This is one of the most crowded weeks of the summer for new releases. As a result, New in Music This Week: August 21st is a bit longer than usual. Let’s jump right in.
MY TOP PICK IS:
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: LIFE IS A DREAM – Anthony Hopkins / Philharmonia Orchestra / Gustavo Dudamel – Decca Classics
If you had played this album for me sight unseen, I would have expected this diverse 67 minutes of music to be a career retrospective of an established classical music composer.
That it was Academy Award-winning actor Hopkins was the surprise. We know of his passion for music through his many interviews and clips of him playing the piano.
Life Is a Dream offers nine of his compositions. The album begins rather traditionally with his Fanfare and March. Traditionally in terms of opening with a fanfare.
Given his passion for the piano, it’s not a surprise that Farewell My Love (the album’s second track) and the three-movement 1947: Suite for Solo Piano & Orchestra are amongst the finest here. Sergio Tiempo is the soloist.
The deeply emotional Stella Aria, the quietly compelling Tara and 2 Pieces for Orchestra have a level of sophistication that made repeated listening both essential and satisfying.
What an impressive collection of compositions Hopkins has given us. Might there be more? If so, I hope the Philharmonia Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel record it (or have already recorded it) so we can hear that, too.
Listening to this music reminds me to answer a question Hanibal Lecter asked Clarice in Silence of the Lambs: “Of each particular thing ask what is it in itself.”
That’s an easy answer for Life Is a Dream: an impressive collection of music that reveals once again what an accomplished Renaissance man Anthony Hopkins is.
Here are the other fine releases that are New in Music This Week: August 21st:
CLASSICAL: PAGANINI – Joshua Bell / Academy of St. Martin in the Fields – Sony Classical
Violinist Bell returns to a work her first played over four decades ago: Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1.
There have been innumerable recordings of this concerto. What makes this exquisite new recording a must-listen is a new cadenza composed by Bell. It seamlessly fits into Paganini’s utterly demanding work. It’s a beautiful cadenza. Of course, Bell’s playing is flawless.
You likely know that he is the Music Director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. He’s doing triple duty here leading the orchestra, playing the violin and composing the cadenza.
Rounding out the album are two other works by Paganini: Cantabile in D major and The Carnival of Venice. The latter piece was originally part of the soundtrack for Ladies in Lavender.
Fans of Paganini and violin works will want to hear Bell at his finest performing these works.
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: IRIS DÉVOILÉE & L’ELOIGNEMENT – LIVE AT BENAROYA HALL – Qigang Chen / Seattle Symphony Orchestra / Xian Zhang
Intoxicating. That’s the best way to describe Qigang Chen’s Iris Dévoilée (Iris Unveiled). It is described as “a concert suite for orchestra, three sopranos and traditional Chinese instruments.”
Western music is paired brilliantly with Peking opera traditions and traditional instruments. This potent combination reveals a work that feels familiar and foreign at the same time, but always fascinating.
Iris Dévoilée had its world premiere in 2002. Seattle Symphony and Music Director Xian Zhang played the work in three concerts earlier this year. Both works on this mesmerizing album were recorded live during performances.
Joining the Seattle Symphony Orchestra for Iris Dévoilée were sopranos Tess Altiveros, Meng Meng, Mei Gui Zhang and musicians Yang Jin on pipa, Cathy Yang on erhu and Lucina Yue on zheng.
L’Éloignement is a composition for string orchestra from 2003 that had its world premiere at the Shanghai International Festival for the Arts. This Seattle Symphony Orchestra was recorded live during concerts in 2023.
Xian Chang and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra play this music with the utmost sincerity and passion. What a great record!
CLASSICAL: MUJER FATAL: PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN – Aigul Akhmetshina / Antonio Pappano – Decca Classics
All you need to do to understand why mezzo-soprano Akhmetshina is one of the hottest singers today is listen to the first track of Mujer Fatal. That’s the title track which was composed by Elena Roussanova. Not only is it a gorgeous song performed magnificently. It also set the tone for the rest of the music that follows.
