Sunday 17 March 2024

Baiba Skride: Britten and Bartok

I have never been a fan of the music of Benjamin Britten, bar a few works. I have just listened to a recording of his double concerto for violin, viola and orchestra (completed from drafts). Except for a few passages in the second and third movements, it seems to me to be music written without passion. It was played (very well) in a recent recording by Baiba Skride, with Ivan Vukcevic (viola) and Marin Alsop conducting the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra. I have only one other recording of the work (Anthony Marwood and Lawrence Power, with Ilan Volkov conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra). Apart from the Bach D minor concerto for two violins, I don't think duo concertos work too well.

How different is Britten's one and only violin concerto, written in 1938-9 and frequently revised. I have many recordings of the piece on my shelves, including violinists such as James Ehnes, Julia Fischer, Augustin Hadelich, Janine Jansen, Simone Lamsma, Arabella Steinbacher, and Frank Peter Zimmermann (the latter with three different recordings). The concerto breathes passion, much like Shostakovich's first violin concerto of a few years later. The Britten concerto has come into its own only recently but, to my mind, it is a better piece of music than the ultra-popular concertos of Mendelssohn and Bruch (G minor).

The Latvian violinist Baiba Skride gives a magnificent performance of the violin concerto, with the same backing as with Britten's double concerto. She brings out all the dark passion of the violin concerto and is technically impeccable. Orchestra, balance and recording quality are all excellent. I recently praised the recording of the work by Kerson Leong. Skride is on the same level.

To complete my Baiba Skride listening, I heard Bartok's two Rhapsodies for violin and orchestra (WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln conducted by Eivind Aadland). Not bad, but not music I will return to often, like most of Bartok's music.


Wednesday 6 March 2024

Phillippe Graffin plays Eugène Ysaÿe

Put 100 randomly selected people in a room and ask them about the music of  Eugène Ysaÿe and one can almost guarantee total silence. Ysaÿe (1858-1931) was born in Liège in Belgium and was a wonderful violinist. Like Fritz Kreisler, he wrote extensively for the violin, with many well-loved morceaux for violin and piano. His is not great music, but it's for relaxed listening for those who love the violin and music for violin written by a violinist.

A recent CD from the French violinist Phillippe Graffin gives us two large-scale works for violin and orchestra, and three salon pieces for violin and piano. The Poème Concertant is labelled as a world premier recording. The E minor violin concerto has been pieced together from odds and ends of manuscript. In the orchestral works, the Liverpool Philharmonic plays valiantly, conducted by Jean-Jacques Kantorow.

It's a while since I last heard Philippe Graffin, but he is an excellent violinist and probably one of the very best choices possible for Eugène Ysaÿe's music. The music with orchestra is excellently crafted, but is an exercise in craftmanship rather than a product of emotion and imagination. As might be expected, the violin predominates; Fritz Kreisler was wise to have eschewed trying to compose large-scale works for violin and orchestra. For lovers of violin playing, however, even the concertante works are of interest though, on this CD, I particularly enjoyed the two mazurkas, plus the well-known Rêve d'enfant; the pianist in the three morceaux is Marisa Gupta. Recording quality and balance are excellent.


Monday 19 February 2024

Alena Baeva and Vadym Kholodenko

The latest new CD to hit my CD player features Alena Baeva, a violinist from Russia and the Moscow Conservatoire, and Vadym Kholodenko, a pianist from the Ukraine. Both are excellent musicians and form a good duo. They play Schubert's Fantaisie D.934, a lovely work of which I already have 19 other recordings. It's a wonderful work for the pianist who has the lion's share of the music, a little less so for the violinist who is often asked to assume the role of an obbligato instrument whilst the pianist has all the tunes. No matter: Baeva and Kholodenko give an excellent performance here.

They go on to play Stravinsky's Divertimento for violin and piano, arranged by Samuel Dushkin. Stravinsky's star has faded since the 1960s; at one time some critic called him "the greatest composer of the twentieth century", but those days have passed. His Divertimento is fine, but it's very much bread-and-butter music, designed to bolster Igor's finances. Baeva and partner give it their best go. Then come Schumann's four Märchenbilder. I revere Schumann for his Lieder, but otherwise he has rarely appealed to me. The Märchenbilder are no great shakes, and it's not surprising they feature little on programmes.

