Book reviews – Page 196
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ArticleMozart: Violin Sonatas in B flat major K454, in G major K379 & in C major K296, Six Variations on ‘Au bord d’une fontaine’ K360
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Petra Müllejans (violin) Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano)Composer: MozartAccording to the CD packaging, Petra Müllejans and Kristian Bezuidenhout play these pieces in a way that ‘recaptures the freshness and volatility’ of their early performances. Those first airings, with Mozart sometimes playing a keyboard part ...
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ArticleBach: Solo Violin Sonatas & Partitas BWV1001-6
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Viktoria Mullova (violin)Composer: BachThere is more to playing Bach’s sonatas and partitas than fitting your 1750 Guadagnini with gut strings and acquiring a fine Baroque bow, especially so when your career has been established on Romantic violin concertos. Viktoria Mullova has already ...
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ArticleBritten's Cello Suites nos.1–3
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Denise Djokic (cello)Composer: BrittenNova Scotia-born cellist Denise Djokic, a student of Richard Aaron at the Cleveland Institute of Music who later studied in Boston with Paul Katz and Laurence Lesser, emerges as a serious artist with a distinctive identity in this her ...
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ArticleRaymond Hanson: Violin Sonata op.5, Three Fancies, Seascape, Idyll op.2, An Etching, Legende, Portrait of Australia op.46
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Susan Collins (violin) David Miller (piano)Composer: Raymond Hanson Australian Raymond Hanson (1913–76) looks set to become one of those composers whose music, freed from the stylistic constraints of time and place, enjoys a posthumous reputation way beyond anything ...
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ArticleRoberts: Trios for Deep Voices
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Christopher Roberts (double bass) Mark Morton (double bass) James Bergman (double bass)Composer: Roberts Double bassist and composer Christopher Roberts studied at the Juilliard School and has long taken an interest in non-Western musics, ...
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ArticleAriosti: Stockholm Sonatas vol.3: Sonatas nos.15–21, Cantata ‘Pur alfin gentil viola’
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Thomas Georgi (viola d’amore) Mime Yamahiro Brinkmann (cello) Lucas Harris (archlute/guitar) Emma Kirkby (soprano) Composer: AriostiWith this CD, Thomas Georgi completes his magisterial survey of the music for viola d’amore by Handel’s contemporary Attilio Ariosti (1666–1729). The manuscript of his Recueil de ...
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ArticleScandinavia. Maier: Violin Sonata in B minor. Aulin: Four Watercolours. Grieg: Violin Sonata no.1 in F major op.8
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Gregory Maytan (violin) Nicole Lee (piano) Composer: Maier, Aulin, GriegThe most familiar piece here by some distance is Grieg’s op.8 Sonata in F major, a delightfully exuberant confirmation of the Norwegian’s burgeoning creative powers. Gregory Maytan, ...
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ArticleSchubert: Arpeggione Sonata in A minor D821. Gedizlio?lu: The Mediterranean. Say: Violin Sonata. Yakar: Variations on the Sorrowful Flagolet. Liszt: Sonata quasi fantasia ‘Après une lecture du Dante’
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: zcan Ulucan (violin) Aysen Ulucan (viola) Birsen Ulucan (piano)Composer: Schubert, Gedizlio?lu, Say, Yakar, Liszt The three members of the Ulucan family here were born in Bulgaria, emigrated with their parents to Turkey and have since followed very diverse educational ...
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ArticleStrauss Cello Sonata in F major op.6, Romanze in F major, Morgen op.27 no.4 (arr. Maisky). Dvorák: Sonatina in G major op.100, Romantic Piece op.75 no.4, Rondo in G minor op.94
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Mischa Maisky (cello) Pavel Gililov (piano)Composer: Strauss, Dvorák On the surface Dvo?ák and Strauss might appear an unlikely pairing. Their connection here rests with the Czech cellist Hanus Wihan, the fortunate dedicatee both of Strauss’s Cello Sonata ...
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ArticleTchaikovsky: String Quartet no.1 in D major op.11. Prokofiev: String Quartet no.1 in B minor op.50. Gabriel Prokofiev: String Quartet no.1
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Ruysdael QuartetComposer: Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Gabriel ProkofievQuartets seem to have run out of composers and branched out into painters for their names. The young Ruysdael Quartet from the Netherlands, founded in 1996 at The Hague Conservatoire, makes a very positive impression ...
