Bach: St. Matthew Passion

.."David Lloyd, an American tenor who sang leading roles with the New York City Opera in the 1950s, died on Friday in the Bronx. He was 92. His death, at Calvary Hospital, was confirmed by his son, David Thomas Lloyd. A lyric tenor, Mr. Lloyd was equally well known as a recitalist and an oratorio singer. He was praised throughout his career for his insightful musicianship, as in a 1961 recital he gave at Judson Hall in New York of works by Purcell, Brahms, Fauré and Tchaikovsky. Reviewing the recital in The New York Times, Raymond Ericson wrote that Mr. Lloyd’s 'contributions to the musical life of New York have been as numerous as they have been splendid.' Mr. Lloyd made his operatic debut with City Opera in 1950, as David in Wagner’s 'Meistersinger.' ... His recordings include Bach’s 'St. Matthew Passion' and Handel’s 'Messiah,' both with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with the Boston Symphony under Serge Koussevitzky" (Margalit Fox, "David Lloyd, Tenor with City Opera, Dies at 92," New York Times, 2/12/13).

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Alicia Keys: Girl on Fire

"Alicia Keys has earned her fifth No. 1 on the Billboard album chart with her latest, 'Girl on Fire' (RCA), topping recent titles by Taylor Swift, Rod Stewart and One Direction in the relatively slow sales week after Thanksgiving. 'Girl on Fire' sold 159,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, a lower opening than Ms. Keys had for any of her five previous albums, but enough to return her to the top slot. ('The Element of Freedom,' her last record, stalled at No. 2 three years ago, but otherwise all of her albums have reached No. 1.) Promotion for the album included a prominent commercial for Citigroup and a light show last week at the Empire State Building synchronized to her songs" (Ben Sisario, "Alicia Keys Has a Fifth No. 1," New York Times, 12/5/12).

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Les Misérables: Highlights from the Motion Picture Soundtrack

"The soundtrack to the film 'Les Misérables' is No. 1 on the latest Billboard album chart, beating out Mumford & Sons by a hair in the sleepy sales week after Christmas. The soundtrack, released by Republic Records, sold 92,000 copies in its second week out, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That is actually a 32 percent drop from the week before — which included Christmas and is increasingly becoming known in the music industry as 'the week when millions of iTunes gift cards are redeemed' — when the album was No. 2" (Ben Sisario, "'Les Misérables' Soundtrack Storms to No. 1," New York Times, 1/9/13).

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Taylor Swift: Red

"Awe and amazement have been Taylor Swift’s grammar for years now. Whether singing about love or heartbreak — there has been no third subject — Ms. Swift has excelled at capturing the fresh sting, as if arriving at a feeling for the first time. But Ms. Swift is 22 now, and certainly she has seen some things. For most of 'Red,' her fourth album, that’s not necessarily clear. Her growth is largely musical, not experiential. There is a moment, though, on 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' — the album’s lead single and, as it happens, her first No. 1 pop hit — where the cracks begin to show. At the bridge the song gives way to a conversation between Ms. Swift and friends in which she’s recalling how she shut down a persistent ex who wouldn’t stop calling. 'This is exhausting,' she tells him, emphasizing the middle syllable of the last word, like a car that’s just run out of gas. There is something different in Ms. Swift’s voice here: it’s serious and deep, and also shrewd. She has been through this before. She sounds like an adult. It’s about time" (Jon Caramanica, "No More Kid Stuff for Taylor Swift," New York Times, 10/24/12).

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Odean Pope: Odean's Three

"The tenor saxophonist Odean Pope is a figure of eminence in his hometown, Philadelphia, and his musical legacy — as a disciple of John Coltrane, a jazz-funk vanguardist and an organizer of saxophonic timbre — has earned a kind of cult admiration worldwide. ... [O]n a spirited recent album, 'Odean’s Three' (In + Out), he works ... with the bassist Lee Smith and the drummer Billy Hart, an earthy and dynamic rhythm team" (Nate Chinen, "Jazz Listings," New York Times, 2/28/13).

