New In Music This Week: January 24th

New In Music This Week: January 24^th includes selections from last week and this week that I think deserve your attention.

My top choice is:

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: DREAM REQUIEM – Rufus Wainwright/Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Mikko Franck/Anna Prohaska/Meryl Streep – Warner Classics

For centuries composers have used monumental moments in history – good or bad – to inspire their works. For Wainwright, the pandemic inspired his 77-minute requiem which had its world premiere in Paris in 2024. 

This is a live recording of that concert which features soprano Anna Prohaska as the soloist and Meryl Streep as narrator (she recites Lord Byron’s Darkness.)

In press materials for this recording, Wainwright is quoted as having said about his requiem that it is “for the people we have lost in this crisis, for the past from which we are cut off and for the future to which we do not yet know how to connect.” Those words are equally true about the time we are living in these past few weeks.

That statement alone makes this beautiful and powerful work resonate strongly. Does Wainwright wear certain influences on his sleeve (I’m looking at you Verdi)? Of course. But he combines his many influences into his own musical language. I’ve listened to this album twice and anticipate that the work will grow on listeners the more time you spend with it. I’m often a fan of big dramatic works and Wainwright’s Dream Requiem is certainly one of those!

The US premiere of Dream Requiem will take place on May 4, 2025 in a performance by the Los Angeles Master Chorale with Liv Redpath singing the soprano role and Jane Fonda serving as narrator. For more information and tickets, you can go HERE.

The balance of the best of what’s New In Music: January 24^th follows:

CLASSICAL: THE EARLY QUARTETS – Beethoven/Calidore String Quartet – Signum Classics

The three-year project by Calidore String Quartet to record all of Beethoven’s string quartets concludes today with the release of this 3-disc set of The Early Quartets. These are the first six quartets from Op. 18. 

As one would expect, Calidore String Quartet performs this music with absolute precision and passion.

Those who live or visit New York on a regular basis can hear them perform much of Beethoven’s quartets at Alice Tully Hall starting on January 28^th and continuing on February 4^th, May 9^th and May 18^th. Those in Delaware can hear them perform them February 2^nd and  April 24^th.

For the rest of us, this entire series of recordings will more than suffice.

CLASSICAL: SAINT-SAẼNS/DELIUS CELLO CONCERTO – Jacqueline Du Pré – Warner Classics Reissue

The phenomenally talented cellist Du Pré performed Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33 with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1971. This was a live recording with conductor Daniel Barenboim (who also happened to be her husband).

Her performance of the Cello Concerto by Frederick Delius comes from two 1965 recording sessions at Abbey Road. Sir Malcom Sargent conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

These recordings are being released in celebration of Du Pré’s 80^th birthday. If you know Du Pré’s talent, you’ll certainly want this recording. If you don’t, this is as good a way as any to be introduced to her.

Hearing this on newly remastered and pressed vinyl will be the ultimate treat.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL:  DREAMCATCHER – James McVinnie – Pentatone

In many cultures a dream catcher is a woven web that is often decorated. It is designed to serve as protection for those who are sleeping. And perhaps, dreaming.

In the extraordinarily talented hands of organist/pianist McVinnie, this album is an exploration of various forms of imagination. He performs nearly seventy minutes of music amazingly. Much of this music is not easy to perform.

McVinnie has assembled the work of contemporary composers to explore his theme on both instruments. The composers whose work are performed include John Adams, Marcos Balter, Bryce Dessner, inti Figgis-vizueta (first recording of build-it-yourself), Meredith Monk, Nico Muhly (the first recording of his Patterns) and Gabriella Smith.

I’ve believed for quite some time that McVinnie is arguably the finest classical organist peforming today. This recording makes the argument for him as an outstanding pianist as well and a wonderfully modern artist.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: INK-WASH ON PAPER – Britta Byström – OUR Recordings

This album was my first introduction to Swedish composer Byström. She was inspired to composer the first seven tracks on this fascinating album after she met artist Gunnel Wåhlstrand at one of her concerts.

