CD Reviews - January 2015

I have reviewed a number of discs to come out of the Heimbach Festival, and they have always proved to be enjoyable live performances from great chamber musicians.  The latest disc of Dvořák and Shostakovich is no exception. The disc begins with Dvořák’s great ‘Dumky’ Piano Trio, with Artistic Director of the festival, Lars Vogt (who joins the Royal Northern Sinfonia as Music Director in 2015) on piano, and Christian Tetzlaff and Tanja Tetzlaff on violin and cello respectively.  The Dumka is a Ukranian dance, with the characteristic of shifting between slow melancholy and lively exuberance, and Dvořák uses this principle throughout this six-movement trio.  The performance here is very touching in the slow sections, with real sensitivity particular from Tanja Tetzlaff on the cello.  The boisterous sections once or twice become a little overblown acoustically (particularly in the second movement), understandable in the context of a live performance.  However, this is a lively and enjoyable performance of a colourful piece, full of emotional contrasts.  The disc continues with a selection of six pieces from Dvořák’s Zypressen for String Quartet.  The performers here are Alissa Margulis, Byol Kang (violins), Tatjana Masurenko (viola) and Gustav Rivinius (cello).  Dvořák arranged 12 of the cycle of 18 songs he had written to express the unrequited passion he had for Josephina Cermáková (whose sister he ended up marrying), and six of them are performed here.  No. 2 has definite echoes of Dvořák’s American String Quartet, and No. 11 has a delightfully bouncy rhythm, which the performers here enjoy to the full. This might be the ‘filler’ here, but it was in fact the performance I enjoyed the most.  Dmitri Shostkovich’s (1906-1975) Piano Trio No. 1 dates from 1923, and was a student work, dedicated to his beloved at the time, Tanya Gilvenko.  It is a rather rambling single movement work, but contains music of great passion.  Shostakovich’s father had died the year before, and he was forced to work as a cinema pianist to support his mother and sister.  Perhaps this experience, and the need to switch the emotions of the music quickly to suit a film dramatically, goes someway to explain the sudden changes of mood in the Trio.  Highly Romantic, passionate music gives sudden way to stormy, urgent passages with particularly virtuosic and turbulent writing for the piano.  The performers here, Aaron Pilsan (piano), Alissa Margulis (violin) and Marie-Elisabeth Hecker (cello) give an especially ardent performance, and the energy of their live performance hides the somewhat disjointed nature of this youthful work.

Various, 2014. Dvořák: Dumky, Zypressen, Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 1. Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff, Tanja Tetzlaff, Alissa Margulis, Byol Kang, Tatjana Masurenko, Gustav Rivinius, Aaron Pilsan, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker. Compact Disc. Avi-Music 8553265.

George Onslow (1794-1835) is one of that strange band of composers who were incredibly successful in their day, and whose music has more or less disappeared without trace in terms of contemporary performance and recording.  Born to an English aristocratic father and French mother, he was known at the time by many as ‘the French Beethoven’.  He stood out at the time, as in post-revolutionary France, the only really popular genre was opera – ‘pure’ instrumental music was much more a German tradition, and Onslow’s music is clearly in the tradition of Beethoven, Spohr and Schubert.  Onslow composed a vast amount of chamber music, as well as four symphonies and four operas.  But after his death, his music suffered from being seen as too conventional – and good old Wagner didn’t help, branding some of his music as ‘trivial’.  Yet, whilst there isn’t perhaps the depth and transcendence of some Beethoven or Schubert, say, his music has real interest, and no less than Schumann said that only Onslow and Mendelssohn approached Beethoven’s mastery of the string quartet.  The Trio Portici from Belgium have recorded a pleasing selection of Onslow’s smaller scale chamber works, beginning with the Piano Trio, Op. 14 No. 2.  The Trio is perhaps the most obviously Beethovenian work here, with the spiky, off-beat rhythms of its Minuetto vivace, and the emphatic feel of its two confident outer movements.  The individual voice of the composer is strongest in the slow movement, variations on an ‘Air populaire des montagnes d’Auvergne’, combining French folk roots with Germanic classicism and early Romantic idioms.  This is followed by a delightful Duo for Piano & Violin, Op. 15.  The work opens with a heartfelt and slightly mysterious slow introduction, leading into an energetic display for both players in the brisk first movement.  After a fun Minuet, a pleasing set of variations on ‘Au clair de la lune’ forms the slow movement, before a sprightly finale.  They finish with the Sonata for Piano & Cello, Op. 16. No. 1.  After another lively opening movement, this work’s core is the touching and lyrical, very Schubertian central slow movement.  It finishes off with a bouncy yet tightly constructed contrapuntal exchange of one main idea between the two instruments.  The Duo and the Sonata are in fact world première recordings, and the Trio Portici give confident performances throughout.  This seldom heard music could not ask for stronger advocates.

