{"id":1911,"date":"2020-12-22T17:06:42","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T17:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/?p=1911"},"modified":"2020-12-22T17:07:05","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T17:07:05","slug":"elgar-vaughan-williams-on-mdg-graham-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/?p=1911","title":{"rendered":"Elgar, Vaughan Williams & Dvorak on MDG Graham Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

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ELGAR: CELLO CONCERTO IN E MINOR, OP. 85, VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (DAVID MATTHEWS): DARK PASTORAL FOR CELLO AND ORCHESTRA MDG 650 2181-2 \u00a0<\/strong>This is one of a pair of new releases stemming from a collaboration between MDG and Denon (Nippon Columbia), and features Japanese cellist Dai Miyata, winner of the 2009 Rostropovich Competition, as the soloist in the E minor Cello Concerto of Edward Elgar, indisputably the most popular and quintessentially English of concertos for the instrument. Miyata\u2019s impassioned and warmly expressive account of the solo part is achingly beautiful throughout with a flawless control of dynamics, while his dextrous precision in the second movement is remarkable for its unforced virtuosity. One could hardly ask for more sensitive and committed support than that Miyata receives from Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Even with intense competition from countless rival versions this one stands out from the crowd. The other piece on this CD \u2013 a world premiere recording \u2013 will be of considerable interest to aficionados of the music of Vaughan Williams. In the 1940s the composer wrote sketches for a Cello Concerto intending it for Pablo Casals, but for reasons unknown it remained unfinished. After the death of the composer\u2019s widow Ursula in 2007 the RVW trust allowed the composer David Matthews to complete the work\u2019s slow movement from the sketches. Matthews gave the piece the apt tile of \u2018Dark Pastoral\u2019 and although he modestly claims that the result is just one third Vaughan Williams and two thirds Matthews, for most listeners, I am sure, the music will appear as echt Vaughan Williams. Miyata\u2019s eloquent performance of this lyrical threnody could hardly be improved upon. Both works were recorded at City Halls, Glasgow (25-26 August 2019) by a team from Nippon Columbia, and the sound is both warm and well balanced. Though some will regard a total playing time of 40 minutes for this CD as somewhat parsimonious, experienced collectors know that quality will always trump quantity.<\/p>\n

DVORAK: SYMPHONY NO. 9 OP. 95 \u2018FROM THE NEW WORLD\u2019, IFUKUBE: SINFONIA TAPKAARA AND GODZILLA – SYMPHONIC FANTASY, MDG 650 2176-2\u00a0 <\/strong>The liner notes with this CD bravely, but quite unsuccessfully, attempt to make spurious connections between these totally disparate pieces. This seems quite unnecessary, as the purpose of these recordings is to showcase the undoubted talents of both the young Italian maestro Andrea Battistoni and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, of which he is the Chief Conductor. One wishes that the choice for the main work on this CD had been something other than Dvorak\u2019s \u2018New World\u2019 Symphony since any new account of this popular masterpiece is in competition with a plethora of recordings from some of the world\u2019s greatest conductors stretching back for decades. Battistoni\u2019s performance is uncontroversial in matters of tempi and dynamics, though it is a pity that he has chosen to omit the 1st<\/sup> movement exposition repeat, whose observance has become de rigueur on most recent recordings. He elicits fine playing from his Tokyo players and the recording made at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall captures the orchestra\u2019s impressive brass and timpani with considerable realism.Of perhaps greater interest to many will be the three-movement \u2018Sinfonia Tapkaara\u2019 by Akira Ifukube (1914-2006), a work completed in 1954 and premiered the following year in the United States. It is a most attractive score comprising of two lively and melodic outer movements separated by an evocative nocturne. Battistoni\u2019s energetic account of this 30 minute piece sounds entirely idiomatic. To most people in the West, Ifukube is probably best known for composing a series of film scores for the \u2018Godzilla\u2019 movie franchise. After completing scores for eight films he wrote no more, but after an absence for sixteen years he produced the score for \u2018Godzilla vs. Kingghidorah\u2019 in 1991.That same year Ifukube composed his \u2018Godzilla -Symphonic Fantasy\u2019 and the final item on this CD is regrettably only a brief (2\u201934) excerpt from that work.<\/p>\n

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ELGAR: CELLO CONCERTO IN E MINOR, OP. 85, VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (DAVID MATTHEWS): DARK PASTORAL FOR CELLO AND ORCHESTRA MDG 650 2181-2 \u00a0This is one of a pair of new releases stemming from a collaboration between MDG and Denon (Nippon Columbia), … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1911"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1914,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911\/revisions\/1914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}