All Reviews articles – Page 135
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ReviewBacewicz: Cello Concertos nos.11 & 22, Overture
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A valuable coupling of two rarely heard 20th-century cello concertosMusicians: Adam Krzeszowiec, Bartosz Koziak (cello) Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra/George Tchitchinadze, Monika Woli?skaComposer: BacewiczGrazyna Bacewicz (1909–69), Polish concert violinist and prolific composer for strings, appears in almost unrecognisably different guises in her two ...
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ReviewMolique: Violin Concertos no.3 in D minor op.10 & no.6 in E minor op.30
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A generally successful attempt to explore 19th-century performance practiceMusicians: Anton Steck (violin) L’arpa festante/Christoph SperingComposer: MoliqueThe ‘historically informed’ nature of this disc is hinted at modestly on the packaging rather than used as a selling point, although Anton Steck (a former pupil ...
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ReviewMaxwell Davies: Strathclyde Concerto no.2, Sonata for cello and piano ‘Sequentia serpentigena’, Dances from The Two Fiddlers (transc. Ceccanti), Little Tune for Vittorio in Maremma
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A welcome new recording of a work that deserves more currencyMusicians: Vittorio Ceccanti (cello) Bruno Canino (piano) Italian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Peter Maxwell DaviesComposer: Maxwell DaviesPeter Maxwell Davies’s Strathclyde Concerto no.2 of 1987 appears here for only the second time on disc (the ...
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ReviewBlue Violin: A Jazz Legacy
The Strad Issue: M/ay 2013Description: Understated reinterpretations of jazz standardsMusicians: James Sanders (violin) Kevin O’Connell TrioComposer: VariousJames Sanders is a classical violinist who has spent two decades learning his craft as a jazzer, with this record the fruits of that labour. He’s chosen a set of standards ...
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ReviewFranck: Violin Sonata in A major; Mélancolie; Prélude, fugue et variation op.18 (arr. Dumay/Lortie) Strauss: Violin Sonata in E flat major op.18; Auf stillen Waldespfad (arr. Heifetz)
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Compelling playing from one of today’s great violinistsMusicians: Augustin Dumay (violin) Louis Lortie (piano)Composer: Franck and StraussThese popular sonatas both derive from the chromatic sensuality of middle-period Wagner, but whereas the Franck’s aching seductiveness sits on a knife-edge between sacred ...
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ReviewThe Sweet Volcano
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: An eruption of improvisatory resourcefulnessMusicians: Matt Turner (cello) Greg Pagel (piano)Composer: The Sweet VolcanoThe Sweet Volcano is an exploration of the space where free improvisation meets post-Romantic chamber music. Matt Turner and Greg Pagel have been playing together for a decade and ...
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ReviewThe Unknown Purcell – Works for violin and keyboard
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A welcome exploration of 18th-century English chamber musicMusicians: Hazel Brooks (violin) David Pollock (harpsichord)Composer: Daniel PurcellHazel Brooks and David Pollock champion the music of Daniel Purcell, who forged musical pathways of his own in the early 18th century, long after his more ...
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ReviewUrban Gypsy
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: An album that takes the Parisian jazz quartet into new realmsMusicians: Daniel John Martinu(violin/vocals) Claudius Dupont (double bass) Mathieu Guinot, Samy Daussat (guitar)Composer: Urban GypsyWhen a violinist assembles a Parisian quartet – guitars included – and references ‘gypsy’, the intent would seem ...
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ReviewBartók: Solo Violin Sonata, Violin Sonata in E minor, Hungarian Folksongs (transc. Országh), Hungarian Folk Tunes (transc. Szigeti), Romanian Folk Dances (transc. Székely)
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: The successful continuation of the Canadian violinist’s Bartók cycleMusicians: James Ehnes (violin) Andrew Armstrong (piano)Composer: BartókJames Ehnes’s Bartók is full of emotional intensity and he meticulously follows the composer’s dynamics and fluctuations. The technical demands of the Solo Sonata (see Ehnes’s Masterclass ...
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ReviewRolla: Violin Concertos in B flat major, D major & A major
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Period and modern playing styles meet some attractive Italian concertosMusicians: Paolo Ghidoni (violin/conductor) Mantua Conservatoire Chamber OrchestraComposer: RollaAlessandro Rolla (1757–1841) is best known as the teacher of Paganini and originator of some of his technical effects. Accordingly, these concertos hint at the ...
