Recording reviews – Page 179
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ArticleJanácek: String Quartets no.1 ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ & no.2 ‘Intimate Letters’ (in two versions, with viola and with viola d’amore)
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Mandelring Quartet, Gunter Teuffel (viola d’amore)Composer: JanácekThis would count as a desirable disc of Janá?ek’s quartets even without its added extra. And quite an extra it is: a second performance of the Second Quartet with a viola d’amore replacing the viola. The ...
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ArticleLeclair: Six Sonatas for Two Violins op.3. Pachelbel: Canon in D major
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Tengfei Zhou (violin)Composer: Leclair, Pachelbel The wonders of modern engineering have allowed Tengfei Zhou to partner himself in this accomplished recording of Leclair’s duet sonatas. There is also a ‘bonus item’ in the form of Pachelbel’s Canon, in which ...
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ArticlePop-pop
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Joan Jeanrenaud (cello) PC Muñoz (electric percussion)Composer: Various An ex-Kronos cellist teams up with ‘art-funk beatmaster’ and producer PC Muñoz here, but don’t be fooled by the title: these short, electronic pieces are pop-influenced up to a fairly limited point.The overdubbed cello ...
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ArticleBach: Six Suites for solo cello BWV 1007–12 (incl. three performances of no.5)
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Josephine van Lier (cellos)Composer: Bach The countless available recordings of Bach’s Cello Suites cater for a wide divergence of tastes, developed by not only the variety of performing approaches employed but also the widely differing personalities of the artists involved. ...
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ArticleBach: Six Trio Sonatas BWV525–30
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Brook Street BandComposer: BachBach was never averse to recycling his music in arrangements for various instruments, so it comes as no surprise that others have been equally tempted. Here we have his six organ sonatas where the keyboard’s right-hand part is given ...
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ArticleBax: Piano Quintet in G minor. Bridge: Piano Quintet in D minor
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Tippett Quartet, Ashley Wass (piano)Composer: Bax, Bridge Bax’s Piano Quintet (1914–15) emerges from the same Celtic mists as his most famous tone poems. It makes for a heady concoction, one that Ashley Wass and the players of the Tippett Quartet exploit ...
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ArticleFlights of Fantasy: Early Italian Chamber Music. Works by Castello, Farina, Cavalli, Marini, Legrenzi, Bertali, Frescobaldi & Biber
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Irish Baroque Orchestra Chamber Soloists/Monica Huggett (director)Composer: Castello, Farina, Cavalli, Marini, Legrenzi, Bertali, Frescobaldi & Biber Monica Huggett and her colleagues demonstrate how various Italian or Italian-influenced composers realised the potential of the ascendant violin in the 17th century. The ten works ...
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ArticleHymns and Prayers. Tickmayer: Eight Hymns In Memoriam Andrei Tarkovsky*. Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor† . Kancheli: Silent prayer‡
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Gidon Kremer, Marija Nemanyt?† (violin) Maxim Rysanov† (viola) Giedr? Dirvanauskait?† ‡ (cello) Khatia Buniatishvili† (piano) Andrei Pushkarev* (vibraphone) Sofia Altunashvili‡ (voice on tape) Kremerata Baltica/Roman Kofman*‡Composer: Tickmayer, Franck, KancheliStevan Kovacs Tickmayer’s 2004 work Eight Hymns runs continuously for nearly ...
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ArticleMethera – In Concert
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Emma Reid, John Dipper (fiddle) Miranda Rutter (viola) Lucy Deakin (cello), Kerr Fagan HarbronComposer: VariousIf you have doubts over whether the string quartet is a natural medium for traditional music – and I did – then Methera will leave you converted. This ...
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ArticleBrahms: Piano Quartet in G minor op. 25. Schumann: Piano Quartet in E flat major op. 47
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Eaken Trio, Joseph Esmilla (viola)Composer: Brahms, Schumann The Eaken Trio of Pennsylvania played these quartets 17 times in the 2007–8 concert season with Joseph Esmilla, before he returned to his native Philippines. Engineer Timothy Breon captured them at the Mount ...
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ArticleBritten: String Quartet no.2 in C major op.36, Three Divertimenti, Miniature Suite, String Quartet in D major
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Emperor QuartetComposer: Britten The Emperor Quartet gives a well-paced and deeply thought account of the second of Britten’s numbered quartets. Maybe the first movement lacks the last degree of tension in its more dramatic moments, but the ‘Allegro calmo’ indication ...