Onslow, G. 2012. Chamber Music. Trio Portici. Compact Disc. Pavane Records ADW 7545.

Pianist Peter Donohoe has released his second volume of Prokofiev Piano Sonatas.  After the first five in Volume 1, he has jumped to the final Sonata, missing out for now the three emotionally heavy ‘War Sonatas’ (although he has previously recorded these in 1991).  Following the ‘War Sonatas’, Prokofiev returned to a certain extent to a more outwardly straightforward style for his final completed work for the piano, the Sonata No. 9, although this apparent simplicity is deceptive, with increasingly complex contrapuntal writing growing from relatively small scale ideas.  Donohoe achieves the perfect balance of introspective reflection with the sudden occasional bursts of controlled drama, particularly in the wry final movement.  The brief fragment of the incomplete Sonata No. 10, with just under one minute of emphatic, confident music, manages to show that Prokofiev still had much to say in his music right at the end of his life.  The Sonata for Cello & Piano, Op. 119, was written for and first performed by Rostropovich and Richter in 1950.  Here, Donohoe is joined by cellist RaphaelWallfisch.  The opening movement is by far the most substantial part of the work, almost as long as the other two movements combined, and it carries the serious weight of content, after which the lighter short middle movement, which has Prokofiev’s trademark sardonic wit, with a more lyrical central section.  The finale starts off lightly, but gains in grandeur and on the build to the climax, the writing for both players becomes more and more dramatic, before a reference to the opening cello theme from the first movement brings things to a virtuosic close.  Wallfisch and Donohoe play together with evident mutual respect and close communication, and Wallfisch produces a beautifully warm tone when needed (for example in the extended lyrical section of the first movement), as well as humour, and a more angular, spiky sound for the final movement.  Prokofiev’s two Sonatinas, Op. 54, appear slight, particularly in comparison to the the Piano Concertos 4 & 5 which he composed either side of them.  Yet these introverted miniatures, concise almost to the point of terseness, are in fact extraordinary in their development of key relationships and expression within three brief movements each, both Sonatinas lasting around just nine minutes each.  I am not sure if Donohoe plans to revisit the ‘War Sonatas' for a final volume, but these two volumes have proved to be a real delight.

Prokofiev, S. 2014. Piano Sonatas, Volume II. Peter Donohoe, Raphael Wallfisch. Compact Disc. Somm SOMMCD 256.

(Edited versions of these reviews first appeared in GScene, January 2015)

Selected CD Reviews

The Van Baerle Trio met while they were studying at the Amsterdam Conservatory in 2004.  They have since worked with Menahem Pressler, pianist in the Beaux Arts Trio, and their debut CD is very impressive.  They perform two great French works – the first of Saints-Saëns’ two piano trios, and Ravel’s single work for the combination.  In between, they play a single movement work by the Dutch composer Theo Loevendie (b.1930), called Ackermusik.  This provides an interesting interlude between the two French works, although stylistically it isn’t a great fit.  However, they tackle its extremes of dynamics and rhythmic difficulties well.  But in the two main works, they really shine.  They capture the lightness and spirit required in the Saints-Saëns, yet also show great sensitivity in the delicate slow movement.  The Ravel is a beautiful piece, full of richness, almost orchestral colours, and their performance is suitably intense and full.  Pianist Hannes Minnaar produces beautifully sonorous playing in the third movement Passacaille, and this is matched by touching, delicate playing from violinist Maria Milstein and cellist Gideon den Herder.  Definitely an ensemble to keep an eye on.
Various. Piano Trios. Van Baerle Trio. 2012. Compact Disc. Et'Cetera. KTC 1438.

The Doric String Quartet garnered wonderful reviews for their recording of the String Quartets by Erich Korngold (1897-1957).  Following further excellent CDs of Schumann and Walton, they return to Korngold, joined by friends for performances of the Piano Quintet and the Sextet.  First, in the Piano Quintet they are joined by the great pianist Kathryn Stott, and clearly have a great time.  They avoid over-sentimentalising the already highly romantic music, yet still manage to provide the necessary nostalgic warmth and youthful spirit (the composer was still just 23 when this was composed).  In the Sextet, the Dorics are joined by an extra viola (Jennifer Stumm) and cello (Bartholomew LaFollette).  This is an even earlier work, from 1914 – yet the child prodigy had already been composing for 8 years by now.  If anything, it is even more intense than the Quintet, and the musicians work well together here.  Unlike some string sextets, Korngold avoid a heavy, dense texture, and rather chooses to use the instruments contrapuntally much of the time.  The slow movement here is particularly tenderly performed.  Overall, another impressive release to add to the Dorics’ growing catalogue.
Korngold, Eirch Wolfgang. String Sextet, Piano Quintet. Doric String Quartet, Jennifer Stumm, Bartholomew LaFollette, Kathryn Stott. 2012. Compact Disc. Chandos CHAN 10707.

