Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili has joined the ranks of Znaider, Ehnes, Hahn, Benedetti et al with this magnificent rendition of Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto – now virtually a calling card for every violin wizard. While any of David Oistrakh’s various versions of this work remain sans pareil (at least in interpretative terms) she’s still up against formidable competition. The kaleidoscopic combination of moods – ranging from the dark solemnity and emotional bleakness of the introduction to the exquisitely haunted lyricism of the passacaglia movement, to the manic, sardonic scherzo and final burlesque – clearly hold no terrors for her and her tempi, seemingly slower than usual, enhance the reading. Throughout, her playing radiates profound emotion. This is musicianship of a very high order. The other music on the CD is Giya Kancheli’s V and V for violin and taped voice with string orchestra, Shostakovich’s Lyrical Waltz from The Seven Dolls Suite arranged by her father, Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel (“Mirror in the Mirror”) and Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, all played with… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra offer up an exclusive track from their new Mozart album.

Written in 1940, the Symphonic Dances was Rachmaninov’s final orchestral work. Regarded as hopelessly retrospective at the time, it has since been re-evaluated as a masterpiece. The first movement begins with a stamping, syncopated rhythm, alternating with a wistful lament from the alto saxophone. The second movement is a restless waltz that is never content to settle into a single key. The kaleidoscopic third movement closes explosively with the Dies Irae chant, a musical theme that haunted the melancholic composer all his life. Its central episode, a yearning chromatic passage for strings, is as far from the world of dance as could be. The work has been recorded often by more famous orchestras, but Sokhiev gives an impressive and thoughtful performance. His feeling for rubato is spot on. He is not afraid to slow down for lyrical moments, yet the underlying momentum is… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Midori was only 13 or 14 when she recorded this account of Paganini’s First Violin Concerto and two morsels by Tchaikovsky, the Sérénade Mélancolique Op 26 and the Valse Scherzo Op 34. Yet the virtuosic demands of the first and last of these pieces do not daunt her; nor does she ever sound as if sheer virtuosity is an end in itself. These are satisfying performances with no allowance needed for her youthfulness. There is a technical drawback – but it is not hers. Rather, the primitive digital recording technology of the time (this recording dates from 1987) denies her the sonic richness which earlier analogue record producers brought to a fine art, and which today’s digital engineers have rediscovered. There’s a rather dry, clinical feel in the recording. It’s for this reason that Midori’s account of the Paganini, although a satisfying performance, can’t really supplant such… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The Dvorak Violin Concerto has never enjoyed first rank status amongst the Romantic violin concertos, although it is blessed with an abundance of soaring melodies and a truly catchy last movement. The problem stems from the dedicatee, the violinist Joseph Joachim who was uncomfortable with the work’s atypical form. He insisted on a number of changes, yet even after four years of painstaking revisions, he declined to perform it, leaving the premiere to the Czech violinist Frantisek Ondricek. Even more neglected is the Violin Sonata in F major Op. 57, a work I have wondered about but have never heard and which I found tuneful and attractive. Fortunately the final work, the Sonatina in G, is better known, largely due to Fritz Kreisler’s arrangement of the slow movement, which was hurriedly sketched on a shirt sleeve during Dvorak’s visit to Minnehaha Falls in Minnesota. Written alongside the New World Symphony and the American String Quartet, it is a modest work intended by Dvorak “for young people and grown-ups too”. The violinist, Jack Liebeck, is a polished fiddler with a real gift for lyrical playing. He has a deep “in the string” sound which is intensely sweet even when he plays…

Zen Hu writes of discovering the similarities between the folk music of East and West, and with this project in mind she did not have to go far to find Ning Feng, who hails from the same part of China. Both live up to their impressive credentials, with strong performances of close and constant interplay. There are enough structural and tonal differences to distinguish between the compositions, without spoiling the concept of them being connected. The three European composers all represent a single generation, earlier than the Chinese, so the connection of the title crosses boundaries of time as well as music and geography. There is a sameness about the texture of the music, though, that gives neither instrument a chance to take off in any sustained flight of individual fancy. The missing ingredient is a touch of solo contemplation, which European composers have been so good at. This is a commendable CD, expanding the scope of what is familiar in violin music, but in the end one or two additional contrasting works might have thrown the sense of connection into sharper focus. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

