CD and Book Reviews - my/maSCENA

CD Review | Calcutta 1789 (Atma Classique, 2023)

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By Hassan Laghcha on 31 July 2023 CD and Book Reviews, World Music

Calcutta 1789 Notturna; Christopher Palameta, conductor Atma Classique, 2023 As the most recent addition to its world music catalogue, Atma Classique presents Calcutta 1789: À la croisée de l’Europe et de l’Inde, by Notturna, conducted by Christopher Palameta. A portrait of musical life in colonial India, this work illustrates early associations between Indian classical music, with its voluptuous, haunting melodies, and compositions by Purcell, Handel and J. C. Bach, among other European composers. The project highlights the complicity between the Notturna ensemble and musicians Uwe Neumann (sitar) and Shawn Mativetsky (tabla). Both Neumann and Mativetsky bring a musical depth and…

CD Review | Clara, Robert, Johannes: Atmosphere and Mastery (Analekta, 2023)

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By Kristen Whittle on 31 July 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Classical, Orchestral, Romantic

Clara, Robert, Johannes: Atmosphere and Mastery National Arts Centre Orchestra (directed by Alexander Shelley) Analekta, 2023 Conductor Alexander Shelley and the National Arts Centre Orchestra present the third recording of a four-volume collection featuring three of the most iconic composers in the romantic-era: Clara Schuman, Robert Schuman and Johannes Brahms. Bru Zane is devoted to the rediscovery and international promotion of French repertoire dating from 1780-1920. Les Nuits de Paris is the French equivalent of the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert, devoted to music by Johann Strauss and his Viennese contemporaries. The opening, Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat…

CD Review | Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, original 1874 version, ed. L. Nowak (Myrios Classics, 2023)

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By Paul E. Robinson on 31 July 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Orchestral, Romantic

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major (original 1874 version, ed. L. Nowak) Gürzenich Orchestra, Cologne (conducted by François-Xavier Roth) Myrios Classics, 2023, MYR032D Total Time: 69:34 In 2024, the musical world will honour the birthday of Anton Bruckner, one of Germany’s greatest symphonists. We will undoubtedly see a veritable deluge of new Bruckner recordings in the next few months. François-Xavier Roth and his Gürzenich Orchestra, for example, have announced a complete cycle of his symphonies. This first CD suggests we are in for something special. Roth interprets the original 1874 version of the Fourth Symphony. It is very different…

CD Review | Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3. Isle of the Dead

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By Paul E. Robinson on 31 July 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Orchestral

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3. Isle of the Dead The Philadelphia Orchestra (conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin) DG 28948647781 Total Time: 123:20 (2 CDs) This 2-CD set completes Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s recordings for Deutsche Grammophon’s Rachmaninoff 150 celebration, which included the recent Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos (with Daniil Trifonov), and the 2021 release of Symphony No. 1 and the Symphonic Dances. While other performances have been outstanding, this recording of the Second Symphony disappoints. While there are many moments of great beauty, the work lacks passion, particularly at the climactic and final moments, at which point Nézet-Séguin…

CD Review | Schubert: Architect (Analekta, 2023)

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By Pietro Freiburger on 31 July 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Piano, Romantic

Schubert: Architect Mathieu Gaudet, piano Analekta, 2023 Architect features Schubert’s Sonata in B major B. 575, the 2 Scherzi and Trio D. 593 and the Sonata in C minor D. 958. Gaudet continues to interpret Schubert masterfully—balancing lyricism and warmth with measure and sobriety. Sonata No. 9 D. 575, published posthumously, is interpreted in all four movements with vivid contrasts in sound and character. The Scherzo and the Allegro are exemplary in brilliance as well as composure, while the Andante is almost moving in intimacy and sweetness. These contrasts are also present in the 2 Scherzi. The first, reminiscent of…

CD Review | Schumann & Brahms (Decca, 2023)

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By Pietro Freiburger on 31 July 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Piano, Romantic

