the presence of excellent big name sidemen like Jim Keltner (drums) Mark Jordan (piano) Bob Glaub (bass) Graham Nash (vocals) have a real stylistic impact of their own. They, together with Jim Krueger who plays lead guitar and solos for ‘It Can’t Make Any Difference To Me’, ‘Bring It On Home To Me’ and ‘Harmony & Melody’ give it a refined and really quite cosmopolitan feel that had not previously been heard with Mason’s work.
There’s also enriching original songs and that sprinkling of covers, including a solid rendition of ‘All Along The Watchtower’, from the eponymous disc. This approach enjoyed a degree of success at the time but, even with all this talent on display (there’s even time for some wistful Stevie Wonder harmonica on ‘The Lonely One’) and a sympathetic Steve Hoffman re-master, I sense that neither of these albums really achieves the sum of their parts.

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