All Reviews articles – Page 191
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ArticleDebussy: String Quartet in G minor op.10. Ravel: String Quartet in F major, Violin Sonata in G major
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Dante Quartet, Krysia Osostowicz (violin), Simon Crawford-Phillips (piano)Composer: Debussy, RavelString playing changed radically in the decade between the Debussy and Ravel quartets and the Dante Quartet is unusual in perceiving the difference. What a shame that the recordings, by a team new ...
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ArticleKrenek: Symphonic Elegy op.105, Seven Easy Pieces op.146, Adagio and Fugue, Five Short Pieces for Strings op.116, Symphonic Piece op.86, Brazilian Sinfonietta op.131
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Ernst Kovacic, Leopoldinum OrchestraComposer: KrenekErnst Krenek (1900–91) was one of the most prolific composers of the last century, with opus numbers stretching well into the 200s. He is best known for his jazzy opera Johnny spielt auf, but elsewhere his music is ...
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ArticleRachmaninoff: Cello Sonata in G minor op.19 (transcr. Mikhailovsky), Romance in A minor op.posth., miniatures transcr. Mikhailovsky, Kreisler, Heifetz, Press & Dushkin
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Hideko Udagawa (violin), Konstantin Lifschitz (piano)Composer: RachmaninoffViolinist Hideko Udagawa brings together a fine clutch of Rachmaninoff transcriptions – by Heifetz and Kreisler, among others – as well as the composer’s original Romance in A minor. Viktor Mikhailovsky’s new transcription of ...
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ArticleStillness: Improvisations 2008
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Sixth Sense: Stephen Nachmanovitch (violin), Stephanie Phillips (viola, voice), Karlton Hester (flute, saxophone, synthesizer)Composer: VariousCollective improv trio Sixth Sense may be an occasional ensemble, but the players’ mutual understanding is finely tuned, resulting in an expressive spontaneity that survives the odd longueur.Most ...
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ArticleRode: 24 Caprices for solo violin
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Axel Strauss (violin)Composer: RodePaganini’s Caprices have long been seen as concert pieces, but Pierre Rode’s earlier set is still best known today as study material. This is not entirely fair. Admittedly, some of Rode’s pieces – such as no.14 with its emotional ...
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ArticleHill: String Quartets vol.3: no.5 in E flat major (‘The Allies’), no.7 in A major & no.9 in A minor
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Dominion QuartetComposer: HillThis disc marks roughly the halfway point in Naxos’s ambitious project to record all 17 quartets by the prolific Australian composer Alfred Hill (1869–1960), who spent his formative years in New Zealand. It features three works composed between 1920 and ...
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ArticleJohann, I’m Only Dancing. Bach: Arrangements of Brandenburg Concerto no.3, Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565, etc
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Red PriestComposer: BachWith its highly personalised style of stage presentation, Red Priest aims to introduce the Baroque to audiences that would normally dismiss ‘old-fashioned’ music. Such commercialisation has polarised opinions, and this disc, devoted to the music of Bach, will ...
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ArticleBartók: 44 Duos for two violins
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Angela Chun, Jennifer Chun (violin)Composer: BartókConsidering the dazzling range of techniques and effects unleashed by Bartók elsewhere in his violin writing, the 44 Duos remain steadfastly true to their intentions as elementary teaching material. Pizzicato is employed sparingly, while double-stopping ...
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ArticleMendelssohn: Piano Trios in D minor op.49 & C minor op.66
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Trio Jean PaulComposer: MendelssohnThese excellent West German Radio recordings, by an established German group, come very close to the truth of Mendelssohn’s trios as I understand it. Unlike the performances by the Eggner Trio from Austria, which I reviewed last month, they ...
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ArticleChopin: Cello Sonata in G minor op.65, Piano Trio in G minor op.8, Grand Duo on themes from Meyerbeer’s ‘Robert le diable’
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Vilde Frang (violin), Andreas Brantelid (cello), Marianna Shirinyan (piano)Composer: Chopin For his second disc with EMI, rising Danish cello star Andreas Brantelid offers a convincing interpretation of Chopin’s Cello Sonata with Marianna Shirinyan. In the first movement he focuses on the music’s ...
