This Odyssey reveals a rare piano talent
Easter Island’s Mehani Teave performs a poetic debut, says Jessica Duchen
Rapa Nui Odyssey
JS Bach: Chromatic Fantasia
& Fugue in D minor, BWV 903; Chopin: Nocturnes Nos 1 & 19, etc; Handel: Keyboard Suite, HWV 430 in E; Liszt: Ballade No. 2 in B minor; Vallée d’obermann; plus works by Rachmaninov and Scriabin Mehani Teave (piano)
Rubicon RCD1066 102:32 mins (2 discs) It’s not often that a recording with a ‘backstory’ turns out as impressive as this. The stringed instrument collector David Fulton, on a cruise in the South Pacific, found himself at a concert by pupils of the Easter Island Music School, concluded by its founder, Mehani Teave. Her artistry bowled him over; this, her first recording, is the happy result. Teave studied at the Cleveland Institute in the US and the Hanns Eisler Academy in Berlin before returning to Easter Island to found her school.
She is in her late 30s, but sounds more like an artist of the 1950s/’60s, following in the footsteps of an
Arrau or Nikolayeva: someone with an entirely natural feel for what the piano is all about and a personality that can meld ideally with the composers’ worlds. She has a rich, luminous tone – and just try the deep, growling opening of the Liszt Ballade No. 2 – which complements a splendid instinct for rubato, expert voicing and colouring. Her wide expressive range can embrace the contrapuntal vigour of Handel, the flair and proud rhetoric of Liszt (Vallée d’obermann is a special highlight), the dusky outpourings of Scriabin and Chopin that is exquisitely controlled and intensely poetic. There’s genuine virtuosity, without one note of bluff, bluster or vulgarity. The piece based on the Easter Island song I hē a Hotumatu’a is dazzling and heartfelt; and the disc ends with Chopin’s E minor Nocturne rapt and tender, drifting away into the waves. This is sincere, pure and magnificent artistry. PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★
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There’s genuine virtuosity without a note of bluff or bluster
Hammerklavier necessitated a reappraisal a decade or so later).
The opening of the Appassionata might be a touch devoid of mystery, but Roscoe scrupulously registers every dynamic and expressive detail, drills incisively into the fidgety triplet repetitions and imbues the contrasting idea with a sonorous nobility. That same keen intelligence, structural certainty and sophisticated palette also enlivens Les Adieux where, again, just occasionally, the letter of Beethoven’s instructions wins out over their spirit – not that there’s any lack of spirit as Roscoe nails the tremulous excitement unleashed by the finale. Paul Riley PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
★★★★
★★★★★
Chopin • Debussy • Musorgsky
Chopin: 24 Preludes; Debussy: Children’s Corner; Musorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
Behzod Abduraimov (piano)
Alpha Classics ALPHA653 83:51 mins Behzod Abduraimov’s unmistakable talent is exhibited through long stretches of this disc. Sadly, though, it is counterbalanced by errors of taste and judgment that range from the merely irritating to the downright shocking. He’s at his best in the Musorgsky Pictures, where his fullblooded technique and sonority make for a powerful and generally persuasive performance. But even here, he loses the plot in ‘Bydlo’ by making the rhythm ‘interesting’: no, it has to be metronomic and soulless, like the wheels of the oxcart. His Debussy suffers from time to time from the current malaise of treating the length of rests as a negotiable item: in ‘The Little Shepherd’, he inserts an unwanted gap between bars 26 and 27 and then ignores Debussy’s instruction ‘en conservant le rythme’.
But his worst errors occur in the Chopin Preludes. At the end of the F minor one, the extended gap before the two final chords makes one wonder whether he has popped out for a drink, while in the evennumbered bars of the A major the 3/4 time signature becomes 4/4. In the central section of the ‘Raindrop’ he plays discredited and melodically awkward C sharps in the left hand instead of the now accepted Es from Chopin’s autograph in the Polish National Library in Warsaw. But his worst assault on Chopin’s music comes in the E flat minor Prelude, where his overpedalling produces nothing less than a travesty. And yet, in the F major, his delicacy and phrasing are delightful.
