Biber: The Rosary Sonatas.
Andrew Manze, violin; Richard Egarr, organ and harpsichord (Harmonia
Mundi, 907321-22).
Vivaldi: Concertos
for the Emperor. Andrew Manze, violin, conducting the English
Concert (Harmonia Mundi, 907332).
British violinist Andrew
Manze is celebrated, perhaps even notorious, for virtuosically flamboyant
cadenzas and ornaments that would surely have made even the Baroque
master violinists jealous. Yet for all his musical daring, Manze is
also a violinist of sensitivity and intelligence, and his two most recent
recordings are the best showcase thus far of Manze as a "complete" musician.
Some Catholics have bumper
stickers urging us to pray the rosary. Well, violinists can play
the rosary. Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's "Rosary" or "Mystery" Sonatas
are linked to 15 key moments in the lives of Mary and Jesus, from the
Annunciation through the Crucifixion and on to "The Coronation of Mary
as Queen of Heaven and Earth." You could follow the action on your rosary
beads if your fingers didn't ache in sympathy with what the violinist
must go through. And it's not just that the player encounters difficult
moments; the violin itself is stressed by Biber's use of scordatura,
in this instance, 15 different systems of retuning the strings to facilitate
playing unusual chords and to change the color of the instrument's tone.
Manze refuses to impose
sound effects into his playing—no fluttering angel wings, no nails
hammered into the cross. Biber's notes are quite enough for him, which
is not to say that he doesn't play with his typical freedom and vigor;
at times, we seem to be in the middle of a two-and-a-quarter-hour cadenza.
Yet his imaginative and sensitive phrasing always serves the music,
not his own ego. He makes even the most repetitive little figures, which
could easily come off as dry exercises, sound strange and new, and his
double- and triple-stop passages seem natural and necessary, not like
violin tricks.
Manze's new disc with the
English Concert reconstructs six of the dozen concertos Antonio Vivaldi
presented to Hapsburg ruler Charles VI in 1728. The manuscript lay undisturbed
in a library for more than two centuries. Since it carried the title
"La Cetra," everyone assumed without looking that it was identical to
the Op. 9 collection of the same name Vivaldi had dedicated to Charles
the previous year. As it turns out, they're almost entirely different
works. They aren't necessarily unique, though; two, for example, are
versions of concertos Vivaldi published in his Op. 11 set. Somehow the
solo violin part was lost, so Manze has recorded the six concertos whose
solo lines can be reconstructed from alternate sources.
Manze's sense of spontaneous
fantasy is perfect for Vivaldi, and he's capable of a variety of tone
that in a single movement runs the gamut from gut-string standard to
Paganini-style cantabile. His generous ornaments in the slow movements
seem perfectly organic, never tacked on, and he leads the English Concert
in performances that are lively but not hard-driven. It's another addition
to Manze's uniformly attractive discography.
Tavener: Ikon of Eros
(world premiere recording). Minnesota Orchestra, Paul Goodwin, conductor;
Minnesota Chorale, Kathy Saltzman Romey, music director. Jorja Fleezanis,
violin; Patricia Rozario, soprano; Tim Krol, baritone. (Reference Recordings,
102)
Beethoven: The Complete
Pianoforte and Violin Sonatas. Three CDs. Jorja Fleezanis, violin;
Cyril Huvé, pianoforte. (Cypres, 1640)
Jorja Fleezanis, longtime
concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra, is a splendid violinist, possessor
of a masterful technique and a pure, variable, beautiful, expressive
tone. These two recordings admirably illustrate her extraordinarily
stylistic versatility and communicative power. In John Tavener's new
work Ikon of Eros, written for Fleezanis, the violin represents Divine
Eros; playing almost continuously, her tone has an uninflected, celestial
purity, floating high above orchestra and chorus. The four-part piece
is contemplative, mostly static, except for an oriental-sounding dance.
Variety is created through dynamics and contrasting choral and instrumental
textures. The style is based on Eastern orthodox liturgy. The soprano
sings in unison with the violin, the baritone acts as cantor. In an
interview, Tavener describes music as "liquid metaphysics;" learning
beauty from "virgin nature," it heals, moves, fills with wonder, expresses
a longing for God. He considers all religions sublime, "none remains
exclusive." That belief is reflected here.
The Beethoven Sonatas are
technically and stylistically impeccable. Both players make their meticulous
observance of Beethoven's markings sound musically and emotionally natural.
