Concerto
Erik Levi delights in effervescent performances led brilliantly from the keyboard by pianist Lars Vogt
Brahms
Piano Concerto No. 2; Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24 Lars Vogt (piano); Royal Northern Sinfonia Ondine ODE 1346-2 74:38 mins This is Brahms playing of the highest quality. Lars Vogt secures an ideal balance between the intellectual and emotional components of these two epic works. He delivers a blisteringly exciting account of the Handel Variations, maximising the degree of contrast between the individual variations whilst at the same time driving forward with a great sense of purpose towards the glorious concluding Fugue. The warmly recorded performance of the Second Piano Concerto is equally compelling, benefiting from Vogt’s subtle manipulation of rubato, structural lucidity and the astonishing wealth of colours he draws from the piano. This fluidity of sound is most obviously exemplified by contrasting the veiled almost impressionistic textures of the middle of the Andante with the richly sonorous cadenza passages in the first movement which are powerfully enhanced by Vogt’s insightful delineation of the all-important bass lines.
Vogt’s achievement is all the more impressive since he directs the Concerto from the keyboard, something rarely undertaken by other interpreters of the work. Instead of the conventional battle-royal between soloist and orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia respond to the nuances in his playing with solid ensemble and chamber music-like sensitivity, notably in quieter passages in the first and third movements.
In such an over-recorded work, there are inevitably some contentious interpretative decisions. At the start of the Andante, might the expressively played but fast-flowing cello solo have projected more repose in the light of the storms and stresses of the preceding Allegro appassionato? But any misgivings soon evaporated following the mesmerisingly beautiful arabesques of Vogt’s first entry in the movement.
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine website at www.classical-music.com
Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 2; Piano Concerto No. 5 ‘Emperor’; Piano Concerto in D, Op. 61a (arr. of Violin Concerto); Fantasia for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra in C minor, Op. 80*
Inon Barnatan (piano); *London Voices; Academy of St Martin in the Fields/alan Gilbert
Pentatone PTC 5186 824
133:40 mins (2 discs)
It was Clementi, in his guise as a London music publisher, who commissioned Beethoven to transform his famous violin concerto into a piano concerto.
The transcription has been much maligned, and it’s true that it’s often rather workmanlike; but there’s no shortage of imaginative touches, and the wild and wacky cadenzas (Beethoven left none for the violin version) have to be heard to be believed. The talented Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan finds much poetry in the piece, and only out and out purists are likely to worry about him supplying one or two notes right at the top of the keyboard which weren’t available to Beethoven in 1807 (though already by the time he wrote his cadenzas a couple of years later he was able to avail himself of the missing notes).
The Choral Fantasia is another work that sometimes gets a bad press, but more than just a dryrun for the last movement of the Ninth Symphony it’s a fascinating amalgam of improvisation, variations, concerto and cantata. The piece is very well handled here by Barnatan with London Voices and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Alan Gilbert.
There’s some fine playing in the two concertos, too, though there are moments when the Emperor could have done with greater grandeur: the double-octaves passage midway through the first movement, for instance, or the very end of the movement – the only instance known to me of an fff marking in Beethoven’s piano music. But Barnatan more than compensates with the expressiveness and poetry of his performance elsewhere.
Misha Donat
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
The orchestra responds with chamber musiclike sensitivity
Beethoven • Grieg • Mozart
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2*; Mozart: Divertimento in D, K136 – Allegro; Grieg: Holberg Suite
Martha Argerich (piano)*; Mito Chamber Orchestra/seiji Ozawa Decca 485 0592 56:29 mins
This is a strange disc, giving the impression that it has been issued for the benefit of one performance, live, and filled by two studio performances from a couple of years earlier. The live performance, from last year, is of Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto, recorded for the umpteenth time by the supreme Martha Argerich. She favours this concerto because she feels that it is relatively neglected. It is, slightly, though for the good reason that the other four are greater – the Second is actually the first, and comparatively unadventurous, though Argerich makes this, like almost everything she touches, fresh, sparkling, unpredictable. It must have been tricky for the Mito Chamber Orchestra, conducted by the elderly Seiji Ozawa, to keep up with her, though she has recorded with them before. But with the many other recordings of the Second she has made, all of them more interestingly coupled, this seems superfluous.
The fillers, recorded in the studio two years earlier, are the first movement of a Mozart Divertimento – why not all of it? – and Grieg’s Holberg Suite in an undistinguished, joyless account. It would have been a good idea, surely, to wait for Argerich, a frequent visitor, to record one of the other Beethoven concertos she likes to play. Michael Tanner PERFORMANCE ★★★ RECORDING ★★★★
Clyne • Elgar
Clyne: Dance; Elgar: Cello Concerto
Inbal Segev (cello);
London Philharmonic Orchestra/ Marin Alsop
Avie AV2419 54:15 mins
Israeli-born cellist Inbal Segev’s performance of the Elgar Concerto is poetic, passionate and phrased with a suppleness and spontaneity which make for absorbing listening. The opening movement is palpably yearning from the outset, with little of the stiff upper lip some interpreters favour, and the scherzo is a delight, popping with a sense of mischief and energised agility.
