Recording reviews – Page 204
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ArticleGlazunov: Violin Concerto in A minor op.82. Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major op.35, Souvenir d’un lieu cher op.42 (arr. Glazunov)
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Vadim Gluzman (violin) Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Litton (conductor)Composer: Glazunov, Tchaikovsky Vadim Gluzman’s honeyed tone in the opening movement of the Glazunov Concerto transports us back to the days of David Oistrakh, recreating that innate Russian musicality of a previous generation. Yet ...
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ArticleKlassik Meets Jazz. Works by Gerd Noack, Oliver Nelson, Berndt Luef, Iván Eröd, Gerhard Präsent, Hannes Kuegerl & Georg Arányi-Aschner
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: ALEA Quartet, Berndt Luef (vibraphone)Composer: Gerd Noack, Oliver Nelson, Berndt Luef, Iván Eröd, Gerhard Präsent, Hannes Kuegerl & Georg Arányi-Aschner‘Klassik meets Jazz’ could as well be called ‘String Quartet meets Vibraphone’. The pieces involving Berndt Luef are of the easy-listening variety: two ...
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ArticleLachenmann: Gran Torso, Reigen der Seliger Geister, Grido
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Arditti String QuartetComposer: Lachenmann True to form, Helmut Lachenmann treats not only the players but their instruments as physical, living bodies. These pieces of wood breathe, chatter, fart, snore and sigh in a soap opera of musical personalities scraping ...
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ArticleLiquid Metal Dreaming
Musicians: Laurie Scott Baker (double bass/electric upright bass/percussion) Robert Evans (crwth, tambura, lyre, fiddle, voice)Composer: VariousThe prospect of listening to over an hour of double bass music (adorned with an unlikely array of percussion, lyres and vocal harmonics), played entirely on open strings or using natural harmonics, filled ...
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ArticleLudi fecundus
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Stephen Nachmanovitch (electric violin)Composer: Nachmanovitch ‘Ludi fecundus’ – Latin for ‘fertile play’ or ‘the game that creates the world’– comprises short improvisations inspired by creation myths. Stephen Nachmanovitch, a published author and lecturer in improvisation across the arts, has ...
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ArticleAmerican Fantasies. Works by Schoenberg, Cage, Schuller, Harris, Kirchner & Coulthardt
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Hasse Borup (violin) Mary Kathleen Ernst (piano) Composer: Schoenberg, Cage, Schuller, Harris, Kirchner & Coulthardt It is something of an irony that at a time when contemporary musical techniques have reached unprecedented levels of subtlety and insight, Schoenberg’s serial work is ...
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ArticleMartinu: Suite concertante (first & second versions), Rhapsody–Concerto
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Bohuslav Matoušek (violin/viola) Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Christopher Hogwood (conductor)Composer: Martinu Martinu is a composer whose versatility never ceases to surprise, even though (like Hindemith) he is sometimes unfairly spurned as being over-productive, stylistically disparate and lacking the distinct idiom of ...
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ArticlePaganini's Twenty-Four Caprices op.1
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Janusz Wawrowski (violin)Composer: PaganiniAny violinist who can commit the challenging bravura of Paganini’s caprices to CD with substantial accuracy, clarity and technical aplomb is worthy of praise. But Polish violinist Janusz Wawrowski goes one step further, performing these benchmarks for the aspiring ...
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ArticleThe Violin Virtuoso Collection. Works by Sarasate, Wieniawski, Bloch, Saint-Saëns & Paganini
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Franco Mezzena (violin) Maria Conti Gallenti (piano)Composer: Sarasate, Wieniawski, Bloch, Saint-Saëns & PaganiniTo present an album of virtuoso showstoppers by Sarasate, Wieniawski, Saint-Saëns et al – especially one with such well-worn favourites as the Carmen Fantasy, Scherzo–Tarantelle and Havanaise – is to ...
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ArticleTrio Arc
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Mario Pavone (double bass) Paul Bley (piano) Matt Wilson (drums)Composer: Various Mario Pavone and Paul Bley rekindle an old flame in this first collaboration for over 35 years, a free improvisation session with drummer Matt Wilson. The disc opens ...
