All Review articles – Page 120
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ReviewSchubert: String Quintet in C major D956
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Schubert’s chamber masterpiece in an arrangement with added bottomMusicians: Amsterdam Sinfonietta Soloists, Rick Stotijn (double bass)Composer: SchubertTaking inspiration from a Sliding Doors vision of history – Domenico Dragonetti and Schubert as bosom buddies – the latest recording from the Amsterdam Sinfonietta takes ...
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ReviewKancheli: Chiaroscuro; Twilight
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Kremer and friends locate the light and dark in Kancheli’s musicMusicians: Gidon Kremer, Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin) Kremerata BalticaComposer: KancheliGiya Kancheli’s pessimistic view of the world expresses itself in music that can be both simplistic and banal. Familiar, sentimental, often sickly Romantic chord ...
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ReviewGrieg: Violin Sonatas: no.1 in F major, no.2 in G major, no.3 in C minor
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Admirable playing – but it can’t match up to the competitionMusicians: Daniela Cammarano (violin) Alessandro Deljavan (piano)Composer: GriegDaniela Cammarano and Alessandro Deljavan offer commendable, thoughtful readings, rising to the various challenges of the fast movements and responding well to the abundant lyricism ...
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ReviewColeridge-Taylor: Violin Concerto in G minor. Delius: Suite. H. Wood: Violin Concerto in A minor
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Music by Brits that nevertheless displays an American accentMusicians: Tasmin Little (violin) BBC Philharmonic/Andrew DavisComposer: Coleridge-Taylor; Delius; H. WoodThe Chandos engineers have produced a typically wide and opulent soundstage for concertante works by three English composers who crossed the Atlantic – in ...
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ReviewCassadó: Suite for Solo Cello. Kodály: Solo Cello Sonata; Duo
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Meneses tackles two peaks of the solo cello repertoireMusicians: Antonio Meneses (cello) Claudio Cruz (violin)Composer: Cassadó; KodályGaspar Cassadó’s three-movement, Catalan-themed response to the Bach Suites is still little known in proportion to its originality, perhaps owing to the vertiginous technical demands it ...
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ReviewBruch: Violin Concerto no.1 in G minor; Romance in A minor; Serenade in A minor
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Wonderful playing – even if the programme is back to frontMusicians: Jack Liebeck (violin) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn BrabbinsComposer: BruchI am curious about the ordering of this disc (volume 19 in Hyperion’s Romantic Violin Concerto series). The cover lists the works in ...
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ReviewBrahms: Two String Quartets op.51
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Playing of warmth that gets to the heart of Brahms’s elusive quartetsMusicians: New Orford QuartetComposer: BrahmsBrahms’s op.51 string quartets synthesise Beethovenian structural integrity with Schubertian lyricism under high musical pressure. The resulting contrapuntal compression was to have a vital creative impact on ...
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ReviewBrahms: String Quintet no.2 in G major. Dvorák: String Quintet no.3 in E flat major ‘American’
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Garlitsky and students take on two Romantic string quintetsMusicians: Boris Garlitsky, Jaha Lee (violins) Kyoungmin Park, Georgy Kovalev (violas) Philip Graham (cello)Composer: Brahms; DvorákThe expansive and eager theme that opens the second of Brahms’s string quintets is one of the most notable ...
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ReviewBrahms: Cello Sonata in E minor op.38. Schumann: Fantasiestücke op.73; Intermezzo from F-A-E Sonata; Adagio and Allegro op.70; Three Romances op.94
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Characterful playing of persuasive transcriptions for violaMusicians: Ettore Causa (viola) Boris Berman (piano)Composer: Brahms; SchumannSchumann probably brought it upon himself when he allowed his late chamber music to be published in versions for different instruments.On this disc, violist Ettore Causa plays pieces ...
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ReviewAmerican Works. Barber: Cello Sonata. Bernstein: Three Meditations from Mass. Carter: Cello Sonata. Crumb: Sonata for Solo Cello. Copland: Waltz and Celebration from Billy the Kid
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Crumb and Carter stand out in a recital of cello AmericanaMusicians: Paul Watkins (cello) Huw Watkins (piano)Composer: Barber; Bernstein; Carter; Crumb; CoplandMidtown Manhattan skyscrapers swirling in the city mist: the cover art framing Paul and Huw Watkins’s album of stateside cello and ...
