NCCO: From A to Z

Last month the New Century Chamber Orchestra released a CD of 4 violin concertos, all world premieres & all commissioned for soloist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg & the ensemble. These concertos by Clarice Assad, William Bolcom, Michael Daughtery & Ellen Zwilich resulted from the composers' residencies with the orchestra. The works are pithy & share a feeling of restlessness perhaps inspired by Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg's jumpy performing style. Her solos have a nervous energy, & Assad's Dreamscapes feels anxious & searching. Daughtery's architecture-inspired suite is picturesque, & the stomping rhythms of the final movement of Bolcom's Romanza sound like a ragtime hoe-down. The music is virtuosic for both soloist & orchestra, & everyone's playing is consistently emphatic. There are nice cello & double bass solos scattered throughout, & members of the ensemble clearly had fun doubling on percussion in Zwilich's Commedia Dell’ Arte. Violinist Dawn Harms's drumming is particularly zestful. The CD was recorded live at concerts in the Bay Area & captures the impetuosity of NCCO's performances. The audience can be heard applauding & even whooping at the end of each piece.

§ From A to Z
21st New Century Concertos
New Century Chamber Orchestra
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin soloist & leader

Clarice Assad
Dreamscapes for Solo Violin & String Orchestra (2008)

William Bolcom
Romanza for Solo Violin & String Orchestra (2009)

Michael Daugherty
Fallingwater for Solo Violin & String Orchestra (2013)

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
Commedia Dell’ Arte for Solo Violin & String Orchestra (2011)

Mary Wilson Sings Handel

Next month American Bach Soloists releases a CD of 3 Handel sacred works featuring soprano Mary Wilson. Handel's music is of course attractive & vigorous, & I'm happy that the CD includes Silete venti, which the same personnel performed so gorgeously last season. Ms. Wilson is a great fit for this repertroire. Her voice is wonderfully warm, smooth & gleaming & communicates joy. She executes the many virtuosic passages with ease. In the bravura Alleluja of Silete venti, her singing is agile & her rapid notes connected yet distinct. She sounds perfectly smooth & gliding in the long phrases of the "Suscitans a terra" of Laudate Pueri Dominum. Just like ABS's live performances, this recorded performance is well-prepared & immaculate. Oboist John Abberger's solos are impressively clean & sustained. The orchestra & chorus sound tidy, & the tempos are regulated & balanced, feeling neither too fast or too slow.

The CD will be officially released on December 10th, 2013 & is available for pre-order on iTunes. If you buy it on iTunes, you can download the 1st track now, & the rest of the album will download automatically on December 10th. Program notes are also on-line.

§ Mary Wilson Sings Handel
American Bach Soloists
Jeffrey Thomas, music director
Mary Wilson, soprano

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL: 
Silete venti HWV 242
Laudate, pueri, Dominum HWV 237
Gloria HWV deest

Release date: December 10th, 2013
Pre-Order on iTunes

Stephanie Blythe at Meyer Sound

Last Sunday evening Meyer Sound in Berkeley hosted a launch party for As Long as There are Songs, mezzo Stephanie Blythe's new CD of American popular songs. It was recorded in Meyer Sound's Pearson Theatre, a small 57-seat venue equipped with an electronic sound system called Constellation. It's a combination of microphones, speakers & digital processing which creates a virtual, customizable acoustic for live performances. Cal Performances uses Constellation for shows in Zellerbach.

Helen and John Meyer gave a brief introduction & demonstrated how the Pearson Theatre's dead acoustic can be changed to simulate various spaces, such as a lecture hall, a concert hall or the echoey interior of a mosque. We heard a track from the CD, then Ms. Blythe came out with pianist Craig Terry, her accompanist on the CD, & sang 3 more songs for us, with the room set to sound like a large, resonant space. The fullness of her voice & the clarity of her diction gave her renditions real immediacy. "The Man that Got Away" made me feel like I should be crying into a glass of scotch. Mr. Terry's robust accompaniment had a lot of personality.

Photo by Jesse Goff

Ms. Blythe explained that her performances are influenced by what a space gives back to her & that it was a great experience to record in an acoustic adjusted to approximate what she hears in her head. The CD was recorded with just 2 small microphones placed in front of her. The people at Meyer Sound are a friendly crew & obviously love what they do. When I asked questions about the theater's sound system, they gave me a private demo & let me play with the iPad app that controls the room's settings. They compared the use of the Constellation sound system to the moveable sound panels in Davies Hall & to the way street performer Robert Close uses the acoustics of Maiden Lane to project his voice around Union Square.

Refreshments were served in an intimate party room with low lighting. It had a canopy of tree branches hanging just above eye level & an ambient sound of chirping birds. The bustling event photographer asked me to pose with several people I had only just met.

Pretentious iTunes Downloads

Those evil marketing MBAs at American Express offered to pay for my next 5 songs from iTunes. I'm sure that Amex will eventually make me pay for this indulgence, but in the meantime I now have these new songs on my iPod:

Hindemith: Concert Music for Strings and Brass, Op. 50
Wolfgang Sawallisch, The Philadelphia Orchestra
(Each of the 2 parts is one "song")

MacMillan: After the Tryst
James MacMillan, Ruth Crouch

Weill: Je Ne T'amie Pas
Ute Lemper

Purcell: When I am am laid in earth
Kirsten Flagstad

It's not easy shopping for classical music on iTunes. Information one would like to know, such as performers & recording dates, is often not available. There are also many catalog errors, such as pieces with incorrectly listed composers.

Harnoncourt does Gershwin

Sony Masterworks is releasing a live recording of Porgy and Bess conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, of all people. Harnoncourt is famous for his early music performances & his rigorous preparation, but I have never thought of him as being able to swing. Simon Rattle's recording already sounds too European to me, so I imagine that Harnoncourt will sound even more foreign. The performance comes from the 2009 Graz Festival & features the Arnold Schoenberg Chor & Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Isabelle Kabatu & Jonathan Lemalu are in the title roles. The recording is officially released on September 21st.