Volume 26 Issue 8 - July and August 2021

New Morse Code, cellist Hannah Collins and
percussionist Michael Compitello.
Together they reinforce the deep sense of
urgency driving this powerful work, shining
some light on our fraught times.
Pamela Margles
CLASSICAL AND BEYOND
New Baroque Sessions
Luc Beauséjour
Analekta AN 2 8919 (analekta.com/en)
! Solitary ways of
existence brought
on by the current
pandemic have
resulted in spurs
of interesting solo
projects around
the world. Many
performing artists
have been contemplating the question of their
artistic identity in the circumstances that
extinguish the very nature of their art. A solo
statement of a kind, New Baroque Sessions
is an album that captures one artist’s way of
retaining the essence of their creative expression
while playing the music they love.
This second volume of Baroque music
played on piano (the first one was published
in 2016) is a collection of Luc Beauséjour’s
favourite pieces from the Baroque repertoire.
The compositions, by Bach, Couperin
(Armand-Louis and François), Scarlatti,
Fischer, Sweelinck, Froberger and Balbastre,
touch upon different corners of vast Baroque
treasures. Some are well known, others
explored less often. All are predominantly
written for harpsichord but translate exceptionally
well to piano, which was one of
Beauséjour’s intentions with this album.
A versatile performer, equally at home on
harpsichord, organ and piano, Beauséjour
has an elegance to his playing that is truly
rare. Here is the performer that plays with
colours and articulations; a performer of
subtle gestures that amount to grand statements.
The pieces themselves contain creative
elements one does not necessarily expect –
musical portraits, clever compositional techniques,
tributes to Greek muses, or simple
utterances of the resilience of their times.
While honouring Baroque traditions, there is
a touch of contemporaneity to Beauséjour’s
interpretations, adding an incredible freshness
to this album.
Ivana Popovic
Hidden Treasures – 17th-Century Music of
Habsburg and Bohemia
¡Sacabuche!
ATMA ACD2 2798 (atmaclassique.com/en)
! This is something
new. We are aware
of the talented and
sometimes prodigious
output of
Austrian composers
such as Haydn or
Mozart but their
predecessors are
all but unknown. Enter ¡Sacabuche! For 15
years under the direction of Baroque trombonist
Linda Pearse, this Canadian ensemble
has rediscovered works from Habsburg and
Bohemian sources. What is more, the range of
instruments such as cornettos and theorbos is
particularly diverse.
Indeed, it is strident trombone playing
that makes its presence immediately felt in O
dulce nomen Jesu by the Viennese composer
Giovanni Felice Sances. Massimiliano
Neri’s Sonata quarta Op.2 is even more
complex, demanding an intricate playing
which makes the disappearance of these
pieces from mainstream music all the more
puzzling.
On occasion the CD includes anonymous
pieces; the eight-part Sinfonia is a vibrant
full-blooded composition which any modern
brass band would be proud to perform. Of
course, this does not rule out vocal input as
another anonymous composition Salve regina
à 4 brings out the contralto contribution
of Vicki St Pierre – holding her own even
while outnumbered by ten instrumentalists!
In fact, while most of the compositions
on this CD are scored for several of these
instrumentalists, St Pierre’s performance
of O quam suavis (again anonymous) brings
a virtuoso voice to the selection.
When we consider our familiarity with the
contemporary composers from say Venice,
the absence of this CD’s composers is very
surprising. We owe much to Linda Pearse
and her fellow musicians in bringing us this
anthology.
Michael Schwartz
Spira, Spera
Emmanuel Despax
Signum Classics SIGCD 665
(signumrecords.com/?s=Spira)
! In the liner
notes to the terrific
2021 release Spira,
Spera, the name
taken from Victor
Hugo’s novel The
Hunchback of
Notre-Dame,
French pianist
Emmanuel Despax writes that studying and
performing the music of Johann Sebastian
Bach is metaphysical in that “there is no
chaos, just beauty.” Most certainly, during
these trying times, humanity’s quest for
beauty is, if nothing, unabated. As such, I
would suggest (expanding on this point) that
Bach’s music – particularly when played as
beautifully as is captured on this wonderful
recording – is an equivalently metaphysical
journey for engaged listeners. Perhaps this
sounds trite, but beauty is the antidote to
ugliness. And sadly, there is tremendous ugliness
in society and in the world at present.
Beauty, and beautiful artifacts, such as the
music of Bach as performed boldly and with
nuance by Despax, hold out the possibility of
something (a beauty ideal?) towards which
we aspire.
Although much of the music contained
on this disc may be familiar, the arrangements
and album concept (paying tribute
to the legacy of pianists and composers
– Liszt and Busoni among others – who
both revered Bach’s music and transcribed
it for the contemporary piano) is both
unique and musically satisfying. The whole
recording is sublime. Even on such workhorses
as Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, Despax
finds freshness in Dame Myra Hess’s transcription
and brings to life beautiful musical
subtleties that, of course, were always
contained within, but needed the deftness
of touch and recording sensitivity that
Despax and this album offer, to reveal themselves
anew.
Andrew Scott
In the Salon of Madame Brillon – Music and
Friendship in Benjamin Franklin’s Paris
The Raritan Players; Rebecca Cypess
Acis APL40158 (acisproductions.com)
! This inspired
new recording
from the noted
Raritan Players
was conceived and
directed by pianist
and scholar Dr.
Rebecca Cypess,
and is the result
of arduous research and performances.
The project is focused on the pre-Revolutionary
War Parisian hostess, patroness
and composer, Anne-Louise Boyvan
d’Hardancourt Brillon de Jouy (1744-1824),
and on both her musical canon and the
sparkling workings of her fabulous, fashionable
and elite Parisian salon. Her luminous
guests were drawn from the rarified worlds
of music, art, philosophy and diplomacy –
including her flirty pen pal Benjamin Franklin
(then U.S. Ambassador to Paris).
There are seven world-premiere recordings
here, which include Brillon’s duet for
harpsichord and square piano (performed on
a rare 1780 English instrument by Johannes
Zumpe). All selections have been performed
on period instruments and feature not only
Brillon’s work, but music preserved in her
personal collection, including compositions
40 | July and August 2021 thewholenote.com