All Reviews articles – Page 180
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ArticleTchaikovsky: String Quartet no.1 in D major op.11. Prokofiev: String Quartet no.1 in B minor op.50. Gabriel Prokofiev: String Quartet no.1
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Ruysdael QuartetComposer: Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Gabriel ProkofievQuartets seem to have run out of composers and branched out into painters for their names. The young Ruysdael Quartet from the Netherlands, founded in 1996 at The Hague Conservatoire, makes a very positive impression ...
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ArticleMendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor op.64, Piano Trio no.1 in D minor op.49, Violin Sonata in F major (1838)
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin) Lynn Harrell (cello) André Previn (piano) Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Kurt Masur (conductor)Composer: MendelssohnAnne-Sophie Mutter has been one of the better German violinists for 30 years now, so it is probably too late to expect her to fulfil the promise ...
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ArticleViolette: Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Robert Uchida (violin)Composer: Violette New York composer Andrew Violette’s Sonata is, in his own words, an attempt to ‘go back to basics, to investigate the single line’. At almost two hours long – including a set of variations on ...
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ArticleDuos for Violin and Viola. Works by John Williams, Copland, Spohr, Martinu, Jakulov & Rolla
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Victor Romanul (violin) Michael Zaretsky (viola)Composer: John Williams, Copland, Spohr, Martinu, Jakulov & Rolla 'Top billing’ – to use appropriate Hollywood parlance – is given on this CD to the world premiere recording of the Duo concertante by John ...
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ArticleFireworks. Works by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Medtner, Francescatti, Schumann, Kreisler, Ries, Halffter, Wieniawski, Gardner, Rota, Bock–Williams, Bloch & Ravel
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Vadim Gluzman (violin) Angela Yoffe (piano) Composer: Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Medtner, Francescatti, Schumann, Kreisler, Ries, Halffter, Wieniawski, Gardner, Rota, Bock–Williams, Bloch & Ravel With the sonorous tone of his 1690 ‘Leopold Auer’ Stradivari and his dazzling technical dexterity, Vadim Gluzman makes violin playing ...
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ArticleBach: Goldberg Variations BWV988 (arr. Sitkovetsky)
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Trio AccordComposer: BachWell-known for his resourceful and persuasive transcriptions, Dmitry Sitkovetsky has arranged Bach’s Goldberg Variations for both string orchestra and string trio. The members of the Canadian ensemble Trio Accord have clearly considered the various issues of style and interpretation raised ...
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ArticleRavel: Piano Trio in A minor. Schubert: Piano Trio in E flat major D929
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Icicle Creek Piano Trio Composer: Ravel, SchubertFormed by prizewinning soloists from the US, Russia and the UK, this technically accomplished trio is resident at the Icicle Creek Music Center in Leavenworth, Washington, and much of its career is ...
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ArticleSchubert: String Quartet in D minor D810 ‘Der Tod und das Mädchen’ (arr. Mahler), Gesang der Geister über den Wassern
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Academia Allegro Vivo, Vienna Chamber Choir, Bijan Khadem-Missagh (conductor) Composer: SchubertGustav Mahler came in for quite a bit of stick when he arranged Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet for string orchestra. After a performance of the variations movement ...
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ArticleBeach: Piano Quintet in F sharp minor op.67. Smith: Vignettes: Covered Wagon Woman
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln CenterComposer: Beach, Smith American composer Amy Beach’s main source of inspiration was middle-period Brahms. However, there is not the slightest hint of his Piano Quintet in her own 1907 contribution to ...
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ArticleBrahms: Violin Concerto in D minor op.77. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor op.64
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Ida Haendel (violin) Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra SWR, Hans Müller-Kray (conductor)Composer: Brahms, MendelssohnThese recordings, made in 1955 and 1953 respectively, are magisterial performances of profound intensity. In both of these concertos Ida Haendel’s playing is muscular. This comes across in ...
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ArticleBeethoven: String Quintets in E flat major op.4 & in C major op.29
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Nash EnsembleComposer: BeethovenThe first of Beethoven’s string quintets was adapted in 1795 from a wind octet he had written for local musicians back in his Bonn years. The second, his only original work in the medium, came six years later, ...
