Recording reviews – Page 182
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ArticleCage: Etudes boreales for a percussionist using a piano, Harmonies XIII, XXII, XXIV, XXVII, 10'40.3' for a string player from 26’1.1499’’, Etudes boreales for cello solo and piano solo
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Friedrich Gauwerky (cello)Composer: Cage The German cellist and new music specialist Friedrich Gauwerky succeeds here in bringing coherence and structure to two of the most challenging works of 20th-century cello literature, John Cage’s Etudes boreales (1978) and 26’1.1499” (1953–5) (of which ...
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ArticleSaint-Saëns: Violin Concerto no.3 in B minor op.61, Introduction & Rondo capriccioso. Chausson: Poème op.25. Ysaÿe: Poème élégiaque in D minor op.12
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Tedi Papavrami (violin) Liège Philharmonic Orchestra/François-Xavier RothComposer: Saint-Saëns, Chausson, Ysaÿe Tedi Papavrami has two immediate advantages here: he possesses a sound of ravishing purity and he is an out-and-out sensualist who plays these glorious scores with affectionate warmth. Even bearing ...
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ArticleVolupté. Koechlin: Viola Sonata op.53, Quatre petites pièces. Jongen: Concertino for viola and piano op.111, Introduction et danse op.102, Andante espressivo, Allegro appassionato op.79
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Roger Benedict (viola) Ben Jacks (horn) Timothy Young (piano)Composer: Koechlin, Jongen Voluptuous indeed are the sounds embedded in this recording of music from the fin de siècle (in spirit if not always in date of composition). The main work ...
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ArticleDvorák: Cello Concerto in A major ‘Youth’, Waldesruhe, Rondo op.94, Polonaise
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Ramon Jaffé (cello) Rheinische Philharmonie State Orchestra/Daniel RaiskinComposer: Dvorák Given the quality of the famous B minor Concerto, who couldn’t but hope that Dvo?ák had written an earlier masterpiece for cello and orchestra? The 1865 A major Concerto, however, ...
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ArticleElgar: Cello Concerto, Sospiri, Salut d’Amour, La capricieuse. Dvorák: Waldesruhe, Rondo op.94. Respighi: Andante con variazioni. Vasks: The Book
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Sol Gabetta (cello) Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Mario VenzagoComposer: Elgar, Dvorák ,Respighi, VasksIn every regard this is an outstanding CD. The recording quality is impressively clear yet warm, the orchestral playing well-honed and incisive, and the repertoire extremely varied. Sol Gabetta shines at ...
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ArticleAcoustic Voyage
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Tim Kliphuis (violin) Nigel Clark (guitar) Roy Percy (double bass) David Newton (piano) Sandro Ciancio (percussion)Composer: VariousTim Kliphuis adds piano and percussion to his regular trio for this journey through combinations of Manouche jazz, Scottish folk and Brazilian music. Kliphuis ...
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ArticleMetamorphosis. Bartók: String Quartet no.4. Ligeti: String Quartet no.1 ‘Métamorphoses nocturnes’. Kurtág: 12 Microludes op.13
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Casals Quartet Composer: Bartók, Ligeti, KurtágA thought-provoking programme presents Hungarian composers of two generations with much in common: an uncanny ear for string sonority, a tendency towards introversion and a capacity for civilised barbarity. Ligeti and Kurtág show Bartók’s ...
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ArticleBeethoven: String Quartet in B flat major op.130, Grosse Fuge op.133
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Cypress QuartetComposer: Beethoven The Cypress Quartet’s second volume in its series of Beethoven’s late quartets features op.130 and includes both the Grosse Fuge and the composer’s alternative finale. These perceptive interpretations are rigorous and intuitively formed, strong without being overstated, ...
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ArticleBeethoven: Violin Sonatas in E flat major op.12 no.3 & A major op.47 ‘Kreutzer’
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Viktoria Mullova (violin) Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano)Composer: Beethoven Despite my respect for Viktoria Mullova, which has led me to listen to this disc some half-dozen times, I am left with a feeling of frustration. Phrase after phrase from the violinist ...
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ArticleBrahms: Viola Sonatas nos.1 & 2 op.120, Violin Sonata op.78 (transcr. Erdélyi)
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Roberto Díaz (viola) Jeremy Denk (piano) Composer: BrahmsReaders will probably be most familiar with Roberto Díaz as the ex-principal of both the Philadelphia and National Symphony Orchestras and as a former member of the Boston Symphony. On the evidence of this immaculately ...
