Fierce fiddling, and a lovely neo-romantic blend.

Sauvageot’s Grand Ensemble: Dialogue Between an Apartment Building and a Symphony Orchestra performed in Paris. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

DG continues to releases live recordings of Grigory Sokolov. His mastery is unquestionable but he is famously enigmatic. He refuses all interviews, will not record in a studio, and as of 2005 stopped performing with orchestras. The Mozart concerto comes from January of that year. Was it the straw that broke the pianist’s back? The legend of the reclusive artist is rejected by many but not by DG, who enclose a documentary entitled Grigory Sokolov: A Conversation That Never Was. In it, friends and colleagues praise Sokolov extravagantly, although he himself is absent. One viewing suffices. Despite Pinnock at the helm, the Mozart is given an old-school reading. Poetry abounds in the first movement, while the Adagio builds to a climax of cinematic proportions. Sokolov expends more energy in the finale than other pianists do in Brahms. He is more suited to the Rachmaninov, where his innate mastery of the music’s ebb and flow is on the highest level. As in his solo recitals he is fond of extremes. He thunders through the cadenza of the first movement (a passage where I feel less is usually more), but the section immediately following is beautifully delicate. As a live recording (from…

These recordings are not without poetry – it’s just that there’s not enough of it.

In 1761, at the age of 29, Haydn joined the household of the Esterházy family as Vice-Kapellmeister and set to work proving his worth by writing the three symphonies we know as Le Matin, Le Midi and Le Soir; his only true cycle and the most programmatic of his symphonies. The idea for illustrating the times of the day was suggested by Prince Paul Anton but the only truly explicit passages are the sunrise opening of Le Matin and the storm of the conclusion to Le Soir – the flute’s forked-lightning motif Haydn would re-use some 40 years later in The Seasons. The cycle harks back to the concerto grosso style with concertante intrumentation displaying the individual talents of his front-desk players to win over his new workmates – everybody gets a turn in the spotlight, even the double-bass during the trios; that of Le Matin hints at Stravinsky’s Pulcinella. Seven years later on the death of his superior, Haydn assumed the full position as Kapellmeister so took on responsibilities for writing church music while churning out reams of chamber music including numerous baryton trios for the voracious musical appetite of Prince Nikolaus. Despite the workload, Haydn produced… Continue reading…

In turbulent times, says the violinist touring Australia, compassion becomes the stock in trade of composers and musicians. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Glittering, honeyed sound and impressive coherence from Verbitsky and WASO.

A compact concert bursting with fine chamber playing.

Missing in Action no more: Albion Records restores a fistful of revelatory scores by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Seven great maestros choose their favourite underrated composers, plus interviews with Simone Young, Piers Lane and more. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Bouncy, characterful Mozart from Melvyn Tan and AHE.

Two mature works superbly realised by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.