Twelve Days of Christmas: More from Istanbul and the Mediterranean

La Sublime Porte: Voix d'Istanbul, M. Figueras, G. Dinçer, L. Elmaleh, Hespèrion XXI, J. Savall (released on November 25, 2011) Alia Vox AVSA 9887 | 79'49" [MP3] Mare Nostrum, M. Figueras, L. Elmaleh, Hespèrion XXI, J. Savall (released on January 10, 2012) Alia Vox AVSA 9888A+B | 158'03" [MP3]

After the success of the album Istanbul last year, Jordi Savall continues a fruitful collaboration with musicians from Turkey and other parts of the Middle East. The title of this new disc, La Sublime Porte, refers both to the gate of the Vizier's palace in Istanbul and the role of that city as portal of transition between East and West. In a similar vein, Mare Nostrum -- Hespèrion XXI's latest CD-Book, as these lavishly produced sets are called -- is a 2-CD exploration of music of various traditions from the lands around "our sea," the Mediterranean. The latter release, scheduled for early next month, is a long-term project, with recording sessions stretching back to 2009. The group produces so many fine recordings, at a dizzying pace, that it would be reckless to recommend all of them. Both of these recordings can be enjoyed without the full trappings of thick booklets (in, let's face it, far too many languages) and SACD sound, since the performances are probably just as pleasing in much less expensive mp3 format.

In particular, the philosophical self-seriousness of the Mare Nostrum booklet essays, weaving together details of history and geography of the Mediterranean region with ponderous political diatribes on the Arab spring uprisings and immigration issues in Europe, far outweighs the rather simple music recorded here, a string of dance pieces, lullabies, and love songs, some of it medieval and much of it from the last two centuries. The mixture of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim music is a hot trend at the moment: we just reviewed two programs featuring Sephardic music in that combination, by the Rose Ensemble and the Boston Camerata. Here, as there, the problem of trying to pass off folk music of recent vintage as a comparison to notated medieval music is evident. Again, listening to the performances, which are all lovely and made with obvious conviction, is more satisfying by itself than trying to coordinate it with the somewhat superfluous, quasi-historical stuff. In short, this is pretty music but not compulsory listening.

In fact, the most compelling attraction of both of these discs is the chance to hold onto the sound of soprano Montserrat Figueras, the wife and muse of Jordi Savall, who passed away last month. Overall, La Sublime Porte is the more pleasing of these two discs, but Figueras is heard on only two tracks, rendered poignant mostly because they were recorded, in a chapel in Catalunya, only a few months before she died. In both recordings, her light, increasingly frail voice is paired with that of Israeli folk singer Lior Elmaleh. His is also a lovely voice, rather than a great one, attuned to the folk styles featured here, blurred together in a sort of potpourri. There is nothing stopping his rendition of the final tune, the title track of Mare Nostrum, from becoming the next Euro pop hit.

In Brief: Cinderella and Kissin Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond. Happy New Year!

• If you missed Laurent Pelly's marvelous production of Massenet's Cendrillon when it was at Santa Fe Opera, you can watch it online from Brussels. [Théâtre de la Monnaie]


• From the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, you will not want to miss the 10th anniversary concert of Le Concert d’Astrée: Emmanuelle Haïm conducts an all-star assortment of vocalists, including Natalie Dessay, Patricia Petibon, Sandrine Piau, Sara Mingardo, Phillipe Jaroussky, Rolando Villazon, and many more. [France Musique]


• Watch the New Year's concert with the Berlin Philharmonic and pianist Evgeny Kissin, under the baton of Simon Rattle. [Medici.tv]


• There is also Evgeny Kissin with Charles Dutoit and the Verbier Festival Orchestra, also Chopin. [Medici.tv]


• More Evgeny Kissin, this time at a gala concert with the Israel Philharmonic, plus Vadim Repin and Julian Rachlin. [ARTE Live Web]


• Evgeny Kissin again, for the win: his solo recital, also part of the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the Israel Philharmonic. [ARTE Live Web]


• Alexei Volodin gives a recital of music by Chopin, Liszt, Reubke, and Schumann. [France Musique]


• Watch Murray Perahia playing Beethoven with the Israel Philharmonic. [ARTE Live Web]


• Pianist Nikolaï Lugansky joins the Russian National Orchestra, under the baton of Mikhail Pletnev, for music by Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, and Tchaikovsky in the Salle Pleyel in Paris. [France Musique]


• See another pianist, Haochen Zhang, also with the Israel Philharmonic. [ARTE Live Web]


• Listen to a performance of Rameau's extraordinary opera Castor et Pollux, from the Festival Baroque de Sablé, by the group Ausonia led by Frédérick Haas. [France Musique]


