BACH: BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS 1-

Joseph Swensen and John Gibbons have chosen three of Bach's Sonatas for violin and harpsichord and are joined by Elizabeth Anderson in the Sonata in G major for violin and continuo. A second volume is proposed which will complete the set as well as including, no doubt, the E minor Sonata for violin and continuo (BWV1023). The sonatas for violin and fully worked out continuo harpsichord are brilliant and inventive, making considerable technical demands on both players. On this showing I am especially impressed by the lively and incisive harpsichord playing of Gibbons. He turns in beautifully articulated performances, full of energy and little insights to the music. Swensen is hardly less fluent, though I found his faster movements sometimes more convincing than slower ones, where intonation proves an intermittent problem.

His instrument, though contemporary with Bach's own lifetime, has nevertheless been adapted to present-day standards and his bow, too, is likewise a modern one. I would have been happy to have left it at that but Swensen himself comments, "One reason why I love to perform with John Gibbons is that with his early music background and mine in the modern tradition we get the best of both worlds, as we try to express the music from the perspective of the late 20th century". Such a premise at once invites a range of inferences to be drawn, one being that the modern violin is superior to one strung and tuned according to the practice of Bach's time. Another is that the best of both worlds is somehow preferable to the best that either one can offer on its own. In point of fact, Swensen clearly is bent on giving us the best of Bach's world on a modern violin since, apart from the matter of sound, twentieth-century technique in all but one or two instances — there are occasional portamentos — is quite severely reined in.

Perhaps all this sounds rather unimportant but my feeling is that far from having the best of both worlds the very premise prevents us from having the best of either. Even so, the results are far from displeasing, though I found some of the tempos a shade too brisk. These artists never fail to bring the music to life and as I have implied there is neither lack of virtuosity nor character in the playing. The recorded sound is warm and the acoustic effectively resonant.

-- N.A., Gramophone [4/1991]

TOSCANINI COLLECTION VOL 65 -

MENDELSSOHN: SYMPHONY NO 2 CL

"I greeted Harnoy's recorded entry into Vivaldi's world with genuine enthusiasm ((CD) RD87774, 8/88), as I do also this follow-up . . . . Vivaldi's affection for the cello is evident in the number and quality of his concertos for it, which is good enough reason for an integral recording of them. . . . There is a wealth of virtuosic writing in the outer movements, in the most filigree of which Harnoy's bow dances with the steps of an agile fairy. Regarding her playing in general I refer the reader to my previous Vivaldi review, whose encomium is herewith reinforced. . . . This very well recorded disc is a 'must' for anyone who does not suffer from Vivaldi-, cello- or general baroque-phobia, and it might easily cure those who do." -- John Duarte, Gramophone

...The Strauss and Respighi collections are also exceptionally fine. It is conceivable, with music as spectacular and as colourful as Respighi's, that some collectors will want stereo—nay, digital sound in these works. But in doing so will they get sharper-focused, more brilliantly coloured, or more decisively projected performances than these by Respighi's earliest and finest champion? I very much doubt it. Certainly, I have never heard a stronger case made out for what is allegedly the weakest of the three pieces, Feste romane. Toscanini's performance is sensational. Happily, the recordings were all made in the Carnegie Hall and are very fine. Collectors who already have an LP version of Fountains and Pines may find the CD a touch more strident and lacking in bass. That was RL's reaction in last November's "Quarterly Retrospect". But it was a minor quibble. As he said: "these are such stunning performances that they must be strongly recommended".

-- Gramophone [1/1991]

TOSCANINI COLLECTION VOL 66 -

TOSCANINI COLLECTION VOL 71 -

Recorded 1939.

ZINKA MILANOV - BELLINI, VERDI

THE VOICES OF LIVING STEREO VO

Track Listing

Disc 1:
1. Bill's Mill
2. Brand New Wagon
3. One O'Clock Boogie
4. Futile Frustration
5. Swingin' the Blues
6. St. Louis Boogie
7. Basie's Basement
8. Backstage at Stuff's
9. My Buddy
10. Shine on Harvest Moon
11. Lopin'
12. I Never Knew
13. Sugar
14. Jungle King, The
15. I Ain't Mad at You
16. After You've Gone
17. House Rent Boogie
18. South

Disc 2:
1. Don't You Want a Man Like Me
2. Seventh Avenue Express
3. Sophisticated Swing
4. Guest in a Nest
5. Your Red Wagon
6. Money Is Honey
7. Just a Minute
8. Robbin's Nest
9. Hey Pretty Baby
10. Bye Bye Baby
11. Just an Old Manuscript
12. She's a Wine-O
13. Shoutin' Blues
14. Wonderful Thing
15. Mine Too
16. Walking Slow Behind You
17. Normania
18. Rat Race
19. Sweets

Personnel includes: Count Basie (piano, organ); Taps Miller, Jimmy Rushing (vocals); Preston Love, Rudy Rutherford, Charlie Price (alto saxophone); Buddy Tate, Paul Gonsalves (tenor saxophone); Jack Washington (baritone saxophone); Ed Lewis, Emmett Berry, Clark Terry, Snooky Young, Harry Edison (trumpet); Ted Donnelly, George Matthews, Eli Robinson, Bill Johnson, Dickie Wells, George Washington (trombone); Freddie Green (guitar); Rodney Richardson, Walter Page (bass); Shadow Wilson, Jo Jones (drums).

Recorded in Los Angeles, California; New York, New York; Chicago, Illinois between January 3, 1947 and February 2, 1950. Includes liner notes by Don Waterhouse.

This is part of RCA's Jazz Tribune series.

BRAILOWSKY PLAYS VIRTUOSO SHOW

Includes cto(s) for vda: excerpt(s) by Antonio Vivaldi. Ensemble: Philharmonia Virtuosi. Conductor: Richard Kapp.

This mixed Haydn concert opens with a highly sophisticated performance of the urbane Sinfonia concertante written in London (which Hoboken's catalogue wrongly identified as Symphony No. 105). Solo and orchestral playing is consistently polished, interplay between the four protagonists deft and alert. The opening movement is spirited yet properly spacious, with plenty of room for the players to savour details like the wonderful chromatic counterpoint of the development, and the sallies for oboe and bassoon in the finale (Gordon Hunt's creamy tone a constant pleasure) are deliciously managed... In the D major Cello Concerto, whose popularity continues to defy regular critical broadsides, Ralph Kirshbaum is a strong, eloquent soloist, and negotiates with agility and aplomb Haydn's taxing and sometimes ungrateful figuration. I specially enjoyed his grace and concentration of line in the Adagio, where he brings a beautiful hushed intensity to the main theme's reprise (4'03"). Other readings, including those by Truls Mork and Yo-Yo Ma — both more conveniently coupled with the C major Concerto — have displayed a more subtle range of colour and a more delicate, fanciful touch in the finale; but Kirshbaum stands up pretty well against some hot competition.

-- Gramophone [1/1996]