DIAMOND: Chamber Music

BEETHOVEN Piano Trios: in E?, Hess 47; in D, Kinsky/Halm Anhang 3; in E?, op. 63 • Sang Mee Lee (vn); Wendy Warner (vc); George Lepauw (pn) • CEDILLE 90000118 (59: 57)


It might seem improbable that a recording of Beethoven piano trios could have the adjective “new” applied to each of the included works, but this is precisely the case with this new disc. As might be expected, there are caveats (and even some potential controversies) to be applied here. Even after these are sorted through, it remains a very important recording, not only because it will fill in some gaps for Beethoven aficionados, but also because the project is greatly enhanced by vibrant, committed realizations.


Pianist George Lepauw, violinist Sang Mee Lee, and cellist Wendy Warner (by far the best known of the three) are the Chicago musicians recruited for the enterprise, and their synergy is impressive enough to generate hope that this won’t be a mere one-off effort for the threesome. The readings are tight, varied in color and dynamics, technically pristine (yet with plenty of brawn when needed), and stylistically cohesive.


After hearing the single-movement Trio in E?-Major, Hess 47, you may be forgiven for thinking you’ve heard it before. It is Beethoven’s own arrangement of the first movement of the op. 3 String Trio, apparently the only movement of the arrangement he completed. It was never published, except for a score (without individual parts) in a 1920 scholarly journal. The trio claims not only that this is the first recording (no doubt true), but that its performance in Chicago in 2009 was the world premiere. Some will be skeptical of the certainty of these claims, although their research in the matter seems thorough. I’ll leave further sleuthing to musicologists, and simply report that the trio’s performance is splendid. The movement itself is nearly first-drawer Beethoven, and deserves a permanent place in the repertoire, even in its torso form.


The novelty of the D-Major Trio, Kinsky/Halm Anhang 3 (originally a piano trio), is of a very different sort. It too survives incomplete, although the mere two movements may have been the composer’s design from the beginning. What was definitely incomplete in the manuscripts in the British Library are two missing pages, passages that were stitched in by Robert McConnell, with convincing justification and a seamless insertion that would fool the keenest listener. It is hard to believe that generations thought this was a Mozart work. Late Haydn perhaps, but even this seems a stretch.


The controversy is more acute in the op. 63 Trio, which many scholars over the ages believed to be a forgery, though lately the tide has shifted in its favor. Again, this is not a new creation, but an arrangement of his op. 4 String Quintet of 1795. To further convolute matters, the first version of the work (for wind octet) dates back to 1792. Like Hess 47, this won’t be new music for the observant listener, just familiar music in new garb. No matter—they deserve their time in the sun, and it is a rare treat for collectors to find their first exposure to novelties in such capable hands.


The recording is accomplished with care and skill. The highly regarded engineer Max Wilcox has chosen to favor the strings over the piano, at least in comparison to most other trio discs. This may well be an accurate reproduction of the trio’s chosen balance for live concerts. If so, kudos to Wilcox for avoiding the temptation to tinker with the artists’ decisions. Highly recommended.


FANFARE: Michael Cameron

POPPER Suite for Cello and Piano. 3 Stücke. Im Walde. PIATIGORSKY Variations on a Theme by Paganini • Wendy Warner (vc); Eileen Buck (pn) • ÇEDILLE 111 (79:30)


David Popper (1843–1913) was one of the great cello virtuosos and pedagogues of the 19th century. He was a favorite of Liszt and Hans von Bülow, and under the latter’s baton he premiered Robert Volkmann’s A-Minor Cello Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1864. For a short period, 1868 to 1870, he was a member of the prestigious Hellmesberger Quartet, an ensemble that was to play an important role in advancing the string quartets of Beethoven and Brahms. Recommended by Liszt, Popper joined the faculty of the string department at the newly opened Budapest Conservatory. But perhaps most memorably, in 1886, along with violinist Jen? Hubay, Popper founded the Budapest String Quartet. He and Hubay also performed chamber music with Brahms, giving the first performance of Brahms’s C-Minor Piano Trio, op. 101. As a composer, Popper, like many other great virtuoso instrumentalists before him, wrote a considerable volume of music, virtually all of it for his own instrument. He also published a collection of 40 etudes under the title of High School of Cello Playing , a teaching method similar to Kreutzer’s famous 42 Etudes or Caprices for Violin.


