Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Felix Mendelssohn had no idea that when he presented his sister Fanny with a “song without words” for her birthday, that he was inventing his own genre. He went on to compose a great number of these Lieder ohne Worte. These works became incredibly popular among pianists, and among audiences. In the words of Mendelssohn himself, “The music I love expresses ideas that are not too vague to be captured in words, but on the contrary too precise.” Pianist Ronald Brautigam performs these works on a piano copied by Paul McNulty after an Ignaz Pleyel 1830 model.

Classical Music

Writing in the booklet for this release, Hidemi Suzuki wonders why it is that cellists who bemoan their lack of concerto repertory continue to neglect C. P. E. Bach's three essays in the genre. One can only agree with him that it is indeed a mystery, for these are excellent pieces, full of infectious nervous energy in their outer movements and tender lyricism in central ones (heaven knows, there are nineteenth-century concertos for all sorts of instruments which we are condemned to hear over and over again that are not half as good as these). The Bach concertos are not unknown to the recording catalogues, however, not least because they also exist in alternative versions which the composer made for flute and harpsichord respectively. 'Modern' cellists who have been tempted to try some out include Rostropovich (H436) and Tortelier (1-1439), and there are currently discs of all three available from Timothy Hugh and Miklos Perenyi. As yet, though, the only baroque player to have attempted them has been, predictably enough, Anner Bylsma.

It is not known in what order the three instrumentations of these concertos originally came, but as Suzuki points out there are times when the low-lying cello has difficulty making itself heard properly against the orchestra, having said which, he proceeds to make light of the matter in performances whose agility, lightness and textural clarity make those of Bylsma and the larger-sounding OAE sound heavy-handed by comparison. But while Suzuki - thanks to a generally thinner sound - is the more successful in the way he transmits the surface excitement and energy of the quick movements, he cannot match Bylsma's vocal inspiration in the eloquent, sometimes brooding empfindsamkeit poetry of the slow movement — in such music, the Dutchman is always worth listening to. Suzuki's, nevertheless, are refreshing and enlivening performances of attractive and substantial music which I have already found myself replaying with pleasure. If you are a cellist, you should buy it straightaway to find out what you have been missing!

-- Gramophone [2/1998]

Classical Music

To date, Kalevi Aho has composed sixteen symphonies and twenty-eight concertos, several operas and a large number of chamber works – a rate of production which is all the more impressive considering the complexity and originality displayed by each new work. On this latest in a long series of BIS releases with Aho’s music, two of his most recent works are performed by the musicians of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra. The orchestra and its artistic director John Storgårds have collaborated with the composer on several projects, and the Concerto for Soprano Saxophone is a commission from the orchestra, at the suggestion of the Swedish saxophonist Anders Paulsson. A specialist on the soprano saxophone, Paulsson also demonstrated the instrument’s capabilities to Aho as part of his preparations. The Quintet for Winds and Piano was composed just over a year before the concerto and is here heard in a performance by the pianist Vainö Jalkanen, and woodwind players from the Lapland orchestra. The reason for the unusual combination of instruments is that the work was intended as a companion piece to Mozart’s quintet for the same forces. Closing the album, finally, is the almost 10-minute long Solo I for violin, the first in the composer’s series of virtuosic solo pieces for each of the instruments of the orchestra. It was composed in 1975 and receives a performance from another longtime Aho collaborator, the violinist Jaakko Kuusisto, who has previously performed the solo part of the composer’s Symphony No.3 for violin and orchestra.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music