Schumann & Brahms Benjamin Grosvenor, piano Decca, 2023 One of the most original and gifted pianists of our time, Benjamin Grosvenor’s playing is marked by its unconventionality, the sudden and extreme changes of colour, a unique management of time. His extremely clear and limpid touch make him a true genius of contemporary piano, and these qualities come to light in an impressive way on this CD. There is always a light in Grosvenor’s interpretations. Even in a complex and sometimes twisted piece like Kreisleriana, which opens this recording, the young pianist manages to locate a clarity and positivity so rare…

Lebrecht Weekly | Eugène Ysaye: Solo violin sonatas (Deutsche Grammophon)

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By Norman Lebrecht on 28 July 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly

Every era has its defining violinist. For the second half of the 19th century it was the avuncular Joseph Joachim, for the first third of the 20th the mischievous Fritz Kreisler. Then came Heifetz, Menuhin, Perlman, briefly Vengerov and Anne-Sophie Mutter. If there is a defining violinist in the present century I suspect it is Hilary Hahn. American to her pop-socks, forged from age ten in the Curtis foundry, she has hardly put a career foot wrong, limiting her concert engagements and taking time out to have two daughters. At 43, she stands head and a shoulder pad taller than…

George Frideric Handel in a painting by Denner. Photo : Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library / Alamy

Lebrecht Weekly | Mr Händel im Pub: Baroque meets folk (Arcantus)

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By Norman Lebrecht on 22 July 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly

I had high hopes of this album, an attempt by period musicians to recreate the kind of stuff that might – repeat, might – have been performed in London pubs during the early 18th century. Henry Purcell, who hung out far too much in London hostelries, was recently dead. Handel, who went in for heavy eating rather than heavy drinking, was newly arrived from Germany and still finding his way around the city’s entertainment venues. Match their music with the rougher folk trade that, then as now, played at esoteric drinking holes and the collusion promised possible enlightenment. The first…

Lebrecht Weekly | Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphonies 2 and 3, Isle of the Dead (DG)

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By Norman Lebrecht on 30 June 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly

The opening bars of this live performance assert that the Philadelphia Orchestra owns these works. The orchestra eases into the second symphony like an Olympic swimmer into a public pool, totally in its element, fearless of hazard or challenge. The strings are silken, the woodwinds ethereal. And then it all goes choppy. The Philadelphia Orchestra was involved with Rachmaninov from his arrival in America as a refugee in 1918 to his death 25 years later. Its music directors, Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy, championed his works and invited him to play them. The third symphony, his first important exile work, was…

Lebrecht Weekly | Brahms: Double concerto (Sony)

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By Norman Lebrecht on 2 June 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly, Strings

Craving a dose of Brahms, I landed on a new release of his violin and cello double concerto, written in 1887 and the last score he composed for orchestra, a decade before his death. The concerto was a conciliatory offering to his lifelong friend Joseph Joachim. It followed a bitter falling-out over the violinist’s divorce from his wife, Amelie, in which Brahms was suspected of taking Amelie’s side. Joachim had accused her, falsely, of infidelity with a publisher. When Robert Hausmann, a member of Joachim’s string quartet, wondered in Brahms might write him a cello concerto, the composer designed the…

Browsing: CD and Book Reviews

CD Review | Calcutta 1789 (Atma Classique, 2023)

CD Review | Clara, Robert, Johannes: Atmosphere and Mastery (Analekta, 2023)

CD Review | Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, original 1874 version, ed. L. Nowak (Myrios Classics, 2023)

CD Review | Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3. Isle of the Dead

CD Review | Schubert: Architect (Analekta, 2023)

CD Review | Schumann & Brahms (Decca, 2023)

Lebrecht Weekly | Eugène Ysaye: Solo violin sonatas (Deutsche Grammophon)

Lebrecht Weekly | Mr Händel im Pub: Baroque meets folk (Arcantus)

Lebrecht Weekly | Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphonies 2 and 3, Isle of the Dead (DG)

Lebrecht Weekly | Brahms: Double concerto (Sony)

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