S P E C I A L A W A R D S I S S U E The year’s best recordings, chosen by our expert critics

gramophone.co.uk

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa wins our

Lifetime Achievement Award

We name the best releases

of the past year, including:
Joyce DiDonato’s
musical mission for peace
Masaaki Suzuki’s serene,
life-affirming Mozart
Murray Perahia’s
intelligent, joyful Bach
… and we reveal our
Recording of the Year!

PLUS
Strauss’s Alpine Symphony:
which version to own?
Victor de Sabata: recalling
the maestro, 50 years on
UNITED KINGDOM £5.75
Transform your piano playing with
the Tido Music app for iPad
• Video performances and masterclasses
• Exclusive studio recordings
• Powerful practice tools

̣̣̣̣̣ BBC Music Magazine

Try it now for free

www.tidomusicapp.com
 LISTEN TO SOUNDS OF AMERICA ON
A special eight-page section focusing on recent recordings from the US and Canada
Beethoven .
Brahms . Radzynski
‘Soulmates’
Beethoven Trio ‘Gassenhauer’, Op 11a Brahms
Clarinet Trio, Op 114a Radzynski Concerto Duos
Amitai Vardi cl Uri Vardi vc aArnon Erez pf
Delos F DE3536 (64’ • DDD)
Beethoven and
Brahms’s clarinet
trios make a superb
pair. They share the
same instrumentation, of course, yet also
serve as foils for one another. Beethoven’s
is an early work and displays an incisive
brilliance, confident character and sharp
wit aimed to impress Vienna’s musical
connoisseurs; Brahms’s comes from the end
of his career and veers between ruminative
and passionate melancholy.
The performers on this Delos recording
seem more comfortable in Brahms’s
crepuscular world. Pianist Arnon Erez gives
the triplet figures in the first movement a
nervous urgency that offsets the music’s
expansive lyricism, while he phrases the
dancelike third movement generously.
Clarinettist Amitai Vardi floats the long
melodic lines of the Adagio with a liquid
legato and digs in reedily to the finale’s
rustic rhythms. Cellist Uri Vardi’s tone
shows occasional signs of strain and his
intonation is not always spot on, though his
emotional engagement is never in doubt.
In Beethoven’s Trio, however, the
musicians sound more dutiful than
stimulated. And this score is so full of
incident – stomping accents, flurries of
sparkling scales, surprise silences – that
there are myriad opportunities to delight,
as clarinettist Jon Manasse and his
colleagues demonstrate in their scintillating
recording (Harmonia Mundi, 12/14). The
P H O T O G R A P H Y: H A R O L D L E V I N E
Vardis and Erez sound stodgy and subdued
in comparison.
Sandwiched between the Beethoven and
Brahms we have Jan Radzynski’s Concert
Duos (2004) for clarinet and cello – five
brief, playfully melodic movements,
including a polonaise and a waltz. The
gramophone.co.uk
talks to...
Boyd Meets Girl
Guitarist Rupert Boyd and cellist Laura Metcalf on
their unique partnership
How did you come up with such an
eclectic programme?
Over the past four years playing together as
a duo, we’ve performed and arranged works
from the Baroque to the modern day. For our
debut recording we chose pieces that we
love the most, mixing popular and unduly
neglected works, to create an album of
diverse moods and textures, highlighting
the versatility of our instrumentation.
Presumably the repertoire is small?
It’s not non-existent, but it is quite limited.
Many composers have loved the guitar but
then written nothing for it. Hence the need to
make our own arrangements. It is wonderful
for a guitarist to be able to play works by
composers like Fauré, Bach and Falla, who
generally overlooked the instrument. When
arranging a work, we look for something that
sounds like it could have been originally
written for our instrumentation, and try to
offer a unique but authentic rendition. The
Australian composer Ross Edwards also
Vardis, père et fils, play it with charming
panache. Andrew Farach-Colton
Bolcom . Corigliano . Ives
Bolcom Violin Sonata No 2 Corigliano Violin
Sonata Ives Violin Sonata No 2
Ching-Yi Lin vn Zachary Lopes pf
MSR Classics F MS1553 (54’ • DDD)
Virgil Thomson said
it best: ‘The way to
write American music
is simple. All you have
to do is be an American and then write any
kind of music you wish.’ Thomson isn’t
arranged his Guitar
Concerto for us, with
the entire orchestral
part reduced to
one cello!
What makes this
combination
special?
The sounds of the
cello and the guitar
compliment each other really well. The
guitar is not a loud instrument, but the
plucked nature of its sound, combined with
the bowed notes on the cello, allows for a nice
timbral separation. It has also really improved
Rupert’s negotiating skills, getting Laura to
explore the quietest dynamics of the cello!
What are your future plans?
We plan to commission new works from
composers in New York and beyond, and
look forward to arranging more pieces
ourselves.
represented on this disc of American
sonatas for violin and piano but the
composers who are – William Bolcom,
John Corigliano, Charles Ives – would
appear to agree. Corigliano even seconds
Thomson in the booklet notes when he
states that his sonata ‘is more the result of
an American writing music than writing
“American” music’.
That said, traits that might be termed
American can be discerned in these
imaginative and entrancing pieces. Ives
doesn’t employ actual folk tunes in his
Second Sonata but he folds his own folksy
melodies into the three movements, which
have the descriptive titles ‘Autumn’, ‘In the
Barn’ and ‘The Revival’. In his Second
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 I
Find
your
piece
Enjoy the recordings shortlisted
in the 2017 Gramophone Awards

Classical downloads,
FOR LIFE ON AN EPIC SCALE streaming and experiences
at primephonic.com
 CLASSICAL MUSIC IN HIGH DEFINITION
Composer and pianist Dominic Dousa performs his own music with viola player Stephen Nordstrom
Sonata, the ever-inventive Bolcom pays
tribute to jazz violinist Joe Venuti in four
movements of bluesy and swinging material,
including special techniques Venuti made
his own. Corigliano composed his only
work in the genre soon after graduating
from Columbia University, yet his ability
to devise musical narratives of creative and
alluring substance is already at full steam.
Violinist Ching-Yi Lin and pianist
Zachary Lopes play the sonatas with equal
degrees of panache and warmth. They are
a well-matched team, savouring their
individual duties while communicating
with one another as if engaged in a series
of tender, lively and challenging
conversations. Donald Rosenberg
Dousa
‘A Musical Portrait of the American Southwest’
Mountain Song. Reflections on a Desert Winter.
Viola Sonata, ‘From a Land Wild and Free’
Stephen Nordstrom va Dominic Dousa pf
Blue Griffin F BGR423 (74’ • DDD)
The American
composer Dominic
Dousa shares
something with
another countryman, Ferde Grofé: both
are/were smitten with the great expanses
gramophone.co.uk
and regional flavours of the United States.
Grofé channelled his gifts for painting
musical scenes into the grand sonic entity
known as the orchestra; Dousa functions
on a more intimate instrumental scale, as
can be gleaned from this disc of appealing
music for viola and piano.
‘A Musical Portrait of the American
Southwest’ comprises three works written
in a distinct Americana style, with open
harmonies and melodies by turns folk-like,
rugged and soaring. Dousa favours a tonal
style that seems like a memory of distant
times but the music’s poetic generosity and
shapely architecture are clear signals the
composer knows his craft.
The programmatic content is suggested
in the titles Dousa assigns to the pieces and
various movements. Vistas of New Mexico
are conjured in Reflections on a Desert
Winter, whose five movements range from
serene lyricism to almost swashbuckling
energy. Mountain Song is inspired by the
Rocky Mountains, their immensity and
beauty distilled into 10 minutes of affecting
statements. Even Dousa’s Viola Sonata has
a subtitle, From a Land Wild and Free. Its
three movements evoke ‘the plains of the
Texas Panhandle and eastern New Mexico’,
as the composer states.
Dousa himself serves as fluent and vital
pianist in these performances with viola
player Stephen Nordstrom, whose playing
combines tonal beauty, technical agility and
expressive depth. Donald Rosenberg
Honegger . Ravel . Schulhoff
Honegger Sonatina for Violin and Cello, H80
Ravel Sonata for Violin and Cello
Schulhoff Duo for Violin and Cello
Elaris Duo
MSR Classics F MS1526 (50’ • DDD)
Aside from Kodaly’s
Duo for violin and
cello, Mozart’s two
duos for violin and
viola and the ubiquitous Handel-Halvorsen
Passacaglia for either configuration, there is
surprisingly little music of much distinction
for two string instruments. Nevertheless, the
genre continues to be actively carried on
by superstars like Julia Fischer and Daniel
Müller-Schott and by less celebrated
collaborators with similar chops and
different charms; in many cases, it seems as
if the music is being made for more personal
reasons and the performances accordingly
embrace a more intimate point of view.
In the case of the Elaris Duo, based at
Georgia Southern College 200 miles south-
east of Atlanta, it’s definitely the warm
human touch informed by virtuosity. And
in doing so, amid their programme of
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 III
 PHOTO CREDIT: NATÁLIA KIKUCHI

PROKOFIEV
SYMPHONY NO. 7
Marin Alsop
Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado
de São Paulo

...one of the leading

conductors in the world.”
- MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

NAXOS • 8573620 • 747313362073 • AVAILABLE 10.13.17

PHOTO CREDIT: KAUPO KIKKAS

SAINT-SAËNS
WORKS FOR CELLO AND ORCHESTRA

Gabriel Schwabe
Marc Soustrot
Malmö Symphony Orchestra

“
...among the best cellists
of his generation.”
– CONCERTI

NAXOS • 8573737 • 747313373772 • AVAILABLE 10.13.17

PHOTO CREDIT: FRAN KAUFMAN

BAKER
FROM NOON TO STARRY NIGHT

Marc-André Hamelin
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Gilbert Varga
Juanjo Mena

“...an intelligent and

thoughtful artist.”
– THE SEATTLE TIMES

NAXOS • 8559804 • 636943980422 • AVAILABLE 10.13.17

AVA I L A B L E A T : DISTRIBUTED BY:

 THE DEFINITIVE CLASSICAL COLLECTION
Pioneering: Christopher D Lewis explores the harpsichord sonatas of Vincent Persichetti
more familiar music by Ravel and Erwin
Schulhoff, Larisa and Steven Elisha make a
strong case for Arthur Honegger’s Sonatine
as the one true gem on the disc.
Written in 1932 and dedicated to Albert
Neuburger, the man who would become
his publisher as the head of Salabert,
Honegger’s music is wise, witty (including
references to Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre
and Ravel’s own Sonata for violin and
cello) and affectionate. The Andante
middle movement is briefly haunted by
prayerful premonitions of darkness and
the brilliant Allegro third movement, with
its two monster cadenzas, rivals Handel-
Halvorsen as an encore piece.
If the Elarises are not quite up to
the standard set by Josef Suk and André
Navarra in their incomparable 1967
recording, they confirm that this is
music that demands to be heard.
Laurence Vittes
Persichetti
Harpsichord Sonatas – No 1, Op 52; No 3, Op 149;
No 5, Op 152; No 8, Op 158; No 9, Op 163.
Serenade No 15, Op 161
P H O T O G R A P H Y: D R E W K E L LY P H O T O G R A P H Y
Christopher D Lewis hpd
Naxos American Classics M 8 559843 (65’ • DDD)
Vincent Persichetti
(1915-87) composed
10 sonatas in all for
the harpsichord, nine
gramophone.co.uk
in the final six years of his life. The First
dates as far back as 1951, a pioneering piece
in the rehabilitation of the instrument in
mainstream contemporary music. Cast in
three concise movements, fast-slow-faster,
with never a wasted note in its varied and
inventive course, it set the template for
the later works (though not the slow
introduction). Nos 3 (1982 – the dates
given on the disc are, oddly, of publication
rather than composition for the later
works), 5 (1984) and 9 (1985) all followed
it, only the Eighth (1984) reversing the
format to slow-fast-slow, while the Ninth
has a more expansive opening Moderato,
two-thirds the size of other whole sonatas.
The recognisably neoclassical
atmosphere of the First, familiar from
Persichetti’s Sixth Symphony (1956),
deservedly still a staple of the American
wind-band repertoire, is absent from the
later sonatas, which share the terser, more
contrapuntal and tonally ambiguous style
of his later years. This makes them less
diverse a set than the 12 piano sonatas
(New World 80677-2), spread more evenly
throughout his career. Heard together, the
later harpsichord sonatas have a certain
dryness of musical language, the textures
occasionally harsh, but Christopher Lewis,
playing two different instruments, performs
each as an individual masterpiece, bringing
out the many shades of dark and light,
frequently subtle colours, and the marches,
dances and fantasias that abound in the
music. The concluding Serenade No 15
(1985) – last of a series for differing
combinations that began with his Op 1
in 1929 – is lighter and breezier in manner.
Rather clinical sound. Although not
marked as ‘Volume 1’, I hope a second
with the other five sonatas will follow.
Guy Rickards
‘Bonjour and Willkommen’
‘A Franco-German Debut’
JS Bach Prelude and Fugue, BWV532 Bruhns
Praeludium in E minor F Couperin Messe à
l’usage ordinaire des Paroisses pour les Festes
Solemnelles Franck Choral No 3. Prélude, fugue
et variation, Op 18 Hakim Te Deum Liszt
Praeludium und Fuge über den Namen BACH,
S260 Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue, Op 37
No 1 Mozart Epistle Sonata, K278
(arr Szathmáry) Pachelbel Christus, der ist mein
Leben Scheidemann Magnificat V toni
Schumann Etüden in kanonischer Form, Op 56 –
No 4 Sweelinck Ballo del Granduca Vierne
Symphonie, Op 28 No 3 – Finale Widor
Symphonie, Op 13 No 4 – Andante cantabile;
Scherzo
Crista Miller org
Acis F b APL72306 (153’ • DDD)
Played on the organ of the Co-Cathedral of the
Sacred Heart, Houston
The 19th pipe organ
built by Martin Paso
and Associates and
housed in Houston’s
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 V
®
CRYSTAL RECORDS
51 Years of Recording Excellence (1966-2017)
"Crystal is the go-to place for wind and brass chamber
repertoire" – Gramophone. And don’t forget Strings (and
Organ, Percussion, Harp, Hovhaness, & Steam Calliope!)
WESTWOOD WIND QUINTET,
since 1959 one of the most-ac-
claimed ensembles in the world,
has "AUGMENTED" the flute-oboe-
clarinet-bassoon-horn quintet with
trumpet and bass clarinet for the
glorious Septet by Paul Hindemith
in this NEW RELEASE – CD791.
Add bass clarinet to the wwquintet
for Janáček's Mládí, and piano for
Mathias' Concertino (Flute, Oboe, Bassoon, & Piano). Filling
the CD is the world premiere recording of Bruce Stark's beau-
tiful and rhythmic Americana Wind Quintet. Cover shows
Mount Hood (Oregon, U.S.A.) photographed from the
Crystal Records' studio, where this was recorded.
The Westwood Wind Quintet has "a standard of ensemble play-
ing that is nothing short of breathtaking" (Intl. Record Review)
REICHA 24 WOODWIND QUIN-
TETS ON 12 CDs. "each is a master-
piece of the highest order. Those who
ignore this legacy are missing out not
only on some terrific wind music but on
some of the finest music ever penned."
(Audiophile Audition) Reicha was a
friend of Beethoven and one of the most
respected composers of the period.
13 hours of music! Box Set total $128 for complete set of 12 CDs
with 24 quintets. Individual CDs $16.95. See www.crystalrecords.
com for complete list and for pricing in £ or €. FREE US shipping.
Other countries just $14. "These quintets are absolute master-
pieces, symphonic in scope. Top-notch playing that can only
be envied by lesser ensembles." (Fanfare)
ALAN HOVHANESS —
"Beautiful sounds, unabashedly melodic...
his music possesses instant appeal." N.Y. Times
Crystal has the largest collection of record-
ings of Hovhaness works conducted or super-
vised by Hovhaness, most
with major British orches-
tras. A small sample (see
www.crystalrecords.com
for all 24 Hovhaness CDs):
CD810 (pictured): And God Created Great
Whales, Anahid, Elibris, Alleluia & Fugue,
Concerto #8 for Orchestra. Philharmonia
Orch. CD802: St. Vartan Symphony, "Artik"
Horn Concerto. National Phil. of London & Israel Philharmonic.
CD803: Majnun Symphony. National Phil. of London. CD804: Etch-
miadzin Symphony, Fra Angelico, Mountains & Rivers Without End.
Royal Philharmonic. CD801: All Men Are Brothers (Sym. 11, Roy-
al Philharmonic), Prayer of St. Gregory, Tzaikerk, Armenian Rhap-
sody No.1. CD807: Odysseus Symphony, Celestial Gate, Prayer of
St. Gregory. Polyphonia Orchestra. CD811: Hovhaness Treasures:
his favorite works. Christmas Symphony, Celestial Canticle, Starry
Night, etc. Gerard Schwarz & Hovhaness, conductors.
CDs $16.95 ea, See www.crystalrecords.com for pricing in £.
FREE U.S. shipping on all orders. Other countries $14 per order.
Crystal Records, 28818 NE Hancock Rd, Camas, WA 98607 USA
phn 360-834-7022; order@crystalrecords.com; www.crystalrecords.com

relatively new Co-Cathedral of the Sacred
Heart encompasses a colourful and varied
tonal scheme that allows for timbrally
authentic renderings of both French and
German repertoire. Certainly the venue’s
five-second acoustical decay allows for
contrapuntal details to emerge clearly,
while, at the same time, massive tuttis
never turn muddy or indistinct. More
significantly, Crista Miller’s two separate
French and German programmes covering
a wide stylistic range stand out for the
organist’s effortless virtuosity and musical
intelligence. Her transparent textures,
clean articulation and forward-moving
tempos enliven Franck’s third Choral,
which can sound turgid in the wrong
hands. Similar interpretative strengths
impressively play out in the same
composer’s Prelude, fugue et variation, while
her registrations in the finale of Vierne’s
Third Organ Symphony convey a lighter
and leaner orchestral image than in Jeremy
Filsell’s comparatively massive rendition
(Signum, 2/06).
Her mobile Andante cantabile from
Widor’s Fourth Organ Symphony is
followed by the work’s Scherzo, where the
chromatic filigree takes gentle wing; a pity
that Miller didn’t have room for the whole
symphony. Each movement in Couperin’s
Mass is preceded by its corresponding
plainchant, intoned by four male singers,
while female singers assume the same
honours for Scheidemann’s Magnificat.
Miller plays the Bruhns and Sweelinck
works outstandingly well and clearly
relishes their improvisatory paths and
harmonic surprises. With way too many
performances of the Bach D major
Prelude and Fugue in the catalogue that
drag and sag, it’s a pleasure to experience
Miller’s shapely animation. Her graceful
Mendelssohn and dramatically fervent Liszt
are as fine as any, although the Schumann
Pedal Piano Canon in A flat admittedly
sounds better with a piano, or two.
Saving the newest for last, however, the
Te Deum by the Lebanese-French
composer, organist and improviser Naji
Hakim (born 1955) begins with a snarling
fanfare, followed by a march-like episode
peppered with booming clusters (mind
your loudspeakers and sensitive neighbours
here!), a lyrical section where soft dissonant
commentaries flicker on occasion and some
busy yet consistently inventive variations
on the opening fanfare. You’ll buy this
release for the marvellous instrument and
for Miller’s superlative artistry but you’ll
come away with the discovery of a
formidable contemporary composer.
Jed Distler
gramophone.co.uk
FOR LIFE ON AN EPIC SCALE
‘Boyd Meets Girl’
JS Bach Two Part Inventionsa – No 6, BWV777;
No 8, BWV779; No 10, BWV781; No 13, BWV784
R Edwards Arafura Arioso Falla Siete Canciones
populares españolasa Fauré Pavanea
Gnattali Allegretto comodo M Jackson
Human Naturea Pärt Spiegel im Spiegela
Piazzolla Café 1930a Zenamon Reflexões No 6
(aarr Boyd Meets Girl)
Laura Metcalf vc Rupert Boyd gtr
Sono Luminus F DSL92217 (61’ • DDD)
Boyd Meets Girl
comprises the
Australian guitarist
Rupert Boyd and the
American cellist Laura Metcalf. A self-
labelled ‘happily married couple’, they
play like one, with a harmony of purpose
as sure as their intonation. Boyd is a fine
guitarist; if he’s new to these pages, Laura
Metcalf is no stranger to them, her ‘suave,
experienced bow arm’ having gained Jed
Distler’s approval last year (9/16). That
right arm is the motor for a gloriously
warm and rich tone, well suited to the
repertoire on this superbly engineered
debut album for the duo.
The bulk of the programme is made
up of arrangements, all by Boyd and
Metcalf themselves, some more intrusive
to the originals – the Falla songs, which
actually brush up rather nicely, and Fauré’s
ubiquitous Pavane – than others. Pärt’s
Spiegel im Spiegel acquires a greater warmth
than usual from the duo and the four Bach
Inventions work neatly as an impromptu
suite. Piazzolla’s Café 1930 showcases their
virtuosity in a different way, making a fine
standalone tone poem, the cello’s darker
colouring (the original is for flute) more
atmospheric and contrasting the better
with the guitar.
Ross Edward’s Arafura Arioso, the
composer’s arrangement of the slow
movement of his Guitar Concerto
Arafura Dances (1994-95), is a beautiful
depiction of Australia’s northern sea.
Bolivian-born Jaime Mirtenbaum
Zenamon’s Reflexões No 6 (1988) is
unobjectionable, its Vivacissimo finale
unexpectedly dashing along in Villa-
Lobos mode. The one disappointment
is Radamès Gnattali’s Allegro comodo,
not through any fault of the music or
performance but because it is but the
first movement of his Sonata (1969).
Boyd and Metcalf feel it is the
best movement and works better alone,
but I’d like to hear the rest. There was
room. Guy Rickards
‘Cloud River Mountain’
M Gordon River D Lang Girl With Mountain
Lao Luo He Bo. Shan Gui. Tan Te. Yun Zhong Jun
Wolfe Into the Clouds
Gong Linna voc Bang on a Can All-Stars
Cantaloupe F CA21133 (33’ • DDD • T/t)
Quick question: how
many composers does
it take to create a
song-cycle? In the
case of ‘Cloud River Mountain’, the
answer is four: Lao Luo (the German-
born Robert Zollitsch) and the co-artistic
directors of Bang on a Can – Michael
Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe.
Their efforts add up to a compelling and
varied work, judging from the excerpts
on this new recording, with an emphasis
on ‘excerpts’.
While the full cycle comprises 11 songs
running 70 minutes, the disc contains
only six – as well as a Lao Luo selection,
Tan Te, which has become an online
phenomenon – for a total of 33 minutes.
That’s a paltry amount of content for a
compact disc, especially when the songs,
performed so vividly by Chinese vocalist
Gong Linna and the Bang on a Can All-
Stars, seize the ears from start to finish.
The music heads in many stylistic
directions, embracing Chinese pop,
minimalism, folk and other idioms. Set
to verses about nature, metaphysics and
love by the Chinese poet Qu Yuan (c340-
278BC), the collection presented here
contains three songs in Mandarin and three
in English; the vocal line in Tan Te is built
on syllables.
Lao’s songs are suffused with Chinese
contemporary elements, including popular
influences, its music both relentless and
reflective. Wolfe’s Into the Clouds has a
driving intensity, Gordon’s River
glistening sonorities and syncopated
rhythms, and Lang’s Girl With Mountain
otherwordly lines coloured by spare
instrumental gestures.
Gong’s voice is at turns silken and
penetrating, her ability to ‘scat’ remarkable
in Tan Te. The Bang on a Can All-Stars
animate every fresh, quirky and haunting
phrase. Now, could we please have the rest
of the cycle? Donald Rosenberg
Amplify your life with the sounds from
America and around the world at
primephonic.com. For life on an epic scale.
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 VII
 Choose the right
subscription for you
y THE GRAMOPHONE CLUB
y PRINT EDITION
y DIGITAL CLUB
y DIGITAL EDITION
y REVIEWS DATABASE

THE WORLD’S LEADING CLASSICAL MUSIC REVIEWS MAGAZINE

EXPAND YOUR INTERNATIONAL COMPOSER SOUNDS

COLLECTION ARTISTS PROFILES OF AMERICA
With the world’s most We are devoted to We celebrate composers Every issue includes a
authoritative classical exploring the artists both past and present, special eight-page
music reviews section, stamping their mark on providing you with a unique section focusing on
written by our unrivalled, recording today, with perspective on the lives exciting new releases
international and objective captivating features and and work of the giants of from North American
panel of expert reviewers exclusive interviews the classical music world artists and labels

Visit www.magsubscriptions.com/gramophone
or call +44 (0)1722 716997
Pictured: Gustav Mahler © Archive Pics/Alamy Stock Photo. Full annual retail price for print only (13 issues) is £74.75; print only annual subscription, Digital Edition and reviews Database (£64); Digital Club (£84); Gramophone Club
(£106). Postage and packaging is not included for overseas orders. Overseas subscription p&p: Europe £22.80, Rest of World £27.00. If you have a subscription enquiry then please email subscriptions@markallengroup.com
 Founded in 1923 by Sir Compton Mackenzie and Christopher Stone as
‘an organ of candid opinion for the numerous possessors of gramophones’

Four decades of celebration … and change

T
his year the Gramophone Awards marks
its 40th anniversary. Beginning as a new
addition to a magazine of substantial
vintage, the Awards have now been a crucial
part of Gramophone for longer than many of you may
have been readers (and, for that matter, longer – just –
than its present day editor has been alive!). Founded at
the tail end of the so-called ‘golden era’ of recording
(and I add in the caveat not to bring into question the
quality of that period’s music-making, but because
so much from the decades since stands up worthily
alongside it), we find ourselves today at a time when the
very nature of recording, as an art, as an industry, as a
way of listening, is undergoing immense change.
As our winning and shortlisted recordings show,
today’s focus remains primarily on album-length
releases, a format shaped by the capacity of a physical
product. Yet even for those who access music in an
entirely virtual way, this still – I’d argue – defines how
people generally think of a recording. But for how
long I wonder? Various labels have experimented with
‘singles’ or EPs (terms that also have direct roots in
physical product). Why does a concerto generally need
one coupling (why not three, why not none)? What’s
the difference between a live recording streamed
online, and an archived performance stored in a
digital concert hall? I expect that, as our Awards head
onwards towards their half-century, some of these
questions – and many more we can’t foresee – will
find themselves shaping our sense of what we cover,
what we celebrate, what the industry makes available,
and how they do it. And I look forward to it.
What, however, hasn’t changed, is the astonishing
quality and commitment of those who find themselves
before the microphones. The artists themselves, of
course, continue to change, and that so many of our
winners are relatively youthful is a great cause of
celebration. Though so too is the fact that someone
like Murray Perahia – perhaps the only recording
winner this year who might conceivably have been
a contender back when the Awards were launched –
is still inspiring us with his profound gifts, for
continuity is a vital part of evolution too.
And speaking of change, the eagle-eyed among
you will have spotted some differences in last month’s
For the Record section, developments which continue
this month. We wanted to take you behind the scenes
of even more music-making, to bring you closer
to even more artists. And so we hope you’ll enjoy
hearing from leading performers about the unique
bond with their instruments, or about their thoughts
and feelings when standing in the studio. There’s
more space to report on news, and we’ve revived
our One to Watch feature to champion the most
impressive new artists on the scene. Finally, our
new columnist Edward Seckerson – already familiar
of course as one of our most perceptive critics – will
challenge us to think differently about what, and
who, we’re listening to. I hope you enjoy the new look
of the section. And most of all, I hope you enjoy
exploring this year’s Award winners: as Editor-in-
Chief James Jolly puts it in his introduction on
page 15, it’s been a particularly rich year.
martin.cullingford@markallengroup.com

THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS Gramophone, which has

‘Communicating ‘Summoning ‘I have loved the
been serving the classical
what you up the spirit of contralto voice
music world since 1923, is
know means Victor de Sabata, since I heard
first and foremost a monthly
discovering what one of the 20th Ernestine
review magazine, delivered
you don’t,’ says century’s most Schumann-Heink
today in both print and digital
PAUL GRIFFITHS , extraordinary and Louise
formats. It boasts an eminent and
author of this yet nowadays Homer in my
knowledgeable panel of experts,
month’s Contemporary Composer too little known conductor- early teens,’ writes TULLY POTTER ,
which reviews the full range of
profile. ‘Maybe that, too, can then composers was itself a strangely whose Specialist’s Guide ‘was written
classical music recordings.
be communicated. Having followed beguiling experience,’ writes out of sheer indignation at the
Its reviews are completely
Mark-Anthony Turnage for more RICHARD OSBORNE , who ridiculous attitude often displayed
C OV E R P H OTO G R A P H : J O H N SWA N N E L L / WA R N E R C L A S S I C S

independent. In addition to
than 30 years, I thought I knew it all. explored the musician for this towards contraltos by today’s
But – as usual – no.’ month’s Icons feature. conductors and concert organisers.’ reviews, its interviews and
features help readers to explore
THE REVIEWERS Andrew Achenbach • David Allen • Nalen Anthoni • Tim Ashley • Mike Ashman • Richard Bratby in greater depth the recordings
Edward Breen • Liam Cagney • Philip Clark • Alexandra Coghlan • Rob Cowan (consultant reviewer) that the magazine covers, as well
Jeremy Dibble • Peter Dickinson • Jed Distler • Adrian Edwards • Richard Fairman • David Fallows as offer insight into the work of
David Fanning • Andrew Farach-Colton • Iain Fenlon • Neil Fisher • Fabrice Fitch • Jonathan Freeman-Attwood composers and performers.
Charlotte Gardner • Caroline Gill • David Gutman • Christian Hoskins • Lindsay Kemp • Philip Kennicott It is the magazine for the classical
Richard Lawrence • Andrew Mellor • Kate Molleson • Ivan Moody • Bryce Morrison • Hannah Nepil record collector, as well as
Jeremy Nicholas • Christopher Nickol • Geoffrey Norris • Richard Osborne • Stephen Plaistow • Mark Pullinger
for the enthusiast starting a
Peter Quantrill • Guy Rickards • Malcolm Riley • Marc Rochester • Patrick Rucker • Julie Anne Sadie
Edward Seckerson • Hugo Shirley • Pwyll ap Siôn • Harriet Smith • David Patrick Stearns • David Threasher voyage of discovery.
David Vickers • John Warrack • Richard Whitehouse • Arnold Whittall • Richard Wigmore • William Yeoman

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 3

 CONTENTS
Volume 95 Number 1153
EDITORIAL
EDITOR’S CHOICE 7
Phone 020 7738 5454 Fax 020 7733 2325 The 12 most highly recommended recordings
email gramophone@markallengroup.com
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Martin Cullingford of the month
DEPUTY EDITOR Sarah Kirkup / 020 7501 6365
REVIEWS EDITOR Tim Parry / 020 7501 6367
ONLINE CONTENT EDITOR James McCarthy /
020 7501 6366 FOR THE RECORD 8
SUB-EDITOR David Threasher / 020 7501 6370
SUB-EDITOR Marija urić Speare The latest classical music news
ART DIRECTOR Dinah Lone / 020 7501 6689
PICTURE EDITOR Sunita Sharma-Gibson /
020 7501 6369
AUDIO EDITOR Andrew Everard
EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Libby McPhee
THANKS TO Hannah Nepil and Charlotte Gardner
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF James Jolly

ADVERTISING
Phone 020 7738 5454 Fax 020 7733 2325
RECORDING OF THE MONTH 54
email gramophone.ads@markallengroup.com Steven Isserlis’s superb second recording of
COMMERCIAL MANAGER
Esther Zuke / 020 7501 6368 Haydn’s cello concertos, this time for Hyperion INTRODUCTION 15
SALES EXECUTIVE
Simon Davies / 020 7501 6373 and with some inspired couplings, gloriously RECORDING OF THE YEAR 16
SUBSCRIPTIONS AND BACK ISSUES justifies the decision to revisit these masterworks
0800 137201 (UK) +44 (0)1722 716997 (overseas)
subscriptions@markallengroup.com
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT 18
PUBLISHING ORCHESTRAL 56 ARTIST OF THE YEAR 20
Phone 020 7738 5454
The complete Beethoven symphonies from
HEAD OF MARKETING AND DIGITAL
STRATEGY Luca Da Re / 020 7501 6362 LABEL OF THE YEAR 22
MARKETING MANAGER Edward Craggs /
Blomstedt; a Chisholm sequel; Isabelle Faust plays
020 7501 6384
DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Mendelssohn; a pair of Prokofiev violin concertos; YOUNG ARTIST OF THE YEAR 25
DEVELOPMENT Matthew Cianfarani
Bychkov’s Czech Manfred
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Richard Hamshere /
01722 716997
ANNIVERSARY AWARD 27
PRODUCTION MANAGER Jon Redmayne
CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Sally Boettcher / CHAMBER 74 SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT 28
01722 716997
SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER Chris Hoskins / Lim and Lim play Beethoven and Mozart;
01722 716997 THE CATEGORY WINNERS 31
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Martin Cullingford Arcangelo’s Buxtehude; Tye from Phantasm
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Paul Geoghegan
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Ben Allen
CHAIRMAN Mark Allen
INSTRUMENTAL 88 THE MUSICIAN & THE SCORE 72
Janina Fialkowska’s Chopin; Michel Dalberto plays Sir John Eliot Gardiner discusses Mendelssohn’s
Fauré; fearless Godowsky from Emanule Delucchi Lobgesang, his still neglected Symphony No 2

VOCAL 100 ICONS 86

Robin Ticciati’s Debussy and Fauré; Mozart’s Richard Osborne pays tribute to the Italian
Requiem with dancing horses; a Hollywood conductor and composer Victor de Sabata
Verdi Requiem; Baroque cantatas from Gdańsk
www.markallengroup.com
CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS 98
GRAMOPHONE is published by
MA Music Leisure & Travel Ltd, St Jude’s Church,
REISSUES 114 Paul Griffiths profiles the prolific
Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB, United Kingdom.
gramophone.co.uk
33 CDs of live recordings by Günter Wand Mark-Anthony Turnage
email gramophone@markallengroup.com or
subscriptions@markallengroup.com
ISSN 0017-310X. OPERA 116 CLASSICS RECONSIDERED 134
The Awards issue of Gramophone is on sale from
September 14; the October issue will be on sale from Thomas Hyde’s The Man Stephen Ward; a Strauss Two critics compare notes on Sir Georg Solti’s
October 11 (both UK). Every effort has been made to ensure
the accuracy of statements in this magazine but we cannot
accept responsibility for errors or omissions, or for matters
rarity; DG’s Lohengrin and Parsifal on DVD 1971 recording of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony,
arising from clerical or printers’ errors, or an advertiser not
completing his contract. Regarding concert listings, all the ‘Symphony of a Thousand’
information is correct at the time of going to press. Letters to
the editor requiring a personal reply should be accompanied
by a stamped addressed envelope. We have made every effort
JAZZ & WORLD MUSIC 127
to secure permission to use copyright material. Where
material has been used inadvertently or we have been unable
Reviews from our sister titles Jazzwise and Songlines THE SPECIALIST’S GUIDE 136
to trace the copyright owner, acknowledgement will be made
in a future issue. Celebrating the unique qualities of the contralto
UK subscription rate £64.
Printed in England by Southernprint. REPLAY 130
North American edition (ISSN 0017-310X):
Gramophone, USPS 881080, is published monthly with Karl Böhm’s early years; Brahms from Bruno PERFORMANCES & EVENTS 144
an additional issue in September by MA Music Leisure
& Travel Ltd, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London
SE24 0PB, United Kingdom. The US annual subscription
Walter; Otmar Suitner conducts Mozart The best live music on radio and online
price is $89. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by
agent named Air Business, c/o Worldnet Shipping Inc.,
156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434,
USA. Periodicals postage paid at Jamaica NY 11431.
US Postmaster: Send address changes to Gramophone,
BOOKS 132 HIGH FIDELITY 147
Worldnet Shipping Inc. (see above). Subscription records
are maintained at MA Music Leisure & Travel Ltd, Unit
Britten Studies; the writings of Christian Wolff Our monthly offering of audio news and reviews
A Buildings 1-5, Dinton Business Park, Catherine Ford
Road, Dinton, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP3 5HZ, UK. Air
Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent.
GRAMOPHONE COLLECTION 138 LETTERS & OBITUARIES 156
© MA Music Leisure & Travel Ltd, 2017. All rights reserved.
No part of the Gramophone may be reproduced, stored in a Hugo Shirley surveys the recordings of Eine Ashkenazy’s generosity; Elgar’s genius;
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise
without prior written permission of the Publishing Director.
Alpensinfonie and recommends a top version Walton’s hasty retreat
The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the
editor or Gramophone. Advertisements in the journal do not
imply endorsement of the products or services advertised.
NEW RELEASES 158 MY MUSIC 162
BBC Radio 4’s Today presenter Nick Robinson
REVIEWS INDEX 160 on the importance of music in his life

4 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk

Martin

RECORDING OF THE MONTH

Cullingford’s HAYDN. Isserlis’s ever-questing
pick of the finest CPE BACH.
recordings from BOCCHERINI career is one we have all
this month’s Cello Concertos
reviews Deutsche Kammer-
gained much fulfillment
philharmonie from following – and
Bremen /
Steven Isserlis vc in revisiting repertoire,
Hyperion
CHARLOTTE
as here, he offers an
GARDNER’S even greater insight
REVIEW IS ON
PAGE 54 into his journey.

