New Classical Tracks with Julie Amacher

Joshua Bell, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra and Tsung Yeh: Butterfly Lovers (Sony Classical)

Joshua Bell is a world-class violinist who has also been music director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields since 2011. With all his years of experience, it might be difficult to imagine insecurities creeping in on occasion.

But that’s precisely what happened during the making of his latest recording, Butterfly Lovers, with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.

“To tell you the truth, I was a bit scared to walk out on stage at the first rehearsal,” Bell says. “[But] it was just very heartwarming, the reception I got from the orchestra and that sense of acceptance from a different culture.”

In 2018, you said, “My new favorite orchestra besides the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in London is the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.” What do you love about this orchestra?

“I first went to them about seven years ago. At the time, they said, ‘We have these arrangements for Chinese orchestra, using Chinese instruments, of some classic violin pieces, like Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso, by Saint-Saens, and Zigeunerweisen, by Sarasate.’ I fell in love with the unique sound of a Chinese orchestra, with instruments like the pipa and the erhu. It was thrilling.”

When did you decide you wanted to play Butterfly Lovers with the orchestra?

“For years, I didn't take the time to really get to know the piece. I just kept hearing about it and then finally sat down and listened to it with the music. It is a gorgeous piece of music. And I had this new relationship with the Chinese orchestra in Singapore, and I thought the stars were aligned for me to learn this piece and to play with my new friends in Singapore. And that's what happened.”

I know that you also have a special relationship with the conductor with whom you're working on this project and that you met him early in your career. How did you develop that relationship along the way?

“Maestro Tsung Yeh and I actually met a few decades ago. He was the one who brought me to Singapore. The musical language of the Butterfly Lovers is rooted in the Chinese sound of Chinese instruments, although it's a weird hybrid of a piece in that it was ironically written for Western instruments in Western orchestra about 50 years ago. In our case, we've actually reverse engineered it back to Chinese instruments and Chinese orchestra.”

What is the history of this piece, and why is it so popular and beloved?

“The easiest way to describe the Butterfly Lovers is sort of like the Chinese Romeo and Juliet. It’s about a young Chinese woman who wants to study during a time where girls were not encouraged to study. So she dresses up as a boy to go study at the school, and she meets a boy who becomes her best friend. But she's secretly falling in love with him and he doesn't know that she's a girl.

“The truth eventually comes out and they fall in love, but she's been betrothed to someone else. And because of this he becomes heartbroken, falls ill and dies. So on her wedding day, heartbroken that she's not with the man she loves, she decides to dig into his grave and out of the grave emerge two butterflies.

“When I first heard it, I got goosebumps because the melody is so beautiful and it's very descriptive music. You can hear the strife between the families and all the longing. In the end, it's the two butterflies going away together, and you can feel all those things in the music.”

Is there a moment in this work that really gets you every time you play it?

“At the very end, the culmination of the piece features the opening melody, originally played by the violin solo, now with the whole orchestra, so 30 players playing in unison. It's quite dramatic, and it's one of the moments that first gave me goose bumps.”

Resources

Joshua Bell, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra and Tsung Yeh: Butterfly Lovers - (Amazon)

Joshua Bell - official website

Singapore Chinese Orchestra - official website

Gabriel Olafs and Steiney Sigurðardóttir:Lullabies for Piano and Cello (Decca)

“When you write a pop song today, you want it to be catchy. But with folk music, you want it to be catchy for hundreds of years. You need it to survive. I really like that,” pianist Gabríel Ólafs says. “I thought that was intriguing. And I thought of this idea of challenging myself to write new ‘folk melodies’ or new lullabies.”

That’s the idea behind the third recording from the 24-year-old Icelandic pianist, featuring cellist Steiney Sigurðardóttir. It’s a collection of lullabies for cello and piano based on Icelandic folk songs. The pieces were inspired by a collection of melodies he discovered in an antique book shop in Reykjavik, Iceland.

“I'm on a list at this old bookstore, and they often call me for stuff that comes in. And when they called about this one, I recognized it as something that I learned about in school studying music in Iceland. I had totally forgotten about it, and I had never seen the book. It’s quite rare, this book itself.

“It contains our most important piece of musical history in Iceland. Basically, it was a priest that toured the country and collected them from families and churches, and he went to every part of Iceland around the island, and he collected these melodies. And I think what captured me was that many of these melodies, as I was just reading them and playing them on the piano, I thought they were surprisingly catchy.”

How did you decide which ones you were going record?

“I noticed very early on that most of the melodies that I really liked, my immediate favorites, were lullabies. I picked a combination of some lesser-known ones that I found for the first time in the music score, but then I also picked some that I recognized and were personally my favorites.

“For example, Mama, which means mother or mom in Icelandic, is probably our most celebrated and common lullaby here in Iceland. And it's one that my mom, or rather my parents, would sing to me.

“The opening track is called Fantasia, which is an original melody. It is sort of inspired by the Celtic side of Icelandic musical heritage. We have a sort of Irish Celtic population that arrived early on and very much influenced the musical sound of the Vikings, and it also celebrates my love of fantasy. I'm a huge nerd, and I've recently been able to admit this publicly. I'm really into The Lord of the Rings books.”

