Featured Reviews

First-rate Stravinsky from Chandos

 

STRAVINSKY: VIOLIN CONCERTO, ETC. James Ehnes, BBC Philharmonic, Sir Andrew Davis/Chandos The highlight of this first-rate all-Stravinsky SACD from Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Philharmonic is James Ehnes’s account of the composer’s Violin Concerto. The concerto was composed between 1931 and 1932, having been commissioned by the violinist Samuel Dushkin with whom Stravinsky collaborated closely during the composition process, and the work is notable for its neoclassical style, a characteristic feature of Stravinsky’s work during that period. As one might expect from a thoughtful violinist like Ehnes, his performance offers much more than mere virtuosic display in the rhythmically complex ‘Toccata’ that opens the concerto and the ‘Capriccio’ with which it ends. In both of the central ‘Aria’ movements Ehnes stresses the lyricism of the music though never at the expensive of forward momentum. Davis and the BBC Philharmonic provide an accompaniment that is meticulous in observing the many dynamic and tempo changes in all four movements and the combination of the soloist’s peerless technique and the conductor’s eloquent and flexible approach to the score makes for a most refreshing account of the work. The Violin Concerto is followed by a crisply played account of ‘Scherzo à la russe’, composed in the early 1940s for the Paul Whiteman band and later arranged for symphony orchestra, but one that to these ears doesn’t quite have the jazzy swagger of Antal Dorati’s classic Mercury recording. The two ‘Suites for Small Orchestra’ arranged from piano duets Stravinsky had written in the 1910s may be somewhat inconsequential within the composer’s oeuvre, but these pristine performances from Davis show them in the best possible light. The final work on this disc is the ballet ‘Apollon musagète’ (1928, revised 1947) that in keeping with the composer’s emerging neoclassical style is scored for just a string orchestra. Davis and the ravishing BBC Philharmonic strings skilfully capture the ballet’s classical poise and elegance aided by the clarity of the Chandos recording. Although there are a number of excellent recordings of this work available on SACD. to which this one may be confidently added, in the final analysis the alternative couplings will probably be the determining factor for most listeners. The sound of this album, recorded in February 2023 at MediaCityUK, Salford, is warm, detailed and expertly balanced by Sound engineer Stephen Rinker making this a very recommendable release.

Treasures from BIS, Chandos & LSO Live

Barry Forshaw

SIBELIUS: KARELIA SUITE, RAKASTAVA, LEMMINKAINEN, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Susanna Malkki/BIS

It’s not often that record labels are in direct competition with themselves – but that very much seems to be the case with this BIS disc, reminding us that the company’s commitment to Sibelius has led to a variety of duplicated works on the label, even on the SACD front. Perhaps couplings may be an issue here – Osmo Vanska’s disc of Lemminkainen also carries a spirited performance of The Wood Dove which listeners may take into consideration, but there is no denying the commitment and sensitivity of this performance.by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra under Susanna Malkki

GREIG: SYMPHONIC DANCES AND OTHER WORKS, Bergen Philharmonic orchestra, John Gardner/Chandos

This is a truly splendid disc in exceptionally faithful sound – but there is one caveat that I suppose we should mention. On Bergliot, Chandos credit Juni Dahr as speaker, and it might be argued that very few will want to listen repeatedly to untranslated Norwegian speech. Still, that reservation aside, the other pieces here — notably a splendid reading of the Symphonic Dances — are given top-notch performances.

FRANCK: SYMPHONY IN D MINOR, CHAUSSON: SYMPHONY IN B FLAT MAJOR, RSB, Jean-Luc Tingaud/Naxos

The sole entry in the symphonic canon by César Franck arrived just as French music was taking on the great Austro-Germanic tradition and presenting something different. Beethoven, however, was an influence, but the individual voice of Franck as a composer is very much in evidence, and this splendid new performance does full justice to the piece. Even though the catalogue is full to the brim of rival recordings, this one is highly competitive. Once much neglected, Chausson’s Symphony in B flat major has now achieved the standing it deserves, and this is similarly delivered with thoughtfulness and the careful attention to tempo relationships.

MAHLER: SYMPHONY NO. 8, Soloists, Minnesota Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä/BIS

if you missed Graham Williams’ very favourable review on Classical CD Choice of this remarkable Mahler 8, I suggest that you search for it. Though critical opinion has been slightly mixed, most reviewers – and certainly those of this parish — are greatly persuaded by this focused and exhilarating take on the composer’s ‘Symphony of a Thousand’. Some dissenting voices have remarked on imperfections among soloists, but the final effect is utterly persuasive, and this becomes at a stroke one of the great performances of the symphony in the surround sound medium. This was Osmo Vänskä’s last venture as artistic director of the Minnesota Orchestra, and the perfect farewell.

