All Reviews articles – Page 160
-
ArticleBrahms: Violin Sonatas in G major op.78, A major op.100 & D minor op.108
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Affecting and lyrical interpretations of BrahmsMusicians: Stefan Jackiw (violin) Max Levinson (piano)Composer: BrahmsSony has only recently issued the three Brahms sonatas played by Jack Liebeck (reviewed September 2010), but the young American violinist Stefan Jackiw hits such a high level ...
-
ArticleRubinstein: Piano Trios nos.1–5
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Edlian Piano TrioComposer: RubinsteinThere is a lot more (thankfully) to Anton Rubinstein’s creative talent than the penny-plain phrases of the once ubiquitous Melody in F. Although his skilfully wrought music may lack the strong emotional profile of his one-time student Tchaikovsky, his ...
-
ArticleSaint-Saëns: Violin Concertos no.1 in A major op.20, no.2 in C major op.58 & no.3 in B minor op.61
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Fanny Clamagirand (violin) Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä/Patrick GalloisComposer: Saint-SaënsStrength of rhetoric and hauntingly memorable melodies make Saint-Saëns’s violin concertos highly effective compositions, especially the large-scale and detectably Mendelssohnian Second. The fiery playing of Fanny Clamagirand, an ex-student of Jean-Jacques Kantorow at the Paris ...
-
ArticleSibelius: String Quartet in D minor op.56 ‘Voces intimae’. Schoenberg: String Quartet no.1 in D minor op.7
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2011Description: A spare, intense reading of Brahms and SchoenbergMusicians: Tetzlaff QuartetComposer: Sibelius, SchoenbergSibelius and Schoenberg might seem an unlikely pairing, but the two composers’ D minor quartets are well matched for their obsession with musical process, Sibelius with Beethovenian motivic development, ...
-
ArticleLolli: Sonatas for violin & basso continuo op.1 no.4, op.3 nos.2, 4–6 & op.9 no.2
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Luca Fanfoni, Antonella Tanetti (violin) Marianne Chen (cello) Paola Del Giudice (harpsichord) Erich Galliani (guitar) Composer: LolliLuca Fanfoni and his colleagues offer variable accounts of a cross-section of Antonio Lolli’s sonatas, eccentric works that proved significant precursors of Paganini’s virtuoso ...
-
ArticleThe Path. Yanov-Yanovsky: Chang Music IV movements 1 & 2 Pärt Von Angesicht zu Angesicht, Summa. Medyulyanova: Ewige Ruhe. Vrebalov: The Spell III. Tavener: Epistle of Love, Sámaveda. Nadarejshvili: Q
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Carducci Quartet, Elizabeth Cooney (violin) Joachim Roewer (viola) Malachy Robinson (double bass), etcComposer: Yanov-Yanovsky, Pärt, Medyulyanova, Vrebalov, Tavener, NadarejshviliThe players of the excellent Carducci Quartet are the perfect exponents of this lyrical yet gritty collection of contemporary music, which includes world premiere ...
-
ArticleBartók: Violin Concertos no.1 & 2
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Arabella Steinbacher (violin) Suisse Romande Orchestra/Marek JanowskiComposer: Bartók Soloist, conductor, Swiss orchestra and recording team here combine to give us one of the best versions of the massive 1938 Bartók Second Violin Concerto. There is a nice easy swing to ...
-
ArticleBeethoven: Cello Sonatas nos.1–5, Sonata in F major op.17
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Peter Martens (cello) Luis MagalhÁes (piano)Composer: BeethovenThe marketing hook for this set lies in the artists’ reference to Czerny’s insights on performing Beethoven’s music, paying particular attention to the younger composer’s recommended metronome markings. Fervent adherence to these suggestions results in some ...
-
ArticleTouchable Dreams
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Steve Bingham (violin/five-string electric violin/octave electric violin/treble recorder/thumb piano/rainsticks) Jeremy Harmer (voice) Composer: VariousThis is more an event than a CD. Steve Bingham multi-tracks his instruments in an eclectic range of music while Jeremy Harmer reads poetry. One can imagine it performed ...
-
ArticleTchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major. Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Susanna Yoko Henkel (violin) Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra/Jonathan DarlingtonComposer: Tchaikovsky, Vaughan WilliamsListening once again to the Tchaikovsky Concerto’s impassioned flow of spontaneous invention, it seems more bizarre than ever that it is was this of all pieces that the pro-Brahms Viennese critic Eduard ...
