This second and last volume completes two different sets of string quartets: the four so-called Solo Quartets by Franz Anton Hoffmeister and Gioachino Rossini’s six String Sonatas (or Sonate a quattro). Both sets differ from the ‘normal’ configuration in that they allow a double bass to take part, albeit in different roles. Rossini, who composed his sonatas at the age of 12 (!), left out the viola and gave the double bass a more or less conventional bass role – apart from the occasional virtuosic outburst. The sonatas were first published in an arrangement for traditional string quartet and are often heard performed by string orchestras. In Vienna, where he was active as a composer and music publisher, Hoffmeister (1754-1812) chose a different solution than Rossini and gave his double bass player a leading role in the ensemble, letting it replace the first violin. It was no coincidence that this happened in Vienna – considering the amount of solo works for the double bass composed there, the standard of playing must have been exceptional. On the present recording, it is the Dutch player Niek de Groot who takes up Hoffmeister’s challenge in the company of a Finnish trio consisting of Minna Pensola, Antti Tikkanen and Tuomas Lehto. Featuring the same team, Volume 1 (BIS-2317) was as described by a reviewer in Gramophone as ‘entertaining, effortlessly enjoyable and beautifully performed’ upon its release in 2017.

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REVIEW:

In later life Rossini dismissed the quartets as ‘terrible’, but the truth – as made plain by the excellent performances on this recording – is that this music is much more than a mere prentice effort.

– BBC Music Magazine

This new release is an album of contemporary works for clarinet, supported by guitar, piano, and double bass. These works take as their foundation the traditions of Portuguese folk music. One of the more visible and active clarinetists on the scene today, Wesley Ferreira has been praised by critics for his "beautiful tone" and "technical prowess" (The Clarinet Journal) as well as his "remarkable sensitivity" (CAML Review). Fanfare Magazine notes, Ferreira is "clearly a major talent". As a recital clarinetist, his performances continually engage audiences, compelling the artistic director of one recent concert series performance to remark that Ferreira "showcased a potent synthesis of serious musicianship, technical ferocity, and bravery of programming that was effectively tempered by a dynamic flair for showmanship. With this performance, Ferreira proved not only is he an artist of some consequence, but also a consummate showman capable for presenting even the most challenging works with the ease and fluency of a world-class player."

Famed for his sequence of Piano Concertos, Sterndale Bennett also wrote a small but distinguished body of chamber music. The String Quartet in G major is one of his earliest surviving works, revealing a precocious talent still strongly influenced by Haydn. Mendelssohn is the model for the Sextet, though Bennett's highly virtuosic piano writing, with it's concertante interplay, reinforces the work's lyrical qualities and required dexterity as well as it's advanced harmonies and hymnal beauty. The concise Chamber Trio radiates sheer charm while displaying an even greater grasp of structure and is the first English example in the trio form where both string instruments are given parts independent of the piano. The Villiers Quartet are British chamber music specialists. Their previous release of the Delius and Elgar Quartets was very well reviewed. MusicWeb International wrote: "This is a desirable chamber release with convincing and stylish playing from the Villiers Quartet who offer endearing expression and impeccable intonation throughout."

Giovanni Bottesini was not only among the most famous double bass players of his time, but was also a conductor of some distinction and a composer. He conducted the first performance of Verdi's opera Aida in Cairo in 1871 and won success with some, at least, of his own ten operas. Known to some as the Paganini of the double bass, he significantly extended the technical possibilities of the instrument.

"The Duetto for two basses is probably the earliest and most etude-like work on this disc, from a set of three dedicated to Bottesini’s teacher, Luigi Rossi. The Concerto No. 2, sometimes referred to as in A minor, or in B minor, for complicated reasons arising from old-fashioned tuning conventions, is a fully mature work, from the well proportioned, somewhat laconic first movement, through the simply singing second, to the third, driven by a rhythmic figure typical of the polonaise (and the Cuban bolero).

Other selections emphasize the essential vocality of Bottesini’s inspiration, most explicitly in the Bellini Fantasia, but stylistically so in the pairings of bass, always singing, now with clarinet, now with soprano. The anonymous texts are routine bourgeois expressions of popular Romantic sentiment; but in the case of Tutto che il mondo the music is very well known - Chopin’s Etude Op. 25, No. 7. The Bach transcription is perfectly straightforward. Can there be any instrument without a transcription of this piece? The Adagio melancolico projects that characteristic elegiac mood, demanding a virtuosity of feeling at least as much as of just technique, that Bottesini perfected for many of his stand-alone solo pieces."

