This album brings the glowing, cinematic Violin and Cello Concertos of Ukrainian com-poser Thomas de Hartmann, an important compositional voice in his own time, back into the limelight. Using an international all-star cast, the recording not only aims to re-establish de Hartmann's oeuvre, but also to bring musicians together in times of war.
The Violin Concerto was recorded in Warsaw with Joshua Bell as soloist and Dalia Stasevska conducting the INSO-Lviv Symphony Orchestra, managing to temporarily leave their besieged country.
The Cello Concerto is presented by Matt Haimovitz and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Dennis Russell Davies. This album is made possible by the dedication and generous support of the Thomas de Hartmann Project, aimed to reintroduce his colorful and compelling music.
REVIEW:
There is a remarkable line-up of artists for this album with the violin and cello concertos by Ukrainian composer Thomas de Hartmann (1884-1956), who was highly regarded during his lifetime and had a successful career in France. After his death (in the USA), his music fell into oblivion and has only recently been revived. Apart from private releases on LP by the composer’s wife, these are the first recordings of the two concertos.
It is incredible that such a magnificent work has not been played for decades. It is a masterpiece, incredibly original and gripping from the first to the last note. It may be that a number of hitherto little-known works that are recorded today do not necessarily belong in the standard repertoire, but this one is of such quality that it should stand on an equal footing with many other important concertos of the 20th century.
Traditionally, Switzerland has an important and impressive heritage regarding festivals for classical music, among them the famous Lucerne Festival, rooting back to the so-called "Concert de Gala" in the gardens of Richard Wagner's villa at Tribschen in 1938 conducted by Arturo Toscanini. This release features the fascinating variety and the many facets of the classical festival scene in Switzerland. The selection of the works takes the importance of big names and well known works into account, but also presents modern or even avant-garde approaches or less well known chamber music works.
The world’s leading orchestras, conductors and soloists, outstanding concert venues like the KKL Culture and Convention Centre by the renowned architect Jean Nouvel in Lucerne, a breathtaking landscape: there are many reasons for falling in love with the Swiss music festivals. The Swiss festivals now draw more than 500,000 classical music enthusiasts to the shores of Lake Lucerne or the Verbier mountains every year. And the numbers of visitors is growing from year to year. With this release, you will understand why.
CONTENTS:
DISC 1: Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37 Francesco Piemontesi, piano Chamber Orchestra of Europe / Roger Norrington, conductor
Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E-Flat Major, K. 543 Francesco Piemontesi, piano Le Cercle de L'Harmonie / Jérémie Rhorer, conductor
DISC 2: Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550 Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551, "Jupiter" Le Cercle de L'Harmonie / Jérémie Rhorer, conductor
DISC 3: Elgar: Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47 Schumann Quartett CHAARTS Chamber Artists Felix Froschhammer, concert master
Kancheli: Chiaroscuro for Violin and Orchestra Sebastian Bohren, violin CHAARTS Chamber Artists Andreas Fleck, conductor
Schumann: Dein Angesicht, Op. 127 No. 2 Lehn' deine Wang' an meine Wang', Op. 142 No. 2 Es leuchtet meine Liebe, Op. 127 No. 3 Mein Wagen rollet langsam, Op. 142 No. 4 Ian Bostridge, tenor Saskia Giorgini, piano
Ralph Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge: V. Bredon Hill Ian Bostridge, tenor Casal Quartett
Purcell: The Fairy Queen, Z. 629: O Let Me Weep Regula Mühlemann, soprano Robin Müller, violin CHAARTS Chamber Artists
DISC 4: Brahms: Piano Trio No.1, Op. 8 Jonian-Ilias Kadesha, violin Vashti Hunter, cello Joonas Ahonen, piano
Blum: Luzerner Kreisel Silke Gäng, mezzo-soprano Oliwia Grabowska, piano
Gesualdo: Madrigals, Libro 6: II. Beltà poi che t'assenti Davos Festival Kammerchor
Dalbavie: Palimpseste für Flöte, Klarinette, Violine, Viola, Violoncello und Klavier Àgnes Vass, flute Joonas Ahonen, piano
Dickkopf: Paris Davos Festival Männerchor
DISC 5: Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 Lily Francis, violin Festival Orchestra / Willem de Bordes, conductor
Enescu: Romanian Rhapsodies, Op. 11: No. 1 in A Major Jonian-Ilias Kadesha, violin Festival Orchestra / Daniel Bard, concert master
DISC 6: Beethoven: Piano Trio No. 5 in D Major, Op. 70 No. 1 "Ghost" Candida Thompson, violin Xenia Jankovic, cello Paolo Giacometti, piano
Enescu: Octet in C Major, Op. 7 Daniel Bard, violin
DISC 7: Bach: Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227 Britten: Hymn to St. Caecilia Gabrieli Consort & Players Paul McCreesh, conductor
DISC 8: Mozart: Requiem in D Minor, K. 626 Elgar: They Are at Rest Gabrieli Consort & Players Paul McCreesh, conductor