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ArticleThe Cello’s Russian Voice. Glinka/Tchaikovsky/Rachmaninoff: Arrangements of songs
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Dmitry Ferschtman (cello), Mila Baslawskaja (piano)Composer: Glinka, Tchaikovsky, RachmaninoffIt’s not often that a CD booklet is as lavishly presented as this one, featuring colour reproductions of landscapes and portraits by Levitan, Zhukovsky and Repin in the booklet alongside the poetry of Tolstoy, ...
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ArticleKhachaturian: Violin Concerto in D minor, Concerto–Rhapsody in B flat minor
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Nicolas Koeckert (violin), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/José SerebrierComposer: KhachaturianThough Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto remains on the fringes of the concert repertoire, it has fared well both in the quantity and quality of its recordings. This latest one comes from the German–Brazilian violinist Nicolas Koeckert, ...
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ArticleA German Bouquet. Works by Schop, Schmelzer, Muffat, Krieger, Buxtehude, Bach, Erlebach & Pisendel
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Trio Settecento Composer: Schop, Schmelzer, Muffat, Krieger, Buxtehude, Bach, Erlebach & PisendelTrio Settecento’s accounts of the four trio sonatas in this programme of German Baroque music suffer from problems of balance, John Mark Rozendaal’s gamba occasionally seeming too distant in several passages ...
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ArticleHaydn: String Quartets vol.2: Quartets op.50 no.1 in B flat major, no.4 in F sharp minor & no.5 in F major
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Leipzig QuartetComposer: HaydnThe Leipzig Quartet and its record company seem intent on covering every corner of the repertoire. But like every other disc of this ensemble that has come my way, this second volume of a Haydn cycle rarely rises above a ...
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ArticleLeclair: Violin Sonatas Book 1 nos.9–12
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Adrian Butterfield (Baroque violin) Alison McGillivray (viola da gamba) Laurence Cummings (harpsichord) Composer: Leclair Adrian Butterfield, Alison McGillivray and Laurence Cummings bring sure technical command, sound stylistic sense and uncomplicated, utterly instinctive musicianship to these accounts, which conclude their project on Leclair’s ...
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ArticleMendelssohn: Piano Trios no.1 in D minor op.49 & no.2 in C minor op.66
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Eggner TrioComposer: Mendelssohn Recording performances live does not guarantee a spontaneous result, in fact I sometimes wonder if it militates against one. The young Eggner Trio – the brothers Christoph (piano), Georg (violin) and Florian (cello) – clearly know the ...
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ArticleAndrae: String Quartets no.1 in B flat major op.9 & no.2 in E major op.33, Quartet for flute and strings op.43
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Lochrian Ensemble of LondonComposer: Andrae The most profound problem facing any young composer emerging at the beginning of the 20th century was developing a personal voice during a period of constant flux. A number of composers hit upon a fluid ...
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ArticlePaganini: Violin Concertos no.1 in D major op.6 & no.2 in B minor op.7. Rossini: Matilde di Shabran Overture
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Rudolf Koelman (violin) Netherlands Symphony Orchestra/Jan Willem de VriendComposer: Paganini, RossiniRudolf Koelman, one of Heifetz’s last pupils, provides a very persuasive reading of these two well-loved works, while a suitably rumbustious reading of Rossini’s Matilde di Shabran Overture fills this engaging CD.It ...
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ArticleProkofiev: Violin Sonatas no.1 in F minor & no.2 in A major op.94, Five Melodies op.35b
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Vadim Tchijik (violin) David Bismuth (piano)Composer: ProkofievEven in such distinguished company as Itzhak Perlman (RCA) and Schlomo Mintz (DG), Erik Schumann’s 2008 coupling of Prokofiev’s two violin sonatas struck me as especially beguiling, particularly in the First Sonata’s feroce second movement and ...
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ArticleBeethoven: Violin Concerto in D major op.61*. Britten: Violin Concerto op.15†
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Janine Jansen (violin) Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen*, London Symphony Orchestra† /Paavo JärviComposer: Beethoven, Britten In recent months we’ve had Beethoven concertos both traditional (Capuçon on Virgin Classics) and period-informed (Kopatchinskaja on Naive): here the two come together. Janine Jansen’s melodious, ...
