All Review articles – Page 150
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ReviewDvorák: Cypresses, String Quartet in G major op.106
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Technically exemplary accounts that miss a Czech authenticityMusicians: Cypress QuartetComposer: DvorákWith their trenchant response to the opening bars of Dvorák’s op.106, the players of the Cypress Quartet emphatically announce a very purposeful performance of dynamic extremes. The care taken over internal balance ...
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ReviewRavel: Violin Sonata in G major, Violin Sonata (1897), Sonata for violin & cello, Pièce en forme de habanera, Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré, Kaddish, Tzigane
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Reference accounts of Ravel’s complete chamber music for violinMusicians: Lena Neudauer (violin) Julian Steckel (cello) Paul Rivinius (piano)Composer: RavelThe young German-born violinist Lena Neudauer has here laid down what is my new benchmark for recorded performances of the two Ravel ...
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ReviewIn the Shadow of War. Bloch: Schelomo. Bridge: Oration. Hough: The Loneliest Wilderness
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: An inspired programme, searingly playedMusicians: Steven Isserlis (cello) German Symphony Orchestra Berlin/Hugh Wolff, Tapiola Sinfonietta/Gábor Takács-NagyComposer: Bloch, Bridge, HoughSteven Isserlis is nothing if not thoughtful and creative when it comes to programming, as this combination of three works linked by the psychological ...
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ReviewBartók: Violin Sonatas nos.1 & 2, Sonata for Solo Violin
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Powerful accounts of Bartók’s three sonatas for violinMusicians: Barnabás Kelemen (violin) Zoltán Kocsis (piano)Composer: BartókBarnabás Kelemen takes a muscular approach to Bartók’s three sonatas (in this he is not alone). He and Zoltán Kocsis give an extraordinary performance of the First Sonata, ...
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ReviewLe Phénix – Solo Double Bass in Baroque and Contemporary Music
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A celebration of the double bass across the centuriesMusicians: Christine Hoock, Thomas Martinu Thomas Jauch, Stephen Bauer (double bass) Florian Birsak (harpsichord) Barbara Nussbaum (piano)Composer: Vivaldi, Glass, Bach, Pärt, Corrette, Zbinden & HandelIs there a collective word for double basses? ...
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ReviewBach: Violin Concertos in A minor BWV1041 & E major BWV1042, Concerto in D minor for Two Violins BWV1043, Concerto in D major for Three Violins BWV1064R
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Successful performances marked by a bold approach to ornamentationMusicians: Petra Müllejans, Gottfried von der Goltz, Anne Katharina Schreiber (violin) Freiburg Baroque OrchestraComposer: BachThese first-rate period performances are stylish, polished, thoughtfully prepared and sympathetically recorded, with ensemble tautly controlled throughout. Peter Müllejans and ...
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ReviewA Violin's Life: Music for the ‘Lipinski’ Stradivari. Tartini: Sonata in G minor ‘Devil’s Trill’. Lipinski: Caprice op.29 no.3. Schumann: Violin Sonata no.2 in D minor op.121. Röntgen: Violin Sonata n
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A novel programme united by a historic instrumentMusicians: Frank Almond (violin) William Wolfram (piano)Composer: Tartini, Lipinski, Schumann, Röntgen This disc is the outcome of Frank Almond’s mission to chronicle in an artistically meaningful way the performing history of the 1715 Stradivari violin named ...
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ReviewMolique: Violin Concertos no.3 in D minor op.10 & no.6 in E minor op.30
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A generally successful attempt to explore 19th-century performance practiceMusicians: Anton Steck (violin) L’arpa festante/Christoph SperingComposer: MoliqueThe ‘historically informed’ nature of this disc is hinted at modestly on the packaging rather than used as a selling point, although Anton Steck (a former pupil ...
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ReviewBacewicz: Cello Concertos nos.11 & 22, Overture
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A valuable coupling of two rarely heard 20th-century cello concertosMusicians: Adam Krzeszowiec, Bartosz Koziak (cello) Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra/George Tchitchinadze, Monika Woli?skaComposer: BacewiczGrazyna Bacewicz (1909–69), Polish concert violinist and prolific composer for strings, appears in almost unrecognisably different guises in her two ...
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ReviewMaxwell Davies: Strathclyde Concerto no.2, Sonata for cello and piano ‘Sequentia serpentigena’, Dances from The Two Fiddlers (transc. Ceccanti), Little Tune for Vittorio in Maremma
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A welcome new recording of a work that deserves more currencyMusicians: Vittorio Ceccanti (cello) Bruno Canino (piano) Italian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Peter Maxwell DaviesComposer: Maxwell DaviesPeter Maxwell Davies’s Strathclyde Concerto no.2 of 1987 appears here for only the second time on disc (the ...
