Book reviews – Page 128
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ReviewThe Twenty-Fifth Hour. Adès: Piano Quintet; The Four Quarters; Arcadiana
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: July 2015Description: Experience tells in the fearsome rhythms of Adès’s chamber musicMusicians: Calder Quartet, Thomas Adès (piano)Composer: AdèsThe Los Angeles-based Calder Quartet has been playing these three chamber works by Thomas Adès for several years, we are assured in the perceptive booklet ...
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ReviewBrahms: Piano Quartet no.1 in G minor op.25. Mahler: Piano Quartet in A minor. Schumann: Piano Quartet in E flat major op.47
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: July 2015Description: New York audience holds its breath for piano quartets from Hope and friendsMusicians: Daniel Hope (violin) Paul Neubauer (viola) David Finckel (cello) Wu Han (piano)Composer: Brahms, Mahler, SchumannThe piano quartet genre belongs to the 19th century, with outliers from Mozart ...
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ReviewVilsmaÿr: Six Partitas for Solo Violin. Biber: Passacaglia in G minor. Pisendel: Solo Violin Sonata in A minor
The Strad Issue: June 2016 Description: First-hand advocacy for solo violin works that pre-date Bach Musicians: Vaughan Jones (violin) Composer: Vilsmaÿr; Biber; Pisendel Catalogue number: FIRST HAND RECORDS FHR 38 (2 CDs) Vilsmaÿr’s ...
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ReviewShostakovich: Violin Sonata op.134; Unfinished Violin Sonata; Andantino from String Quartet no.4 op.83 (arr. Dmitri Tsyganov). Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms (arr. Shostakovich). Braga: La Serenata (a
The Strad Issue: June 2016Description: Shostakovich’s Sonata and some cuttings from the composer’s workbenchMusicians: Sasha Rozhdestvensky (violin) Jeremy Menuhin, Mookie Lee-Menuhin (piano) Ilona Domnich (soprano) Alexandra Sherman (mezzo-soprano)Composer: Shostakovich; Stravinsky; BragaCatalogue Number: FIRST HAND RECORDS FHR 37Shostakovich’s Violin Sonata, written in 1968 as a 60th-birthday present for ...
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ReviewOscar Shumsky: Legendary Treasures. Works by Bach, Beethoven, Buxtehude, Hindemith, Kreisler, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saëns, Schubert, Schumann, Strauss, Tartini, Telemann and Wieniawski
The Strad Issue: June 2015Description: Historic recordings from a great American violinistMusicians: Oscar Shumsky (violin) Nadia Reisenberg, Carroll Hollister, Mario Bernardi, Leo Barkin, George Schick, Earl Wild, Frank Maus (piano) Lois Marshall, Erna Berger (sopranos) Maureen Forrester (contralto) James Melton (tenor) Bach Aria Group, CBC Orchestra, Al ...
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ReviewJohanna Martzy: Berlin Recordings 1953–66. Works by Bach, Brahms, Dvorák, Falla, Fiocco, Handel, Kreisler, Ravel, Respighi and Vivaldi
The Strad Issue: June 2015Description: Historic recordings by a great Hungarian violinistMusicians: Johanna Martzy (violin) Jean Antonietti (piano) RIAS Symphony Orchestra/Ferenc FricsayComposer: Bach, Brahms, Dvorák, Falla, Fiocco, Handel, Kreisler, Ravel, Respighi and VivaldiThis set of German Radio recordings by Hungarian violinist Johanna Martzy (1924–79) contains a surprise. ...
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ReviewLa Vida Breve. Works by Assad, Cassadó, Falla, Gardel, Gismonti, Granados, Lara, Piazzolla and Ravel
The Strad Issue: June 2015Description: Spanish sunshine and passion for cello and guitarMusicians: Nadège Rochat (cello) Rafael Aguirre (guitar)Composer: Assad, Cassadó, Falla, Gardel, Gismonti, Granados, Lara, Piazzolla and RavelWhat’s not to like in a release where the cello delivers harmonious Spanish-inflected melodies, by turns fiery and quixotic, ...
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ReviewThe 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic: Recordings 1978–2010
The Strad Issue: June 2015Description: The collected complete recordings of Berlin’s cello supergroupMusicians: 12 Cellists of the Berlin PhilharmonicComposer: VariousAs if the nostalgia of its 40th anniversary DVD were not enough, Warner now releases all eight recordings made by that incomparable musical institution, the 12 Cellists of ...
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ReviewZemlinsky: Complete String Quartets
The Strad Issue: June 2015Description: The Brodskys brilliantly traverse Zemlinsky’s quartets from A to ZMusicians: Brodsky QuartetComposer: ZemlinskyHearing all Zemlinsky’s quartets in one go provides an aural mini-biography of the composer and his influences: the unnumbered 1893 E minor Quartet and no.1 (1896) see him already enlarging ...
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ReviewWalton: Viola Concerto. Schnittke: Passacaglia for Orchestra
Description: Touch-and-go in Bashmet’s Moscow premiere of Walton’s Viola ConcertoMusicians: Yuri Bashmet (viola) Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow State Philharmonic Society/Dmitri KitayenkoComposer: Walton, SchnittkeWilliam Walton’s Viola Concerto is one of those pieces that keeps getting slower over the years, but even so I was amazed at seeing ...