Of the three Popper works on this disc, only Im Walde appears to have an alternative recording, which is surprising considering the fairly large number of his works that are listed on other available CDs. The Suite for Cello and Piano, op. 69, is by any reckoning a full-blown, four-movement sonata, with the first movement clearly a sonata-allegro, even unto the repeat of its exposition. And, at over 27 minutes, there’s nothing diminutive about it. Brahms has to count as a significant influence, especially in the first movement. But others make their presence felt as well. I’m thinking of the cello sonatas by Anton Rubinstein and Franz Xaver Scharwenka. The last movement of the Suite is a real roller-coaster ride; a technical tour de force in its moto perpetuo passages, it nonetheless slows down for some beautiful melodic interludes.


The Three Pieces, op. 11, are strongly reminiscent of Schumann’s Phantasiestücke for clarinet and piano, which are often appropriated by cellists. The first of the set, titled Widmung (“Dedication”) is especially striking, rising to an impassioned climax of great beauty. Schumann again comes to the fore in Popper’s Im Walde (“In the Forest”). In this case, the piece really is a suite and not a sonata by another name. The movements are six in number, each being a charming, salon-like illustrative sketch.


If Popper was one of the greatest cellists of the 19th century, surely Gregor Piatigorsky (1903–1976) was one of the most celebrated of the 20th. And here, to add to the list of works based on the final death trap in Paganini’s 24 caprices for solo violin—works by Liszt, Schumann, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Boris Blacher, Lutos?awski, and many others—is the Variations on a Theme by Paganini by Piatigorsky. There are 14 variations, capped off by a Tempo di marcia, icing on the cake added by Vladimir Horowitz. I would guess the two artists played the piece together, and Horowitz couldn’t resist putting in his two cents.


Had this disc arrived a month or two sooner, there is no question but that it would have been on my 2009 Want List. All of this being rarely heard repertoire to begin with, not only is there some fantastic music on this CD, but there is playing to equal it. Wendy Warner took first prize at the 1990 Rostropovich Competition in Paris; she has since appeared in concert and recital throughout the U.S. and abroad. Her discography is still small, but I’ve no doubt that after this latest recording her phone will be ringing off the hook with offers. Her accompanist, Eileen Buck, is wonderful as well; but she can be heard in a more substantive role for piano in her recording, also with Warner, of works by Hindemith. Let’s face it; the works on this disc belong to the cellist. Urgently recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

The viola d’amore is a curious beast. It has extra strings (like the baryton) that exist for no purpose other than to provide resonance, producing a fuzzy timbral halo that sweetens the slightly nasal, husky tone of the instrument, rather like a sort of mild continuous vibrato. When played with perfect intonation such as we might expect from Rachel Barton Pine, the result is captivatingly mellow and expressive, even in virtuoso passages. Vivaldi composed eight concertos for viola d’amore, and here they all are, smartly gathered together and performed to the hilt.

Although Vivaldi limited himself tonally in these works (to D, F, and A, with four in D minor), the instrument’s unusual tunings, combined with inventive scoring, ensure variety and contrast. The Concerto in F major pits the viola d’amore against a wind ensemble of oboes, horns, and bassoon, with the oboes and horns muted. I’m not sure what a muted baroque oboe is, but they sound lovely here and the horns also never turn gnarly–they really do complement the timbre of the viola d’amore. There’s also a double concerto, RV 540, for viola d’amore and lute, with the superb Hopkinson Smith on hand to partner Barton Pine.

The players of Ars Antigua accompany with evident relish, although as usual with today’s period instrument groups the strings could use some natural vibrato in the slow movements. Leaving it out or minimizing it the way they do is neither stylish nor “authentic”, but when the playing itself is so pointed and in tune it matters very little. The fact that the sonics are drop-dead gorgeous and the balances absolutely perfect also counts for a lot. If you thought that Vivaldi all sounds the same, consider this release as a welcome corrective.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday

BLACKWOOD: String Quartet Nos. 1-3

Franz Clement's name has come down to us as the dedicatee of Beethoven's Violin Concerto, but a year previously, in 1805, he wrote his own Concerto in D, and it's a major find. This is no orchestrally challenged, formally dysfunctional, tasteless virtuoso vehicle, but rather is a full-blown classical concerto nearly as long (40-plus minutes) as the Beethoven. The melodic material is consistently attractive--and just as importantly, equally interesting harmonically. Deftly scored, and of course wonderfully written for the violin, its lyricism clearly anticipates Beethoven's own work of 1806. If it has one defect, it's that the phrasing turns a little bit square now and then in the outer movements. But let's face it--by the standards of your average early-Romantic concerto (think Spohr and his crowd) this is a masterpiece.

