January round-up
Boasting immaculate production values from the Biddulph team and exemplary annotations from Tully Potter,
Felix Salmond’s Complete Columbia Recordings, recorded 192630, sound as pristine here as it is possible to imagine. Salmond’s noble restraint (especially for the period), aristocratic poise and tonal allure show why he became such a revered and influential teacher. He was not a big personality player in the Feuermann or Piatigorsky mould (as witness his refreshingly inexplosive approach to the Beethoven A major and Grieg Sonatas), yet what strikes one most throughout the 25 shorter pieces here is Salmond’s gloriously in-depth, soulful cantabile. (Biddulph 8 5009-2) ★★★★
Calibrating intonation exactly between the clarinet and string instruments is notoriously difficult, yet in a delectable 2007 coupling of the Brahms and Mozart Clarinet Quintets from the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin, such problems would appear not to exist. These remarkable players produce an entrancing sonority and float golden phrases as if suspended in a dream-like state. Some might prefer the more enhanced emotional suppleness of Gervase de Peyer with the Melos Ensemble (Mozart, EMI), and Thea King and the Gabrieli Quartet (Brahms, Hyperion), but for sheer beauty of sound, the Berliners are simply unbeatable. (Tudor TUD7137) ★★★★
Ginette Neveu was a violinist phenomenon. A child prodigy, she went on to make a series of acclaimed recordings, but her career was cut tragically short when she was killed in an air crash shortly after her 30th birthday. These expert transfers by Paul Ardentaylor feature her intensely poetic and emotionally penetrating 1945 account of the Sibelius Concerto, alongside a series of shorter items recorded the following year with Neveu’s brother Jean
(who also died in the crash), highlighted by a ravishing account of Ravel’s Tzigane. (Parnassus PACL95006) ★★★★
Ideas as to how Haydn should be performed have changed radically since this disc featuring Symphonies Nos 88, 94 & 101 was recorded. Mind you, a 1959 coupling of Nos 94 and 101 featuring Pierre Monteux (a youthful 84 at the time) and the Vienna Philharmonic, still sounds affectionately radiant and full of bonhomie, despite the occasional slight instability, generally relaxed tempos and gently cushioned articulation. By comparison, Wilhelm Furtwängler’s 1952 account of No. 88 with the Berlin Philharmonic feels a tad heavy-handed and inflexible in places. Better disciplined and structurally focussed, perhaps, but somewhat lacking in charm.
(Alto ALC1439) ★★★
Eagle-eyed Youtubers may have spotted an amazing piece of footage featuring the finale of Saint-saëns’s Organ Symphony conducted by François-xavier Roth with Les Siècles in 2010, shot entirely in the organ loft of Saint-sulpice Paris, where Roth’s father Daniel plays the magnificent 1862 Cavaillé-coll organ. Now the entire performance has been reissued on CD, a truly one-off spectacle in which the organ’s presence in that famous finale is felt as in virtually no other recording. Also included is an equally compelling account of the Fourth Piano Concerto, recorded the previous year at the Opéracomique, with Jean-françois Heisser playing a wonderful 1874 Érard piano (Harmonia Mundi HMM905348) ★★★★