All Reviews articles – Page 184
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ArticleMendelssohn: Cello Sonatas no.1 in B flat major op.45 & no.2 in B flat major op.58, Variations concertantes op.17, Lied ohne Worte op.109, Albumblatt Assai tranquillo
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Sergei Istomin (cello) Viviana Sofronitsky (piano)Composer: Mendelssohn Although Mendelssohn’s cello works are hardly uncharted territory this new release of his complete oeuvre for cello and piano has the selling-point of using a reproduction Conrad Graf fortepiano of ...
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ArticleTippett: String Quartets nos.1, 2 & 4
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Tippett QuartetComposer: Tippett Tippett himself coached the Lindsay Quartet (as it was then called) for its recording of his first three quartets (ASV) and wrote the last two for the same players. How much the composer became swept ...
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ArticleJamestown Concerto. William Perry: Jamestown Concerto for cello and orchestra. Schuman: A Song for Orpheus – Fantasy for cello and orchestra. Thomson: Cello Concerto
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Yehuda Hanani (cello) RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland), William Eddins (conductor) Composer: William Perry, Schuman, ThomsonJamestown Concerto by the American composer William Perry (b.1930) offers a cinematic, tonally approachable style painted with colourful orchestration and an appealing programme tracing the history ...
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ArticleBridge: Cello Sonata, Élégie, Serenade, Meditation. Bosmans: Cello Sonata, Nuit calme
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Mayke Rademakers (cello) Matthijs Verschoor (piano)Composer: Bridge, BosmansFor their second disc together, Dutch duo Mayke Rademakers and Matthijs Verschoor pair sonatas by contemporaries Frank Bridge and Henriëtte Bosmans, the latter a well-known figure in her native Holland where a composition prize is ...
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ArticleHands on Heart: ‘A Concert for Steve’. Works by Bartók, Kodály, Piazzolla, Rachmaninoff, Paganini, Glazunov, Rimsky-Korskov & Fauré
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Tim Hugh (Cello) Olga Sitkovetsky (piano)Composer: Bartók, Kodály, Piazzolla, Rachmaninoff, Paganini, Glazunov, Rimsky-Korskov & FauréTim Hugh, principal cellist of the London Symphony Orchestra, shines in this colossal recital given at Wigmore Hall a year ago in memory of his brother. Bartók’s Rhapsody ...
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ArticleBrett Dean: Viola Concerto*, Twelve Angry Men, Intimate Decisions, Komarov’s Fall†
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Brett Dean (viola/conductor) Sydney Symphony, Simone Young (conductor)* Hugh Wolff (conductor)† Composer: Brett DeanIt must take a lot of courage to leave one of the world’s most prestigious (and best paid) orchestras to try to make a ...
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ArticleSilenced Voices. Frank Denyer: Woman, Viola and Crow; Two Beacons; Tentative Thoughts, Silenced Voices; Ghosts Again
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Marieke Keser (violin) Elisabeth Smalt (viola) The Barton Workshop, Frank Denyer (director) James Fulkerson (director) Composer: Frank DenyerThis disc of recent ensemble works by the British composer Frank Denyer (b.1943), currently professor of composition at Dartington College in ...
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ArticleBeethoven: Violin Concerto in D major op.61. Sulkhan Tsinrsadze: Miniatures*
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Lisa Batiashvili (violin/director) Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Georgian Chamber Orchestra*Composer: Beethoven, Sulkhan Tsinrsadze Many will find the composer coupling on this disc somewhat puzzling, but it is evidently the outcome of Lisa Batiashvili’s desire to bring together the ...
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ArticlePleyel: ‘Prussian’ String Quartets in D major (Ben 337), F major (Ben 338) & G minor (Ben 339)
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Pleyel Quartet Köln Composer: PleyelThe Pleyel Quartet Köln here offers elegant period-instrument performances of three of Pleyel’s twelve ‘Prussian Quartets’, dedicated to the cellist King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia. Unlike Mozart’s last three quartets with the same dedicatee (K575, K589 ...
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ArticleHaydn: String Quartet in D major op.76 no.5. Leif Solberg: String Quartet in B minor. Grieg: String Quartet in G minor, op.27
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: EngegŠrd QuartetComposer: Haydn, Leif Solberg, Grieg Recorded in audiophile clarity by 2L’s founder Morten Lindberg and an assistant, here is a new ensemble founded in 2006 by three Norwegians and the British violist Juliet Jopling. The playing is refreshing, ...
