Volume 20 Issue 1 - September 2014

his playing.“The Harmonious Blacksmith” is a hard actto follow. Both Driver’s and Egarr’s renditionsof the Suite 6 gigue are dashing, in contrastwith the largo in the same suite. It is easy tosay that the remaining suites comprise thedance-based movements already discussed,but Suite 7 concludes with a passacaille:chaconne. With Egarr’s combination of stridentand exuberant playing, perhaps thismovement is the sole differentiation betweenpiano and harpsichord.And on a personal note, Driver’s sleevenotes refer to frescoed ceilings by Bellucci.They are still there in the local Church ofSt. Lawrence: this reviewer grew up a halfmile from them.Michael SchwartzCLASSICAL AND BEYONDThe Classical Piano Concerto Vol.1 – DussekHoward Shelley; Ulster OrchestraHyperion CDA68027Was it really 23 years ago that Hyperionissued the first of the “Romantic PianoConcerto” series, presenting us with a bevy of19th century composers, many of whommight otherwise have languished inobscurity? The series is still going strong, andat last count, was up to number 64. This year,the company is embarking on yet anotherproject – the “Classical Piano Concerto”series, and this premiere release featuresthree works by the Bohemian composer JanLadislav Dussek (1760-1812) performed bythe renowned British pianist and conductorHoward Shelley whoalso leads the UlsterOrchestra.Born in Čáslav,Bohemia, Dussek wasa truly internationalmusician – one ofthe first – whosesuccessful career as aperformer, composer and teacher took him tothe Netherlands, Paris, London and then backto his homeland before settling in post-revolutionaryParis.The opening concerto on the disc,Op.1,No.3, written before 1783, is a modelAfter two volumes of worksfor violin and pianoJames Ehnes reachesVolume 3 in his series of BélaBartók’s Chamber Works forViolin with a CD featuring clarinetistMichael Collins, pianistAndrew Armstrong and violinistAmy Schwartz Moretti (Chandos CHAN10820). Collins and Armstrong joinEhnes in an excellent performanceof Contrasts, the workBartók wrote for himself, JosephSzigeti and Benny Goodman in1938, and Armstrong accompaniesEhnes in the very brief Sonatina, apiano piece from 1915 heard here ina 1925 transcription (approved byBartók) by André Gertler.The bulk of the CD, though, isdevoted to the 44 Duos for TwoViolins from 1931. Bartók hadbeen asked to transcribe someof his short piano pieces from1908-09, For Children, a collectionthat had been based in parton some of the folk music he had collectedbefore the First World War. He chose insteadto write four books of duets drawing almostexclusively from a wider range of the folktraditions he had encountered at that time.They’re very brief – 28 of them last less thana minute – but anyone who has played themknows that their brevity doesn’t in any wayindicate an absence of interest, mood change,variation or depth of invention.They’re not difficult to play for the mostpart, although the technical level certainlydoes rise the deeper into the set you go, so it’snot so much a case of judging the performanceshere but more one of simply enjoyingthem. And with Ehnes and Moretti you’re interrific hands.By pure coincidence, the batch of CDs thatincluded the Ehnes Bartók also includedTERRY ROBBINSviolists Claudine Bigelow andDonald Maurice in Voices fromthe Past (Tantara TCD0213VFP),a wonderful 2CD set of transcriptionsof the 44 Duos for two violas,but with a startling – and quitestrikingly emotional – addition:32 of the original field recordingsmade by Bartók that supplied theimpetus and the basic material formost of the duos, heard here for thefirst time together on one album.The first CD has a performanceof the 44 Duos with the appropriatefield recording precedingthe corresponding Bartók duo;the words of the songs, the namesof the singers or players, the locationsand dates are all included inthe excellent booklet notes. Thesecond CD is an uninterruptedperformance of the Duos.Obviously, the sound quality ofthe field recordings, made on waxcylinders between 1904 and 1916,is understandably quite poor, andno restoration has been attempted here. Someof the recordings are very rough – almostinaudible in places – but the emotionalimpact of this singing and playing of ordinarypeople from 100 years or more ago pairedwith the music they inspired is enormousand not only sheds fascinating light on thenuances of Bartók’s writing but also imparts asense of nostalgia to the pieces that is heightenedby the darker tone of the two violas.Bigelow and Maurice wisely chose not touse the William Primrose transcription of thework – the only one commercially available,but full of crucial changes Primrose madein an attempt to keep the duos at originalpitch – and opted instead to simply transposethe entire set of duos down a fifth,thus retaining their integrity. Some brightnessis lost as a result – in The Bagpipe andthe final Transylvanian Dance, for instance –but the gain in warmth and depth more thancompensates for this.Listen to the girls collapsing in laughterat the end of their bright, up-tempo song,and then listen to Bartók’s slow, melancholyPrelude & Canon transcription that followsit, simply aching with longing for a rapidlyvanishing past. It will forever change the wayyou hear these remarkable pieces.Glenn Dicterow has just stepped downafter 34 years as concertmaster of the NewYork Philharmonic, and to mark the eventand honour his service the organizationhas issued The Glenn Dicterow Collection(NYP 20140201), a three-volume selection ofDicterow’s live solo performances with theorchestra between 1982 and 2012. Volume 1is available as a CD and download; volumes2 and 3 are available only as downloads fromnyphil.org/DicterowCollection.A beautiful 88-page souvenir bookletcomes with the CD, which features superbperformances of the Bruch G Minor Concerto,the Bartók Concerto No.1, the KorngoldConcerto and the Theme from Schindler’sList, Dicterow getting inside these worksquite wonderfully in really outstandingrecordings.Strings Attached continues at thewholenote.comwith a centennial tribute toPaul Hindemith featuring violist AntoineTamestit, American cellist Michael Samis inhis debut recording with Reinecke’s CelloConcerto, Here Comes the Dance featuringSanta Ferenc Jr. and the Hungarian NationalGypsy Orchestra, Spanish Dances by theBrazilian Guitar Quartet, violin and pianomusic by Gershwin with Opus Two andHaydn concertos performed by violinistMidori Seiler.70 | September 1, 2014 – October 7, 2014 thewholenote.com