Welcome to the February issue of Music Media Monthly, which offers a nicely mixed bag of reviews: our Websites columnist shares several web destinations for those with an interest in the ukelele; from the world of books come recommended titles dealing with George Gershwin and the New York Philharmonic; our videos reviewer draws our attention to new DVDs of Schoenberg’s rarely-recorded Gurrelieder, Albert Reimann’s Medea, and Walter Braunfels’ Die Vogel; and the Sound Recordings column jumps from reggae to Britfolk to Renaissance polyphony. As always, there’s something for everyone in this month’s issue of Music Media Monthly!
Sound Recordings
February 15, 2011
Fans of old-school roots reggae have (for the most part) gradually come to accept that modern musicians working in that style tend no longer to be based in Jamaica. Even if those musicians are Jamaican by heritage, they tend to live in the U.S., or in England, or (increasingly) in Germany–especially Berlin, which boasts what may be the world’s most thriving traditional reggae scene. But how about Castelfranc, France? This tiny village, situated about halfway between Bordeaux and Toulouse, is home to Fredread and his Webcam Hi-Fi Sound System and Tube Dub record label. And if his first full-length album is any indication, the warm, bass-heavy spirit of 1970s reggae has taken over that little village entirely. Featuring singers and toasters that include Joseph Cotton, Roberto Sanchez, Madu Messenger, Tony Roots, and Bethsabee, Livity Is My Temple offers some of the sweetest and most satisfying reggae tracks recorded in recent memory–some of them in “showcase” style (in which the regular vocal version is followed without pause by a dubwise deejay cut), some of them in straight dub mixes, and some of them featuring two or more vocalists offering different melodic and lyrical takes on the same rhythm. Fredread is, frankly, a genius producer and a very fine composer, and his arrangements are excellent; it’s hard to find a track on this program that isn’t outstanding. (As far as I can tell, the only retail outlet for the physical CD release of this album is Ernie B’s Reggae, where it is currently priced at only $5.99. (For about twice that much you can download the album in MP3 format at Amazon or CD Universe.) Grade: A+
Singer June Tabor has been a fixture on the British folk scene since her Oxford days in the 1960s, and few living folksingers are as respected as she; as a solo artist, collaborator, and band member she has more than 30 albums to her credit. Over the years she has gradually moved away from the kinds of arrangements that one would normally associate with folk song (guitars, concertinas, fiddles, etc.) and towards a somewhat artier, almost salon-style approach in which the arrangements tend to be very spare and to focus on the playing of pianist Huw Warren. Her voice is the color of whiskey with honey in it, and is slightly rough-grained; the songs she selects have, in recent years, leaned increasingly towards the subdued and reflective. Her latest album, Ashore, is built on the theme of mankind’s relationship with the sea, and includes Ian Telfer’s “Finisterre” (which she earlier sang on Freedom and Rain, her excellent collaboration with Telfer’s group Oysterband); a traditional Norse song from the Child ballad collection; several familiar traditional English songs (among them “I’ll Go and Enlist for a Sailor”); a couple of French tunes; and even a version of Elvis Costello’s “Shipbuilding.” Established fans have been awaiting this one anxiously; newcomers will want to let it send them deep into her back catalog. Grade: A-
Who was the greatest of the Renaissance polyphonic composers? Fistfights have broken out over that question (decorous ones, of course, but still), but few would dispute that Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina occupies a place at the very top of the list. And no choral ensemble–with the possible exception of the Tallis Scholars–has built a more enviable reputation for interpreting Palestrina’s sacred music than the Westminster Cathedral Choir. The choir has a long string of top-notch recordings to its credit on the Hyperion label, all of which now seem to be in the process of being reissued on Hyperion’s midpriced Helios imprint. My personal favorite from the choir’s catalog is its hair-raisingly gorgeous account of Palestrina’s Missa Aeterna Christi Munera (scheduled for reissue in March of this year), but I recently discovered another solid winner I had missed when it was originally issued: the choir’s 1989 recording of two other parody masses, Missa O Rex Gloriae and Missa Viri Galilei. Both of these masses find Palestrina operating at the peak of his powers, switching dramatically between homophony and polyphony at unpredictable intervals, using changes in texture to dramatize the text, and delivering the heart-stopping melodies and cascading harmonic passages that have always characterized his large-scale liturgical works. For lovers of Renaissance choral music, this ensembles recordings of this composer’s works are about as good as it gets. Grade: A
– Rick Anderson
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Websites
February 15, 2011
Peace, Love, and Ukelele
Quick – what do you think the average person knows about that diminutive four-string guitar-like instrument, the ukulele? It’s a safe bet that most people would associate it with the island of Hawaii. It’s also likely that it’s something you might have encountered in elementary school, as I did. I remember playing the ukulele in first and second grade, where it seemed to be considered on par with the the recorder – small enough for little hands to play, relatively inexpensive to buy, and easy enough to teach music fundamentals to kids. Outside of the Hawaiian connection and early school memories, for many people the ukulele is seen as little more than a novelty instrument. Tiny Tim not only tiptoed through the tulips, he also solidified the image of the ukulele as something that didn’t really merit serious consideration.
