Volume 28 Issue 4 | February - March 2023

lumberish. Cellist Benjamin Wensel’s sound
is just so deep, as God and Brahms intended.
Sometimes I find the balances odd and I
suspect a heavy hand at the mixing board.
Dilutis plays a keen and expressive clarinet,
usually in tune with the strings, if tending
sharp at times.
The group make interesting pacing decisions
in the rhapsodic section of the Adagio,
not all of which I agree with, but respect
nevertheless. The third movement reminds
one that joy is still accessible to the aged (he
was only 60-ish for heaven’s sake). Its two
opposing characters are played (correctly) in
a uniform pulse; smaller beat subdivisions
rather than a change in tempo bring forth the
contrast. In general, the group avoids any selfindulgent
tempo variation, which feels somewhat
austere: they might have allowed more
flexibility in pulse, especially in the development
section of the first movement. Wellresined
horsehair renders the heartbeat motif
accompanying the sad duet between the
clarinet and first violin. They remind one that
the heart is, after all, a muscle. The devastating
return of the opening thematic material
that arrives at the very close of the Con Moto
finale plays at the same pulse as the opening,
undermining the tragedy. Call me sentimental,
but I think the sorrow-filled final
utterances should linger just a bit more.
Max Christie
Coleridge-Taylor
Chineke! Orchestra
Decca 485 3322 (chineke.org/news/
new-album-release-coleridge-taylor)
! New Yorkers
called him the
“Black Mahler,”
probably because he
and then-New Yorkbased
Mahler were
both composers
and conductors.
Now, his
very un-Mahlerish, Weltschmerz-free
compositions are increasingly performed and
recorded, paralleling America’s belated recognition
of Black composers.
London-born Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
(1875-1912) was the son of Englishwoman
Alice Martin and physician Daniel Taylor from
Sierra Leone, who returned to Africa before
Samuel’s birth. His mother named him after
the famous poet; Samuel added the hyphen.
Successful in England, he made three U.S.
tours and was welcomed at the White House
by Theodore Roosevelt. Coleridge-Taylor’s
early death was from pneumonia.
This two-CD set presents seven of his
compositions and one by his daughter
performed by London’s Chineke! Orchestra,
founded in 2015 as Europe’s first predominantly
Black and ethnic-minority orchestra.
(Chineke means “God” in Nigeria’s Igbo
language.)
American violinist Elena Urioste’s warm,
velvety tone caresses Coleridge-Taylor’s
lyrical melodies in two works conducted
by Kevin John Edusei. The songful, openhearted,
31-minute Violin Concerto in G
Minor, Op.80 features imposing fanfares and
a sweet, wistful violin melody (Allegro maestoso),
a serenely reverent nocturne (Andante
semplice) and a cheerful, Scottish-tinged
marching tune (Allegro molto) –themes from
the previous movements joining in at the
concerto’s celebratory conclusion. The nineminute
Romance in G, Op.39, is a dreamy
pastorale with a brief, dramatic central
section, Urioste’s violin singing throughout.
Two works purportedly influenced by
Coleridge-Taylor’s African heritage instead
conjured for me fin-de-siècle Vienna or Paris.
Edusei conducts the genial, light-textured,
African Suite, Op.35; Kalena Bovell leads
the more dramatic, colourful, Ballade in A
Minor, Op.33.
The theatrical Othello Suite, Op.79,
conducted by Fawzi Haimor, begins with
Dance – urgent fanfares and a headlong
march – followed by the smiling Children’s
Intermezzo, stately Funeral March and The
Willow Song, poignantly “sung” by a trumpet
over hushed winds, strings and percussion.
The grandiose Military March ends the suite.
Anthony Parnther conducts Coleridge-Taylor’s
Petite Suite de Concert, Op.77, its frothy,
sentimental, balletic tunes once frequently
heard at band and salon concerts, on piano
rolls and recordings. The Chineke! Chamber
Ensemble performs the Brahmsian, fourmovement
Nonet, Op.2, for winds, strings
and piano. Composed by the 19-year-old
Coleridge-Taylor while studying at London’s
Royal College of Music, it displays his already
considerable melodic gift.
Roderick Cox conducts the 13-minute
Sussex Landscape, Op.27 (1936) by Avril
Coleridge-Taylor (1903-1998). Her rhapsodic,
powerful evocation of a storm-swept,
grey-shrouded English seacoast receives its
overdue, much-deserved first recording.
Michael Schulman
Children’s Corner – Music for Solo Piano
Melody Chan
Independent (melodyyvonnechan-li.com)
! FACTOR –
The Foundation
Assisting Canadian
Talent on
Recordings was
set up in 1982 “to
provide assistance
toward the growth
and development
of the Canadian Music industry.” Among its
primary mandates is to support the production
of sound recordings by Canadian musicians
and Children’s Corner is among the
recent CDs resulting from this worthy
endeavour.
It features American-Canadian pianist
Melody Chan presenting a thoughtfully
chosen program of music spanning a
250-year period, including works by Mozart,
Brahms and Debussy. Born in Los Angeles,
Chan was raised in Vancouver and studied
at the University of British Columbia, later
receiving her doctorate in performance from
What we're listening to this month:
thewholenote.com/listening
Funk Poems for 'Bird'
Timuçin Şahin's Flow State
Funk Poems for 'Bird' (Charlie
Parker), is a document of Şahin’s
unique collage of influences from
the classical and improvisational
avant-garde.
Songwriter
Alex Bird & Ewan Farncombe
The charismatic musical bond of
2022 JUNO nominees Alex Bird
and Ewen Farncombe continues.
Hooked
Dizzy & Fay
Composed entirely of original
jazz songs, a killer band, horn
section and 28 strings; Hooked is a
“thank you” card to the American
Songbook.
Within
Die Hochstapler
Die Hochstapler draws inspiration
from the rich tradition of Jazz,
Improvised Music and oral culture.
This 5th album was recorded live
at Au Topsi Pohl (Berlin).
thewholenote.com February & March, 2023 | 57