• The Brodsky Quartet present the first of two discs featuring Brahms’s complete string quartets. The String Quartet Op. 51 No. 2 is warm, affirmative and relaxed, with few extremes of mood or tempo. The Clarinet Quintet, op. 115 explores an atmosphere of elegy and nostalgia, producing a mood of autumnal resignation. Having often performed this work in concert, the renowned Brodsky Quartet and clarintetist Michael Collins come together once again for this recording.

Tchaikovsky: The Masterworks

Classical Music

Composed between 1897 and 1905, this collection of Respighi’s earliest music for violin and piano, some from his student days, is notable for its openness to influences as diverse as German Romanticism, Russian Nationalism and the French school, as if he were trying out different styles in the search for his own personal idiom. No less evident are Respighi’s technical mastery of instrumentation and form as well as his delight in vocally inflected melodic lines. This is the first of two volumes of Respighi’s complete works for violin and piano. Emy Bernecoli and Massimo Giuseppe Bianchi have been acclaimed for their “impassioned, technically polished and rhythmically rock-solid interpretations”. (Gramophone on 8.572828 / Ghedini)

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Classical Music

The musical world is familiar with the 5 violin concerti up to K. 219; on the other hand, the Concerto K. 271a can't be definitively attributed to Mozart. It's dated approximately 1777 and was designated as the seventh of his violin concerti. This is an ingenious meeting of the soloist Mirijam Contzen, who has herself written all the cadenzas for the concertos, Reinhard Goebel and the bavarian chamber philharmonic. An absolute must for lovers of the violin, and especially for lovers of Mozart.

Classical Music

• A compilation of Mendelssohn's most important piano pieces

BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in Bb, op. 97, “Archduke.” SCHUBERT Piano Trio in Bb, op. 99 • Tr di Trieste • INSTITUTO DISCOGRAFICO ITALIANO 6678, mono (69:52)


These recordings are taken from radio air checks in Cologne on March 12, 1958 (Schubert) and September 23, 1959 (Beethoven). I do not believe these are the same performances by this long-lived, estimable ensemble that can be heard in Deutsche Grammophon’s five-disc compilation of the Trio di Trieste’s complete recordings, but I wouldn’t swear to it since I don’t own that set.


The Trio di Trieste was one of the 20th century’s longest-surviving piano trios, and one that has often been compared to the Serkin-Busch and Cortot-Thibaud-Casals Trios. The comparison is more apt, I think, to the latter than it is to the former, for these are readings of a fairly Romantic persuasion, with tempos, dynamics, and phrasing undergoing frequent adjustments to fit the mood of the moment. Within that interpretive paradigm, however, it has to be said that the playing of Renato Zanettovich, Lebero Lana, and Dario De Rosa is of a beguiling beauty that simply silences any criticism of the ensemble’s stylistic approach.


My only regret is that I never got to see and hear the Trio di Trieste perform live—though I suppose these air checks are the next closest thing to it—for whatever one might point to that the players don’t do right in terms of observing the absolute letter of the scores, one cannot cite a single thing they do wrong in terms of intuiting the music’s spirit and emotional core. These performances simply transcend any mundane considerations as they ascend into the realm of the sublime. For a glimpse of the starry firmament Beethoven reveals to us, listen to the hushed, almost trembling awe the players convey in the closing measures of the “Archduke” Trio’s great Andante . It will make you want to fall to your knees in wonderment. This is the performance of this movement I have sought my entire life, and finally I have found it. All else, as the sage said, is mere commentary.


In closing, let me just say that the sound of these recordings is so good it’s not even necessary to qualify it with an excuse about their source. If I were not writing this review for the regular composer section of the magazine, I could easily see submitting it as an entry to the Classical Hall of Fame. Is further recommendation needed?

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

• Historic concert recordings of the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra from 1959 and 1961, led by its first and chief conductor for 24 years, Carl A. Bünte. • Carl A. Bünte was a pupil of the mercurial Sergiu Celibidache and has led a distinguished international career. • These two symphonies, both their composer's second, are considerably less volatile, but no less rousing fare, than there more famous later symphonies.