It goes without saying that Rachel Barton Pine plays the work with the style and elegance that it deserves. While attentive to the opportunities for fireworks (and she plays her own excellent cadenzas both here and in the Beethoven), what stays most in the mind is her beautiful singing tone. It's the sort of sound that Beethoven must have had in mind when he wrote--as he so often did--"cantabile", and it makes both slow movements particularly memorable. Both here and in the Beethoven, however, I can imagine a bit more muscle in the first movements, a touch more oomph from trumpets and drums, and more fire in the Beethoven finale (the Clement strikes me as just about perfect). José Serebrier is one with Pine in adopting her highly lyrical, somewhat dreamy approach, though it's to both artists' credit that the music never bogs down or turns self-indulgent.

As we heard in Pine's previous, superb coupling of Brahms and Joachim concertos, the sonics are ideally warm and natural, and Cedille offers this set at two discs for the price of one (85 minutes of music in all). I would dearly love to give this release a highest rating simply for the discovery of the Clement, which every violin lover should hear both for its historical and real musical interest; but competition in the Beethoven concerto is just too stiff. Then again, no other label or violinist offers such an attractive and innovative coupling. So buy for the Clement, and consider the Beethoven a very serious bonus.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

The reputation of Franz Clement (1780–1842) has come down to posterity on the two legs of his having been the dedicatee and first performer of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and of his having performed, between the first and second movement, a composition of his own devising, on the violin turned upside down (a “myth” that Clive Brown, who edited his Concerto for publication and has provided Çedille’s notes, puts to rest: the program mentions this trick having taken place during the program’s other half). The triviality of the one underpinning of his reputation balances the other half somewhat unfavorably. The emergence of his Violin Concerto in D Major therefore sheds new direct light on Clement as a composer, indirect light on Clement as a violinist, and lots of light of both kinds on Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. If some commentators have noted a connection between the style of writing for the violin in Beethoven’s Concerto and that of Giovanni Battista Viotti, the precise nature of that connection will almost certainly be reexamined as Clement’s Concerto becomes more familiar. Moments in the first movement will seem like déjà vu, even for those only passingly familiar with Beethoven’s Concerto, although similarities with Viotti’s détaché still abound. That first movement, although it’s marked Allegro maestoso, may lack Beethoven’s high moral seriousness and monumentality, but in the self-confident strutting of its first movement and in the cheerful gaiety of its finale (with solo passages erupting suddenly from the orchestral texture, as in Beethoven’s work), it is still obviously a country cousin, not at all unrelated. Brown notes that the two composers employed the same instrumentation (although not throughout). That might account for some of the similarity in sound; but the interrelationships penetrate farther below the surface, and aren’t limited to a few passages that might be taken as echoes. Clement’s second movement, longer than Beethoven’s, engages in rapid passagework in its central section. In eschewing outright display, Clement’s Concerto seems less like a violinist’s virtuoso showpiece than a forerunner of the symphonic concertos that would dominate so many pianists’ concerto-writing for the violin.

Rachel Barton Pine plays this newly published Concerto with an aplomb equal to its own, drawing a consistently strong and attractive tone from the 1742 ex-Soldat Guarneri del Gesù, a tone that the engineers have set a bit in front of the orchestral mass, without disturbing the overall still balance. Her own boldly violinistic cadenzas enhance the first movement especially, and also the finale (a Rondo, like Beethoven’s), although some might find that cadenza somewhat long for its context. However much light Clement’s Concerto may shed, then, on Beethoven’s, it’s attractive enough to hold the stage on its own, especially in a performance as convincing as Pine’s, with enthusiastic collaboration of Serebrier and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Pine and Serebrier change gears for Beethoven’s Concerto, in which the same instrumentation sounds more massive and similar passages for the violin more like definitive statements. Serebrier seems to make fairly frequent rhetorical micro-pauses in the tuttis and to energize their already stormy majesty. Pine plays the first movement with a lyricism that complements Serebrier’s more brooding orchestral pronouncements. (A related balance of musical ideas may be heard in Vadim Repin’s performance with Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic, 31:4.) Once again, Pine provides her own cadenza, in this case a long, sonorous, technically complex, and by the standards of the later 19th century, an idiomatic one. She’s also written a brief, transitional one between the second and third movements and an ingenious, more developed one for the finale, which she plays with aplomb. If Pine’s performance of Beethoven’s Concerto lacks the drive of Heifetz’s, the geniality of Francescatti’s, the nobility of Milstein’s, or the convincing rhetoric of Stern’s, it nevertheless offers mellifluous, sweet-toned violin-playing and thoughtful musicianship throughout.

For those who know Beethoven’s Concerto well, and for those who wish to explore its origins, the combination of these two Classical concertos should prove well nigh irresistible. Recommended.