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Yo La Tengo: Fade

"Even when feedback is screeching at the fringes, a certain serenity prevails throughout 'Fade,' the 13th album by the long-running Hoboken band Yo La Tengo. Time, mortality and lifelong companionship are very much on the minds of Yo La Tengo’s husband-and-wife songwriters, the guitarist Ira Kaplan and the drummer Georgia Hubley, who started the band in 1984 and are now in their 50s. 'Days just fade away, slide into gray,' Mr. Kaplan sings in 'Stupid Things,' continuing, 'Where does that time go before our eyes?' Stability isn’t a prime topic for rock songs; there’s more drama in crushes and breakups, revenge and self-pity. But through the years Yo La Tengo has, both quietly and noisily, chronicled the decades as a couple, as a rock band and as ordinary people maturing. As singers Mr. Kaplan and Ms. Hubley have each leveraged vocal limitations into a heartfelt yet undemonstrative style; as songwriters they allude to sounds and approaches from a broad, record-connoisseur’s canon, from 1960s-rooted pop-rock to new wave concision to extended guitar freakouts, though 'Fade' keeps its songs under seven minutes"  (Jon Pareles, "New Music," New York Times, 1/14/13).

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Palestrina: Missa Regina Caeli and other works

"In the third of their Palestrina series, the Sixteen have chosen music for Easter. They open with the eight-voice Stabat Mater, written c1590 for the papal choir to sing in Holy Week. The subject – the grieving mother at the foot of the cross – is all the more anguished in this unadorned double-choir setting, sung with full, pure tone and welcome momentum. In addition to Song of Songs settings and Easter offertories, the main work is the Missa Regina Caeli, which Palestrina wrote near the end of his life, when he longed to retire and give over his soul 'in contemplation of the Divine.' The Sixteen have their own divine qualities, generously on display here" (Fiona Maddocks, "Review," Guardian, 3/16/13).

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Keith Jarrett: The Köln Concert

"On 9 July Manfred Eicher will be 70. He does not look his age, more like an amiable ascetic with a tidy moustache, medium-length grey hair, dressed in a shirt and jeans. Not a man of many words, his eyes casting slightly anxious glances here and there, but he is very attentive to others. In 1969 he founded Edition of Contemporary Music, aka ECM, in Munich. Okwui Enwezor, the head of Munich's Haus der Kunst, recently curated ECM – A Cultural Archaeology, assisted by historian Markus Müller. ... Now the ECM catalogue boasts 1,515 items, spanning 11 centuries of music, a vast range of styles and genres. It is home to the Art Ensemble of Chicago and some very loyal contributors including Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Carla Bley, Charlie Haden, Jan Garbarek, Ralph Towner, Jack DeJohnette and Pat Metheny. ... Eicher – quite rightly – opted to treat the soundtracks of Nouvelle Vague films as a form of modern-day opera. But there was Arvo Pärt's ground-breaking Tabula Rasa too. ... The album was a revelation. The same could be said of Facing You, Jarrett's 1972 solo recording, and of course the Köln Concert three years later, which sold 4 million copies" (Francis Marmande, "ECM: In Search of Free Jazz and Free Expression," Guardian, 3/26/13).

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Wagner: Arias; Wesendonck-Lieder

"Jonas Kaufmann's long-awaited Wagner album, recorded in Berlin with the Deutsche Oper Orchestra under Donald Runnicles, is a thrilling if at times troubling affair. Consolidating the German tenor's growing reputation as a Wagner interpreter, it both sums up his achievement to date and takes him into new, potentially controversial territory.We hear him as Siegmund in Die Walküre and as Lohengrin – his trademark roles – as well as Walther in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which he has sung in concert but has yet to perform on stage. Here, however, he adds Siegfried, Rienzi and Tannhäuser to the list; gruelling roles that he has yet to sing complete and probably never should. He also includes the Wesendonck-Lieder – usually performed by a soprano – on the grounds that the songs aren't gender-specific. His artistry is exceptional. His sexy, heroic way with Siegmund, and the marvellous introversion he brings to Lohengrin's In Fernem Land, leave us in no doubt as to why he is today's interpreter of choice for both roles. Yet he brings the same insight and intensity to his new material. ... Tannhäuser's conflict between flesh and spirit is beautifully delineated. Best of all is Rienzi's prayer, in which his almost oceanic tone blends with the elegance of the fine Mozart singer he once was" (Tim Ashley, "Review," Guardian, 3/6/13).

