On this extensive release, the Verdi Quartet has taken on quite the task- recording Franz Schubert’s complete string quartets. The four musicians brilliantly rise to the task, playing these works with verve and aplomb, and leaving the listener always wanting to hear more from these musicians. Time and again the four members of the Verdi Quartet have successfully communicated their own enthusiasm to their audiences, for instance at the great festivals at Schwetzingen, Ludwigsburg and Zermatt, the Mozart Festival at Lille (France), the Orlando Festival in Kerkrade (Netherlands) and the Bach Festival in Oregon, where they were appointed Quartet in Residence. Their national and international commitments have taken the quartet to virtually all the leading concert venues, not only in Europe but also in the USA, Canada, Africa and South Korea. They have appeared with eminent performers such as Norbert Brainin, Siegmund Nissel and Martin Lovett, Bruno Giuranna, Alfredo Perl, Günter Ludwig, Rudolf Meister and Matthias Kirschnereit. Since 2003, the quartet has had a festival of its own, “vielsaitig” in Füssen, a mixture of concerts, chamber music and solo master classes, as well as a symposium for string instruments making.

SALUT D’AMOUR • Chuanyun Li (vn); Robert Koenig (pn) • HÄNSSLER 98.278 (67:08)


DVO?ÁK Slavonic Dance, op. 72/2. KROLL Banjo and Fiddle. ELGAR Salut d’amour. BAZZINI La ronde des lutins. GLAZUNOV Raymonda: Intermezzo. SARASATE Zapateado. GLUCK Orfeo ed Euridice: Melody. PAGANINI Introduction and Variations on “Nel cor più non mi sento.” GERSHWIN (arr. Heifetz) It Ain’t Necessarily So. R. STRAUSS Violin Sonata


In how many programs does the obligatory sonata follow the encores (the jewel box lists the sonata first)? Chuanyun Li mixes simple and expressive numbers like Elgar’s Salut d’amour with virtuoso showstoppers like Paganini’s Variations on “Nel cor più non mi sento,” Bazzini’s Dance of the Goblins , and Sarasate’s Zapateado as an appetizer for the main course, Strauss’s concerto-like Violin Sonata. Those not familiar with Li from his playing on the soundtrack for the Chinese-produced movie, Together (and his appearance in the movie as a student emerging into the professional world playing Vieuxtemps’s Fifth Concerto), or from his video recordings produced by Bein and Fushi (both in a Ruggiero Ricci lesson and as a participant in a festival of Chinese violin music), should be struck in Hänssler’s issue of a 1999 recording he made at the Cincinnati Conservatory, by his soaring tone, his brilliant technical command, and his grasp of the many styles he’s assembled in his program. Idiomatic Elgar rubs shoulders with Slavonic Dvo?ák, darkly glowing Glazunov, and steamy Gershwin. Bazzini’s Ronde des lutins might as well have been retired for decades after Heifetz’s first recording of it in 1917; later recordings may have included all the notes but not the sizzle. Some, even as recent as Gil Shaham’s (24:3), seemed almost somber in comparison to the young Heifetz’s. Those who might not have heard that earlier recording might come to the end of Li’s with a very similar impression of overwhelming virtuosity coupled with heroic dash and élan. For example, at the section of notes repeated on each of four strings, some violinists simply struggle to play solidly, while Li manages to add tangy nuances. Glazunov’s Intermezzo offers many opportunities for portamentos, and violinists of earlier generations would have taken them with relish. So does Li, but never to the detriment of the music’s lyrical flow, which he builds in waves to a powerful climax. When the music settles to its quiet conclusion, he draws a pure tone from both strings in the final double-stops, a feat perhaps as difficult as the left-hand pizzicato in Bazzini’s Ronde . Li introduces stronger accents than Sarasate did into the Zapateado , and he adds some twangy timbral graces of his own. His performance goes beyond the heavier Russian style that became common in readings of the mercurial Sarasate; but, taken on its own terms, it’s a heady sprint to the finish. Heifetz and Milstein both played Gluck’s Melody, which Fritz Kreisler had arranged for violin and piano. Li’s performance matches theirs in elegance and warmth, and his special personal touches make it his own rather than a copy of theirs. Paganini’s Variations fare well in Li’s reading, sweetly lyrical in the manner of Rossini as devilish in the style of Locatelli. His gift for sumptuous melody alternates in this violinist’s compendium with his knack for brash pyrotechnics (which he fires off with surprising sweetness), and those mount to the conclusion in an unstoppable juggernaut.