Segev’s Adagio is candidly emotional without ever seeming sentimental, her burnished tone a constant pleasure to listen to.
The finale has fire but avoids melodramatics, and Marin Alsop and the London Philharmonic Orchestra provide accompaniment that is full of character. All told, Segev’s performance – highly individual yet never idiosyncratic – competes strongly in a crowded catalogue and repays repeated listening.
The coupling is ambitious – Dance, a five-movement work for cello and orchestra by the English composer Anna Clyne (b1980), commissioned by Segev and premiered by her in America a year ago. Clyne had Elgar’s Concerto in mind as she composed Dance, but it’s generally a more robust, combative piece, flecked with folk music influences (Clyne has Jewish, English and Irish antecedents).
The cello is balanced further forward in both pieces than some listeners will like, and Segev occasionally sniffs obtrusively.
But this is a bold and rewarding issue and deserves to be successful. Terry Blain
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Haydn
Cello Concerto in D, Op. 101, Hob. VIIB:2; Cello Concerto
No. 1 in C, Hob. VIIB:1; Symphony No. 13 in D –
Adagio Cantabile
Natalie Clein (cello); Recreation-grosses Orchester Graz/
Michael Hofstetter
Oehms OC1895 56:53 mins
Unlike Mozart, Haydn seems to have been a no more than average string or keyboard player and the concerto form was less central to his output. But on at least two occasions he was evidently inspired by exceptional players to compose cello concertos – a genre Mozart never got around to. The early D major Concerto, premiered in 1765 when Haydn was 31, was composed for the cellist of the Esterházy Court Orchestra Josef Franz Weigl; the C major in 1783 for Weigl’s successor, Anton Kraft. Both players must have been real virtuosos for much of the solo writing remains demanding to this day.
The earlier work presents a mix of Baroque and galante manners, with a brisk, march-like first movement of strutting rhythms, resonant solo quadruple-stopped chords and high-flying figuration and a hustling moto perpetuo finale. The leisurely opening movement of the later work is laid out on an almost Mozartian scale, with a slow movement like a Haydn middle-period symphony and an elegant moderato gigue as finale. Natalie Clein’s impetuous virtuosity and sensitively moulded phrasing with a subtle feeling for Classical rubato, on her gut-stringed 1777 Guadagnini cello, make the very most of the many-changing modes and moods of these two works – and of the ornately wandering cello obligato of the slow movement of Haydn’s Symphony No 13, included as filler.
Michael Hofstetter’s moderninstrument orchestra responds with crispness and warmth, and these live performances in the Stefaniensaal, Graz are recorded with almost startling presence by Oehms. A real pleasure. Bayan Northcott. PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★
Mozart
Piano Concertos, Vol. 2: No.
5 in D, K175; No. 15 in B flat, K450*; No. 16 in D, K451** Anne-marie Mcdermott (piano); Odense Symphony Orchestra/ Andreas Delfs, **Kenneth Montgomery, *Gilbert Varga
Bridge BRIDGE 9523 69:08 mins
Since fewer than half of Mozart’s piano concertos habitually make it onto 21st-century concert platforms (when any are open), an ongoing series of discs including comparative rarities is always welcome. In this second volume of one such sequence, the pianist Anne-marie Mcdermott turns to three ebullient and charming works that are rarely given their due. The early D major Concerto K175 was Mozart’s first triumph in the genre, proving popular on his travels in his late teens; K450 and K451 date from 1784 and were designed for his own subscription concerts, which were valuable as he sought to establish himself at the heart of Vienna’s musical life.
These are deceptively tricky works: ideally they should sound effortless, yet one note out of place can risk derailing the whole thing. No such mishap occurs here. Mcdermott’s playing suits them extremely well: she offers a natural flow, unaffected and songful phrasing, and close attention to the blend of her sound with the ensemble. The Odense Symphony Orchestra may not be wholly slick, but in all three concertos, each with
a different conductor (for reasons that are not immediately apparent), their approach, like Mcdermott’s, is engaging and direct. The music has room to ebb, flow, breathe and speak, without any sense of extraneous agenda and no inclination towards point-scoring, while the crucial woodwind solos are delivered with some aplomb. In general, these are modest, unassuming accounts that exude affection and can get under your skin quite rapidly. Recorded sound quality is warm and accommodating, even if not the sharpest in definition. Jessica Duchen
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★
Prado
Piano Concerto No. 1; Aurora; Concerto Fribourgeois
Sonia Rubinsky (piano);
Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra/fabio Mechetti
Naxos 8.574225 71:12 mins
Almeida Prado (1943–2010) remains one of Brazil’s most celebrated composers, justly acclaimed for the colour, drama and technical rigour of his music. This collection of works for piano and orchestra showcases the composer’s startling musical imagination and is performed with mastery and poise by Brazilian pianist Sonia Rubinsky and the Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra (MGPO).