As the website for the album says (accurately), Mujer Fatal is “a reimagining, a woman in constant transformation, complex, emotional, strong and vulnerable at the same time.”
Amongst the composers whose work Akhmetshina performs are Mily Balakirev, Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, Carles Gardel, George Gershwin, Mark Minkov, Maurice Ravel, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Erik Satie, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Kurt Weill.
Accompanied by pianist Pappano, Mujer Fatal is a major accomplishment by a singer who I anticipate will be exploring material in equally thoughtful collections. Brava!
GENRE DEFYING: CROWN SHYNESS – Francesca Gaza / Kugelförmigkeit Ensemble – New Amsterdam Records
The album art makes you think you’re getting a baroque album. The music tells you a very different story. To try to pin Gaza’s wholly unique work to a single genre would do Crown Shyness a horrible disservice.
Imagine pop music (not used pejoratively here) combined with jazz, baroque music and allowing room for a cornucopia of other genres. Then you’ll have a good idea of what to expect.
I wasn’t sure myself what to expect, but as the album started, I found myself going down the rabbit hole with Gaza. The more intently I listened, the more handsomely I was rewarded. These 45 minutes were amongst some of the finest I spent listening to music for New in Music This Week: August 21st.
Check it out.
JAZZ: BENEATH LIFTED SKIES / Linda May Han Oh / Melissa Aldana – Biophilia Records
One could argue that Soapsuds Soapsuds by Ornette Coleman and Charlie Haden is the pinnacle of albums featuring a saxophonist and bass player. I would argue that Beneath Lifted Skies deserves to be placed right up there.
Bassist Oh and saxophonist Aldana offer a master class in how two artists can come together and be fully united. The album opens with Anthropology by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Bud Powell’s Hallucinations, Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love by Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter’s Dance Cadaverous, John Cotlrane’s 26-2 and more are performed here.
Oh has a few solo tracks including Herbie Hancock’s The Sorcerer, God Bless the Child and an original composition, Winter. There are also three Improvisations.
In their hands, each song reveals new colors and shadings other recordings haven’t shown us. That shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows how talented Oh and Aldana are.
JAZZ: DISHES AIN’T CLEAN – Sounds of April and Randall – Soaring Records
There are a multitude of styles of music on this album that purists might not consider it a jazz record. Nonetheless, I was seduced by April May Webb’s vocals and songwriting and Randall Haywood’s way around his trumpet. (He also co-wrote the song that closes out the album: You Are Everything.)
Webb won the 2024 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. He trained at Juilliard. Together they’ve created an album that slyly sneaks up on you and makes you want to play track after track and enter their world of “the unfinished parts” (as the press release says.)
Joining Webb and Haywood on Dishes Ain’t Clean are Drew Cooper on guitar, Charlie Sigler on electric guitar, Dr. Ryan Tomski on piano and Rhodes, Jacob Webb on bass, Dr. Nathan Webb on drums and Gabe Valle on violin, viola and cello. In addition to trumpet, Haywood plays flugelhorn, synthesizers and percussion in addition to adding vocals.
JAZZ: FIFTEEN – Henry Threadgill / Vijay Iyer / Dafnis Prieto – Nonesuch Recordings
The expectations that come with supergroups, of which this trio certainly qualifies, are that they will fuse together so effectively that their own musical identities are well defined while existing within the newly formed ensemble.
Saxophonist/flutist Threadgill, pianist Iyer and drummer Prieto have taken a different route here. This trio hasn’t’ subverted their identities so much as they have explored other ways of performing. In the process, they have created one of the most exceptionally bold, yet stark, albums of the year.
The playing on this album is enhanced by the time they’ve spent performing together. All three are composers and their compositional styles couldn’t be more different. Yet, the eight tracks on Fifteen come together smartly and engagingly.
Threadgill, a Pulitzer Prize winner, contributed Trio Piece, Last Night and Where Coconuts Fall. Iyer, who I anticipate will likely win a Pulitzer Prize for music at some point, contributed I Wanted a Map, Fire City and Perfect Victims. Prieto composed Gently Trapped and On the Way.
