CD Reviews - April 2023

Pianist Sarah Cahill has reached the third and final volume of her series, ‘The Future is Female’. This volume is called ‘At Play’, and as with previous volumes, the very broad repertoire is set out in chronological order. The earliest work here is the Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 5 No. 3 (1811) from Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836), but then following a short but delightfully virtuosic Thème varié, Op. 98, full of drama and stylistic variety, from Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) composed in 1895, we’re straight into the mid-20th century and beyond. Going back to the Montgeroult, she was new to me when I reviewed Clare Hammond’s great disc of her Études in November last year, and this Sonata is full of the same richness of invention and subversion of convention. There is playful constant flow in the first movement, yet Montgeroult delivers a strangely unexpected end to the development section, and similarly, the lyrically meandering slow movement takes unexpected melodic turns to surprise the ear. Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, but remained in Warsaw during World War II, composing and organising secret concerts. Her Scherzo is playful and full of dancing, cascading scales, set against a neoclassical lumbering circus procession. From the late 20^th century come two works, firstly Chinese composer Chen Yi (b.1953), who emigrated to the US in 1986. Her Guessing from 1989 employs an impressive array of techniques, with thundering crashes, challenging rhythms, dark chords and clusters, and slow octave melodies, all coherently shaped here with playful energy from Cahill. Next to Azerbaijan, and Franghiz Ali-Zadeh’s (b.1947) Music for Piano, with its mysterious modal melody and metallic rattling, produced by a glass-bead necklace stretched across the piano strings, evoking the sound of the tar, a traditional stringed instrument. The effect is fascinating, and she also uses the very low registers, beyond the glass beads, to provide ominous, even threatening contrast. Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016) wrote Quintuplets Play Pen: Homage to Ruth Crawford for Cahill in 2001, and its mathematically constructed matrix combining a slow moving bass line with a skipping melodic line and almost chanting middle voice move from being childlike in simplicity to becoming increasingly complex. Hannah Kendall’s (b.1984) three movement On the Chequer’d Field Array’d evokes the three stages of a chess game, from the insistent motion of the initial striding out of pieces, through battling clashes and then more rhapsodic exploration of the extremes of the keyboard, to final subdued acceptance in the outcome. Cahill again brings a sense of coherence and atmosphere to both Oliveros and Kendall’s seemingly cerebral yet highly individual compositions. Iranian composer Aida Shirazi’s (b.1987) Albumblatt uses glassy string scrapes and ethereal harmonics created by touching the strings at the same time as depressing the keys. The resulting effects are captivating, with low rumbling strings and insistent rocking between notes and chords evoking storm clouds and turbulence – the work’s subtitle is A Winter Memory. Cahill closes with a warm, jazz-infused set of Piano Poems by Chicago-based composer Regina Harris Baiocchi (b.1956). From folksy simplicity in the opening ‘common things surprise us’ to off-kilter rhythms in ‘cockleburs in wooly hair’ and turbulence, even anger in ‘beatitudes’, the set ends with relaxed flickering and singing lines in ‘a candle burns time’. As with the previous volumes, Cahill impresses with her range of performances here, as well as in her choice of fascinating repertoire. The only disappointment is that this is the last of this three-volume project – a follow-up is definitely needed!

Various. 2023. The Future is Female. Vol. 3 At Play. Sarah Cahill. Compact Disc. First Hand Records. FHR133.