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ReviewBach: Cello Suites Vol.1; no.1 BWV1007, no.3 BWV1009, no.4 BWV1010
The Strad Issue: February 2016Description: A natural approach pays dividends in three of Bach’s Cello SuitesMusicians: Joachim Eijlander (cello)Composer: BachOh no, was my initial reaction on encountering this disc – not another version of the Bach Suites! But when I began listening to the natural and unaffected ...
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ReviewMy Armenia. Babadjanian: Six Pictures. Bagdasarian: Nocturne; Rhapsody. Khachaturian: Poem-Song; Two Dances from Gayaneh. Komitas: The Apricot Tree; The Crane; It Is Spring; Seven Folk Dances. Mirzoya
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Leading Armenian players lovingly perform the music of their countryMusicians: Sergey Khachatryan (violin) Lusine Khachatryan (piano)Composer: Babadjanian; Bagdasarian; Khachaturian; Komitas; MirzoyanThis recording, ‘dedicated to the 100th commemoration of the Armenian Genocide’, is presented by violinist Sergey Khachatryan, winner of the ...
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ReviewFitelberg: String Quartets nos.1 & 2; Serenade; Sonatine; Nachtmusik
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Premiere recordings of chamber music that’s truly worth investigatingMusicians: ARC EnsembleComposer: FitelbergJerzy Fitelberg, born in Poland in 1903, ended up in New York avoiding the Nazis. By the time he died in 1951 he was feted by the contemporary music ...
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ReviewBeethoven: Complete Works for Cello and Piano
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: February 2016Description: Sparkling performances of Beethoven’s cello sonatas and variationsMusicians: Xavier Phillips (cello) François-Frédéric Guy (piano)Composer: BeethovenBy way of a musical limbering-up exercise, Xavier Phillips and François-Frédéric Guy open their latest release with the three sets of variations that Beethoven based on ...
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ReviewThe Club Album
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Mutter and friends live from DG’s Yellow LoungeMusicians: Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin) Lambert Orkis (piano) Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord) Mutter’s VirtuosiIt may come as a surprise to find Anne-Sophie Mutter releasing a live disc and DVD from a Berlin nightclub. Yet here is the ...
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ReviewCello Concertos, Sonatas & Suites. Works by Bach, Beethoven, Boccherini, Brahms, Dvorák, Kabalevsky, Milhaud and Schumann
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Collected performances by a legendary Canadian cellistMusicians: Zara Nelsova (cello) Artur Balsam, Lothar Broddack (pianos) Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/Georg Ludwig Jochum, Gerd AlbrechtComposer: Bach, Beethoven, Boccherini, Brahms, Dvorák, Kabalevsky, Milhaud, SchumannThe greatest cellist to come out of the Americas (see ‘Great Cellists’, ...
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ReviewBound to Nothing: The German Stylus Fantasticus. Sonatas and works by Buxtehude, Erlebach, Krieger, Kühnel and Walther
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Dutch trio takes on German Baroque ‘fantastic’ sonatasMusicians: FantasticusComposer: Buxtehude, Erlebach, Krieger, Kühnel, Walther‘Instituted to display genius’, remarked an early commentator on the extrovert Baroque string style recorded here, and he left open the question of whether he or the stylus fantasticus ...
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ReviewVivaldi: The Four Seasons. Tartini: Violin Sonata in G minor ‘The Devil’s Trill’. Leclair: Violin Sonata in D major ‘Tambourin’
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: A calmer, cooler version of Vivaldi’s seasonal concertosMusicians: James Ehnes (violin/director) Andrew Armstrong (piano) Sydney Symphony OrchestraComposer: Vivaldi, Tartini, LeclairThis might be the ideal antidote to Nigel Kennedy’s new, rebooted Four Seasons (see above), with its general disregard, healthy or otherwise, for ...
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ReviewSchumann: Violin Sonata no.2 in D minor. Strauss: Violin Sonata in E flat major
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Romantic sonatas in performances by two YCA prizewinnersMusicians: Noé Inui (violin) Vassilis Varvaresos (piano)Composer: Schumann, StraussThis disc is proof that first impressions can be misleading. One might wince at the simplistic sleeve captioning of these composers as the ‘first’ and ‘last’ of ...
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ReviewSchubert: Quartettsatz in C minor D703; String Quartet no.15 in G major D887
The Strad Issue: January 2016Description: Schubert’s quartet masterpieces on historic instrumentsMusicians: Terpsycordes QuartetComposer: SchubertThis package comprises Schubert’s first mature quartet movement and his massive final essay in the genre. The Terpsycordes’ major selling point is its use of a matching set of gut-strung ‘period’ instruments made by ...
