BERLIOZ: HAROLD IN ITALY, ETC

Michiko Hirayama inspired Giacinto Scelsi to write his twenty-part cycle "Canti del Capricorno" between 1962 and 1972. To this day the Japanese singer (b. 1923) is a unique performer of this spiritual yet energy-filled work for solo voice, with instrumental accompaniment for certain songs: Scelsi's notes in his own hand in the score; that is her treasure, when she comes to Ulm in May 2006 to give a concert in the series neue musik i'm stadthaus. Michiko Hirayama is a vocal power station; she is once again very young. On this WERGO CD, it has been recorded: a document of lived, immediate music. This is to be her legacy, she says openly.

This is a brilliant recital, one that reveals just about every facet of Shostakovich's musical personality in terms of his writing for piano. The novelty for most listeners will be Dances of the Dolls, yet another arrangement of numbers from his film and ballet music, aimed at younger players. Somehow these tunes sound even more charming and witty in their keyboard guise, and Melvin Chen's clean and rhythmically snappy approach lets their puckish humor speak for itself. Both the Aphorisms and the First Sonata reveal the young, modernist Shostakovich, the latter work in particular. Once again Chen manages to give shape and meaning to music that can sound merely noisy, but he does it without sacrificing the music's aggressiveness or impetuosity.

With the Second Sonata we encounter the mature composer around the time of the Second World War, when he was creating some of his finest large works. This sonata never has caught on, partly on account of its typically spare textures, but more likely because it's a very large work (nearly 30 minutes) that ends quietly and enigmatically. Certainly it does not sound in any way lacking in content here. Chen keeps the music interesting, particularly in the long variation finale, which has plenty of contrast and seems perfectly paced. This is music that, given time and a fine performance like this one, will grow on you. So if you like Shostakovich but have not yet warmed to his piano music, try this superbly played and recorded CD. I suspect it will win you over.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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The Russian/American pianist Vassily Primakov has begun a series of recordings for Bridge that have been highly received by the international press. Writing of his recent Beethoven CD (BRIDGE 9251), the International Record Review stated that "Primakov's Beethoven offers thoughtful performances from a young musician who is more than a virtuoso." Primakov's concerts have frequently occasioned rave reviews, the New York Times writing of Primakov's "bold, expressive phrasing and dramatic commitment that brought the audience to its feet." Bridge's latest Primakov CD includes music that is close to the heart of the 29-year old pianist--two of Tchaikovsky's major statements for piano, The Seasons, Op. 37-bis, and the Grand Sonata in G Major, Op. 37. The Seasons, which could be called "The Months" is a series of 12 short character pieces, written for a monthly Russian journal, and published during 1876. The Grand Sonata, a work of symphonic scope, was composed in the Spring of 1878, and is widely regarded as Tchaikovsky's most important utterance for piano. Vassily Primakov's recordings for Bridge include a recently released disc of the Chopin Piano Concertos (BRIDGE 9278).

The Stuyvesant Quartet was founded in 1938 by violinist Sylvan Shulman and cellist Alan Shulman, and made its first recording for Victor that year. In 1939, the Quartet began recording for Columbia Records. This CD includes studio recordings of works by Malipiero (recorded in 1950), and Debussy and Ravel (recorded between 1951-53), released for the first time on compact disc. Also featured on this CD is a live broadcast performance of the Stuyvesantís performance of Alan Shulmanís Rendezvous featuring clarinet great Benny Goodman. In 1946, Benny Goodman asked the Quartet to join him playing a movement of the Mozart Clarinet Quintet on his weekly radio program. Alan Shulman suggested instead that Goodman commission him to write a short original work for clarinet and string quartet. Goodman agreed, and Shulman composed Rendezvous with Benny, which was premiered over WEAF in August 1946. The Stuyvesant made their final recordings in 1953 for the groupís own label ñ Philharmonia Records. This CD restores to the catalog key recordings by one of mid-20th century Americaís finest chamber ensembles.