 

Violinist Lisa Archontidi-Tsaldaraki is joined by pianist Panayotis Archontides (one half of the Ivory Duo Piano Ensemble) for Rhapsody, their selection of 20^th Century violin masterpieces. Ravel’s popular Tzigane, Karol Szymanoski’s (1882-1937) Nocturne and Tarantella, Op. 28, and Britten’s early Suite, Op. 6 form the latter half of the disc. But it is the two works that come first that are the most revelatory here, both by Greek composers most likely lesser known to most in the UK. Yannis Constantinidis (1903-1984) left his homeland in 1922 and ending up in Berlin, but returned to Greece for good in 1931. He was a composer, pianist and conductor, and also composed in popular genres (film music, musical theatre, etc.) under the alias of Kostas Giannidis. In his Petite Suite sur des airs populaires grecs du Dodécanèse there is immediately a sense of longing and sweet nostalgia in the opening Air de Karpathos, and Archontidi-Tsaldaraki brings a rich tone to this cry for lost love. There are dancing, perky rhythms in the Chant Pastoral de Kalymnos, and a darker mood surrounds a contrasting faster central section in the Chant et Danse de Rhodes. The Danse de Leros has a light swing, then heartfelt longing returns in the Air d’Archangelos, with rich lower string work and sweet singing from Archontidi-Tsaldaraki. The final Chant Nuptial et Danse is gentle and lilting to begin with, but progresses into a wild dance with virtuosic double-stopping and high harmonics echoing the melody. Manolis Kalomiris (1883-1962) trained in Vienna, where Wagner was a key influence, then taught piano in Ukraine, where he discovered Russian nationalism, and on his return to Athens, he set out to establish an equivalent Greek National School of Music. His Sonata for Violin and Piano is a substantial work, with cyclical use of material throughout its three movements. The 5/8 metre opening movement is full of uneasy, agitated motion and pulsing rhythms, with surging waves from the piano, and sliding chromatic harmonies drive to an emphatic conclusion. The second movement’s 7/8 metre means that its lyrical melodies quickly take on a more playful nature, and despite its darker diminished intervals it has lively energy throughout, with gossamer high notes from the violin to finish. The Vivo finale relentlessly twists and turns, with galloping rhythms, and apart from a sweet lyrical episode from the violin over gentle piano arpeggios, the movement drives to the finish line. Archontidi-Tsaldaraki and Archontides give a strong performance here of this weighty yet richly inventive Sonata. Britten’s Suite provides a great contrast to both of these richly textured works. Immediately Archontidi-Tsaldaraki establishes this with the dramatic, angular and sustained solo violin opening. A pecking, lumbering March follows with challenging harmonics sounding almost like a breathy flute over the dancing piano part. The instruments take it in turns in the Moto Perpetuo third movement, with rapid motion over low, quiet piano pecks, and then pizzicato from the violin as the piano takes over. The Lullaby in contrast has slow sustained lines for the violin, searing at the climax, making tuning hard to centre in places, although Archontidi-Tsaldaraki maintains this well. Some delightfully watery playing from Archontides over the droning violin double-stops takes the movement towards its eery conclusion. Prokofiev’s influence is most evident in the stomping Waltz that ends the work, with drunken, spiky spiccato and surging double-stops, which could perhaps take a little more abandon, although Archontidi-Tsaldaraki delivers this virtuosic finale with confidence. She also shines in the dramatic, cadenza-like opening of the Ravel, with expressive hints of the rhythms to come, and the swirling wild race to the finish is impressive. Szymanowski’s Nocturne is suitably mysterious and dark, and the Tarantella’s crashing wild opening is followed by a virtuosic display full of drive and energy to finish. A strong debut disc from Archontidi-Tsaldaraki, encouraging more exploration of Constantinidis and Kalomiris.  

Various. 2023. Rhapsody. 20th Century Violin Masterpieces. Lisa Archontidi-Tsaldaraki, Panayotis Archontides. Compact Disc. Convivium Records. CR080.

