Search - Simon Streatfeild, David Stewart, Vince Ellin :: Canadian Music for Chamber Orchestra

Substantial, enjoyable works from Canada

Fred Granlund | Los Angeles, CA USA | 05/27/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Music lovers in the US can be forgiven for wondering whether Canada has ever produced any important composers, since very little Canadian music is heard down here. This disc provide a small sample of what is actually a large body of significant work waiting to be discovered.



First of all, don't be misled by the "chamber orchestra" designation here: these are all big, extroverted pieces in which sonic spectacle plays a big part. Andrew MacDonald's Violin Concerto is in the 19th-Century virtuoso tradition, pitting the soloist against a busy, brass- and percussion-laden orchestra in a real stamina contest. The solo part sounds flatly impossible, but hearing is believing--thanks to Lord knows how much editing--and it all sounds quite sensational. What impresses about all these works is how well their influences are sublimated into their new contexts. The listener is only occasionally reminded of Bartok or Stravinsky or (in MacDonald's case, due to the jazzy, synchopated rhythms) Bernstein or Copland.



Inspired by a visit to the pre-Columbian ruins of Macchu Picchu, Pablo Neruda's poetry served in turn as the basis of Michael Matthews' 19-minute tone poem recorded here. Colorful but also thoughtful, it makes its points about the continuity of history and the commonality of human experience without bombast but with no little intensity.



And as her multiple names suggest, Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatte comes from a diverse background: born in Russia, raised in England and France, trained in Germany and Austria and eventually resident in Canada, she was a child prodigy pianist AND violinist who performed Beethoven's brilliant "Kreutzer" Sonata on her debut violin recital (at age 11), then sat down at the piano for the "Appassionata" . . . Her Bassoon Concerto of 40 years later breaks no new ground, but does add significantly to the sparse repertoire of such works. It's rather light-hearted and quite entertaining, even touching at times, if necessarily more restrained than its companion works here.



All of these performances are confident and convincing, not surprising since two of the three works were premiered by these forces. The only weakness here is that while all the music is appealing, none of it is especially memorable--making several hearings necessary for getting to know it. Well worth the effort, though, and the characteristically vivid engineering from BIS brings these brilliantly orchestrated works to life nearly as well as hearing them in person."