PICKARD SHOSTAKOVICH BARSANTI. HANDEL

Symphony No 5, etc Chamber Symphony, ‘Edinburgh 1742’
BBC National Orchestra of Op 110a R STRAUSS Ensemble Marsyas /
Wales / Martyn Brabbins Metamorphosen Peter Whelan
BIS Baltic CO/ Emmanuel Linn
A composer with Leducq-Barôme Proof, if needed, that
a wonderful grasp of the possibilities Rubicon Baroque music can continue to surprise
for colour from an orchestra, something The Strauss string texture is captured us, as Lindsay Kemp puts it. A rare outing
Brabbins and his colleagues clearly relish compellingly by the mics; the well-chosen for some of this repertoire – but why?
in this fine-sounding recording. coupling is equally as impressive. Perhaps this disc will change that.
REVIEW ON PAGE 62 REVIEW ON PAGE 68 REVIEW ON PAGE 74

MOZART BRAHMS Piano Works SCHUBERT

Violin Sonatas, Vol 4 Nelson Freire pf ‘Der Einsame’
Alina Ibragimova vn Decca Ilker Arcayürek ten
Cédric Tiberghien pf This is music that Simon Lepper pf
Hyperion Freire, one of our Champs Hill
Shaping up to be a age’s most continually Our reviewer reaches
cycle destined to define this music for enriching pianists, has long lived with. for some of the greatest tenors by point
a long time, on disc at least; Ibragimova The result is a Brahms recording that of comparison, and Arcayürek emerges
and Tiberghien again treat later and early leaves critic Harriet Smith in no doubt with head held high as an impressive
works with the same belief and conviction. of its, and Freire’s, brilliance. part of an ongoing tradition.
REVIEW ON PAGE 81 REVIEW ON PAGE 88 REVIEW ON PAGE 105

‘NATURE AND ‘CARNEVALE 1729’ ‘STRAVAGANZA

THE SOUL’ Ann Hallenberg mez D’AMORE!’
Latvian Radio Choir / Il Pomo d’Oro / Stefano Pygmalion / Raphaël Pichon
Kaspars Putniņš Montanari vn Harmonia Mundi
LMIC/SKANI Pentatone Praise here for a complete
This is a truly Step into Venice in package – performance and
beautiful album of Latvian choral full festive flow as Hallenberg offers arias presentation alike – that offers a thrilling
works performed by singers clearly from seven operas you’d have heard if you and fascinating insight into the early days
completely immersed in its musical were there in 1729: historical research of opera from, appropriately enough, a
and cultural foundations. bears fabulous fruits for the ears! Gramophone Award-winner from last year.
REVIEW ON PAGE 110 REVIEW ON PAGE 124 REVIEW ON PAGE 125

In association with
DVD/BLU-RAY REISSUE/ARCHIVE
RAVEL. DELAGE. DUTILLEUX Orchestral Works MOZART Symphonies
London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle Nos 39 & 40
LSO Live Staatskapelle Dresden / www.qobuz.com
If you can’t make it to the Barbican to watch Otmar Suitner
the new partnership in person, then here’s Berlin Classics Listen to many of
an excellent chance to observe Rattle and his new London Suitner’s fine archive Mozart is, as Rob the Editor’s Choice
colleagues in action. As Mark Pullinger puts it, it augurs well! Cowan writes, well worth investigating. recordings online at
REVIEW ON PAGE 64 REVIEW ON PAGE 131 qobuz.com

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 7

 FOR THE RECORD BBC names its New
Major labels sign young stars
Pianist George Li joins Warner Classics and cellist Kian Soltani Generation Artists
signs to Deutsche Grammophon to release debut recital albums
T
he new members of BBC Radio 3’s
New Generation Artist scheme – one
of the most prestigious of its type – have
been revealed. They are Ukrainian violinist
Aleksey Semenenko, British mezzo Catriona
Morison, Georgian pianist Mariam Batsashvili,
British jazz bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado, the
French ensemble Quatuor Arod, German
trumpeter Simon Hofele, and French guitarist
Thibaut Garcia.
Two of this year’s intake – who will now all
benefit from significant performance, broadcast
and recording opportunities in the two years
ahead – are already signed to Erato; Garcia
joined the label last year, while Quatuor Arod
joined in April and are profiled in this month’s
One to Watch column (see right).

Joshua Bell stays on

as director of ASMF
oshua Bell has pledged his continued
commitment to the Academy of St Martin

G
eorge Li, American pianist and silver medal winner at 2015’s International in the Fields, renewing his contract as
Tchaikovsky Competition, has signed to Warner Classics. His debut Music Director for a further three years,
album for the label will be taken from a recital recorded live at the until 2020. The famed violinist succeeded the
Mariinsky Theatre last year, featuring Haydn, Chopin, Rachmaninov and Liszt. ensemble’s founder Sir Neville Marriner in
He describes the programme as ‘like a journey down to Hell and back up again’. the post in 2011, since when they’ve recorded
Gramophone’s Editor-in-Chief James Jolly was in Moscow when the 21-year-old a number of discs together for Sony Classical
pianist made such an impact, and remembers him as being highly popular with the including Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos 4
audience. He noted that at the gala concert preceeding the competition both Li and 7, and Brahms’s Double Concerto with
and joint silver medal recipient Lukas Geniu≈as ‘were greeted as heroes’. Stephen Isserlis. Both releases, meanwhile,
Other honours to his name include the 2012 Gilmore Young Artist Award, feature in a new box-set being released by Sony
and most recently, in 2016, an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Li joins a prestigious Classical of Bell’s recordings on the label to
line-up of young artists at Warners, including Beatrice Rana and – signed last mark his 50th birthday this December.
December and also due to release her debut album this autumn – 18-year-old
trumpeter Lucienne Renaudin Vary.
Meanwhile, Deutsche Grammophon has signed 25-year-old cellist Kian Soltani.
His debut DG album, recorded earlier this year with pianist Aaron Pilsan and set
for a January release, will be called ‘Home’, and will feature Schubert, Schumann
and the world premiere recording of Reza Vali’s Seven Persian Folk Songs, written
for the cellist.
Born in Bregenz and of Persian decent, Soltani came to wide attention when he
was chosen by Daniel Barenboim as a soloist with the West-Eastern Divan
Orchestra, including at the BBC Proms. Recent seasons have seen him tour with
Anne-Sophie Mutter and her Virtuosi ensemble, while this May he gave a concert
of traditional Persian music with the Shiraz Ensemble in Berlin’s new Pierre
Boulez Saal.
It’s this versatility of style that in part captivated DG President Clemens
Trautmann: ‘He is equally compelling as a soloist in a Romantic concerto,
a contemporary solo piece or an elegant chamber work as he is when performing
Persian traditional repertoire and music of other cultures,’ said Trautmann of
Soltani. ‘Kian knows how to speak to the world about what he does and how to
reach and inspire new listeners.’ Joshua Bell to remain with the ASMF for three more years

8 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk


Shining the spotlight on the future
A
number of competitions this
month offered up names to
keep a close eye on in the years
ahead. Firstly, Plácido Domingo’s
prestigious Operalia competition named
Romanian soprano Adela Zaharia and
south African tenor Levy Sekgapane
as the First Prize winners.
The competition was founded in 1993,
with soprano Nina Stemme among the
winners. The list of illustrious alumni
over the years bodes well for the new
winners, including as it does José
Cura, Erwin Schrott, Joyce DiDonato,
Rolando Villazón, Joseph Calleja, Isabel
Bayrakdarian, Carmen Giannattasio,
Angel Blue and Pretty Yende.
Meanwhile, a new conducting
competition took anonymity to new levels
by placing the judges behind a screen.
The Audite International Conducting
Competition – held in Radom, Poland
– was won by Russian Igor Manasherov.
Reflecting on the experiment, jury
chairman Jonathan Brett said ‘After four
long days judging only sound, when I
finally saw the finalists conducting it made
ONE TO WATCH
Quatuor Arod
Among the names in this year’s BBC New
Generation Artists list is Quatuor Arod (see
above left). The scheme’s alumni reads like
a who’s who of some of today’s most
impressive young artists (and indeed not so
young – the scheme itself reaches adulthood
this year, having started in 1999), so simple
P H O T O G R A P H Y: S I M O N F O W L E R , A L A N K E R R , J O S É D O M I N G O , L A R S B O R G E S / S O N Y C L A S S I C A L
inclusion makes anyone worthy of note.
But for Quatuor Arod it’s proving to be a
particular auspicious year, as in April they
were signed by major label Erato, home of
some very inspired A&R decisions.
Founded in 2013, the Paris-based ensemble
comprises violinists Jordan Victoria and
Alexandre Vu, viola player Corentin Apparailly
and cellist Samy Rachid. The ensemble won
First Prize at the 2016 ARD International
Music Competition in Munich and is being
mentored by fellow Erato artists the Artemis
Quartet and former Ebène Quartet viola
player Mathieu Herzog, both points referred
to by Erato President Alain Lanceron when
announcing their signing: ‘The Arod Quartet
are, in a way, descendants of the label’s two
longstanding, prestigious string quartets, the
Artemis and Ebène, with whom they studied
gramophone.co.uk
me acutely aware of the relative pollution
of the purity of judgement if the eyes are
allowed to be involved … My conclusion is
that, whilst the details might be tweaked, in
principle the concept is right: this is a really
good way to manage a competition.’
This month also saw the release by
Decca Gold, just two month’s after his
victory, of a recital by 2017 Cliburn
Winner Yekwon Sunwoo. The 28-year-
old South Korean pianist’s debut disc
features works by Haydn, Schubert,
Ravel, Grainger and pianist-composer
Marc-André Hamelin. The album had
previously been available digitally.
Operalia sucess: Adela Zaharia and Levy Sekgapane
Caption for image above to fill out line one line only
and with whom they share the distinction
of having won the redoubtable ARD
International Music Competition in Munich.
With such lineage, it seemed only natural that
the Arod Quartet would join the Erato family.’
Their debut album – set for release on
September 22 – will include Mendelssohn’s
String Quartets Nos 2 and 4, and will be
reviewed in our pages shortly.
FOR THE RECORD
The magazine is just the beginning.
Visit gramophone.co.uk for …
Podcasts
James Jolly presents two very special
Gramophone Awards podcasts this month.
The first podcast it with this year’s Lifetime
Achievement Award-winner Dame Kiri
Te Kanawa in which she discusses the
highlights of her long and illustrious career.
The second is with last year’s Young Artist
of the Year, Benjamin Appl, in which he talks
about his recording plans for the future.
Last year’s Young Artist of the Year, Benjamin Appl
A guide to music streaming
Gramophone’s Audio Editor Andrew Everard
has written an exclusive and comprehensive
guide to making the most of music
streaming. There is an overview of the pros
and cons of various streaming subscription
services, including Qobuz, Tidal and Apple
Music, recommendations for the best ways
to enjoy music streaming on the move or at
home, and a beginner’s guide which explains
the best ways to integrate streaming into
your current hi-fi setup.
Facebook & Twitter
Follow us to hear about the latest
classical music news and anniversaries.
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 9
 FOR THE RECORD

IN THE STUDIO
Pianist Steven Osborne has recorded Rachmaninov’s Études-tableaux
Opp 33 and 39 for Hyperion. The recording, made in Kentish Town,
north London, in August, will be released in the summer of 2018 O
JoAnn Falletta was at Abbey Road Studios on August 21-22 to conduct
the world-premiere recording of Glacier, a concerto for electric guitar
and orchestra by Kenneth Fuchs. The result, featuring DJ Sparr and the
LSO, will be released by Naxos in the spring of 2018 O There’s no rest
for Isabelle Faust – the violinist has gone back to the Teldex Studio
Berlin with regular accompanist Alexander Melnikov to record
Mozart’s sonatas for violin and fortepiano. Harmonia Mundi will
release the recording in the autumn of 2018 O Mark Bebbington
has recorded fragments from Grieg’s projected Second Piano Concerto
with the RPO under Jan Latham-Koenig; the SOMM recording is due for
release in April 2018 OBorletti-Buitoni Trust Award-winning violinist
Itamar Zorman is venturing into the studio in December to record
works by Paul Ben-Haim, described by Zorman as ‘a German Ravel
living in the Middle East’. He will be joined in Cardiff by BBC NOW under
Philippe Bach, and the disc will be released in the autumn of 2018 on BIS.

STUDIO FOCUS Peter Donohoe

The pianist recently put the finishing touches to an all-Stravinsky recording for Somm, due for release in January
Two CDs of Stravinsky: you must be an
admirer of his music.
I’ve always admired him immensely,
ever since hearing The Rite of Spring as
a schoolboy. Then I heard Boris Petrushansky
play the solo piano version of Petrushka
at the Leeds Competition in 1969 and
immediately got to know it (and the complete
ballet too). I obsessively learnt it and played it
all over the place. The Russian Dance
became my encore for years – I played it in
Moscow in fact [Donohoe won joint second
prize at the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition].

You’ve already recorded Petrushka

once – why did you decide to do it again?
We did it almost immediately after Moscow
but I was giving lots of concerts at the time,
I was bleary-eyed and not as prepared as
I would have liked to be. I wanted to do it
again and Somm gave me the opportunity.
Then I had to find other music to go with it.
The rest of Stravinsky’s solo piano music isn’t
as technically virtuosic but I really believe in it.
Why record it at Turner Sims, Southampton?
I’ve recorded there before – I’m very happy
with the acoustics and their Steinway is good
too. The only issue is the lack of cable conduits
between the hall and listening room. I did think
of getting out my Black & Decker at one point!
Perfectionist: with his new Petrushka recording, Peter Donohoe was determined to build on his 1980s version
How does a typical session pan out?
I always make a detailed plan of when
I’m going to do what; it’s important to
know when to move on. I find that, with
the passages that require the highest quality
of sound, I need to be as physically relaxed
as possible, so we record those first;
they don’t all have to be from the same
piece. And after we’ve done all the short
takes, we’ll then do a complete performance
of each work.
How involved are you with the editing?
I do an awful lot of listening afterwards. With
something like Petrushka, which is technically
such a nightmare, I can get a bit fussy. I’ve
been finessing it during other sessions this
year. Every millisecond is in my blood so I can
start from, say, beat 3 of bar 20, quite easily.
Are you satisfied now?
I think I’m done! Compared to the ’80s
version, this one definitely has more energy.

Argerich & Friends Lugano series ends

P H O T O G R A P H Y: O . F L E U R Y, A D R I A N O H E I T M A N N

Lugano: a ring-side seat to superb music-making
I
t’s been a continually rewarding
chamber music series, but now the
‘Martha Argerich & Friends’ releases
from the acclaimed pianist’s festival in
Lugano are to come to an end. The annual
recordings, available from Warner Classics,
were drawn from the pianist’s Swiss
festival where she hand-picked colleagues
from among her illustrious peers and
protégés, offering an extraordinary
opportunity for young musicians to
perform in such acclaimed company, and
for us to hear them. Not least among the
attractions, however, was to hear Argerich
herself so regularly on record. Following
the festival’s closure after 15 years
(funding came to an end), the 2016 set
will be the last. It’s released this month.

10 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk

 FOR THE RECORD
ARTISTS & THEIR INSTRUMENTS
Isabelle Faust talks about the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Stradivarius of c1704
Solti and Chicago celebrated
Decca box set celebrates partnership’s complete recorded legacy
I
n last month’s editorial we drew
attention to the importance of long-
standing conductor/orchestra
relationships. But few were as prolific
and successful as that of Sir Georg Solti
and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
To mark 20 years since the
conductor’s death, and 125 since the
Chicago SO’s founding, Decca is issuing
a 108-CD box set containing their
complete recorded legacy together.
The partnership began in March
1970 with a recording of Mahler’s
Fifth Symphony at Medinah Temple,
and finished 27 years later with
12 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
It was in 1996 that a friend of mine, a violin expert, told
me I had to see this instrument. I went to Munich, had a look
and played it for half an hour. Certain notes on each of the
strings – really separate notes – just struck me in a way I’d
never felt before: specific notes that suddenly felt radiant like
a star. This is worth fighting for, I thought, so I went on the
long search for a sponsor, because of course even then the
prices were just ridiculous.
I didn’t want to play on it and fall too much in love with
it in case it didn’t work out, and I didn’t even ask to use it for
concerts. But I was lucky, and a bank agreed to buy it. The
instrument has a fascinating history – it was rediscovered in
a cupboard in a German castle around 1900 but even then
was hardly played at all – and I feel incredibly fortunate to
have been the one, if you like, to kiss it awake.
When I started playing it in concerts (and recordings)
I wasn’t aware that it wasn’t already at its full-blown beauty.
But it opened up more every day; it was an incredible process
to watch and to be involved in, bringing this instrument fully
into bloom.
Mozart works very well with it, even with metal strings.
This is a violin with a very clear, celestial sound – heading
more towards heaven than towards earth – and it is very
close to my own musical ideas and instincts. It has formed
my technical ability to produce certain colours, to produce a
certain elegant way of playing. It has that light touch and that
brilliant, slightly silvery sound with a lot of sun in the tone.
And changing to gut strings, as we did for the Mozart
concertos recording, has always been something that this
violin is happy to do – and it loves being under a little less
tension at a lower pitch.
It’s an emotional attachment especially in the way that I
make the violin’s sound quality my own. I count on that when
I play; I need to be able to use this palette of colours. Those
things are so much part of my musical personality now.
Shostakovich’ Symphony No 15 at
Orchestra Hall, Chicago, and resulted
in 24 Grammy Awards. The lavish
set charts the period with a 180-page
book, retrospectives from colleagues
and observers, photographs and some
facsimiles of Solti’s scores.
Solti remained a Decca artist
thoughout his career, making 250
recordings in total (including 45
complete operas) over half a century.
He was awarded a Gramophone Lifetime
Achievement Award in 1992. Released
on September 15, the box set will sell
for £199. Solti and Chicago: a substantial and rewarding legacy
gramophone.co.uk

FROM WHERE I SIT
What’s in a name? New columnist
Edward Seckerson challenges
the conventions of genre titles
I
n this age of rampant genre-hopping it’s
actually hard to know what to call Joyce
DiDonato’s cracking Gramophone Award
winning confection ‘In War & Peace’.
In performance it was neither a recital
(the category in which it scooped its award)
nor a concert but rather an indefinable
hybrid whose subtly themed narrative of
baroque arias was played out through a miasma of dry ice, funky
lighting, Bowie-esque make-up, and one killer frock. This is how
theatrically savvy divas like DiDonato do business these days.
If one had to reach for a label then Music Theatre would be
the catch-all phrase. But with those two words comes a dizzying
array of genres from opera and musicals to cabaret and review,
all with their own distinct forms and, more importantly, styles.
Next February at London’s Barbican DiDonato stars in
the inexplicably belated UK premiere of Jake Heggie’s opera
Dead Man Walking, based on Sister Helen Prejean’s book. As
contemporary opera goes, Heggie’s musical universe could
hardly be further removed from the latest offerings from the
likes of Thomas Adès, George Benjamin and others on this side
of the pond to whom the major opera commissions generally go.
And thereby hangs an interesting anomaly.
A year or so ago I held court with DiDonato and Heggie in
a post-concert event following their performance of Heggie’s
dramatic song-cycle (is that a fair description? do we need one?)
Camille Claudel: Into the Fire. We discussed grateful, singable,
word-setting and, more pertinently, the influence of America’s
rich musical theatre heritage on composers as diverse as Aaron
Copland, Carlisle Floyd, Samuel Barber, Marc Blitzstein, John
Adams, John Corigliano – the list goes on. And yet there are those
for whom the ‘Broadway’ legacy is acknowledged with suspicion,
those who regard the predominantly tonal language of Heggie and
the international success of Dead Man Walking and, more recently,
Moby Dick as the result of their being populist and lightweight and
worst of all ‘conservative’. When Broadway composer Stephen
Schwartz (he of Godspell and Wicked) ventured into the realms
of opera and a more sung-through form with Seance on a Wet
Afternoon one critic referenced his Broadway credentials as if that
were a bad thing. That’s like saying that West Side Story is far
too good simply to be a musical (look what happened when they
tried to ‘operatise’ it) or that Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd
P H O T O G R A P H Y: F E L I X B R O E D E , J I M S T E E R E / D E C C A
is operatic in manner and therefore belongs in an opera house.
The tragically short-lived Marc Blitzstein made no distinction
between his opera Regina and his glorious musical Juno (one
of Broadway’s great forgotten scores). Both played Broadway
theatres. And why not? So let’s pay less attention to labelling
and start breaking down unhelpful divisions.
And while we’re about it, let’s stop using the term ‘art song’.
What is that supposed to mean? That there is somehow only ‘art’
in songs thus labelled? Of course, that was never the intention –
but neither was the suggestion that calling something an opera
would somehow elevate its importance.
gramophone.co.uk
FOR THE RECORD
WORLD-CLASS ARTISTS ON
Dreams & Fancies: English music for solo guitar
Sean Shibe
‘Can there be more luminous tones and cusp-of-
silence dynamics to be drawn from a guitar than the
ones Sean Shibe constantly searches out? […] I want
to hear his interpretation of Britten’s Nocturnal over
and over. This, for me, is the definitive performance’
— The Arts Desk, September 2015 (concert review)
DCD34193 ‘Most of [the works here] were inspired by Julian
Bream’s superlative artistry … Under Shibe’s fingers,
they are all mesmerising’
— Gramophone, September 2017, EDITOR’S CHOICE
‘Shibe is another Bream,
or something close’
— Sunday Times, July 2017
The Last Island: chamber music
by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
Hebrides Ensemble
Peter Maxwell Davies’s later music powerfully evokes
the isolated majesty of his Orkney home, yet it also
bears witness to his talent for friendship – to his
associations, both personal and musical, with friends
and supporters in Scotland and further afield. In its
DCD34178 second Delphian recording, the Hebrides Ensemble
reciprocates Davies’s friendship with definitive
performances of works from his last decade, including
four works written for the Ensemble or its members
and concluding with the single completed movement
of a string quartet left unfinished at his death.
‘haunting … The Hebrides players bring questing
energy to all these works … a rewarding album’
— The Times, August 2017
Stravinsky / Rachmaninov / Tchaikovsky:
Russian works for piano four hands
Peter Hill & Benjamin Frith
Sergei Rachmaninov, last of the great Romantic
composers, and Igor Stravinsky, whose early scores
for Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes revolutionised the
musical world, had a shared fascination for the
traditional music of their homeland. Rachmaninov’s
DCD34191 early masterpiece, the Six morceaux Op. 11, already
exhibits the sweep and grandeur of his maturity, while
Stravinsky’s four-hands arrangement of Petrushka
reveals this glittering ballet anew in a tour de force of
pianistic virtuosity. Tchaikovsky’s hauntingly exquisite
transcriptions of Russian folksongs, meanwhile,
include two melodies later used by Stravinsky in
The Firebird and Petrushka.
Peter Hill, whose Bach series for Delphian continues
to attract superlatives, is here joined for the first time
on the label by his long-term duo partner Benjamin
Frith. Together they explore every facet of the art of
the piano duet in performances of truly exceptional
power, delicacy and authority.
Delphian Records Ltd, 34 Wallace Avenue,
Wallyford, East Lothian, EH21 8BZ
www.delphianrecords.co.uk
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, or
find out more by joining the Delphian mailing list:
www.delphianrecords.co.uk/join
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 13
 “ S t e i n w a y a l l o w s m e t o u n f o l d t h e w o r l d o f i m a g i n a t i o n .”

Y U J A WA N G
S T E I N W AY A R T I S T

Ste i n w a y H a l l 4 4 Mary le b o ne L ane L o nd o n W1 U 2 DB

Fo r m o re i n f o r m a t io n o r t o arrange a p rivate ap p o intmen t

a t o u r L o n d o n s h o wro o m s , p le ase call:

0 207 487 3391 o r e m ail info @ s te inway.co .u k

 In association with
Our sponsors & partners
Celebrating the best of the best
Editor-in-Chief James Jolly guides you through this year’s Awards
E
very so often a recording streaks ahead of the others both
in the early rounds and at the Recording of the Year jury
meeting, and this year was no exception (if curiosity has
overcome you, simply turn the page for all to be revealed).
Once again, we’ve reached that time of the year when we take
stock of the highlights of 12 months’ worth of outstanding
recordings. The process starts in the spring when we compile
a longlist of all the Editor’s Choice recordings from the 13 issues
that run from June 2016 to May 2017. Each critic is allowed
to supplement these with particular favourites that weren’t
acknowledged in our monthly top 10. This then forms the field for
Round 1. At this point, the list is divided up by genre (similar to
the sections of the magazine though with some more specific sub-
divisions – the Baroque, for example, is divided into Vocal and
Instrumental sections). Critics who then specialise in these areas
vote to narrow the list to just six in each of the 12 categories.
Round 2 is open to any of Gramophone’s 50 or so critics and they
can opt into as many or as few categories as they like. Recordings
are then sent out so everyone has access to the music and they have
a couple of months for the Round 2 listening and judging. This
Once again we’re delighted to be partnering
with one of our Associate Sponsors, Qobuz,
who are sponsoring our Recording of the Year. This is a prize which
has honoured many of the most exciting and impressive musicians,
and 2017 is no exception – an astounding recording by a former
Gramophone Young Artist …
gramophone.co.uk
second vote produces the individual Award winners, and these are
all re-evaluated in the pages that follow. To narrow that dozen to
just one Recording of the Year we convene a meeting of 16 critics
and each juror is sent a complete set of the winning discs. We then
spend a wonderfully lively and informative morning arguing about
the merits of each winner – what they add to the catalogue, how
they demonstrate a new way with the music, what they reveal
about the artists and so on. After a couple of hours’ debate we
take a secret vote from which the Recording of the Year emerges.
This year, as I said at the start, the Recording of the Year winner
enjoyed a runaway triumph – and a hugely deserving one (and
proof that our bestowing of a Young Artist Award on the winner
many years ago was an auspicious move).
Of course, there are a handful of other awards that we give out –
to a young artist who has been catching our attention, to a great
artist whose lifetime work has earned enormous gratitude from us
as well as a huge audience. Also, to someone who has caught your
imagination, as our Artist of the Year is a public vote. Throw in a
Label of the Year and a couple of special prizes to mark the Awards’
40th anniversary, and it’s been a particularly rich year.
Medici.tv streamed the Awards live,
a relay sponsored by E Gutzwiller & Cie, Banquiers, and IMG Artists.
Don’t worry if you missed it and the wonderful live music – including
performances by the Pan-Armenian SO and Sergey Smabtyan,
Benjamin Appl and The Tallis Scholars – because you can catch up
with it for 90 days at medici.tv as well as at Gramophone’s website.
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 15
RECORDING OF THE YEAR
Concerto
WINNER Isabelle Faust’s wonderful way with Mozart
‘A remarkably refreshing collection, the sort that
challenges previously held convictions’

A
different beauty here, a new way of hearing
these deliciously Italianate masterpieces
that doesn’t so much replace what
we know and love as offer, in musical
terms, a conceptual supplement. To deal with the
accompaniments first, Giovanni Antonini’s period-
instrument Il Giardino Armonico sport an unusually
wide range of dynamics. Take the Fifth Concerto,
its decisive opening chord followed by a shimmering
Allegro aperto, kept tense and quiet aside from some
dramatic interjections. The expected lack of vibrato
and the tweaking of certain note values in tutti
passages also arrest attention, such as the opening’s
second idea: this is swift, buoyant, trimly tailored
playing, up and running from the off and with not so
much as an ounce of excess weight to hold it back.
Isabelle Faust’s first entry is spun silver, gently
conspicuous by its chasteness and yet very much
of a piece with her musical surroundings. These
forces score highest in the exotic ‘Turkish’ episode
of the Fifth’s finale, Faust as deft as a dancing devil,
Mozart Violin Concertos Mozart himself) – found the Adagio of the main
Nos 1-5. Adagio, K261. work too ‘artificial’.
Rondos – K269; K373 Slow movements are given an unusual slant,
Isabelle Faust vn occasionally in a way that maybe craves adjustment
Il Giardino Armonico / from the listener, especially the listener ‘of a certain
Giovanni Antonini age’. The Third Concerto’s Adagio opens to muted
Harmonia Mundi first violins which in this instance sound more like
M b HMC90 2230/31 period woodwinds, a mellow blend of tones that
Producer Martin Sauer paves the way for Faust’s gleaming first solo entry.
Engineers Tobias Lehmann, Another case in point is the Andante from the
Wolfgang Schiefermann Fourth Concerto where, after the cadenza (here,
187 votes as elsewhere, the innovative work of the period
keyboard player Andreas Staier), Mozart writes a
heart-stopping little coda: in essence, four repeated
notes, then an upwards scale that climbs down, dips
further and, as traditionally heard, rises back to the
initial note on a heartfelt slide. Faust’s way is not so
much to drift upwards on ethereal wings as to take
a notational elevator, then embellish the line. It’s an
interesting idea but as of the present I still have the
likes of Ehnes, Mutter, Szeryng, Heifetz, Grumiaux,
P H O T O G R A P H Y: F E L I X B R O E D E

Antonini and his band charging the atmosphere
with pungent textures and fiery rhythms. It’s good
that they preceded the Concerto with the Adagio,
K261, composed because Antonio Brunetti –
Mozart’s replacement as concertmaster in Salzburg
(and a ‘thoroughly ill-bred fellow’ according to
Martzy (especially beautiful) and others tugging at my
Sponsored by heartstrings, imploring me to stay with their warmer,
more direct approach. Still, Faust’s alternative is
certainly food for thought.
Mention of Staier’s cadenzas prompts me to quote
his theories appertaining to the concertos’ ‘proximity

16 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk

 RU N N E R S - U P of tone to Italian opera’
Sibelius. Tchaikovsky (his own words), and the
Violin Concertos idea of opera recitative,
Lisa Batiashvili vn which means that CYMBELINE
Staatskapelle Berlin / some of the cadenzas SHAKESPEARE
Daniel Barenboim are unusually complex Royal Shakespeare Company
DG and/or long. The Britain is in crisis. Alienated,
159 votes Third Concerto’s first insular and on the brink of
Beach. Chaminade. movement provides a disaster. Can it be saved?
Melly Still directs
Howell Piano Concertos striking place to sample. Shakespeare’s rarely
Danny Driver pf BBC Listen to disc 1, performed romance of
Scottish SO / Rebecca Miller track 8, from 6'49", power, jealousy and a journey
Hyperion a top-gear, Locatelli- of love and reconciliation.
This production cast the role
145 votes style unaccompanied of Cymbeline as a woman,
showpiece, at least played by Gillian Bevan.
initially, then wittily hesitant, and which come 7'59" summons the DVD | BLU-RAY
orchestra back for dual action. Modern scholarship suggests that the
First Concerto predates the other four and listening to it again after
a short break I can recognise its stylistic similarity to music from the ANASTASIA
TCHAIKOVSKY
late Baroque period. Of special note is the flowing, elegantly voiced Royal Opera House
Adagio, Faust’s entry here among the most beautiful moments in the
Royal Ballet Principal
entire set. The Second Concerto’s first movement is demonstrably Natalia Osipova dances
operatic in style, true concerto buffa, the first movement full of fun, the title role in Kenneth
the Andante a dead ringer for a Mozart or even a Rossini aria, MacMillan’s haunting ballet,
to atmospheric music by
granted a shapely reading by Faust and her skilled accomplices,
Tchaikovsky and Martinů.
delicate and tonally varied. Anastasia tells the story
So a remarkably refreshing collection, the sort that challenges of Anna Anderson who,
previously held convictions, and a good thing that it does too. The following the Russian
Revolution and the murder
recorded balance is excellent, keeping the soloist in focus while of the royal family, claimed
granting the orchestra plenty of presence. Rob Cowan she was the surviving Grand
Duchess Anastasia.
DVD | BLU-RAY

THE TEMPEST
SHAKESPEARE
Royal Shakespeare Company
On a distant island, a
man waits. Robbed of his
position, power and wealth,
his enemies have left him
in isolation. But this is no
ordinary man or ordinary
island. Simon Russell Beale
returns to the RSC after
20 years to play Prospero.
Directed by Artistic Director
Gregory Doran.
DVD | BLU-RAY

WILLIAM TELL
ROSSINI
Royal Opera House
Antonio Pappano, Music
Director of The Royal Opera,
conducts Rossini's epic final
masterpiece of French grand
opera with an all-star cast
that includes Gerald Finley
in the title role, alongside
John Osborn, Malin Byström
and Sofia Fomina.
DVD | BLU-RAY

GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 17

 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
WINNER Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
‘If anyone has
‘D experienced success it
ie Zeit, die ist ein sonderbar
Ding’, sings the Marschallin
in Hugo von Hofmannsthal
and Richard Strauss’s
is this possessor of one
Der Rosenkavalier – ‘Time is a strange thing’.
Time for Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, one of the
of the loveliest voices
most admired Marschallins of our age, is not
about looking back. It’s for looking forwards.
of modern times’
‘I get bored talking about the past’, she says, a line
Hofmannsthal might easily have dropped
into one of his librettos.
Dame Kiri may have stopped singing publicly
(‘No, I don’t miss it’), but she certainly doesn’t
consider herself retired. She maintains a busy
schedule overseeing her Foundation, an organisation
to help future generations of singers. ‘Some of my
students say to me, “How can I repay you for what
Sponsored by
you’ve done for me?” I reply, “Just be successful!”’
And if anyone has experienced success it is this
possessor of one of the loveliest voices of modern
times. That great connoisseur of the voice (and one
of Gramophone’s best-loved contributors) John
18 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Steane commented of Te Kanawa’s ‘Dove
sono’ (Le nozze di Figaro) that ‘the legato is
perfect, the style aristocratic, the tone at its
loveliest’, and drew comparisons with Meta
Seinemeyer (and from JBS that was high
praise indeed).
It’s exactly 25 years since Gramophone
bestowed its Artist of the Year Award on
Dame Kiri. That year, 1992, had been an
extraordinary one for her when it came to
recordings: we’d had Richard Strauss’s Der
Rosenkavalier from EMI, conducted by Haitink, a
second recording of the Four Last Songs from Decca,
conducted by Solti, Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus
from Philips, conducted by André Previn, as well as
an album of songs by Michel Legrand (to add to a
sizeable lighter catalogue that included Gershwin,
Bernstein, Kern and Rodgers and Hammerstein).
As we celebrate Kiri Te Kanawa’s career with the
Lifetime Achievement Award, we must be thankful
that she lived through one of the richest periods
for recordings and had the fortune to record for
gramophone.co.uk
 companies with great
T H E E S S E N T I A L K I R I T E K A N AWA
Bernstein operatic heritages:
West Side Story Decca, EMI, Philips and
Bernstein CBS/Sony Classical. She
DG (4/85) enjoyed recording
because, she says, ‘I liked
Mozart the idea of getting things
Le nozze di Figaro down while my voice
Solti was still in good shape.
Decca (4/84) I always felt that while it
was still there and still
R Strauss with a sweet quality to it,
Four Last Songs the more we could
VPO / Solti capture the better.
Decca (9/91) Getting it perfect wasn’t
my idea; having long
R Strauss takes was. It had to be a
Der Rosenkavalier performance; not spliced
Haitink together.’ And she got
Warner Classics (8/91) the chance to record
all her major roles
Verdi (sometimes more than
Simon Boccanegra once: especially with
Solti the increased interest
Decca (5/93) in DVD).
‘I always said as I went
Verdi along, throughout my
Otello career, that I never got
Solti it perfect’, she revealed.
Opus Arte ‘I never got it totally as
I wanted it. I suppose
that was quite an
achievement, never getting it to the point of perfection. I never
did. But I got as close as I could. Sometimes your colleagues were
good, sometimes not so good. Sometimes the conducting wasn’t
so good. I always had a sort of octopus view of things, tentacles
everywhere, to see if it was going right or wrong. I suppose the
Met went very right on a lot of occasions. But when you’ve got
THE COLLECTION
4000 people in the audience and they have 4000 different ideas,
you don’t know if you’re singing to a friendly group or an Spanning more than two hundred years
unfriendly group, so you have to hope!’ of opera, this magnificent 22-disc collection
Dame Kiri’s voice might have been made for the music of brings together 18 outstanding operas
Mozart and Strauss, and her recordings of operas (and choral in a luxurious box set.
works and songs) by those two composers remain particularly
cherishable: her Capriccio Countess was a glorious characterisation, A special edition book is also included,
as was her Arabella; and in Mozart we have her Pamina, Countess containing new articles about The Royal Opera,
Almaviva, Donna Elvira (particularly fine both under Sir Colin richly illustrated with stunning photographs.
Davis and in the classic Joseph Losey film with Ruggiero Raimondi
as Giovanni) and Fiordiligi, not to mention a glorious C minor The Collection is a dazzling tour of operatic
Mass and some of the concert arias. treasures by Mozart, Verdi, Bizet, Wagner,
Dame Kiri has achieved what few classical singers manage, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Puccini, Strauss,
to attract a huge international audience with everything from Szymanowski, Britten and George Benjamin.
musical theatre to grand opera, and she approached it all with the
same spirit. She worked hard, she played the game (chat shows,
OUT NOW
P H O T O G R A P H Y: J O H N S W A N N E L L / E M I C L A S S I C S

Morecambe and Wise, constant interviews) and she gave generously

of her time. Now, she has the time to devote to her extensive ON DVD AND BLU-RAY
garden, and live the life she missed during her career. As Frederica
von Stade once said to her, “We’re on a freight train, and from time
to time we stop!” And, Dame Kiri continues, ‘that’s what it was like.
It was like buzzing through almost 50 years of not stopping. It was
an incredible life and when I look back on it, I keep thinking, “How roh.org.uk/shop
did I have any time for anything?” It was just the music – getting
ready and then doing it. I don’t think I could do it today.’ JJ
See also Hugo Shirley’s Kiri Te Kanawa playlist on page 129

GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 19

 ARTIST OF THE YEAR
WINNER Vasily Petrenko
‘Petrenko is making
S waves, and we’re
till a boyish 41, Vasily Petrenko makes
a return to the Gramophone Classical
Music Awards this year having been
our Young Artist of the Year back in
happy to endorse this
2007 (a year when, unusually, our Artist of
the Year, Hilary Hahn, was younger!). His
impressive lead, from
work with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic,
the ensemble he has led first as Principal
over 8000 votes cast’
Conductor and then as Chief Conductor since RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS
2006, continues to impress, and no more so Tchaikovsky
than in the set of Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Symphonies Nos 3, 4 & 6
Nos 3, 4 and 6, released by Onyx earlier this Royal Liverpool PO
year, and which was received with universal Onyx (3/17)
acclaim, clinching Gramophone’s Recording
of the Month in March. Mark Pullinger Prokofiev
remarked that ‘Petrenko’s fast and furious Romeo and Juliet, Op 64
approach once again pays off with invigorating Oslo PO
performances which dispel Russian gloom. LAWO (12/16)
The RLPO play their socks off and must rank
as one of the finest “Russian orchestras” in the
UK today.’ For a St Petersburg-trained conductor, it
must have been with some satisfaction that MP drew
comparisons (in the Fourth Symphony) with Yevgeny
Mravinsky. The Pathétique, a crowning performance
here in every respect, is characterised by vivid
dynamics and a wonderful control of intensity.
If Petrenko drew on his Russian roots in the
Tchaikovsky, he drew on the orchestra’s in another
of this year’s recording projects (and another Onyx
release): a disc of Edward Elgar’s Second Symphony
and some shorter works. Jeremy Dibble (who
reviewed the companion recording of the First
Symphony two years ago) wrote that ‘I am even
more impressed by the Russian’s reading of the
Second Symphony, which has a clarity of sound
to match the luxuriance of Elgar’s orchestration.
20 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Indeed, the RLPO, on great form, provide a
sumptuous array of textures with an ensemble
that is crisp and incisive. It is so good to hear
every note of the athletic brass counterpoint
in the horns and trumpets and the lithe
filigree of Elgar’s careful doublings between
wind and strings … Petrenko is, for the most
part, spot-on with his tempos.’
Since the start of the 2013/14 season,
Petrenko has been Chief Conductor of the
Oslo Philharmonic (one of those ensembles
that seems to launch meteoric careers – just
look at Mariss Jansons, with whom Petrenko
studied). They’ve already set down an
impressive little discography and this last year
saw a version of Prokofiev’s complete Romeo
and Juliet ballet. While not totally sold on
Petrenko’s approach, David Gutman noted
(12/16) that ‘In place of Soviet-style weight,
Petrenko wields a new broom … Sections
within numbers are refreshed unpredictably,
sometimes slowed, more often swift, voicings
tweaked to expose long-buried lines or surprising
points of colour’. And one shouldn’t forget his
charismatic work with the European Union Youth
Orchestra, whose Chief Conductor he also is. His
ability to connect with young musicians is impresive
and the results speak for themselves.
Gramophone’s Artist of the Year is voted for by
P H O T O G R A P H Y: M A R K M C N U LT Y
the public – readers of Gramophone and visitors to
our various social media outlets. Vasily Petrenko
is making waves, and we’re happy to endorse this
impressive lead, from over 8000 votes cast, for an
artist who has clearly made the step up to a new level
of musicianship and has the ability to take audiences
with him on his musical journey. JJ
gramophone.co.uk
Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic
Orchestra
2017-2018 Season ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Vasily Petrenko Chief Conductor

Gramophone Artist of the Year 2017

Chief Conductor, Vasily Petrenko leads a sparkling season of

great music in Liverpool, a UNESCO City of Music, with must-see
artists and rising stars including Sir Bryn Terfel and Stephen
Hough in residence, the UK premiere of composer Philip Glass’s
Eleventh Symphony, the Art of the Piano and much more!

