Book reviews – Page 122
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ReviewBruch: Violin Concerto no.1 in G minor; Romance in A minor; Serenade in A minor
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Wonderful playing – even if the programme is back to frontMusicians: Jack Liebeck (violin) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn BrabbinsComposer: BruchI am curious about the ordering of this disc (volume 19 in Hyperion’s Romantic Violin Concerto series). The cover lists the works in ...
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ReviewBrahms: Two String Quartets op.51
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Playing of warmth that gets to the heart of Brahms’s elusive quartetsMusicians: New Orford QuartetComposer: BrahmsBrahms’s op.51 string quartets synthesise Beethovenian structural integrity with Schubertian lyricism under high musical pressure. The resulting contrapuntal compression was to have a vital creative impact on ...
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ReviewBrahms: String Quintet no.2 in G major. Dvorák: String Quintet no.3 in E flat major ‘American’
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Garlitsky and students take on two Romantic string quintetsMusicians: Boris Garlitsky, Jaha Lee (violins) Kyoungmin Park, Georgy Kovalev (violas) Philip Graham (cello)Composer: Brahms; DvorákThe expansive and eager theme that opens the second of Brahms’s string quintets is one of the most notable ...
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ReviewBrahms: Cello Sonata in E minor op.38. Schumann: Fantasiestücke op.73; Intermezzo from F-A-E Sonata; Adagio and Allegro op.70; Three Romances op.94
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Characterful playing of persuasive transcriptions for violaMusicians: Ettore Causa (viola) Boris Berman (piano)Composer: Brahms; SchumannSchumann probably brought it upon himself when he allowed his late chamber music to be published in versions for different instruments.On this disc, violist Ettore Causa plays pieces ...
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ReviewAmerican Works. Barber: Cello Sonata. Bernstein: Three Meditations from Mass. Carter: Cello Sonata. Crumb: Sonata for Solo Cello. Copland: Waltz and Celebration from Billy the Kid
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Crumb and Carter stand out in a recital of cello AmericanaMusicians: Paul Watkins (cello) Huw Watkins (piano)Composer: Barber; Bernstein; Carter; Crumb; CoplandMidtown Manhattan skyscrapers swirling in the city mist: the cover art framing Paul and Huw Watkins’s album of stateside cello and ...
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ReviewBach: Cello Suites Vol.1; no.1 BWV1007, no.3 BWV1009, no.4 BWV1010
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: A natural approach pays dividends in three of Bach’s Cello SuitesMusicians: Joachim Eijlander (cello)Composer: BachOh no, was my initial reaction on encountering this disc – not another version of the Bach Suites! But when I began listening to the natural and unaffected ...
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ReviewMy Armenia. Babadjanian: Six Pictures. Bagdasarian: Nocturne; Rhapsody. Khachaturian: Poem-Song; Two Dances from Gayaneh. Komitas: The Apricot Tree; The Crane; It Is Spring; Seven Folk Dances. Mirzoya
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Leading Armenian players lovingly perform the music of their countryMusicians: Sergey Khachatryan (violin) Lusine Khachatryan (piano)Composer: Babadjanian; Bagdasarian; Khachaturian; Komitas; MirzoyanThis recording, ‘dedicated to the 100th commemoration of the Armenian Genocide’, is presented by violinist Sergey Khachatryan, winner of the ...
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ReviewFitelberg: String Quartets nos.1 & 2; Serenade; Sonatine; Nachtmusik
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Premiere recordings of chamber music that’s truly worth investigatingMusicians: ARC EnsembleComposer: FitelbergJerzy Fitelberg, born in Poland in 1903, ended up in New York avoiding the Nazis. By the time he died in 1951 he was feted by the contemporary music ...
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ReviewBeethoven: Complete Works for Cello and Piano
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Sparkling performances of Beethoven’s cello sonatas and variationsMusicians: Xavier Phillips (cello) François-Frédéric Guy (piano)Composer: BeethovenBy way of a musical limbering-up exercise, Xavier Phillips and François-Frédéric Guy open their latest release with the three sets of variations that Beethoven based on ...
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ReviewThe Club Album
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Mutter and friends live from DG’s Yellow LoungeMusicians: Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin) Lambert Orkis (piano) Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord) Mutter’s VirtuosiIt may come as a surprise to find Anne-Sophie Mutter releasing a live disc and DVD from a Berlin nightclub. Yet here is the ...
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ReviewCello Concertos, Sonatas & Suites. Works by Bach, Beethoven, Boccherini, Brahms, Dvorák, Kabalevsky, Milhaud and Schumann
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Collected performances by a legendary Canadian cellistMusicians: Zara Nelsova (cello) Artur Balsam, Lothar Broddack (pianos) Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/Georg Ludwig Jochum, Gerd AlbrechtComposer: Bach, Beethoven, Boccherini, Brahms, Dvorák, Kabalevsky, Milhaud, SchumannThe greatest cellist to come out of the Americas (see ‘Great Cellists’, ...
