Nicolas Altstaedt presents here his version of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s monumental Cello Concerto, originally composed for Yo-Yo Ma, and given its Finnish premiere by the Franco-German cellist under the composer’s direction. In partnership with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Dima Slobodeniouk, he reveals its full expressive dimension here: ‘The first movement opens with what, in my sketchbook, was called “Chaos to line”’, says Esa-Pekka Salonen. Chaos, a metaphorical comet, a rhythmic mantra with congas and bongos, a wild dance . . . Salonen goes on to say of the third movement: ‘I imagined the orchestra as some kind of gigantic lung, expanding and contracting first slowly, but accelerating to a point of mild hyperventilation which leads back to the dance-like material.’

The coupling is the famous ‘Duo Ravel’ (to give it the original title used at its premiere), which Nicolas Altstaedt and Pekka Kuusisto have been performing and refining ever since 2010, and which it was high time to record.

REVIEW:

After the “defining” opening of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto, the cello enters—soulful, almost tonal, and lyrical with long-lined modulations, as the orchestra holds the tonal-like center. In all three movements the orchestration reminds me of Ravel’s: delicate and transparent, whatever the size of the ensemble.

The second movement has a concave shape, with a strong cluttered opening from which the solo cello emerges, flowing to a mid-section dialogue with the alto flute, before bird-like twitters expand to a bed of seagull-like cries (are they string glissandos or electronic?) over growing strings and winds.

The music grows without a break into the kinetic, dance-like final movement. Salonen describes it as “lung music” that swells and exhales repeatedly, as light congas and bongos set the pace.

But what about the performers? I listened twice, and both times Altstaedt was so mesmerizing that I found it difficult to listen analytically. It’ll take more than a couple hearings for me to “own” the work, despite Altstaedt’s consuming magnetic draw. Slobodeniouk is his hand-in-glove partner. Each movement flows with integrity.

The exhilaration and esthetic pleasure Altsteadt and Kuusisto bring to Ravel's Duo Sonata as they respond is remarkable. The opening Allegro is flowing and lithe. In the tres vif scherzo, the duo grabs hold of the insane pulse; the “harmonic sound set” is somewhat like hearing The Rite of Spring for the first time...

Ravel had fears of the sonata “being assassinated by amateurs.” I’ve never heard it more alive than with Altsteadt-Kuusisto!

--Fanfare (Gil French)

A Gramophone Editor's Pick, shortlisted for the Gramophone Awards!

Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius, alongside Grieg the two giants in Nordic classical music, were both born in 1865. Both also received their first musical training on the violin, earning valuable insights when it came to writing for the instrument. Their respective violin concertos were composed some six years apart – Sibelius’ in 1904-05 and Nielsen’s in 1911 – and belong to the most performed works of either composer. They are nevertheless as different from each other as are the artistic temperaments of their makers. While retaining the traditional three-movement concerto form, Sibelius composed something closer to a Late-Romantic orchestral tone poem giving the orchestra unusual prominence. Nielsen on the other hand opted for an unconventional form, reminiscent of the Baroque concerto grosso: the spiky, neoclassical work is nominally in two movements, but with each movement having a slow and a fast section. These works are here performed by Johan Dalene, the Swedish-Norwegian winner of the 2019 Nielsen Competition. The present disc is the 21 year old violinist’s third release on BIS, following a recording of the Tchaikovsky Concerto described as ‘one of the finest violin débuts of the last decade’ in BBC Music Magazine, and an all-Nordic violin-and-piano recital awarded distinctions such as Diapason d’or and Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice. Dalene is given the expert support of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor John Storgårds, incidentally a violin soloist in his own right.

REVIEWS:

"Dalene returns to a work we already know he excels in, and this deeply intuitive, instinctive and empathetic recording again demonstrates his remarkable touch and feel, and the way he balances discipline and playfulness." -The Sunday Times

"For my money, there’s no finer coupling of these highly contrasting yet much-associated concertos on record. I suspect the individual performances could well prove superlative for many listeners, too." -Gramophone