Strauss’s early Sonata has been taken almost as a Concerto for Violin and Piano, and Heifetz (who reputedly tried to commission such a Concerto from Prokofiev) seemed always on the lookout for pieces he could play that way, like this one, Saint-Saëns’s First Sonata in D Minor, and Respighi’s. Memory of Heifetz remains strong, but Li manages to create his own forceful identity from the bold first movement. Arguably the slow movement of the Sonata makes a more glowing musical statement than does the slow movement of the (also youthful) Violin Concerto, and Li warms not only to its initial sentiment but also to its more agitated central section. He also seems comfortably at home in the finale’s broad rhetoric.


Here’s an old-fashioned violin recital with a Sonata thrown in to please everyone (the reverse of the usual procedure), and only those with almost unreasonably strong preferences should complain. It’s individual, brilliant, and musically both protean and probing—a substantial accomplishment for anyone, and certainly so for a 19-year-old. As Mischa Elman supposedly remarked to his accompanist, Joseph Seiger, when he heard Michael Rabin’s recording of Wieniawski’s First Concerto, that’s the way the violin should be played. Robert Koenig remains an insightful supporter through the many changes in style, and the lifelike recorded sound makes both players almost bodily present. Strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

Devotees of Russian choral music will recognise the names of many of the composers here, most of whose lives spanned the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. They were as such instrumental in the revival of Russian liturgical music via the conservatories. Other selections are drawn from traditional Znamenny and Kiev chants of the Russian Orthodox Church. Thus this bargain compilation makes an excellent introduction to an idiom which remains highly attractive to Western listeners whose ears are less used to the peculiarly resonant and plaintive timbre of real Russian choirs singing music of a highly “vertical” character.

If I have any reservations regarding what appears to be the first issue of a recording made over twenty years ago in Philadelphia and in good digital sound, it is that the choir, although absolutely authentic sounding, is rather small to do complete justice to the massive, hieratic dignity of these works. They number only fifteen, plus two additional soloists in two items, perhaps because they were on tour. Furthermore, although this all-male choir of professional singers is wonderfully homogeneous and features pure-toned counter-tenors down to real black Russian basses with a resonant low A at their command, when individuals step forward to sing solos their tone is not always very grateful. We hear, for example, some quite nasal and abrasive tenors in tracks 13 and 15, singing in the worst Russian tradition. That is all the more surprising when one notes that the tenor soloist in the latter appears to have been specifically imported into the choir for that track. Nor is the bass soloist in track 16 very satisfactory, being rather grainy and undistinguished.

As much as I otherwise enjoyed this anthology, there are others which are also bargain-priced, better sung and offer a more varied and interesting selection. I would especially recommend the Naxos "Russian Chant for Vespers” (8.553123) sung by the incredibly rich-toned and animated Novospassky Monastery Choir, recorded in the same year as this Akafist recital. For purposes of comparison, listen to the opening track on their CD on which is sung almost the same music as on this Hänssler disc. You will hear that there is much more swing, exultancy and energy in the Novospassky choir, whereas the Akafist sound too restrained and correct. Otherwise, there are alternative compilations such as the series “Sacred Treasures – Choral Masterworks from Russia” on the “Hearts of Space” label, licensed from Adagio recordings, which, although there are some hissy analogue tracks, really gives a better flavour of this great Russian tradition.

No texts or annotations are provided beyond a brief biography of the director and his choir.

- Ralph Moore, MusicWeb International

"If ever there was a family in which an extraordinary disposition for the same art seemed to be hereditary, it was certainly the family of Bach; through six successive generations there were scarcely two or three members of it who had not received from nature the gifts of a very distinguished talent for music and who did not make the practice of this art the main occupation of their lives." Thus begins On Johan Sebastian Bach's Life, Genius and Works (1802) y Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Bach's first biographer. The phenomenon of the "Bach Family" was a source of wonderment to contemporaries, who marveled at this proliferation of musical talent from generation to generation. And it has not lost any of its fascination to this day.

The aim of this recording is to present a panorama of the sacred vocal music of the Bach family.