-
ArticleSzymanowski: Complete works for violin and piano
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Stawomir Tomasik (violin) Robert Morawski (piano)Composer: SzymanowskiKarol Szymanowski, whose creative style was forged initially from the folk music of his native Tatra Mountains, was one of the most enigmatically individual of early 20th-century composers. This fine collection usefully brings together everything he ...
-
ArticleBuxtehude: Opera Omnia XII: Sonatas from Manuscript Sources
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Catherine Manson, David Rabinovich (violin) Jonathan Manson (viola da gamba) Christine Sticher (violone) Tom Koopman (harpsichord/organ) Mike Fentross (lute)Composer: BuxtehudeThis twelfth volume of a project to record Buxtehude’s complete works features sonatas from manuscript sources. Composed for various instrumental combinations, these synthesise ...
-
ArticleSeasons... Dreams... Works by Beethoven, Debussy, Duke, Fauré, Gershwin, Gruber, Kosma, Pritske & Wagner
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Anne Akiko Meyers (violin) Reiko Uchida (piano) Emmanuel Ceysson (harp) Composer: Beethoven, Debussy, Duke, Fauré, Gershwin, Gruber, Kosma, Pritske & Wagner After beginning with a bang 22 years ago, Anne Akiko Meyers’s recording career seems to have retreated into the mood-music market. ...
-
ArticleHendrix: Have you ever been…? Balakrishnan: Tree of Life
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Turtle Island QuartetComposer: Hendrix, Balakrishnan The Turtle Island Quartet has previously tackled Coltrane, Gillespie and Brubeck. This time it’s Jimi Hendrix who gets the Turtle treatment.It’s a brave quartet that tackles something as iconically electric as, say, Voodoo Child. Though ...
-
ArticleTchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major. Tartini: Sonata ‘Didone abbandonata’, Variations on a Theme by Corelli. Vivaldi: Violin Sonata in D major. Kreisler: Schön Rosmarin, Caprice viennois. Brahms:
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Erica Morini (violin) Michael Raucheisen (piano) RIAS Symphony Orchestra/Ferenc FricsayComposer: Tchaikovsky, Tartini, Vivaldi, Kreisler, Brahms, WieniawskiHere is a portrait of the marvellous Erica Morini (1904–95) as she was in Berlin in 1952. She is playing favourite music, starting with a live Tchaikovsky ...
-
ArticleG. Coates: String Quartet no.9, Sonata for Violin Solo, Lyric Suite ‘Split the Lark – and you’ll find the Music’
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Kreutzer Quartet, Roderick Chadwick (piano)Composer: G. CoatesGloria Coates (b.1938) writes music that is as close to surrealism as any I know. An American composer who has lived in Munich since 1969, she uses simple, often straightforwardly diatonic elements, yet twists them into ...
-
ArticleYsaÿe: 6 Sonatas for solo violin op.27
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Samika Honda (violin)Composer: YsaÿeThe set of six solo Sonatas op.27 is the only work of Ysaÿe’s to have won a place in the regular performing repertoire. The first four are dedicated to legendary colleagues – Szigeti, Thibaud, Enescu and Kreisler, no less ...
-
ArticleSchoenberg: String Trio op.45. Webern: String trio op.20, Movement for String Trio op. posth. Schnittke: String Trio
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Goeyvaerts TrioComposer: Schoenberg, Webern, SchnittkeThis recording includes a short talk by Schoenberg (in English), originally broadcast along with a performance of his Trio in 1949, concerning attention to detail by performers and listeners – a potential hostage to fortune for the Goeyvaerts ...
-
ArticleHalvorsen: Orchestral Works vol.2: Three Norwegian Dances*, Air norvégien op.7*, Chant de la Veslemöy*, Suite ancienne op.31a, Symphony no.2 ‘Fatum’
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Marianne Thorsen (violin)* Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Neeme JärviComposer: HalvorsenBefore he was a composer, Johan Halvorsen was a virtuoso violinist, and his works for violin and orchestra are wonderfully written for the instrument. His music, like that of his friend Grieg, is steeped in ...
-
ArticleBeethoven: String Quartet in E flat op.74 ‘Harp’. Nordheim: String Quartet 1956. Bartók: String Quartet no.3
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: EngegŠrd QuartetComposer: Beethoven, Nordheim, BartókThis CD’s booklet explains 2L’s philosophy of using spacious venues where the engineers can create the most intimate recordings free of the confines created by walls. It is indeed a tangible feature of these performances that they seem ...