During Albinoni’s lifetime (1671-1751) four separate collections of sonatas with violin were published under his name, though only the Trattenimenti armonici Op.6 were prepared by their composer. The works in Op.6 have accordingly dominated the record catalogues and obscured the virtues of the others, which Federico Guglielmo presents here with his customary flair and feeling for the Italian Baroque which has previously yielded the much-praised Brilliant Classics collection of Vivaldi’s Opp 1-12 (95200) as well as the Op.1 Trio Sonatas (94789) by Albinoni himself. In common with Venetian contemporaries such as the Marcellos, Albinoni observed the conventions of post-Corellian sonata form: four movements configured Slow–Fast–Slow–Fast, where the first pair is more formal (dignified) in character and the second pair more informal (expressive). However, in vocal and instrumental music alike, Albinoni’s style was highly individual, even slightly idiosyncratic: dignified, wary of technical or expressive excess and very attentive to the cantabile side of violin-playing. The sonatas here are drawn from the six Sonate da chiesa issued by the Amsterdam publisher Estienne Roger in 1707 or 1708; Roger’s later collection of five Sonate a violino solo composed for the virtuoso Pisendel and augmented by a sonata by a Giovanni Battista Tibaldi; and then the six Sonates da camera brought out in 1742 by the Parisian engraver and music publisher Louis Hue. Both dates and even authorship of some of these sonatas remains uncertain, but only the third of the Sonate a violino solo has been omitted from this new recording as authoritatively attributed to the German-born composer Nicolas Pepusch. This recording is thoroughly illuminated by a new booklet essay from Michael Talbot, pre-eminent scholar of music in 18th-century Venice, and demands the attention of all Baroque-music collectors.

Johann Sebastian Bach developed a new style, cembalo obbligato, where the right hand of the keyboard plays as a melody instrument and is given the same importance as the violin, flute or other solo instrument. His sonatas for melody instrument and keyboard instrument include works for flute, violin, and viola da gamba. It seems that the obbligato style interested him more than the traditional continuo role for the keyboard. As for the violin, there are two sonatas written with basso continuo and six with harpsichord obbligato. Among these works, the six sonatas in particular were conceived as a set, with a consistent style and a well-considered key distribution. This set is one of the highlights in the catalog of Bach’s chamber music. Bach’s son Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach writes to Bach’s first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, in 1774: “The 6 clavier [and violin] trios...are amongst the best works of my dearly beloved father. Even now they sound very good and give me many delights, regardless of the fact that they are over fifty years old.” The key distribution is somewhat symmetric and this suggests that Bach intended these as a set of pieces for violin, comparable to his unaccompanied sonatas and partitas for violin. Additionally, with the exception of Sonata No. 6, this set of works all follow the church sonata style.

This new release is a fully loaded album with a unique combo of violin concertos by Johannes Brahms and his contemporary friends, Amanda Maier and Julius Röntgen. Furthermore, the album includes a brand-new Brahms cadenza, written by award-winning Swedish composer, Mats Larsson Gothe. This is the first Swedish studio recording of Brahms’s concerto with one of Sweden’s foremost violinists, Cecilia Zilliacus, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, and renowned Estonian conductor, Kristiina Poska.

”Cecilia is extremely musical and living proof that it’s always possible to pursue unusual ideas” (The Strad, 2018). Over the years, audiences have embraced Zilliacus’ equally tantalizing and warm interpretations of everything from the great classical and Romantic works to contemporary chamber music and collaborations across genres – from the most prominent symphony orchestras, conductors, and composers in Europe to jazz musicians, folk musicians, singer songwriters, and others.

Two different traditions – Viennese Classicism and the Late Romantic virtuoso concerto – inevitably left their traces on George Enescu’s highly ambitious Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. Even though he left it unfinished, its total length of six hundred measures is by itself reason enough for astonishment. The first movement almost attains the dimensions of the Violin Concertos of Beethoven and Brahms. A striking formal interrelation is formed in the extended introduction: like Beethoven and Brahms, Enescu needs ninety measures before he is ready for the entry of the solo instrument. An instance of the greatest good fortune: our soloist Carolin Widmann! The »Allegro moderato« first movement alone employs three themes that are so engagingly formulated that they continue to echo in the ear even after a single hearing. In June 1898 Enescu composed his Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra, a work combining expressivity à la Brahms with bravura piano technique à la Liszt. The lack of a cadenza for the soloist and the wide-ranging harmony indicate that the work does in fact involve a fantasy and not, say, the first movement of an unfinished concerto. Neither the Fantasy nor the Violin Concerto has been published. But since today almost every Rumanian composer is also a musicologist and an Enescu expert, they were never completely forgotten. Pascal Bentoiu and Cornel Taranu assisted Peter Ruzicka, the conductor of the two recording premieres presented here, in the acquisition and supplementation of the scattered material. As a result, our picture of George Enescu, who continues to be a great unknown, is enriched by new facets – and the repertoire by two outstanding, previously unknown works.