Ola Gjeilo (b.1978) is a young Norwegian composer, specialising predominantly in choral music, and he is currently the composer in residence with the excellent Phoenix Chorale from Arizona.  I was looking forward to this CD, as I had read good things about it.  The performances can’t be faulted – the Phoenix Chorale are spot on, with a warm and well blended sound, and perfect intonation throughout.  It is the music that is rather beneath their considerable talents.  In the whole disc (which includes eleven different works), there is not a single unexpected harmonic change, and the cumulative effect of the saccharin harmonies and relentlessly slow (even turgid) tempi leave one longing for some dissonance and rhythmic interest.  Choral music has become trendier of late, with the likes of Eric Whitacre, and Paul Mealor (made popular by the Military Wives).  But Whitacre does achieve variety and produces a range of interesting choral effects in his inventive music.  Here, the sound world of each piece is pretty much identical, the only interest being the works with added string quartet (the Harrington String Quartet), piano (the composer himself) or tenor saxophone (Ted Belledin).  We’re two thirds of the way in before there is a piece with any real drive (Prelude), but this is in fact the shortest track, and then we’re straight back into soporific ‘atmospheric’ territory.  A real disappointment.
Gjeilo, Ola. Northern Lights, Choral Works by Ola Gjeilo. Phoenix Chorale, Charles Bruffy. 2012. Hybrid Super Audio Compact Disc. Chandos CHSA 5100. 

French baritone Gérard Souzay died in 2004 aged 85.  He was recognized as one of the foremost singers of French mélodie but also one of few French singers to excel in German repertoire too.  His voice had beautifully rounded quality, never harsh, yet still full of character.  The Schwetzingen Festival have been releasing recordings from their archives, and this is a real treat, from a recital in 1960, when Souzay was accompanied by Dalton Baldwin on piano.  He performed several Schubert songs (including An die Musik), the Six Monologues for Everyman by Frank Martin, and ended with a set of Strauss songs.  In the middle was the French repertoire – Ravel’s Cinq melodies populaires grecques, and Deux mélodies hébraiques, which are particularly touching.  His voice was truly in its prime, and this is a wonderful selection to whet your appetite if you don’t already know this truly great singer.
Various. Gérard Souzay, Liederabend 1960. Gérard Souzay, Dalton Baldwin. 2012. Compact Disc. Hänssler Classic CD 93.717.

Next, works by Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) performed by the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Juanjo Mena.  First comes the ballet ‘El sombrero de tres picos’ (The Three-cornered Hat).  This is great fun, with real atmosphere and folk spirit, energetically performed, with a lovely contribution from soprano Raquel Lojendio.  Next comes a wonderfully atmospheric and lively performance of ‘Noches en los jardines de España’ (Nights in the Gardens of Spain), with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet on piano.  They finish the programme with ‘Homanajes’ (Tributes), a suite for orchestra written late in his life, and containing tributes to Debussy, Dukas, and lesser known (to us) influences on Falla – the Catalan composer Felipe Pedrell and the conductore Enrique Fernández Arbós.  This is very enjoyable, and excellently recorded – a little more abandon in places would have made this a perfect addition to the catalogue, but it’s definitely up there, particularly Bavouzet’s performance in the Noches.
de Falla, Manuel. Nights in the Gardens of Spain, etc. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Raquel Lojendio, BBC Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena. 2012. Compact Disc. Chandos CHAN 10694.

Finally, in brief – an excellent re-release of a remastered recording from 1989 of the late, great Sir Charles Mackerras conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, with Raphael Wallfisch playing the Dvořák Cello Concerto, and also Dohnányi’s Konzertstück.  Surprisingly fresh recorded sound, combined with assured interpretations from both conductor and soloist, at mid-price this is worth snapping up.
Various. Dvořák Cello Concerto, Dohnányi Konzertstuck. Raphael Wallfisch, London Symphony Orchestra, Charles Mackerras. 2012. Chandos. CHAN 10715X.

(An abridged version of these reviews first appeared in GScene)