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MUFFAT: Concerti Grossi Nos. 7 - 12

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When these recordings were taken in 1952 and 1956, Clara Haskil was still climbing to stardom. Her perceptive artistry put her in a class above other pianists, and gave her the ability to interpret Mozart’s music in such an organic, natural way that these performances are definitely timeless. This release feature’s Clara Haskil’s performances of Mozart’s Concertos Nos. 9 and 19. Carl Schuricht conducting the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR is equally perceptive in his interpretation of the score, beautifully complimenting Ms. Haskill.

John Garth (1721-1810) may not be a familiar name to many now, but in the north-east of England in the middle decades of the 18th century he was a well known figure, particularly in Durham, where he lived and worked as a concert promoter, organist and cellist. Newcastle knew him too, not least because that city’s leading musical light, Charles Avison, was a friend (and possibly teacher).

It is in the last two of Garth’s above-mentioned occupations that we meet him on this enterprising release, which offers the Six Concertos for the Violoncello published in London in 1760, but which he had been performing at such venues at the Durham Assembly Rooms for some years before. They turn out to be accomplished stuff: melodically attractive, pleasingly fluent and set out on a leisurely scale which, while occasionally suffering a phrase-repetition too many, at no time feels as if it is seriously outstaying its welcome.

Garth was a declared admirer of CPE Bach, and these concertos could be described as mid-century galant in style, if in a slightly conservative version which, like much English music of the time, can never quite forget Corelli. It rarely runs deep but it is always good company, and there are touching moments such as the melancholy slow movements of Concertos no. 4 and 5.

The Avison Ensemble is Newcastle-based and dedicated to rediscovering the music of the 18th-century north-east, and their performances are technically and musically skilled, both from soloist Richard Tunnicliffe and the one-to-a-part band vibrantly led by Pavlo Beznosiuk. The recording is clear and airy – perfectly fitting for this refreshing release.

-- Lindsay Kemp, Gramophone

These legendary recordings of Alicia de Larrocha performing Mozart and Beethoven have been digitally remastered from the Original SWR tapes. The Mozart was performed with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester under the direction of Garcia Navarro. The original performance in 1986 proved Larrocha’s intimate relationship with the works of Mozart.; The Beethoven recording was made in 1977 when Larrocha was 54 years old. She performs the work with aplomb, alongside the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, under the direction of Ernest Bour.

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The musical selection on this disc is a fascinating compound of romanticism, modernism and the expressive sensibilities of contemporary composers, including Swedish guitarist Johannes Möller himself. He has captivated audiences throughout the world with charismatic and soulful performances, achieving ‘miracles with his lucid, spacious playing’ (London Evening Standard). His ability to communicate a musical message to listeners of any cultural background, age or level of musical experience has brought him an international career and numerous prestigious prizes.

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The works on this recording were written by four roughly contemporary Polish composers who settled and pursued their careers in different parts of the world. Grayna Bacewicz's first Violin Concerto displays her own glittering virtuosity as a performer, while Alexandre Tansman wrote his Baroque-infused Five Pieces for the great Josef Szigeti. Michal Spisak considered his neo-classical Andante and Allegro to be "a little story for violin and orchestra", while Andrzej Panufnik's wide-ranging Violin Concerto became a "pilgrimage into my past" and is richly suffused with Polish atmosphere.

Review:

There are four rewarding works to be discovered on this disc, although only two of them are technically concertos. Andrzej Panufnik's Violin Concerto, written in 1971 and recorded in concert in 2014 by ?ód?-born violinist Piotr P?awner, the Kammersymphonie Berlin and conductor Jürgen Bruns. The second movement, with its seemingly endless lines of melody, reminds us that the concerto was written for Yehudi Menuhin and his famous nonstop vibrato. P?awner does those long lines justice here, before wrapping up the piece in a spiky, frenetic Polish dance.

– Guardian

Ginastera: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

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Pianist Anna Shelest was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine. She began studying piano at six years old, and later attended the Kharkiv Special Music School for Gifted Children, where she studied under Sergei Polusmiak and Gary Gelfgat. A multi-award winning artist, she won her first competition when she was only eleven at the Milosz Magin International Piano Competition. She has since gone on to win the Louisiana International Piano Competition, Kawai American Recording Contest, Bradshaw-Buono International Piano Competition New York, and many more. Recorded in the Czech Republic in 2014, this release features Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2. These works were written early on in Prokofiev’s career, and feature his virtuosic and wildly dissonant style which caused his first leap into fame.

