CD and Book Reviews - my/maSCENA

CD Review | Strauss: Ein Heldenleben; Mahler: Rückert Lieder

By Joseph So on 2 September 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Orchestral, Vocal

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben; Mahler: Rückert Lieder Sonya Yoncheva, soprano; Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; Rafael Payare, conductor Pentatone, 2024 Following their successful release last year on the Pentatone label of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony comes this new disc, by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under the felicitous baton of its music director, Rafael Payare. The forces are back with more Mahler—this time, the sublimely introspective Rückert Lieder (1901-02)—paired with the grand Ein Heldenleben (1898) by Richard Strauss. Pentatone’s press release points out the rather unusual, if not perplexing, pairing of an exuberant Strauss tone poem with an inwardly radiant and spiritual Mahler…

CD Review | François Dompierre — Requiem

By Kristen Whittle on 2 September 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Choral, Vocal

François Dompierre — Requiem Myriam Leblanc, soprano; Andrew Haji, tenor; Geoffroy Salvas, baritone Orchestre FILMharmonique and Ensemble ArtChoral; Francis Choinière, conductor Let Artists Be, 2024 François Dompierre’s Requiem is nothing short of cinematic in nature. Its 12 liturgical texts are set in a manner that takes the listener on a journey through a plethora of sonic environments that are unexpected but seamlessly blend with the character of the Requiem genre. The French horn carries the opening Kyrie with its moving response gestures to the choir. This, of course, comes after the magnificent string opening—two broken dissonant chords are closed by…

CD Review | Massenet, Werther, baritone version, Bru Zane, 2024

By Gianmarco Segato on 31 May 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Classical, Classical Music, Opera, Vocal

Massenet – Werther (baritone version) Tassis Christoyannis (Werther), Véronique Gens (Charlotte), Hélène Carpentier (Sophie), Thomas Dolié (Albert), Matthieu Lécroart (Le Bailli), Artavazd Sargsyan (Schmidt), Laurent Deleuil (Johann/Brühlmann); Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Children’s Choir of the Zoltán Kodály Hungarian Choir School, György Vashegyi, conductor Bru Zane, 2024 This new Werther continues Bru Zane’s estimable series of French opera recordings, complete with elaborate hardcover book filled with extensive scholarly essays. Massenet himself approved a baritone version of his famous tenor showcase at the request of the great Italian baritone Mattia Battistini, but no autograph of the alternate score exists. Since its premiere…

CD Review | Erin Morley, Rose in Bloom, Orchid Classics, 2024

By Gianmarco Segato on 31 May 2024 Art Song, CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Vocal

Rose in Bloom Erin Morley, soprano; Gerald Martin Moore, piano Orchid Classics, 2024 One of today’s most in-demand lyric coloratura sopranos, Erin Morley sings roles like Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Cunegonde in Candide and Gilda in Rigoletto at The Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera. Rose in Bloom is her debut recital disc alongside pianist Gerald Martin Moore. It centres on floral themes in songs dating from the early 19th century to the current day. Morley’s consummate mastery of high, florid music ensures there are inevitably several songs representing composers’ penchant to equate piping coloratura with…

CD Review | Lully Armide, Château de Versailles Spectacles, 2023

By Justin Bernard on 31 May 2024 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Opera, Vocal

Lully – Armide Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Cyril Auvity, Tomislav Lavoie, Marie Perbost, Eva Zaïcik, Timothée Varon, David Tricou, Virgile Ancely, Anouk Defontenay and Jeanne Lefort; Le Poème Harmonique, Chœur de l’Opéra de Dijon; Vincent Dumestre, music director Château de Versailles Spectacles, 2023 Recorded in May 2023 at Versailles’s Royal Opera, Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Armide here receives a royal treatment in every sense of the word. Le Poème Harmonique, directed by its founder Vincent Dumestre, showcases its expertise in the 17th- and 18th-century repertoire thanks to an interpretation full of the bounding energy which characterizes French music. Each section of instruments seems to…

CD Review | Bergeron & Milatz, Bravura, Atma Classique, 2024

By Viktor Lazarov on 31 May 2024 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Classical Music

Bravura: oeuvres pour cor naturel et pianoforte Louis-Pierre Bergeron, horn; Meagan Milatz, piano Atma Classique, 2024 Horn player Louis-Pierre Bergeron and pianist Meagan Milatz mark historic landmarks in their debut album, Bravura, works for natural horn and piano, produced by Atma Classique. In addition to premiere recordings of selected works by Vincenzo Rhigini and Franz Xaver Süssmayr as well as Cipriani Potter’s Sonata di bravura on historic instruments, the album is the first solo recording of a period brass instrument in Canada. Performing on reproductions of classical horns and a Viennese fortepiano, the duo’s tasteful and elegant musicianship is apparent…

CD Review | David Potvin Catharsis (Leaf Music, 2024)

By Kristen Whittle on 31 May 2024 Canadian Music, CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Piano

David Potvin’s Catharsis honours the term’s meaning through an emotional and vulnerable performance of sombre yet powerful works, all by Canadian composers.

Darcy James Argue, Ph. L. Beyerstein

Summer Festival Record Round-up

By Félix-Antoine Hamel on 31 May 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Jazz, Scena Jazz

To supplement to our summer issue, here are a few record reviews from artists touring Canada this season. On the one hand, one could say that the group Bellbird, singer Sarah Jerrom and saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin are birds of a feather; on the other, composer and bandleader Darcy James Argue offers what certainly ought to be his magnum opus; finally, saxophonist journeyman George Coleman is caught in full flight for a set that measures up to many a classic live album of yesteryear. Root in Tandem Bellbird — Self-released, 2023. The bellbird (or Procnias) is known as the world’s loudest…

Photo by Jon Mark

CD Review | Portraits, Emily Carr String Quartet (Leaf Music)

By Justin Bernard on 2 April 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music

The Emily Carr String Quartet specializes in contemporary musical repertoire and has chosen to adopt the name of a local painter.

CD Review | In the Shadows (Erato, 2024)

By Justin Bernard on 29 March 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Vocal

The concept behind Michael Spyres’s new album, In the Shadows, is an original one—as is the order of the selected repertoire.

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