Max Bruch Violin Concertos;
No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26, No. 3 in D minor, Op. 58. Chloë Hanslip,
violin. London Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins, cond. (Warner Classics,
0927456642)
Chloë Hanslip is just
16 years old and has already won widespread acclaim in numerous concert
engagements and wonderful performances around the globe. She has received
many prizes and was awarded "Young British Classical Performer 2003"
at the Classical Brit Awards. She made her concerto debut in the United
States this past November with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra conducted
by Andreas Delfs.
Only 12 when she recorded
her first album, Chloë, a delightful selection of violin
miniatures, she embraces her opportunity to record two great violin
concertos. "One of the joys of working with an orchestra is being able
to form a rapport with the conductor and musicians," notes Hanslip,
who plays a 1735 Guarneri del Gesù violin. "I find myself carried
away by the sheer magic of making music. It's what I love doing more
than anything in the world."
In spite of there being
at least 15 recordings by renowned violinists of the evergreen Bruch
Concerto No. 1, Hanslip relishes the challenge of saying something fresh
and new. She's a player of striking individuality and deep musical convictions,
and the first impression on listening is her extraordinary ability to
produce a spectrum of tone-color that always conveys the mood at that
moment.
There is a simplicity and
a precise core to the sound and at the same time an opulence that belies
her years.
Hanslip is undoubtedly a
virtuoso in the best sense of the word. She can match pyrotechnics with
the best of them, but most of all she comes across as an intelligent,
sensitive musician with uncommon lyrical gifts. Dazzling where required,
she can also spin a seamless legato line evoking a deep intimacy of
thought and feeling. Devoid of the glitz and histrionics that sometimes
mark her youthful counterparts, she achieves a strong and at the same
time reflective musical profile.
Bruch wrote several other
works for violin and orchestra and could not understand why his two
remaining concertos did not achieve the huge popularity of the First.
He considered them to be better works. Unlike the many recordings of
the First, I could find only one other of the Third Concerto (by Salvatore
Accardo, on which he includes the Second, as well as the Serenade, Op.
75, and the Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46, on a Philips Duo CD). The Third
Violin Concerto was completed in 1891 (some 20 years after the first)
and was dedicated to Joseph Joachim.
Hanslip coaxes the loveliest
sounds from her violin in this noble, imposing work, giving it a passionate
intensity and evoking a heart-warming simplicity in its central Adagio.
Her maturity is evident in the fact that she is equally at home in tender
intimate moments as well as in the requisite panache and sheer momentum
of the outer movements.
The recording is full and
resonant and faithfully reproduces her lush violin tone—but never
at the expense of the orchestra, so a fine balance is achieved.
To round out the CD, Hanslip
joins forces with Mikhail Ovrutsky in a dazzling performance of Sarasate's
Navarra for two violins. (It would have been appropriate to include
some notes on Ovrutsky in the CD liner booklet. As it is, we know nothing
about him). Sarasate, a dedicatee of some of Bruch's other violin works,
wrote this dashing duo at about the same time as Bruch wrote his Third
Concerto. It makes a fitting conclusion to a superb disc.
Mendelssohn,
Panufnik, Takemitsu,
Alexander Sitkovetsky, violin; Dmitry Sitkovetsy, violin, conducting
the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra. (EMI 7243 5 57440 2 9)
Scion of a distinguished
Russian family of musicians—his mother and great-aunt partner him
at the piano, his uncle collaborates on this record—20-year-old
violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky is already embarked on a flourishing
career. His superior talent was recognized early by Yehudi Menuhin,
who became his inspiration and champion. This program invokes his memory,
but is remarkable mostly for its novelty. The Mendelssohn—not the
"real" concerto—written when he was 13, is derivative, simplistic,
and full of scales and sequences. Yet it reveals the seeds of future
greatness in sweet, lyrical melodies. The Panufnik also has a singing
quality, several cadenzas and a sprightly Finale with quirky, playful
rhythms reminiscent of Prokofiev.
