All Reviews articles – Page 181
-
ArticleFoerster: String Quartets nos.1–5, String Quintet op.3, The Prayer, Erinnerung, Allegro giocoso
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Stamic Quartet, Ji?í Hudec (double bass) Jana Boušková (harp)Composer: Foerster Josef Bohuslav Foerster (1859–1951) was born when musical Romanticism was being revitalised by the gradual emergence of a series of national schools, most crucially in Bohemia. By the end ...
-
ArticleHaydn: String Quartets op.20 nos.1–6
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Daedalus QuartetComposer: HaydnHaydn’s op.20 quartets come from a period when he was developing a more dramatic approach to the medium, and the American-based Daedalus Quartet reflect this in faithfully observing his dynamic markings, but without the exaggerations that are becoming too prevalent. ...
-
ArticleKorngold: String Quartets nos.1–3
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Doric QuartetComposer: Korngold Those readers unfamiliar with these particular works may well be in for a surprise. Far from offering the expected distillation of (Richard) Straussian luxuriance and tone-poem exuberance, Korngold demonstrates a sensitivity for the genre that is far closer to, ...
-
ArticlePaganini's 24 Caprices op.1
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Julia Fischer (violin)Composer: PaganiniFollowing second recordings of Paganini’s caprices by Thomas Zehetmair (reviewed December 2009) and James Ehnes (reviewed January 2010), Julia Fischer continues her exploration of these violinists’ benchmark works with her first issue of this challenging opus. Apart from a ...
-
ArticleDominant Curve. Jacobsen: Achille’s Heel. Umezaki: (Cycles) what falls must rise. Debussy: String Quartet in G minor op.10. Yanov-Yanovsky: ...al niente. Cage: In a Landscape (arr. Messina)
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Brooklyn Rider, Kojiro Umezaki (shakuhachi/electronics) Justin Messina (electronics)Composer: Jacobsen, Umezaki, Debussy, Yanov-Yanovsky, CageFrom the stylish CD design to the philosophical booklet notes, I was prepared to dismiss this new disc from young New York quartet Brooklyn Rider as style over substance. But ...
-
ArticleBeethoven: String Quartets opp.127, 130–3 & 135
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Tokyo Quartet Composer: BeethovenA quotation from the Boston Globe on the back of this new set of the Tokyo Quartet’s Beethoven recordings comments that they are ‘both grounded and weightless, carved in granite and floating on air’. Certainly, we are spared ...
-
ArticleDebussy: Suite for cello and orchestra (arr. Beamish). Ravel: Deux mélodies hébraïques (arr. Tognetti). Prokofiev: Concertino for cello and orchestra op.132 (arr. Blok). Bloch: From Jewish Life (arr.
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Steven Isserlis (cello) Tapiola Sinfonietta/Gábor Takács-NagyComposer: Debussy, Ravel, Prokofiev, BlochThe ancestry of the four orchestrations is detailed in the disc’s booklet notes, though the work masquerading under the name of Debussy is highly questionable. At the age of 19 he composed a ...
-
ArticleBritten: String Quartet no.2 in C major op.36, Three Divertimenti, Miniature Suite, String Quartet in D major
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Emperor QuartetComposer: Britten The Emperor Quartet gives a well-paced and deeply thought account of the second of Britten’s numbered quartets. Maybe the first movement lacks the last degree of tension in its more dramatic moments, but the ‘Allegro calmo’ indication ...
-
ArticleLydia Mordkovich pays tribute to David Oistrakh. Locatelli: Sonata op.6 no.7 ‘Au tombeau’, Caprice no.23 ‘Il labirinto armonico’. Ysaÿe: Sonata op.27 no.2. Chausson: Poème op.25. Shostakovich: Sonata
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Lydia Mordkovitch (violin) Nicholas Walker, Marina Gusak-Grin, Clifford Benson, James Kirby (piano)Composer: Locatelli, Ysaÿe, Chausson, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff‘Lydia Mordkovitch pays tribute to David Oistrakh’ has given Chandos the opportunity to recycle recordings made by the violinist since arriving in Britain in 1980. A ...
-
ArticleGypsic. Monti: Czárdás. Enescu: Violin Sonata no.3 op.25. Ravel: Tzigane, Berceuse, Blues from Violin Sonata. Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen op.20. G. Boulanger. Avant de mourir
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Sarah Nemtanu (violin) Chilly Gonzalez (piano/Farfisa organ/percussion) Romain Descharmes (piano) Iurie Morar (cimbalom) Orchestra/Aurélien Azan ZielinskiComposer: Monti, Enescu, Ravel, Sarasate, G. BoulangerThis label encourages its violinists to tinker with well-known pieces, whether from a spirit of fun, or a desperate desire to ...
