Glamorous German violinist Julia Fischer looks like a thoroughly modern classical celebrity, but in recital her repertoire is in the grand tradition of the mid-20th century when programs never seemed complete without Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata, Ravel’s Tzigane and works by the subject of Fischer’s fifth Decca CD, the 19th-century Spanish showman Sarasate. These dazzling works, composed at a time when Sarasate rivalled Joachim as Europe’s finest violinist, make great showstoppers and encores, but what’s surprising is how satisfying they turn out to be in their own right. Beginning with a couple of Spanish dances, it’s apparent from the get-go how effortlessly the 30-year-old masters the technical challenges of works designed to leave jaws on floor. She sounds like she’s having fun, and why wouldn’t she, especially in Zigeunerweisen, whose czárdás rhythm allows Fischer and accompanist Milana Chernyavska to demonstrate how convincingly a German and a Ukrainian can perform Spanish music inspired by Hungarian gypsies. The highlight, though, is the Serenata Andaluza, whose opening raises expectations of Bizet’s Carmen wandering in, but then transforms into one of those million-miles- an-hour extravaganzas of the kind that prompted George Bernard Shaw to say Sarasate’s music “left criticism gasping miles behind him”. Amen……

Anna McMichael fills us in on her new CD of lullabies, Close your Eyes and I’ll Close Mine.

Mutter and mates achieve a classy, collegiate intimacy with grace and style. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

How the crackly sound of a musician who counted Mendelssohn and Brahms as friends captivated one young player.

The German violinist talks candidly about Mozart, life after Karajan and when to call it a day.

“I respect him very much… I consider him the most talented of all the modern composers.” Thus Rachmaninov, no less, in a 1912 encomium to Nikolai Medtner. Both pieces here have been recorded before, notably by Sviatoslav Richter (No 1) and David Oistrakh (No 3). But in hi-fi terms, these two Soviet-era accounts cannot begin to approach Hyperion’s sumptuously engineered issue, played with marvellous confidence and attention to each passing detail. Anyone with the slightest enthusiasm for post-Romantic musical melancholy, by a still-undervalued master, should own it. Lazy critics have traditionally pigeon-holed Medtner as “the Russian Brahms”. This soubriquet Medtner himself, with justice, resented. Very little in either of these compositions sounds Brahmsian, save inasmuch as Medtner largely shunned programmatic connotations. Fauré – rightly mentioned in the booklet note – is much likelier than Brahms to enter the hearer’s mind during the three-movement First Sonata, which never bespeaks youth, though Medtner finished it when still only in his 30s. Now and again, the rich textures and hints of woodland fantasy suggest Elgar also. The sole trace of Rachmaninov comes with the extraordinary bell-like opening to the finale. No wonder Medtner gave his 1936-38 Third Sonata the name Sonata Epica. At 47…

Patricia Kopatchinskaja is the latest phenomenon in the galaxy of young violinists who seem to excel at everything they undertake. Following up her Gramophone Bartók/Ligeti/Eötvös Recording of the Year, here come the Stravinsky and Prokofiev Second Concertos. Both were composed within five years of each other but could hardly be more different. Indeed, the Prokofiev inhabits a different universe from its playful neo-classical precursor. Kopatchinskaja states that the work indicates an exquisitely creative “re-ajustment” to Prokofiev’s return to the Soviet Union, an acceptance that “this is the sort of music you have to compose.” She captures the emotional ambiguity of the work perfectly: the uneasy stirring of the G minor opening and the subsequent lyricism tinged with bleakness, her tone impressively kaleidoscopic, alert to every emotional nuance (as are Jurowski and the LPO). The spiritual core is the central movement with its ‘raindrop’ accompaniment – a radiant, rhapsodic oasis, shot through with shards of intensity. The finale seems to tap into Kopatchinskaja’s Moldovan roots: earthy and uncomplicated on one level yet maintaining headlong relentlessness to the last. The Stravinsky is, by contrast, a hard nut to crack, stylistically and psychologically. It took the composer down a path alien to the Russia he’d abandoned,…

