Paris: La Belle Epoque
Robert Langevin, flute. Margaret Kampmeier, piano.
Bridge Records 9555
Total Time:  77:17
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Robert Langevin, the Canadian-born acclaimed flautist has put together an extensive recital exploring solo works from the French Belle Epoque.  The album includes both some familiar repertoire and, certainly, familiar composers though admittedly a couple are quite unexpected and welcome surprises.  The era is one that is filled with some of the greatest of French Music.  It has the arrival of French Romantic style, the blend of Wagnerisms that would provide one thread into Impressionist style with the addition of church modes and global scales adding another potential for musical exploration.  These realities are what often makes the music stand out from its more familiar Germanic counterparts and there is always a sense of wit and joy that comes through even when the deepest emotional moments are explored.  Langevin is joined here by pianist Margaret Kampmeier who proves to be a good match.

The album begins with a rather unique work by Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937) known most for his organ music.  The Suite, Op. 34 (1877) is a large-scale work in four movements with the “Scherzo” providing apt virtuosic displays and the “Romance” allowing for some quite beautiful lyric playing.  The outer movements help frame these in faster-paced music.  Supposedly, Widor was encouraged to orchestrate the work by flutist George Barrere but never got around to it which is unfortunate as no doubt it would have been a more popular orchestral solo staple.  Still, it is a delightful piece and makes for an apt start to the exploration of music from the era with its closer leanings to romantic style, but with interesting modern twists.

Lesser known is Jules Mouquet (1867-1946) a more conservative composer from the era (he even wrote a couple of oratorios) who wrote a number of instrumental works.  La flute de Pan, Op. 15 (1904) is essentially a programmatic sonata with each movement inspired by an ancient Greek text.  The piece moves from a playfulness to interesting birdsong imitations and romance all culminating in a virtuosic final movement.

Perhaps a bit more widely known, Gabriel Faure’s (1879-1941) work blends an equally conservative approach but with an often restrained beauty that adds to its appeal.  Two of his more familiar works are part of this program.  First is the 1898 Fantaisie, Op. 79 which Faure wrote as a competition piece that was intended to focus on more than just technical skills.  There are still plenty of those challenges in the work which would be used for the Paris Conservatoire’s flute competitions on later occasions.  For the sight-reading portion, Faure also wrote the Morceau de concerts which is in the more reflective end of his work offering more introspection and opportunity to demonstrate phrasing and lyricism.  These works are the bookends for several other solo works that were written for Conservatoire.  Georges Enesco’s (1881-1955) Cantabile et presto was one of 4 pieces he would write for that purpose.  Written in 1904, the work shows some of the increase in more impressionistic qualities in its opening segment while shifting to virtuosic displays for its concluding presto.  Philippe Gaubert (1879-1943) was a noted flautist in his own write but also a fine composer as well.  Three of his pieces are included in this program.  First is the competition piece Nocturne et allegro scherzando (1906) which provides a fine contrast to Enesco’s work both in terms of approach and overall style.  The Fantasie (1912) has a sort of rhapsodic quality with and musical imagery that was not originally a competition work but would be used as such on occasion.  Finally, there is the Madrigal of 1908 which equally demonstrates the flirtation with ancient musics and an early mix of modernism and neo-classical qualities.

The album would be quite complete with just these works but Langevin has also included 2 familiar pieces by Debussy (1862-1918) to wrap up this recital.  First is an arrangement of the Prelude to the Afternoon of A Faun by Gustave Samazeuilh (1877-1967).  This version is from 1925 made by this champion of Debussy’s music (he did a number of piano reductions and transcriptions by hundreds of contemporary larger-scale works).  It is rather fascinating to hear how the orchestral colors are transferred to the piano especially.  The album concludes with a little encore of sorts in Syrinx (1913) where we already begin to hear the shifts away from this Impressionist style as a sort of last flirtation before more fully embracing modernism.

While this is a recent Bridge release, the recording was made back in 2012.  One has to wonder why it took this long to see the light of day but at least it has and those who appreciate flute music will certainly have a lot to dive into in this release of significant works for flute.  They demonstrate Langevin’s own virtuoso skill and lyrical abilities on the instrument and that makes this equally attractive.  Balance feels fine though the sound seems a bit dry at times which does not give the flute sound a chance to float a bit more in quiet passages, but it does aid the rapid passage work and articulation pop well.  An overall excellent album that allows for a good blend of somewhat familiar work with rarer recorded repertoire adding to its attraction.