The final Fantasie in this programme so titled is one by Olivier Messiaen. I feared the worst, and my fears were doubly confirmed; the work is seven minutes of tuneless and theme-less note spinning, and why the artists elected to play it here, I cannot think. Maybe it was the only other work they could find with Fantaisie in its title. To be avoided by all lovers of music. The balance and recording of the CD are acceptable. When played via my Spendor loudspeakers -- that always emphasise the bass range -- the piano completely overwhelmed the violin for most of the time in the Schubert Fantaisie. Listened to it again via my Sennheiser wireless headphones, the balance was OK, with the bass less dominant.

Not, then, a "must-have" CD. Thinking of the Messiaen piece: why is it that a century that could boast composers such as Rachmaninov, Sibelius, Debussy, Ravel, Elgar, Britten, Stravinsky, Puccini, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and others, could produce pretty well nobody of note after around 1960? There are many composers of classical music post-1960, but few whose works are ever played more than once.


Friday 9 February 2024

Bennewitz String Quartet in Dvorak

Having greatly admired the playing and recording of the Bennewitz String Quartet playing Haydn quartets, I decided to invest in the quartet playing Dvorak (10th and 13th string quartets). As a great fan of string quartets, I could not understand why, in my giant collection of recordings, I had only one CD of Dvorak string quartets (recorded in 1984 by the Panocha Quartet). Antonin Dvorak wrote a lot of music, including numerous string quartets, sonatas, trios, symphonies -- and concertos for violin, piano, and cello (of which the cello concerto became famous). His Slavonic Dances are ubiquitous. To my taste, much of his reams of music speaks of a superb musical craftsman, rather than of someone inspired.

Like later Beethoven and Shostakovitch, Dvorak appears at times to have regarded his string quartets as a personal musical sandbox; many passages and harmonies of the 13th quartet, for example, lean more towards the harmonic language of the 20th century, rather than the 19th. The quartet was composed in 1896 -- just on the cusp. The sandbox was not for those who wanted "easy listening". The 10th quartet contains more memorable material; for me, the 13th quartet has its material spread thinly, with a little going a long way.

The Bennewitz Quartet does not disappoint. The quartet's dynamics are again excellent (as in its Haydn CD) and the recording of the Dvorak (SWR Music in Baden-Baden) faithfully reproduces the sound of the four players, though the recording perspective is not up to the high standard of the Czechs when they recorded the Haydn. I hope that the Bennewitz will record more Haydn, plus Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Shostakovitch. I am waiting, chequebook ready. It appears I am a big fan of the Bennewitz Quartet, but not of much of Dvorak's music. Now I have two CDs of Dvorak string quartets on my shelves: that is enough.


Tuesday 23 January 2024

Brahms and Mozart with Peter Csaba and Arthur Grumiaux

I have added two more violin recordings to my shelves, both sent by a good friend, and both featuring refurbished sound. Brahms three sonatas for violin and piano are played by Peter Csaba and Jean-François Heisser, recorded around twenty years ago and refurbished by Praga Digital. Mozart's five violin concertos were recorded by Arthur Grumiaux and Colin Davis with the LSO some sixty years ago, with the sound refurbished by Classical Music Reference Recording (CMRR). The sound in both Brahms and Mozart is thoroughly acceptable.

Peter Csaba confirms my admiration for the Czech school of violin playing, and the recording confirms my respect for the Czech recording companies (undoubtedly Supraphon). Csaba and Heisser are an admirable duo and do full justice to Brahms three works in lively interpretations that never drag the music out.

Arthur Grumiaux in Mozart is a natural, with his suave, elegant playing fitting Mozart like a glove. Colin Davis and the LSO give excellent support, with the original fine Philips sound coming over even better in the CMRR re-make. Good to have this evergreen classic recording given another sixty years of life.

