All Reviews articles – Page 190
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ArticleCapriccioso: Under the Blue Skies. Works by Saint-Saëns, Paganini, Alyabiev, Arensky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Brahms, Tchaikovsky & Bach (arr. Gounod)
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Alexander Rudin (cello) Jana Ivanilova (soprano) Vladimir Skanavi (piano) Victor Ginsburg (piano) Musica Viva OrchestraComposer: Saint-Saëns, Paganini, Alyabiev, Arensky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Brahms, Tchaikovsky & Bach (arr. Gounod)If you’ve got it, flaunt it. Alexander Rudin has a phenomenal technique and has chosen works that ...
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ArticleElgar: Piano Quintet in A minor op.84. Walton: Piano Quartet in D minor
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln CenterComposer: Elgar, Walton It is all too easy to fall deeply in love with the Elgar Piano Quintet, and this is certainly the case with the chamber group based at New York’s Lincoln ...
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ArticleBacri: String Quartets nos.3–6
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Psophos QuartetComposer: Bacri Born in France in 1961, Nicolas Bacri has plowed a lone furrow that has assiduously avoided allegiance to any current group of composers. Moving easily between tonality and atonality, the music is undoubtedly of ...
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ArticleDvorák: Piano Trios in B flat major op.21 and in G minor op.26. Suk: Elegy op.23
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Florestan TrioComposer: Dvorák, Suk Dvo?rák’s first two trios are in good hands here. The Florestan Trio has always had the happy knack of both capturing character in an instant and bringing coherence to extended structures. These performances are ...
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ArticleFitzenhagen: Cello Concerto no.2 in A minor op.4, Elegie op.21, Capriccio op.40, Serenade op.35, Gavotte op.42, Impromptu op.43, Ave Maria op.41, Dämonenfantasie op.34
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Jens Peter Maintz (cello) Paul Rivinius (piano) Munich Radio Orchestra, Peter Rundel (conductor)Composer: Fitzenhagen Coming from an established tradition of virtuoso player–composers, Wilhelm Fitzenhagen joins the likes of Popper, Klengel and Davidov in generating cello-oriented repertoire. His chief notoriety, however, comes from ...
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ArticleRhapsody. Rachmaninoff: Cello Sonata in G minor op.19, Vocalise op.34, Variation no.18 from Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini. Prokofiev: Cello Sonata in C major op.119
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Gautier Capuçon (cello) Gabriela Montero (piano)Composer: Rachmaninoff, ProkofievThere’s nothing ground-breaking about this CD featuring heavily recorded repertoire. Excelling, as they do, is therefore all the more impressive. Gabriela Montero already has an enviable reputation as an improviser on the piano, but in ...
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ArticleBrahms: Violin Concerto in D major op.77. Joachim: Violin Concerto no.2 in D minor op.11 ‘In the Hungarian Style’
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Christian Tetzlaff (violin) Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)Composer: Brahms, JoachimThe continuing rehabilitation of Joachim’s ‘Hungarian’ Concerto is to be welcomed, and the work that Brahms partially based on it is the obvious coupling. Rachel Barton Pine has already ...
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ArticleRespighi: Complete Works for Violin and Piano vol. 2: Nine Arrangements of Italian Baroque Violin Sonatas nos.1–6
Musicians: Ilona Then-Bergh (violin) Michael Schäfer (piano) Composer: RespighiRespighi was both a teenage prodigy, revealing flair in every sphere, and – with Malipiero, Casella and others – influential in the rediscovery of early Italian music that had languished neglected for years, such as Frescobaldi ...
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ArticleBartók: String Quartets nos.1–6
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Belcea QuartetComposer: BartókThe Belcea Quartet has established itself as one of the finest ensembles of its generation. Even so, it is still a young group, founded not much over ten years ago, and these Bartók works constitute one of the most formidable ...
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ArticleHandel: Violin Sonatas
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: London Handel PlayersComposer: Handel The past thirty years have seen many efforts to resolve the uncertainty surrounding the authenticity of Handel’s published violin sonatas. It was a situation created by the original publisher’s misrepresentation of the music he was offering, and compounded ...
