It’s Friday and time for New In Music This Week: March 6th. I have an eclectic list for this week filled with art songs, classical music, contemporary classical music, jazz and more.
My top pick this week is:
OPERA: LISE DAVIDSEN: LIVE AT THE MET – Lise Davidsen/James Baillieu – Decca Classics
March is a big month for soprano Davidsen. In addition to this live album, she stars in the Met Opera’s new production of Tristan und Isolde. This is arguably the most highly anticipated opera production of the year.
Why is that? Listen to this album. Davidsen effortlessly (probably not effortlessly, but it feels that way), performs arias, lieder and songs by Grieg, Puccini, Schubert, Sibelius, Strauss, Verdi, Wagner and more.
This comes as no surprise to me as I’ve seen two recitals by Davidsen where she was accompanied by pianist James Baillieu. They were nothing short of remarkable.
On this album she performs arias from Tannhäuser, Tosca and Un ballo in Maschera. Strauss lieder (Gedichte aus “Letzte Blätter), I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady and more.
Davidsen is that rare combination of a singer who can blow the roof off any venue in which she performs, but also do so with absolute control and finesse while remaining stunningly beautiful.
Baillieu’s accompaniment matches her approach to each piece brilliantly.
Whether you’ve seen Davidsen or not, this recital will make it perfectly clear what all the fuss is about.
Here are the other fine recordings to be in New In Music This Week: March 6th:
ART SONGS: BELL TOWER – MUSIC BY GEORGIA STITT – Multiple Artists – Concord Theatricals Recordings
This beautiful album showcases Stitt’s Small Talk: A Very Short Song Cycle, three song cycles Stitt composed using various pieces of poetry by artists as diverse as William Blake, Wendy Cope, Dorothy Parker, Rainer Rilke, William Wordsorth and many more.
The album opens with three songs performed by the late Rebecca Luker that were recorded before her passing on December of 2020. For those of us who knew that Luker was one of the most talented and luminous of artists, this is a real gift. All of these songs are beautiful, but it is Luker’s performance of When I Am Dead, featuring the poetry of Christina Rossetti, that resonates so deeply.
Many of the artists on Bell Tower come from musical theater including Kate Baldwin, Sierra Boggess, Tituss Burgess, Nikki Renée Daniels, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Marc Kudisch, Ruthie Ann Miles and Kelli O’Hara. Soprano Hila Plitmann performs Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower which gives the album its title.
This is an album that I will go back to on a regular basis. Stitt is a phenomenal songwriter. I’ve been following her for quite some time. If you haven’t, Bell Tower is a great place to start.
CLASSICAL: WILLIAM WALTON: SYMPHONIES 1&2 – City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Kazui Yamada – Deutsche Grammophon
English composer William Walton is a composer often found on collections of British classical music more than his work is found on dedicated recordings. Amongst the most common pairings would be performances of his first and second symphonies.
The two works were written far apart from each other. The first in 1934 (without its finale – which was completed one year later). The second in 1960. There is more than the 26 years that separates these two works.
So to make sense of those differences and yet make the music seem relevant again is a high hurdle to set in front of yourself. Conductor Yamada and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra play this music with such passion and energy that, perhaps, they will breathe new life into both symphonies and Walton’s music overall.
The second symphony – a far more serious work than the first – is often dismissed as old-fashioned. But you wouldn’t know it from this enthusiastic performance.
The album opens with Orb and Sceptre “Coronation March” that was composed for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. It’s a robust work that very much falls into the tradition of coronation music. To my ears, this feels the most old-fashioned of the works on the album.
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION: THE PAINTINGS OF BOB PEAK – Los Angeles Film Orchestra / Leonard Slatkin – Warner Classics
Artist Bob Peak may not be a household name. Somewhere along your life’s journey you have probably encountered his work. Perhaps it was his film posters for such movies as My Fair Lady, Superman: The Movie or the Star Trek films from 1979-1989.
Or perhaps it was his 30 stamps he designed for the 1984 Olympics. Or the countless magazine covers.
Robert Townson, best known as the producer of film soundtracks (he spent over 30 years at Varese Sarabande), put together this project that commissioned primarily film composers to write a piece of music in response to one of Peak’s works.
Those composers include Michael Abels, Jeff Beal, Marco Beltrami, Bill Conti, Mychael Danna, Don Davis, Harry Gregson-Williams and Marc Shaiman. Ihab Darwish and Maria Newman (yes, of that Newman family) composer works as well.
The album opens with Robert Thies playing a piano solo of the Promendae No. 1 by Mussorgsky from Pictures at an Exhibition. It’s a clever opening. Then the exhibition begins.