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ArticleCello/Diverse. Debussy: Suite italienne. Debussy: Cello Sonata. Brahms: Cello Sonata no.2 in F major op.99. Morricone: Gabriel’s Oboe
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Susanne Beer (cello) Gareth Hancock (piano)Composer: Stravinsky, Debussy, Brahms, Morricone With an impressive roster of tutors listed on Susanne Beer’s biography, from Pergamenschikow and Pleeth to Isserlis and Gutman, coupled with a wide professional experience including the post ...
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ArticleBoni: Sonatas for cello and basso continuo op.1 nos.1–3 & 8–12
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Andrea FossÁ (cello) Renato Criscuolo (cello) Anna Fontana (harpsichord) Francisco Gato (archlute) Andrea de Carlo (viola da gamba)Composer: BoniBologna-born Pietro Gaetano Boni settled in Rome in 1711 and served as ‘cello virtuoso’ to Corelli’s patron Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, to whom his ...
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ArticleSoirés Internationales. Villa-Lobos: Ária from Bachianas brasileiras no.5 (arr. Primrose); O canto do capadócio, etc. Guarneri: Cello Sonata no.1. Nadia Boulanger: Trois pièces. Martinu: Cello Sonata
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Antonio Meneses (cello) Celina Szrvinsk (piano)Composer: Villa-Lobos, Guarneri, Nadia Boulanger, MartinuIn this enterprising release, which uses composers working in Paris as a focal point, Latin-American repertoire is persuasively represented by Villa-Lobos, whose penchant for lyrically hued Romanticism comes to the fore in ...
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ArticleTchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme op.33, Pezzo capriccioso in B minor op.62, Nocturne in D minor op.19 no.4. Shostakovich: Cello Concerto no.1 in E flat major op.107
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Zuill Bailey (cello) San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, MartinuWest (conductor)Composer: Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich The cello masterworks of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich demand very different playing styles. Although Zuill Bailey gives a technically stunning Rococo Variations, as soon as the Shostakovich opens you feel ...
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ArticleFrench Violin Sonatas. Saint-Saëns: Violin Sonata no.1 in D minor op.75. Ravel: Violin Sonata in G major. Fauré: Violin Sonata no.1 in A major op.13
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Antje Weithaas (violin) Silke Avenhaus (piano)Composer: Saint-Saëns, Ravel, FauréThe earliest of these three works comes from the musically passionate Romanticism of Gabriel Fauré, who was a pupil of Saint-Saëns. Fauré’s sonata is played here with a radiant excitement, and the outer movements ...
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ArticleMozart: Violin Concertos nos.1–5, Sinfonia concertante in E flat major K364
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Thomas Zehetmair (violin/director) Ruth Killius (viola) Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Franz Brüggen (conductor)Composer: Mozart These discs contain crisp performances delivered on period instruments, with the orchestra especially playing with commendable fastidiousness. Intonation is exemplary and the recording ...
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ArticleBartók: Violin Concerto no.2 in B minor. Shostakovich: Violin Concerto no.1 in A minor op.77
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Yossif Ivanov (violin) Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Pinchas Steinberg (conductor)Composer: Bartók, Shostakovich Bartók’s second is one of the most intractable of violin concertos. Its post-Romantic expressive intensity and cantabile gesturing appear to suggest an emotional kinship with the Glazunov or ...
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ArticleBeethoven: Violin Sonata in G major op.96. Dvorák: Romance in F minor op.11. Suk: Four Pieces op.17. Bartók: Rhapsody no.1
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Roman Pato?ka (violin) Frédéric Lagarde (piano)Composer: Beethoven, Dvorák, Suk, Bartók Czech violinist Roman Pato?ka (b.1981) bravely opens his recital with the most cryptic of Beethoven’s ten violin sonatas, a work that looks forward to the Elysian spirituality of the ...
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ArticleOnslow: Violin Sonatas op.16
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Moderntimes_1800 Composer: OnslowGeorge Onslow’s three op.16 sonatas were composed in 1819 with the somewhat curious designation for fortepiano and violin or viola or cello. They exploit pre-Romantic features characteristic of Hummel, displaying surprising harmonic ingenuity and originality of content, and treating each ...
