French composer Florent Schmidt (1870-1958) bridged many epochs and essayed many ideas in his compositions. Coming of age during the so called Belle Époque and maturing as an artist during the first decades of the 20^th century, Schmidt became friends with the who’s who of French artists when he fell in with Les Apaches, a group of artists that at one time or another included the likes of Ravel and Stravinsky.

Even though it would have logical for Schmidt to be influenced by the teachings of Massenet and Fauré, with both of whom he studied at the Conservatoire, as well as by the music of Ravel and some of the other French members of Les Apaches, Schmidt gravitated instead to the Germanic ideas about orchestration of Wagner and Strauss and Stravinsky’s modernisms.

Not well liked in Parisian musical circles not only by the mere fact of being a caustic critic, but also by both his eccentric behavior at concerts which he would disrupt by yelling insults at the performers, and by his Anti-Semitism (once yelling “Vive Hitler!” at a concert featuring the music of Kurt Weill), Schmidt was hated by his off-putting personality and ill-mannered behavior.

But personality aside and sixty years after his death, Schmidt’s music is largely neglected so that the release of this CD of his music, beautifully executed by Maestra JoAnn Falletta, here conducting Orianne with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra accompanying the honeyed-voice mezzo-soprano Susan Platts singing both La Tragédie de Salomé and Musique sur l’eau, and the superb violinist Nikki Choi playing Légende, is a welcome addition to the NAXOS catalogue.

Rafael de Acha  www.RafaelMusicNotes.com

Heitor Villa⁠-⁠Lobos wrote eleven symphonies, written between 1916 and 1957. Ranging from his first five: nos. 1 –O Imprevisto (Unforeseen); 2 – Ascensão (Ascension); 3 – Guerra (War); 4 – A Vitória  (Victory); through the mature no. 6- Sobre a linha das montanhas do Brasil (On the Outline of the Mountains of Brazil); and numbers 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12; the tenth: Sinfonia ameríndia com coros (Amerindian Choral Symphony, and the lost 5th , they offer a panoramic aural landscape of the Brazilian composer’s talent.

Villa-Lobos – self-taught, alternately abhorred for his politics and admired by both his compatriots and the likes of Segovia, Milhaud and Rubinstein for his artistry – is a figure of great contrasts who found his true musical soul and inspiration in the sounds of Brazilian popular music.

At times his early works come off sounding derivative and pseudo-European, but when inspired and mature, his compositions burst forth with tremendous energy, Brazilian rhythmic pulse, and sweeping melody, never more than in his sixth and tenth symphonies and in the symphonic poem Uirapuru, a 1917 work subtitled O passarinho encantado (The Enchanted Little Bird) as enchanting a composition as the feathered subject of its title.

I highly recommend this six-CD Naxos collection (Naxos 8.506039) that continues the label’s invaluable ongoing exploration of Brazilian concert music, here played to utter perfection by the superb São Paulo Symphony Orchestra led by Isaac Karabtchevsky.

Rafael de Acha                  www.RafaelMusicNotes.com

English tenor Ian Bostridge recently sang a Wigmore Hall performance of Schubert’s song cycle Die schöne Müllerin accompanied by pianist Saskia Giorgini captured and now released by Pentatone (PTC5186775, CD).

Needed for a great performance of Die schöne Müllerin, to begin with, are a keen pair of interpreters – the pianist not merely an accompanist but a sensitive artist with a gift for both following the singer and for imprinting on Schubert’s piano part the collaborative artist’s viewpoint, one consonant with that of the singer.

As for the singer, a gifted artist is required, one endowed with a supple vocal instrument capable of singing twenty songs, many of them strophic, avoiding sameness and with the ability to imbue each song with a gamut of colors ranging from melancholy, to passion, to anger and to ultimate resignation.

While tenor Ian Bostridge has enjoyed a successful career primarily as a recitalist and concert singer since making his professional debut at the age of 27, today his vocal instrument betrays some wear and tear, most evident in the top range that once was easy vocal territory for his light lyric voice. While  he is fully in command of the most dramatic of the songs in the cycle – Ungeduld, for example, in an earlier recording with pianist Mitsuko Uchida, today at age 56 he has to reach for the top notes in that song, creating the impression of discomfort in that part of his voice and evidencing some roughness in his tone.

Ian Bostridge is still capable of singing with utter gentleness the more lyrical songs in the cycle – Wohin, for one, and the final sequence of Trockne Blumen, Der Müller und der Bach, and Des Baches Wiegenlied.

