All Reviews articles – Page 184
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ArticleBrahms: Viola Sonatas nos.1 & 2 op.120, Violin Sonata op.78 (transcr. Erdélyi)
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Roberto Díaz (viola) Jeremy Denk (piano) Composer: BrahmsReaders will probably be most familiar with Roberto Díaz as the ex-principal of both the Philadelphia and National Symphony Orchestras and as a former member of the Boston Symphony. On the evidence of this immaculately ...
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ArticleSchulhoff: String Quartets nos.1 & 2, Five Pieces
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Aviv QuartetComposer: SchulhoffThe three works here all date from the mid-1920s and epitomise the quirky, engaging music of the Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff (1894–1942), sometime Dadaist, Expressionist, neo-Classicist, late-Romantic... his labels were many, varied and self-contradictory. There are hints of Bartók and ...
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ArticleWieniawski: Violin Concertos no.1 in F sharp minor op.14 and no.2 in D minor op.22*
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Mariusz Patyra (violin) Sinfonia Varsovia/Johannes Wildner, Sinfonia Iuventus/Gabriel Chmura*Composer: WieniawskiWhile Wieniawski’s Second Violin Concerto of 1870 is justly known as a masterpiece, the First, composed in a hurry in 1853 when he was only 18, is less frequently heard. Nonetheless, it shows ...
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ArticleXenakis: Tetras, Ergma. Lachenmann: Gran torso. Kurtág: Aus der Ferne III. Janácek: Adagio – Con moto from String Quartet no.1
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Danel QuartetComposer: Xenakis, Lachenmann, Kurtág, Janácek This laudable new release from the Brussels-based Danel Quartet features incisive performances of some pretty hardcore avant-garde repertoire in a live concert recording captured at the 2005 Milano Musica Festival. The two Xenakis ...
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ArticleHerzogenberg: String Quintet in C minor op.77, String Quartet no.1 in D minor op.18
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Minguet Quartet, Peter Langgartner (viola) Composer: HerzogenbergHeinrich von Herzogenberg (1943–1900) modelled most of his chamber works on those of his close friend, Brahms, absorbing virtues such as their symphonic breadth, formal clarity, powerful rhetoric and intense harmonic language. The members of the ...
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ArticleThe Versatile Viol vol.2. Leclair: Sonatas in A minor op.5 no.7, D major op.5 no.8, E minor op.9 no.2, F sharp minor op.9 no.10 & G major op.5 no.12
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Tina Chancey (pardessus de viole) Susie Napper (basse de viole) Webb Wiggins (harpsichord)Composer: Leclair In this second disc in her series championing the range and versatility of the viol family Tina Chancey gives persuasive accounts of five of Leclair’s violin ...
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ArticleBach: Partitas no.2 in D minor BWV1004 & no.3 in E major BWV1006
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Marie Cantagrill (violin)Composer: Bach Even the most enlightened players do not always entirely succeed in throwing off the vestiges of the 19th-century virtuoso tradition in these endlessly challenging pieces. Enter Marie Cantagrill, former winner of the Vieuxtemps Competition, who plays ...
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ArticleBach: Violin Concertos in A minor BWV1041 & E major BWV1042, Concerto in D minor for Two Violins BWV1043*, Concerto in D minor for Oboe & Violin BWV1060a
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Rut Ingólfsdóttir, Unnar Maria Ingólfsdóttir* (violin) Daði Kolbeinsson (oboe) Reykjavik Chamber OrchestraComposer: Bach Rut Ingólfsdóttir plays all Bach’s concertos with an elegant, sweet tone, her vibrato, while understated, hanging in the air in this somewhat reverberant acoustic. There is a minimum ...
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ArticleSchumann: Cello Concerto in A minor op.129, Abendlied op.85 no.12 (two performances, arr. P. Bruns & arr. Casals). Volkmann: Cello Concerto in A minor op.33, Andante and Variations for three cellos, T
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Peter Bruns (cello) Annegret Kuttner (piano) Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra, Leipzig/Jürgen BrunsComposer: Schumann, VolkmannJuxtaposing a great composer with a neglected contemporary is seldom good for the latter. Here, fellow German Robert Volkmann’s phrasing and harmonies seem all the more predictable when compared with ...
