CD and Book Reviews - my/maSCENA

Lebrecht Weekly – Noa Wildschut, Mozart: Violin Concerto, Sonata (Warner)

By Norman Lebrecht on 6 October 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Classical, Lebrecht Weekly, Violin

Noa Wildschut, Mozart Yoram Ish-Hurwitz, Gordan Nikolić, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra Warner I’m about to break an iron rule and review a kid playing the violin. And, no, I haven’t given in to peer pressure, though there has been plenty of it from the London agency that signed her at 15, and the record label that followed up. The kid’s 16 now, old enough to take a bit of criticism and interesting enough to warrant adult consideration. Noa Wildschut first appeared on Dutch television at six years old and at the Concertgebouw a year later. The child of two string players…

Lebrecht Weekly – Scriabin: 2nd symphony and piano concerto (Lawo classics)

By Norman Lebrecht on 30 September 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Lebrecht Weekly, Newswire

Alexander Scriabin: 2nd symphony and piano concerto Kirill Gerstein, piano Oslo Philharmonic, Vasily Petrenko, conductor Lawo classics LWC113 Total duration 01:16:33 What did Alexander Scriabin have in common with Donald J. Trump? Small hands, that’s what. Scriabin’s 1897 piano concerto was an instant hit with similarly endowed artists, although it also won approval from Sergei Rachmaninov, whose mitts were mega-sized. Despite these contemporary endorsements, it has hovered ever since on the repertoire fringes. That may be due to uninspiring first movement, all meander and no meat. But the succeeding andante has one of the most memorable tunes in any piano concerto, as compelling…

Lebrecht Weekly – Haydn: Cello concertos

By Norman Lebrecht on 22 September 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Classical, Classical Music, Lebrecht Weekly, Newswire

When Pierre Boulez became music director of the New York Philharmonic in the 1970s, he refused to conduct Mozart, inserting Haydn instead. It did no good for Haydn. The Mozart lovers deserted in droves, while the cerebral types that Boulez hoped to attract were dismayed to find just as much frivolity in Papa Haydn as in the trivial Amadeus. Haydn’s reputation has taken years to recover. The instant appeal of this recording is that it contains not just two well-known Haydn concertos but three extra pieces that complement and contextualise them. The second benefit is that Steven Isserlis’s performance with…

Lebrecht Weekly – Surviving: Jewish Women

By Norman Lebrecht on 15 September 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Lebrecht Weekly

Four releases, arriving in timely fashion for the upcoming New Year, explore the shushed-up sounds of creative Jewish femininity. The San Francisco composer David Garner has set four female Jewish poets, of whom the most gripping is the exotic Berliner Elsa Lasker-Schüler, represented here by her Blue Piano cycle. The poet’s voice is unbridled and inimitable, Garner’s is more conventional; the singer is Nanette McGuinness. This is one of those recitals that, good on paper, never quite gets lift-off (Centaur **). A full album of 26 Lasker-Schüler poems, dating from the mid-1920s, was set to music in the 1960s by…

Lebrecht Weekly – Ebony Quartet: Unheard (Channel Classics)

By Norman Lebrecht on 8 September 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly

Quarter of a century ago, Decca sank its Three Tenors profits into an ‘Entartete Musik’ series, breaking the silence that had settled on a generation of composers who had fled Nazi Germany, or died in its concentration camps. Those vital recordings are now hard to find, but the search continues for other member of the silent generation. None of the music on this gripping compilation will be familiar to anyone alive. Even the names of the composers will cause some scratching of heads. Erich Itor Kahn (1905-56) is known to me only from an adoring memoir by his widow. A…

Lebrecht Weekly – Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Late keyboard pieces (ECM New Series)

By Norman Lebrecht on 1 September 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Classical, Lebrecht Weekly

No label generates such a buzz around new releases as the quirky Munich-based ECM which, after 48 years of high output, still manages to produce the unexpected, and at high quality. To find the senescent music of CPE Bach in a series that specialises in living composers is surprise enough. To hear him played on an esoteric Tangent piano is altogether a delight. The shortlived Tangent piano, mostly built by August Späth in the mid-to-late 18th century, allows an artist to express a personal sound – according to the Russian pianist, Alexei Lyubimov. Certainly, the sound on this recording is unlike…

Alma Oppressa: Arias by Vivaldi and Handel

By Paul E. Robinson on 1 September 2017 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Opera

Julie Boulianne, mezzo-soprano; Clavecin en Concert; Luc Beauséjour Analekta AN2 8780, 59 min. Canadian singer Julie Boulianne has quickly become an international star. She performs regularly at the Met, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and throughout Europe. She has an extraordinarily wide repertoire from Bach to Adès. In her latest recording she shows us what she can do in Vivaldi and Handel. For this CD she is joined by long-time collaborators, harpsichordist Luc Beauséjour and his small period instrument group, Ensemble Clavecin en Concert. Much of the music is pretty obscure but it is performed with enthusiasm and…

André Mathieu: Concerto de Québec; Sergueï Rachmaninov: Concerto pour piano no 2

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 September 2017 Canadian Music, CD and Book Reviews, Musique québécoise

Jean-Philippe Sylvestre, piano; Orchestre Métropolitain; Alain Trudel, conductor ATMA Classique ACD22763, 54 min 32 s. Quebec child prodigy André Mathieu is paired with Russian giant of the piano repertoire Rachmaninov in this live recording made during the 2017 Festival Classica. There have always been comparisons between the two composers, but with the scattering of blues harmonies amid the late-Romantic language in the Concerto de Québec, you can hear the relationship between Mathieu and Gershwin as well. Mathieu had a great amount of raw talent, but was unable to refine his style; this much is made clear by the juxtaposition on…

Life Reflected

By Paul E. Robinson on 1 September 2017 150/375, Canadian Music, CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary

Zosha di Castri, Jocelyn Murlock, Nicole Lizée, John Estacio, Erin Wall, soprano; Martha Henry, narrator; Monique Mojica, actor; NAC orchestra; Alexander Shelley Analekta AN 2 8870, 73 min 25 s. This recording is the “soundtrack” for the multi-media work Life Reflected, which had its premiere at the National Arts Centre May 19, 2016. It was a highly ambitious and worthwhile project that brought together four newly-commissioned pieces by Canadian composers – three of them women – under the overall direction of the NAC’s conductor Alexander Shelley and creative producer and director Donna Feore. Each of the pieces was based on…

Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, String Quartet No. 3 in B flat major

By Paul E. Robinson on 1 September 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Romantic

James Campbell, clarinet; New Zealand String Quartet Naxos 8.573454, 76 min 36 s. For many Canadian music-lovers clarinetist James Campbell will be the main attraction on this new Naxos CD. Campbell was born in Leduc, Alberta and at the age of 22 won the CBC Talent Competition. During the 1970s through the 1990s he was a ubiquitous figure in concert circles in Toronto. Campbell has had a long association with the New Zealand String Quartet and he has often invited them to appear at the Festival of the Sound. At the age of 65, when this recording was made, Campbell…

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