Recording reviews – Page 222
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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 ...
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ArticleRomantic Cello Concertos vol.2. Volkmann: Cello Concerto in A Minor. Gernsheim: Cello Concerto in E Minor. Dietrich: Cello Concerto in G minor. Schumann: Cello Concerto in A minor
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Alban Gerhardt (cello) Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu (conductor)Composer: Volkmann, Gernsheim, Dietrich, SchumannSchumann’s Cello Concerto proves significantly more compelling than the other works featured alongside it in this release. For example, although the compositional fluency and orchestration of Albert Dietrich (1829–1908) ...
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ArticleStrauss: Metamorphosen, Piano Quartet in C minor op.13, Prelude to Capriccio
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Nash EnsembleComposer: Strauss When the 21-year-old Richard Strauss was composing his Piano Quartet he was very much in the thrall of Brahms, and had the outcome carried his predecessor’s name it could well have formed part of the standard ...
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ArticleSzymanowski: Violin Sonata in D minor op.9. Bacewicz: Violin Sonata no.4. Lutoslawski: Partita
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Patrycja Piekutowska (violin) Beata Bilinska (piano) Composer: Szymanowski, Bacewicz, LutoslawskiThis refined recording, uniting three of the landmark works to emerge from Poland in the last century, provides a perfect showcase for two exciting young Polish performers. This is an ...
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ArticleBach: Viola da gamba Sonatas BWV1027–29, Chaconne
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Yuko Inoue (viola) Kathron Sturrock (piano)Composer: BachBach’s three sonatas for viola da gamba sit rather well on the viola, and they are regularly used as teaching material. However, there hasn’t been a recording of the whole set on the viola ...
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ArticleBach: Violin Concertos in A minor BWV1041 & in E major BWV1042, Concerto for violin and oboe in C minor BWV1060, Concerto for two violins in D minor BWV1043
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Richard Tognetti (violin/director) Helena Rathbone (violin) Diana Doherty (oboe) Australian Chamber OrchestraComposer: Bach This exhilarating programme took me back to the era of London power cuts: during an English Chamber Orchestra concert, Michael Schneider had to ...
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ArticleBach's Goldberg Variations BWV988 (arr. Sitkovetsky)
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Julian Rachlin (violin) Nobuko Imai (viola) Mischa Maisky (cello)Composer: BachDmitry Sitkovetsky’s transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations has the immediate advantage of using the differing timbres of three stringed instruments to highlight the themes, harmonies and contrapuntal strands in a way ...
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Article
Enescu: Complete works for violin and piano vol.1: Violin Sonata in A minor ‘Torso’, Violin Sonata no. 2 in F minor, Impressions d’enfance op.28
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Remus Azoitei (violin) Eduard Stan (piano) Composer: EnescuEnescu’s three sonatas are high-water marks of turn-of-the-20th-century violin literature, not least because Enescu, friend to Ysaÿe and teacher of Menuhin, was one of the finest virtuosos of his day, acclaimed in Vienna and ...
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ArticleHandel: Recorder Sonatas op.1 nos.2, 4, 7, 9 & 11, Sonata in B flat major HWV377 (transcr. Gibley)
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Tatty Theo (cello) Carolyn Gibley (harpsichord) Composer: HandelTaking as her precedent the arrangements made by Baroque composers to maximise income from their compositions, Carolyn Gibley has transcribed six of Handel’s sonatas for recorder and continuo to form cello ...
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ArticleIda Haendel – Historical Return to Chelm. Bach: Chaconne from Partita no.2, etc. Tartini: Sonata ‘The Devil’s Trill’. Wieniawski: Légende, Polonaise de concert. Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen. Tchaikovsky:
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Ida Haendel (violin) Capella Cracoviensis, Stanislaw Galonski (conductor)Composer: Bach, Tartini, Wieniawski, Sarasate, Tchaikovsky, BruchLast year Ida Haendel made an emotional return to perform in the Polish town of Chelm, where she had been born 83 years before. She had begun playing the ...
