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ticular staging is worth seeing not just for the
fine singing, but also superb acting by the
principals. Tomasz Konieczny as Mandryka is
every director’s dream of a singing actor and
Emily Magee as Arabella successfully defies
stereotypes of youth and beauty — no suspension
of disbelief is needed. Genia Kuehmeier
is particularly touching as the younger sister
Zdenka, forced to appear dressed as a
man. For the writing duo, with Arabella the
Viennese magic was back. As Strauss wrote
in his condolences to Hofmannsthal’s widow,
“No one will ever replace him for me or for
the world of music!”
—Robert Tomas
“Shivers of pleasure” says Janos Gardonyi
of a DVD of the young Verdi’s fourth opera,
I Lombardi. And “An early contender for
best of 2013” says Robert Tomas of this
Teatro Real Madrid Tchaikovsky – Iolanta/
Stravinsky – Persephone DVD. Both reviews
are at thewholenote.com.
EARLY & PERIOD PERFORMANCE
All in a Garden Green –
A Renaissance collection
Toronto consort; David Fallis
marquis mAR 81515
! This CD comprises
a double re-release.
Mariners and
Milkmaids is a tribute
to some of the stock
characters of 17th century
English ballads
and dances. Its breakdown
of 11 anonymous
pieces and eight from the seminal English
Dancing Master by John and Henry Playford
bears this out.
Toronto Consort is highly imaginative
in its selection and very few of the tracks
are those old favourites often encountered
in early music compilations. Come Ashore
Jolly Tar is a spirited interpretation which
would grace any Celtic celebration with its
exuberant violin playing and percussion,
as would The Sailor Laddie. More thoughtful
but no less intense is Gilderoy: one singles
out Laura Pudwell’s solo mezzo-soprano.
One also notes the confident way in which
Toronto Consort’s artistic director David Fallis
defeats the Spanish Armada in In Eighty
Eight — and Queen Anne’s enemies in the
Recruiting Officer!
The Toronto Consort finds time to showcase
its soloists. Katherine Hill (soprano)
sings of being The Countrey Lasse, accom-
panied only by Terry McKenna’s lute. Alison
Melville’s recorder and flute playing excel in
An Italian Rant and Waltham Abbey, which
reminds us of the complex techniques she
draws on for the virtuosic English Nightingale
by Jacob van Eyck.
The latter is found on the second CD, O
Lusty May. This is more a celebration of renaissance
music as a whole, dipping into the
continental European repertoire, and less
dependent on anonymous popular pieces.
There is a real sophistication to Allons
au Vert Boccage by Guillaume Costeley,
each of the four singers enjoying their own
prominent part. The pure exuberance of
Thoinot Arbeau’s Jouissance immediately
follows — could there have been a more appropriate
title for this tune? The continental
pieces make their mark — Laura Pudwell in
La terre n’agueres glacée, Giovanni Bassano’s
Frais et Gaillard with Alison Melville rising
to the challenge of some intricate baroque
recorder fingering, and Meredith Hall’s solo
Quand ce beau printemps je voy.
William Byrd’s All in a Garden Green is the
most courtly English piece, its divisions bearing
little resemblance to the plaintive tune set
to words for lovers and, later, English Civil
War activists. Meredith Hall breathes (bird)
life into This Merry, Pleasant Spring, while
an animated quintet urges us to See, see the
shepherds’ queen.
Buy these CDs for anyone new to early
music — and for your own sheer delight!
—Michael Schwartz
concert note: Toronto Consort presents
the Canadian premiere of Francesco Cavalli’s
1640 Italian opera The Loves of Apollo &
Daphne February 15 and 16 at Trinity-
St. Paul’s Centre.
Grounds for pleasure?
Michael Schwartz also
reviews Division-Musick —
English duos for viol and
lute at thewholenote.com.
CLASSICAL & BEYOND
medtner; mussorgsky; Prokofiev
Georgy Tchaidze
Honens
honens.com
! Laureates of the
Honens International
Piano Competition are
fascinating to follow
as they begin to make
their way in the world.
The competition is
a prestigious career
launcher and offers
wide public exposure as well as the promise
of a performance recording on which to build
a growing discography.
It’s easy to understand why Russian Georgy
Tchaidze emerged victorious from the 2009
crop of gifted competitors. On this, his
first major recording, he plays with articulate
clarity and an enormously expressive
technique, and considering his youth, his
interpretive maturity is truly surprising.
Recorded at the Banff Centre in May 2012,
Tchaidze plays Prokofiev, Mussorgsky and
the somewhat lesser known Nicolai Medtner.
The four Medtner Fairy Tales, Op.34 are a
diverse and well-crafted collection of programmatic
works. They demand much of
their performer, especially the final one of
the set where Tchaidze succeeds in making
Medtner sound more of a modernist than
even he may have realized.
Moving from the poetry of Medtner to
the intellectual discipline of his contemporary
Prokofiev, Tchaidze is fully at ease in the
Sonata No.4 in C Minor, Op.29. He seems,
in some way, to understand the music better
than the composer himself and to convey
this youthful confidence quite convincingly,
never pushing this understated composition
beyond credibility — even in the brief but
highly charged final movement.
Mussorgsky’s Pictures are so well known
and frequently recorded that including them
on a first CD is a courageous choice. Tchaidze
truly makes “Pictures” an exhibition.
For a closer look at this amazing young
pianist, watch his several YouTube interviews
and performances.
—Alex Baran
More to discover! Daniel Foley reviews
an Invencia Piano Duo recording of Florent
Schmitt’s Complete Original Works for
Piano Duet and Duo 1; Roger Knox looks
at two Naxos world premiere releases of
the music of Alfredo Casella; and Bruce
Surtees has high praise for Schumann at
Pier 2 – The Symphonies for “finally and
decisively disproving the myth that he
was an inept orchestrator.” All online at
thewholenote.com.
MODERN & CONTEMPORARY
American mavericks
san Francisco symphony;
michael Tilson Thomas
sFsmedia sFs 0056
! The lion’s share of
this captivating disc
of American music is
devoted to two major
works by the innovative
Henry Cowell
(1897–1965), an early
proponent of what
came to be known as
February 1 – March 7, 2013 thewholenote.com 55