Classical

RICHARD STRAUSS

Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration et al New York Philharmonic Orchestra, cond Lorin Maazel DG 477 6435

It’s fascinating to see Deutsche Grammophon emulating LSO Live, issuing concerts for downloading on the internet and, in some cases, for CD releases. Why anyone thought this programme – taken from two series of concerts at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall in 2005 – was worth releasing in CD format remains unclear. To be sure, the NYPO is a top-ranking band, and Maazel a virtuoso podium wizard, but this Don Juan lacks genuine swagger and sentiment, while Maazel robs Death and Transfiguration of any sense of uplifting nobility. The operatic orchestral extracts – Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils and a Suite from Der Rosenkavalier – are performances of appalling vulgarity and raucousness. HC

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, RAVEL, BRAHMS

Tallis Fantasia, Rapsodie espagnole, Symphony No 4 New Philharmonia Orchestra, cond Leopold Stokowski BBC Legends BBCL 4205-2

The populist film Fantasia and a flamboyant personality led to Stokowski being underrated in this country, written off as a musical adventurer more concerned with sound than substance. In fact, his interest in colour was part of a musical intelligence of exceptional breadth and insatiable curiosity, as this typically wide-ranging Albert Hall concert of 1974 (Stokowski was then 92) demonstrates. The textures of the Vaughan Williams Fantasia are realised with loving care, and the Brahms symphony – quick, but never perfunctory – shows the same passionate attention to detail in the service of a performance of exciting dramatic power. DC

SPOHR

Septet in A minor, Op147; Nonet in F, Op 31 Ensemble 360 ASV GLD4026

The general rule is to beware a slightly obscure composer with a society devoted to him. In the case of Louis Spohr – 14 years Beethoven’s junior, and for a time the great man’s friend – this advice can be safely ignored. Spohr’s work spanned that crucial period when classicism metamorphosed into Romanticism. His music inevitably changes as the decades pass, and the septet of 1853, scored for violin, cello, flute, clarinet, bassoon, horn and piano has a far richer, almost proto-Brahmsian quality than the nonet of 1813, which is minus piano, but plus viola, bass and oboe. Yet both retain clear classical outlines, oozing the sweet suavity that is his hallmark. The young players of Ensemble 360 show obvious enjoyment of the music’s clean lines. SP

JS BACH

Motetten The Hilliard Ensemble ECM New Series 1875 476 5776

Bach’s motets are among the most thrilling choral music in existence, and this recording of all seven (some doubt of authorship attaches to two) is a magnificent achievement by the Hilliards, singing one to a part, varying between four, five and eight voices, and unaccompanied except for the organ continuo in Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden. Singet dem Herrn, ein neues Lied was, the booklet reveals, a favourite of Wagner’s, who praised its “lyrical thrust”; its bracing propulsiveness, the sheercontinuance of the polyphony, is sublime. Komm, Jesu, komm,with its soprano-soaring third section, and the symmetrically conceived Jesu, meine Freude are utterly compelling. PD

Classical CD of the week

LISZT

Piano Works Arcadi Volodos Sony 88697065002

Forget the emotionally challenged, perpetual wunderkind Evgeny Kissin (aged 35) and marvel instead at the awesome pianism of his near contemporary and compatriot – just one year younger, but already displaying a mature approach to Liszt that rivals Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels or Lazar Berman. I haven’t heard a Volodos disc for some time, but this is unquestionably his finest to date. It announces a Lisztian of titanic stature, whose transcendental technique (the cascading downward scales in Vallée d’Oberman, from the first Années de pèlerinage, are edge-of-the-seat bravura displays), command of quasi-orchestral sonorities (Bagatelle sans tonalité, Funerailles) and diabolical daredevilry (Hungarian Rhapsody No 13) have few, if any, rivals in this repertoire today. He is especially rewarding in the late, visionary, postWagnerian musings of La Lugubre gondola and in the Debussy-foretelling nocturne En rêve, one of Liszt’s valedictory works, and played here with rapt intensity and a shimmering, impressionistic palette of colours. One of the piano discs of the year, I predict. HC