Sadly, I find that Brahms is descending in my list of enjoyable composers. The more I immerse myself in the music of the 18th century, the more I appreciate clean lines and textures and the muted nature of any Sturm und Drang. I've never really loved Brahms' four symphonies, and I was dismayed to discover my lack of appreciation in his chamber music such as the three violin and piano sonatas. Just too much Schokolade mit Sahne for my taste. Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann just seemed to love thick textures.

Saturday 2 December 2023

Bach's Goldberg Variation, with Vikingur Olafsson

Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, are a manifestation of Bach's greatness as a composer. Along with works such as the Mass in B minor, the Goldbergs show Bach to be at the pinnacle of classical music composition. Lasting well over an hour, the work demands extreme virtuosity and keyboard dexterity, as well as the player's ability to hold the listener's attention for a long stretch of time.

Vikingur Olafsson has keyboard dexterity in spades. He also appears to have a real empathy with the keyboard music of the 18th century, and with the music of Bach. I have fourteen versions of the Goldbergs on my shelves, but Olafsson's is now my absolute favourite. His recording of the work lasts for 73 minutes; the recording by Beatrice Rana -- that I also greatly admire -- takes nearly 78 minutes. This is an indication that Olafsson takes the many fast, virtuosic variations at a very fast tempo indeed. One almost suspects recording technology trickery in places; surely eight fingers and two thumbs can't do all that at the same time? However, it's exhilarating to explore this work with Olafsson and his eight fingers and two thumbs. At times, he appears almost to be improvising rather than working to a set blueprint.

The DG recording is admirable, with an interesting essay by Olafsson on the work. Only black mark from me comes from DG's pretence that it is recording a pop artist, and plastering Olafsson's photo in every conceivable place. No picture of J.S.Bach, however.


Wednesday 29 November 2023

Record(s) of the Year

This is the time of the year when I contemplate choosing my Record of the Year. A problem this year: there are just too many excellent candidates, and I do not want to have one of those competitions where everyone gets a prize, for something or other. So let me choose just three new recordings I have heard this year, and put them on the pedestal -- as equals.

First up is the Bennewitz String Quartet playing three highly-enjoyable Haydn quartets. Wonderful playing in the great tradition of Czech string playing, with a demonstration-class recorded sound and balance from Supraphon, including the first violin; all important in Haydn's quartets. It should be mandatory for all string quartet recordings to be made by the Supraphon team. The Bennewitz gets its place on the pedestal due to all-round excellence.

Second up is Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic in two of my favourite Shostakovich symphonies: numbers eight, and ten. Much-loved works, extremely well recorded and balanced by the Berlin Concert Hall team. Excellent playing, and conducted by someone who knows and loves the symphonies.

Third up is Marie Cantagrill, a completely unknown violinist (unknown to me) who plays the six Bach unaccompanied partitas and sonatas impeccably in interpretations that sound almost as if she is improvising the music. Ms Cantagrill also has a recording of the Brahms sonatas for violin and piano that are equally impressive; but I have to limit my places on the podium.

I am awaiting Bach's Goldberg Variations played by Vikingur Olafsson. But consideration of that will have to wait until 2024's selection.


Wednesday 4 October 2023

More Mozart from Renaud Capuçon

Renaud Capuçon and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra have released an attractive set of Mozart's music for solo violin and orchestra, recorded in 2022. An elegant set of the young Mozart's five concertos. Solo violin and orchestra are integrated and reasonably well-balanced. Renaud Capuçon's slender, elegant sound is arguably right for this kind of music; young Mozart does not need a mega international soloist showing off in what is, basically, enhanced chamber music. On my equipment, I found Capuçon's violin often sounding somewhat thin in the upper reaches.

I enjoyed much of Capuçon's playing; I admired the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. I liked the well-balanced recording. An achievement in this somewhat over-familiar music. I used to play the solo part of the last three concertos, and I must have over 30 different recordings of each concerto on my shelves. No matter; if you want Mozart's complete music for violin and chamber orchestra, this set is a good addition, even going back seventy-odd years to Arthur Grumiaux and colleagues.

