Any good new recording of The Four Seasons should always be welcomed. This one by Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra is more than good: it’s outstanding. Listening to these dramatic, historically-informed performances, one is immediately struck by how Vivaldi’s prefatory sonnets and musical sound-painting can become not mere evocations of natural phenomena but starting points for deliberate, and far more exciting, abstractions which find their loci in pure emotion. Especially to be welcomed is Hope’s fluent, abundant decoration of the melodic line, particularly in the slower movements, which is echoed by the marvellously imaginative continuo section’s own elaborations. Offering a bracing new take on a classic is one thing; providing a new context for it is something else. And that something else may well be what ultimately attracts you. There have been myriad responses from various composers to Vivaldi’s original, such as Kalman Cseki’s Alpha, Apocalypse and Armageddon and Oliver Davis’ settings of Vivaldi’s sonnets, Anno and Anno Epilogue. Here we have something different: a pre-existing or newly-composed work assigned to each month of the year, with accompanying artwork – paintings or drawings – that is beautifully reproduced in the recording’s booklet along with… Continue reading Get unlimited…

Perhaps undervalued outside the UK, Colin Matthews holds an important position as a composer and pedagogue at home and this excellent disc on NMC, the label devoted to British composition that he launched, provides a triptych of beautifully constructed works composed between 1998 and 2010. A musical amenuensis of sorts to the Britten estate, Matthews has continued to create within a modernist framework works of a grave yet touching beauty which bring togeher French harmonies with a soundworld somewhat similar to that of the late Hans Werner Henze. And such is the depth of ideas encountered here, that with these three works, we have a perfect introduction to this composer as well as a means of celebrating his 70th birthday. All three works are commissions for important musicians and orchestras  – the Cello Concerto for Rostropovich, the Violin Concerto is heard in a BBC broadcast from the Proms, whilst Cortege is taken up by the Concertgebouw and Riccardo Chailly. Of the three works encountered here, it is the two movement Violin Concerto, which is also the finest and the most most virtuosic. Cortege is similarly of darkened textures and colours though not necessarily funereal in nature. Whilst… Continue reading Get…

I must confess to being “conflicted“ about this admittedly fine CD from Chandos – conflicted because, while marketing is not essentially part of my remit, I can’t help but wonder who actually buys this sort of repertoire. Like virtually everything Chandos produces, the sound, content, playing, conducting, presentation and liner notes are excellent but, nevertheless, is there a limit to how many CDs of mainly music by relatively obscure composers the market can absorb? It’s certainly not meant to belittle Rumon Gamba and his fine band. That said, this release could be called Ecstatic Solitude or Fifty Shades of Home Counties Pastoral Reveries. All the scores are lovely, tonal and mostly gentle and come into the highest category of 20th-century music for people who think they don’t like 20th-century music. All the more admirable as some was composed long after Schoenberg’s launch into atonality and The Rite of Spring. My favourite moments were, in no particular order, Frederic Austin’s Spring in its entirety, the Elgarian nobilmente march in the tragic Ivor Gurney’s A Gloucester Rhapsody (yes, I know Gloucestershire isn’t, strictly speaking, in the Home Counties) and the dramatic passages in the splendidly named Sir Granville Bantock’s The Witch of…

I was bemused to read, when perusing the publicity, that the three works here had been “curated”. I thought “curate” described an exhibition of objects (usually art works) which had been lent or borrowed from various sources. It’s stretching things to say three mainstream works performed in rapid succession in a loosely structured series have been curated! That said, these two CDs showcase the level David Robertson has brought the Sydney Symphony to during his tenure as Chief Conductor. The only problem with the complete Firebird ballet is that the first half, with its shimmering (and the SSO certainly knows how to shimmer – beautifully) textures seems to last forever: I found myself longing for something to happen amid all the colour and movement of the more familiar suites, which, when they finally arrived, were worth waiting for. Petrushka is probably the best prospect for “tunes”. Here, Robertson went for loud primary Kandinsky-like colours and textures, but also captured the sinister overtones of the sadistic Moor. The Rite of Spring was a real savage, not a “pet” one, to coin Stravinsky’s own rebarbative description of Karajan’s version of the work. (He also described his Dance of the… Continue reading Get…

It’s unusual to find an A-list conductor like Riccardo Chailly recording such (generally)  obscure music on an equally A-list label. Good for him! A few years ago he recorded a CD of some of Verdi’s non-operatic obscurities and this release co-incides with his arrival at La Scala, where 11 of these works were premiered. I didn’t find any neglected gems, but there are no duds either and the La Scala orchestra is wonderfully idiomatic in this fare. The programme is well arranged, with plenty of contrast between succeeding tracks and serves to demonstrate the development of the overture throughout the 19th century and on into the 20th. The earliest work here is Rossini’s Overture to La Pietra del Paragone (1812) (aka the overture to Tancredi) which illustrates the then typical slow introduction followed by a rowdy allegro, which was succeeded by examples like Verdi’s Overture to Il Finto Stanislao (1840) – still a real romp – and Bellini’s more famous Norma (1831), both of which could be termed  typical “medley” overtures, offering snatches of themes from the operas ahead. Chailly and his orchestra are especially impressive in the Norma. (They’re also alive to every nuance in… Continue reading Get unlimited…

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