The Bach family was the largest and most incredibly talented musical families of all time. Even before Johann Sebastian began composing, his uncles Johann Ludwig and Georg Christoph Bach, and children, C.P.E., Wilhelm Friedemann after him, and still later Johann Christian, Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst - to name but a few members of the famous Bach family, were all accomplished musicians and composers. For nearly two hundred years, the Bach family dedicated themselves to singing God's praises in music. Helmuth Rilling, who has made the works of the great Johann Sebsatian and his family his life work, performs these pieces with delicacy, energy and intelligence - providing an overview of the astounding diversity of musical language of the Bach family.

Piotr Plawner writes of his new release: “Of all the Polish violin repertoire, the works of Henryk Wieniawski are the best known, both in his native Poland and abroad. His two violin concertos and various works for violin and piano are performed all over the world. The International Henryk Wieniawski Competition in Poznan (similar to the Chopin Competition in Warsaw) is an internationally acclaimed competition. I find Karol Szymanowski one of the most versatile Polish composers… Eight years ago, I teamed up with the Polish Radio Orchestra to give Emil Milynarski’s First Violin Concerto its world premiere. It is hard to believe that the concerto was composed in 1897 and went unperformed for 113 years. This album is intended to bring home the message that this music must not be forgotten. May this release be a token of my gratitude to all the composers whose highly interesting and beautiful works are to be heard on this release.”

This compilation features compositions, studies and fragments in various arrangements and at various levels of development, pieces that not only represent Bruckner’s course of study but also anticipate his future impact as a symphonist and reformer of musical idiom. So, just as a few pencil strokes outlining the architectural design of a magnificent building may give a more vivid impression than the final realisation of the design, the compositions from the study book may seem more vivid to us than the great symphony. They are a world unto themselves. Bruckner’s piano works (the compositions and sketches from the study book and the published works) occupy, at best, a marginal position in the eyes of the concert world, performers, listeners and organisers. Their rich substance is yet to be duly acknowledged, for these small-scale works are the fascinating building-blocks of great music. The school with which the composer allied himself through his study with connoisseurs of revolutionary musical initiatives (notably Otto Kitzler) has here been embraced by the genius to full effect.

The night has always been a time of enchantment; embodying the uncanny, but also the romantic side of human existence. For this Hänssler Classic release Jenny Lin has selected a program of night pieces that speak to both the sensual and more complex psychological aspects of nocturnal experiences – from Debussy’s "Clair de lune" to Arthur Lourié‘s "A Phoenix Park Nocturne" to Liszt's "Liebestraum" she evokes sounds, dancing, romance, far from everyday experiences, whispering of things hidden from the light of day. She evokes thoughts and visions from a shadowy realm that draws us into our inner world. A dramatically styled CD, expressive of human longing for the nocturnal side. - Hänssler Classic, (Translated from German)

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by Ennemond Gaultier. Soloist: Joachim Held.

When Frank Peter Zimmermann says that Mozart has always been easy for him, he needs only to recall his debut concert at the age of ten when he played Mozart’s G major Concerto K. 216; or when as a fresh 20-year-old, he made his first recording of the five concertos for EMI. He’s played these works nearly 300 times in concert, and one can appreciate the intense physical and spiritual experience that Zimmermann brings to these new recordings.

Mozart not only left this Mass incomplete in 1783, with the scoring unfinished and lacking the last half of the Credo and the entire Agnus Dei, but he effectively abandoned it by reworking the Kyrie and Gloria for the cantata Davidde penitente, K 469, two years later. In 1901, Alois Schmitt published the Mass with the missing sections filled in from several earlier Mozart Masses and the Agnus Dei fitted to the music of the Kyrie. It has usually been recorded in its incomplete form, although Bernhard Paumgartner drew on the Mass, K 262, to complete the Credo and followed Schmitt’s example for the Agnus Dei, an edition that Rudolf Moralt recorded (Epic SC 6009). John Eliot Gardiner revised Schmitt’s orchestration of parts of the Credo but omitted the missing movements (12:4). Richard Maunder simply edited what Mozart left in sketchy form for Christopher Hogwood’s version (14:2), as H. C. Robbins Landon had done earlier for Neville Marriner’s recording issued in 1979 and Raymond Leppard (or someone else) had done for his recording issued in 1974.