• Watch the operatic portion of the New Year Concert from Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Verdi's chorus Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate and the brindisi from La Traviata are de rigueur. [ARTE Live Web]


• Hear a recital by pianist Denis Zhdanov, recorded this summer in Barcelona: Prokofiev's 8th sonata and suite from Romeo and Juliet, plus pieces by Falla and Turina. Click on the headphones icon to start the streaming audio. [France Musique]


• The choir Accentus, the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Rouen-Haute-Normandie, and a quintet of soloists perform music by Bruch and Schumann, from the Cité de la Musique. [France Musique]

Classical Music Agenda: January 2012

Readers have long been asking for a monthly feature with picks for the best things to hear in the month to come. It is the sort of piece I have often written for other outlets, and now it will run here instead. My goal for this Classical Music Agenda is to have the widest possible awareness of what is being performed, from which only the most promising performances, no more than ten, will be selected each month.

EARLY MUSIC:
As noted earlier this month, Pope Benedict XVI has announced his plan to make clear and final the canonization of Hildegard von Bingen, the medieval abbess, mystic, and composer. Celebrate this most unusual woman, who will also be given the title Doctor of the Church, with a concert of her music by the outstanding vocal quartet Anonymous 4, joining with the period string players of the Folger Consort. The program also includes later medieval pieces by the composers of the Notre Dame school. January 6 and 7, 8 pm, in Washington National Cathedral, where the listening experience will be better the closer you are to the performers. Tickets: $30 to $50.

We have long been admirers of the playing of viola da gambist Paolo Pandolfo. You should not pass up the chance to hear him play at the Library of Congress, in a program that will combine music of J. S. Bach and the lesser-known Carl Friedrich Abel. January 28, 2 pm. Tickets: Free.

A recommendation for a trip to Baltimore does not come easily, but the concert by the Canadian HIP ensemble Les Violons du Roy at Shriver Hall, the only one in our area this season, is worth it. The program features music by Handel, Telemann, Sammartini, and Geminiani, with recorder player Maurice Steger as soloist. January 29, 5:30 pm. Tickets: $38.

MORE RECENT MUSIC:
Hannu Lintu's recent appearances with the National Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra have been highlights of past seasons. The Finnish conductor returns to the NSO this month, with the added incentive of firecracker violinist Leila Josefowicz, to present Steven Mackey's violin concerto Beautiful Passing. Also on the program are a set of Debussy's preludes, orchestrated by Colin Matthews, and Sibelius's fifth symphony. January 12 to 14, Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets: $20 to $85.

Conductor Hannu Lintu

Christoph Eschenbach also offers a striking program with the NSO later this month. Jörg Widmann will serve as soloist in Mozart's golden clarinet concerto, as well as offer one of his own compositions, Armonica, featuring Christa Schönfeldinger on the glass armonica, the zany instrument featured earlier this year in Lucia di Lammermoor. January 26 to 29, Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets: $20 to $85.

A LITTLE OF THIS:
Most of Opera Lafayette's performances recommend themselves, and even when they might disappoint it is still worth hearing lesser-known operas. Such is the case with this month's staged performance of Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny's opéra-comique Le Roi et le Fermier, which receives its modern-day premiere, in preparation for the company's debut in February at the Royal Opera in Versailles. January 20, Atlas Performing Arts Center (tickets, $20); January 21, 7:30 pm, in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater (tickets, $65 -- SOLD OUT).

I had the chance to speak to violinist Joshua Bell earlier this month, about his upcoming WPAS recital, with pianist Sam Haywood. He was quick to confirm that he will not be performing incognito in the Metro this time, and for the rest of what he said look for an interview piece here later this month. Although I characterized his program as following his typical Romantic bent, Bell sees it as contrasting classical impulses (Mendelssohn and Brahms) with Romantic ones (Ravel, Ysaÿe, Gershwin). January 23, 8 pm, Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets: $45 to $115.

In the dance slot this month, among a few excellent choices, is the outstanding choreography of Handel's L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato by Mark Morris Dance Group. Morris's dances are always carefully matched to the music they set, performed live in this case by the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, choral singers from the Washington Bach Consort, and four fine vocal soloists. Not to be missed. January 26 to 28, 7:30 pm, Kennedy Center Opera House. Tickets: $19 to $69.

The National Gallery of Art is reopening its 19th-Century French Galleries, and there is un tas de concerts to celebrate the event on the last weekend of the month. Performers include Men in Blaque, an unusual all-male choir from the University of California at Irvine, the Grammy-winning organist Paul Jacobs, The Singers Companye, organist Alexander Frey, and the NGA Vocal Ensemble. January 28 and 29, various times, NGA West Building. Tickets: Free.