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ArticleMozart: Violin Concerto no.3 in G major K216, Sinfonia concertante in E flat major K364
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Dominika Falger (violin) Johannes Flieder (viola) Wratislavia Chamber Orchestra, Christian Schulz (conductor)Composer: Mozart When little-known artists record major concertos, they are often in danger of being overlooked when compared with the world’s great soloists. Such an outcome would be ...
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ArticleBazzini: Calabrese op.34 no.6, Trois morceaux lyriques op.41, Le carillon d’Arras op.36, Deux morceaux de salon op.12, Deux grandes etudes op.49, Trois morceaux en forme de sonate op.44, La ronde des
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Chloë Hanslip (violin) Caspar Frantz (piano)Composer: BazziniAntonio Bazzini’s virtuoso repertoire for violin has for a long time been a staple of violin recitals, but this is not to say that it merely consists of technical pyrotechnics. Certainly, the works on this disc ...
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ArticleMaxwell Davies: ‘Naxos’ Quartets nos.9 & 10
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Maggini Quartet Composer: Maxwell DaviesThese final two works in Peter Maxwell Davies’s ‘Naxos’ series of quartets match the intricately crafted writing of the previous eight – and the recording echoes the first four discs in the searing, sublime ...
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ArticleBruch: Violin Concerto no.1 in G minor op.26. Paganini: Violin Concerto no.1 in D major op.6
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Alexandra Soumm (violin) Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Georg Mark (conductor)Composer: Bruch, PaganiniAt 19, Alexandra Soumm has already established herself as a fine violinist, with a number of high-profile successes to her name, including top spot at the 2004 Eurovision Competition for young musicians. ...
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ArticleReger: Complete String Trios and Piano Quartets vol.1: String Trio in A minor op.77b, Piano Quartet in D minor op.113
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Aperto Piano QuartetComposer: RegerMax Reger’s standing as a composer now largely resides in his works for organ, though chamber music occupied much of his attention throughout his short life. The present release, which promises to be the first of two discs containing ...
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ArticleSaint-Saëns: String Quartets nos.1 & 2
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Joachim QuartetComposer: Saint-SaënsOn the whole, string players did very well by the mellifluous creative genius of Camille Saint-Saëns. Such was the ease with which he produced expertly crafted scores that occasionally his music was left bereft of emotional imperativeness, yet ...
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ArticleThe Devil's Trill. Tartini: Violin Sonatas op.1 no.4 in G minor ‘The Devil’s Trill’, Largo from op.1 no,5, op.1 no.10 in G minor ‘Didone abbandonata’ & op.1 no.13 in A major ‘Pastorale’, Grave in D mi
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: PalladiansComposer: Tartini, VeraciniThe Palladians play this challenging programme with characteristic insight and élan, radiating real empathy with the idiom. Violinist Rodolfo Richter meets the formidable technical demands of Tartini’s ‘Devil’s Trill’ and ‘Didone abbandonata’ sonatas with striking aplomb, negotiating with commendable virtuosity ...
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ArticleDohnányi: Piano Quintets no.1 in C minor op.1 & no.2 in E flat minor op.26, Cello Sonata in B flat minor op.8
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Kocian Quartet, Michal Kanka (cello) Jaromír Klepác (piano)Composer: Dohnányi The second volume in a Dohnányi series based around the Kocian Quartet opens with one of the best ‘opus ones’ in the literature – although the Hungarian pianist and ...
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ArticleFoerster: Violin Concertos no.1 in C minor & no.2 in D minor
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Ivan Ženatý (violin) BBC Symphony Orchestra, Ji?í B?lohlávek (conductor)Composer: FoersterThe two violin concertos of Josef Bohuslav Foerster (1859–1951) are quite different affairs, the first dramatic and colourful, the second severe and intense, and occupying a more unsettled harmonic world. Both are in ...
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ArticleFour American Quartets. Ralph Evans: String Quartet no.1. Philip Glass: String Quartet no.2 ‘Company’. Antheil: String Quartet no.3. Herrmann: ‘Echoes’ for string quartet
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Fine Arts QuartetComposer: Ralph Evans, Philip Glass, Antheil, HerrmannDespite appearing in Naxos’s American Classics series, none of these four quartets is exactly a classic, but the Fine Arts Quartet gives them full measure. With the first work they could hardly do otherwise, ...
