Book reviews – Page 151
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ReviewHistoire de Tango. Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango. Falla: Canciones populares españolas (excerpts). Paganini: Sonata concertata in A major op.61, Moses–Fantasy, Cantabile in D major. Sarasate: Zigeunerw
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: An unusual collection with violin in league with guitarMusicians: Augustin Hadelich (violin) Pablo Sáinz Villagas (guitar)Composer: Piazzolla, Falla, Paganini, SarasateDespite its rather nebulous title, this curiously constructed disc confirms Augustin Hadelich’s place among the most admired violinists of his generation. Opening with ...
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ReviewMendelssohn: Violin Concertos in D minor & E minor op.64, Violin Sonata in F minor op.4
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A rare coupling of Mendelssohn’s two violin concertosMusicians: Tianwa Yang (violin) Romain Descharmes (piano) Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä/Patrick GalloisComposer: MendelssohnIn certain respects, the Mendelssohn E minor Concerto is the most demanding of all the great violin concertos. Everything must sound entirely effortless, with ...
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ReviewSchumann: Cello Concerto in A minor op.129. Dvorák: Cello Concerto in B minor op.104, Silent Woods op.68 no.5
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: An unsatisfactory coupling of two Romantic concertosMusicians: Jamie Walton (cello) Philharmonia Orchestra/Vladimir AshkenazyComposer: Schumann, DvorákSchumann’s Cello Concerto is a notoriously difficult work to navigate, as the ebb and flow of the musical line can lack overall direction, which is to my mind ...
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ReviewGerhard: String quartets nos.1 & 2, Chaconne for solo violin
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Serialism meets folk music in the works of a Spanish exileMusicians: Arditti QuartetComposer: GerhardBorn in Spain in 1896, Roberto Gerhard became Schoenberg’s only Spanish student, later fleeing his homeland at the start of the Civil War to settle in Cambridge and become ...
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ReviewDebussy: String Quartet in G minor. Saint-Saëns: String Quartet no.1 in E minor. Ravel: String Quartet in F major
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A welcome interloper freshens up a classic quartet couplingMusicians: Modigliani QuartetComposer: Debussy, Saint-Saëns, RavelRadiantly engineered and tonally beguiling, these are performances that generate pleasure simply because of the sound they make. Some ensembles audibly struggle to shift their textural emphasis from the ...
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ReviewProkofiev: String quartets no.1 op.50 & no.2 op.92, Visions fugitives op.22 (arr. Samsonov)
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Electrifying performances that tap the music’s inventivenessMusicians: Energie Nove QuartetComposer: ProkofievProkofiev’s quartets have tended to remain on the outer fringes of the central performing repertoire: a consequence of his wide-ranging stylistic terms of reference, dazzlingly hyperactive changes of musical direction and intimidating ...
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ReviewDvorák: Cypresses, String Quartet in G major op.106
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Technically exemplary accounts that miss a Czech authenticityMusicians: Cypress QuartetComposer: DvorákWith their trenchant response to the opening bars of Dvorák’s op.106, the players of the Cypress Quartet emphatically announce a very purposeful performance of dynamic extremes. The care taken over internal balance ...
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ReviewRavel: Violin Sonata in G major, Violin Sonata (1897), Sonata for violin & cello, Pièce en forme de habanera, Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré, Kaddish, Tzigane
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Reference accounts of Ravel’s complete chamber music for violinMusicians: Lena Neudauer (violin) Julian Steckel (cello) Paul Rivinius (piano)Composer: RavelThe young German-born violinist Lena Neudauer has here laid down what is my new benchmark for recorded performances of the two Ravel ...
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ReviewIn the Shadow of War. Bloch: Schelomo. Bridge: Oration. Hough: The Loneliest Wilderness
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: An inspired programme, searingly playedMusicians: Steven Isserlis (cello) German Symphony Orchestra Berlin/Hugh Wolff, Tapiola Sinfonietta/Gábor Takács-NagyComposer: Bloch, Bridge, HoughSteven Isserlis is nothing if not thoughtful and creative when it comes to programming, as this combination of three works linked by the psychological ...
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ReviewBartók: Violin Sonatas nos.1 & 2, Sonata for Solo Violin
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Powerful accounts of Bartók’s three sonatas for violinMusicians: Barnabás Kelemen (violin) Zoltán Kocsis (piano)Composer: BartókBarnabás Kelemen takes a muscular approach to Bartók’s three sonatas (in this he is not alone). He and Zoltán Kocsis give an extraordinary performance of the First Sonata, ...