• French composer Erik Satie composed some of the most mystifyingly beautiful music in the piano literature, much of which is in constant demand for live performance and recordings. • Pianist Chisako Okano studied piano in her native Japan and then Germany, and leads a productive concertizing career.

• Historic concert recordings of the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra from 1959, led by its first and chief conductor for 24 years, Carl A. Bünte. • Carl A. Bünte was a pupil of the mercurial Sergiu Celibidache and has led a distinguished international career. • Schubert composed his last and most majestic work in the year of his death, 1828, but it wasn't until a decade later that the work saw its first performance.

� A 2011 concert performance by Italian mezzosoprano Sonia Ganassi singing French arias of Bizet, Gounod, Massenet, and others. � Conductor Carla Delfrate leads the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana. � Recipient of the Italian Abbiati prize in 1999, Ms. Ganassi has appeared in many of the world's major opera houses, and is scheduled to appear with the Vienna State Opera as Jane Seymour in Donizetti's Anna Bolena during the 2013/14 season.

• A 1957 live performance from Stuttgart, conducted by Lovro von Matacic. • The great Heldentenor Wolfgang Windgassen stars as Rienzi. • Stuttgart came to be known as the “Winter Bayreuth” for its staging of Wagner operas not slated for performance in Bayreuth.

• A 10-CD box set of Romantic music in honor of the 80th Birthday Sir Roger Norrington (March 16th, 2014) • Contains the most famous works by Romantic composers • Interpretations featuring what has been called the "Stuttgart Sound"

William Youn Plays Mozart Sonatas, Vol. 1

Remember Soyeon Kate Lee’s 2008 Zankel Hall recital, where she appeared in a concert gown constructed from 6000 recycled grape juice containers? Not surprisingly her outfit got more press than her actual music making, but the fact is that Lee is a splendid pianist who doesn’t need gimmicks. Her first appearance in Naxos’ complete Liszt piano music cycle attests to this.

Lee’s shapely and sonorous handling of the thick pianistic hurdles throughout Liszt’s transcription of the Sarabande and Chaconne from Handel’s Singspiel Almira holds interest in terms of technique and stamina, although the music is deadly dull. By contrast, Liszt’s paraphrase based on Gounod’s Hymne a Sainte Cecile thoroughly improves upon the original composition, where Lee’s contouring of the multi-thematic textural layers proves more pliable and forward moving than in Leslie Howard’s comparatively square (though no less sensitive) rendition.

So far as Liszt’s transcription from Joachim Raff’s forgotten opera König Alfred, Lee does not differentiate the opening Andante finale’s foreground and background material with Leslie Howard’s variety, yet she’s more animated and energetic in the subsequent Marsch. Lee also plays the Gounod transcriptions from Romeo et Juliette and La reine de Saba with a lovely lyrical sensitivity. The better known Valse from Gounod’s Faust paraphrase features scrupulous and crisply dispatched fingerwork, but the interpretation is a bit cut and dried, falling short of Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s glittery panache or the dynamic and rhythmic heft of Earl Wild and Egon Petri. However, she takes the opening section of Liszt’s transcription of Spohr’s Die Rose Romanze at a faster clip and with more vocally oriented phrasing than in Howard’s slower, more static traversal, heightening the music’s rich harmonic invention in the process. Annotations and engineering are first rate. In all, a strong entry in Naxos’ ongoing Liszt series.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Two years before the end of World War II, Wilhelm Furtwangler conducted a memorable and touching performance of Brahm's German Requiem in Switzerland. After careful and complex digital remastering, that performance is now available on CD.

The real life marriage of two great concert pianists, Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, has led to one of the leading piano duos of their generation. To cite the UK magazine Music and Arts, "Theirs is a marriage of wondrous colours and dextrous aplomb, subtly balanced to make a musical performance sound as one." Stavinsky's Pétrouchka was originally arranged for four-hands by the composer as a rehearsal score for the Ballet Russes production of the same name, but in this stripped-down it brings Stravinsky's melodic, rhythmic and harmonic inventiveness to the fore. Brahms's 16 Waltzes Op.39 are an enchanting collection of Romantic miniatures that simultaneously nod to the musical lineage of the composer's home in Vienna whilst asserting his own flair and individuality. The final four tangos by Piazzolla are a full of Argentine flair and vigour, and were arranged especially for this recording by Bax & Chung.