-- Robert Maxham, Fanfare

Chicago based American composer and associate professor of composition at Roosevelt University, Stacy Garrop's first album of orchestral music is a collection of world-premiere recordings. Mythology Symphony, a five-movement work inspired by famous female figures from Greek mythology with a compelling performance by conductor Alonda de la Parra leading the Chicago College of Performing Arts (CCPA) Symphony Orchestra of Roosevelt University. Thunderwalker and Shadow, described as "a moving interplay of counterpoint, shifting textures, and profound emotion" is conducted by Peabody Conservatory-based Markand Thakar. The prolific Garrop has elicited positive critical praise with Gramophone magazine spotlighting her as a composer whose work displays "vision and breadth." In 2015, her oratorio Terra Nostra will receive it's world premiere in San Francisco and her compositions ranging from choral to chamber, lieder to now orchestral have been performed by illustrious ensembles such as Avalon String Quartet, Capital Quartet and the esteemed choir Chanticleer.

BLACKWOOD: Microtonal Compositions

Trio Settecento, the “superlative Chicago-based early music ensemble” (Gramophone) presents Italian Baroque composer Francesco Maria Veracini’s monumental Opus 2 Sonate Accademiche for violin and continuo. It’s a cosmopolitan collection of 12 sonatas of breathtaking scope and pan-European influences – a set of sonatas unlike any other of the era. Veracini’s Sonate Accedemiche is both an homage to his fellow-countryman Arcangelo Corelli and an original masterpiece in its own right.

Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine, “one of the rare mainstream performers with a total grasp of Baroque style and embellishment” (Fanfare) and her colleagues in Trio Settecento, cellist John Mark Rozendaal, and harpsichordist David Schrader, bring their “refreshing, life-enhancing Baroque playing” (Chicago Tribune) to these sonatas infused with melodies imported from Scotland, Dalmatia, Poland, the Canary Islands, and rural France.

Ursula Oppens has been a steadfast and masterful champion of Elliott Carter's music for more than three decades, and her recital encompassing the prolific 100-year-old composer's complete piano music clearly is a labor of love. What is more, her interpretations have evolved. For example, Oppens' 1998 Night Fantasies recording (Music & Arts) abounds with dead-on accuracy and drive. However, it sounds relatively earnest and literal next to this far more flexible, overtly contrasted, and color-conscious remake. Oppens also has rethought and internalized "90 +" to the point where her detached and legato articulations now are more sharply profiled and truer to Carter's written dynamics.

In her vivid, incisive performance of the early Piano Sonata Oppens particularly relishes the grand sonorities and overtones resulting from the composer's imaginative use of the sostenuto pedal, although her softest playing ultimately lacks Charles Rosen's magical tonal allure. Two recent works appear in their first recordings: Oppens imparts a strong sense of line via her precise yet unhurried handling of Caténares' rapid repeated notes (shades of Ravel's Scarbo); conversely, she forges a welcome, multi-dimensional tonal landscape from Matribute's continuous single-line texture. Superb production values (thanks to producer Judith Sherman and the Academy of Arts and Letters' marvelous acoustics) and informative booklet notes add further value to a significant release for Carter's centennial year, or any other year for that matter.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

This intelligently planned recital includes some remarkable surprises. Who knew that there was such a wide range of music for this unusual combination of forces? Best known, to the extent any of this music is, must be Charles Loeffler's lovely Two Rhapsodies ("The Pool" and "The Bagpipe"). A surprisingly substantial piece lasting more than 20 minutes, the music presents the composer's lush, quasi-impressionist idiom at its most appealing. August Klughardt's Schilflieder, inspired by poems of Lenau (of Strauss' Don Juan fame), is a really lovely suite in five shortish movements. Dedicated to Liszt and composed in 1872, the music depicts a typically Romantic story of yearning for lost love in a ripely evocative melodic style that's sure to win Klughardt new friends.

Felix White (1884-1945) was an English composer of no great repute, but his Nymph's Complaint is charming even if the tunes may not be top-drawer. Marco Yano's Modinha provides a tiny interlude before the concluding major work, the Hindemith trio. This inventive piece in two highly varied movements represents the best of his early style: edgy, acerbic, but also melodic and at times ingratiating, and always full of invention. If you like, say, the Concert Music pieces, then you'll enjoy this equally well.

