Etienne Charles Creole Orchestra

Etienne Charles - Creole Soul (2013) {Culture Shock Music EC004 rec 2012}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 334 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 132 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 15 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Culture Shock Music / Etienne Charles | EC004
Jazz / World Fusion / Contemporary Jazz / Modern Creative / Caribbean / Trumpet

On 2011's Kaiso, trumpeter and bandleader Etienne Charles examined calypso, his native Trinidad's most famous cultural export, through the lens of 21st century post-bop. The end result expanded the reach of both musics without watering down either. On Creole Soul, Charles and his group use modern creative jazz to engage 20th century Caribbean folk and pop traditions throughout the Caribbean, from Trinidad to Jamaica, from Haiti to Martinique, in originals and covers.

Charles Mackerras doesn’t put a foot wrong anywhere. The “Military” Symphony features sprightly tempos in its outer movements, with percussion that’s exciting but never vulgar in the famous Allegretto. In addition to one of the best-ever accounts of its slow movement, the “Drumroll” offers Haydn’s original thoughts on the finale, with its surprising modulations in the closing pages. Fabulous playing, informative booklet notes, and superb sound cap a release that deserves far more acclaim that it has received to date. There’s no point in enumerating the disc’s virtues any further: listen and enjoy them for yourself. You can do “different”, but you can’t do better.

Charles Mackerras teases the romantic beauty from Gounod's score, which has been widely admired since its first performance at the Théâtre Lyrique, Paris, in 1867. In this 1994 recording, the youthful Roberto Alagna as Roméo and Leontina Vaduva as the unattainable Juliette lead an excellent cast in this touching portrayal of impossible love, based on Shakespeare's play.

This famous production of Donizetti’s Mary Stuart was one of English National Opera’s most memorable from the 1980’s. Dame Janet Baker chose the title role of Donizetti’s Scottish queen for her farewell to the London operatic stage in 1982. It was a triumph for Dame Janet, in one of the most rewarding of operatic roles. As Mary, she displays her full range as a great singing actress, at times imperious and confrontational, yet during the quieter reflective moments intensely moving. Her adversary Elizabeth is sung by Rosalind Plowright, in one of the best performances of her career, both intense and passionate in this demanding role. The famous, though entirely fictional, encounter scene between the two Queens is extremely powerful. The cast also includes John Tomlinson I commanding voice as Talbot, and David Randall as an ardent Leicester. The Performance is gloriously conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras.

If there is one Mendelssohn symphonic recording that makes the case for a more favorable reassessment [of the composer], it's this pairing of the Italian Symphony and some of the Midsummer Night's Dream music by Sir Charles Mackerras…. The clarity of texture here [in the Symphony] is extraordinary, even when the brass and winds add their clout. As a result, every line of Mendelssohn's orchestration comes through clearly, leaving a listener with a renewed respect for this composer's inventiveness…. The Midsummer Night's Dream music is even more miraculous….

This is a fine alternative to Christopher Hogwood’s period performance on L’Oiseau-Lyre, and will be welcomed heartily by fans of Marilyn Horne. Orlando is a great role, filled with arias and scenes acrobatic, tender, and exclamatory (he goes mad in Act 2 and stays that way for much of Act 3). In l985, when this present set was taped live at Venice’s La Fenice, Marilyn Horne was still in control of her awesome powers–her breath control, fluidity, big, round tones, impeccable diction, and sheer intelligence still astound after all these years. And she’s certainly superior to the nasty-sounding, if dramatic, James Bowman for Hogwood. Lella Cuberli’s Angelica is fine but is outclassed by Arleen Auger; however, I prefer Jeffrey Gall’s countertenor Medoro to Catherine Robbins’ girly one (both for Hogwood again).

The required calling card of any pianist-composer in the 1820s and '30s was a virtuosic piano piece accompanied by an orchestra. When the 21-year-old Chopin arrived in Paris in the fall of 1831, he had several such compositions under his arm, including the Concerto in E Minor (which, although the first of his two concertos to be published, was composed after the Concerto in F Minor) and the already heralded Variations (which had inspired Robert Schumann to remark, "Hats off, gentlemen–a genius.").

Sir Charles Mackerras is one of the world's finest conductors. It's probably safe to say that he has never made a bad record, and his performances of music of the classical period, in particular, are always full of sparkle and excitement. Here, aided by some very polished and lively playing from the Orchestra of St. Luke's, he turns in super performances of two of Haydn's greatest symphonies. The Clock takes its name from the slow movement, which features a ticktock accompaniment to a graceful tune that rapidly evolves into one of Haydn's wittiest inspirations. The London symphony was the last of the twelve that Haydn wrote for his two visits to the English capital in the 1790s. This is wonderful music with great sound.

Haydn's Symphony No. 31 is known as the "Hornsignal" from its prominent horn parts in the first and last movements. Written in anticipation of palace-warming festivities at the Eszterháza estate, the symphony has a celebratory air in its bold fanfares and hunting calls. Haydn's originality is evident not only in his clever motivic development of these ideas, but also in his placement of the horn pairs at a distance from each other. Haydn's experimentation was unusual for its time, but it shows some of the freedom he enjoyed as Prince Nicholas' court composer.

There are a bewildering number of versions of Gluck's opera. Gluck first composed the work in Vienna in 1762 with a libretto in Italian and the title role sung by a castrato. This initial version, in its austerity, was the work that changed the course of opera. In 1774, Gluck rewrote Orfeo to meet the tastes of Paris audiences. The work became longer and lost some of its harder edges. In the late 1830s, Gluck's great admirer and follower, Hector Berlioz, prepared his own version of Gluck's score. Performances of Orfeo tend to draw from several versions, with the cuts or changes that the conductor deems appropriate. There is no definitive score for Gluck's opera.