Recording reviews – Page 210
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ArticleBartók: String Quartets nos.2 & 5
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Parker QuartetComposer: Bartók It’s odd how recordings of this era of music – Bartók, Strauss and Vaughan Williams, say – have slowed down over the years. Both these performances are among the broadest I have heard, and sustaining ...
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ArticleBeethoven: String Quartets op.59 nos.1-3 ‘Rasumovsky’, op.74 ‘Harp’ and op.95 ‘Serioso’
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Orion QuartetComposer: Beethoven The Orion Quartet here displays the fruits of more than two decades of exploration and insight into the music of Beethoven. Violinists Daniel and Todd Phillips swap around the leader’s role, but this is inconsequential as ...
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ArticleBeethoven: Violin Sonatas vol.2: Sonatas in A major op.12 no.2, in A minor op.23, in F major op.24 ‘Spring’ & in G major op.30 no.3
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Peter Cropper (violin) MartinuRoscoe (piano)Composer: Beethoven The new duo partnership formed last year between two long-established musicians is currently touring the UK presenting an on-going Beethoven violin sonata cycle to coincide with this series of recordings. That feel of ...
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ArticleBoccherini: Cello Concerto in B flat major (arr. Grützmacher). Mozart: Horn Concerto no.3 in E flat major K447 (arr. Fischer). Kodály: Sonata for solo cello op.8, Duo for violin and cello op.7, Cello
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: János Starker (cello) Arnold Eidus (violin) Otto Herz (piano) Castle Hill Festival Orchestra, Maximilian Pilzer (conductor)Composer: Boccherini, Mozart, Kodály, Bartók, WeinerThese recordings, made in New York in the early 1950s, did much to secure for János Starker his international reputation. ...
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ArticleBrahms: Violin Sonata no.2 in A major op.100. Prokofiev: Violin Sonata no.2 in D major op.94a. Wieniawski: Variations on an original theme in A major op.15. Foster: Old Folks at Home (arr.Kreisler), J
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Alexander Gilman (violin) Marina Seltenreich (piano)Composer: Brahms, Prokofiev, Wieniawski, FosterThe 25-year-old German violinist Alexander Gilman won the loan of the 1684 ‘Croall’ Stradivari and the chance to make this debut CD as victor in the 2006 WestLB Music Competition and Instrument Award. ...
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ArticleCorigliano: The Red Violin Concerto, Violin Sonata
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Joshua Bell (violin) Jeremy Dank (piano) Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop (conductor)Composer: CoriglianoThis seems like the second bite at a cherry. John Corigliano’s Oscar-winning score for the film The Red Violin, featuring Joshua Bell, has already appeared on CD. Now here it ...
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ArticleSchulhoff: String Quartet no.2, String Quartet op.25
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Schulhoff QuartetComposer: Schulhoff Erwin Schulhoff’s Second Quartet featured on the landmark recording by Germany’s Petersen Quartet (Capriccio). The Schulhoff Quartet stands in the same splendid tradition: cellist Jonás Krejcí, who studied with William Pleeth and Lynn Harrell, has played ...
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ArticleSchumann: Piano Quintet in E flat major op.44. Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor op.34
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Artemis Quartet, Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)Composer: Schumann, Brahms I very much enjoyed these powerful, committed performances, which convey a strong feeling of co-operation between pianist and quartet.Tempos seem excellent throughout, although I wish the players had been ...
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ArticleTavener: Song for Athene, Dhyana, Lalishri. Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Nicola Benedetti (violin) London Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Litton (conductor)Composer: Tavener, Vaughan Williams Lalishri is a new work written for Nicola Benedetti, and inspired by the 14th-century Hindu poet and saint Lalla Yogishwari, who discovered her spiritual core and ...
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ArticleVivaldi: Violin Concertos in D major RV206, E minor RV275, A major RV339, B flat major RV377, D major RV227 & B flat major RV381
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Marco Pedrona (violin) Ensemble GuidantusComposer: Vivaldi Marco Pedrona brings not only virtuosity but also warmth and musicality to these performances, sensitively accompanied by the five other members of Ensemble Guidantus. His playing is fresh and resilient in the opening ...