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ReviewLe Phénix – Solo Double Bass in Baroque and Contemporary Music
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A celebration of the double bass across the centuriesMusicians: Christine Hoock, Thomas Martinu Thomas Jauch, Stephen Bauer (double bass) Florian Birsak (harpsichord) Barbara Nussbaum (piano)Composer: Vivaldi, Glass, Bach, Pärt, Corrette, Zbinden & HandelIs there a collective word for double basses? ...
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ReviewBach: Violin Concertos in A minor BWV1041 & E major BWV1042, Concerto in D minor for Two Violins BWV1043, Concerto in D major for Three Violins BWV1064R
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Successful performances marked by a bold approach to ornamentationMusicians: Petra Müllejans, Gottfried von der Goltz, Anne Katharina Schreiber (violin) Freiburg Baroque OrchestraComposer: BachThese first-rate period performances are stylish, polished, thoughtfully prepared and sympathetically recorded, with ensemble tautly controlled throughout. Peter Müllejans and ...
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ReviewA Violin's Life: Music for the ‘Lipinski’ Stradivari. Tartini: Sonata in G minor ‘Devil’s Trill’. Lipinski: Caprice op.29 no.3. Schumann: Violin Sonata no.2 in D minor op.121. Röntgen: Violin Sonata n
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A novel programme united by a historic instrumentMusicians: Frank Almond (violin) William Wolfram (piano)Composer: Tartini, Lipinski, Schumann, Röntgen This disc is the outcome of Frank Almond’s mission to chronicle in an artistically meaningful way the performing history of the 1715 Stradivari violin named ...
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ReviewMolique: Violin Concertos no.3 in D minor op.10 & no.6 in E minor op.30
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A generally successful attempt to explore 19th-century performance practiceMusicians: Anton Steck (violin) L’arpa festante/Christoph SperingComposer: MoliqueThe ‘historically informed’ nature of this disc is hinted at modestly on the packaging rather than used as a selling point, although Anton Steck (a former pupil ...
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ReviewBacewicz: Cello Concertos nos.11 & 22, Overture
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A valuable coupling of two rarely heard 20th-century cello concertosMusicians: Adam Krzeszowiec, Bartosz Koziak (cello) Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra/George Tchitchinadze, Monika Woli?skaComposer: BacewiczGrazyna Bacewicz (1909–69), Polish concert violinist and prolific composer for strings, appears in almost unrecognisably different guises in her two ...
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ReviewMaxwell Davies: Strathclyde Concerto no.2, Sonata for cello and piano ‘Sequentia serpentigena’, Dances from The Two Fiddlers (transc. Ceccanti), Little Tune for Vittorio in Maremma
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A welcome new recording of a work that deserves more currencyMusicians: Vittorio Ceccanti (cello) Bruno Canino (piano) Italian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Peter Maxwell DaviesComposer: Maxwell DaviesPeter Maxwell Davies’s Strathclyde Concerto no.2 of 1987 appears here for only the second time on disc (the ...
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ReviewBlue Violin: A Jazz Legacy
The Strad Issue: M/ay 2013Description: Understated reinterpretations of jazz standardsMusicians: James Sanders (violin) Kevin O’Connell TrioComposer: VariousJames Sanders is a classical violinist who has spent two decades learning his craft as a jazzer, with this record the fruits of that labour. He’s chosen a set of standards ...
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ReviewFranck: Violin Sonata in A major; Mélancolie; Prélude, fugue et variation op.18 (arr. Dumay/Lortie) Strauss: Violin Sonata in E flat major op.18; Auf stillen Waldespfad (arr. Heifetz)
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Compelling playing from one of today’s great violinistsMusicians: Augustin Dumay (violin) Louis Lortie (piano)Composer: Franck and StraussThese popular sonatas both derive from the chromatic sensuality of middle-period Wagner, but whereas the Franck’s aching seductiveness sits on a knife-edge between sacred ...
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ReviewBritten: Suites for Solo Cello nos.1—3
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A worthy centenary tribute from a fine young cellistMusicians: Philip Higham (cello)Composer: BrittenPhilip Higham already proved his affinity for Britten’s music when he committed the composer’s Cello Sonata to disc (reviewed November 2012), so this recording of the suites in the composer’s ...
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ReviewBruch: Kol nidrei op.37 (two performances). Boccherini: Cello Concerto in B flat major G482. Brahms: ‘Double’ Concerto in A minor op.102
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Well-preserved recordings of a master musicianMusicians: Pablo Casals (cello) Jacques Thibaud (violin) London Symphony Orchestra/Ronald Landon, Orchestra Pau Casals de Barcelona/Alfred CortotComposer: Bruch, Boccherini, BrahmsIncluding two performances of Kol nidrei is a bit strange – the second, earlier version is two and ...