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Cloud Cult: Love

"The group is known to fans for making music to soothe the soul, as it does on the new album Love. 'This album really looks at all the different aspects of the self that need to be healed up in order to facilitate the process of stepping aside and allowing love to speak for our life rather than our wounds,' lead singer Craig Minowa says. The songs Minowa writes for his band can have the feel and hushed tones of a lullaby, and the emotion comes from a tragedy that's all too real. One night back in 2002, Minowa and his wife put their 2-year-old son, Kaidin, to bed. Their beloved boy did not wake up. Doctors could not explain why Kaidin died in his sleep, leaving Minowa to channel all that sadness and uncertainty into his work. 'It was quite a few years and quite a few albums of inner pain and using the music for medicine to try and, step by step, gradually pull ourselves out of hell,' Minowa says. Healing came to mean not letting emotions like anger or fear linger — an idea at the core of Love. But even now, more than a decade after his son's death, you can hear that loss from years ago in Minowa's voice. He says he finds solace now in meditating on both mysticism and science" ("Cloud Cult's 'Love' Channels a Life Tested by Loss," NPR Music, 3/6/13).

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Viva Verdi: Ouvertures & Preludes

"Verdi's relationship with La Scala was a troubled story of love, neglect and reconciliation. He had the leading Italian opera house to thank for his debut, his first disappointment and his first triumphs. A full five of his first seven operas were premiered there, from Oberto in 1839, to Giovanna d'Arco in 1845. A good twenty-four years were then to pass before Verdi once again set foot on that stage, and then it was to present operas that had already appeared elsewhere, even if they were reworked, often radically for the occasion (La forza del destino, 1869; Aida, 1872; Simon Boccanegra, 1881; Don Carlos, 1884). Finally came his two last masterpieces, Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893), whose connection with La Scala is, as it were, written in their genetic code. Scholars continue to puzzle over this long absence from the theatre, without arriving at any definite conclusion. ... In the one hundred and eleven years since his death La Scala has amply repaid its debt, and this CD -- in which the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala and Riccardo Chailly perform eleven orchestral pieces, eight of them not written for Milan -- puts a symbolic seal on the house's identification with the great composer in the bicentenary of his birth in Busseto " (CD notes by Fabrizio Della Seta).

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Atoms for Peace: Amok

"Last September ... [Nigel] Godrich and [Thom] Yorke performed Atoms for Peace material at MOMA PS1, in Queens. ... Godrich began 'Amok'’s opening track, 'Before Your Very Eyes,' and the crowd cheered at Yorke’s guitar line, a scratchy two-part figure that flutters down quickly, sounding both strummed and picked. ... For the next track, 'Ingenue,' Yorke stepped back and stood next to Godrich. ... The song is built from a weepy, descending bass line that is answered by a high figure, which plays a clump of small, hard sounds that are like both live instruments and computer-generated signals. Much of 'Amok' goes along these basic lines: a synthetic keyboard runs down the middle, flanked by a series of crackling drum sounds and minimal bass or guitar patterns. Very little of the record is cloudy or vague; Yorke does not lean heavily on multi-tracking his voice. 'Amok' is stripped down, all points and lines. Often, it sounds like a dance remix of a Thom Yorke song" (Sasha Frere-Jones, "Pop Music," New Yorker, 3/4/13).