There is space on Fifteen. There is minimalism. There is incredibly unique performing. These are three adventurous musicians who know have come together to offer music that cuts deep and allows all three of them to showcase their strengths. All of which reveals a truly super group for our time.
JAZZ: NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR – Carmen Lundy – Afrasia Productions
I’ve long been a fan of singer/songwriter Lundy. Notes from the Wine Cellar, a collection of songs that hadn’t been finished or remained unrecorded until this album, is one of her finest.
From the opening track, In The Rain That Day, Lundy sets listeners up for a cinematic journey through her heart and soul. Though some of the songs are over two decades old, this is a cohesive album that features her best singing in years.
Some of the titles may seem familiar, but this is an album filled with original songs. Get to the Church on Time is a deeply personal track and not the song from My Fair Lady.
Lundy had a robust output of music roughly every two years. Notes from the Wine Cellar is her first album in four years. It was well worth the wait.
Look for my interview with Lundy next week. We had a great conversation about this truly beautiful album.
JAZZ: WINDFLOWER – Ayumi Tanaka / Thomas Morgan / Thomas Strønen – ECM
This is the first album from this trio of pianist Tanaka, bassist Morgan and drummer Strønen. They first performed together in 2024 and clearly there was a shared vision for what they wanted their music to be.
On Windflower that vision is the intersection of multiple influences to create an album that I found compelling in its quietness. There’s a sublimity to Windflower that’s inescapable.
All three musicians get their opportunity to shine, but it’s the delicate and intricate way in which they perform together that impresses most.
MUSICALS: SCHMIGADOON! – Original Broadway Cast Recording – Joy Machine Records
Sometimes the joy is so overwhelming that even if you haven’t seen a Broadway show, the cast album captures every ounce of that joy. That is the case with this year’s Tony Award winning Best Musical, Schimigadoon!
I haven’t seen the show, yet. I did watch every episode of the two years the show aired. Let me assure you that it will be impossible not to grin from ear-to-ear while listening to this album.
Having fun on stage (and likely in the recording studio) is hard work. The Schimgadoon! company sounds like they are having a great time. Which guarantees you will, too.
Musical fans will, as they did with the series, enjoy finding all the references Cinco Paul built into these songs.
MUSICALS: THIS AIN’T NO DISCO – WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING – Center Stage Records
This musical by Stephen Trask (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Peter Yanowitz (The Wallflowers) who wrote the music and lyrics and co-wrote the book with Rice Elice, was first performed in 2018 at Atlantic Theater Company.
The musical takes place in 1979 in New York City. It traverses the people who populated uptown clubs like Studio 54 and TriBeCA’s post-punk Mudd Club.
After listening to this studio album, I wish I had seen the show. This is a high-energy collection of songs that perfectly capture the era without being slave to it.
For this album they assembled quite the cast: Ryan Cassata, Adam Chanler-Berat, Will Connolly, Eddie Cooper, Lilli Cooper, Austin Crute, Lulu Fall, Lena Hall, Taylor Hanson, Ryan Jarman, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Chilina Kennedy, Sean Ono Lennon, John Cameron Mitchell, Charlotte Kemp Muhl, Robert Schwartzman, Jake Shears, Miriam Shor, Theo Stockman, Tonality and Brandon Uranowitz.
For pure joy, This Ain’t No Disco can’t be beaten. That makes two musical recordings this week that offer absolute elation and bliss.
QUICK HITS:
CHORAL: THROUGH THE POWERFUL DARKNESS… – Kenneth Leighton / Jeremy Filsell / The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, Fifth Avenue, New York / Nicholas Haigh – Signum Classics
A wonderful album celebrating the works of British composer Leighton. He wrote a lot of church and choral music. He also wrote for the organ. Jeremy Filsell beautifully plays the organ music.
The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, under the direction of Haigh, sing Leighton’s music with great conviction.