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ArticleChants Juifs. Traditional: Kol nidrei, Question, Psaume, Conversation, Prière, Chanson, Kaddish, Incertitude. Zygel: Nigun, Psalmodie, Chemah. Bloch: Nigun, Prière, Supplication, Jewish Song, Méditati
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Sonia Wieder-Atherton (cello) Daria Hovora (piano) Sinfonia Varsovia/JÁ nos FürstComposer: Traditional, Zygel, Bloch, RavelThis beautifully recorded release is a personal voyage for Sonia Wieder-Atherton, whose thoughts both philosophical and autobiographical are printed in the accompanying CD booklet. Although some of the material ...
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ArticleRhythm & Texture. Ravel: String Quartet in F major. Gershwin: Lullaby. Lavista: Reflejos de la noche. Alvarez: Metro Chabacano. Golijov: Tenebrae
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Brodsky QuartetComposer: Ravel, Gershwin, Lavista, Alvarez, Golijov True to the album’s title, the Brodskys explore the expressive parameters and sonic potentialities of Ravel’s glorious String Quartet to an unrivalled degree. Their micro-inflected playing reveals layers of expression closed to traditional readings in ...
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ArticleSchumann: String Quartet in A minor op.41 no. 1, Piano Quintet in E flat major op. 44
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Pražák Quartet, Evgeni Koroliov (piano)Composer: Schumann This Schumann bicentenary tribute features two works that were publicly premiered on 8 January 1843 at Leipzig’s Gewandhaus by Ferdinand David’s Quartet, with Clara Schumann. The members of the Pražák Quartet give a perceptive, ...
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ArticleDebussy: Suite for cello and orchestra (arr. Beamish). Ravel: Deux mélodies hébraïques (arr. Tognetti). Prokofiev: Concertino for cello and orchestra op.132 (arr. Blok). Bloch: From Jewish Life (arr.
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Steven Isserlis (cello) Tapiola Sinfonietta/Gábor Takács-NagyComposer: Debussy, Ravel, Prokofiev, BlochThe ancestry of the four orchestrations is detailed in the disc’s booklet notes, though the work masquerading under the name of Debussy is highly questionable. At the age of 19 he composed a ...
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ArticleDominant Curve. Jacobsen: Achille’s Heel. Umezaki: (Cycles) what falls must rise. Debussy: String Quartet in G minor op.10. Yanov-Yanovsky: ...al niente. Cage: In a Landscape (arr. Messina)
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Brooklyn Rider, Kojiro Umezaki (shakuhachi/electronics) Justin Messina (electronics)Composer: Jacobsen, Umezaki, Debussy, Yanov-Yanovsky, CageFrom the stylish CD design to the philosophical booklet notes, I was prepared to dismiss this new disc from young New York quartet Brooklyn Rider as style over substance. But ...
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ArticleEsperanza Spalding – Chamber Music Society
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Esperanza Spalding (double bass/voice) Entcho Todorov (violin) Lois Martinu(viola) David Eggar (cello) Leo Genovese (piano) Terri Lyne Carrington (drums) Quintino Cinalli (percussion) Gretchen Parlato (voice)Composer: VariousBy combining string- and rhythm-section trios, Spalding brings together her musical childhood and latter development. A violinist ...
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ArticleFleur de Paris. Works by Scotto, Fauré, Konyn/Ulmer/Luypaerts, Trenet, Ravel, Legrand, Vandair, Debussy, Luoiguy, Giraud, Satie & Poulenc
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Twelve Cellists of the Berlin PhilharmonicComposer: Scotto, Fauré, Konyn/Ulmer/Luypaerts, Trenet, Ravel, Legrand, Vandair, Debussy, Luoiguy, Giraud, Satie & PoulencWhat an odd collection this is. No sooner do you press the play button than mighty, exaggerated portamentos and sugared harmonies announce that we ...
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ArticleFoerster: String Quartets nos.1–5, String Quintet op.3, The Prayer, Erinnerung, Allegro giocoso
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Stamic Quartet, Ji?í Hudec (double bass) Jana Boušková (harp)Composer: Foerster Josef Bohuslav Foerster (1859–1951) was born when musical Romanticism was being revitalised by the gradual emergence of a series of national schools, most crucially in Bohemia. By the end ...
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ArticleGypsic. Monti: Czárdás. Enescu: Violin Sonata no.3 op.25. Ravel: Tzigane, Berceuse, Blues from Violin Sonata. Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen op.20. G. Boulanger. Avant de mourir
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Sarah Nemtanu (violin) Chilly Gonzalez (piano/Farfisa organ/percussion) Romain Descharmes (piano) Iurie Morar (cimbalom) Orchestra/Aurélien Azan ZielinskiComposer: Monti, Enescu, Ravel, Sarasate, G. BoulangerThis label encourages its violinists to tinker with well-known pieces, whether from a spirit of fun, or a desperate desire to ...
