Volume 23 Issue 9 - June / July / August 2018

The American duo of cellist Marcy Rosen
and pianist Lydia Artymiw is featured on
Felix Mendelssohn Complete Works for
Cello & Piano (Bridge 9501 bridgerecords.
com). Rosen plays with a smooth singing
tone and a fine sense of line in the
Variations concertantes Op.17, the two
Sonatas – No.1 in B-flat Major Op.45 and
No.2 in D Major Op.58 – the Lied ohne
Worte Op.109 and the brief musical fragment
Assai tranquillo. Artymiw’s contribution is outstanding, full of
nuance and sensitivity and with a fine dynamic range. The Molto
allegro e vivace finale of Sonata No.2 is a standout on an excellent CD.
Germany’s Schumann Quartett – the
three Schumann brothers Erik, Ken and
Mark along with violist Liisa Randalu –
presents works by Robert Schumann, Felix
Mendelssohn and the German composer
Aribert Reimann on Intermezzo (Berlin
Classics 0301058BC berlin-classicsmusic.com).
Schumann’s String Quartet No.1 in A
Minor Op.41/1 has long been a part of their repertoire, and their deep
understanding of the work is evident in a striking performance.
Aribert Reimann is a direct descendant of Franz Richarz, the doctor
who treated Robert Schumann in the asylum near the end of his life.
His Adagio in Memory of Robert Schumann from 2006 is based on
two wordless chorales that Schumann left unfinished. The soprano
Anna Lucia Richter is the excellent soloist in Reimann’s effective
setting of Schumann’s Six Songs Op.107, written during the first
severe onset of his mental illness.
Schumann dedicated his three Op.41 quartets to Mendelssohn, and
the latter’s String Quartet in E-flat Major Op.12 completes a
thoughtful and intelligent recital. Again, there’s an excellent feel for
the music, with lightness, agility, clarity and – especially in the Molto
allegro e vivace final movement – what Randalu describes as the
opportunity for “wild joy in playing.”
Two of the three late chamber masterpieces
by a French composer who received virtually
no public acclaim during his lifetime are
presented on César Franck String Quartet
and Piano Quintet by the Quatuor Danel
and pianist Paavali Jumppanen (CPO 555
088-2 naxosdirect.com/labels/cpo).
The String Quartet in D Minor, premiered
in 1890 just months before Franck’s death,
was the first work of his to win unbridled
public acclaim. It’s a huge and difficult work, which may account
for its not being heard more often; this impassioned performance,
though, makes you wish it were.
The Piano Quintet in F Minor made little impact at its 1879 premiere
but quickly won over Franck’s colleagues, inspiring similar works by
an array of French composers. Again, it’s a passionate and sensuous
piece that elicits exemplary playing from Jumppanen and the
ensemble.
Axioms – Moments of Truth is the new CD
from the Houston-based Axiom Quartet
(Navona Records NV6151 navonarecords.com).
Although there are short works
ranging from Monteverdi through Bach, Ives,
Billie Holiday and Fleetwood Mac to Bob
Dylan, the driving creative force here is the
composer Karl Blench, who not only made
all the arrangements but also provided the
short pieces that act as transitions between
the named works; he also wrote the final title track.
Played without a break, it’s a fascinating program from an ensemble
known for its mixing of traditional repertoire with transcriptions of
music from a wide variety of popular genres. They’re clearly in their
element here.
Duos for violin and double bass features
violinist Elina Vähälä and bassist Niek de
Groot in a diverse and fascinating selection
of contemporary works by Krzysztof
Penderecki, the late Isang Yun, Jaakko
Kuusisto, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Alfred Huber,
György Kurtág and Wolfgang Rihm (audite
97.732 audite.de).
Composition dates range from 1989 to
2012, with the differing approaches to the possibilities presented by
these two apparently incompatible instruments creating a remarkable
program that Vähälä and de Groot handle with complete technical and
musical assurance.
The Fifth Row – An Acoustic Tour of
Historic Theaters (Ravello Records RR7988
ravellorecords.com) is a highly original
concept album from the American classical
guitarist Stuart Weber that acknowledges
that a player’s awareness of their physical
surroundings is crucially important. “Our
ears,” says Weber, “have to be in the house.
The Fifth Row, to be precise.”
Weber decided to indulge his fascination with old theatres and their
unique acoustic qualities by recording the 11 tracks in 11 historic
theatres in Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and Idaho. It’s difficult
to discern any real acoustic differences between the tracks, but no
matter – it’s a highly entertaining, if brief (35 minutes) program of
arrangements of short pieces by Dvořák, Bartók, Weiss, Telemann and
others interspersed with five of Weber’s own excellent compositions.
Another relatively brief but high quality
guitar CD features Michael Poll playing the
Lute Suites Nos.1 and 4 on 7-string Bach
(Orchid Classics ORC100082 orchidclassics.
com). Recorded in the legendary Studio 3
at London’s Abbey Road Studios, Poll plays
with a warm, rich and full tone in his own
arrangements of the Lute Suite No.1 in E
Minor BWV996 and the Lute Suite No.4 in
E Major BWV1006a, the latter Bach’s own adaptation of the musical
material in his Partita III for solo violin.
Poll plays a seven-string guitar, the additional string making it
possible to play these works in their original register.
thewholenote.com/listening
Winterreise
Randall Scarlata, Gilbert Kalish
The distinguished baritone Randall
Scarlata regularly performs the
German song repertoire with
pianists including Cameron Stowe,
Jeremy Denk, Laura Ward and
Gilbert Kalish
Confidences
Caroline Gélinas / Olivier Godin
French-Canadian mezzo-soprano
Caroline Gélinas presents her first
solo recital on the ATMA Classique
label. Olivier Godin accompanies
Gélinas in a program of French
mélodies.
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