‘Vasily Petrenko with his beloved

Liverpool orchestra …… glorious,
enormously compelling.’
Gramophone

%R[2̇FH 0151 709 3789

liverpoolphil.com

LiverpoolPhilharmonic
@liverpoolphil

Principal Funders Principal Partners Media Partners

Thanks to the City

of Liverpool for its
¿QDQFLDOVXSSRUW
A Signum recording session with Sarah Connolly and Malcolm Martineau
LABEL OF THE YEAR
WINNER
Great sound, imaginative A&R and pure serendipity secured Signum’s Award
F
or an avid record collector, opening the
morning’s post at Gramophone remains one
of life’s great joys; and opening the post
when a package arrives from Signum induces
particular pleasure since it unleashes the spirit of
serendipity. In an age awash with information, the
simple act of opening a parcel without knowing quite
what’s inside is an unusual surprise. What you can
always be sure of with Signum’s monthly releases
is that they will invariably be splendidly recorded
and never predictable. And that recipe has set the
company in good stead for the first two decades of
its existence.
22 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Signum Classics
It’s always good to mark significant anniversaries
in the life of a record company, but when that
anniversary is supported by a stream of first-rate
recordings, recognition is less dutiful and rather
more the result of inspiration. The 2016-17 vintage
P H O T O G R A P H Y: B E N J A M I N E A L O V E G A
has seen some truly superb releases and many
Editor’s Choices – Haydn’s The Seasons conducted
by Paul McCreesh, a terrific recording of chamber
and vocal works by Jonathan Dove, Sophie Bevan
Sponsored by and Ian Page’s The Mozartists in scenas and concert
arias, further instalments in Malcolm Martineau’s
Fauré song series, JS Bach organ works from David
Goode, Peter Donohoe’s Shostakovich Preludes and
gramophone.co.uk
Fugues, Nielsen’s Flute and Clarinet Concertos with the
Philharmonia conducted by Paavo Järvi, choral works from
St John’s College, Cambridge, and Wells Cathedral Choir, Roy
Harris and John Adams violin concertos from Tamsin Waley-
Cohen … the list goes on.
It’s been a long journey from the mid-1990s, when Floating BORIS GILTBURG
Earth (Signum’s sister company) would make recordings in an
executive production capacity – which it financed, owned and VASILY PETRENKO
licensed to both independents and majors – to today’s position
as one of the most productive companies (in quantity, quality and
range) on the UK classical music scene. As Steve Long, Signum’s
SHOSTAKOVICH
MD, recalls, an approach from an artist to record nine discs of “Giltburg’s new accounts… under Vasily Petrenko are
Tallis got things under way. ‘Having pressed the first three albums first class” International Piano
and been to [the industry trade fair] Midem to get distribution, the
first discs went on sale in November 1997. We were quickly
approached by other early music groups who wanted to be on this
new early music label so rather than be a niche of a niche I decided
to broaden the scope of the label to be a multi-artist but still early
music label. We continued in that vein until about 2001, by which
time we had over 40 albums released but copious requests from
non-early-music groups to join the party.’ Soon artists like
Tenebrae and The King’s Singers had a new home.
‘We have a number of different ways of making recordings
happen’, Long continues. ‘The most common is that an artist
comes to us with an idea and we make it happen in that we take

8.573666
care of technical and production elements and they put in the
musical and artistic elements. We always like the artists to be Conducted by Vasily Petrenko
Gramophone Artist of the Year 2017
“invested” in the recording and have the making of the recording
the start of the journey, not the end, as far as they are concerned. “Giltburg has all the agility, power and expressive intensity
We view each release as a co-production with the artists. We also Shostakovich’s piano concertos demand… And he has found
like each artist to undertake a series of recordings rather than like-minded partners in the RLPO and Petrenko” Gramophone
stand-alone projects so we can develop a following for them.’
With over 500 recordings in the catalogue and 50 releases
emerging each year, Signum is very much a part of our world –
and, always mindful of the way its audience listens, ensures that RACHMANINOV
it is visible on all available platforms and on formats from the
SEP 2017
traditional CD to the massively popular stream. JJ

8.573629

“His vision will place him among the truly

memorable Rachmaninov interpreters”
Gramophone on 8.573469 Recording of the month

© Oliver Binns

www.naxosdirect.co.uk
www.naxos.com
The Mozartists’ Ian Page with Sophie Bevan at the ‘Perfido’ sessions for Signum

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 23

 LABEL OF THE YEAR 2017
CONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR
WONDERFUL ARTISTS, ENGINEERS, PRODUCERS
AND EVERYONE ELSE OVER THE PAST 20 YEARS WHO
HAVE HELPED TO MAKE THE LABEL WHAT IT IS TODAY

RECORDING OF THE EDITOR’S CHOICE EDITOR’S CHOICE EDITOR’S CHOICE

MONTH August 2017 July 2017 May 2017 December 2016

WWW.SIGNUMRECORDS.COM
Distributed by [PIAS] in the UK &
Naxos of America in the USA
 YOUNG ARTIST OF THE YEAR
WINNER
‘Everything about
Beatrice Rana speaks
Y
oung musicians usually impress in
one of two different ways. One is
to dazzle with the exuberance of
youth, the sheer joy of their own
talent and personality. It’s a hard thing to
resist, but one would be wise to wonder if it
will still be serving them so well a decade or so
down the line. The other is to show technique,
yes, but also the poise and wisdom often
lazily assumed to be beyond the attainment
of youth, but which, if you’ve got it, will surely
never go away. A few minutes with the playing
of Beatrice Rana leaves you in no doubt which
category she is in.
At 24, she has a refreshingly short
competition history, though it includes first
prize in the 2011 Montreal and Silver Medal
P H O T O G R A P H Y: J Ø R N P E D E R S E N / W A R N E R C L A S S I C S
at the 2013 Van Cliburn. Her days with such
things are presumably over now, however,
thanks to a contract from Warner Classics that
has already yielded the Tchaikovsky First and
Prokofiev Second Concertos (the Prokofiev
‘shapely, subtle, nuanced, musical in every
detail’, according to our own Patrick Rucker)
and, as a first solo disc, an exquisitely drawn
Bach Goldberg Variations that scored highly in
this year’s Instrumental category, only a year
after Igor Levit’s winning recording of it seemed
gramophone.co.uk
Beatrice Rana
to have given us enough to think about
for the time being.
of maturity’ Born to pianist parents, she herself started
on the instrument at the age of three, so that,
RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS as she claims, ‘playing the piano was among
Prokofiev. Tchaikovsky the most natural things I could do’. Watch her
Piano Concertos play now – a luxury I had for a whole day while
Rana; Santa Cecilia Orch / producing one of her BBC New Generation
Pappano Artist studio sessions for Radio 3 – and it is
Warner Classics (12/15) evident that this deep grounding lends her a
Bach calm stillness that betokens perfectly relaxed
Goldberg Variations technique and allows her to bring out the
Rana innate intelligence of her musical personality.
Warner Classics (4/17) Read Harriet Smith’s review of the Goldbergs
(4/17) and you will learn of a mouth-watering
succession of original and beautifully realised
ideas. Better still, listen to the recording itself to
encounter a profound musician who also happens to
be a pianist through and through.
Indeed, everything about Beatrice Rana speaks
of maturity, from the playing itself to her modest
reflections on it, and from her thoughtful approach
Supported by to the music (see her Goldberg booklet note for that)
to an attitude towards her career that essentially
says ‘not too much at once’. We must be patient,
then; it would surely be both impolite and impolitic
to hurry her. There will be plenty more to savour
in years to come. Lindsay Kemp
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 25
CONGRATULATIONS
To all winners and nominees at the
2017 Gramophone Awards

prsformusic.com
Proudly representing classical composers and publishers We Value Music

PPL is proud
to support the
Gramophone
Awards 2017

PPL is the UK music industry’s collective management

organisation for tens of thousands of performers and
record companies.

We license recorded music in the UK when it is broadcast on

BBC or commercial radio and TV as well as when played in
public (shops, cafes, hotels etc.) and ensure that revenue flows
back to our members.

These include independent and major record companies,

ppluk.com together with performers from new orchestral players to
@ppluk established soloists and conductors. To explore how we can
support you, contact PPL today.
 John Suchet: one of Classic FM’s cleverly chosen line-up of presenters

ANNIVERSARY AWARD
WINNER Classic FM
‘Classic FM plays an

W
hen Classic FM’s Managing
Editor, Sam Jackson,
receives Gramophone’s special
Anniversary Award (given to
mark the 40th anniversary of the Gramophone
Classical Music Awards) at the ceremony
on September 13, the station will have just
marked a special anniversary of its own:
25 years of national broadcasting in the
UK (as one of only three independent national
radio stations). It launched on September 7,
1992, and has become, in that quarter century, one of the most
significant broadcasters in this country, with a weekly reach of
5.8 million listeners, 1.2 million of whom are under 35. Classic FM
has become the world’s biggest classical music brand on Facebook,
with videos there watched by around 17 million people every
month. Two thirds of those who ‘like’ Classic FM on Facebook are
also under 35 and it shares more of its audience with Radio 1 than
Radio 3, again showing its significant role in developing younger
audiences for classical music. Whatever their age, though, more
people listen to classical music on Classic FM than via any other
broadcast medium.
P H O T O G R A P H Y: C L A S S I C F M
of a national radio station but Classic FM
important role in backs up its role as a national broadcaster by
engaging with live music up and down the
promoting today’s country. It maintains strong partnerships
with orchestras across the nation and
artists in an regularly promotes concerts, a powerful way
of developing closer ties with its audiences.
increasingly It works tirelessly with all of its partners to
make classical music accessible to as broad
indifferent world’ an audience as possible.
Where Classic FM comes closest to ‘our
world’ is in its championing of recordings and its unwavering
support for the classical record industry (at a time when classical
music is finding it harder and harder to secure those column
inches from arts editors with no interest in the genre). Giving new
releases the oxygen of publicity is vital to ensure that recorded
music maintains visibility in an increasingly information-packed
world. While it would be easy to portray Classic FM and Radio 3
as being separated by a yawning gulf, there are numerous artists
and recordings that fit quite comfortably into the outputs of both
networks. Classic FM plays an important role in promoting today’s
artists in an increasingly indifferent world.

It would be foolish to argue that Classic FM and
Gramophone are a natural fit – our broadcast ‘mirror image’
is clearly BBC Radio 3 – but it would be equally foolish to
underestimate Classic FM’s role in the musical life of this
country. Supporting live music-making is not a requirement
Add in 24 hour-a-day broadcasting, seven days a week, and you
have the destination of choice for a substantial number of people.
And the station’s cleverly chosen line-up of presenters has added
to one of the broadcasting success stories of recent times. We wish
Classic FM well for its next 25 years.

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 27

 SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT
WINNER Colin Matthews
‘It is as founder and
C
omposer, arranger, administrator,
mentor and cultural advocate: it can be
difficult to decide where the emphasis executive producer of
lies when considering Colin Matthews
(b1946), his contribution to British music across NMC Records that
more than 40 years putting composers, musicians
and listeners alike in his debt. Matthews has made
Matthews’s own music is notable for its
diversity of content. Two of his earliest arguably his greatest
acknowledged works, the Fourth and Fifth
Sonatas for Orchestra, meet the respective contribution to the
challenge of American minimalism and Mahlerian
chromaticism head-on, their concern for UK contemporary
evolving and integrating large-scale expressive
contrast pursued in such impressive later pieces
scene’
as Cortège, Memorial, Reflected Images and Traces
Remain. A productive relationship with the classical
heritage is no less evident in his concertos for violin,
cello and horn, along with a cycle of string quartets
Sponsored by
(five to date) spanning the greater part of his output.
Vocal works include the dramatic cantata The Great
Journey, orchestral song-cycle Continuum and No
Man’s Land, an arresting fusion of cantata and cabaret
28 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
commemorating the First World War in
provocative yet affecting terms.
This latter piece emerged out of Matthews’s
decade as Associate Composer with the Hallé –
most significant of several such posts that have
also included the Philharmonia and London
Symphony orchestras, and that also gave rise
to acclaimed orchestrations of the 24 Préludes
for piano by Debussy. These transcriptions
and arrangements are no less central to his
work: back in the early 1960s he orchestrated
several Mahler songs in collaboration with his
older brother David (himself a distinguished
composer), and he has since arranged song-
cycles by Debussy, Holst and Britten. Matthews
worked as amanuensis to Britten during his last years,
and those editorial activities have continued with
realisations of several early or unfinished pieces, in the
process making new orchestral and chamber works
available for performance.
Mention should also be made of his involvement
(alongside David) with Deryck Cooke on the latter’s
performing edition of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony,
gramophone.co.uk
 which has now received more than a dozen recordings and
established itself as an integral part of the orchestral repertoire.
Matthews has long been active as administrator of the Holst
Foundation. He is also chairman of the Britten Estate, as well
as a trustee and Music Director of the Britten-Pears Foundation.
He served as a council member of the Aldeburgh Foundation for
11 years and has retained close links with the Aldeburgh Festival
and the Britten-Pears School, not least as co-director (with Oliver
Knussen) of the Contemporary Composition and Performance
Course. He was a member of the council of the Society for the
Promotion of New Music for over two decades, and director of
the Performing Rights Society for three years. Since 1985 he has
BRAVO & CONGRATULATIONS
been a member of the music panel of the Radcliffe Trust and, since VASILY PETRENKO!
2005, he has served as a council member of the Royal Philharmonic GRAMOPHONE ARTIST OF THE YEAR AWARD 2017
Society and Composition Director of the LSO’s Panufnik Scheme.
Matthews has often worked as a recording producer, not the
least significant being Górecki’s Third Symphony with the London
Sinfonietta, which topped classical charts on both sides of the
Atlantic and has sold more than one million copies during the
25 years since it was issued.
It is as founder and executive producer of NMC Records that
Matthews has made arguably his greatest contribution to the
UK contemporary scene, and which has secured him this Special
Achievement Award. From its modest beginnings in 1989 (the actual
title is an acronym for New Music Cassettes), the label has built up
a catalogue that currently amounts to 236 titles and which takes in ONYX4150 & ONYX4162 ONYX4145 & ONYX4165
a broad spectrum of British post-war music from senior composers Tchaikovsky: Elgar:
such as Sir Harrison Birtwistle and Hugh Wood to rising stars such Symphonies 1, 2 & 5* Symphonies 1 & 2
as Mark Simpson and Kate Whitley. Notable ‘firsts’ have included Symphonies 3, 4 & 6 ‘He gets Elgar...absolutely
Anthony Payne’s realisation of the sketches for Elgar’s Third *BBC Music Magazine Awards understands the beating
Symphony, an Archive series which comprises reissues of long- Album of the Year 2017 & heart of it...elegance, weight,
Best Orchestral Recording gravitas...seriously beautiful
unavailable recordings of British music, an Ancora series featuring playing...highest possible quality
reissues from other labels and a Debut series that focuses on ‘The supreme quality of the (recording)...our generation’s
composers from the younger generation. The NMC label has also orchestral playing and the great Elgarian’
vibrancy, cogency and impetus BBC RADIO 3 RECORD REVIEW
been involved with download and online formats with such projects of Petrenko’s interpretations’
as New Music 20x12, for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, and New FINANCIAL TIMES ‘I am even more impressed by the
Music Biennial. Nine of its releases have won the Contemporary ‘I commend Petrenko’s as Russian’s reading of the Second
category of the Gramophone Awards over the past quarter-century. the finest modern cycle of Symphony, which has a clarity of
Tchaikovsky’s symphonies sound to match the luxuriance of
Colin Matthews received an honorary doctorate from Elgar’s orchestration.’
Nottingham University in 1998, was given the Royal Philharmonic currently available.’
GRAMOPHONE
GRAMOPHONE
Society/Performing Rights Society Leslie Boosey Award in 2005
and made an OBE in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to
music. It is fitting he is being recognised with a Special Achievement
Award at this year’s Gramophone Awards. Richard Whitehouse
See also Richard Whitehouse’s NMC playlist on page 129
P H O T O G R A P H Y: M A U R I C E F O X A L L , F I O N A G A R D E N / N M C R E C O R D I N G S

ONYX4140 ONYX4182
Prokofiev: Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring,
Piano Concertos 1 & 3 Rachmaninov: Spring Cantata,
Diapson d’or winner Debussy: Printemps
‘Third Piano Concerto ...receives a
totally idiomatic and compelling NEW RELEASE October 2017
performance, forcing it to the
front of quite a crowded field’.
***** MAIL ON SUNDAY

Visit ONYX Classics at www.onyxclassics.com

Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/onyxclassics
Colin Matthews with the conductor Martyn Brabbins at an NMC recording session

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 29

 Bringing contemporary
RECORDINGS classical music to the classroom

R:STRNG REMIX APP GCSE DANCE GCSE COMPOSITION

Taking music by composer Kate Whitley Developed in partnership with Works from the NMC
as a starting point, this FREE app Rambert Dance Company, this catalogue are the starting
features a specially devised remix by special resource features music by point for practical lessons
Olugbenga Adelekan of Mercury Prize past Rambert Music Fellows (Cheryl and student exercises in
nominees Metronomy. Designed to Frances-Hoad, Mark Bowden, Rhinegold Education’s innovative
meet the KS3/4 curriculum, it provides Quinta, Kate Whitley and Gavin Online Music Classroom. Addressing
software for students to create their Higgins) and selected works from the the composition aspect of the GCSE
own remixes using the same techniques. NMC catalogue suitable for the GCSE syllabus, it contains detailed lesson
Dance choreography component. plans based on NMC composers and
their works.
‘Capricious
‘C C yet cogent, ‘Sh
‘Showcases
‘SS the incredible Inc
IIncludes
In ...
Kate
K a Whitley’s music has diversity
d iv of music written Howard
H o Skempton Lento
admirably
a d user-friendly ffor
or dance ... compelling’ ‘‘An A enigmatic orchestral
ssurfaces
u that conceal %%%&5DGLR5HFRUG5HYLHZ
% cchorale
h … like Gorecki’s
hhidden
id intensities. We will TThird
h Symphony, it is stuff
hhear
e much more of her’ tthat
h cults are made of’
77KH7LPHV+++++
K *UDPRSKRQH
* U
CCD/MP3/FLAC
D/ NMC D229 CCD/MP3/FLAC
D/ NMC D232 CCD/MP3/FLAC
D/ NMC D005

As a registered charity and award-winning contemporary music record label, NMC has a responsibility to connect listeners worldwide with the
best new music from the British Isles, and to encourage audiences to experience the vibrant music of today’s composers through our catalogue.
We are delighted to announce the launch of a series of nationwide initiatives to bring our recordings to a younger audience, to assist the development
of emerging talent, and to inspire an interest and appreciation for new music.

If you’d like to support the many strands of work that we do, please visit: www.nmcrec.co.uk/support-us

New Releases ‘The quality of releases is proof of how central NMC has become to the UK’s contemporary music infrastructure’ GRAMOPHONE

Imogen Holst Colin Riley John McCabe

CD/MP3/FLAC NMC D236 originally on Court Lane Music

CD/MP3/FLAC NMC D230

CD/MP3/FLAC NMC D241

‘A touching & beautifully presented ‘Riley is that rarest of birds, a Sacconi Quartet · Roderick Williams
tribute to a signiÀcant Àgure in genuine original’ /RQGRQ-D]]%ORJ David Pyatt · John McCabe
C20th British music’ 7KH*XDUGLDQ

@nmcrecordings www.nmcrec.co.uk/education 4GIKUVGTGF%JCTKV[PQ

 EARLY MUSIC
WINNER Dowland from the superb Phantasm
‘Freshly informed performances of the highest calibre’
F
ollowers of Phantasm will be shedding tears
of joy at the news that Dowland’s Lachrimae
has won this year’s Early Music Award. The
critical reception since its release has been
universally glowing, and, it should be said, some
of the most perceptive insights came from our own
Lindsay Kemp, writing in July 2016. Phantasm is no
stranger to the Gramophone Awards, having been a
frequent finalist in both the Early Music and Baroque
Instrumental categories as well as a previous winner
of both awards for its recordings of Gibbons (2004)
and Purcell (1997).
Among Phantasm’s defining strengths are
the clarity, vision and determination of its leader,
Laurence Dreyfus. Blessed with a formidable intellect,
acute musical sensibilities, insatiable curiosity and
a measure of self-belief, he chose to challenge an
already crowded field of professional viol consorts
specialising in the Elizabethan and Jacobean
repertoires by putting together a crack ensemble
of players after his own heart who could play as one
and with whom he could develop freshly informed
performances of the highest calibre.
Over the years, Dreyfus’s gifts for teaching and
research made him welcome in some of the finest
British and American academic institutions where
the marriage of musical performance and scholarship
is encouraged. In that environment, musicians like
Dreyfus are encouraged to delve deeper, to test and
refine their interpretations before committing them
gramophone.co.uk
to disc, a luxury most professional performers can
ill afford. This approach is precisely what marks out
Phantasm’s Dowland recording from many of those
issued from the mid-1980s onwards. Phantasm
inevitably stands on the shoulders of its predessors,
relying on Lynda Sayce and David Pinto’s 2004
Fretwork edition of the music and Peter Holman’s
indispensable 1999 handbook, Dowland: Lachrimae
(1604). Another veteran of a previous Lachrimae
Dowland Lachrimae, or recording, the lutenist Elizabeth Kenny, makes
Seaven Teares a thoughtfully judged contribution to this disc.
Phantasm with Lindsay Kemp’s assessment is worthy of reprise:
Elizabeth Kenny lute ‘Phantasm’s performances are totally convincing and
Linn F CKD527 absorbing. Drawing richly on their depth, intensity
Producer & Engineer and homogeneity of tone, their acuity to the music’s
Philip Hobbs ever-active emotional flux leaves them unafraid to
131 votes use forceful gestures of articulation and dynamics
to make a point.’ Julie Anne Sadie
RU N N E R S - U P
Dufay Les Messes à teneur
Cut Circle / Jesse Rodin
Musique en Wallonie
94 votes
‘Music for the 100 Years’ War’
The Binchois Consort / Andrew Kirkman
Hyperion
93 votes
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 31
CONGRATULATIONS TO ADRIAN CHANDLER
AND LA SERENISSIMA
2017 GRAMOPHONE AWARD WINNER
BAROQUE INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM

AV 2371
THE ITALIAN JOB
Baroque Instrumental Music from the Italian States
Albinoni – Caldara – Corelli – Tartini – Torelli – Vivaldi
“were I asked to condense this review down
to two simple words, they would be: buy it.”
Gramophone, Editor’s Choice

NEW RELEASES
TCHAIKOVSKY
Variations on a Rococo Theme

SCHUMANN
Cello Concerto

SAINT-SAËNS
Cello Concerto No. 1
Antonio Meneses cello
Claudio Cruz, Royal Northern Sinfonia
AV 2373
Antonio Meneses celebrates the 35th anniversary of winning First Prize
and the Gold Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in
Moscow, as well as his 60th birthday this year, with his first recordings of
three cornerstones of the cello concertante repertoire.

HOME
Works for Solo Harp by Bach,
Debussy, Sting and others

Elizabeth Hainen harp

Elizabeth Hainen, Solo Harpist of

the Philadelphia Orchestra, performs
a programme of pieces she enjoys
playing in the intimacy of her own
AV 2378 home, including popular works by
Bach, Debussy and Sting.

VISIT AVIE RECORDS

Distributed in the UK by Proper Note, The New Powerhouse, Gateway www.avierecords.com
Business Centre, Kangley Bridge Road, London SE26 5AN,
Tel: 020 8676 5114, Fax: 020 8676 5169
 BAROQUE INSTRUMENTAL
WINNER Italian concertos from La Serenissima
‘There’s a fearless, fun-filled naturalness to the whole’

L
a Serenissima have a glorious and all-
too-rare ability to make one’s pulse race
afresh with every new project, and ‘The
Italian Job’ – a programme of sinfonias and
concertos from four musical cities – contains all their
typical hallmarks: crisply precise articulation, bang-on
intonation, elegant blending and zinging sonority,
but all this perfection is by no means straight-laced.
Instead there’s a fearless, fun-filled naturalness to the
whole, and always the impression of an ensemble who
believe in every single note they strike or stroke.
Looking at the programme itself, it’s a feast of
contrasting textures and colours. Compare the reedy
bite and bounce of Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concerto in C
‘The Italian Job’
Albinoni. Caldara. Corelli.
Tartini. Torelli. Vivaldi
Concertos and sinfonias
La Serenissima /
Adrian Chandler vn
Back in my initial review in April I commented that
it felt almost unhelpful to draw readers’ attentions to
‘highlights’ when the whole was so wonderful, but
then couldn’t resist pointing out that aforementioned
Tartini violin concerto. Now, months on, this is
still the work I’m most regularly pressing the repeat
button on: think gently flowing metronomic ticking,
graceful ensemble playing, and exquisitely voiced and
ornamented solo violin lines from Chandler himself
which dance and glide along with the fine-toned
warmth, sweetness and delicacy of spun brown sugar.
Bravo La Serenissima! Charlotte Gardner
RU N N E R S - U P

with the lighter, all-strings elegance of Tartini’s Avie F AV2371 Telemann Ihr Völker hört, TWV1:921.
Violin Concerto in E, for instance. Or indeed the Producer & Engineer Concertos
disc’s climactic work, Torelli’s Sinfonia in C, because Simon Fox-Gál Florilegium / Ashley Solomon fl
P H O T O G R A P H Y: E R I C R I C H M O N D

while with recordings I’m usually only focused on the 108 votes Channel Classics
finished package, with this sinfonia’s monster-sized 107 votes
solo line-up of four trumpets, timpani, and two each Vivaldi Concerti per due violini
of oboes, bassoons, violins and cellos, I can’t help but Giuliano Carmignola,
dream of what an extraordinary listening experience Amandine Beyer vns Gli Incogniti
the recording sessions must have been. It’s certainly Harmonia Mundi
come across wonderfully on disc. 107 votes

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 33

 BAROQUE VOCAL
WINNER A Bach programme of daring and integrity from Iestyn Davies
‘The voice soars into its adopted place with astonishing beauty’
T
hat the leading countertenor of his
generation should present a disc of Bach’s
alto cantatas is no surprise. It’s become
something of a rite of passage since the
hovering delicacies of Alfred Deller’s perfectly formed
vowels from 1953. Each to his taste, the difference
between Iestyn Davies in the two ubiquitous solo
cantatas (Nos 54 and 170) and most of the other
recordings of this kind is that he searches out meaning
on every level, never attempting to beguile you with JS Bach Cantatas – No 54,
the ease and allure of his voice alone. Widerstehe doch der Sünde;
This pays dividends at every turn, not least in the No 82, Ich habe genug;
exquisite Widerstehe (No 54). For some, the rolling No 170, Vergnügte Ruh’,
acres of seamless phrases might appear on the beliebte Seelenlust; No 52 –
brisk side, but such is Davies’s refined placement, Sinfonia; No 174 – Sinfonia
alongside the crystalline accompaniment of Jonathan Iestyn Davies counterten
Cohen’s super-alert Arcangelo, that the listener Arcangelo / Jonathan Cohen
feels an organic steadfastness without needing the Hyperion F CDA68111
indulgence of obvious props. Cohen and Davies Producer Tim Oldham
adopt the same principle in the celebrated set pieces Engineer David Hinitt
of Ich habe genug. This is a work whose transposition 145 votes
from the baritone original can be perilous but
here the voice soars into its adopted place with
astonishing beauty of concept and execution.
Iestyn Davies’s vocal production is deeply satisfying Sponsored by
because it’s always made to fit the expressive
environment like a glove, through studied survey and
34 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
pure instinct in kaleidoscopic tandem. Witness the
unsettling imagery in No 170 (‘How those perverted
hearts grieve me’), where Davies’s communicative
artistry delivers a particularly insidious idea of Satan’s
venom and cursing. As I suggested in the original
review, the implication of incessant irritation here
plays just as critical a part in this graphic scena as
extreme rhetorical discomfort. This is an important
recording for its questing thoughtfulness, calculated
risk and clarity of vision. Most tellingly, perhaps, it
never drifts towards muddy sentimentality into which
Bach’s alto cantatas can too easily fall. A rare and
mesmerising collaboration of a special singer and
seasoned instrumentalists, beautifully recorded at
St Jude’s, Hampstead. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood
RU N N E R S - U P
JS Bach St Matthew Passion
Monteverdi Choir; English Baroque
Soloists / Sir John Eliot Gardiner
SDG
121 votes
Monteverdi Madrigals, Vol 3: Venezia
Les Arts Florissants / Paul Agnew
Harmonia Mundi
101 votes
gramophone.co.uk
 RECORD OF
THE YEAR
1996
WINNING GRAMOPHONE AWARDS SINCE 1982
RECORD OF
THE YEAR
1998
GOLD DISC
AWARD
2008

RECORD OF
THE YEAR
2010
 CHAMBER
WINNER Thrilling advocacy for a far-too-neglected composer
‘You won’t find a more stylishly performed introduction to Bacewicz’s world’

T
hese are exhilarating times for string
quartet fans, and following last year’s
award for the Heath Quartet’s Tippett,
it’s thrilling to be able to salute an
outstanding new recording of a major 20th-century
cycle that, if anything, is in even more urgent need
.
of reappraisal. Grazyna Bacewicz’s quartets aren’t
complete strangers to the catalogue, but these
performances by the Silesian Quartet set a new
standard. You won’t find a more articulate, persuasive
and stylishly performed introduction to her world.
And Bacewicz’s seven quartets, written between
1938 and 1965, really do create a whole imaginative
universe. Taken individually, they’re fascinating;
music of concentrated invention, life-affirming
energy and superb technical skill (Bacewicz was a
Grażyna Bacewicz
Complete String Quartets
Silesian Quartet
Chandos B b CHAN10904
Producer Paweł Potoroczyn
Engineer Beata Jankowska-
Burzyńska
assimilating them into a powerfully individual musical
language. There’s intense sadness, but also, more
surprisingly, an almost Haydnish sense of humour. As
Adrian Thompson puts it in his note, ‘Bacewicz is one
of the few post-war composers who have succeeded in
writing music that is authentically playful’.
The Silesian Quartet play these works like they’ve
known them all their lives, in performances that are
simultaneously fresh and refined, with a lightly worn
command of Bacewicz’s brilliant string sonorities. It’s
this lived-in quality that – taken as a whole – gives the
Silesians the edge over their rivals on Naxos and make
this the year’s most essential chamber recording.
Richard Bratby
RU N N E R S - U P

virtuoso violinist herself). Listened to as a cycle, they 156 votes Bruch

become a vivid portrait-in-the-round of Bacewicz’s String Octet. String Quintets
life and times. You’ll hear the influences of Polish The Nash Ensemble
folk music, of Szymanowski and Bartók, and the Hyperion
post-war experiments of her younger contemporaries 143 votes
Sponsored by the
Lutosπawski and Penderecki. Adam Mickiewicz Institute Abrahamsen. Adès. Nørgård
You’ll also hear her journey from youthful as part of the Polska Music String Quartets
exuberance to the fully achieved neoclassical mastery programme Danish Quartet
of the Third Quartet, and then onwards – testing ECM New Series
the musical ‘isms’ of the 1950s and 1960s, and 137 votes

P H O T O G R A P H Y: M A G D A L E N A J O D L O W S K A / M AY O

36 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk

 WARNER CLASSICS & ERATO
CONGRATULATES OUR AWARD-WINNING ARTISTS
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
ARTIST OF THE YEAR AWARD: RECITAL AWARD: JOYCE DIDONATO
VASILY PETRENKO
PETER AND THE WOLF IN WAR & PEACE – HARMONY
Alexander Armstrong THROUGH MUSIC
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Il Pomo d’Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev
Vasily Petrenko (CD, Double Vinyl LP, Download,
(CD, Download, Stream) Stream)

YOUNG ARTIST AWARD: BEATRICE RANA

BBC RADIO 3 NEW GENERATION ARTIST
BACH: GOLDBERG VARIATIONS PROKOFIEV & TCHAIKOVSKY
(CD, Download, Stream) PIANO CONCERTOS
Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di
Santa Cecilia, Sir Antonio Pappano
(CD, Download, Stream)

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: DAME KIRI TE KANAWA

5 CLASSIC ALBUMS OPERA ARIAS
(5CDs: Jerome Kern / Cole Porter / (4CDs: Italian / Puccini /
Irving Berlin / George Gershwin / German / French)
Karl Jenkins)

www.warnerclassics.com
Marketed and distributed by Warner Music UK Ltd.
Oslo
Philharmonic
+
−
Gramophone Magazine
«Artist of the Year 2017»
Congratulations from the Oslo Philharmonic
to our chief conductor, Vasily Petrenko!

