All Reviews articles – Page 185
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ArticleBurgon: Viola Concerto ‘Ghosts of the Dance’, Cello Concerto, Merciless Beauty
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Philip Dukes (viola) Josephine Knight (cello) Sarah Connolly (mezzo) City of London Sinfonia/Rumon GambaComposer: BurgonThanks to Geoffrey Burgon’s highly successfully career in film and television soundtracks, his concert music sits comfortably among those composers working in a modern tonality. Both concertos are ...
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ArticleSabrina-Vivian Höpcker (violin) Northwest German Philharmonic/Edwin Outwater, Göttingen Symphony Orchestra/Martin Brauß
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Bruch: Scottish Fantasy op.64. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor op.64Composer: Bruch, MendelssohnAlthough Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker has established a place for herself among today’s gifted young German violinists, I cannot understand why at this early stage in her career she has brought this ...
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ArticleQSF Plays Brubeck
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Quartet San FranciscoComposer: Brubeck This is hugely enjoyable. With his sophisticated, classically trained approach and unusual time signatures, Dave Brubeck translates well to a string quartet. You lose a lot of instrumental contrast, of course, but the losses are mostly ...
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ArticleCello Quartet – original works by Matz, Laboccetta, Golterman, Paque, Corrette, Grützmacher, Fitzenhagen, Wagenseil, Pahissa, Morera, Huguet & Casals
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Tritton Cello Ensemble Composer: Matz, Laboccetta, Golterman, Paque, Corrette, Grützmacher, Fitzenhagen, Wagenseil, Pahissa, Morera, Huguet & CasalsIt’s a pity that the Tritton Cello Ensemble, which boasts three Stradivari and one Gagliano, has largely restricted itself to original quartet works for this disc, ...
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ArticleCorigliano: Violin Concerto ‘The Red Violin’, Phantasmagoria – Suite from ‘The Ghosts of Versailles’
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Michael Ludwig (violin) Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra/JoAnn FallettaComposer: Corigliano This disc plunges you with carefree abandon into the highly coloured and expressive world of Corigliano. After the expertly performed suite from the composer’s opera The Ghosts of Versailles comes the ...
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ArticleSainsbury: Violin Concerto haydn. Wood: Violin Concerto*
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Lorraine McAslan (violin) BBC Concert Orchestra/Barry Wordsworth, Gavin Sutherland*Composer: Sainsbury, Wood Following on from her outstanding account of York Bowen’s Violin Concerto for Dutton with the late, much-missed Vernon Handley, Lorraine McAslan once again proves a highly persuasive ...
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ArticleFuse
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Fuse: Linzi Stoppard, Ben Lee (electric violin)Composer: VariousFuse is the debut album by this duo of self-professed stadium-rock wannabes. Presenting faithful reproductions of rock classics, the emphasis is on concept rather than content: namely, ‘proving that the electric violin can be as ...
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ArticleBach: Sonatas and Partitas BWV1004–06
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Isabelle Faust (violin) Composer: BachThere is only one thing wrong with this beautiful CD, which is that half of Bach’s solo Sonatas and Partitas are missing. It is a situation that will surely be soon rectified with a second recording, ...
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ArticleCatoire: Violin Sonata no.1 op.15, Poème op.20 (Sonata no.2), Elégie op.26, Romanze op.1 no.4
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Laurent Albrecht Breuninger (violin) Anna Zassimova (piano)Composer: CatoireGeorgy Catoire was Russia’s answer to the young Gabriel Fauré – a composer of exquisite taste rarely given to wearing his heart on his sleeve, yet whose work possesses a tenderness and rapture that continually ...
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ArticleBrahms: Violin Sonatas no.1–3
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin) Lambert Orkis (piano)Composer: BrahmsIn the CD booklet Anne-Sophie Mutter dates her love of Brahms’s violin sonatas back to a performance she heard of them given by David Oistrakh when she was five. She has waited until now to record ...
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ArticleYsaÿe: Trio for two violins and viola*, String Trios nos 1 & 2†
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Tor Johan Bøen*† , Anders Nilsson* (violin) Are Sandbakken*, Juliet Jopling† (viola) Johannes Martens† (cello)Composer: YsaÿeIt has taken several years of research into manuscripts and sketches to arrive at the performing versions of Eugène Ysaÿe’s string trios used in these ...