I find this pared-back version by far the more powerful. The Hungarian Gypsy flavouring accentuates the drama of the work, like a fiery shot of grappa in espresso. Violinist Kristian Winther is the showcased artist here, with Anthony Romaniuk and Michelle Wood providing sympathetic accompaniment. Kristian, originally from Canberra, is only 25. This recording suggests he is poised on the edge of a great career. His playing is sensitive when called for, but is distinguished in the main by a full-blooded vigour and impetuousness which is never less than totally exciting. The four works heard here – Tzigane, Sonata for Violin and Piano Number 2, Piece in the Form of a Habanera and the Sonata for Violin and Cello – span from 1907 to 1922 and include some of the most aggressive and dynamic of Ravel’s chamber writing – what he called his ‘motor’ or ‘mechanised’ style. That sounds heartless – but nothing Ravel wrote could be termed that. There’s too much soul incorporated in his driving rhythms. The acoustics on this SACD are as exceptional as anything Melba has produced, which means close to recorded perfection. This is a hybrid-disc, which means that if your player cannot reproduce SACD,…

It always surprised me how out of fashion Rachmaninov’s music was until comparatively recently, with many of the works we now revere initially dismissed as indulgent and formally weak. He was seen by his contemporaries as a composer out of step with his era, and his music seemed mainly concerned with the past, issues that counted more against him then than they do now. One side-effect of this previous disdain is that, almost 70 years after his death, we are still rescuing some of his earlier works from the limbo into which they fell. His two early string quartets have been only rarely available on CD and the ‘Romance in A minor’ enjoys its first recording here. Olding’s playing is particularly compelling and captures Rachmaninov’s opulent lyricism perfectly. In particular I was happy to hear the 2nd Quartet, the music of which is still out of print in the West, and whose second movement is a wonderfully moody passacaglia that sounds like an early premonition of his late tone poem, The Isle of the Dead. The missing songs from the Opus 38 set are also a pleasing discovery, and throughout the disc Ashkenazy is in excellent form, as are Joan…

This, their first recording together, again features Mozart. All four works on this disc were written between 1778 and 1784 as the composer began to find his mature voice. At this time performances of works of this nature involved much improvisation. In fact, as Mozart wrote to his father, one such sonata (probably K.379) was completed so near its performance he didn’t have time to write out the piano part. It is this spirit of improvisation that Müllejans and Bezuidenhout have attempted to capture in this recording – and capture it they have. These are recordings of exceptional quality. Throughout, the balance between Müllejan’s violin and Bezuidenhout’s fortepiano is natural sounding and the co-ordination between them flawless and seemingly telepathic. More intelligent and informed performances would be hard to find and highlights abound. For example, in K.454 alone, there is the effortless transition from the Largo to the Allegro in the opening movement, the beautiful phrasing and finely judged tonal balance between the dampened fortepiano and violin in the plaintive 2nd movement and the delightful interplay of the Finale (Allegretto).Similar highlights can be found in the other three works on this marvellously entertaining disc. Unconditionally recommended. Continue reading Get unlimited…

Performance awards nobody has ever heard of are commonplace, so let the listener listen and form their own judgement. Do period instruments make a difference worth worrying about? Boston Baroque should know, and would certainly say “Yes!” In no uncertain terms, being the oldest period instrument ensemble in North America. There is a difference, for sure, and hearing them in this performance for review involved an immediate adjustment to allow for what you might find rather a thin sound characteristic. Which is not meant to be a value judgement about thick being better than thin, just acknowledging the way this sound comes over. There can be no argument with the standard of any performance here, Martinson is undoubtedly a(nother) fine violinist. Geminiani at least is a relatively unknown composer, having been, like Vivaldi, one of the great violinists of his time, associated with Corelli, whose works he based his own on. If only Boston Baroque had done the brave thing, and given other less recognised composers their turn too, instead of tagging along some way behind everybody else. Surely the dream run of The Four Seasons must run out one day. Please? Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4…

The music is quite unlike Weill’s “Berlin cabaret” idiom and seems to resonate with an emotional ambivalence between an unsentimental nobility in the extended central largo, combined with wit and grace in the outer ones. The Concerto for violin and wind orchestra is completely neo-classical and somewhat prickly but, as one commentator observed, contains “roses among the thorns”. The mood here is almost Hindemithian with occasional touches of Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Zimmermann plays with an appropriately pared down tone. The vocal works I find less satisfying and unlikely to reward repeated listening, despite fine singing. Elise Ross, conductor Simon Rattle’s first wife, doesn’t quite differentiate sufficiently between the various deadly sins (although is much better than Marianne Faithful). No one can capture the desperation of either Anja Silja or Gisela May in this music, not to mention the 40-unfiltered-cigarettes-a-day croak of the incomparable Lotte Lenya. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Every generation there is a new high-water mark in virtuoso violin playing set by a recording artist. Here is the CD equivalent of our time.