Writing About and Reviewing Classical Music and Jazz
Category: ****
This is stuff I like, would purchase, and listen to repeatedly. This is most likely going to be the rating you see from me most often, as I usually cannot be bothered to review 1-3 stars albums in detail, and 5 stars, well they are exceptional and rare!
When I started this post, I was suprised to notice that I hadn’t written a single post on this trio yet. I kind of assumed I had. But my search function told me otherwise.
Martin Tingvall’s Hamburg, Germany-based piano trio is a pretty international affair. Tingvall himself is Swedish, his Bass player Omar Rodriguez Calvo is Cuban, only the drummer is German.
They have a pretty strong following in Germany, but start to get better known beyond the borders.
Let me open a parenthesis here: I’m still surprised that Jazz is a very regional affair. You’d think that in the days of the internet any artist can be heard and known everywhere. And especially in a niche area like Jazz people wouldn’t really care where an artist comes from. But then again, quite often I see artists available due to some weird label rights in Europe, but not in the US, or vice versa.
Probably it boils down to the fact that album sales really don’t matter that much any more these days, and concerts are the main way a Jazz artists gets to their audience these days. And concerts quite often remain a very local affair. Great artists like Triosence for example rarely venture out of their native Germany. Parenthesis closed.
Tingvalls albums in the past have been very consistent, weird-sounding (to non Swedish ears) Scandinavian names like Vägen, Vattensaga, or Norr, and also have followed a certain style.
Tingvall Trio: Cirklar (Skip Records 2017)
The latest album keeps this consistency. A weird name (that the booklet doesn´t bother explaining), and a very Tingvall-like Scandinavian-inspired jazz.
If you´ve followed my blog for a bit you know which kind of style I like in piano trio. Basically either the Oscar-Peterson swinging and grooving style, or the more melodic approach.
Tingvall clearly is the latter. They do groove up to a point in the faster tracks, but the real beauty is revealed in the slow tracks, that evolve into always interesting melodic and harmonic developments.
Track 4, Black Molnen is a perfect example of this, the type of ballad I just love.
Some may ask: but where is the Jazz in that? And I agree, this music is probably borderline in that respect. But to me, the melodic and harmonic beauty is just what I’m looking for.
As mentioned above, faster tracks on this album don´t always work for me. Track 5, Skansk Blues, is too much of a regular blues to be attractive. Blues obviously live from simplicity, but here the recipe just gets a bit too repetitive.
The title track, another ballad, then again gives me exactly what I want from Tingvall. If you like this track, buy the album.
That’s not to say that I only like the slow tracks on this album. Tidlös for example is a very groove uptempo track that has just the right amount of creativity. And Bumerang (See clip above) is quite well done, too.
Finally, Elis Visar really gives you the feeling of an open Nordic landscape.
Overall, really worth checking out.
My rating: 4 stars
You can find it here (Qobuz) and here (Prostudiomasters)
I haven’t heard any of the other albums, with some Telemann and Vivaldi, but will check in and maybe report back later.
Baroque Vocal
Hyperion doesn’t stream, so I cannot comment about Cohens/Arcangelos cantata album.
Bach: Matthew Passion – Gardiner
As reviewed here, I fully agree that this is a five star album very much worth having.
I haven’t heard any of the other recommended albums, from Blow (never heard that name before), Couperin, Monteverdi and Scarlatti, but will check them out, as they are by Les Arts Florissants and Christophe Rousset among other, that I really admire.
Chamber
I haven’t heard any of the first three recommended albums, as they are all 20th century stuff which really isn’t my cup of tea, from Ades, via Bacewicz, Berg, Schönberg, and Webern. I’ll leave this to others.
I´d be interested in trying the Bruch String Quartets as I have very little chamber music from this composer, but Hyperion doesn´t stream so I have no way of risk free trying.