The Takemitsu is mournful
and ethereal. Sitkovetsky is a brilliant virtuoso with a beautiful,
expressive, variable tone, but he sometimes seems to project his mentors'
ideas rather than his own. The Bach is brisk, severe, a bit glib, but
clean and simple; the slow movement is lovely. A radiantly gifted violinist
worth watching.
—Edith
Eisler
String Quartets Nos. 7
and 10 by Ernst Toch. Buchberger Quartet: Hubert Buchberger and
Julia Greve, violins; Joachim Etzel, viola; and Helmut Sohler, cello.
(CPO, 97752)
Mozart played a big role
in the life of Ernst Toch, the largely self-taught German composer whose
family steered him toward the study of medicine until Toch won the Mozart
Prize for composition in 1909. As a youth, Toch had been entranced by
the so-called ten famous quartets of Mozart, copying them by hand and
even trying—with great frustration—to ink his own versions
of some of the movements. And Mozart plays a significant role on both
Toch quartets that bookend the absolutely sweet four-minute miniature
Dedication, composed by Toch for his daughter's wedding. On this vibrant
recording, the Buchberger Quartet—all former chamber students at
the Academy of Music in Frankfurt and together since 1974—offer
String Quartet No. 7, Op. 15, believed to be Toch's earliest extant
work and possibly the composition he entered in the Mozart Prize, and
String Quartet No. 10, Op. 28, penned for his cousin Hans Bass in gratitude
for the gift of a complete edition of Mozart's works. The latter of
these works, written nearly 20 years after the first, is built on a
tonal series derived from anagrams of his cousin's name. Its first movement
is more Shostakovich than Mozart, and it is this marvelously textured
quartet that brought Toch to international attention. Despite some rather
annoying noise (is that an instrument walloping a microphone on the
CD's first track?), the Buchbergers bring tremendous sensitivity to
these recordings, especially on the tenth quartet's achingly beautiful
13-minute adagio.
—Greg
Cahill
Saint-Saëns: Carnival
of the Animals and other works. Renaud Capuçon, violin, Gautier
Capuçon, cello; Frank Braley, Michel Dalberto, piano; Emanuel
Pahud, flute; Paul Meyer, clarinet; and others. (Virgin Classics 5 45603
2)
This record is a total delight.
It teams up some of the best European musicians for some of the most
amusingly clever works in the literature and they obviously have a grand
time. The "Carnival" brings the characters of the various animals vividly
to life, drawing wittily but without malice on pastiches of Offenbach,
Berlioz, and Rossini. The composer, a brilliant pianist, even pokes
fun at himself in a section in which the two pianists pretend to practice
exercises slightly out of sync. Gautier Capuçon plays "The Swan,"
the best-known movement, without exaggeration or sentimentality. In
"The Cuckoo," Pahud gives the cuckoo-calls infinite variety of expression;
the "Aquarium" shimmers ethereally. The solo pieces are played wonderfully.
The "Fantaisie for Violin and Harp" combines virtuosity with nostalgic
songfulness. Of three slow, passionate cello pieces, the third is a
transcription of the famous aria from "Samson and Delilah." The Septet
is another fun piece with lots of bravura solos for everyone, especially
the trumpet; a mournful slow movement interrupts the prevailing rambunctiousness.
—E.E.
Rare Rags and Stringband
Blues. Adam Tanner and the Dirty Rag Mob: Adam Tanner, fiddle, mandolin,
banjo-mandolin; Riley Baugus, guitar; Paul Leech, pizzicato and arco
bass; Jason Krekel, mandolin, banjo-mandolin; and Steve Terrill, banjo.
