ChordStrike

Arcade Fire Fotes

 Photographer-at-large, David Lichterman (he covered 2010 Sasquatch for us) scored a press pass to the recent Arcade Fire gig at the Key Arena in Seattle.  Here are the results and some words from David. -- Hugo Munday

In Seattle, Autumn marks the tail-end of the festivals and the beginning of an amazing concert season. With big names like The Black Keys, The Dirty Projectors, The Flaming Lips, and Arcade Fire all playing within a 7 day timeframe, it's only natural to have trouble prioritizing which should get your hard-earned dollar.  Speaking of which, a buck from every ticket sold on the Arcade Fire tour is donated to the Haiti aid organization Kanpe.

I had the pleasure of photographing Arcade Fire's Seattle tour stop in support of their third LP, The Suburbs. While, sadly, I didn't get to see the Calexico opener per my own fault for not knowing my way around Seattle's Key Arena, watching the 100 minute set fly by, as I sang along with the crowd, was something rather epic. -- David Lichterman

Stile Antico: Media Vita

In a few days, the wait is over for fans of Stile Antico, the phenomenal vocal ensemble who specialize in Tudor and Renaissance choral music (and high-profile side projects with Sting.)  They release "Media Vita," a selection of works by the sixteenth century composer John Sheppard. 

Less well-known than Thomas Tallis, Sheppard's fame has spread slowly, because his compositions only made it to the twentieth century in manuscript form and many of them are incomplete.  What survives bears all the hallmarks of greatness.  This recording provides ample evidence of his bold, rich and individual harmony, as well as an inspired knack for compositional passion, while still adhering to Archbishop Cranmer's protestant tastes for concise word setting.

The performance captured here is at the same lofty standard that Stile Antico's earlier recordings attained - almost perfect.  This group engages the listener like no other, with the purpose of soloists, the tonal evenness of an ensemble, and with a clarity that is ground-breaking.  On a few listenings, though, this perfection is itself the disc's undoing.  I don't expect my thoughts to be received well, but I'm left willing the performance to move me more than it does.

If I'm honest, I miss children in this music.   Children don't sing as well as the sopranos in Stile Antico, plain and simple.  They are slavishly subservient to the choir director in front of them, the absence of which is one of the inspired features of this group.  They also think about football while they sing and who might get the carol service solo instead of them, but when they get it right, for me, there is an experience beyond the finesse on this album.

If you doubt me, and live within a reasonable distance of New York, duck into St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, during a sung service and judge for yourself.  Profound utterances, from the young, barely conscious of what they say, have a power that was understood by Britten, Walton, Boyce, Greene, Purcell, by all the great composers of liturgical choral music, all the way back to Sheppard.  In the hands of a child, these notes and words come from a different sphere, literally.  A sphere that the rest of us have had to leave behind. -- Hugo Munday

Editor's Choice: Othmar Schoeck, "Notturno"

By the time the European avant garde had advanced to breaking china and blowing train whistles, Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck was deemed "too accessible."  Their loss, as "Notturno," op. 47, (1931-1933) is a post-romantic chamber gem.  Poems by Nikolaus Lenau, scored for string quartet and baritone are given a new reading on an ECM recording featuring the rock-solid, Rosamunde Quartet, with Christian Gerhaher.  This is attractive, meaty, but agile musicianship, showing a wonderful dynamic range.  Extra props go to Herr Gerhaher for his beautiful tone, and impeccable diction. – Hugo Munday

Song for Pain: a Gospel Offering for Haiti

Thanks for the first-hand account of unfolding tragedy, Jason.  It's good to have you back.

I've spent the weekend in Nashville for the 2010 Stellar Awards, as gospel celebrated their big night.

Lots of inspirational, empathetic speeches and prayers as the show began and throughout the evening for the victims of the tragedy unfolding in Haiti.  Underpinning the words, one of the evening's presenters, Kirk Franklin  put the call out earlier last week to singers assembling for the awards, to join him in recording a relief record.

Past midnight on Friday, the night before the Stellars, I packed into an overflowing, nondescript studio off Music Row, while Kirk directed a classic, wailing Mary Mary overlay.  I didn't hear the whole song, but did get a preview of some of the chorus / backup work, which was really uplifting.  I bailed just before CeCe Winans came to contribute, but they went well past 2:00 that morning.

