Instrumental
CD and Other Review

Review: Italian Lute Virtuosi (Jakob Lindberg)

Jakob Lindberg has well and truly earned his reputation as one of the top lute players in the world. In this fine recital, he performs the music of Francesco da Milano, Marco dall’Aquila and Alberto da Mantova. In its heyday, the lute was the instrument of the greatest composers in the same way the piano was the instrument of choice in later centuries. These three Italian Renaissance lutenists were regarded as some of the finest musicians of the age (for example, da Milano was apparently nicknamed “Il Divino” and described as being “superior to Orpheus and Apollo”!). Although this is music of dense, criss-crossing contrapuntal lines, which makes it sound knotty and complex, in fact these pieces are ever-tuneful. In the liner notes, Lindberg divides the pieces into three categories – fantasias/ricecars (where the composer writes freely whatever he feels like), intabulations (re-workings of music originally for voices), and dances. Adept combining of pieces from each category ensures that there’s never a dull moment and that the pieces are shown in their best light, with ricecars rubbing shoulders with vocal music by Josquin and Arcadelt. BIS certainly knows… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already…

February 16, 2017
Instrumental
CD and Other Review

Review: Chopin: The Nocturnes (Nancy Tsou)

While not demanding technically, Chopin’s Nocturnes contain pianistic pitfalls. Some artists over-prettify them – easy to do when the melodic line is highly decorated – and they can seem fragile and precious. Australian-based pianist Nancy Tsou avoids these traps by taking most at a reasonably fast pace. The popular Op. 9 No 2 in E Flat provides a good example: it is lyrical and flowing, not (as it can be) interminable. In terms of dynamic shading and rubato, Tsou’s playing reveals a genuine personal connection to the composer’s spirit. The quasi-improvisational feeling and quiet inwardness are beautifully captured. Yet Chopin’s nocturnal world was not all contemplation and nightingales. In later pieces he brought much personal angst to the form. I feel Tsou understates the drama of the C Minor Nocturne, Op. 48 No 1 and elsewhere, possibly so as not to overinflate the music. Her dynamic range never ventures above mf, a marked contrast from Maurizio Pollini (DG, 2005). Some find Pollini too determinedly unsentimental, but I respond to the backbone he finds. Tsou’s incomplete but representative selection gives us just 13 of the Nocturnes. Her instrument is… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already…

February 10, 2017
Instrumental
CD and Other Review

Review: Mozart: Complete Piano Sonatas (Fazil Say)

Turkish pianist Fazıl Say is known for his virtuosic readings of core classical repertoire. He is also a composer and, in a tradition that has a long history in Western Classical music, incorporating folk influences from his native Turkey. Notoriously, Say was sentenced to a ten-month jail term in 2013 for making allegedly blasphemous comments on Twitter, a charge that was overturned by the Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals in 2015. Today, we find him signed to Warner Classics and turning his attention to the complete piano sonatas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with stunning results. The 18 sonatas and Fantasia in C Minor are grouped on six discs according to key, and were recorded in 2014 in the Great Hall of the Mozarteum Salzburg. For Say, Sonata No 14 in C Minor is the most momentous and a significant influence on Beethoven and Schubert. His playing is utterly assured, precise and crisp, with any potential for brittle timbre alleviated by the recording’s roomy warmth. Mozart’s music “requires us to assimilate it with our own bodies and beings… to live it and breathe it,” according to Say, who was striving for “a certain naturalness” throughout, and his… Continue reading Get unlimited…

February 10, 2017