Osmo Vänskä gave us a superb Kullervo in 2001 as part of his lauded cycle with the Lahti Symphony, but this release justifies itself by preserving a programme celebrating Finnish musical identity recorded over several chilly Minnesota nights in February 2016. Premiered in 1892, the sprawling work was a watershed in Sibelius’ creative development – he effectively invented the Finnish musical idiom overnight – its runic tunes and “wind rustling through the pines” textures would be distilled in the later tone poems and symphonies. The work does have its longueurs – Vänskä is daringly expansive in the second movement (Kullervo’s Youth) yet it somehow works, despite its 19-minute duration. Lilli Paasikivi reprises her role as Kullervo’s sister; she pretty much owns the role, though her widening vibrato is worrying. Tommi Hakala is an excellent Kullervo. Vänskä maintains a fine balance of expansive atmosphere and thrilling bite though I miss the intensity of Berglund’s 1985 Helsinki recording with a blistering Jorma Hynninen at his peak. Commissioned as a companion piece for similar forces, Olli Kortekangas’ Migrations is a tribute to the Finnish immigration to North America on texts by Sheila Packa, a Minnesotan of Finnish heritage. A fine piece of atmospherics,…

Hot on the heels of Iestyn Davies’ distinguished recording of Bach alto cantatas comes another disc containing two of the same from another British countertenor. Tim Mead, a former choral scholar of King’s College, Cambridge has forged a busy and successful career on the operatic and concert stage. He displays admirable agility in the final aria of Widerstehe doch der Sünde (BWV54). While Davies may have the edge in bringing the words to life, there is certainly much to enjoy in Mead’s account; not only his mellifluous tone but the fine playing of La Nuova Musica, which this year celebrates the tenth anniversary of its founding by artistic director, David Bates. Vergnügte Ruh! Beliebte Seelenlust! (BWV170) also demonstrates Mead’s affinity with Bach’s musical idiom through his unforced vocal technique. His more outwardly expressive approach provides a thoughtful and nuanced contrast to Davies. By way of contrast the Bach cantatas are paired with Pergolesi’s ever-popular Stabat Mater. Mead is joined by soprano, Lucy Crowe who visited Australia in 2012 to be soprano soloist in the ACO’s performances of Beethoven’s Ninth. Although the voices are in the main well matched, there are occasions in this performance where I feel the performers are…

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

Benjamin Appl was Gramophone Young Artist of the Year 2016, suggesting a 20-something budding talent. It was a surprise then to discover he was born in 1982 and, as evident from this recital, is a fully mature artist. Lieder-philes would have been alerted by his Wigmore Hall Schubert recital with the venerable Graham Johnson, which I will eagerly now hunt out. This release signals a serious intent – a Konzept Liederabend if you will – its title one of those succinct words that defy direct translation; a sense of national affinity for one’s homeland. Appl has contrived his tribute to two homelands; having grown up near Regensburg, Schubert and Brahms figure heavily with some Wolf, Strauss, Reger and Schreker thrown in for good measure, while some British songs and Poulenc’s Hyde Park represent his residency in London since 2010. Most moving is Adolf Strauss’ Ich weiß bestimmt, ich werd’ dich wiedersehen (I know I shall see you again) written in Terezin before the composer was murdered at Auschwitz. The recital concludes with two songs in german by Grieg. Appl has a lovely voice with a degree of grain to add gravitas – he sings “on the words” but not so…

There seems to be no end to the talents of Iestyn Davies. A thoroughly modern countertenor, Davies is at home in all sorts of venues, whether they be churches, concert halls, opera houses, recording studios or theatres, and wherever he goes he impresses audiences with both the breadth and the quality of his performances. So it is only natural that such a talented performer should want to turn his hand to that greatest of composers, JS Bach. The only problem is, as Richard Wigmore points out in his illuminating notes, “with countertenors confined to English cathedral choirs and castrati to the opera house, ‘alto’ for Bach meant a teenaged boy on the cusp of adolescence.” While from the dual standpoints of vocal technique and timbre, this prospect might have dampened the composer’s enthusiasm for alto solos, particularly in the cantatas, we are fortunate to have Cantata 54 from the Weimar period, Widerstehe doch der Sünde, which Wigmore believes would have been written for a particularly gifted boy alto. Cast in three movements, this musical admonition against sin and Satan is a colourful and expressive work, but Davies and Arcangelo take an intimate and controlled approach, despite all the talk of…

The most famous classical pianist of the early 20th century performs with expression and deep understanding in these restored recordings.

Hitting play on Grant Foster’s world premiere recordings – When Love Speaks – I am nicely settled and ready to pen my review. What I am not ready for is the raw romance of this solo pianist and composer; to be struck and emotionally swayed by his music in less than five seconds flat. What is this beautiful work? Romance in C Sharp Minor brings us the feel of its title, and holds nothing back – while powerful, it exposes a vulnerability that reaches the heart. Romance in C follows, leading us into a gentler introspection. After its soothing introduction, a pure melody line with just enough harmonic support tells us its story; Foster continues this style through each piece. We hear rises and falls one would expect from Romantic works written more than a century ago. Foster’s music is ambitiously reminiscent of the greats, notably Chopin and Rachmaninov, but with an accessible human touch. I nearly leap out of my seat when I hear the Piano Sonata, which opens with a darkness successfully indicative of its dedication to those lost in war. Elegy is a stirring homage to Sir Robert Helpmann; and Six Preludes, like much of Foster’s work,…