Highlights with Petrenko autumn 2017:

23-24-25 August in Oslo 8-9 November
29 August in London Rachmaninoff / Bartok
Stravinsky / Rachmaninoff / Shostakovich Lukas Vondracek, piano
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
29-30 November
6-7 September Strauss / Berio / De Falla
Stravinsky / Scriabin / Wagner Louisa Tuck, violincello
Kirill Gerstein, piano Gonzalo Moreno, piano

19-20 October
Strauss / Bizet / Wagner
Elisabeth Kulman, mezzo soprano www.ofo.no
 ORCHESTRAL
WINNER Vol 4 of Il Giardino Armonico’s glorious Haydn series
‘These players’ experience and knowledge of the music really shines’

‘T
he sort of Haydn-playing you dream Then there’s Riccardo Novaro singing Cimarosa’s
of’ is how I signed off my original delicious scena Il maestro di cappella, in which the
review, back in May, of Vols 3 and 4 players gang up on their hapless conductor.
of Giovanni Antonini’s Haydn cycle. You need discipline to bring off such ill-discipline,
And I mean it. Even the occasional gripe (for and Il Giardino Armonico are an army of generals.
example minuets played fast, even though that’s the That pinpoint string-playing is only part of the
current vogue) doesn’t detract from the superfine ‘Haydn 2032 – No 4, story; Antonini’s woodwind soloists too offer
accuracy of the playing, especially from the strings. Il distratto’ playing that’s full of character and he doesn’t hide
That’s partly because Antonini is not just recording Haydn Symphonies – No 12; his horns under a bushel, letting them off the leash
Haydn’s symphonies; he’s performing them around No 60, ‘Il distratto’; No 70 to bray and rattle to their hearts’ content. I’ve
Europe as well. Most earlier Haydn cycles have Cimarosa Il maestro di said it before and I’ll doubtless say it again: if they
been very much rehearse-record affairs – some capellaa make it to their planned completion date of 2032
evidently with precious little of the former – but a
Riccardo Novaro bar (Haydn’s 300th birthday), this will be the period-
these players’ experience and knowledge of the Il Giardino Armonico / instrument cycle to have. Symphonies Nos 80
music really shines. Giovanni Antonini and 81 are slated for Vol 5 and this Haydnista,
In truth, any one of the first four volumes of this Alpha F ALPHA674; for one, can’t wait.
cycle could have been picked as a winner; that it’s b 6 ALPHA675 David Threasher
Vol 4 is particularly satisfying for the choice of Producer Friedemann
symphonies. The disc takes its name from No 60, Engelbrecht RU N N E R S - U P

Il distratto, a symphony assembled from theatre Engineer Tobias Lehmann Mahler (ed Cooke)
music that itself becomes distracted, forgets where 181 votes Symphony No 10
P H O T O G R A P H Y: H E I K E K A N D A L O W S K I

it is, mithers around an unresolved chord until it Seattle SO / Thomas Dausgaard

remembers why it went in there in the first place … Seattle Symphony Media
Sponsored by
a fine example of Haydn’s wit. No 70 traces a light- 168 votes
to-darkness trajectory, culminating in the austere Sibelius
knocking rhyhms of its concluding D minor fugue. Symphonies Nos 3, 6 & 7
And No 12, from the early Esterházy days, is in lush Minnesota Orch / Osmo Vänskä
E major, a favourite key of the young Haydn’s that BIS
often drew from him music of particular beauty. 159 votes

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 39

 IMG Artists Congratulates its 2017
Gramophone Award Winners & Nominees
VASILY PETRENKO MURRAY PERAHIA
Artist of the Year Instrumental Album

Baroque Vocal Orchestral

Stéphane Degout, baritone Thomas Dausgaard, conductor Vasily Petrenko, conductor Semyon Bychkov, conductor
Couperin: Ariane consolée Mahler: Symphony No. 10 Tchaikovsky Symphonies Nos 3, 4 & 6 The Tchaikovsky Project, Vol. 1
par Bacchus (Aparté) (Seattle Symphony Media) (Onyx) (Decca)

Concerto Solo Vocal

Vasily Petrenko; Omer Meir Wellber, Alexander Vedernikov, Benjamin Appl, baritone Gerald Finley, bass-baritone
conductors; Lalo: Symphonie espagnole; conductor; Rachmaninov: Heimat (Sony Classical) Sibelius: In the Stream of Life
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto (LPO) Piano Concerto No 2 (Erato) (Chandos)

...and warmest congratulations

to the one and only
DAME KIRI TE KANAWA
on being honoured with the
Lifetime Achievement Award www.imgartists.com
@IMGArtistsUK
Semyon Bychkov is managed in association with Enticott Music Management www.enticottmusicmanagement.com. Alexander Vedernikov is managed in association
with Bridge Arts Management www.bridgeartsmanagement.com; Photo credits from Top Left: All VP: Svetlana Tarlova; SD: Julien Benhamou; TD: Thomas Grøndahl;
SB: Michal Sváček; OMW: Felix Broede; AV: Marco Borggreve; BA: Lars Borges; GF: Sim Canetty-Clarke
 INSTRUMENTAL
WINNER Murray Perahia returns triumphantly to Bach
‘One of the delights of this recording is the way everything sounds so inevitable’

T
he Instrumental category is always one
of the most hotly contested, and this
year it was blisteringly fine, not least an
astonishing Goldbergs from Beatrice Rana,
Liszt from 2016’s Artist of the Year Daniil Trifonov
and the second instalment in Cédric Tiberghien’s
Bartók cycle, one that, for me, is up there with
Zoltán Kocsis’s classic recordings.
When I reviewed Murray Perahia’s first-ever
recording of Bach’s French Suites last November
I ended: ‘I’ve only had this recording for five days
but I predict a long and happy future in its company’.
And so it has proved: others have come my way since
(not least Ashkenazy!) but they have just confirmed
my initial reactions, that this is special indeed. Not a
bad start for Perahia’s first recording with DG after
more than four decades with CBS/Sony Classical.
P H O T O G R A P H Y: H I R O Y U K I I T O / G E T T Y I M A G E S
Gigue in the Second Suite or the playfully bustling
Bourrée in the Fifth.
This isn’t Bach that compels by extremes of
tempo or sheer motoric brilliance; instead, each suite
unfolds with an inevitability that comes from long
acquaintance between music and interpreter. It speaks
of a probing musical intelligence too, though to label
Perahia simply as an ‘intellectual’ pianist would be
misguided, for this is playing that conveys real joy.
JS Bach Six French Suites, All of this would be for nought were the production
BWV812-817 values less tip-top. So we should thank not only
Murray Perahia pf Perahia himself, but his longtime producer Andreas
DG M b 479 6565GH2 Neubronner, engineer Martin Nagorni, the
Producer Andreas wonderful Steinway, and that whizz among piano
Neubronner whisperers, Ulrich Gerhartz. Harriet Smith
Engineer Martin Nagorni
148 votes RU N N E R S - U P

What has always characterised Perahia’s Bach is Liszt ‘Transcendental’

a sense that you are encountering Bach the man, Daniil Trifonov pf
rather than Bach the god. It’s as if Perahia is simply DG
acting as conduit between composer and audience, 142 votes
so subsumed is his ego into the music-making itself.
One of the particular delights of this recording is JS Bach
the way everything sounds so inevitable – Perahia’s Goldberg Variations
ornamentation is by no means tame but neither is it Beatrice Rana pf
outlandish; rather, he uses it to underline the mood Warner Classics
of the dance in question, be it the dissonances of the 117 votes

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 41

 OPERA
WINNER Fabio Luisi leads a winning performance of Berg’s opera
‘Gerhaher’s Wozzeck is vulnerable, plaintive, in short all too touchingly human’

W
hen Christian Gerhaher came to the Berg Wozzeck like a young Anja Silja. Brandon Jovanovich
title-role in Berg’s masterly setting of Christian Gerhaher bar struts his strong, incisive tenor as the Drum
Büchner’s play the outcome was always Wozzeck Gun-Brit Barkmin Major, Mauro Peter is a sympathetic Andres, and
going to be a major event. Just as sop Marie Brandon Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke and Lars Woldt
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was the definitive Wozzeck Jovanovich ten Drum Major engage in a macabre comic double-act as the Captain
for his generation, so his successor as the outstanding Chorus of Zurich Opera; and the Doctor.
Lieder singer at the start of the 21st century has Philharmonia Zurich / With precise, clear playing from the Philharmonia
assumed his mantle in this role, too. Fabio Luisi Zürich under conductor Fabio Luisi, everything
Scrupulously sung, acted with a gentle honesty, Stage director is in place for the technical team at Accentus
Gerhaher’s Wozzeck is vulnerable, plaintive, Andreas Homoki Music to deliver a DVD of top-notch quality and
in short all-too-touchingly human. It is exactly Video director Michael Beyer seal the recording’s success. They have, and this
what we expect from him that there should be an Accentus F ◊ ACC20363; Wozzeck makes a deserving winner of Gramophone’s
eloquence to his every utterance. Is it right that F Y ACC10363 2017 Opera Award.
Wozzeck should come across as something of a 144 votes Richard Fairman

 
poet? Yes, because the music adds its own poetry,
and Gerhaher draws from it an expressiveness that RU N N E R S - U P

pierces the heart. Sponsored by Britten The Rape of Lucretia

Homing in on the opera’s expressionist style, Sols; London Philharmonic Orchestra /
the director, Andreas Homoki, has set it in a puppet Leo Hussain
theatre, part commedia dell’arte, part Punch and Judy, Opus Arte
a make-believe world of ritual cruelty. This is not 142 votes
the only way to play Berg’s opera, but the geometric
designs are striking, the colours (that sickly yellow!) Goldmark Die Königen von Saba
are gruesomely vivid, and Gerhaher, above all, is Sols; Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra /
placed in a visual frame of extraordinary clarity. Fabrice Bollon
This is a high-class ensemble all round. CPO
Gun-Brit Barkmin is a fascinating Marie, charismatic 103 votes

P H O T O G R A P H Y: M O N I K A R I T T E R S H A U S /A C C E N T U S M U S I C

42 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk

PROUD SUPPORTERS OF GRAMOPHONE
CLASSICAL MUSIC AWARD 2017

© MONIKA RITTERSHAUS, OPERNHAUS ZÜRICH

Congratulations to the winner of the Opera category:

Zurich Opera’s production of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, released by Accentus, directed by Andreas Homoki,
conducted by Fabio Luisi with Christian Gerhaher in the title-role.

egwu
PRIVATE BANKERS SINCE 1886

BASEL – GENEVA – ZURICH

WWW.GUTZWILLER.CH + 41 61 205 21 00
 Streaming, reinvented
for classical music.
Structured and searchable, with thousands of
recordings and expert-curated playlists.

Listen to the Gramophone

Classical Music Awards
Shortlist 2017 on IDAGIO

Listen now on iOS and idagio.com

 CHORAL
WINNER Masaaki Suzuki’s magnificent Mozart C minor Mass
‘Bach Collegium Japan’s interpretation brims with life-affirming messages’
N
obody knows why Mozart abandoned
the ‘great’ Mass in C minor that he
started by the end of 1782 and seems to
have performed at least in part during a
visit to Salzburg in October 1783. With such a vast
discography of stylish historically aware versions at
our fingertips, one might be forgiven for wondering
what more needs to be said about an incomplete
work. Of course, the truth is that Mozart’s unfettered
genius emanates from every page, and its unalloyed Mozart Mass in C minor,
musical virtues ensure that every world-class period- K427. Exsultate, jubilate,
instrument orchestra and top-notch choir is going to K165
find fresh twists worth hearing. Carolyn Sampson sop Olivia
Masaaki Suzuki uses an edition by Franz Beyer Vermeulen mez Makoto
that discreetly orchestrates movements that Mozart Sakurada ten Christian
did not finish but does not attempt to present Immler bar Bach Collegium
movements for which no authentic music survives. Japan / Masaaki Suzuki
Bach Collegium Japan’s interpretation brims with BIS F Í BIS2171
life-affirming messages in all the right places. The Producer Hans Kipfer
consoling ‘Kyrie eleison’, at the slowest end of the Engineer Jens Braun
range of plausible tempi, melts the heart with every 147 votes
transparently woven strand in the musical fabric.
P H O T O G R A P H Y: K . M I U R A
The proclamatory ‘Gloria’ and buoyant ‘Credo’
hit the right mark unerringly, and there is intensity
and tautness in the double-choir ‘Qui tollis’ (choral Sponsored by
suspensions exploited gloriously and just the right
amount of silence exploited in the dotted-rhythm
gramophone.co.uk
strings). Suzuki’s perspicacity ensures finely drawn
strings, cultivated woodwinds and braying brass
are all given the reins to exploit their instruments’
fullest sonorities when the context merits it. There
is a twinkling sense of fun in the orchestra’s elegant
theatricality during solo movements, most notably
Olivia Vermeulen’s light-footed ‘Laudamus te’ and
Carolyn Sampson’s gorgeous singing in conversation
with concertante flute, oboe and bassoon in ‘Et
incarnatus est’. Bach Collegium Japan’s wondrous
choral singing has flexibility, precision and eloquence
aplenty. Even admirers conversant with these
performers’ distinguished track record might be swept
away by this refreshingly open-hearted, spontaneous
and natural Mass in C minor. David Vickers
RU N N E R S - U P
Haydn The Seasons
Gabrieli Consort & Players /
Paul McCreesh
Signum
132 votes
Cherubini. Plantade Requiems
Le Concert Spirituel /
Hervé Niquet
Alpha
130 votes
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 45
Find
your
piece
Enjoy 2017’s Gramophone
Award-winning recordings

Classical downloads,
FOR LIFE ON AN EPIC SCALE streaming and experiences
at primephonic.com
 RECITAL
WINNER Joyce DiDonato’s timely and passionate plea for peace
‘How often does a singer hit the top of her profession and keep getting better?’

C
oncept, content and standard-setting
performance merge in what becomes
something far more than a Baroque-
aria anthology. Opera seria scenes by
Monteverdi, Purcell, Handel and others are full
of life-and-death matters that Joyce DiDonato
recontextualzes in ways that intimate passions are
re-appropriated into something more global: nations
rise and fall, with individuals caught in the middle.
The holistically conceived package starts with the
booklet, with testimonials from street musicians to
actress Judi Dench discussing how they find inner
peace in tumultuous times. The opening aria, ‘Scenes
of horror, scenes of woe’ from Handel’s Jephtha,
becomes a lens for arias that are studies in turmoil and
repose in highly charged performances by DiDonato
and the extraordinarily agile Il Pomo d’Oro.
get go; expansive, less busy Purcell allow breathing
room but no let up in emotional intensity.
The high standard is exemplified by DiDonato’s
fast coloratura in Jommelli’s ‘Par che di giubilo’.
Gone is the vocal tornado of past Baroque specialists,
replaced by genuine precision that allows the truth
of the musical content to emerge. Her best singing,
though, is soft, in near-vibratoless cadenzas where her
expressive intent comes into even greater focus before
‘In War & Peace’ morphing into the perfect trill. I love her Purcell.
‘Harmony Through Music’ In Dido’s Lament the life ebbs out of her voice, giving
Handel. Jommelli. Leo. the sense that she’s fading into the horizon. DiDonato
Monteverdi. Purcell Arias has no lack of tributes these days, but how often does
Joyce DiDonato mez a singer hit the top of her profession and keep getting
Il Pomo d’Oro / Maxim better? David Patrick Stearns
Emelyanychev hpd
Erato F 9029 59284-6; RU N N E R S - U P

In contrast to Simon Keenlyside’s 2011 Gramophone b 6 9029 59284-1 ‘Serpent & Fire’
Award-winning ‘Songs of War’ that has music written Producer Daniel Zalay Anna Prohaska sop
about specific wartime conditions, the message in Engineer Hugues Deschaux Il Giardino Armonico / Giovanni Antonini
P H O T O G R A P H Y: W A R N E R C L A S S I C S

DiDonato’s album enters through the side door, 114 votes Alpha
since many listeners will know much of this music 113 votes
already in the operas from which it’s drawn. Hearing Mozart Arias
Handel’s ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ and Purcell’s ‘When I Anett Frisch sop Munich Radio
am laid in earth’ as laments to lost political freedom Sponsored by Orchestra / Alessandro De Marchi
greatly intensifies their meaning. Sequencing is Orfeo
masterful. Fast arias are the attention grabbers at the 105 votes

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 47

 SOLO VOCAL
WINNER Beguiling Brahms from Goerne and Eschenbach
‘Goerne’s world is one of unrushed reflection’
T
he Solo Vocal category this year saw
four baritones, one tenor and a mezzo on
the shortlist – a mixture of young artists
(including Gramophone’s own 2016 Young
Artist, Benjamin Appl) and more established names.
The winner, though, is a recording that stands out in
many ways, presenting a singer in Matthias Goerne
who, when it comes to Lieder, ploughs his own
interpretative furrow.
An intense, almost tortured performer on stage, Brahms Lieder und
Goerne seems himself to embody a wanderer seeking Gesänge, Op 32. Vier
answers to questions different from those posed by ernste Gesänge, Op 121.
many other singers in the repertoire. The familiar Lieder nach Gedichten von
mellow, burnished beauty of the voice has now gained Heinrich Heine
a new gnarly intensity. The phrases are broad and Matthias Goerne bar
generous, sustained by big breaths, great lungfuls Christoph Eschenbach pf
snatched as if he’s coming up from the deep; words Harmonia Mundi
are communicated naturally. Goerne’s world is one F HMC90 2174
of unrushed reflection. Producer Martin Sauer
It’s perhaps surprising, then, that this is his first Engineer René Möller
Brahms recital on record, for in many ways the 115 votes
composer – so often melancholy and autumnal – is
a perfect fit. Goerne has also found a perfect partner
in Christoph Eschenbach. Though more often
seen on the conductor’s podium these days than
at the keyboard, Eschenbach provides exceptional
accompaniment, bringing almost indecently beguiling
expansiveness and sensitivity to Brahms’s piano
writing. To bring out so much beauty in this music
48 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
is one thing, but to be able to create such a sense of
interiority – of Innigkeit – without seeming indulgent
is another matter; that, though, is what Goerne and
Eschenbach achieve.
Listeners will have their favourite accounts of the
Vier ernste Gesänge, but Goerne communicates their
dark pensiveness with a rare integrity, the more
gravelly bottom end of the voice melting into hushed
phrases of seraphic beauty higher up. He presents an
unusually compelling vision, too, of the Neun Lieder
und Gesänge Op 32, in which Eschenbach draws a rich
mixture of the poetic and the descriptive from the
piano. The disc’s central diptych of ‘Sonnenabend’
and ‘Mondschein’ from Op 85, meanwhile, surely
represents some of the most beguiling Lieder
performance heard on record in recent years.
A worthy, distinctive winner. Hugo Shirley
RU N N E R S - U P
Krenek Reisebuch aus den
österreichischen Alpen
Florian Boesch bar Roger Vignoles pf
Hyperion
P H O T O G R A P H Y: S I LV I A L E L L I
92 votes
‘Heimat’
Benjamin Appl bar
James Baillieu pf
Sony Classical
83 votes
gramophone.co.uk
 PHOTO : © MARCO BORGGREVE

PHOTO: © ELMER DE HAAS

ALPHA 674 1CD

ALPHA 293 1CD

IL GIARDINO ARMONICO BARBARA HANNIGAN

GIOVANNI ANTONINI
SOPRANO AND CONDUCTOR

LUDWIG ORCHESTRA
Giovanni Antonini continues his recording cycle
of the complete Haydn Symphonies, as part of Whether singing, conducting, dancing or acting,
the Haydn 2032 project. Here he celebrates the the Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan is an
theatrical nature of Haydn’s orchestral works, endless source of fascination. Alpha Classics is
with Symphonies Nos. 12, 70 and 60 proud to enter her world and present her very
Il Distratto, alongside a great comic scene by first album as both singer and conductor.
Cimarosa, Il maestro di cappella. BERG LULU SUITE
GERSHWIN GIRL CRAZY SUITE
ARRANGED BY BILL ELLIOTT
BERIO SEQUENZA III FOR VOICE

INCLUDES DVD «MUSIC IS MUSIC»

ALSO AVAILABLE A FILM BY MATHIEU AMALRIC
ON DELUXE VINYL: 2LP + 1CD

WWW.OUTHERE-MUSIC.COM THE NEW WAY TO DISCOVER HIGH QUALITY CLASSICAL MUSIC

DISTRIBUTED IN THE UK BY RSK ENTERTAINMENT & IN THE USA BY NAXOS USA. AND TO DOWNLOAD ON APP STORE & GOOGLE PLAY WWW.ALPHAPLAYAPP.COM
www.neos-music.com NEOS
György Ligeti
Lontano

Tristan Murail
Le Désenchantement
du Monde

George Benjamin
Palimpsests

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
 EEHFFjEk
George Benjamin, conductor

Benjamin leads a superlative performance, one surprisingly visceral for a

piece about distance. [...] This is some of Benjamin‘s most forthright writing,
and it benefits from the larger scale and broader palette this orchestra
offers … (David Allen, Gramophone November 2016)

Sonic Migrations
Music of Laurie Altman
Laurie Altman / Randy Bauer / Clipper Erickson / Kuang-Hao Huang, piano
Patrice Michaels, soprano · Matthias Mueller, clarinet & SABRe
Andrew Rathbun, saxophone · John Bruce Yeh, clarinet
Cavatina Duo · Manhattan String Quartet

Laurie Altman’s musical compositions on Sonic Migrations represent, in some way, a passage:
A passage through places (globally), history and events, words, sonic environments,
 EEJEHgEIjF5k

people’s lives and their mutual emotions. The pieces are the by-product of a time span of
some 25 years, encompassing diverse ensembles and sonic frameworks, far-flung influences,
textures, and feelings.

Everyone who likes compositions with jazzy influences, but not just simple crossover, is in
good hands with Laurie Altman. (Dirk Wieschollek, Fono Forum 06/2017)

Convergence Divergence
Music of Laurie Altman Music of Laurie Altman,
Erich Korngold and
Laurie Altman and
Clipper Erickson, piano
Arnold Schönberg
Patrice Michaels, soprano Plattform K+K Vienna
 EEGEIjEk

 FEGNJjEk

Andrew Rathbun, saxophones

Helen Rathbun, flute The composer’s art is one of
personal habitation and felt
The compositions are deeply experience. Rhythmic, warm,
varied: separated by time, place, direct and nuanced, always
emotion, event and ‘glimpse’. An intense and alive. A musical
Antarctic journey yields a spiritual commentary upon cold, emptiness and work lives and grows inside of its creator. Day or night, on a train or tram,
unimaginable beauty, while a trip to a San Francisco Art Museum becomes along wooded pathways and mountainous perches, the work evolves to find,
a bonding of artistic color and vision with my eyes and then into my heart. hopefully, a place vibrantly, in the world.
(Laurie Altman)
 CONTEMPORARY
WINNER Three modern masters in terrific performances
‘Authority seeps from every pore of the performance’

U
nlike David Allen, who reviewed
this recording on its release, I find
Tristan Murail’s 30-minute ‘concerto
symphonique’ Le désenchantement du monde
to be the main event here – slightly to my surprise,
I admit, because a number of his previous spectral
pieces have always struck me as rather aimless.
The title here means demystification rather than
disenchantment, in the sense coined by sociologist/
economist Max Weber with some ambivalence to
denote the upsurge in rationalisation in modern
society. Quite how that maps onto the music,
however, the composer declines to explain. In fact
there’s a good deal of mystery, enchantment even,
in the writing. It may not be as purely spectral as
before in its technology, but it gently unfolds the
sonic possibilities of the material into an engrossing
and musical experience. Just occasionally there are
reminders of Murail’s tutelage under Messiaen,
G Benjamin Palimpsests
Ligeti Lontano Murail
Le désenchantement du
mondea
a
Pierre-Laurent Aimard pf
Bavarian Radio
Symphony Orchestra /
Sir George Benjamin
Neos F NEOS11422
Producer Wolfgang Schreiner
stumble into those pitfalls!). Pierre-Laurent Aimard
caresses and shapes the solo piano writing as a kind
of constantly self-renewing accompanied cadenza.
Murail’s fellow Messiaen-alumnus George
Benjamin directs the 2012 world premiere
performance with a sure hand. I also agree with
David Allen that his account of Ligeti’s now-classic
Lontano is ‘surprisingly visceral’, though I confess to
a preference for softer edges. With Benjamin’s own
Palimpsests (1998-2002), the rawness is all gain. It’s
almost as if Benjamin – always a fastidious purveyor
of textures – has here paid a tribute to Birtwistle, and
the perspectives and collisions he fashions are, as with
Murail’s, utterly absorbing. Authority seeps from
every pore of the performance, and from what was a
strong shortlist for this year’s Contemporary award,
this was a deserved winner. David Fanning
RU N N E R S - U P

though the musical processes suggest, to me at least, Engineer Peter Urban Adès Orchestral works
analogies with natural phenomena such as weather 166 votes London Symphony Orchestra /
P H O T O G R A P H Y: A S T R I D A C K E R M A N N

systems or tides, rather than anything spiritual (or Thomas Adès

speculative-intellectual, for that matter). They do LSO Live
so not so much through onomatopoeia as by virtue 130 votes
of their sense of organic progression. Variety of Dusapin. Mantovani. Rihm
Sponsored by
pacing and event is brilliantly sustained, so that Works for violin and orchestra
the invention never goes stale in slow passages and Renaud Capuçon vn Various orchestras
never degenerates into mere fidgeting in faster ones Erato
(so tempting to name recent piano concertos that 130 votes

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 51

 Listen to the winners and
more Gramophone exclusive
playlists on Qobuz

Go to: www.qobuz.com/roy2017
Proud sponsor of the Gramophone Awards Recording of the Year
brings you the 2017 winning albums
in spectacular CD quality!

Not subscribed yet?

Try the sound

of Qobuz
FOR FREE!
1 month Free Streaming
in CD quality

Go to: www.qobuz.com/roy2017
RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Charlotte Gardner cherishes the remaking of a classic, as Steven Isserlis returns
to Haydn’s cello concertos with glorious and uplifting results
Haydn . CPE Bach .
Boccherini . Mozart
CPE Bach Cello Concerto, Wq172 H439
Boccherini Cello Concerto, G480 – Adagio
Haydn Cello Concertos – No 1; No 2
Mozart La finta giardiniera – Geme la tortorella
(arr Isserlis)
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen /
Steven Isserlis vc
Hyperion F CDA68162 (78’ • DDD)
It’s a comparatively rare event for
an artist to be afforded the luxury of
recording a major work for a second time.
Or indeed for them to want to. So it’s
always interesting when this does happen,
especially if their first recording holds up
well to the test of time. That’s certainly
the case in this particular instance, as
many readers will still be enjoying the
elegant readings of Haydn’s two cello
concertos that Steven Isserlis made in
1998 with Sir Roger Norrington and
the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
So you might wonder why Isserlis
has revisited these works almost
20 years on. More importantly, have
his interpretations changed all that
much? After all, there’s so little difference
between Rostropovich’s 1964
and 1975 recordings of the First
Concerto (which I believe is the
only other instance of a cellist
re-recording either of the
Haydns) that you’re slightly left
wondering why he revisited it.
Isserlis doesn’t discuss
his reasons in his cheerfully
irreverent and hugely informative
booklet note, but in truth the
moment you press play you’re
not really going to care anyway,
because this is absolutely
wonderful stuff. As for whether
the interpretations have changed,
the answer is a gloriously two- The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen offer warmly responsive support
54 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
‘Isserlis’s combination of
singing legato and short,
period-aware attack are
still evident, but with their
beauty heightened’
pronged ‘yes and no’, because these
interpretations sing of an artist still
thoroughly in tune with his previous
thoughts, but who is keen to develop those
ideas further. He’s been supported every
step of his way in this pursuit by the warmly by the odd bit of deliciously impish,
responsive Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie rhythmic skittishness.
Bremen, and indeed by the expertly judged
subtle glow of the sound engineering.
The tempos are a case in point. Back
in 1998 these were a story of breakneck
speeds being eschewed, while at the same
time giving the distinct impression in the
fast movements of heightened drama and
momentum. Fast-forward to 2017 and that
original approach has generally been
cleaved to; but while the differences in
duration are negligible, they all involve
the addition rather than the subtraction
of seconds. The C major’s third movement
is a particularly golden example because
here, despite the addition of 12 seconds to
the previous recording’s still comparatively
unhurried 7'04", what you hear is an
exciting lift in virtuosity and velocity –
proof that the perception of speed and
acceleration is about far more than mere
metronome markings.
The theme continues with the tone,
articulation and rhythmic articulation.
Isserlis’s former combination of singing
legato and short, period-aware attack are
still evident, but with their beauty if
anything heightened, and some of the
faster figures are now further coloured
What has taken a decidedly upwards
whoosh is the sheer confidence and
unabashed personality on show,
and this is typified by the fresh
cadenzas Isserlis has written
to supplant his earlier ones;
although these are every bit as
Haydnesque as before, they also
take a few more ear-popping
risks. Most striking of all is
the C major Concerto first
movement’s cadenza, which
features an out-of-the-blue
two-octave swoop from E4 up
to the extreme heights of E6.
It’s more flamboyant than
pretty, but one can’t help
but feel it would have drawn
a smile from fun-loving Haydn.
gramophone.co.uk
 RECORDING OF THE MONTH

Steven Isserlis directs the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie from the cello in superb new accounts of Haydn’s cello concertos

Furthermore, Isserlis then provides a
beautiful complement with the following
central movement’s cadenza: a small but
perfectly formed creation that glides in
seductively by way of double-stopped
strokes, and then finishes by gently
mirroring that first-movement rocket-
spring with a tender single-octave leap.
Isserlis’s celebration of the cello’s
top register truly flowers in the D major
Concerto, possibly in recognition of the
fact that Haydn probably wrote this work
for the Esterházy orchestra’s high-register-
loving cello virtuoso Antonín Kraft.
P H O T O G R A P H Y: O L I V E R R E E T Z , S AT O S H I A O YA G I
some of Haydn’s colleagues. Two of with them. Isserlis’s 1998 recording
these are of the bonbon-proportioned remains classy stuff, but this has superbly
(and tasting) variety: the Adagio from trumped it.
Boccherini’s G major Concerto, and Selected comparison:
Isserlis’s own idiomatic and delightful Isserlis, COE, Norrington (8/98R) (RCA) 88697 70446-2
solo arrangement of Mozart’s aria
‘Geme la tortorella’ from La finta KEY TO SYMBOLS
giardiniera. However, the meatiest and
F £10 and over D Download only
most revelatory highlight of the three is
M £7.76 to £9.99 3 Reissue
CPE Bach’s Cello Concerto in A major;
B £6.25 to £7.75 1 Historic
revelatory because we’ve largely been
S £6.24 and below T Text(s) included
conditioned to hearing this composer’s
(price per disc) t translation(s)
music presented as muscular, angular
b Compact disc included
and wild. Yet, while Isserlis does

(number of discs S Synopsis included

Isserlis’s first-movement cadenza in recognise the music’s volatility, his
in set) s subtitles included
particular contains lofty lines of a delivery emphasises a Haydnesque
Í SACD (Super nla no longer available
piercing, ringing sweetness. It’s not all refinement and elegance that throw an
Audio CD) aas all available
sunny sweetness by any means; one of the entirely new perspective on the concerto.
◊ DVD Video separately
recording’s most heart-stopping moments In fact the recording is worth your money
Y Blu-ray oas only available
comes in the first movement where, at for the Bach alone.
6 LP separately
8'27", the cloudless beauty is momentarily Of course, the main selling point is
shattered by a pair of searing-toned, the two Haydn concertos, and this album Editor’s Choice
upwards gasps of pain. is worth acquiring whether you’re yet to Martin Cullingford’s pick of the
For the disc’s additional offerings, Isserlis own a recording of these masterpieces finest recordings reviewed in
has looked to contemporaneous works by or your collection is already bulging this issue

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 55

Orchestral
Peter Quantrill admires Isabelle
Faust’s distinctive Mendelssohn:
‘Reserving portamento and vibrato for the second
theme, she brings out the hunted vulnerability
of the concerto’s opening’ REVIEW ON PAGE 61
Beethoven
Complete Symphonies
Simona Šaturová sop Mihoko Fujimura contr
Christian Elsner ten Christian Gerhaher bar
MDR Radio Choir; Leipzig Gewandhaus
Choirs and Orchestra / Herbert Blomstedt
Accentus M e ACC80322 (5h 49’ • DDD)
Recorded live, May 2014 – March 2017
Beethoven ◊Y
Triple Concerto, Op 56a. Symphony No 5, Op 67
Isabelle Faust vn Jean-Guihen Queyras vc
Martin Helmchen pf Leipzig Gewandhaus
Orchestra / Herbert Blomstedt
Video director Ute Feudel
Accentus F ◊ ACC20411; F Y ACC10411
(78’ • NTSC • 16:9 • 1080i • DTS-HD MA,
DD5.1 & PCM stereo • 0)
Recorded live, January 12 & 13, 2017
Beethoven ◊Y
Symphonies – No 6, ‘Pastoral’, Op 68a;
No 7, Op 92b
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra /
Herbert Blomstedt
Video director Ute Feudel
Accentus F ◊ ACC20413; F Y ACC10413
(92’ • NTSC • 16:9 • 1080i • DTS-HD MA,
DD5.1 & PCM stereo • 0)
Recorded live, bMay 7, 2015; aMay 19, 2016
When
imported
to the UK
late in 1981,
Herbert
Blomstedt’s
first
Beethoven cycle gained further appeal
through the inclusion of miniature scores
for each symphony. Did that make the set a
snip at £37.50? It’s near enough a hundred
pounds in today’s money, and in any case
on its many subsequent reissues, the cycle
was welcomed for the kind of plain-spoken,
56 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Edward Seckerson on Semyon
Bychkov’s Tchaikovsky Manfred:
‘The Czech Philharmonic woodwinds are
super-balletic, engagingly decamping us to
the world of Nutcracker’ REVIEW ON PAGE 68
common-sense qualities that would
render score-reading superfluous for
some purchasers.
In a tantalising interview with Philip
Clark (7/17), the conductor makes clear
that, 60 years after Igor Markevitch had
hammered the principle home, the score is
still his bible. But then any other conductor
worth the job-title would say the same,
and praise of Blomstedt (and a select few
European colleagues of his generation)
over the years – honest, straightforward,
presenting the music as it really is (an
especially pernicious illusion) – has given
rise to a well-meaning but misguided
underestimation of the tens of decisions he
and his kind must make, in advance and on
the spot, when faced with any given phrase
of this music.
Such decisions now take into serious
account the wave of period-performance
practice. Noticeably swifter than before,
Blomstedt’s chosen tempos are still
5-10 per cent slower than the composer’s
metronome marks. It is the proportions
between them that matter. That first cycle
employed the Dresden Staatskapelle at its
most soft-grained. Now, an hour’s train-
ride away, he stands in charge of the
Leipzig Gewandhaus. Always a tighter-
grained ensemble, the orchestra was driven
to further heights of muscular agility by
Riccardo Chailly in a Decca studio cycle
(A/11) of restless and often impatient
character. Conducting the symphonies
in concert, Chailly allowed himself
considerably greater license to roam,
and to the benefit of everyone concerned.
Under Blomstedt, however, the musicians
sound at ease yet always on their mettle.
Twenty seconds, no more, separate the
finales of the Fourth, but what a difference
they make. What was gabbled and jittery
under Chailly’s direction now leaps and
bounds and sings. If it’s Beethoven the
raging tyro you’re after, look elsewhere.
Blomstedt has gauged the weight of each
climax in the First – as much as is necessary
and no more – so that the symphony stands
poised on the threshold between Classical
and Romantic expression. Indeed, such
retrospective categorisations rather fade to
irrelevance – as, in the moment of listening,
do hankerings after flicks of impudence in
Beethoven the young Turk (this is a cycle
full of smiles but no belly-laughs). The
Second is occasionally prone to a species
of constrained literalism encountered again
in a stiff transition from Adagio to Allegro
in the Fourth’s opening movement
(‘conducting by numbers’, as Richard
Osborne observed in portions of the
conductor’s Bruckner cycle in Leipzig –
Querstand, 11/13), but I relished the
unusual proximity of expressive intent
between the Mozartian finale of the
Second and the Eroica’s lithe exposition,
which are so often separated by a gulf of
imagined history.
Where possible – for the Fifth,
Sixth, Seventh and Ninth – these are
performances to be watched, not least
for the audio mix, which I find marginally
more transparent than on the CD
mastering. There is the occasional frown
and raised eyebrow from Blomstedt as he
comes again to a private understanding
with the music, not in gestures of
censure. More often he is wreathed in
beatific smiles, and his musicians appear
uncommonly happy with their lot. The
Pastoral breathes contentment, with a
spring in the step of the first movement
that admits all the necessary space for
anticipation, excitement and the passing
joy of moments such as the chuckling
clarinet and bassoon figures. The
timpanist’s Storm intervention makes
hardly less terrible or striking an impact
than on the most athletic or idiosyncratic
readings (by, say, Carlos Kleiber or
Mikhail Pletnev), yet the symphony is
crowned by a glow of horns in the coda
to rival Furtwängler’s valedictory account
from 1954. In the Andante con moto of a
particularly cogent Fifth, the pianistic
nature of Beethoven’s inspiration comes
over strongly, with the Leipzig strings
pressing into the rising-falling theme
of scale-fragments and murmuring
left-hand accompaniment as if into
the keybed of a Broadwood.
gramophone.co.uk