The most startling element is the pianoforte sound: dry, crisp, transparent,
with a brittle, rattling quality, especially since Beethoven indicates
pedal only in the last two sonatas. Fleezanis plays the early sonatas
in a semiperiod style, with delayed, sparing vibrato, swells, and abruptly
short notes, though her tone is unfailingly beautiful. Some fast tempos
are breathlessly hectic, but most are well suited to the mood, character,
and expression of the music, allowing for elegant phrasing, poised changes,
and transitions within a flexible but rock-steady rhythm. Among the
highlights are the two perhaps most elusive sonatas, Nos. 6 and 10,
but listeners will find their own favorites.
—Edith
Eisler
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto
No. 1. Sibelius: Humoresques, Op. 89; Violin Concerto. Ilya
Gringolts, violin; Neeme Järvi conducting the Gothenburg Symphony
Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon B0002249-02).
Psst . . . Ilya Gringolts
is a real virtuoso, but he doesn't want you to know it. He plays the
slow outer movements of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 with far more
restraint than the average firebrand. His approach is hushed and lyrical,
although he can be quite playful at times. Only in the central scherzo
does Gringolts really cut loose, and his delicacy in the surrounding
sections makes this movement seem all the more thrilling. Neeme Järvi
and his expert Swedish orchestra provide attentive support here and
throughout the disc.
Gringolts' finely nuanced
Prokofiev can stand comparison to any, but his Sibelius is less consistently
satisfying. Gringolts plays beautifully, and it's nice that he avoids
the too-common slash-and-burn approach, but the concerto's first movement
is rather uneventful and the last movement seems heavy. Again, it's
the detailed slow movement that makes the greatest impression. As a
bonus, Gringolts offers Sibelius' four mercurial humoresques of Op.
89, and here his reserve seems better placed. Too bad he elects not
to complete the set with the two Op. 87b humoresques; the disc could
have accommodated another six minutes.
—J.R.
Hidden Sky.
Jami Sieber, electric cello and vocals; the Thai Elephant Orchestra,
angklung, renat, gong, drum, drum/cymbal, vocalizations; Eyvind Kang,
viola. (Out Front Music, 1010)
On her third CD under her
own name, Seattle-based composer and cellist Jami Sieber retains the
emphasis on texture that distinguished her previous recordings, 1995's
Lush Mechanique and 1998's Second Sight, but applies it
to dramatically different ends. Known in the Seattle area for her role
in the early '90s rock band Rumors of the Big Wave and her musical work
in theater, Sieber is also recognized in wider folk-pop and women's-music
circles for recording and performing with singer-songwriters Jennifer
Berezan and Ferron. Hidden Sky opens up on altogether new worlds
of artistic collaboration.
The recording is a musical
extrapolation of the epiphanies Sieber experienced on a trip to Thailand
in 2001, when she encountered a unique orchestra at the Thai Elephant
Conservation Center, where precocious pachyderms with such names as
Phong and Prathida played xylophones, drums, and other percussion instruments.
Sieber added recordings of the Thai Elephant Orchestra to only two tracks
of Hidden Sky, "Sukhotai Rain" and "A Common Music," but the
other ten pieces—with such titles as "Mandlovu Mind" ("mandlovu"
means elephant in the language of the N'debele people of Zimbabwe),
"Out of the Mist," "Maenam," and "Homage"—clearly share
the same inspiration. Ranging from solo electric cello through various
trios, quartets, and larger ensembles, the performances hinge on slowly
unfolding romantic melodies voiced with the dense, dark timbre of Sieber's
masterfully wielded instrument. Impeccably clear and spaciously produced
arrangements incorporate electric bass, viola, saxophone, classical
guitar, a wide variety of ethnic strings and percussion, as well as
a Croation-inspired vocal choir ("Arms of the Mother"), and reinforce
the contemplative and devotional spirit of the music.
But lucid compositional
vision, musical complexity, and stirring expressiveness dispel any facile
new age associations. The way Sieber employs overdubbing and processing
and entwines lovely singing with spoken work on the few vocal pieces
recall Laurie Anderson's art-pop. But Hidden Sky is her own kind
of world music, boasting immediate emotional impact and conveying resonant
themes of an interconnectedness that goes beyond the gorgeous sounds.