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ArticleRota: Complete music for violin and piano, and for viola and piano
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Marco Fornaciari (violin/viola) Gabriele Baldocci (piano)Composer: Rota Nino Rota (1911–79) is, of course, best known as Federico Fellini’s long-time collaborator in numerous films (La strada, Otto e mezzo and Amarcord among them), but his ‘serious’ pieces span the whole ...
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ArticleWhirled Chamber Music
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Quartet San FranciscoComposer: Various Having showcased their tango expertise in Látigo (2006), the players of Quartet San Francisco (QSF) continue in a popular vein here, turning their attention to jazz, funk, blues and Bluegrass, while celebrating the centenary of ...
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ArticleHonegger: Cello Concerto, Cello Sonata, Sonatina for cello and piano, Sonatina for violin and cello
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Christian Poltéra (cello) Christian Tetzlaff (violin) Kathryn Stott (piano) Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Tuomas Ollila-Hannikainen (conductor) Composer: HoneggerFollowing on from his disc of music by Othmar Schoek, rising Swiss cello star Christian Poltéra turns to the works of another of ...
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ArticleMozart: String Quartets in D minor K421 ‘Hunt’, in B flat major K458 & in C major K465 ‘Dissonance’
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Pražák QuartetComposer: Mozart Three Mozart masterpieces played by four Czech masters of their craft. It ought to make for plain sailing, and I thoroughly enjoyed these performances. But nowadays we hear an astonishing range of string playing styles ...
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ArticleLeclair: Six Sonatas for two violins op.3
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Harmonie UniverselleComposer: Leclair Having established a reputation as an outstanding dancer and violinist in his native France, Jean Marie Leclair spent time during his mature years living in Turin where he extended his violin studies and imbued the ...
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ArticleBeethoven: String Quartet in C major op.59 no.3 (Rasumovsky), String Quintet in C major op.29
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Kuijken Two Generations Composer: BeethovenBeethoven in C major? The key may be the same but the works inhabit quite different planes, both effortlessly reached by this amazing dynastic Kuijken group. We have been hearing Sigiswald (violin) and Wieland ...
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ArticleComposers in the Loft. Lorenz: Bachangó*. Pann: Differences† . Jalbert: Piano Trio. Garrop: String Quartet no.2 ‘Demons and Angels’‡. Fung: Miniatures for clarinet and string quartet¶
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: David Ying (cello)† John Bruce Yeh (clarinet)¶ Marta Aznavoorian (piano)* Elinor Freer (piano)† Lincoln Trio, Blava Quartet‡, Maia Quartet¶Composer: Lorenz, Pann, Jalbert, Garrop, FungIt took only a few seconds of Ricardo Lorenz’s Bachangó for piano – Debussy meets Bartók, Piazzolla ...
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ArticleBeethoven: Violin Concerto in D major op.61, Violin Sonata no.7 in C minor op. 30 no.2
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Min-Jin Kym (violin) Ian Brown (piano) Philharmonia Orchestra, Andrew Davis (conductor)Composer: Beethoven Following her critically acclaimed recording of Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, Min-Jin Kym offers a strongly lyrical, authoritative account of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. She shapes and unfolds the ...
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ArticleViola-Trios. Just: Trio in E flat major op.13 no.4. Holzer: Trio in C major op.7. no.3. Glinka: Trio pathétique in D minor. Berger: Trio in G minor op.94
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Vidor Nagy (viola) Peter Wolf (cello) Carmen Piazzini (piano)Composer: Just, Holzer, Glinka, Berger If, like me, you thought that trios for viola, cello and piano must be really thin on the ground, maybe we should revise that opinion. ...
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ArticleBrahms: Cello Sonatas no.1 in E minor & no.2 in F major. Schumann: Fünf Stücke in Volkston
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Clive Greensmith (cello) Boris Berman (piano) Composer: Brahms, SchumannAs cellist of the Tokyo Quartet Clive Greensmith brings real chamber-music qualities to the Brahms sonatas, with the cello by turns prominent and the next moment falling away to ...
