The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 59

D13 THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1997 ARTS ENTERTAINMENT DOUG CAMILLI Show-biz gossip, and more, with a real point of view. Five days a week. A passionate guide Sergei Istomin on smooth end of Baroque spectrum in Bach suites WIN A DOUBLE MOVIE PASS Istomin prefers a less tensile attack, drawing the listener into the sonority rather than thrusting his sound into a hypothetical concert hall. dent. Pianist Paolo Giacometti contributes to the "live" feel of this recording.

The choir of the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montreal under Christopher Jackson is fine form for a compilation of a-cappella works by Palestri-na and Victoria (although only the former composer makes the booklet cover). There is pathos in the presentation and dynamic variety, as well as pure tone. Louis-Philippe Pelletier, professor of piano at McGiU University, has always taken a bold approach to his art, and it is refreshing to hear Debussy played so robustly on a disc from CBC Records (MVCD1107). The 12 Etudes, subjectively rendered, belie their pedagogical title. The sun is hot on L'Isle Joyeuse and the rain of Estampes is a downpour, not a drizzle.

Vividly recorded in the Eglise de la Visitation. Bach: Six Suites for Solo Cello. Sergei Istomin, "Baroque" cello. Analekta FL 23114-5 (two CDs). On the eve of their 10th anniversary, the people at Analekta do not hesitate to enter the most crowded corners of the repertory.

Now on the shelves beside new versions by Yo-Yo Ma and Janos Starker is a highly competitive survey of Bach's Six Suites for Solo Cello as performed by Sergei Istomin, a Toronto-based Russian who plays for the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. The booklet specifies that he uses not a cello but a Baroque violoncello -made, oddly enough, three years ago in Ottawa. This should be taken not so much as a stamp of authenticity as a declaration of a point of view. Like An-ner Bylsma on Sony Vivarte, Istomin prefers a less tensile attack, drawing the listener into the sonority rather than thrusting his sound into a hypothetical concert hall. A comparison can be made between his raspy tone and the sound of the first, famous recordings by Pablo Casals.

Like that master, Istomin adapts his beat to the moral curvature of the music and does not make a didactic attempt to remind us of the dance origins of individual movements. Yet the courtly character of the Allemande of the Suite No. 4 is vividly conveyed and the Sarabandes, while lofty, never become mired in sober second thought. CLASSICAL DISCS ARTHUR KAPTAIN1S The glowing stereo is punctuated by a plethora of bow-clicks some of which, truth to tell, I mistook for manufacturing defects. Nonetheless, Istomin is decidedly on the smooth end of the Baroque spectrum and will present no offence to non-original listeners.

In the Suite No. 6, he plays a bright-toned violoncello piccolo, with striking mastery. It makes a welcome change, however technically necessary. It is hard to recommend any recording of the Bach Suites as supreme. The music has brought out the best from many cellists, including Yuli Turovsky, whose version for Chandos should not be forgotten.

For me, the rugged intensity of Casals on EMI remains irreplaceable. Seekers after a contemporary account will find in Istomin a consistently intelligent and passionate guide. Briefly reviewed: Pieter Wispelwey, the Dutch cellist performing soon for both the Orchestre Metropolitain and the Ladies' Morning Musical Club, can be heard on Channel Classics (CCS 10797) in a program bringing together the Cello Sonatas of Poulenc and Chopin and three small works by Faure. The sound is warm and the style ar If; Vl ly. THG THIRTGGNTH ANNUAL TO THG BGNGflT Of Ulxt asrttf Christmas Fund IN THG MAGMIflCeNT PUBLIC COMCOUIKe Of- WINDSOR TRAIN STATION Special Advance Preview Loews Cinema Dec.

II 7 p.m. Mediaeval Baebes rock classical world CONTEST QUESTION: What Quebec artist sings the theme song in the movie Tall Thp fIri7Pttp ht5a2ftTf QuickLine vvilhour tm answer to the above QukkUne Sunday, DecenueR 21 8 PH 11 PN HOLIDAY COCKTAIL LOUflCG 10 PM 3 AN DANCING Question and enter Code 9500 foryour chance to win! 555-1234 rail ONLY 50 CENTS rtn 8 winners will be drawn daily. TICKETS. AVlAILABie AT DIMS DOWNTOWN AND ADMISSION N6TW0M (514) 790-1Q45 sic listener, their publicity handouts describe them as the "Anglo Saxon acid-mead mistresses of the Middle Ages music scene." One has a dragon tattooed on her arm, all claim to enjoy strong drink and bad behaviour and only Katherine Blake, the lead singer, has any formal musical training. They even share the same record label as the Spice Girls.

But the Baebes deny that they are a manufactured group like the Spice Girls and say that they began singing together when they went for picnics on Hampstead Heath, north London. Although critics say that they sound more like a good school choir than professional singers, their first album of plainsong reached No. 3 in the classical charts on the weekend. Salva Nos was released only last week and is heading for the top aided by a heavy marketing operation and semi-naked pictures on the cover. WILL BENNETT London Daily Telegraph LONDON The world of classical music has never seen anything quite like the Mediaeval Baebes, who are climbing the chrrts with their first album.

Among the ranks of the 12-strong all-female group, who sing 14th-century plainsong in Latin, Middle English and ancient French, are an ex-stripper, a couple of fire-eaters, a witch and two former members of a rock group called Miranda Sex Garden. No wonder the group is being promoted as the raunchiest phenomenon ever to hit classical music. Although sex has been used to sell the classics before, the marketing operation behind the Baebes has taken the process a step farther. In a phrase guaranteed to send shivers down the spine of any classical-mu m-purjcitiQ Gazette subscribers with a PIN, en trnm CUSSUWIT call mi mi. hi urn 'H FOR MORE CHANCES MIX Iff fllfl IN.

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