Schubert wrote these songs for the tenor voice, although he later transposed them to medium voice keys accessible to baritones, such as Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, Gerard Souzay, Mathias Goerne, and Hermann Prey. Tenors Jonas Kauffmann, Christoph Prégardien, and Fritz Wunderlich among countless others have sung and recorded Schubert’s song cycle  Die schöne Müllerin in the original keys all with a modicum of success. I prefer the recordings of baritone Hermann Prey and tenor Fritz Wunderlich, both of which attain vocal perfection and the ability to get across the words of Wilhelm Müller.

To summarize, throughout his thirty year career Ian Bostridge has achieved many glories. Perhaps   the time has come for him to reconsider his repertory choices, so that we can remember him not only as the great singer of three decades ago but as one of today’s most skilled concert singers.

Rafael de Acha  www.RafaelMusicNotes.com

Thanks to various CD’s released by REFERENCE RECORDINGS I have become an admirer of the music of American composer Jonathan Leshnoff. Over the past two years I have enthusiastically reviewed two of his works: the Double Concerto for Clarinet and Bassoon, and his Symphony no. 4, “Heichalos.”

In a recent REFERENCE RECORDINGS release featuring Leshnoff’s piano concerto and his Symphony no. 3, Michael Stern leads the formidable Kansas Symphony Orchestra, with Joyce Yang as the concerto soloist and baritone Stephen Powell as the vocal soloist in the symphony’s third movement.

The impressive lineup of soloists and the sterling work of the Kansas musicians numbers immense artistic rewards in this treasure of a recording, impeccably engineered and produced by Dirk Sobatka of Soundmirror.

Jonathan Leshnoff explains and insightfully annotates his music better than anyone else could in his excellently written liner notes. The concerto – a 2019 composition dedicated to Joyce Yang is, as so much of Leshnoff music a spiritual work, deeply anchored in Jewish mysticism. Structured in four movements – a straightforward Allegro, a meditative Lento, a playful and brief Scherzo, and a rousing Finale – the composition is technically challenging, and it affords the soloist numerous opportunities to display her virtuosity.  Her sensitivity, when the music calls for a cantabile approach, reminds the listener of the immensity of Joyce Yang’s pianistic gifts.

The Symphony no. 3 is a riveting composition that incorporates into its third movement the texts of two letters unearthed by the composer in the archives of the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas. One is from Dr. Charles Irons, who served with the American Expeditionary Forces in Siberia. The other is from Lieutenant James Kellogg Burnham Hockaday, a First Lieutenant, 354th Infantry, 89th Division, from Kansas City, Missouri.

While the symphony’s first movement begins slowly and meditatively, the music eventually climaxes, leading to a restless second movement that in Leshnoff’s words is “depiction of war and battles.” The second movement leads to the heart and soul of the composition: a third movement that quietly makes its case musically to then calmly taper off into silence in a remarkable ending to a masterful work.

The texts are both touching and noble, with the composer allowing the words to be up front and center. Baritone Stephen Powell was chosen for the task and he delivers a wonderful performance with utmost vocal ease and flawless diction.

The Kansas City Symphony, led by Michael Stern provides first class support to the soloists and a deeply committed approach to the music of Jonathan Leshnoff.

Rafael de Acha

www.RafaelMusicNotes.com

Bright Shiny Things is releasing VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS

In a world-premiere recording of eighteenth century a cappella music conceived by and written for members of the Pennsylvania Ephrata community, Bright Shiny Things introduces the listener to American music by members of a Pietist community of celibate men and women that flourished during the 1700’s in Colonial America.

Dedicated to a simple life of work and worship, the self-sustaining Ephrata community, founded in 1732 by Conrad Beissel, encouraged the talents of its residents, among them Christianna Lassle, two of whose compositions are heard in this album.

Over 126 works, eleven of which are performed in this recording were unearthed, transcribed and edited by musicologist Christopher Dylan Herbert, who acted as both musical director and producer of the recording.

The results could hardly be improved upon. The flawless engineering, mastering, and mixing, the thoroughly informative liner notes, and the handsome packaging are all in service of the music, which proves to be beautiful and eminently accessible on first listening. The writing is straightforward, unembellished, true to the texts, and obeying a no-nonsense compositional code established by Conrad Beissel, the founder and director of the Ephrata Community.

In spite of the severe aesthetic of Beissel, the response of this listener was one of enchantment with the purity of the music and enormous respect for the various works and the dedication of its creators and the excellence and artistry of a superb quartet: Soprano Elizabeth Bates, Male Alto Clifton Massey, Tenor Nils Neubert, and Bass Steven Hrycelak.

VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS (BSTC 0141) is available from Bright Shiny Things ( www.brightshiny.ninja )

Rafael de Acha

www.RafaelMusicNotes.com