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Schumann: Fantasiestücke; Kreisleriana; Brahms: Theme and Variations

"Imogen Cooper sets out on her survey of Schumann's complete piano music for Chandos with two of his greatest cycles. Alongside Carnaval and the Davidsbündlertänze, the eight pieces of the Fantasiestücke Op 12 and the eight of Kreisleriana Op 16 perhaps define Schumann's special qualities as a composer for the piano better than any other of his works, and in both of them the competition on disc is fierce. Cooper, though, proves a wonderfully tactful and sympathetic guide to the boundless imagination of the piano writing. Other pianists may make this music sound more virtuosic or more winsome, but she projects the emotional turbulence of the fifth of the Fantasiestücke without making it overwrought, delivers a wonderfully polished account of the seventh without it descending into slick display, and steers a perfectly poised course through the even more sharply contrasting numbers of Kreisleriana. Between the two cycles there's an intriguing oddity – Brahms's own piano arrangement of the second movement of his Op 18 String Sextet, whose emotional restraint is a great foil for the unbridled fantasy on either side of it" (Andrew Clements, "Review," Guardian, 3/21/13).

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The Fugs First Album

"I rented a former Kosher meat store on East 10th Street, with groovy tile walls and chicken-singeing equipment, which I transformed into a vegetarian literary zone called the Peace Eye Bookstore. I left the words 'Strictly Kosher' on the front window. Next door above the Lifschutz wholesale egg market lived Tuli Kupferberg, a beat hero who was featured in anthologies such as The Beat Scene, and who published several fine magazines, Birth and Yeah, which he sold on the streets of the East Village. ... Although it's difficult to recreate the precise panoply of reasons Tuli and I founded the Fugs in late 1964, when the word 'folk-rock' had not yet been invented, nevertheless I recall saying to Tuli after a poetry reading, 'Let's form a band. We'll chant poetry and write some songs. And we'll do a lot of partying.' Tuli eagerly agreed. Our first task was to think of a name. We felt we couldn't get away with a blatantly erotic name and something like 'The Yodeling Anarcho-Socialists' seemed inexact and limiting. It was Tuli who came up with 'The Fugs,' from the fornicatory euphemism Norman Mailer had utilized in his novel, The Naked and the Dead" (CD notes by Ed Sanders).

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The Black Keys: El Camino

"Similar to their nominal counterparts, the White Stripes, the Black Keys are known for making a great deal of sound with a minimal lineup. Formed in 2001 in Akron, Ohio, the duo is comprised of guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, who after dropping out of the University of Akron began playing together and recording demos. Their demos garnered interest from Los Angeles-based indie label Alive Naturalsound Records, which released their debut album, 2002's The Big Come Up, which featured a mix of original songs, blues standards and a cover of the Beatles' 'She Said, She Said.' Subsequent releases included 2003's Thickfreakness and 2004's Rubber Factory, the latter of which peaked at No. 11 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart. ... In 2010 the duo released Brothers, which climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and earned two GRAMMY Awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for 'Tighten Up.' The duo earned an additional five GRAMMY nominations for the 55th GRAMMY Awards, including Album Of The Year for their 2011 release El Camino and Record Of The Year for 'Lonely Boy'" (www.grammy.com).

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Now That's What I Call Music! 43

"After a nine-week run at No. 1, Carly Rae Jepsen’s song 'Call Me Maybe' has finally been bumped from the top spot, by Flo Rida’s 'Whistle.' But Ms. Jepsen’s song is now part of a different No. 1. It is the first track on the latest installment — Vol. 43 — of 'Now That’s What I Call Music!' — the long-running pop compilation series, which opens atop Billboard’s album chart this week. 'Now 43' sold 111,000 copies in its first week, easily reaching No. 1, according to Nielsen SoundScan. (Aside from 'Call Me Maybe,' the album includes Maroon 5’s 'Payphone,' Katy Perry’s 'Part of Me' and Ellie Goulding’s 'Lights' — but not 'Whistle.')" (Ben Sisario, "'Now 43' Compilation Tops Album Chart," New York Times, 8/15/12)

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Alice in Chains: Live

"Alice in Chains is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1987 by guitarist and songwriter Jerry Cantrell and original lead vocalist Layne Staley. The initial lineup was rounded out by drummer Sean Kinney, and bassist Mike Starr (who was replaced in 1993 by Mike Inez). Although widely associated with grunge music, the band's sound incorporates heavy metal and acoustic elements. Since its formation, Alice in Chains has released four studio albums, three EPs, two live albums, four compilations, and two DVDs. The band is known for its distinct vocal style which often included the harmonized vocals of Staley and Cantrell. Alice in Chains rose to international fame as part of the grunge movement of the early 1990s, along with other Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden. The band was one of the most successful music acts of the 1990s, selling over 25 million albums worldwide, and over 14 million in the US alone. In 1992 the band released their album Dirt which was critically acclaimed and has been certified quadruple platinum. The band also achieved two No.1 Billboard 200 albums (Jar of Flies and Alice in Chains), 14 top ten songs on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and eight Grammy Award nominations" (Wikipedia).