Smiles but no belly-laughs: Herbert Blomstedt and his Leipzig players are at ease in their survey of the complete Beethoven symphonies
The virtues of the Ninth have been
rehearsed here before (3/17); applause
is excised from the CD version as it is
throughout the set. The concert-film
of the Fifth is preceded by a Triple
Concerto in which Blomstedt thins out
the ensemble to offer lively support to his
soloists; in turn, Isabelle Faust sweetens her
tone in graceful complement to the Leipzig
sound. Peter Quantrill
Beethoven
Violin Concerto, Op 61. Romances – No 1, Op 40;
No 2, Op 50. Triple Concerto, Op 56a
Thomas Albertus Irnberger vn
a
David Geringas vc aMichael Korstick pf
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / James Judd
Gramola M b Í 99101 (91’ • DDD/DSD)
P H O T O G R A P H Y: G E R T M O T H E S /A C C E N T U S M U S I C
Beethoven’s Violin
Concerto is a festive
work for the
Christmas season,
argues Thomas Albertus Irnberger in an
extensive booklet note. As evidence, he
cites the work’s premiere on December 23,
1806, its use of trumpets and timpani in D
(echoing the opening chorus of Bach’s
Christmas Oratorio) and a thematic
gramophone.co.uk
reference to the traditional carol ‘O Freude
über Freude’. On paper, Irnberger’s case
is compelling; in performance, I’m not
convinced. The first movement – played at
a relatively urgent tempo – conveys bright-
eyed expectation rather than the exultancy
one associates with the proclamation of
Jesus’s birth. Indeed, I can imagine a
stronger case being made for the movement
as a kind of expansive Pastoral Symphony.
Irnberger imagines the Larghetto
as a processional to view the Nativity –
a musical Adoration of the Magi, perhaps.
It moves with a rapt solemnity that’s quite
affecting, while the soloist’s rhythmically
alert playing prevents the precariously slow
tempo from sagging. His glistening tone
has a slightly nasal quality (the product
of a sparing use of vibrato, I believe)
that’s generally pleasing, though I’m less
enamoured of his distracting tendency to
end phrases abruptly, as if his bow simply
stopped moving (listen at 9'25", for
example). The finale is more buoyant than
lyrical, fitting with Irnberger’s vision of it
as a festival of shepherds’ celebratory horn
calls. Even if none of this really evokes a
Christmas spirit, the effect is delightful.
The violinist has a distinct take on the
Triple Concerto as well, describing it as
a compendium of dance forms – marches,
ORCHESTRAL REVIEWS
minutes and polonaises – that were popular
with the Viennese aristocracy in the first
years of the 19th century. He and his
colleagues David Geringas and Michael
Korstick mitigate the music’s tendency
towards muscularity with playing that’s
elegant and well characterised. I was
especially charmed by the hauteur of the
passage beginning at 5'03" in the finale.
Sadly, Irnberger’s prosaic readings of the two
Romances are considerably less endearing.
James Judd has the orchestra support
Irnberger’s ideas with joyful conviction, and
the RPO’s contribution is stellar throughout.
If only the engineers had not placed us quite
so close to the solo instruments. The balance
sounds artificial, is not always flattering to
the violinist’s tone and sacrifices a good
deal of orchestral detail. Andrew Farach-Colton
Ben-Haim
Symphony No 2. Concerto grosso
NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra / Israel Yinon
CPO F CPO777 677-2 (72’ • DDD)
Once championed by
the likes of Stokowski
and Bernstein, Paul
Ben-Haim’s music is
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 57
ORCHESTRAL REVIEWS
little heard these days, making this
recording a welcome addition to the
catalogue. Born Paul Frankenburger in
Munich in 1897, he initially worked as an
assistant conductor at the Bavarian State
Opera from 1920 to 1924 under Walter
and Knappertsbusch, and then as
Kapellmeister of the Augsburg Opera from
1924 to 1931, after which he dedicated his
career to teaching and composition.
The growing anti-Semitism of the time
precipitated a relocation to Palestine in
1933 and he later became an important
figure in the Israeli classical music scene.
Dating from 1931, the three-movement
Concerto grosso was Ben-Haim’s first
large-scale orchestral composition. Despite
the title and the presence of fugal sections
in the outer movements, this is very much
a piece in the late-Romantic tradition.
Much of the writing has a warmth that
evokes American composers of the era such
as Barber and Harris, although the slow
second movement is a pensive affair with
hints of Debussy. The final movement is a
passacaglia with an apotheosis based on the
opening theme of the first movement.
By the time the Second Symphony was
completed in 1945, Ben-Haim had gained
exposure to the traditional Jewish music
of the Middle East, whose influence can
be heard in the score, notably the Persian
dance that forms the main theme of the
Scherzo. The trauma of the events of the
Second World War, including the loss of
Ben-Haim’s sister in the Holocaust, are
reflected in the anguished opening of the
Andante affettuoso, while elsewhere the
music has a rhythmic buoyancy and
litheness reminiscent of Copland. As with
the Concerto grosso, the finale reaches an
apotheosis based on the opening theme
of the work.
The late Israel Yinon leads the
NDR Radiophilharmonie in committed
performances of these intriguing works,
and the CPO recording is clear and well
balanced, albeit a little hard-edged in
louder passages. Christian Hoskins
Casella
Symphony No 2, Op 12. La donna serpente:
Symphonic Fragments, Op 50 – Suite No 1
Münster Symphony Orchestra / Fabrizio Ventura
Ars Produktion F Í ARS38 232 (63’ • DDD/DSD)
Recorded live at Theater Münster,
October 25, 26 & 30, 2016
Alfredo Casella (1883-
1947) composed his
Second Symphony
between 1908 and
58 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
1910 in Paris, where, as a 13-year-old, he
had enrolled at the Conservatoire (his
classmates included Enescu, to whom the
work bears a dedication). With a duration
in excess of 50 minutes, it’s a turbulent,
lusciously opulent outpouring in four
movements, the last of which culminates
in a grandiloquent epilogue. Stylistic nods
come thick and fast – Wagner, Strauss,
Mahler, Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin,
Respighi and Pizzetti – and its sprawling
design unquestionably cries out for a firm
hand on the structural tiller. Vividly
captured on the wing at live concerts from
October 2016, Fabrizio Ventura and his
hard-working Münster band shine in the
first two movements; but from the central
Adagio onwards it’s Gianandrea Noseda
and the BBC Philharmonic (Chandos,
8/10) who prove more successful at
keeping tensions on the boil. Chandos’s
splendiferously realistic sound is the icing
on a very rich cake.
Noseda’s coupling – a sparkling account
of the 1926 divertimento for piano and
small orchestra, Scarlattiana, with Martin
Roscoe on conspicuously deft form – is
rather more generous than Ventura’s,
namely a miniature orchestral suite from
Casella’s opera La donna serpente (premiered
in March 1932 and based on the fable by
Carlo Gozzi). There’s a third option
featuring Francesco La Vecchia and the
Rome SO (Naxos, A/10), who pair the
symphony with the remarkable and
challenging A notte alta from 1917-21
(one of Casella’s most personal utterances).
Sun Hee You gives a commendable reading
of the piano part but I would not turn
to La Vecchia’s performance of the main
work in preference to either Noseda’s
or Ventura’s.
Inquisitive souls and SACD aficionados
alike who enjoy strolling off the beaten
track may care to hunt down this
enterprising newcomer for themselves.
Andrew Achenbach
Chisholm
Violin Concertoa. Dance Suiteb.
From the True Edge of the Great World
a b
Matthew Trusler vn Danny Driver pf BBC Scottish
Symphony Orchestra / Martyn Brabbins
Hyperion F CDA68208 (63’ • DDD)
Three cheers for this
enterprising successor
to Hyperion’s superb
coupling (6/12)
devoted to the two piano concertos by
the Scottish progressive Erik Chisholm
(1904-65). Danny Driver was the dashing
soloist on that earlier disc and proves just
as stylish and fearlessly secure a proponent
of the 1932 Dance Suite, an exuberantly
inventive and urgently communicative
23-minute work for orchestra and piano
in four movements, the second of which
(labelled ‘Pìobaireachd’ or ‘pipe music’)
comprises a darkly alluring theme and
five variations that takes its cue from the
form known as ùrlar in the Highland
bagpipe tradition.
Even more impressive is the 1950 Violin
Concerto, which, like the Second Piano
Concerto before it, draws upon the
Hindustani raga for its inspiration – in this
instance, the Rag Vasantee and Rag Sohani
associated with the coming of spring and
the night respectively. (During the war
years Chisholm served in India and
Singapore, founding a symphony orchestra
in the latter. He also formed a strong
friendship with fellow composer/pianist
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji.) Premiered
by Szymon Goldberg and lasting just
under half an hour, the concerto is a four-
movement work of cogent sweep, intrepid
incident and pungent character that
effortlessly kindles the imagination and
continues to lure me back for further
hearings (lovers of, say, the Szymanowski,
Bartók, Frankel or Gerhard concertos
should definitely investigate).
The excellent Matthew Trusler
makes light of the solo part’s technical
hurdles, while Martyn Brabbins and a
fired-up BBC Scottish SO give of their
considerable best both here and in the
1944 orchestrations of three of that same
year’s set of 24 piano preludes (to which
Chisholm gave the title From the True Edge
of the Great World); No 1 (‘Ossianic lay’)
makes an especially fetching centrepiece,
its invention as songfully poignant as it is
hauntingly evocative (listen out for some
wonderfully dusky writing for solo viola).
Benefiting from impeccable production
values throughout, this absorbing release
deserves a hearty welcome. Andrew Achenbach
Haglund
Flaminis Auraa. Il regno degli spiritib. Sollievo
(dopo la tempesta)c. Serenata per Diotimad
b
Julia Kretz-Larsson vn aErnst Simon Glaser vc
bc
ZilliacusPerssonRaitinen; aGothenburg
Symphony Orchestra / David Afkham; dMalmö
Symphony Orchestra / Joachim Gustafsson
BIS F Í BIS2025 (84’ • DDD/DSD)
One tangible
observation from the
booklet note is that
Tommie Haglund’s
gramophone.co.uk

Flaminis Aura (2001/04) takes its
structural inspiration from the Adagio of
Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony. Truly this
music sounds like Bruckner from a faraway
planet, transitioning constantly back in
the direction of its most recent thought
before moving to new paragraphs that
don’t tread on their predecessors’ toes.
A Baltic spirituality is keenly felt in this
piece, whose title refers to the moments
immediately before a religious revelation.
Afkham and the Gothenburg Symphony
Orchestra manage the subtle and not-so-
subtle shifting of the music’s huge tectonic
plates impressively and Ernst Simon
Glaser’s cello incantation drifts powerfully
in and out of discourse with them until
both disappear into electronic noises
courtesy of NASA (far more successful
than it sounds).
The structures aren’t so well defined
or indeed surprising in Serenata per
Diotima (2014/15), a string piece with
occasional solo violin which doesn’t strive
so hard. This is unmistakably music from
the north; but here the Baltic accent can
feel sprinkled like seasoning rather than
deeply felt (as in Flaminis), while to my
ears the phrase shapes err towards the
awkward and contrived.
The chamber works that separate
the orchestral pieces can each be
chronologically aligned with their bigger
companions. Il regno degli spiriti (2001) is
a quartet with the same open-ended feel
of Flaminis but the language is altogether
more Central European – a strained,
dense polyphonic search for truth
that is performed by Zilliacus and her
companions with muscle and pain. Sorry
to say that Haglund in 2000s vintage
impresses rather more than his 2010s
one. The trio Sollievo (2013) is an evocative
piece that once more tells of a blue heart
under northern skies and feels deeply
personal in its miniature outbursts. But
the musical language is altogether less bold
primephonic.com
for life on an epic scale
classical downloads & streaming
gramophone.co.uk
and striking than that of Flaminis, however
rich and heartfelt the performance.
Andrew Mellor
D Jones
Symphonies – No 1a; No 10b
BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra /
Bryden Thomson
Lyrita F SRCD358 (70’ • ADD)
BBC broadcast performances, aJanuary 12,
b
March 16, 1990
D Jones
Symphonies – No 2a; No 11, ‘in memoriam
George Froom Tyler’b
BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra /
Bryden Thomson
Lyrita F SRCD364 (62’ • ADD)
BBC broadcast performances, aJanuary 19,
b
March 30, 1990
In a Gramophone interview (‘Exploring
the Frontiers’, 2/87), Bryden Thomson
said of Daniel Jones: ‘He knows what he
wants, he knows what he’s writing, and he
knows when it isn’t right. You can’t say
that about a lot of composers these days.’
In early 1990 Thomson conducted the
then BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra
(now the BBC National Orchestra
of Wales) in a studio cycle of Jones’s
12 numbered symphonies (the
unnumbered 1992 Symphony ‘in
memoriam John Fussell’ having not
yet been composed) and these four
recordings derive from that cycle, whereas
Lyrita’s earlier Jones issues – even of
Symphonies Nos 8 and 9, conducted by
Thomson – are reissues from 1970s LPs
by Pye, HMV and the short-lived
BBC Artium label.
Classical music
arranged by you
Now streaming in high definition
ORCHESTRAL REVIEWS
Precisely when Jones first conceived the
idea of composing a cycle of 12 symphonies
each based on a different note of the
chromatic scale as tonal centre is unclear,
but it was probably not during the writing
of the First (1944-47), originally designated
‘in E minor’. At 50 minutes long, it is
Jones’s largest symphony, in which the
fledgling symphonist revealed his mastery
and understanding of the medium for the
first time. His view of the symphony
evolved radically, with goal-driven forms
and growing concision – neither Nos 10
(1981-82) nor 11 (1983) exceed 20 minutes.
There are few obvious resonances in the
musical language, though I have always
thought the structures of the First and
43-minute-long Second (1950, centred
around A, neither major nor minor)
nodded towards Russian models. With
its increased use of percussion, No 2 is
brighter in tone than its predecessor, with
a recurring allusion to Vaughan Williams’s
F minor Symphony in the finale. Both
the Tenth and Eleventh Symphonies
follow dramatic-tragic courses, the latter
a memorial to his friend George Froom
Tyler, erstwhile chairman of the
Swansea Festival.
The reception of Jones’s music has
usually been respectful rather than
enthusiastic, even in these august pages,
so let me raise the bar somewhat. These
are strong and important works that repay
familiarity. The performances by the
BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra and
Thomson are finely realised, alive to their
rhythmic intricacies and growing
orchestrational confidence. Lyrita’s
remastering provides depth and clarity
to the studio-bound sound. As with the
symphonies of Havergal Brian, a cycle
of which is also near completion, what is
needed next is for these symphonies to be
taken up in both concert hall and studio.
How about it, Messrs Brabbins, Walker,
Woods? Guy Rickards
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 59
 E XCITING NEW RELEASES VISIT www.EloquenceClassics.com

Decca 482 6266

Decca 482 5650 (2CD)

Decca 482 4759 (2CD)

Decca 482 7353 (3CD)

RACHMANINOV: Preludes CONCERTGEBOUW LOLLIPOPS HANDEL: Arias 2(9,3(5́,93
Moura Lympany Doráti; Haitink; Van Kempen; Van Beinum Greevy; Sutherland; Robinson The Philips Recordings
The first ever recording (1941–42) of Hidden gems from the Concertgebouw Rare Decca recital recordings An erl’s complete Philips recordings,
the complete Rachmaninov Preludes. repertoire recorded in leftover time at sessions. of Handel arias. with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
Decca 482 8093

Decca 482 5511

Decca 482 7730 (2CD)

Decca 482 7518

MELBA’S FAREWELL RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade AUBER: Orchestral and Theatre works EVENING AT THE
Dame Nellie Melba BORODIN: Polovtsian Dances Richard Bonynge CHICAGO LYRIC OPERA
Dame Nellie Melba’s famous Eduard van Beinum A collection of Auber orchestral and vocal Sir Georg Solti
Farewell from Covent Garden and First on Decca CD – the Philips recordings chosen by Bonynge himself. The first complete release of this
other rare recordings. Scheherazade and early Decca Borodin. historic 1956 concert.

SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER w w w. E loq u en c eC las s ics.co m

Decca 482 7177 (2CD)

DECCA 482 4621

DG 482 5864 (4CD)

DECCA 482 5379 (4CD)

MAHLER: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 KARL MÜNCHINGER FRENCH ARIAS & DUETS TELEMANN: Musique de Table
Sir Georg Solti The Schubert Recordings Irma Kolassi • Raoul Jobim August Wenzinger
Solti’s first recordings of these Münchinger’s Schubert symphonies, Irma Kolassi and Raoul Jobim in a selection The historic DG recording (1964–65),
symphonies – with the LSO Rosamunde and several shorter of scenes from La damnation de Faust, newly remastered and with extensive
(also available: No.9, with pieces recorded for Decca and issued Roméo et Juliette and Werther. booklet notes by scholar Nick Morgan.
the LSO: 482 7163). collectively on CD for the first time. First release on Decca CD. First international release on DG CD.
DECCA 482 5659 (2CD)

DECCA 482 4637 (4CD)

DG 482 1546 (3CD)

DECCA 482 4969 (2CD)

DORÁTI IN HOLLAND
Rare early Antal Doráti recordings
on Philips receiving their first official
CD release, with some appearing
in stereo for the first time.
IRMA KOLASSI The Decca Recitals ALICIA DE LARROCHA BRAHMS: The Symphonies
Kolassi’s ten Decca recitals ranging from The First Recordings Rafael Kubelík
Arie antiche through Chausson and All of Larrocha’s American Decca recordings, Kubelík’s early Decca stereo recordings
Massenet, to Spanish and Greek folk beautifully remastered for this release and of the Brahms Symphonies with the
songs. On Decca CD for the first time. issued collectively for the first time. Vienna Philharmonic.

/AustralianEloquence www.EloquenceClassics.com www.ProperMusic.com


G Lloyd
Symphonies – No 6a; No 7, ‘Proserpine’b
BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra /
Edward Downes
Lyrita Itter Broadcast Collection F REAM1135
(73’ • ADD). BBC broadcast performances,
b
September 5, 1979; aDecember 31, 1980
Lyrita released the
first discs of George
Lloyd’s symphonies on
disc back in the early
1980s, with LPs of the Fourth, Fifth and
Eighth (reissued on CD in 2007). The
conductor, Edward Downes, undertook
their first performances as well as those of
the Sixth, Seventh and Tenth Symphonies,
and this latest disc couples the former two
of these in their broadcast premieres.
Resident near Sherborne in the 1950s
and ’60s, Lloyd wrote on a part-time basis
but managed to complete several major
works. The present two symphonies make
for a pointed contrast in all respects. The
Sixth (1956) is the shortest of the cycle,
its outer movements being deft takes
on sonata and rondo designs so their
immediacy of ideas is thrown into relief
by their formal sophistication, while the
central Adagio focuses on a cor anglais
melody of winsome poise.
Inspired by the Greek legend of
Proserpine, the much larger Seventh
Symphony (1959) could hardly be more
different. It proceeds from an initial
movement of a restraint belied by quirky
ostinato rhythms and speculative harmony
that takes on increasing volatility towards
the close, through a central Largo whose
eloquent melodic contours and ethereal
orchestration make it Lloyd’s most affecting
symphonic movement, to a finale that
pursues an agitated course to a powerful
climax then an epilogue whose anguish is
more telling for its enfolding inwardness.
The work gave rise to much soul-
searching but ultimately earned praise
from those otherwise unreceptive to
this composer. Downes endows it with
unstinting drama, and is no less inside
its diverting predecessor. Lloyd’s own
recordings on Albany are well played with
more spacious sound but the extra panache
here is unarguable. Maybe Downes’s
broadcasts of the Ninth and Tenth
Symphonies will emerge; even that of
the Eighth, which began the Lloyd revival
40 years ago. Richard Whitehouse
Symphony No 6 – selected comparison:
BBC PO, Lloyd (8/89) (ALBA) TROY015-2
Symphony No 7 – selected comparison:
BBC PO, Lloyd (6/87) (ALBA) TROY057-2
gramophone.co.uk
Mahler ◊Y
Symphony No 8, ‘Symphony of a Thousand’
Ricarda Merbeth, Juliane Banse, Anna Lucia
Richter sops Sara Mingardo, Mihoko Fujimura
contrs Andreas Schager ten Peter Mattei bass
Samuel Youn bass Bavarian Radio Chorus;
Latvian Radio Choir; Orfeón Donostiarra; Tölz
Children’s Choir; Lucerne Festival Orchestra /
Riccardo Chailly
Accentus F ◊ ACC20390; F Y ACC10390
(93’ • NTSC • 16:9 • 1080i • DTS-HD MA5.1, DTS5.1,
DD5.1 & PCM stereo • 0 • s)
Recorded live at the Concert Hall of KKL Luzern,
August 12 & 13, 2016
There are several
distinguished accounts of
this symphony in audio-
visual format to which
Riccardo Chailly now
adds another, a souvenir of a great occasion
in a fine but not overlarge venue. While
there’s been no great interpretative change
of direction since his previously
immortalised Leipzig concerts of 2011,
the subtler treatment of certain passages
can perhaps be construed as a ‘tribute to
Claudio’. In August 2016 Abbado’s final,
unfinished Mahler cycle was, in effect,
completed by this performance (captured
over two nights), simultaneously
inaugurating a new era as Chailly
succeeded his friend and colleague as music
director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.
Clarity is achieved at the expense of
sheer numbers. This is no ‘symphony of
a thousand’ – the ensemble reportedly
totalled 358, a fairly typical complement
these days. The expert, multi-sourced
choral contingent is positioned in six rows
across the width of Lucerne’s modern hall
with the Tölzer Knabenchor squeezed in
along the sides.
In the first movement, where some
conductors plainly intend the opening blast
to pin listeners to their seats, Chailly avoids
too much shock and awe. Not that he is
content to smooth away all the disruptive
elements of Mahler’s invention. Orchestral
detail has a brighter physicality than
Abbado might have encouraged and the
soloists’ operatic vibrato may well strike
you as excessive. Deferring until the
very last moment the traditional
though unmarked ritardando into the
recapitulation of the ‘Veni, Creator
Spiritus’, Chailly is plainly anxious to
keep something in reserve.
The longer second part has all the
operatic vividness you might expect from
this source with speeds generally a little
slower than in Leipzig. The soloists are
ORCHESTRAL REVIEWS
somewhat variable. Peter Mattei’s Pater
Ecstaticus, a little flat on arrival, quickly
finds his very best form. Samuel Youn’s
Pater Profundus is passionate but the voice
occasionally misfires. Tenor Andreas
Schager is indubitably ardent as Doctor
Marianus; sadly the volume is unvaryingly
loud and the effect ultimately wearing,
however impressive the decibels. While
coping admirably with the high tessitura,
Ricarda Merbeth (Magna Peccatrix) crosses
the line between vibrancy and wobble.
Sara Mingardo (Mulier Samaritana), her
contralto a size smaller, is blessedly focused.
There’s nothing controversial or tricksy
about the filming (unless you object to a
harpist’s sheet music being glimpsed through
the strings of the instrument when the Mater
Gloriosa floats into view). Members of
chorus and orchestra are caught smiling on
camera, although there’s a telltale grimace
in the final build up when the hushed
choral entry is managed with a spellbinding
Abbado-esque hush, only for the soloists to
fall short of the same standard. The human
and technical frailties of Klaus Tennstedt’s
live relay cannot disguise the more startling
emotive force of his music-making. But
then those who attended the Royal Festival
Hall in 1991 and can still remember Julia
Varady’s gown should perhaps recuse
themselves from critical comment! Chailly
takes immense care to get details right. Few
conductors have lived so long with this
music and none has proved more adept
at coordinating its disparate forces.
This Accentus DVD comes elegantly
packaged and annotated, the list of
orchestral personnel confirming the arrival
of a few more Milanese names. I missed
the feline elegance of Abbado’s podium
presence. Still, at least one of his traditions
endures: audience members wait patiently
at the end until their new hero is ready to
take the applause. David Gutman
Selected comparisons:
Tennstedt (11/92R) (EMI) ◊ 367743-9
Bernstein (2/06) (DG) ◊ 073 4088GH9
Tennstedt (6/11) (LPO) LPO0052
Chailly (1/12) (ACCE) ◊ ACC20222; Y ACC10222
Mendelssohn
Violin Concerto, Op 64a. Symphony No 5,
‘Reformation’, Op 107. The Hebrides, Op 26
a
Isabelle Faust vn
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra / Pablo Heras-Casado
Harmonia Mundi F HMM90 2325 (62’ • DDD)
What kind of
a violinist was
Ferdinand David,
for (and with) whom
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 61
ORCHESTRAL REVIEWS
Mendelssohn composed his Violin
Concerto? At a time when the late
quartets of Beethoven were hardly known
outside Vienna, he introduced them to
enthusiastic audiences across Germany.
At the same time, brilliance was the quality
requested by David in the solo writing
of his friend’s concerto; having already
composed one himself, he knew how it
could be achieved without recourse to
virtuoso tropes and clichés.
Isabelle Faust is a musician in David’s
line. Reserving portamento and vibrato
for the lovely second theme, she brings out
the anxious, hunted vulnerability of the
concerto’s opening (a mode of expression
Mendelssohn returned to all his life,
until the F minor String Quartet). Its
E minor-ness registers the more strongly
at period pitch, a semitone down, and is
stressed by Pablo Heras-Casado from the
outset, bringing out the clarinet’s third
which is the weakest, most unstable
element of the opening chord.
Like Christian Tetzlaff, Faust drives
through the neo-Bachian arpeggios of the
cadenza, as marked; her playing throughout
is remarkable not only for the expected
attributes of fidelity and accuracy but for
the tough, wild and impassioned qualities
she restores to a piece which easily falls
prone to white-dress, sugar-and-spice
performances. Without tearing up the
rulebook, she has thought afresh about
some phrase shapes in the closing stages
of the first movement. Some listeners may
find unsettling her pure tone in the Andante’s
opening theme when coupled with sliding
between each note. It’s of a piece with the
fierce intrusion of trumpet and drums
before very long; like the F minor Quartet,
this performance of the concerto never sits
back. Even the finale’s high spirits are
tempered – or further raised – by a spirit of
challenge and gamesmanship (beyond mere
playfulness) between soloist and orchestra:
like the relationship between Theseus
and Hippolyta, it could go very wrong
very quickly.
Such audacity courses through both
overture and symphony. The battleground
of the Reformation’s opening Allegro is
staked out by Heras-Casado with fire, as
Mendelssohn demands, but also fury, in
some aggressively clipped tutti chords.
At an almost identical tempo, he is more
restrained than Mitropoulos (4/56,
downloadable from Urania) or Toscanini
in the application of rubato, but otherwise
their fiercely rhetorical conceptions of the
Andante bear close comparison down the
decades. As Mitropoulos did, John Eliot
Gardiner hastens on in the movement’s
central section, as if conducting a cantata
62 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
aria, while drawing from the LSO strings
a tenderness that eludes the Freiburg
ensemble. And for all the incidental
beauties of their solo winds, I would have
welcomed the fitting majesty that Gardiner
brings to the symphony’s climactic
assertion of ‘Ein feste Burg’. The disc
will rightly attract attention for Faust;
but anyone collecting Heras-Casado’s cycle
of Mendelssohn will snap this up and wait
eagerly for the final instalment.
Peter Quantrill
Violin Concerto – selected comparison:
Tetzlaff, Frankfurt RSO, P Järvi
(2/12) (ONDI) ODE1195-2
Symphony No 5 – selected comparison:
LSO, Gardiner (7/15) (LSOL) LSO0075
Palmgren
Piano Concertosa – No 4, ‘April’, Op 85; No 5,
Op 99. Exotic March. A Pastorale in Three
Scenes, Op 50
a
Janne Mertanen pf
Pori Sinfonietta / Jan Söderblom
Alba F Í ABCD400 (63’ • DDD)
Selim Palmgren
(1878-1951) appeared
in these pages far more
frequently in days of
yore than he does now. His star has faded,
unfairly I think, so this release is thrice
welcome – repertoire (there is currently
little of any of his music available on any
label), and performance and recording
quality, both of which are first class.
Last year David Fanning gave a cautious
welcome to the first three (of Palmgren’s
five) piano concertos with the same
orchestra and conductor (Henri Sigfridsson
was the soloist), reminding us that the best
of the quintet is No 2, The River, and of
Palmgren’s episodic approach to the form.
This is true of both concertos on this
second volume, where one is aware of a
profusion of more or less interesting and
arresting ideas which float pass the window
never to be seen again. While the music is
in a genial, late-Romantic idiom (though
No 4 veers heavily towards Impressionism),
it is hard to get a handle on where it is
going. The single-movement (18'20")
Fourth Concerto was written mainly in
Rochester in 1924 when Palmgren was
(perhaps surprisingly) professor of
composition at the Eastman School of
Music, and completed in his native Finland
three years later. The Fifth Concerto
(1940-41) was composed, he said, ‘to the
accompaniment of bombs exploding’. It
is the only one of the five that has the
customary three distinct movements.
Recorded in the early 1990s, all five
concertos appeared on a twofer (Ultima,
1/00 – nla) with the Turku Philharmonic
Orchestra under Jacques Mercier and four
pianists sharing duties, Juhani Lagerspetz
in No 4 and Raija Kerppo in No 5. Both
are marginally brisker than the newcomer
but really there is very little to choose
between them, though the Ultima discs
were better filled with Palmgren’s Piano
Sonata No 1 and various other rarities.
However, Alba offers as an extra the
orchestral suite A Pastorale in Three Scenes
(1918), the second of these being ‘Elegie’.
This alone is quite beautiful enough to
merit a warm recommendation.
Jeremy Nicholas
Pickard
Monteverdi Orfeo – Toccata (transcr Pickard)
Pickard Symphony No 5. Concertante
Variationsa. Sixteen Sunrises
a
Matthew Featherstone fl aGeoffrey Cox ob
a
Nicholas Cox cl aJarosław Augustyniak bn
a
Ian Fisher hn BBC National Orchestra of Wales /
Martyn Brabbins
BIS F Í BIS2261 (63’ • DDD/DSD)
The chief work on
BIS’s fourth CD
devoted to the music
of John Pickard
(b1963) is his Fifth and most recent
Symphony, composed in an intense burst
of creativity in the early months of 2014.
(Its predecessor, the Gaia Symphony for
brass band – 11/14 – took 13 years to
achieve its final form!) Pickard’s five
symphonies cover his entire career to
date, the still-unperformed First written
in 1983-84; like it and the eruptive Second
(1985-87), No 5 is in one continuous
movement lasting around half an hour.
The music fair kidnaps the listener’s
attention at the outset and does not ransom
it until the gripping, wholly satisfying close.
The structure alternates fast and slow
episodes, shortening or lengthening like
some vast process of respiration, pivoting
around the main central slow section, the
tempos phasing and overlapping as the
movement progresses. Those knowing
McCabe’s Of Time and the River will
recognise a kindred spirit here, even if
the result is quite different.
The performance by the BBC National
Orchestra of Wales is stunning in its
virtuosity (especially the three timpanists)
and Brabbins shapes the whole edifice
grippingly, as in the couplings. The tone
poem Sixteen Sunrises (2013) – premiered
by Brabbins in Nagoya, Japan, and
gramophone.co.uk
 KIRKER MUSIC FESTIVALS
F O R D I S C E R N I N G
Kirker Holidays offers an extensive range of independent and escorted opera holidays.
These include tours to leading festivals in Europe such as the Puccini Festival in
Torre del Lago, Verona and the Verdi Festival in Parma, as well as Glyndebourne,
Buxton and opera weekends in Vienna, Milan and Venice.
We also host our own exclusive music festivals on land and at featuring
internationally acclaimed musicians. For those who prefer to travel independently
we arrange short breaks with opera, ballet or concert tickets, to all the great
classical cities in Europe.
THE KIRKER CHAMBER MUSIC
FESTIVAL IN ALFRISTON, EAST SUSSEX
A THREE NIGHT HOLIDAY |20 NOVEMBER 2017
Alfriston is fast becoming a favourite destination with our clients and in
2017 we will be presenting our seventh consecutive season of chamber
music concerts.
This year concerts will be given by the Navarra String Quartet, each
preceded by one of a series of open workshops hosted by Simon
Rowland-Jones. We stay at Deans Place Hotel in the heart of this
historic and picturesque Sussex village. There are superb views of
the South Downs and you can enjoy
walks along the banks of the River
Cuckmere and visit the 14th
century Clergy House.
Price from £858 for three
nights including accommodation
with breakfast, three dinners
and three concerts and talks.
THE KIRKER MUSIC FESTIVAL
IN TENERIFE
A SEVEN NIGHT HOLIDAY | 20 JANUARY 2018
For our third exclusive music festival on of Tenerife, we will present
six concerts featuring the Navarra String Quartet, guitarist Morgan
Szymanski, soprano Amaia Azcona and violist Simon Rowland-Jones.
Staying at the 5* Hotel Botanico, surrounded by lush tropical gardens in
an unspoilt part of this volcanic island, we shall also enjoy a programme
of fascinating excursions. Highlights include the Sitio Litro Orchid
Garden, a cable car journey to the peak of Mount Teide and a visit to the
primeval cloud forest of the Anaga Mountains. We will also visit historic
and picturesque villages along the spectacular north coast, including
Garachico with its 17th century convent.
Price from £2,549 per person for seven nights
including flights, transfers, accommodation
with breakfast, six dinners, six concerts, all
sightseeing, entrance fees and gratuities and the
services of the Kirker Tour Leader.
Speak to an expert or request a brochure:
020 7593 2284 quote code GGM
www.kirkerholidays.com
T R A V E L L E R S
THE KIRKER MUSIC FESTIVAL
IN VENICE
A FOUR NIGHT HOLIDAY | 26 NOVEMBER 2017
The inaugural Kirker Music Festival in Venice will combine a series of
exclusive recitals in magnificent venues, with visits to some of the city’s
finest galleries and palazzos.
The Doric String Quartet will be joined by classical guitarist Sean
Shibe for three concerts which will be given in the ornate ballroom
on the piano nobile at the Hotel Monaco & Grand Canal and in the
frescoed Sala della Musica at the 15th century Ca’ Sagredo. There
will be an optional opera performance at the Palazzo Barbarigo
Minotto, and we shall also include visits to the Peggy
Guggenheim Collection, the Accademia, the
Frari church and the Ca’ Rezzonico.
Price from £1,975 for four nights
including flights, accommodation with
breakfast, three dinners, three concerts, all
sightseeing, entrance fees and gratuities and
the services of the Kirker Tour Lecturer.
THE KIRKER SPRING MUSIC FESTIVAL
AT THE HOTEL TRESANTON, ST. MAWES
A THREE NIGHT HOLIDAY | 12 MARCH 2018
Our annual visit to Olga Polizzi’s fabled Hotel Tresanton in St Mawes
combines a relaxing spring escape in Cornwall, with a series of world-class
chamber music recitals.
Performances in 2018 will be given by the Carducci String Quartet in
the Old Methodist Hall, and include works by Mendelssohn, Brahms,
Haydn and Beethoven. There will also be a series of musical talks and a
visit to the private garden at Lamorran, inspired by Lady Walton’s garden
on the island of Ischia. Dinner is included each evening at the excellent
Tresanton restaurant which overlooks the sea and is
lit by candles in the evening.
Price from £1,190 per person for three nights
including accommodation with breakfast
and dinner, three concerts each preceded
by a musically illustrated talk, a visit to
Lamorran Gardens and the services of the
Kirker Tour Leader and a Tour Escort.
ORCHESTRAL REVIEWS
dedicated to the late composer and author
Malcolm MacDonald (1948-2014) – is
more relaxed, an essay on light, while the
delightful Concertante Variations for wind
quintet, timpani and strings (2011), with
Tippett-like freshness, spotlights Pickard’s
superb handling of medium-size forces.
The music throughout is in this composer’s
dynamic, driving, 21st-century tonal idiom,
recognisably British but Pickard’s own.
The final track sidesteps expectations a
touch with a witty reworking of
Monteverdi for Scelsi-esque ensemble:
what would Claudio have made of the
saxophone? A superb disc, great sound: my
disc of the year so far. Guy Rickards
Prokofiev
Violin Concertos – No 1, Op 19; No 2, Op 63
Rudolf Koelman vn
Musikkollegium Winterthur / Douglas Boyd
Challenge Classics F CC72736 (50’ • DDD)
Recorded live at the Townhouse Winterthur,
Switzerland, April 6-9, 2016
Prokofiev
Violin Concertos – No 1, Op 19; No 2, Op 63
Matthew Trusler vn
BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Grant Llewellyn
Orchid F ORC100070 (52’ • DDD)
Two competent and enjoyable but not
world-beating performances here of two
of Prokofiev’s most captivating scores.
Matthew Trusler and Rudolf Koelman are
as sure-fingered as one another, and
everything is well coordinated between
them and their respective orchestras.
The opening of the First Concerto
immediately shows how much care each
has lavished on inflection, without ever
endangering the required dreamy quality,
and each is alive to the magic that returns
at the end as the violin swoons into its
chains of stratospheric trills (though
Koelman tends to sit down on the beat
here, where the music really demands to be
in the air up to the very last note).
Whether either player displays quite
enough swagger or sense of mischief in
some of the intervening fantastical moods
I’m not so sure. In the second movement
Koelman has more of the character,
Trusler more of the technical poise, but
neither can compete with the daredevilry
and dash of Oistrakh (especially in his
occasionally ice-skatey 1963 live
performance with Rozhdestvensky).
64 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Similarly, neither Trusler nor Koelman
quite gets the measure of storybook rapture
in the third movement, where the freedom
and eloquence in Oistrakh’s sound are
things of wonder. Alternatively, for
polished studio perfection and modern
sound, Vengerov on Teldec is a sure bet.
In the Second Concerto Trusler is the
subtler in shaping the opening lyrical
phrases, though both players are more or
less in the gleeful fantasy that propels the
music forwards. However, the tightness in
Trusler’s tone and his ungenerous vibrato
when real warmth is called for are
drawbacks with the slow movement –
surely one of Prokofiev’s most inspired
self-renewing melodies – while the problem
with Koelman here is a certain rhythmic
rigidity and literalness in the phrasing.
Both are in their element with the grit and
grunt of the finale, though I still prefer
something more elegant than the somewhat
unrelenting drive both favour.
Recorded balance is well judged in each
version, though I find the Orchid Classics
sound marginally more ingratiating, with
the all-important goading bass drum in the
Second Concerto more present and the
violin tone slightly more flattered by the
acoustic. All the same, I still prefer the
superior glow and blend on the Vengerov/
LSO version of the First Concerto.
Admirable though the new discs are in
many ways, my reservations tell me that
I would be reluctant to shell out for either
one. David Fanning
Concerto No 1 – selected comparisons:
Oistrakh, Moscow PO, Rozhdestvensky
(5/69R) (BRIL) 92609
Vengerov, LSO, Rostropovich
(2/95) (TELD) 4509 98143-2
Ravel . Delage . Dutilleux
◊Y
Delage Quatre Poèmes hindousa Dutilleux
L’arbre des songesb. Métaboles Ravel Daphnis
et Chloé – Suite No 2. Le tombeau de Couperin
a
Julia Bullock sop bLeonidas Kavakos vn
London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle
LSO Live M b (◊ + Y) LSO3038 (96’ • NTSC •
16:9 • 1080i • 16-bit 48kHz & PCM stereo • 0 • T/t)
Recorded live at the Barbican Hall, London,
January 13, 2016
Since the
announcement that
Simon Rattle will
take over as Music
Director of the
London Symphony Orchestra, his Barbican
concerts gave garnered some rave reviews.
Among them, this French programme
from January 2016 is especially welcome
on LSO Live – this time not on the
usual CD but a double release on
Blu-ray and DVD so you can select
your viewing medium.
Maurice Ravel bookends the concert.
Rattle’s affectionate account of Le tombeau
de Couperin features pristine contributions
from the LSO’s principal woodwind team.
Smiles abound and Rattle seems to offer his
players a great deal of freedom in shaping
and phrasing. The Second Suite from
Daphnis et Chloé combines clarity – splendid
flute contributions in the ‘Pantomime’
section from Adam Walker – with lush
Mediterranean warmth from the strings.
Rattle doesn’t whip the orchestra into a
frenzy during the closing ‘Bacchanale’ but
precision is paired with controlled power.
Henri Dutilleux, whose centenary was
marked during 2016, cited Ravel as a major
influence on his work. The violin concerto
in all but name L’arbre des songes takes its
inspiration from the forests of Arthurian
legend, alternating between dreamy reveries
and energetic outbursts. Leonidas Kavakos,
stubbly and serious in what looks like a blue
smock, delivers an unfussy, lyrical account
of this chimerical work, dynamics
sensitively calibrated. Métaboles is arguably
more Stravinskian than Ravelian and Rattle
draws a carefully nuanced reading of this
‘concerto for orchestra’ from the LSO.
The gems at the heart of this
programme, though, are the Quatre Poèmes
hindous by Maurice Delage, a pupil of
Ravel’s. This 1914 cycle blends Indian
colours into Western art song, with solo
cello sometimes masquerading as a sitar,
bending plucked notes. Julia Bullock
delivers the four songs coolly but her
grainy soprano, with smoky vibrato,
suits their mysterious aura. Texts and
translations are included in the booklet
but are not available to view on screen.
Rich sound and crystalline picture quality
make this an enjoyable viewing experience.
Throughout, Rattle smiles beatifically
at the LSO, which augurs well as his
directorship proper begins. Mark Pullinger
Rubbra . C Scott
Rubbra Violin Concerto, Op 103a.
Sinfonia concertante, Op 38b.
Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of
Cyril Scott, Op 69c C Scott Consolationc
a
Endré Wolf vn bcEdmund Rubbra pf
a
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Rudolf Schwarz;
b
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra /
Hugo Rignold
Lyrita Itter Broadcast Collection mono
F REAM1134 (73’ • ADD)
BBC broadcast performances, aFebruary 20, 1960;
b
May 2, cAugust 9, 1967
gramophone.co.uk

