Volume 27 Issue 4 - February 2022
Gould's Wall -- Philip Akin's "breadcrumb trail; orchestras buying into hope; silver linings to the music theatre lockdown blues; Charlotte Siegel's watershed moments; Deep Wireless at 20; and guess who is Back in Focus. All this and more, now online for your reading pleasure.
Gould's Wall -- Philip Akin's "breadcrumb trail; orchestras buying into hope; silver linings to the music theatre lockdown blues; Charlotte Siegel's watershed moments; Deep Wireless at 20; and guess who is Back in Focus. All this and more, now online for your reading pleasure.
- No tags were found...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
performance gives you everything you could<br />
want from this beloved concerto.<br />
The real revelation here, though, is Frank<br />
Bridge’s Oration, Concerto elegiaco. Written<br />
in 1929-30, it shares spiritual affinities and<br />
shadows of the Great War with the Elgar,<br />
and is described as “a funeral address of<br />
huge solemnity and narrative power in its<br />
outcry against the futility of war.” At times it<br />
is much like the Elgar in sound and style, but not in form, having<br />
seven connected movements with a particularly martial Allegro giusto<br />
and a central cadenza. I don’t recall ever having heard it before, but if<br />
ever a work cried out for wider exposure it’s this one.<br />
The American violinist Oscar Shumsky,<br />
who died in 2000 at the age of 83, recorded<br />
extracts from the Brahms Violin Concerto in<br />
D Major Op. 77 for the Music Appreciation<br />
Recordings LP label, but a complete<br />
performance of the work has never been<br />
available. He did, however, make a digital<br />
recording with the Philharmonia Hungarica<br />
under Uri Segal in 1984, although apparently<br />
it was forgotten for almost four decades. It has now been<br />
released by Biddulph Recordings, with the Shumsky family’s permission,<br />
as Brahms Violin Concerto (85007-2 naxosdirect.com/search/<br />
bdf-ed-85007-2).<br />
Shumsky was generally considered to be one of the great violinists<br />
of the 20th century, the New Grove Dictionary calling him “a player of<br />
virtuoso technique, pure style and refined taste,” qualities that are<br />
fully evident in this really fine performance. The orchestral sound is<br />
quite resonant, with the violin’s brilliant tone very much up front. It’s<br />
a gem of a CD.<br />
Following his 2021 recording of Weinberg’s<br />
Violin Concerto in G Minor Op.67 and<br />
the Sonata for Two Violins Op.69 Gidon<br />
Kremer continues his passionate promotion<br />
of the previously neglected music of<br />
Shostakovich’s close friend and compatriot<br />
with Mieczysław Weinberg: Sonatas for<br />
Solo Violin (ECM New Series ECM <strong>27</strong>05<br />
ecmrecords.com/shop).<br />
Sonatas No.1 Op.82 and No.2 Op.85 were<br />
both written in 1964, and are comprised of<br />
several short movements: Adagio, Andante,<br />
Allegretto, Lento and Presto for the Op.82; and Monody, Rests,<br />
Intervals, Replies, Accompaniment, Invocation and Syncopes for<br />
Op.85. Sonata No.3 Op.126 from 1979 is a single-movement work with<br />
a decided Shostakovich feel about it.<br />
Kremer really throws himself into this music, which has a great<br />
range of emotional and technical challenges, but is capable of playing<br />
with much tenderness and sensitivity when required. This may not be<br />
the first recording of these fascinating works, but it’s difficult to<br />
imagine a set with a greater commitment.<br />
There’s music by Weinberg’s compatriot<br />
himself this month as well, with a new<br />
recording of Shostakovich String Quartets<br />
No.3 & No.8 in excellent performances by<br />
the Korean ensemble Novus Quartet (Aparté<br />
AP<strong>27</strong>1 apartemusic.com).<br />
The String Quartet No.3 in F Major Op.73<br />
from 1946 was triumphantly received by the<br />
public and critics alike, and seems to chart<br />
the path from the losses of the war to a return to daily life, albeit with<br />
a “forced cheerfulness” typical of the composer.<br />
The String Quartet No.8 in C Minor Op.110 is the most autobiographical<br />
of the Shostakovich quartets, with his musical monogram D,<br />
E-flat, C and B natural (DSCH in German notation) forming the basis<br />
for much of the work. Moreover, the quartet is full of direct quotes<br />
from earlier Shostakovich works, most touchingly the melody from<br />
the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, the work which resulted in his<br />
initial persecution by the Soviet authorities. Written in 1960 in<br />
response to the wartime destruction of human life and artistic treasures<br />
in Dresden, it was portrayed by Soviet propaganda as denouncing<br />
fascism, while it was almost certainly a reaction to Soviet atrocities<br />
under the Stalin regime.<br />
The Sound and the Fury is the first studio<br />
recording by the Shea-Kim Duo, the<br />
husband and wife team of violinist Brendan<br />
Shea and pianist Yerin Kim (Blue Griffin<br />
Recording BGR593 bluegriffin.com).<br />
Dvořák’s Mazurek Op.49, with its abundant<br />
and virtuosic double stops, was inspired by<br />
and dedicated to the great Spanish violinist<br />
Pablo de Sarasate. Grieg’s Violin Sonata<br />
No.3 in C Minor Op.45 is the biggest of his<br />
three violin sonatas and, possibly because of the simply beautiful slow<br />
middle movement, one of the composer’s favourite works.<br />
Janáček’s Violin Sonata, his only work in the genre, was written in<br />
early 1914, just prior to the outbreak of the Great War. The composer<br />
later referred to “the sound of steel clashing” in his head.<br />
Shea plays with a warm tone on a violin which can tend to sound<br />
somewhat muted at times. Kim’s piano contribution is first-class<br />
throughout.<br />
Finally, space restrictions usually preclude<br />
our covering short streaming-only releases,<br />
but in view of the recent passing of the<br />
legendary Broadway composer Stephen<br />
Sondheim, as well as the superb quality of<br />
the arrangement and performance, I just<br />
have to mention Stephen Sondheim A Little<br />
Night Music: Suite for Violin and Piano,<br />
arranged by Broadway veteran Eric Stern for<br />
the Opus Two duo of violinist William Terwilliger and pianist Andrew<br />
Cooperstock (Bridge 4010 bridgerecords.com).<br />
The third in a series of Stern Broadway arrangements commissioned<br />
by Opus Two and made with the composer’s approval, it’s just under<br />
15 minutes in length, but the four-movement suite of Night Waltz,<br />
You Must Meet My Wife, A Weekend in the Country and Send in the<br />
Clowns is an absolute delight.<br />
I was lucky enough to receive a promo hard copy, but it can be<br />
streamed on Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube Music, and<br />
purchased via Amazon, iTunes and Google Play, among others.<br />
thewholenote.com/listening<br />
J.S. Bach / Karlheinz Essl:<br />
Gold.Berg.Werk<br />
Xenia Prestova Bennett & Ed Bennet<br />
Austrian composer Karlheinz<br />
Essl offers a refreshing take on<br />
the Goldberg Variations, bringing<br />
together Baroque and contemporary<br />
sound worlds with live spatialised<br />
electronics.<br />
20C Remix<br />
Standing Wave Society<br />
20C Remix features music from<br />
the last century reimagined by<br />
seven of today’s leading Canadian<br />
composers, performed by the<br />
Standing Wave Ensemble.<br />
thewholenote.com <strong>February</strong> <strong>2022</strong> | 37