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The Avett Brothers: The Carpenter

"'Don’t let the banjo fool you,' says Rick Rubin. 'The Avett Brothers transcend any genre.' Rubin, who produced the Avett Brothers’ new album, The Carpenter (out this month), says the band’s songs are influenced by bluegrass, country, folk, and even punk. According to banjo player–singer Scott Avett, 'Growing up, I sat in our house with an eight-track tape player, listening to Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Willie and Waylon. We lived in the country in North Carolina, and [there was] a lot of room to imagine and romanticize.' Guitarist-singer Seth Avett adds, 'Our influences may not seem obviously connected, but they make sense. They all have their place in our musical understanding — from Woody Guthrie to Mos Def, from Will Oldham to Louis Armstrong.' The Avett Brothers have a sizable and eclectic following based largely on their exuberant live shows. Along with their permanent stand-up-bass player, Bob Crawford, and a five-member touring band, the Avetts perform music that is rowdy yet emotional, and often touching. Television viewers in the U.S. may have gotten their first glimpse of the Avetts at the 2011 Grammys, when they performed with Dylan and Mumford & Sons" (Lisa Robinson, "Hot Tracks," Vanity Fair, 10/12).

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Catherine Russell: Strictly Romancin'

"Blues and jazz singer Catherine Russell says she frequently listens to the radio while washing dishes. One night, she was by the sink listening to a Chick Webb compilation when Ella Fitzgerald's 'Under the Spell of the Blues' came on. The song struck her. 'The lyric came on, and it was just a beautiful story, and then I [was] compelled to learn the tune, and then I learned about everything surrounding it,' she says. The result is now one of 14 songs on Russell's fourth solo album, Strictly Romancin'. ... Russell grew up on these tunes, in addition to a mix of rock, blues and classical arrangements. 'My mother had a radio in the kitchen when I was growing up, and we used to listen to William B. Williams Make Believe Ballroom on WNEW-AM,' she tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "So every morning, I was listening to Ella, the Mills Brothers, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee. Everything that was popular of the day and before that. ... That really formed my appreciation of phrasing, of how the people sang these tunes in those days.' Russell's household was always filled with music. Her father, the late Luis Russell, was Louis Armstrong's musical director from 1935 to 1943" ("Catherine Russell," NPR Music, 2/21/12).

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Donald Byrd: Black Byrd

"Donald Byrd, one of the leading jazz trumpeters of the 1950s and early 1960s, who became both successful and controversial in the 1970s by blending jazz, funk and rhythm and blues into a pop hybrid that defied categorization, died on Feb. 4. ... Almost from the day he arrived in New York City in 1955 from his native Detroit, Mr. Byrd was at the center of the movement known as hard bop, a variation on bebop that put greater emphasis on jazz’s blues and gospel roots. Known for his pure tone and impeccable technique, he performed or recorded with some of the most prominent jazz musicians of that era. ... Mr. Byrd, a strong advocate of music education, spent much of the 1960s teaching. Then, in 1973, he made a surprising transition to pop stardom with the album 'Black Byrd,' produced by the brothers Larry and Fonce Mizell, who had been his students at Howard University in Washington. With Mr. Byrd’s restrained licks (he played both trumpet and fluegelhorn) layered over an irresistible funk groove seasoned with wah-wah guitar and simple, repeated lyrics ('Get in the groove, just can’t lose'), 'Black Byrd' reached the Billboard Top 100, where it peaked at No. 88" (William Yardley, "Donald Byrd, Jazz Trumpeter, Dies at 80," New York Times, 2/11/13).

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