All Reviews articles – Page 201
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ArticleFour American Quartets. Ralph Evans: String Quartet no.1. Philip Glass: String Quartet no.2 ‘Company’. Antheil: String Quartet no.3. Herrmann: ‘Echoes’ for string quartet
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Fine Arts QuartetComposer: Ralph Evans, Philip Glass, Antheil, HerrmannDespite appearing in Naxos’s American Classics series, none of these four quartets is exactly a classic, but the Fine Arts Quartet gives them full measure. With the first work they could hardly do otherwise, ...
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ArticleMiaskovsky: String Quartet no.13 in A minor op.86. Shostakovich: String Quartets nos.1 & 8
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Kopelman QuartetComposer: Miaskovsky, Shostakovich Although together only since 2002, the members of this group are all experienced quartet players – Mikhail Kopelman previously led the Borodin and Tokyo ensembles. They give a masterclass in chamber music playing, up ...
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ArticleProkofiev: Violin Sonatas nos.1 & 2
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Mikhail Simonyan (violin) Alexei Podkorytov (piano)Composer: Prokofiev Few composers of any period have embraced such profound emotional extremes as Prokofiev. While the violin concertos (despite their numerous differences) at least share a common neo-Romantic impulse, the ...
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ArticleFauré: String Quartet in E minor. Franck: String Quartet in D major
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Dante QuartetComposer: Fauré, FranckCésar Franck and Gabriel Fauré composed only one string quartet apiece. Both works were written in the composers’ maturity – Fauré’s in his late 70s, Franck’s a year before his death at 67. It’s a pleasing pairing for the ...
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ArticleSchubert: Piano Quintet in A major D667 ‘Trout’. Mozart': Piano Quartet in E flat major K493
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Pinchas Zukerman (violin) Jethro Marks (viola) Amanda Forsyth (cello) Joel Quarrington (double bass) Yefim Bronfman (piano) Composer: Schubert, MozartThe standard of playing and musicianship is so high here that normal criticism seems impertinent. Even the Canadian-made ...
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ArticleMozart: Oboe Quartet in F major K370, Three arias from Die Zauberflöte, Adagio in C minor K580a. Britten: Phantasy Quartet op.2. Dohnányi: Serenade in C major for String Trio op.10
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Lisa Batiashvili (violin) Lawrence Power (viola) Sebastian Klinger (cello) François Leleux (oboe)Composer: Mozart, Britten, Dohnányi Dohnányi’s Serenade for String Trio provides the most extensive work in this disc’s unusual programme. The score offers an attractive blend of warmth ...
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ArticleBowen: Viola Sonatas no.1 in C minor op.18 & no.2 in F major op.22, Romances in D flat major & in A major, Fantasia for four violas, Phantasy in F major, etc. Beethoven: First movement of Piano Sonata
Musicians: Lawrence Power (viola) Philip Dukes (viola) James Boyd (viola) Scott Dickinson (viola) Simon Crawford-Phillips (piano)Composer: Bowen, BeethovenThese are heady days for lovers of Edwardian English viola music: shortly after Roger Chase’s beautiful Benjamin Dale recording (see The Strad, @@@[WILL CHECK WHEN IN OFFICE – MR]), here we ...
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ArticleBeethoven: Piano Trios in D major op.70 no.1 ‘Ghost’ & in B flat major op.97 ‘Archduke’
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Eggner TrioComposer: BeethovenThe three Eggner brothers have gradually gained an international reputation since they formed their piano trio in 1997, winning the 1999 Brahms Competition and the 2003 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and touring widely to critical acclaim. Their debut CD ...
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ArticleBloch: Violin Concerto. Lees: Violin Concerto
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Elmar Oliveira (violin) National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, John McLaughlin Williams (conductor)Composer: Bloch, Lees Bloch’s Violin Concerto gets few outings in the concert hall, and Benjamin Lees’s gets fewer still, so this recording is welcome. Bloch’s work, written just ...
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ArticleScarlatti: Twelve Keyboard Sonatas (arr. Papavrami)
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Tedi Papavrami (violin)Composer: Scarlatti Until I heard this disc, I would not have thought it possible that a Scarlatti keyboard sonata could be played on the violin. I have enjoyed Tedi Papavrami’s realisations so much that I hope ...