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ArticleKarlowicz: Violin Concerto in A major op.8. Szymanowski: Violin Concerto no.1
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Piotr Plawner (violin) Zielona Góra Philharmonic Orchestra, Czeslaw Grabowski (conductor)Composer: Karlowicz, SzymanowskiWhile many musicians were making the pilgrimage to Paris in the early 1900s, Szymanowski studied the folk music of his native Polish Tatra mountains, enthusing that ‘each man must go to ...
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ArticleMartinu: Rhapsody-Concerto. Hindemith: Trauermusik. Bartók: Viola Concerto
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Vladimír Buka? (viola) Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vladimír Válek (conductor)Composer: Martinu, Hindemith, Bartók Vladimír Buka? is the viola player of the prestigious Talich Quartet and a teacher at the Hochschule für Musik, Dresden. With this recording he presents his ...
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ArticleMozart: Violin Concertos no.2 in D major K211 & no.4 in D major K218, Sinfonia concertante in E flat major K364
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Maxim Vengerov (violin/director) Lawrence Power (viola) UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra Composer: MozartThis disc is the result of a unique collaboration between Maxim Vengerov and the orchestra involving a period of intensive study on a kibbutz in Israel. ...
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ArticleAndrea Amati Charles IX Violin. Matteis: Fantasia, Passaggio rotto, Movimento incognito. Biber: Passacaglia
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Simon Standage (violin)Composer: Matteis, Biber The focus here is more on a rare Andrea Amati violin housed in the Tullie House Museum, Carlisle, than the music or its interpretation. Nevertheless, the clarity of Simon Standage’s mellow, expressive accounts ...
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ArticleParis. Poulenc: Violin Sonata. Stravinsky: Suite italienne, Chanson russe, Tango, Pastorale. Milhaud: Le boeuf sur le toit
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Maya Koch (violin) Julian Milford (piano)Composer: Poulenc, Stravinsky, MilhaudSumptuously engineered and glowingly played, this recital simply oozes class. The Poulenc Sonata (unaccountably neglected by comparison with its wind-instrument cousins) is often played very cool as though any hint of espressivo indulgence would ...
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ArticleAppassionata. Works by Williams, Franck, Vivaldi, Gershwin, Bandolin, Kabalevsky, Morricone, Saint-Saëns, Brahms, Piazzolla, Mamiya, Yanzi, Meyer, Mendelssohn & Tchaikovsky
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Yo-Yo Ma (cello) etcComposer: Williams, Franck, Vivaldi, Gershwin, Bandolin, Kabalevsky, Morricone, Saint-Saëns, Brahms, Piazzolla, Mamiya, Yanzi, Meyer, Mendelssohn & TchaikovskyI’m not an ardent advocate of compilations, by contrast with the marketing moguls. Yet despite the format’s fragmentary nature, the autobiographical vein that ...
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ArticleBasquiat Strings
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Emma Smith (violin) Vicky Fifield (violin) Jenny May-Logan (viola) Nell Catchpole (viola) Ben Davis (cello) Richard Pryce (double bass) Seb Rochford (drums)Composer: Various Basquiat Strings is the brainchild of cellist Ben Davis, and part of the cutting-edge F-ire ...
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ArticleBiber: The Mystery Sonatas
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Maya Homburger (violin) Camerata KilkennyComposer: Biber Biber’s Mystery Sonatas divide into three cycles of five according to mood and extra-musical inspiration, vividly portraying events in Christ’s life. Maya Homburger offers stylish and imaginative accounts, demonstrating commendable technical bravura and ...
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ArticleBrahms: String Quartet no.2 in A minor op.51 no.2. Janácek: String Quartet no.2 ‘Intimate Letters’
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Heine QuartetComposer: Brahms, Janácek This unusual pairing of quartets is partly explained in the accompanying notes by their common communication to friends: Brahms to Joachim and Jana?c ?ek to his adored Kamila Sto?sslova?. It is an effective ...
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ArticleBrahms: Piano Quintet in F minor op.34, String Sextet in G major op.36
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Christian Tetzlaff (violin) Isabelle Faust (violin) Veronika Eberle (violin) Hanna Weinmeister (viola) Stefan Fehlandt (viola) Julian Steckel (cello) Gustav Rivinius (cello) Lars Vogt (piano)Composer: Brahms These splendid, well-rehearsed performances from the Heimbach Festival are of more than ...