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ArticleShostakovich: Piano Trios no.1 in C minor op.8 & no.2 in E minor op.67, Piano Quintet in G minor op.57
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: London Mozart Trio, London Mozart Chamber Ensemble Composer: ShostakovichShostakovich’s chamber music is well represented in the catalogue, but certain interpreters outshine others in prising out the ironies and ambiguities that often underlie. Best here is the pre-war Piano ...
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ArticleDale: Suite op.2, Introduction and Andante for six violas op.5, English Dance, Phantasy op.4
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Roger Chase (viola) Hannah Shaw (viola) Fiona Opie (viola) Thomas Beer (viola) Rumen Cvetkov (viola) Karel Coninx (viola) Michiko Otaki (piano)Composer: Dale According to Frederick Corder, his teacher at the Royal Academy of Music, Benjamin Dale (1885–1943) wrote ...
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ArticleElgar: Cello Concerto in E minor op.85. Myaskovsky: Cello Concerto in C minor op.66
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Jamie Walton (cello) Philharmonia Orchestra, Alexander Briger (conductor)Composer: Elgar, Myaskovsky Young British cellist Jamie Walton has already recorded Saint-Saens’s concertos with the Philharmonia and Alexander Briger. Now two years on he turns to two more introspective works: Elgar’s ...
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ArticleBottesini: Music for Double Bass and Piano vol.2: Gran duetto no.3, Concerto no.2, Adagio melancolico ed appassionato, Duetto for clarinet & double bass, Fantasia on Bellini’s ‘Beatrice di Tenda’, Une
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Joel Quarrington (double bass) Harold Hall Robinson (double bass) Andrew Burashko (piano) James Campbell (clarinet) Monica Whicher (soprano)Composer: BottesiniThis second volume of Joel Quarrington’s Bottesini project comprises a mixed programme of solo and ensemble works by the ‘Paganini of the double bass’. ...
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ArticleBrahms: Piano Trios in B major op.8 (revised version) & in C minor op.101, ‘FAE’ Scherzo in C minor
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Guarneri Trio PragueComposer: BrahmsNot many recordings of the Brahms trios have caused a stir in the Potter household over the years. This new disc of the first and last trios comes near to upsetting the status quo, but on reflection ...
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ArticleBridge: Phantasie Piano Quartet, Phantasie Piano Trio, Scherzo for cello, Souvenir for violin, Three Songs with viola, Songs
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: London Bridge Ensemble, Ivan Ludlow (baritone)Composer: Bridge The choice of programme here offers a release that is unique in the fast-growing catalogue of Frank Bridge recordings. The two substantial ‘Phantasie’ pieces, framing the group of shorter works written ...
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ArticleRight Through the Bone. Röntgen: Piano Quintet in A minor op.100, Viola Sonata in C minor, Sextet in G major, Trio in E flat major for clarinet, viola & piano
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: ARC Ensemble (Artists of the Royal Conservatory, Canada)Composer: Röntgen Julius Röntgen (1855–1932), younger brother of Wilhelm who discovered X-rays and won a Nobel Prize in 1901, was a composer out of his time. All four works on this ...
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ArticleSchubert: Arpeggione Sonata D821, String Quintet in C major D956
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Nicolas Deletaille (arpeggione/cello) Paul Badura-Skoka (piano) Rosamonde Quartet Composer: SchubertSchubert’s Arpeggione Sonata, beloved by cellists and viola players, is practically never heard on the instrument after which it was named. It took young Belgian cellist Nicolas Deletaille, most ...
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ArticleVivaldi: 12 Trio Sonatas op.1
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Enrico Gatti (violin) Rossella Croce (violin) Judith-Maria Becker (cello) Monica Pustilnik (archlute) Guido Morini (harpsichord/organ)Composer: Vivaldi This double disc is pure delight from start to finish, and surely a collector’s edition. Twelve sonatas from Vivaldi’s op.1 might sound ...
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ArticleVivaldi: The Four Seasons. Bach: Concerto in D minor for two violins BWV1043
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Pavel Š porcl (violin) Prague PhilharmoniaComposer: Vivaldi, Bach Pavel Šporcl offers the converse to the self-styled ‘period’ performances of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with an approach that employs a wide dynamic range and tempos that are tantalisingly fluid. He ...