Then there are two Schubert albums. Quatuors 12 and 15 by the Doric Quartet. I have only heard it once on the radio (again, also Chandos doesn´t stream), and liked it, but wasn´t blown away. Not interesting enough for me to spend money blindly on it.
Finally, there is the Death and the Maiden and a quartet by Sibelius by the Ehnes Quartet. Unfortunately, Onyx is another label that doesn´t stream.
So basically, there´s unfortunately not a lot I can contribute to this category, which I usually love.
Choral
Several albums in here that are just not my cup of tea, eg. Berkeley or Elgar. Even Haydn´s Season, here with Paul McCreesh, is not a piece of music I´m particularly passionate about. Better to shut up then.
I´m more curious about the Cherubini album by Hervé Niquet, I´ll check that one out later today.
There have been a number of recent recordings of Rachmaninov´s All-Night Vigil, and I´m also very interested by this latest recording of John Scott. I will report back on this one as well.
Let me maybe start by the one recording I can really recommend in here:
Mozart: Violin Concertos – Isabelle Faust
I gave it a four star rating, as I don´t consider Mozart´s violin concertos to be essential, but the playing is truly five star.
I´m not a very huge fan of Lisa Batiashvili´s Sibelius and Tchaikovsky album, but this is more due to Barenboim, not Batiashvili´s fault. Augustin Hadelich Tchaikovsky is straightforward, but also not that much my cup of tea.
I will certainly check out Alexandre Tharaud´s Rachmaninov album and report back.
I can´t comment on the albums by Adams and Beach.
I´ll skip the contemporary and early categories, as I don´t feel qualified enough here.
Instrumental
Bach: French Suites – Murray Perahia
Yes, absolutely, great album. A must have. See also here
Bach: Goldberg Variations: Beatrice Rana
I´ve now played this album many times, and still haven´t fully made up my mind. I kind of like it, but it´s really not my personal reference.
I´d like to comment about Cedric Tiberghien´s Bartok album and Pavel Koselnikov´s Chopin Mazurkas, but due to Hyperion´s no streaming policy I can´t. Side note: I really understand why labels don´t want to support streaming, as the business model is not very attractive, but on the other hand it really limits discovery. Maybe labels should invent a streaming model where you can listen to an album only 2-3 times and then need to purchase it. I find that album´s I can´t test I often don´t buy.
Liszt: Transcendental Etudes: Daniel Trifonov (Deutsche Grammophon)
I haven´t reviewed this album yet, but have listened to it many times. And yes, it is very good, justifying the Artist of the Year he received last year.
Mozart/Schumann: Fantaisies – Piotr Anderszewski (Warner)
This may indicate a lack of interest. Well actually, not at all, Händel is my second favorite baroque composer (JSB takes first place by a large margin).
My “problem” with Händel is that his true masterworks are his operas and oratorios, all of which are quite long, and require quite a long attention span, and time that I don’t always have.
But then again, there truly are pieces that are worth checking out.
Let me write about one of the first I really fell in love with.
Händel: Il Trionfo Del Tempo E Del Disinganno – Emmanuelle Haïm, Il Concert D’Astrée (Erato 2007)
Il Trionfo Del Tempo E Del Disinganno was Händels very first Oratorio.
I’m not sure you really care about the story. I do speak some Italian and am able to follow, but honestly, like with many of the rather confusing stories (to me) of the baroque operas, you basically have personified Beauty, Pleasure, Time and however you best translate disinganno (probably somewhat around “disillusion”) about their relative merits. The story ends with beauty being frustrated and wanting to become a nun.
So in a nutshell, never mind the story, but just enjoy the outstandingly beautiful music.
Emmanuelle Haïm & Le Concert d’Astrée
Who is playing here?
Emmanuelle Haïm, a French cembalo player, has established herself as one of the leading conductors of baroque music over the last 15 years. She had some great mentors having worked with William Christie and even Simon Rattle. She founded her own baroque ensemble, Le Concert d’Astrée, in 2000. I’ve already written about her outstanding Messiah, and a very beautiful Mozart c-minor mass with Louis Langrée and the same ensemble.
