CD and Book Reviews - my/maSCENA

CD Review | Clara & Robert Schumann Piano Concertos (Warner Classics, 2023)

By Paul E. Robinson on 29 May 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Piano

Clara & Robert Schumann Piano Concertos Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54; Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7. Beatrice Rana, piano; Chamber Orchestra of Europe; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor Warner Classics 5054197296284 Total Time: 57:20 Beatrice Rana won the Montreal International Competition in 2011 at the age of 18. Now 30 years old, this fine Italian pianist is in demand all over the world. Clara Schumann wrote her only piano concerto when she was just 14 and gave it its first performance with Mendelssohn conducting. Because she was “only a woman” her concerto has languished…

CD Review | How Like a Golden Dream (Leaf music, 2023)

By Andrea Rush on 29 May 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Vocal

How Like a Golden Dream Duo Oriana: Sinéad White, soprano; Jonathan Stuchbery, lute and theorbo; Louise Hung, organ Leaf Music, 2023 The selection comprises 13 songs performed on lute and voice. This combination of instruments, though particularly well suited for spiritual, traditional, folk and original compositions by Jonathan Stuchbery, is not frequently heard. Expressive modal lines support Sinéad White’s gorgeous subtle vocal palette, as the duo journeys collaboratively through a selection of songs spanning centuries. They masterfully evoke the feelings of “darkness, mystery, grief, rest and quiet.” White’s focused articulation facilitates an appreciation of those songs that are in English,…

New Releases (June/July/Aug. 2023)

By La Scena Musicale Team on 26 May 2023 CD and Book Reviews

This section is an advertising supplement. To announce here, contact: [email protected] Vagues et ombres Collectif9 Alpha Classics 858 Release: May 2022 Immerse yourself in a world of colours and textures with the music of Claude Debussy and Luna Pearl Woolf in Vagues et ombres (Waves and Shadows). The album includes original arrangements of a set of piano works by Debussy as well as his iconic symphonic work, La mer. A sonic evocation of the underwater world of belugas in the St. Lawrence River estuary, Woolf’s Contact addresses an urgent situation affecting the marine ecosystem in Quebec. Nuages Duo Cavatine:…

Lebrecht Weekly | Music for a new century (DG)

By Norman Lebrecht on 26 May 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly

The San Francisco-based New Century Chamber Orchestra, now in its 30th year, has a strong inclination for commissioning new work. A good thing, right? That depends on the work. The four pieces presented here are not so much a mixed bag as a Walmart display assembled by AI. The third piano concerto by Philip Glass veers between nursery-rhyme puerility and elevator Muzak. I have an open mind about Glass, but this is the most trivial piece of his that I have heard in years. Its third movement is dedicated to fellow-minimalist Arvo Pärt, who has the right to feel insulted…

Lebrecht Weekly | Beethoven: Piano concertos 3 & 4 (Warner)

By Norman Lebrecht on 12 May 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly

I cannot, in all conscience, give this recording a star rating, or even a detailed review. The soloist is Elisabeth Leonskaja, a legendary pianist whose introspections are perhaps the strongest living reminder of her late friend Sviatoslav Richter. There is an organic element to Leonskaja’s playing, a lack of obvious human agency, that makes Leonskaja at once unpredictable and unarguably at the composer’s service. I have never known her make a recording that was not a unique contribution to the history of the work’s interpretation. Since 1978, when she left the Soviet Union, Leonskaja has lived quietly in Vienna as…

Lebrecht Weekly | Missy Mazzoli: Dark with excessive bright (BIS)

By Norman Lebrecht on 31 March 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly

Given the composer’s decade-long success and her emergence as the first woman to clutch a Metropolitan Opera commission, it is vaguely surprising to find that Missy Mazzoli’s only recordings until now have been on a non-export hometown label, New Amsterdam Records. In a potential breakthrough, the Swedish boutique label Bis has gone where majors fear to tread and given her music a Baltic footprint. One does fear, however, for the survival of the music industry if a talent of this order is ignored for so long by its dominant corporations. Mazzoli, 42, made her name with an operatic adaptation of…

CD Review | Durme, Durme: Four Ladino Folk Songs (Leaf music, 2023)

By Zenith Wolfe on 29 March 2023 Art Song, Canadian Music, CD and Book Reviews, Piano

Durme, Durme: Four Ladino Folk Songs Maureen Batt, soprano; Tara Scott, piano Leaf Music, 2023 With only four short compositions inspired by prayers, poems, and lullabies, composer Elisha Denburg doesn’t have much room to establish the themes of the Judeo-Spanish folk songs. Luckily, he uses time to its fullest, enlisting soprano Maureen Batt and pianist Tara Scott to convey a wide range of raw emotions by reducing vocals and piano to their bare essentials. Batt demonstrates extreme flexibility through her limited performances, switching from solemn to jolly to confident without a second thought. She accommodates this wide range of feelings…

CD Review | Bright and early (Naïve Classiques, 2023)

By Zenith Wolfe on 29 March 2023 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Strings

Bright and early Hopkinson Smith, lute Naïve Classiques, 2023 Hour-long solo lute album bright & early is a grounding experience. As the title suggests, its positive and peaceful tone is perfect for starting the day on a motivating note. The album interweaves works by 16th-century composers Joan Ambrosio Dalza and Francesco Spinacino, which require a good deal of interpretation on lutenist Hopkinson Smith’s part, given the incomplete or disfigured conditions of their original manuscripts. They’re pieces that share a gentle throughline, but their free-form nature gives the lutenist plenty of opportunities to portray that tone in his own image. The…

CD Review | Legacy (Naïve Classiques, 2023)

By Zenith Wolfe on 29 March 2023 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Classical, Strings, Vocal

Legacy Christian-Pierre La Marca, cello; Adrien La Marca, viola; Julien Chauvin, violin; Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor; Le Concert de La Loge Naïve Classiques, 2023 The musicians’ bold and confident performances on this album exude an unforgettable joie de vivre. Legacy features incredible cellist Christian-Pierre La Marca alongside Le Concert de La Loge. The compositions are centred around the cello and the evolution of string performances from the 18th century onward, and La Marca’s careful ordering of works tells this story well. It starts and ends on Haydn, with Mozart in between, in a recognition of their incredible contributions to the genre.…

CD Review | Fauré: Après un rêve / Lalo: Espérance (Deutsche Grammophon, 2022/3)

By Andrea Rush on 28 March 2023 CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Piano, Violin

Fauré: Après un rêve / Lalo: Espérance María Dueñas, violin; Itamar Golan, piano Deutsche Grammophon (2022-23) No stranger to Canada, María Dueñas made her mark in Montreal at the age of 16, as a contestant in the 2019 CMIM Violin edition. Not long thereafter, she performed a prize-winning interpretation of Edouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole at the Menuhin Competition and landed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. She continues to receive invitations to play with leading orchestras, including the TSO. To the sheer delight of audiences in Toronto, Ottawa, New York and Chicago, her fiery performances of the Symphonie Espagnole this…

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