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ReviewVivaldi: I Concerti dell’addio: Violin Concertos in C major RV189; in †¨E minor RV273; in F major RV286; in B flat major RV367; in B flat major RV371; in B minor RV390
The Strad Issue: June 2015Description: Late concertos from Vivaldi’s Viennese yearsMusicians: Fabio Biondi (violin/director) Europa GalanteComposer: VivaldiVivaldi composed his ‘Farewell’ Concertos in his twilight years while searching desperately for creative opportunities in Vienna. Drawn from a collection currently preserved in Brno, the works on this disc confirm ...
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ReviewLiszt: Duo Sonata on Polish Themes; Epithalamium; The Three Gypsies; Two Elegies; Valse-Impromptu (arr. Hubay); Grand duo concertant on Lafont’s ‘Le marin’
The Strad Issue: June 2015Description: Polish players explore Liszt’s little-known chamber musicMusicians: Voytek Proniewicz (violin) Wojciech Waleczek (piano)Composer: LisztPolish duo Proniewicz and Waleczek have produced a nicely shaped selection of Liszt’s still relatively unexplored chamber music. The two chunkiest items frame the programme. The first is a ...
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ReviewHétu: Complete Chamber Music for Strings
The Strad Issue: June 2015Description: Chamber works by a French-trained Canadian composerMusicians: New Orford Quartet, Steven Dann (viola) Colin Carr (cello) Timothy Hutchins (flute)Composer: HétuThis vividly recorded CD gathers the complete chamber music for strings – spanning almost half a century – of Canadian composer Jacques Hétu ...
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ReviewFauré: Piano Trio in D minor op.120. Pierné: Piano Trio in C minor op.45
The Strad Issue: June 2015Description: The Wanderer pairs French piano trios from the 1920sMusicians: Wanderer TrioComposer: Fauré, PiernéThere is some lush writing in Gabriel Pierné’s 1921 Piano Trio in C minor, which the Wanderer Trio treats with an appropriate sweetness of tone. The first movement covers a ...
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ReviewBartók: Divertimento. Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings op.48
The Strad Issue: June 2015Description: String-ensemble standards captured live in characteristic Barbican soundMusicians: London Symphony Orchestra String Ensemble/Roman Simović (violin)Composer: Bartók, TchaikovskyLast month’s Masterclass writer Roman Simović, directing the London Symphony Orchestra String Ensemble from the leader’s chair, brings much pleasure in a polished and poised account ...
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ReviewVivaldi: L’estro armonico op.3
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: June 2015Description: Podger’s Brecon players are compelling in better-known VivaldiMusicians: Rachel Podger (violin/director) Brecon BaroqueComposer: VivaldiRachel Podger continues her exploration of Vivaldi’s violin concertos with his set of twelve, L’estro armonico op.3 (1711), accompanied this time by her ensemble Brecon Baroque and ...
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ReviewLanggaard: String Quartets nos.1 & 5; Italian Scherzo
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: June 2015Description: The Nightingale players close their award-winning Langgaard accountMusicians: Nightingale QuartetComposer: LanggaardThis final volume in the Nightingale Quartet’s pioneering complete cycle gathers together the earliest and latest of Langgaard’s ten works for quartet, though their tortured creation muddies the chronology. No.1 ...
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ReviewBeethoven: String Quartets in C minor op.18 no.4; in E major op.74 ‘Harp’; in B flat major op.130; Grosse Fuge op.133
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSDescription: The Elias embarks on a Beethoven quartet cycleMusicians: Elias QuartetComposer: BeethovenIt is a decade since I first encountered the remarkably gifted young musicians of the Elias Quartet, when they became founder members of the Sheffield-based chamber group Ensemble 360. They have musically travelled a long ...
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ReviewJ.L. Adams: The Wind in High Places; Canticles of the Sky; Dream of the Canyon Wren
The Strad Issue: June 2015Description: Eco-conscious introspection from Alaska-based Pulitzer Prize winnerMusicians: Jack Quartet, Northwestern University Cello Ensemble/Hans Jørgen JensenComposer: J.L. AdamsJohn Luther Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2014 with his orchestral work Become Ocean. The Alaska-based composer, whose music is concerned with – ...
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ReviewFive Decades of Treasured Performances. Works by Barber, Bartók, Beethoven, A. Benjamin, Bloch, Brahms, Brustad, Chausson, Chopin, Debussy, Fauré, Gershwin, Grieg, Kreisler, Mendelssohn, Nín, Paradis,
The Strad Issue: August 2015Description: A celebration of an under-sung violinist now in her eightiesMusicians: Camilla Wicks (violin) various artistsComposer: Barber, Bartók, Beethoven, A. Benjamin, Bloch, Brahms, Brustad, Chausson, Chopin, Debussy, Fauré, Gershwin, Grieg, Kreisler, Mendelssohn, Nín, Paradis, Ravel, Sarasate, Scărlătescu, Schubert, Shostakovich, R. Strauss, Tailleferre, Tchaikovsky, ...