You can be the judge of the opera singers of tomorrow, by attending the Metropolitan Opera National Council's Middle Atlantic Region Auditions. The best young singers from this part of the world will have the chance to sing two arias each, competing for the chance to go to New York for the national competition and a possible spot in the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. January 29, 2 pm, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Tickets: $32.

See the full calendar for the month of January.

Listen What the Cat Dragged In: Thielemann's Vienna Beethoven

L.v.Beethoven, The 9 Symphonies, C.Thielemann / WPh / A.Dasch, M.Fujimura, P.Beczala, G.Zappenfeld Sony

Christian Thielemann's Beethoven set first came out on Blu-ray and DVD (C major / Unitel) which was, along with Weinberg's "The Passenger", reason enough to finally get into Blu-ray. The picture of the Blu-ray set does look fantastic, indeed so much that it is almost worth watching the performances, rather than (just) listening to them.

Still, I generally prefer pure audio listening (and many homes are set up with better audio-only equipment, relying on perfectly inadequate TV speakers for sound that accompanies pictures), and so I'm very happy to see the cycle out on CD. Thanks to their new-found relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic, Sony jumped to the occasion and issued the set as a belated Christmas present to Beethoven-lovers on December 27th.

The first impression: The packaging is marvelous. Similar to the Chailly Beethoven-set on Decca, it's a thick book with page-sleeves... generous with pictures and text. Better yet, it is bound in white cloth and—this distinguishes it from the Decca release which comes in a comparatively flimsy paper slipcase—the slipcase is also bound in white cloth with bold magenta, gold, and white-on-white lettering. Minor, superficial details, perhaps, but all the same an asset for those who cherish haptic pleasures. Handling the set is a joy. The symphonies are spread over six CDs (no overtures included) and one 45-minute "Making van Beethoven" German/English documentary that strikes me like a luxury trailer for the DVD/Blu-ray set.

L.v.Beethoven, Symphony No.4, 4th Movement (excerpt), Christian Thielemann, WPh, Sony 7927172

I am still going through the performances to gather more definite impressions, but I have already come across several gorgeous highlights on the Blu-ray that I am looking forward to re-encountering on CD. What is evident throughout is that the Vienna Philharmonic plays for "CT" like they do for no other conductor.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Chants of Angels

The Chants of Angels, Gloriæ Dei Cantores (released on September 13, 2011) GDCD 051 | 59'14"

Angels, of course, are a phenomenon that goes far beyond Christmas, the Christian kitsch equivalent of the New Age crystal. The idea behind this new release is to bring together as many chants as possible that contain the word "angelus" in some form (Angelis suis, Immitet angelus, Benedicite omnes angeli, Stetit angelus -- you get the idea) or that set words spoken by an angel in the Bible (the angelic hymn known as the Gloria, for example). The packaging of the disc, with a booklet fluttering with seraphic wings in various pastel hues, certainly plays to the angel market. The programming idea is not exactly brilliant, it must be said, combining chants from Michaelmas, Guardian Angels, and a couple other liturgical occasions. It does not help that the chants are all sung from the modern Solesmes editions, honorable and expertly edited, yes, but not really of historical interest. The singing is generally good, with male voices edging out the female ones for beauty and unity of sound (the woman a little pinched and nasal, and fussier of diction). There is something special about actual monks singing Gregorian chant, however, as noted earlier this week of the new recording from the Cistercians of Stift Heiligenkreuz. The voices recorded here are not those of monks, but of an ecumenical community named the Community of Jesus, founded in 1958 in a part of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The group of lay people celebrate the Divine Office together, in a form of prayer modeled on Benedictine practice, and their choir, known as the Gloriæ Dei Cantores, is heard on this disc (the sound captured in the group's resonant Church of the Transfiguration in Rock Harbor). Not the best chant recording I have heard, by any means, but a lovely diversion.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Sonia Wieder-Atherton

Vita (Monteverdi / Scelsi), S. Wieder-Atherton, S. Lancu, M. Lejeune (released on March 29, 2011) Naïve V 5257 | 1h08

We have been following the work of cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, rewarding for both her playing and her daring programming. After an absorbing 2009 release, Chants d'Est (a "journey of 24 hours" through Slavic music), she has combined the music of two Italian composers, Claudio Monteverdi and Giacinto Scelsi, from opposite ends of the history of tonal music. I have my doubts about Scelsi, although his music is at the very least perplexing and therefore fun to unravel. As expected of Wieder-Atherton, the approach is a personal one, with the title of Vita derived from her first thought about the program (about "Life and Fate"). In the program notes, she writes that the combination of Scelsi and Monteverdi was inspired by her feeling "that both of them explored the forces within human nature. Both in their own particular way attempted to reach out to what binds human beings to the cosmos, to the worlds beyond." Wieder-Atherton's impassioned performances of four Scelsi movements, from the "large fresco cycle" of Trilogy (sections from the "Three Ages of Man"), are interspersed with her arrangements of Monteverdi pieces (partial credit given also to experimental composer Franck Krawczyk, who helps Wieder-Atherton design her projects), mostly from the eighth book of the composer's madrigals, on warlike and amorous subjects (joined by two younger cellists, Sarah Lancu and Mattheiu Lejeune). Wieder-Atherton has imagined a narrative to accompany the selection of music, some story about a male character and a female character, Angel and Angioletta, who are actually the same person in different periods of history, followed throughout the three ages of life. One can ignore it completely and still enjoy this diverting and rewarding disc.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Cantus