Lush Mediterranean warmth: Simon Rattle conducts the LSO in Ravel, Delage and Dutilleux
What a treat to
encounter Rubbra’s
glorious Violin
Concerto played by the
work’s Budapest-born dedicatee Endre Wolf
(1913-2011). This February 1960 broadcast
from Maida Vale under Rudolf Schwarz’s
baton was only its second performance, the
world premiere having taken place three
days previously at the Royal Festival Hall.
A memorably unforced display it proves, too,
plumbing genuine depths of rapt expression
particularly in the ravishing central ‘Poema’,
which evinces such a striking kinship with
the sublime ‘Canto’ slow movement of the
Sixth Symphony from 1954. There’s the
odd tiny slip and some occasional
background swish to contend with but it
remains a cherishable document and must
be deemed an essential supplement to the
concerto’s three commercial recordings
P H O T O G R A P H Y: T R I S T R A M K E N T O N
from Krysia Osostowicz (Naxos, 11/05),
Carl Pini (Unicorn-Kanchana, 1/87 – nla)
and Tasmin Little (Conifer, 10/94 – nla) –
the last-named’s marvellously lucid alliance
with Vernon Handley and the RPO being
especially praiseworthy (any chance of a
reissue, I wonder?).
gramophone.co.uk
There’s more buried treasure in the
shape of a spirited account of the imposing
Sinfonia concertante for piano and orchestra
that Rubbra originally completed in 1936
and comprehensively overhauled in the
early 1940s. The composer himself
participated in the first performance with
Adrian Boult and the BBC SO at an August
1943 Prom and the present BBC broadcast
from May 1967 with the CBSO under
Hugo Rignold serves as a splendid
reminder of his interpretative skills. What
a powerful work it is, too, culminating in a
deeply felt prelude and fugue inscribed to
the memory of Holst (with whom Rubbra
had studied at Reading University and the
Royal College of Music). It’s followed here
by another Prelude and Fugue, this time
for solo piano and based on a theme from
the First Piano Sonata by Rubbra’s
boyhood teacher, Cyril Scott (1879-1970).
Rubbra affords it affectingly serene
treatment, as he does Scott’s searching
Consolation (1918). Both these items come
from a recital transmitted by the BBC in
August 1967.
Transfers from Richard Itter’s off-air
mono tapes have been most judiciously
managed and Paul Conway’s copious notes
are a real boon. All in all, an issue to
savour. Andrew Achenbach
ORCHESTRAL REVIEWS
Saint-Saëns . Schumann .
Tchaikovsky
Schumann Cello Concerto, Op 129 Saint-Saëns
Cello Concerto No 1, Op 33 Tchaikovsky
Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op 33
Antonio Meneses vc
Royal Northern Sinfonia / Claudio Cruz
Avie F AV2373 (60’ • DDD)
Fitzenhagen or
Tchaikovsky
unadulterated?
There’s the rub with
the Rococo Variations. The noted German
cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen premiered the
work (with Nikolay Rubinstein conducting)
and his extensive cuts and emendations
were for years the performing norm, until
the Russian cellist Victor Kubatsky started
the ‘refresher’ ball rolling with some
thorough research so that the preferable
original version could also be performed.
As to collectors, it’s not unlike the situation
with Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole: if you’re
after interpretations by such violin
luminaries as Francescatti, Heifetz or
Huberman, you have to make do with the
four-movement version. If you need the
fifth-movement Intermezzo you have to go
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 65
JUST RELEASED
MESSIAEN
POÈMES POUR MI
TROIS PETITES LITURGIES DE LA PRÉSENCE DIVINE
Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony present two
rarely recorded masterpieces by Olivier Messiaen. One
work celebrates Messiaen’s love for his wife, the other his
commitment to his faith. Together they make up an album
of sacred and transcendent beauty, showing two sides of
one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.

IVES
THREE PLACES IN NEW ENGLAND
ORCHESTRAL SET NO. 2
NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAYS
One of Charles Ives’ most beloved works, Three Places
in New England captures the nuances of Ives’ intricate
musical language. Conducted by Music Director
Ludovic Morlot, this release takes you on a haunting
journey through nostalgic visions of America at the turn
of the century.

GRAMOPHONE AWARDS FINALIST

MAHLER
SYMPHONY NO. 10
A powerful and moving document of unforgettable
live performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 10
(Deryck Cooke version) under Principal Guest Conductor
Thomas Dausgaard.

AVAILABLE ON CD AND FOR DOWNLOAD IN STEREO,

96K 24-BIT HIGH RESOLUTION AND 5.1 SURROUND SOUND.

DISTRIBUTED BY NAXOS OF AMERICA, INC. SEATTLESYMPHONY.ORG/RECORDINGS


Expressivity always trumps spectacle: the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov impress in their Decca recording of Tchaikovsky’s Manfred – see review on page 68
elsewhere. And with the Rococos, if you
want Fournier, Gendron, Gerhardt,
Gutman, Ma, Rose, Rostropovich,
Shafran, Starker, Tortelier or indeed
Antonio Meneses it has be Fitzenhagen.
Knushevitzky, Isserlis, Perényi, Julian
Lloyd Webber, Raphael Wallfisch and
Jamie Walton are among the exponents
of the original. (There’s a fuller A/B list
on en.tchaikovsky-research.net.)
Meneses’s performance is flexible and
trimly played, with plenty of warm tone
and an alert accompaniment under Claudio
Cruz, but Johannes Moser’s reading of the
original would still be my first digital port
of call. The Schumann Concerto is given
a svelte, seamless reading, where the
musical line is skilfully spun and the
accompaniment notably alert. The Saint-
Saëns First Concerto is also well played,
though here Claudio Cruz and his Royal
Northern aren’t always precisely on the
ball. At around 1'30" into the first
movement a wind chord is marginally
delayed (maybe even on purpose) while
P H O T O G R A P H Y: P E T R A H A J S K A / D E C C A
elsewhere the lens isn’t always entirely
clear, though much of the performance
is vital enough. In short, this is good
programme showcasing an extremely
fine cellist which works well as a sequence –
the finale of the Schumann and the first
movement of the Saint-Saëns are virtually
of a piece, tempo-wise – but, taken work
gramophone.co.uk
by work, you can probably do better
elsewhere. Good sound with especially
clear timpani. Rob Cowan
Tchaikovsky – selected comparison:
Moser, Suisse Romande Orch, Manze
(5/17) (PENT) PTC5186 570
Schmidt . R Strauss
Schmidt Symphony No 2
R Strauss Festliches Praeludium, Op 61
Beethoven Orchestra, Bonn / Stefan Blunier
MDG F Í MDG937 2006-6 (63’ • DDD/DSD)
Recorded live at the Beethoven Hall, Bonn,
May 13 & 14, 2016
This is the second
recording of Schmidt’s
Second Symphony
to come my way this
year after Semyon Bychkov’s luxuriously
upholstered account with the Vienna
Philharmonic on Sony. Both releases
choose to couple the work with Strauss.
For Bychkov it was the gentle Gemütlichkeit
of the ‘Träumerei am Kamin’ interlude
from Intermezzo. For Stefan Blunier
and his Beethoven Orchester Bonn it’s
the full-blown pomp of the Festliches
Praeludium (stirringly performed),
premiered in October 1913, a matter
of weeks before the Schmidt.
ORCHESTRAL REVIEWS
The coupling gives a clue to Blunier’s
approach, which is more forthright and bold
than Bychkov’s – impulsive and fiery, with
a real sense of symphonic sweep. If Bychkov
and his players communicate affection,
Blunier and his (who already set down the
Fourth for MDG at the beginning of the
decade) offer something more like
passionate engagement with the piece.
The result, though not always subtle, is
undoubtedly exciting, and difficult to resist.
The opening movement is properly Lebhaft
(and listen the warmth in the violins’
yearning melody at 11'53"). There’s a
real sense of Schwung in the remarkable,
dizzying last couple of minutes of the
finale and a fine sense of flow in the tricky
Allegretto con variazioni.
But while this performance, captured
live, is persuasive as a big picture, a closer
listen reveals a little roughness around the
edges. There’s a slight lack of security in all
the weaving filigree that is such a feature of
the first movement, compared at least to
the Vienna Philharmonic’s polish, and some
raggedness elsewhere – in Variation 7 in the
second movement, for example. Higher-
lying lines in general have something of
the tightrope walk about them.
That will bother some more than
others in what’s nevertheless a thoroughly
enjoyable performance, situated somewhere
between Bychkov’s mellow refinement and
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 67
ORCHESTRAL REVIEWS
the brassy thrills of Neeme Järvi’s Chicago
account; it feels closest, in fact, to Vassily
Sinaisky’s Malmö recording on Naxos.
The engineering, I should add, is rich
and seductive. Hugo Shirley
Schmidt – selected comparisons:
Chicago SO, N Järvi (3/90R) (CHAN) CHAN9568
Malmö SO, Sinaisky (11/09) (NAXO) 8 570589
VPO, Bychkov (7/17) (SONY) 88985 35552-2
Shostakovich . R Strauss
Shostakovich Chamber Symphony (String
Quartet No 8), Op 110a (arr Barshai)
R Strauss Metamorphosen
Baltic Chamber Orchestra /
Emmanuel Leducq-Barôme
Rubicon F RCD1009 (53’ • DDD)
Rarely have I been
as moved by Strauss’s
‘Study for 23 solo
strings’, his in
memoriam to a severely bruised culture
and to bombed Munich in particular, as
I was when listening to this rich-textured
recording by the Baltic Chamber
Orchestra. Although the chosen tempos are
comparatively broad, Emmanuel Leducq-
Barôme keeps you on the edge of your seat,
principally by achieving maximum tension
at the crest of each phrase. Of course the
Eroica denouement is obvious right from
the start (though other works are alluded
to throughout the piece) but when Strauss
finally makes his quotation blatant – on
cellos and basses at the end of the work –
the hairs on the back of my neck all but
bristled. I’ve heard versions of
Metamorphosen that are dead in the
water right from the off (the work can, if
clumsily handled, virtually define musical
lugubriousness), but this certainly isn’t
one of them.
The notion of coupling it with that other
great memorial to a shattered German city
(Dresden), Shostakovich’s Eighth Quartet –
here filled out as a C minor ‘Chamber
Symphony’ by Rudolf Barshai – is in itself a
stroke of genius. Again the playing suggests
maximum commitment, with a palpable
sense of mystery in the opening Largo,
full-on energy and slashing accents in the
Allegro molto, an uncomfortable feeling of
delicacy for the cynical Allegretto and vivid
reportage of the shuddering gunfire that
informs the fourth-movement Largo. Still,
good though Leducq-Barôme’s
performance is, I must voice a definite
preference for the original quartet version:
loudly proclaiming this troubling narrative
isn’t quite the same as confiding it among
friends. That aside, Leducq-Barôme and
68 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
his players make it work as well as virtually
anyone else on disc does.
This is the sort of CD that might
profitably convert those who see concert
music as ‘irrelevant’: it addresses the world
as is; and if ultimately it can’t spell positive
closure (as, say, Beethoven’s Fifth can), it
does at least offer some grounds for
compassion. Rob Cowan
Tchaikovsky
‘The Tchaikovsky Project, Vol 2’
Manfred, Op 58
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra / Semyon Bychkov
Decca F 483 2320DH (59’ • DDD)
There is much here
to build upon the
promise of Bychkov’s
Pathétique - the
exceptional performance which launched
this ongoing ‘Tchaikovsky Project’ (10/16).
There is, of course, the abiding warmth
and humanity of the Czech Philharmonic
where expressivity always trumps spectacle,
where phrasing relates to sound in ear-
catching ways and the reasons the notes
are there in the first place rightfully take
precedence over their cosmetic effect.
The soulfulness of this Manfred finds
concentration in the first movement,
where Byron’s solitary hero traverses
a dark, forbidding orchestral landscape
entirely scored in the lowest registers
(great kinship with Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta).
Bychkov makes something really special
of the wistfully lyric episode for strings
at the heart of the movement out of
which emerges the solitude of bass
clarinet against a barely discernible
rustle of violins. The defiant coda is
always thrilling – a fabulous saturation
of sound – though I think Bychkov
might have encouraged more from his
trumpets as the soul-baring hits the peak
of its intensity.
The Czech Philharmonic woodwinds
have such a beguiling homespun quality
generally but in the shimmering waterfall
of the second movement they are super-
balletic, engagingly decamping us to the
world of Nutcracker or Sleeping Beauty.
I love the songful phrasing of strings and
solo clarinet in the lovely second idea –
so effortless – and it is this very humane
response to the lyricism of the piece that is
carried through to the pastorale of the third
movement. Bychkov has his finger on the
pulse of this music in a way I haven’t heard
since the likes of Mravinsky (though he
never recorded this piece) and Markevitch.
His realisation of the returning main theme
with horns in glorious counterpoint carries
such sweeping authenticity.
But maybe in this of all the symphonies
there are elements of spectacle – and I’m
thinking now specifically of the last
movement – that require a degree or two
more heat. The whirling bacchanal doesn’t
quite excite as it might, due in part to the
reticence (in the balance) of the percussion
and the all-important tambourine. But
Bychkov makes much of the return of
earlier material where Tchaikovsky
fabricates a very real sense of déjà vu in
Manfred’s journey and I applaud the use of
chamber organ as opposed to a full-blown
Phantom of the Opera job (a temptation,
granted) where one should feel it is not so
much dominating but subtly buttressing
the winds at the start of the apotheosis.
No question, then, that whatever my
minor reservations in this instance, the
prospect of what is to come from this series
can be keenly anticipated. Edward Seckerson
Tsontakis
Anasaa. True Colorsb. Unforgettablec
a
David Krakauer cl bEric Berlin tpt
c
Luosha Fang, cEunice Kim vns
Albany Symphony Orchestra / David Alan Miller
Naxos American Classics M 8 559826 (63’ • DDD)
Here are three
engagingly expressive
recent concertos by
George Tsontakis
(b1951), each with an evocative title.
According to the composer’s notes, True
Colors for trumpet and orchestra (2012)
refers in part to the ‘true’ or ‘primary’
colours of the work’s essential harmonic
motifs – colours that are then blended, like
paint, to create a broader, richer palette.
A concise Prologue, built upon echoing,
chime-like figures, begins optimistically in
a style redolent of Copland and Bernstein
but soon suggests more disquieted,
expressionistic imagery. The substantial
second movement, entitled ‘Magic Act’,
also starts brightly before veering into
edgier, jazz-inspired territory, the colours
gradually becoming darker and more
saturated. True Colors was written for Eric
Berlin, principal trumpet of the Albany
Symphony, and he plays it vividly here.
Anasa (2011) is the Greek word for
breath, and this clarinet concerto comes to
life with an audible, animalistic exhalation
from the solo instrument. It was composed
for David Krakauer, best known for his
work with the Klezmatics, and Tsontakis
weaves elements of klezmer music into the
score. But, as harmonic colours were
gramophone.co.uk

David Krakauer (left) with conductor David Alan Miller (centre) and composer George Tsontakis (right), recording the latter’s Anasa for Naxos
blended in the trumpet concerto, here
klezmer is blended with traditional music
from Crete, the composer’s ancestral home.
Whatever the mixture lacks in ethnic
specificity it makes up for in expressive
power and breadth. At times, the music
carouses raucously, but at its essence Anasa
is contemplative, even lonely. The expansive
slow movement is full of brooding, aching
melancholy. In the mournful dance
beginning at 6'43", for example, note how
Krakauer’s richly articulate eloquence
makes one expect his clarinet to burst into
songlike speech at any moment.
In his First Violin Concerto (2002),
Tsontakis blatantly – and scornfully –
quoted popular tunes. Unforgettable, for two
violins and orchestra (2013), makes subtle,
yearningly nostalgic reference to Nat King
Cole’s hit song of that title (listen at 3'40"
in the final movement). The two solo parts,
originally written for Jennifer and Angela
Chun, are intricately and inextricably
woven together, as in Bach’s Double
Concerto. But where Bach’s work is like
a pas de deux with hands elegantly joined,
Tsontakis’s is a sinuous, sorrowful dance of
conjoined twins. Luosha Fang and Eunice
Kim home in on the music’s sweetly tragic
tone and the Albany Symphony play with
finesse and emotional heft for David Alan
Miller. Andrew Farach-Colton
gramophone.co.uk
‘Siècle’
Debussy Cello Sonataa Dutilleux Tout un
monde lointain …b Messiaen Quatuor pour
la fin du temps – Louange à l’Éternité de
Jésusa Ravel Pièce en forme de habaneraa
Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No 1, Op 33c
Leonard Elschenbroich vc
a
Alexei Grynyuk pf bcBBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra / bJohn Wilson, cStefan Blunier
Onyx F ONYX4173 (70’ • DDD)
Leonard
Elschenbroich’s
burgeoning
discography continues
to defy convention. This time it is not the
music itself that is unfamiliar but rather
the way in which the cellist has chosen
to pull together a disparate programme
representing a century of French creativity.
Comparisons might seem beside the point
given the dearth of comparable projects.
Elschenbroich’s dark, lean sonority
cuts across other expectations too. The
sequence begins with a fiercely immediate
realisation of the Dutilleux concerto, the
most recent score, here rather sounding
it: rivals tend to inhabit a subtler, more
rarefied (more French?) sound world. Then
a switch to cello and piano for Messiaen,
ORCHESTRAL REVIEWS
the fifth movement of his Quatuor pour la
fin du temps sounding plaintive rather than
earth-shattering in this context. Still, we
shouldn’t obsess about authenticity. The
music was originally conceived for Fête des
belles eaux (1937) and the whoop of multiple
ondes martenot. What follows is Debussy’s
Cello Sonata, aptly lean rather than
refulgent, with an arrangement for cello
and piano of Ravel’s Pièce en forme de
habanera appended. Pianist Alexei Grynyuk
is ceaselessly imaginative, very much an
equal partner.
Placed last is Saint-Saëns’s First Cello
Concerto, for which Swiss-born Stefan
Blunier takes over from John Wilson at
the helm of the BBC Scottish SO – the
back inlay could be clearer on this point.
The delightful central Allegretto sounds
more melancholy than usual, not that there
is undue focus on the composer’s Romantic
lineage. Truls Mørk’s recent recording, part
of a quite different single-composer selection
under Neeme Järvi (Chandos, 1/16), is
more relaxed in feeling, with the soloist
placed under less intense sonic scrutiny.
Elschenbroich, who has previously
contributed his own elucidatory booklet
notes, offers no commentary on this
occasion. Recommended nonetheless. Just
don’t expect too much in the way of Gallic
insouciance. David Gutman
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 69
ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE
From Surrey to Switzerland and back
Label owner Nicholas Dicker talks to Gramophone about how Guild has returned to the UK
I
n November 1967 a half-page
advertisement appeared in the
back pages of Gramophone for Guild
Records, ‘The New Name in Quality
Records’. It advertised the first three
releases of 7-inch (vinyl) EPs of choral
music from Guildford Cathedral and a recital disc played
on the cathedral organ. The label was instigated by Barry
Rose, who put Guildford Cathedral on the musical map as
the first Organist and Master of the Choristers at the newly
consecrated cathedral in 1961.
LPs followed the EPs and the label acquired a modest
reputation with only five albums. Rose went on to even greater
things at St Paul’s Cathedral and then St Alban’s Abbey, but
by 1993 the record label had been
bought by the Swiss businessman
and entrepreneur, Kaikoo Lalkaka.
When I began to study the catalogue,
‘Kaikoo was responsible for I was staggered at the range, quality
broadening the remit from British
choral and cathedral music to and sheer quantity of the releases
much more commercial repertoire
and launched two sub-labels, Guild Light Music and Guild
Historical Recordings, carefully building the catalogue to its
present size of over 600 releases’, says Nicholas Dicker, the
new CEO of Guild Music. ‘With his Swiss connections, he
also brought a raft of new recordings of rarely heard Swiss
composers and performers, making the label a pioneer in
bringing that country’s musical heritage to a larger audience.’
Dicker’s acquisition of the label was a result of many years’
waiting for the right moment. ‘I had known Kaikoo for several
years through a mutual friend and was aware that at some point
he wanted to retire. That point came in December last year and
a deal was signed in March, bringing the label back to the UK
in what amounted to its 50th anniversary.’
After university, Dicker’s own career started at Saga Records
in 1980. ‘I was its last label manager, following in the footsteps
of Martin Compton and Ted Perry, and it was still making
analogue recordings in what was a burgeoning digital age, all
with a budget of £500 per album! On many occasions I was not
only engineer and producer but graphic designer, production
guy and marketing man, so Saga certainly was valuable in giving
me a complete grounding in how to run a record company –
and indeed how not to.’ When the owners closed Saga in
1989, Dicker went on to work for Start Records, then part of
Pickwick, which marketed Vanguard Classics and in recent
years has masterminded the reissue of much of the EMI archive
on the audiophile vinyl label HI-Q. But taking on the Guild
label was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
‘Like many people, I had always been aware of the Guild
label but when I began to study the catalogue, I was staggered
at the range, quality and sheer quantity of the releases’, Dicker
enthuses. ‘For instance, I had no idea of the treasures that
lay in the Historical catalogue, with everything from the first
complete recording of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess from a 1952
German radio broadcast with a young Leontyne Price, to rare
recordings by Toscanini, Stokowski, Barbirolli, Kletzki, Munch
and Cantelli, and Beecham conducting Götterdämmerung
70 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
from Covent Garden in 1936! Then there is the extensive
and imaginative Light Music catalogue, with its ‘Golden Age
of Light Music’ series covering original recordings from the
1920s to the 1950s. But it is the main Guild label itself of which
I’m probably most proud, with superbly engineered major
productions often featuring British orchestras performing
fascinating repertoire.’ The label has world-premiere recordings
of many Swiss composers, including orchestral and chamber
works by Volkmar Andreae and a new three-CD set of the
orchestral music of Caspar Diethelm for release this autumn.
‘I am keen to maintain the Swiss connection’, says Dicker.
‘There is a wealth of material lying in the vaults of the Zurich
Central Library and it deserves to be better known. It is a
country that has nurtured some extraordinary talents.’
Not that the 50th
anniversary has allowed Guild
to forget its roots: ‘There will
be plenty of spectacular but
contrasting organ recordings,
from French Romantic
repertoire with David M
Patrick at Coventry Cathedral to Bach’s Goldberg Variations
on the organ of St Katharina Church, Horw, Switzerland,
played by Martin Heini.’ Along with further releases planned
in its well-respected Historical and Light Music series, Dicker
is adamant to raise the profile of Guild: ‘I want the label to
become one of the leading independent players in the classical
market, promoting niche repertoire and new artists, while at the
same time catering for broad tastes, with something of interest
for almost everybody. There is even some jazz and world music
on our eclectic “ZahZah” label.’
But what about those inaugural EPs from Guild released
50 years ago? ‘Most of the tracks are still in the catalogue!’
laughs Dicker. ‘Some we couldn’t use because the tape had
become damaged but what I did discover while going through
the archive was an EP of choral music by Vaughan Williams,
his motet Valiant for Truth and part-song Silence and Music,
with The Proteus Choir of Guildford conducted by Vernon
Handley. Handley and Ursula Vaughan Williams wrote the
notes and the cover was illustrated by Barbara Handley. It was
recorded by Nicolas Ware in Guildford Cathedral in January
1969 and produced by none other than Barry Rose! To my
knowledge it has never been reissued but it sounds quite
beautiful. It is too short to issue as a CD, so we are going to
offer it as a download via our website and the usual channels.’
So how would he sum up the label’s philosophy? Dicker
points to the first line on the website: ‘Music’s power in uniting
people, enriching their lives forever, is the moving force behind
each of Guild’s releases.’
Guild Music Limited
Celebrating 50 years
email: nicholas@guildmusic.com
phone: +44 (0)20 8404 8307
guildmusic.com
gramophone.co.uk
 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

TOP 10 GUILD RECORDINGS

The Organ of Coventry Cathedral
GMCD7801
David M Patrick plays an exciting recital of French
Romantic organ music ranging from Vierne’s Carillon
de Westminster to Guy Weitz’s Symphony No 1.

Bach’s Goldberg Variations

GM2CD7805
A different take on a familiar work: Martin Heini plays
Bach’s Goldberg Variations on the delightful organ
of Horw Church, Switzerland.

Sir Malcolm Sargent conducts Rachmaninoff

GHCD2423
This superb recording with the LSO under Sargent has
Cyril Smith performing Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano
Concerto and the composer’s Third Symphony.

Leopold Stokowski
GHCD2426
‘I don’t think I can imagine a more exciting end to
the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony than this one’ –
BBC Radio 3’s Record Review, 2017. Live recordings.

British Cinema & Theatre Orchestras

GLCD5108
By the time the 20th century dawned, an orchestra ‘pit’
below the footlights was a part of stage and screen. This
CD reminds us of some of the top orchestras.

Holidays for Strings

GLCD5189
The emphasis in this collection is on strings, although in
the interests of variety the other sections of the orchestra
also get their opportunity to shine.

100 Greatest American Orchestras – Part One

GLCD5230
For years virtually every US city had its own orchestra –
often subsidiaries of ‘classical’ orchestras, dubbed ‘Pops’ –
while others were film orchestras.

Haydn and Schubert Masses

GMCD7104
Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Schubert’s Mass in G beautifully
performed by the Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral, directed by
Guild’s founder, Barry Rose.

Noël nouvelet
GMCD7314
‘Noël nouvelet’ is a vibrant mix of traditional carols and
exciting arrangements of familiar tunes, blending seasonal
tradition with innovation.

Massenet Songs
Two session photos from the forthcoming three-CD set of Caspar Diethelm’s GMCD7393
orchestral works, with (above) Rainer Held conducting the Royal Scottish National
Orchestra. The recordings took place in September 2016 at the Glasgow Royal
Best known for his operas, Massenet composed
Concert Hall. The recording crew included (top, l-r) assistant engineer Phil concert suites, ballet music, oratorios, cantatas
Hardman, Rainer Held (standing), producer Michael Ponder and Esther Diethelm, and over 280 songs.
the composer’s daughter

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 71

 THE MUSICIAN AND THE SCORE

Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang
Sir John Eliot Gardiner joins Peter Quantrill to enthuse about this neglected symphony-cantata

W
hen I meet him at his 650-acre organic farm in
Dorset, Sir John Eliot Gardiner is, to use his phrase,
champing at the bit. Laid out on the garden table
is the marked-up score for his recording of Lobgesang,
Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 2, which completes the cycle
he has made with the LSO for the orchestra’s own label.
‘It’s curious’, he says, ‘because I think it’s his masterpiece
in the oratorio/symphonic genre and yet it’s still probably
undervalued – whether that’s because it calls for a chorus, or
that it’s twice the length of his other symphonies, or, perhaps
more telling, that it’s compared unflatteringly with Beethoven’s
Ninth. Yet it doesn’t spring from the same tradition: it’s not
about the same issues. The target is different, and the writing
is not outwardly provocative in the way that Beethoven’s is.’
Lobgesang is an apt name. Preparing the score for publication
in England, Mendelssohn was adamant that it should be known
as a ‘Song of Praise’, yet the ‘Hymn of Praise’ label took hold
and has proved hard to shift. His friend Carl Klingemann gave
wise counsel when he advised the composer to alter the
designation to read ‘Symphony-Cantata’ rather than ‘Choral Advocate: Gardiner places Lobgesang above all Mendelssohn’s other symphonies
Symphony’. Chronologically, it lies fourth out of the five
numbered symphonies (with only the Scottish to follow). It was with the result. I thought the LSO trombone section and
first performed in 1840, the year after another symphony with my tenors and basses got it just about right.’
voices – Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette – was completed and first Compositional sleights of hand draw our attention
performed. Berlioz becomes an unlikely countersubject in our throughout the score, prompting purrs of delight from
conversation: he kindles in Gardiner a fire of advocacy (in Gardiner – ‘It’s unbelievably good. There isn’t a weak bar
words and performance) perhaps even more fierce than the in this symphony.’ Few are more magical than the sinfonia’s
steady blaze of his work for Bach. second movement, where Mendelssohn weaves a Tchaikovskian
The hybrid nature of the Second Symphony has given rise waltz (40 years before the Serenade for Strings) within
to misunderstanding in its reception, and Gardiner is a chorale harmonisation of the motto theme. As the conductor
characteristically forthright in assigning the blame for this explains, the subsequent Adagio religioso goes further,
category error. ‘It was Wagner who started the cant about the in combining ‘the church-music form which the composer
Lobgesang being a poor cousin to the Ninth Symphony,’ he says. inherited from Bach – the cantata – with a neoclassical sense
‘Idiotic simplicity’ was Wagner’s term, but there are remarkably of symphonic structure written for the concert hall’.
few precedents for this motto-theme symphony. ‘Well, there’s The opening chorus of the cantata is structured with
always the Symphonie fantastique,’ says Gardiner, with a twinkle. terraced tempo markings that start nippily and get gradually
First, that motto theme. ‘If you do that too ponderously and quicker – ‘but then there’s nowhere for the choir to go’, says
pompously at the outset’, cautions Gardiner, ‘you’re committed Gardiner. ‘The LSO is respectful of the Monteverdi Choir, as
throughout the symphony, and it can become sanctimonious, the Choir is of the LSO: there’s mutual admiration and support.
lugubrious, dull. Of course it needs dignity, yet if you do it too ‘The LSO has this capacity, which I cherish so much,
quickly it can sound flippant. It’s got to be rousing, a call to of being able to scale down dynamically without losing energy
arms, a call to all humankind, like a Benedicite: ‘everything and power. That’s very tricky to do with modern instruments.
that hath breath praise the Lord’. Actually I was pretty pleased With period instruments you can encourage them to play at

The historical view

Robert Schumann
Reporting on the premiere,
which took place in Leipzig, June 25, 1840
There broke forth in the audience
a whispering which counts for more in
the church than loud applause in the
concert hall. It was like a glimpse into
heaven of Raphael’s Madonna’s eyes.
The Musical Times
March 1, 1849
While Beethoven began, Mendelssohn
ended with his full strength … with
deference, we are compelled to own our
preference for the Lobgesang over the
[Ninth Symphony] to which its peculiar
form is undeniably to be traced.
Eric Werner
Mendelssohn: A New Image
of the Composer and His Age
(Free Press of Glencoe: 1963)
His least inspired work … The motto theme
was not and is not organically built into
the rest of the work … The Lobgesang
is justly forgotten.