Carthage
The Crossing/Donald Nally
Navona 6287
Total Time:  53:42
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Bryars: A Native Hill
The Crossing/Donald Nally
Navona 6347
Total Time:  68:37
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Words Adorned
The Crossing/Donald Nally
Al-Bustan Takht/Hanna Khoury
Dalal Abu Amneh, soloist.
Navona 6356
Total Time:  48:51
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

The award-winning Philadelphia-based choral group, The Crossing, has been quite busy in the studio over the last couple of years and continue to release intriguing collections of contemporary choral works.  Three albums from the past year and a half demonstrate their range and repertoire.

Released in May 2020, Carthage features a collection of choral pieces by composer James Primosch who currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.  He numbers Davidovsky and Crumb as his composition teachers and his work has been recorded on a number of labels.  The six pieces on Carthage are modern takes on ancient monastic mysticism both in their textual inspirations and musical styles.  Two brief works, including the title piece, open the album.  Journey uses texts by the great mystic Meister Eckhart and blends a chant-like quality into a subtle piece.  That quality continues in the more hopeful title work.  The three shorter pieces at the conclusion of the album continue these ideas of light and darkness with fascinating harmonic work and vivid musical imagery for spiralling ecstatically (1998).  The last piece, One with the Darkness, One with the Light, utilizes texts by Wendell Berry which overlays themes of loss and death.  At the center of the album is a Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus (2014).  It sets the five Ordinary texts of the mass.  These are layered against texts by Denise Levertov that explore concepts of unbelief and their own spiritual journey layered into the saint named in the mass.  Work for soloists helps add some additional interest to the music.  These are stunning works that blend ancient chant within modern harmonic contexts.

Wendell Berry’s work also informs the larger-scale piece by Gavin Bryars which he specifically composed for The Crossing.  A Native Hill takes its title and texts from the 1968 essay of the same name by Berry.  This 12-movement work is a great exhibition of Bryars’ style with its often dense textures alternating with moments of simple lines (often chant-inspired).  There are some rather amazing moments where the choir moves outwards in a host of single vocal lines which adds a rather dense cluster of sounds.  The music shifts between these moments of simple harmonic ideas, often infused with extended jazz chords, to moments where the lines move into denser harmonic clusters.  It allows for often intense, and occasionally more dissonant, musical ideas, but the general harmonic language maintains its quite accessible style.  The choir performs the work beautifully and it is a quite moving, and even somewhat spiritual experience all its own.  The texts add another layer of philosophical and political implications that invite the listener to contemplate their intent.

The more recent release from The Crossing demonstrates their programming versatility with music that uses ancient Sufi texts and Andalusian Poetry.  The a cappella group is joined by Al-Bustan Takht which adds instrumental color and support to the two primary works on Word Adorned.  First up is Embroidered Verses by the Syrian-American composer Kareem Roustom.  The texts here celebrate and are informed by aspects of Classical Arabic poetry and secular music called the Muwashshah.  Each of the four movements use texts that celebrate nature, provide a drinking song, explore the nature of love, and war, respectively.  Harmonic ideas take inspiration as well from the Middle East with some additional interesting dense harmonies that have the choir singing quarter tones.  It is a fascinating blend of ancient and modern sounds.  Syrian composer Kinan Abou-afach tends to blend together a host of contemporary Western traditions, with explorations of modal harmonies and Arabic compositional approaches which tend to focus on linear ideas rather than harmonic ones.  His Of Nights and Solace also finds inspiration in the Muwashshah literature with a six-movement piece that is like a journey through the Andalusian region reflecting themes common to its source material.  Abou-afach incorporates Arabic scales which can lead into rather denser textural music.  In this work in particular, the idea of line and how it is approached within this cultural music is quite striking.  The pieces on this album are an excellent way to begin to widen one’s musical horizons.  Most fascinating is the way one can hear how this music is an ancient cousin to Europe (often far more influential to the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance than many realize!).  This particular release is taken from live concerts in 2015 which is the source for a final track of traditional music.

The Crossing continues to impress with its range and diversity of music that often blends contemporary musical approaches with ancient styles.  Their releases include works that are informed by ancient modes and chant as well as folk music and in this batch of releases, one can experience all of these things in excellent sounds for music that has a sense of timelessness.