Brief notes This month’s choice includes Fux, folk and a journey along the 40th Parallel
Bach Complete Sonatas & Partitas Linus Roth (violin)
Evil Penguin EPRC 0062
The pandemic inspired a spate of solo Bach recordings, and Roth joins the fray in these polished, reedy and characterful interpretations. Tempos tend to be on the slower side, but the works don’t suffer for it – Roth leans into Bach’s gorgeous spread chords and juicy harmonies with atypical, yet inspired, rubato choices and tonal variation. (CS) HHHHH
Beach • John Corigliano
Violin Sonatas
Usha Kapoor (violin), Edward Leung (piano) Resonus Classics RES10321
This lovely programme sets Beach’s lush and romantic Violin Sonata against the spikier, more rhythmically driven Corigliano. Kapoor’s tone is pleasingly sweet and bright in the upper register with unexpected depth on the lower strings, while pianist Leung is impressive in Corigliano’s dramatic sections. Contrasts between violence and tender heartache are especially well drawn. (CS) HHHH
Bonis Complete music for flute and piano
Mario Ancillotti (flute), Eliana Grasso (piano) Brilliant Classics 96927
The Flute Sonata is a large, ambitious work, in which flute and piano trade complex melodies and motifs. The Trois Mélodies, originally for soprano and piano, give the flute some adventurous tonal workouts. This is atmospheric late-romantic salon music, even if across a whole album the flute struggles for the same timbral variety achieved by other solo instruments. (SW) HHH
Peter Boyer Rhapsody in Red, White and Blue
Jeffrey Biegel (piano); London Symphony Orchestra/peter Boyer Naxos 9.70359
Composed to mark the centenary of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Peter Boyer’s boisterous 17-minute work for piano and orchestra is set to be toured round all 50 US states. The jazz-meets-romantic element of the Gershwin is here, but little of the witty interplay between the piano and orchestra. Nor, I suspect, will Jeffrey Biegel have found himself particularly taxed by the fairly workaday solo piano part.
( JP) HHH
Covatti • Dussaut • Honegger • D’indy
Sonatas for Violin and Piano Marie Radauer-plank (violin), Henrike Brüggen (piano)
Audax ADX11208 62:00 mins
Hélène Covatti’s (1910-2005) Violin Sonata is light, airborne and faintly mysterious, mixing Fauré, Debussy and folk inflections from the composer’s native Greece. The Brüggen-plank Duo’s sinuous playing and perfect balance project its mysteries with perfect clarity. Honegger’s Sonata is similarly impressionistic, but adds the mercurial energy of its Presto. We end with D’indy’s soulful, questing Andante. (SW) HHHH
Fux • Pergolesi
Kaiserrequiem; Missa in D
I Pizzicanti, Zeronove/lukas Wanner Prospero PROSP0085
Composed for the Austrian royal family in the 1720s, Fux’s Kaiserrequiem is a restrained affair, with even the Dies Irae seemingly projecting a world very much at ease with itself. It’s a pleasant listen but the live performance here, as with Pergolesi’s Missa in D, has its unsteady moments plus the occasional throaty contribution from the audience. ( JP) HHH
W Kaufman Piano Concerto No. 3; Symphony No. 3 et al
Elisaveta Blumina (piano); Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/david Robert Coleman CPO 555631-2
Walter Kaufmann (1907-1984) spent a decade in India, a sojourn audible in the beguiling
Six Indian Miniatures with its sinuous raga-inspired melodies. Elsewhere, the Third Piano Concerto’s outer movements fizz with a Stravinskian energy and wit. Add some beautifully balanced orchestral playing, and the result is a fascinating East-west synthesis. (SW) HHHH
Mozart
Piano Concertos Nos 18 & 21 Jonathan Fournel (piano); Mozarteum Orchestra/howard Griffiths
Alpha ALPHA1039
Featuring 2021 Queen Elisabeth Competition winner Fournel, this pairing of two of Mozart’s most winning piano concertos has real pedigree. The orchestral strings are warm, yet fastidiously vibratofree, against which Fournel’s keyboard is precise and muscular. Speeds are driven in a vibrant and cheerful recording. (CS) HHHH
Prokofiev Symphony No. 3
London Symphony Orchestra/ Gianandrea Noseda
LSO Live LSO0391-D
Adapted from his opera about demonic possession, Prokofiev’s Third should be a hairraising experience – and Noseda and the LSO oblige. They burrow right into the first movement’s teeming, malevolent energy – the various themes crossing each other are beautifully balanced, their jarring climax deliciously infernal – while the strings swirl and swoop like fireflies in the restless third movement. (SW) HHHHH
