Brief notes
This month’s short selection holds everything from Langgaard to Lang Lang
Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 4 etc
Lauma Skride (piano) et al
MDG 9012216
Lauma Skride gives a poetic reading of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto – although the balance in the orchestra-piano dialogue in the second movement is misjudged. It’s surrounded by an overture and the C minor solo piano variations, yet somehow adds up to less than the sum of its parts. (RF) ★★★
Britten • Hagen • R Strauss
Metamorphosen etc
Ensemble Allegria
Lawo LWC1241
Artificial-sounding reverb mars the authenticity of the massed string sound – and serves to mask some imprecision in the ensemble playing. Solo passages emerge nicely, though, and the combination of Britten, Strauss and the newly commissioned Strauss Fragments from Lars Petter Hagen makes for an attractive programme. (CS) ★★★
John Corigliano
To Music etc
Boston Modern Orchestra Project et al
BMOP BMOP/sound 1087
Three very different moods on display here, but each is as engaging as the last. There’s great musical imagination at work in both Troubadours and the symphony, the latter’s siren-like wailing a simple but fiendishly effective device. Much to enjoy. (MB) ★★★★
Harrison
Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin
Kate Stenberg (violin)
Other Minds OM 1036
This is an early composition by ‘American maverick’ Lou Harrison, inspired by Schoenberg’s 12-tone method and written under the tutelage of Henry Cowell. Packed with interesting timbres and effects, in Stenberg’s hands it has a nice sense of cohesion, despite its often awkward leaps and double stops. (CS) ★★★★
Langgaard
Piano Works, Vol. 4
Berit Johansen Tange (piano)
Dacapo 6.220662
Rued Langgaard was a prolific composer of piano works, which were published in their entirety in 2018; Berit Johansen Tange is already on her fourth, excellent volume dedicated to them. The attractive Blomstervignetter (Flower vignettes) frame the Second Piano Sonata and a clutch of miniatures. (RF) ★★★★
Loewe
Symphonies Nos 1 & 2
Jenaer Philharmonien
CPO 555 3192
Composed in the mid-1830s, these two symphonies by the German Carl Loewe certainly deserve their rare moment in the sun. Loewe occasionally packs a Beethovenian punch, but there is some wonderfully light writing for the woodwind too. Well worth exploring. (JP) ★★★★★
Mozart
Chamber Music with Clarinet
Zemlinsky Quartet et al
Antarctica AR034
Brussels Philharmonic principal clarinettist Eddy Vanoosthuyse is showcased here to lovely effect, his tone genial and smooth. The Clarinet Quintet K581 is the best-known work and also the most successfully balanced: the Zemlinsky players provide a golden cushion of sound against which the clarinet shines. (CS) ★★★★
Hannah Peel
The Unfolding Para
Orchestra et al
Real World CDRW241 Peel’s eight-part work is a sonic adventure, where familiar orchestral sounds meet digital, vocal and other-wordly textures. It’s a great achievement for Charles Hazlewood’s ParaOrchestra and a thrilling exploration of what’s possible when sounds and music meet. (MB) ★★★★★
Schubert
Unfinished & Great Symphonies
B’Rock Orchestra/René Jacobs
Pentatone PTC 5186 894
René Jacobs follows through a theory that the ‘Unfinished’ Symphony was a musical parallel to an autobiographical text, Mein Traum, with an actor reading the text here. It’s eminently skippable. If the playing has an appealing tang and edge to it, the interpretations don’t wholly convince. (RF) ★★★
Mark Springer
Matter Tana Quartet et al
The Exit Label EXIT019
There’s a great storytelling quality to be found in this pair of works, both of which find their roots in the natural world. Springer’s Crimson River string quartet is the lyrical six-movement highlight here, in an earthy performance by Tana Quartet. (MB) ★★★★
Vaughan Williams
Mass in G minor etc
Vokalensemblen Sundbyberg
Swedish Society Discofil SCD1186
