All The Strad articles in Web Issue – Page 7
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ArticleAppassionata. Works by Williams, Franck, Vivaldi, Gershwin, Bandolin, Kabalevsky, Morricone, Saint-Saëns, Brahms, Piazzolla, Mamiya, Yanzi, Meyer, Mendelssohn & Tchaikovsky
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Yo-Yo Ma (cello) etcComposer: Williams, Franck, Vivaldi, Gershwin, Bandolin, Kabalevsky, Morricone, Saint-Saëns, Brahms, Piazzolla, Mamiya, Yanzi, Meyer, Mendelssohn & TchaikovskyI’m not an ardent advocate of compilations, by contrast with the marketing moguls. Yet despite the format’s fragmentary nature, the autobiographical vein that ...
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ArticleMartinu: Rhapsody-Concerto. Hindemith: Trauermusik. Bartók: Viola Concerto
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Vladimír Buka? (viola) Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vladimír Válek (conductor)Composer: Martinu, Hindemith, Bartók Vladimír Buka? is the viola player of the prestigious Talich Quartet and a teacher at the Hochschule für Musik, Dresden. With this recording he presents his ...
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ArticleBasquiat Strings
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Emma Smith (violin) Vicky Fifield (violin) Jenny May-Logan (viola) Nell Catchpole (viola) Ben Davis (cello) Richard Pryce (double bass) Seb Rochford (drums)Composer: Various Basquiat Strings is the brainchild of cellist Ben Davis, and part of the cutting-edge F-ire ...
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ArticleBiber: The Mystery Sonatas
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Maya Homburger (violin) Camerata KilkennyComposer: Biber Biber’s Mystery Sonatas divide into three cycles of five according to mood and extra-musical inspiration, vividly portraying events in Christ’s life. Maya Homburger offers stylish and imaginative accounts, demonstrating commendable technical bravura and ...
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ArticleParis. Poulenc: Violin Sonata. Stravinsky: Suite italienne, Chanson russe, Tango, Pastorale. Milhaud: Le boeuf sur le toit
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Maya Koch (violin) Julian Milford (piano)Composer: Poulenc, Stravinsky, MilhaudSumptuously engineered and glowingly played, this recital simply oozes class. The Poulenc Sonata (unaccountably neglected by comparison with its wind-instrument cousins) is often played very cool as though any hint of espressivo indulgence would ...
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ArticleCerha: Violin Concerto, Fasce*
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Ernst Kovacic (violin) Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bertrand de Billy (conductor), Johannes Kalitzke (conductor)*Composer: Cerha Friedrich Cerha is best known among Anglophones for his completion of Berg’s Lulu, but his own work reveals a thoughtful engagement with the Austro–German ...
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ArticleRomance. Works by Glazunov, Saint-Saëns, Dvorák, Tchaikovsky, Lalo & Casals
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Han-Na Chang (cello) Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Antonio Pappano (conductor)Composer: Glazunov, Saint-Saëns, Dvorák, Tchaikovsky, Lalo & Casals After two weighty releases of mainstream repertoire by Shostakovich and Prokofiev, Korean–American star Han-Na Chang, now in ...
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ArticleSaint-Saëns: Cello Sonatas nos.1 & 2, Suite op.16
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Maria Kliegel (cello) François-Joël Thiollier (piano)Composer: Saint-Saëns Saint-Saëns is very much the casino player of composers. Sometimes he is on a lucky streak and his formidable compositional technique is coupled with inspired and delightful invention. At other times, however, ...
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ArticleArnold: String Quartets nos.1 & 2, Phantasy for String Quartet (Vita Abundans)
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Maggini QuartetComposer: ArnoldMalcolm Arnold remains a musical enigma; he was never seemingly sure whether he was looking for popularity or craving acceptance as a serious composer. Nowhere is that more in evidence than the two numbered quartets, which was composed ...
