Dvořák, Smetana & Suk: Piano Trios / Sitkovetsky Trio
BIS
SACD
$21.99Apr 29, 2014
The young Sitkovetsky Trio plays Smetana's G minor trio and Dvořák’s Trio Op. 65, two large-scale works, complemented by Josef Suk's one-movement Elegy in an arrangement for piano trio. Formed in 2007, the Sitkovetsky Trio performs worldwide and has received numerous awards and critical acclaim, but is here making its début on disc.
Debussy: La mer, Images & Prelude a l'apres midi d'un faune / Shui, Singapore Symphony
BIS
SACD
$21.99Nov 11, 2014
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
On this disc, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune – possibly Claude Debussy’s most popular work for orchestra – is framed by two of his greatest achievements in the medium, La Mer and Images pour orchestre. All three works are programmatic, but Debussy’s concern was to create an atmosphere rather than any naturalistic likeness. The Prélude is a case in point – while taking his inspiration from a pastoral poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, Debussy famously told a conductor who wanted a more detailed explanation: ‘It’s a shepherd playing the flute, sitting on his bum in the grass!’ In La Mer, Debussy abstains from the various clichés of so many other musical depictions of water, and instead creates an immediately recognizable seascape, largely through a pioneering use of various instrumental timbres, once described as ‘an impressionism of sounding dots’. Soon after La Mer, the composer started on Images, in which he went even further: although using a large orchestra, Debussy mainly avoids big sonorities, concentrating instead on unusual sound combinations and on transparency. His aim was compose a cycle focusing on the colours of three countries, while as far as possible avoiding the clichés associated with their music. Of its three panels, the expansive middle one, Ibéria, is often performed as an independent piece, but its Spanish colouring takes on new shades when framed by Scottish mists and the freshness of spring in France. The present disc combines new recordings by Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Lan Shui with the team’s acclaimed performance of La Mer, first released in 2007 on Seascapes, a programme of sea-related works. The reviewer in American Record Guide called it ‘the most astounding, effective, and beautiful recording of La Mer I have ever heard’ and in BBC Music Magazine it was described as ‘an unequivocally world-class performance’.
Weigl: Symphony No 6, Old Vienna / Sanderling, Francis
BIS
CD
$21.99Nov 01, 2005
In 2002 we released the first recording of Karl Weigl's (1881-1949) Fifth Symphony, subtitled 'The Apocalyptic' and dedicated it to the memory of Franklin Roosevelt. Completed in the last year of the Second World War, it is a programmatic work describing the world hovering on the brink of total destruction - a very natural way of seeing things for an Austrian refugee of Jewish decent living in the US during that troubled time. But there was more than the destiny of his beloved Vienna that occupied Weigl. He was very much part of an old central-European tradition, the tradition of Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler, which - as he must have realized - was threatened by whatever the outcome of the war. Described by his fellow student Schoenberg as 'one of the best composers of the old school, one of those who continued the glittering Viennese tradition', Weigl in one of the first works written after his flight to the US in 1938, celebrates one aspect of his native city: the waltzes of the Strauss family. In 'Old Vienna' we get a rhapsody of Vienna-style waltzes, executed with the affection - and nostalgia - of someone who had been present at the time. (Weigl was a regular guest at the soirées of Adèle Strauss, widow of Johann Strauss II, in whose home he met his first wife.) Compared to this work and to the Apocalyptic Symphony, the 'Sixth Symphony', composed eight years later and Weigl's last major work, is a piece of absolute music. But here too, in the music itself, is a testament to the tradition that for political and aesthetic reasons had already become a memory in the old world that had fostered it. Neither of the works was performed in the composer's lifetime, and in fact the Symphony had to wait until the present recording. The previous Weigl release on BIS (CD1077) was greeted with a 2003 Cannes Classical Award and great acclaim by reviewers who called Weigl 'a fascinating voice' and 'a major discovery' while naming the performances, by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Tomas Sanderling, 'exceptional' and 'committed'. The ones on the present disc - on which conductor Alun Francis also appears - certainly are no less!
Nielsen: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 / Oramo, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic
BIS
SACD
$21.99Feb 10, 2015
This is very, very good. We seem to be going through a particularly satisfying period as regards Nielsen symphonies on SACD. First we had Gilbert’s cycle with the New York Philharmonic on Dacapo, and now we have this sterling second installment of Oramo’s, containing the First and Third Symphonies. Both works receive marvelous readings, with world class playing from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and interpretations that propel the music forward with all of its muscular energy and lyrical intensity.
