All Reviews articles – Page 202
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ArticleBreinschmid: Wien bleibt Krk
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Georg Breinschmid (double bass) & friendsComposer: Breinschmid Georg Breinschmid will be known to double bass aficionados as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic as well as numerous jazz ensembles. In recent years he has devoted more time to composition ...
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ArticleCras: Cello Sonata, Piano Trio, Largo for cello & piano
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Philippe Koch (violin) Aleksandr Khramouchin (cello) Alain Jacquon (piano) Composer: CrasJean Cras (1879–1932) was a self-taught composer who spent much of his life reluctantly serving in the French navy. Despite lack of formal musical training, his compositional fluency is impressive – ...
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ArticleEdgar Meyer and Chris Thile
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Edgar Meyer (double bass) Chris Thile (mandolin)Composer: VariousThe first recorded collaboration between triple Grammy award-winner Edgar Meyer and virtuoso mandolin player Chris Thile has been well worth the wait for those who knew anything of them as a duo previously.The blend of ...
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ArticleVivaldi: Le quattro stagioni. Tartini: Violin Sonata in G minor ‘Devil’s Trill’
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Joshua Bell (violin) John Constable (harpsichord) Academy of St Martinuin the FieldsComposer: Vivaldi, TartiniIt is perhaps a sign of the times that most modern violinists approach Baroque repertoire in ways influenced by ‘historically informed’ performance. This can give rise to a strange ...
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ArticlePurcell: Fantasias
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Il Suonar Parlante, Vittorio Ghielmi (soprano viol/director)Composer: Purcell Purcell’s fantasias in three, four and, in one case, five parts comprise sharply defined sections of varying tempo and character. They demonstrate his resourcefulness in the techniques of imitation and contrapuntal ...
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ArticleBruch: Violin Concerto no.1 in G minor op.26. Paganini: Violin Concerto no.1 in D major op.6
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Alexandra Soumm (violin) Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Georg Mark (conductor)Composer: Bruch, PaganiniAt 19, Alexandra Soumm has already established herself as a fine violinist, with a number of high-profile successes to her name, including top spot at the 2004 Eurovision Competition for young musicians. ...
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ArticleReger: Complete String Trios and Piano Quartets vol.1: String Trio in A minor op.77b, Piano Quartet in D minor op.113
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Aperto Piano QuartetComposer: RegerMax Reger’s standing as a composer now largely resides in his works for organ, though chamber music occupied much of his attention throughout his short life. The present release, which promises to be the first of two discs containing ...
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ArticleSaint-Saëns: String Quartets nos.1 & 2
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Joachim QuartetComposer: Saint-SaënsOn the whole, string players did very well by the mellifluous creative genius of Camille Saint-Saëns. Such was the ease with which he produced expertly crafted scores that occasionally his music was left bereft of emotional imperativeness, yet ...
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ArticleThe Devil's Trill. Tartini: Violin Sonatas op.1 no.4 in G minor ‘The Devil’s Trill’, Largo from op.1 no,5, op.1 no.10 in G minor ‘Didone abbandonata’ & op.1 no.13 in A major ‘Pastorale’, Grave in D mi
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: PalladiansComposer: Tartini, VeraciniThe Palladians play this challenging programme with characteristic insight and élan, radiating real empathy with the idiom. Violinist Rodolfo Richter meets the formidable technical demands of Tartini’s ‘Devil’s Trill’ and ‘Didone abbandonata’ sonatas with striking aplomb, negotiating with commendable virtuosity ...
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ArticleDohnányi: Piano Quintets no.1 in C minor op.1 & no.2 in E flat minor op.26, Cello Sonata in B flat minor op.8
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Kocian Quartet, Michal Kanka (cello) Jaromír Klepác (piano)Composer: Dohnányi The second volume in a Dohnányi series based around the Kocian Quartet opens with one of the best ‘opus ones’ in the literature – although the Hungarian pianist and ...
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ArticleFoerster: Violin Concertos no.1 in C minor & no.2 in D minor
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Ivan Ženatý (violin) BBC Symphony Orchestra, Ji?í B?lohlávek (conductor)Composer: FoersterThe two violin concertos of Josef Bohuslav Foerster (1859–1951) are quite different affairs, the first dramatic and colourful, the second severe and intense, and occupying a more unsettled harmonic world. Both are in ...
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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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ArticleMaxwell Davies: ‘Naxos’ Quartets nos.9 & 10
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Maggini Quartet Composer: Maxwell DaviesThese final two works in Peter Maxwell Davies’s ‘Naxos’ series of quartets match the intricately crafted writing of the previous eight – and the recording echoes the first four discs in the searing, sublime ...
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ArticleBazzini: Calabrese op.34 no.6, Trois morceaux lyriques op.41, Le carillon d’Arras op.36, Deux morceaux de salon op.12, Deux grandes etudes op.49, Trois morceaux en forme de sonate op.44, La ronde des
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Chloë Hanslip (violin) Caspar Frantz (piano)Composer: BazziniAntonio Bazzini’s virtuoso repertoire for violin has for a long time been a staple of violin recitals, but this is not to say that it merely consists of technical pyrotechnics. Certainly, the works on this disc ...
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ArticleMozart: Violin Concerto no.3 in G major K216, Sinfonia concertante in E flat major K364
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Dominika Falger (violin) Johannes Flieder (viola) Wratislavia Chamber Orchestra, Christian Schulz (conductor)Composer: Mozart When little-known artists record major concertos, they are often in danger of being overlooked when compared with the world’s great soloists. Such an outcome would be ...
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ArticleHaydn: String Quartet in D major op.76 no.5. Leif Solberg: String Quartet in B minor. Grieg: String Quartet in G minor, op.27
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: EngegŠrd QuartetComposer: Haydn, Leif Solberg, Grieg Recorded in audiophile clarity by 2L’s founder Morten Lindberg and an assistant, here is a new ensemble founded in 2006 by three Norwegians and the British violist Juliet Jopling. The playing is refreshing, ...
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ArticlePleyel: ‘Prussian’ String Quartets in D major (Ben 337), F major (Ben 338) & G minor (Ben 339)
The Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Pleyel Quartet Köln Composer: PleyelThe Pleyel Quartet Köln here offers elegant period-instrument performances of three of Pleyel’s twelve ‘Prussian Quartets’, dedicated to the cellist King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia. Unlike Mozart’s last three quartets with the same dedicatee (K575, K589 ...
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ArticleBeethoven: Violin Concerto in D major op.61. Sulkhan Tsinrsadze: Miniatures*
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2008Musicians: Lisa Batiashvili (violin/director) Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Georgian Chamber Orchestra*Composer: Beethoven, Sulkhan Tsinrsadze Many will find the composer coupling on this disc somewhat puzzling, but it is evidently the outcome of Lisa Batiashvili’s desire to bring together the ...