Raff World’s End • Judgement • New World
Andreas Wolf (bass-baritone) et al; Camerata Lipsiensis/gregor Meyer CPO 555562-2 (2 discs)
Raff’s 1882 choral take on the Apocalypse interweaves lengthy recitative with choruses and orchestral intermezzos, the latter of which have an occasional Wagnerian feel to them. The lion’s share of the narrative work falls to baritone Andreas Wolf, whose anodyne presentation tests the patience after a while. ( JP) HHH
Max Richter Recomposed: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Stift Festival Orchestra/daniel Rowland (violin/director)
Challenge Classics CC72978
Even 12 years after its release, Max Richter’s minimalist, postmodern take on a most recognisable classic continues to provoke and delight. Daniel Rowland is a magnetic advocate in a bold interpretation that emphasises the flighty, bird-like quality of Richter’s looped phrases with a headlong quality of abandon. (CS) HHHH
Absolutely… Ennio Morricone II Original arrangements and music for cello, flute and piano
Luca Pincini (cello), Gilda Buttà (piano) et al Da Vinci Classics 6091657
Though known primarily for his cinematic soundtracks, Morricone was a complicated composer, who also wrote experimental works for the concert hall – and who adapted his own film scores for solo and chamber lineups. This second volume showcases his dazzling variety, striding tender tunefulness and unsettling atonality. The playing by all three instrumentalists is excellent. (CS) HHHH
Carnival Works by R Schumann, Scriabin, Alkan, Schoenberg et al Yixiang Hou (piano)
KNS Classical KNS A/139
A boldly eclectic programme, ranging across centuries and styles from Gibbons’s Pavan in G minor to Schoenberg’s Three Pieces, Op. 11. Pianist Yixiang Hou has something to say about most of them. The one disappointment is the album’s closing big hitter, Schumann’s Carnaval, where Hou doesn’t find enough colour to rival, say, Uchida or Arrau. (SW) HHH
Collection Schumann
Works with wind instruments Théo Fouchenneret (piano), Philibert Perrine (oboe) et al B * records LBM058 This gently probing music for piano and winds mostly lacks the volatility that gives Schumann’s solo piano and piano-led chamber music such appeal. That said, horn and piano complement each other beautifully in the Adagio and Allegro, while the finale of the Andante and Variations comes close to the energy and emotion of vintage Schumann. (SW) HHH
O’er the Moor Songs and Dances from Scotland and Ireland
Alpha ALPHA1027
The Kraken Consort
From the elegiac beauty of ‘Plac’hik Eussa’ and the simple spareness of ‘Sián le Máigh’, an unaccompanied duet for two singers, to the reels and swirls of the instruments-only ‘Scottish Set’, this makes a superbly varied, captivatingly performed introduction to Scottish and Irish folk, displaying its rich array of moods and styles. Recommended. ( JP) HHHH
Parallel 40 Works by Komitas, Terry Riley, Tan Dun et al Belinfante Quartet
7 Mountain Records 7MNTN049DIG The album’s title refers to the line of latitude that runs through Spain, Italy and Greece in the Med, then through the likes of Armenia, China, Japan and the US – providing a colourful and varied programme. Whether dancing along with Skalkottas and Komitas, or mesmerising with the minimalism of Terry Riley, the Belinfante Quartet are on terrific form throughout. ( JP) HHHHH
Solo Music by Abel, Bach, Baltzar, Biber & Ortiz
Sigiswald Kuijken (violin)
Accent ACC24400
At the magnificent age of 80, early music specialist Kuijken proves he is still a formidable performer in this attractive showcase of violin, viola da gamba, violoncello da spalla (a small cello played under the neck) and clavichord music. Throughout, his experience shines through, as he allows the elegant Baroque melodies to do the talking. (CS) HHH
A Year at Newcastle Choir of Newcastle Cathedral/ian Roberts Regent Choral REGCD582
Beginning with Elgar’s Benedictus and rounded off by Howell’s mighty Te Deum, Newcastle’s largely 20th/21st-century choral year takes in the likes of Vaughan Williams and Finzi along the way, alongside less familiar composers such as Kris Thomsett and William Drakett. On this evidence, the cathedral choir is in fine fettle, nicely balanced across the voices and with ample oomph under the bonnet when needed. ( JP) HHHH Jeremy Pound (JP), Charlotte Smith (CS), Steve Wright (SW)