For a couple weeks I’ve suggested that once the dog days of summer were over the floodgates would open. With New In Music This Week: September 8^th, I’m able to prove that theory correct. This is perhaps the longest list we’ve had of great new recordings.

Our top pick for New In Music This Week: September 8^th is:

JAZZ:  Brilliant Corners – Thelonious Monk – Craft Small Batch Recordings

This vinyl release of Monk’s legendary 1957 recording should be on the top of any hard bop jazz fan’s list. With only 4,000 copies being made, you’ll need to move quickly to get this album.

Some of jazz music’s greatest musicians are found on Brilliant Corners with Monk:  bassist Paul Chambers, alto saxophonist Ernie Henry, bassist Oscar Pettiford, drummer Max Roach, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins and trumpeter Clark Terry. They don’t all appear together as the album was recorded over various sessions in 1956. But the end result is the stuff of legends.

Technically the album is only available for pre-ordering and at $109 it is an expensive proposition. Listen to the album on any streaming service and then figure out how great it wil sound completely remastered.

The rest of New In Music This Week: September 8^th includes all of the following recordings:

BROADWAY MUSICALS: Sweeney Todd – Original Broadway Cast Recording – Arts Music and Reprise Records

This is the OBCR of the 2023 revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street that stars Josh Groban as Todd and Annaliehg Ashford as Mrs. Lovett. Maria Bilbao as Johanna; Nicholas Christopher as Pirelli;  Jordan Fisher (who has since left the production) is Anthony; Jamie Jackson as Judge Turpin; Gaten Matarazzo is Tobias; Ruthie Ann Miles as the Beggar Woman and John Rapson as Beadle Bamford.

This production and this recording uses the original 26-player orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick.

This is only available now on streaming and digital platforms. A physical releases and any vinyl releases have yet to have announced dates.

CHORAL: Scenes from Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound – London Mozart Players and Crouch End Festival Chorus – Chandos Records

British composer Hubert Parry is not as well-known as fellow countrymen Benjamin Britten or Ralph Vaughan Williams, but he’s a fascinating composer as this one-hour work makes very clear.

Conductor William Vann leads the ensembles listed above along with mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly, bass-baritone Neal Davies, soprano Sarah Fox and tenor David Butt Philip in this terrific recording of Parry’s work from 1880.

Also on the record is Parry’s 1887 composition Blest Pair of Sirens for orchestra and chorus.

CLASSICAL:  For Clara: Works by Schumann & Brahms – Hélène Grimaud and Konstantin Krimmel – Deutsche Grammophon

Perhaps the most intriguing love triangle in classical music is that of Robert Schumann, his wife Clara and up ‘n’ coming composer Johannes Brahms. As Robert’s mental struggles grew in intensity, Brahms became a close ally to both Schumanns, but a more romantic relationship developed with Clara.

Pianist Grimaud celebrates Clara Schumann with Robrrt Schumann’s Kreisleriana and Brahms’ 3 Intermezziand the 9 Lieder und Gesänge. Joining her for the lieder is baritone Konstantin Krimmel.

From the first movement of the Kreisleriana you know immediately how beautifully the whole album is going to be performed.

CLASSICAL: Bruckner Live – Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra – Warner Classics/Erato

This is a terrific idea for a collection of all 9 of Anton Bruckner’s symphonies:  nine different concert performances led by seven different conductors. Most of the recordings have been previously unreleased.

Bernard Haitink conducts the 1^st and 7^th symphonies. Riccardo Chailly conducts the 2^nd and 9^thsymphonies. Kurt Sanderling conducts the 3^rd; Klaus Tennstedt the 4^th; Eugene Jochum the 5^th; Mariss Jansons the 6^th and Zubin Mehta the 8^th. The concerts date from 1972-2012.

The recordings will be available as a physical box set and individual streaming albums for each symphony. What a great way for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to celebrate Bruckner’s 200^th birthday.

CLASSICAL: Hommage – Sergio Tiempo – Avanti

Pianist Tiempo released an album of Chopin’s 24 Preludes in 1990. During a 33-year recording career he’s had significant mentors along the way. 

With his new album Tiempo celebrates and collaborates with this illustrious group of individuals. This includes pianists Nelson Freire, his sister Karin Lechner, Alan Weiss and cellist Mischa Maisky.

