Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

There's a little joke behind the innocuous name of Ernest Bloch's Symphony in E-flat. It is, in truth, one of his most harmonically acerbic works, very close to the tortured contrapuntal idiom of another famous Swiss composer: Honegger. The piece only really achieves its home key in the quiet, final bars, but along the way sparks fly in all directions, and no matter how dissonant the idiom the argument is very easy to follow, and melodies and motives have distinctive, easily recognizable shapes. Andrey Boreyko and the Malmö Orchestra play the work with the guts and vigor it needs, and as usual the BIS recording is superb. The same observations about performance and sound characterize the other two works as well.


Evocations, inspired by a book on Chinese art, deserves to be much better known. Tuneful, glitteringly scored, and with a really exciting central movement (God of War) and a mesmerizing, lyrical finale (Renouveau-Spring), it also has a gentle fund of pentatonic-inspired melody, but otherwise sounds like Bloch in his "exotic" mode. The Three Jewish Poems, though never played in concert, have enjoyed a few recordings, and compared to the competition on Koch and ASV, this performance offers a touch more languor without ever seeming too slow, and it's the best sounding of the batch. BIS is quietly working its way though Bloch's orchestral output, and in my opinion no series in progress on any label is more important or interesting. Hopefully the series will include two of the most enthralling and magnificent of 20th century concertos, the Viola Suite, and the Concerto symphonique, without delay.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

This release features the Rapsodia Cubana with Thomas Tirino on piano. Accompanying him is the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Classical Music

Classical Music

This new recording from the Bach Collegium Japan contains the three violin concertos by Bach which have been preserved in their original form (BWV 1041-3) and another, for violin and oboe (BWV 1060), which has survived only in a version for two harpsichords and strings. But since Bach has left us arrangements of all four works for one or two harpsichords, it seems probable that BWV 1060 was also originally a work for two melody instruments, the writing suggestive of an oboe with violin.

Though plenty of recordings exist of these concertos played on period instruments, few if any entirely satisfy my sensibilities. Solo violinist Ryo Terakado, who customarily leads the Bach Collegium Japan, perhaps comes as close as any to fulfilling hopes and expectations. His playing in the A minor and E major Concertos is clearly articulated with eloquently shaped phrases – the Andante of the A minor work provides a good instance of these virtues. His tone, furthermore, has a sweetness in the upper register which is all too often lacking in performances by his period instrument rivals. In the D minor Concerto for two violins, Terakado is joined by Natsumi Wakamatsu, another member of Bach Collegium Japan. Their partnership, evenly balanced and animated in the outer movement dialogue, is rewarding, while the lyrical Largo ma non tanto is sensitively played with alluring inflections.

The oboist in the remaining work (C minor) is the Belgian virtuoso Marcel Ponseele. He is one of the finest Bach oboe players around and nowhere here does he disappoint. In short, this version of the violin concertos, as well as that for violin and oboe, is comfortably my first choice.

-- Nicholas Anderson, BBC Music Magazine

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music