-
ArticleBrahms: Piano Quartet in G minor op. 25. Schumann: Piano Quartet in E flat major op. 47
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Eaken Trio, Joseph Esmilla (viola)Composer: Brahms, Schumann The Eaken Trio of Pennsylvania played these quartets 17 times in the 2007–8 concert season with Joseph Esmilla, before he returned to his native Philippines. Engineer Timothy Breon captured them at the Mount ...
-
ArticleKillmayer: Fünf Romanzen, Acht Bagatellen. Schumann: Drei Romanzen, Fünf Stücke im Volkston
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Nicolas Altstaedt (cello) José Gallardo (piano)Composer: Killmayer, Schumann The contemporary German composer Wilhelm Killmayer (b.1927) has much more in common with Schumann than mere nationality. His Five Romances and Eight Bagatelles are strongly characterised cameo character pieces that share his ...
-
ArticleRhythm & Texture. Ravel: String Quartet in F major. Gershwin: Lullaby. Lavista: Reflejos de la noche. Alvarez: Metro Chabacano. Golijov: Tenebrae
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Brodsky QuartetComposer: Ravel, Gershwin, Lavista, Alvarez, Golijov True to the album’s title, the Brodskys explore the expressive parameters and sonic potentialities of Ravel’s glorious String Quartet to an unrivalled degree. Their micro-inflected playing reveals layers of expression closed to traditional readings in ...
-
ArticleBeethoven's Complete Violin Sonatas
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Renaud Capuçon (violin) Frank Braley (piano)Composer: BeethovenThis distinguished set is the most beautiful cycle of the Beethoven sonatas to appear since that by Dumay and Pires (Deutsche Grammophon). It has more or less the same virtues and its very few ...
-
ArticleChants Juifs. Traditional: Kol nidrei, Question, Psaume, Conversation, Prière, Chanson, Kaddish, Incertitude. Zygel: Nigun, Psalmodie, Chemah. Bloch: Nigun, Prière, Supplication, Jewish Song, Méditati
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Sonia Wieder-Atherton (cello) Daria Hovora (piano) Sinfonia Varsovia/JÁ nos FürstComposer: Traditional, Zygel, Bloch, RavelThis beautifully recorded release is a personal voyage for Sonia Wieder-Atherton, whose thoughts both philosophical and autobiographical are printed in the accompanying CD booklet. Although some of the material ...
-
ArticleEsperanza Spalding – Chamber Music Society
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Esperanza Spalding (double bass/voice) Entcho Todorov (violin) Lois Martinu(viola) David Eggar (cello) Leo Genovese (piano) Terri Lyne Carrington (drums) Quintino Cinalli (percussion) Gretchen Parlato (voice)Composer: VariousBy combining string- and rhythm-section trios, Spalding brings together her musical childhood and latter development. A violinist ...
-
ArticleFleur de Paris. Works by Scotto, Fauré, Konyn/Ulmer/Luypaerts, Trenet, Ravel, Legrand, Vandair, Debussy, Luoiguy, Giraud, Satie & Poulenc
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Twelve Cellists of the Berlin PhilharmonicComposer: Scotto, Fauré, Konyn/Ulmer/Luypaerts, Trenet, Ravel, Legrand, Vandair, Debussy, Luoiguy, Giraud, Satie & PoulencWhat an odd collection this is. No sooner do you press the play button than mighty, exaggerated portamentos and sugared harmonies announce that we ...
-
ArticleBach: Suites for solo cello no.1 in G major BWV1007, no.4 in E flat major BWV1010 & no.5 in C minor BWV1011 (transcr. viola)
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Maxim Rysanov (viola)Composer: Bach Although the booklet lists the three suites included in this recording in ascending numerical order, the CD starts with the full-bodied E flat major arpeggiations of Suite no.4. Seldom can they have been more sonorous than ...
-
ArticleHaydn: Cello Concertos in C major Hob.VIIb:1 & D major Hob.VIIb.2, Minuets nos.1, 6 & 11 Hob.IX:16
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Ivan Monighetti (cello/conductor) Polish Sinfonia Iuventus OrchestraComposer: Haydn As a former winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition, and Rostropovich’s last pupil, Ivan Monighetti has an unassailable cellistic provenance, and yet despite the diversity of his interests, which incorporate both period ...
-
ArticleSerebrier: Double Bass Concerto ‘Nueve’, Violin Concerto ‘Winter’, Symphony no.1, Tango en azul, Casi un tango, They Rode in the Sunset – music for an imaginary film
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Gary Karr (double bass) Philippe Quint (violin) Simon Callow (narrator) Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Chorus/José SerebrierComposer: Serebrier ‘Even whilst we speak new notes arise. What is that awful sound?’ The soloist in José Serebrier’s Double Bass Concerto ‘Nueve’ ...
