Anne-Sophie Mutter and Pablo Ferrández – musical partners for many years united by friendship, inspiration and mentorship. Described by her as ‘someone truly special,’ the world star violinist invited the Spanish cellist into her foundation and circle of “Mutter’s Virtuosi,” young talents she supports and tours with. Since then, Pablo Ferrández has made himself a name on his own, developed into a sought-after, award-winning soloist home at the world’s most prestigious concert halls.

The present album includes Johannes Brahms’s Double Concerto (live recording, Prague, January 2022) with the Czech Philharmonic and conductor Manfred Honeck. The other piece on the album is Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio (studio recording, September 2021) with pianist, long-term collaborator, and friend Lambert Orkis, which is the first recording of this piece by a major artist. Clara's 1846 Piano Trio is one of her finest works – a piece full of turbulence, complexity, and deep longing that brought Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lambert Orkis to unprecedented depths of musical conversation.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

It’s only natural, I suppose, to assume that an “arrangement” or “transcription” for piano of a great orchestral work will be inferior to the original. But that depends on the particular arrangement and on your mindset. Depending on the skill and creativity of the arranger, the pared-down version may actually prove to be equally worthy in its own right, and in the right hands (so to speak) can have, for listeners who know the original, the advantage of offering a fascinating way to hear the work anew. If you approach Brahms’ four-hand arrangement of Ein Deutsches Requiem in this way, and with this extraordinary recording, you will be pleasantly surprised and satisfied.

If nothing else, this version of the Requiem forces us to focus on the choral writing–which should be the star of the show anyway. And fortunately this chorus–actually two combined choruses– of around 50 singers is ideal in ensemble sound and precision, flexibility, and energy. I guarantee that you won’t hear a more purely exciting performance of this work–a work that’s not normally associated with that description–and that’s at least partly due to conductor Parick Quigley’s attempt (not always managed to the best effect) to “be faithful to” what he refers to as Brahms’ own preference for “elastiche tacht”–for rubatos and accelerandos in his own performances.

Of course we notice the piano as well, and how much it’s not an orchestra–a reality that perhaps is most obvious in the soprano-solo fifth movement, where the lack of subtlety and delicately shaded color in the “orchestra” undermines what actually is one of the more impressive renditions of this notoriously challenging solo: Teresa Wakim shows absolutely no fear of tessitura and her lovely tone and flawless technique exemplify the ethereal quality this at once tender and technically tough music demands. Her solo is a highlight of the disc–and surely among the finest on any recording.

Still, there are many moments–in the final movement, for example–where the conducting rudely runs over the text, where a bit of sensitivity, a slight rubato here and there, a less determined pace (this has nothing to do with piano) would have been welcome, and more true to the text and the spirit of Brahms’ score. Indeed, it seems that Quigley has decided that it’s necessary to somehow compensate for the lack of an orchestra’s weight and force and volume with–speed. At under an hour, I don’t think you’ll hear a swifter rendition of this work by anyone, ever, under any conditions. The “So seid nun geduldig…” section of the second movement literally flies in a mad dance through its 50 measures; but this same accent on celerity makes for the most rousing–and frankly electrifying–conclusion to that movement (“Die Erlöseten des Herrn werden wieder kommen…”) you’re likely to ever experience. The same goes for the choral conclusion of the next movement (“Der Gerechten Seelen sind in Gottes Hand…”).

Whatever else you may take away from this remarkable performance, you won’t forget—nor will you likely ever hear more pronounced in this work—the level of sheer dynamic force, the rifle-shot articulation, the focused energy, the extremes of expressive contrast, or the amazingly vibrant choral sound. And supporting it all is supreme musicianship, even though you may miss a certain aspect of subtlety and lyricism that this work really requires—does the final movement really need to be in such a hurry?

But even within these less-than-subtle moments the musicality and vocal artistry is never less than at the highest level. In the end you realize that to understand and appreciate this version of the Requiem you have to shed your attachment to the work you know and love and just hear it and accept it as a work that’s the same but different. And thanks to the superb chorus we have here—Seraphic Fire and its associate Professional Choral Institute from the University of South Florida—there is never a moment where we doubt the commitment or capability of these singers and pianists in truly setting a fire under a work that for 150 years has had a “slow and reverent” reputation.