Recently, however, the ukulele is undergoing a renaissance of sorts in popular culture. No less a star than Beatle George Harrison helped bring this about. Harrison was a uke devotee, and praised its merits in numerous interviews. He would carry two ukuleles with him when he traveled, in case he could coax anyone to playing a duet with him. (As a sampler, check out this brief clip with George, Ringo, and Paul singing “Ain’t She Sweet” with George on the uke.)
A bit of history:
The four-string instrument known as the ukulele originated in Portugal, where it was called the machete. The machete was the national instrument of the Portuguese island of Madeira for centuries prior to 1879, when three Portuguese luthiers emigrated to Hawaii and brought their craft with them. They began to make these little four-string guitars in Honolulu, and the instrument quickly became popular in Hawaii. Soon Hawaiians were making it from native woods, devising their own tuning, creating a new style of playing, and giving it a new name: the ukulele. The instrument was embraced by the Hawaiian royal family, and became a symbol of Hawaiian culture under King David Kalakaua in the early 20th century.
The above paragraph was culled from ukulele musician and historian John King’s Nalu Music website. In addition to essays on ukulele history, the Nalu Music site has a section on Ukulele Miscellany, which includes early catalogs for ukes, plans from a 1915 industrial arts magazine to make your own uke, a history of early recordings, some great old photos, and more. There’s also a link to purchase various historical books about the ukulele, as well as John King’s CDs, including his CD of Royal Hawaiian Music and a CD of arrangements of J.S. Bach for solo ukulele . Another source dedicated to ukulele history is the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum website. Featuring historical information on the manufacturing of ukes and the publication of ukulele music, the site includes links to dozens of vintage songbook and sheet music covers, mostly dating from the 1920s and 30s.
A quick web search for “ukulele” will return scores of sites, including many ukulele manufacturers, sites for lessons, and general information about the uke and its heritage. I began this quest last month as I researched buying a new ukulele for myself – dusting off rusty skills that were last used in the mid-1960’s, when I was part of a ukulele band at an elementary school concert. (I now have a new Kala ukulele, and I’m really enjoying it.)
One of my favorite ukulele sites, in terms of content, layout, and general whimsy, is Ukulele Hunt. In addition to information for beginning players (including reviews of ukes and tips on how to purchase one), there’s also a blog that covers the ukulele in popular culture, which includes an ongoing document of video and audio ukulele performances. Included are such gems as the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra’s version of Randy Newman’s “Short People” and Jim Boggia’s version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road.” What quickly becomes obvious is that there are a number of people who have mastered this instrument, and the web is full of their performances.
One of the most accomplished ukulele masters is Hawaiian musician Jake Shimabukuro, a young uke wizard who is currently touring the mainland U.S. Shimabukuro’s musical influences include Jimi Hendrix, Pat Metheny, and Yo-Yo Ma, and he’s got a catalog that includes original songs and a diverse set of covers. “Covers on the ukulele are hard!” Shimabukuro says. “You can simplify any song, but to actually come up with an arrangement that’s respectful to the composer is quite a challenge.”
Shimabukuro’s website includes dozens of live videos from concerts and his extensive “Music is Good Medicine” work in schools. He’s both virtuoso and effusive educator, spreading the joy he believes comes from the uke. Indeed, his latest album is entitled Peace Love Ukulele. “If everyone played the ukulele,” his website proclaims, “the world would be a better place.” There’s plenty on his website to absorb and enjoy. But if there’s one single tune to give you some sense of Shimabukuro’s talent, it’s his dazzling arrangement of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” taped live in NYC’s Strawberry Fields.
George Harrison, no doubt, would have been proud. Then he would have grabbed his uke and joined in.
– Gene Hyde
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Videos
February 15, 2011
Gurrelieder Directed by Mariss Jansons. BR KLASSIK DVD (900110), 2011. $24.99.
