Recording reviews – Page 214
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ArticleArnold: String Quartets nos.1 & 2, Phantasy for String Quartet (Vita Abundans)
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Maggini QuartetComposer: ArnoldMalcolm Arnold remains a musical enigma; he was never seemingly sure whether he was looking for popularity or craving acceptance as a serious composer. Nowhere is that more in evidence than the two numbered quartets, which was composed ...
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ArticleShostakovich: String Quartets nos.6, 8 & 11
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Jerusalem Quartet Composer: ShostakovichThis disc makes me regret that I have not heard the Jerusalem’s first disc of Shostakovich quartets, with nos.1, 4 and 9. If we are to have yet another cycle of all 15, it should ...
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Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin BWV1001–6, Partita for Solo Flute BWV1013 (arr. viola)
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Scott Slapin (viola)Composer: Bach American violist Scott Slapin’s second recording of Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas features big-boned Bach playing. He uses a modern ‘cut-away’ viola by Hiroshi Lizuka, which is given a warmly vivid personality in this resonant recording. ...
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Bach: Sonatas no.1 in G minor BWV1001 & no.2 in A minor BWV1003, Partita no.1 BWV1002
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Jacqueline Ross (violin)Composer: BachThe first interest of this traversal of solo Bach lies in the violin: an Andrea Amati of 1570, the sort of instrument more often viewed in these pages than heard, especially in the flesh. In capturing its eggshell tints ...
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ArticleDvorák: String Quartet in A flat major op.105, Piano Quintet in A major op.81
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Psophos Quartet, Dana Ciocarlie (piano) Composer: DvorákThe Psophos continues on its inconsistent path with this CD, which contains one good performance and one that has sorely tried my patience. The adorable A flat Quartet opens with a ...
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ArticleEttore Causa. Works by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Granados, Chopin, Saint-Saëns, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Fauré, Mendelssohn & Ysaÿe
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Ettore Causa (viola) Ulrich Staerk (piano)Composer: Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Granados, Chopin, Saint-Saëns, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Fauré, Mendelssohn & Ysaÿe The viola world may not be awash with compositions, but I feel cheated when the debut disc from an ...
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ArticleGórecki: String Quartet no.3 ‘… songs are sung’
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Kronos Quartet Composer: GóreckiWhere do you go after writing a best-selling Symphony of Sorrowful Songs? Write a quartet of sorrowful songs, it appears. The subtitle is from a poem by the Russian Velimir Khlebnikov: ‘When people die/songs are ...
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ArticleInfluencias. Ravel: String Quartet. ToldrÁ : Vistes al mar. Turina: Oración del torero
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Casals QuartetComposer: Ravel, ToldrÁ , TurinaIt was as a violinist and founder of the Spanish Renacimiento Quartet that the composer Eduard Toldrà was best known. The title was symbolic, for Toldrà (1895–1962) was identified with the Renaixença (‘Renaissance’): a Modernist movement spurring ...
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ArticleJ.S. Bach's Suites for solo cello BWV1007–12
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: David Kenedy (cello)Composer: Bach Having been inspired to take up the cello through listening to Casals’s recordings of the Bach suites, it’s perhaps inevitable that David Kenedy, a pupil of Aldo Parisot and Boris Pergamenschikow, should have approached ...
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ArticleMendelssohn: String Quartets in A minor op.13 & in F minor op.80, Four Pieces op.81
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Elias QuartetComposer: Mendelssohn The Elias Quartet gives fully committed accounts of Mendelssohn’s two most impassioned and adventurous quartets, combining commendable musical intelligence with youthful élan, tenderness and fantasy. Following the poise of the A minor Quartet’s thoughtful, song-based ...
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ArticleMozetich: Affairs of the Heart. Langer: Platch. Schnittke: Concerto for Three. Bennett: Sometimes it Rains
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Roman Mints (violin) Maxim Rysanov (viola) Kristine Blaumane (cello) West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra, Mikel Toms (conductor)Composer: Mozetich, Langer, Schnittke, Bennett Affairs of the Heart is a 23-minute violin concerto by the Slovenian-born Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich, much inspired by ...
