All Review articles – Page 151
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ReviewBeethoven: String Quartets in D major op.18 no.3, E flat major op.74 ‘Harp’ & F major op.135
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A welcome singing approach to three key Beethoven quartetsMusicians: Ysaÿe QuartetComposer: BeethovenAlthough numbered 3 when first published as part of the six op.18 quartets, the D major was in fact the first to be composed, which gives this programme a special significance ...
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ReviewShostakovich: Viola Sonata op.147, Cello Sonata op.40 (arr. Lénert for viola)
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A successful new viola version of Shostakovich’s Cello SonataMusicians: Pierre Lénert (viola) Eliane Reyes (piano)Composer: ShostakovichThe two pieces included in this CD effectively represent the beginning and end of Shostakovich’s chamber music production (the early, one-movement post-Rachmaninoffian piano trio op.8 can be ...
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ReviewGlazunov: Violin Concerto in A minor op.82, Meditation in D major op.32, Mazurka–oberek in D major. Schoeck: Concerto quasi una fantasia in B flat major op.21
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Assured playing in Romantic works for violin and orchestraMusicians: Chloë Hanslip (violin) Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana/Alexander VedernikovComposer: Glazunov, SchoeckChloë Hanslip may be aged only 25, but it’s already more than 11 years since her debut CD. Apart from the Bruch, she’s steered ...
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ReviewCorelli: Trio Sonatas op.4
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Performances that are full of spirit and tonal warmthMusicians: Ensemble Aurora/Enrico Gatti (violin/director)Composer: CorelliEnsemble Aurora offers graceful, lucid and spontaneously expressive readings of Corelli’s final collection of trio sonatas op.4, dispatching the varied movements with light, shapely articulation and a virtuosity and ...
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ReviewSchubert: Rondo in B minor D895, Fantasy in C major D934, Introduction and Variations on ‘Trockne Blumen’ D802
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Rewarding period accounts of late SchubertMusicians: Jacqueline Ross (violin) Maggie Cole (fortepiano)Composer: SchubertCompleting her two-volume survey of Schubert’s violin-and-keyboard works, with Maggie Cole returning on fortepiano, US-born Jacqueline Ross here reaches the final five years of the composer’s life, with three important ...
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ReviewRolla: Violin Concertos in B flat major, D major & A major
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Period and modern playing styles meet some attractive Italian concertosMusicians: Paolo Ghidoni (violin/conductor) Mantua Conservatoire Chamber OrchestraComposer: RollaAlessandro Rolla (1757–1841) is best known as the teacher of Paganini and originator of some of his technical effects. Accordingly, these concertos hint at the ...
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ReviewBartók: Solo Violin Sonata, Violin Sonata in E minor, Hungarian Folksongs (transc. Országh), Hungarian Folk Tunes (transc. Szigeti), Romanian Folk Dances (transc. Székely)
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: The successful continuation of the Canadian violinist’s Bartók cycleMusicians: James Ehnes (violin) Andrew Armstrong (piano)Composer: BartókJames Ehnes’s Bartók is full of emotional intensity and he meticulously follows the composer’s dynamics and fluctuations. The technical demands of the Solo Sonata (see Ehnes’s Masterclass ...
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ReviewUrban Gypsy
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: An album that takes the Parisian jazz quartet into new realmsMusicians: Daniel John Martinu(violin/vocals) Claudius Dupont (double bass) Mathieu Guinot, Samy Daussat (guitar)Composer: Urban GypsyWhen a violinist assembles a Parisian quartet – guitars included – and references ‘gypsy’, the intent would seem ...
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ReviewThe Unknown Purcell – Works for violin and keyboard
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A welcome exploration of 18th-century English chamber musicMusicians: Hazel Brooks (violin) David Pollock (harpsichord)Composer: Daniel PurcellHazel Brooks and David Pollock champion the music of Daniel Purcell, who forged musical pathways of his own in the early 18th century, long after his more ...
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ReviewThe Sweet Volcano
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: An eruption of improvisatory resourcefulnessMusicians: Matt Turner (cello) Greg Pagel (piano)Composer: The Sweet VolcanoThe Sweet Volcano is an exploration of the space where free improvisation meets post-Romantic chamber music. Matt Turner and Greg Pagel have been playing together for a decade and ...