Perhaps no one has been more influential and important to Tiempo than the legendary pianist Martha Argerich who joins him for her first-ever studio recording of Franz Schubert’s Fantasy in F minor D. 940.

The album also includes works by Brahms, Chopin, Carlos Guastavino, Francisco Mignone, Ravel and Tchaikovsky.

CLASSICAL: Infinite Voyage – Emerson String Quartet with Barbara Hannigan – Alpha Classics

For 47 years the Emerson String Quartet has been one of classical music’s finest ensembles. This October they will officially end their careers, but not without this wonderful new recording as a going away present.

This 72-minute recording includes Paul Hindemith’s Melancholie, Op. 13; Alban Berg’s String Quartet, Op. 3; Ernest Chausson’s Chanson perpétuelle, Op. 37 and Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10.

Soprano Hannigan joins for the Hindemith and the Chausson features Hannigan and pianist Bertrand Chamayou.

CLASSICAL: Piano Concerto – Homage to Beethoven – Boston Modern Orchestra Project – BMOP Sound

Two days ago American composer/conductor/pianist Joan Tower turned 85. (Seems like a good week for people to have their birthdays celebrated in recordings.)

Pianist Marc-André Hamelin is the soloist for her 1986 piano concerto which runs just over 21 minutes. Anytime Hamelin is at the keyboard, you know you’re in for something good. Bassonist Adrian Morejon joins BMOP for Tower’s 2013 composition Red Maple. Flutist Carol Wincenc is the soloist for Tower’s Rising from 2010 and her Flute Concerto from 1989.

Gil Rose conducts BMOP. I strongly recommend this album.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: Starlighter – Kinan Azmeh & Brooklyn Rider – In a Circle Records

Elements of world music meet contemporary classical music in Starlighter.

Syrian composer/clarinet player Azmeh composed the three-movement suite The Element that opens this album.  The title track was composed by violinist Colin Jacobsen. The quartet Brooklyn Rider (who perform on all six tracks on the album) composed Dabke on Martense Street and the album closes with Russian violinist and composer Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin’s Everywhere Is Falling Everywhere.

There is incredible music on this album that is well worth your time.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: Vent – Catherine Gregory and David Kaplan – Bright Shiny Things

If you like your classical music from both the traditional repertoire and the contemporary repertoire you’ll enjoy this album featuring flutist Gregory and pianist Kaplan.

Vent features world premiere recordings of works by Gabriela Lena Frank (Five Andean Imposivations) and Timo Andres (Steady Gaze). Joining those works are Schubert’s Variations on Trockne Blumen, Prokofiev’s Flute Sonata in D and David Lang’s Vent.

This is a terrific album with work that certainly is rarely performed together and those world premiere recordings are well worth exploring.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL:  Together – Carlos Simon – Decca Classics

Another artist who is pairing the old and the new on a recording is composer/pianist Carlos Simon. With the participation of mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, violinist Randall Goosby, baritone Will Liverman and cellist Seth Parker Woods, Simon explores his own arrangements of spirituals and popular songs (including Sade’s Love Is Stronger Than Pride) with original compositions.

This is a beautiful album whose spirituality provides the emotional support that our challenging times require. 

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: Between Breaths – Third Coast Percussion – Cedille Records

I’ll be honest, the idea of a percussion quartet has never inspired me. To be more honest, that’s too bad because if every percussion quartet sounded as good as this album by Third Coast Percussion, I’ve been missing out on some great music.

This album opens with Missy Mazzoli’s Millennium Canticles. That is followed by TCP’s own In Practice; Tyondai Braxton’s Sunny X; Ayanna Woods’ Triple Point and closes with Gemma Peacocke’s Death Wish.

All of these are world premiere recordings. 

If, like me, you find yourself a bit reluctant to explore music performed only by percussion artists, I encourage you to take Between Breaths out for a spin. It just might leave you breathless.

JAZZ:  On Becoming – House of Waters – GroundUP

You don’t often find a hammered dulcimer and six-string bass as featured instruments on a jazz album. But that’s precisely what Maz ZT and Moto Fukushima play as House of Waters. It’s a fascinating combination that is enhanced by drummer Antonio Sanchez and special guest appearances by vocalist Priya Darshini and guitarist Mike Stern.