DISC 9: Haydn: Symphony No. 6 in D Major, Hob. I:6 "Le Matin" CHAARTS Chamber Artists Gregory Ahss, concert master
Sollima: Fecit Neap 17 Giovanni Sollima, cello CHAARTS Chamber Artists Gregory Ahss, concert master
Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 Felix Froschhammer, violin Gregory Ahss, violin Lawrence Power, viola Razvan Popovici, viola Maximilian Hornung, cello Andreas Fleck, cello
DISC 10: Webern: Sechs Stücke für großes Orchester, Op. 6 Orchestra of the Lucerne Festival Academy / Susanna Mälkki, conductor
Neuwirth: Trurliade - Zone Zero Victor Hanna, percussion Orchestra of the Lucerne Festival Academy / Susanna Mälkki, conductor
Rihm: Gruss-Moment für Pierre Boulez Ligeti: San Francisco Polyphony Orchestra of the Lucerne Festival Academy / Matthias Pintscher, conductor
DISC 11: Shostakovich: From Jewish Folk Poetry, Op. 79 Shostakovich: Cello Sonata in D Minor, Op 40 Rachmaninoff: Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19 Bloch: From Jewish Life, IEB 6 Sol Gabetta, violin Bertrand Chamayou, piano
DISC 12: Mahler: Symphony No. 5 UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra / James Levine, conductor
DISC 13: Bach: Concerto for 4 Keyboards in A Minor, BWV 1065 Martha Argerich, piano Evgeny Kissin, piano James Levine, piano Mikhail Pletnev, piano
Haydn: Symphony No. 88 in G Major, Hob. I:88 Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra / András Schiff, conductor
Rachmaninoff: Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19 Lynn Harrell, cello Yuja Wang, piano
Ysaye: Sonata for 2 Violins in A Minor, Op. posth. Joshua Bell, violin Leonidas Kavakos, violin
This is a disc that many strictly "classical" listeners may pass over--not surprisingly, since this isn't really a "classical" recording. However, its illustrious and very accomplished host deserves a chance to show another side (or sides, actually) of his musical life, one that includes informal collaboration in his New York home with artists from pop, jazz, and non-western classical genres--and so he offers this rather congenial hodge-podge that somehow goes together while juxtaposing extremely diverse styles and levels of artistic refinement.
Actually, when you hear the opening track--a fine light jazz treatment of I loves you Porgy, with Bell, pianist Billy Childs, a number of other instrumental players, and featuring jazz/pop trumpeter Chris Botti--you may just wish this group would take the whole program. But we move from Gershwin to Dowland via the voice of Sting, whose slightly strained, boyish quality is overshadowed by the lively obbligato/accompaniment of Bell's violin.
There are hits--bandoneon-ist Carel Kraayenhof and Bell in Piazzolla's Oblivion and Luis Bacalov's Il Postino; Bell, baritone Nathan Gunn, and pianist Jeremy Denk in Rachmaninov's song O, cease thy singing, maiden fair (with obbligato by Fritz Kreisler); Ravi Shankar's duet for sitar and violin, performed by daughter Anoushka and Bell; Bell and Marvin Hamlisch's rendition of I'll take Manhattan--and misses: pop singer Josh Groban's Cinema Paradiso (exactly what language is that...?); Kristin Chenoweth's unconvincing, uncomfortable My Funny Valentine (not her song); bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolinist Chris Thile's weirdly meandering Look Away. But hey, this is a hodge-podge meant to capture the spirit of Bell's "anything goes" house concerts--and in that it succeeds.
Of course, the recordings were not actually made in Bell's home--rather they were made in a couple of different studios, and you can tell. There's a decided artificiality to the balances due to some odd mixing and highlighting of certain instruments that do not seem to share the same acoustic space. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this, especially for Bell's clever, artful, and always appropriately stylish playing.
Vivaldi: Four Seasons; Tartini: Violin Sonata "Devil's Trill" / Joshua Bell
Sony Masterworks
CD
$11.98Sep 02, 2008
You know how animal conservationists say that it's essential to cull the over-populated deer herds every so often so as to make life better and less competitive for the remaining animals? Well, this is similar to what I do every two or three years to my persistently-proliferating stock of Vivaldi Four Seasons recordings. The active catalog now lists more than 200 versions; about a dozen is the limit of both my shelf-space and sensibility. So this new one arrives and, well, it's Joshua Bell and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, so it's likely to be worth a listen, and perhaps a place on that already over-populated shelf.
Of course, Sony already has a perfectly wonderful period-instrument Four Seasons with Giuliano Carmignola, and then there's the very fine modern-instrument Anne-Sophie Mutter rendition on DG, with an identical coupling no less, which like this one weirdly neglects to mention the Tartini sonata on the disc front cover or spine(!)--and we've yet to touch on other respectable versions by Fabio Biondi (Virgin) or Gil Shaham (also DG)--and no doubt you've already got your own favorite(s).