But obviously, an oratorio not only needs outstanding orchestral playing, but also beautiful voices. Nathalie Dessay is truly one of the best baroque singers ever, and Ann Hallenberg and Sonia Prina are of outstanding beauty as well.
One track to look out for is Lascia La Spina, the original version of Lascia ch’io pianga, already mentioned in my post Top 10 Music That Gives Me Goose Bumps.
Again, as mentioned above, you are in for nearly 2h30 of music here, but it is worth taking the time for it.
As many of you know, this really isn’t my day job. I work in a completely unrelated industry. Recently I’ve traveled on average 2-3 times per week, so my blogging has taken a back seat.
I’ll still try to get a blog post done every two weeks. The best you can do, instead of having to check back on my somewhat unreliable posting schedule, is just to sign up with your email on the right, so new updates will come to your inbox, or follow me on WordPress. Like this you don’t miss any update.
Live Jazz Recordings
Furthermore, given my workload, I’ll shamelessly steal from my own forum post here at Computer Audiophile, where I post quite regularly on music, and less so on audio gear.
I have previously written about my 25 Essential Jazz albums, but had never done a specific post on live jazz albums. Triggered by “Route66″‘s question, I went through my album library and had a look at which live albums I can particularly recommend. The OP was particularly interested in small Jazz club-type venues, so this further limited the selection to the following 9 albums. Some of them I’ve written about previously, some of them are new to this blog.
Cannonball Adderley: Mercy Mercy Mercy – Live At “The Club” (Capitol 1966)
I’ll mention Bill Evans twice on this blog post. Bill Evans during his career had three major trios (see also this blog post on his middle trio). He started, after the work with Miles Davis, with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. Unfortunately, LaFaro passed away in an accident shortly after the album below was recorded. Many still consider this early trio his best. I don’t necessarily agree, as I really love his later trios very much as well.
Waltz for Debby is part of several recordings taken by the trio live at the Village Vanguard. The Village Vanguard is one of the legendary NYC jazz clubs that is still open today. If you want more of it, you can also get The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings 1961 box, which includes the titles above. You’ll see it popping up a number of times below in this post.
The advantage of getting the individual Waltz For Debby album is that you can try to find one of the many audiophile remasters. I’ll leave it to others to debate which of the several available remasters is the best, and will recommend the HDtracks version which is already pretty good. Musically in any case, this album, is an absolute must have and really helped define the category of the Jazz Piano Trio.
My Rating: 5 stars
Bill Evans Trio: Consecration
Consecration is already mentioned as part of my 25 Essential Jazz albums. This is Evans’s latest trio, and actually his very final recording before his early passing.
Do I prefer Consecration over Waltz For Debby, or vice versa? Why decide? Get both!
Brad Mehldau: The Art of the Trio Vol. 2 – Live At the Village Vanguard (1991)
This one is a new addition to the blog.
I’ve written about my love/hate relationship with Brad Mehldau several times (see here for example), but Vol. 3 of his early series The Art Of The Trio is listed in my 25 Essential Jazz albums. This live album is not as good as the studio vol. 3, but still very much worth having. Especially for Moon River, a particular favorite of mine. Recordede at the same Village Vanguard as the Bill Evans 30 years earlier.
My rating: 4 stars
The Jazz Messengers At The Cafe Bohemia Vol. 1 (1955)
I haven’t written about Hard Bop for a long time. Actually, I haven’t even listened to Hard Bop a lot recently, which is a pity, as this is one of my favorite genres.
The above 1955 album is one of those who started it all. Look at the line-up. Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Kenny Dorham. All of these had successful solo careers after which (check out my blog for recommended albums in the above mini series).
Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any new audiophile remastering of this album, so you can probably just as well go with the regular CD remastering by Rudy Van Gelder (although I’m not a particular fan of his remasters in general).
