Book reviews – Page 177
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ArticleBeethoven: Violin Sonatas in F major op.24 ‘Spring’, C minor op.30 no.2 & G major op.30 no.3
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Nemanja Radulović (violin), Susan Manoff (piano)Composer: Beethoven There is an operatic tinge to these live performances. Nemanja Radulović’s playing has the supple fluency of song, with eloquent and poetic use of vibrato, well matched by Susan Manoff, who has made a speciality ...
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ArticleBrahms: Violin Sonatas no.1 in G major op.78, no.2 in A major op.100 & no.3 in D minor op.108
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Geneviève Laurenceau (violin) Johan Farjot (piano)Composer: BrahmsThe repertoire may be well trodden, but the young French violinist Geneviève Laurenceau here takes us on an unaffected traversal of the Brahms sonatas. Traditional but unmarked shifts of tempo appear in the G major’s opening ...
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ArticleBuxtehude: Opera Omnia XII: Sonatas from Manuscript Sources
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Catherine Manson, David Rabinovich (violin) Jonathan Manson (viola da gamba) Christine Sticher (violone) Tom Koopman (harpsichord/organ) Mike Fentross (lute)Composer: BuxtehudeThis twelfth volume of a project to record Buxtehude’s complete works features sonatas from manuscript sources. Composed for various instrumental combinations, these synthesise ...
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ArticleSaint-Saëns: Cello Concerto no.1 in A minor op.33, Cello Sonata no.1 in C minor op.32*, Romance op.36† , Sérénade from Cello Suite op.16† , Carnaval des animaux*†
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Henri Demarquette (cello) Boris Berezovsky*, Brigitte Engerer† (piano) Ensemble Orchestral de Paris/Joseph SwensenComposer: Saint-SaënsAlthough Henri Demarquette has selected some well-worn Saint-Saëns ‘chestnuts’, they veritably sparkle on this excellent CD. The First Sonata often comes across as a brilliantly crafted work with ...
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ArticleSchoenberg: String Trio op.45. Webern: String trio op.20, Movement for String Trio op. posth. Schnittke: String Trio
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Goeyvaerts TrioComposer: Schoenberg, Webern, SchnittkeThis recording includes a short talk by Schoenberg (in English), originally broadcast along with a performance of his Trio in 1949, concerning attention to detail by performers and listeners – a potential hostage to fortune for the Goeyvaerts ...
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ArticleSeasons... Dreams... Works by Beethoven, Debussy, Duke, Fauré, Gershwin, Gruber, Kosma, Pritske & Wagner
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Anne Akiko Meyers (violin) Reiko Uchida (piano) Emmanuel Ceysson (harp) Composer: Beethoven, Debussy, Duke, Fauré, Gershwin, Gruber, Kosma, Pritske & Wagner After beginning with a bang 22 years ago, Anne Akiko Meyers’s recording career seems to have retreated into the mood-music market. ...
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ArticleSmetana: String Quartets no.1 in E minor ‘From My Life’ & no.2 in D minor
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Bennewitz QuartetComposer: Smetana Listeners may justly feel short-changed by this disc’s mere 46 minutes’ duration, but they will not grumble about the quality of these performances. The young, prize-winning Bennewitz Quartet interprets some of its native music with style and intensity, conveying ...
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ArticleSzymanowski: Complete works for violin and piano
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Stawomir Tomasik (violin) Robert Morawski (piano)Composer: SzymanowskiKarol Szymanowski, whose creative style was forged initially from the folk music of his native Tatra Mountains, was one of the most enigmatically individual of early 20th-century composers. This fine collection usefully brings together everything he ...
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ArticleTchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major. Tartini: Sonata ‘Didone abbandonata’, Variations on a Theme by Corelli. Vivaldi: Violin Sonata in D major. Kreisler: Schön Rosmarin, Caprice viennois. Brahms:
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Erica Morini (violin) Michael Raucheisen (piano) RIAS Symphony Orchestra/Ferenc FricsayComposer: Tchaikovsky, Tartini, Vivaldi, Kreisler, Brahms, WieniawskiHere is a portrait of the marvellous Erica Morini (1904–95) as she was in Berlin in 1952. She is playing favourite music, starting with a live Tchaikovsky ...
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ArticleTchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major. Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Susanna Yoko Henkel (violin) Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra/Jonathan DarlingtonComposer: Tchaikovsky, Vaughan WilliamsListening once again to the Tchaikovsky Concerto’s impassioned flow of spontaneous invention, it seems more bizarre than ever that it is was this of all pieces that the pro-Brahms Viennese critic Eduard ...
