Records To Die For

Isabelle Faust: Stravinsky: Histoire Du Soldat (Version Français), élégie, Duo Concertant
Harmonia Mundi/Qobuz (24/96 FLAC). 2021. Martin Sauer, prod., Sauer, Julian Schwenkner, eng.

My relationship to contemporary classical musicians, like my current favorite violinist Isabelle Faust, is pure fanboy. More than simply admiring their playing or musical insight, I become enamored with their persona. And sometimes I become obsessed with their latest album. Such is the case with Faust's incredibly well-recorded version of Stravinsky's Faustian parable L'histoire du soldat. While I listen Isabelle occupies my room, and the sound of her instrument raises my hair. But it is Dominique Horwitz's narration that grips me hardest. It shows an uncanny sense of vocal form and an affecting sonic presence. Five-star sound and performance.

Pharoah Sanders: Pharoah
Pharoah Sanders, tenor saxophone, percussion, vocals, bells; Hays Burnett, bass, percussion; Clifford Jarvis, drums; Khalid Moss, piano, electric piano; Bedria Sanders, harmonium; Steve Neil, bass; Tisziji Muñoz, guitar; Greg Bandy, drums; Clifton "Jiggs" Chase, keyboards; Laurence Killian, percussion
Luaka Bop 6 80899 0090-1-0 and 6 80899 5051-1-6 (2 LP). 2023. Yale Evelev & Eric Welles-Nyström, Bob Cummins, prods.; Colin Young, Chris Bellman, engs.

As much as I was enamored with Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane in the early 1970s, in 1977 I wasn't yet hip, spiritual, or deep-minded enough to purchase Pharoah Sanders's original album Pharoah on India Navigation. Thankfully, I am getting to explore that album now, in my maturity, via Luaka Bop's luxuriously packaged, bounteously endowed two-LP box set, which features a brisk remastering of Pharoah plus a second disc entitled Harvest Time Live 1977, which includes two not-previously-released live performances of Sanders's composition "Harvest Time" from that same year. Being able to compare these three performances is the set's main joy. Inside the box, there's a 23-page book and a heavy paper repo of a poster from Copenhagen's Jazzhus Montmartre, plus a full coffee table spread of Pharoah Sanders memorabilia.

French Duets: Works For Piano, Four Hands by Fauré, Poulenc, Debussy, Stravinsky and Ravel
Paul Lewis, Steven Osborne, piano
Hyperion CDA68329. 2021. Stephen Johns, prod.; Oscar Torres, eng.

Thoroughly delightful and irresistible. Almost every piece will be familiar, although often in different arrangements. Fauré's Dolly kicks it off with lilt and charm; the concluding "Les pas espagnol" always brings a smile to my face. Poulenc's Sonata for Four Hands winks at its drama. Debussy's Six épigraphes antiques and Petite Suite and Ravel's Ma mère l'Oye need no introduction. Honorary Frenchman Stravinsky's Three Easy Pieces are equally captivating. Played with both brio and grace by Lewis and Osborne and recorded with presence and clarity, French Duets has become the most played recording in my collection!

Martinů: Complete Cello Sonatas
Johannes Moser, cello; Andrei Korobeinikov, piano
Pentatone PTC5187007 (5.1 24/192 PCM download). 2022. Karel Bruggeman, prod., eng.

Martinů's three cello sonatas span the middle of the 20th century, encompassing WWII and the Czech composer's migration across Europe and on to the United States. The first sonata, written when he was an emigre in Paris in 1939, reveals in its Bohemian flavors a longing for home. The second, written following his flight to NYC in 1941, is more edgy and sorrowful and reflects a state of mind in a world at war. From the first note of the third, dated 1952, one hears clear, postwar American influence and optimism. These are melodious and moving depictions of the era. His musical vocabulary is tonal and romantic and will appeal to lovers of Rachmaninoff.

Moser and Korobeinikov recorded this shortly after the attack on Ukraine and take note of Martinů's history. As a result, they offer intense and committed performances captured in vivid presence by Pentatone. The three sonatas, especially as played here, are major statements from the past century.

Lee Robinson Machine: Family Album
Modern Classic Recordings MR 356 MCR 919 (LP). 1997/2015. Javier Colis, Javier Piñango, Lee Robinson, engs.