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ArticleProkofiev: Six pieces from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (transcr. Borisovsky). Shostakovich: Seven Preludes op.34 (transcr. Strakhov), Viola Sonata op.147
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Robin Ireland (viola) Tim Horton (piano) Composer: Prokofiev, ShostakovichThere have already been several recording of Vadim Borisovsky’s tremendously effective arrangement for viola and piano of music from Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet. Robin Ireland includes the complete first set of six ...
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ArticleKreutzer: Violin Concertos no.15 in A major, no.18 in E minor & no.19 in D minor
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Laurent Albrecht Breuninger (violin) SWR Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern/Alun FrancisComposer: KreutzerRodolphe Kreutzer (1766–1831) is best known for his 42 Études. Along with Paris Conservatoire colleagues Rode and Baillot, he was a protégé of Viotti, which is reflected in these concertos. All three works ...
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ArticleCorrette: Les délices de la solitude op.20
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Bassorum vox Composer: CorretteMichel Corrette’s Les délices de la solitude (1738–9) is one of the first French cello sonata collections. Its six works combine French and Italian style elements and offer South Korean Baroque cellist Seung-Yeon Lee ample opportunity to ...
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ArticleRode: 24 Caprices en forme d’études
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Elizabeth Wallfisch (violin)Composer: Rode First printed in 1815, Rode’s 24 Caprices are charming pieces, far more than the didactic exercises that the term ‘étude’ might suggest, with moments of real beauty amid their extreme virtuosic demands. Elizabeth Wallfisch, playing on ...
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ArticleGlazunov: Violin Concerto in A minor op.82. Dvorák: Violin Concerto in A minor op.53. Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major op.35*
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Nathan Milstein (violin) Pittsburgh Symphony/William Steinberg, Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Frederick Stock*Composer: Glazunov, Dvorák, TchaikovskyNathan Milstein had special insights into the Glazunov Concerto, having performed it several times either with or in front of the composer. This, the middle of his three recordings and ...
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ArticleDvorák: String Quartets in C major op.61 & F major op.96 ‘American’
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Wihan Quartet Composer: Dvorák These 2004 recordings, previously available only from the Wihan Quartet website, come a long way after the group’s splendid coupling of Dvo?ák’s op.51 and op.106 and do not quite fulfil the promise of those 1996–97 performances.It is traditional ...
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ArticleSchubert: String Quintet in C major D956, Overture in C minor D8 (arr. Geringas)
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Acies Quartet, David Geringas (cello) Composer: SchubertIt would be easy to overlook yet another performance of the great C major Quintet, but it would be a mistake to do so. The young Acies Quartet from Austria, eight years old at the ...
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ArticleSchubert: Arpeggione Sonata D821, Lieder
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Antoine Tamestit (viola) Sandrine Piau (soprano) Markus Hadulla (piano)Composer: Schubert This recording celebrates the viola as a singing instrument in music by one of the most lyrical of all composers. Its cornerstones are haunting readings of the ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata and ...
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ArticleAll Dressed in Yellow
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Fiddlers’ Bid: Andrew Gifford, Kevin Henderson, Maurice Henderson, Chris Stout (fiddle) Catriona McKay (clarsach, piano) Jonathan Ritch (bass) Fionan de Barra (guitar) These Shetlanders have proved themselves masters at bridging their own folk tradition with fiddle music from beyond their islands, and ...
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ArticleBull: Violin Concerto in A major, Concerto fantastico, The Herdgirl’s Sunday, La melancolie (arr. Halvorsen/Plagge), La verbena de San Juan, A Mountain Vision
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Annar Follesø (violin) Norwegian Radio Orchestra/Ole Kristian RuudComposer: BullOle Bull aimed to out-Paganini Paganini, and in his lifetime he pretty much succeeded, as the plaudits of Schumann and Joachim in the comprehensive notes for this CD suggest. Certainly the combination of extravagant, ...
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ArticleWoodbox Beats & Balladry
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Daniel Bernard Roumain (violin)Composer: Various Haitian–American composer–violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) uses four-, five- and six-string violins as part of his innovative, electro-fuelled sound world. The album opens with turntabling and a sassy beat, progressing stylistically through break-beats, acoustic ballads ...
