Stravinsky and Ravel are two twentieth century composers whose work is often complex while remaining accessible. In the idiom of piano and violin, they may be found to be at their best. Included here are the Duo Concertante and Divertimento for Violin and Piano of Stravinsky, and by Ravel the Sonata for Violin and Piano, and "Tzigane" (Rapsodie de Concert for Violin and Piano). Stravinsky, with his rhythmic power and chromatics, shines in these smaller, powerful pieces for the two instruments. The works clearly belong in the twentieth century, yet engage the listener with lyricism and force.
Ravel, as well, in his furious lines and Debussy-like impressionism finds a perfect pairing in these two instruments. The "Blues" movement of his Sonata allows the two instruments to go their idiomatic ways while retaining a lazy structure, later exploding into vintage Ravel.
The performance of these pieces by violinist Jennifer Frautschi and pianist Marta Aznavoorian find virtuosity and musicality serving one another. Both are consummate young players; they bring verve and fresh intelligence to these pieces, possessing an obvious rapport with each other and the music itself. An excellent disc.

SCHUMANN Hermann and Dorothea Overture, Op. 136. Overture, Scherzo, and Finale, Op. 52. Violin Concerto in d, WoO 1 1 & • Stewart Robertson, cond; Elmar Oliveira (vn); Atlantic Classical O • ARTEK 0059 (79:08) Live: Boca Raton, FL 3/5/2012


& A conversation on the Schumann Violin Concerto with Elmar Oliveira and Stewart Robertson


In March of last year, a Boca Raton, Florida, audience was treated to this unusual all-Schumann program—unusual in that the works performed are not that often heard on record let alone live in concert. The highlight was Schumann’s ill-fated Violin Concerto, about which I’ve already had my say in the above interview. I first came to know the piece from Henryk Szeryng’s Mercury recording with Antal Doráti conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. That recording, coupled with Szeryng’s Mendelssohn Concerto was made in 1964, and I acquired it as an LP. I didn’t think much of the Schumann concerto then, and after a parade of others that followed—including Thomas Zehetmair, Joshua Bell, and Christian Tetzlaff—I still don’t think much of the piece now. Or, I didn’t, until I heard Elmar Oliveira play it on this CD. I wasn’t just trying to flatter him in our interview when I said I found his performance of the work the most persuasive I’ve heard.


I think there are some artists who play a piece for the same reason that some mountaineers climb a particular mountain—because it’s there. Then there are those artists who really believe in a piece and commit themselves to it body, mind, and soul in an effort to bring it to life in a way that no one else has before. I can’t, and won’t, say that I’m ready to accord Schumann’s violin concerto a place on high among the Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Sibelius concertos, but I can, and will, say that Oliveira, Robertson, and the ACO’s performance of the score made more sense to me than it ever has, and has convinced me that the work deserves at least second-tier status among the likes of the Dvo?ák, Glazunov, Goldmark, and Bruch concertos—and that’s not bad company to be in. It’s certainly several steps above where Schumann’s concerto has long languished, and Oliveira and Robertson can take credit for its rehabilitation.


Schumann composed a trivet of concert overtures based on literary works. I use the word “trivet” rather than trilogy, because though the three scores were composed in the same year, 1851, they are not related, and they were assigned non-contiguous opus numbers. The first of them, Braut von Messina , op. 100, is based on Schiller’s tragic play of the same name. The second overture, Julius Caesar , op. 128, was inspired by Shakespeare’s tragedy. And last, the overture performed here, Hermann and Dorothea , op. 136, was inspired by Goethe’s epic poem telling of the tragic fate of two lovers during the French Revolution. Tchaikovsky, it seems, was not the first composer to use the Marseillaise when he incorporated it into his 1812 Overture ; Schumann uses it here to set the time and place for his score. In works such as these, the lines between concert overture and tone poem are blurred. The question is not merely academic: If an orchestral piece of music takes its inspiration from a literary work, and it purports to depict the work’s characters and/or to outline its story, how does that differ from a tone poem?


It’s a question that spills over into the other orchestral work on this program, the Overture, Scherzo, and Finale, op. 52. What is its musical taxonomy? Even Schumann didn’t seem to know, at one time referring to it as his “Symphony No. 2,” at another time as a “suite,” and at still another time as a “sinfonietta.” Reducing it to its component parts, one could say it’s a symphony without a slow movement. Perhaps because of confusion over its classification, the work was long neglected for most of the 19th century, but it has been dusted off in the 20th and taken up by a number of famous conductors in the modern recording era, from Kletzki, Schuricht, and Konwitschny, to Karajan, Solti, Sawallisch, Marriner, Gardiner, and Thielemann.