CD Reviews - November 2022

Pianist Clare Hammond’s new disc (realised 4 November) of Études by Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836) is a complete revelation. Eight years younger than Mozart, Montgeroult, from a noble background, led a dramatic life involving a secret diplomatic mission, kidnap and imprisonment. Despite this, she was made professor of piano at Paris Conservatoire de Musique, and published nine sonatas, three fantasies, and her ‘Cours complet’ containing 114 études and over 900 exercises, as well as various other pieces. The style is so ahead of her time, in terms of what we might expect, that it is hard not to think that her work was not heard by the likes of Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Chopin. It is often the case that we fall into the trap of listening to unknown music composed by women and constantly liken it to that of male composers, as if to say they must have been the prime influence. Here it is so clearly the other way around, as many of the characteristics of her compositions, in terms of adventurous harmonies, complexity of texture, tempo changes and singing melodies, are foretastes of what we hear in the Romantic composers that followed her. The études were composed from around 1788 to 1812, by which time Schumann and Chopin were just 2 and Mendelssohn 3 years old. Yet if you didn’t know otherwise, the singing melodies over perpetual motion accompaniment of Études nos. 26 and 41, or the dancing energy or percussive textures of nos. 35 & 65, or the virtuosic trilling and insistent rhythmic energy of nos. 100 & 103, could be mistaken for Mendelssohn, Schubert or Chopin respectively. There are Beethovenian bagatalles, Field-like nocturnes, poignancy foreshadowing late Schubert, and even Brahmsian impromptus. Yet there is a clear individuality too in her expressive use of melody and her dense, rapid-moving textures. Did all of these composers know her work? There are possible connections to Mendelssohn via one of his teachers, and Clara Schumann’s father used the Cours complet in his teaching. But beyond that, we can’t be sure. We can only conclude from the quality and creative invention of her compositions that, had she not been a woman, her work would surely be better known today. Hammond has absorbed her soundworld and performs these gems with nuance, warmth and virtuosic fluidity throughout. Given that there are 29 études from the 114 here, there is surely scope for a follow-up, which would be greatly welcomed.

Montgeroult, H. de. 2022. Études. Clare Hammond. Hybrid Super Audio Compact Disc. BIS Records BIS-2603. 

American pianist Sarah Cahill returns with the second volume of her survey of keyboard music composed by women, The Future is Female. As with the first volume, the choice is eclectic, ranging from the late 17^thcentury to the present day, and the loose theme this time is The Dance. She opens with the delightful Suite No. 1 from Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre’s (1665-1729) Pièces de clavecin. If we put to oneside any concerns about this being performed on a modern piano, Cahill’s approach is light and delicate, with rippling ornaments and the five short movements bounce along with a gentle lilt. The middle Sarabande is quiet and contemplative, whilst the final Gigue, whilst not overly extravagant, is pacier, within an overall introspective soundworld. Clara Schumann (1819-1896) is next, and her Variations of a theme of Robert Schumann, Op. 20. Written as a present for her husband’s 43^rd birthday, it was one of her last compositions for the piano. The theme itself is rather mournful, almost funereal – and it was her husband’s last birthday before entering the asylum where he would end his days. However, she creates romantic passion in the variations that follow, increasing the intensity and rhythmic energy and moving the melody around in the texture. Yet she returns several times to the chorale-like plainness of the theme, and the six variation is particularly poignant and questioning. Cahill captures the atmosphere of this deeply personal composition with understated affection. We leap forward to 1957 for Germaine Tailleferre’s (1892-1983) Partita, with its wandering melodic lines and jazzy harmonies, and a playfully balletic dance to end. We move through the latter half of the twentieth century with a mournfully nostalgic Rhapsody from Zenobia Powell Perry (1908-2004) and two evocative movements from Madeleine Dring’s (1923-1977) Colour Suite, full of cabaret-style swing and dance rhythms. Elena Kats-Chernin’s (b.1957) Peggy’s Rag is delightfully nostalgic, and Betsy Jolas’ (b.1926) Tango Si deconstructs elements of the dance, with stop-start hints of tango rhythms. The St Petersburg Waltz by Meredith Monk (b.1942) swirls around repeated chords with Eastern European inflections and distant cries from the top of the keyboard. Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz’s (b.1964) Preludio y Estudio No. 3 has a mysterious, free prelude with high outbursts contrasting with a drone-like bass, and the virtuosic Estudio is full of insistent driving rhythms, splashing chords and metallic use of the very top of the instrument. The disc ends with a dramatically expressive piece, ‘She Dances Naked Under Palm Trees’, by Theresa Wong (b.1976), with haunting use of the pedal to create ringing notes, thundering textures, glissandi and a deeply unsettling 13-beat metre. As with the first disc, with such a fascinating and well-chosen selection of diverse works, it is easy to forget the pianist here, and once again Cahill demonstrates an impressive command of such a wide variety of styles, so as well as being a great testament to the women composers here, high praise is deserved for these performances too.