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Bach: Sonatas no.1 in G minor BWV1001 & no.2 in A minor BWV1003, Partita no.1 BWV1002
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Jacqueline Ross (violin)Composer: BachThe first interest of this traversal of solo Bach lies in the violin: an Andrea Amati of 1570, the sort of instrument more often viewed in these pages than heard, especially in the flesh. In capturing its eggshell tints ...
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ArticleQuintets with Two Cellos. Brahms: String Quintet in F minor op.34 (reconstr. Brown). Joseph Miroslav Weber: String Quintet no.1 in D major
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Divertimenti EnsembleComposer: Brahms, Joseph Miroslav Weber Joseph Miroslav Weber’s First String Quintet incorporates programmatic titles for its four movements, offering attractive fare in a style approaching, but rarely surpassing, that of his more illustrious Czech contemporaries Dvo?rák and Smetana. ...
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ArticleBridge: String Sextet in E flat major. Korngold: String Sextet in D major op.10
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: ConcertanteComposer: Bridge, Korngold Composed in 1912, Bridge’s three-movement E flat major Sextet shows an effortless grasp of Straussian chromatic harmony, with typically expert writing for the viola, and a formal control that makes light of the structural ...
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Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin BWV1001–6, Partita for Solo Flute BWV1013 (arr. viola)
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Scott Slapin (viola)Composer: Bach American violist Scott Slapin’s second recording of Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas features big-boned Bach playing. He uses a modern ‘cut-away’ viola by Hiroshi Lizuka, which is given a warmly vivid personality in this resonant recording. ...
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ArticleJ.S. Bach's Suites for solo cello BWV1007–12
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: David Kenedy (cello)Composer: Bach Having been inspired to take up the cello through listening to Casals’s recordings of the Bach suites, it’s perhaps inevitable that David Kenedy, a pupil of Aldo Parisot and Boris Pergamenschikow, should have approached ...
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ArticleDvorák: String Quartet in A flat major op.105, Piano Quintet in A major op.81
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Psophos Quartet, Dana Ciocarlie (piano) Composer: DvorákThe Psophos continues on its inconsistent path with this CD, which contains one good performance and one that has sorely tried my patience. The adorable A flat Quartet opens with a ...
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ArticleShostakovich: String Quartets nos.6, 8 & 11
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Jerusalem Quartet Composer: ShostakovichThis disc makes me regret that I have not heard the Jerusalem’s first disc of Shostakovich quartets, with nos.1, 4 and 9. If we are to have yet another cycle of all 15, it should ...
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ArticleBernstein: Serenade. Weill: Violin Concerto op.12
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Régis Pasquier (violin) Picardy Orchestra, Edmon Colomer (conductor)Composer: Bernstein, WeillScored for solo violin, string orchestra, harp and percussion, Bernstein’s five-movement Serenade is typically loaded with extra-musical meaning – in this case five Greek philosopher–poets as featured in Plato’s Symposium, who ...
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ArticleMendelssohn: String Quartets in A minor op.13 & in F minor op.80, Four Pieces op.81
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Elias QuartetComposer: Mendelssohn The Elias Quartet gives fully committed accounts of Mendelssohn’s two most impassioned and adventurous quartets, combining commendable musical intelligence with youthful élan, tenderness and fantasy. Following the poise of the A minor Quartet’s thoughtful, song-based ...
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ArticleGórecki: String Quartet no.3 ‘… songs are sung’
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Kronos Quartet Composer: GóreckiWhere do you go after writing a best-selling Symphony of Sorrowful Songs? Write a quartet of sorrowful songs, it appears. The subtitle is from a poem by the Russian Velimir Khlebnikov: ‘When people die/songs are ...
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ArticleMozetich: Affairs of the Heart. Langer: Platch. Schnittke: Concerto for Three. Bennett: Sometimes it Rains
The Strad Issue: January 2007Musicians: Roman Mints (violin) Maxim Rysanov (viola) Kristine Blaumane (cello) West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra, Mikel Toms (conductor)Composer: Mozetich, Langer, Schnittke, Bennett Affairs of the Heart is a 23-minute violin concerto by the Slovenian-born Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich, much inspired by ...