Composed by eight musicians, this is contemporary chamber music that not only inspired me to listen to other recordings of her music, but to also check out Wåhlstrand’s work.

The album closes with Byström’s By the Window.

Fans of music that ultimately seduces you into its world will want to listen to Ink-Wash on Paper.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL:  JOHN ZORN: THE COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS – JACK Quartet – Tzadik Records

When I was younger I remember thinking the Sex Pistols were as outlandish a band as one could imagine. There was no way their work would ever seem mainstream. But, with time, music that once seemed outrageous has become widely embraced.

JACK Quartet makes a great and similar argument for the work of composer John Zorn. He, too, was deemed too far outside the mainstream to ever be accepted. This recording of nearly 30-years of string quartets that Zorn composed, proves that time has caught up with Zorn.

The eight quartets (ranging from 1990’s The Dead Man to 2017’s The Unseen) are performed brilliant by Jay Campbell on cello; Christopher Otto on violin; John Pickford Richards on viola and Austin Wulliman on violin.

It should be noted that both The Unseen and 2015’s The Remedy of Fortune were composed to highlight JACK Quartet’s performance style.

JAZZ:  SPINDRIFT – Benjamin Lacker – ECM 

Composer/pianist Lacker was introduced to the world via his 2022 album Last Decade. His new album, Spindrift, should go a long way to making even more people aware of his sensitive writing and performing.

Joining Lacker on the album are Matthieu Chazarenc on drums; Mathias Eick on trumpet (who appeared on Last Decade); Linda May Han Oh on double bass and Mark Turner on tenor saxophone.

Lackner composed 9 of the ten songs on Spindrift. The exception was Chambary composed by Chazarenc.

Simply put this is a beautiful album that will probably sound even better on vinyl (date TBD).

MUSICALS:  A PLACE FOR US: A CELEBRATION OF JEWISH BROADWAY – Ari Axelrod – PS Classics

Anyone who opens an album with Adam Guettel’s Migratory V from Myths and Hymns is saying to the world he’s fiercely talented and demands your attention.

Thankfully this first of 19 tracks exploring Jewish composers who wrote for Broadway is the opening salvo of a beautifully performed, curated and arranged recording.

In addition to Guettel the composers featured here include Irving Berlin, Jason Robert Brown, George Gershwin, Jerry Herman, Mary Rodgers, Stephen Schwartz, Stephen Sondheim and Kurt Weill.

There are two Cole Porter songs here as well. Though not Jewish, the press release quotes Porter as having said that the “key to hit songs lay in writing ‘Jewish tunes.’”

A Place For Us began at Birdland Jazz Club in New York. Thankfully for those of us who don’t live in New York that we can now enjoy this wonderful recording wherever we live. 

OPERA:  THE PASSENGER – Mieczyslaw Weinberg/Amanda Majeski/Gyulua Orendt/Daveda Karanas/Nicolai Schukoff/Orquesta Del Teatro Real De Madrid/Coro Del Teatro Real De Madrid/Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla – Deutsche Grammophon

Though Weinberg’s opera was composed in 1968, it didn’t get performed for 38 years. With a libretto by Alexandr Medvedev, The Passenger is based on the story of Zofia Posmysz who survived her time at Auschwitz.

Two worlds are depicted in the opera: the concentration camp and upper deck of a ship where our heroine, Marta (Majeski), is recognized years later by the wife (Karanas) of a German diplomat (Schukoff).

This has not been a widely performed nor recorded opera. Which makes the opportunity to hear this wonderful recording even more important. 

Teatro Real presented the Spanish premiere of The Passenger in March of 2020 with the same cast that appears on this recording.

Adventurous opera lovers who want something relatively new to listen to should explore The Passenger.

That’s all for New In Music This Week: January 24^th.

Enjoy your weekend!

Enjoy the music!

Main Photo: Part of the album cover for Rufus Wainwright’s Dream Requiem