However, given the ferocious competition, these are just one of a large number of competing performances; my shelves hold 39 different recordings of the A major concerto K. 219 alone. For each individual concerto, I suspect I could delve into my collection and find performances more to my taste. Tempi are on the brisk side, and I often wish the musicians would relax a little and simply enjoy the music. The first movement of the D major concerto K. 218, for example, comes across as somewhat brusque, and the following slow movement could do with a more relaxed tempo. Sometimes one feels that "historical correctness" is getting in the way of the performances.

The many cadenzas are in good taste, but there are far too many of them for my taste. I know cadenzas are historically correct, but I prefer them to be short and confined to the first movement, as became traditional after the 18th century. Cadenzas in slow movements, such as the lovely slow movement of the G major concerto, find me scowling, however tasteful the interlude may be. There are appropriate times for the soloist to show off a little, but the end of a lovely slow movement is not the right moment (to my opinionated ears).

Also included in the set are two Mozart short works (that used to be favourites of Nathan Milstein): the Rondo in C Major K.373, and the Adagio in E major K.261. Well played and welcome additions. Young Wolfgang Amadeus certainly knew how to write attractive music.


Saturday 23 September 2023

Haydn, Bennewitz String Quartet, and Supraphon

Haydn's string quartets are not music to stir the soul. Nor do they tear at the emotions like much of the music of Mahler or Shostakovich. They are just music to listen to with enjoyment. I have been listening (with enjoyment) to the G major (Op 17 no.5), E flat major (Op 33 no.2) and C major (Op 54 no.2) string quartets in a new recording on Supraphon by the Bennewitz String Quartet, recorded during the past couple of years. I am an admirer of the string playing tradition of the Czechs, often heard at its finest in chamber music. The Bennewitz Quartet does not let the side down; this is warm, affectionate playing. For me: Haydn as he should be played, with no exaggerated dynamics such as one gets with quartets such as the Hagen Quartett.

When listening to recordings of chamber music, I often despair of my loudspeakers, where the bass part booms and the violins sound thin, scrawny, and distant. Not so here; the Supraphon recording and balance are demonstration class for string quartet recordings, and the sound reproduces beautifully on my Spendor speakers, avoiding the need for my wireless headphones. Supraphon could give lessons to the sound contractors of music conglomerates such as Universal, or Warner, where one gets the impression that the contractor records a rock group on Monday, a string trio on Tuesday, a folk singer with back-up on Wednesday, and a violin and piano duet on Thursday. Recording classical music demands a recording team that understands balance, and understands acoustic space, and classical music. Haydn's music is wonderful here. The Bennewitz String Quartet is wonderful here. And Supraphon completes the trio for a really successful CD. It will go in my "keep near at hand" rack.


Saturday 16 September 2023

Violin & Piano Classics

Many years ago, I compiled a collection of "A personal and subjective selection of great violin playing 1926-98". The collection comprised 46 short works for violin and piano ("salon or encore pieces"). Such works are now rarely found in concerts, and even broadcasts and recordings favour more "weighty" works for violin and piano. A shame, since there is much really memorable music in these short pieces.

It was so good to listen again to so many favourite recordings: Kreisler in Mendelssohn's "May Breeze" (1926). Dinicu playing his "Hora Staccato" (1928). Bustabo in Paganini's 5th capriccio (1935). Hassid in Sarasate's "Playera" (1940). Elman in Dvorak's "Slavonic Fantasy" (1947). Roby Lakatos in "Ochi Chornyje" (1998). Elman in Espéjo's "Airs Tziganes" (1948). Seidel and Korngold in Korngold's "Gartenszene" (1941). Eudice Shapiro in Ravel's "Kaddish" (1956). Ricci in "Recuerdos de l'Alhambra" (1978).Taschner in Sarasate's "Zigeunerweisen" (1944). Enescu in a Largo by Pugnani (1929). Seidel in Brahms' first Hungarian Dance (1938). Rabin in Scriabin's "Étude in Thirds" (1959). Menuhin in Rimsky-Korsakov's "Song of the Bride" (1930). And so on, for piece after piece. A veritable cornucopia of enjoyable music. Interesting, also, to note how individual most of the playing came over, with an almost immediate identification of the violinist concerned. Play the pieces above with even the best of modern violinists, one would need notes to identify who was playing what. In the old days, vibrato was individual. Tempi were individual. Rubato was individual. Bowing was individual. Violin teachers have ironed out all these idiosyncrasies so that all violinists now play beautifully and accurately in exactly the same manner.