Jeremy McCoyís new album, Dialogues with Double Bass presents a wide-ranging look at the double bass repertoire. The album highlights two particular themes. The primary notion is highlighting the bass as an equal voice in instrumental duos that are diverse and interesting conversations. A second theme is found in the vocal quality of much of the music. Like Bottesini, one of historyís most famous bass players, who earned his living playing in an opera orchestra, Jeremy McCoy is a seasoned member of New York Cityís Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (the orchestraís assistant principal bassist). The influence of great singing can be heard in McCoyís playing, in the way he shapes a phrase and in the varied tonal colors of his sound. McCoyís wide experience as a soloist, chamber player and orchestral musician, and the expressive range of his instrument, finds him right at home in this engaging collection of eloquent dialogues with the double bass.

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The Complete Masterworks Recordings, Vol. 7: Early Romantics

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Includes work(s) by Mario Davidovsky. Ensemble: Speculum Musicae.

Complete Crumb Edition, Volume 8 George Crumb: Makrokosmos, Volumes I and II, for Amplified Piano (1972-73); Robert Shannon, piano; Otherworldly Resonances (2002), for Two Amplified Pianos (premiere recording), Quattro Mani

The latest volume in BRIDGE'S award-winning survey of George Crumb complete works presents a new recording of a major Crumb cycle and the premiere of a new composition for two pianos. Makrokosmos I and II have come to be regarded as landmark compositions in the piano repertoire, requiring the pianist to display a virtuoso's control of both the keyboard and the inside of the piano. In addition, the performer is asked to whistle, speak, and sing, while simultaneously playing some of the most dramatic and fantasy-filled piano music of the late twentieth century. Robert Shannon, a leading exponent of Crumb's music, gives the 67 minute cycle of 24 "zodiac" pieces a spectacular reading. The duo piano team, Quattro Mani, has also had a long association with Crumb's music, and can be heard playing Crumb's music on BRIDGE 9105, a disc that received ‘Best of Year' honors from Fanfare, and highest ratings from France's Repertoire, and the USA's ClassicsToday.com. In 2002, Crumb composed "Otherworldy Resonances", a 10 minute quasi-passacaglia for Quattro Mani. Based on a hypnotic four-note motif, this 10 minute composition marks Crumb's return to writing piano music after a hiatus of nearly 15 years. Both of these recordings, as with the rest of this series, were supervised by the composer.

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Fanfare magazine
Bridge’s essential Crumb series takes on one of the monuments in the composer’s canon with this release. The Makrokosmos I and II (1972–73) are two sets of 12 piano pieces each (based on the Zodiac), and are perhaps the definitive catalog of Crumb’s re-imagining of the instrument. All the trademark innovations of “extended techniques” are here, from rattling paper threaded through the strings, to interior pizzicatos, to glissando harmonics, to—well, the list just goes on and on. Every movement has surprises; each is a unique, mysterious landscape. There are also highly theatrical gestures, which involve the performer vocalizing with chants, whistles, shouts, whispers, and musically mimetic sounds. I’ll admit that while I believe Crumb is one of the most important American composers of the second half of the 20th century and the creator of some of the most beautiful and imaginative music of our time, these pieces remain somewhat problematic for me. At times, the desire to expand the expressive palette goes so far over the top as to verge on kitsch. This goes especially for the vocalizing, which can sound a little like the soundtrack of those live-action haunted houses that spring up on Halloween. Also, the music is so episodic that it can be hard to feel a formal motivation that is more than the astrological program.

That off my chest, I’ll say that for most of the time I can still sit back and enjoy Crumb’s fertile inventiveness, his desire to stretch boundaries and communicate directly, and the sheer sonic expansiveness of the whole set. One does have a sense of constant surprise and delight that an entire orchestra of colors is extracted from this single instrument. There’s also a genuine tenderness amidst the Grand Guignol moments, a nostalgia for the passage of past beauties (such as when a wisp of Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu suddenly emerges and submerges from the depths) that is strangely allied to that of another composer, Valentin Silvestrov. One more point to mention is that the second set seems much more focused and organic than the first. It seems to move faster, even though it is only four minutes shorter in this rendition.