Jeffrey L. Stokes

For his latest feat of magic in the studio, composer and bassist Florent Ghys presents Télévision — an epic foray into classical forms, musique concrète, samples and sci-fi that warps the very edges of contemporary music. + As Ghys himself describes it, “Télévision is about weather reports, digital music, plastic beauty, synesthesia and dance.” + All 13 pieces were composed, played, recorded, filmed and mixed by Ghys — and we say filmed, because Ghys has taken the extraordinary step of creating a video to accompany each piece, in playful tribute to the medium that inspired the message.

'María de Buenos Aires brought me inner peace, a partial serenity that has changed my way of approaching music. I reached the zenith of my musical life at the time. (Astor Piazzolla) Piazzolla himself equated María to the tango and it's historical ups and downs; and this is probably also the primary aid to understanding the reception of the contents of the piece. Next to that, there is also a musical diction that is entirely unique in the second half of the 20th century, indeed in the New Music scene as a whole. 'I learnt something: to be patient, to be self-critical, to co-ordinate reflection with passion. Now I am told: 'That is a different Piazzolla', but that is not the case. I am the same man, but I have reached a synthesis'. (Astor Piazzolla)

Saint-Saëns uses a solo double-bass to comical effect in the Carnival of the Animals where it represents the elephant moving with ponderous grace to the Dance of the Sylphs by Berlioz. For Bottesini there was nothing comical about the instrument. He was after all a virtuoso of the double-bass, giving many successful concert tours all over Europe and the Americas. As if to prove just how serious the instrument can be, he wrote not only solos but many works for two double-basses. All those on this disc apart from the Gran Duetto also include the piano, but its role is essentially subordinate, even where its part may be technically demanding, as in the Concerto.

The sound of the solo double-bass, even when playing in its highest register and therefore able to match the actual notes played by a cello, is wholly different from that instrument. Indeed it is in some ways more akin to that of a viol, partly due to the lack of the fierce continuous vibrato that most professional cellists employ today. It is nonetheless a compelling sound, and after the initial surprise has worn off, it is far more than a mere comical curiosity. However on the evidence of the works included here, Bottesini was by no means an innovative composer. Not merely is the first work based on themes by Rossini but the language of the others is closely related to that of the older master. All make enormous technical demands on the two bass players. I have never attempted to play the instrument and have long admired those able to gauge accurately the long distance between notes on the strings. I can only guess as to how certain passages which seem to demand superhuman dexterity can be played on something so apparently unwieldy. The two players here display great bravura, playing fine instruments by Landolfi and Testore loaned specially for the recording.

All four of the works on the disc have three movements each, but the Gran Duetto is by some way the longest, being nearly twice as long as any of the others. Unfortunately it is also by some way the least interesting and most conventional in its themes and structure. However, it is certainly worth hearing once, even if one is unlikely to want to repeat the experience often. The other pieces are worth repeating. Overall an out of the way but rewarding disc whose strange but characterful sounds resonate in the memory.

-- John Sheppard, MusicWeb International

Already during his lifetime George Onslow was known as the "French Beethoven." This extraordinary distinction earned above all for his manifold chamber music does not do complete justice to his special rank. On this release, Markus Becker teams up with the Ma'alot Quintet for a closer look at Onslow's virtuoso side. Functioning as virtuoso concertos for the salon, both the Wind Quintet op. 81 and the Sextet op. 30 fully satisfied the discriminating taste of Parisian high society. Onslow began his occupation with wind instruments relatively late. The flute and other members of the wind family first inspired his interest when innovations like the ring-keyed technique developed by the inventive Theobald Bohm enormously expanded the range of possibilities for their use. Especially the late wind quintet op. 81 shows a wide scope: as for the musical substance Onslow puts the airy, serenade-like genre on the same level as the alleged graver chamber music for strings. In this respect the Sextet op. 30 is a singular exception and even a double one: certainly more out of business considerations than for artistic reasons, Onslow also published the salon concerto in a version with string quintet. The Ma'alot Quintet and Markus Becker present the wind version with captivating verve. The fine resolution of the instrumental colors and the room sound registered with filigree precision of course come across especially well on this recording.