This seldom-performed behemoth has, in terms of production costs, truly given frugality the finger. After all, any self-respecting choral/orchestral work written in Wagnerian style is going to require at least four choruses, six timpanis, four Wagner tubas, and a set of iron chains, and Gurrelieder does not disappoint. (In the spirit of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9, the patient chorus does not even see any action until the third and final Teil.) Though it was originally conceived in 1900 as an entry for the Vienna Music Society’s song competition, Schoenberg did not complete Gurrelieder until 1911. Because he’d begun composing the work early in his career, this story of unrequited love is infused with enough Romanticism to have sold tickets that bore the name “Schönberg,” for by the time Gurrelieder received its acclaimed premiere in 1913, his overall adherence to Western tonality had all but disappeared and the public was not thanking him for it. (In case you’re wondering, Castle Gurra was the residence of 14th-century heroine Tova, the soprano soloist in this work.)
This October 2009 performance was held and recorded in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and is the only recording of Gurrelieder available on DVD. Due to various illnesses, the five vocal soloists cover six roles is this production, with Michael Volle acting as the narrator in addition to his role as the peasant, and tenor Stig Andersen having filled in at the last minute for the substantial role of Waldemar. Deborah Voigt soars as Tova, though her character does not live past the first part. The disc includes documentary footage and interviews in German. Though you may someday have the good fortune to attend a live performance of Gurrelieder, this one is a fine and guaranteed opportunity.
Medea. Conducted by Michael Boder; directed by Marco Arturo Marelli. Arthaus Musik, 2011. Available in DVD (101551) and Blu-ray (101552) versions. $29.99/$39.99.
This fabulous recording of a commission by the Wiener Staatsoper, in collaboration with the Frankfurt Opera, brings us the world premiere of Medea. Reimann’s eighth opera and his first in ten years, Medea was awarded World Premiere of the Year by the German magazine Opernwelt. Reimann focuses on a few hours of the life of Medea, a mythological Greek protagonist who seeks revenge on her husband, who has fallen in love with another woman. Visions from Reimann’s scarred childhood—during which he saw Berlin and Potsdam bombed and blazing—are incorporated into Medea as they were in his other operas Traumspiel, Melusine, and Troades.
The primary cast of six features German coloratura Marlis Petersen, who is intense and accurate as Medea. Her angular leaps sound effortless, and she easily elicits sympathy from the viewer with her desperate, wailing melismas. She spends most of her time crawling around on a desolate, futuristic landscape. The score is dense, powerful, and atonal, yet the music reflects the physical ambiance and actions of the characters so artfully that its accessibility to the general listener is pretty much a non-issue. Conductor Michael Boder was wisely chosen for his familiarity with Reimann, having premiered his Schloss in 1992, and stage director Marelli’s reputation for world premieres will continue unscathed. This production is not one to miss.
Die Vögel. Conducted by James Conlon; directed by Darko Tresnjak. Arthaus Musik, 2010. Available in DVD (101529) and Blu-ray (101530) versions. $29.99/39.99.
Here is another DVD world-premiere from James Conlon and the LA Opera’s “Recovered Voices” project. Braunfels’s libretto for Die Vögel—his second staged opera and probably his best-known—is based on the ancient Greek comedic play of the same name. After Bruno Walter premiered and put in a good word for the work in the early 1920s, it was quickly adopted in post-World War I Germany and rivaled any Strauss opera in popularity. Polyphonic, tonal, and lyrical, it reflects Braunfels’s conservative style and his adherence to German Romanticism.
It seems like one would have to try to make a satire filled with colorful beasts visually unappealing. The staging is barren to the point of appearing cheap, and the poor lighting fails to highlight much of the Chor der Vögel. And any singing character called Nightingale probably deserves more than what Désirée Rancatore offers here. The Italian coloratura makes her LA Opera debut in this role, and while her top is clear and flexible, her tone is dull and her overall presence seems disengaged. Matthew Moore as Zeus, too, sings with vigor but looks like a terrified fifth grader at a spelling bee.
Gripes aside, Brandon Jovanovich and James Johnson both produce rich, spinning waves of sound, and whether they’re traversing the cardboard heavens or fending off flapping fuchsia mezzos, they’re just a delight to watch. I’m tempted to say “wait for the DVD,” but you already did.
– Anne Shelley
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Books
February 15, 2011
George Gershwin by Larry Starr
It’s hard to imagine another 20th century composer who has been the inspiration for research as recurrently as George Gershwin. Of recent vintage, Edward Jablonski’s 1987 Gershwin and Howard Pollack’s 2006 George Gershwin: His Life and Work are the major studies. It’s not that there isn’t a need for re-interpretation based on continuing investigative scholarship – after all, there are always new books on Beethoven, Mozart and Bach being published. So, why not Gershwin? It’s simply that, in Gershwin’s case, the field has been plowed to the point where the likelihood of unearthing trenchant new data seems unlikely. One reason is that Gershwin’s life was brief and his classic concert works, from “Rhapsody in Blue” to “Porgy and Bess” were very few: we’re talking about a creative period spanning eleven years, from 1924 to 1935, covering about a dozen works in all.