My rating: 4 stars
Giovanni Mirabassi: Live At the Blue Note Tokyo (2010)
Giovanni Mirabassi was also mentioned several times on this blog, including as part of my 25 Essential Jazz albums.
This album, recorded live in Toyko, is not my absolute favorite, but still a very good performance. What is nice about it that the trio takes time for each track, often 8-10 minutes, allowing melodic development and soloing.
My rating: 4 stars
Christian McBride Trio: Live At The Village Vanguard (2015)
No, I haven’t selected albums simply on the fact that they were recorded at the Vanguard. It is just simply a very popular recording spot.
And look at the lineup here: Paul Motian was already the drummer on Waltz For Debby above, and Marc Johnson was the bass player in Evans’ middle quartet (but has later played a lot with Pieranunzi).
This is a very good live album, but doesn’t get to the intensity swing-wise of his master. It’s very much worth having still. Pieranunzi really develops the lyrical side of Bill Evans even further.
Check out this video, how Paul Motian called up Pieranunzi for this one week live gig. The text is in Italian, but you get enough excerpts of the music to get a good idea.
My rating: 4 stars
Michael Wollny Trio: Weltentraum Concert Edition – Live At The Unterfahrt
Michael Wollny is one of the most creative pianists we have today. This is the live album of Weltentraum, recorded at the Unterfahrt jazz club in Munich in 2014. This album is really as good as the studio one, in many respects even better. Very much worth having.
My rating: 5 stars
You can find the newly listed albums here, for links to the other albums please go to the original blog post.
Yes, again no post in 2 weeks, but I assume you don’t want to hear my lame excuses (too much work, family, etc.).
So let me start with a spoiler alert (actually, a bit late given that the title already gives it away), this will be a relatively useless review. I’ll actually be writing only about 2 out of 5 symphonies, and you won’t even get a proper review, just a very subjective “I like it, but”, with out getting any more specific.
Mendelssohn
I haven’t written that much about Mendelssohn yet. And this is not because I don’t like the composer, to the contrary. I adore his Lieder ohne Worte (Song without Words), and have written about them here.
I also very much like his violin concerto, and have mentioned Janine Jansen’s recording among my 25 Essential Classical albums.
But I haven’t really written about his symphonies yet. Why is that? Well, for once, I really only like symphonies 3 and 4, the Scottish and the Italian. No. 1 and 2 never touched me, and the reformation was with the exception of certain elements also not really my cup of tea.
Furthermore, I have yet to find my preferred set of these two. I still often go back to Christoph von Dohnanyi’s or Claudio Abbado’s old recordings.
I was very hopeful for the recent approach of Heras-Casado with the Freiburgers, but again, wasn’t convinced.
Therefore, I obviously immediately had to check out a new version by Yannick Nézet-Séguin with the COE.
Mendelssohn: The Symphonies – Yannick Nézet-Séguin – Chanber Orchestra of Europe (DG 2017)
It is no secret, I generally like Nézet-Séguin, the dynamic Canadian, and especially so with the COE. Be it for his Cosi Fan Tutte or for example his great Rachmaninov recoring with Daniel Trifonov.
Some critics say he has too many orchestras, having been involved with the COE, the Philadelphia, and the Rotterdam, to just name some, but he still is one of the most promising conductors of our time.
So, after this long intro, what about his Mendelssohn?
As mentioned above, I’m not too familiar with Symphonies 1, 2, and 5, and will leave the judgment to others.
But for 3 and 4, I do have an opinion. I can simply say, after at least 4-5 listenings, this is a 4 star recording to me. Lots of energy, punch at the right places, enough darkness in the Scottish, enough lightness in the Italian (but with a twist).
So what is wrong, why not 5 stars? And here is again where I get useless. There is something missing, but I simply cannot put my finger on it. This will be a version that I’ll go to again many times, but will it be my reference? Probably not.
But then again, as mentioned above, I really don’t have a reference yet. Maybe the seemingly accessible symphonies 3 and 4 have some dirty secret, that just make them impossible to master. I’ll keep looking.