72 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk

 THE MUSICIAN AND THE SCORE
full tilt, and you’re not going to threaten the balance between
choir and orchestra. But with a chamber choir and a modern
symphony orchestra, you’ve got to be on the qui vive the
whole time: if you allow the first chorus to get out
of proportion, you’re stuffed for the rest of the piece.’
Mendelssohn was happy to conduct the first performance
with 500 musicians. Gardiner seems equally happy not to.
‘Nothing would tempt me to do a choral society version of
Lobgesang. That was part of what Mendelssohn saw as his
mission, extending his musical message – which could be
perceived as too precious, too self-consciously aesthetic – to
a bourgeois audience. But if you inflate Mendelssohn, you can
kill off the refinement and the filigree textures.’
Casting of soloists is important in this regard. ‘I wanted
a tenore di grazia’, says Gardiner, ‘and Michael Spyres is
a Rossinian tenor who sings Berlioz wonderfully, with a great
sensibility for words. In Lucy Crowe I had a lyrical soprano
with the capacity to sing with incredible transparency and
simplicity. And the mezzo Jurgita Adamonyté blended well,
but there’s rather little for her to do.’ She joins Crowe for the
duet ‘Ich harrete des Herrn’, which, for Gardiner and many
others, is ‘the most beautiful of all. It’s sublime, the way the
two sopranos are used as a fauxbourdon above the choral line.’ © Gerard Collett

‘Haydn’s The Seasons and The Creation

stand as godparents to Lobgesang’
The symphony’s dramatic high point arrives after the
climax of the tenor aria – ‘Hüter, ist die Nacht bald hin?’
(‘Watchman, will the night soon pass?’) – with the soprano’s
cry of ‘Die Nacht ist vergangen’ (‘The night has passed’).
But for Gardiner, the real coup de foudre comes after that,
with his silencing of the orchestra for an unaccompanied
setting of the chorale ‘Nun danket alle Gott’. ‘The day has
dawned so we’re here on Earth. What are we going to do?
We’re going to pray. We’re going to be Lutheran muezzins
– greeting the dawn and thanking our maker for the start
of a new day. And it’s incredibly poignant.
‘It’s like a followspot suddenly focusing on the chorus,’
continues Gardiner. ‘And you hear this arresting and
touching celebration of two people: Luther and Bach. If you
look at the harmonies they aren’t truly Bachian – and aren’t
meant to be – but he is there, lurking in the background.’ So
is Haydn. ‘It’s significant that Mendelssohn conducted The BIS2279 Hybrid SACD
Creation earlier in 1840. That and The Seasons stand as

THE NEW
godparents to Lobgesang.’
The nature of that relationship is most warmly evident after
the chorale, in the soprano-tenor duet ‘Drum sing’ ich mit

ALBUM
meinem Liede’. ‘It’s not as if the night passing is a finite
victory,’ says Gardiner. ‘The duet brings us back to the conflict
P H OTO G R A P H Y: C H R I S C H R I STO D O U LO U, B E N G I B S O N

which will be renewed every 24 hours. This is domestic

music-making. The homeliness of it belongs with Part 3 of
The Creation. And it leads perfectly into the final chorus.’
For the conductor, belatedly coming to terms with
the symphony has been nothing short of a revelation.
Discussing it in context of the other four in the cycle, he
remarks unprompted: ‘It’s a horrendous thing to do, but
in terms of artistic substance and quality, if forced to choose,
I would put Lobgesang first. Then the Scottish second, the
Reformation third and the Italian fourth. And I love the
Italian to bits!’
OUT 15 SEPTEMBER
Marketed and distributed in the UK by
Select Music and Video Distribution Ltd, 3 Wells Place, Redhill RH1 3SL
T: +44 (0)1737 645 600 E: cds@selectmusic.co.uk
Available for download in studio master quality from www.eclassical.com
For international distribution see www.bis.se

Read Gramophone’s review of Gardiner’s Lobgesang in the next issue

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 73

Chamber
Harriet Smith welcomes piano
quartets by Dvořák and Suk:
‘The musicians are steeped in the Czech tradition,
which for the string players means warmth and
an unfettered ease’ REVIEW ON PAGE 78
Arban
‘Fantasies on Verdi Operas’
Fantasies on Attila, Un ballo in maschera, Don
Carlos, Ernani, La forza del destino, I Lombardi,
Luisa Miller, Oberto, Rigoletto, Simon
Boccanegra, La traviata, Il trovatore and
I vespri siciliani, plus the Miserere from
Il trovatore
Angelo Cavallo cornet Michele Fontana pf
Dynamic F b CDS7784 (120’ • DDD)
Wagner relates how,
during his youthful
stay in Paris, he kept
body and soul together
by arranging operatic melodies for the
cornet à piston. When the results proved
unplayable, he blew half his fee on having
them rewritten by a pro. Jean-Baptiste
Arban (1825-89) would have made no such
mistake. This Paganini of the cornet was a
hugely influential figure in French brass-
playing during the Second Empire and his
compositions served as showcases for his
own brilliant technique as well as being
aimed at the sizeable amateur market.
That these 14 Fantasias are formulaic
goes without saying; they’re vehicles for
melody, garnished with just enough
virtuosity to impress a salon audience.
Thirteen Verdi operas from Oberto to the
then up-to-the-minute La forza del destino
provide the melodies: Arban alternates
fast and slow, with at least one variation
in triplets or semiquavers in each case.
Nothing here quite develops the whirligig
brilliance of Arban’s famous variations on
Carnival of Venice but there’s a reasonable
amount of dialogue between instruments
and in some of the later pieces – such
as the fantasy on the Miserere from
Il trovatore – Arban attempts something
a bit more formally ambitious. But
not much.
Angelo Cavallo plays more or less
cleanly, with light vibrato and a pleasant
tone; but I felt that his performances
could have been a bit more daring, more
characterful – in a word, more operatic.
74 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Rob Cowan listens to Ilya
Gringolts playing Stravinsky:
‘Gringolts’s playing is pure filigree while
both he and his pianist combine delicacy
with a sense of play’ REVIEW ON PAGE 81
Michele Fontana, on piano, is alert,
crisp and frequently witty, and the
chamber-size acoustic is inoffensive.
Cornet aficionados looking for a
reference set can snap this up with
confidence. Verdi completists and lovers
of 19th-century lollipops will enjoy
dipping into it: honestly, and with the
best will in the world, I couldn’t
recommend doing much more than
that. Richard Bratby
Barsanti . Handel
‘Edinburgh 1742’
Barsanti Concerti grossi, Op 3 Nos 1-5.
A Collection of Old Scots Tunes
Handel Concerto for French Horns,
HWV331a. March from Ptolemy.
Alcina – Sta nell’Ircana pietrosa tanab
b
Emilie Renard mez aAlec Frank-Gemmill, aJoseph
Walters hns Ensemble Marsyas / Peter Whelan
Linn F CKD567 (68’ • DDD • T/t)
The music of
Francesco Barsanti
(c1690-1775) normally
only makes it on to a
recording when it shows its Scottish accent.
The Lucca-born composer spent eight
years in the service of the Edinburgh
Musical Society between two lengthy spells
in London, and titbits from his A Collection
of Old Scots Tunes regularly surface
whenever a disc or concert has Scottish
Baroque as its subject. Rarely, rarely, comes
any of his other music, and on the evidence
of this release one really has to wonder
why. His six published opus numbers
include a set of 10 concerti grossi, Op 3,
five of them for trumpet, oboes and strings
and five for two horns, timpani and strings;
and in the expert hands of Ensemble
Marsyas and their horn players Alec Frank-
Gemmill and Joseph Walters, the latter
turn out to be works of enormous joy and
spirit. Their sound world will be familiar
to many from Handel’s Water Music, and
while the minuet finales sound as if they
could almost be lost numbers from that
work, the chortling energy Barsanti
conjures in his allegros has an abandon that
might just have been a bit too boisterous
for a royal river party.
The Handel connection – he and
Barsanti certainly knew each other – is
recognised in the great man’s Concerto
for two horns, HWV331 (an arrangement
of two movements from the Water Music),
a march from Tolomeo and the superb
‘Sta nell’Ircana pietrosa tana’ from Alcina.
Emilie Renard is the soprano here, and
no less boldly magnificent is she than the
horns that blow through not only this
piece but virtually the whole disc like an
invigorating and cleansing wind.
Barsanti the ‘Scotsman’ is also heard in
four Scots Tunes sweetly and idiomatically
played by violinist Colin Scobie. Michael
Talbot supplies a booklet-note that stokes
fascination with this neglected figure
and, this being a Linn recording, the
sound is naturally stunning. Once again
Baroque music surprises and delights!
Lindsay Kemp
Beethoven . Mozart
Beethoven Violin Sonata No 1, Op 12 No 1
Mozart Violin Sonatas – No 18, K301; No 21,
K304; No 26, K378
Ji Young Lim vn Dong Hyek Lim pf
Warner Classics F 9029 58395-0 (68’ • DDD)
PR blurbs can
be revealing. The
cover states that
the violinist Ji Young
Lim is ‘accompanied by fellow South
Korean Dong Hyek Lim’. No she isn’t;
both Mozart and Beethoven were explicit
that these sonatas were for keyboard
accompanied by violin. But if the idea
that either player in a duo sonata has a
secondary role harks back to an earlier
generation, so too, you might think,
do these performances: played with a
distinctly creative approach to dynamics
and a glossy, generous vibrato. Period
style? Not here.
gramophone.co.uk

Taste and precision: Arcangelo recording Buxtehude at St Jude-on-the-Hill in Hampstead, London – see review on page 78
Instead, these are hugely enjoyable
performances on their own unashamedly
romantic terms. The minuet finale of K304
becomes a tragic slow movement, complete
with halting rubato and drooping
portamentos, and the opening bars of
the Andantino of K378 have a delicacy and
fragrance more suited to Chopin: Mozart
as Dresden figurine. And why not, when
it sounds as sincere and spontaneous as
this? There’s nothing contrived about
this playing. Ji Young Lim has a rather
affecting way of moulding her tone over
a phrase and Dong Hyek Lim’s playing
is bright and lively. They’re both clearly
on the same page; occasionally relentless
(the finale of K301 is slightly stiff) but
fresh and urgent in each of Mozart’s
first movements.
And when, with a grandiose opening
chord, they launch themselves at the
Beethoven, it fits like a glove. All right,
not stylistically, perhaps, but there’s a
directness and an ardour here that the
young Beethoven would surely have
P H O T O G R A P H Y: R O B B I E J O N E S
endorsed. The recorded sound has just
the slightest suggestion of having been
artificially weighted towards the violin.
But everything about this disc is a little
bit over the top and, I have to say,
I enjoyed it a lot. Richard Bratby
gramophone.co.uk
Boccherini
Six String Trios, Op 34 G101-106
La Ritirata
Glossa F b GCD923105 (123’ • DDD)
From Colúmna Musica 1CM0258 & 1CM0275,
recorded 2010-11
The string trio is
usually thought of in
its Classical format,
for one each of violin,
viola and cello. It sprang virtually from
nowhere with its first masterpiece, Mozart’s
Divertimento, K563, and was followed by a
handful of youthful works by Beethoven and
two by Schubert. Before that, however, there
was a vogue for trios consisting of a pair of
violins with cello – ostensibly the Baroque
trio sonata without the keyboard instrument.
Haydn wrote a string of such trios during
his first decade as Esterházy Kapellmeister,
including one anomalous one for violin, viola
and cello; these are not inconsiderable works,
even if many of them remain to be recorded.
The trick is, of course, to effect the fullness
of sound available to the string quartet but
with one of the middle voices absent.
La Ritirata here opt for a set of six by
Haydn’s younger contemporary, Luigi
CHAMBER REVIEWS
3 Boccherini. These date from 1781, so
gone are the remnants of trio sonata
texture and in comes a full vocabulary of
Classical gestures. Being one of the early
practitioners of the Sturm und Drang style,
Boccherini explores minor tonalities,
notably in episodes of the Rondeau finale
of Trio No 2 in G and at the opening of
No 4 in D. The cello functions as more
than just a bass instrument, being offered
singing solos in the closing Rondeau of
No 3 in E flat, for example.
The performances – remastered from
originals recorded in March 2010 and May
2011 but which received little circulation
outside Spain – pay the music full respect.
We are not told the age or make of any
of the three instruments but they blend
together well, strings of thirds in the violins
especially ringing out beautifully. And
the music itself is a cut above the usual
offerings of those composers in the
‘second division’ below Mozart and Haydn,
with a particular memorability after only a
couple of listenings that can’t always be
relied on in some of these composers’
contemporaries. Good that Glossa has
rescued these recordings, and a treat for
those who enjoy discovering what was
going on outside Vienna (and Eisenstadt)
in the later 18th century. David Threasher
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 75
 2017
REFORMATION
ANNIVERSARY

HMM 902265 HMM 902325 HMM 902323

bach Cantatas bwv 79 & 80 FELIX MENDELSSOHN Johann sebastian bach

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto Cantatas for bass
brahms
vaughan williams Symphony no.5 “Reformation” Concerto for oboe d’amore
The Hebrides
Choir of Clare College Cambridge
Matthias Goerne
Graham Ross Isabelle Faust Katharina Arfken
Freiburger Barockorchester Freiburger Barockorchester
Pablo Heras-Casado Gottfried von der Goltz

harmoniamundi.com

Expressive power: Clarinettist Fraser Langton, viola player Rosalind Ventris and pianist James Willshire recording music by Rory Boyle for Delphian
Boismortier
‘Sonatas & Trios’
Sonatas: Op 37 – No 2; No 5; Op 41 – No 2;
No 3; No 4; Op 50 – No 6. La Caverneuse.
La Décharnée. La Marguillère. La Valetudinaire
Le Petit Trianon
Ricercar F RIC381 (69’ • DDD)
Joseph Boismortier
(1689-1755) may
be well represented
on disc but it’s fair
to say that his name rarely sets the pulse
truly racing. In fact, although on the face
of it he shares a huge amount in common
with his German contemporary Georg
Philipp Telemann, it’s hard to picture a
world in which a Boismortier anniversary
would be celebrated with as much
enthusiasm as Telemann’s 250th is
currently being. The Frenchman’s music
just feels that little bit more obviously
commercial and wallpapery; it’s best
consumed within multi-composer
programmes, and ideally through one
of his more off-piste instrumental
combinations so that at least there’s
some timbral exoticism to get your
teeth into.
gramophone.co.uk
All of which is to say that for Le Petit
Trianon to have genuinely pulled off this
all-Boismortier chamber programme is no
mean feat, particularly with their
thoroughly standard line-up of flute, violin,
bassoon, cello and harpsichord. There’s
some exceptionally elegant playing across
the disc; gentle, light, expertly blended and
with subtle but effective shading. There’s
also an impressive amount of variety, the
six trios drawn from three different opus
collections (albeit all composed between
1732 and 1736), and punctuated with four
rather sweet character pieces for
harpsichord. There’s even the occasional
more distinctive Boismortier moment; a
highlight is the genuinely magical opening
Affecttuoso of Sonata No 3 from Op 41,
where hurdy-gurdy-esque drones hang
in the air like meadow perfume as a softly
pastoral flute lilts and coos above.
The trios aren’t entirely without their
vaguely flashy moments either, such as the
fast-flowing passagework of the Vivace of
Sonata No 5 from Op 37; cellist Cyril
Poulet deserves especial mention here for
the delicacy he’s retained across his own
racing figures, where rougher hands might
have served up uncouth scrubbing.
This may not be repertoire guaranteed
to hold your ears and brains captive; but, as
CHAMBER REVIEWS
uncomplicated yet beautiful music to let
roll over you, this recording fits the bill.
Charlotte Gardner
Boyle
Four Bagatellesa. Burble. Di Tre Re e iob.
Dramatis personaea. Sonatinaa. Tatty’s Dancea
Fraser Langton cl bRosalind Ventris va
a
James Willshire pf
Delphian F DCD34172 (60’ • DDD)
Music of high
organisation, clarity
and expressive power
here from Rory Boyle,
born in Ayr in 1951 and currently professor
of composition at the Royal Conservatoire
of Scotland. Boyle’s rigour when it comes
to form is notable – maybe too notable –
in his Sonatina for clarinet and piano of
1979, dedicated to his sometime teacher
Lennox Berkeley. But while the piece can
feel like a rollercoaster cart being yanked
on to the ‘correct’ tracks of recapitulation
and development, etc, it reveals the
composer’s gift for clear and almost
vernacular-style melodies.
Boyle obviously found ways of disrupting
that status quo and that is what I find most
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 77
CHAMBER REVIEWS
thrilling in the music that ensues on this
largely chronological album. For all its
fluency, his music can sound racked by
neurosis, as in the grippingly contrary
piano-writing in No 1 of his Four Bagatelles
(1979, rev. 2014). The niggling, repeated D
in No 2 shows that the composer means
business but also that, on occasion, his
ideas are good enough to be pursued and
pushed a little more.
In Dramatis personae Boyle consciously
undermines the watertight structures he
has created: ‘Rogue’ suffers an evocative
power-out; ‘Shadow’ sinks into its own
despondency (magnificent quiet playing
here from Langton); and ‘Fool’ trips over
its own patterning. Di Tre Re i io, inspired
by Honegger’s Fifth Symphony, is a
lesson in how a homage should drive
the secondary composer to energy and
even neurosis but never to sycophancy
or pastiche. Not a groundbreaking or
hugely distinctive voice but an honest,
interesting and disciplined one that has
clearly touched the musicians on this
recording. Langton’s technique is sure,
his musicianship all-encompassing and
his head balanced with his heart. James
Willshire is just as uncompromising
on keys but, frustratingly, does seem
compromised by an uncouth instrument.
Andrew Mellor
Buxtehude
Trio Sonatas, Op 1 BuxWV252-258
Arcangelo / Jonathan Cohen hpd
Alpha F ALPHA367 (59’ • DDD)
In their quickly
expanding discography
Jonathan Cohen’s
Arcangelo are showing
themselves to be among the most versatile
ensembles around, as at home in Bach’s
B minor Mass as Couperin’s Leçons de
Ténèbres, in Mendelssohn concert arias as
in Monteverdi madrigals. This is their first
release entirely devoted to instrumental
chamber music, for which they have chosen
the first of Buxtehude’s two published
books of trio sonatas, his Op 1 of 1694.
Buxtehude’s trios are not so much in the
planned-out Corellian mould as the freer-
formed stylus phantasticus manner of the
mid-17th century, even breaking into
quasi-recitative in places, though there
are also solidly crafted moments to
remind us of the composer’s eminence as
an organist. They differ, too, from most
other trio sonatas in that their upper parts
are for violin and viola da gamba rather
than two equal-tessitura instruments, with
78 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
resultant losses in lightness and gains in
richness and depth.
A factor that has allowed Arcangelo to
be so adaptable is the ever-effective policy
of employing top-rate musicians; and,
with violinist Sophie Gent and gambist
Jonathan Manson proving masters of this
music’s sometimes virtuoso demands and
Thomas Dunford among the most sought-
after continuo lutenists of the moment,
the standards here are as high as ever. The
shifting moods of the music are realised
with taste and precision – whether dancing,
indulging in earnest chromatic twisting
or yielding to exuberance (Dunford
twice ends a sonata with a rather Arabic
flourish) – yet each sonata’s composure
is successfully preserved.
The gamba being gentler than the violin,
the balance of attention can swing to its
disadvantage, and it seems to me that the
recording could have compensated for that
a little more; Manson’s eloquent playing
certainly demands a better hearing, yet on
occasion drifts even behind the lute. The
lute, by the way, is also more prominent
than Cohen’s harpsichord, which may or
may not be deliberate. Fine performances
nonetheless. Lindsay Kemp
Dvořák . Suk
Dvořák Piano Quartet No 2, Op 87 B162
Suk Piano Quartet, Op 1
Josef Suk Piano Quartet
Supraphon F SU4227-2 (61’ • DDD)
The Josef Suk Piano
Quartet take their
name from the great
violinist rather than
his composer grandfather, whose Op 1
they perform. Confused? Don’t be. All
four musicians are steeped in the Czech
tradition, which in terms of the string
players means warmth and an unfettered
ease that is very engaging. Climaxes are
full-throated but never overstated – just
listen to the way the first movement of
Dvo∑ák’s Second Piano Quartet ebbs
and flows, one moment surging forwards,
the next brought down to the quietest of
dynamics. In the slow movement the
cello’s opening melody might not have
quite the heightened quality of Torleif
Thedéen in the 2012 ‘Martha Argerich
Presents’ (what a crying shame that this
wonderful Lugano festival is no more),
but how tender the Suk players are in the
passage from 1'28". The third movement
(too relaxed to be called a scherzo) is full
of colour, not least the piano’s imitation
of a cimbalom at 2'09". The finale is
wonderfully well paced, fully bringing
out its exuberant boot-stamping rusticities
which contrast so well with the lovingly
moulded slower passages. I find the
Lugano players a little breathless by
comparison – it is, after all, marked
Allegro, ma non troppo.
How enterprising to couple the quartet
not with more Dvo∑ák but with the
A minor Piano Quartet of his son-in-law
Josef Suk. Mind you, marriage was some
years off when he wrote the quartet,
aged just 17 and a student in Dvo∑ák’s
composition class. What’s striking is
its sheer confidence, and the fact that it
doesn’t sound like Dvo∑ák. It’s given the
best possible advocacy by these players –
just listen to the individuality of the
textures in the development of the first
movement, a driving Allegro appassionato.
Heart is very much on sleeve in the
ravishing slow movement, which opens
(like Dvo∑ák’s) with a raptly sung cello
melody. The players relish, too, the
dancing inner section, and their way
with the close of the movement is poised
indeed. The leaping finale leaves you
marvelling at Suk’s maturity and the
imaginative way in which he varies the
reappearances of the main theme. All is
given with aplomb, right down to the
slightly over-the-top closing bars.
Harriet Smith
Dvo∑ák – selected comparison:
Leschenko, Gringolts, Braude, Thedéen
(8/13) (EMI) 721119-2
Hakim
Phèdrea. Caprice en rondeaub.
Diptyqueb. Piano Concertoc
a
Rima Tawil sop bMagali Mosnier fl
c
Renaud Bary db abNaji Hakim, cClaire Foison pf
c
Chapelle Royale Quartet
Signum F SIGCD498 (60’ • DDD)
Composers and
performers alike
may strive for an
improvisatory impulse
in their music-making, but that’s rather
different from allowing improvisatory
freedom to render standard compositional
checks and balances redundant. Naji
Hakim’s status as one of the great
improvising organists has fuelled much
of his colourful and original music but
in the case of the works presented here –
particularly the more recent ones – it helps
explain why the music feels so unerring,
sprawling and soulless.
Structurally, the most satisfying piece
on the disc is Hakim’s 1997 cantata for
gramophone.co.uk

soprano and piano Phèdre, probably
because Racine’s scenes prescribe their
own floor plan. Still, the piece doesn’t
have the harmonic adventure of some
of the composer’s later works and Rima
Tawil’s mannered singing, complete with
wide vibrato, doesn’t do it many favours.
Hakim borrows themes from Rameau
and Pergolesi in his Caprice en rondeau
(1998) and Diptyque (2014), both for
flute and piano. We hear flashes of the
composer at his best, mashing up the
French organ and fairground music
traditions in the latter’s ‘Humoresque’.
The problem is that, despite charismatic
performances from Magali Mosnier with
Hakim on the piano, every paragraph
flourishes and frolics as though it wants
to be the last.
Hakim’s Piano Concerto (2015) – cast
here for piano and string quintet, though
the skimpy booklet notes don’t tell us
what this ‘version’ derives from – seems
to throw the formal rigour that Hakim can
exercise out of the window. It is a string
of improvisatory dances played without
much subtlety (not least from the faltering
quartet) but with plenty of relish. You get
the impression, rather like an outlandish
organ improvisation, that it was more fun
in the execution than it is in the audition.
Andrew Mellor
Sarah Connolly © Peter Warren
gramophone.co.uk
Maxwell Davies
The Last Island. A Postcard from Sanday. String
Trio. Two Nocturnes. Lullaby. Oboe Quartet.
A Birthday Card for Jennifer. Violin Sonata.
String Quartet Movement
Hebrides Ensemble
Delphian F DCD34178 (77’ • DDD)
A keen sense of time
and place – and
increasingly of man’s
transient existence
within it – forms an important theme in
Maxwell Davies’s late chamber music.
Seven of the works contained on this
excellent recording by the Hebrides
Ensemble were written during the
composer’s final decade and each one
engages with this subject in different ways.
The Last Island (2009), for string sextet, is
one of several works inspired by the unique
atmosphere of Orcadian island life, which
Davies experienced for over half his life.
Melodic fragments are caught up in the
music’s opening ebb and flow like jetsam
and flotsam on the shore, reflecting, in the
composer’s words, ‘the wonder of ever-
changing light of sea and sky, yet strangely
threatened with menace, even on the
brightest of days’.
SAT 14 OCT, 7.30pm
SARAH CONNOLL
LY
joins AURORA OR
RCHESTRA
A to sayy about Saarah
Mozart’s Piano:
Vienna, City of Dreams
Mozart Piano Concerto
No. 11 in F, K413
(version for piano and string quartet)
Mahler Piano Quartet in A minor
Mahler (arr. Farrington)
Das Lied von der Erde
PRE-CONCERT TALK
Nicholas Collon and Iain Farrington
discuss Mahler’s epic symphonic
song cycle – 6.15pm
tickets online from £9.50
CHAMBER REVIEWS
The work ends with a fragment of
plainsong, reminding us that man’s imprint
is never far away in Davies’s music. The
String Trio (2008) also concludes with a
quotation, this time of traditional Orkney
fiddle music. However, a subdued ending
is only reached via a dissonant and tortuous
journey reflecting the work’s harrowing
subject matter, composed in memory of
26-year-old Karen Aim, murdered while
holidaying in New Zealand.
The transient nature of time and place
is brought into sharper focus in the febrile
temporal distortions and dislocations of
the Two Nocturnes (2010), for piano
quintet, which sees the composer come
face-to-face with his own mortality. Its
shadows cut across the shafts of light that
illuminate the Violin Sonata, while lurking
beneath the soaring lines of the late Oboe
Quartet (2012), brilliantly controlled
and sustained in Emanuel Abbühl’s
performance. Even more profoundly,
death’s valedictory cadence punctuates the
closing moments of a movement for string
quartet that sadly remains incomplete.
The unique character of Davies’s late
style is grasped and understood in the
Hebrides Ensemble’s highly nuanced
performances, described by the composer
as ‘a crew of a ship that comes into harbour
now and again with supplies. And not just
‘Whaat can there be leftt
Connnolly, whoose
perfoormances these
days are prettyy much
beyonnd praise?? ’
Gram mophone
THE LOCK-IN
After the concert, embark
on late night Viennese adventures
with ZRI – 9.45pm
90 York Way, London N1 9AG
kingsplace.co.uk/mp2017 | follow us: žŘ
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 79
 Edition

Profil Günter
Hänssler
NEW
Johann Adolf Hasse I
Pietro Metastasio
Attilio Regolo
Opera in three acts
Axel Köhler · Markus Schäfer
Martina Borst · Sibylla Rubens
Carmen Fuggiss · Michael Volle
Randall Wong
Cappella Sagittariana, Dresden
Frieder Bernius
3 CD PH07035
TECCHLER’S CELLO
3 CD FROM CAMBRIDGE TO ROME
GUY JOHNSTON

Anton Bruckner – The Collection

Symphonies 00 – 9,
Works for Piano, String Quartet,
String Quintet, Mass in C major,
Mass in F minor, Mass in E minor,
Te Deum, Latin Motets, Organ
Works, Piano Works, Motets,
Missa solemnis, Psalm 112,
Psalm 146, Psalm 150, Requiem
Fine Arts Quartet · Fritz Wunderlich
TECCHLER’S CELLO
Christiane Oelze · Pamela Coburn
FROM CAMBRIDGE TO ROME
Matthias Goerne · Michael Schade
Andreas Schmidt · Dresdner Kreuzchor
Philharmonischer Chor München
GUY JOHNSTON
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen
23 CD Rundfunks · Deutsches Symphonie-
Orchester Berlin · Staatskapelle Dresden
Gächinger Kantorei · Radio-Sinfonie-
orchester Stuttgart des SWR
Bach-Collegium Stuttgart · Philharmonie
Festiva · Bamberger Symphoniker
Herbert von Karajan · Christian Thielemann
Bernard Haitink · Günter Wand
Klaus Tennstedt · Kurt Sanderling
Helmuth Rilling · Gerd Schaller
23 CD PH16059 CD | DOWNLOAD | STREAM

Sviatoslav Richter plays Schubert

Live in Moscow, 1949 - 1963 Join Guy Johnston as he traces the roots
Special guests:
Benjamin Britten · Nina Dorliac of his 300-year-old cello with the help of
10 CD PH17005 friends from across his musical life.

10 CD also available: Featuring Sheku Kanneh-Mason,

Sviatoslav Richter plays Beethoven
Mstislav Rostropovich Tom Poster, Stephen Cleobury and the
USSR Symphony Orchestra Choir of King’s College, Cambridge,
Moscow Philharmonic
Kurt Sanderling · Kirill Kondrashin with music by Beethoven, Barrière, Respighi
12 CD PH16030 and Gjeilo alongside new works from
12 CD
Charlotte Bray, Mark Simpson
YEVGENY MRAVINSKY Edition and David Matthews.
Vol. III
Tchaikovsky, Bach, Wagner,
Scriabin, Kalinnikov, Bruckner,
Shostakovich
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra
www.kingscollegerecordings.com
6 CD PH17019
also available:
PH15000, PH16026

6 CD

Profil
Edition
Günter
www.haensslerprofil.de
Hänssler
Profil Medien GmbH & Hänssler Classic
Hauffstr. 41 . D-73765 Neuhausen a. d . F.
Fon: 0 71 58 -9 87 85 21 . Fax: 0 71 58 -70 91 80
info@haensslerprofil.de
www.haensslerprofil.de
www.naxos.com

the bare essentials. There are always
surprises, little treats that one isn’t
expecting.’ Pwyll ap Siôn
Mozart
‘Violin Sonatas, Vol 4’
Violin Sonatas – No 2, K8; No 8, K13; No 11, K26;
No 13, K28; No 20, K303; No 25, K377; No 26,
K378; No 30, K403. Variations on ‘Hélas, j’ai
perdu mon amant’, K360
Alina Ibragimova vn Cédric Tiberghien pf
Hyperion B b CDA68164 (119’ • DDD)
Scarcely a note of
adverse criticism has
attended the three
previous issues in this
delightful series of accompanied sonatas
from Cédric Tiberghien and Alina
Ibragimova (5/16, 10/16, 4/17), and that
situation’s not about to change now. To
describe these performances as ‘perfect’
could be considered glib; but there is a
specific ‘rightness’ to just about everything
you hear. The playing – well, that can be
taken for granted from these musicians.
But there’s more to these pieces than just
getting the notes right. There’s a lot of
repetition, especially in the earlier works
and in the various variations (those in the
sonatas as well as the big set on disc 1),
and the temptation could be to go to town
with the ornamentation. Ibragimova and
Tiberghien are more subtle than that,
inflecting the reprises ever so slightly
with a little distension of tempo or flash
of vibrato, almost as if playing through
the second time with an eyebrow
quizzically raised.
Then there’s the balance. Reviewers
must be fed up rehearsing the fact that
these are sonatas for piano with violin
accompaniment; readers too, I’m sure,
barely need reminding. But here,
performers and engineers alike have
made sure that the one instrument doesn’t
swamp or outshine the other, and that
neither is unduly spotlit. It all sounds
and feels utterly natural.
Others may question the need to include
all the earliest works, juvenilia even by
Mozart’s prodigious standards. Ibragimova
and Tiberghien, however, play them with
all the seriousness of purpose that they
lavish on the later, greater works.
Thereby, nothing seems out of place or
included simply for spurious reasons of
completeness. Each disc is bookended
with a ‘big’ work (including K403, left
unfinished but filled in by Mozart’s musical
executor Maximilian Stadler, and the wild
two-movement K303); in between
gramophone.co.uk
come the earlier works and the G minor
Variations. The whole enterprise is near-
impossible to fault. Six sonatas left now
to complete the cycle, a set that will surely
become the modern reference recording.
David Threasher
Schurmann
‘Chamber Music, Vol 3’
Piano Quartetsa – No 1; No 2.
Serenadeb. Two Violinsc
b
Martin Beaver vn aMikhail Korzhev pf
Lyris Quartet (acAlyssa Park, cShalini Vijayan vns
a
Luke Maurer va aTimothy Loo vc)
Toccata Classics F TOCC0336 (73’ • DDD)
Toccata Classics
renews its coverage
of Gerard Schurmann,
Javanese-born British
composer resident in the US. Early
established for his film scores, Schurmann
only latterly focused on chamber music and
his two piano quartets are notable additions
to this overlooked genre.
Starkly contrasted too – the First Piano
Quartet (1986) emphasising charged
emotions such that the simmering unease
of ‘Ricercare’ intensifies into the headlong
energy of ‘Capriccio’, before ‘Corale’
affords a measure of calm yet hardly passive
resolution. If the Second Piano Quartet
(1998) is outwardly a more equable work,
shades of expressive ambiguity are rarely
beneath the surface of the initial Allegro;
its successor deftly combining scherzo
and Adagio in the way speculative gestures
expand into relatively long-breathed
melodic lines, though the final Allegro
seems a little too short-winded to make
for a wholly satisfying conclusion.
British composers have added
considerably to the corpus of music for
solo violin – witness Benjamin Frankel’s
sonatas and Roberto Gerhard’s Chaconne;
Schurmann’s Serenade (1969) stands
among these. Its nine short movements can
be heard as two animated groups which the
Pastorale (4) then the Tranquillo (8) counter
with increasing repose, before the piece
turns full-circle by recalling earlier material
in the final Pesante. Two Violins (2015)
comprises six vignettes, their close-knit
imitative writing leavened by droll
character-types that commence with the
resolve of ‘Parading’ then conclude with
the impetus of ‘Chasing’.
As with earlier discs in this series,
the performances are as attentive to this
music’s exacting technical demands as to
its expressive subtleties. With excellent
sound and detailed booklet notes, this is
CHAMBER REVIEWS
a worthwhile addition to the discography
of a composer now in his 94th year.
Richard Whitehouse
Stravinsky
Rouget de Lisle La Marseillaise (arr Stravinsky)
Stravinsky Duo concertant. Pastorale. The
Firebird – Suite. Mavra – Chanson russe. The
Nightingale – Airs du rossignol; Marche chinoise.
Petrushka – Danse russe. Pulcinella – Suite
Ilya Gringolts vn Peter Laul pf
BIS F Í BIS2245 (61’ • DDD/DSD)
Two gentle miniatures
programmed here are
surely among the most
carefree and seductive
that Stravinsky ever composed, the ‘Russian
Maiden’s Song’ from Mavra and the earlier
vocalise Pastorale, both played by Ilya
Gringolts with a feeling of insouciance
that I find delectable. The Firebird
sequence opens with a shimmering extract
(the Prélude from ‘Prélude et Ronde des
princesses’) that you would be unlikely to
encounter outside of the complete ballet,
whereas Petrushka’s celebrated Russian
Dance is subject to all manner of fiddling
wizardry (rocketing slides, pizzicatos,
oscillating double-stops, etc), as is
La Marseillaise, with its multiple-stopping.
In the Suite from Pulcinella, after material
lifted from Stravinsky’s ballet based on
early Italian masters, again Gringolts’s
playing is pure filigree (immaculate
harmonics in the Serenata) while both he
and pianist Peter Laul combine delicacy
with a sense of play, the latter best
demonstrated in the Tarantella.
It’s fascinating how the two passages
from the opera The Nightingale as arranged
by the violinist Samuel Dushkin sound for
all the world like Szymanowski but it’s the
Duo concertant, Stravinsky’s only original
work for violin and piano, that leaves the
strongest impression, especially the
three slow movements, the two ‘eclogues’
in particular, music that years ago was
unexpectedly used – and to superb effect –
as soundtrack material for a TV play
starring Denholm Elliott. Back then
Stravinsky’s questioning music held me
in its thrall and I straight away acquired
Joseph Szigeti’s classic Sony recording
of it (with the composer at the piano),
far more openly demonstrative than this
leaner but no less effective option by
Gringolts and Laul.
Another interesting point of comparison
in this same music is provided by Anthony
Marwood with composer-pianist Thomas
Adès (part of Hyperion’s two-disc set
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 81
SAKARI ORAMO CHIEF CONDUCTOR

&21 & ( 5 7 6      
A S S O C I AT E O R C H E S T R A AT T H E B A R B I C A N

SIBELIUS TOTAL IMMERSION OPERA & THE VOICE NEW MUSIC

COMPOSER DAYS
Sakari Oramo conducts
the complete Sibelius Full days of concerts, films
Symphonies. and discovery exploring
the life and works of Julian
Anderson, Esa-Pekka Salonen
and Leonard Bernstein.
Granados’s opera Goyescas 9 UK premieres and
under the baton of Josep recent works by
Pons, Joyce DiDonato in composers including
Jake Heggie’s opera Dead Thomas Larcher, Betsy
Man Walking and Elgar’s Jolas and Anders Hillborg.
The Dream of Gerontius.

BOOK NOW 020 7638 8891

barbican.org.uk

Carefree and seductive: Ilya Gringolts playing Stravinsky on BIS is a must for fiddle-fanciers
devoted to Stravinsky’s complete music
for violin and piano). Marwood, a fine
player, is marginally warmer in tone than
Gringolts (though maybe not quite so
ethereal), Adès distinctive in the way he
weighs and colours chords, invariably with
more character than Laul. In fact it’s his
presence rather than Marwood’s that
proves the stronger attraction on the
Hyperion set. You might also try the
Serenata from the Suite, Adès again
summoning tonal variety that isn’t quite
matched by Laul, good though he is.
Difficult to choose. On balance, I’d say
Gringolts for fiddle fanciers, Adès for those
whose main interest is in Stravinsky’s
harmonic scaffolding. Ideally, go for
both. Rob Cowan
Selected comparison:
Marwood, Adès (3/10) (HYPE) CDA67723
Tye
Complete Consort Music
P H O T O G R A P H Y: T O M A S Z T R Z E B I AT O W S K I
Phantasm
Linn F CKD571 (67’ • DDD)
A contemporary of
Tallis and Sheppard,
Christopher Tye
was a composer
gramophone.co.uk
apart. His ear for harmony, his eye for
a musical line, seem to have been guided
by a different logic to those around him.
There’s no doubting his architect’s
instinct for musical form but his
architecture is more Frank Gehry than
Inigo Jones – wilful, playful, iconoclastic
and often as baffling as it is beautiful.
This collection of his complete consort
music throws up surprise after surprise –
a revelation of a recording that offers
a startling perspective on a familiar
musical landscape.
Other recordings of this music do exist –
notably Fretwork’s ‘In nomine’ (Amon Ra,
3/88) and the rather lovely ‘Crye’ by
Concordia Viols (Metronome, 12/97) –
often pairing Tye’s works for viol consort
with those of Taverner, Tallis and Byrd. But
to hear these pieces back to back, one after
another as here, is to really get inside this
extraordinary imagination, to be caught up
short by musical blind alleys and hairpin
bends of a composer who not only invented
the characteristically English genre of the
In nomine but who also took it further than
almost any of his later imitators.
Phantasm’s craggy, deep-dug
performances follow the composer’s
instructive titles – ‘Hold fast’, ‘Follow
me’, ‘Believe me’ – to the letter, gamely
celebrating the oddities as well as the
CHAMBER REVIEWS
felicities of works whose fixation with
54 notes of plainchant by John Taverner
(taken from the Benedictus of his Missa
Gloria tibi Trinitas) has never fully been
explained. Discovering the unexpected
sensuality of the In nomine ‘Round’, the
yelping, insistent plaints of the In nomine
‘Cry’ and the provocative dramatics of the
In nomine ‘Re la re’, Phantasm are skilled
musical tour guides to Tye’s challenging
terrain. Alexandra Coghlan
‘Subito’
Grieg Violin Sonata No 3, Op 45
Lutosławski Subito Vaughan Williams The Lark
Ascending Wieniawski Fantaisie brillante sur
des motifs de l’opéra Faust de Gounod, Op 20
Julia Hwang vn Charles Matthews pf
Signum F SIGCD486 (62’ • DDD)
The appeal here,
quite aside from some
excellent playing, is
in the way the
programme has been planned. My personal
preference with Vaughan Williams’s Lark
is for the orchestral version; and while Julia
Hwang is a model of expressive purity
in the solo part and Charles Matthews
provides her with an appropriately stilled
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 83
CHAMBER REVIEWS
Old-world wit and warmth: Julia Hwang and Charles Matthews play a wide-ranging programme on their recording debut for Signum
accompaniment, as presented the bird’s
ascent seems limited to the oak rafters
of a spacious barn, beyond which lies an
imagined sky. Then comes the first surprise:
Lutosπawski’s brilliant, short-term Subito
(‘Suddenly’), like a rifle shot that shockingly
causes havoc, Hwang’s lark thrown back
to earth amid a swirling storm of feathers.
The juxtaposition all but provides us with
a totally new piece, an aural drama that
stands its ground on its own terms, even
though a mite uncomfortable.
A good idea too that the lark should have
followed on the grass-stained heels of
Grieg’s violin sonata masterpiece, the
dramatic C minor – surely the best of three,
extremely well played by a partnership that
thrives, the central Allegretto espressivo being
especially affecting. And then there’s the
second surprise: following Lutosπawski with
a gifted Pole from an earlier generation,
Henryk Wieniawski and his 17-minute
melange of tunes from Gounod’s Faust
skilfully knitted together and played by this
talented duo with a semblance of old-world
wit and warmth.
In an appreciative booklet introduction,
Andrew Nethsingha, director of music at
St John’s College, Cambridge, lets us in
on the fact that the release of this attractive
programme coincides with Julia Hwang’s
graduation. I’d say that it augurs well for
her future, so here’s hoping that her next
84 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
CD is already in the making. Excellent
notes by our own Richard Bratby. Rob Cowan
‘Vale’
Barrett Vale J Croft Deux Méditations d’une
furiea Fitch Agricola IXb Järnegard PSALMa
E Johnson émoi Pauset Eurydice
Richard Craig fls aCora Schmeiser sop
b
Distractfold Ensemble
Métier F MSV28540 (61’ • DDD)
Forget new
complexity: some of
the music on flautist
Richard Craig’s
second Métier disc might simply be called
post-everything. When there’s no tonality,
no atonality, no melody and few pitches,
what exactly is left? Quite a lot, as it
happens – and therein lies the interest.
Such technically complex, ‘post-
everything’ music paradoxically brings us
back to a primal, at times ecstatic state of
Fauvist force.
Evan Johnson’s émoi (2010) for solo bass
flute is a case in point. Here, the very act of
instrumental articulation strips the sounds
of their articulacy. The flute sounds in
question are frequently beautiful, at times
almost bird-like, as if human might become
animal through the instrument. Esaias
Järnegard’s PSALM (2013) for contrabass
flute and soprano voice conjures a
compelling drama through wispy, barely-
there sound traces. Richard Barrett’s Vale
(2006-12) for solo flute is the longest and
most vigorous work on the disc. At times
the flute behaves like an electronic oscillator
shifting through myriad changing frequency
bands; Barrett’s favoured image is a leaf
floating down a stream. As ever with
Barrett, elegance and organicism emerge
through the forbidding surface material.
The other works are slightly more
conventional. In Fabrice Fitch’s Agricola IX
(2013) for flute and string trio, phrases
from Ockeghem are stretched and
microtonally altered, giving the impression
of gagaku, with the string trio acting as a
resonator for the flute. Setting text by Jean
Tardieu, John Croft’s Deux Méditations
d’une furie (2011-13) for soprano and bass
flute are slow, burnished and meditative
pieces, wherein the sound of the bass flute
often melds with that of the singer. Brice
Pauset’s Eurydice (1998) ends the disc.
Beginning in sprightly fashion then
quietening, it spools outwards like a string
in the wind over an abyss.
Craig owns the works here. The warmth
of his tone along with a reverberant room
sound, while taking nothing away from the
compositions’ severity, succeeds in making
them approachable. Liam Cagney
gramophone.co.uk
 EW

SE
A
R E LE

7RP ĠHN
Fortepiano Sonatas
CORINNE MORRIS 3HWUD0DWÚMRY  fortepiano
SCOT T ISH CH A M B ER O RC HEST R A
Tomášek’s piano
sonatas: treasure lost
In a career shaped by extraordinary talent and re-discovered.
and remarkable determination Chrysalis is an
inspirational concerto debut.