Roger Nichols
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
Cecilia Mcdowall
★★★
★★★★
Organ Works
William Fox (organ)
Naxos 8.579077 65:04 mins
Cecilia
Mcdowall may be best known for her choral compositions, but this British composer obviously knows her way round the organ console as well. That much is clear from the opening stretch of Celebration, this collection’s first track, with its energising mix of brilliant treble fireworks and forceful bass underpinnings – perfect for the piece’s function as accompaniment to a graduate ceremony procession. A little later, momentum is briefly halted as if a graduate had tripped on a gown; a misstep echoed on a larger canvas in the weak conclusion to the O Antiphon Sequence and her awkward arrangement of the choral Three Antiphons for the far different forces of organ and trumpet. Still, passing misjudgments are regularly outweighed by Mcdowall’s melodic fluency, rhythmic vitality and eagerness to please.
On his solo recording debut, the young and gifted William Fox offers his own panache, drawing out the many colours of the lively 1963 Walker organ at the Church of St John the Evangelist in Islington, London. First Flight, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci and the 1969 moon landing, is a particularly convincing showpiece, flying high on airborne textures while steadily gathering blazing force. The George Herbert Trilogy, its movements scattered throughout the album, convincingly pursues a knottier vein, especially in the almost frightening ‘Sacred and Hallowed Fire’; while, before its last dip, the
O Antiphon Sequence of 2018 speeds through seven miniature Advent meditations with concise skill and captivating aplomb. In every area (music, performer, instrument, recording) this album offers plenty to enjoy. Geoff Brown PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
★★★★
★★★★
Paganini
24 Caprices
Ning Feng (violin)
Channel Classics CCS 43221 75:29 mins There have been many and varied bravura recordings of Paganini’s Caprices these last years – they are, after all, the go-to for virtuosic display, written by the legendary 19th-century violinist as a way of showcasing his phenomenal technique. Here Ning Feng adds his own deeply expressive yet understated interpretation.
From the fabulously virtuosic first, the trademark rapid string skittering is exhilaratingly done, countered by Feng’s breath-like touch and expression in the lovely No. 4. Feng plays with exquisite lightness in places, but there is humour, too, notably the hill road ups and downs of No. 5, which rise and fall as if on cartoon wheels, teetering at the top and sliding down joyfully into the valley below to gain momentum for the next hill.
There is superb touch and expression, whether in the pastoral call and response of No. 9 or the tentative, wistful trilling of No. 6. Feng’s sound has great warmth in the lower register and lightness up top – there is nothing grandstandingly showy here, but a virtuosic truth to the music, which might sound contradictory given that we are talking about Paganini, but brings remarkable clarity.
The coda is a 25th Caprice ‘d’adieu’, dedicated to the German violinist Eduard Eliason, a light, technically challenging powderpuff finish, as if a final wink.
Sarah Urwin Jones
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
Prokofiev
★★★★★
★★★★
Piano Sonata No. 8; Visions fugitives; Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet
Nicholas Angelich (piano)
Erato 9029526768 75:20 mins
Poulenc, quoted in the booklet, described Prokofiev’s own piano playing as having ‘a steellike sinewy strength’. Nicholas Angelich’s playing here certainly matches this description, and as with his earlier Brahms albums he brings a clear focus to layers of counterpoint and thematic transformations in the Eighth Sonata. But though the notes themselves are scrupulously presented, Angelich is often cavalier with dynamics. The Allegro moderato section which bubbles up from the opening Andante dolce’s piano ending begins distinctly louder, rather than Prokofiev’s required pianissimo start.
Furthermore, Angelich’s semi-quavers are not so much fleet-fingered as despatched with a steely efficiency: the toccata passages of the Sonata’s finale never glitter as they should. And there is nothing of Prokofiev’s insouciant quality to be found either in the Sonata’s second movement (rather lugubrious in Angelich’s hands), or in so many of the Visions fugitives.
In the latter, Angelich is sometimes perversely heavy handed, with forte hammering (as in so many of the deep bass notes of ‘Arpa’, or the ending of Allegretto tranquillo) where the music is marked pianissimo.
