Welcome to the weekend and another edition of New In Music This Week: March 22nd.
My top choice this week is:
CLASSICAL: FAURÉ – COMPLETE MUSIC FOR SOLO PIANO – Lucas Debargue – Sony Classical
I was fortunate enough to get an early listen to this album and I’ve been listening to it frequently ever since. Pianist Debargue plays 68 tracks on this 4-album recording and he’s playing it on a piano with 102 keys.
There was a time with pianos had eight octaves, as this piano by Stephen Paulello does. This is a footnote, a curiosity, about this recording. What matters is the music of Gabriel Fauré.
Debargue plays it beautifully – all 4-1/2 hours of it. I’ve certainly heard a lot of the composer’s work in my life, but this recording introduced me to many works I’d never heard before. Having Debargue as my guide to this music was perfect.
He plays beautifully, thoughtfully and, when necessary, powerfully on this amazing record. There is no doubt I will continue to listen to this album for many years to come.
Here is the rest of New In Music This Week: March 22nd:
BROADWAY CAST ALBUM: THE GARDENS OF ANUNCIA – Ghostlight Records
Composer Michael John LaChiusa has collaborated with director/choreographer Graciela Daniele for years. But this collaboration was the most personal as The Gardens of Anuncia is the subject matter in this musical that played at Lincoln Center in November of 2023. (It had its world premiere in 2021 at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego.)
Priscilla Lopez (A Chorus Line) leads a cast that includes Eden Espinosa, Andréa Bruns, Mary Testa, Kalyn West and Enrique Acevedo.
It’s hard to fully judge a musical from its cast album, but LaChiusa is one of our most interesting and compelling composers and this cast is undeniably good. I’m a fan of his work and am a fan of this musical. I hope one day to get a chance to see it.
In the meantime, I’ll more than be happy to have this recording to listen to whenever I want.
CLASSICAL: A RETIRADA DA LAGUNA/CONCERTINO FOR VIOLIN AND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA/MUSEU DA INCONFIDÊNCIA / GUERRA-PEIXE– Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra/Neil Thomson – Naxos
I can’t claim to have known composer César Guerra-Peixe prior to this recording of three significant works he composed in the early 1970s.
A Retirada Da Laguna was inspired by Viscount Taunay’s book of the same name which looked at one incident in the Paraguayan War which found that country battled against an alliance formed by Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. It’s a powerful work from 1971.
The Concertino for Violin and Chamber Orchestra features violinist Abner Landim and dates from 1972. Also from that year is the Museu da Inconfidência which is named after a museum honoring a separatist movement from 1789.
Guerra-Peixe was clearly a political composer, but also a damn fine one. This recording is part of a series of music from Brazil.
CLASSICAL: MUSIC FOR STRING QUARTET / Florence Beatrice Price / Leo Sowerby – Avalon String Quartet – Naxos
For those interested in exploring more of Price’s music, this recording of her String Quartet in A Minor is for you. The Avalon String Quartet’s recording makes the fact that this beautiful composition was not performed in Price’s lifetime the glaring omission that it was at the time. It’s a mature and impressive work. The recording ends with Price’s Five Folksongs in Counterpoint.
In between those works if Sowerby’s String Quartet in G Minor. It has never been recorded before and I wasn’t familiar with Sowerby at all. This over 30-minute work reveals a composer, who, like Price, was part of the Chicago classical music scene in the 1930s and 1940, is another woefully overlooked composer.
CLASSICAL: RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: SCHEHERAZADE / MUSSORGSKY: NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN – Orchestra and Chorus dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / Antonio Pappano – Warner Classics
If you’re a fan of Night on Bald Mountain this is an album for you. There are two versions of Mussorgsky’s work on this album. The first is performed by the orchestra – the version most commonly performed and recorded. The second, which immediately follows and closes out this recording, is for orchestra and chorus. It was a revision the composer made in 1880 for The Fair at Sorochyntsi.
Hearing this version reminds me of my favorite version of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture which features a full chorus. (I’m in the minority on that one, as I probably will be here.) This recording brings a new way of hearing Night on Bald Mountain and one that I found truly interesting.
