You’d be surprised what just two violins can do. Natsuko Yoshimoto and James Cuddeford, formerly the upper half of both the Australian String Quartet and Grainger Quartet, have long commissioned more than their fair share of inventive, witty and often very beautiful Australian duets. This excellent disc presents the final fruits of their joint mission and the array is diverse. Echoes of folk music appear in Stuart Greenbaum’s Danny Boy Variations and Andrew Ford’s affecting pair of works, balanced by Cuddeford’s sober memorial to the victims of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Roger Smalley and Elena Kats-Chernin both turn in sets of neat miniatures alongside a clever Compossible by David Harris. For me, however, the standouts are the opening and closing tracks. Matthew Hindson’s titular piece is hedonistic and energetic, maturely fusing his early attraction to pop music with new sonic complexities. By contrast Mary Finsterer’s Spherica No 1 is ethereal and otherworldly, the violins spinning a careful web of glistening harmonics. Cuddeford and Yoshimoto were married at the time of this recording and the disc is by default a powerful portrait of their lengthy musical and personal partnership. The pair sound highly attuned to each other, almost… Continue reading…
August 4, 2011
The last recording I reviewed by Julia Fischer was her standout performance of the Paganini Caprices, where the performer was in splendid isolation, with nothing between her and her audience. Here she performs wrapped in the embrace of rich orchestration, in concert works by Ottorino Respighi (Poema autunnale), Josef Suk (Fantasy in D minor), Ernest Chausson (Poème, Op 25) and Ralph Vaughan Williams (The Lark Ascending). The Suk work runs to 25 minutes. At that length, and in its dramatic scope, it amounts to a virtual one-movement violin concerto. The other pieces are much shorter, at around 15 minutes each. None except for the ethereal Lark is heard much on stage nowadays. Yet they all deserve a wide audience. The drama of both the Suk and the Chausson and… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
July 28, 2011
Is this another example of repertoire creep? Recently I reviewed (favorably) a Bruckner symphony played by a chamber orchestra. Now Brahms’s Violin Concerto turns up. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra is the ideal partner here, as Isabelle Faust’s reading eschews the sprawling grandeur of some interpretations but it’s in no sense Brahms-Lite. Poetry and introspection abound in Faust’s playing, while her vibrato is restrained and her phrasing warm. At 37 minutes, it’s on the swift end of the tempo spectrum but is never remotely perfunctory or generalised. One interesting aspect is her use of Busoni’s 1913 cadenza with timpani accompaniment (inspired by its similar use in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto?) Brahms had a soft spot for Busoni, once declaring he would mentor the younger composer in the same way Schumann did Brahms. The Second Sextet, almost equally significant to the concerto, makes me marvel at how… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
July 12, 2011
Enter our competition today to experience the ACO in rehearsal for their Baroque Virtuosi tour. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
June 29, 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
The auction of rare sheet music will benefit the charity shop in which it was discovered.
June 8, 2011
Depardieu and Kingsley rumoured to star in rival flicks about the Baroque composer. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
June 3, 2011
The ACO's assistant leader has become the proud player of a rare $1.79-million violin.
June 1, 2011
American violin virtuoso to head London’s iconic Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
May 30, 2011
It’s heartening to see major labels still signing largely unknown talent. In a well-planned and intelligent program to showcase his eclectic virtuosity, Chen raises the curtain with Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata, music which supposedly came to the composer in a dream in which it was played by the devil. The work begins with sweet simplicity and becomes more fearsomely difficult as it progresses. By the end, Chen’s virtuosity is like shards of light refracted through a brilliant prism. The first major work is the famous chaconne from JS Bach’s D minor Partita. For all its structural formality, this sublime movement harbours as wide an array of emotions as any Romantic violin piece, ranging from joy to solemnity and grief. Chen maintains the shape in one great arc but also remembers… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
May 24, 2011
Athough not yet 40, American composer Jennifer Higdon started late on a musical career but is now in hot demand. This 2008 violin concerto, written for and dedicated to her ex-student Hilary Hahn, won Higdon the Pulitzer Prize. The committee called it a “deeply engaging piece that combines flowing lyricism with dazzling virtuosity.” High harmonics from the soloist introduce the playful first movement, followed by a lyrical and tonal slow movement that rises to a bracing climax before subsiding. The finale gives Hahn plenty of fireworks to play with. It resembles the final movement of Barber’s concerto. She is equally brilliant here, her clean, clear tone perfectly centred throughout. Her fast passagework is immaculate and, beyond technical matters, she brings every phrase to life. On disc Hahn has always coupled a lesser-known concerto with a concert favourite (Bernstein/Beethoven, Schönberg/Sibelius) and does so again here. She is light and lean in the Tchaikovsky, matched all the way by Petrenko’s detailed accompaniment. The effect is… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
May 10, 2011
A $10-million violin goes to a worthy cause.
May 5, 2011
