New in Music This Week: May 23rd

For those in the United States, Happy Memorial Day Weekend! The start of summer. If your summer plans include listening to some great new recordings, here is Cultural Attaché’s New In Music: May 23^rd.

My top choice this week is:

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: THE FOUR ELEMENTS – Brooklyn Rider – In a Circle Records 

There are four elements. There are four members in a string quartet. What better way for one of our finest quartets to celebrate their 20^th anniversary than with a new recording of music exploring Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

Amongst the composers whose work is performed here are Henri Dutilleux, Osvaldo Golijov, Colin Jacobsen, Dmitri Shostakovich (he’s having quite the week – see below), Conrad Tao and Dan Trueman. There is nearly 2 hours of music here. Music that is exquisitely performed and recorded.

Simply put, this is a truly outstanding recording. Anyone who loves chamber music should get this recording.

You can stream it or buy the digital album via Bandcamp. The most intriguing way of enjoying The Four Elements would be on a limited edition 4 LP vinyl box set. There are only 100 being sold. I hope to get one before you do!

Here are the other fine recordings in New In Music This Week: May 23^rd:

CLASSICAL: FOR DIETER: THE PAST AND THE FUTURE – Benjamin Appl – Alpha Classics

The Dieter referred to in the title of this album is German lyric baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. This coming Wednesday marks the 100^th anniversary of his birth.

Benjamin Appl is also a lyric baritone. He was born in Regensburg, Bavaria. Three years before Fisher-Dieskau’s death, Appl met the elder baritone and became his last student.

Appl clearly knows this man and his work. He also clearly loves both. On For Dieter it was very smart of Appl to honor his mentor by including songs written by Albert Fischer-Dieskau and Klaus Fischer-Dieskau. Their works live side-by-side with songs composed by Samuel Barber, Johannes Brahms, Benjamin Britten, Claude Debussy, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Franz Schubert, Tchaikvosky and more.

Joining Appl for this recording is pianist James Baillieu who accompanied the singer on his albums Stunden, Tage, Ewigkeiten: Heinrich Heinie – Lieder; Heimat; Schubert: Winterreise; Forbidden Fruit and Lines of Life: Schubert & Kurtág. Theirs is a musical partnership that works beautifully.

For Dieter is a loving and emotional tribute. And one that will have you not only exploring more of Appl’s work, but also Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s.

Today marks the digital release. But when the CD is released on June 20^th in the United States, it will be accompanied by a 140-page booklet that is impressive in its own right.

CLASSICAL: MOONLIGHT VARIATIONS – Pablo Ferrández/Julien Quentin/Swedish Chamber Orchestra/Martin Fröst – Sony Classical

I’ve often considered the cello to be one of the most beautiful instruments for expressing deeply felt emotions. Moonlight Variations shows just how expressive an instrument it can be.

Ferrández explores the music of the night on this gorgeous album. By the way, that does not mean to imply there is music from The Phantom of the Opera here. Thought here is opera music as the opening track is Song to the Moon from Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka.

Over the course of 60 minutes, Ferrández performs music by Chopin, Debussy, Liszt, Ponce, Schumann and Tchaikovsky. The album culminates in the latter composer’s Variations on a Rococco Theme, Op. 33. 

Life after dark appeals to Ferrández who released Night Sessions Vol. 1 in 2022 and Night Sessions: Vol. 2 in 2024. Both EPs featured pianist Quentin.

Whatever inspires Ferrández about the night, it works. 

CLASSICAL: SHOSTAKOVICH DISCOVERIES: WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS & RARITIES – Multiple Artists – Deutsche Grammophon

Any fan of Dmitri Shostakovich will want to spend 75 minutes listening to this album of music you’ve probably never heard before. The works heard here includes 3 Fugues for Piano (performed by Daniil Trifonov); 5 Pieces for Two Violins and Piano (performed by Gidon Kremer, Madara Petersone, Georgijs Osokins); Anit-Formalist Rayok (performed by Alexei Mochalov, Andrei Pushkarev, Kremerata Baltica) and 3 Fragments from the Opera “The Nose” performed by Staatskapelle Dresden with Thomas Sanderling.