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ArticleElgar: Cello Concerto in E minor op.85, In moonlight, La capricieuse, Romance op.42, Salut d’amour, Chanson de matin, Sospiri
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Natalie Clein (cello) Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Vernon Handley (conductor)Composer: Elgar Natalie Clein’s affinity with Elgarian melody is joyously evident on this disc. She employs her rich tone with a light touch, and her playing is marked by elasticity of ...
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ArticleFerneyhough: Funerailles I & II, Bone Alphabet, Unsichtbare Farben
The Strad Issue: January 2006Musicians: Irvine Arditti (violin) Christian Dierstein (percussion) Ensemble RechercheComposer: Ferneyhough Even a page of Elliott Carter can look pale in comparison to the profusion of notes and instructions on a score by Brian Ferneyhough, and this has left the German-domiciled ...
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ArticleMary Ellen Childs: Dream House
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: EthelComposer: Mary Ellen Childs Contemporary specialist string quartet Ethel is the focal point for this new extended suite, inspired by the renovation of the composer’s home and intended as a ‘commentary on cycles of time, rhythms of work, ...
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ArticleMedtner: Violin Sonata no.3 in E minor op.57 ‘Epica’, Three Nocturnes op.16, Fairy Tale in B flat minor op. 20 no.1 (arr. Heifetz)
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Laurence Kayaleh (violin) Paul Stewart (piano)Composer: MedtnerCompleted in 1938, shortly after the Russian-born composer Nikolai Medtner made his home in England, the five-movement Third Violin Sonata outlasts most 20th-century symphonies in length. Its rhapsodic style of writing provides Medtner’s ideas with ample ...
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ArticleMendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor op.64 (1832 version), String Octet in E flat major op.20, Hexenlied op.8 no.8, Suleika op.34 no.4, Auf Flügeln des Gesanges op.34 no.2
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Daniel Hope (violin) Lucy Gould (violin) Sophie Besançon (violin) Christian Eisenberger (violin) Pascal Siffert (viola) Stewart Eaton (viola) William Conway (cello) Kate Gould (cello) Sebastian Knauer (piano) Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Thomas Hengelbrock (conductor) Composer: MendelssohnThis is the best playing I have ...
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ArticleNew Impossibilities. Works by Abou-Khalil, Golijov, Zhou Long, Kalhor, Das, Hai-Hai Huang, Trad. etc
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Yo-Yo Ma (cello) Silk Road Ensemble, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Miguel Harth-Bedoya (conductor)Composer: Abou-Khalil, Golijov, Zhou Long, Kalhor, Das, Hai-Hai Huang, Trad. etcNew Impossibilities is the product of the Silk Road Ensemble’s year-long residency in Chicago. It features works by world music star ...
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ArticleNocturne. Chopin: Cello Sonata in G minor op.65, Introduction and Polonaise brillante op.3, arrangements of keyboard works for cello and piano
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Truls Mørk (cello) Kathryn Stott (piano)With a disc entitled ‘Nocturne’, melancholy is likely to be the prevailing mood, yet there is variety in Truls Mørk and Kathryn Stott’s programme thanks mostly to the original works for cello and piano, notably ...
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ArticleNouvelles Vagues: From Godard to Audiard. Works by Barbieri, Delerue, Desplat, Duhamel, Maurice Jarre & Morricone
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Traffic QuintetComposer: Barbieri, Delerue, Desplat, Duhamel, Maurice Jarre & Morricone The Traffic Quintet, a recently formed string quartet–double bass ensemble, takes its name from Jacques Tati’s classic 1971 film Trafic – his fifth and last outing, incidentally, as Monsieur ...
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ArticleKlein: String Trio, Four Movements for String Quartet, String Quartet op.2, Duo for violin & viola, Preludium, Duo for violin & cello, Fantasy and Fugue
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Kocian Quartet Composer: KleinWe are lucky to have any music by Gideon Klein (1919–45). As a Jew, he was banned from studying by the Nazis. His pre-war works survived thanks to the Schoenberg scholar Eduard Hertzog, who ...
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ArticleBusoni
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Joseph Lin (violin) Benjamin Loeb (piano) Composer: Busoni: Violin Sonatas nos.1 & 2, Four Bagatelles op.28Ferruccio Busoni’s two violin sonatas are both early works. The First Sonata (1890), a student piece that won the 23-year-old composer the Rubinstein Prize in St ...
