All Reviews articles – Page 154
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ArticleCorran Raa
Description: Attractive but somewhat shallow Scottish fiddlingMusicians: Janet Lees, Jenny Smith (fiddle) Kath Bruce (piano/vocal) Robbie Leask (guitar)Composer: VariousScottish band Corran Raa takes its name from a sand spit on Taransay, a beautiful Hebridean island that hosts an annual fiddle camp and is currently up for sale (offers ...
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ArticleSchnittke: Complete Violin Sonatas
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: A chance to hear how the eclectic Russian composer’s style changed over four decadesMusicians: Carolyn Huebl (violin) Mark Wait (piano)Composer: SchnittkeAlthough there have been a number of fine recordings of individual Schnittke violin sonatas, this is, as far as I am aware, ...
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ArticleClimate Changes. Poulenc: Cello Sonata. Debussy: Cello Sonata. Fontyn: Six Climats. Messiaen: ‘Louange Á l’éternité de Jésus’ from Quatuor pour la fin du Temps
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Novel programming marred by slapdash MessiaenMusicians: Jan Pas (cello) Stefano Vismara (piano)Composer: Poulenc, Debussy, Fontyn, MessiaenThis CD is something of a curate’s egg, with three decent performances followed by a fourth, of the ‘Louange à l‘éternité de Jésus’ from Messiaen’s Quartet for ...
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ArticleSkouen: Call-Notes: Une soirée d’été…; Hils Domitila!; Nattstykke; Fair Play; … Á travers les paroles; catchme!; O Vilhelm, Vilhelm; Vent!; Scenes from Volven
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Various worlds inform the music of a leading light in Norway’s cultural sceneMusicians: Geir Inge Lotsberg (violin) Johannes Martens (cello) Oslo String Quartet, Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer (voice) Tone Kruse (alto) Ellen Ugelvik (piano) SISU Percussion Quartet, Norwegian Radio Orchestra/Christian EggenComposer: SkouenThis is ...
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ArticleByrd: Complete consort music
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Performances of Byrd’s viol music that glow with subtle colouringMusicians: PhantasmComposer: ByrdThe courtly art of viol consort playing gave composers in Elizabeth I’s reign a welcome chance to write free from liturgy or poetic texts. William Byrd composed for viols for more ...
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ArticleEncores: as performed by Pablo Casals. Works by Popper, Debussy, Godard, Chopin, Sgambati, Lassen, Fauré, Wagner, Elgar, Boccherini, Falla, MacDowell, Granados, Kreisler, Saint-Saëns & Trad.
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2011Description: A disc of encores that makes an appealing recital in its own rightMusicians: Alban Gerhardt (cello) Cecile Licad (piano)Composer: Popper, Debussy, Godard, Chopin, Sgambati, Lassen, Fauré, Wagner, Elgar, Boccherini, Falla, MacDowell, Granados, Kreisler, Saint-Saëns & TradTo compile this disc, Alban ...
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ArticleBeyond Tradition
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: A worthwhile introduction to the folk styles of eastern EuropeMusicians: Bohemian QuartetComposer: Trad Based in Rhode Island, the Bohemian Quartet ( violin, viola, cello and bass) specialises in gypsy music of central and eastern Europe. Although it takes its name ...
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ArticleForays. Franck: Violin Sonata in A major. Vaughan Williams: Six Studies in English Folksong. Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata in A minor
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Mixed results from double bass transcriptions of works ‘stolen’ from other string instrumentsMusicians: Craig Butterfield (double bass) Charles Fugo (piano)Composer: Franck, Vaughan Williams, SchubertBassist Craig Butterfield describes his disc as an excusable ‘act of musical thievery’. His instrument sings with eloquence in ...
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ArticleKurtág: Signs, Games and Messages; Szorongòs es vigasztalòs H.J.-nek; Illés Arpadné emlékére; Mesto, lacrimoso; Misterioso – altero
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Faithfully achieved accounts of music by a master miniaturistMusicians: Maurizio Barbetti (viola)Composer: Kurtág Signs, Games and Messages is a continuing series of isolated movements written during the past half century – and continually revised – by that post-Webernian miniaturist György Kurtág (b.1926). ...
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ArticleOn Cold Mountain: Songs on Poems by Gary Snyder. Whelden: Cold Mountain Songs. Frith: For Nothing. Morris: The Bubble of a Heart. Mathieu: For All
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Baroque meets contemporary in four works for voice and stringsMusicians: Karen Clark (contralto) Galax QuartetComposer: Whelden, Frith, Morris, MathieuThis promising disc represents a collision of ideas, containing settings of verse by the US Beat poet Gary Snyder for the unusual combination of ...
