CD and Book Reviews - my/maSCENA

2024: The Year in Records

By Félix-Antoine Hamel on 8 November 2024 CD and Book Reviews, La Scena Online, Scena Jazz

As 2024 comes to an end, let’s take a look (and a listen) to those releases we may have missed this year… The Sky Will Still Be There TomorrowCharles Lloyd, saxophone; Jason Moran, piano; Larry Grenadier, bass; Brian Blade, drumsBlue Note Records At 86, Charles Lloyd could claim the title of “Grand Old Man of the Tenor” but maybe he is too idiosyncratic for that… On his latest for Blue Note, he is reunited with pianist Jason Moran and bassist Larry Grenadier, but it’s the presence of Brian Blade (on his first recorded meeting with Lloyd) that makes this one…

Cecil Taylor in Warsaw in 1984 by Matthias Creutzinger

Cecil Taylor, Dark and Luminous

By Félix-Antoine Hamel on 8 November 2024 CD and Book Reviews, La Scena Online, Scena Jazz

In the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil Taylorby Philip FreemanWolke Verlag, 2024, 344 p. Like his contemporaries and fellow avant-garde masters Bill Dixon and Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor (1929-2018) was not the easiest subject to approach for a music writer. Enigmatic, frequently baffling interviewers and critics who tried to approach him, he could be almost hostile at times—or at least a bit condescending. (This reviewer recalls an uncomfortable dialogue where Taylor tried to express to a French documentarist what it means to be born “on the wrong side of the tracks.”) At other moments, Taylor just enjoyed…

Lebrecht Weekly | Diyang Mei plays Bowen and Walton’s Viola Concertos Like Heifetz on Roller-Skates

By Norman Lebrecht on 18 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly, Strings

It is nothing short of a scandal that not one concerto for viola and orchestra has broken into the standard concerthall repertoire. There are at least fifty violin concertos that get regularly played and half a dozen for cello and orchestra. Yet, among a plethora of viola concertos by good composers – from Arnold to Bartok, Schnittke to John Williams – not one gets as much as a half-chance for public attention. In any other field, this would be considered illegal discrimination. The present release is a dazzling ear-opener. York Bowen, slightly younger than Ralph Vaughan Williams, was a shy chap…

CD Review | freezing — Emily D’Angelo

By Gianmarco Segato on 17 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews

freezing Emily D’Angelo, mezzo-soprano; Sophia Muñoz, piano; Bruno Helstroffer, electric guitar; Jonas Niederstadt, synthesizer & bass guitar Deutsche Grammophon, 2024 The album freezing is Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo’s second release for Deutsche Grammophon, following on the success of 2021’s enargeia. That album explored a wide range of composers spanning Hildegard von Bingen through Missy Mazzoli, in tracks one would still categorize as classical. In freezing, D’Angelo pushes the envelope of what we conventionally expect from a contemporary, trained opera singer. She explores old folk songs, newer works that sound folksy and truly old pieces where the mezzo’s expression of text…

CD Review | Niebla — Ramon Chicharron

By Hassan Laghcha on 17 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews

Niebla Ramon Chicharron Independent, 2024 Contrary to what its title might suggest, Niebla (mist, fog), the fourth album by Latin-Canadian artist Ramon Chicharron, brings plenty of sunshine and joy. Above all, it is a beautiful invitation to sing and dance with a child’s heart in communion with nature, and to forget our daily worries and sorrows. Cumbia, Colombian champeta, Jamaican reggae—these are just some of the musical genres intertwined in a tropical electro-pop sound universe that distinguishes the musical offering of this Montreal artist of Colombian origin, who has won three World Music Album of the Year awards (ADISQ and…

CD Review | Sibelius: Violin Concerto, Serenades, Humoresques, Earnest Melodies, Suite — James Ehnes

By Paul E. Robinson on 16 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews

Sibelius: Violin Concerto, Serenades, Humoresques, Earnest Melodies, Suite James Ehnes, violin; Bergen Philharmonic; Edward Gardner, conductor Chandos, 2024 James Ehnes has quickly become the most-recorded Canadian violinist ever. He has recorded virtually all the major concertos, most of the important violin and piano repertoire, and much else besides. And he has done it all with consummate skill. This latest Ehnes release brings together all the music written by Sibelius for violin and orchestra. The Violin Concerto of 1903 is the best-known of these pieces and, unfortunately, there is no other solo work for the violin of Sibelius’s that comes even…

CD Review | Voix jetées — Paramirabo

By John Gilks on 16 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews

Voix jetées Paramirabo ATMA Classique, 2024 Paramirabo is a Montreal-based chamber ensemble specializing in contemporary music. Their new album, Voix jetées, features five pieces, each by a different composer with his/her own distinct musical personality. Nico Muhly’s Doublespeak is a sort of tribute to 20th-century minimalism. The violin and cello lay down a repetitive, minimalist ground and the piano and other instruments (flute, clarinet, percussion) play melodic fragments over the top. Sometimes piano and strings change roles. It’s well paced, has momentum and doesn’t drag. Missy Mazzoli’s Still Life with Avalanche starts out with harmonica drones with high-energy melodic bursts…

CD Review | Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande & Verklärte Nacht — Orchestre symphonique de Montréal

By Paul E. Robinson on 16 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews

Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande & Verklärte Nacht Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; Rafael Payare, conductor Pentatone, 2024 Arnold Schoenberg was born Sept. 13, 1874. Musicians all over the world are celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth. Audiences and music-lovers not so much. Schoenberg’s name is still associated with music that is often dissonant and incomprehensible. But as a composer Schoenberg passed through several phases in his career. In his younger days he wrote music that was comparable in sound and style to the works of Richard Strauss. In other words, he was a Romantic heavily influenced by Wagner and Brahms.…

CD Review | Rigel : Le souffle de la Révolution — Arion Baroque Orchestra

By Justin Bernard on 15 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews

Rigel : Le souffle de la Révolution Arion Baroque Orchestra; Mathieu Lussier, conductor; Magali Simard-Galdès, soprano; Nicholas Scott, tenor; Mélisande McNabney, fortepiano ATMA Classique, 2024 This new album by Arion Baroque Orchestra introduces us to the work of Henri-Joseph Rigel, a largely forgotten composer from the second half of the 18th century. Produced in collaboration with the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, it covers a sufficiently wide range of vocal and instrumental repertoire to give a general idea of Rigel’s style, still very much influenced by French music of the time of Louis XIV. The musicians of Arion, conducted…

CD Review | Haydn Symphonies 43 & 49: Mercury & La Passione — Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra

By Kristen Whittle on 15 October 2024 CD and Book Reviews

Haydn Symphonies 43 & 49: Mercury & La Passione Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra; Rachel Podger, Principal Guest Director Tafelmusik Media, 2024 The latest release from Tafelmusik, featuring Haydn’s Symphonies No. 43 “Mercury” and No. 49 “La Passione,” is a masterful exploration of two of the composer’s lesser-performed works. Directed by Rachel Podger, this album – performed on period instruments – offers a fresh and historically informed perspective of these two contrasting works. Symphony No. 43, known as “Mercury,” is a delightful example of Haydn’s inventive spirit. Composed in 1771, the symphony is characterized by its elegance and charm. The opening Allegro…

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