All Article articles – Page 130
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Article
US clean sweep at Primrose Viola Competition
Ayane Kozasa has won first prize at the Primrose International Viola Competition in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The 24-year-old American, who studies at the Curtis Institute of Music with Misha Amory and Roberto Díaz, received $5,000 and other prizes including a viola by Spanish luthier Jardón Rico. Second prize went to ...
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Article
Violinist Jun Iwasaki to join Nashville Symphony as concertmaster
Jun Iwasaki is leaving his concertmaster position at the Oregon Symphony to take the leader's chair at the Nashville Symphony. The Tokyo-born Iwasaki, who studied with William Preucil at the Cleveland Institute of Music, will start his new job in September.
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Article
Matteo Fedeli to play Piazzolla with four Stradivari violins in Cremona
Violinist Matteo Fedeli will use a different Stradivari for each movement of Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires at a charity concert in Cremona on 2 July. Fedeli will play the c.1730 'Vesuvius' and the 1715 'Cremonese', both of which are owned by the city of Cremona, and the 1695 'Sandars' ...
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ArticleBrahms: Cello Sonatas no.1 in E minor op.38 & no.2 in F major op.99, ‘F-A-E’ Scherzo (arr. Bailey), Lieder arrangements
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Brahms’s two cello sonatas are accompanied by a welcome selection of transcriptionsMusicians: Zuill Bailey (cello) Awadagin Pratt (piano)Composer: BrahmsZuill Bailey’s transcription of the scherzo from the ‘F-A-E’ Sonata, with its original melodic line presented an octave lower, is an excellent addition to the cello ...
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ArticleRolla: Viola Sonatas in E flat major op.3 no.1, in D minor op.3 no.2 & in C major, Duetto in A major for violin and viola op.18 no.1, Esercizi
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Advocacy for a little-known composer needs more of a sense of his periodMusicians: Jennifer Stumm (viola) Liza Ferschtman (violin) Connie Shih (piano)Composer: RollaAlessandro Rolla (1757–1841), who appears to have given Paganini lessons in 1795, is now relatively unknown but was clearly a ...
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ArticleRoslavets: Cello Sonatas nos.1 & 2, Meditation, Dances of the White Maidens, Viola Sonata (transcr. cello)
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Impressive playing that manages to surmount a heavy-going musical voiceMusicians: Lachezar Kostov (cello) Viktor Valkov (piano)Composer: RoslavetsIn his heyday in the 1920s, Nikolai Roslavets (1880–1944) was viewed as a progressive, boundary-pushing composer. Yet by the end of the decade, his post-Scriabinesque chromaticism fell ...
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ArticleVivaldi: La stravaganza op.4 nos.1—6
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Reassuringly sane and richly enjoyable Vivaldi that is surprisingly restrainedMusicians: Fabio Biondi (violin/director) Europa GalanteComposer: Vivaldi Vivaldi came of age with his set of 12 concertos op.4, whose title refers to the music’s tantalising fantasy of invention achieved within strict musical parameters. ...
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ArticleWeinberg: Piano Trio op.24. Shostakovich: Piano Trios nos.1 & 2
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Trios by Shostakovich and his pupil Weinberg come across forcefully Musicians: Trio VoceComposer: Weinberg, ShostakovichIf the name of the recently formed Trio Voce seems unfamiliar, its members are of immaculate pedigree. Violinist Jasmine Lin is a founder ...
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Article
Australian Chamber Orchestra acquires £1.2m Stradivari violin
Satu Vänskä, the assistant leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), is to play on a Stradivari bought by the orchestra's own instrument fund. The violin, a composite of two instruments made by Stradivari between 1728 and 1729, was purchased from London dealer J.&A. Beare. It has been valued at ...
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ArticleVilla-Lobos: Piano Trios nos.1–3. Fernández: Trio brasileiro
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Persuasive performances of early 20th-century music from BrazilMusicians: Damocles TrioComposer: Villa-Lobos, FernándezPosterity may well value Villa-Lobos’s instrumental and chamber music as his most important contribution to the 20th- century repertoire. Though he was to build a reputation as a distinctly South American orchestral ...