—Derk
Richardson
Daniel S. Godfrey,
String Quartets Nos. 2 and 3; Romanza (adapted from String Quartet
No. 1). Cassatt Quartet: Muneko Otani and Jennifer Leshnower, violins;
Michiko Oshima, viola; Kelly Mikkelsen, cello; with Tawnya Popoff, viola;
Caroline Stinson, cello; on some tracks. (Koch Entertainment, 3-7573-2)
Daniel S. Godfrey knows
a thing or two about atonality, modernism, experimentalism, and the
post-Webern aesthetic. In fact, this Yale-trained composer wrote the
book on the subject, literally: Godfrey's authoritative text Music
Since 1945: Issues, Materials, and Literature (Schirmer Books, 1993),
cowritten by Elliot Schwartz, is required reading in many advanced-music
courses. Yet Godfrey is the proponent of one of the most interesting
tonal styles around. His string works are filled with lyrical, often
melancholic, frequently beautiful melodies that, as longtime friend
Harlow Robinson opines in the liner notes, are always marked by "some
kind of a twist," a fact that has led critics to compare Godfrey to
Ravel and Debussy (Robinson likens his old friend to a young Stravinsky).
These three works are beautifully executed by the young Cassatt Quartet,
named for the celebrated American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt
and formed in 1985 with the encouragement of the Juilliard Quartet.
This marvelous recording should serve as a good starting point for those
unfamiliar with Godfrey (a professor of music at the Setnor School of
Music at Syracuse University. He also is founder and codirector of the
Seal Bay Festival of American Chamber Music on the rugged Maine coast,
a setting depicted on the CD jacket and evoked through the wistful inspiration
of these complex yet accessible compositions. If the string quartets
don't impress you then check out the 10-minute Romanza, which Godfrey
has described as "an extended aria for string quartet, with an intimately
personal undercurrent." It is pure poetry passionately played by the
stellar Cassatts, and should win you over as a fan of composer and quartet
alike.
—Greg
Cahill
Shostakovich: Violin
Sonata; 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano. Grigory Kalinovsky,
violin; Tatiana Goncharova, piano. (Centaur CRC 2636)
Grigory Kalinovsky, a faculty
member of the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division and other
educational programs, is an intelligent, probing violinist, but in the
Shostakovich Violin Sonata he and pianist Tatiana Goncharova, like most
mere mortals, can't match the intensity of Oistrakh and Richter, who
premiered the work in 1968. This is dark, late Shostakovich—not
as remote as some of the composer's other late pieces, including the
final quartets and the viola sonata—but Kalinovsky doesn't
quite plumb all the depths. Some of his double-stop passages in the
first movement are more shrill than sardonic, the central Allegretto
has high energy but sounds a bit raw, and the violinist can't quite
hold together the initial pizzicato statement of the finale's passacaglia
theme. This is an able performance, but not up to the standard of the
work's dedicatee, nor, for that matter, Jaime Laredo's performance in
the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio's 1997 survey of Shostakovich's
trios and string sonatas.
Kalinovsky is far more in
his element in the disc's second half, Shostakovich's 24 Preludes of
Op. 34, originally for piano. Violinist Dmitri Tziganov of the Beethoven
Quartet transcribed all but five of them for violin and piano in the
1930s; Eleonora Turovsky of the Borodin Trio made the most recommendable
recording of that set in the late 1980s. Kalinovsky offers what may
be the first recording of all 24 preludes, the five orphans newly transcribed
by the brilliant young Russian composer Lera Auerbach. Kalinovsky has
the full measure of this music, easily shifting from lyricism to playfulness
to tragedy. Buy this disc for the preludes, and think of the sonata
as a bonus.
—J.R.
Brahms: Sonatas for
Cello and Piano, Nos. 1 & 2; Bruch: Kol Nidrei. Jacqueline
du Pré, cello; Israel Philharmonic, Daniel Barenboim, piano and
conductor. (EMI Classics, 5 57750 0)
Recorded in 1968, a year
after cellist Jacqueline du Pré's marriage to Daniel Barenboim
and only three years before the onset of her illness at the height of
her career, this disc will leave you overwhelmed and heartbroken. The
very first note of the E-minor
Sonata, with its organ-like resonance, focused intensity, and concentration,
heralds unique performances. Du Pré's tone is incomparably beautiful,
warm, pure, adaptable to every change of mood, expression, and character,
and Barenboim matches her perfectly, always present but never too prominent.
