Volume 25 Issue 4 - December 2019 / January 2020

the internationally respected Canadian
conductor Boris Brott. The disc centres
around the Azrieli Foundation’s prizes for
newly created works. Two prizes are awarded:
The Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music – recognizing
an existing work – and the Azrieli
commission for Jewish music, an initiative
created to encourage composers to critically
engage with the question of “What is
Jewish music?”
The first piece on the disc – the premiere
performance of En el escuro es todo uno
(In the Darkness All is One) by Canadian
composer Kelly-Marie Murphy – is a tour de
force of orchestral imagination. Murphy is
clearly a confident orchestral writer and it
shows in this piece. The work is scored for
solo harp, cello and orchestra, and Murphy
expertly delivers a fine example of the
concertante idiom. This piece represents the
results of the 2018 Azrieli Commission Prize
and features B.C. duo Couloir, Heidi Krutzen
(harp) and Ariel Barnes (cello), as soloists.
The 2018 Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music was
awarded to the Israeli-born composer Avner
Dorman for Nigunim – a violin concerto in
four movements. Dorman writes highly idiomatic
and playful passages for the soloist
answered by equally light dances and trifles
in the orchestra. This work makes for an
excellent showpiece for the soloist, Lara
St. John in this instance, while not being
overly dramatic in the virtuosic sense.
Last on the disc is a new recording of Seven
Tableaux from the Song of Songs by the late
Canadian composer Srul Irving Glick. This
music is lyrical and melancholy. Glick had a
particular affinity for creating an emotional
painting with his music without being overtly
sentimental. Soprano soloist Sharon Azrieli
performs this work with stunning colour and
musical prowess.
Adam Scime
James O’Callaghan – Alone and Unalone
Ensemble Paramirabo
Ravello Records rr8020
(ravellorecords.com)
!!
While listening
to music one might
consider, “I like
these sounds” or “I
like how this music
moves forward.”
While neither of
these thoughts can
provide an adequate
basis for the judgement of artistic value, the
latter says more than the former and also
comes closer to being such a basis. One might
say that “I like how it goes” captures a feature
fundamental to music’s being good at a level
less abstract than that of the experience of it
being intrinsically rewarding.
When listening to the highly personal,
compelling and frankly compulsory environments
created by Canadian composer James
O’Callaghan, one invariably approves of how
it sounds and how it goes. In this release of
works written especially for the Montrealbased
Ensemble Paramirabo, the “I like how
it goes” nature of the music connects the
listener with the absolutely crucial notion of
following music with anticipation – but also
with harmonious and welcomed disassociation.
With titles such as subject/object and
Alone and unalone, there is a certain amount
of obfuscation – delivered on an abstract
level – but also literally, as admitted by the
composer himself in an effort to provide a
conceptual motivation of the “transference
of concrete sound into abstraction, returned
to the conditions from which they were
derived.” While the musico-philosophical
liminality of this music would make for interesting
discussion, one can’t help but simply
appreciate the raw and unfettered imagination
produced by O’Callaghan’s manner of
putting pen to page, and with the electronic
aspects of the works, world to speaker.
The ensemble brings a high amount of
musical excellence and an intimate bravura
to this recording – a testament to their
ongoing commitment to O’Callaghan’s music.
Bravo to all.
Adam Scime
Origins
Duo Kalysta
Leaf Music LM226 (duokalysta.com)
!!
Flutist Lara
Deutsch and harpist
Emily Belvedere
first met when
collaborating in
2012 at McGill
University. Since
then Duo Kalysta
has been playing chamber music to artistic
acclaim, as demonstrated by this clearsounding
release recorded in Montreal.
TSO harpist Judy Loman’s colourful flute
and harp arrangement of Claude Debussy’s
Prelude à l’après-midi d’un faune opens the
CD. The flute beginning catches the listener’s
attention, with sparkling arpeggiated harp,
dreamy flute and astounding tight ensemble
playing in the more rubato sections.
Two Canadian compositions follow. R.
Murray Schafer’s three-movement Trio
for Flute, Viola and Harp (2011) has violist
Marina Thibeault joining them. Freely,
flowing has melodic lines with changing
volumes, tempi and note lengths creating
the soundscape. The sonic space of Slowly,
calmly is highlighted by long atmospheric
viola notes doubled by the flute underneath.
Dance-like Rhythmic is like listening to a
musical story with viola plucks, high-pitched
flute, harp flourishes and abrupt stops in a
race to the end.
Composer Jocelyn Morlock notes that her
two-movement Vespertine (2005) refers
to night-blossoming plants and nocturnal
animals. Twilight presents musically darker
colours with longer phrases and more
independent parts. Verdigris is performed
with sweetly delicate harp staccato lines and
contemplative flute notes, bird-like trills and
higher notes.
Violinist Alexander Read, violist Thibeault
and cellist Carmen Bruno add an orchestral
feel to André Jolivet’s Chant de Linos (1944),
an intense, dramatic composition highlighted
by impressive flute playing.
Here’s to a promising musical future!
Tiina Kiik
Finding Your Own Voice
Gidon Kremer
Accentus Music ACC20414
(naxosdirect.com)
! ! In the September
WholeNote,
Terry Robbins
reviewed the CD
of Gidon Kremer’s
recording of the late
Polish composer
Mieczyslaw
Weinberg’s 24
Preludes to a Lost
Time, Op. 100.
Written for solo
cello, Kremer plays his own transcription
for solo violin. Robbins concluded that “His
superb performance befits such a towering
achievement, one which is a monumental
addition to the solo violin repertoire.”
Accentus Music has since issued a DVD of
that unique performance and we now see
Kremer spotlit alone on the dark stage in the
Gogol Centre in Moscow. Behind him in the
darkness is a theatre-size, rear-projection
screen on which, at appropriate times, are
seen original images from the 1960s taken by
photographer Antanas Sutkus. Each selected
photograph illuminates the mood of the
particular prelude being played, often stark,
sometimes sad, sometimes amusing but so
appropriate. Genius.
The documentary, Finding Your own Voice,
is a film by Paul Smaczny that is a totally
engrossing biography of Kremer and his
world of music. It revolves about music that
embraces Kremer’s life and we hear and see
him with musicians including conductors
and composers whose music touches
him. Listen in as he discusses passages in
rehearsals with the likes of Arvo Pärt and
others. There are so many thought-provoking
observations and philosophical reflections
that one may be immediately prompted to
watch it again in case you missed something.
Whether or not you are a Kremer fan, you
will get a lot out of this unusual and illuminating
film.
Bruce Surtees
thewholenote.com December 2019 – January 2020 | 91