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ArticleDavid Matthews: Concerto in azzurro, The Music of Dawn, A Vision and a Journey
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Guy Johnston (cello) BBC Philharmonic, Rumon Gamba (conductor)Composer: David Matthews David Matthews describes his Concerto in azzurro, written in 2002 for Steven Isserlis and inspired by a haloed vision of the island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel, as ...
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ArticleIn My Own Voice. Works by Kreisler, Suk, Ysaÿe, Bach, Saint-Saëns, Still & Baker
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Kelly Hall-Tompkins (violin) Craig Ketter (piano) Anna Reinersman (harp)Composer: Kreisler, Suk, Ysaÿe, Bach, Saint-Saëns, Still & Baker This is a particularly varied recital disc, mixing bonbons like Josef Suk’s Liebeslied and William Grant Still’s little Summerland with heavyweights like Ysaÿe’s ...
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ArticleMendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor op.64, Piano Trio no.1 in D minor op.49, Violin Sonata in F major (1838)
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin) Lynn Harrell (cello) André Previn (piano) Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Kurt Masur (conductor)Composer: MendelssohnAnne-Sophie Mutter has been one of the better German violinists for 30 years now, so it is probably too late to expect her to fulfil the promise ...
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ArticleBach: Concerto in D minor for 2 violins BWV1043, Concerto in D minor for violin & oboe BWV1060, Violin Concertos in A minor BWV1041 & in E major BWV1042
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Julia Fischer (violin/director) Alexander Sitkovetsky (violin) Andrey Rubtsov (oboe) Academy of St Martinuin the FieldsComposer: Bach Although Julia Fischer is no advocate of historically informed performance, she has clearly absorbed some of the hallmarks of Baroque ...
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ArticleBeethoven: String Quartets in E flat major op.127, in B flat major op.130, in C sharp minor op.131, in A minor op.132 & in F major op.135, Grosse Fuge in B flat major op.133
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Wihan Quartet Composer: BeethovenBeethoven’s so-called ‘late quartets’ have an inevitably large and long discography. The 1928 recordings by the Rosé Quartet (including op.131 on Biddulph) are perhaps the closest on disc to the sound world familiar in 19th-century Germany (although the Klingler ...
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ArticleBoni: Sonatas for cello and basso continuo op.1 nos.1–3 & 8–12
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Andrea FossÁ (cello) Renato Criscuolo (cello) Anna Fontana (harpsichord) Francisco Gato (archlute) Andrea de Carlo (viola da gamba)Composer: BoniBologna-born Pietro Gaetano Boni settled in Rome in 1711 and served as ‘cello virtuoso’ to Corelli’s patron Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, to whom his ...
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ArticleBrahms: Violin Concerto in D minor op.77. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor op.64
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Ida Haendel (violin) Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra SWR, Hans Müller-Kray (conductor)Composer: Brahms, MendelssohnThese recordings, made in 1955 and 1953 respectively, are magisterial performances of profound intensity. In both of these concertos Ida Haendel’s playing is muscular. This comes across in ...
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ArticleCello/Diverse. Debussy: Suite italienne. Debussy: Cello Sonata. Brahms: Cello Sonata no.2 in F major op.99. Morricone: Gabriel’s Oboe
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Susanne Beer (cello) Gareth Hancock (piano)Composer: Stravinsky, Debussy, Brahms, Morricone With an impressive roster of tutors listed on Susanne Beer’s biography, from Pergamenschikow and Pleeth to Isserlis and Gutman, coupled with a wide professional experience including the post ...
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ArticleSchubert: String Quartet in D minor D810 ‘Der Tod und das Mädchen’ (arr. Mahler), Gesang der Geister über den Wassern
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Academia Allegro Vivo, Vienna Chamber Choir, Bijan Khadem-Missagh (conductor) Composer: SchubertGustav Mahler came in for quite a bit of stick when he arranged Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet for string orchestra. After a performance of the variations movement ...
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ArticleSoirés Internationales. Villa-Lobos: Ária from Bachianas brasileiras no.5 (arr. Primrose); O canto do capadócio, etc. Guarneri: Cello Sonata no.1. Nadia Boulanger: Trois pièces. Martinu: Cello Sonata
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Antonio Meneses (cello) Celina Szrvinsk (piano)Composer: Villa-Lobos, Guarneri, Nadia Boulanger, MartinuIn this enterprising release, which uses composers working in Paris as a focal point, Latin-American repertoire is persuasively represented by Villa-Lobos, whose penchant for lyrically hued Romanticism comes to the fore in ...
