All Reviews articles – Page 186
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ArticleBeethoven: String Quartet in B flat major op.130, Grosse Fuge op.133
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Cypress QuartetComposer: Beethoven The Cypress Quartet’s second volume in its series of Beethoven’s late quartets features op.130 and includes both the Grosse Fuge and the composer’s alternative finale. These perceptive interpretations are rigorous and intuitively formed, strong without being overstated, ...
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ArticleDvorák: Cello Concerto in A major ‘Youth’, Waldesruhe, Rondo op.94, Polonaise
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Ramon Jaffé (cello) Rheinische Philharmonie State Orchestra/Daniel RaiskinComposer: Dvorák Given the quality of the famous B minor Concerto, who couldn’t but hope that Dvo?ák had written an earlier masterpiece for cello and orchestra? The 1865 A major Concerto, however, ...
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ArticleElgar: Cello Concerto, Sospiri, Salut d’Amour, La capricieuse. Dvorák: Waldesruhe, Rondo op.94. Respighi: Andante con variazioni. Vasks: The Book
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Sol Gabetta (cello) Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Mario VenzagoComposer: Elgar, Dvorák ,Respighi, VasksIn every regard this is an outstanding CD. The recording quality is impressively clear yet warm, the orchestral playing well-honed and incisive, and the repertoire extremely varied. Sol Gabetta shines at ...
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ArticleAcoustic Voyage
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Tim Kliphuis (violin) Nigel Clark (guitar) Roy Percy (double bass) David Newton (piano) Sandro Ciancio (percussion)Composer: VariousTim Kliphuis adds piano and percussion to his regular trio for this journey through combinations of Manouche jazz, Scottish folk and Brazilian music. Kliphuis ...
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ArticleBull: Nocturne, The Herdgirl’s Sunday, A Mountain Vision, Adagio religioso, Polacca guerriera, Adagio sostenuto, Grand March from Agiaco cubano, Cantabile doloroso e Rondo giocoso, La mélancholie, And
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Arve Tellefsen (violin) HŠvard Gimse (piano) Trondheim Symphony Orchestra/Eivind AadlandComposer: BullThat violin giant Ole Bornemann Bull undertook some composition is not unexpected. His music is largely forgotten today and, without being unduly unkind, this is understandable. These compositions are perfectly pleasant (as ...
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ArticleBrahms: Complete Violin Sonatas
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Jack Liebeck (violin) Katya Apekisheva (piano)Composer: BrahmsIn this fine set Jack Liebeck approaches Brahms with true Romantic fervour. His tone is sweet and effortlessly expressive, his lyrical spans marked by many a tastefully judged portamento. The G major Sonata no.1 ...
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ArticleMendelssohn: String Quartets in D major op.44 no.1 & E flat major op.‘0’, Tema con variazioni op.81 no.1, Scherzo op.81 no.2
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: New Zealand Quartet Composer: MendelssohnIn their third and final volume of Mendelssohn’s music for string quartet, the New Zealand musicians continue their deeply considered and very serious approach, underlining the drama in the opening movement of the D major Quartet by ...
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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 ...