It is inevitable that an album like this won’t necessarily feel cohesive because each composer is responding to a different work of art. Consider this a group show of musical ideas born out of separate inspirations.
My favorites on Danna’s Mother Teresa, Beltrami’s The Spirit of Sport, Jack Nicklaus and Shaiman’s A Song About Audrey, Audrey Hepburn which is just as clever as you’d hope it would be.
Conductor Slatkin and the Los Angeles Film Orchestra perform all this music beautifully. It’s a fascinating album.
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: THREAD – Trio Village – Navona Records
Pianist Cara Chowning, flutist Rebecca Johnson and oboist Elizabeth Sullivan were working towards their doctorate degrees in music at the University of Illinois when they came together to form Trio Village.
Thread showcases them performing works by contemporary artists. Those artists are Jasmine Arielle Barnes, Brad Decker, Elaine Fine, Dana Kaufman, Leonard Mark Lewis, Kerrith Livengood, Shawn E. Okpebholo and Brandon K. Smith. Some of them I was familiar with before listening to Thread, others I was not.
Trio Village is terrific ensemble and their choice of music is certainly intriguing. My favorite works on this album are Lewis’s Thread,Okpebholo’s The Spiral, Decker’s Peripheral Vision and Kaufman’s Motet for Intangible Loss.
This is an album for those interested in all that’s going on in new music and looking to be introduced as well to musicians who are first-rate.
JAZZ: LIVE AT THE SIDE DOOR – Matt Dwonszyk – Self-Released
I didn’t know bassist Dwonszyk before listening to this album. Hearing him and his outstanding ensemble (Jonathan Barber on drums, Josh Bruneau on trumpet, Taber Gable on piano and Matt Knoegel on tenor sax) makes me wish I had been living in Hartford, CT or New York City where I might have had a much earlier introduction. (The Side Door is in Old Lyme, CT.)
This is a quintet playing in glorious conversation with one another. And what a conversation it is.
All but two of the eleven tracks were composed by Dwonszyk. Of the two covers, Gloomy Sunday stands out because it is a solo by Dwonszyk. In a very brief 73 seconds, he lays out simply and succinctly his approach to music.
Then it’s back to the quintet. These five guys, who have known each other since high school, are clearly having a great time playing music together.
You will have a great time listening to it. I can guarantee that.
JAZZ: TORCH BEARERS – Brian Lynch – Hollistic Music Works
Alto saxophonist Charles McPherson was on trumpeter/composer Brian Lynch’s bucket list as someone with whom he’d like to record an album. With Torch Bearers he has realized that dream.
It’s surprising the two hadn’t recorded before this album as Lynch performed with McPherson in the early 80s. But a dream deferred and realized is better no matter the time it took than one that goes unrealized.
Lynch composed two of the tunes on this album. McPherson also wrote two. They each co-wrote a song with Samara Joy who sings those two songs on this album. (Proving once again how versatile a singer Joy is).
It would be easy to say the highlights of this album are the two songs on which Joy appears. But the reality is the entirety of Torch Bearers is well worth listening to.
Lynch and McPherson are joined by pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Boris Kozlov, drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., pianists Luis Perdomo and Rob Schneiderman and drummer Kyle Swan. They don’t all play on the same tracks.
McPherson was 84 when these sessions began, but she shows no sign of slowing down or losing any of the singular qualities he has as a musician. Lynch already has two Grammy Awards and Torch Bearers is likely to yield at least his sixth nomination if not his third Grammy.
JAZZ: TWIO, VOL. 2 – Walter Smith IIII – Blue Note Records
Given who well-received tenor saxophonist Smith’s Twio album was in 2018, it was inevitable that there would be a second one. Here he’s joined by bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Kendrick Scott for an album filled with some very well-known jazz classics.
Amongst those are Carla Bley’s Lawns, Thelonious Monk’s Light Blue, Wayne Shorter’s Fall and Billy Strayhorn’s Isafan
Smith only has one original track on this album, Casual – Lee, but it’s a damn good one and features Ron Carter on bass and Branford Marsalis on tenor saxophone. I particularly love the parallel sax on this track.
Carter also appears on four other tracks and Marsalis appears on the closing track, Swingin’ At The Haven, which was composed his father, Ellis.
Smith once again proves why he’s one of the most exciting tenor sax players today. He’s not a musician who shows off his skills, rather he’s more interested in authenticity and finesse. He’s seeking the core of what it is to be a musician. The answer he’s come up with, so far, is mighty satisfying. As is Twio, Vol. 2.
That’s all for New In Music This Week: March 6th.
Enjoy your wekeend! Enjoy the music!
Main Photo: Album art from Lise Davidsen: Live at the Met (Courtesy Decca Classics)