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ReviewBound to Nothing: The German Stylus Fantasticus. Sonatas and works by Buxtehude, Erlebach, Krieger, Kühnel and Walther
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Dutch trio takes on German Baroque ‘fantastic’ sonatasMusicians: FantasticusComposer: Buxtehude, Erlebach, Krieger, Kühnel, Walther‘Instituted to display genius’, remarked an early commentator on the extrovert Baroque string style recorded here, and he left open the question of whether he or the stylus fantasticus ...
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ReviewVivaldi: The Four Seasons. Tartini: Violin Sonata in G minor ‘The Devil’s Trill’. Leclair: Violin Sonata in D major ‘Tambourin’
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: A calmer, cooler version of Vivaldi’s seasonal concertosMusicians: James Ehnes (violin/director) Andrew Armstrong (piano) Sydney Symphony OrchestraComposer: Vivaldi, Tartini, LeclairThis might be the ideal antidote to Nigel Kennedy’s new, rebooted Four Seasons (see above), with its general disregard, healthy or otherwise, for ...
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ReviewSchumann: Violin Sonata no.2 in D minor. Strauss: Violin Sonata in E flat major
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Romantic sonatas in performances by two YCA prizewinnersMusicians: Noé Inui (violin) Vassilis Varvaresos (piano)Composer: Schumann, StraussThis disc is proof that first impressions can be misleading. One might wince at the simplistic sleeve captioning of these composers as the ‘first’ and ‘last’ of ...
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ReviewSchubert: Quartettsatz in C minor D703; String Quartet no.15 in G major D887
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Schubert’s quartet masterpieces on historic instrumentsMusicians: Terpsycordes QuartetComposer: SchubertThis package comprises Schubert’s first mature quartet movement and his massive final essay in the genre. The Terpsycordes’ major selling point is its use of a matching set of gut-strung ‘period’ instruments made by ...
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ReviewE. Firsova: For Slava; Homage to Canisy; Lost Vision; Meditation in the Japanese Garden; Night Songs; Spring Sonata; Tender Is the Sorrow; Three Poems of Osip Mandelstam; A Triple Portrait
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Premiere recordings of the captivating, profound music of Elena FirsovaMusicians: Marsyas TrioComposer: E. FirsovaBorn in 1950, Elena Firsova was already widely recognised as one of the rising stars of Soviet music by her mid-twenties. Fiercely independent, she and a number of her ...
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ReviewAlla Czeca. Dvorák: String Quartet no.13 in G major. Schulfhoff: Five Pieces. Suk: Meditation on the Old Czech Chorale ‘St Wenceslaus’
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Infectious performances of three Czech works for string quartetMusicians: Signum QuartetComposer: Dvorák, Schulhoff, SukThe Signum Quartet has a penchant for themed programmes on its CDs, and this well-planned and sensitively recorded (if concise) recital of under an hour’s music surveys three decades ...
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ReviewForgotten Vienna. Dittersdorf: Concerto in C major for two violins. Ordonez: Sinfonia in C major. Vanhal: Violin Concerto in B flat major; Symphony in A minor; Requiem in E flat major
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Musical archaeology uncovers worthwhile 18th-century concertosMusicians: George Clifford, Dominika Fehér (violins) Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; Amadè Players/Nicholas NewlandComposer: Dittersdorf, Ordonez, VanhalReaders of The Strad will doubtless be most interested in the two violin concertos included in this programme of 18th-century ...
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ReviewBrahms: ‘Double’ Concerto in A minor for violin and cello. Prokofiev: Symphony-Concerto in E minor
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Natalia Gutman, friends and family in live Moscow recordingsMusicians: Natalia Gutman (cello) Oleg Kagan (violin) USSR State Academic SO/Yevgeny Svetlanov, Alexander LazarevComposer: Brahms, ProkofievNatalia Gutman has everything going for her except a large tone, and on record this deficiency can be offset. ...
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ReviewMetamorfora: Works for Double Bass and Piano. Beethoven: Variations on ‘Bei Männern’. Boccherini: Sonata no.6 in A minor. Oswald: Sonata in E minor. Proto: Nine Variants on Paganini. Salllinen: Metam
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Four transcriptions for bass – but the original work comes off bestMusicians: Marcos Machado (double bass) Ney Fialkow (piano)Composer: Beethoven, Boccherini, Oswald, Proto, SallinenMarcos Machado’s first recorded performance, on Tarik O’Regan’s Threshold of Night, was twice Grammy-nominated, and his first solo effort ...