I’m curious what the professional reviewers will be saying (at the time of writing, I haven’t seen any reviews out there yet).
In the meantime, check out this recording. You won’t be disappointed, I promise, in spite of my rather useless review.
My rating: 4 stars
YOu can find it here (Qobuz) and here (Prestoclassical)
UPDATE Aug 11: In their September issue, Gramophone awards this box a Recording Of The Month. Richard Wigmore is talking about “imaginative, fabulously executed performances” that “guarantee abiding pleasure”.
This really usually isn’t my kind of music. Up to the point I even had to create a new category for it in my category list (on the right if you’re reading this on a PC; below if you’re reading this on a smaller mobile device).
The genesis of this was a business trip to Tel Aviv some months ago. I ended up attending a meeting there, that as part of the entertainment program featured a local band.
According to the meeting organizer, this was really the latest hot sh..t in town. He explained it to me “take American country or folk. And then put lyrics in Hebrew over it”.
You’re probably having the same frown on your face now that I had when I heard the story for the first time.
Later on during the event three people came on stage. A young, quite shy girl with an Ukulele (no kidding), another young guy with guitar, and a third slightly Hipster-type guy with an acoustic double bass. I really didn’t expect much.
And then the shy young girl started singing. And my jaw dropped. These guys are GOOD!
Jane Bordeaux
The name of the band is about as unlikely as the rest of the story. I have strictly no idea how they came up with that name. Their website doesn’t talk about it. But they must be a bit self-concious as the website ironically asks “How the hell did that happen?”.
I’m not going to repeat the story here, but I really just want to point you to this funny, engaging, and intelligent music.
Obviously, I didn’t understand any of the lyrics (my Hebrew is a bit rusty…) beyond Whisky (one of the song titles), but I had a kind soul sitting next to me do a live translation, and what transpired is that they seem to think about the lyrics as much as about the music.
What you also should be checking out is their first music video, which is just beautiful. see below.
And then came the final song during that event, where at least I understood the lyrics. The video below wasn’t filmed at the event I attended, but the performance was of quite similar intensity:
I actually don’t like that Beatles song (nor, heresy am I a particular Beatles fan, but that’s another topic).
However, this little trio, especially the lead singer, Doron Talmon, has such an aura and presence, that they pulled off even this repetitive annoying song (don’t stone me) in such a way that I was simply impressed.
You really should check out their first album, titled simply Jane Bordeaux, it has a lot of little gems on there. And while the majority of their concerts seem to be in Israel, if you’re lucky enough to catch them at one of their rare concerts abroad, don’t hesitate.
My rating: 4 stars
You can find the album here (Qobuz) and here (Bandcamp).
Actually, I can easily recommend most of their albums so far, be it First Enchantment, Away For A While, or the beautiful live album One Summer Night (Live).
Why is this trio not better known, in spite of having been together since 1999?
Well, for a start, they are from Germany, not NYC. To make matters worse, they only seem to be touring in Germany, from small provincial town to another, and don’t seem to show up at the bigger Jazz festivals like many of their peers. Now, obviously this may be a chicken and egg situation, you’re not that well know, you don’t get invited, or vice versa. No idea.
Hidden Beauty (Sony Music/Okeh 2017)
This album was recorded at the famous location of Schloss Elmau in Southern Germany in the summer of 2016. The trio around Bernhard Schüler on piano really stick to their roots here, and give us melodically interesting, lyrical to groovy piano trio jazz.
However, I´m not as excited about this new release as I was when I discovered Turning Points and Away For A While. I have a hard time putting my finger on it, maybe unlike on these other two albums there isn´t a single track that absorbs me fully.
That said, this remains very high quality trio jazz and is absolutely worth checking out.
I haven´t had the pleasure to seem them live, if you ever find yourself in Germany during one of their concerts, I´d strongly encourage you to go. I hope I´ll eventually get to see them myself.