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

BRAHMS Violin Concerto. MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto • Andrés Cárdenes (vn); Ian Hobson, cond; Sinf Varsovia • ARTEK 0039 (67:30)


Andrés Cárdenes, a former student of Joseph Gingold at Indiana University, prize-winner in the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition, and distinguished professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, plays Brahms’s Violin Concerto with undeniable technical and musical command. Passage after double-stopped passage rings out with the clarity and assurance of a string quartet. Rising so authoritatively above the orchestra in the first movement of this massive work—with what seem to be reserves of tonal strength—can’t be so easy as Cárdenes makes it sound. Ian Hobson makes of the Sinfonia Varsovia a tautly rhythmic juggernaut, matching but never overpowering his soloist. Their white heat in the first movement reminds me of Leonid Kogan’s performance with Kiril Kondrashin and the Philharmonia Orchestra, a barnburner among barnburners (Kogan especially prized Brahms’s Concerto and Mozart’s Third). Cárdenes’s lyricism in the second movement proves that, pace Sarasate, the oboe doesn’t have the piece’s only good tune; his tone, as in the first movement, sounds thick as molasses in its lower registers and tensile and strong in the upper ones. He never spoils a line by lingering, never spoils passagework by rushing. Accordingly, the finale is perhaps more massive and deliberate than ethnically colorful or giocoso. But this movement’s performance fits with that of the Concerto’s other two movements. As in the case of Oistrakh, nobody should be tempted to accuse the soloist (as they had Heifetz) of superficial brilliance. The recorded sound represents Brahms’s rugged acoustic landscapes with stirring fidelity and the soloist with breathtaking presence.


Cárdenes and the orchestra seem to have a special affinity for the stormiest passages in Mendelssohn’s first movement, which they lace with heart-pounding adrenaline. For Cárdenes, the recitative-like sections that lead to the cadenza represent a dramatic climax, which he mounts with such affirmative power that even the most authoritative passages in the cadenza might seem anticlimactic. Once again, Hobson and the orchestra provide a sonorous, rhythmically bracing, accompaniment. The slow movement’s darker middle section and the finale’s episodes provide the kind of dramatic moments in which Cárdenes and the orchestra can revel. His may not be elfin Mendelssohn, such as that in which Heifetz or the less driving but nevertheless cracklingly electric Francescatti could dazzle listeners, but its dramatic outbursts offer a complementary, more histrionic, and equally idiomatic view of the Concerto.


Cárdenes’s two committed performances, in recorded sound of elemental strength and definition (befitting the soloist’s large-scale conception and the orchestra’s Gibraltar-like accompaniment), deserve a strong recommendation, even for those who believe their collection of the violin’s central literature needs little augmentation.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

BRAHMS: String Sextets Nos. 1 and 2

As a superb violinist Andrew Manze has released a great variety of award-winning CDs, often of Baroque music. Manze’s repertoire as a conductor is even larger and here he directs the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra in the complete symphonies of Brahms.

"He who releases the symphonies of Brahms in a new recording does not have to justify himself. The musical quality of the works and the fact that they have occupied a central place in the work of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1912, speak for themselves. The present recording of the Brahms symphonies is unusual in that it avails itself of a ‘post-historically-informed practice,’ since many decisions pertaining to technical performance rely on corresponding historical attestations yet do not put these to use on authentic historical instruments but on conventional modern ones." – Andrew Manze (translated from German)

Classical Music

Classical Music

This album of two piano quartets by Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) captures pianist Lars Vogt’s last recordings. Before his premature death and between treatments, Lars Vogt was able to record a multi-award-winning album of piano chamber music works by Schubert together with Christian Tetzlaff and Tanja Tetzlaff, as well as albums of Mozart’s and Mendelssohn’s piano concertos. However, a project to record Brahms’ complete piano quartets was left unfinished after the studio recording of Piano Quartet No. 2 was completed. With the help of recording producer Christoph Franke, we are now able to offer this recording together with Piano Quartet No. 3 from a live concert performance in connection with the studio recording. Combined, these make up Lars Vogt’s last recordings. Violinist Christian Tetzlaff, violist Barbara Buntrock and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff offer stellar performances in these landmark recordings and fulfill Lars Vogt’s late wish to have these performances released.

REVIEW:

The final recordings of pianist Lars Vogt have offered many riches, but this one is arguably the most profound of all. This may be the most intense recording of the C minor quartet on recordings. In both works, the coordination among the players evinces a joy that characterizes the highest ideals of chamber music.

— AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

Classical Music