Thursday 31 August 2023

Mozart, with Renaud Capuçon and Kit Armstrong

Many major composers such as Wagner, Bruckner, and Mahler did not bother much about chamber music. When I was growing up, Mozart was mainly about his 41 symphonies, his concertos, and his operas. I have now realised that much of his genius is to be found in his vast library of chamber music. I have been sampling nine of his many sonatas for violin and piano and am considerably impressed with the quality of the music in these works. One marvels at the sheer inventiveness of the composer; music positively dripped from his fingers, whatever he wrote. Hardly any trace of routine, or composing by numbers.

Renaud Capuçon is turning out to be the 21st century's equivalent of Arthur Grumiaux in the 20th. He has long been one of my favourite modern violinists, especially in the classical music of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. He does not disappoint in these nine Mozart sonatas; he also appears to have a knack of picking excellent pianist partners: David Fray in Bach, Frank Braley in Beethoven, and Kit Armstrong in Mozart. I had never come across the Chinese-American pianist Kit Armstrong before, but he impresses greatly as Capuçon's partner in these Mozart sonatas. The sonatas are properly titled "piano and violin", since the piano has the dominant role in all of them. Armstrong and Capuçon play the works in a grand,18th century classical manner, with excellent rhythms. For a change, the recording engineers in Berlin in 2022 understand the balance between piano and violin and mainly get it right, something that does not always happen when a violin is pitched against a piano with the latter's superior dynamic range.

The DG-label set is highly recommended for the music, the playing, and the recording. Not too often all things go right. In the current phase of my musical life, I incline strongly towards chamber music, and to the music of the 18th century. For much of my life, Mozart was usually regarded by me as a precursor to the "great" 19th century composers. Sometimes, old age brings a more realistic evaluation. The music of Mozart will outlast me -- and any 21st century composers -- for more than the next millennium.


Monday 7 August 2023

Shostakovich Ninth and Tenth, with Kirill Petrenko

I have always loved the music of Dmitri Shostakovich. His music is 100% Russian, and could not come from anywhere else. Shostakovich, in his orchestral works, uses the full orchestra, from double basses, to piccolos. Much of the tenth symphony, to which I have just been listening, is loud; much is almost chamber music. I have given up trying to follow the music's structure, and just sit back and enjoy, and be entertained.

Today's traversal was with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Kirill Petrenko. A magnificent performance, with the orchestra sounding almost like real Russians, rather than Germans. The Berlin Digital Concert Hall recording is little short of miraculous; balancing the various parts of a large symphony orchestra where many individual instruments make solo contributions, is no joke. But the Germans have always been good at recording classical music, and its best sound engineers come from a long tradition. Listening through high-quality headphones is almost a must for enjoying the wide-ranging sound and extreme dynamics. Anyway: hats off all round. Along with the eighth symphony, the tenth is one of my favourites. Although in the current era most of my listening is to music of the 18th century, or chamber music and instrumental music; I always make an exception for Shostakovich. I have seven recordings of the tenth symphony, only two of which have gained my personal three stars: Vassily Petrenko with the Liverpool Philharmonic, and Kirill Petrenko (no relation) with the Berlin Philharmonic. I suspect Berlin trumps Liverpool with its superior recorded sound, though Liverpool is available on Naxos, whereas Berlin is hard to get hold of.

Written in 1945, Shostakovich's ninth symphony is in a popular mood; the music at times reminds me of Haydn, or Igor Stravinsky. Coming between the weighty and more complex eighth and tenth symphonies, it has a similar role to Beethoven's "Pastoral" symphony between his fifth and seventh. In the recording with Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin woodwind really shines. Not my favourite Shostakovich symphony, but well played and well recorded, like the eighth and tenth from the same forces.