The two orchestral works are presented in highly polished performances by conductor Robertson and the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, but of course, it’s Schumann’s violin concerto with soloist Oliveira that is the main fare on the menu and the reason for you to purchase this disc. As mentioned earlier, a 20-minute bonus track at the end includes a fascinating conversation on the concerto between Oliveira and Robertson.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

SYMPHONY NO. 8 IN C MINOR, OP.

"Gerard Schwarz offers a solid interpretation of the Seventh Symphony that merits attention from start to finish." - Opera Today

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MAHLER Symphony No. 7 • Gerard Schwarz, cond; Royal Liverpool PO • ARTEK 43 (76:00)


Generally speaking, Mahler’s late symphonies—except for No. 8, which is extremely popular because of its splendid exhibitionism, despite its complexity—are not only unpopular but also extremely difficult to bring off well, and the Seventh has always been considered the most difficult of all. Only a handful of conductors, among them Kubelík, Abbado, and Boulez, seem to have managed to solve this hardest of Mahler’s musical puzzles. All three of the conductors named were able to do so because they reveled in its grotesqueries, yet were able to knit its disparate elements together, and even they do not always succeed (or succeed equally) in each of the performances they lead.


As I write these introductory words, I am in fact listening to Rafael Kubelík conduct the symphony, the performance of February 28, 1981, with the New York Philharmonic that is generally considered to be his finest. All the swirling details of the score are brought out clearly, yet each and every element is knitted together splendidly and woven into a tapestry that touches the spirit and evokes a world of different moods. Kubelík’s tempos, in this performance especially, were rather slow, yet they never sound slow; he maintains momentum, no matter how convoluted the texture or how difficult the rhythms, and sustains tension despite his slowness.


Switching to Schwarz, one hears a performance 10 minutes faster than Kubelík’s. There is less rubato, more of a linear concept. It is played with great feeling, however—something I did not hear in Schwarz’s readings of the First and Ninth symphonies—and although not quite as fiery as Abbado’s second, more successful, recording, it works very well. Like Kubelík, Schwarz revels in the music’s grotesqueries, albeit in stricter tempo. There is sufficient relaxation in the soft string passages to offset this drama, and the Royal Liverpool orchestra responds with verve and great feeling to Schwarz’s every shift of mood.


The first “Nachtmusik” movement plays off the dark and light elements in perfect equilibrium. The lyrical middle section has just the right tenderness and gemütlich for the music. The music sings—and how it sings! One almost expects a soprano to come swooping in at any moment. The Scherzo has proper bounce and swagger, with a light touch that makes the odd violin glisses sound like aerial acrobats riding above the ebb and flow of the music. There is also a touch of humor, so important in this score. The second “Nachtmusik” continues this mood in a most charming vein. In the finale, Schwarz pulls out all the stops: the music leaps from the speakers and grabs you by the shoulders. There is an almost Baroque feeling to the counterpoint, though dressed in modern harmonic clothing, that Schwarz, an expert Baroque conductor, understands very well.


Gerard, you scored a hit with this one! The sound quality is nothing short of fantastic. Five stars, easily.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Includes work(s) for guitar by various composers. Soloist: Alejandro Saladin Cote.

BACH Violin Concertos: in a, BWV 1041; in E, BWV 1042; in g, BWV 1056; in d for Two Violins, BWV 1043 1 • Elmar Oliveira (vn, cond); 1 Eva Gruesser (vn); Arco Ens • ARTEK 0054 (63:24)


After reviewing Elmar Oliveira’s brilliant performance of Schumann’s Violin Concerto in conjunction with our interview, I have to admit that reviewing this CD of Bach’s violin concertos proved rather difficult for me. The reason is not due to any shortcomings found in Oliveira’s playing or the excellent support he receives from the Arco Ensemble. To paraphrase Shakespeare, the fault, dear reader, lies not in the music-making but in what we’ve come to expect of it. Reflexively, I found myself wanting to reject Oliveira’s approach, not for what it is but for what it isn’t.