Hugh Canning, David Cairns, Stephen Pettitt and Paul Driver

Pop, rock, jazz

BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB

Baby 81 Island 1733090

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s third album, Howl, represented a significant change in musical direction – the big rock-guitar sound was dropped in favour of a more rootsy acoustic sound. The obvious assumption was that this reflected the loss of their drummer, Nick Jago – and this proves to have been spot-on. Jago is back for Baby 81, and so is the band’s original sound. Almost, anyway. Elements of Howl have been retained: the acoustic guitars, now stacked alongside the electrics, and a more conventional songwriting style on Not What You Wanted and All You Do Is Talk, both of which break with BRMC’s tradition of having songs that start out sounding great, but don’t go anywhere. Other tracks fall into this irritating trap, again preventing the band from creating the great album they surely have within them. ME

MONTA

The Brilliant Masses Klein KLCD085

Monta’s debut album, Where Circles Begin, drew comparisons with Bright Eyes and Death Cab for Cutie. Much of The Brilliant Masses explores similar, unhurried indie ground, but there are also hints of a slightly more jaunty, poppy musical approach. Not that anything approaching jauntiness has reached as far as the lyrics. “You are everything when everything breaks down” might be the chorus of a love song, except that everything does indeed appear to have broken down, and the verses concern stumbling over corpses on the ground. The world-view of Monta’s Tobias Kuhn may perhaps be summed up in All the Luck in the World, which – the song tells us – “won’t make you happy”. On the other hand, the superior songwriting of The Brilliant Masses might. ME

TORI AMOS

American Doll Posse Epic 82876861402

Would that Tori Amos had, having settled on making her new record in the guise of five characters, given them just one song apiece, two max. Instead, Isabel, Clyde, Pip, Santa and, er, Tori (respectively, HisTORIcal, CliTORIdes, ExpiraTORIal, SanaTORIum and TerraTORIes) get a whopping four or five each: that’s a lot of album, even for an artist as talented, fiery and provocative as Amos. Endure the length and wade through the guff, though, and there are pearls here: Teenage Hustling, Mr Bad Man, Girl Disappearing, Body and Soul and Beauty of Speed find her at the top of her form, distinctive, original, insightful. The lack of a strong ediTORIal hand does for it in the end, though, so that’s a job for you. DC

THE ELECTRIC SOFT PARADE

No Need to Be Downhearted Truck TRUCK026

The Mercury prize has doomed many, but it’s usually the victors whose careers nose-dive after winning; for ESP, just being nominated seemed to send them into a tailspin. Creatively, they’ve gone the other way: they were nominated for their least satisfying album (Holes in the Wall); its 2003 successor, The American Adventure, saw them filling out their sound, since when they’ve pursued their Brakes sideline and produced one further EP. One of its tracks, the sublime Cold World, is dusted down, fitting snugly in among new beauties such as Shore Song and If That’s the Case, Then I Don’t Know. Perfect pastoral nu-pop. DC

THE NIGHTINGALES

What’s Not to Love Caroline True CTRUE5

The postpunk pioneers returned in 2001; now Robert Lloyd, the Black Country Captain Beefheart, fronts a generation-spanning ’Gales, including the founder, AlanApperley, and teenage guitarist MattWood. Lesser talents plough the comebacktrail, but the Nightingales press onwards, scratchy guitars scribbling furiously over exploratorydrumming. There’s a slinky stab at Nancy Sinatra’s DrummerMan, and Lloyd misquotes Arnaud-Amaury’s 13th-century punch line, “Kill them all, God will know his own”, during the stream-of-consciousness Plenty of Spare. Young Matt takes lead vocal on the relentlessly propulsive Bang out of Order, the group reaching new heights in its third decade. SL

TERRY DAY

2006 Duos Emanem 4137

Born in 1940, Day co-founded the 1960s improvisers the People Band, and drummed with Ian Dury’s poetic pub rockers Kilburn and the High Roads. Poor health stopped him performing 20 years ago, but now he’s back, his drums abandoned by necessity for bamboo pipes, including one he found in his garden. Here, he duets with five other free-jazzers, notably in a 12-minute dialogue with Phil Minton, whose wordless vocalese babbling complements the pipes’ strangulated squalls to beautiful, and quietly comical, effect. When saliva clogs the bamboo, Day blows it clear. “The open blowing sound is now part of my musical vocabulary,” he writes. Restrictions create possibilities. SL