Finnish pianist Paavali Jumpannen’s formidable repertoire includes cycles of Mozart and Beethoven, his Boulez Sonatas are critically acclaimed, and he is a vigorous champion of new music. Jumpannen’s scholarly and voracious approach is reflected in meticulously researched liner notes for this fourth instalment in his cycle of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas. This set covers seven middle-period works: Sonatas 16-18 (Op. 31, from 1802), and 24-27 (Opp. 78, 79, 81a and 90, from 1809-14). These are deeply thoughtful readings, restrained and delicate, less volcanic than is often the case but with absolute technical precision and nuance. This is particularly evident in what the pianist terms the “enigmatic arpeggios” of the Tempest Sonata, which in his hands are more rippling than tempestuous and replete with contemplative pauses. The extraordinary trills of Op. 90 are rendered with high drama and expertly-judged balance between the hands, resulting in a breath-taking performance of this sonata, a precursor of the anguished emotionality that would receive fuller expression in Beethoven’s late works. The recording is rich and present with lovely depth, with a slight tendency to brightness in the upper registers. Listeners interested in these endlessly fascinating sonatas will find much of note in Jumpannen’s interpretations – a…

French pianist Cédric Tiberghien opens the third disc of his Bartók series with the Hungarian composer’s First Piano Sonata. Tiberghien’s rendition is heavy with rubato, giving the first movement a quirky, lurching feel – very different to the driving forward momentum of Claude Helffer or the solid pacing of Alain Planés, who have recorded the work for Harmonia Mundi. But if the rhythm feels wayward, the tone sparkles – Tiberghien wrings as much glitter as he does crunch from the dissonant folk-harmonies, and the recording quality is immaculate. There is a gravitas to the Sostenuto E Pesante and a crisp, dancing energy to the Allegro Molto. Tiberghien’s translucent sound and spacious approach in the Three Hungarian Folk Songs from the Csík District – settings of melodies the composer heard played on a peasant flute – imbues these miniatures with a sense of mystery, while Tiberghien revels in the eccentric characters of the Bagpipers and the lumbering Bear Dance in Bartók’s Sonatina. The lively Three Rondos on Slovak Folk Tunes feel clean and simply drawn compared with the darker, more complex Opus 18 Etudes that follow, before the disc culminates with Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. Pianist François-Frédéric Guy…

It’s fair to say that Dave Malloy’s dazzlingly eclectic musical-cum-opera on a chunk of Tolstoy’s War and Peace divides critics way beyond its losing out at the Tony Awards to the way more mainstream Dear Evan Hansen. The tendency for Malloy’s characters to comment on the action even while taking part in it seems to alienate some, while its resolute refusal to avoid repetition (more on that later) and hit the sweet spot of the big ballad means that listeners are unlikely to come across it on an album of show tunes. A pity, because by essentially setting prose – and most of it Tolstoy’s – Malloy is doing something rather unusual and clever. But don’t despair, this addictive cast album gives listeners the chance to sit back and enjoy a rare and imaginative piece of musical storytelling without the challenge of what is going on in front of their eyes. Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 starts at the point in War and Peace where the beautiful young Countess Natasha Rostova has fallen in love with, and gotten engaged to, the formal and somewhat starchy Prince Andrey Bolkonsky. While Andrey has departed for the war with… Continue reading Get unlimited…

Elise McCann’s album Dahlesque, released by ABC Music, features the songs from her new cabaret show of the same name, which premiered to rave reviews at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Dahlesque comprises a selection of music inspired by the gloriously irreverent, darkly funny stories of children’s author Roald Dahl including numbers from the film Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and the musicals Matilda The Musical, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach. It’s a clever idea, and spins off the fact that McCann recently played Miss Honey in the Australian production of Matilda The Musical, winning both a Sydney Theatre Award and a Helpmann Award for her touching portrayal. The warmth and glow that McCann has as a stage performer shines through on the album. She has a lovely pure, true voice with a honeyed tone in her middle register, an effortless belt, and top notes that send ripples down the spine. It’s also a voice with real character. Her diction is impeccable and she connects with the lyric, which makes her a great storyteller in song – altogether a consummate musical theatre voice. Accompanied here by a nine-piece band under the musical direction of…

This programme is built around around two substantial Fantasias for piano: the Mozart in C Minor K475, composed in 1785, and the early Fantasie in C by Schumann, written in 1836. Although only 50 years separate them, the two works fall distinctly into the Classical and Romantic periods of European music. They share a free form in common (in spite of the Schumann falling, sonata-like, into three movements), but their differences are fundamental. Mozart’s idea of the fantasy is to be free with keyboard decoration, and to roam through different keys and thematic ideas not dictated by a predetermined structure. Schumann’s idea of fantasy is an emotional one, ranging through those heightened states so beloved of the early Romantics, namely fiery passion and introspective melancholy. Mozart’s Piano Sonata No 14 is also in C Minor: a dark key for the composer (as for Beethoven), so there is an argument that a more Romantic approach is justified. In both works pianist Piotr Anderszewski gives us just that, to generally good effect. He is suitably stormy in the Sonata’s first movement, but I find the slow movement – for all his sensitivity – to be too introverted. He approaches it with eyes…