Christmas with Cantus (released on October 4, 2011) CTS-1211 | 54'03"

We took note of Cantus, an all-male vocal ensemble formed at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, a few years ago when they performed at the Kennedy Center with Trio Mediæval. In the choice of music for that performance, the group seemed to remain too much in the world of the collegian a cappella group, and their latest recording, although it has some beautiful tracks, makes the same misstep. The sound, captured in a chapel at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, is lovely, with a beautifully blended and balanced sound coming unraveled only at a few places where volume was applied over-zealously. The group's rendition of Franz Biebl's lush Ave Maria is calm and warm, as is the world premiere recording of a new setting of the O Magnum Mysterium text by Brian A. Schmidt, not a bad piece but hard to distinguish from the work of many choral composers, like Whitacre and Tavener, whose equally undistinguished Awed by the Beauty is also featured. The typical sampling of carols from around the world, in arrangements by the group's members and others, turns up some British favorites (Nowell Nowell is the Salutacion and Coventry Carol), Native American carols (Twas in the Moon of Wintertime and Heleluyan), and other choices from France, Russia, Slovenia, and Scandinavia. Many readers will cringe, therefore, at the Bing Crosby turn the album takes, with a cute Carol of the Bells, the despicable Do You Hear What I Hear? (performed with guitar and finger-cymbals, as if at church camp), and a smarmy Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Worst of all, the group sneaks in The Little Drummer Boy, a tune that is as tedious as it is impossible to erase from one's memory, weaving it in perniciously with a Burgundian carol about a drummer, echoed by a drum circle of random percussion. So, a guilty pleasure perhaps, but lovely music to play in the background at your Christmas party.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Amor et Passio

Chant: Amor et Passio, Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz [mp3] (released on November 3, 2011) Obsculta Music | 72'33"

Everything about the secular celebration of Christmas is backwards. We are suffocated with Christmas carols and decorations earlier and earlier in the fall, so that by the time Christmas arrives, when people should be decorating their houses and trimming trees and singing carols, most are tired of the idea. Christmastide is supposed to last until Epiphany, on January 6 (the so-called Twelve Days of Christmas, as in the famous song about leaping lords and partridges in pear trees), and by extension through Epiphanytide until Purification, on February 2. Instead, within a day or two of Christmas, people are throwing their Christmas trees out into the street, and just when we would be happy to hear carols, Christmas dies without the commercial drive to support it. In this period we like to offer up some brief thoughts on recent releases of music we have enjoyed, both Christmas-related and not.

The Cistercian monks at Stift Heiligenkreuz made news a couple years ago when they released a recording of chant on the Universal/Decca label. That disc was eventually repackaged as a two-disc set, with an extra disc of Advent and Christmas chants, that is worth a listen. The monks, in fact, have gone full tilt technologically speaking, even hosting their own Monastic Channel (auf Deutsch) on YouTube. The Austrian monks have now launched their own label, Obsculta Music, with this new CD that also features their community's singing (available through Amazon, but at the moment only as mp3 files). One can hear Gregorian chant performed many different ways, from the very humble to the most polished professional musicians. Some of my favorite recordings remain those made by monks and nuns, like the monks of Solesmes and Santo Domingo de Silos, and the monks of Heiligenkreuz fall into the same category -- not as purely gorgeous in sound as a group of professional singers, but imbued with a sense of devotion to this music as much more than just notes on a page.

The disc follows a Holy Week trajectory, with music from Holy Thursday (Amor), Good Friday (Passio), Easter (Silentium et Jubilatio), and finally a glimpse of heaven itself (Caelum). In that final section the monks have done something rather unusual, performing four chants that, one could say, reflect the heavenly liturgy, with piano accompaniments by the Luxembourgian composer David Ianni, who has a long relationship with Stift Heiligenkreuz. The musical style of these accompaniments is generally minimalistic, with wavelike patterns that reinforce the repetitive nature of these formulaic hymns and litanies, which could strike the ear as meditative or New Agey, depending on your tastes (perhaps a case of gilding the lily, although chant is durable music and has withstood all manner of adaptation). A sample, along with some views of the monastery and its monks, in the video embedded below.