All Article articles – Page 164
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ArticleLiszt: Works for Violin and Piano: Première élégie, Zweite Elegie, Die drei Zigeuner – Paraphrase, Romance oubliée, La lugubre gondola, Grand duo concertant, Epithalam, Benedictus, Offertorium
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Friedemann Eichhorn (violin) Rolf-Dieter Arens (piano)Composer: LisztThis disc is impressive not only for its sensitive performances by Weimar-based Friedemann Eichorn and Rolf-Dieter Arens, but also for revealing the scope, originality and depth of Liszt’s music. From today’s perspective, it is easy to ...
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ArticleWalton: Cello Concerto, Façade*
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Gregor Piatigorsky (cello) Joan Cross*, Peter Pears* (reciters) BBC Symphony Orchestra/Malcolm Sargent, English Opera Group Orchestra/Paul Sacher*Composer: Walton This release of the European premiere of Walton’s Cello Concerto at the Royal Festival Hall on 13 February 1957 has been ...
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ArticleOliver/Varner: Jomo
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Mary Oliver (violin/viola) Johanna Varner (cello)Composer: Oliver/Varner This album, composed entirely by Mary Oliver and Johanna Varner, takes us on a journey through the night via a series of atmospheric, semi-improvised atonal vignettes.The opening Bedtime Story sets the tone, ...
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ArticleXenakis: Complete string quartets: Tetras, Tetora, ST-4, Ergma
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Jack Quartet Composer: Xenakis The prospect of hearing Xenakis’s complete string quartets in one sitting might sound somewhat indigestible. But this is music of strange and passionate pleasure, and each work is compellingly, sense-assailingly different. The composer’s genius as an ...
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Articlel’improviste
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Barre Phillips, Joëlle Léandre (double bass)Composer: VariousAn album of free improv double bass duets is never going to be for the faint-hearted. Tuneful this ain’t (well, for the most part), but Barre Phillips and Joëlle Léandre are past masters in this genre ...
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ArticleNew study suggests that judgement of music competitions is led more by sight than sound
New research into how music competition performances are evaluated suggests that what judges see matters more than what they hear. Scientists at University College London set out to test the general consensus that sound is the most important element in judging a musical performance. The findings ...
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ArticleHaydn: Cello Concertos no.1 in C major & no.2 in D major. Zumsteeg: Cello Concerto in A major
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Sebastian Comberti (cello/director) Orchestra of the Age of EnlightenmentComposer: Haydn, ZumsteegThe intensive quest to locate an 18th-century concerto that will enrich the cello’s repertoire continues. Does this work by Stuttgart cellist Johann Zumsteeg (1760–1802) fit the bill? He undoubtedly offers pleasant operatically ...
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ArticleRachmaninoff: Romance in A minor, String Quartets nos.1 & 2, Morceaux de salon op.6, Vocalise (arr. Press), Two Sacred Songs. Mussorgsky: Hopak (arr. Rachmaninoff)
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Dene Olding (violin), Goldner Quartet, Joan Rodgers (soprano), Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano) Composer: Rachmaninoff, MussorgskyBeyond the Cello Sonata of 1901, Rachmaninoff is hardly remembered for his chamber music. Here, though, is a collection bringing together some of the music he ...
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ArticleBeethoven: Cello Sonatas in F major op.5 no.1, G minor op.5 no.2 & A major op.69
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Friedrich Kleinhapl (cello) Andreas Woyke (piano)Composer: BeethovenI would hope this is the first in a pair of discs containing Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano, for it would find a place among the most interesting in the catalogue. By opting for ...
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ArticleMozart: Complete Sonatas for keyboard & violin vols.7 & 8: Sonatas K10–15 & K26, Allegro in B flat major K372, 12 Variations in G major K374a, 6 Variations in G minor K374b, Fantasia in C minor K396
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Rachel Podger (violin) Gary Cooper (fortepiano/harpsichord) Alison McGillivray (cello)Composer: Mozart This set of two discs, neither of which includes any real blockbusters, completes Rachel Podger and Gary Cooper’s outstanding Mozart project. As with previous issues, these players convey the sensibility ...