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ArticleAngele Dubeau - Solo. Works by Piazzolla, Ridout, Locatelli, Enescu, Glick, Brubeck & Campagnoli
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Angele Dubeau (violin) Blair Williams (narrator) Pierre Lebeau (narrator)Composer: Piazzolla, Ridout, Locatelli, Enescu, Glick, Brubeck & Campagnoli After 30 years of giving concerts, violinist Angele Dubeau, something of a household name in her native Canada, has compiled this eclectic programme ...
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ArticleQuintets with Two Cellos. Brahms: String Quintet in F minor op.34 (reconstr. Brown). Joseph Miroslav Weber: String Quintet no.1 in D major
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Divertimenti EnsembleComposer: Brahms, Joseph Miroslav Weber Joseph Miroslav Weber’s First String Quintet incorporates programmatic titles for its four movements, offering attractive fare in a style approaching, but rarely surpassing, that of his more illustrious Czech contemporaries Dvo?rák and Smetana. ...
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ArticleThe Oregon String Quartet and all that Jazz. Works by Glinsky, Lee, Steinhardt, Baker & Gearhart
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Oregon Quartet, Diane Monroe (jazz violin)Composer: Glinsky, Lee, Steinhardt, Baker & Gearhart The Oregon Quartet’s mission here was to unearth recent jazz- and rock-oriented chamber music for the contemporary audience. The selection of pieces varies in scope as well ...
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ArticleViola VoilÁ . Works by Schubert, Drigo, Vieuxtemps, Cage, Stravinsky, Apituley, Fauré & Piazzolla
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Esther Apituley (viola) Rië Tanaka (piano) Eric Calmes (electric bass) Hans Dagelet (trumpet) Amsterdam Viola QuartetComposer: Schubert, Drigo, Vieuxtemps, Cage, Stravinsky, Apituley, Fauré & Piazzolla This is the second CD by the enterprising Esther Apituley, following Violent Viola (released in 2005). Now ...
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ArticleBernstein: Serenade. Weill: Violin Concerto op.12
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Régis Pasquier (violin) Picardy Orchestra, Edmon Colomer (conductor)Composer: Bernstein, WeillScored for solo violin, string orchestra, harp and percussion, Bernstein’s five-movement Serenade is typically loaded with extra-musical meaning – in this case five Greek philosopher–poets as featured in Plato’s Symposium, who ...
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ArticleRomance. Works by Glazunov, Saint-Saëns, Dvorák, Tchaikovsky, Lalo & Casals
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Han-Na Chang (cello) Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Antonio Pappano (conductor)Composer: Glazunov, Saint-Saëns, Dvorák, Tchaikovsky, Lalo & Casals After two weighty releases of mainstream repertoire by Shostakovich and Prokofiev, Korean–American star Han-Na Chang, now in ...
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ArticleBloch: Baal Shem Suite, Suite hébraïque, Suites nos.1 & 2 for solo violin. Ben-Haim: Violin Sonata in G minor, Berceuse sfradite, Improvisation and Dance
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Hagai Shaham (violin) Arnon Erez (piano)Composer: Bloch, Ben-Haim Bloch’s music invariably builds out of extreme contrasts: one minute quietly meditative, the next devotedly impassioned. He is not a composer particularly given to light touches or major-key frivolity ...
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ArticleCerha: Violin Concerto, Fasce*
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Ernst Kovacic (violin) Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bertrand de Billy (conductor), Johannes Kalitzke (conductor)*Composer: Cerha Friedrich Cerha is best known among Anglophones for his completion of Berg’s Lulu, but his own work reveals a thoughtful engagement with the Austro–German ...
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ArticleChopin: Cello Sonata in G minor op.65, Polonaise brillante op.3. Rachmaninoff: Cello Sonata in G minor op.19, Vocalise
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Alexander Kniazev (cello) Nikolai Lugansky (piano)Composer: Chopin, Rachmaninoff Alexander Kniazev and Nikolai Lugansky, both Moscow Conservatoire-trained, really grab these works by the jugular. This is music in the raw: red-blooded stuff, with no inhibitions. Rachmaninoff’s Sonata is the better ...