For those willing to exploring beyond the standard trio, quartet, quintent, etc… format, this is an album for you.

JAZZ:  Natural Impression – Mafalda Minnozzi – MPI Records

One listen to this lovely album by Italian jazz vocalist Minnozzi will have you asking the question, “why haven’t I heard her before?”

Many of the tracks she performs will be familiar like Ne Me Quitte Pas and One Note Samba. Whether you know them or not, you’ll find this album on repeat.

Minnozzi is joined by pianist Helio Alves, bassist Eduardo Belo, drummer/percussionist Rogerio Boccato and guitarist and music director Paul Ricci. 

There are also some amazing special guests on the album: Doug Beavers on trombone; Don Byron on clarinet, Kassin on percussion; Joe Locke on vibraophone; John Patitucci on bass and Michael Wolff on keyboards.

JAZZ:  Frozen Silence – Maciej Obara Quartet – ECM 

Alto saxophonist Obara and his quartet first recorded for ECM with 2017’s Unloved. That was followed by 2019’s Three Crowns. Now with their third ECM record, Obara maintains the same line-up of musicians: Gard Nilssen on drums; pianist Dominik Wania and bassist Ole Morten Vågan.

The album title references the circumstances during with Obara composed the music on this album: being in isolation during the pandemic. Lest you think this will be a dark album without any relief, rest assured by the time these quick-moving 47 minutes of Frozen Silence is over, you will have traveled a wide breadth of emotions.

JAZZ:  Between Two Worlds – Terrell Stafford – Le Coq Records

Performing a streaming concert at the Village Vanguard in the early months of the pandemic resonated with trumpeter/composer Stafford in ways he probably couldn’t imagine in that moment. He was performing the song that serves as the title of this new record that features percussionist Alex Acuña; pianist Bruce Barth; drummer Jonathan Blake; saxophonist Tim Warfield and bassist David Wong.

Music by McCoy Tyner and Horace Silver are amongst the covers on this 63-minute album. My personal favorite is Blood Count by Billy Strayhorn. Several of the compositions were written by Stafford as tributes to family members.

I recommend fixing your favorite cocktail (if you drink), turning the lights down low and giving Between Two Worlds a true and thoughtful listen.

OPERA:  The Lord of Cries – Boston Modern Orchestra Project – Pentatone

Composer John Corigliano and librettist Mark Adamo’s The Lord of Cries had its world premiere on August 5, 2021 at Santa Fe Opera. The opera combines the story of Euripides’ The Bacchae with Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It sounds like a bizarre combination, but ultimately makes a lot of sense dramatically.

Counter-tenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, for whom the main role was written, sings the lead role of Dionysus in this recording. He is joined by Matt Boehler, Wil Ferguson, Kathryn Henry, Jarrett Ott, David Portillo with Gil Rose leading the BMOP.

This is a fascinating mash-up of stories and an even more interesting opera.

OPERA:  Turandot – Maria Callas – Warner Classics

Fans of soprano Maria Callas who are also vinyl collectors will definitely want to get this vinyl only release that documents Callas in this role that fits her like a glove. It is a mono recording, but her performances more than makes up for the lack of stereo sound.

Tullio Serafin conducts the Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala di Milano. The cast also includes Mario Borriello, Renato Ercolani, Eugenio Fernandi, Giuseppe Nessi, Piero De Palma, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Nicola Zaccaria, 

This is the first of many upcoming Callas releases from Warner Classics.

VOCALS:  A Collective Cy – Jeff Harnar – PS Classics

For whatever reason composer Cy Coleman isn’t revered the way some of his contemporaries were. He was responsible for such musicals as Little Me, Sweet Charity, I Love My Wife, On the Twentieth Century, Barnum, City of Angels (which is overdue for a first-rate revival), The Life and The Will Rogers Follies.

Singer Harnar, whose 2022 album I Know Things Now: My Life in Sondheim’s Words used his own experiences to interpret Sondheim’s songs, turns his attention to 14 of Coleman’s songs. Along the way he is joined by vocalists Danny Bacher, Ann Hampton Callaway, Liz Callaway and Nicolas King.

As with his Sondheim recording, Harnar makes each of these songs personal to him and his life.

Alex Rybeck is music director and conducts the orchestra. 

So much to choose from in New In Music This Week: September 8th. Where will you start?