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: THE BLIND BANNISTER – Timo Andres – Nonesuch Records
Hopefully you caught my interview with Timo Andres earlier this week where he talks about The Blind Bannister, his third piano concerto. The concerto was written for pianist Jonathan Bis and this is the first recording of The Blind Bannister. Also on this recording are Colorful History and Upstate Obscura – both composed by Andres.
Andres is joined by the Metropolis Ensemble lead by Andrew Cyr (founder and artistic director of Metropolis) on this terrific recording.
I strongly urge you to listen to this album and to also check out the video of my interview with Andres.
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: I long and seek after – Jessica Meyer – New Focus Recordings
Composer and violist Jessica Meyer’s new album opens with such a compelling soprano (Melissa Wimbish) that it immediately became music I couldn’t stop listening to. This was a performance of Meyer’s Space, in Chains with Meyer accompanying Wimbish.
Space, in Chains sets the tone for the entire album of Meyer’s compositions which are settings of the poetry of multiple women and, in one case, a letter from Anaïs Nin to Henry Miller.
Each and every one of these works is unforgettable. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but the beauty of The Last Rose (performed by soprano Sarah Brailey and cellist Caleb van der Swaagh) is undeniable.
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: 1001 – Dustin O’Halloran – Deutsche Grammophon
Composer O’Halloran’s seamless record explores the human mind and the existential threat that AI poses. In other words, how do we as humans live side-by-side with technology.
Joining O’Halloran o this album are Bryan Senti on violin, a eight-voice choir, the Budapest Art Orchestra and electronics by Paul Corley of Sigur Rós.
It’s a perfect album to listen to when you want to tune out the rest of the world – which is, I suppose, precisely the point. If at times it sounds like the score to a film that shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise since O’Halloran has scored multiple films and television shows.
JAZZ: BUT WHO’S GONNA PLAY THE MELODY – Christian McBride and Edgar Meyer – Mack Avenue Records
McBride and Meyer are two of the top bassists working today, so the idea of putting them together is truly an inspired one as this album proves. The cheeky title implies who is the leader. It doesn’t matter with music this good.
This is an inspired album that features 15 tracks and 66 minutes of sublime music. Most of them were written by either McBride or Meyer. The covers include Solar by Miles Davis, Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered and Days of Wine and Roses.
A vinyl version of this album will be released on Record Store Days (April 20th).
JAZZ: TRIAD – Triad – Ropeadope
This is not your usual trio configuration: accordion, marimba and trumpet. Which makes this debut album from Michael Ward-Bergeman, Christian Tamburr and Dominick Farinacci so interesting. At moments you can feel like you’re in Europe. At others you’re in South America.
And then singer Shenel Johns joins for I Put a Spell on You and St. James Infirmary Blues and it sounds like you could be on your way to the underworld, were it not for the inclusion of Farinacci’s A Prayer for You in between those two songs. When she returns in the album’s last track to sing Stop This Train (John Mayer/Pino Palladino), you know you’ve been on quite the journey. Somehow you know that through it all, you’ll be fine.
OPERA: PORO, RE DELLE INDIE / HANDEL – Il Groviglio Ensemble / Marco Angioloni – Château de Versailles Spectacles
Though Handel’s Poro re delle Indie is not well-known amongst his works, it was very popular when it first debuted in 1731. The libretto is by Pietro Metastasio. In fact, in 2007 Opera Today wrote, “Let’s face it, Handel’s Poro, Re dell’Indie isn’t exactly a household name in any but the most dedicated baroque opera circles.”
The title translates to Porus, King of India. Poro (Christopher Lowrey) is captured by Alexander the Great (Angioloni). Poro is in love with Queen Cleofide (Lucia Martin Carton) who feigns interest in Alexander only to set up the kind of intrigue and mistaken identity that is often found in operas by Handel.
This beautiful recording makes the case for rediscovery of this neglected work. I’ll admit to not being the biggest fan of Baroque operas, but this recording is well on its way to persuading me to be more open to them.
That’s all for New In Music This Week: March 22nd.
Enjoy the music!
Enjoy your weekend!