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ArticleBull: Violin Concerto in A major, Concerto fantastico, The Herdgirl’s Sunday, La melancolie (arr. Halvorsen/Plagge), La verbena de San Juan, A Mountain Vision
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Annar Follesø (violin) Norwegian Radio Orchestra/Ole Kristian RuudComposer: BullOle Bull aimed to out-Paganini Paganini, and in his lifetime he pretty much succeeded, as the plaudits of Schumann and Joachim in the comprehensive notes for this CD suggest. Certainly the combination of extravagant, ...
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ArticleBurgon: Viola Concerto ‘Ghosts of the Dance’, Cello Concerto, Merciless Beauty
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Philip Dukes (viola) Josephine Knight (cello) Sarah Connolly (mezzo) City of London Sinfonia/Rumon GambaComposer: BurgonThanks to Geoffrey Burgon’s highly successfully career in film and television soundtracks, his concert music sits comfortably among those composers working in a modern tonality. Both concertos are ...
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ArticleCello Quartet – original works by Matz, Laboccetta, Golterman, Paque, Corrette, Grützmacher, Fitzenhagen, Wagenseil, Pahissa, Morera, Huguet & Casals
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Tritton Cello Ensemble Composer: Matz, Laboccetta, Golterman, Paque, Corrette, Grützmacher, Fitzenhagen, Wagenseil, Pahissa, Morera, Huguet & CasalsIt’s a pity that the Tritton Cello Ensemble, which boasts three Stradivari and one Gagliano, has largely restricted itself to original quartet works for this disc, ...
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ArticleCorigliano: Violin Concerto ‘The Red Violin’, Phantasmagoria – Suite from ‘The Ghosts of Versailles’
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Michael Ludwig (violin) Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra/JoAnn FallettaComposer: Corigliano This disc plunges you with carefree abandon into the highly coloured and expressive world of Corigliano. After the expertly performed suite from the composer’s opera The Ghosts of Versailles comes the ...
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ArticleCorrette: Les délices de la solitude op.20
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Bassorum vox Composer: CorretteMichel Corrette’s Les délices de la solitude (1738–9) is one of the first French cello sonata collections. Its six works combine French and Italian style elements and offer South Korean Baroque cellist Seung-Yeon Lee ample opportunity to ...
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ArticleRode: 24 Caprices en forme d’études
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Elizabeth Wallfisch (violin)Composer: Rode First printed in 1815, Rode’s 24 Caprices are charming pieces, far more than the didactic exercises that the term ‘étude’ might suggest, with moments of real beauty amid their extreme virtuosic demands. Elizabeth Wallfisch, playing on ...
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ArticleSabrina-Vivian Höpcker (violin) Northwest German Philharmonic/Edwin Outwater, Göttingen Symphony Orchestra/Martin Brauß
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Bruch: Scottish Fantasy op.64. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor op.64Composer: Bruch, MendelssohnAlthough Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker has established a place for herself among today’s gifted young German violinists, I cannot understand why at this early stage in her career she has brought this ...
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ArticleSainsbury: Violin Concerto haydn. Wood: Violin Concerto*
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Lorraine McAslan (violin) BBC Concert Orchestra/Barry Wordsworth, Gavin Sutherland*Composer: Sainsbury, Wood Following on from her outstanding account of York Bowen’s Violin Concerto for Dutton with the late, much-missed Vernon Handley, Lorraine McAslan once again proves a highly persuasive ...
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ArticleSchubert: Arpeggione Sonata D821, Lieder
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Antoine Tamestit (viola) Sandrine Piau (soprano) Markus Hadulla (piano)Composer: Schubert This recording celebrates the viola as a singing instrument in music by one of the most lyrical of all composers. Its cornerstones are haunting readings of the ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata and ...
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ArticleSchubert: String Quintet in C major D956, Overture in C minor D8 (arr. Geringas)
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Acies Quartet, David Geringas (cello) Composer: SchubertIt would be easy to overlook yet another performance of the great C major Quintet, but it would be a mistake to do so. The young Acies Quartet from Austria, eight years old at the ...
