CD Reviews (The Straits Times, April 2015)

IT DON'T MEAN A THING

String Fever / MARIN ALSOP

Naxos 8.572834 / ****

String Fever is the New York-based crack string ensemble founded by celebrated American conductor Marin Alsop in 1981. This recording captures its 1983 and 1997 performances of jazz standards and oldies in very idiomatic modern arrangements, mostly by the American Gary Anderson. The ensemble which comprises six violins, three violas, three cellos, one double-bass and drums is both suave and versatile, shining in the titular It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) and colouring the blues in Mood Indigo, both by Duke Ellington. 

The longest track is the Manhattan Medley, which brings together Rodgers and Hart's Manhattan and Harry Warren's Lullaby Of Broadway and 42nd Street. The big band sound of Glenn Miller is joyously relived in Joe Garland and Andy Razaf's In The Mood, even without the winds and brass. Likewise, one will not miss the piano in Dave Brubeck's infectiously rhythmic Blue Rondo A La Turk. There are further melodies by Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, Benny Goodman and Horace Silver, but one regret is the short playing time of under 50 minutes. If one enjoys performances by Singapore's own re:mix with Foo Say Ming, this disc of high quality crossover is likely to tickle and please.

BOOK IT:

SINGAPORE THROUGH THE GLASS

re:mix directed by FOO SAY MING

Esplanade Concert Hall

7.30 pm, Sunday 26 April 2015

Tickets available at SISTIC

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, March 2014)

PHILIPS ORIGINAL JACKETS COLLECTION

Decca 478 4614 (55 CDs) / *****

Did anyone mourn when the iconic Dutch record label Philips was absorbed by the British Decca group in 1998 and ceased to exist in name some ten years later? Here is a walk down memory lane with a retrospective look at some of its best-loved recordings, with the original cover art retained.

                                                                                    

Artists forever linked with Philips are immortalised, including conductors Dutchman Bernard Haitink (in Bruckner, Debussy and Mahler), Russian Valery Gergiev (Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky’s The Rite Of Spring), pianists Alfred Brendel (Liszt late works and Beethoven piano concertos), Mitsuko Uchida (late Beethoven sonatas and 2^nd Viennese school pieces) and violinist Arthur Grumiaux (Brahms Violin Concerto and chamber music).

There are two complete operas within: Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (Thomas Allen in the title role, conducted by Neville Marriner) and Verdi’s The Corsair (a star-studded cast of Jose Carreras, Montserrat Caballe and Jessye Norman). Whether one randomly dips into the set or listens alphabetically according to performer, from Italian violinist Salvatore Accardo (Bruch violin concertos) to Dutch maestro Edo de Waart (Mozart’s Gran Partita), there is much to marvel and enjoy.

Available at around $130 (including postage and packaging) at www.prestoclassical.co.uk

PROKOFIEV Symphony No.4

The Prodigal Son

Sao Paulo Symphony / MARIN ALSOP

Naxos 8.573186 / ****1/2

               

Recycling of earlier music by composers for use in their new works has been an age-old practice. J.S. Bach and Handel were experts in filling old wine into new bottles. Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) most notably did the same with his ballet The Prodigal Son (1928), written for the impresario Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, by refashioning the music for his Fourth Symphony (1929-30). The symphony was further revised in 1947, and this is the version included here.

Listen first to the ballet for its narrative on the familiar biblical parable and its melodic themes. A number of these themes later appear in the symphony’s four movements with the added dimension of development. For example, the sultry theme of the seductress in the ballet becomes the flesh of the symphony’s third movement. Although this symphony is not as popular as the heart-wrenching wartime Fifth Symphony, it matches its successor for originality and invention. Both ballet and symphony are each about 40 minutes long, and the Sao Paulo Symphony led by Marin Alsop bring out Prokofiev’s gift for lyricism and dramatics. 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2010)

SCHUMANN, GRIEG & SAINT-SAENS
Piano Concertos
HOWARD SHELLEY, Piano
Orchestra of Opera North
Chandos 10509

****1/2

Do we need yet another recording that couples the A minor Piano Concertos of Robert Schumann and Edvard Grieg? Not unless it has something new to say. British pianist Howard Shelley, who regularly conducts concertos from the keyboard, lays on a convincing argument for the tempos adopted for these warhorses. “Go with the flow” is his view, and the music takes on an added urgency which is quite refreshing. Some listeners will quibble about the “lack of breathing space” in the fast outer movements, but there is certainly no protractedness for the sake of profundity here.

With both concertos running under half an hour each (most pianists clock in at 32 minutes), there is enough time to pack in a third concerto – Camille Saint-Saëns’ Second Piano Concerto. Once described as “a journey from Bach to Offenbach”, the work bristles with virtuosic gestures and sparkles with champagne lightness. Shelley and the Leeds-based orchestra are every bit equal to its witty and quixotic demands. Recommended.

BERNSTEIN Mass
JUBILANT SYKES, Baritone with choirs
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 

MARIN ALSOP
Naxos 8.559622-23 (2CDs)
*****

When Leonard Bernstein’s Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers was first performed at the inauguration of Washington D.C’s Kennedy Centre in 1971, it was panned for its eclecticism and low brow leanings. One critic likened it to a recipe for steak fried in peanut butter and marshmallow sauce. Heard from a distance of almost four decades, the 100-minute long work still sounds like a child of its time, from the era of the Vietnam War, Woodstock, Hair and LSD.

It attempts to encompass everything from liturgy to rock opera and high school musical, like a cross between his Chichester Psalms and West Side Story, but without the innocence and chic. It is nevertheless fun to listen to, with baritone Jubilant Sykes’ exuberant tour de force as the Celebrant, who questions his faith, has a meltdown and walks away from it all with the mantra “I don’t know”. 

The listener is left to ponder on Stephen Schwartz’s subversive and almost blasphemous text. The Credo, for example, is qualified with “I believe in God / But does God believe in me?” The pacifist and sceptic messages make this one of the most fascinating and politically incorrect works of the last half century.