BACEWICZ: COMPLETE ORCHESTRAL WORKS VOLUME 2, WDR SINFONIEORCHESTER, Lukasz Borowicz/CPO

It’s fascinating to think how a matter of months ago, the composer Grazyna Bacewicz was known to only a few dedicated music listeners, but a variety of discs from Chandos and now CPO have redressed that neglect. There are many voices now extolling her virtues — and not just as a remarkable musician but also one of the very best of female composers. Her chosen idiom is both energetic and imaginative, with compositions that demand attention from the listener but also boast an extremely attractive (and not at all daunting) surface sheen. Performances here are full of élan, and the fact that we are now starting to experience duplicates of already recorded music by Bacewicz matters not a wit. Listeners will now be eager to hear more from this once-neglected composer.

ELGAR: ORCHESTRAL WORKS: SYMPHONIES 1-3, ENIGMA VARIATIONS, CELLO CONCERTO, MARCHES London Symphony Orchestra/LSO Live

There are competitive versions virtually everything in this attractive box, but this is a particularly useful way of obtaining this combination of Elgar’s imperishable orchestral works, particularly in wide-ranging surround sound. The performances by a variety of conductors and the LSO are in general extremely impressive. And, as ever, the engineers do a splendid job in dealing with the difficult Barbican acoustic.

LA BELLE DAME: HOLST, DELIUS, MACKENZIE, SCOTT, O’NEILL, QUILTER AND BRIAN, Roderick Williams, BBC Concert Orchestra, John Andrews/EM Records

EM Records’ La Belle Dame features the world premiere recordings of works by Holst, Delius, Mackenzie, Scott, O’Neill, Quilter and Brian, very ably performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra and Britain’s finest baritone, Roderick Williams, conducted by John Andrews. This is a treasure trove, containing undiscovered highlights and very winning music which will not be familiar even to admirers of the composers involved.

GALBRAITH: THREE CONCERTOS, Lindsey Goodman (flute), Abby Langhorst (percussion), Alyssa Wang (violin), Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose/BMOP

It’s always good to make the acquaintance of an intriguing new composer, and that’s very much the case with Nancy Galbraith, whose inventive and colourful concertos are here given very persuasive performances by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under Gil Rose. As ever with Rose, solid musical values are matched by on-the-nose recordings which do full justice to the composer’s orchestral palette. This is the premiere recording of three concerti by Pittsburgh-native composer Galbraith, and all are premiered by conductors and musicians with whom she worked while serving as the Chair of Composition at Carnegie Mellon University

HELVI LEIVISKÄ: ORCHESTRAL WORKS, VOL. 1, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Dalia Stasevska/BIS

The Finnish composer Helvi Leiviskä was her country’s first major female composer. Utilising elements of late Romanticism, she credited Brahms as her preferred composer. But Leiviskä forged an innovative modern style that was all her own. This disc features three pieces: the Sinfonia Brevis, with echoes of Sibelius; the austere, challenging Symphony No. 2, and the Suite for orchestra No. 2, All are confidently played by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Dalia Stasevska.

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: SERENADE TO MUSIC, Soloists, Albion records. This is a novel and unusual idea by the always enterprising Albion label. Subtitled ‘Exploring the 16 Singers of the first performance of Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music’, the label has excavated recordings by the original soloists, several who we know (if at all) only from the archival recordings. As a program, it makes for strange listening, but it is a very useful collection — and particularly valuable for the Vaughan Williams enthusiast.

RAVEL, BERKELEY, POUNDS: ORCHESTRAL WORKS, Sinfonia of London, John Wilson/Chandos

To say the conductor John Wilson is on a roll is to somewhat understate the case – his recording schedule for the Chandos label is producing a cornucopia of orchestral delights, delivered with maximum skill and panache. The gem on this new recording is a sensitive and nuanced performance of Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, already well represented on disc but here given a performance that is among the most imaginative. If the pieces by Berkeley and Adam Pounds (born in 1954) register far less strongly, that is perhaps the do with genius and the skilfulness of the French composer.

