David Berlin and Len Vorster deliver the music superbly, with dazzling playing of the highest order. Along with Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber was the composer who did the most to secure the place of American composition during the middle of the 20th century. His award-winning Cello Sonata is a compelling work in which his musical ideas are strong and well presented. The effective contrast with Bloch’s From Jewish Life (1924) is dramatic. This is Jewish music par excellence, and its distinctive character, the voice of the cantor, resonates throughout the work. In Suite populaire espagnole by Manuel de Falla, we have another strong contrast with the other works. After the troubled voice of Bloch’s cantor, the sunny, invigorating music of Spain is dramatic. The six sections of the work run the gamut of the composer’s accessible style. Staying in Spain, Madrigal (1915) by Enrique Granados, has… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
July 7, 2011
Under the baton of Graham Abbott, one of our greatest Handelians, this tired old coupling gleams anew. Ideally sized for this repertoire, the 47-piece Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra plays on modern instruments but with the textural clarity of Baroque-styled phrasing and performing practices. Bright strings and well-balanced brass and winds bring commanding flamboyance to La Réjouissance in Fireworks with rhythmic drive maintaining interest. The refined, springy quality of the menuets and other regal dance forms highlight the contrasts between delicate winds and fuller orchestral sections with timpani. In the F Major Water Music suite the ear is drawn to the lively horn ornamentation, while the D Major hornpipe’s impressive antiphonal trumpets and horns are the mark of distinction in Abbott’s reading, full of personality and an airy charm that buoys us down the Thames. My taste in this repertoire veers towards risk-takingly earthy period-instrument performances, particularly those of… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
June 28, 2011
This disc introduces an impressive duo. Perhaps “introduces” is not the correct term for 25-year-old Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang, already a star of the European festival circuit. Anne-Sophie Mutter chose her to play second fiddle (literally) in the Bach Double Concerto on a recent tour. Frang has also recorded Sibelius and Prokofiev concertos, but this is the first time we’ve heard her in a chamber setting and the result is compelling. In the Grieg and Strauss sonatas, Frang is accompanied by another young virtuoso. Lifits was born in Uzbekistan in 1982, and won the Busoni International Piano Competition in 2009. As a team they achieve real symbiosis: listen to the way… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
June 28, 2011
A wonderful collection of sonatas worthy even now of far greater recognition and popularity.
June 28, 2011
A first-class production of absorbing music.
June 21, 2011
Following their final William Byrd album’s accolade of Record of the Year in the 2010 Gramophone Awards – only once before bestowed on an early music disc – The Cardinall’s Musick boldly go where many, many choirs have gone before. In his informative liner note, Andrew Carwood elucidates the convoluted history of the familiar modern version of Allegri’s Miserere and the happy mistranscription of that stratospheric C (here sung by a soprano). He doesn’t explain, however, why his interpretation is pitched close to a semitone higher than any other I’ve heard on record or in concert. No matter. It’s not a cheap thrill but rather a rare and radiant pleasure. The vocal sound is enveloping, though the recording is a little distant and the reverb doesn’t seem entirely natural to the church acoustic. Even the most exposed moments of vocal counterpoint are lush and well nigh flawless. Readings by The Tallis Scholars and The Sixteen are more measured, as if in a solemn procession, but The Cardinall’s Musick take a more supple, refreshing approach. The main event on this disc is Missa cantantibus organis, a collaborative… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber?…
June 21, 2011
Leslie Howard’s 99-CD set of Liszt’s piano music has recast the Liszt problem for 2011: it’s not that his music is underrated, misconstrued or maligned, it’s that most of it simply hasn’t been heard. With this CD of rarely programmed works, Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire makes his own compellingly listenable – and relatively concise – case for why there’s more to Liszt than Liebestraum. However, not all the pieces on the disc are lost gems. Freire opts for one of the least played Hungarian Rhapsodies, the thanklessly stark No 3, which he imbues with a sensitivity the piece probably does not merit. More worthy of revival is the Ballade No 2. This is a fierce and entertaining tussle of Sturm vs Drang, a more rhetorical and grandiloquent work than any of Chopin’s four, but with a lyrical middle section to rival any by the Polish composer (who dubbed Liszt “a clever craftsman without a vestige… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
June 21, 2011
Dutch singer Caro Emerald holds the record for the longest time at No 1 on the Netherlands pop charts. But Deleted Scenes has even more impressive things to recommend it. Emerald has taken the sound world of 1920s Chicago and given it a slick, studio sound of today. So you could use it to dance the Charleston, or the krump, or whatever it is the kids do nowadays. I can handle the electronic beats, but the synthesized horns really cheapen this recording. But all in all, a delightful bit of Eurotrash to titillate fans of Helen Kane, Fats Waller and maybe even Amy Winehouse. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
June 7, 2011
This CD shows tenor David Hobson in his most appealing guise – as a purveyor of song. From pop (Roy Orbison’s Crying) to showtunes (The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha) to folk (O Waly Waly), Hobson is very comfortable in an idiom he describes in the liner notes as his “second home”. There is a natural ease to his voice and delivery that makes him compare very favourably to the likes of crossover crooners such as Clay Aiken and Russell Watson. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
June 7, 2011
The Grammy-winning vocalist describes this album as “definitive” Kurt Elling. One thing’s for certain: his move to producer Don Was results in a more highly produced album, featuring layered backing vocals and other effects which, in a way, detract from Elling’s natural “wow factor”. Even more assured, however, with a maturing grainy crackle around the edges, are the highlights of The Gate – two songs only six years apart in birthdate, but poles apart in DNA – the Davis/Evans Blue in Green and the Lennon/McCartney Norwegian Wood. Laurence Hobgood remains a prized collaborator and foil. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
June 7, 2011
For those who have followed Jane Monheit’s career since she was a 20-year-old runner-up to Teri Thornton in the 1998 Thelonious Monk Institute vocal competition (Roberta Gambarini was third), this is the album we have been waiting for. At 33, eleven years after her recording debut, she has come of age as a jazz singer. This shows in her sense of dynamics and the confident way she tackles a lyric – with a voice like a shot of whiskey and honey. Her scat singing, especially, befits someone who cites Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Tormé among her early influences. There are many highlights: the spirited feistiness of Everything I Have is Yours with Mark O’Connor’s violin; plumbing the emotional depths in I’ll Be Around; and the romanticism of There’s a Small Hotel with lovely piano by Michael Kanan. They all show she’s the real deal. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
June 7, 2011
Vincent D’Indy wrote a bucketload of music in his productive lifetime, much of which is now forgotten. If one knows music by this composer then it is likely to be his tone poem, Ishtar, or the Symphony on a French Mountain Air, a quasi-piano concerto that is arguably the best thing he ever wrote. He was a mover and shaker in French music. A passionate Wagnerite, he attended the premiere of the Ring Cycle, and Wagner’s influence can be heard in his music. If a case can be made for D’Indy’s lushly attractive (if discursive) music, then Maestro Gamba can do it. His collaborator in this adventure is the Iceland Symphony: a fine ensemble that delivers all that the conductor asks of it, playing the music with sensitivity and a… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
June 7, 2011