Otherworldly Resonances (2002) is yet another of the wonderful pieces emerging from Crumb’s recent prolificity. His style hasn’t changed much at all—the techniques, the gestures, the melodic and harmonic formulas all remain similar to what they were two to three decades ago—but somehow the music has found a new calm and balance, and has become a little more abstract without losing any luster or poetry. Crumb, one of the most genuinely modest of great artists, would probably be the first to admit he’s not found something new after his great discoveries of the 1960s and 1970s. But that really doesn’t matter, because these new works are strong, individual, and memorable. In them, the composer seems able to accept who he is, and to share his gifts generously. This two-piano work is a compact epilogue to the grand cycles of Makrokosmos III (“Music for a Summer Evening”) and “Celestial Mechanics” (Makrokosmos IV), but extremely effective for its deliberately narrowed focus. A simple four-note ostinato is passed between the keyboards and surrounded with a constantly mutating garland of events—flashes of lightning, lullabies, delicate ornaments. The result is genuinely hypnotic. It should be simplistic, but instead it touches on something more profound.

All the performances are outstanding, but I must give special notice to Robert Shannon, who plays the Makrokosmos with a level of passion and authority that’s breathtaking. His precision and confidence in the inside-the-keyboard techniques makes this fiendishly difficult material sound quite natural, and will help future players codify the music’s performance practice and redefine virtuosity (and I say this with all respect and admiration for the pioneering premiere recordings of the works by their dedicatees, David Burge and Robert Miller; Shannon simply represents the next step of a new generation). His dazzling passagework in the fast sections reminds us how exciting fast Crumb can be, and that the composer is not all laid-back, glacial vistas.

In the end, an important release of enduring music. Where it bumps up against my aesthetic is probably more my issue than the music’s—it is a landmark of the literature, and I suspect it will be around for quite a while after I’m gone.

Robert Carl, FANFARE

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At the end of its 40th anniversary season the Academy of Ancient Music — described as “the finest period-instrument orchestra in the world” by Classic FM — releases a significant new recording of JS Bach's Orchestral Suites BWV1066-69, directed from the harpsichord by Richard Egarr. Performed with single strings and at a low, "French" pitch, this recording offers a unique, chamber-like interpretation of Bach's virtuosic ouvertures.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE: 'BBC Music Choice' (September 2008) for Garrick Ohlsson: Beethoven Sonatas, Vol. 5 (BRIDGE 9250). This disc includes three of Beethoven's most popular sonatas- 'Pathetique, Op. 13; 'Moonlight', Op. 27, No. 2; and 'Waldstein', Op. 53

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Sviatoslav Richter’s comment that Hungarian-born Annie Fischer (1914–1995) was ‘a great artist imbued with a spirit of greatness and genuine profundity’ is just a sign of the esteem in which her fellow musicians held her. Curiously, of all the mid-century pianists, she seems to have been among the least recorded due to her profound dislike of the studio. Annie Fischer’s ‘unerring awareness’ (David Threasher) of the shifting moods in the Schumann Piano Concerto has been caught in wonderful sound by the WDR engineers in this ‘live’ recording which has never been issued before. In the two Beethoven works, ‘she is powerfully authoritative’ (David Threasher). Both these ‘live’ recordings are available for this first time on this release. All these recordings are great additions to her relatively small discography.

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James Weeks writes: "EXAUDI, long-established among the UK's leading vocal consorts, presents fresh readings of 19 of Gesualdo's madrigals from Books V and VI, combining rigorous stylistic understanding and tonal beauty with an overriding focus on the music's extreme expressive vision. The late madrigals of Gesualdo exert a strange and enduring fascination on the modern musical imagination. Listening today to these extraordinary messages of anguish and ecstasy, we are drawn back to his flame like lovers who can't let go, into the warp of chromatic harmony, the emotional hyper-intensity and mysterious otherness of this most tantalising early Baroque figure."

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