Various. 2022. The Future is Female, Vol. 2, The Dance. Sarah Cahill. Compact Disc. First Hand Records FHR132.

Ruth Gipps (1921-1999) was an English composer, oboist, pianist and conductor, studying the oboe at the Royal College of Music with Léon Goossens, and composition with Gordon Jacob and Vaughan Williams. Her music eschewed serialism or atonalism and as such, perhaps fell out of fashion somewhat – and of course she sadly suffered at the hands of a misogynistic and male-dominated world of composition in the early to mid-twentieth century. Thankfully, her music is experiencing something of a revival, and Chandos’ second volume of her orchestral music further demonstrates the inventiveness of her orchestration and her understanding of orchestral colour. Her youthful Oboe Concerto, Op. 20, expertly performed here by Juliana Koch, along with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Rumon Gamba, is full of lively writing for the oboe, along with lyricism in the slow movement, folksy dancing melodies in its finale. But its strengths also lie in the delicacy of the scoring, with just muted strings in the central Andante, and mysterious string textures in the opening movement. There are two short orchestral works here too, firstly an Overture to a never completed opera, Chanticleer, Op. 28, with atmospheric wind writing and surging strings, as well as rasping brass evoking the cockerel of the title. There is also a dark elegy on war, Death on the Pale Horse, Op. 25 (written in 1943), drawing inspiration from Blake’s painting of the same name. Here, gently pulsing timpani build to the climactic moments, and the opening horn solo, repeated at various points, adds to the sense of doom. The rest of the disc is given over to Gipps’ Symphony No. 3, Op. 57. Written in 1965, the style was surely running against the fashions of the time, which might explain its relative obscurity, but the wealth of expression and orchestral colour on offer here is immediately attractive. The shifting tonalities of the opening movement, with rich string writing, builds to exhilharating, surging climaxes, and the Theme and Variations second movement is warm and lush, with highly imaginative use of percussion. Again, unusual orchestral colour is on display in the Scherzo, with an ostinato (repeated figure) for harp and glockenspiel, against skittish string writing. The finale is jaunty, with some striking moments for the brass – she certainly knows how to make the most of all parts of orchestral textures, and Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic exploit this to the full. I missed Volume 1, and will certainly now be seeking it out.

Gipps, R. 2022. Ruth Gipps Orchestral Works, Vol. 2. Juliana Koch, BBC Philharmonic, Rumon Gamba. Compact Disc. Chandos CHAN 20161.

 

 

 

CD Reviews & Concert listings - March 2022

In the month of International Women’s Day, I am happy to say that by chance rather than design, I have ended up with three great recordings to review, as well as a range of concert listings, that feature no fewer than 14 women composers, 4 women conductors and 10 women performers. This shouldn’t be unusual, yet it still us - but it’s a sign of some progress that I haven’t explicitly gone looking for this. Credit should also go to the three recordings’ shared record company, First Hand Records, for supporting such a diverse range of music composed and performed by women.