Birth of the symphony: Handel to Haydn' explores the development of the symphony in the eighteenth century, surveying groundbreaking musical advances across Europe. (AAM)

Brahms: The Symphonies, Haydn Variations & 8 Hungarian Dance

Puccini: Turandot (Recorded 1955)

Grammy-nominated violinist Jennifer Koh and virtuoso pianist Shai Wosner play 20th century works by three remarkable Central European composers who intertwine folkloric influences with their own unmistakable originality. The album includes Leoš Janáček’s Moravian influenced Sonata for violin and piano, Béla Bartók’s impassioned Violin Sonata No. 1, and compelling miniatures by György Kurtág, including Tre Pezzi for violin and piano and selections from Signs, Games and Messages.

REVIEW:

Jennifer Koh studied with Felix Galimir at the Marlboro School and Jaime Laredo at the Curtis Institute; she won a silver medal at the 1994 International Tchaikovsky Competition (a year in which no gold was awarded) and has appeared with all the major American orchestras and many abroad. One may see her in action on YouTube, performing Paganini with the Chicago Symphony, displaying amazing aplomb and panache for an 11-year old, or for any age. She has tended to avoid the warhorses of the repertory, as her recordings—from Bach to Zorn—show.

In a brief discussion of this disc (also seen on YouTube), pianist Shai Wosner says “it’s intense music; we wanted to milk the most out of every bar.” Yet the Janá?ek performance strikes me as just the opposite: A silky violin and a gentle piano—in a warm, reverberant acoustic setting—emphasize the inherent beauty of this music rather than its intensity or its connections to folk music. Janá?ek’s spiky harmonies and jumpy, stabbing attacks are played down. Many listeners may prefer this Romantic-era approach, but it soft-pedals the composer’s essence, the character that makes him unique. For a more vibrant performance, try Gidon Kremer and Martha Argerich on DG, which John Wiser nailed (Fanfare 16:4) as having “a touch of Gypsy exoticism.”

György Kurtág has written what we call full-length works, but our attention has been focused on his many sets of miniatures. Signs, Games, and Messages (also the title of this disc) and Játékok (also “Games”) are both large collections of small pieces composed over many years. Are they completed? Only the composer could answer that question. The former are for “vn, va, vc, db in various combinations, as solos, duos, trios, qts.” (The New Grove II); these four are played here by the solo violin. Játékok are for piano, some with vocal additions—momentary noises rather than song or poetry. Tre Pezzi are for violin and piano; they are played together, as a three-movement work, whereas the other pieces are more or less randomly distributed around them (at the artists’ pleasure, of course), providing instrumental variety to these 27 minutes. But this variety may disrupt the accumulated effect of a Kurtág collection: a Mode CD has 24 Signs, Games, and Messages played by violist Maurizio Barbetti, and it is stunning—perhaps it is his magnificent performance, capturing every mood, every wry twist, that makes such a difference.

Koh and Wosner are superb in Bartók’s First Sonata. She expresses the full measure of the music without ever producing a single ugly or even awkward note; he is a powerhouse as well as a subtle presence. They do “milk the music” to its fullest intensity. It is astonishing that Koh’s elegant, liquid tones can be so assertive, matching Wosner at every step. There have been so many recordings of the Bartók sonatas, seemingly half of them by Gidon Kremer, often partnered, again, by Martha Argerich. Kremer takes a lighter view of the First Sonata than Koh—I am particularly partial to his 1972 Hungaroton recording with Yury Smirnov. Kremer’s playing has more edge than Koh, in two senses: He finds a special relish in the music, at the cost of some less than silky tones. I like the result, but listeners who prefer a purely beautiful violin should snap up this Cedille disc.

FANFARE: James H. North