ROZSA: ORCHESTRAL WORKS: OVERTURE TO A SYMPHONY CONCERT, HUNGARIAN SERENADE, TRIPARTITA, DSRP, Gregore Buhl/Capriccio

This is an immensely enjoyable disc and a reminder – if that were needed – of the composer Miklós Rósza’s skills in the classical field as opposed his matchless film scores. Aficionados of the music of the multi-talented Hungarian (if they are the enterprising sort) will have tracked down most of the music featured on this CD, all of which has been available at some time or other. But splendid though some of the past performances of these pieces were, the sheer exuberance and command of orchestral colour channelled into these readings is non-pareil.

DANCING WITH PIAZZOLA, THE London Tango Quintet/ASX

Colourful and seductive fare, played with bravura skill, though some will only hear featherweight light music. The London Tango quintet is a highly unusual assemblage of musicians, granting tango music a respect that has heretofore not been its due. This debut recording is overdue, and will appeal to admirers of the genre as well as those familiar with the compositions of Piazzola.

STRAVINSKY: VIOLIN CONCERTO, ETC. James Ehnes, BBC Philharmonic, Sir Andrew Davis/Chandos

You wait for a recording Stravinsky’s violin Concerto, and two come along at once. This latest take is quite as persuasive as that by Frank Peter Zimmerman on BIS reviewed here last month, and if neither performance quite unseats the remarkable Hilary Hahn take on the piece, no one will be disappointed with this disc – particularly as the fill-ups (Appollon Musagète, Orchestral Suites Nos 1 and 2, and Scherzo à la russe) are enterprisingly chosen and highly collectable. Recording quality is top-notch. (See Graham Williams’ feature review opposite)

 

Classical CD Choice Best Discs of 2023

RESPIGHI: ORCHESTRAL WORKS, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liege, John Neschling/BIS boxed set For admirers of Respighi’s orchestral music this generously filled box is clearly a self-recommending release. John Neschling’s seven disc survey of Respighi’s orchestral works for BIS has been a revelation since it began in 2008. The first release featured the composer’s Roman Trilogy in spectacular surround sound. The orchestra on that recording was the São Paulo Symphony. For the subsequent six releases, the excellent Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège has been Neschling’s orchestra of choice and their commitment and virtuosity has done the composer proud. In addition, the superb acoustic of the Salle Philharmonique in Liège and the care Neschling has lavished on these works has ensured that Respighi’s iridescent orchestration has been captured magnificently by the BIS engineering team. All the composer’s key orchestral works can be found here.

WEINBERG: SYMPHONY NO. 12, BBC Philharmonic, John Storgårds/Chandos  Weinberg’s 12th Symphony in Storgard’s capable hands has all the gravity and forcefulness one could wish for, frequently reminiscent of the composer’s friend and colleague Shostakovich. Of all the excavations of characterful 20th century music, few are as important as the current dusting-off of the music of Weinberg. The performance here is top-notch.

TCHAIKOVSKY: SYMPHONY NO. 5, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck/Reference Recordings Classical CD Choice’s own Graham Williams has already extolled the virtues of this remarkable performance, and his was an early harbinger of the slew of equally enthusiastic reviews to follow — to which, I can now add my own encomium. Apart from the breathtaking commitment of the performance (hardly unexpected, as that is the sine qua non of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and conductor Manfred Honeck), there is the impactful recording, couched in Reference Recordings’ characteristically wide-ranging sound. The Tchaikovsky is coupled with Erwin Schulhoff’s Five Pieces, impressively arranged for large orchestra by Manfred Honeck and Tomáš Ille.

BACH: GOLDBERG VARIATIONS REIMAGINED BY CHAD KELLY, Rachel Podger violin/Brecon Baroque/Channel Classics  How many iterations of Bach’s Goldberg Variations are in your collection? Keyboard readings? Chamber-oriented sets with the minimum number of players? Or performances that swell out the chamber forces into something more closely resembling the modern orchestra? Whatever your current choice, it is hardly a surprise that Rachel Podger and the Brecon Baroque provide a fascinating new take in this version by Chad Kelly. Podger’s playing is, of course, sui generis, and the recorded sound by Channel Classics is splendid.

SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONIES 6 & 15, London Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda/LSO Live  From the days when it was conducted by Sir Edward Elgar through the dynamic period of Andre Previn’s stewardship, the London Symphony Orchestra has long been one of the world’s top orchestras – particularly celebrated for its impeccable, world-beating brass section. The orchestra is at its best in dynamic scores, as is the case of Shostakovich symphonies 6 and 15, here delivered with jawdropping panache by the orchestra under Gianandrea Noseda. For those of us (such as this listener)  who first heard Shostakovich’s final Symphony under his son Maxim at the Royal Festival Hall – with the composer present in the royal box – its strange musical puzzles (such as the unexplained quotes from Rossini and Wagner), once so mystifying, have now settled into place in this remarkable final utterance. And the performances here are nonpareil.