Enjoy the music and enjoy your weekend!

Main Photo: Selection from the album cover of Brilliant Corners by Thelonious Monk/Courtesy Craft Small Batch Recordings

The post New In Music This Week: September 8th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

The end result will be six different programs (one for each suite). Which of the new works by these composers are included in each performance of Fragments will only be revealed to the public after the performance. The project is directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer.

The world premiere of Fragments 1 and 2 took place in Toronto in January. Weilerstein gives the US premiere of Fragments 1 at UC Santa Barbara on Friday, March 10th. On Sunday, March 12th she will also perform Fragments 1 at Irvine Barclay Theatre. She follows that with a performance on Tuesday, March 14th at The Baker-Baum Concert Hall in La Jolla. The New York premiere will take place on April 1st at Carnegie Hall.

Weilerstein’s 2020 recording of the Bach Cello Suites received great reviews. It was also her first recording of this essential work for cellists.

But for now, she’s focused on Fragments.

I spoke with Weilerstein last week. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

The concept of Fragments allows you as an artist to keep a centuries old work old alive. By combining it with newer composers you get to introduce, perhaps, a whole new audience to both something old and something new simultaneously. Was that part of the impetus for this? 

Juxtaposing the familiar with the new, for sure it was part of it. But the way in which we’re doing it is a bit different. All six of Bach’s suites are integrated into the project and 27 new pieces are integrated into the complete project. I didn’t want this to feel like a plus project. There’s actually far more new music than there is Bach – even in terms of timing. So I asked each composer to write 10 minutes of music and two or three fragments that could stand alone.

I was very upfront with every composer saying that this is not going to be used in a conventional way. These are not going to be played in order. They’re going to be interspersed with other works of music as well as the movements of the Bach. There’s not a single new piece that’s played in the order that it was written and there’s not a single Bach suite in this project that is played in its written order. There are six programs I’ve constructed to make musical sense as an entirely original work of art. 

That seems a bit like a Tetris game. You had 27 composers and they each had three fragments, you’re looking at up to 81 different pieces of music that you could place anywhere you wanted. What was the process of figuring out the right match? It seems like at any different time you might have put a different set of pieces together. 

There are certain rules, let’s say, to the game if we’re going to use the Tetris analogy. I knew I was going to construct six programs. The timing was very strict that each one was going to be one hour. Each one had to have a complete Bach Suite in it. Some composers wrote two fragments actually and the timing worked out just fine. Some wrote three. There are a few who wrote one and it was just a longer fragment, but it still worked out just fine.

There’s no Bach movement that’s going to be next to another Bach movement. It’s all going to be interspersed with other music – even though the complete thing will be there. These are my parameters also in constructing the programs. I did a lot of singing and juxtaposing different harmonic languages with another. Sometimes I really wanted to completely contrast the program.

I also had to take myself outside of it. What would I want as an audience member? Has it been too much kind of reflective music? Is it time now for complete shock? Is it time for something to be a continuation of something else or here’s a kind of a mirror image of something that came before it. It was really fun to play with all of that. 

Did you do this from looking at scores or did you have recorded samples so that you could hear what each piece sounded like?

I had to learn the pieces first and internalize them and then I could put the programs together. I couldn’t do it without that. I needed to hear them and kind of feel them in my fingers as well. 

Were these fragments meant to be inspired by the cello suites or could they be completely disassociated?

Several the composers asked me that actually. So it’s a very astute question. My answer always was the only absolute parameter are the timings. If the spirit moves you to be inspired by a Bach suite, by all means go for it. I got back a very wide variety of pieces; some were very obvious direct responses to something that they had heard. Some had absolutely zero to do with Bach at all. And everything in between.

Is there a dialog that you are creating not just with the Bach, but amongst these contemporary composers? 

I think so. There are certain pieces that support others, I think, or that are continuations of what other pieces say. Sometimes I’m creating a real break and a real contrast. Like the way you would hear a like a familiar piece that has a very kind of slash and burn movement followed by something very ethereal. 

I asked everybody to do the same thing and they’re all contemporary classical composers. I wasn’t interested in fusion or in any sort of crossover. I wanted to really celebrate what our art form does really well. Yet within that framework there’s so much variety. Every piece is so different. There’s not a single piece that’s remotely like another one.