Both my picks this year have the distinction of being albumswhose content starts off strong and keeps getting better. The first is Lee Robinson Machine's Family Album. Englishman Lee Robinson is the machine. He played all the instruments on the record, sang all the vocals, designed the album cover. The songs, which are built around sparse arrangements led by voice, guitar, and keyboards, sound simple at first—but pay attention and you begin to hear what I heard: creative ingenuity, charismatic talent, mellifluous melodies, and authenticity. This is music sheered of excess, molded into yearnings for acceptance. It still sounds fresh 26 years after its release—and timelessly indie. It's punk attitude without violence, feral but sweet, youthful, uplifting, real, gritty, and tinged with vulnerability. Robinson died in Spain from cancer four years later, at age 44. Although he'd made other albums with other bands, Family Album is the only solo record he released. What an earnest, heartfelt statement.

Melanie De Biasio: Lilies
Melanie De Biasio, vocals, flute, electric and acoustic guitars, piano, arr.; Pascal Paulus, backing vocals, piano, clavinet, synthesizer, electric guitar, beats, effects [R-bass], drums, tambourine, arr.; Dré Pallemaerts, drums, sampler (drum samples); Pascal Mohy, piano
PLAY IT AGAIN SAM PIASL070CDX (CD). Chloé Pilon, Stéphanie Rophille, Melanie De Biasio, Pascal Paulus, prods.; John Davis, Catherine Marks, engs.

I have Philip O'Hanlon of On a Higher Note, distributor of Graham Audio speakers and other brands, to thank for turning me on to this album, the third by Belgian jazz singer, flutist, and composer Melanie De Biasio. O'Hanlon turned me on to this when he played it at one of his audio show demos. He (and she) had me at the first track, "Your Freedom is the End of Me," a smoldering, James Bond–sounding composition whose hypnotic tempo sets the tone for the rest of the album. Instrumental arrangements are minimal, consisting mostly of piano, beats, and atmospheric studio effects orbiting De Biasio's sensual, evocative voice—think Patricia Barber with a more electronic groove-oriented sensibility and a tad more soul and you'll get the idea. The songs sound profound, as if De Biasio was sharing intimate secrets, some delivered with throbbing urgency, others whispered in private. By the end of the album, if you're lucky, you'll emerge stirred but not shaken, wondering how long you were gone.

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos.2, 3, 12 & 13 "Babi Yar"
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons.
Deutsche Grammophon 4864965 (24/96 WAV download). 2023. Shawn Murphy, Nick Squire, prods.; Murphy and Squire, engs.

There are many urgent reasons why this recording is essential. First is the inventive brilliance and overwhelming visceral, emotional impact of Shostakovich's music, brought to vivid life by Nelsons and the BSO. Then there's the superbly recorded live recording—a percussion lover's dream—set down in the fabled acoustic of Boston's Symphony Hall.

Equally important are the vocal contributions of master baritone Matthias Goerne, who sings with such conviction as to make his recording of Symphony No.13 seem the culmination of three decades before the public, and those of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and New England Conservatory Symphonic Choir.

Sandrine Piau: Reflet; Songs By Berlioz, Duparc, Koechclin, Debussy, Ravel, Britten
Piau, soprano; Orchestre Victor Hugo, Jean-François Verdier.
Alpha 1019 (24/96 WAV download/ stream). 2023. Vincent Mons, Laure Casenave, engs.

In her three-decade career, Piau has spread out from early music to music of later periods. Now in her late 50s, her voice has grown more substantial and her presentation increasingly profound, without any sacrifice of freshness and beauty. She is something of an artistic and vocal miracle. This program finds her right in her fach, singing settings of great poetry in her native language. While some have recorded these songs with more freedom of tempo, few have achieved Piau's mixture of vocal sheen, refinement, and sincerity. The more you listen, the deeper you sink into the elusive meanings of her chosen composers and the poetry they embrace. The beautifully recorded orchestra plays wonderfully, bringing its translucent strings to two orchestral selections as well as Piau's repertoire.

Wire: Pink Flag
Harvest SHSP 4078 (LP). 1977. Mike Thorne, prod.; Paul Hardiman, eng.

Wire started life in 1976 as a punk band and gained exposure from their two tracks on the early live compilation The Roxy London WC2. A few months later, their debut album Pink Flag showed that they had ambitions that went way beyond rapid-fire headbanging punk; their art school roots were clearly on display for those who cared to look. With 21 songs in under 36 minutes, Pink Flag never dawdles, but those little ditties would soon become massively influential on the burgeoning post-punk scene, as clearly displayed on Wire's own follow-up, Chairs Missing, released nine months later.

June Tabor With Martin Simpson: A Cut Above
Topic Records 12TS410 (LP). 1980. Paul Brown, prod.; John Acock, eng.