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ArticleFauré: Violin sonatas no.1 in A major op.13 & no.2 in E minor op.108, Berceuse, Romance, Andante
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Olivier Thouin (violin) François Zeitouni (piano)Composer: FauréCanadian-born virtuoso Olivier Thouin, currently associate concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, possesses the ideal sound for Fauré’s endlessly supple, elegant writing. Even compared to such distinguished rivals in these timeless scores as Augustin ...
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ArticlePaganini: Caprices op.1 (arr. Zinn)
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Wihan QuartetComposer: PaganiniWilliam Zinn’s arrangements transform Paganini’s solo violin caprices into string quartets with fascinating, yet questionable outcomes; for Zinn has freely added his own material, whether as introductory bars (for no.24), harmonic, registral or articulation changes, ornamental elaborations, or harmonic and ...
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ArticleBach: Sonata no.1 in G minor BWV1001, Partita no.3 in E major BWV1006. Ysaÿe: Sonatas no.1 in G minor op.27 no.1 & no.2 in A minor op.27 no.2
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Liza Ferschtman (violin)Composer: Bach, YsaÿeThe programming of this disc is impeccable. Ysaÿe’s solo sonatas are consciously first cousins to Bach’s sonatas and partitas, and in these particular works, with G minor Ysaÿe drawing from Bach in the same key, and ...
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ArticleBeethoven: Cello Sonatas nos.1–5
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Sébastien Singer (cello) Marc Pantillon (piano) Composer: BeethovenTen years into his career as soloist and Schweizer Piano Trio member, Sébastien Singer decided the time was right to tackle Beethoven’s cello sonatas. This high-quality recording with Swiss performers on a Swiss label ...
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ArticleSchumann: Adagio and Allegro op.70, Fantasiestücke op.73, Fünf Stücke im Volkston op.102, Three Romances op.94 (arr Gledhill), Märchenbilder op.113 (arr Hausmann)
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Klaus Storck (cello) Aya Ishihara (piano)Composer: SchumannKlaus Storck, soloist since the age of 12, teacher of generations of cellists and still professor in Cologne, Hanover and Munich, is, claims the booklet, one of the few instrumentalists today to keep the chamber music ...
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ArticleShostakovich: Cello Sonata in D minor op.40, Two Pieces from Ballet Suite no.2 (arr. Atovmyan), Viola Sonata op.147 (arr. cello)
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Michal Ka?ka (cello) Jaromír Klepá? (piano)Composer: ShostakovichAlthough Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata is hardly under-recorded, this release is made more interesting by its coupling with the Viola Sonata. Michal Ka?ka performs this work in its original tessitura as opposed to the arrangement by Daniil ...
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ArticleBritten: String Quartets nos.2 & 3, Three Divertimenti
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Elias QuartetComposer: Britten It is a curious fact that the closer Britten’s instrumental writing approximates to the world of his vocal music the happier it invariably sounds. Conversely, the more he attempts to emulate Beethovenian thematicism, the less comfortable ...
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ArticleMozart: String Quintets in G minor K516 & C minor K406
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Chilingirian Quartet, Yuko Inoue (viola) Composer: MozartFlagging finances, and the need to offer the customary three works for a subscription publication, encouraged Mozart to fashion an unconvincing String Quintet in C minor from his Serenade for six wind instruments. It ...
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ArticleCello Journey. Walton: Theme for a Prince. Hussey: Three Interludes. Parsons: Dove l’anima riposa. Rathbone: When all is said and done. Saxton: Sonata for solo cello. Holdsworth: Lost Time
The Strad Issue: January 2010Description: Cello Journey. Walton: Theme for a Prince. Hussey: Three Interludes. Parsons: Dove l’anima riposa. Rathbone: When all is said and done. Saxton: Sonata for solo cello. Holdsworth: Lost Time Musicians: Tony Woollard (cello)Composer: Walton, Hussey, Parsons, Rathbone, Saxton, HoldsworthTony Woollard should ...