Listeners familiar with Alex Klein's previous recordings for Cedille already know that the performances will uphold the highest standards of technical and interpretive quality. On the oboe his tone is as winsome as ever, though the Heckelphone sounds a touch wheezy under pressure, an attribute more of the instrument itself than of Klein's playing of it. Let's face it: it quacks. Violist Richard Young and Ricardo Castro also contribute splendidly, and there are fireworks aplenty in the wild second movement of the Hindemith. The sonics are extremely vivid and present, but a touch close for my taste--Young's breathing at times becomes obtrusive, and a little extra distance would have mellowed Klein's heckelphone just that much more. Still, these minor points hardly detract from the appeal of this inventive recital.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Falla, M.: Concerto / Carter, E.: Sonata / Argento, D.: 6 El

"Soler's distinctive personality is stamped all over [these quintets]. Schrader has recorded two volumes of [Soler's] sonatas for Cedille Records, and he brings the same digital skill and musical discrimination to these quintets. He leads a quartet that uses mid--to late--eighteenth century original instruments, in performances that are lively, tasteful, and finely balanced. The ensemble is ideally recorded." (Fanfare)

"The pleasures of discovering this unfamiliar music are greatly enhanced by the performances." (Chicago Tribune)

Captivating and quirky, the quintets for keyboard and strings of Spanish composer Padre Antonio Soler were rare, even in the heyday of LP recordings. Now they are available for the first time on compact disc.

Not surprisingly this new release from Rachel Barton Pine, this time with her friends and Cedille label-mates John Mark Rozendaal and David Schrader--appearing together as Trio Settecento--offers a well-thought-out program. As demonstrated on her previous recordings, Pine is interested not just in filling a CD with good music but in providing listeners with a broader, more meaningful experience. In this case the trio's aim is to show the ways different Italian or Italian-influenced composers realized the possibilities of the newly emerging voice of the solo violin beginning in the late 17th century. And "voice" is the key word here, as throughout these eight very distinctive pieces we hear all manner of expressive effects as well as the pure, artful exploitation of the violin's capacity for lyrical, singing melody.

Both of these features are amply--and memorably--displayed in the first movement of Locatelli's Sonata da camera Op. 6 No. 2 in F major, where the elegant, flowing course of the melody is frequently enlivened with little quick flourishes and runs, where bow and fingers literally skim across the strings. These connective devices are not mere ornaments but importantly allow the performer to give character to the instrument, which in the hands of a first-rate soloist--as we have here--can almost sound like it's speaking. Another highlight is Tartini's Sonata Pastorale in A major, whose opening movement is rich with pleasing melodies and well-integrated instrumental textures, its second movement a spirited Allegro--but its final movement a tour de force that recalls shepherds' bagpipes interspersed with sudden outbursts of raucous dancing.

There's so much more here to enjoy, including the more stylistically formalized Corelli and Handel sonatas--and the dazzling final Ciaccona of Veracini's Sonata in D minor Op. 2 No. 12 that closes the disc. But as well crafted as these sonatas are, it's Pine and her outstanding colleagues that make the impression, and it's obvious that these players--all respected soloists--have been together in this repertoire for a long time. In fact, they've been performing as an ensemble for more than 10 years, successfully applying their exceptionally high level of modern technique and artistry to a sincere concern for period-performance authenticity. I especially enjoyed the sound of Pine's original, unaltered 1770 Gagliano violin, which in her hands sings with an impressively assertive tone--bold and gritty, with a lovely, silvery upper register. This is a disc that demands, encourages, and truly rewards many hearings, made even more enjoyable by the vibrant, natural, ideally balanced sound. Highly recommended!

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

These two fine symphonies belong in the collection of anyone who enjoys contemporary music of a more traditional or conservative bent. Not that they are easy listening: Symphony No. 1, which has a much higher level of dissonance than No. 5, brings to mind Honegger's thornier inspirations; but like that composer, Blackwood does not sacrifice expressiveness as a result. His melodies (and there are quite a few here) are all characterful and cover a wide range of emotion. The humorous opening of the scherzo provides one example. Best of all, the piece gets a scorcher of a performance from Charles Munch and the BSO in a vintage Living Stereo recording licensed from RCA, sounding very good here, if a touch congested in loud passages. The climax at the end of the first movement is positively apocalyptic!


The Fifth Symphony, according to the composer, was written in an idiom that recalls "modernized Sibelius"--and that description is exactly right. You'll find the same evocative string textures, writing for winds in thirds, and so forth, but all are presented in a more advanced (but by no means harsh) harmonic idiom. It's a lovely, poetic work, and this 1993 live performance does it justice. If the First deserves respect, you may well find yourself feeling a good bit of affection for this beautifully-crafted later piece. The audience is well-behaved, and the sonics are very natural, warm, and clear. An excellent introduction to a very talented and worthy composer/pianist (try Blackwood's excellent Ives "Concord" Sonata for another facet of his musical personality), not to mention an important addition to the Munch/BSO discography.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com