This collaboration between folksinger June Tabor and guitarist Martin Simpson, Englanders both, came quite early in their careers, each seemingly pushing the other to greater things than they had delivered solo. Songs include Richard Thompson's dark but beautiful "Strange Affair" and a haunting a cappella version of Roger Watson's "Number Two Top Seam," which tells the story of a coal mining disaster. The sound is superb, capturing Simpson's spare, percussive guitar playing and Tabor's rich, emphatic voice perfectly.

Thaikkudam Bridge: Namah
Wonderwall Media/Mathrubhumi Music 3616402635664 (16/44.1 stream. Qobuz). 2019. Thaikkudam Bridge, prod.; Ashok Nelson, Vipin Lal, Christin Jos, Amith Bal, Rajan K S, Hemanth Mukundan, Jayakrishnan Nalinkumar, Frank Arkwright, Amith Bal Kenath, engs.

This expertly recorded second album from Thaikkudam Bridge, a 12-piece band from Kerala, India, offers an amalgam of Southeast Asian and Western styles. Indian vocal scales combine with imaginative metal and hard-driving prog-rock. Providing further world-music flair is a cast of guest players that includes English guitar ace Guthrie Govan and local mohan veena virtuoso V.M. Bhatt. Namah's 10 tracks, sung in English, Hindi, Malayalam, and Tamil, are spread out over almost 70 minutes, but there's no noodling or self-indulgence here. Fresh ideas flow from start to finish, and the band is exhilaratingly tight. Lead singer Peethambaran Menon sometimes sounds like a resurrected Chris Cornell—not a bad thing. I suspect that Steven Wilson and Metallica are influences, but Thaikkudam Bridge has perfected a style all its own.

XTC: Oranges And Lemons
Virgin 0724385063855 (CD). 1989. Paul Fox, prod.; Ed Thacker, eng.

XTC disbanded almost a quarter-century ago, but the quintessential Britpop trio's influence endures, and many of frontman Andy Partridge's immaculately crafted songs form a soundtrack to a good chunk of my life. Except for 1992's Nonsuch, no XTC record scales dizzying creative peaks the way Oranges and Lemons does. Boisterous and bright in mood, the songs practically glisten with opulent instrumentation. My only criticism of O&L is that the arrangements are so relentlessly busy that they wear on the listener; good thing the album ends with a track that leaves space between the notes. That masterful closer, "Chalkhills and Children," is another of Partridge's paeans to country living and fatherhood, no less effective for also being psychedelically tinged and Beatles- and Beach Boys–adjacent. O&L is a wonderland of beguiling melodies splashed in Day-Glo colors, and a terrific introduction to XTC if the band's existence somehow passed you by.

Nielsen: Violin Concerto, Flute Concerto, Clarinet Concerto
Nikolaj Znaider, violin; Robert Langevin, flute; Anthony McGill, clarinet; New York Philharmonic/Alan Gilbert
DaCapo 6.220556 (SACD). 2015. Preben Iwan, Mats Engström, prods.; Preben Iwan, eng.

Da Capo's collection brilliantly evokes the New York Philharmonic's Nielsen "traditions," fired up by Leonard Bernstein but in abeyance since he left. It also brings Nikolaj Znaider back to discographic attention, in a full-bodied, impeccably tuned rendering of the youthful Violin Concerto. In the two woodwind concerti, the orchestra's first-desk soloists, facing formidable in-house competition from predecessors Julius Baker and Stanley Drucker, acquit themselves admirably, especially Anthony McGill, every bit as liquid and deft as the seemingly eternal Drucker. Gilbert and the orchestra provide alert, colorful backings, and the sonics, even in plain frontal stereo, are brilliant and deep.

Vaughan Williams: Antarctica (Symphony 7 "Sinfonia antartica," Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis)
Roger Allam, narrator; Dominique Labelle, soprano; Indianapolis Symphony/Raymond Leppard
Koss Classics KC 2214 (CD). 1993. Michael J. Koss, prod.; Larry Rock, eng.

Until this recording, Vaughan Williams's attempt to forge his Scott of the Antarctic soundtrack into a full-scale symphony has never worked for me. The production on the too-short-lived Koss Classics label is the first I find convincing. Leppard's edition adds extended narrations—longer than the composer's prescribed superscriptions—over the music. I've seen negative reactions to this—the result is almost more travelogue than symphony—but the piece finally plays out in a broad arc rather than as a collection of miscellaneous bits. I'd have liked heftier strings, but the Indianapolis orchestra plays with warmth and focus (in the Tallis Fantasia as well), and the recording is crisp and lucid.