Volume 25 Issue 9 - July / August 2020

as opposed to the old-fashioned fable. The
use of Chinese instruments such as the dizi,
erhu, gaohu, pipa and guzheng allows children
of all backgrounds to either connect
with sounds they are familiar with or make
exciting new discoveries. Ho’s skillful contrast
between Chinese and Western instruments,
the well-placed dissonances and the numerous
vocal and instrumental glissandi provide a
unique and vibrant listening experience. Most
exquisite, Chan’s libretto and Ho’s music are
expertly woven together, seamlessly moving
the action forward. The Monkiest King was
nominated for two Mavor Dora Moore Awards
in 2019 for Outstanding Performing Ensemble
and Outstanding Original Opera.
Sophie Bisson
CLASSICAL AND BEYOND
Marin Marais – Badinages
Mélisande Corriveau; Eric Milnes
ATMA ACD2 2785 (atmaclassique.com/Fr)
! French musician
and composer
Marin Marais
(1656-1728)
served at the Sun
King’s Versailles
court, composing
as many as six
operas – and fathering
19 children.
Another point of interest, he was one of the
earliest composers of program music; his The
Bladder-Stone Operation includes detailed
descriptions of the surgery. Marais was,
however, best known for his supreme skill in
capturing the rich, deep, silky and nuanced
voice of the viola da gamba. He poured all
his skill and passion into his vast five-volume
lifework Pièces de viole (1686–1725).
Together with harpsichordist and
conductor Eric Milnes, Marin Marais:
Badinages features Québecoise viola da
gamba virtuosa Mélisande Corriveau.
Gramophone magazine hailed her as leading
“a new generation of players bringing formidable
performing skills and knowledge of
period practices.”
Badinages is devoted to 20 excerpts from
Marais’ remarkable bass viol repertoire of
some 500 works. He toyed with convention in
some, presenting a series of character pieces
rather than the dance forms then favoured.
These suites demand a high degree of
virtuoso technique, application of appropriate
period performance practice, and
taste. Corriveau is fully up to the challenge.
She renders the numerous period ornaments
with finesse, the sound-swelling enflés and
one- and two-finger vibratos among them,
conveying a stylish, sensuously delicate
musical affect.
Adventurous both melodically and
harmonically, Marais’ music marks a high
water mark of the French Baroque. And to
our contemporary ears, Corriveau and Milnes’
evocative performance on this album firmly
sites this music in that very particular time
and place.
Andrew Timar
Beethoven – Nine Symphonies
MSO Festival Chorus; Tuomas Katajala;
Derek Welton; Kate Royal; Christine Rice;
Malmö Symphony Orchestra; Robert
Trevino
Ondine ODE 1348-5Q (naxosdirect.com)
! Young
conductors must
look forward to
recording their first
Beethoven cycle
the way adolescents
wait for their
chance to get the
keys to the car.
Not every car is as finely tuned as the Malmö
Symphony Orchestra, and not every kid
knows how to drive as well as Robert Trevino.
Still, the task must cut any ego down to size,
so overdone is this amazing artifact of orchestral
repertoire. What hasn’t been done with
it? From the turbulence of Toscannini’s NBC
recordings, at breakneck pace, to the several
versions from Berlin with von Karajan,
Chicago with Solti, and on and on…
And how to summarize what Trevino has
achieved? First and foremost, his reading is
lyrical. Beethoven can seem all elbows and
knees, his angles and bangings claiming too
much attention of those who only see the
storm clouds gathering on the brow of his
famous portrait. Trevino claims a different
outlook on the famously tortured genius’
musical expression. After the jarring sequence
of dominant seventh chords that opens
Symphony No.1, the violins are encouraged
to fill their instruments with romantic lush
sound, and they manage the effect without
excessive vibrato. In the iconic Fifth, whenever
it stops knocking fatefully at the door,
the same quality enters, especially in the first
movement’s second subject.
Any symphony cycle will chart LvB’s progress
from his early punk-Haydn phase,
through the tormented Heiligenstadt period
of encroaching silence to his late mystically
elevated, even serene mastery. His greatest
two symphonies mark the divisions between
those three periods: the Seventh, which
precedes his late period; and the greatest
of them all, his Third Symphony, subtitled
Eroica, the one famously dedicated and then
undedicated to Napoleon. Consider the slow
movements of each. In the earlier one, the
mood is extreme tragedy, which Trevino
milks by taking a tempo more than ten points
below the indicated 80 bpm. The only way
it can work is by complete dedication to the
line. He allows the pace to move forward in
the fuguetto, where the composer seems to
cry for mercy or justice or just relief, and then
lets it positively take off in the codetta that
precedes the return of the opening material,
yet he never returns to that opening dirgelike
pace. This is pretty radical, to my ear, and
I love it. In the more recognizable marche
funèbre from the Seventh, as much as Trevino
allowed flexibility in the example above,
here he maintains an assiduous observance
of a uniform but never mechanical pace.
This earns him a standing ovation from this
quarter. I cannot abide this piece given the
inadvertent gradual accelerando one sometimes
hears; it makes me want to drive off a
cliff. Both movements perch on the precipice
of despair, but the later one seems less angry,
more resigned, and Trevino observes this
difference, it seems to me.
A story Trevino tells in the notes about
having attempted a strange move in a
Schumann symphony with Leipzig’s
Gewandhaus orchestra (the organization
that premiered Schumann’s works) has
him finally agreeing to try it their way, and
thanking them subsequently for “making
[him] a better conductor.” Malmö has perhaps
significantly younger and, it might be, more
flexible personnel. The ignition at the heart
of this high-performance vehicle is undoubtedly
a spectacularly well-regulated wind
section: pitch-perfect solos and ensemble
work enhance the lyrical element. Trevino
loves the middle voices, and makes sure we
hear them. He gives the strings license when
supplying repeated rhythmic fill to celebrate
the meeting of gut and horsehair. And
he helps the players achieve the most startling
crescendi. It’s lovely to hear Beethoven
that isn’t all bumps and bruises, although
the brass and (classical) timpani provide just
enough of those. The low strings in the recitativo
of the finale of the towering Ninth
Symphony serve notice, if any were needed,
that the entire band, from trunk to transmission,
are an ensemble worthy of the ace driver
on the podium.
Max Christie
Clara – Robert – Johannes: Darlings of the
Muses
Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra;
Alexander Shelley; Gabriela Montero
Analekta AN 2 8877-8 (analekta.com/en)
! Britishborn
conductor
Alexander Shelley
assumed the role of
music director of
Canada’s National
Arts Centre
Orchestra in 2015
and this Analekta
recording is the fourth to be released under
his leadership. Titled Clara-Robert-Johannes:
Darlings of the Muses, it features Venezuelan
pianist Gabriela Montero and is the first
in a series of four to be released exploring
the personal and professional connections
among Robert Schumann, his wife Clara and
Johannes Brahms.
48 | July and August 2020 thewholenote.com