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ArticleBach: Sonata no.1 in G minor BWV1001, Partitas no.1 in B minor BWV1002 & no.2 in D minor BWV1004. Reger: Preludes and Fugues in B minor op.117 no.1 & in G minor op.117 no.2, Chaconne in G minor op.117
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: A convincing coupling of Bach with a later composer writing under his spellMusicians: Sayaka Shoji (violin)Composer: Bach, RegerThe booklet for this CD does not inspire confidence, transposing Bach’s First Partita into G minor and stating that his whole cycle culminates in the ...
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ArticleBeethoven: Piano Trios in D major op.70 no.1 ‘Ghost’, in E flat major op.70 no.2 & in B flat major op.11
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Well-judged performances of three of Beethoven’s piano triosMusicians: Gryphon TrioComposer: BeethovenAchieving the spectral effects in the second movement of Beethoven’s ‘Ghost’ Trio calls for great care in balancing instruments. The members of the Gryphon Trio judge it to perfection, and this is just ...
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ArticleBach: Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin BWV1001—6
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Philosophy and dance come to bear on a stimulating set of Bach’s solo violin worksMusicians: Ruth Waterman (violin) Composer: BachThese thought-provoking performances, with their superb analytical essays, have taken an age to reach us. Leeds-born Ruth Waterman, ...
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ArticleDragonetti: String Quintets no.11 in A minor & no.26 in B flat major, String Quartet no.2 in C major. Haydn: Divertimento in C major Hob.II:C5
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: The double bass is given a starring role in chamber music by one of the instrument’s greatest exponentsMusicians: DNA Quintet: Loma Mar Quartet, John Feeney (double bass)Composer: Dragonetti, Haydn The DNA Quintet’s recording project embraces not only Dragonetti’s 31 string quintets and ...
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ArticleSchumann: Piano Trios in D minor op.63, in F major op.80 & in G minor op.110, Six Pieces in Canonic Form op.56 (arr. Kirchner), Fantasiestücke op.88
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Mixed results in Schumann’s works for piano trio Musicians: Christian Tetzlaff (violin) Tanja Tetzlaff (cello) Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)Composer: SchumannThe only Schumann piano trio to have given posterity pause for thought is the D minor, so it bodes ill that this star ensemble is ...
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ArticleBrahms: Violin Concerto in D major op.77. Schumann: Symphony no.4 in D minor op.120
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: A promising account of the Brahms Concerto marred by a lugubrious startMusicians: Arabella Steinbacher (violin) Vienna Symphony Orchestra/Fabio LuisiComposer: Brahms, SchumannHere is yet another Brahms Concerto adhering to a totally spurious, inauthentic tradition of dragging out the opening movement ad nauseam. By the ...
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Article
Violinist Mary Rowell quits ETHEL after 13 years
ETHEL violinist Mary Rowell is leaving the ensemble she co-founded 13 years ago. She is retiring because of a heart condition, and will be replaced by Jennifer Choi, a former member of the Miró Quartet. Since its formation in 1998, ETHEL has performed more than 100 commissioned works in ...
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ArticleMendelssohn: Octet in E flat major op.20 (1825 version)
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Revelations abound in this revival of Mendelssohn’s first thoughts on his OctetMusicians: Eroica Quartet: Ken Aiso, Marcus Barcham-Stevens (violin) Oliver Wilson (viola) Robin Michael (cello)Composer: MendelssohnThe world’s first solely digital classical label launches its online sales appropriately with a world ...
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ArticleRachmaninoff: Cello Sonata in G minor op.19, Vocalise. Borodin: (compl. Goldstein) Cello Sonata in B minor. Shostakovich: Cello Sonata in D minor op.40
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Stunning accounts of three Russian cello sonatasMusicians: Alexander Chaushian (cello) Yevgeny Sudbin (piano)Composer: Rachmaninoff, Borodin, ShostakovichWith this, his second disc for BIS, Alexander Chaushian, a name to watch since he won third prize in the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition, establishes himself firmly in ...
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ArticleTaneyev: String Quartets nos.2 & 4
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Sympathetic accounts of string quartets by an important but neglected Russian composerMusicians: Carpe Diem QuartetComposer: TaneyevSergei Taneyev was a musical phenomenon. By the age of ten he was studying piano at the Moscow Conservatoire and just three years later became Tchaikovsky’s composition pupil. He was only ...