I don't have many details, but I know the working title is "Song for Pain,"  it's in post-production and Kirk and others are working all hours to get their contribution out soon.  I will post more about the project and how they plan to funnel contributions, when I get firm details.  – Hugo Munday

Best Classical Album, 2009: - Bach - Solo Cantatas

This album was released in February, so we had almost a full year containing some excellent recordings in which to check our judgment and yes, this is the best disc in the classical canon for 2009.

Bernarda Fink as contralto soloist with Petra Müllejans directing her and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, offer three Bach cantatas "Geist und Seele wird verwirret," BWV 35, "Gott soll allein mein Herze haben,"  BWV 169, and "Vernugte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust" BWV 170.  All are from a minor fault-line in Bach's output, coming after three years of composing, rehearsing and performing a cantata a week, they focus less on the chorale as a musical and textual pivot and more on the solo voice.  Bach also elevates the organ from the traditional meat and potatoes continuo role, to full concertante instrument.

The Freiburg ensemble kept up an impressive recording schedule in 2009, what with the recent release of an exceptional "Die Schöpfung," (Haydn) under Rene Jacobs, and there is ample evidence on this record, to show why they have become the 'go to' band for authentic instruments. Freiburg's ensemble work is the best of all worlds, giving us the hearty soul of a classical orchestra, but from the authentic texture of original instruments, with breath-taking individual contributions (I'm thinking of the woodwinds, especially.)  Unlike the Haydn box set, Petra Müllejans serves a unique role within the orchestra as both a Musical Director and principle violinist, so the result is light years away from a "what the conductor wants" mindset.

Seminal works, like these cantatas, don't fare well if they're loaded up with superstar brilliance.  Quite often the path to the center of the work is subtractive in that the interpreter removes any and all obstacles between the author and the lucky audience.  On this recording, Bernarda Fink personifies this stripping away of the unnecessary.  Soaring above fine tone and consummate musicianship, she renders some of the most introspective, uncomfortable texts with utter humility and simplicity.  No raised pinky, no chewed scenery, just you, Bach and words that leave you nowhere to hide. -- Hugo Munday.

Best of the Month: Best of the Verdi: Requiems?

The mighty Verdi Requiem has long been a staple of both the huge orchestra and huge opera singer.  Set from the catholic funeral mass,  the practical use in an actual funeral is somehow secondary to the intense drama, which storms down with the full force of a John Martin canvas, on us miserable listeners. 

The last 50 years have given us several notable recordings which are joined this month by a new rendition, offered by EMI.  Produced from a series of live concerts in Rome, Antonio Poppano conducts the orchestra and chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, with soloists whose credentials are impressive; Anja Harteros, Sonia Ganassi, Rolando Villazón and René Pape.  The artwork is flames against a black background.  Flames of passion?  Flames of religious torment?  Both, it turns out.

It is the band and especially the chorus that often take this recording beyond simply good.  Great choruses are rare.  They're horrendously expensive to maintain, and usually the most agile ones are made up of younger singers, whose voices have yet to mature.  Pappano has his hands on the real thing.  The fugal sections of the "Libera me, Domine" are first rate.  Tons of full blooded, mature voices,with beautifully turned-out diction and articulation, demonstrate a heart-felt response to the dynamics of conductor and score.  This brings me back to the flames.  It is never lost on us that we're listening to Italians, making very catholic Italian music, with fire and intensity.

My perception of the Requiem will always be colored by the '67/Solti recording, which is flawed in so many ways but still, one of the most hell-for-leather, viscerally exciting events on record.  I cherish this recording, but the bombast of the Vienna Philharmonic grate on the ear next to this new one.  Also the soloists are too inconsistent.  Marilyn Horn's Peterbuilt gear-change is distracting, Pavarotti delivers a "Ingemisco" for the ages, that is marred by really sloppy editing, Martti Talvela's grip on intonation is tenuous and Sutherland for all her worth, is just plain mis-cast.

The performance of Pappano's soloists are marked by truly impressive legato singing, without exception.  All of them have the courage to throttle back and exhibit pure sotto voce, especially Villazón, but Anja Hartenros leaves the most indelible mark. 

She and once again, that stunning chorus, deliver a "Requiem aeternam" that left me in the middle of the office, wondering what time of day it was.  Youtube has a more. -- Hugo Munday.

ECC: good for a giggle

I missed this first time 'round on NPR, but alert friends sent it my way.

