Birds of the Psalms
Cappella Clausura/Amelia LeClair
Navona Records 6176
Total Time:  51:50
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

This beautiful new release of choral music features Capella Clausura.  Amelia LeClair founded the ensemble in 2004 with one of its goals to promote the work of women composers.  For this new release, LeClair has focused on music inspired by Biblical psalms.  The album takes its title from a new work by Patricia van Ness which opens the album.

Ness’s Birds of the Psalms is a collection of 10 psalm settings that have avian imagery and this idea of the divine depicted by a bird, or a bird protected by the divine.  Dove imagery is a common component of the ancient Biblical texts in both Jewish and Christian traditions.  Among them is this image of the sheltering bird which is a common theme in six of the texts used here.  Her music here takes its inspiration as well from ancient church modes and the more melismatic settings upon which harmonies themselves occur naturally across the linear presentation of the text.  This might make the words themselves more difficult to discern at times, but it creates a rather rich wash of sound.  There is some nice word painting along the way (for example on “quakes” in the Psalm 55 setting).  The music itself overall bears close resemblance to Morten Lauridsen’s style.  Each movement helps highlight different voices creating a nice variety.  The male vocal setting of Psalm 17 adds a deep, rich plea to the text that becomes more angelic once the female voices are then added (the female voices get a similar chance in the setting of Psalm 61).  In the following setting of Psalm 57, the Latin text adds a further ancient feel.  The vocal lines as well are written in a late Medieval quality with nice imitation occurring that can bring us to some quite stunning dissonances that add an extra emotional punch.  Things move along a bit more in the seventh movement’s setting of Psalm 148 with its creeping things.  It requires some fun effects as well which add some challenge to the music and a bit of necessary energy.

The program is filled out with beautiful renditions of Tchaikovsky’s setting of the Kiev Chant, “Svete Tihiy”, and two selections from Rachmaninov’s Vespers (“Blagoslovi, dushe moya” and “Blazhen muzh”).  These give us samples of the rich Eastern Orthodox church styles explored by these composers.  A couple of classic English anthems also appear.  First is Purcell’s brief “Hear My Prayer” followed by Weelke’s “When David Heard”.  The program closes with a setting by an Eastern Roman abbess, one of the first female medieval composers, Kassia (810-856) allowing us a window into the very beginnings of this choral tradition explored fittingly on this album.

The album was recorded at the groups May 2016 concerts in the Boston area.  Audience noise is quite minimized apart from applause at the end of the Ness and the final work.  The church settings lend a sense of the sort of rich sound that can be attained in these spaces, always hard to capture in a recording but Navona’s engineers have managed to give the listener a real sense of sitting in the midst of a cathedral to wallow in the gorgeous music presented here.

Unexplored
Nada Radulovich, cello.  Cullan Bryant, piano.

Navona Records 6171
Total Time:  50:29
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Cellist Nada Radulovich’s new solo album is an interesting collection of rarer works for her instrument.  The release is bookended by transcriptions of 19^th Century music but its main interest lies in the 20^th Century pieces at the center of the album.

Tchaikovsky never wrote a work for solo cello but here Radulovich has transcribed music that fits the instrument well.  Originally written for the mezzo-soprano Desiree Artot-Padilla, the Six French Songs, Op. 65 (1868) make for an enchanting work whose emotional content is still clear even with the poetry removed.  It has a bit of the salon to it.  The music allows her to explore the more lyrical aspects of the cello in these emotionally-rich pieces.  Wisely, though it is not in the booklet, the poems can be accessed as supportive material on Navona’s website.

One of the more interesting works though is this 1924 Cello Sonata by Gaspar Cassado (1897-1966).  Himself a fine cellist and student of Pablo Casals, Cassado’s composition teachers (Ravel and de Falla) would leave their own indelible stamps on his music.  He was primarily known though as a cellist.  The exploration of folk rhythms and music of Spain is on display throughout this four-movement work.  The opening “Rapsodie” has a more Saint-Saens- feel in its opening bars before shifting into a style more closely aligned with de Falla with some rich Romantic gestures, especially in the piano.  The “Aragonesa” is quite delightful with a tune also used by Liszt for his own Spanish Rhapsody.  It is a necessary glimpse of light-heardedness before we head into the very moving “Saeta”, a sort of emotional heart to the work.  The sonata is wrapped up with a traditional “Paso-doble.”  Indeed, it is a bit puzzling why this piece is still fairly unknown.  But Radulovich makes a great case for making it part of the repertoire.  The sonata appeared on Crystal Records release some twenty years ago but this is the only other version since then.

Even rarer is the Romantic Fantasy, Op. 43 (1966) by Ukrainian composer Antin Rudnytsky (1902-1975).  He was a noted pianist having studied with the great Artur Schnabel.  His composition studies were with two noted modernist composers of the day, Franz Shreker and Ferruccio Busoni.  It is rather fascinating that this work also has been somewhat ignored along with Rudnystsky’s many other compositions.  Though written later in the 20^th Century, the music tends to be couched in more traditional harmonic language as it explores folkish idioms.  The music though is stunningly beautiful and perhaps the best performance on this album.

As an encore, Radulovich has included a breezy rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblee in a transcription by accompanist Cullan Bryant.

This is a good introduction to Radulovich’s playing with a program that features music beyond the normal repertoire.  The choices here all work well to explore her lyrical side with flashes of technique along the way.  Bryant also proves to be an apt supporter with plenty of additional interpretive touches along the way.