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ReviewSchubert: Rondo in B minor D895, Fantasy in C major D934, Introduction and Variations on ‘Trockne Blumen’ D802
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Rewarding period accounts of late SchubertMusicians: Jacqueline Ross (violin) Maggie Cole (fortepiano)Composer: SchubertCompleting her two-volume survey of Schubert’s violin-and-keyboard works, with Maggie Cole returning on fortepiano, US-born Jacqueline Ross here reaches the final five years of the composer’s life, with three important ...
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ReviewCorelli: Trio Sonatas op.4
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Performances that are full of spirit and tonal warmthMusicians: Ensemble Aurora/Enrico Gatti (violin/director)Composer: CorelliEnsemble Aurora offers graceful, lucid and spontaneously expressive readings of Corelli’s final collection of trio sonatas op.4, dispatching the varied movements with light, shapely articulation and a virtuosity and ...
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ReviewGlazunov: Violin Concerto in A minor op.82, Meditation in D major op.32, Mazurka–oberek in D major. Schoeck: Concerto quasi una fantasia in B flat major op.21
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Assured playing in Romantic works for violin and orchestraMusicians: Chloë Hanslip (violin) Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana/Alexander VedernikovComposer: Glazunov, SchoeckChloë Hanslip may be aged only 25, but it’s already more than 11 years since her debut CD. Apart from the Bruch, she’s steered ...
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ReviewShostakovich: Viola Sonata op.147, Cello Sonata op.40 (arr. Lénert for viola)
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A successful new viola version of Shostakovich’s Cello SonataMusicians: Pierre Lénert (viola) Eliane Reyes (piano)Composer: ShostakovichThe two pieces included in this CD effectively represent the beginning and end of Shostakovich’s chamber music production (the early, one-movement post-Rachmaninoffian piano trio op.8 can be ...
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ReviewBeethoven: String Quartets in D major op.18 no.3, E flat major op.74 ‘Harp’ & F major op.135
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A welcome singing approach to three key Beethoven quartetsMusicians: Ysaÿe QuartetComposer: BeethovenAlthough numbered 3 when first published as part of the six op.18 quartets, the D major was in fact the first to be composed, which gives this programme a special significance ...
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ReviewSchumann: Piano Quintet in E flat major op.44, Piano Quartet in E flat major op.47, Märchenerzählungen op.132
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Accounts that can’t compete with the best availableMusicians: Fine Arts Quartet, Xiayin Wang (piano)Composer: SchumannThe budget price of this 2010 recording of Schumann’s Piano Quintet might weigh in its favour, but otherwise it has little chance of competing. The opening fails to ...
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ReviewBruch: Kol nidrei op.37 (two performances). Boccherini: Cello Concerto in B flat major G482. Brahms: ‘Double’ Concerto in A minor op.102
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Well-preserved recordings of a master musicianMusicians: Pablo Casals (cello) Jacques Thibaud (violin) London Symphony Orchestra/Ronald Landon, Orchestra Pau Casals de Barcelona/Alfred CortotComposer: Bruch, Boccherini, BrahmsIncluding two performances of Kol nidrei is a bit strange – the second, earlier version is two and ...
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ReviewFuchs: Viola Sonata op.86, Phantasiestücke op.117. Joachim: Variations op.10. Dvorák: Romance op.11
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Stylish playing of music written in the shadow of BrahmsMusicians: Patricia McCarty (viola) Eric Larsen (piano)Composer: Fuchs, Joachim, DvorákAt just under 80 minutes, this CD is brim-full with late Romantic music by composers from Brahms’s circle. Robert Fuchs’s music can’t quite emerge ...
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ReviewBritten: Suites for Solo Cello nos.1—3
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A worthy centenary tribute from a fine young cellistMusicians: Philip Higham (cello)Composer: BrittenPhilip Higham already proved his affinity for Britten’s music when he committed the composer’s Cello Sonata to disc (reviewed November 2012), so this recording of the suites in the composer’s ...
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ReviewWieniawski: Violin Concerto no.1 in F sharp minor op.14. Conus: Violin Concerto in E minor op.1. Vieuxtemps: Fantasia appassionata in G minor op.35
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A winningly lyrical approach to three virtuoso showpiecesMusicians: Soo-Hyun Park (violin) Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz/Nicholas MiltonComposer: Wieniawski, Conus, VieuxtempsWieniawski’s notorious F sharp minor Concerto, with its perilous opening chain of consecutive tenths, was for a long time the preserve of the ...