Angelich’s unrelenting gravitas in the Eighth is more appropriate in the last of the Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, given probably his strongest performance here. Also striking is the unusual but not inappropriate parallel Angelich draws between the ‘Juliet as a Young Girl’ and the Sonata. If only he had made the start of that piece rather less hard and efficient, and transferred some of its more tender and playful qualities to the Eighth. Daniel Jaffé PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
★★★
★★★★
Bach & Beyond, Part 3
JS Bach: Solo Violin Sonatas Nos 2 & 3, BWV 1003 & 1005; Berio: Sequenza VIII for Solo Violin;
John Harbison: For Violin Alone Jennifer Koh (violin)
Cédille CDR 90000 199
86:23 mins (2 discs)
Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas are the prime progenitors of later works for solo violin, and there’s a growing tradition for performers to programme them with contemporary pieces. For the final part of her series, Jennifer Koh opens with Bach’s Second Sonata, and the musing character of the opening Grave is effective and affecting from the first notes, with beautiful, varied tone and fluid vibrato. By contrast, the ensuing Fuga presses forward with unerring momentum, and the contrapuntal lines are inflected with individuality in dynamics and phrasing. The Andante has a relentless tread in its repeated quavers, and the moto perpetuo of the final Allegro dances at a fine lick.
Its a similar story of the marriage between technical certainty and musical imagination in the Third
Sonata, where the long Fuga is even more impressive in its control, and the two slow movements – the first with its gently rocking dotted rhythm, and the second with its long cantabile line – are played with an impeccable sense of style.
Berio’s Sequenza VIII is a single span which exploits an even greater range of techniques than Bach, where Koh isn’t afraid to produce some ugly sounds: the opening grinding dissonances, and some double stops later on, punctuating a wild whirling of notes, before the gently contemplative ending. Harbison’s For Violin Alone, a suite of six short movements and an epilogue, is a more approachable work, written for Koh, who gives it an involved performance: not as memorable as Bach, or even Berio though. Martin Cotton PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
Cello 360
★★★★★
★★★★★
Works by Casals, Chaplin, Dowland, Dutilleux, Grieg, Ligeti, M Marais, Purcell, Rameau, Saddier, Sainte Colombe the elder, Telemann, et al. Christian-pierre La Marca (cello) Naïve V7260 73:40 mins
Here’s a project for the pandemic era of solitude and separation, recorded in the summer of 2020. What can a cellist achieve alone? A polyphonic, technicolour panorama in Christian-pierre La Marca’s idiosyncratic tour through the distant and immediate musical past. His sequence swerves Bach, Abel and Britten in favour of Marais, Telemann, Grieg, Dutilleux, Escaich and Chaplin.
Stand-out among the performances are those works which revel in the full potential of the solo instrument. One such is Ligeti’s powerful 1953 solo sonata (a work that now seems oddly prescient of Britten’s Third Suite, though it wasn’t premiered until after his death). La Marca’s is a consummate reading, expressing the deep melancholy of its ‘Dialogue’, and delivering a dazzling ‘Capriccio’. Dutilleux’s brilliantly articulate Trois Strophes sur le nom SACHER give us a choir of diverse cellistic voices, from ghostly breath, percussive chatter to pure incandescence: La Marca achieves them all with stylish fluency. He describes himself as an ambassador for Thierry Escaich’s fiery Cantus (2005), and he inhabits its teetering architecture with compelling imagination. This piece deserves to become as popular as Sollima’s crowd-pleasing Lamentatio.
Less successful are his forays into the gamba repertoire. While he dashes off a delightful Allegro vivace from Telemann’s Suite TWV401, and recreates a pleasing consort for Dowland’s Lachrimae antiquae, the pieces by Marais, Rameau and St Colombe don’t quite take flight, despite his use of a baroque bow. Song arrangements like Grieg’s ‘Solveig’s Song’ and Chaplin’s ‘Smile’ have a curiously drifting quality: perhaps a singer does need an accompanist after all. Helen Wallace PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★★
Vida breve
Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 2; plus works by Bach, Busoni, Gounod, Hough and Liszt Stephen Hough (piano)
Hyperion CDA68260 74:19 mins
‘Vida breve’
(life is short), the subtitle of Stephen Hough’s Piano Sonata
No. 4, is the theme explored throughout this album. The central statements are Chopin’s Second Sonata, with its ‘funeral march’ slow movement, and Liszt’s Funérailles – comtemporaneous with Chopin’s death, but more likely commemorating the dead in the Hungarian uprising against the Habsburg Empire in the same year. There are also two Busoni transcriptions, of Bach’s D minor Violin Chaconne (maybe written in memory of the composer’s first wife) and themes from Bizet’s Carmen (another short-lived individual).
