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The perfect gift for opera lovers this Christmas Your front row seat to all new Glyndebourne productions and much-loved classics Welcome to Glyndebourne Encore. Our new streaming platform gives you unlimited access to a growing collection of world-class operas available to watch in full, on demand, plus exclusive behind-the-scenes insights into an Opera of the Month. New from Festival 2022 AVAILABLE NOW: Ethel Smyth The Wreckers, Handel Alcina, Poulenc Double Bill COMING THIS NOVEMBER: Puccini La bohème A year of opera for £79.99. Gifting options available. encore.glyndebourne.com
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A special eight-page section focusing on recent recordings from the US and Canada Danielpour Twelve Études for Piano. Lullaby. Piano Fantasy (‘Wenn ich einmall soll scheiden’). Song without Words Stefano Greco pf Naxos American Classics (8 559922 • 66’) Richard Danielpour’s Twelve Études may not expand virtuoso boundaries to the extent that Chopin, Liszt, Godowsky and Ligeti did in their times. Yet they are thoroughly idiomatic, well crafted and as appealing to the ear as they seem rewarding to pianist Stefano Greco. Although arpeggiated figures are No 1’s focus, it’s the melodies that linger in your mind’s ear. No 2 features the right hand plucking carefully chosen and strategically placed pitches on the strings inside the piano. Both loud and soft full-sounding chords gently resonate throughout No 3, as if Mussorgsky and Messiaen were breaking bread. No 4 is less interesting, a fusion of Prokofievian bounce and those eight-tone scales Scriabin made famous and that Leon Kirchner employed ad infinitum. No 5’s energetic octaves move in chromatic waves that congeal into tonal syncopation, channelling Leonard Bernstein’s ‘America’ from West Side Story. Perhaps the brooding étude on sixths and trills (No 6), the sensitive, lyrical No 9 for the left hand and an often gnarly ornamentation study (No 11) are the cycle’s most serious and substantial. Danielpour’s 18-minute Piano Fantasy is essentially a free set of variations based on the final chorale of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. The composer sustains its time scale by deftly balancing turbulent virtuosity and achingly sparse episodes. The final variation is a fugue that commences in clear-cut tonality, only to grow more desperately dissonant as the music progessses; Busoni would have appreciated the composer’s game plan. Finally, Lullaby and Song without Words are piano transcriptions of interludes from Danielpour’s opera-in-progress The Grand Hotel Tartarus. The interludes may be purely instrumental, yet they embody heartfelt song. I second the composer’s enthusiasm over Greco’s masterfully internalised and excellently engineered interpretations. Highly recommended. Jed Distler Higdon . Jalbert . JI Tate ‘MoonStrike’ Higdon In the Shadow of the Mountain Jalbert L’esprit du Nord JI Tate MoonStrikea a John Herrington narr Apollo Chamber Players Azica (ACD71352 • 60’) To say that the works on this recording are out of this world would only be partly accurate, and it’s certainly not a comment on their quality, which is high. The superb Houston-based string quartet Apollo Chamber Players focus on what they term ‘globally inspired music’, including commissioned pieces by composers of many cultures. The three scores performed here came to life as part of the ensemble’s ‘20x2020’ project, which, if the name is precise, produced 17 other new works. The album draws its title from the only piece directly connected to the heavens. Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate wrote MoonStrike in 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon-landing. The work is scored for string quartet and a narrator who weaves stories of American Indian origin into the musical fabric. Tate evokes a spectrum of earthly and other-worldly auras that serve the whimsical, dramatic and hopeful stories of celestial resonance to striking effect. The narrator is John Herrington, a former NASA astronaut of Chickasaw heritage, who revels in the fantastical tales. Jennifer Higdon’s In the Shadow of the Mountain (2020) reflects the composer’s feelings about her youth in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. The writing is rich in overlapping commentary, the strings engaging in deeply expressive and intense appreciation of the environmental wonders Higdon experienced. Bits of folk songs from the French-Canadian heritage of the composer Pierre Jalbert pervade his L’esprit du Nord (‘Spirit of the North’), which includes several field recordings that provide impetus for the haunting and rollicking activity that keep the string quartet in fervent action. The members of the Apollo Chamber Players shape each score with urgent sensitivity, savouring both the sweetness of the intimate moments and the robust motion that often catapults these works into vibrant orbit. Donald Rosenberg Tanguy Élégiea. Quattro Intermezzib. Invocationc. Le lys et la lyred. Nouvelle Étudeb. Piano Trioe. Sonata for Two Violinsf d Elissa Johnston sop aefAmbroise Aubrun, f Martin Chalifour vns cdeCécilia Tsan vc be Steven Vanhauwaert pf Navona (NV6451 • 62’) Usually, contemporary composers’ works are promoted by one or two labels, but the discography of Éric Tanguy (b1968) is remarkably (and encouragingly) diverse. Navona has now joined the list of companies recording his music with a very nicely produced and engaging programme of chamber and instrumental works covering the period 1994 – when he commenced the brief, anger-filled Élégie (commemorating the premature death of a college friend) – to 2019, with the writing of the beautiful, if relatively brief, cantata Le lys et la lyre, commissioned by cellist Cécilia Tsan, the sensitive accompanist for Elissa Johnston, with whom she premiered it last year at Mount Wilson Observatory. The concentrated Piano Trio (2010-11) is a powerful yet melodically interesting piece, compellingly performed by Ambroise Aubrun, Tsan (who also commissioned it) and Steven Vanhauwaert. They are manifestly attuned to Tanguy’s wavelength, gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE NOVEMBER 2022 I

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A special eight-page section focusing on recent recordings from the US and Canada

Danielpour Twelve Études for Piano. Lullaby. Piano Fantasy (‘Wenn ich einmall soll scheiden’). Song without Words Stefano Greco pf Naxos American Classics (8 559922 • 66’)

Richard Danielpour’s Twelve Études may not expand virtuoso boundaries to the extent that Chopin, Liszt, Godowsky and Ligeti did in their times. Yet they are thoroughly idiomatic, well crafted and as appealing to the ear as they seem rewarding to pianist Stefano Greco.