The balance is perfect, the ensemble has the natural give-and-take of
intimate conversation. This is a daring, no-holds-barred, larger-than-life
interpretation: very free, with lots of tempo changes, ritards, and
long pauses, expansive enough to make every note count, yet full of
sweep, youthful exuberance, and irrepressible romantic ardor (with excessive
slides only in the second sonata's slow movement and the Bruch). Strangely
enough, the players rerecorded, and released, the Brahms Sonatas a month
later (EMI, 7 63298 2); that performance is also very good, but more
careful and restrained; gone is the spontaneous, uninhibited response
to the music that makes the earlier one so irresistible.
—E.E.
Violin Concertos by
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912) and Dvorák (1841–1904).
Philippe Graffin, violin; Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Michael
Hankinson, conductor. (Avie, AV0044)
This disc pairs a premiere
recording of a virtually unknown concerto and a beloved masterpiece.
Coleridge-Taylor, son of a doctor from Sierra Leone and an English mother,
studied and worked in London, but was keenly interested in indigenous
African and American music—his most famous work is the cantata
"Hiawatha." The concerto's opening draws on the African-American spiritual,
but its structure, virtuosic solo part, flowing melodies, rich harmonies,
and orchestration follow the tradition of the European romantics, most
noticeably Bruch and Dvorák, Coleridge-Taylor's hero, who had
himself been influenced by Native-American and African-American music.
Both concertos recorded here were premiered in America by Maud Powell,
Coleridge-Taylor's dedicatee. The recording, made in Johannesburg, is
a monument to courage and commitment. The orchestra was formed by a
group of intrepid musicians in 2000 despite dire economic conditions;
Graffin calls playing with them a privilege. In the Dvorák, captured
live, neither soloist nor orchestra seems quite comfortable with the
Czech idiom, the tricky cross-rhythms, the mercurial mood changes, but
the Coleridge-Taylor is totally secure and convincing. Graffin handles
his demanding part brilliantly; his tone is perhaps too unremittingly
intense, but beautiful and expressive. The orchestra sounds grand, the
balance is exemplary.
—E.E.
Gitane Cajun.
BeauSoleil: Michael Doucet, fiddle; David Doucet, guitar; Jimmy Breaux,
accordion; Tommy Alesi, drums; and Billy Ware, percussion. (Vanguard,
854-2)
On its first studio album
in five years, Louisiana's premiere Cajun band stomps, waltzs, and two-steps
its way through nine originals (penned by Michael Doucet)—including
"Me and Dennis," Doucet's nod to his onetime mentor, Cajun fiddle legend
Dennis McGee—and a handful of covers that pay tribute to
other past Louisiana masters, including fiddler Canray Fontentot (regarded
by some as the last purveyor of the authentic pre-Zydeco 19th-century
fiddle style). This Grammy-winning outfit is deeply immersed in the
French music of Southwest Louisiana but shows an easy command of the
myriad regional styles that inhabit this corner of the United States,
from the blues-inflected Triplets of Belleville cabaret of "La
Flech d'Amour" to the honky tonkin' Western swing of "Lena Mae." There's
everything from swamp pop to modern medieval tunes, and the band evokes
a timeless bayou vibe throughout.
—G.C.
Josef Suk (1874–1935):
Piano Quintet Op. 8, Piano Quartet Op. 1, Four Pieces for Violin and
Piano Op. 17. The Nash Ensemble with artistic director Amelia
Freeman. (Hyperion, CDA67448)
This year's centenary of
Dvorák's death may help to draw attention to his son-in-law and
best student, Josef Suk (grandfather and namesake of the well-known
violinist). Frequently performed in his own country, Suk's music has
been unjustly neglected elsewhere, a great pity since he was an excellent
composer. The works recorded here by the Nash Ensemble of London, written
just before and after Suk turned 20, display a fine sense of structure,
cohesion, and contrast, and masterful control in pacing and building
powerful climaxes. His far-flung modulations are imaginative, his instrumental
writing combines solos for everyone with carefully balanced ensembles.
Though rooted in romanticism, his style is very much his own, despite
inevitable echoes of Brahms and Dvorák. His melodies sing and
soar; the music encompasses fervent longing, ardent passion, ironic
humor, and ranges from meltingly lyrical to ominously dramatic, ghostly
to celestial. Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 17, is one of the
best groups of short pieces in the repertoire, both brilliantly effective
and full of character. The Nash's playing is splendid: idiomatic, affectionate,
expressive, rhythmically pungent, ravishing in sound, it does full justice
to these enchantingly beautiful, very difficult works.
—E.E.
