Volume 27 Issue 4 - February 2022

frequent slides alternates with faster jazzy
passages. The following enticing pieces show
similar variety.
Roger Knox
Mozart – Post Scriptum (Rondos K382/386;
Concerto No.20)
Sergei Kvitko; Madrid Soloists Chamber
Orchestra; Tigran Shiganyan
Blue Griffin BGR597 (bluegriffin.com)
! Sergei Kvitko
explained that
he wanted this
disc to be “full of
surprises.” The
Russian-born
artist is not only
an accomplished
pianist, but also an
arranger, producer
and sound engineer who founded the Blue
Griffin label in 2000 while completing his
doctoral studies at the University of Michigan.
Who better then to inject new life into this
brief all-Mozart program where he partners
with the Madrid Soloists conducted by Tigran
Shiganyan? As for the surprises, they involve
reconfigurations of the two Rondos, K382 and
K386, with respect to orchestration, ornamentation
and dynamic markings, with new
cadenzas composed by Kvitko himself.
The two rondos – the first a set of variations
– were written as possible alternate finales for
piano concertos. Kvitko and the 29-member
ensemble deliver a polished performance
displaying solid musicianship, with alternative
orchestral ornaments and cadenzas at
times foreshadowing Beethoven.
Starkly contrasting in mood is the Concerto
in D Minor K466 from 1785. Again, the
pairing of Kvitko and the Madrid Soloists is a
formidable one. But as for the cadenzas, this
writer has never heard such musical excursions
in a Mozart concerto before. Not only
are they lengthier than the average, but stylistically,
Kvitko jumps ahead some decades to
the Romantic period. Here are modulations
to remote keys (including E-flat Major and F
Minor) and dazzling bravura passage work.
Do I hear echoes of Franz Liszt and is that
a quotation from Saint-Saëns? Indeed, the
listener may have cause to wonder if soloist
and ensemble will ever reunite!
Nevertheless, this is an exemplary performance
and whether the enhancements should
be viewed as creativity on the part of the
soloist or mere musical indulgences, it should
be up to the listener to decide. Surely Mozart
would have approved – this disc is definitely
worth investigating.
Richard Haskell
Schubert – Chaleur/Warmth
Mathieu Gaudet
Analekta AN 2 9185 (analekta.com/en)
! This classy
album hits all the
right marks in its
pursuit of excellence
– beautiful
music, engaging
performance and
a meaningful
message to the
world. Volume 5 in a series of 15 projected
albums covering the wealth of Schubert’s
piano music, this album is filled with warmth
and artistry, perfect for a season of solitude,
contemplation and discovery.
Mathieu Gaudet has an undeniable
connection with Schubert’s music. Being
an exuberant and lavish piano player, he is
capable of grand gestures that bring out the
magnificence of Schubert’s form and architecture.
On the other hand, listening to
Gaudet makes me feel like he is playing this
music just for me, such is the intimacy of
his lyrical sound and phrasing. Most appreciated
is how intensely this artist conveys
the subtlety and the meaning behind all the
magnificence.
Sonata No. 5 in A-flat Major opens the
album with the traditionally noble atmosphere
of the post-classical mode, continuing
with four smaller pieces in the form of
dances and Thirteen Variations on a Theme
by Schubert’s contemporary Anselm
Hüttenbrenner. Although placed last, the
Sonata No.16 in D Major is the central work
of this album. The monumental composition
offers a compressed experience of all
the Schubertian characteristics – exultation,
passion, memorable melodies and grace.
As for its gentle message, this album shows
that despite all the unsettledness in the world
one can always find a way to connect to
what matters.
Ivana Popovic
Brahms – 3 Sonatas
Michael Collins; Stephen Hough
BIS BIS-2557 (bis.se)
Here with You – The Brahms Sonatas;
Weber – Grand Duo; Montgomery – Peace
Anthony McGill; Gloria Chien
Cedille CDR 900000 207
(cedillerecords.org)
! No longer,
it seems, is it
enough for clarinetists
to throw
down their hottest
take on Brahms’
majestic Opus 120
Sonatas for Piano
and Clarinet on
its own. If recent examples are anything to
go by, something more is now called for, a
sidecar offering
some alternate
musical perspective.
Last year,
for example, the
recording released
by Jörg Widman
and Andras Schiff
included Widman’s
own Brahmsian Intermezzi for piano. This
month, two more collaborations do something
similar: Anthony McGill and Gloria
Chien perform Opus 120 and then add
Weber’s Grand Duo Concertant, Opus 48,
and Peace, by Jessie Montgomery; meanwhile
Michael Collins and Stephen Hough open
with a transcription (at pitch!) of Brahms’
Opus 100 Violin Sonata in A Major and then
move on to Opus 120.
I’m never fond of poached repertoire, but
I admit the violin sonata feels like it could
easily have been written for the clarinetist,
Richard Muehlfeld, as the Opus 120 were.
Only when Collins extends the range to the
higher reaches do I think Brahms wouldn’t
have offered Muehlfeld that opportunity to
suffer. Not that there’s anything wrong with
Collins’ technique; he deals quite beautifully
with the higher tessitura of the violin piece.
It’s just uncharacteristic, un-Brahmsian per
his treatment of the clarinet elsewhere.
McGill and Chien, presenting the late
Classical/early Romantic Carl Maria von
Weber’s tour-de-force, arguably made the
more conservative decision, but I prefer
it because it proposes an unexpected
comparison of the two composers. Brahms
can be a tad wordy, like some reviewers I
might name. Weber is seriously underappreciated,
and deserves a good deal more respect
than he’s been afforded in the past century.
McGill sounds fabulous; Chien wrings,
and rings, out the mittfuls of Brahms’ piano
writing. In the Weber, avoided by some pianists
on account of its dastardly technical
demands, she bats no eyes and crosses no
fingers; in short, she kicks the piece into gear
and roars away. We should all be so lucky
to play the piece with her! The Grand Duo
is a dessert, which leavens out the weighty
Brahms, and is so much more Romantic:
more fun and, I’ll admit it, entertaining. The
slow movement is an arioso without words,
beautifully rendered by the tandem. The
presto playout of the Rondo movement is a
rousing display of music hall bravura; see
if you don’t rise at the end to give them a
standing ovation.
Collins plays a somewhat brighter set-up
than McGill, and sounds great. Then there’s
Stephen Hough, who is already in the
pantheon. His work on the three sonatas
is impeccable, considered and moving.
Collins and Hough hew to a steadier, faster
pulse than the Americans, whose fluid flexibility
appeals to me but might bother some.
McGill and Chien are too indulgent during
the Sostenuto section of the Second Sonata’s
second movement, which plods. Collins
42 | February 2022 thewholenote.com