Reviews

Late last year, The Telling released a new album, partly in response to the very sad and sudden loss of singer Ariane Prüssner earlier that year. The album consists of two soundtracks to ‘concertplays’, something the group have become so well known for. ‘Vision’ is the imagined testimony of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), and ‘Unsung Heroine’ charts the imagined life and love of troubadour Beatriz de Dia, who was possibly born in the early 1140s and died around 1212. You may have caught both of these concertplays over the years in Brighton, as the other lead singer and founder of The Telling, Clare Norburn was also founder and co-director for many years of Brighton Early Music Festival. The music on this recording consists of soundtracks for film versions of the plays made in 2020 following the first lockdown. Both soundtracks are testament to the chemistry of Clare Norburn’s soaring soprano and Ariane Prüssner’s rich, deep mezzo-soprano, so passionately expressive when combined. In Vision, they explore the beauty but also the pain of Hildegard’s often shocking visions. There are moments of ecstasy, such as when Norburn’s solo line bursts forth above the simple harp accompaniment (Jean Kelly on medieval harp here) in Ave generosa, or when Prüssner’s rich tones circle and wind passionately in Columba aspexit. In Unsung Heroine, we enter the world of the troubadour, with a whole range of songs drawing on Beatrix de Dia’s poetry, some with existing vocal lines, some borrowed from other songs of the time. There’s lots of forbidden love and jealousy here, as well as the distress of betrayal, the latter evocatively expressed by Norburn’s rise to stratospheric heights in Estat ai en greu cossirier (‘I have been in a state of great distress’). Prüssner on the other hand gives us the passion of two lovers and a jealous husband, and a love that can never be, in Kalenda mia (‘May Day’), here accompanied by harp (Joy Smith) and the medieval bowed string instrument, the vielle (Giles Lewin). This disc is a wonderful testament to these two rich explorations of contrasting medieval music, but more importantly to the deep musical partnership between two exceptional singers, one now sadly lost to us.

Various. 2021. Soundtracks to the concert plays: Unsung Heroine and Vision. The Telling. Compact Disc. First Hand Records FHR123.

American pianist, Sarah Cahill, has released the first volume of a three volume series, ‘The Future is Female’, aiming to celebrate women composers right from the 17^th century through to the present day. In the first volume, loosely themed ‘In Nature’, the ten composers hail from across the globe, and there are a number of premiere recordings here. The works are presented chronologically, so we begin with a graceful and expressive Keyboard Sonata from Anna Bon (1739/40-after 1767). Born in Venice, she composed for Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia in Bayreuth, then later sang in Haydn’s ensemble at the court of Esterházy. Sadly, but not untypically, all record of her disappears after her marriage to an Italian singer. Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s (1805-1847) story is not dissimilar – despite being a child prodigy alongside her brother Felix, their father discouraged any ambition for Fanny as a composer, and once married, although she continued to compose in private, it was only after her death that her work began to be published. Here, Cahill plays two of her Vier Lieder, the rippling and poignantly expressive No. 1, with its turbulent, swirling left hand, and the gently throbbing No. 3, Cahill delivering the yearning melody with great lyricism here. Space won’t allow for discussion of all the pieces here, so I must focus on highlights, such as the turbulent waves around a constant chugging rhythm in Venezuelan composer Teresa Carreño’s (1853-1917) ‘Un rêve en mer’, or the brightly evocative bird song over dark chords in Fannie Dillon’s (1881-1947) ‘Birds at Dawn’. Agi Jambor’s (1909-1997) Piano Sonata: 'To the Victims of Auschwitz’ is unsurprisingly dark, with hammering repeated low octaves and nagging repetition, urgent driving rhythms, and then ghostly pianissimo tinkles at the top of the keyboard and a final deathly quiet chord to finish. Deirdre Gribbin (b.1967) explores the dark side of her adopted home of London in Unseen, with insistent, shaking urgency and dark, fearful undertones, before a moment of almost motionless calm. This is an impressive collection, with Cahill effortlessly traversing a phenomenal range of styles, even contributing her voice reciting a poem by Ruth Crawford Seeger in Eve Beglarian’s (b.1958) Fireside. Her exemplary performances here also serve to celebrate the variety of music composed by women over centuries excluded from the classical ‘canon’, and the next volume is eagerly awaited.