The third of Jean-Marie Leclair’s four books of violin sonatas displays the qualities of exquisite Italianate lyricism and French dance idioms that made the earlier works such a stylistic triumph. However, the composer’s pervasive use of variation form in this book offers a new element, and the technical demands increase through continuous multiple-stopping, intricate figuration and the inclusion of rustic drones. Violinist Adrian Butterfield, who has been described by Gramophone ‘as technically and musically a marvel’ (Naxos 8.572866 / Violin Sonatas, Book 3, Nos.1–5and 8), is a leading exponent of Leclair’s music.

Goedicke’s ephemeral fame was almost completely eclipsed in the Soviet era. He was neither rebel enough to attract the attention of the Western intellectual world, nor ambitious enough to carve out a career within the regime’s apparatus. Having completed his conservatory studies, in 1900 he competed as both composer and pianist in the third Rubinstein Competition in Vienna, winning the composition prize with his Konzertstuck for piano and orchestra. Medtner, who also took part in the competition, recalls in his Memoirs that the prize for best pianist was given to the Belgian Emile Bosquet – whom he considered inferior to both himself and Goedicke – because the jury had developed a hostile attitude towards Russian pianists and did not want to bestow two prizes on Goedicke.

In fact, Goedicke won in the composers’ category with the Violin Sonata Op.10, as well. That Violin Sonata, composed in 1899 is dedicated to Jan Hriìmalyì, a Czech violinist and fellow-professor of Goedicke’s at the Moscow Conservatory. The sonata’s nickname, “Vesennjaja” (spring), is a clear reference to Rachmaninov’s song “Spring Waters” Op.14/11, which is quoted at the beginning of the first and the end of the final movement of Goedicke’s sonata. But even greater than the influence of Rachmaninov is that of German Romanticism. While Op.10 is a youthful work, the Violin Sonata Op.83, composed between 1948 and 1953, is a clear rebuttal of Tikhon Khrennikov’s notorious anti-formalist attacks from a composer shielded behind decades of academic tenure. The sonata reaches far into the past, even to early Beethoven, with a construction so formally impeccable as to seem almost provocatively anachronistic.

On the other hand, the 10 Pieces Op.80 are wholly different. Effectively combining pleasant melody and the evocation of childhood, they fit with dignity in a line stretching from Schumann’s to Tchaikovsky’s Albums for the Young, shedding light on Goedicke’s prolific didactic side.

REVIEW:

Italian violinist Francesco Parrino and pianist Michele Pentrella interpret the two violin sonatas as well as 10 pieces in world premiere recordings. The sonatas are lyrical-romantic and stand out for a very piano part that always stands out quite independently from the violin part. The 10 pieces are endearing miniatures that are easy to enjoy. Accurate interpretations make this CD and the little-known composer worth discovering.

-- Pizzicato

"The Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, Havanaise, the finale of the Concerto No.3, and the Romance op.48: these pieces composed between 1859 and 1887 are – justifiably – among the most celebrated works composed by Saint-Saëns. They are also signature pieces of the Korean violinist Jinjoo Cho, first prizewinner at the Montreal International Music Competition 2006, and Gold Medallist at the Julius Stulberg International String Competition 2005. She has long been under the spell of these sensual, refined musical works, and now presents them in this, her first recording collaboration with the Appassionato orchestra conducted by Mathieu Herzog."

Other than the piano, there were few instruments on which Chopin focused his attention, which makes this album featuring cellist Anne Gastinel something of a rarity – all the more so in the hands of this iconic French cellist and her partner Claire Désert, veterans of countless concerts and recordings over several decades. Their united voice – as always, remote from the chorus of the mundane and the media-fixated – is a subtle, inspired cantilena. For here it is all about the singing voice that Chopin declared to be his model, overtly influenced as he was by Italian bel canto opera. Gastinel savors every moment, not only with the sense of refinement she shares with the greatest singers, but with a palpable musical breathing, sensitively illuminated at the piano by Désert, an accompanist in the noblest sense.

