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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.

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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

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