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ReviewBeethoven: Concerto for violin, cello and piano in C major op.56, Piano Trio in E flat major op.1 no.1
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A well-integrated ensemble in both concerto and chamber contextsMusicians: Claremont Trio, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra/MartinuWestComposer: BeethovenMartinuWest secures incisive playing from the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra in the opening tutti of the ‘Triple’ Concerto, a work that ought by rights to ...
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ReviewCastillon: String Quartet op.3. Saint-Saëns: String Quartet no.1 in G minor op.112
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Mixed results in a pairing of rare French quartetsMusicians: Chartres QuartetComposer: Castillon, Saint-SaënsWith the quartet captured at a discreet distance from the microphones in a generous acoustic (a room in the magnificent Chateau de Saint-Simon in Eure-et-Loire), the initial impression is of ...
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ReviewSaint-Saëns: Cello Concerto no.1 op 33, Allegro appassionato op.43, The Swan. Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations op.33, Pezzo capriccioso op.62
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Immaculate accounts of cello warhorsesMusicians: Stéphane Tétreault (cello) Quebec Symphony Orchestra/Fabien GabelComposer: Saint-Saëns, TchaikovskyIf you are fortunate enough to study from the age of nine with a marvellous cellist (the late Yuli Turovsky), have a great instrument on which to play (Bernard ...
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Review
Saint-Saëns: Violin Sonata no.1 in D minor op.75. Strauss: Violin Sonata in E flat major op.18
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: An unyielding coupling of two Romantic sonatasMusicians: Bruno Monteiro (violin) JoÁo Paulo Santos (piano)Composer: Saint-Saëns, StraussPortuguese violinist Bruno Monteiro completed his studies in the US and this is his seventh recital disc, following releases of Grieg, Franck, Fauré, Respighi, Prokofiev and others. The pairing ...
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ReviewBach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 BWV846–69
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A new string arrangement of a Bach keyboard classicMusicians: Modern QuartetComposer: BachIn 1994 the Modern Quartet released its leader Joerg Widmoser’s string-quartet arrangement of Bach’s Art of Fugue. Now Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier appears, this time on the jazz violinist, ...
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ReviewHabanera – Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen op.20, Romanza andaluza op.22 no.1, Habañera op.21 no.2. Ysaÿe: Solo Violin Sonata op.27 no.6. Saint-Saëns: Havanaise op.83
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A fizzing collection of violin showpiecesMusicians: Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker (violin) Fabio Bidini (piano)Composer: Sarasate, Ysaÿe, Saint-Saëns, WieniawskiHere is a programme of fireworks and sweetmeats to showcase Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker’s technical brilliance. The gifted young German violinist’s silky virtuosity makes light of the hair-raising difficulties ...
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ReviewWeber: Six Sonatas op.10, Piano Quartet in B flat major op.81
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Little-known chamber repertoire from a Romantic masterMusicians: Isabelle Faust (violin) Boris Faust (viola) Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt (cello) Alexander Melnikov (fortepiano)Composer: WeberThe combination of an original period fortepiano and ‘modern’ stringed instruments promised to be a complete tonal mismatch. However, it works surprisingly ...
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ReviewPaganini: Violin Concerto no.5 in A minor (orch. Mompellio), Moto perpetuo op.11, I palpiti op.13
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: Paganini playing that needs more than just precisionMusicians: Ivan Pochekin (violin) Russian Philharmonic Orchestra/Dmitry YablonskyComposer: PaganiniFor some years now Naxos has ceased to be seen as a budget label of workaday renditions and has attained critical acclaim. In some respects, this disc ...
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ReviewC. Schumann: Piano Trio in G minor op.17. R. Schumann: Piano Trio no.3 in G minor op.110, Fantasiestücke op.88
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A welcome exploration of piano trios by the two SchumannsMusicians: Swiss Piano TrioComposer: C. Schumann, R. SchumannListening to this performance of Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio, one can well understand why it was so favourably embraced by the music critics of her time. ...
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ReviewHaydn: String Quartet in F minor op.20 no.5. Beethoven: String Quartet in E flat major op.127
The Strad Issue: January 2013Description: A CD debut that proves to be just a little too adventurousMusicians: Hermès QuartetComposer: Haydn, BeethovenHaving won the Geneva International Music Competition in 2011, the French-based Hermès Quartet has more recently taken first prize in New York’s highly influential Young Concert Artists ...