Rilling has already recorded the Mass in a score “reconstructed and completed” by Helmut Edel, but that “completion” did not go beyond filling out the scoring of the movements sketched by Mozart, as Maunder and Robbins Landon had done. Rilling coupled it with the first recording of Robert D. Levin’s reconstruction of the Requiem (16:2). Now Rilling has tackled the Mass again, and for this version Levin has completed the entire Mass. In a detailed description of his study of Mozart’s sketches of the period, he provides an account of his approach to an admittedly daunting effort. The result is far removed from any previous “reconstruction/completion” that we have heard. It is Levin’s idea of what Mozart might have intended for a complete Mass, and it goes far beyond any previous editor’s modifications. It is a totally new way of understanding Mozart’s intentions, and it requires a good deal of faith in Levin’s admittedly keen grasp of Mozartean style.

The soloists that Rilling has chosen are superb, and the chorus and orchestra that he founded (in 1954 and 1965 respectively) respond with the assurance that we have heard many times before. While Rilling and Levin each furnish a note for the booklet, a Web address is given for further information. The recording was made during a pair of performances in Stuttgart last spring. While Levin will admit that this is a hypothetical realization of what might have been Mozart’s intentions, based on fragments of sketches, it is well worth hearing. Since most other recordings fill in Mozart’s incomplete scoring of the Credo and Sanctus, Levin’s attempt to do this and more is at least as worthy of attention as any of them. Listen for yourself.

FANFARE: J. F. Weber

March 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Xavier Montsalvatge, one of the most important Spanish composers of the 20th century. Included on this anniversary CD are some of his finest pieces: the famous “Cinco canciones negras,” a poignant song cycle featuring infectious Latin American rhythms; the “Poem Concertante,” first championed by the internationally acclaimed violinist Henryk Szeryng, and the “Concierto breve” for piano and orchestra. This recording has assembled three world-class soloists: American pianist Jenny Lin, mezzo-soprano Lucia Duchonova, and American violinist Rachel Barton Pine.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Heidelberg Symphony. Conductor: Thomas Fey.

Recording information: Kongresshaus Stadthalle Heidelberg (03/25/2009-03/26/2009).

The exceptional status of Heidelberg’s Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Thomas Fey is impressively documented by the twenty years and more of the ensemble’s existence. 'The orchestra plays in a relaxed manner, with virtuosity and an attractive, infectious spirit. It plunges into the music in a thoroughly adventurous mood, without ever losing its head.' (Fono Forum) Tours have taken the Heidelberger Sinfoniker to many European countries, South America and Japan. The orchestra’s repertoire now ranges beyond the Viennese Classical era into the later 19th century, with emphasis on German early Romantic works. A tally of over 50 album recordings, notably for the Hänssler Classic label, have ensured popular and critical acclaim in recent years for the Heidelberg music-makers. This release features the complete symphonies of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.

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REVIEW:

These recordings have an appealing clarity and plenty of verve in the playing. You will hear historically-informed, vibrato free strings in the Seventh String Symphony, which has a beautiful sensitivity in the Andante second movement, contrasting with boisterous energy in the Allegro first and even the Menuetto third. Other writers have commented on Fey’s ‘risk taking’, and if you like a restive, settled feel to your Mendelssohn then you may find yourself feeling a little buffeted. Get used to this angle of approach, and I would hope that you soon appreciate its bracing freshness in music that is after all the work of a youth with energy to spare.

Mendelssohn’s early precociousness as a musician rivalled and perhaps even exceeded that of Mozart, and the string symphonies are full of brilliantly crafted and strikingly mature music. I’m pleased to see that these youthful masterpieces are fairly evenly distributed throughout this set, so that there are fewer discs that are likely to become neglected out of prejudice over the later symphonies. Full of surprise and inventiveness, these are works fully deserving of close attention, and with Thomas Fey as a guide who leaves no leaf unturned in making them gripping and often quite dramatic you can be pleased to have gathered them up as part of this set, to be admired at your leisure.