The question is, can we really expect to learn more about Gershwin and his music and reassess his work and achievement in new ways? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. Author Larry Starr has taken a fresh approach, charting Gershwin’s trajectory as a composer primarily of theatre music, not as the composer of 1920s-‘30s jazz-inflected concert music. Starr’s method is both novel and logical. Of the Gershwin books I’ve read–I’m a devotee of all things George, and have read dozens of books about him and his music over many years–this is about the only serious study that focuses on the day-to-day side of Gershwin as songwriter and musical comedy/theatre composer, which, after all, is how Gershwin spent most of his creative life; the concert works in actuality represent a sort of sidebar to his main activities in the world of show music.
Starr’s approach illuminates Gershwin’s growth as a creative artist in a more linear way, as the author allows us to follow Gershwin’s own creative path, with the Broadway shows “Oh Kay,” “Strike Up the Band,” “Lady, Be Good!” and “Of Thee I Sing” – finally leading to his masterpiece “Porgy and Bess,” completed in 1935 – two years before Gershwin’s untimely death. Seen in this light, “Porgy…”is revealed as the culmination of Gershwin’s Broadway/musical theatre career, which, of course, it is.
To be comprehensive, Starr includes a chapter entitled “Entr’acte – the Showman in the Concert Hall,” and artfully discusses how Gershwin created a populist “classical” style by merging “the formal principles…in “An American in Paris” (with its) ’blues’ and ‘Charleston’ sections… as filling in the roles as slow movement or dance movement (or scherzo), respectively, within the multipartite whole.”
Of course, it was these populist elements in Gershwin’s concert works and in the grand opera “Porgy and Bess” (“I Got Plenty ‘o Nuthin’” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So”) that confused and alienated critics unfamiliar with, or dismissive of, Gershwin’s Broadway styles.
Starr’s George Gershwin will not, and is not intended to, replace earlier, more comprehensive “life and times” studies. It does, though, provide a fresh look at Gershwin through the lens of his gifts as a master song craftsman and musical theatre innovator and collaborator at a crucial time in the development of this sui generis American popular art form. George Gershwin is therefore a welcome addition to the extensive Gershwin literature, and belongs in every music library with a comprehensive American music/musical theatre collection. Highly recommended.
George Gershwin by Larry Starr. Yale University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-300-11184-2; hardcover, 194 pages.
The New York Philharmonic – from Bernstein to Maazel by John Canarina
In many ways, the New York Philharmonic, America’s oldest orchestra, founded in 1842, fills the role of our national orchestra. Those mature enough (I don’t use the word “old”) to recall the thrilling and wonderfully illuminating “Young People’s Concerts,” televised in the 1950s and ‘60s with the articulate and charismatic maestro Leonard Bernstein will likely agree. For most of us – baby boomers and beyond – this was our introduction to the glamorous world of classical music. Taking us from Carnegie Hall to Lincoln Center, this book is a wonderful companion and travelogue.
John Canarina’s The New York Philharmonic is a continuation of the history of this great orchestra; Howard Shanet’s earlier study, published in 1975, ended with the 1970-’71 season, just before the ascendancy of Pierre Boulez.
Reading Canarina’s handsomely produced book, filled with photographs of past glories, allows us to relive those treasured moments. Highlights include the opening of Lincoln Center, concert tours, and the panoply of world-famous guest conductors and soloists who have created this history. The author frames his chapters with the successive change of guard by the New York Philharmonic’s conductors, and how the orchestra variously responded to the leadership of Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel. There are some sad stories recounted here – especially the treatment of some of these maestros by the New York press, which in a few instances, has been hardly less than devastating to the reputations of Mazur and Maazel, in particular.
Canarina brings his considerable skills as chronicler to bear in the telling of the ups and downs and the blossoming of this mighty orchestra under these maestros. An assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic who worked under Leonard Bernstein, Canarina knows both the history and backstories of the NYP intimately, and conveys them in print with the charm of an advocate, but also with the “inside track” of a mystery writer. The result is a book that is comprehensive but also fun to read. For devotees of the NYP, it’s wonderful to go back in time to relive favorite concerts.
Libraries with collections that include musical biographies, anecdotal musical memoirs and such will find The New York Philharmonic a worthy addition. This is a book written for the devoted music lover or orchestra hound, without technical knowledge of music. Recommended.
The New York Philharmonic – from Bernstein to Maazel by John Canarina. Amadeus Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-57467-188-9; hardcover, 483 pages.
– Steve Dankner
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