WEINBERG Piano Trio. 1,2,4 Sonatina for Violin and Piano. 1,3 Sonata for Solo Bass 5 • 1 Elisaveta Blumina (pn); 2 Kolja Blacher (vn); 3 Erez Ofer (vn); 4 Johannes Moser (vc); 5 Nabil Shehata (db) • CPO 777804-2 (68:23)


The music of Mieczys?aw Weinberg continues to be issued, and continues to impress. Like his British counterpart, York Bowen, Weinberg was a composer trapped in time and place, and it is good that their very different musics are now coming to the fore with such regularity. One of the wonderful things about this disc, aside from the committed, intense playing of the instrumentalists, is the sound: crisp and clear, with only a very little reverb, which brings the sound of the instruments into sharp focus and makes the listener pay attention to the music.


Like Bowen, Weinberg was largely a tonal composer, although heavily influenced by Bartók and his personal friend Shostakovich. Unlike Shostakovich, however, Weinberg seldom engaged in whining, overwrought musical breast-beating; his aesthetic was geared at bringing out intense personal feelings, but always with good taste and a less mocking or posturing tone. The piano trio that opens this disc is a perfect example. Weinberg immediately grabs our attention with a strident forte tremolo on the violin, and this sets the pace for the musical marvels that follow. The intensity of this piece was inspired, so the notes suggest, by Weinberg’s sight of Polish mothers with their children hugging the legs of Russian horses, begging the Soviet soldiers to let them come over because the Nazis were after them. It was that horrible, that terrifying, and the first movement of this trio reflects that mood. So, too, does the raw power of the ensuing Toccata, which builds up to a powerful fugue; and even the slow movement (“Poem”), which begins softly, still has an undercurrent of menace and unrest, which breaks out in the middle of the movement into an ostinato piano figure, receding in volume and intensity to a quiet, almost submissive ending with the violin playing soft, muted passages. The finale does not toy with a fugue, as did the second movement, but builds up through its quiet opening into a really complex and powerful fugue—oddly enough, based on entirely different thematic material from the opening, which sounds like a Bachian fugue theme. This is clearly one of Weinberg’s masterpieces.


Where do we go from here? To the sonatina for violin and piano from 1946, a piece that sounds like the diametric opposite of the trio. Set primarily in D Minor, but vacillating in and out of F major, the sonatina has touches of melancholy about it, but is primarily a lyrical work with what may be termed episodes of sadness. Here, too, some of the melancholy passages sound related to Jewish folk music without ever really using genuine themes. But ever and anon, Weinberg holds your interest through his amazingly creative sense of construction (would that many of our modern-day American wunderkind composers listen to his work and pay heed to what he does). Nothing in Weinberg’s work is ever flippant, thoughtless, or peripheral; he thinks in terms of the whole picture without sacrificing the detail of internal episodes.


One should be forgiven for thinking in advance that to end this disc with a solo sonata for the rather lugubrious-sounding double bass would be a bit of a downer; after all, solo bass sonatas don’t exactly grow on trees. Yet, after an almost predictably slow first movement, Weinberg becomes much more involved in writing music and not necessarily just writing for the bass, if you know what I mean. His creative forces flowed in one direction, which was towards the creation of fascinating musical forms, and never towards empty virtuosity or just “filling space” with his music. Thus the potential interpreter needs to stay focused not so much on the technical challenges (and there are many in this sonata) as on the musical progression and what it means in terms of expressive content. (I fond it interesting, in the notes, to read that bassist Shehata thinks of it as more “similar to a suite in which each movement is structured very clearly thematically.”) I also noted that, aside from its musical marvels, Weinberg manages to elicit some very interesting sounds from the bass, including percussive effects that almost make it resound like an organ—or, in the last movement, pushing it up into the cello range.


