Volume 23 Issue 9 - June / July / August 2018

sopranino saxophone solo of boomeranging
circular breathing on They Rode for Them-
Part Two. So how do the Ontarians and
Quebeckers fare? Quite well, especially on
the CD-ending runthrough of Mitchell’s
vintage Nonaah, played by a quartet of
Caloia, trumpeter Craig Pedersen, alto saxophonist
Yves Charuest and clarinetist Lori
Freedman. A squirming chipper compendium
of string bounces, tongue slaps, nimble trumpeting and reed
whistles, the head gives way to a harmonized middle section, while
sombre asides maintain the tune’s ambulatory pace. It’s a nimble
confection to complete the multi-course sonic banquet served by the 18
players on the preceding six tracks. The sonic half-dozen pieces are preeminently
group music, although Charuest, bassoonist Peter Lutek and
pianist Marilyn Lerner, among others, manage brief interpolations.
Offering the flavors derived from both notated and improvised sounds,
sometimes, as on Ride the Wind, the accumulated vamps are almost
symphonically orchestral, with a rumbling trombone/tuba intro
booming like the initial motif of Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 before the
darkened textures are balanced by decorative reed smears plus sunnier
respites from flute peeps, cymbal raps and chromatic stopping from
piano and vibes. More dissonant, with intermittent pacing, the other
tracks include twinned instrumental passages, some as challenging as
Jean Derome’s piccolo face-off with Isaiah Ceccarelli’s snare drum on
They Rode for Them-Part Two, after which drum ratamacues usher in
surround sound from the MTAO that takes up every remaining open
space. The key instance of this mass movement is RUB, which moves
without pause into Shards and Lemons. Profoundly abstract, the
expressive squeaks, gurgles and small animal cries on RUB undulate
sporadically until superseded by the spiritual tone poem that is the
latter tune. The placid surface of orchestral harmonies is sometimes
upset by trumpet peeps and trombone slurs until a harsher interlude
weighted towards percussion and lower-pitched reeds enlarges the
unrolling slow-motion, culminating in a crescendo that distinctively
connects understated, stentorian, shrill and lowing textures into a
pulsating whole.
Mitchell’s influence as a polymorphous
soloist and composer is enormous and is
reflected in the work of other master musicians
such as Daniel Carter. On the threepart
improvisation Seraphic Light (AUM
Fidelity AUM 106 aumfidelity.com), Carter
plays soprano, alto and tenor saxophones,
clarinet, flute and trumpet with frequent
Mitchell collaborators Shipp and bassist William Parker. Obviously less
structured than Mitchell’s work often is, Seraphic Light does confirm
how an integrated combination of motion and emotion can create a
narrative both spellbinding and stirring. Initially graceful and formal
due to Carter’s muted trumpet grace notes, the tune shortly becomes
foot-stomping swing due to Parker’s crunching and buzzing bass line,
Shipp’s repetitive chording and Carter’s riffs that sprawl from moderato
to altissimo. With Carter switching among so many horns and the
others playing percussive when appropriate to bypass the need for a
drummer, the three sometimes recalls a miniature AEC. The program’s
apogee occurs midway through Part II, when carefully thought-out
polyphony means that a groove is established even as each of the players
creates a separate, though related, theme variation. The track culminates
with this layered mass dividing into a walking bass line, segmented
reed textures and connective keyboard comping. A coda as well as a
culmination, Part III allows a pause to acknowledge applause on this
live set, and then miraculously picks up where the previous tune ends,
reaching the same energetic groove. Then the track is slowly allowed to
fade via rolling piano textures, string slams from the bassist and breathy
up-and-down flutter tonguing from Carter’s tenor saxophone.
The musical advances which Mitchell helped pioneer are still being
showcased and extended by himself and others, 50 years on.
Old Wine,
New Bottles
Fine Old Recordings Re-Released
BRUCE SURTEES
Exciting beyond words! A friend asked me
about Universal’s omnibus collection of the
recordings of Birgit Nilsson (La Nilsson - The
Complete Decca · Deutsche Grammophon ·
Philips Recordings Decca 4832787) to which
I answered impulsively, “Exciting beyond
words.” Just consider the contents drawn
from the archives of DG, Decca, Philips,
the BBC, the ORF and the Metropolitan
Opera. On 79 CDs and two DVDs there are 27 complete operas, four
by Richard Strauss and 12 by Wagner (including two Rheingolds that
do not feature Nilsson!) in addition to those by Mozart (Don Giovanni,
two versions, Leinsdorf and Böhm), Beethoven (Fidelio, Maazel), Verdi
(Un Ballo in Maschera, Solti; Macbeth, Schippers and Aida, Mehta),
Puccini (Tosca, Maazel; La Fanciulla del West, Matacic and Turandot
with Jussi Bjoerling and Renata Tebaldi, Leinsdorf) and Weber
(Oberon, Kubelik and Der Freischütz, Heger). Also many recitals,
duets, arias and rehearsals.
As for any staged work, the supporting cast in any opera is hardly
of minimal importance and the producers of these original performances
certainly knew their jobs. First out of the box is the Tristan und
Isolde from September 1960 with Fritz Uhl (Tristan), Regina Resnik
(Brangäne), Tom Krause (Kurwenal) and Arnold van Mill (King Mark).
The Vienna Philharmonic is conducted by Georg Solti. John Culshaw
produced. (After Nilsson’s heartbreaking Mild und leise, the informative
CD that follows, telling us in perhaps too much detail “how the
watch was made,” somewhat breaks the spell. There is a second version
of Tristan conducted by Böhm, live from Bayreuth in August 1966
with Wolfgang Windgassen, Christa Ludwig, Eberhard Wächter and
Martti Talvela. Also a CD of excerpts from Tristan conducted by Hans
Knappertsbusch, who was Decca’s first choice to conduct the complete
Ring, an honour that defaulted to the less experienced Wagnerite, Georg
Solti. Next up is Die Walküre from September 1961 with the LSO under
Leinsdorf. Nilsson is Brunnhilde, Jon Vickers is Sigmund and George
London is Wotan. 1958 saw the first installment of the Decca/Culshaw
Ring with the VPO, Das Rheingold without Nilsson but with Kirsten
Flagstad as Fricka. A very nice gesture by producer John Culshaw to
employ Flagstad, the greatest Brunnhilde of her day, then aged 63.
Walküre follows from 1966/67 with the cast for the full cycle: Nilsson,
Hans Hotter (Wotan), Wolfgang Windgassen (Siegfried), Christa Ludwig
(Fricka) with the Ortlinde sung by Helga Dernesch who would be
Brunnhilde in Karajan’s Ring Cycle for DG. In Siegfried the Forest Bird
is sung by Joan Sutherland. The famous BBC video of the final session of
Gotterdämmerung in Vienna in 1965 with Solti, Nilsson and the horse
is included.
Further along in this Nilsson treasury, there is the live Böhm Ring
from Bayreuth in 1966/67 with Nilsson’s Brunnhilde and Theo Adam
as Wotan. When asked of their own favourite roles in all opera, both
Kirsten Flagstad and Birgit Nilsson named Brunnhilde, particularly in
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