The First Symphony is, in this respect, perhaps a more remarkable (but not “better”) performance than the Third. Usually the work gets damned with faint praise: “early Nielsen;” “Brahms praised it;” and the like. Here the music sounds fully mature, the outer movements played with such verve that their tendency towards formal stiffness simply vanishes. The highly developmental third movement that does duty for the scherzo, also sports an unusually wide range of mood, with Oramo’s attention to accent and phrasing paying big dividends. If you have ever had doubts about this symphony, this performance may well erase them.
The “Espansiva” also packs quite a wallop. Its high octane opening gestures enlivens the entire movement, nowhere more so than in the grand waltz at the heart of the development section. The pastoral second movement is magnificent: the string playing has tremendous intensity, and there’s also an unusually bold contribution from the brass when they finally have the opening tune. Soloists Anu Komsi and Karl-Magnus Fredriksson aren’t highlighted unduly. Their wordless vocalize merges with, and emerges from, the surrounding texture with a naturalness that’s memorably poetic. In the last two movements, once again Oramo’s punchy accents and rhythmic drive create powerfully satisfying and idiomatic results.
BIS’ engineers have, as expected, achieved tactile, glowing sonics, placing the orchestra in a warm and open acoustic space and capturing every textural detail with just balances and palpable presence. It’s a good time to be a Nielsen fan.
In Ástor Piazzolla’s tango nuevo are all the ingredients of his life – his love from adolescence for Classical music, his fascination with jazz and improvisation and – naturally – the ever-present tango, instilled in him by his father, whom he would immortalize in one of his best-loved works, Adiós NoniNo. + Piazzolla’s life-long quest to rejuvenate the tango caused animosity and even threats from traditionalists in Argentina, and even among his sympathizers there were those who sometimes wondered if what they heard really was a tango. + Piazzolla himself never doubted, and musicians of all backgrounds and genres, from jazz (Gerry Mulligan, Gary Burton, Al Di Meola) and pop (Grace Jones) to classical (Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma) have agreed with him. + On the present recording, the trombonist Christian Lindberg has joined up with his long-time chamber music partner Roland Pöntinen and the young bandoneon player Jens Lundberg in a program that takes in their own arrangements of Piazzolla highlights. + Trio Tangophoria also selected some tango standards which featured in Piazzolla’s repertoire, as well as Christian Lindberg’s own homage to Piazzolla: Midvinter (‘Midwinter’), written for a concert project as a bridge between two of the master’s Four Seasons.
The Trio Sonata - Lully, Couperin, Etc / London Baroque
BIS
CD
$21.99Apr 01, 2005
This is the second of a planned series of eight discs promising to trace the development of the trio sonata, the archetypal Baroque chamber form. The first, devoted to music from London Baroque’s home country, was reviewed in Fanfare 28:3 with considerable enthusiasm by Laura Rónai, and by myself elsewhere in a review that largely mirrored my colleague’s findings. Now London Baroque has turned its attention to what was happening during the same period across the English Channel, with equally commendable results.
The ambivalent French attitude to the sonata, an Italian invention, was famously and sardonically expressed in the words of playwright Fontenelle: “Sonate, que me veux-tu” (literally “Sonata, what do you want from me?”). A more balanced view came from the theorist François Raguenet who, although a stern critic of Italian opera, declared that he had “never met with a master in France but what agreed that the Italians knew much better how to turn and vary a trio than the French.” A number of French masters, indeed, sought to integrate the spirit of the Italian sonata, specifically the Corellian sonata, into their own style, among whom François Couperin attempted a fusion that reached a climax in the two sets of L’apothéoses, dedicated respectively to Corelli (1724) and Lully (1725). (Both have already been recorded by London Baroque on BIS CD1275, not reviewed in Fanfare.)
The selection made by London Baroque provides a representative cross section of writing in trio style, taking us chronologically from Lully to Clérambault (one assumes the series will include a second French disc devoted to the 18th century), and managing to include at least one unfamiliar name in the shape of Jean Nicolas Geoffroy (?–1694), a shadowy figure whose obscurity is not helped by the fact that there was more than one composer of that name working in Paris at the time. According to gambist Charles Medlam’s note, his Dialogues were probably originally intended for organ, but they work well enough in this form, if too diffuse to lay any claim to the structural balance of the true trio sonata. Much the same can be said of the little pieces by Louis Couperin, which provide no indication as to instrumentation. Lully’s trios for the ceremony of Le coucher du Roi, performed daily at Versailles by the petits violons, do achieve true equality between the two violins, but, true to form, the Italian-born Lully firmly implanted French style on the music. Although Marais’s Pièces en trio (1692) were the first works to be published in France in trio form, they are in fact a collection of mostly dance movements that following tradition could be arranged in suites. As such, they too bear little relationship to the true trio sonata, preferring to explore the French love of varying sonorities rather than the symmetrical balance of the Italian sonata, an observation that applies equally to the Suite by Gaspard le Roux (1660–1707).