In recent times, we’ve become so habituated to hearing this music performed on period instruments, that even when it’s performed on modern instruments, we demand that the players adopt the manners and style of performance informed by historical practice. Examples may be heard in two modern-instrument recordings of these Bach concertos by Hilary Hahn with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Julia Fischer with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Both embrace almost identical approaches: rapid tempos, minimal vibrato, short bow strokes, pointed phrasing, terraced dynamics, and surgically precise articulation. Yet, impressive as their performances are as pure execution, Hahn and Fischer’s versions both strike me as virtually devoid of emotional expression and warmth.


Elmar Oliveira’s readings of these concertos are not what I would call big-band Bach— from a group photo, the Arco Ensemble appears to be composed of 18 string players—but they are what I would call older-school Bach. Tempos are brisk enough, but more moderate than the lightning speeds adopted by so many modern-day ensembles; and the result is that one can actually hear and appreciate the intricate contrapuntal interplay between voices in the orchestra, and the intra -play between ripieno and soloist.


For Oliveira’s part, vibrato, long bow strokes, graduated dynamics, and songful phrasing are part and parcel of the art of making beautiful music and making the music sound beautiful. Time and again, as I listened to these performances, the violinist who came to mind was Arthur Grumiaux, whose patrician style Oliveira’s elegant, refined, aristocratic playing and warm tone very much reminds me of.


The more I listened to Oliveira’s Bach, the more I realized what I’ve been missing in so many recent versions both on period and modern instruments. There’s real feeling in these performances. Just listen to the slow movement of the D-Minor Concerto for Two Violins, in which Eva Gruesser is Oliveira’s perfectly matched partner. Of all the movements in these concertos, this one, with its intertwining solo voices overlapping each other with poignant dissonances, may just be the most touching; only the slow movement of the Violin and Oboe Concerto comes close. Interestingly, that concerto, which is a frequent discmate to the three standard violin concertos, is not included here. Instead, Oliveira has chosen to include the G-Minor Concerto, BWV 1056, which is generally more familiar in its F-Minor version for harpsichord.


The sheer beauty and affability of these performances will invite me back to them often, more often I daresay than will a number of impersonal and impassive accounts of recent vintage on both period and modern instruments. Oliveira proves once again, if proof be needed, that Bach belongs to no one school of playing, and that pure, heartfelt music-making transcends all ages. This is very strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

FLAGELLO: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 / Credendum

Born in Mexico, Jorge Federico Osorio began his musical studies at the age of five with his mother. He studied at the conservatories of Mexico, Paris and Moscow and his teachers have included Jacob Milstein and Wilhelm Kempff, among others. Maximiano Valdes is Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias in Spain and as of September, 2002, Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile. He was born in Santiago and began his studies in piano and violin at the Conservatory of Music there and continued at the Accademia de Santa Cecilia in Rome where he took courses in composition and conducting. Completing his diploma in piano, he decided to concentrate entirely on conducting and enrolled in the conducting classes of Franco Ferrara in Bologna, Siena and Venice and also worked with Sergiu Celibadache in Stuttgart and Paris.

One of the few professional string trios in existence today, the Diaz Trio has become one of the best chamber music ensembles in the United States. Comprised of three dynamic young artists, the ensemble performs regularly in recitals and at festivals around the world. In 1993, at the invitation of Isaac Stern, the trio performed at Carnegieís Weill Recital Hall to celebrate the next one hundred years of music-making at Carnegie Hall. The trio has been in residence at the Brevard Music Center since 2001. The Diaz Trio performs regularly on the series of both the Corcoran Gallery and Phillips Collection in Washington, DC.

This album presents selected works performed by harpist Laura Newell. "American harpist Laura Newell was born December 16, 1900 in Denver. She studied harp there with Kajetan Attl, and at New England Conservatory with Alfred Holý. A pioneering orchestral and chamber freelance musician in the male-dominated musical world of the era, she played with the Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony, and in New York with WOR's Wallenstein Sinfonietta, NBC Symphony, and on radio and television with The Bell Telephone Hour. She recorded the Britten Ceremony of Carols with Robert Shaw for Victor twice, and recorded the Debussy trio for Columbia and Decca. Her recordings with the Shulman brothers - of the Ravel Introduction and Allegro, with the New Friends of Rhythm, and these recordings for their Philharmonia label - reflect her remarkable versatility, which transcended genres. Her student and close friend, founding editor of the American Harp Journal Sam Milligan, said that she had "the cleanest technique I ever heard." She retired in the early 1970s and devoted her creative activity to painting watercolors, calligraphy and enamels. Laura Newell died in New York City January 24, 1981". -Jay Shulman