Friday 28 July 2023

Marie Cantagrill and Fumiyo Goshima in Brahms

When it comes to recordings of violin and piano music, I am rarely satisfied. So it gives me great pleasure to welcome an excellent recording of Brahms three sonatas for violin and piano where the recorded balance between violin and piano is exemplary. Congratulations to the recording engineers (for a change). The violinist is Marie Cantagrill, and the pianist Fumiyo Goshima. No complaint about the pianist, and my admiration for Ms.Cantagrill is readily apparent. I listened over my Sennheiser wireless headphones and was blissfully happy. As usual, Ms. Cantagrill's violin makes a lovely sound, particularly in the lower registers. Her double stopping is exhibition quality, and I love the way she varies the dynamics, from ff to pp.

Op 78.1st movement (vivace ma non troppo) is taken at a more deliberate tempo than is usually heard. The 2nd movement (adagio) is a true adagio. The 3rd movement (allegro molto moderato) sounds just the right tempo, to me.

Op 100. Is this Ms. Cantagrill's least favourite of the three Brahms violin and piano sonatas? It certainly is my least favourite; the music never really settles down and has no real peaks or troughs. The performance here is excellent, of course, but some enthusiasm is missing in the playing, methinks. But I cannot think of a better recorded performance than here. Probably all my fault that I always find this sonata a little unsatisfying.

Op 108. Nice performance. The usual attributes: superb recorded balance, top-class playing, excellent dynamics, well-chosen tempi. The adagio is a true adagio, the presto agitato a true presto agitato. The adagio provides an excellent spot to sample the wonderful sound and playing of Ms. Cantagrill. In this sonata, as throughout all three, the duo playing is excellent, with both musicians listening to, and responding to, each other.

To sum up: a really satisfying performance of the three Brahms sonatas for violin and piano. The performances reinforce my doubts about always going to highly promoted and lauded international musicians on international labels. Ms.Cantagrill is only really available via YouTube or Spotify, I gather. All praise to those media for giving us access to musicians we would not normally know about.


Sunday 23 July 2023

Marie Cantagrill

Marie Cantagrill is an unusual artist. Born in 1979, she earlier won international prizes and studied in Paris and Brussels. She appears to eschew international travel, prestigious artist agencies, mainstream recording studios, and recording labels. She is based in the Ariège region of France, a mainly rural region in south-west France between Toulouse and the Pyrenees. The various recordings of her playing originate from the same region. "A local girl". But she is also a top-class violinist, with an impeccable technique and very remarkable musicianship. Not everyone wants to be a top international touring soloist; good for her. She plays on a violin made by Bernardus Calcanius, in 1748; hardly a name as well-known as Stradivari, Amati, Vuillaume, or Guarneri. But her violin makes a lovely sound. My guess is that her life is a lot happier and more satisfying than that of most super-stellar touring violinists.

A friend sent me recordings of her playing, made by a local company in south-west France. Recording dates unknown. I started listening with interest, and finished with great enthusiasm. I append to this entry a list of violinists on my shelves playing Bach's six unaccompanied sonatas and partitas for solo violin. Suffice it to say that, for me, no one is better than Marie Cantagrill in this music. There is an internal pattern and logic to much of Bach's music that you can only really appreciate when you play it. No amount of studying the score, or consulting musicologists, will tell you definitely how to phrase it, at what tempo, and how it should sound. Ms Cantagrill appears not to be obsessed with the score in order to try to divine Bach's wishes; nor does she appear to have consulted eminent musicologists in order to learn how the works may have been played in Bach's time. She simply puts her violin under her chin and plays the music as she feels it. Slower movements are sometimes very slow; fast movements are sometimes very fast. The dance movements really dance, and the Chaconne of the second partita, taken at a welcome deliberate speed, reveals Ms Cantagrill's incredible double-stopping. Throughout, we wonder at her incredible playing in pianissimo passages. Holding listeners' interest with a solo violin requires a wide repertoire of dynamics, and different bowings. We get all of that with Ms Cantagrill.