The playing of each musician on this disc, from pianist-director Blumina to double bassist Shehata, is simply astonishing, so deeply rooted in the music that it seems to be an extension of the notes on the page, not an extension of a virtuoso who says to the listener, “Look at me, I’m wonderful!” It is virtuosity that consistently serves the composer and his message, not the ego of the performer. This is a truly great disc.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Anders Jormin is a Swedish jazz/improv double bass player with a world reputation. For this production, Anders has composed a number of pieces for choir and double bass. The choir on this recording is the professional ensemble Camerata Silesia from Katowice, Poland, conducted by Anna Szostak. Anders Jormin was born in 1957 in Jonkoping, Sweden. After intense studies, he left Musikhogskolan in Goteborg with diplomas in double bass and improvisation/ pedagogy in 1979. Today as a double-bass player and composer, AJ is a frequent and highly respected performer on the international concert scene. As a musician in great demand, AJ has recorded and toured with many of the legends in jazz. For many years, AJ was also a front figure in one of Scandinavia's foremost ensembles, "Entra." AJ today performs regularly all over Europe, North America, and Japan, and has for shorter periods performed and studied ethnic music in Cuba and Mozambique.

One can experience with admiration how one of the most important works in chamber music literature lives and breathes when it is awakened to sonorous life. Laureates of the German Music Competition play Schubert's great Octet of 1827 and these young musicians perform at the highest level.

MOZART Piano Concertos Nos. 12–14 (arr. unknown) • Anne-Marie McDermott (pn); Calder Qrt; David J. Grossman (db) • BRIDGE 9403 (75:54)


From Wikipedia, regarding Concertos No. 11-13: “arrangements exist for them for piano plus string quartet that lose little,” with no indication if those arrangements are by Mozart or not. Nothing is said in the liner notes about these or the string quintet reduction of Concerto No. 14. Yet a review of a similar recording, made by pianist Jean-Phillippe Collard for EMI in 1988 at allmusic.com, indicates that the arangements are Mozart’s own, “his justification for doing them was that if he didn’t, someone else would.” To ears used to a full orchestral accompaniment, the sound is a little strange at first—we keep waiting for orchestral tuttis that never arrive—but the bottom line is whether or not the performances are musically convincing and valid, and for me they are, particularly since Anne-Marie McDermott, one of the truly great American pianists of our time, seems to be using a lean-sounding if modern piano (possibly a Baldwin of the type favored by Glenn Gould?), and these lean, crisp sonorities play well against the string quartet (and quintet in the case of No. 14).


The concertos nos. 12 and 13 (presented on the CD in reverse order) are not among Mozart’s most profound compositions in this genre, but rather fall into the category of music that the cynical composer described to his father in a letter: “These concertos (Nos. 11–13) are a happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult; they are very brilliant, pleasing to the ear, and natural without being vapid….In order to win applause one must write stuff which is so inane that a coachman could sing it, or so unintelligible that it pleases precisely because no reasonable man can understand it.” (This quote, again, from Wikipedia.)


McDermott, producing an appropriately light yet well-inflected sound throughout most of each concerto, really lets herself go in the first-movement cadenzas, and it is here that she separates herself from the more delicate, almost prissy Mozart interpreters on record. Not that she attacks the keyboard as if the music were by Beethoven (though she certainly has the power to do so), but because she understands that the nature of these cadenzas was to stand out and assert center stage, however briefly.


As Mozart indicated, concertos 12 and 13 aren’t exactly profound music. Despite some nicely subtle passages (he never wrote anything that did not have such sections within them), they tend to be lightweight works, designed, as he so aptly put it, “to please” without unduly challenging the average listener’s mind. Yet when the music does turn profound, as it does (quite dramatically so) in the Andante of No. 12, McDermott and the Calder Quartet are up to the challenge. Here, their playing includes a great deal of coloration in addition to the subtlest of modifications within the beats, producing an exquisite musical flow.


The Concerto No. 14 inhabits an entirely different musical world. This is richer, deeper, more mature Mozart, the music alternating in mood between “prettiness” (you’ve got to please the public!) and darker, more penetrating depths, and oddly enough this also applies to the first-movement cadenza. Mozart wisely adds a double bass to the proceedings here; it is necessary to counterbalance the thematic material and its development with a richer texture. This performance alone is worth the price of the CD: it is worthy of the music in every way. Note, particularly, Mozart’s subtle yet dramatic use of descending chromatics and his equally impressive use of what one might call grace notes played as part of the overall structure.


This is an excellent album of its type, although your willingness to acquire it will naturally depend on how many other versions you have of these concertos and whether or not you’d like to have them in chamber music arrangements. Recommended nevertheless.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley