Recording reviews – Page 148
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ReviewBeethoven: String Trios in E flat major op.3, G major op.9 no 1, D major op.9 no.2 & C minor op.9 no.3, Serenade in D major op.8
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Performances of Beethoven’s complete trios that succeed best in their good humourMusicians: Lendvai String TrioComposer: BeethovenThe Dutch, Swedish and British members of the Lendvai String Trio came together in 2004 while students at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and since ...
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ReviewBeethoven: String Quartets op.18 nos.3–5
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: The engaging launch of a new Beethoven series from a veteran ensembleMusicians: Allegri QuartetComposer: BeethovenBeethoven’s op.18 string quartets may not match the formal experimentation and expressive extremes of his later quartets, but there’s a youthful invention that shows the young arrival to ...
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ReviewBach: Violin Concertos in A minor BWV1041 & E major BWV1042, Harpsichord Concerto in E major BWV1053 (arr. Dantone for violin in D major), Concerto for two harpsichords in C minor BWV1060 (arr. Danton
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: New transcriptions hog the limelight in a disc of Bach violin concertosMusicians: Viktoria Mullova (violin) Accademia Bizantina/Ottavio Dantone (director/harpsichord)Composer: Bach, Bach (arr. Dantone)The real interest here lies in the two transcriptions that accompany the E major and A minor violin concertos. Arranged ...
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ReviewDelius: Concerto for violin and cello, Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto
The Strad Issue: January 2011Description: Masterly accounts of Delius’s concertos for strings, together for the first time on discMusicians: Tasmin Little (violin) Paul Watkins (cello) BBC Symphony Orchestra/Andrew DavisComposer: DeliusTaken en masse, Delius’s three string concertos can seem like a knotted skein of rhapsody, especially given their ...
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ReviewViolin Lullabies
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A delightful disc of miniatures succeeds in its aim to sootheMusicians: Rachel Barton Pine (violin) Matthew Hagle (piano)Composer: Brahms, Ysaÿe, Rebikov, Beach, Schwab, Respighi, Gershwin, Falla, Fauré, Sibelius, Viardot-García, Hovhaness, Stravinsky, Ravel, Clarke, Schubert, Schumann, Durosoir, Grieg, Antsev, Strauss, Sivori, Béraud, Still ...
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ReviewBach: Suites for solo cello nos.1–3 (arr. double bass)
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Proof that bassists can be just as nimble and expressive as cellistsMusicians: Jory Herman (double bass)Composer: BachWhether as a result of the unassailable musical status of these suites, or because of an understandable desire to outsmart their cello-playing colleagues, it’s ...
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ReviewSchubert: String Quartet in G major D887, Quartettsatz in C minor D703
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A tribute to the art of ensemble playingMusicians: Wihan QuartetComposer: SchubertEverything about this recording suggests long acquaintance and a great deal of thought. The great G major Quartet has a dramatic, operatic intensity to it, a sense of powerful narrative ...
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ReviewLalo: Cello Concerto in D minor. Berlioz: Love Scene from Roméo et Juliette. Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto no.2 in D minor op.119
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A highly successful rehabilitation of two lesser-known French cello concertosMusicians: Pieter Wispelwey (cello) Flanders Symphony Orchestra/Seikyo KimComposer: Lalo, Berlioz, Saint-SaënsPieter Wispelwey appears on this disc as a cellist in total control of his instrument. He draws a clear, pure, but ...
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ReviewSchubert: Violin Sonatas in D major D384, A minor D385, G minor D408 & A major D574, Rondo in B minor D895, Fantasy in C major D934, Sei mir gegrüsst! D741
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Outgoing performances of Schubert’s complete violin musicMusicians: Alina Ibragimova (violin) Cédric Tiberghien (piano)Composer: SchubertComposed in one hectic year when Schubert was 19, the first three violin sonatas were in a style inherited from Mozart, and were described as ‘sonatinas’ when first published ...
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ReviewScelsi: The Violin Works: Divertimentos nos.2–4, L’me ailée – L’me ouverte, Xnoybis
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Weird and wonderful sounds for solo violin from an Italian maverickMusicians: Weiping Lin (violin)Composer: ScelsiRecord label Mode has been careful not to call this fine release the ‘complete’ solo violin works by idiosyncratic 20th-century Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi (1905–88): the Divertimento no.1, ...
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ReviewBrahms: String Quartet in A minor op.51 no.2, Clarinet Quintet in B minor op.115
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Beautifully polished performances of two Brahms masterpiecesMusicians: Jerusalem Quartet, Sharon Kam (clarinet)Composer: BrahmsThankfully we have passed beyond the era when clarinettists thought of the Brahms Quintet as a quasi-concerto, though few have gone quite so far in the opposite direction ...
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ReviewTchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major op.35, Souvenir de Florence op.70
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A notably lyrical account of a Russian warhorseMusicians: Sarah Nemtanu, Luc Héry (violin) Sabine Toutain, Christophe Gaugué (viola) Raphaël Perraud, Jean-Luc Bourré (cello) Orchestre National de France/Kurt MasurComposer: TchaikovskyIt is astonishing just how far the interpretative pendulum has swung in ...
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ReviewGrieg: Violin Concertos nos.1–3 (violin sonatas, orch. Kraggerud & Lund)
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Intriguing new concerto versions of Grieg’s violin sonatasMusicians: Henning Kraggerud (violin) Tromsø Chamber OrchestraComposer: Grieg (orch. Kraggerud & Lund)By his own account, Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud has been ‘troubled… since I was a boy’ by the dearth of Norwegian works ...
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ReviewBrahms: Viola Sonatas op.120. Schubert: Sonata in A minor D821 ‘Arpeggione’
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Generally pleasing accounts of works originally for other instrumentsMusicians: Robin Ireland (viola) Tim Horton (piano)Composer: Brahms & SchubertThe latest recording from this long-standing, perfectly attuned partnership was made at Potton Hall recording studio in Suffolk ‘in front of an invited audience’ that ...
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ReviewBruch: Violin Concerto no.1 in G minor op.26. Chausson: Poème op.25. Korngold: Violin Concerto in D major op.35
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A heady mix of Romanticism tempered by subtle playingMusicians: Arabella Steinbacher (violin) Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon/Lawrence FosterComposer: Bruch, Chausson, KorngoldA whole disc of full-on Romanticism, such these works represent, could be too much for the nervous system were it not for the lithe ...
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ReviewCelloquy. Auerbach: 24 Preludes, Cello Sonata, Postlude
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Be prepared for a non-stop emotional rollercoaster ride – and then relaxMusicians: Ani Aznavoorian (cello) Lera Auerbach (piano)Composer: AuerbachDespite the astonishing performances, this disc of cello-and-piano works by US composer Lera Auerbach makes for exhausting listening. Her music lives at a relentless ...
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ReviewRecursions. Viola music by Biber (transc. Lebermann), Rubbra, Hovhaness, Stravinsky, Hindemith, Cords & Irish trad.
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Nothing formulaic about the programming or playing of solo viola musicMusicians: Nicholas Cords (viola)Composer: Biber (transc. Lebermann), Rubbra, Hovhaness, Stravinsky, Hindemith and CordsIn this enterprisingly programmed and vividly recorded CD, Nicholas Cords – violist with, among other adventurous groups, Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk ...
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ReviewSaint-Saëns: Music for violin and piano vol.1. Violin Sonata no.1 in D minor op.75, Berceuse op.38, Élégies opp.143 & 160, Sarabande et rigaudon op.93, Romance op.37 L’air de la pendule, Triptyque op.
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Performances that set a new standard in the playing of Saint-Saëns’s violin musicMusicians: Fanny Clamagirand (violin) Vanya Cohen (piano)Composer: Saint-SaënsThe mellifluous ease and radiant lyricism of Saint-Saëns’s D minor Violin Sonata was captured with such impassioned precision by Jascha Heifetz that for ...
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ReviewSchumann: Violin Sonatas nos.1–3
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Probing accounts of Schumann’s late sonatasMusicians: Anthony Marwood (violin) Aleksandar Madžar (piano)Composer: SchumannOne of Schumann’s countless innovations, still sadly underappreciated, was his mould-breaking tendency to create expressive structures with their own internal logic. In the violin sonatas Gidon Kremer (Deutsche Grammophon) first ...
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ReviewShostakovich: Cello Concerto no.1 op.107, Cello Sonata op.40, Moderato
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A vision of Shostakovich that works better in the chamber fieldMusicians: Emmanuelle Bertrand (cello) Pascal Amoyel (piano) BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Pascal RophéComposer: Shostakovich The arresting opening four-note motif of Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto should convey menace in its unnerving tonal ambiguity, ...