That’s another reason for the no programs rule. I just wanted people to experience this music in a primal and hypnotic way. Kind of going back to what made us fall in love with music in the first place; how it how it reaches you without all this kind of context around it. 

In Toronto you played Fragments One and Two. Right now those are the only two on your schedule. What is the plan to roll out the remaining Fragments? 

One, two, three and four will be available next season. Then five and six will be added to that for the 24/25 [season]. So the whole thing will be out for the world to see by that point.

How has your relationship with Bach’s Cello Suites evolved over time as you’ve matured as a person and as a performer?

I’ve been playing the Bach suites for as long as I can remember. The first Bach Prelude, I could play the notes before I could really properly play the cello. As I got older I would kind of play one suite in public. But I thought this was something I was going to do when I was much, much older. I thought I was going to be 75 and have all of this, quote unquote, wisdom, which I couldn’t possibly have as a young, more middle-aged person. 

I started playing them in public in the five years leading up to the recording. I also started doing the Bach marathons – the complete suites in public. I realized that I was never going to be satisfied with the way I was playing them. This was something I had to accept or just not play them at all. I was 37 when I recorded them. It was a snapshot in time. When I’m 50, I’m going to do it again. It’s going to be different and that’s a good thing. 

There’s something about the power of this music that compels audiences to listen to it regularly and attend the marathons you’ve talked about. What is it about Bach’s Cello Suites? 

That’s the mystery, isn’t it? It’s also one of the reasons why they are such a challenge and joy at the same time to play. There is something that is untouchable about the music in the sense that it is very hard to describe. People describe being just viscerally touched by the music. They can’t necessarily tell you why in words, but it’s just something that is so perfect intellectually and yet so naked emotionally. You don’t have to come to the Bach suites with any prior knowledge to be moved by them and that’s just really remarkable. 

What’s remarkable about being on the performance side of it and being the musician who’s getting to express all of that beautiful music? 

This is one of the most amazing experiences. I feel very lucky because I’ve been able to play the complete Bach suites so many times now in concert. The experience of going through that music, which take me about two and a half hours, I just feel completely wrung out intellectually, emotionally, physically by all of it. It’s deeply satisfying to go to all of those places with the suites.

You want the audience to listen and be present with their hearts, their minds and their ears when they experience Fragments. That’s the antithesis of the way we live our very distracted lives right now. What are the challenges that you see, or maybe saw in Toronto, in getting an audience instantly on board with this concept? When were you aware that true listening had taken them over? 

I felt that people were there right away. I’m sure people walked in skeptical. It’s a new concept. I felt that kind of the fantastic tension when a performance is really reaching a kind of universal place. I felt that immediately. In speaking to some people who were very experienced classical listeners, they said it took them about 15 minutes to let go of the desire to want to know exactly who they were hearing. Once they consciously let go they had a totally different experience.

Talking to people who are not experienced classical music listeners, they had absolutely zero issue with this at all. Which gives me a lot of hope. The audience was quite young. Younger than usual. There was a 19-year-old guy who brought his friends with him. They’re not accustomed to classical music concerts at all, but they somehow found themselves there. They were very positive about the concert. They said the staging was super interesting and they were saying some nice things about it. And they said, “But where do they hide the microphones?” This was my favorite comment of the evening. Yes, a cello really can make all of those sounds. It was a completely sincere, well-meaning question. That made my night.

The composers who have contributed new works to FRAGMENTS are: Andy Akiho, Courtney Bryan, Chen Yi, Alan Fletcher, Gabriela Lena Frank, Osvaldo Golijov, Joseph Hallman, Gabriel Kahane, Daniel Kidane, Thomas Larcher, Tania Leon, Allison Loggins-Hull, Missy Mazzoli, Gerard McBurney, Jessie Montgomery, Reinaldo Moya, Jeffrey Mumford, Matthias Pintscher, Gity Razaz, Gili Schwarzman, Caroline Shaw, Carlos Simon, Gabriela Smith, Ana Sokolović, Joan Tower, Mathilde Wantenaar and Paul Wiancko

To see when Alisa Weilerstein and Fragments might be in your city, please go here.

Main Photo: Alisa Weilerstein in the world premiere performance of Fragments in Toronto in January 2023 (Photo by Lisa Sakulensky/Courtesy 21C Media Group)

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