It is only with the next generation that an awareness of the Italian model emerges. François Couperin’s La Superbe is well named, being a majestic work that pays overt homage to Corelli in the suspensions of its opening movement, and the fugal writing of the second, while Jean-Féry Rebel’s tombeau in honor of Lully largely remains loyal to native style, but also betrays Italian leanings in some dazzling solo violin-writing and furious tremolandos in its fourth movement. Most Italianate of all is the work by Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, significantly the only one included here to bear the name “sonata.”
With the proviso that, as with the disc of English works, London Baroque’s style of playing manifestly owes more to the 18th than the 17th century, these performances can be thoroughly recommended. The technical expertise, splendid sense of balance between the players, finesse, and spirited approach are by now all familiar assets, while the music is of generally high quality and well worth hearing. The engineering occasionally imparts a glassiness to the violins’s upper register, but is otherwise fine. I look forward to further issues in this interesting series.
The second volume in what one hopes will be a complete Brahms piano music cycle from Jonathan Plowright charges from the starting gate with engines ablaze and fingers primed for action. In other words, behold the most incisive, dramatic, and multi-dimensional account of the composer’s Piano Sonata No. 2 on disc since Katchen and Arrau!
Part of the excitement lies in the pianist’s absolute rather than approximate observation of Brahms’ difficult-to-execute articulation marking in the first-movement exposition, the vivacity and point of his arpeggiated chords, and his ability to project the keyboard writing’s textural mass with minimum pedal and equal attention between registers. Using very little rubato, Plowright conveys the Andante’s “con espressione” largely through minute dynamic gradations and quality of touch. He makes effortless light of the Scherzo’s rapid broken chords while insightfully contouring the finale’s imitative right-hand writing against leaner than usual left-hand pedal-points. In the Op. 21 No. 1 Thema, Plowright’s straightforward tempo anchors all sorts of delicious inflections and altered voicings, although the variations themselves cohere by virtue of the pianist’s tightly-knit tempo relationships and relative simplicity from an expressive standpoint.
The three Op. 117 Intermezzi are no less masterful. Plowright plays No. 1 with a kind of classical understatment that avoids underlining the central section’s across-the-barline phrasings and lush harmonies. By contrast, No. 2 is measured, rounded, and more wistful in relation to the faster, business-like interpretations many younger pianists favor. Rather than veil No. 3’s unison opening in mystery, Plowright parks it in neutral, so to speak, with little hint at the more impassioned than usual major-key climax just around the bend.
If the Op. 4 Scherzo’s opening motive is not so characterfully spelled out as in the old Backhaus, Friedberg, and Kempff recordings, Plowright’s awesome legato control and supple rhythmic sense convey a lithe, elfin shimmer rarely heard in this score. Malcolm McDonald’s terrific booklet notes and BIS’s bracing surround-sound engineering are worthy of their own review. Even in a catalog packed to the rafters with great Brahms piano recordings, this stunning release should not be missed.
With a flourishing international concert career and an acclaimed discography, Freddy Kempf has become firmly established among the top pianists of today. His very first disc, at the age of 22, was a Schumann recital that made reviewers around the world sit up and take notice.
Kempf now returns to Schumann, with these three solo piano works. The Études symphoniques is one of Schumann’s most imposing piano works and is played here in its 1852 version, with the additional five variations (later published by Brahms) and the third and ninth études from the 1837 edition. This really gives the listener an opportunity to hear this work in all its glory.
REVIEW:
There is real beauty to Kempf's sound, especially in the lyrical moments of the Fantasiestucke, and careful, intelligent voicing of the very contrapuntal Etudes Symphoniques...there's also rewarding flair which never seems to exist for its own sake, but pursues a larger total impression.