(Old 97 Wrecords, 003; www.old97wrecords.com)
Anyone familiar with the
new generation of string-band enthusiasts may know Adam Tanner through
his contributions to both Crooked Jades albums (The Unfortunate Rake,
Vols. One and Two). This spirited collection of 17 instrumentals
(mostly fiddle tunes) from Tanner and his Dirty Rag Mob should serve
as a fitting introduction for anyone who shares this North Carolina
musician's passion for 1920s and '30s string bands. Included here, with
extensive historical notes, is a satisfying slice of wry Americana culled
from such sources as the Mississippi Sheiks, Doc Roberts, Gid Tanner
and his Skillet Lickers, the Stripling Brothers, and the Grinnell Giggers.
Tanner provides all of the expert fiddling on this live recording. These
feel-good tunes were lively enough to pull many a disheartened soul
out of their Depression-era funk—just try to keep from tapping
your toes to "Dry Town Blues," one of over 40 tunes recorded between
1926 and 1930 by the Leake County Revelers, and you'll see why this
music is enjoying a renaissance. By the way, the liner notes alert us
that no cross tuning was used on this record.
—G.C.
Two debuts from American
Master Elliott Carter: Quintets and Voices (Mode, DVD 128)
Charles Ives first encouraged
Elliott Carter to pursue a career in music. Now, at 95, this Pulitzer
Prize-winning composer—hailed by Aaron Copland as one of America's
most distinguished creative artists—is a much-revered figure. This
recent DVD—part of a new-music series that spotlights John Cage,
George Crumb, Morton Feldman, and other American new-music composers—features
Dutch director Frank Scheffer's riveting filmed version of 1997's Quintet
for Piano and Strings, with the Arditti Quartet and pianist Ursula Oppens.
That electrifying segment serves as a centerpiece for this disc and
finds Scheffer's camera swirling around the players in dizzying series
of closeups that bristle with energy while drawing the viewer deeply
into the music. Also included are filmed versions of Fragment II string
quartet (also performed by the Ardittis and, like the quintet, recorded
here for the first time), Syringa (for soprano, baritone, and ensemble),
Tempo e Tempi (for soprano, oboe, clarinet, violin, and cello), and
the solo piano piece Retrouvailles, as well as an intimate 40-minute
interview of Elliott Carter, Irvine Arditti, and Ursula Oppens with
Joshua Cody. Visually striking and replete with high-definition 96kHz/24-bit
PCM stereo sound. (A CD version is also available).
—G.C.
Short Takes
Tchaikovsky, Souvenir
de Florence, Op. 70; Verdi, String Quartet in E minor.
Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Candida Thompson, artistic director (Channel
Classics, 21504)
Talk about string-driven
power! This 22-piece chamber orchestra is an international force of
nature as it propels itself, in remarkably graceful fashion, through
Tchaikovsky's Italian-flavored sextet Op. 70 (which quotes from his
opera Queen of Spades) and Verdi's lone string quartet (written
in 1873). The Amsterdam Sinfonietta has a knack for bolstering these
works with emotional energy without overwhelming the arrangements. This
hybrid SACD delivers multichannel surround sound that further boosts
the high-octane energy of this ensemble.
The New Goldberg Variations.
Tanya Prochazka, cello; Jacques Després, piano. (Arktos, 200368)
Robert and Judy Goldberg
commissioned these works (from Kenneth Frazelle, Christopher Rouse,
Peter Lieberson, John Corigliano, Peter Schickele, and Richard Danielpour)
to mark the couple's silver wedding anniversary. But after Robert's
death from cancer these nine modern pieces serve instead as a tribute
to his intense love of music. These intriguing works include piano and
cello solos and duos. Prochazka is sensational, yet we can thank Yo-Yo
Ma for helping to inspire Judy to carry on this project as a memorial
to her late husband.
Beethoven String Quartets,
Op. 132 A Minor and Op. 135 in F Major. Cleveland Quartet (Teldec
Digital, 80427)
The acclaimed Cleveland
Quartet–violinists William Preucil and Peter Salaff, violist James
Dunham, and cellist Paul Katz–excel in this mid-priced, 1995 live
digital recording of two exquisite late-Beethoven quartets, of which
the A Minor included material originally intended for the Ninth Symphony.
