Book reviews – Page 152
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ReviewCorelli: Trio Sonatas op.4
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Performances that are full of spirit and tonal warmthMusicians: Ensemble Aurora/Enrico Gatti (violin/director)Composer: CorelliEnsemble Aurora offers graceful, lucid and spontaneously expressive readings of Corelli’s final collection of trio sonatas op.4, dispatching the varied movements with light, shapely articulation and a virtuosity and ...
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ReviewRolla: Violin Concertos in B flat major, D major & A major
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Period and modern playing styles meet some attractive Italian concertosMusicians: Paolo Ghidoni (violin/conductor) Mantua Conservatoire Chamber OrchestraComposer: RollaAlessandro Rolla (1757–1841) is best known as the teacher of Paganini and originator of some of his technical effects. Accordingly, these concertos hint at the ...
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ReviewSchubert: Rondo in B minor D895, Fantasy in C major D934, Introduction and Variations on ‘Trockne Blumen’ D802
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Rewarding period accounts of late SchubertMusicians: Jacqueline Ross (violin) Maggie Cole (fortepiano)Composer: SchubertCompleting her two-volume survey of Schubert’s violin-and-keyboard works, with Maggie Cole returning on fortepiano, US-born Jacqueline Ross here reaches the final five years of the composer’s life, with three important ...
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ReviewSchumann: Piano Quintet in E flat major op.44, Piano Quartet in E flat major op.47, Märchenerzählungen op.132
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Accounts that can’t compete with the best availableMusicians: Fine Arts Quartet, Xiayin Wang (piano)Composer: SchumannThe budget price of this 2010 recording of Schumann’s Piano Quintet might weigh in its favour, but otherwise it has little chance of competing. The opening fails to ...
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ReviewShostakovich: Viola Sonata op.147, Cello Sonata op.40 (arr. Lénert for viola)
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A successful new viola version of Shostakovich’s Cello SonataMusicians: Pierre Lénert (viola) Eliane Reyes (piano)Composer: ShostakovichThe two pieces included in this CD effectively represent the beginning and end of Shostakovich’s chamber music production (the early, one-movement post-Rachmaninoffian piano trio op.8 can be ...
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ReviewWieniawski: Violin Concerto no.1 in F sharp minor op.14. Conus: Violin Concerto in E minor op.1. Vieuxtemps: Fantasia appassionata in G minor op.35
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A winningly lyrical approach to three virtuoso showpiecesMusicians: Soo-Hyun Park (violin) Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz/Nicholas MiltonComposer: Wieniawski, Conus, VieuxtempsWieniawski’s notorious F sharp minor Concerto, with its perilous opening chain of consecutive tenths, was for a long time the preserve of the ...
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ReviewBartók: Solo Violin Sonata, Violin Sonata in E minor, Hungarian Folksongs (transc. Országh), Hungarian Folk Tunes (transc. Szigeti), Romanian Folk Dances (transc. Székely)
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: The successful continuation of the Canadian violinist’s Bartók cycleMusicians: James Ehnes (violin) Andrew Armstrong (piano)Composer: BartókJames Ehnes’s Bartók is full of emotional intensity and he meticulously follows the composer’s dynamics and fluctuations. The technical demands of the Solo Sonata (see Ehnes’s Masterclass ...
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ReviewFuchs: Viola Sonata op.86, Phantasiestücke op.117. Joachim: Variations op.10. Dvorák: Romance op.11
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Stylish playing of music written in the shadow of BrahmsMusicians: Patricia McCarty (viola) Eric Larsen (piano)Composer: Fuchs, Joachim, DvorákAt just under 80 minutes, this CD is brim-full with late Romantic music by composers from Brahms’s circle. Robert Fuchs’s music can’t quite emerge ...
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ReviewGlazunov: Violin Concerto in A minor op.82, Meditation in D major op.32, Mazurka–oberek in D major. Schoeck: Concerto quasi una fantasia in B flat major op.21
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Assured playing in Romantic works for violin and orchestraMusicians: Chloë Hanslip (violin) Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana/Alexander VedernikovComposer: Glazunov, SchoeckChloë Hanslip may be aged only 25, but it’s already more than 11 years since her debut CD. Apart from the Bruch, she’s steered ...