This isn’t just an album of curiosities. If it were I doubt it would attract the artists who appear here. These are genuinely interesting works by Shostakovich that demand repeated listening.

This just missed out being my top pick this week.

JAZZ: KEEPERS OF THE EASTERN DOOR – Chris Cheek – Analog Tone Factory

It is unlikely the saxophonist/composer Chris Cheek could have known when recording this album that the “schism between the natural world and the highly industrialized society that we live in” that he’s quoted as saying in the press release for this album would be even more stark on the day it was released than it was in the days it was recorded. But I digress.

Joined by guitarist Bill Frisell, drummer Rudy Royston and bassist Tony Scherr, Cheek explores these ideas through music from the 17^th century through to an Oliver Messiaen work from 1937, a classic song from The Beatles, a Broadway musical (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever) while opening and closing with original compositions by Cheek.

It’s a heady mix of music that coalesces into a thoughtful meditation on how we coexist with nature. It’s also terrifically performed music that, whether or not you contemplate Cheek’s ideas, will leave you deeply satisfied.

JAZZ: MIXED BAG – Pete McGuinness Jazz Orchestra – Summit Records

For 35 years, Pete McGuiness was known as a trombonist. But a diagnosis of embouchure dystonia, which affects wind musicians, forced him to stop playing his beloved instrument.

This album finds McGuiness serving as arranger for this 11-song, 67-minute celebration of the approaching 20^th anniversary of the Pete McGuiness Jazz Orchestra. Since putting down his instrument, he’s taken up singing which he does on two Cole Porter songs and the album’s final track, Where Do You Start? He’s accompanied on that final track by pianist Bill Charlap. He also composed four of the songs.

If his jazz orchestra sounds this good as they near two decades together, I can’t wait to hear what they sound like as they continue to offer up more great music.

MUSICALS: JO – THE LITTLE WOMAN MUSICAL – Studio Cast Recording – Center Stage Records

Louisa May Alcott’s beloved Little Women has been adapted as a play five times. There have been seven films. It has inspired nearly a dozen television adaptations. There have been two operas written and produced and one musical.

Make that two with the addition of Jo – The Little Woman Musical by composer Dan Redfeld and book and lyric writers Christina Harding and John Gabriel Koladziej.

I’ll be completely honest; I haven’t heard the entire 42 songs on this two-disc recording. However, what I have heard gives me reason enough to listen to more of this musical.

It doesn’t hurt that Laura Benanti sings Marmee March; Christine Ebersole sings Aunt March; Julian Ovenden sings Father, Bob Gunton sings Grandfather and Christine Allardo sings the title character of Jo March.

This is not a cheaply produced recording. The large cast is accompanied by a 29-piece orchestra.

Could Jo follow the path of Evita, Hadestown or Jesus Christ Superstar?  Time will tell. But, if like its title character, Jo – The Little Woman Musical seems likely to have just begun its journey.

OPERA: AN AMERICAN SOLDIER – Huang Ruo/American Composers Orchestra/Carolyn Kuan – Platoon

Tragedies often make for the best operas. An American Soldier is no exception. Composed by Huang Ruo with a libretto by David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly), An American Soldier tells of the story of Danny Chen, a Chinese American Army Private who was found dead while serving in Afghanistan in 2011.

Eight soldiers were put on trial for their actions of endless harassment (much of it racist) and bullying that preceded Chen’s death. Four of those eight soldiers were court martialed.

This world premiere recording comes from the 2024 production at Perelman Performing Arts Center. Brian Vu sings the role of Danny Chen. Hannah Cho sings the role of his friend Josephine Young. Nina Yoshida Nelsen sings the role of his mother. Alex DeSocio sings the role of Sgt. Aaron Marcum.

I’ve long been a fan of Huang’s music and I continue to be after hearing this outstanding recording. Let’s hope more productions are going to be taking place around the world.

That’s all for New In Music This Week: May 23^rd.

Enjoy your weekend! Enjoy the music!

Main Photo: Part of the album art for Brooklyn Rider’s The Four Elements (Courtesy In a Circle Records)