Just for grits and shins.

Bernstein: Mass | Best Release of the Month, Runner up

Things come in clusters, suddenly, when you haven't thought about them in years.  A few weeks back, watching the funeral cortege for Teddy Kennedy, "A Simple Song" from the opening of Bernstein's Mass, popped into my head.

 

Commissioned by Jackie Kennedy to open the Kennedy Center in DC, the whole thing bursts out like new in this Naxos release from the Baltimore Symphony, conducted by Marin Alsop and featuring the radiant Jubilant Sykes, as Celebrant.  Time is hard on much from the 1970s, but not our Mass. -- Hugo Munday

Best Release of the Month | András Schiff: Bach - Six Partitas

 J.S. Bach published his collected Partitas in 1731.  He was 46 years old and had been the cantor at Leipzig's Thomaskirche for eight years.  He had already composed two of the most important choral works; the St. Matthew and St. John passions.  Bach probably attached significance to keyboard works by publishing them as his Opus #1, and they've come to be appreciated as the pinnacle of a form that was soon to fall out of fashion, in favor of other frameworks such as the sonata.

In late August ECM New Series put out a live recording of the Six Partitas, made 2 years ago in Germany, by Andràs Schiff.  Mr. Schiff has already recorded these works, albeit more than 20 years ago, but between these recordings he's been in demand as a conductor, particularly after founding the Cappella Andrea Barca chamber orchestra.  He points to his work from the podium, particularly conducting the choral works mentioned above, as influencing the performance of Bach's keyboard works.

These partitas are offered out of traditional sequence -  V, III, I, II, IV and VI.  Although there is no reason to think that Bach wrote the partitas to be performed together, this arrangement provides the most logical key progression (G - a minor - B flat - c minor - D - e minor).  From his side of the footlights, Schiff also notes that in live performance the inner tranquility of the B-flat major partita (traditionally #1), is something that live audiences are seldom ready or settled-in to hear.  I have no objection to the rearrangement, certainly as VI, which seems the most climatic, still comes last.

Andràs Schiff, is fresh off the completion of a very successful reading of the Beethoven piano Sonatas, again on ECM New Series, but one glance at his discography will tell you that Bach holds a special importance for him.  As one would expect, you can't hear Schiff using any pedal, but the abstinence is much more pronounced than his earlier recording or most other prominent renditions.  The effect is liberating.  Free from lingering harmonics, this performance seems dedicated to the melodies within, as line and voice assume a clarity I've seldom heard.  Recorded live in a 16th Century former armory  in Neumarkt, Germany, there is an almost eerie lack of audience noise, although the placement of left and right hands in the stereo image is nigh on perfect.  Schiff leads the listeners unflagging attention in an unbroken thread for hours.  Masterly. -- Hugo Munday

the beatles in mono: first impressions

It's a miracle I didn't call in sick today, 09.09.09. By noon the faithful brown box was sitting on my doorstep. 

Help!, so to speak. Weigh in and tell me if you've heard the mono box set, and what your first impressions are.  My listening has been totally random.  I've listened to Help! (mono set), Hard Day's Night, Sgt. Pepper's, and Disc 1 of Mono Masters.

Unless you've got a stupidly high end gramophone player and a collection of pristine LPs (for the stuff that was ever on LP vinyl) - have they ever sounded this good?  Certainly in 20 plus years since these came out on CD the first time, technical advances alone, make them sound way better, but I like the unobtrusive hand with which Abbey Road have polished these up.  To my ear they're not only clean as a whistle but the dynamic range seems huge and there is infinitesimal tweaking that you seldom notice.  A little lift in the bass here, guitar there.  I haven't done an A/B comparison yet, which will be the true test.

I can't list everything that's struck me in the last couple of hours (mostly positive), but if you've snagged a copy of these, check out the woodwinds at the beginning of "When I'm Sixty-Four", all the percussion in the reprise of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"  (Strewth! - Chad Smith and Alan White etc. owe Ringo a debt of gratitude).  The Mono Masters is mostly stuff I haven't really heard unless it was on the radio or from a jukebox, so things like the depth of the sound at the opening of "Love Me Do" (single version), left their mark.

Packaging is cute too.  I have to laugh at the irony of reducing the original album art to the size of a CD.  Anyone old enough to remember this stuff, first time around needs a lot of help reading the original notes!

What is the verdict?  Thumbs up or down?