Review quote:

"Prokofiev, himself a virtuoso, wanted to make sure that the piano part stood out, and where he recesses the accompaniment or provides cadenzas and solo passages Shelest’s playing is very present in audio terms. Considering his ambition to be considered a Modernist the equal of Stravinsky, I think Prokofiev came closest in his concertos, one genre where Stravinsky wasn’t dominant. Prokofiev’s piano writing remains fresh and powerful to this day, and Shelest can be proud of her achievement in exploiting every gesture to its fullest. Slimline cardboard packaging, and very readable program notes." - Huntley Dent, Fanfare

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For Russian pianist Ekaterina Litvintseva’s first-ever live recording, this young, up-and-coming Russian pianist, together with conductor Heribert Beissel and the Klassische Philharmonie, Bonn produced a recording of two Mozart concerto masterpieces, the No.9 in E flat Major, K271 (“Jeunehomme”), arguably his first masterwork in this genre, and the No. 12 in A, K414. “(A) singing allegro, eloquence and staying power in the…minor middle movement and perfect motor skills in the Presto…” (Bielefeld Neue Westfälische, K271 concert review)

“The Paganini violin concertos are above all else an exhibition of artistic effects. But when they are played, as Ingolf Turban does, with all piquant bravado and wit and taste, then they are musical fun … He played the concertos with a very taut and steely tone which was able to elicit a smile, even considering the indescribable wizardry of technique. One could not miss hearing how Paganini understood Rossini´s artistry with song He had fused some of this artistry into the parts for violin, as was brought out by Ingolf Turban through his ever elegant, glitteringly clear, and supremely singing production of tone. And to top it all, Turban´s playing of Paganini lacked neither a drew-like fresh fantasy of sound nor an extraordinarily playful vigor. And thus one could enjoy these concertos of that satanic violinist enveloped by legend.” We naturally listen to music today differently from the public of Paganini´s time. But we must be aware of the circumstances of that time, and have an ear for relationships. The need is all the more for a rational stance that is equally joyful and anxious. Smiling is only one aspect of Paganini. When our senses fade while facing the bravura, so do our hearing and sight dim before the tremendous plunges that this music conceals within itself, from heaven to earth and then out again to the infinite. The only comparison can be with Chopin at the piano. He performed such plunges, from so soft as to be barely audible to abrupt change of touch. There is eloquent testimony that bears this out. Ingolf Turban, in his attempt to revive the characteristics of happening for the Paganini concertos wants to do justice to both of these dimensions.

Wilhelm Furtwängler & The RAI Orchestra (Live)

Note: This Blu-ray Audio Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard CD or DVD players.

Filled with Mendelssohn’s signature freshness and lightness of touch, the Violin Concerto in D minor and the Sonata, Op 4 are youthful products but written with an assurance which is startling in its maturity. The substantial earlier concerto gives a foretaste of the originality and soaring inspiration which has made the Violin Concerto, Op 64 one of the most enduring works of its age. Acclaimed as “an unquestioned master of the violin” (American Record Guide), Tianwa Yang has quickly established herself as a leading international performer and recording artist, with highly acclaimed discs of works by Sarasate, Piazzolla and Wolfgang Rihm.

Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

This new release is the second CD of instrumental music of Carlo Antonio Marino. Marino was not only a composer, but also a violin virtuoso who rose to international fame at the beginning of the 18th century. Performing the works on this album is the Carlo Antonio Marino Baroque Ensemble, directed by Natale Arnoldi.

Review:

Mallon's new recordings with his Canadian period instrument ensemble offers honest, unfussy readings...while the Aradia Ensemble rarely wants for urbanity, warmth and clarity, a certain under-characterisation can merge one concerto into another.

– BBC Music Magazine

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Handel’s Concerti Grossi contain some of the finest orchestral music of the eighteenth century. The Op 6 collection brims with a wealth of variety, colour, and dance rhythms—Polish and Pastoral dances, courtly and fast ones—and Handel’s customary self-borrowings and indeed borrowings from other composers. The combination of full orchestra with a concertino solo group of two violins and cello allows both breadth and intimacy, producing concertos in the fullest sense. On this recording Kevin Mallon incorporates the later oboe parts for Concertos Nos 1, 2, 5 and 6, using them as a model for most of the other concertos. When the oboes are silent, flutes or recorders are added, in line with eighteenth-century practice.