The free-form Aurora (1975) is the earliest piece included and perhaps the most radical, drawing on Prado’s technique of ‘transtonality’ – a free exploration of the overtone series, developed in response to the composer’s studies with Messiaen. By turns intricate and sweeping in its orchestral sonorities, the work is a powerful evocation of the force and mystery of the rising sun. Well matched by the excellent MGPO, Rubinsky’s vivid performance is rich in contrasts: she finds terrific clarity in the fragments of melody that shimmer in the keyboard’s upper reaches and brings ferocious energy to the work’s driving rhythms and thunderous cluster chords.
The two concertos featured are both in dialogue with more traditional forms, although no less dramatic for this. Concerto Fribourgeois (1985) was composed in homage to Bach on the 300th anniversary of his birth and transforms Baroque themes and idioms in its eight tightlyconstructed sections, while the Piano Concerto No. 1 (1982-3) follows a loose theme and variations structure, exploring every inch of the theme with an almost destructive intensity.
One general quibble is the recording quality, which leaves the orchestra somewhat muffled in places, but the piano is crisply captured and this is otherwise a warmly recommended new disc. Kate Wakeling
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★
Gabriel Prokofiev
Concerto for Turntables & Orchestra*; Cello Concerto** *Mr Switch (turntables), Boris Andrianov (cello); Ural Philharmonic Orchestra/alexey Bogorad
Signum Classics SIGCD 628 48:37 mins Composed in 2006, Gabriel Prokofiev’s Concerto for Turntables No. 1 dexterously brings together traditions old and new from seemingly antithetical cultures. Far more than a mashup of classical orchestra and hip-hop, its stylistic spectrum embraces Baroque dance forms and 19th-century Romanticism – with a nod to then-fashionable piano duels – Stravinsky and jazz, as well as today’s diverse urban street scene.
The full symphonic version is recorded here alongside the
2012 Cello Concerto, arguably the most conventional – but hardly uninventive – of Prokofiev’s many concertos to date. Under conductor Alexey Bogorad, the
Ural Philharmonic Orchestra and respective soloists Mr
Switch (turntables) and Boris Andrianov (cello) bring to each a spirit of adventure, and a sense of history rendered poignant in the latter work’s memorialising of family members crushed by Soviet repression. But the overall tone is typically up-beat – and off-beat. Showcasing an array of virtuoso DJ techniques, Switch parleys with the orchestra, sampling its material then throwing it back spliced, looped and manipulated into shapes like balloons at a party. That the soloist’s part was overdubbed is impressive, and a reminder that classical recording – not just grime and garage et al – has always relied on technology.
The sense of spontaneity is carried into the Cello Concerto where five dramatic movements become three, arranged around the central Russia-focused Lento. From nervous agitation to playful delicacy and deep feeling, Andrianov emerges from the orchestra in a way which foregrounds Prokofiev’s thoughtful optimism, so contrasting his grandfather’s suffering, sardonic edge. Steph Power
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Telemann
Concerto in C, TWV 51:C1; Concerto in F, TWV 52:F1; Ouverture-suite in G,
TWV 55:G5
Vincent Lauzer (recorder), Mathieu Lussier (bassoon); Arion Baroque Orchestra/alexander Weimann ATMA Classique ACD 22789 59:12 mins Telemann’s Concerto in C major for recorder has appeared many times in the recording catalogue and is among the most rewarding pieces for the instrument of the late Baroque period. Even more impressive, though is the companion Concerto in F major on this disc, scored for treble recorder, bassoon and strings. Seasoned devotees of this composer’s music probably will have first encountered it in an unforgettable recording with Frans Brüggen, Otto Fleischmann and the Vienna Concentus Musicus directed by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. I mention it not for any feeling of nostalgia but because these artists revealed an understanding of Telemann’s art which was and remains revelatory.
That being said, this new recording by the Canada-based Arion Baroque Orchestra is lively, stylish and immensely enjoyable. Vincent Lauzer’s recorder playing is athletic and virtuosic as readers will discover in the Tempo di minuet of the C major Concerto.
The tempo is far too brisk for my understanding of a minuet, but the trend is regrettably fashionable at the moment. The double concerto comes off well with effective, wellbalanced dialogue between the protagonists. The third movement Grave is sensitively executed, though elsewhere Mathieu Lussier’s intonation is not infallible.
The G major Ouverture-suite for two oboes, bassoon and strings is a substantial work and, as far as I know, recorded here for the first time. Its ten movements are in Telemann’s best manner, where pièces de caractère jostle with more abstract utterances, among which an ‘Entrée’ and a ‘Plainte’ deserve special mention. Ian Payne’s edition is excellent and so is the performance and the recorded sound. Nicholas Anderson PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★