There can be few symphonies that open quite as dramatically as Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1, and Fey pulls no punches, allowing drums and winds to deliver their full effect. The recorded balance allows the strings decent weight as well however, and with this kind of clarity the whole dynamic spectrum and all of that inner activity can be followed with ease. Woodwinds are generally reduced-vibrato: clean but certainly not without expressiveness, and those timpani have a sharpness of attack that indicates firm sticks - not quite ‘hard’ as you will hear in period orchestras, but lean enough to prevent booming drums from drowning out the rest of the musicians in the tutti sections. The tranquillity of the Andante second movement starts out as an oasis of calm, but Mendelssohn’s restless harmonic development soon takes us beyond the expected, Fey leaning with just the right amount of expressive weight in the phrasing, and getting the best out of the orchestra’s naturally transparent sonic spectrum. The Minuetto & Trio feel dance-like but also have appropriate symphonic grandeur, and the Allegro con fuoco finale has drama enough to counterbalance the first movement, the energetic forward momentum and extremes of dynamic now feeling like bread and butter to a set that promises great things.

CD 2 has Symphony No. 4, ‘Italian’ which opens with a rapid tempo, testing the woodwinds’ articulation and making us think of Berlioz with those repeated notes. I had a listen to Claudio Abbado on Deutsche Grammophon, who has similar dash and flair in this movement but, working with the more heavy-weight London Symphony Orchestra has a little less clarity to weigh against their greater opulence. A lighter touch pays dividends in the Andante con moto second movement which skips along, giving those chorale-like woodwind figures above a real Bach-like feel. Going in order of the discs rather than the numeration of the symphonies, we get to the Symphony No. 5 ‘Reformation’ on CD 4 next. The Andante section of the first movement gets a seriously stirring performance here, with the wind fanfares allowed full projection, contrasting with those atmospheric strings; the following Allegro con fuoco a really virtuoso tour de force.

Maybe it’s time to bring out a few comparisons, and there are a few box sets around which compete with this collection. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi on Decca (review) has the complete mature symphonies but not the string symphonies. There’s a comparable completeness to Brilliant Classics’s box - originally recordings from the BIS label - with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta conducted by Lev Markiz (review), and there is of course the previously mentioned Claudio Abbado LSO Deutsche Grammophon set. Listening to Markiz in the ‘Reformation’ symphony I don’t feel the same response as with Fey. The Amsterdam players are very good and the recorded sound is fine if perhaps a little close-up, but having become used to Fey’s urgent extremes runs the risk of other performances sounding more pedestrian than perhaps they deserve. Compare that sense of anticipation in the reprise of that second section of the first movement of the ‘Reformation’ in its last minutes and I hope you’ll hear what I mean. Fey not only has control in his more extreme treatment of the orchestra, but also a keener ear for the narrative potential in the music.

The Symphony No. 3 ‘Scottish’ should be a highlight of any Mendelssohn symphonic set, and this is certainly the case here. Fey manages to remain idiomatic while also pointing out how Mendelssohn anticipates Mahler in the opening Andante con moto of the first movement, and the folksy ‘wa-waaa’ that calls us into the Vivace no troppo second is great fun, as is the sprightly liveliness of the movement as a whole. Melodic hints of Beethoven in the Adagio and a real sense of surprise at its funereal development carry us to exhilaration in the final Allegro vivacissimo, whose rousing final Allegro maestoso assai section is handily given its own access point.

The Symphony No. 2 ‘Lobgesang’ stands apart on CD 6, its odd man out status betraying its origins as a ‘symphony-cantata’. At first I wondered if this was some strange instrumental-only version of the work, with no singers or chorus listed anywhere in this set. I ended up finding these on an image of the original release. This is the real thing however, and a glorious performance and recording it is too. With its extended duration the ‘Lobgesang’ can be heavy going, but Thomas Fey keeps everything moving along nicely and creating lighter orchestral textures without short-changing the score. The chorus is excellent, with well-blended voices and given a red-blooded sound in the mix to go along with an orchestra that by no means soft-pedals when the voices enter. All of the soloists are good, with experienced tenor Markus Schäfer giving a nice ‘lied’ quality to solos such as Er zählet uns’re Tränen, the lovely soprano duet Ich harrete des Herrn also not coming across as too operatic, though nothing is held back when everything, organ included, is thrown into Die Nacht ist vergangen.

Skimpy booklet notes, sketchy credits and lack of recording information aside, this is very much a set of Mendelssohn’s complete symphonies to acquire and keep safe from marauding borrowers. The six CDs are neatly housed in a double-width jewel case with those foldout carriers which work fine until you drop the whole thing. Once you’ve tuned into Thomas Fey’s ‘driven’ approach to these works these recordings will blow away any impression you might have had of Mendelssohn being the runt of the Romantics.

– MusicWeb International (Dominy CLements)