Volume 29 Issue 2 | October & November 2023

The Folly of Desire
Ian Bostridge; Brad Mehldau
Pentatone PTC 5187 035
(pentatonemusic.com)
! Since his emergence
onto the
international
jazz scene in the
early 1990s, Brad
Mehldau’s evolution
as a gifted, inspired
artist has been
nothing but breathtaking.
In addition to his now legendary
jazz piano chops, Mehldau has explored and
extended himself into many music modalities,
and with his new release, created in
tandem with noted tenor vocalist and musical
interpreter, Ian Bostridge, Mehldau straddles
several genres here in a bewitching sojourn
into this powerful song cycle that plumbs the
limits of sexual freedom in a post-#MeToo
political age. Taking inspiration from the
poetry of Blake, Yeats, Shakespeare, Brecht,
Goethe and Cummings, this 16-track, diverse
program also includes jazz standards and a
foray into German Lieder.
First up is The Sick Rose – languid and
gossamer, Bostridge’s rich tenor encircles
the potent poetry of William Blake, while
Mehldau weaves a world of fog and delight
through his pianistic/artistic skill. Leda and
the Swan is a central theme of this song cycle,
and is drawn from a Greek myth, while the
text comes from Yeats, and depicts a brutal
rape – the denying of free will and transfiguration
of a false god for venal pleasure.
Mehldau rides the roller coaster of emotion
and crashes into Yeats’ deepest meaning. A
highlight of the cycle is the boys I mean are
not refined. The poetry of ee cummings takes
a jaundiced look at amoral young men. While
Mehldau again creates a profound mood and,
through his incomparable vocal instrument,
Bostridge wrings every last bit of meaning out
of the disturbing text. A triumph of artistic
sensibility and skill.
Of special, luminous beauty are the duo’s
take on These Foolish Things, and the rarely
performed gem, In the Wee Small Hours of
the Morning. The almost unbearable beauty
of Mehldau’s piano is evident throughout,
and he remains one of the most profound and
original artists of his (or any) time.
Lesley Mitchell-Clarke
Gayle Young – According to the Moon
Sarah Albu; Gayle Young
farpoint recordings fp088
(farpointrecordings.com)
! Southern
Ontario musician,
composer, experimental
instrument
maker and
author Gayle Young
(b.1950) has been
continually active
since the 1970s,
though it feels like recognition of her music
has ramped up in the last decade. Last year’s
release, As Trees Grow featured piano-centred
compositions infused with field recordings of
natural sounds.
Her latest seven-track album According
to the Moon, subtitled “Sarah Albu performs
vocal works by Gayle Young, 1978-2021”
showcases the human voice in its manifold
guises. These range from extended voice techniques,
spoken word and sprechstimme to
classical singing and everything in between.
In some works Young appears to invite
Montreal-based Albu to shape her virtuoso
performances on the formants and rhythms
of spoken language.
In the evocative Ancient Ocean Floor (2021)
the voice is supported by a field recording of
a waterfall filtered through resonant tubes.
The texture is further enriched by Young’s
nuanced performance on the amaranth, a
bowed koto-like instrument with flexible
tuning of her own design.
Albu’s vocalism in Tea Story (2012) is
selectively emphasized by electronic resonance
filters and frequency shifters. And in
Vio-Voi (1978) Geneviève Liboiron’s violin
plays an effective counterpoint with Albu’s
controlled soprano, demonstrating the significant
role of instruments in this ostensibly
vocal album.
Young’s serious maverick/experimental
composer street cred is rooted in her teachers’
musical family tree which reaches back to
Harry Partch, Charles Ives and beyond. The
mature, sometimes challenging, works spanning
four decades presented on According
to the Moon amply underscore the aesthetic
consistency and longevity of Young’s artistic
vision and achievement.
Andrew Timar
Rough Magic
Roomful of Teeth
New Amsterdam NWAM172
(roomfulofteeth.org)
! One of the fiercest
contemporary
proponents of
pushing the boundaries
of the human
voice, this group is
beyond sole creativity;
the level of
skill and musicianship
of the Grammy-winning vocal supergroup
Roomful of Teeth demonstrates a
cohesiveness only possible within a collective
of beings who know each other very, very
well. Rough Magic features premiere recordings
of four works co-created with the group
and simply explodes out of the gate.
From the very opening of William Britelle’s
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60 | October & November 2023 thewholenote.com