Reviews – Page 178
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ArticleBeethoven: String Quartet in E flat op.74 ‘Harp’. Nordheim: String Quartet 1956. Bartók: String Quartet no.3
The Strad Issue: January 2011Musicians: EngegŠrd QuartetComposer: Beethoven, Nordheim, BartókThis CD’s booklet explains 2L’s philosophy of using spacious venues where the engineers can create the most intimate recordings free of the confines created by walls. It is indeed a tangible feature of these performances that they seem ...
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ArticleRussian music for cello and piano. Miaskovsky: Cello Sonata no 2 in A minor op.81. Scriabin: Etude op.8 no.11 (arr Piatigorsky). Prokofiev: Adagio op.97b. Schnittke: Musica nostalgica. Rachmaninoff: C
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Wendy Warner (cello) Irina Nuzova (piano)Composer: Miaskovsky, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Schnittke, RachmaninoffWendy Warner and Irina Nuzova confirm themselves as high-ranking artists with this excellently recorded and produced CD of Russian music. Their attractive programme is particularly notable for featuring the lesser-known ...
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ArticleStill: Danzas de Panama. Dvorák: String Quartet in F major op.96 ‘American’. Barber: String Quartet in B minor op.11. Gershwin: Lullaby
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Serafin QuartetComposer: Still, Dvorák, Barber, Gershwin This disc of (almost entirely) American music opens with an attractive set of dances by William Grant Still, straightforward, lively pieces, played in good café-music style by the Serafin Quartet, lilting and swinging, with ...
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ArticleKreutzer Time. Beethoven: Violin Sonata in A minor op.47 ‘Kreutzer’. Kreutzer: Violin Sonata. Ries: Violin Sonata in C sharp minor op.71
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Davide Amodio (violin) Edoardo Torbianelli (piano)Composer: Beetrhoven, Kreutzer, RiesDavide Amodio plays on a gut-strung 1793 F. Pique violin for this reading of Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata, partnered by Edoardo Torbianelli on an 1823 Iakesh fortepiano. In the accompanying notes, Amodio avows that they ...
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ArticleBrahms: Violin Concerto in D major op.77. Bruch: Violin Concerto no.1 in G minor op.26
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Sarah Chang (violin) Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra/Kurt MasurComposer: Brahms, Bruch Although both of these performances reflect credit on all concerned, it is my impression that the Bruch is rather special, while the Brahms is just another excellent Brahms. ...
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ArticleBretón: Violin Concerto in A minor. Monasterio: Violin Concerto in B minor
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Ara Malikian (violin) Castilla y Léon Symphony Orchestra/Alejandro PosadaComposer: Bretón, MonasterioListening to these neglected products of Spain’s Romantic period, one is reminded just how cosmopolitan the country’s indigenous composers were until the emergence of Albéniz, Granados and Falla. Anyone expecting musical travelogues ...
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ArticleSchubert: Violin Sonatas in A minor D385, D major D384 & G minor D408
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Nota bene: Eva Steinschaden (violin) Alexander Vavtar (piano)Composer: SchubertAustrian duo Nota bene, formed at the Salzburg Mozarteum, specialises in the music of the Viennese Classical school. Schubert’s graceful sonatas of spring 1816, with their compact movements and unassuming ease, constitute only the ...
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ArticleSibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor op.47, The Bard op.64, The Wood Nymph op.15
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin) Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/John StorgŠrdsComposer: Sibelius This label already has an excellent Sibelius Concerto with this orchestra, but Frank Peter Zimmermann’s fine reading is very different: he knocks three minutes off Pekka Kuusisto’s timing and, because he ...
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ArticleStrauss: Cello Sonata in F major op.6. Brahms: Cello Sonata in E minor op.38. Thuille: Cello Sonata in D minor op.22
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Jamie Walton (cello) Daniel Grimwood (piano)Composer: Strauss, Brahms, ThuilleA wonderfully exuberant Strauss Sonata opens this disc, the second of the British duo’s Romantic sonata series. Daniel Grimwood writes in the booklet of the ‘fiendish piano and awkward cello writing’, but there’s no ...
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ArticleSzymanowski: Violin Concerto no.1 op.35, Symphony no.3 ‘The Song of the Night’
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Christian Tetzlaff (violin) Steve Davislim (tenor) Vienna Singverein, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Pierre BoulezComposer: Szymanowski With a conductor as brilliantly analytical as Pierre Boulez in charge of Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto it would be easy to get swept up in the orchestral ...
