Urgences (1988) Raymond Depardon, Documentary

Raymond Fol's jazz arrangement of Antonio Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" may have fallen into obscurity, but the French pianist's big band scoring of this classical favorite shows plenty of imagination. With a band of his fellow countrymen, along with expatriate Americans Johnny Griffin (tenor sax), bassist Jimmy Woode, and drummer Art Taylor, he casts a variety of moods, even within individual sections. In the first movement of "Le Printemps (The Spring)" he chooses an Afro-Cuban mood, while the second shifts to a smaller chamber jazz setting, showcasing guitarist Pierre Cullaz, vibraphonist Sadi, and the leader in turn. The first movement of "L'Automne (The Autumn)" starts in a curious blend of cool and swing before switching to a Latin setting, featuring Johnny Griffin…

Raymond Scott is best known as the composer of famous tunes that pop up throughout Warner Bros cartoons. In the late 'Thirties, his celebrated Raymond Scott Quintette was a huge commercial success, a singular ensemble playing a unique and unmistakable style of jazz, full of whimsy and bravura. By the late 'Forties, he had become an electronic music pioneer, both as an instrument inventor and composer. His music is everywhere these days, not just cartoons. For example, Lizzo's recent hit 'Tempo' samples (sips from?) his 'Nescafe,' and he is heard in the recent Netflix hit show Hollywood. The lost chapter between the Quintette and his electronic music was every bit as compelling, starting with the first multiracial radio big band, the 'CBS Big Band'whose ranks included legends Ben Webster, Cozy Cole, and Charlie Shavers. Not only did this unit swing hard, they could also execute the intricate passages for which he was so famous. Hemidemisemiquaver: Buried Treasures of the Raymond Scott Big Band collects 26 exciting cuts, mostly unreleased radio broadcasts recorded by Scott himself and restored by Gavin Ross at Steady Studio in Burbank, CA.

Francesco Cavalli's ''L'Ormindo'' is not the oldest opera in existence - in fact, Monteverdi was already dead when it was first produced in Venice in 1644. Still, this 338-year-old work stands far enough from us in the operatic distance to make any production of it an automatically controversial event. As with all works of opera's early decades, ''L'Ormindo'' is in many respects a blank page, on which modern producers are free to write, or perhaps scribble. Cavalli's score, for instance, gives few hints as to orchestration: history tells us that opera orchestras in the early 17th century were pretty much made up of whatever instruments happened to be at hand.

“Raymond Leppard's edition of Poppea, first staged at Glyndebourne in 1962, opened many people's eyes and ears to Monteverdi for the first time. By 1984, though, when Glyndebourne mounted this new production, his Respighi- isation of Monteverdi's sparse original was distinctly old hat. The allegorical prologue was restored; but as well as the lush string textures there remained the downward transposition of castrato roles and the squeezing of three acts into two. Yet only the most fanatical devotee of historically informed performance could fail to respond to this wonderful production with sumptuous designs by John Bury.