If you don’t know Leighton’s music, this is a great place to start.
CLASSICAL: GRIEG: LYRIC PIECES, VOLUME 2 – Peter Donohoe – Chandos
Pianist Donohoe released Lyric Pieces Volume 1 in 2022. Four years later he returns to the composer’s work and the results, as they were with the first album, are nothing short of sublime.
The first album had 27 pieces that he chose. This new release contains 40 more of Grieg’s works. This completes all of the Lyric Pieces (there are 66 short pieces written for piano). They were not released in order.
This new collection also contains Ballade, Op. 24 which is also known as Ballade in the Form of Variations on a Norwegian Folk Song. It’s length, 16: 47 here, is in stark contrast to the relatively short lengths of the Lyric Pieces.
CLASSICAL/CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: DIORAMA BRASIL – Heidi Louise Williams & Ney Fialkow – Albany Records
The work of composers from Brazil is featured in this album by the two pianists. They play together on two works: Vagner Cunha’s Suíte Para Piano a Quatro Mãos and André Mehmari’s Dansas aos Pares. This marks the first recordings of those works.
The rest of the album finds them play separately works by Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez, Radamés Gnattali, Camargo Guarnieri, César Guerra-Peixe, Francisco Mignone and Claudio Santoro.
This is a great introduction for those who need it to classical music from Brazil’s past and present.
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: POEMS OF DEVOTION – Joseph Summer / Radek Baborak / Josef Spacek / Miroslav Sekera – Navona Records
This was my first introduction to the music of composer Joseph Summer and I was quite impressed. I was particularly impressed with The Tempest Sonata (he’s enormously inspired by William Shakespeare) and the Four Poems of Devotion.
REISSUES:
CLASSICAL: UNDINE – Albert Lortzing / Anyn Schlemm / Walther Ludwig / Hans Braun / Toni Blankenheim / Bamberg Symphony / Victor Reinshagen – Deutsche Grammophon
This album of highlights from Albert Lortzing’s opera was first released in 1954. The opera itself tells the story of Undine, a water nymph, who, in hopes of getting a soul, marries a knight. Like many an opera, things don’t go as planned for the couple.
It features soprano Schlemm as the title character. Tenor Ludwig as Hugo sings the part of the knight. The recording also features baritones Braun and Blankenheim. Reinshagen conducted the Bamberg Symphony for this recording which is having its first digital release.
JAZZ: SOFTLY AS A SUMMER BREEZE – Jimmy Smith – Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series
This album by Hammond B-3 organist was recorded in 1958, but it took seven years for it to be released.
The first four tracks featured Kenny Burell on guitar and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Those tracks are These Foolish Things, Hackensack, It Could Happen to You and Sometimes I’m Happy.
The final two tracks feature Donald Bailey on drums and Eddie McFadden on guitar. They are Someone to Watch Over Me and Smith’s own Home Cookin’.
JAZZ: STREET OF DREAMS – Grant Green -Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series
I love this album by guitarist Green. It was recorded in late 1964 but wasn’t released until the summer of 1967.
There are only four tracks, but boy are they good. I Wish You Love, Lazy Afternoon, Street of Dreams and Somewhere in the Night which was the theme from the television series Naked City.
Joining Green were Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, Elvin Jones on drum and Larry Young on organ.
JAZZ: WONDERFUL! – Joshua Breakstone – Capri Records
This was guitarist/composer Breakstone’s first album as a leader. It was released in 1983. This marks the first time it is being released on CD and streaming.
Breakstone was joined by Barry Harris on piano, Earl Sauls on bass and Leroy Williams on drums. They play two originals by Breakstone (Sevens-Up and This Is It!) along with tunes by Tadd Dameron, Gershwin, Djagon Reinhardt and more.
This was my first time hearing Wonderful! It lives up to its name.
That’s all for New in Music This Week: August 21st.
Enjoy your weekend!
Enjoy the music!
Main Photo: Part of the album art for Life is a Dream (Courtesy Decca Classics)