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ReviewFranck: Violin Sonata in A major; Mélancolie; Prélude, fugue et variation op.18 (arr. Dumay/Lortie) Strauss: Violin Sonata in E flat major op.18; Auf stillen Waldespfad (arr. Heifetz)
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Compelling playing from one of today’s great violinistsMusicians: Augustin Dumay (violin) Louis Lortie (piano)Composer: Franck and StraussThese popular sonatas both derive from the chromatic sensuality of middle-period Wagner, but whereas the Franck’s aching seductiveness sits on a knife-edge between sacred ...
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ReviewBlue Violin: A Jazz Legacy
The Strad Issue: M/ay 2013Description: Understated reinterpretations of jazz standardsMusicians: James Sanders (violin) Kevin O’Connell TrioComposer: VariousJames Sanders is a classical violinist who has spent two decades learning his craft as a jazzer, with this record the fruits of that labour. He’s chosen a set of standards ...
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ReviewBritten: Suites for Solo Cello nos.1—3
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A worthy centenary tribute from a fine young cellistMusicians: Philip Higham (cello)Composer: BrittenPhilip Higham already proved his affinity for Britten’s music when he committed the composer’s Cello Sonata to disc (reviewed November 2012), so this recording of the suites in the composer’s ...
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ReviewWieniawski: Violin Concerto no.1 in F sharp minor op.14. Conus: Violin Concerto in E minor op.1. Vieuxtemps: Fantasia appassionata in G minor op.35
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A winningly lyrical approach to three virtuoso showpiecesMusicians: Soo-Hyun Park (violin) Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz/Nicholas MiltonComposer: Wieniawski, Conus, VieuxtempsWieniawski’s notorious F sharp minor Concerto, with its perilous opening chain of consecutive tenths, was for a long time the preserve of the ...
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ReviewPenderecki: String quartets nos.1, 2 & 3 ‘Leaves of an Unwritten Diary’. Lutoslawski: String Quartet
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Vivid performances of music by two Polish mastersMusicians: Royal QuartetComposer: Penderecki, LutoslawskiFormed in Warsaw in 1998, the Royal Quartet has already garnered high praise for its recordings of Szymanowski and Górecki (reviewed in February 2009 and May 2011 respectively). And ...
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ReviewProkofiev: Complete works for violin and piano – Violin Sonatas no.1 in F minor op.80 & no.2 in D major op.94b, Cinq mélodies op.35b
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: High-intensity playing has mixed results in ProkofievMusicians: Isabelle van Keulen (violin) Ronald Brautigam (piano)Composer: ProkofievWhat emerges most clearly from Dutch violinist Isabelle van Keulen’s very accomplished Prokofiev disc is her astonishingly adaptable, flexible sound, with vibrato, tone, attack and phrasing all shifting ...
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ReviewBach: Partita no.2 in D minor BWV1004. Beethoven: Violin Sonata in A major op.47 ‘Kreutzer’ Wieniawski Scherzo–Tarantelle op.16. Brahms: Hungarian Dance no.1 in G minor (transc. Joachim)
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Recorded sound mars a record of Vengerov’s return to the concert stageMusicians: Maxim Vengerov (violin) Itamar Golan (piano)Composer: Bach, Beethoven, Wieniawski, Brahms (transc. Joachim)From the opening bars of this Wigmore Hall concert – Maxim Vengerov’s comeback in April 2012 – ears have ...
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ReviewFuchs: Viola Sonata op.86, Phantasiestücke op.117. Joachim: Variations op.10. Dvorák: Romance op.11
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Stylish playing of music written in the shadow of BrahmsMusicians: Patricia McCarty (viola) Eric Larsen (piano)Composer: Fuchs, Joachim, DvorákAt just under 80 minutes, this CD is brim-full with late Romantic music by composers from Brahms’s circle. Robert Fuchs’s music can’t quite emerge ...
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ReviewBruch: Kol nidrei op.37 (two performances). Boccherini: Cello Concerto in B flat major G482. Brahms: ‘Double’ Concerto in A minor op.102
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Well-preserved recordings of a master musicianMusicians: Pablo Casals (cello) Jacques Thibaud (violin) London Symphony Orchestra/Ronald Landon, Orchestra Pau Casals de Barcelona/Alfred CortotComposer: Bruch, Boccherini, BrahmsIncluding two performances of Kol nidrei is a bit strange – the second, earlier version is two and ...
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ReviewSchumann: Piano Quintet in E flat major op.44, Piano Quartet in E flat major op.47, Märchenerzählungen op.132
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Accounts that can’t compete with the best availableMusicians: Fine Arts Quartet, Xiayin Wang (piano)Composer: SchumannThe budget price of this 2010 recording of Schumann’s Piano Quintet might weigh in its favour, but otherwise it has little chance of competing. The opening fails to ...