In Stockholm during Johan Helmich Roman's lifetime, the recorder was the most common wind instrument, used throughout the social spectrum – including the Royal music establishment. The transverse flute, however, was generally the preserve of the nobility and bourgeosie. That hasn't stopped the celebrated recorder player Dan Laurin from taking up his countryman’s sonatas on his own instrument. With his fellow musicians in Paradiso Musicale, Laurin opts for a justifiably Italianate slant – providing great variety in realizations characterized by bold and striking harmonizations.
Mozart: The Complete Piano Sonatas / Ronald Brautigam
BIS
CD
$59.99Aug 01, 2000
Previously available on six single CDs, BIS offers Ronald Brautigam's Mozart Sonata cycle in one package. While the music easily could have fit on five discs, you still get six for the price of three. It's wonderfully worth it. To be sure, Brautigam's Paul McNulty fortepiano (modeled after an Anton-Gabriel Walter instrument circa 1795) doesn't match the timbral differentiation between registers we often encounter from other fortepianos. It has the advantage, however, of a clear, resonant sound and, praise be, it holds its tuning. Brautigam's imaginative interpretations capture Mozart's many moods, from the gallant style of the six earliest sonatas to the tensile drama and operatic leanings of the A minor (K. 310) and C minor Fantasia and Sonata (K. 457 and 475). Sometimes Brautigam's tapered diminuendos seem a bit arch and unnatural. At least his occasional mannerisms don't emerge as interpretive tics. If you're looking for a reasonably priced Mozart Sonata cycle played on a period instrument, look no further. Excellent sound and annotations, too. --Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
In the early days of CDs, it always was cause for special comment in reviews (and a high rating for sound!) whenever you came across a recording so realistic and natural it seemed as if the performer was right there in the room with you. This disc would have received that production accolade, and happily gets similarly high marks for its first rate, reference-quality performances.
This is certainly not the first time Bach’s suites for solo cello have been performed on viola–a perfectly natural adaptation and transposition, the viola strings identically configured, their tuning an octave higher than the cello–and while there’s no definitive version of the score, there are contemporary copies of these pieces that enable an arranger/adapter such as Simon Rowland-Jones (in this case) to create a performing edition that’s both faithful to Bach and idiomatic to the instrument in question.
And speaking of faithful, violist Maxim Rysanov plays with a respect for the score–no distracting affectations here!–but also distinguishing his interpretations with a well-considered assertiveness in tone and articulation that confirms the viola’s voice as, if not equal in depth and sheer sonic power to that of the cello, at least as technically impressive and musically satisfying. Rysanov performs these three suites on his 1780 Guadagnini viola, and proudly explains his decision to perform Suite No. 6, originally written for a five-stringed instrument, in its original key–D major–in spite of the difficulty this presents for a player on a four-string viola. (This same approach was successfully executed by violist Patricia McCarty in her viola-traversal of the cello suites for Ashmont several years ago–read review here).
That “up-close and realistic” digital sound we marveled at back in the 1980s often had one drawback, due to the newness of the technology, or simply to the ignorance or unawareness of the production team: along with the timbral realism of the strings or flute or piano or whatever came the presence of the equally, frighteningly natural breathing and wheezing and occasional humming and groaning of the performer, or the clicking and clacking of valves or keys, not to mention the squeaking and screeching of fingers sliding on guitar strings. Thankfully, although we do occasionally hear evidence of Rysanov’s physical, breath-taking existence, it’s minimally distracting (unless you choose to clap on the headphones and turn up the volume).
Rysanov recorded the other three suites for BIS on an earlier CD, and it’s clear that in these confident, exemplary readings he confirms these works as legitimate viola concert pieces rather than simply useful studies or “borrowed” material for an instrument short on its own substantive solo repertoire. In fact, in Bach’s own time and place, “authentic” Bach sometimes meant recycled, re-purposed Bach–keyboard concertos from violin concertos; mass movements from cantata movements; sacred works from secular ones. The idea of making transcriptions or arrangements of Bach is as old as the composer himself.
Many violists besides Rysanov have taken on the cello suites (in several different editions)–but of course this practice doesn’t stop with the viola: Bach made an arrangement of the C minor suite BWV 1011 for lute, and indeed the lute and guitar are the instruments of choice in many modern transcriptions. And the ready adaptability of these pieces to other instruments or ensemble forms isn’t confined to plucked and bowed strings–or even to the world of the traditional classical music stage. Let’s enjoy a great example, from the Gigue of the C major suite BWV 1009–an energetic, sometimes feisty little piece that brings out the livelier side of two very different interpreters: Rysanov with his solo viola, and the Swingle Singers of 1964. Whatever your preference, you have to agree–it’s Bach, and it works.