Although arpeggiated figures are No 1’s focus, it’s the melodies that linger in your mind’s ear. No 2 features the right hand plucking carefully chosen and strategically placed pitches on the strings inside the piano. Both loud and soft full-sounding chords gently resonate throughout No 3, as if Mussorgsky and Messiaen were breaking bread. No 4 is less interesting, a fusion of Prokofievian bounce and those eight-tone scales Scriabin made famous and that Leon Kirchner employed ad infinitum.

No 5’s energetic octaves move in chromatic waves that congeal into tonal syncopation, channelling Leonard Bernstein’s ‘America’ from West Side Story. Perhaps the brooding étude on sixths and trills (No 6), the sensitive, lyrical No 9 for the left hand and an often gnarly ornamentation study (No 11) are the cycle’s most serious and substantial.

Danielpour’s 18-minute Piano Fantasy is essentially a free set of variations based on the final chorale of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. The composer sustains its time scale by deftly balancing turbulent virtuosity and achingly sparse episodes. The final variation is a fugue that commences in clear-cut tonality, only to grow more desperately dissonant as the music progessses; Busoni would have appreciated the composer’s game plan. Finally, Lullaby and Song without Words are piano transcriptions of interludes from Danielpour’s opera-in-progress The Grand

Hotel Tartarus. The interludes may be purely instrumental, yet they embody heartfelt song. I second the composer’s enthusiasm over Greco’s masterfully internalised and excellently engineered interpretations. Highly recommended. Jed Distler

Higdon . Jalbert . JI Tate ‘MoonStrike’ Higdon In the Shadow of the Mountain Jalbert L’esprit du Nord JI Tate MoonStrikea a John Herrington narr Apollo Chamber Players Azica (ACD71352 • 60’)

To say that the works on this recording are out of this world would only be partly accurate, and it’s certainly not a comment on their quality, which is high. The superb Houston-based string quartet Apollo Chamber Players focus on what they term ‘globally inspired music’, including commissioned pieces by composers of many cultures. The three scores performed here came to life as part of the ensemble’s ‘20x2020’ project, which, if the name is precise, produced 17 other new works.

The album draws its title from the only piece directly connected to the heavens. Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate wrote MoonStrike in 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon-landing. The work is scored for string quartet and a narrator who weaves stories of American Indian origin into the musical fabric. Tate evokes a spectrum of earthly and other-worldly auras that serve the whimsical, dramatic and hopeful stories of celestial resonance to striking effect. The narrator is John Herrington, a former NASA astronaut of Chickasaw heritage, who revels in the fantastical tales.

Jennifer Higdon’s In the Shadow of the Mountain (2020) reflects the composer’s feelings about her youth in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. The writing is rich in overlapping commentary, the strings engaging in deeply expressive and intense appreciation of the environmental wonders Higdon experienced. Bits of folk songs from the French-Canadian heritage of the composer Pierre Jalbert pervade his L’esprit du Nord (‘Spirit of the North’), which includes several field recordings that provide impetus for the haunting and rollicking activity that keep the string quartet in fervent action.

The members of the Apollo Chamber Players shape each score with urgent sensitivity, savouring both the sweetness of the intimate moments and the robust motion that often catapults these works into vibrant orbit. Donald Rosenberg

Tanguy Élégiea. Quattro Intermezzib. Invocationc. Le lys et la lyred. Nouvelle Étudeb. Piano Trioe. Sonata for Two Violinsf d Elissa Johnston sop aefAmbroise Aubrun, f Martin Chalifour vns cdeCécilia Tsan vc be Steven Vanhauwaert pf Navona (NV6451 • 62’)

Usually, contemporary composers’ works are promoted by one or two labels, but the discography of Éric Tanguy (b1968) is remarkably (and encouragingly) diverse. Navona has now joined the list of companies recording his music with a very nicely produced and engaging programme of chamber and instrumental works covering the period 1994 – when he commenced the brief, anger-filled Élégie (commemorating the premature death of a college friend) – to 2019, with the writing of the beautiful, if relatively brief, cantata Le lys et la lyre, commissioned by cellist Cécilia Tsan, the sensitive accompanist for Elissa Johnston, with whom she premiered it last year at Mount Wilson Observatory.

The concentrated Piano Trio (2010-11) is a powerful yet melodically interesting piece, compellingly performed by Ambroise Aubrun, Tsan (who also commissioned it) and Steven Vanhauwaert. They are manifestly attuned to Tanguy’s wavelength,

gramophone.co.uk

GRAMOPHONE NOVEMBER 2022 I

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