JANE MONHEIT

Surrender Concord 7230050

Flawless intonation, voluptuous looks, impeccable material: Monheit sometimes seems a committee’s idea of the perfect singer. She has managed the rare feat of conquering the cabaret and jazz citadels of New York, so she is obviously doing something right, yet there’s a troublingly soft centre to her work. Like a Broadway mega-show, her albums are perfect for the tired businessman. Supper-club regulars will no doubt wallow in the lush, Streisand-esque phrases. The sultry treatment of Jobim’s So Tinha de Ser Com Voce certainly lights up proceedings, and Monheit sounds just as comfortable duetting with Ivan Lins on Rio de Maio. But the surfeit of airbrushed ballads soon grows soporific. CD

MOSTAR SEVDAH REUNION & LJILJANA BUTTLER

The Legends of Life Snail Records SR 66006

Now here is a voice that has been lived in. Once a leading light of Balkan gypsy music, Buttler spent a decade or more in obscurity in exile, at one time working as a cleaner to make ends meet. A comeback album won acclaim a couple of years ago, and this new disc is every bit as atmospheric. Buttler’s voice is surprisingly masculine and bluesy; and, if it is occasionally wayward, she has magnificent support from that Bosnian institution the Mostar Sevdah Reunion, creating a relaxed ambience poised between jazz, folk and blues. Another local legend, Saban Bajramovic, makes an appearance, but this is very much Buttler’s show. CD

Pop CD of the week

DINOSAUR JR

Beyond PIAS PIL070CD

When a band reunites – or, as in this case, when a band’s classic lineup reunites – after an 18-year gap, you might expect some storming greatest-hits shows, but, if they manage to produce any new material at all, you certainly don’t expect it to live up to former glories. Yet Beyond, which sees J Mascis and Lou Barlow sharing studio space for the first time since the late 1980s, might just be the best Dinosaur Jr album yet. The band who joined the dots from hardcore punk to grunge aren’t exploring any new ground here, but they are extraordinarily focused and on top songwriting form. All 11 tracks are keepers, but the powerhouse central section of the album is particularly strong: the epic guitar solo of Pick Me Up; Barlow’s almost Soundgardenish Back to Your Heart; This Is All I Came to Do, where the band’s debt to Neil Young is at its most obvious; and the punky Been There All the Time. ME This Is All I Came to Do at www.apple.com/itunes

Mark Edwards, Dan Cairns, Stewart Lee and Clive Davis

Down time

Click here yo listen to and buy as an exclusive Culture iMix

ELLIOTT SMITH

Domino releases New Moon, a collection of mostly unheard recordings from 1995-97, on May 7. That period is widely held to be Smith’s peak, before a major-label deal, depression and drug addiction dragged him down, culminating in his death in 2003. Certainly, the hushed, minimalist introspection of earlier albums gave way to lusher arrangements, but it’s surely wrong to downplay, as some do, his later releases.

1 Needle in the Hay His masterpiece: “Gonna walk walk walk / Four more blocks, plus the one in my brain” (which he never cleared).

2 I Better Be Quiet Now With the unbearably bleak conclusion: “I got a long way to go / I’m getting further away.”

3 Waltz #2 (XO) Pop in 3/4, yes, and beautiful with it; but, lyrically, this is utterly forlorn.

4 Say Yes The gentle, lilting, yearning closer to Either/Or.

5 No Name #1 From his debut album, waiting to be fallen for.

6 St Ide’s Heaven High as a kite in 1995, and already seeing the warning signs.

7 Between the Bars Retreating into himself, yet again, on Either/Or.

8 I Didn’t Understand “There’s nothing here that you’ll miss.” He was wrong.

9 Memory Lane A jaunty but wretched rehab missive, released after his death.

10 Easy Way Out Addressing himself, with unblinking candour, on Figure 8. DC

Breaking act

Click here to listen to Klima

KLIMA

Who is she? A London-based French musician, Angèle David-Guillou. Her eponymous debut album thrums with haunting atmospherics, strange textures, lyrics about solitude among the multitudes – part chamber pop, part sepulchral electronica, it’s sprinkled with beautiful vocals, alternating between intimacy and aloofness. For fans of Cocteau Twins, Björk, the Knife, Sol Seppy, Hanne Hukkelberg and Cathy Davey, tracks such as Fluorescent Stars, Her Love Is Happy and Neverending are like the soundtrack to a private diary whose writer wanders round a sultry city, observing others and, crucially, herself before drifting home to write it all up and set it to music. The perfect summer album for people who like their music a bubble off plumb.

When’s the record out? Now, on Peacefrog; visit www.myspace.com/contactklima . DC

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