Book reviews – Page 180
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ArticleHaydn: String Quartets op.20 nos.1–6
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Daedalus QuartetComposer: HaydnHaydn’s op.20 quartets come from a period when he was developing a more dramatic approach to the medium, and the American-based Daedalus Quartet reflect this in faithfully observing his dynamic markings, but without the exaggerations that are becoming too prevalent. ...
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ArticleKillmayer: Fünf Romanzen, Acht Bagatellen. Schumann: Drei Romanzen, Fünf Stücke im Volkston
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Nicolas Altstaedt (cello) José Gallardo (piano)Composer: Killmayer, Schumann The contemporary German composer Wilhelm Killmayer (b.1927) has much more in common with Schumann than mere nationality. His Five Romances and Eight Bagatelles are strongly characterised cameo character pieces that share his ...
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ArticleKorngold: String Quartets nos.1–3
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Doric QuartetComposer: Korngold Those readers unfamiliar with these particular works may well be in for a surprise. Far from offering the expected distillation of (Richard) Straussian luxuriance and tone-poem exuberance, Korngold demonstrates a sensitivity for the genre that is far closer to, ...
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ArticleLydia Mordkovich pays tribute to David Oistrakh. Locatelli: Sonata op.6 no.7 ‘Au tombeau’, Caprice no.23 ‘Il labirinto armonico’. Ysaÿe: Sonata op.27 no.2. Chausson: Poème op.25. Shostakovich: Sonata
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Lydia Mordkovitch (violin) Nicholas Walker, Marina Gusak-Grin, Clifford Benson, James Kirby (piano)Composer: Locatelli, Ysaÿe, Chausson, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff‘Lydia Mordkovitch pays tribute to David Oistrakh’ has given Chandos the opportunity to recycle recordings made by the violinist since arriving in Britain in 1980. A ...
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ArticlePaganini's 24 Caprices op.1
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Julia Fischer (violin)Composer: PaganiniFollowing second recordings of Paganini’s caprices by Thomas Zehetmair (reviewed December 2009) and James Ehnes (reviewed January 2010), Julia Fischer continues her exploration of these violinists’ benchmark works with her first issue of this challenging opus. Apart from a ...
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ArticleBeethoven: String Quartets opp.127, 130–3 & 135
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Tokyo Quartet Composer: BeethovenA quotation from the Boston Globe on the back of this new set of the Tokyo Quartet’s Beethoven recordings comments that they are ‘both grounded and weightless, carved in granite and floating on air’. Certainly, we are spared ...
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ArticleBeethoven's Complete Violin Sonatas
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Renaud Capuçon (violin) Frank Braley (piano)Composer: BeethovenThis distinguished set is the most beautiful cycle of the Beethoven sonatas to appear since that by Dumay and Pires (Deutsche Grammophon). It has more or less the same virtues and its very few ...
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ArticleBach: Suites for solo cello no.1 in G major BWV1007, no.4 in E flat major BWV1010 & no.5 in C minor BWV1011 (transcr. viola)
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Maxim Rysanov (viola)Composer: Bach Although the booklet lists the three suites included in this recording in ascending numerical order, the CD starts with the full-bodied E flat major arpeggiations of Suite no.4. Seldom can they have been more sonorous than ...
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ArticleHaydn: Cello Concertos in C major Hob.VIIb:1 & D major Hob.VIIb.2, Minuets nos.1, 6 & 11 Hob.IX:16
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Ivan Monighetti (cello/conductor) Polish Sinfonia Iuventus OrchestraComposer: Haydn As a former winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition, and Rostropovich’s last pupil, Ivan Monighetti has an unassailable cellistic provenance, and yet despite the diversity of his interests, which incorporate both period ...
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ArticleSchumann: Cello Concerto in A minor op.129 (arr. Schumann), Violin Sonata no.2 in D minor op.121. Clara Schumann: Three Romances op.22
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Philippe Graffin (violin) Claire Désert (piano) German Radio Philharmonic Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern/Christoph PoppenComposer: R Schumann, C SchumannIt’s strange that violinists haven’t hijacked Schumann’s own violin version of his Cello Concerto, for it makes a more readily attractive work than his subsequent D minor ...