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ArticleTim Kliphuis – Swingin’ Through the Classics. Works by Fauré, Dvorák, Chopin, Liszt, Tárrega, Grieg, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Mozart, Schubert & Tchaikovsky (arr. Kliphuis)
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Tim Kliphuis (violin) Len Skeat (double bass) Mitch Dalton (guitars) Nick Dawson (piano) Composer: Fauré, Dvorák, Chopin, Liszt, Tárrega, Grieg, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Mozart, Schubert & Tchaikovsky (arr. Kliphuis) This album is much better than ...
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ArticleD’Amore. Works by Garth Knox, Marais, Roland Moser, Hume, Ariosti & Klaus Huber
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Garth Knox (viola d’amore) Agnès Vesterman (cello) Composer: Garth Knox, Marais, Roland Moser, Hume, Ariosti & Klaus Huber Viola player Garth Knox is a veteran of the Ensemble Intercontemporain and Arditti Quartet. He has made ...
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ArticleMendelssohn: Violin Concertos in D minor & in E minor op.64
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Nemanja Radulović (violin) Prague Chamber OrchestraComposer: Mendelssohn Nemanja Radulović won the Joachim (2003) and Enescu (2001) competitions as a teenager. Now nearly 23, he gives his youthful emotions full poetic rein in these sparsely edited, ‘live’ readings. Radulović and the orchestra capture ...
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ArticleSibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor op.47. Khachaturian: Violin Concerto*. Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy†
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Gerhard Taschner (violin) Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Sandberg (conductor) NDR Symphony Orchestra, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt (conductor)* Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Lehmann (conductor)† Composer: Sibelius, Khachaturian, SarasateI have not previously encountered this 1955 version of the Khachaturian, a work Gerhard Taschner (1922–76) plays ...
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ArticleYsaÿe's Six Sonatas for solo violin op.27
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Henning Kraggerud (violin) Composer: YsaÿeNo less an authority than Carl Flesch considered Ysaÿe the ‘most outstanding and individual violinist I have heard in my life’. By his 30s, renowned composers were virtually falling over themselves to ...
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ArticleLost and Found: Treasures of the Heifetz Legacy Vol.2. Works by Beethoven, Badings, Rachmaninoff–Heifetz, Haydn–Heifetz, Wieniawski–Heifetz & R. Strauss
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Sherry Kloss (violin) Brooks Smith (piano) Mark Westcott (piano)Composer: Beethoven, Badings, Rachmaninoff–Heifetz, Haydn–Heifetz, Wieniawski–Heifetz & R. StraussThis disc should be a fascinating insight into Heifetz’s ‘inner circle’ by performers closely associated with the violinist – Sherry Kloss was his assistant at the ...
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ArticleRyelandt: Piano Quintet in A minor, String Quartet no.2 in F minor, Adagio for String Quartet in F sharp minor op.13, Andante ‘Ach Tjanne’ and Variations
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Spiegel Quartet, Joost Magerman (double bass) Jozef de Beenhouwer (piano)Composer: Ryelandt Joseph Ryelandt (1870–1965) was, like his Flemish compatriots Benoît, Blockx, Meulemans, Mortelmans and Roels, a formidable symphonist. He penned meaty oratorios, and his songs are admirably intimate. This ...
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ArticleSchnittke: Piano Trio, A Paganini, Madrigal, Piano Sonata no.1
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Janácek TrioComposer: SchnittkeThese four works date from the decade 1982–92, years when Schnittke was in full command of his own voice; and the last of them, the Piano Trio, beautifully makes the point. Its 25 minutes of music are lovingly advocated by ...
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ArticleScott: Sonata lirica, Deux préludes, Valse triste op.73 no.3, Tallahassee Suite op.73 no.3, Fantasie orientale, Romance op.73 no.2, Elégie op.73 no.1, Lotus Land, Andante languido, Intermezzo, Dance n
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Clare Howick (violin) Sophia Rahman (piano)Composer: ScottCyril Scott was born in 1879 and would today be described as a crossover composer, always happy to work either in popular light music or in more serious and ambitious works. Sadly he found that his ...
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ArticleShostakovich: Cello Concertos nos.1 & 2
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Daniel Müller-Schott (cello) Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Yakov Kreizberg (conductor)Composer: Shostakovich Yakov Kreizberg recently notched up a notable success as a sympathetic concerto partner for Julia Fischer and Daniel Müller-Schott in Brahms’s ‘Double’. A similar level ...
