Volume 25 Issue 8 - May / June 2020

DISCOVERIES | RECORDINGS REVIEWED
DAVID OLDS
While I don’t personally put much store
in celestial beings, in these dire times I
concede that we need all the help, comfort
and support we can get anywhere we can
find it. It seems that the extraordinary
cellist Margaret Maria firmly believes in
angels, and they are an ongoing source of
inspiration in her work. Her latest, Flights
of Angels (enchanten.bandcamp.com),
once again creates an orchestral texture by
combining many layers of sounds generated by her solo cello. From
the artist’s website (enchanten.com) we learn this is meant to be:
“Healing music being released into a broken world. Music created
from otherworldly energies and the spirit world that can only be felt
when you open your spirit to the invisible that exists just beyond
what we can see. This music represents my spiritual journey in
finding my music and moments of subconscious/dream states where
I felt compelled to move in a certain direction, as if guided by a light
towards an idea or emotion…”
Beginning with Snow Angel, “overjoyed by the dancing snowflakes
as they descend upon her wings,” we embark upon a journey
that takes us through many states of being and consciousness: An
Impossible Gift (to feel everything, to be a channel for both the dark
and the light); An Angel for Maria (a special angel or spirit... one of
the most beautiful Angels); Another World Opens (limitless, timeless,
expansive); Tears of an Angel (listening to the sadness in the
world); Passing Through (reality passes in and out of consciousness
and finally, through); Breathtaking Light (a liminal light... made
of half earth and half heaven); What If (...what if / In your dream
/ You went to heaven / And there plucked a strange and beautiful
flower...); Floating Hope (the strongest emotion that keeps propelling
me forward is hope...); And They Kept Kissing (heaven on earth to my
tortured soul); Be Love (...a place where I can float in a space of love)
and finally Princes of Heaven (I have been sent four Archangels in
my life...).
Having disclosed my scepticism of celestial creatures I must
consider it a coincidence that as I write this on April 21 while listening
to Snow Angel I am enchanted to find myself watching a veritable
blizzard outside my window. It has now passed and it’s a beautiful,
albeit blustery, sunny day. Hopefully, like the late season snow, the
COVID-19 virus too shall pass quickly. In the interim I take heart from
Margaret Maria’s music. It does have healing powers, if the calm and
gentle invigoration I’ve been feeling while listening is any indication.
As with almost everyone I am sure, self-isolation (with my dear wife
Sharon) has curtailed much of my activity, foremost that of making
music with other people. As regular readers will know, I am an avid
amateur cellist, and in the months before this lockdown my string
quartet had been working on several movements from Richard Krug’s
arrangement of Schubert’s Winterreise. We were almost ready to bring
in a singer to work with us when the pandemic reared its ugly head
and all bets were off for the moment. I first encountered the string
quartet version several years ago when I received a recording with
baritone Johan Reuter and the Copenhagen String Quartet, of which
Krug is the cellist (you can find my April 2018 review at thewholenote.
com). Last fall, in my first outing following knee replacement surgery,
I had the pleasure of experiencing a live performance by Daniel Lichti
and the Penderecki String Quartet, during which I found myself
thinking, hey, I could play (at least some of) that! I contacted Krug and
purchased the score and parts to his arrangement and shortly after
began to rehearse with my friends.
I look forward to getting back to rehearsal
as soon as this crisis is over, but in the
interim another interesting transcription
has come my way. Winterreise for
string quartet (Solo Musica SM 335
naxosdirect.com) is a purely instrumental
version of the classic song cycle
arranged by Andreas Höricht, violist of
the featured Voyager Quartet. Höricht
has taken half of the original songs and linked them with intermezzi
of his own design to make a 50-minute suite (the entire
cycle spans about 75 minutes). I have mixed feelings about the
result. While it works quite well in its own right, and of course
Schubert’s tunes are among the finest, I still miss the singer and
the emotional content provided by the words. And I miss some of
the songs, most particularly two of the ones my group has been
focused on, Die Wetterfahne and Erstarrung, this latter presenting
What we're listening to this month:
thewholenote.com/listening
Flight of Angels
Margaret Mara
Transcendent healing music being
released into a broken world.
Music dreamed of, composed,
performed and produced by a
uniquely inspirational Canadian
artist.
Giuseppe Clemente Dall'Abaco:
Cello Sonatas
Elinor Frey
Passacaille Records and Elinor
Frey, with Federica Bianchi,
Giangiacomo Pinard, and Mauro
Valli, present the first recording
of cello sonatas by Giuseppe
Clemente Dall’Abaco."
Imp in Impulse
Barbara Kolarova
Bracing solo violin recording by
virtuoso Czech violinist including
the premiere of Pascal Le
Boeuf's title piece alongside two
underrepresented 20th century
masterpieces.
nocturnes & lullabies
Richard Valitutto
Beautifully curated and performed
album of inward looking piano
compositions that challenge
conventional ideas about virtuosity.
thewholenote.com May and June 2020 | 35