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ArticleAdams: String Quartet, Son of Chamber Symphony
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2011Description: An authoritative account of John Adams latest contribution to the quartet mediumMusicians: St Lawrence Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble/John AdamsComposer: AdamsJohn Adams has made a number of excursions into the string quartet medium, but this 2008 work is the first to ...
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ArticleFux: Partite a 3
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Vivacious performances of cosmopolitan late 17th-century partitasMusicians: Ars Antiqua Austria/Gunar Letzbor (violin)Composer: Fux Gunar Letzbor’s ensemble is a persuasive advocate of Fux’s partitas, the movements of which range from dances to complete ouvertures and combine the expressive and the ...
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ArticleSchubert: Piano Trios in B flat major D898 & E flat major D929, Nocturne in E flat major D897, Sonata in B flat major D28
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: A fine set of Schubert’s music for piano trioMusicians: Vienna Schubert TrioComposer: SchubertThough not billed as such, this lovely set makes an apt memorial to the cellist MartinuHornstein, who died in 2009. The recordings were made in 1991, near the end of ...
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ArticleRespighi: Violin Concerto in A major P49 (rev. & compl. di Vittorio), Aria for strings P32 (transcr. di Vittorio), Suite for strings P41 (rev. di Vittorio), Rossiniana P148
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Standards could be higher in the debut of an otherwise welcome addition to the concerto repertoireMusicians: Laura Marzadori (violin) Chamber Orchestra of New York ‘Ottorino Respighi’/Salvatore di VittorioComposer: Respighi Respighi left the first of his four works for violin and orchestra, a ...
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ArticleBeethoven: String Quartets in D major op.18 no.3, A major op.18 no.5 & F major op.135
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: The Artemis Quartet brings a deft touch to the last instalment of its Beethoven quartet cycleMusicians: Artemis QuartetComposer: BeethovenThere are times when one wishes Beethoven had given his lyrical impulse freer rein, as at the start of the enchanting opening movement of ...
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ArticleBliss: Violin Sonata. Walford Davies: Violin Sonata in A major. Bowen: Violin Sonata in E minor op.112
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Welcome recordings of three rare British violin sonatasMusicians: Robert Luck (violin) Matthew Rickard (piano)Composer: Bliss, Walford Davies, BowenWhen Robert Luck examined the manuscript of Arthur Bliss’s unpublished Violin Sonata in the Cambridge University Library he found that it had three pages crossed ...
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ArticleSaint-Saëns: Cello Concertos no.1 in A minor & no.2 in D minor, Cello Sonatas no.1 in C minor & no.2 in F major, Romances in F major & D major, Allegro appassionato in B minor, Le cygne, Chant Saphiqu
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: An engaging collection of Saint-Saëns’s complete music for celloMusicians: Luigi Piovano (cello) Nazzareno Carusi, Luisa Prayer (piano) Orchestra del Teatro Marrucino/Piero BellugiComposer: Saint-SaënsLuigi Piovano’s outgoing performances of the two Saint-Saëns concertos perfectly illustrate the spontaneity that happens in live concerts, where the ...
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ArticleMendelssohn: Cello Sonatas no.1 in B flat major op.45 & no.2 in D major op.58, Variations concertantes op.17, Romance sans paroles op.109
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Spirited Mendelssohn from a consummate cellistMusicians: Colin Carr (cello) Thomas Sauer (piano)Composer: MendelssohnAny disc by Colin Carr is an event, and Cello Classics is to be congratulated on getting him and Thomas Sauer into the studio, soon after the British ...
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ArticleProkofiev: Violin concertos no.1 in D major op.19 & no.2 in G minor op.63, Sonata in C major for two violins op.56*
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Indianapolis prizewinner Pavel Berman brings freshness and eloquence to ProkofievMusicians: Pavel Berman, Anna Tifu* (violin) Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana/Andrey BoreykoComposer: ProkofievWhen compared with, say, Itzhak Perlman’s EMI coupling with Gennadi Rozhdestvensky or Isaac Stern’s Sony classic with Eugene Ormandy, the natural perspectives ...
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ArticleBeethoven: String Quartets op.59 nos.1-3 ‘Rasumovsky’, String Quintet in C major op.29
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Raw-edged Beethoven from players brought up in the period-instrument worldMusicians: Kuijken Quartet, Marleen Thiers (viola)Composer: BeethovenThis set combines the dynastic Kuijken ensemble’s 2006 recordings of op.59 no.3 and op.29 with newly available 2009 accounts of opp.59/1 and 59/2. Historically informed performance is ...