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ReviewPenderecki: String quartets nos.1, 2 & 3 ‘Leaves of an Unwritten Diary’. Lutoslawski: String Quartet
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Vivid performances of music by two Polish mastersMusicians: Royal QuartetComposer: Penderecki, LutoslawskiFormed in Warsaw in 1998, the Royal Quartet has already garnered high praise for its recordings of Szymanowski and Górecki (reviewed in February 2009 and May 2011 respectively). And ...
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ReviewProkofiev: Complete works for violin and piano – Violin Sonatas no.1 in F minor op.80 & no.2 in D major op.94b, Cinq mélodies op.35b
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: High-intensity playing has mixed results in ProkofievMusicians: Isabelle van Keulen (violin) Ronald Brautigam (piano)Composer: ProkofievWhat emerges most clearly from Dutch violinist Isabelle van Keulen’s very accomplished Prokofiev disc is her astonishingly adaptable, flexible sound, with vibrato, tone, attack and phrasing all shifting ...
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ReviewThe Sweet Volcano
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: An eruption of improvisatory resourcefulnessMusicians: Matt Turner (cello) Greg Pagel (piano)Composer: The Sweet VolcanoThe Sweet Volcano is an exploration of the space where free improvisation meets post-Romantic chamber music. Matt Turner and Greg Pagel have been playing together for a decade and ...
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ReviewThe Unknown Purcell – Works for violin and keyboard
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A welcome exploration of 18th-century English chamber musicMusicians: Hazel Brooks (violin) David Pollock (harpsichord)Composer: Daniel PurcellHazel Brooks and David Pollock champion the music of Daniel Purcell, who forged musical pathways of his own in the early 18th century, long after his more ...
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ReviewUrban Gypsy
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: An album that takes the Parisian jazz quartet into new realmsMusicians: Daniel John Martinu(violin/vocals) Claudius Dupont (double bass) Mathieu Guinot, Samy Daussat (guitar)Composer: Urban GypsyWhen a violinist assembles a Parisian quartet – guitars included – and references ‘gypsy’, the intent would seem ...
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ReviewBach: Partita no.2 in D minor BWV1004. Beethoven: Violin Sonata in A major op.47 ‘Kreutzer’ Wieniawski Scherzo–Tarantelle op.16. Brahms: Hungarian Dance no.1 in G minor (transc. Joachim)
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Recorded sound mars a record of Vengerov’s return to the concert stageMusicians: Maxim Vengerov (violin) Itamar Golan (piano)Composer: Bach, Beethoven, Wieniawski, Brahms (transc. Joachim)From the opening bars of this Wigmore Hall concert – Maxim Vengerov’s comeback in April 2012 – ears have ...
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ReviewBeethoven: String Quartets in D major op.18 no.3, E flat major op.74 ‘Harp’ & F major op.135
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A welcome singing approach to three key Beethoven quartetsMusicians: Ysaÿe QuartetComposer: BeethovenAlthough numbered 3 when first published as part of the six op.18 quartets, the D major was in fact the first to be composed, which gives this programme a special significance ...
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ReviewBeethoven: Concerto for violin, cello and piano in C major op.56, Piano Trio in E flat major op.1 no.1
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A well-integrated ensemble in both concerto and chamber contextsMusicians: Claremont Trio, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra/MartinuWestComposer: BeethovenMartinuWest secures incisive playing from the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra in the opening tutti of the ‘Triple’ Concerto, a work that ought by rights to ...
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ReviewBrahms: String Quartet in B flat major op.671. Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht op.42
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A warmly played coupling of two Viennese classicsMusicians: Ysaÿe Quartet, Isabel Charisius2 (viola) Valentin Erben2 (cello)Composer: Brahms, SchoenbergIt was Schoenberg who recognised the progressive in Brahms in his famous centenary tribute, so the two composers make an apt match on disc. Here, ...
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ReviewCastillon: String Quartet op.3. Saint-Saëns: String Quartet no.1 in G minor op.112
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Mixed results in a pairing of rare French quartetsMusicians: Chartres QuartetComposer: Castillon, Saint-SaënsWith the quartet captured at a discreet distance from the microphones in a generous acoustic (a room in the magnificent Chateau de Saint-Simon in Eure-et-Loire), the initial impression is of ...
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ReviewC. Schumann: Piano Trio in G minor op.17. R. Schumann: Piano Trio no.3 in G minor op.110, Fantasiestücke op.88
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A welcome exploration of piano trios by the two SchumannsMusicians: Swiss Piano TrioComposer: C. Schumann, R. SchumannListening to this performance of Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio, one can well understand why it was so favourably embraced by the music critics of her time. ...