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ArticleTchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major op.35. Bruch: Violin Concerto no.1 in G minor op.26
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Nicola Benedetti (violin) Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Jakub Hr?ša Composer: Tchaikovsky, BruchNicola Benedetti comes of age with a coupling that, in terms of its heartfelt lyricism and intonational purity, can hold its own with the best the catalogue has to offer. Those who ...
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ArticleThe Celtic Viol vol.2. A homage to the Irish and Scottish musical traditions
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Jordi Savall (treble & lyra viol) Andrew Lawrence-King (Irish harps/psaltery) Frank McGuire (bodhran)Composer: Trad Jordi Savall’s second volume of ‘homage’ to Irish and Scottish musical traditions comprises performances on different types of viol, accompanied, where appropriate, by Irish harp or psaltery, ...
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ArticleBach: Violin Concertos in A minor BWV1041, E major BWV1042, G minor after BWV1056 & A major after BWV1055
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Rachel Podger (violin/director) Brecon Baroque Composer: BachThis is an elite group of players, with cellist Alison McGillivray and violist Jane Rogers among the solo strings in the ensemble. Rachel Podger, very much primus inter pares, interweaves ...
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ArticleDavid: Violin Concertos nos.4 & 5, Andante and Scherzo capriccioso
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Hagai Shaham (violin) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn BrabbinsComposer: DavidAs Calum Macdonald’s excellent booklet note explains, Ferdinand David was one of the 19th century’s most important violinists, his reputation inextricably linked to the ‘classical’ German tradition. These concertos reveal a personality cognate with ...
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ArticleDeathless Dance
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Ann Marie Calhoun (voice/violin) Composer: VariousAnn Marie Calhoun is an American rock violinist and pop-culture polymath, with credits that include playing with Jethro Tull and Ringo Starr, as an actress and reality-show participant, and as an arranger for film ...
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ArticleFiction. Arrangements of pop and jazz standards
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Ébène Quartet, Richard Héry (drums), plus guests Composer: VariousVentures into the pop and jazz worlds by mainstream classical musicians are more often than not an unmitigated disaster. The ability truly to swing a phrase, to hang loose and let ...
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ArticleFolkfire. Villa-Lobos: Song of the Black Swan. Falla: Popular Spanish Song Suite. Stravinsky: Russian Maiden. Vaughan Williams: Six Studies. Bloch: Jewish Song. Michio: Sea in Springtime Calm. Bartók:
The Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Rebecca Hartka (cello) Azusa Komiyama (piano)Composer: Villa-Lobos, Falla, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, Bloch, Michio:, Bartók, PiazzollaThis release is ‘nearly there’. Rebecca Hartka has selected an attractive and entertaining programme of folk-inspired music. However, her project is diminished in its quality by poor engineering ...
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ArticleGe Gan-Ru: Fall of Baghdad: String Quartets no.1 ‘Fu’, no.4 ‘Angel Suite’ & no.5 ‘Fall of Baghdad’
The Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: ModernWorks Composer: Ge Gan-RuGe Gan-Ru was born in Shanghai in 1954, and studied violin at the city’s university before switching to composition, later completing a doctorate at Columbia University in the US. His affinity for string music is immediately clear ...
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ArticleGrieg: Violin Sonatas no.1 in F major op.8, no.2 in G major op.13 & no.3 in C minor op.45
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2010Musicians: Alexandra Soumm (violin) David Kadouch (piano)Composer: GriegYouth and vitality pour forth from these delicious recordings of the Grieg sonatas by Moscow-born violinist Alexandra Soumm and French pianist David Kadouch, both in their mid-twenties. Never a note or a gesture is ...
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ArticleAir: A Baroque Journey. Music by Falconieri, Handel, Ortiz, Marini, Matteis, Pachelbel, Telemann, Westhoff, Geminiani, Valente, Leclair & Bach
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2009Musicians: Daniel Hope, Lorenza Borrani, Lucy Gould (violin) Stewart Eaton (viola) William Conway, Jonathan Cohen (cello) Enno Senft (doube bass) Kristian Bezuidenhout (harpsichord/organ) Stefan Maass, Stephan Rath (lute/guitar/theorbo) Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen (percussion) Composer: Falconieri, Handel, Ortiz, Marini, Matteis, Pachelbel, Telemann, Westhoff, ...
