Volume 25 Issue 4 - December 2019 / January 2020

ief but dazzlingly virtuosic final Prelude, described in the excellent
booklet notes as a “breathtaking frenzy of double-note glissandi
spiccato.”
Engrossing performances make for an exceptional set.
Another exceptional 2-CD set of complete
works is Miecysław Weinberg Complete
Sonatas for Solo Viola in quite superb
performances by Viacheslav Dinerchtein
(Solo Musica SM 310 naxosdirect.com).
The four numbered sonatas were
composed between 1971 and 1983, and are
issued here in a centenary edition in celebration
of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
Weinberg’s music continues to be reassessed and promoted, and
outstanding releases like this one will clearly help to cement his
standing in 20th-century music.
The American violinist Tessa Lark makes
a stunning solo CD debut with Fantasy, a
selection of fantasies and rhapsodies from
four centuries (First hand Records FHR86
firsthandrecords.com).
Three of Telemann’s 12 Fantasias for Solo
Violin – No.1 in B-flat, No.4 in D and No.5
in A – are spread throughout the disc, with
Lark’s own Appalachian Fantasy providing
a breathtaking display of virtuosic fiddling in her native Kentucky
tradition, reworking the Schubert song that opens his Fantasie in C
Major and melding it with tunes from Appalachia. Pianist Amy Yang
joins Lark for an outstanding performance of the Schubert Fantasie,
as well as for Fritz Kreisler’s Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta – Lark
producing ravishing tone and perfect style – and a simply dazzling and
passionate performance of Ravel’s Tzigane – Rhapsodie de concert.
It’s a recital of the highest calibre.
Cellist Yorick-Alexander Abel is outstanding
in Hommage à Pablo Casals, a program
honouring the legendary Catalan cellist
(Naxos 8.551418 naxos.com).
Two of Abel’s own improvisations –
Prélude “Lampes de Sagesse” (Lamps of
Wisdom) from 2000 and Prélude “Sagesse
Amérindienne” (Native American Wisdom)
from 2010 – frame a fine performance of
Bach’s Suite in G Major BWV1007.
The Suite Per Violoncel Sol “A Pau Casals” is a striking work
in remembrance of his older brother written by Casals’ violinist/
composer younger brother in 1973, the year of Pablo’s death. Arthur
Honegger’s brief Paduana from 1945 and Pablo Casals’ own Cant dels
Ocells (Song of the Birds), based on a Catalan Christmas song, round
out a memorable CD.
There are two excellent string quartet CDs from Alpha Classics this
month, both featuring Mozart’s String Quartet No.15 in D Minor K421
and with little to choose between them.
Quatuor Voce is the ensemble on Mozart
Schubert Quartets Nos.15, the Mozart paired
with Schubert’s String Quartet No.15 in G
Major D887 in recordings made with a mix
of live concert and studio sessions – not that
you can tell (ALPHA 559 outhere-music.
com/en). There’s a warm, measured opening
to the Mozart, a work often played with a
stress on the inner turmoil of this significant key for Mozart – the key
of Don Giovanni, the Piano Concerto No.20 K466 and the Requiem.
There’s passion here though, albeit implied rather than explicit, with
the hint of despair always restrained.
The same sensitivity and depth is equally evident in the monumental
Schubert quartet.
On the Quatuor Van Kuijk’s MOZART
the K421 quartet is paired with the String
Quartet No.14 in G Major K387 and the
Divertimento in F Major K138, the latter
in its original form for four solo strings
(ALPHA 551 outhere-music.com/en).
The D-minor quartet leans more towards
the dramatic here than in the Quatuor Voce
performance, with less vibrato, more articulation
and dynamic contrast and more overt anguish – in the final
chords, for instance. There’s never a shortage of warmth, however, and
the same qualities are evident in a vibrant performance of the K387
G-major work.
Violinist Ilya Gringolts and cellist Dmitry
Kouzov are the performers on Eisler Ravel
Widman Duos, a CD that features two
20th-century works and one from the 21st
(Delos DE 3556 delosmusic.com).
Hans Eisler studied with Arnold
Schoenberg, and the latter’s influence can
be heard in the brief two-movement Duo
for Violin and Cello Op.7 from 1924, albeit
with the 12-tone approach given a softer and
more audience-friendly treatment.
The central work on the disc is the two-volume 24 Duos for Violin
and Cello from 2008 by the German composer Jörg Widmann. Nine
of the pieces are under one minute in length and the longest only just
over three minutes, but the double stopping and special effects present
technical difficulties that bring brilliant playing from Gringolts and
Kouzov in music that is challenging but always interesting. With
Widmann himself saying “Sensational!!! You understand every fibre of
my music” about the performances, these world-premiere recordings
can be considered definitive.
A fine reading of Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello from 1922
completes a fine CD.
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and
their concertmaster Margaret Batjer perform
concertante works for violin from across
three centuries on Jalbert & Bach Violin
Concertos, with Jeffrey Kahane conducting
(BIS-2309 bis.se).
The 2017 two-movement Violin Concerto
by the American composer Pierre Jalbert
was co-commissioned by the LACO and is
heard here in a world-premiere recording. The violin’s lyrical qualities
are fully exploited from the quiet and ethereal opening through the
rhythmic contrasts of the energy-filled second movement.
Bach’s Violin Concerto In A Minor BWV1041 follows in a solid
performance, and the disc closes with two 20th-century works by
Baltic composers: Arvo Pärt’s Fratres, written in 1977 and heard here
in the composer’s own 1992 arrangement for violin, string orchestra
and percussion; and Pēteris Vasks’ quite beautiful Lonely Angel, a
2006 re-working of the final movement from his 1999 Fourth String
Quartet. Batjer shows gorgeous tone and control in a solo line written
mostly in the highest register.
The excellent cellist Martin Rummel is back
with Volume 2 of Ferdinand Ries Complete
Works for Cello with pianist Stefan
Stroissnig (Naxos 8.573851 naxos.com).
Volume 1 is available on Naxos 8.57726.
Ries left a sizeable œuvre of over 200
compositions on his death in 1838, few of
which are remembered. Included here are:
the Cello Sonata in C Minor WoO2 from
1799, one of the earliest of its genre and written when Ries was only
15; the Trois Aires Russes Variés Op.72 from 1812; the Introduction
and a Russian Dance Op.113 No.1 and the Cello Sonata in F Major
82 | December 2019 – January 2020 thewholenote.com