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Charles-Valentin
Alkan: Concerto for solo piano & Troisième recueil de chants.
Marc-André Hamelin
Hyperion CDA 67569 Reviewed by RSF
Think about the title of the main work, Concerto for solo piano, and it
sends your brain a mixed message.
But Alkan’s composition will change your mind and Hamelin’s
performance and Hyperion’s wonderful sound will have you totally
mesmerised. It’s a complex work which gives the listened insight
into the stunning skills of both the composer, and those who dare to play
his music. Hamelin is a champion here and I just can’t get enough
of his ingenious shadings and tonal blending. In the score for this work,
the first movement is an epic 72 pages in length, 1343 bars, making it
longer than Beethoven’s entire ‘Hammerklavier’ sonata.
I am sure many are not familiar with these works but I do urge you to
expand your horizons. Do so and you will be enchanted by the superb music
on this disc. (For those interested in vinyl, there are three individual
LPs and one box set of works by Charles-Valentin Alkan on EMI, performed
by the great Ronald Smith. Some have been re-mastered for digital and
are available now on compact disc.)
The performances presented here are exciting, the Steinway’s big,
complex and sound perfectly captured, as is Hamelin’s superb artistry.
Top recommendation.
Supplier: www.hyperion-records.co.uk
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Elgar:
Enigma Variations; Introduction and Allegro.
Sir Colin Davis, LSO
LSO Live-LSO 0609 Reviewed by RSF
While these live performances were given ‘rave’ reviews in
the UK by the major print media, you can now enjoy the experience in your
own home.
The Enigma Variations were composed between 1898 and ‘99. The liner
notes are extensive and for anyone even slightly familiar with Elgar,
the most famous of these variations is of course, ‘Nimrod’
(variation IX, a portrait of Elgar’s close friend, A. J. Jaeger).
This is an immensly popular work and has had many champions, with favourite
performances from conductors including Barbirolli, Boult, Monteux and
even Davis himself with the RPO on Lyrita, but I consider this current
Davis recording worthy of similar respect. There is a lushness and rich
harmonic structure built into the fabric of this work and this is the
first time, in the digital domain, I’ve felt completely satisfied.
Fascinating to note that the exhilarating and exciting Introduction and
Allegro for Strings, was written for the London Symphony Orchestra in
1905. The LSO strings are at their best and I think this is another outstanding
performance. The CD layer is outstanding, but bettered by the SACD layer.
Highest recommendation.
Supplier: www.Iso.co.uk
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Franz
Liszt: Totentanz, Piano Concerto No. 1, Piano Concerto No. 2
Cohen, São Paulo S.O. Neschling
Bis-SACD-1530 Reviewed by RSF
In 1847, Franz Liszt stopped giving public performances and moved to Weimar,
Germany at the invitation of the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia.
During an extremely productive period Liszt completed Totentanz (Dance
of Death) in 1849.
This is a fabulous, electrifying tour-de-force for piano and orchestra.
There have been many great Liszt interpreters (Claudio Arrau is one to
explore).
Arnaldo Cohen, a Brazilian born virtuoso, currently resides in the United
States, where “As a former professional violinist, teacher of physics,
mathematics, cocktail pianist, and avid soccer fan, Mr. Cohen’s
unconventional background contributed to the aura of surprise and discovery
that attended virtually every one of his public performances…”
One of the qualities I admire in these performances is the cohesive relationship
between soloist and orchestra.
Sometimes, as with say the great Richter/Kondrashin collaboration on the
piano concertos, Richter seems to run the show. Here both are perfectly
synchronized and the result is fabulous music making. No doubt about the
excellent sound quality here and absolutely no doubt that Cohen is playing
a Steinway D. The CD sound is excellent but again it’s bettered
by the DSD layer. This is a thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended
disc for your library.
Supplier: www.bis.se |
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Sibelius:
Complete Symphonies, Finlandia, Violin Concerto
Segerstam cond. Helsinki P.O.
Polytech Choir, Kuusisto, violin.
Ondine ODE 1075-2Q Reviewed by RSF
I’m sure every reader who loves classical music has his or her favourite
performance of one or another of Jean Sibelius’ seven symphonies.
Conductors including Von Karajan, Barbirolli, Dorati, Bergland, Maazel,
Gibson, Szell, Davis and even Monteux have given us complete or partial
cycles of these fantastic and evocative symphonies. You can pick and chose
and are sure to find several that will please, until now, I’d never
heard a complete cycle by one conductor that I felt really captured Sibelius
for me. Well, with these compact discs, that has now changed.
Over the past five years, Segerstam and the Helsinki Philharmonic have
been recording these works for Ondine, previously releasing them, with
other couplings, on four separate compact discs.
They have now all been repackaged in a small box that includes Pekka Kussisto’s
beautifully considered performance of the most challenging of all Violin
Concertos. But what makes it even more enticing is that the complete set
is offered at mid-price.
Segerstam is a conductor I’ve long admired and although I’ve
only been exposed to a small portion of his work, this set clinches the
deal for me, compelling me to explore him in greater detail. An accomplished
musician, he received diplomas from the Sibelius Academy in both the violin
and conducting. He won the Maj Lind Piano Competition in 1962 and gave
his first violin recital in 1963. He went on to complete his studies at
the Juilliard School in New York, where he was awarded a conducting diploma
in 1964. He has been a resident or visiting conductor at many of the world’s
greatest opera houses and Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic
Orchestra since 1995.
Right from the opening notes of the first symphony, Segerstam brings new
colour to these distinctive melodies, enticing deeper and deeper into
the fabric of the compositions. As you delve further into Sibelius’s
work it’s like hearing each symphony anew. These are exciting, yet
heartfelt performances filled with magic and painted with a lush, sweeping
brush, fleshing out the broad musical panoramas that make these symphonies
so powerful. With sound to match the quality of the performances I cannot
recommend this set more strongly.
Supplier: www.ondine.net |
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Dvorák:
Symphony No. 8, The Wild Dove, The Noon Witch
Kreizberg cond. Netherlands P.O.
PentaTone PTC 5186 065 Reviewed by RSF
The great Czech romantic composer wrote this symphony in 1889. While not
an immediate success, this has turned out to be one of Dvorák’s
most popular symphonies. The character and flavour of Czech folklore abounds,
and this is now considered one of the composer’s most popular compositions.
I too, feel this an exciting symphony and in the hands of Kreizberg and
his Netherlands Philharmonic, coupled with outstanding sound quality,
makes for a very enthusiastic thirty-seven and a half minute reading.
The Afternoon Witch is a ghostly entity employed in folk tales to scare
naughty children, The Wood Dove tells of a beautiful young woman, who
poisons her husband and, shortly afterwards, marries a young man, at least
so say the liner notes.
Kreizberg is one of the great current conductors and can be favourably
compared to the greats of yesteryear. If you’ve heard performances
by Fricsay, Monteux, Karajan and even Reiner, you’re going to be
very happy to hear what Kreizberg does with this music. The bonus of the
two symphonic poems, round out this 72+ minute disc. The CD layer offers
exceptional sound but as anticipated, the disc really shines during SACD
playback. There’s great music on this disc and with performances
and sound quality not to be missed, it is highly recommended.
Supplier: www.pentatonemusic.com
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