Volkmar Andreae (1879-1962), the Swiss composer and conductor, is not well known athough he directed the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra from 1906 to 1949 and was so well regarded as a conductor that he was offered the New York Philharmonic after Mahler resigned in 1911. As a young man the musical world almost lost him to the military, and during the First World War he was often released from his duties at the Tonhalle for this purpose. He also led the Zurich Conservatorium between 1914 and 1939. His music is gracious, melodious and attractively romantic. That there is hardly an original note in his compositions will not be of great moment to those drawn to his music. His grandson, conductor Marc Andreae, is part of a determined effort to resurrect the man’s music, backed by Guild, the record label. This CD is a part of that laudable exercise. The Piano Concerto is excellent, and will sound familiar. Those who know the Litolff Scherzo will know what I mean. The first movement, the better of the three, happily plays around in fields inhabited by Grieg and Rachmaninov. Once you get into the single movement Concert Piece, his composition becomes more radiant… Continue reading Get…

In my teaching, I aim to break the mould of String Education and bring it to the 21st century. Embarking on an Australian first, I decided to team up with legendary American electric violinist Mark Wood and put on an Electrify Your Strings concert at the Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne’s CBD. It took about a year from the idea's initial inception, from when Mark and I met at the Australian String Association’s (Austa) National Conference last year. We shared the same vision in wanting to see Rock’n’Roll become a strong part of the string teachers curriculum. Our motivation was that our students should learn all styles of music including those of the modern day. 12 months later saw the hard work of 140 St Leonard's students and staff culminate in one huge evening. Complete with live feed screens, electric instruments, amplification and a lighting rig, here is what Year 10 cello student Angus Gray had to say about the evening: “Never let it be said that strings are dull. From the Year 4's dancing in the aisles to the older students rocking it out on stage, the St Leonard's College ‘Electrify Your Strings’ concert at the Athenaeum Theatre was a rock…

    Former child prodigy Jennifer Pike, who stunned the music world by winning the BBC Musician of the Year competition at the age of 12 performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, has matured into one of the major talents of her generation. At just 23, and after studies at Oxford University, the English virtuoso impresses again with the latest in her growing discography. Accompanied by Scottish pianist Tom Poster, Pike’s 1708 Goffriller instrument sings sweetly on this beautiful and intimate program. From the hauntingly lovely opening bars of the Brahms Sonata the listener knows they are in for special treat. Pike’s phrasing throughout is full and mature – never hurried, never over the top – but with beautiful lines and pitch-perfect intonation. She and Poster enjoy a warm symbiosis which is entirely apt for the works of three composers who were locked together by fate. The interplay between the two in the Allegretto of Robert’s Sonata is a feature. Pike lingers just long enough on the sustained notes that lead into the playful passages. The disc is neatly rounded off by Three Romances by Clara. Much has been made of her abilities as a pianist and teacher – admired by Chopin, Liszt and…

The vision is simple: to bring together Australia’s successful classical musicians from around the world, to form one of the country’s most electrifying orchestras.

York Bowen (1884-1961) is probably the most important forgotten British composer to be “rediscovered” in recent years. The cause has been taken up by labels like Hyperion, Dutton and Chandos, with outstanding champions in Stephen Hough, Sir Andrew Davis and Lawrence Power. This latest Hyperion exploration of the complete works for violin and piano has fallen to violinist Chloë Hanslip and the current doyen of Bowen pianists, Danny Driver, whose revealing survey of the piano sonatas won plaudits all round in 2010. The major works here are the late Violin Sonata and the Suite for Violin and Piano, but there are a host of smaller occasional works ranging from the substantial Phantasie, a Cobbett commission in 1911, down to tasty soupçons like the Kreisleresque Bolero and the winsome Allegretto. Bowen was a proficient violist as well as a prodigious concert pianist, rendering these works highly “playable”. He was also a master of the dividing line between serious and light, with a gift for a memorable idea that imbues even the slightest work with charm and spirit. Driver and Hanslip turn out to be a match made in heaven and respond to Bowen’s idiom with grace, taste and sensitivity. Recognising that…