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ArticleSerebrier: Double Bass Concerto ‘Nueve’, Violin Concerto ‘Winter’, Symphony no.1, Tango en azul, Casi un tango, They Rode in the Sunset – music for an imaginary film
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Gary Karr (double bass) Philippe Quint (violin) Simon Callow (narrator) Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Chorus/José SerebrierComposer: Serebrier ‘Even whilst we speak new notes arise. What is that awful sound?’ The soloist in José Serebrier’s Double Bass Concerto ‘Nueve’ ...
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ArticleWalton: Violin Concerto, Symphony no.1
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Kurt Nikkanen (violin) New Haven Symphony Orchestra/William BoughtonComposer: Walton This disc is the first fruit of a project to record Walton’s music with an eye on the manuscript sources held at Yale University, where the New Haven Symphony Orchestra performs. As ...
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ArticleWhite Nights
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Chris Stout (fiddle) Catriona McKay (Scottish harp)Composer: Various These longtime Fiddlers’ Bid bandmates improve upon their previous duo outing, 2005’s excellent Laebrack, with an album that’s both more adventurous and more refined. The mesmeric opening lament sets a formidable standard ...
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ArticleDéfense de la Basse de Viole contre les Enterprises du Violon et les Prétentions du Violoncelle. Works by M. & R. Marais, Du Boisson, Demachy, Sainte-Colombe Snr & Jr, Morel, Cappus, Dollé, De Caix d’
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Ricercar ConsortComposer: M. & R. Marais, Du Boisson, Demachy, Sainte-Colombe Snr & Jr, Morel, Cappus, Dollé, De Caix d’Hervelois, Dornel, Duval, Rebel, Leclair, Corrette, Bodin de Boismortier, Masse, Barrière & CanavasThese recordings are devoted to the French string repertoire around the time ...
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ArticleDragonetti: Quartet no.1, Quintets nos.13, 18 & 31
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Dragonetti’s New Academy: John Feeney (double bass) Loma Mar QuartetComposer: DragonettiDomenico Dragonetti is best known for the reputation he made for himself as a double bassist in London. His music, here represented by string chamber works with bass, is charismatic and quirky ...
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ArticleGrieg: Suite From Holberg’s Time op.40, Two Nordic Melodies op.63. Amper: Abrégé. Larsen: Diplom
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Gjermund Larsen (fiddle) Emilia Amper (nyckelharpa) Trondheim SoloistsComposer: Grieg, Amper, LarsenA selection of Grieg’s string music is here played by a crack Norwegian chamber orchestra. The results virtually take my breath away, but I have enough left to report that the playing ...
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ArticleHandel: Concerti Grossi op.6
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Avison Ensemble/Pavlo BeznosiukComposer: Handel These are urbane performances, constantly engaging, fascinating in the minutiae of the playing, the sharing of prominence between parts, and in the conversational ebb and flow of counterpoint. The Avison musicians produce a rich, legato sound, with ...
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ArticleMartinu: Cello Sonatas nos.1, 2 & 3, Variations on a Slovak Theme, Variations on a Theme of Rossini
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Paul Watkins (cello) Huw Watkins (piano)Composer: Martinu Of all 20th-century composers, Martinu was one of the most generous to the cello and indeed both sets of variations as well as the Second Sonata are firmly established in the repertoire. ...
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ArticleMiller: Walk
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Kristen Miller (cello, vocals)Composer: MillerKristen Miller is a folk–rock cellist/singer–songwriter who, with the help of a digital recorder, creates layered songs in real time. Walk is, in spirit, more folk than rock – acoustic and communicating an at times sepia-tinged introspection. But, ...
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ArticleMozart: String Quintets in B flat major K174, C minor K406, C major K515, G minor K516, D major K593 & E flat major K614
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Nash Ensemble, Philip Dukes (viola)Composer: MozartMozart’s complete string quintets comprise four extraordinary works from his maturity alongside two early pieces that probably would not have survived had they not had his name attached. The Nash Ensemble players, however, persuade us that the ...