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ArticleBeethoven: String Quartets in C sharp minor op.131 & F major op.135
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Cypress QuartetComposer: BeethovenFrom one of the growing number of performer record labels, the American-based Cypress Quartet makes a most auspicious opening to its planned series of Beethoven’s late quartets. The players began their journey towards this cycle since they first began working ...
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ArticleSchubert: String Quartets in B flat major op.posth.168 & D minor D810 (Death and the Maiden), Quartettsatz in C minor D703
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Voce Quartet Composer: SchubertThe Voce Quartet has a better reason than most to choose Schubert for its debut recording, since as well as coming second in the recent London International Quartet Competition it also walked away with three ...
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ArticleBruch: Violin Concertos no.2 in D minor op.44 & no.3 in D minor op.58
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Maxim Fedotov (violin) Russian Philharmonic Orchestra/Dmitry YablonskyComposer: Bruch To those of us brought up on the famous Menuhin LP of the Mendelssohn E minor and Bruch G minor concertos, comparisons between the two composers are inevitable. Bruch’s heritage creates a ...
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ArticleRussian Works for Violin and Viola. Kabalevsky: Improvisation op.21. Volkonsky: Viola Sonata. Khandoshkin: Solo Violin Sonata in G minor. Prokofiev: Five Pieces from ‘Cinderella’. Stravinsky: Chanson
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Lydia Mordkovitch (violin/viola) Nicholas Walker (piano) Julian Milford (piano)*Composer: Kabalevsky, Volkonsky, Khandoshkin, Prokofiev, StravinskyTo hear Lydia Mordkovitch at the peak of her interpretative powers is like being thrown back half a century when the likes of David Oistrakh, Isaac Stern ...
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ArticleVivaldi: Violin Concertos vol.3: RV210, RV268, RV307, RV312, RV333, RV350 & RV352
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Duilio M. Galfetti (violin) I Barocchisti/Diego FasolisComposer: Vivaldi This disc delivers more than it promises. The fashionable packaging (with a rather fallacious comparison between Vivaldi’s music and ‘swing’ in the booklet notes) prepared me for something over-marketed and mediocre, ...
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ArticleKorngold: Violin Concerto in D major op.35, Schauspiel Overture, Much Ado About Nothing Suite
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Philippe Quint (violin) Mineria Symphony Orchestra/Carlos Miguel PrietoComposer: Korngold Although released at the same time as Nikolaj Znaider’s high-powered coupling of Korngold’s Hollywood-imbued Violin Concerto with the Brahms (reviewed last month), Philippe Quint’s account is more than just a ...
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ArticleBeethoven: Violin Concerto in D major op.61 BERG Violin Concerto
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Haydn Trio EisenstadtArabella Steinbacher (violin) WDR Symphony Orchestra Köln/Andris NelsonsComposer: Beethoven Very few recorded violinists have possessed the ideal combination of cantabile purity and angelic intensity for the Beethoven Concerto: Leonid Kogan, Wolfgang Schneiderhan and Christian ...
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ArticleBaroque Cello Illuminations. Works by Eccles, De Fesch, Vivaldi, Couperin, Sammartini/Berteau & Bach
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Angela East (cello) Ruth Alford (Baroque cello) Howard Beach (harpsichord) Composer: Eccles, De Fesch, Vivaldi, Couperin, SamMartinu/Berteau & Bach Angela East offers an exciting and imaginative showcase for a selection of exam chestnuts, some bypassed in concerts ...
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ArticleCeltic Twilight. Ball: Violin Concerto, Five Bagatelles for wind trio, From the Hebrides, Celtic Twilight
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Thomas Gould (violin) Paul Arden-Taylor (oboe/cor anglais/recorder) Leslie Craven (clarinet) Celia Birkinshaw (bassoon) Emerald Concert Orchestra/Christopher Ball Composer: BallThe work of principal interest for readers in this fine collection of works by the English composer Christopher Ball (b.1936) is the Violin ...
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ArticleTreble & Bass. Kleiberg: Violin Concerto, Double Bass Concerto
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Marianne Thorsen (violin) Göran Sjölin (double bass) Trondheim Symphony Orchestra/Daniel ReussComposer: Kleiberg If all contemporary violin concertos were as accessible as this, concert promoters would have an easier time of it. Norwegian composer Ståle Kleiberg doesn’t necessarily push any boundaries, ...
