EMA Recording & Book Reviews

The Bay Area's Cantata Collective continue its acclaimed Bach series with his greatest large-scale work, the B-minor Mass. Beautifully paced by Nicholas McGegan, this 'live' recording features outstanding vocal and instrumental soloists. At its best, the chorus 'shines in their expressive use of color and shading,' thanks to McGegan's 'careful balancing and phrasing.'

Dorothea Link's book, 'The Italian Opera Singer in Mozart's Vienna' proves to be entertaining and eye-opening, providing a valuable insights into the Viennese opera milieu.

The well-trodden ground under Josquin interpretations may be shifting thanks to Jesse Rodin and his Cut Circle ensemble. They rethink key approaches to this repertoire, from tempo and vocal timbre to the choice of acoustic -- with often startling results.

Montreal's Infusion Baroque joyously blurs the lines between Western 'early music' and 'world music' in their latest album, East is East. The ensemble's core musicians, plus an array of distinguished guests, make East and West sound refreshing and new.

Basso continuo usually takes an accompanying role, but Montréal's Space Time Continuo puts the bottom on top and into the fore. The ensemble adapts Italian lyricism for versatile lower-voiced instruments, depicting heaven and earth and all the emotional states in between.

Arrangements of popular music have long been shunned in certain circles. But the author of a concise new book suggests that by ignoring arrangements, we've missed considerable cultural, artistic, and historical insights into music from the era.

At EMA's 2023 Emerging Artists Showcase, the brilliant duo of historical clarinetist Maryse Legault and fortepianist Gili Loftus gave a taste of their album 'Around Baermann.' The recording looks into a key era in the clarinet's history, centered on celebrated clarinetist Heinrich Joseph Baermann, who inspired music from great composers and helped push the instrument into new technical and virtuosic realms.

Seven Times Salt's latest recording revisits music of Shakespeare's time. Some of the tunes are linked to specific plays -- 'Hamlet' is a particular fascination -- while others are suggestive of a theme or a familiar plotline, from 'Romeo and Juliet' to 'The Merchant of Venice.' All of it is beautifully delivered, often in charming arrangements. And the sonic engineering makes for a vivid listening experience.

Once dismissed as "fringe events," musical salons hosted by women in the 18th c. are rightly seen as an invaluable source. Rebecca Cypess' engaging new book makes connections "that might otherwise go unnoticed."

How do you meld 12th-century music with psychedelic synth-pop? Composer Charles Mueller created new settings of troubadour and trobairitz poetry, where boundaries are a blurry mirage in the distance. Medieval ensemble Alkemie and Freelance Nun collaborate for an impressive blend of the medieval and the modern.