CD and Book Reviews - my/maSCENA

Lebrecht Weekly – Boris Tishchenko: 8th symphony (Naxos)

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By Norman Lebrecht on 24 February 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Orchestral, Violin

Try as I might, I can’t stop listening to these late works of a Russian composer who was close to Shostakovich but never tried, as others did, to imitate him. The eighth symphony, written in 2008 when Tishchenko was mortally ill, draws the ear into an eerie landscape of ghosts, trolls and spooks, weird and possibly political. The composer thought it might make a good companion piece to Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony. He was right: it would. But where is the conductor or orchestra manager that dares to do such a thing in timid 2017? Unlike Schubert, there are expressions here…

Lebrecht Weekly – Not bad music, just not very good Bartók

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By Norman Lebrecht on 17 February 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly

The unique selling point of this release is what appears to be the first recording of Bartók’s piano quartet in C minor, an unpublished work that the composer began in high school in 1898 and his publishers somehow forgot. The gushing sleeve note says nothing about where this work was found, or what state it was in. We have to judge from the performance why Bartók and his publishers considered it unworthy of inclusion in his mature output. The reason, by my best guess, is lack of originality. The Allegro and Scherzo sound like warmed-over Brahms, while the Adagio could…

Lebrecht Weekly – Complete piano music of Vítězslava Kaprálová is compelling listening

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By Norman Lebrecht on 10 February 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano

Don’t look away just because the composer’s name is unfamiliar and has too many syllables. Kaprálová (1915-1940) is a vital link in Czech music, her death at 25 the closure of a century of genius. Daughter of a Leoš Janáček student and herself the secret lover of Bohuslav Martinů, Kaprálová flowered in France and Britain in the last years before the Second World War. In addition to composing she was an active conductor, the first woman to raise a baton on BBC television – unscreened, in an experimental studio – and she was widely praised at a London international festival…

Lebrecht Weekly – A Renée Fleming record that can’t end soon enough

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By Norman Lebrecht on 3 February 2017 Art Song, CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly, Popular Music

I hope this is not Renée Fleming’s final record. The American soprano, in her late 50s, is closing her stage career with the voice unblemished and the memories fond. It would be a pity if her legacy on Decca was to be concluded by this album, which plays to all her weaknesses. Samuel Barber’s lyric rhapsody Knoxville: Summer of 2015 requires a rich soprano voice and a capacity to articulate James Agee’s achingly nostalgic English text. Ms Fleming has the first quality. Pronouncing the words has never been her forte. The best ears will strain here to catch more than…

Stradivarius à l’Opéra (Spectra)

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By Ian Cochrane on 1 February 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Opera, Orchestral, Violin

Stradivarius à l’Opéra Alexandre Da Costa, violin, Vienna Symphony Orchestra Spectra 2016. SPECD7859. 60 min 10 s. This luscious CD of operatic masterpieces transcribed for solo violin shows Alexandre Da Costa at his best. Selections include the Habenera from Bizet’s Carmen, Méditation from Massenet’s Thaïs, Valse from Strauss’s Cavelleria Rusticana, and Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot. From the legendary Richard Wagner, Romance from Tannhauser, Liebeslied from Die Walküre and Preislied from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg are also included. The world-class Vienna Symphony prove to be ideal collaborators. Their full-bodied timbre is a dulcet match for Da Costa’s resonant style. Rather…

Ehnes Quartet: Schubert & Sibelius String Quartets (Onyx)

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By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 February 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Romantic

Ehnes Quartet: James Ehnes & Amy Schwartz Moretti, violins; Richard O’Neill, viola; Robert deMaine, cello Franz Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D minor “Death and the Maiden” D810; Jean Sibelius: String Quartet in D minor, “Intimate Voices” Op. 56 Onyx 2016. 4163. 74 min 3 s. You rarely get a pairing of Schubert and Sibelius. The latter gets the “nationalist composer” treatment, often found paired with other Scandinavians like Grieg, sometimes even with a Slav or two thrown in for good measure. And Schubert? Well, you can find him wherever you find good, wholesome German music. This new release…

Daniel Taylor: The Tree of Life (Sony)

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By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 February 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Choral

The Tree of Life Daniel Taylor & The Trinity Choir Sony 2016. 88985387032. 55 min. Its conspicuous release before Christmas is no accident: like the 2015 release of Four Thousand Winter, The Tree of Life is a selection of a capella Christmas pieces. Unlike the previous album, The Tree of Life is curated to lead the listener on a journey where stillness and silence are equal players to the music of Mouton, Tavener, Britten, Elizabeth Poston, Robert Parsons, and Pärt. On this disc, leading Canadian countertenor Daniel Taylor is joined by soloists Jeremy Budd (treble), David Clegg (alto), Nicholas Pritchard…

Lebrecht Weekly – Leonard Bernstein: Symphonies 1 and 2 (Naxos)

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By Norman Lebrecht on 27 January 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Orchestral

Bernstein’s three symphonies have not enjoyed much exposure on record. Aside from the Sony and DG releases conducted by the composer, my database calls up only three other versions – Leonard Slatkin at the BBC, James Judd in New Zealand and an LA Phil DG download conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. While the composer’s edition must be considered in some sense definitive, his take on the two works has failed to ignite the public imagination. What catches my ear about Marin Alsop’s new recording with the Baltimore Symphony is how strikingly it diverges from her master’s voice. In the Jeremiah symphony,…

Lebrecht Weekly – Mieczyslaw Weinberg: Chamber Symphonies (ECM)

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By Norman Lebrecht on 20 January 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly

When I first started writing about Weinberg quarter of a century ago, there was no consistent western spelling of his surname (mostly printed Vainberg) and his first name was given as Moisei (pronounced Moshe), consistent with Soviet policy of identifying racial minorities. As for the music, it was unknown beyond the Soviet bloc, where it was more familiar to musicians in private performances than it was to public audiences. Today, thanks largely to proselytism by Gidon Kremer and his friends, Weinberg is no longer obscure but a musical giant, waiting to be discovered. The musician closest to Shostakovich – each…

Lebrecht Weekly – Boris Giltburg Plays Shostakovich

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By Norman Lebrecht on 13 January 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano

What is remarkable about both piano concertos is that neither was intended for virtuoso performers. Shostakovich wrote the first in 1933 for himself to play with the Leningrad Philharmonic and the second in 1957 as a birthday present for his son Maxim, who was intent on a conducting career. The lack of flash effects in the score intensifies the directness and sincerity of both works. Listen with eyes closed and you can imagine the state-harassed composer playing the first concerto in some remote corner of the Soviet empire, sharing the limelight with the local trumpet player and Kazak strings. Shostakovich’s…

Browsing: CD and Book Reviews

Lebrecht Weekly – Boris Tishchenko: 8th symphony (Naxos)

Lebrecht Weekly – Not bad music, just not very good Bartók

Lebrecht Weekly – Complete piano music of Vítězslava Kaprálová is compelling listening

Lebrecht Weekly – A Renée Fleming record that can’t end soon enough

Stradivarius à l’Opéra (Spectra)

Ehnes Quartet: Schubert & Sibelius String Quartets (Onyx)

Daniel Taylor: The Tree of Life (Sony)

Lebrecht Weekly – Leonard Bernstein: Symphonies 1 and 2 (Naxos)

Lebrecht Weekly – Mieczyslaw Weinberg: Chamber Symphonies (ECM)

Lebrecht Weekly – Boris Giltburg Plays Shostakovich

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