All Article articles – Page 172
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ArticleString Poetic. Higdon: String Poetic. Ruggles: Mood. Harrison: Grand Duo. Adams: Road Movies
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Jennifer Koh (violin) Reiko Uchida (piano) Composer: Higdon, Ruggles, Harrison, AdamsThis is the fifth recital CD by the young American violinist Jennifer Koh for Cedille, and it’s a curiously mixed affair – very much a disc of two halves. The all-American ...
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ArticleBiber's Rosary Sonatas
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Elizabeth Wallfisch (violin) Rosanne Hunt (cello) Linda Kent (organ/harpsichord) Composer: BiberElizabeth Wallfisch offers intelligent, stylish and expressive accounts of Biber’s extra-musically inspired sonatas. Her playing is characterised by easy virtuosity, tonal sweetness and subtle shading, and the music’s ...
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ArticleWarg Buen
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Per Anders Buen GarnŠs (Hardanger fiddle) Daniel Sandén-Warg (Hardanger fiddle/violin/jew’s harp) Composer: TradThis selection of traditional Norwegian music includes solo performances by both musicians, as well as a smattering of duets. The Hardanger fiddle features in most of the 21 tunes, and ...
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ArticleImogen Holst: Phantasy Quartet, Duo for viola & piano, String Trio, The Fall of the Leaf, Sonata for Violin & Cello, String Quintet
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Court Lane Music Composer: Imogen Holst‘More than Britten’s Girl Friday,’ proclaimed a recent article about Imogen Holst. Just how much more soon becomes evident from this CD, a selection of her chamber works written between 1928 and 1982. It’s rather moving to ...
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ArticleSchnittke: Viola Concerto. Shostakovich: Viola Sonata
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Antoine Tamestit (viola) Markus Hadulla (piano) Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Dmitri Kitaienko (conductor)Composer: Schnittke, Shostakovich The coupling of these two undisputed masterpieces of the late 20th century is a stroke of genius, and yet so obvious that it seems strange ...
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ArticleBrahms: Viola Sonatas op.120 nos.1 & 2, Lieder (arr. Causa)
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Ettore Causa (viola) Marc Pantillon (piano)Composer: Brahms Brahms’s late compositions have often been described as ‘autumnal’. In this latest recording of the viola sonatas, the music’s ‘mellow fruitfulness’ is further remarked upon in the interpreters’ comments, and in some evocative pictures in ...
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ArticleElliott Carter: Cello Sonata, Figment for cello, Figment no.2, Con leggerezza pensosa, Fragments nos.1 & 2, Elegy
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Johannes Martens EnsembleComposer: Elliott CarterThere’s something gripping about the sheer vitality of Elliott Carter’s music, all the more amazing when you consider that he celebrates his 100th birthday this month. This collection of the great American modernist’s chamber music, played ...
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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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ArticleDebussy: String Quartet in G minor op.10. Fauré: String Quartet in E minor op.121. Ravel: String Quartet in F major
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Ebène QuartetComposer: Debussy, Fauré, Ravel What makes a quartet ensemble sound ‘French’? In the case of the Ebène Quartet, I think it is a refusal to play in too clammy a fashion. The players never sound dry on this very full ...
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ArticleBach: Violin Sonatas BWV 1014–19
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin) Enrico Pace (piano)Composer: BachA constant feature of these performances is the space between the notes. Frank Peter Zimmermann favours a clipped style of playing, bringing to the semiquaver passages of faster movements in particular a level of articulation ...
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ArticleKrzysztof Penderecki: Violin Sonata no.2. Piotr Lachert: Violin Sonatas nos.9 & 17
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Hanna Lachert (violin) Hélène Jeanney (piano)Composer: Penderecki, Piotr LachertThis disc was recorded to mark Penderecki’s 75th and Lachert’s 70th birthdays. The accompanying booklet is irritatingly coy about the fact that violinist Hannah Lachert is Lachert’s sister: it’s only alluded to in Lachert’s ...
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ArticleElgar: Violin Sonata in E minor op.82. Strauss: Violin Sonata in E flat major op.18. Ravel: Violin Sonata in A minor op. posth.
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Jonathan Crow (violin) Paul Stewart (piano)Composer: Elgar, Strauss, Ravel Six years ago, and at the age of 25, Jonathan Crow was appointed concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony, becoming the youngest leader of a major North American orchestra. More recently ...
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ArticleBartók: Violin Sonata in E minor op. posth. (1903), Sonata for solo violin, Andante, Hungarian Folksongs
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Elise BŠtnes (violin) HŠvard Gimse (piano) Composer: BartókThis useful, stimulating disc provides the Bartók enthusiast with superb, up-to-date versions of three unusual works for violin and piano, as well as the masterpiece for violin alone. Elise Båtnes, who was in her mid-30s ...
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ArticleBass Trip. Works by Teppa Hauta-Aho, Arvo Pärt, Paul Ramsier, Jon Øivind Ness, Mario Lavista, Henrik Hellstenius, Lars Petter Hagen, Stefan Schäfer & Peteris Vasks
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Dan Styffe (double bass) Catherine bullock (viola) Øystein Birkeland (cello), Gonzalo Moreno (piano) Susanna Wallumrød (vocals) Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen (percussion)Composer: Teppa Hauta-Aho, Arvo Pärt, Paul Ramsier, Jon Øivind Ness, Mario Lavista, Henrik Hellstenius, Lars Petter Hagen, Stefan Schäfer & Peteris Vasks ...
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ArticleDebussy: Cello Sonata, La plus que lente, Scherzo, Intermezzo. Poulenc: Cello Sonata, Bagatelle, Sérénade, Suite française
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello) Alexandre Tharaud (piano)Composer: Debussy, Poulenc Pianist Alexandre Tharaud opens Debussy’s Cello Sonata with such portentous dignity that you can’t help sitting up – there’s a strong feeling that this is going to be a serious ...
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ArticleBreinschmid: Wien bleibt Krk
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Georg Breinschmid (double bass) & friendsComposer: Breinschmid Georg Breinschmid will be known to double bass aficionados as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic as well as numerous jazz ensembles. In recent years he has devoted more time to composition ...
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ArticleCras: Cello Sonata, Piano Trio, Largo for cello & piano
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Philippe Koch (violin) Aleksandr Khramouchin (cello) Alain Jacquon (piano) Composer: CrasJean Cras (1879–1932) was a self-taught composer who spent much of his life reluctantly serving in the French navy. Despite lack of formal musical training, his compositional fluency is impressive – ...
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ArticleEdgar Meyer and Chris Thile
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Edgar Meyer (double bass) Chris Thile (mandolin)Composer: VariousThe first recorded collaboration between triple Grammy award-winner Edgar Meyer and virtuoso mandolin player Chris Thile has been well worth the wait for those who knew anything of them as a duo previously.The blend of ...
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ArticleVivaldi: Le quattro stagioni. Tartini: Violin Sonata in G minor ‘Devil’s Trill’
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Joshua Bell (violin) John Constable (harpsichord) Academy of St Martinuin the FieldsComposer: Vivaldi, TartiniIt is perhaps a sign of the times that most modern violinists approach Baroque repertoire in ways influenced by ‘historically informed’ performance. This can give rise to a strange ...