A terrific performance of Vaughan Williams’s Mass strikes the ideal balance between contemplation and raw passion. Choral fans may well enjoy exploring the Missa Brevis by Swedish composer Staffan Isbäck too. (JP) ★★★★★
Bohemian Rhapsodies
Piano Trios by Smetana and Dvořák
Oliver Schnyder Trio
Prospero PROSP0033
I am increasingly impressed by Prospero’s approach to its releases. Here is another polished product, with great artwork, colourful sleeve notes and top-notch recording quality. The trio seemingly feel every note in Smetana’s grief-fulled G minor work, while the Dvořák really pops. (MB) ★★★★★
Celestial Dawn
Works by Roxanna Panufnik, Wayne Marshall et al
Pembroke College Girls’ Choir
Signum Classics SIGCD714
This lovely collection showcases the well-trained and fresh sound of the fouryear-old Pembroke College Girls’ Choir. Highlights in an interestingly mixed programme include Wayne Marshall’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimmitis and the premiere of Kristina Arakelyan’s You Know Me. (RF) ★★★★
Debussy, couleur originale
Works by Debussy, Bax, Takemitsu et al
Trio Zerline
Paraty 8221121
Using period instruments, the members of Trio Zerline offer ethereal performances of works for flute, viola and harp. Estelle Gourinchas’s gut-stringed viola, often gauzy and indistinct, fares least well in the recorded mix – while Alice Szymanski’s Louis Lot flute of 1881 is always enchanting, flowing like water. (CS) ★★★★★
The Disney Book
Songs from Disney films (arr. piano)
Lang Lang (piano)
DG 485 7421
What could so easily have turned into a hotel lobby-style piano amble in fact does a lot better than that. There’s a broad range of Disney from across the ages plus a nice variety of pace, and one or two of the arrangements are engagingly clever. Go on, try it. (JP) ★★★★
Exploring Spirit
Works by Maxwell Davies, Alan Gibbs et al
Rupert Marshall-Luck (violin), Joseph Spooner (cello)
EM Records EMRCD076
The notes for this album of variations and elaborations describe a ‘vividness and invigoration’ with which the original thematic material is transformed. Though the playing is clean and persuasive, the works tend to meander a little through unsettling atonal landscapes. (CS) ★★★
Fête du Soleil
Piano works by Albéniz, Ravel, Respighi and R Schumann
Yi Lin Jiang (Piano)
Anclef 20220913
The album’s title is aptly chosen, as this is largely a bright-and-breezy listen (though with one or two shadier moments). Yi Lin Jiang approaches his sunny repertoire with punchy ebullience rather than a light skip in the step, but never wearisomely so. (JP) ★★★
Moonstrike
Works by Pierre Jalbert, Jennifer Higdon et al
Apollo Chamber Players
Azica Records ACD-71352
This is a really engaging selection of new pieces, not least of all Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s title work, narrated by Chickasaw astronaut John Herrington. The ensemble go at this, and each of the works, with delightful vigour and flair. (MB) ★★★★
Mother Sister Daughter
Sacred Works by Anon, Brumel, Joanna Marsh et al
Musica Secreta
Lucky Music LCKY001
The natural ease with which Musica Secreta sings this music belies the huge amount of musicological research and effort that has gone into creating this programme, spearheaded by Laurie Stras, which spotlights music by or connected to Renaissance women. (RF) ★★★★
Serenata
Works by Gomes, Braga, Nepomuceno and Miguez
English Chamber Orchestra
Naxos 8.574405
The delightful Sonata for Strings by Carlos Gomes (1836-96) that opens the disc may remind some of, say, Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence or Mendelssohn in one of his livelier moods. The good humour continues thereafter in this enjoyable snapshot of 19th-century Brazilian chamber orchestra music, all seemingly played with relish by the ECO. (JP) ★★★★
Reviewers: Michael Beek (MB), Rebecca Franks (RF), Jeremy Pound (JP), Charlotte Smith (CS)