The sequence works well as a recital-like experience, and also as a vehicle for Hough’s comprehensive mastery of his art. His booklet introduction describes Busoni’s Bach transcription as ‘a towering cathedral of sound’, which indeed it is, and his playing impressively mirrors the immensity both of Bach’s conception and of Busoni’s tumultuous pianistic response. He brings the same monumental approach to the huge column-like pillars of sonority of Funérailles, following this with a super-virtuoso delivery of Liszt’s Bagatelle sans tonalité in which, says Hough, ‘we face the Devil himself’. The idiom of his own ‘Vida breve’ Sonata, with its cogent sweep and flawlessly written fugato sections, is intriguingly difficult to pin down – somewhere between Busoni and Albéniz, perhaps? Hough’s relatively severe way with Chopin’s Sonata, though appropriate to the programme’s overall conception, maybe restrains the music’s element of dreamy poetry a little too much, but any such reservation has to be marginal. And the two concluding encorelike numbers add a note of quiet consolation. Malcolm Hayes PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★
Michael Church presents our occasional look at the best world music releases March round-up
Armenia: The Art of the Duduk reflects a venerable instrumental tradition in its purest form. This apricot-wood oboe has ten finger holes and the span of a mere octave plus a third, and its unique doublereed mouthpiece requires much skill to master. Performers come in twos, one providing the melodic line and the other a drone, but the palette of colour is remarkable: it can be hard as iron or caressingly sweet, with a gamut of emotion in between. Haig Sarikouyoumdjian is the soloist here, and gives us a taste of traditional Armenian improvisation as well as examples of regional styles. His sound seems infinitely malleable, and his improvisations roam thrillingly. (Ocora C 560287
★★★★★)
Cape Verde: An Archipelago of Music is the result of a recording trip through all the inhabited islands of Cape Verde in 1998, impelled by the desire to preserve sounds which even then were on their way to extinction. The incomparable Cesária Évora is not present – presumably because in 1998 she was at the height of her fame, and would have cost too much – but the talent and variety is nonetheless dazzling. As the microphones hop from island to rocky island, the meld of Portuguese and African influences comes over with sunburnt infectiousness. Some tracks have a let-it-all-hang-out village charm, others testify to the refined sophistication of the solo singers, with the lazy, regretful sweetness of the morna style being all-pervasive. (Ocora C 561146/47
★★★★)
Meanwhile Ocora have re-released their excellent Persian classical CD Iran: Talai, Musavi, Kiani – The masters of music. As the celebrated musicologist Jean During points out in his liner-note, some of the earliest song collectors were the 19th-century mastermusicians of what is now called
Iran. Realising that their ancient oral tradition was evaporating, they collected modes and melodies from all corners of the country, and wove them together in a seamless web which they called the radif. With Dariush Talai on the tar and setar lutes, Mohammad Musavi and Jamshid Mohebbi on percussion and Majid Kiani on the santur zither, During called together a top-notch ensemble who on this CD traverse the radif, exploring its many forms. This is austere music, but its distilled passion makes it gripping. (Ocora C 561024 ★★★★)
Glitterbeat is continuing to put out arresting stuff, with its intrepid globe-trotting recordist Ian Brennan. Hidden Musics is the title of a series of field-recording albums with which Brennan is illuminating some little-known musical by-ways, two of which I have already praised in these columns. Fra-fra Funeral Songs come from northern Ghana and are led by Small, a man who trades on his diminutive size rather than apologising for it, and whose riffs seem to go on for ever. He is supported by other players on tiny bone flutes which they call ‘horns’, because that is what they are made of. There is nothing funereal here in the Western sense of the word: this strikingly unadorned music is irrepressibly cheerful. (Glitterbeat GBCD 089 ★★★★)
Last year I hailed the Pakistani singer Ustad Saami’s CD God is not a terrorist. Here he comes again, thanks to Ian Brennan, with a new album entitled Pakistan is for the Peaceful, and the message is the same. Accompanied by his four sons, he offers three extended improvisations in which his microtonal world expands with luxurious grace. (Glitterbeat GBCD097 ★★★★)