{"id":44157,"date":"2017-03-28T15:02:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T19:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=44157"},"modified":"2017-03-28T15:27:45","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T19:27:45","slug":"record-keeping-harry-freedman-genuine-canadiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/03\/28\/record-keeping-harry-freedman-genuine-canadiana\/","title":{"rendered":"RECORD KEEPING | Harry Freedman: Genuine Canadiana"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"HARRY
HARRY FREEDMAN: THE CONCERT RECORDINGS. Borealis (1997). Graphic IX for Harry Somers (2000). Indigo (1994). Manipulating Mario (2003). Images (1960). Toronto Symphony Orchestra\/Jukka-Pekka Saraste & Sir Andrew Davis. Esprit Orchestra\/Alex Pauk &. Composers\u2019 Orchestra\/Gary Kulesha. Danish National Radio Choir\/Elmer Iseler Singers\/Swedish Radio Choir\/Toronto Children\u2019s Chorus*. Centrediscs CMCCD 23517. Total Time: 77:00.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Harry Freedman (1922-2005) played English horn in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) for nearly 25 years. That was a pretty good apprenticeship for a young composer, and Freedman made the most of it. This new CD brings together five of his major orchestral works, covering a period between 1960 and 2003. For listeners too young to have known Harry Freedman when he was one of the leading living Canadian composers and a formidable presence on the Toronto music scene, this album offers an excellent opportunity to become acquainted with his work.<\/p>\n

The oldest piece in this collection is Images<\/em> (1960), a three-movement work inspired by the paintings of Lawren Harris, Kuzuo Nakamura, and Jean-Paul Riopelle, respectively. The \u2018Harris\u2019 movement opens with a tremendous percussion crescendo culminating in a searing brass chord \u2014 a magnificent opening that took me back to the splendid Harris show at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) last summer.<\/p>\n

Freedman certainly captures the grandeur of Harris\u2019 vision. The \u2018Nakamura\u2019 movement, \u201cStructure at Dusk\u201d, is a delightful scherzo with lots of lively scurrying around in the winds. Images<\/em> ends with the \u2018Riopelle\u2019 movement, angry music with powerful hammer blows in the last bars to round it all off.<\/p>\n

Although the ending is perhaps more unfriendly than it needs to be, Images<\/em> is a major piece in Freedman\u2019s output, and this performance by Andrew Davis and the TSO, recorded in Massey Hall in 1979, is magnificent. One quibble: I would like to have seen photos of the paintings by the featured artists in the Centrediscs booklet.<\/p>\n

Two of the works on the CD \u2014\u00a0Indigo<\/em> and Graphic IX<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 are for string orchestra. Indigo<\/em> makes use of what the composer calls \u201cblues clich\u00e9s\u201d, a good example of how Freedman often used jazz idioms in his music. There are some extended double bass pizzicato riffs in the piece that are clearly jazz-inspired as well as some jazz elements that are integrated with the classical idiom to the point where they almost undetectable. Unfortunately, as often happens when composers try to combine jazz and classical elements, the classical episodes, especially those involving violins in their highest register, tend to come off as \u201csquare\u201d.<\/p>\n

Freedman composed Graphic IX<\/em>, one of two pieces on the CD inspired by his colleague, friend and neighbor Harry Somers (1925-1999), as a tribute to Somers, who had died a year earlier. But Graphic IX<\/em> is by no means a lament; it is not a \u201csad\u201d piece in any sense of the term. Rather, it is a gift \u201cin kind\u201d, if you will \u2014 intricately textured music that his friend would have appreciated.<\/p>\n

Manipulating Mario<\/em>, the second Somers-inspired piece, is described by conductor Alex Pauk as \u201ca symphonic synthesis\u201d of Harry Somers\u2019 opera, Mario and the Magician.<\/em> One would like to know more; for example,<\/em> how much of Manipulating Mario<\/em> is Somers and how much is Freedman? Freedman was 81 years old at the time. How much had his compositional style changed by this time. The music is predominantly diatonic and lyrical, with a quizzical (sarcastic?) march at the end. Is this the operatic Somers or Freedman\u2019s take on the operatic Somers? The notes do not enlighten us.<\/p>\n

Somers\u2019 Mario and the Magician<\/em> is based on a novella by Thomas Mann, which dates from 1929. The story concerns a magician representing Mussolini and his ability to mesmerize and corrupt. At the end of the novella, this magician is shot dead by a waiter who cannot stand the manipulation anymore. The narrative presents a very bleak view of human nature at its worst. No doubt both \u2018Harrys\u2019 (Somers and Freedman) would be appalled and fearful about political events in our own time.<\/p>\n

In terms of the number of performers involved, the most ambitious piece on the CD is Borealis, <\/em>a work commissioned by the CBC for the 1997 Soundstreams Northern Encounters Festival of the Arts. This recording was made at the first performance of the piece given in the Barbara Frum Atrium of the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in downtown Toronto.<\/p>\n

Freedman obviously welcomed the opportunity to station his four choirs in various locations around the Atrium to produce Gabrieli-like antiphonal effects, as there are several thrilling call and response episodes of this type between choirs and orchestra in Borealis<\/em>. The composition\u2019s title comes from Aurora Borealis<\/em>, i.e., the \u201cNorthern Lights\u201d and the piece is generally about the wonders and mysteries of the Canadian north. Some of the drumming seems inspired by aboriginal sources and Freedman described the text as \u201ca sort of abstraction of various aboriginal languages\u201d. Make no mistake, however; while this is genuine Canadiana, it has a much wider appeal, not only because of its beauty, but also because of its power. Borealis<\/em> receives a fine performance by both choirs and instrumental forces, as conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste elicits the best from all them.<\/p>\n

For more RECORD KEEPING, see HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While this is genuine Canadiana, this new release of five orchestral works by the late Harry Freedman has a much wider appeal, not only because of its beauty, but also because of its power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":44158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,81,5739,51],"tags":[9512],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/03\/Harry-Freedman-The-Concert-Recordings-CMCCD-23517-Cover.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-bud","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44157"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44162,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44157\/revisions\/44162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44157"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=44157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}