KHACHATURIAN, BABAJANIAN, PETROSSIAN: CELLO CONCERTOS, Alexander Chausian, Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Eduard Topchjan/BIS  Have you heard of the Armenian composers Babajanian and Petrossian? If, like me, these are new names to you, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the colourful, alluring music they provide here, full of brio. But it goes without saying that in a collection such as this, the superb Khachaturian Cello Concerto is the real point of interest, and this piece is given a performance of both integrity and passion. What’s more, it is (to the best of my knowledge) the first performance of the work in the surround sound medium, and achieves pole position for that alone. But the combination of the three composers here makes for an extremely attractive disc.

BARTÓK: HUNGARIAN PICTURES, CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA, Concerto Budapest, Andras Keller/Tacet  The vast Decca back catalogue is one of the glories of the classical music industry, and there are some remarkable performances (such as George Solti’s once-definitive performance of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra). But classic performances of the past for this late masterpiece now have a very competitive newcomer to contend with: the Concerto for Orchestra recorded in Tacet’s customarily all-enveloping surround sound – and, what’s more, matched by a performance that does full justice to the rich Hungarian flavouring of Bartok’s score, even though the latter was written in America.

PROKOFIEV: VIOLIN CONCERTOS Maria Milstein (violin), Phion Orchestra, Otto Tausk/Channel Classics  The days when the available choices for Prokofiev’s masterly violin concertos were relatively limited are, thankfully, firmly in the past – now collectors have a wide variety to choose from, as this new issue from Maria Milstein and the Phion Orchestra under Otto Tausk firmly demonstrates . The impressive performances by Arabella Steinbacher and Julia Fischer on PentaTone remain primus inter pares, but it’s good to be able to recommend these pointed and dynamic new readings, full of character and colour.

WAGNER: DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NURNBERG, Soloists, Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper, Berlin, John Fiore/Naxos Blu-ray  Despite its considerable length, Richard Wagner’s Meistersinger remains a calling card opera, full of the composer’s most glorious and approachable music along with the philosophical underpinnings that make the piece much more than just a lengthy comic opera. Clearly, too, it is a piece of great flexibility, as this modern dress reading of the piece functions quite as effectively as more traditional takes. The singing throughout is largely as accomplished as the playing of the Deutsche Oper, Berlin under John Fiore. In the current climate in which recordings of complete operas are not as common as they once were, this set of one of Wagner’s greatest achievements is particularly welcome, even for those who may have some reservations about the reading.

BALAKIREV: ORCHESTRAL WORKS, Dinara Klinton; Niederrheinsche Sinfoniker; Mihkel Kütson/MDG  Those with a taste for colourful orchestral music with a Russian flavour will have explored the work of Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin and co. But how familiar are most music lovers with the exquisitely turned compositions of Mily Balakirev? The relative neglect of his scores – both on disc and in the concert hall — is inexplicable, although the composer has had his advocates over the years: Sir Thomas Beecham particularly favoured the lively First Symphony. This generous selection by the Niederrheinsche Sinfoniker under Mihkel Kütson is particularly welcome, not just for the repertoire it supplies but for the pointed and sympathetic performances in wide-ranging, warm sound. The First Piano Concerto, with Dinara Klinton as soloist, plus the Second Symphony and two overtures, are given nigh-definitive performances here, and it’s to be hoped that the disc will go some way to redressing the balance where Balakirev is concerned.

BRUCKNER: SYMPHONY NO. 7, Londo Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle/LSO Live  It is to be hoped that listeners make the most of Simon Rattle’s distinguished period with the London Symphony Orchestra as he makes his way to other shores. Whatever the reason for his departure (perhaps the frustration at not being granted the new concert hall that at one point appeared to be within his grasp, before organisational plans were changed), Rattle is still one of the great modern conductors – and this new reading of Bruckner’s imposing Seventh Symphony is among the most striking readings of late romantic masterpiece yet committed to disc, with LSO on bravura form.

 

Noseda to release complete Beethoven Symphonies

National Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Gianandrea Noseda is to release Beethoven: The Complete Symphonies Box Set  on February 23, 2024; Symphony No. 9 and Beethoven: The Complete Symphonies to be released digitally on February 9, 2024. The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and Music Director Gianandrea Noseda conclude their journey of releasing the complete Beethoven Symphonies with a box set of SACDs containing all nine symphonies and a video of the Ninth on Blu-ray will be released aligning with the NSO’s 2024 Europe Tour (February 16–28)