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ArticleViolino O Cornetto. 17th-century Italian solo sonatas
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Theresa Caudle (violin/cornett) CanzonaComposer: Various Theresa Caudle’s ‘musical journey through the 17th century’ charts the evolution and progress of the solo sonata in Italy and the development of idiomatic writing for the violin. During its course, she demonstrates the vocal and expressive ...
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ArticleYsaÿe: 6 Sonatas for solo violin op.27
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Samika Honda (violin)Composer: YsaÿeThe set of six solo Sonatas op.27 is the only work of Ysaÿe’s to have won a place in the regular performing repertoire. The first four are dedicated to legendary colleagues – Szigeti, Thibaud, Enescu and Kreisler, no less ...
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ArticleG. Coates: String Quartet no.9, Sonata for Violin Solo, Lyric Suite ‘Split the Lark – and you’ll find the Music’
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Kreutzer Quartet, Roderick Chadwick (piano)Composer: G. CoatesGloria Coates (b.1938) writes music that is as close to surrealism as any I know. An American composer who has lived in Munich since 1969, she uses simple, often straightforwardly diatonic elements, yet twists them into ...
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ArticleHalvorsen: Orchestral Works vol.2: Three Norwegian Dances*, Air norvégien op.7*, Chant de la Veslemöy*, Suite ancienne op.31a, Symphony no.2 ‘Fatum’
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Marianne Thorsen (violin)* Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Neeme JärviComposer: HalvorsenBefore he was a composer, Johan Halvorsen was a virtuoso violinist, and his works for violin and orchestra are wonderfully written for the instrument. His music, like that of his friend Grieg, is steeped in ...
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ArticleHendrix: Have you ever been…? Balakrishnan: Tree of Life
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Turtle Island QuartetComposer: Hendrix, Balakrishnan The Turtle Island Quartet has previously tackled Coltrane, Gillespie and Brubeck. This time it’s Jimi Hendrix who gets the Turtle treatment.It’s a brave quartet that tackles something as iconically electric as, say, Voodoo Child. Though ...
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ArticleKreutzer: Violin Concertos nos.17 in G major, 18 in E minor & 19 in D minor
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Axel Strauss (violin) San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra/Andrew MogreliaComposer: KreutzerKreutzer’s place in violin pedagogy is well known, and listeners to these concertos can entertain themselves by spotting melodies from his famous 42 Etudes of 1802. Nonetheless, these are fully formed works in their ...
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ArticleMusic for My Cello. Meyer: Cello Sonata no.2 op.109. B. Hummel: Fantasias 1 & 2. Regner: Vier Abendlieder. Killmayer: Bayerischer Ländler, Kimbrisches Lied mit Tanz. Theodorakis: East of the Aegean
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Julius Berger (cello)Composer: Meyer, B. Hummel, Regner, Killmayer, TheodorakisSeasoned German cellist Julius Berger celebrates collaborations with five composers on this disc of works written for him during a varied career. It’s hardly surprising that Britten’s influence pervades many contemporary solo cello works, ...
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ArticleTouchable Dreams
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Steve Bingham (violin/five-string electric violin/octave electric violin/treble recorder/thumb piano/rainsticks) Jeremy Harmer (voice) Composer: VariousThis is more an event than a CD. Steve Bingham multi-tracks his instruments in an eclectic range of music while Jeremy Harmer reads poetry. One can imagine it performed ...
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ArticleVieuxtemps: Fantasia appassionata op.35, Ballade et Polonaise op.38, Fantaisie caprice op.11, Greeting to America op.56
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Misha Keylin (violin) Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra/Andrew MogreliaComposer: Vieuxtemps‘My admiration increased to the borders of the improbable,’ wrote the 14-year-old Henry Vieuxtemps, having heard Paganini in London in 1834, and that experience did much to shape his own career as player and ...
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ArticleBeethoven: Cello Sonata in C major op.102 no.1. Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata in A minor D821. Brahms: Cello Sonata no.1 in E minor op.38
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: Enrico Mainardi (cello) Carlo Zecchi (piano)Composer: Beethoven, Schubert, BrahmsThe attraction of historic recordings is surely to catch a glimpse of legendary musicianship that is magnificent enough to overcome sonic shortcomings – a document that enriches our understanding of both the instrument and ...
