Volume 22 Issue 7 - April 2017

and flawless performance in this collection of
heavenly works.
Dianne Wells
CLASSICAL AND BEYOND
Le Mozart Noir
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra; Jeanne
Lamon
Tafelmusik Media TMK 1031 DVDCD
(tafelmusik.org)
L/R
!!
This is a welcome
re-release from 2002,
featuring an hourlong
DVD docudrama
on the life
of the significant
18th-century Parisian
composer Joseph
Boulogne, Chevalier
de Saint-Georges,
who was the son of a
slave. There is also a
full-length CD recording of several of Saint-
Georges’ compositions, as well as a movement
of a Leclair violin concerto and a symphony
by Gossec.
The docudrama is well-researched and
engaging, despite rather stilted dramatic
performances in period costume. What is
most interesting is R.H. Thomson’s narrated
story of Boulogne’s life, the lively Tafelmusik
performances, the interviews with his biographer
and with Tafelmusik director Jeanne
Lamon and soloist Linda Melsted. Together
they make a good case for the complexity,
grace and beauty of Saint-Georges’ music.
One clip of Lamon explaining in detail the
beauty of a particular theme and accompaniment
is wonderfully articulate and a
powerful insider’s explanation of how music
is put together.
The DVD is entertaining, educational and
quite moving in its presentation of the life of
this remarkable and unique musician, athlete
and military leader. The accompanying
booklet includes a beautifully written essay
on Saint-Georges by Charlotte Nediger.
As Tafelmusik heads into a new era with
the recent appointment of Elisa Citterio
as their music director, this recording is a
poignant reminder of what a powerhouse
the orchestra has been over the years under
Lamon’s direction. The recorded sound is
excellent and the performances are first-rate,
most notably the solo playing of Melsted and
Geneviève Gilardeau.
Larry Beckwith
Concert notes: Tafelmusik presents “Bach:
Keeping It in the Family” featuring Alfredo
Bernardini, oboe, and Cecilia Bernardini,
violin, April 5 through 8 plus a matinee on
April 9 at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre. A chamber
offering, “Close Encounters…of the German
Kind” will be presented on April 22 at the
Temerty Theatre (sold out) and at Heliconian
Hall on April 28 (11am). On April 2 the
Windermere String Quartet presents “Mozart
by Any Other Name” including Chevalier
de Saint-Georges’ Quartet in C Minor at St.
Olave’s Anglican Church.
New Era – Stamitz; Danzi; Mozart
Andreas Ottensamer; Kammerakademie
Potsdam; Emmanuel Pahud; Albrecht
Mayer
Decca 481 4711
L/R
!!
Andreas
Ottensamer, principal
clarinet of the Berlin
Philharmonic, has
released a delightful
assortment of tracks
on a disc designed to
educate and entertain.
New Era refers to the
period in Mannheim from the mid- to late-
18th century, an epoch in which composers
and performers consorted, collaborated
and so consolidated what we now call the
Classical Style.
Most wind players encounter Johann (père)
and Carl (fils) Stamitz, as well as Franz Danzi,
en route through undergraduate performance
courses. Seldom are these composers
heard outside of the academic recital hall,
perhaps owing to the tendency in our own
era to reduce and highlight, so that we use
Mozart as a stand-in for an entire range of
musical peaks, as we might with Everest for
the Himalayas. These four composers are
represented here. For once Mozart’s sublime
Concerto K622 is left off the menu in favour
of two transcribed arias (from Mitridate and
Don Giovanni), and a fantasy on the beloved
La ci darem la mano, written by Danzi. For
substance, there is a concerto from each
Stamitz, and a delightful Concertino by Danzi
for clarinet and bassoon (transcribed to great
effect for cor anglais). Danzi’s Fantasy is an
early iteration of the virtuosic form where
a technical tour de force is derived from the
music of a popular opera.
Ottensamer plays with fluid precision
and a surprisingly bright tone that suits
the material; perhaps long gone are the
days when to be a member of the Berlin
Philharmonic meant using the darkest
possible set-up. His articulation is crisp, his
intonation trustworthy, and his improvisational
cadenzas in the concerti are like rifts in
the time-space continuum, somehow joining
that New Era with our own. Collaborators
include flutist Emmanuel Pahud (on both of
Stephan Koncz’ transcriptions of the arias)
and Albrecht Mayer on cor anglais, both
colleagues of Ottensamer in Berlin, and like
him brilliant instrumental musicians. The
back-up band, Kammerakademie Potsdam,
is equally brilliant under the clarinetist’s
direction.
Max Christie
Haydn – Symphonies 8 & 84; Violin
Concerto in A Major
Aisslinn Nosky; Handel and Haydn Society;
Harry Christophers
Coro COR16148
!!
This is the latest in
a series of recordings
of the symphonies and
concertos of Haydn
by the Boston-based
Handel and Haydn
Society, under the
dynamic direction of
Harry Christophers.
The Toronto connection is the orchestra’s
concertmaster – and violin soloist on this
disc - Aisslinn Nosky, a former member of
Tafelmusik and one of the driving forces
behind I Furiosi.
Haydn’s eighth symphony – nicknamed
“Le soir” – is a sinfonia concertante, meaning
it features solo passages from several of the
orchestra’s principals, including Nosky. It’s a
great pleasure to hear the freedom, humour
and tenderness each soloist brings to their
playing and the whole performance has a
tremendous buoyancy and elegance to it.
The A-Major concerto is difficult to bring
off the page because of its rather pedestrian
themes and somewhat predictable turns, but
Nosky and Christophers give it a convincing
and lively reading. It’s exciting to hear Nosky
let loose in the cadenzas, unencumbered by
the regular phrasing and symmetry of the
main body of each of the movements.
The disc finishes with a glorious performance
of Symphony No.84, one of Haydn’s
Paris symphonies. Christophers coaxes clean,
balanced performances from his charges
without sacrificing drama and expressiveness.
The second movement goes to some
dark places, which are enhanced and deepened
by a wonderful attention to dynamics
and accents.
It’s clear that Christophers and Nosky are a
powerful team. We will await the next Haydn
disc with great anticipation.
Larry Beckwith
Strauss – Ariadne auf Naxos; Bourgeois
Gentilhomme (Suites)
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; JoAnn
Falletta
Naxos 8.57346
!!
Now here is a real
gem I wouldn’t mind
listening to over and
over again. This brand
new release from
Naxos comes from
Buffalo, NY, by an
orchestra, one of the
best in North America,
whose skills were honed by such names as
Josef Krips, Lucas Foss, Semyon Bychkov and
now led most ably by JoAnn Falletta. If you’ve
never heard of or cared for her, you certainly
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