Various. 2022. The Future is Female: Vol. 1 In Nature. Sarah Cahill. Compact Disc. First Hand Records FHR131.

 

I very much enjoyed the first volume of violinist Kinga Ujszászi and harpsichordist Tom Foster’s exploration of the riches of an amazing archive from the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the ‘Cabinet of Wonders’, and now they’re back with another volume of delights. The archive has miraculously survived all that time in Dresden, and is known as ‘Schrank II’ after the cabinet in which it was stored. This volume presents us with music by Martino Bitti (1655/56-1743), Henricus Albicastro (c.1660-1730), Carlo Fiorelli (c.1673-unknown), and two works of uncertain origin, but possibly attributable to Girolamo Laurenti (1678-1751) and Antonio Montanari (1676-1737). I have to confess only the last of these names was at all familiar to me, but there is some delightful and inventive music on offer here. Bitti’s ‘Dresden’ Sonatas (of which three are performed here) have delicate grace and lively, bouncy faster movements. There are harmonically relatively conventional, but Bitti explores the higher register of the violin to great effect in the second Allegro of the Sonata No. 4. There are some slightly more interesting harmonic shifts in No. 1’s middle movement, which dances along nicely, and there is great rapid interplay between violin and harpsichord, a 10^th apart, in the opening movement. No.5’s final Gigue is lively, with the harpsichord trilling like a strumming guitar. Albicastro’s offering has a mournfully lyrical opening, as well as rapid figuration and imitation between the instruments in the middle movement. The Laurenti is perhaps the most overtly virtuosic for the violin, but it is the Montanari that stands out for me, with its sliding chromatic lines, frequent tempo changes, and delicate joint figurations from the two instruments. Ujszászi’s virtuosity is without doubt, but she is also alive to the more lyrical and expressive moments, and brings a graceful lightness to even the more conventional passages. There is clear unanimity between Ujszászi and Foster throughout, whether when imitating one another, or when in rapid runs together as in the Bitti. Given there are around 1750 works in ‘Schrank II’, I think we can confidently expect more volumes from these two talented players.

Various. 2022. Cabinet of Wonders, Vol. 2. Kinga Ujszászi, Tom Foster. Compact Disc. First Hand Records FHR121.

Concerts

Joanna MacGregor

Sian Edwards

The Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Joanna MacGregor present Silent Classics, with Neil Brand (pianist, film historian & composer), with live music performed to the Buster Keaton classic One Week, and Oliver Twist, starring Jackie Coogan & Lon Chaney (2.45pm, Sunday 6 March, Brighton Dome). They return later in the month for Elgar, Mozart and Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1, with Joanna MacGregor now on the piano, and Sian Edwards conducting (2.45, Sunday 27 March, Brighton Dome).

Holly Mathieson

London Philharmonic Orchestra perform Williams, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, with Martin James Bartlett (piano), conducted by Holly Mathieson (7.30pm, Saturday 12 March, Brighton Dome and 3pm, Sunday 13 March, Congress Theatre, Eastbourne).

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason

Worthing Symphony Orchestra perform Mainly Mozart, including the Concerto for flute and harp (with soloists Monica McCarron & Elizabeth Green), the Piano Concerto No. 6 with Jeneba Kanneh-Mason (piano) and Elgar & Haydn also on the programme (2.45pm, Sunday 13 March, Assembly Hall, Worthing). 

Brighton Early Music Festival celebrates Early Music Day with a concert of Renaissance Music on a Grand Scale, including Brumel’s ‘Earthquake’ Mass, and music by Robert Carver, performed by the BREMF Consort of Voices and members of the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble, conducted by Deborah Roberts (7.30pm, Sunday 20 March, St Martin’s Church, Brighton).

(Edited versions of these reviews first appeared at Scene, March 2022)