Ultimately none of this matters. If you're a Joshua Bell and/or Vivaldi fan, or if you've just arrived on planet Earth and therefore haven't yet acquired your first Four Seasons recording, you only have to consider whether these performances are distinctive and authoritative and exciting enough to move them from the store shelves to yours. The answer is unequivocally "yes".
Bell is one of the more consistently tasteful, sensitive, anti-self-indulgent violin virtuosos on the scene today, and as such he delivers these inherently flashy concertos with a refreshingly straightforward approach that scorches and sizzles without ever falling prey to pyrotechnic vulgarity. Bell and his first-rate partners--bravo to harpsichordist John Constable!--just make beautiful music out of Vivaldi's conceptions, and their efforts are as gripping as we expect from musicians of this caliber. The final, hair-raising Allegro of "Spring"--brought to vivid, room-filling life by the superb engineering--is just one example. Aficionados of the Tartini sonata will be interested to hear Bell's own little cadenza along with his occasional personal ornamentations, which confirm this performance's distinctive character as well as Bell's technical and interpretive artistry.
This music is so familiar and its technical demands so mainstream these days that any of today's better-trained violinists could deliver a respectable rendition--of any Vivaldi concerto for that matter. But Bell's assured performances and exceptionally vibrant sonics move this recording into the top tier--and I'm already eying my shelf to see which current occupant will have to be sacrificed.
Bernstein: West Side Story Suite / Bell, Zinman, Et Al
Sony Masterworks
CD
$11.98Jun 19, 2001
This selection is also available in Super Audio format. This selection was nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award for "Best Classical Crossover Album." Violin virtuoso Joshua Bell turns his attention to the music of Leonard Bernstein with a program that features music from the composer's Broadway musicals, most notably 'West Side Story.' The album opens with a suite constructed by William David Brohn of themes from that fabled score, a finely wrought musical tapestry that serves as a showcase for Bell's prodigious artistry. The violinist works his way through the familiar melodies and two cadenzas with his usual combination of dazzling technique and lustrous tone. Bell further demonstrates the range of his talent in songs from other Bernstein musicals: Brohn's arrangements of "Lonely Town" and "New York, New York" from 'On The Town,' and John Corigliano's adaptation of "Make Our Garden Grow" from 'Candide.' The album also includes one of Bernstein's finest concert works, "Serenade after Plato's 'Symposium,'" here given a powerfully vivid reading by Bell. David Zinman and the Philharmonia Orchestra provide fine support throughout this well-conceived tribute to a musical giant.
Maw: Violin Concerto / Joshua Bell, Roger Norrington, Et Al
Sony Masterworks
CD
$11.98Apr 18, 2000
Embraces its historical lineage...luminous and pulsing.
This isn’t a new release. Maw’s Violin Concerto was written with Joshua Bell specifically in mind in 1993; the recording followed in September 1996. In the very enthusiastic sleeve-notes – I’m not sure how Maw feels about being described as a “genius” – great play is made of the work in relation to the Brahms Violin Concerto. Certainly it has a complex romantic affiliation but the composers’ names that occurred to me were those of Prokofiev and Walton. Not that Maw could be remotely taken to be either of them – but in its cultivation of an almost Italianate lyricism it does summon up the memory of Walton’s Mediterranean work and in its fusion of melodic beauty and scherzo drama it must pay at least oblique, tangential historical homage to Prokofiev.
The Concerto is cast in four movements. It opens with ruminative slowness but then opens out into a flourishing, rich and luminous sound world, bedecked by manifold orchestral and solo felicities; those little orchestral lurches toward the end for instance. The second movement is indeed Walton-like in its vivacity but Maw’s control of lingering lyricism, finely woven into the work’s fabric, ensures seamless warmth from the current-swell of dynamism that he generates. The lodestones here are Prokofiev and Barber but they’re securely absorbed into Maw’s lyric modernist world. The powerful cadential passage over a sustained orchestral chord is followed by a muted upwards drift into orchestral nothingness, a Cherubini-like stroke of translucent and mysterious beauty.
Maw’s predilection for major chords – the C major especially – permeates the third movement. Harmonies are richly complex and there are elements of post-impressionism in the writing, as well glimmers of Berg; but over and above such composer-spotting moments, which are essentially incidental, is the sense of luminous quiet, the rapture, the specific and yet endless personal landscape that Maw evokes. And when he unleashes the finale it comes brimful with tunes, vibrant and exciting, richly orchestrated.
Throughout Bell plays with the romantic ardour that Maw identified – and so admires – in him. His playing manages to balance scrupulous cleanliness of attack with tonal warmth and pliant phrasing. Norrington marshals the LPO in assured, colouristically aware fashion and the recording does full justice to the enterprise.
The Maw is a concerto that embraces its historical lineage without being shackled by it. If you admire the Berg, Barber, Walton and Prokofiev concertos, and like orchestration that is both luminous and pulsing then this is the work for you.
