Classical Notes: Alarums and Excursions Posted by Russell Platt

December 14, 2009
Classical Notes: Alarums and Excursions Posted by Russell Platt

As part of my duties as Classical Editor in the Goings On About Town department, I write a "Classical Notes" column several times a year, usually a concentrated piece about two or three distinctive new recordings. Due to the columns' limited size and frequency, sometimes worthy discs have to be left out that would otherwise suit—the recording was released too late for inclusion, or just didn't quite fit into the tightly organized piece I was writing. Here are some notable additions.

Back in April I wrote "Chopin List", a piece that examined the composer's music in vivid interpretations by Vassily Primakov, Marc-André Hamelin, and Nadia Reisenberg (as well as a rather less-than-vivid Lang Lang). A few weeks ago another Chopin album floated into the office: a "Chopin Recital" from the distinguished Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska. (The label is ATMA Classique, a fine Canadian imprint; they look after their own.) While there are more dazzling pianists on the scene, Fialkowska plays Chopin with a warmth, poetry, and detail of phrasing that is disappointingly rare today; she places her gifts at the composer's feet. She moves through a selection of waltzes, preludes, and mazurkas with aplomb, which is hardly surprising since she began her career as a protégée of Arthur Rubinstein.

As for the impressive Primakov, he's still recording disks for Bridge, where he has become the Romantic House Pianist at a label that usually devotes its energies to the promulgation of multi-volume editions dedicated to the complete works of such modernist biggies as Elliott Carter (now 101 years young!) and George Crumb. His latest effort is a recording of Dvorak's Piano Concerto, a warm-hearted but "difficult" work that always lingers on the edge of the repertoire.

In September, I turned to music by Haydn and Beethoven in "The Classical Style." I was so enraptured by Richard Goode's performances of the Beethoven Piano Concertos, with Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra (are they ever less than great?), that I am loath to add an alternative. Leonard Bernstein's set of Haydn Symphonies with the New York Philharmonic, however, also includes a selection of the composer's late Masses, done in Lenny's typically lush and extravagant style. Those seeking a strong period-instrument version can now look to another hometown favorite: the excellent Choir of Trinity Church Wall Street, which, with the superb Rebel Baroque Orchestra, has recorded all fourteen of the Haydn Masses, just released on Naxos. Most are given trim, well-played and energetic performances by the church's former music director, J. Owen Burdick. The distinguished British conductor Jane Glover, however, was called in to complete the cycle, and she gets three of the great ones, the "Harmoniemesse," the "Schöpfungsmesse," and the "Theresienmesse," all of which she guides with a welcome amplitude and warmth.

My recent, final column was entitled "New-Time Religion," which I particularly enjoyed writing. It showcased two deeply affecting religious works by David Lang and Phil Kline, downtown titans who are as far as you can get from the conservative "choral market" composers who dominate the genre. Both are busy men with a number of recent projects to their credit. Lang branched out into film music with his score for the art-world spoof "Untitled," but the disk (on Canteloupe) provides little more than atmosphere; it's best thought of as an aide-mémoire for fans of the movie. "David Lang: Pierced" (on Naxos American Classics), featuring such stars as the chamber trio Real Quiet, the avant-cabaret vocalist Theo Bleckmann, and Gil Rose's Boston Modern Orchestra Project, is quite another affair, offering a strong account of the eponymous piece (a jagged new concerto) as well as "Cheating, Lying, Stealing" (1993/95), a postmodernist classic, and "Heroin," a bizarrely dreamlike arrangement of Lou Reed's notorious song. Kline, a man who is simply in love with sound, released a major project earlier in the year: "Around the World in a Daze," a special-project disk in which Kline created, out of extravagant electronic means, a series of tableaus designed for the "high-resolution surround sound" DVD format offered by the Starkland label. The result is an audio-visual feast that balances hipster zen with the seriousness of Bach and Wagner, each of whom provide source material (along with sounds collected at the Zürich train station, outside Kline's Henry Street apartment, and at an African watering hole). Supporting parts are played by the string quartet Ethel and its former violinist, Todd Reynolds.
Classical Notes: Alarums and Excursions : The New Yorker Blog : The New Yorker (26 December 2009)
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/tny/2009/12/classical-notes-alarums-and-excursions.html
http://snipurl.com/tv74r