There are very, very few minor fluffs in the playing; much as you would get in a live performance of challenging music lasting nearly two hours. My guess is that the local recording studio did not do twelve takes of the same track, as many studios would have done. No wonder Ms. Cantagrill's playing sounds so spontaneous and almost improvised at times. The files came to me from a friend; the recordings are out there somewhere on the web, but may be difficult to find easily. No matter: finding them is a real joy (and an eye-opener as to the playing of "non-celebrities"). As a dessert, I have just received from the same source Ms Cantagrill's recordings of the three sonatas for violin and piano by Brahms. More on that in a future blog entry.


Comparison - the Six Works


Barati, Kristof. 2009

Cantagrill, Marie. [2020]

Enescu, George, 1948

Faust, Isabelle. 2011

Feng, Ning. 2016

Fulkerson, Gregory. 2007

Grumiaux, Arthur, 1960

Hadelich, Augustin. 2020

Heifetz, Jascha, 1952

Ibragimova, Alina. 2008

Kavakos, Leonidas 2020

Milstein, Nathan, 1973

Schayegh, Leila 2020

Shumsky, Oscar. 1978

St. John, Lara, 2007

Suwanai, Akiko. 2021

Suk, Josef. 1970

Tetzlaff, Christian. 1993

Weithaas, Antje. 2012-17


Tuesday 11 July 2023

Fernando Palatin

"Auch kleine Dinge können uns entzücken.

Auch kleine Dinge können teuer sein."

Italienisches Liederbuch (Hugo Wolf)


For my coming birthday, a kind friend sent me a CD of violin and piano pieces by Fernando Palatin. Palatin -- of whom I had never heard in my entire life -- was born in Seville in 1852, and died in 1927. He was a touring virtuoso whose music is of the same genre as that of his compatriot, Pablo de Sarasate, and of Fritz Kreisler. Of the 14 pieces for violin & piano, most are not overtly "Spanish", nor overtly virtuosic, and will appeal to lovers of the short violin pieces by Kreisler and Sarasate, though the style is further west than Kreisler's Austro-German accent. The CD was recorded in 2020 by Rafael Munoz-Torrero (violin) and Julio Moguer (piano). The violinist, like Palatin, is from Seville. I had never heard of Munoz-Torrero either, but he plays elegantly and has an enchanting manner with the music. Franco-Spanish in playing style, rather than German or Russian.

Since everyone concerned (apart from Georges Bizet) is from Seville, we get a Carmen Fantasia. Palatin's is at least as good as Sarasate's, and infinitely better than that of showy Franz Waxman in Hollywood. Those with the facility, may want to use "shuffle play" to avoid always playing the fourteen pieces in the same order. I love especially the first piece: Adios al Alcázar. The piano parts are intelligent and interesting, and the recording well-balanced. This is a CD to listen to, sit back, and enjoy. Why have we never met composer nor violinist before?


Sunday 2 July 2023

Shostakovich's 8th Symphony

Dimitri Dimitriyevich Shostakovich was born in 1906, and died in 1975. After his death, I say goodbye to music composed after him, crowning around 300 years of music that outlives all fashions. I can think of nothing composed after Shostakovich that appears again and again on concert or recital programmes, though there is an abundance of "new music" that appears once or twice, then vanishes. I have just been listening to Shostakovich's 8th Symphony, a work with many very noisy episodes and full of the composer's constant paranoia. It is important to get the volume right when listening to a recording; the works ends pianissimo. If the volume is set too low, you won't hear it. If the volume is set higher, the very loud passages will blow you out of your chair.

Shostakovich always speaks to me, unlike Harrison Birtwistle and a host of others.