There has been a notable absence of British piano music in concerts and recordings made over the last thirty five years or so and it is therefore to be applauded that Naxos started to produce a ‘British Piano Concertos’ series. Fortunately this has increased the number of works by Thomas Pitfield available to us on CD.

Born in the first years of the twentieth century and belonging to a generation of composers whose works found their way into the concert hall following the Second World War, Thomas Pitfield was a largely self-taught composer who wrote prolifically for all kinds of instruments and for every type of ensemble.

Folk music influenced the style and form of his compositions but always remained subservient to self-expression. Of the pieces recorded here, it is most apparent in the second Piano Concerto (The Oak and the Ash) and the Studies on an English Dance-Tune (Jenny Pluck Pears).

Good craftsmanship is a quality ever present in Pitfield’s music and readily reveals itself in Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor. It was written in 1946-47 for Stephen Wearing who gave the first performance with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Hugo Rignold in November 1949. This concerto is one of Pitfield’s best large-scale works, presenting the soloist with some technical problems which Anthony Goldstone, well supported by Andrew Penny and the RNCM Orchestra, copes with admirably.

The interplay between piano and orchestra, especially in the canonic treatment of the first theme in the opening movement, is skilfully marked by clarity of line and texture in this performance. The canonic writing here is not only important as a hint of the canonic compression of the final movement’s rondo theme at the end of the work, but a hallmark of Pitfield’s style.

The outer two movements of the concerto are brilliant but the composer’s invention, musical charm and beauty show themselves to good effect in the middle movement which has a memorable main theme of some solemnity. Here too is a short, and beautifully written, mysterious scherzo-like section, deftly realized by the soloist.

Moments such as this, along with Anthony Goldstone’s generally sympathetic interpretation, lift the music to a level of inspiration beyond the simply pleasing and tasteful.

The length and form of Piano Concerto No.2 was governed by the restrictions imposed by the commissioner, Max Hinrichsen, who was looking for a miniature concerto for the use of American piano students in performance auditions. The result is a work of very unusual form but the main characteristics are unmistakably Pitfield. A quotation from Milton at the head of the score sums it up well – “… and bring with thee Jest and youthful Jollity”.

Inventiveness is the keynote of this work. The first movement (Dance-Prologue) using three simple tunes on the white keys treated with ostinati, hymn-like harmonization, various rhythms and decoration, is followed by a scherzo (Interlude on White Keys) of running figures and modal melody.

The last movement is curious in that it embodies both the slow movement and the finale presented as a set of variations on the English folksong, ‘The Oak and the Ash’. Here the performers enjoy themselves in the playful rhythms of the first and third variations which are separated by a delightfully contemplative variation scored for piano alone.

Both concertos are recorded with good piano presence and endowed with the rhythmic energy so essential to the composer’s style.

The works for solo piano should not disappoint as Pitfield’s favoured 5/8 and 7/8 rhythms, pianistic decoration and harmonies of almost French flavour, can all be found in his tuneful music. Studies on an English Dance-Tune, written for John McCabe who first performed it whilst still a student at the RMCM in 1961, subjects the folk tune, ‘Jenny Pluck Pears,’ to various rhythmic, modal and playing techniques in seven short movements. Peter Donohoe’s technique and artistry show themselves to good effect in this and the other two works for solo piano included on the disc.

Although an early piece, Arietta and Finale is all one would expect of the composer but it is the Toccata, written for Lucy Pierce and published in 1953, which demands the listener’s attention with its exuberance.

Always looking to the needs of performers, Pitfield often found himself writing for unusual instruments or combinations of instruments when required. His four movement Xylophone Sonata, composed for the Hallé Orchestra’s principal percussionist, Eric Woolliscroft, and superbly executed here by Peter Donohoe, is a work that falls into that category. This lively piece using 7/8 and 10/8 rhythms was published in 1967 and deserves to be heard.

All in all, this collection of works is truly representative of Thomas Pitfield’s output of music for piano. The recording gives much pleasure and, for those who are not already familiar with his music, it is well worth exploring at superbudget price.



-- Stuart Scott, MusicWeb International

TARTINI, G.: Violin Concertos, Vol. 7 (L'Arte dell'Arco) -

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