The Liechtenstein pianist and composer Jürg Hanselmann is considered a profound expert on the piano and piano chamber music of his compatriot Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (1839-1901). He has already recorded his complete piano works and the two piano concertos. Together with Rainer Wolters on the violin, he now presents the two violin sonatas, which are complemented here by an original composition. Jürg Hanselmann received his first music lessons at the Liechtensteiner Music School in Vaduz. His earliest compositions date from this time. At the age of seventeen, he entered the Bern Conservatory, Switzerland and studied piano with Albert Schneeberger and Kristina Steinegger, also Harmony and Counterpoint with Erwin Hochuli. He received his Teaching Diploma in the spring of 1980 and in the following summer, the Soloist Diploma with Distinction. To further his pianistic studies, he went to London to study with the Hungarian pianist Louis Kentner and to Frankfurt with the Russian pianist Irina Edelstein. He also participated in Master Classes held by the Beaux Arts Trio and Mieczieslaw Horszowski. From 1983, he studied composition and analysis for several years with Sandor Veress. Through Veress, Jürg Hanselmann can trace a musical pedigree back to his countryman Rheinberger. Veress was a pupil of Kodaly who studied with Hans (Janos) Koessler. Koessler himself was a pupil of Rheinberger.

Recognized as one of the world’s leading viola players, Philip Dukes has enjoyed a career spanning over thirty years as an accomplished concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He joins forces with Peter Donohoe, acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for this extraordinary recording of works by Brahms and Schumann. As he writes in his booklet note, Phillip wanted to find a new approach to these works: ‘I wanted it to sound fresh and alive, almost as when I was looking at the scores for the first time all those years ago, but with the secret benefit of all that subsequent experience under my belt. So, I did just that. I purchased a new, excellent, well researched edition, I listened to all manner of different recordings (of the versions both for clarinet and for viola), and I devoted three months to the project, the culmination of which is what you will hear.’

The “Sei Suonate à Cembalo certato è Violino Solo”, as Bach’s six Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord (BWV 1014–1019) are entitled in the oldest surviving fair copy, are undoubtedly among those works which have set new standards in chamber music. They have long established themselves on the world’s concert platforms, and yet they still raise questions. There is no certainty about when or where the sonatas were written. Did Bach compose them when he moved to Leipzig? And did he deliberately plan them as a set of six? We cannot tell. Accordingly, Bach’s Violin Sonatas BWV 1014–1019 are not only unbelievably varied, they amount to a veritable treasure-chamber of musical forms and moods. Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel perceptively remarked in 1774 that the Sonatas sounded “very good even now, even though they are over 50 years old”, and in addition contained “some Adagii, which one could not set more songfully at the present day”. That “present day” was the world in which Emanuel Bach lived and worked, the world of the Enlightenment, the galant style and the “sentiment” of Empfindsamkeit. From such a perspective, as works in which the primacy of melody is constantly evident despite the narrow limits imposed by the writing for trio, the Violin Sonatas may be perceived as a bridge into our own times.

For this third and marvelous last volume of the complete sonatas for violin and piano by Ludwig van Beethoven, Andrew Wan and Charles Richard-Hamelin present the Sonata No. 4 in A Minor, Op. 23, the famous Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 ("Kreutzer"), and the Sonata No. 10 in G Major, Op. 96, characterized by it's refined instrumental textures, subtle nuances, and intimate mood. The first volume of this collection was named one of the best classical albums of 2018 by Radio-Canada. Wan received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Masao Kawasaki and Ron Copes. In 2008, he was the only violinist to be accepted into the prestigious Artist Diploma Program at Juilliard. He is currently on violin faculty at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, as well as the Orford Music Festival. Silver medalist and laureate of the Krystian Zimerman Prize at the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Canadian pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin is standing out today as one of the most important musicians of his generation. This is his ninth album.

Pondering the Baroque violin repertoire, one would be forgiven to think of Johann Sebastian Bach’s works and little else. Acclaimed English violinist Thomas Bowes courageously sets out to change this preconceived notion with TELEMANN FANTASIAS, a rare and remarkable full performance of all of Georg Philipp Telemann’s solo violin fantasias. Telemann is to violinists what Mozart is to keyboard players: deceptively simple on paper, notoriously difficult to master in actuality. Bowes, never a stranger to a challenging repertoire, expertly articulates the cheer, spirit, and zest of these pieces with a strikingly light-hearted panache, as if it could be no different. Indeed, upon listening to this rendition, it is easy to imagine a future in which public performances of Bach’s pious partitas are habitually rounded off by Telemann’s buoyant secular fantasias. For Bowes, this future is now.