I listened to the work this morning in a Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall recording, with the BPO conducted by Kirill Petrenko. Wonderfully played, and with a demonstration-class recording (the 8th symphony needs both). I don't know much about Kirill Petrenko who, unlike many others of his ilk, appears to keep a low profile and just gets on conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, with occasional guest appearances elsewhere. But he and the orchestra take to Shostakovich like ducks to water; fortunately, since I have the 9th and 10th symphonies from the same source lined up on the listening ramp, completing my cannon of the three Shostakovich symphonies I most enjoy.


Thursday 29 June 2023

Handel Duets with Rosemary Joshua and Sarah Connolly

Serendipity saw me pluck an old (2009) Handel recording from my shelves, with Rosemary Joshua (soprano) and Sarah Connolly (mezzo) regaling me with twelve Handel duets (Harry Bicket and The English Concert). 62 minutes of delightful music.

Handel's music always puts me in a good mood. Remarkably, from his very early 20s in Italy until his death in England at the ripe old age (for that time) of 74, there is little difference in the quality of the music. Handel's music is "pure", unaffected by personal moods or circumstances; personal ingredients were to come later, starting with Mozart. And what an incredible gift for melodies!

Having the duets sung by a soprano and mezzo is much to my taste, and worth 20 counter-tenors and castrati. Sometimes one strikes lucky with serendipitous selections although, for me, Georg Frideric Händel never fails. An interesting and much-travelled man who spoke German, English, French and Italian, he was someone I would have loved to have met in his Brook Street house in London. After 250 years, his music lives on giving immense pleasure. All twelve duets taken from his operas and oratorios on this CD are 24 carats.

Sunday 18 June 2023

Kerson Leong in Britten and Bruch

Like Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Elgar --and many others -- Benjamin Britten wrote only one violin concerto, a youthful work dating from the years 1938-9. The concerto was revised subsequently but never really took off until the past twenty years or so when it has been "discovered" by a new generation of violinists and listeners. It is a mournful work, written in the shadow of the Spanish Civil War. For many violinists of that generation, Heifetz's advocacy of the concerto by William Walton was more persuasive. Britten's work's first recording was not until 1948 (Theo Olof, playing the original version of the work; interestingly, Olof's compatriot, Simone Lamsma, also played the original version in 2018 -- off-air recording).

The concerto is highly virtuosic. I currently have eighteen recordings, all but a handful dating from the past twenty years or so. The latest comes on a CD (recorded 2021) with Kerson Leong as the soloist (with the Philharmonia conducted by Patrick Hahn). I had never heard, or heard of, Leong before, but am highly impressed by his playing of the Britten. As well as being virtuosic, the concerto demands a wide variety of moods and dynamics from the soloist. Leong copes admirably on all fronts. The recording captures the full range of the orchestra and the violinist, though perhaps the violin is recorded just a little too forward. No matter; an excellent performance and recording of a work that, at last, appears to be taking its place within the standard repertoire (viz also the first Shostakovich violin concerto with which Britten's has a lot in common). A shame Britten wrote only one violin concerto (his Opus 15). He is not a composer to whom I often relate, but his violin concerto is an exception.

I thought I knew every piece of music ever written for the violin, but Max Bruch's In Memoriam Op 65 for violin and orchestra is an exception: never heard of it before. It now features on Leong's CD and thus enters my repertoire of known works. An adagio that falls between two stools: too short to be a concert item (cf. Saint-Saën's Havanaise). Too long at just under 15 minutes to be an encore. It is technically undemanding, and I suspect that some years ago I could have played it with ease. Leong has no competition and I can make no comparisons, but he appears to play the piece admirably. Like much of Max Bruch's enormous output, the music is somewhat bland; workman-like, rather than inspired.

Max Bruch's main claim to fame has always been his first violin concerto, in G minor opus 26. This is also on Leong's Alpha CD. One of those works -- like Beethoven's 5th symphony -- that I always feel I have by now heard once too often. Leong gives a warm, romantic performance of the concerto; his violin makes a lovely sound (a sound and style that made me think of the violinist Nai-Yuan Hu) and I greatly enjoyed his playing. Yet another modern violinist to be reckoned with. A slight regret that he did not choose a less hackneyed concerto to add to the Britten; the Glazunov concerto, or those by Goldmark, or Julius Conus?