‘Ladies of the Golden West’
Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Grasp Chorale; John Adams, conductor (Nonesuch)
You’ll be hard-pressed to discover a fan of John Adams and Peter Sellars’s “Ladies of the Golden West” when it premiered at San Francisco Opera in 2017. Critics, who discovered its libretto aimless and its three-hour rating saggy at greatest, principally dismissed it.
What a distinction revision makes. There was at all times treasured materials ready to be unearthed from this opera’s hulking physique, and after two revisions, Adams has gotten it proper. The working time is now simply over two hours; the story, clearer; the music, so vivid you are feeling immersed among the many evocations of pickax swings and darkish folks songs that populate his therapy of California’s gold rush.
The redemption of “Ladies” remembers one other Adams-Sellars effort, “Physician Atomic,” which premiered in 2005 however blossomed solely when a recording was launched in 2018. Two of that album’s singers seem right here: the rich-voiced soprano Julia Bullock, and the frighteningly highly effective bass-baritone Ryan McKinny. Becoming a member of them are “Ladies” veterans (the bass-baritone Davóne Tines, the soprano Hye Jung Lee, the tenor Paul Appleby and the baritone Elliot Madore) in addition to Daniela Mack, a newcomer who appears to have shortly settled into the rating. The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s gamers behave just like the Adams specialists they’re.
If I may, I might ship a duplicate of this recording to anybody who ever doubted the opera. JOSHUA BARONE
‘Messiaen’
Barbara Hannigan, soprano; Bertrand Chamayou, piano (Alpha)
Barbara Hannigan has lengthy been thought of a modernist’s dream of a lyric coloratura soprano. She is smart out of zany, taffy-pulling vocal writing with out sacrificing the aesthetic attraction of her gleaming timbre, fluid legato and shiny passagework.
On her newest album, she and the pianist Bertrand Chamayou apply supple insights to Messiaen’s tune cycles “Poèmes Pour Mi” and “Chants de Terre et de Ciel.” They navigate heady atmospheres with assured path and subtly reconcile the composer’s mix of fervent religiosity and scenes of married and home bliss.
In “Chants,” they expound the subliminal gravity of Messiaen’s dedication to his first spouse, Claire Delbos, whose nickname was “Mi” (“Bail Avec Mi”), and the uncomplicated joys he finds in his son (“Danse du Bébé-Pilule” and “Arc-en-Ciel d’Innocence”). They save rapture for “Poèmes”: In mild, suggestive songs like “Ta Voix” and “Le Collier,” Hannigan blurs the excellence between bodily and religious ecstasies. Her tone is heat; her sense of line, beautiful. Very a lot a associate, Chamayou brings mesmerizing prettiness to the triads that litter the scores with glassy, harmonically off-kilter results. In moments of fever pitch, Hannigan’s voice takes on a tangy brightness that jostles the music’s delicacy.
As an interpreter of difficult materials, Hannigan sings with a demented but ravishing edge. Once in a while, although, it’s good to listen to her sound merely ravishing. OUSSAMA ZAHR
‘Decoda’
Decoda (Vibrant Shiny Issues)
Members of the chamber group Decoda had been additionally in Ensemble Join, a fellowship program for younger artists by Carnegie Corridor, the Juilliard College and the Weill Music Institute. Ensemble Join’s live shows have tended to supply low-cost, high-value packages of surprising repertoire; that spirit is audible on this recording, too.
“Revelry,” a two-movement work by the Imani Winds founder Valerie Coleman, comes first, and makes a powerful impression. Its first part, “Mysterio,” is appropriately mercurial. But it additionally boasts vivid melodic and timbral concepts that come again into play through the second, extra agitated part, “Struggle.” Within the ultimate minutes, some churning, solemn motifs be a part of up with jagged riffs to evoke a balletic tackle aggression.
Decoda’s efficiency of Reza Vali’s “Folks Songs Set No. 9 for Flute and Cello” equally reveals off the wide-ranging abilities of a residing composer, and of the flutist Catherine Gregory and the cellist Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir. (Vali’s comparatively spare instrumentation additionally works within the album’s sequencing, coming between the fiery Coleman and equally extroverted piano rags by William Bolcom, organized for chamber ensemble.) With performances of this high quality, you’ll be able to see why Carnegie — which simply named Decoda its first affiliate ensemble — would wish to proceed an affiliation with these musicians. SETH COLTER WALLS
Elgar: Symphonies
Hallé Orchestra; Mark Elder, conductor (Hallé)
Mark Elder and the Hallé of Manchester, England, provide distinctive performances of Elgar’s two symphonies on this launch, with readings equal to the sterling repute they’ve made for themselves as guardians of the British orchestral custom. In case you can hear delight in that heritage right here, you may as well hear how Elder has moved the custom on; totally refined, steadily paced and tonally as discerning because the music can bear, that is Elgar deeply tied to its European context, to Brahms and Wagner and Mahler. The First is superb; the Second, extra so.
However to think about this launch as simply one other entry within the file catalog would miss the purpose. In August, Elder will conduct his final live performance as music director of the Hallé, somewhat greater than a quarter-century after he was appointed. His tenure in Manchester, like that of his forebear John Barbirolli, has embodied values which can be more and more retro within the orchestral world at present: dedication to a spot, stewardship of an establishment, dedication to a repertoire, evolution of a sound, cultivation of a method. This Elgar is in a way the worthiest of farewells, a tribute not solely to these 25 years, but additionally to what conducting can imply. DAVID ALLEN
‘After Bach II’
Brad Mehldau, piano (Nonesuch)
With the 2018 album “After Bach,” the jazz pianist and composer Brad Mehldau launched his first official testomony to Bach. However properly earlier than that — as on his piece “Sehnsucht,” recorded reside on the Village Vanguard in 1999 — you may hear his appreciation for the composer. Regardless of how dense Mehldau’s thickets of counterpoint might get, he may put over a melody. Wherever did he get that concept?
This set affords improvisations and unique compositions alongside objects from Bach. There’s heat within the taking part in, however generally a driving vitality as properly. The Prelude No. 6 in D minor, from the primary e book of “The Nicely-Tempered Clavier,” zips by at a clip. However whereas his right-hand arpeggiations are dazzling, it’s not pace for pace’s sake. The quick tempo permits Mehldau to play with refined, fast variations in his method to the bass line — transferring between punchy staccato and, in some moments, extra flowing left-hand articulations.
It’s thrilling, trendy Bach. And it leads right into a effective Mehldau unique, together with his prolonged “After Bach: Toccata” taking from Bach and jazz alike. This venture might have began with a co-commission from Carnegie Corridor, however that doesn’t imply it must cease. It’s simple to think about this collection persevering with for the remainder of his profession. SETH COLTER WALLS