Why is nostalgia important to you as you create your music?

“Because of the nuance in this feeling of nostalgia. If you try to express nostalgia or create a nostalgic feeling in a piece of music, I feel like it translates well because of this nuance, because it's not too on the nose of a feeling. Ever since I started writing, I do very much chase a feeling of nostalgia in many of my pieces.

“I would describe this record as maybe an a la carte menu. You know, in cooking, you can make a really complicated big dish, and it's amazing, but you can also make a really complicated big dish that doesn't taste very good. What I discovered about myself is me wanting to create a musical a la carte menu, where every small little dish does satisfy you.”

Resources

Gabríel Ólafs and Steiney Sigurðardóttir: Lullabies for Piano and Cello - (Amazon)

Gabríel Ólafs - official website

On this week’s episode of ‘New Classical Tracks,’ violinist Daniel Hope explores 500 years of Irish music and history on his latest album, ‘Irish Roots’. Listen as he plays an excerpt of ‘Danny Boy,’ a piece which is linked to Ireland like none other. Listen now!

The Singers — Come to the Woods (Arsis Audio)

“We are all loud or pensive about things,” said Matthew Culloton, artistic director of the Singers, talking about the ensemble’s 10th recording. “At times, we may be lonely, but also reflective and hopeful. Naming the album Come to the Woods, after Jake Runestad's piece and John Muir’s words, was a great launching point.”

Can you tell us why it took so long to release this recording?

“I actually edited and produced the CD on my own computer software years ago. We finally had time to get back to our engineer, David Trimble, and really work with it. Even though I had already assembled and listened to it, it was also a start over with fresh ears. The pandemic gave us time.”

Is there a section in the piece Come to the Woods that you look forward to?

“There's a section later in the piece where Runestad pays a small musical tribute to Dominick Argento, one of his favorite composers. He does this by quoting a very special cadence point in the poetry. That's a spot where I find myself taking more time over the years with each new performance of the work.

“The choir sings, ’The setting sun filled them with amber light and seemed to say. And when he sets and seemed to say.’ That’s the final sung cadence of Walden Pond, and I get goose bumps thinking about it. I remember the first time I heard it. I ran to the piano with my score just to make sure I heard it right.”

Can you tell us about Dominique Argento's Seasons ?

“I thought it was important to put Dominic’s last work in this collection. I get choked up a little bit thinking about the final movement, ‘Summer,’ and it being his last work. I don't know if he wrote them in that order poetically, but I love the idea that he wrote ‘Summer’ last. His last words were, ‘Soon, the goddess of summer sees that all is proceeding as planned, though reluctant to leave, she nods and sadly bestows her loving benediction.’”

Why did you chose Moira Smiley's Stand in That River ?

“She is such a breath of fresh air in her approach to writing, sharing and recognizing global traditions in her music. This piece definitely comes back to American folk music.

“On this recording, the departure for us wasn't so much the piece itself, but that we included a bass, guitar, guiro, cajon and mandolin. Those five instruments are all played by one of our baritones, Paul Winchester. The end result was infectious, which is not the best word to use these days, but I think it’s very likable.”

To hear the rest of my conversation, click on the extended interview above, or download the extended podcast on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

Resources

The Singers — Come to the Woods (The Singers Store)

Matthew Culloton (official site)

The Singers (official site)

JoAnn Falletta and the BPO — Light in a Time of Darkness (Beau Fleuve)

“I found that the smaller concerts we did all the time during the 2021 season were fantastic for us in developing new skills,” said JoAnn Falletta, music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. “We learned how to listen and lead each other in repertoire that we never played.

“We made a recording of some of our favorite pieces from that time, because they were meaningful. Every concert is meaningful, but, somehow, when you're playing in the middle of something as dark as what we lived through, it meant ‘life,’’’ she said about their new recording, Light in a Time of Darkness.

“Six pieces made it onto the disc, and I think we'll always treasure, in our memories, the idea of being together and knowing that somehow we would get through this.”

Why did you choose to start the album with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis ?

“Time gets suspended in this piece. Vaughan Williams, on his way back to Thomas Tallis, chose one of his hymns to recast for strings. It feels ageless or timeless. That was what the pandemic was like, time standing still.”

How did you discover Ulysses Kay’s Pieta ?

“I have to give complete credit to my English hornist, Anna Mattix. She is a sleuth for English horn pieces, and she's fabulous. She rediscovered this piece, and there was no recording when she brought it to me. I thought it was extraordinary.

“Kay was the first Black American to win the Prix de Rome. When he was in Rome, he went to see Michelangelo's Pieta and wrote this piece about it. It is filled with his personal reflection on that work of art.”

What do you love most about George Walker's Lament ?

“I'm so glad we did this piece. I think this is an American classic. We talk about Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, but this is a similar piece. It's a piece of mourning and in Walker's case, it is more intimate. It has a lot of inner feeling of mourning, but it's unforgettable.”

To hear the rest of my conversation, click on the extended interview above, or download the extended podcast on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

Resources

JoAnn Falletta and the BPO — Light in a Time of Darkness (BPO Store)

JoAnn Falletta (official site)