Volume 26 Issue 3 - November 2020

Dunhill & Erlanger – Piano Quintets
Piers Lane; Goldner String Quartet
Hyperion CDA68296
(hyperion-records.co.uk)
! British
composers Thomas
Dunhill (1877-1946)
and Baron Frédéric
d’Erlanger (1868-
1943) each wrote a
piano quintet, both
in four substantial
movements. Until
Australia’s pre-eminent Goldner Quartet
and pianist Piers Lane recorded them for
Hyperion, however, these late Romantic
works were largely overlooked by the musical
mainstream.
Born in Paris, d’Erlanger lived for most of
his life in London where he worked in the
family business as a banker. His biography
further notes that he was “by inclination a
patron of the arts, and through creativity a
composer.” His opera, ballet, orchestra and
chamber music scores were widely performed
during his lifetime. D’Erlanger’s 1901 Quintet
reflects Brahmsian and Dvořákian influences,
as well as a distinctive tunefulness
paired with lively rhythms, playful thematic
flow and a sure feel for drama. The substantial
piano part certainly adds heft to the string
quartet writing imbued with an audio palm
court aura, on the lighter side of the classical
music spectrum.
Londoner Thomas Dunhill on the other
hand, d’Erlanger’s contemporary, was a
prolific career composer and professor of
music. His C-Minor Quintet evokes earlier
19th-century musical idioms drawing on
Robert Schumann’s scores, but it also echoes
Elgar’s chamber music.
Part of this album’s interest is in the dual
thrill of discovery and (musical) time travel:
I had heard of neither composer before, nor
of their century-old music. Early Edwardian
chamber music seldom sounded as good,
particularly when played this well.
Andrew Timar
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY
reTHiNK
junctQin keyboard collective
Redshift Records TK479
(redshiftrecords.org)
! Pianist Thomas
Larcher once
lamented that he
was unable to “get
away from the
piano’s natural
sound... with all the
intensity that marks
a musician’s relationship
to his instrument.” He went on to
equate “this sound” to “something worn out,
obsolete…”
Meanwhile, Elaine Lau, Joseph Ferretti and
Stephanie Chua, collectively junctQín, have
been toying with the instrument, with radical
and experimental joy, since 2009. Their
magical adventure takes place both on all
the 88 keys as well as inside their respective
pianos as they continue to bend and shape
the 311-year-old (and counting) instrument
to their will. reTHiNK is not only an appropriate
title for their new selection of works, it
might easily be seen as an ongoing one. The
performances of junctQín, after all, are always
evolving. This recording is sure to be remembered
as being unique in their repertoire.
On reTHiNK the trio dazzle the senses
with an arresting performance. The captivating
music fuses contemplative harmonies
with innovative performance techniques. As
a result, music as radically eloquent as Alfred
Schnittke’s 1979 Hommage à Stravinsky,
Prokofiev, & Shostakovich is not only
re-imagined, but redefined in 21st-century
terms. This is also true – perhaps more
remarkably so – of Maurice Ravel’s 1918
work, Frontispice. The wonders never cease
as junctQín teases out the mysteries of works
by Finnish composer Tomi Räisänen and
Canadians Monica Pearce, Emily Doolittle,
Chris Thornborrow, Alex Eddington and
Elisha Denburg in an embarrassment
of riches.
Raul da Gama
Alice Ping Yee Ho – Venom of Love
Alice Ping Yee Ho; Vania Chan; Patty Chan;
Lulu
Leaf Music Digital (leaf-music.ca)
! One of Canada’s
most acclaimed
composers, twotime
JUNO
nominee and
Dora Mavor Moore
Award winner
for Outstanding
Original Opera,
Alice Ping Yee
Ho, has gifted us with a gorgeous work
that almost defies characterization.
This 60-minute composition deals with
elements of fantasy and eroticism from a
primeval, magical world; a musical composition
for ballet based on the Legend of the
White Snake, one of China’s Four Great
Folktales.
The work is compiled as 20 tracks inside
four acts, which serve to guide the listener
along the extraordinary journey as we turn
the pages of an epic-sized book of fantasy and
desire, love and rivalry between mortals and
spirits, and finally the ultimate sacrifice for
eternal love.
Fusing synthesized and acoustic instrumental
sounds with soprano voice and
percussion, this work is a dramatic dance/
opera/musical theatre composition telling
an ancient myth in contemporary form. The
music sweeps us up so deftly we are captive
travellers inside dripping caves; clusters of
tonalities are richly layered with electronics
and we imagine shimmering dragons,
writhing snakes, and hear spectacular
sounds of animals, bats and water, evoking
the hues of brilliant blues, greens and
greys. Of special mention is lyric coloratura
soprano Vania Lizbeth Chan’s voice
that somehow manages to hold warmth
and charm while soaring at stratospheric
heights.
Commissioned by Toronto’s Little Pear
Garden Dance Company in 2014, the music is
so evocative I almost feel like I’ve already seen
the ballet, but I’ll be sure to be in line for that
production when it comes back to a live stage
in the future.
Cheryl Ockrant
Jaap Nico Hamburger – Piano Concerto
Assaff Weisman; Orchestre Métropolitain
de Montréal; Vincent de Kort
Leaf Music LM238 (leaf-music.ca)
! Composer Jaap
Nico Hamburger’s
first CD release
is a Leaf Music
recording of his
Piano Concerto
performed
by Orchestra
Métropolitain de
Montréal under the direction of Vincent de
Kort, with soloist Assaff Weisman. Set in the
traditional three-movement concerto form,
the piece opens with a mysterious orchestral
introduction where the piano is welcomed
into the texture through a Mahlerian sensibility.
The second movement unmistakably
recalls Prokofiev in its playfulness and tricky
rhythmic attitudes. This almost schizophrenic
hyperactivity is interrupted by a serene landscape
evoking tragedy or loss. The boisterous
activity quickly returns to provide somewhat
of a rollercoaster for the listener. Throughout
the third movement, sparse bells and
undulating strings paint a menacing atmosphere
for the final moments of the piece.
Weisman handles the virtuosic writing
with extreme touch and sensitivity. With
the concerto being only 22 minutes, one
is perhaps left wanting more of a featured
moment for the pianist, such as a cadenza –
especially considering the fact that the piece
is in the traditional three-movement form.
The orchestra and soloist deliver a top-notch
performance of a work that will please those
who enjoy new sounds created in a Late-
Romantic style.
Adam Scime
thewholenote.com November 2020 | 39