Music News 3/23/23

VOICES 

 

Cécile McLorin Salvant, MÉLUSINE (Nonesuch, $15.98) – Ms. Salvant is most adventurous—both as a singer and a creator of projects, such as her evening-length multimedia work, Ogresse.  

Now, singing mostly in French (with songs in Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyòle as well), she has created an album around the European folk legend of Mélusine. She is “a woman who turns into a half-snake each Saturday as a result of a childhood curse by her mother.”  

Ms. Salvant wrote original songs for the project, mixing in 12th and 17th-century songs, as well as chansons by Charles Trenet, Léo Ferré, and Veronique Sanson. 

 

Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily, LOVE IN EXILE (Verve, $14.98) – A new collaboration between vocalist Arooj Aftab, pianist Vijay Iyer, and bassist Shahzad Ismaily (both doubling on synths). The trio played many improvisatory shows, and Love in Exile captures their further explorations in the studio. Iyer and Ismaily lay down languid, atmospheric melodies which Ms. Aftab joins in to produce beautiful soundscapes.  

 

NOTE: Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily will perform Love in Exile at Strathmore on Friday, April 14. 

 

 

NEW CLASSICAL 

 

Jessye Norman, THE UNRELEASED MASTERS (Decca, 3 CDs, $41.98) – Rare and sought-after recordings by Ms. Norman of Wagner, Strauss, Haydn, Berlioz, and Britten are finally released “with the support of the singer’s family and estate.” The three CDs includes excerpts from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Kurt Masur); lieder by Strauss and Wagner; Haydn’s Scena di Berenice, Berlioz’s Cléopâtre, and Britten’s Phaedra (with the Boston Symphony and Seiji Ozawa). 

 

Miranda Cuckson, VILÁG: Bartók / Shirazi / Goodyear / Stahnke / Donatoni (Urlicht, 2 CDs, $18.98) – The dynamic violinist programs an album of solo works by Béla Bartok, Aida Shirazi, Stewart Goodyear, Mandred Stahnke, and Franco Donatoni. 

 

Rafal Blechacz, CHOPIN (Deutsche Grammophon, $17.98) 

 

 

STEPHEN HOUGH: NEW MEMOIR & ALBUMS 

 

This past Tuesday, pianist Stephen Hough played a mesmerizing concert of music by Mompou, Debussy, Scriabin, Liszt, and his own 5-part Partita. He will also be playing this week with the National Symphony. 

 

Besides being one of the world’s finest pianists, teaching, and composing new music, Mr. Hough is also a fine writer. His last book, Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and More (Picador, $20), was a mix of short essays on specific works and piano insights, the life of a performing musician, and more reflections of a gay Catholic.  

 

Now, Mr. Hough has written ENOUGH: Scenes from Childhood (Faber, $26.95).  He vividly recalls growing up in Cheshire with his “supportive, if eccentric, parents,” his teenage break from the piano, and flourishing at the Royal Northern College of Music and Julliard. 

 

Listen to his two latest albums: 

 

MOMPOU: MÚSICA CALLADA (Hyperion, $19.98) – In 1997, Stephen Hough released a recording of piano music by the Catalan composer Federico Mompou (1893 – 1987). He now takes on Mompou’s four volumes of miniatures, Música Callada.  

 

Takács Quartet, HOUGH DUTILLEUX & RAVEL STRING QUARTETS (Hyperion, $19.98) –The Takács Quartet present the first recording of Hough’s String Quartet No. 1 “Les Six rencontres”—dedicated to the Quartet, and meant as a companion to the two other works on the album. 

 

NOTE: This Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 23-25, Stephen Hough is playing the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3 with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center.