SU 4223-2
Prague - Vienna / Journey in Songs
0DUWLQD-DQNRY  soprano
Barbara Maria Willi fortepiano
The previously
untraced journeys
of Czech songs
between Mozart’s
Prague and Vienna.
SU 4231-2

Mozart
Piano Concertos
Jan Bartoš piano
&]HFK3KLOKDUPRQLF-Lʬ%ÚORKO YHN
‘The French portion of Morris’s soul soars 'ROHĽDO4XDUWHW
in her graciously idiomatic playing.’
Belohlavek and his
— VOI X DE S A RT S superb orchestra revel in
Mozart’s dark, dramatic
harmonies, while the
soloist’s crisp articulation
‘Morris drew every ounce and singing legato are
of expression from the slow never far from the spirit
SU 4234-2

movement.’ of the composer’s

sunnier comedies.
— THE STRAD The Sunday Times

Visit our brand new website

www.supraphon.com
and subscribe to our newsletter!

'LVWULEXWHGDQGPDUNHWHGLQWKH8.E\
All albums available in Studio Master from www.linnrecords.com
Distributed in the UK by RSK Entertainment www.rskentertainment.co.uk RSK ENTERTAINMENT
Distributed in North America by Naxos of America www.naxos.com 'LVWULEXWHGDQGPDUNHWHGLQWKH86E\
www.outhere-music.com
NAXOS OF AMERICA Inc.
 ICONS

Victor de Sabata
Richard Osborne pays tribute to the fine Italian conductor and composer notable for his
interpretations of Romantic repertoire, who passed away half a century ago this December

F
ew conductors receive a standing ovation from an Debussy and Puccini. Singers were especially aware of this:
orchestra within 10 minutes of their first encounter. his celebrated accounts of Tristan und Isolde in Milan and
But that is what happened when Victor de Sabata Bayreuth were ‘light and poetical with a particular flavour
led the London Philharmonic Orchestra through Berlioz’s that most conductors are unable to obtain from an orchestra’
overture Le carnaval romain in London in April 1946. (Gertrude Grob-Prandl); his Madama Butterfly was possessed
Violinist Hugh Maguire, who would lead the London of ‘a transparency that seemed like gossamer’ (Iris Adami
Symphony Orchestra in the Monteux era, recalled: Corradetti); Giulia Tess described a Salome in which ‘the
‘De Sabata was the greatest, translucent sensuousness
the most musical conductor
I ever came across: absolutely
If there is a more complete demonstration was pure magic’.
As the distinguished Italian
overwhelming. His knowledge of an opera conductor’s art and craft musicologist Giorgio Pestelli
of the repertoire, his control, has noted, the orchestral
his command, the thought, than his Tosca, I have yet to discover it sound de Sabata aimed for
the study, the preparation – was not imposed on the
well, I didn’t know people like that existed.’ musical structure: ‘Rather, it emanated from a deep reserve of
In addition to a superfine ear and a galvanising presence, feeling that conditioned that structure.’ Writing of de Sabata’s
de Sabata possessed an astonishing memory and yet more famous 1939 Berlin Philharmonic recording of Brahms’s
astonishing instrumental skills. Stories are legion of him Fourth Symphony (DG Dokumente, 2/89), Pestelli notes how
demonstrating personally how to play difficult string the characteristic emphasis de Sabata brings to the staccatos,
arpeggiandos in Sibelius’s En saga or the flugelhorns in the pizzicatos and syncopated rhythms ‘gives the symphony
finale of Respighi’s Pines of Rome at the dizzying pitch the a gypsy colouring that blends curiously with its learned side’.
composer prescribes. ‘Un chef vraiment extraordinaire’ was The kindest of men privately, de Sabata could be a terror
Ravel’s judgement after de Sabata conducted the premiere in rehearsal. He is also remembered as an explosive presence
of L’enfant et les sortilèges – a score he had memorised within on the rostrum. Nothing of value exists on film, though the
12 hours of receiving it – in Monte Carlo in 1925. blaze of his one-time assistant Carlo Maria Giulini’s filmed
De Sabata was born in 1892 in Trieste, Austro-Hungary’s account of the Dies irae of the Verdi Requiem is said to have
most prized maritime possession. With its exotic mix of Italian, something of de Sabata about it. There are, however, many
Slav, German and Jewish traders, it was Mitteleuropa writ striking prose evocations – an example being Vienna
large. The de Sabatas were typically Triestine: Victor’s father, Philharmonic violinist Otto Strasser’s description of
a singing teacher and choral conductor, was Roman Catholic; de Sabata dancing his way through Ravel’s Boléro, keeping
his mother, an interested amateur musician, was Jewish. strict time with his left hand and making all manner of subtle
Though not blessed with the best of health, the young boy rubatos with the right. (Do not try this at home.)
was sent to Milan to study. Aged 25, he received a commission This ‘temperamental’ aspect of de Sabata’s conducting
from La Scala to compose an meant that, for better or
opera, though it was his early defining moments worse, live performances
tone poems – the emotionally often took on an existence of
explosive Juventus and •1917-18 – Composer and conductor their own. You can hear this
the lambently beautiful His opera Il macigno is commissioned by La Scala, Milan; to advantage in de Sabata’s
meditation Gethsemani he is appointed conductor of the Monte Carlo Opera. 1952 Milan performance
(both conducted by Aldo •1930 – La Scala, Milan of Verdi’s Falstaff (Music &
Ceccato for Hyperion, Succeeds Toscanini as music director of La Scala, Milan, Arts), where the evergreen
7/01) – which musicians such a post he holds until his retirement in 1953. quality of the 64-year-old
as Toscanini and Richard •1939 – Berlin and Bayreuth Mariano Stabile’s Falstaff is
Strauss chose to conduct. Makes a series of memorable recordings with the Berlin complemented by de Sabata’s
In these early orchestral Philharmonic and leads a legendary Tristan in Bayreuth. high-voltage conducting and
works we hear at first hand his relish for every jot and
those magical sound worlds – •1946 – London debut tittle of this famously
luminous, clear, nothing London musicians are astonished by a conductor ‘like no other’. protean score.
smudged or uncertain – that •1953– Illness and retirement De Sabata succeeded
would make de Sabata so Suffers a heart attack shortly after completion of the Toscanini as music director
mesmerising an interpreter of celebrated recording of Puccini’s Tosca; this signals the start of of La Scala in 1930 and
Wagner, Richard Strauss, a 14-year retirement from public life until his death in 1967. promptly resigned after

86 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk

 ICONS

Recording session for the now-legendary Tosca: (left to right) Victor de Sabata, Walter Legge, Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano and Tito Gobbi

a dispute with the orchestra over his ‘choreographic Rome for HMV. These include one of the most durable of
fairy tale’, Mille e una notte (‘A Thousand and One Nights’), all accounts of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and the first
a Bernstein-like score – ‘Richard Strauss meets Fred Astaire’, ever recording of Debussy’s Jeux, a version that has yet to be
as Philip Clark has described it – of which Riccardo Chailly surpassed (Testament, 4/98).
has made an appropriately de Sabata-like recording (Decca, De Sabata’s first and, alas, only studio-made opera
7/12). Toscanini was furious (no man loves his successor) and recording is the now legendary Tosca, produced by
instructed de Sabata to resume his position. Walter Legge with an incomparable cast in Milan in 1953.
De Sabata’s studio recordings came in tranches in a 21-year If there is a more complete demonstration of an opera
span from 1933 to 1954. The 1933 Parlophone recordings conductor’s art and craft than this, I have yet to discover it.
include his own account of Juventus, but it is the April 1939 Not soon after its completion, de Sabata suffered a heart attack
Berlin Philharmonic recordings (now a two-CD set from that to all intents and purposes ended his public career.
Istituto Discografico Italiano) that are not to be missed. He was 61.
Apart from Brahms’s Fourth Symphony and a superlative After De Sabata’s retirement the torch passed to the young
account of Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung, the series includes Giulini and to Karajan, whose Tristan de Sabata had
P H O T O G R A P H Y: E R I O P I C C A G L I A N I / W A R N E R C L A S S I C S

a performance of Respighi’s Feste marvelled at in Berlin in 1938 and

romane that is superior to Toscanini’s the essential recording whose Italian career de Sabata
1941 Philadelphia version in terms of promoted in the years 1942-56
the quality of the orchestral playing, Puccini Tosca when less generous-minded
de Sabata’s characterisation of Maria Callas sop colleagues were barring Karajan’s
the fairy-tale narrative, and the Giuseppe di Stefano ten progress in Austro-Germany.
eradication of blatancy. Tito Gobbi bar Franco A closer comparison, however, might
De Sabata made five recordings Calabrese bass Chorus be Carlos Kleiber, another bright
with the LPO for Decca in 1946, and Orchestra of La Scala, star which during its all-too-brief
followed in 1947-48 by 11 recordings Milan / Victor de Sabata proximity to earth burned with
with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Warner Classics (12/53) a rare incandescence.

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 87

Instrumental
Patrick Rucker is impressed
by Michel Dalberto’s Fauré:
‘Tortuous emotional despair, often verging
on bitterness, makes these pieces difficult
to fully inhabit’ REVIEW ON PAGE 90
Bartók
‘Complete Works for Piano Solo, Vol 4’
For Children, Sz42
Andreas Bach pf
Hänssler Classic F HC17009 (80’ • DDD)
The late Zoltán Kocsis
was among the first
pianists to stress the
musical value of
Bartók’s collection For Children over and
above its purely didactic function. As with
albums for the young by Schumann and
Tchaikovsky, the work’s contents, which
during the course of its 80-minute journey
become ever more technically and
harmonically challenging, include pieces
that if sensitively and poetically handled
would grace any recital programme.
There are many similarities in approach
between Kocsis and Andreas Bach but
plenty of differences too. To take just
one tiny sampling for comparison, Nos 26
and 27 from Book 2, the former marked
moderato, where Bach toys with the pulse
and Kocsis is straighter in that respect
but subtly splits chords (also a tendency
in Bartók’s own playing), whereas in the
following playful Allegremente, Bach’s
tempo is roughly twice that of Kocsis’s.
What I’m referring to here is ‘swings
and roundabouts’, a fairly appropriate
metaphor in the case of For Children, but
also musically apt. By contrast, in the two
closing pieces both pianists capture the
music’s elegiac spirit to perfection.
Bach’s approach, which has illuminated
Bartók’s bigger-scale piano works in earlier
volumes of the same series, is aimed at
countering the perceived notion of Bartók
as ‘remorselessly harsh’ (his term). Rather
than follow the more aggressive trend set
by certain of his contemporaries, he takes
a significant prompt from Bartók’s own
playing as captured on the numerous
recordings that he left us (studio and
broadcast). Kocsis, who was also steeped
in Bartók’s own playing, was similarly
disposed, as you can hear for yourself
88 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Jed Distler listens to Martin Jones
playing transcriptions by Earl Wild:
‘The writing mirrors Rachmaninov’s piano
idiom, and Jones evokes a waterfall of
sweeping gestures’ REVIEW ON PAGE 95
by comparing No 16’s ‘Old Hungarian
Tune’, where Kocsis’s arpeggiated chords
are even more conspicuously ‘old world’
than Bach’s, whereas in ‘Soldier’s Song’
(No 18) Kocsis picks up the tempo in a
way that Bach doesn’t. It all makes for
fascinating to-ing and fro-ing between
two fine pianists in music that while often
deceptively simple is also full of expressive
potential. Quite an inspiration for amateur
pianists I would have thought. Rob Cowan
Brahms
Piano Sonata No 3, Op 5. Piano Pieces: Op 76 –
No 3; No 4; Op 116 – No 1; No 4; Op 117 No 2;
Op 118 – No 2; No 3. Four Piano Pieces, Op 119.
Waltz, Op 39 No 15
Nelson Freire pf
Decca F 483 2154DH (73’ • DDD)
Brahms’s Third
Sonata has been
a calling card for
Nelson Freire since
the earliest days – for his farewell recital
in Rio de Janeiro aged 14 and for his debut
recital LP for CBS aged 22. And now,
50 years after that release, he has returned
to the piece. Were Freire your average kind
of pianist (ludicrous notion though that is),
you might anticipate that the 72-year-old
would display a diminution of technical
aplomb but an increase in gravitas and
depth. Not a bit of it – what’s interesting
is how fundamentally similar these readings
are. Returning to his earlier recording,
you’re struck anew at its maturity, with
its combination of nobility and an unerring
sense of pacing. The only major difference
in timings is because in the first movement
he now observes the exposition repeat.
Freire’s sound has always been a thing
of wonder: even at full volume and full tilt
there’s no hint of percussiveness in his
tone – just sample the development of
the first movement; or the way the melody
of the intermezzo-like slow movement is
plucked almost insouciantly out of the
texture (where the earlier version was
elegant, this is utterly luminous). If the
dizzy unpredictability of the finale is just
a shade more unhinged in 1967, this newer
one has lost nothing in playfulness. Freire’s
zest for this piece is palpably undimmed
and what a joy it is.
He follows the sonata with a bouquet
of Brahms’s later pieces. From Op 76,
he relishes the ethereal opening of No 3
(less free with rubato than the devilishly
luxuriant Volodos) and finds a profundity
to the songful No 4. That’s a quality he
reveals in the second of the Op 117 pieces,
too, while the presto Capriccio that opens
Op 116 has energy without ever seeming
rushed, Freire voicing Brahms’s rich
textures with an easeful mastery.
Highlights are many – the regret-filled
duet of the middle section of Op 118 No 2
or the way he brings to such a quiet close
the Ballade, Op 118 No 3. He is different
in his approach from Volodos in Op 118
but no less compelling. I hope the inclusion
of the final works, Op 119, is not an
indication that Freire is done with this
composer: they are touched everywhere
with an ineluctable beauty without the
slightest degree of self-consciousness.
No 1 draws you in, unfolding with
complete naturalness, spinning lines out
of air, while the chattering No 3 is superbly
vivid. Freire gives No 4 not only strength
and fervency but an almost symphonic
splendour in its colouring, the inner section
having an easeful quality before being
quickly banished. By way of an encore,
we get a deliciously poised reading of the
Waltz, Op 39 No 15. Enough adjectives.
Go and buy it, and set it on your shelves
next to Volodos. Harriet Smith
Sonata No 3 – selected comparison:
Freire (12/14) (SONY) 88875 00228-2
Opp 76, 117 & 118 – selected comparison:
Volodos (6/17) (SONY) 88875 13019-2
Brahms . Schumann
Brahms Eight Piano Pieces, Op 76.
Variations on a Theme by Schumann, Op 9
Schumann Carnaval, Op 9
Varvara Tarasova pf
Champs Hill F CHRCD126 (75’ • DDD)
gramophone.co.uk

Easeful mastery: Nelson Freire’s zest for Brahms is palpably undimmed
A native of
St Petersburg, Varvara
Tarasova studied at the
Moscow Conservatory
and, more recently, at London’s Royal
College. She took first prize at the 2015
Sussex International Piano Competition
and this new Champs Hill release of Brahms
and Schumann is her debut recording.
Tarasova’s bona fides as a Brahms player
are quickly established in her traversal of
Op 76. Her beguiling cantabile is a given
and she foregrounds inner voices in the
thickest textures with confidence. If more
robust cross rhythms could enhance the
interest of the Capriccio (No 5), the
Intermezzo (No 3) comes off with an
enchanting music-box precision, while the
famous Capriccio (No 2) maintains just the
right balance of whimsy and melancholy.
P H O T O G R A P H Y: G R E G O R Y FAV R E / D E C C A
The strong sense of musical architecture
evidenced throughout the Klavierstücke
is somewhat less pronounced in the more
interpretatively challenging Schumann
Variations. Here Tarasova’s eagerness
to imbue each variation with a distinct
character tends to diminish the narrative
flow of the whole set.
gramophone.co.uk
However, fragmentation can be a
virtue in the ‘scènes mignonnes’ of
Carnaval. Schumann’s most popular
piano cycle has become so encrusted
with the received wisdom of innumerable
performances and recordings that
developing an original point of view
poses challenges. Tarasova happily
meets them, and with a minimum of
fuss or eccentricity, in a persuasive
performance distinguished by bright
colours, resilient rhythmicality and
considerable charm.
In a day when colossal technique
is de rigueur for young pianists, it is
Tarasova’s imagination that will set
her apart from the pack. I look forward
to watching her artistic growth which,
from all indications, will be inevitable.
Patrick Rucker
Chopin
‘Recital 3’
Ballade No 4, Op 52. Nocturnes – No 3, Op 9
No 3; No 5, Op 15 No 2. Impromptu No 3,
Op 51. Polonaise-fantaisie, Op 61.
Preludes, Op 28 – No 14; No 15.
Scherzo No 4, Op 54. Waltzes – No 5, Op 42;
No 10, Op 69 No 2
Janina Fialkowska pf
ATMA Classique F ACD2 2728 (63’ • DDD)
INSTRUMENTAL REVIEWS
While the works
chosen for this
Chopin recital are
programmed to
ensure maximum contrast of mood and
emotion, a unified trajectory nevertheless
makes itself felt, possibly through subtle
key relationships from one selection to the
next. Perhaps this was intentional on Janina
Fialkowska’s part, since her seasoned
musicianship and thoughtful virtuosity
thoroughly inhabit this music. The
Polonaise-fantaisie’s climaxes convey
headlong momentum yet with palpable
tension and release in regard to the timings
of the sweeping scales and big chordal
build-ups. In the B major Nocturne, Op 9
No 3, Fialkowska effects a startling yet
inevitable change of colour at the minor-
key episode, while her well-controlled
right-hand cantilenas are anchored by
buoyant, shapely bass lines throughout.
Although she rightly resists gilding the
decorative lilies, so to speak, in the F sharp
major Nocturne, Op 15 No 2, she
habitually lingers on the main theme’s first-
note up-beat to the point of predictability,
yet such ‘stretching out’ reveals a rare
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 89
INSTRUMENTAL REVIEWS
Seasoned musicianship: Janina Fialkowska excels in Chopin on ATMA Classique
wistful (even tragic) side to the B minor
Waltz. By contrast, she astutely underlines
the G flat Impromptu’s polyphonic
interplay, while casting a playful light and
more than a few skittish accents upon the
A flat Waltz, Op 42; indeed, Fialkowska
truly makes the latter her own.
Fialkowska unleashes the E major
Scherzo’s vivacious outer sections with
impressive suppleness and architectonic
determination, akin to the young
Ashkenazy’s reference recording, but with
just a soupçon of rubato. A grim, driving
E flat minor Prelude leads into a D flat
major ‘Raindrop’ Prelude that’s less about
the persistent repeated-note pulse than its
long melodic arcs. The F minor Ballade
receives a direct yet flexible reading, where
Fialkowska makes expressive points by
proportioning her dynamics with care and
articulating the thickest textures with the
utmost clarity. In the coda, for example, her
multi-level contouring of the contrapuntal
lines and intelligently meted-out crescendos
conclude this highly recommended recital
on a shattering note. Jed Distler
Fauré
Ballade, Op 19. Impromptu No 3, Op 34.
Nocturnes – No 6, Op 63; No 7, Op 74;
No 9, Op 97; No 11, Op 104 No 1; No 13, Op 119.
Thème et variations, Op 73
90 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Michel Dalberto pf
Aparté F AP150 (74’ • DDD)
Recorded live at the Paris Conservatoire,
January 2017
In a charmingly self-
effacing booklet note,
Michel Dalberto
relates how his
embrace of Fauré’s piano music, despite
an early affinity for some of the chamber
works, was not complete until the Swiss
tenor Hugues Cuenód suggested they
explore the songs together. One can well
imagine how, with such an inspiring guide,
the full dimension of Fauré’s genius
became apparent.
Recorded live at a concert at the old
Paris Conservatoire this past January,
Dalberto plays the largest of the piano
works, the F sharp Ballade and the
Thème et variations, interspersed with
an Impromptu and five of the Nocturnes,
spanning the years from 1877 to 1921 and
presented in roughly chronological order.
The distinctive sound of Dalberto’s 1899
Bechstein has been expertly captured by
Little Tribeca.
This Ballade could be a page torn
from the intimate journal of a voluptuary,
moving from wistful languor to the
throes of ecstasy, accompanied finally
by a symphony of birdsong. Riding
luxurious waves of sound, Dalberto
never loses a thread of Fauré’s intricate
polyphony. The serious C sharp minor
Theme and Variations, here prefaced
by the somewhat later Nocturne, Op 74,
in the same key, is no less lovingly
handled. Fully exploiting the Bechstein’s
plangent sound, Dalberto strikes just
the right balance between passion and
understated pathos, making this work
a veritable prism of fleeting emotion.
Of the smaller pieces, Dalberto
is particularly impressive in the three
late Nocturnes: No 9, with its ominous
echoes of Liszt’s melodrama Der
traurige Mönch, the desolate No 11
and the anguished cri de coeur
of No 13. Tortuous emotional
bitterness, often verging on despair,
makes these pieces difficult to fully
inhabit. Dalberto does so with courage
and conviction.
Among the outstanding recordings
of Fauré’s piano music in recent
years, including Hannes Minnaar’s
(Challenge Classics, 2/17) and the first
disc in Louis Lortie’s series (Chandos,
11/16), Dalberto’s disc will take a proud
place. Patrick Rucker
gramophone.co.uk
“When Ingles & Hayday found the 1739
Ex-Grumiaux Guarneri del Gesù for me,
a new musical world opened up.

Thanks to them, playing this exceptional

violin brings me ultimate enjoyment and
happiness.”
Xue Wei

“A devastating performer,
combining formidable
technical prowess with
great breadth and variety
of expression.”
The Guardian

london +44 (0)20 7042 7337

new york +1 646 480 7038

ingleshayday.com
INSTRUMENTAL REVIEWS
Glass
Solo Cello Partitas – No 1, ‘Songs & Poems’; No 2.
Book of Longing – The Paris Sky. The Secret
Agent
Matt Haimovitz vc
Orange Mountain F OMM0117 (69’ • DDD)
From listening to the
Brandenburg Concertos
in his father’s record
store as a young boy
to strict lessons in fugal counterpoint
with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in his mid-
twenties, Bach has never been far away
from Glass’s musical world view. He
recently paid Bach the ultimate
compliment, saying: ‘He articulated the
language of music in the most complete,
rich and complex form that any single
person has been able to do.’
While Bach’s influence may not be
immediately apparent in early Glass, it can
be heard in more recent works such as the
sets of Partitas for solo violin and cello.
The catalyst was singer-songwriter and
poet Leonard Cohen, with whom Glass
worked on the song-cycle Book of Longing
in 2006 (from which ‘The Paris Sky’,
included here, is taken). Cohen’s pared-
down, epigrammatic and occasionally
bleak poetry provided Glass with a new
expressive palette, and out poured a series
of dark, melancholic works for solo strings
that – other than the occasional outburst –
inhabit a world suffused with intense
solipsistic introspection.
This new style appears to have arrived
fully formed, with Glass commenting that
he composed the Partitas ‘almost … from
memory’. However, there’s a danger of
slipping into automatic-pilot mode. Much
of what appears in Partita No 2 is modelled
on the First, as a brief comparison between
the opening section of both final
movements will show. Certainly the
more interesting moments are found in
movements that successfully explore the
cello’s range and colouristic potential, such
as the fifth in Partita No 1 (with its Für
Elise-style D-C sharp-D-C sharp-D figure),
and the third in Partita No 2. The first set
(subtitled Songs & Poems) remains the most
compelling of the two, however.
Cellist Matt Haimovitz’s controlled
performance and deep, resonant sound
possess plenty of weight and depth but
occasionally lack the edgy nervousness
and hollowed-out intensity that belong
to Wendy Sutter’s brilliant 2008 recording
of Partita No 1. Pwyll ap Siôn
Partita No 1 – comparative version:
Sutter (OMM) OMM0037
92 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Godowsky
Studies on Chopin’s Op 10 Études
Emanuele Delucchi pf
Piano Classics F PCL0122 (76’ • DDD)
Godowsky’s 53 Studies
on Chopin’s Études
(or 54 or 55 depending
on whether you
include different ossias in numbering
them) present a formidable challenge to
any pianist, famously described by the late
Harold C Schonberg, music critic of the
New York Times, as ‘the most impossibly
difficult things ever written for the piano’.
You can see his point. Take Study No 4
(the second of Godowsky’s two versions
of Op 10 No 2), which assigns the already
challenging material of the original to be
played by the left hand, leaving the right
hand free to provide a hemiola
counterpoint of triplets in (mainly) thirds,
fourths and sixths. The tempo is allegro.
Why bother? ‘Because’, as mountaineers
say of Mount Everest, ‘it’s there.’ For the
listener, it’s undoubtedly true that you need
to know the Chopin originals to derive the
greatest pleasure from Godowsky’s
arrangements. Occasionally the complex
polyphony is just too clever for its own
musical good but the best of these studies
on studies are extraordinarily inventive and
ingenious. Only top flight virtuosos need
apply. Emanuele Delucchi is one of them.
He is, I believe, one of only three people
ever to have played Nos 1-22 live in
concert (Carlo Grante and Francesco
Libetta have given the complete set).
In welcoming his earlier Godowsky disc
(12/15), I wondered whether his choice of a
1906 Steinway D was a help or hindrance
to tone production. After further
restoration work, its palette of warm
colours remains intact but has gained a
more incisive attack, allowing Delucchi’s
voicing and extraordinary digital facility to
be heard at their best. Added to this – and
there is no better example than Study
No 1 – his delight and (heaven knows
how it’s possible) evident enjoyment in
the execution of these pieces brings to
them the human heart essential to Chopin’s
originals, but which is quite lacking in
some other recorded performances.
The mighty Marc-André Hamelin in his
complete survey remains omnipotent but
Delucchi gives him a run for his money
and, on the type of instrument which
Godowsky would have known, is in a
class of his own. Jeremy Nicholas
Studies – selected comparison:
Hamelin (5/00) (HYPE) CDA67411/12
Liszt . Schubert
Liszt Venezia e Napoli, S159. Zwölf Lieder von
Franz Schubert, S558 – No 2, Auf dem Wasser zu
singen, D774; No 3, Du bist die Ruh’, D776; No 9,
Ständchen, D889; No 11, Der Wanderer, D489
Schubert Impromptus. D899
Mona Asuka pf
Oehms F OC1871 (72’ • DDD)
In Schubert’s
C minor
Impromptu, Mona
Asuka’s evenly
balanced opening G natural octaves and
plaintive shaping of the single-line phrase
are offset by the rigidly voiced chords that
follow. The whole interpretation similarly
alternates between tender moments
and monochrome rigidity. The E flat
Impromptu’s rapid scales are less about
pearls than shark teeth, although the
central minor-key section has an
uncommonly understated grace (as
opposed to Schnabel’s angular lunging
ahead). While the slowly paced G flat
Impromptu is texturally well balanced,
one can predict nearly every one of
Asuka’s tiny pauses at cadence points
and phrase ends. A lack of expressive
variety and lightness of touch underlines
the final Impromptu’s arguably
repetitious character.
Asuka’s Schubert-Liszt transcription
interpretations are also hit and miss.
Her choppy phrasing of the right-hand
accompanying line in ‘Auf dem Wasser
zu singen’ pales next to the floating
eloquence of Kissin’s DG version,
while the colourful registral interplay
of ‘Ständchen’ is reduced to black-and-
white literalism, certainly when heard
alongside Horowitz’s miraculous late-
period recording (comparisons with
Horowitz are unfair, yet still fair game).
Conversely, Asuka’s singing tone reveals
itself in ‘Du bist die Ruh’, and her bass-
register rumbles in ‘Der Wanderer’
project the kind of shattering intensity
this score requires.
While Asuka obtains just the right
shimmer and delicacy in Liszt’s
‘Gondoliera’, her habitual ritards
dissipate the music’s inherent lilt and
forward motion, although the ‘Canzone’
grabs your attention via the pianist’s
power and unabashed rhetoric. She
conveys the disparate dramatic qualities
of the Tarantella’s contrasting sections,
albeit without the supple ease one hears
from Hamelin, Lortie and Chamayou.
All told, an uneven release.
Jed Distler
gramophone.co.uk

Complete blending: Peter Hill and Benjamin Frith recording Russian works for Delphian
Rachmaninov . Stravinsky .
Tchaikovsky
‘Russian Works for Piano Four Hands’
Rachmaninov Six Morceaux, Op 11 Stravinsky
Petrushka Tchaikovsky Russian Folk Songs
Peter Hill, Benjamin Frith pf
Delphian F DCD34191 (68’ • DDD)
This is an altogether
impressive,
accomplished and
rewarding release,
a delight to listen to from both the
sound and performance points of view.
The venue is Cardiff’s University Concert
Hall. Paul Baxter is the engineer. He is
also the co-producer with Peter Hill.
Full marks.
The programme order is Rachmaninov-
Tchaikovsky-Stravinsky but I shall begin,
as Hill does in his excellent booklet essay,
with the selection of 23 of the 50 Russian
Folk Songs (1869), all lasting less than a
minute, the shortest a mere 16 seconds.
You’ll recognise ‘Under the green apple
tree’ from the last movement of
Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings,
‘Vanya was sitting’ (from the Andante
gramophone.co.uk
cantabile of his First String Quartet) and
the more virtuoso setting of ‘Song of the
Volga Boatmen’.
The latter would seem to be the
(unnamed in the score) ‘Russian Theme’,
No 3 of Rachmaninov’s early Six
Morceaux, Op 11, though it is not the
best of the six. These are No 2, the
brilliant Scherzo, and No 6, ‘Slava’,
which uses the same liturgical chant that
Mussorgsky uses in Boris Godunov. Hill
and Frith may well make you wonder
why Op 11 is heard so infrequently
compared with Rachmaninov’s other
music for two pianists.
The cross-pollination continues
with Petrushka, in which the folk song
‘Yesterday evening I was young at the
feast’ (track 23) makes an appearance
as ‘Dance of the Wet-Nurses’. In
Stravinsky’s own arrangement of his
revised 1947 version of the ballet, the
bar of technical difficulty, rhythmic
complexity and ensemble challenges
is raised to a high level, rarely letting
either player off the hook for its 32'22"
duration. Hill and Frith have been
playing as a duo since 1986. Such
complete blending of tone, touch,
dynamics and phrasing quite conceals
INSTRUMENTAL REVIEWS
any division of labour: a clear case of
two right hands knowing exactly what
the two left ones are doing.
Jeremy Nicholas
Urspruch
‘Complete Piano Works’
Fünf Fantasiestücke, Op 2. Deutsche Tänze,
Op 7. Variationen, Op 10. Cinq Morceaux, Op 19.
Cavatine & Arabesque, Op 20. Präludium &
Capriccio, Op 22
Ana-Marija Markovina pf
Hänssler Classic M c HC16015 (172’ • DDD)
Biographical sketches
of Anton Urspruch
(1850-1907), a
professor at the
Hoch and Raff Conservatories in
Frankfurt, make much of his association
with Liszt. True, Urspruch attended
Liszt’s Weimar masterclass in 1873,
a year after Liszt had arranged for a
performance of the younger composer’s
piano concerto. However, Urspruch
exhibits virtually none of the more
progressive tendencies of the ‘New
German School’ and his eclectic piano
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 93
 In our own 90th Anniversary year, we are delighted to congratulate
Gramophone on the 40th Anniversary of the Awards.

Visit www.kawai.co.uk to discover more about our

DFRXVWLFDQGGLJLWDOSLDQRUDQJHVDQGWR¿QG\RXUORFDOGHDOHU

/KawaiUK @KawaiPianosUK

music is closer to the salon pieces of
Joachim Raff, his mentor in Frankfurt,
than to Liszt. Ana-Marija Markovina,
the Croatian-born pianist now based
in Cologne, has recorded a generous
sampling of Urspruch on three discs.
This follows up her 2011 recording of
Opp 2, 19, and 20 on Genuin.
The Five Fantasy Pieces from 1872
are deeply indebted to the Novelletten
of Schumann. Schubert is the primary
model for the 22 German Dances, their
textural density suggesting a nod to
Brahms, while Mendelssohn seems the
inspiration for the 24 Variations, Op 10.
If Urspruch’s later pieces are less obviously
derivative, an unmistakably original voice
remained elusive.
Generally speaking, Markovina’s
performances are weakened by uncertain
phrasing and, contrary to Urspruch’s
relatively abundant expressive indications,
surprisingly bland dynamics. She gives
scant credence to chord voicing or
marked contrasts between melody
and accompaniment. Finer distinctions
of articulation, of legato and staccato,
are often left to the imagination. These
factors, in combination with obtrusively
destabilised rhythms, tend to deprive
Markovina’s readings of character
and, on occasion, coherence. It may
be that a revival of Urspruch’s piano
music, should one be warranted, must
wait a while longer.
Patrick Rucker
Wild
‘Virtuoso Arrangements for Piano by Earl Wild –
Vol 2: Rachmaninov and Others’
Transcriptions of JS Bach Hommage à Poulenc
Churchill Reminiscences of Snow White
Fauré Après un rêve Rachmaninov Do not
grieve. Dreams. Floods of Spring. In the silent
night. The Little Island. Midsummer Nights.
The Muse. O, cease thy singing. On the Death
of a Linnet. Sorrow in Springtime. To the
Children. Vocalise. Where Beauty Dwells
Rubio Mexican Hat Dance Tchaikovsky
At the Ball. Dance of the Four Swans
Martin Jones pf
Nimbus F NI5965 (73’ • DDD)
Martin Jones’s
seemingly insatiable
appetite for mining
the piano repertoire
en masse continues with a second CD
devoted to virtuoso transcriptions and
arrangements by Earl Wild. Wild’s
Rachmaninov song transcriptions
dominate the present volume, and it
gramophone.co.uk
says much for Jones’s considerable
command that his interpretations can
hold their own in the face of Wild’s
irrepressible keyboard prowess.
True, he may not unleash comparable
galvanic force at the peak of ‘O, cease
thy singing’, yet his lighter touch in the
opening and closing sequences adds
more shimmer to the scales. The piano-
writing in ‘Floods of Spring’ deliberately
mirrors Rachmaninov’s piano idiom
and Jones evokes a waterfall of sweeping,
grand gestures that differs markedly
from Wild’s blunter, more angular and
sparely pedalled performance. The
arpeggio sprays of ‘The Little Island’
have a stronger melodic profile in Wild’s
hands, yet Jones’s more Impressionistic
conception holds equal attraction.
Regarding Wild’s arguably overwrought
reworking of the ‘Vocalise’, I prefer
Jones’s faster and more fluent
phrasing of the main theme compared
to Wild’s slower, heavier take; but, as
the inner voices pile up, jockeying for
position, Wild proves the more effective
traffic cop.
The delightful Reminiscences of Snow
White is a kind of ‘Liszt does Disney’,
and his premiere recording remains the
interpretative last word in harmonic
pointing and characterful variety. That
said, I’ve always felt that Wild milked
the rubato and echo effects in ‘I’m
Wishing’ to a fault, whereas Jones plays
relatively straight. Jones projects more
floating, melody-oriented readings of
the Bach and Fauré transcriptions in
comparison to Wild’s stronger linear
profile. While the Mexican Hat Dance’s
whirling runs and dashing leaps pose
no problems for Jones in his late seventies,
he inevitably reckons with the 88-year-
young whippersnapper’s more pugnacious
energy. While Earl Wild may have
originally tailored his transcriptions
for his own use, they’re not necessarily
private property, as Martin Jones proves
time and again.
Jed Distler
‘American Nocturnes’
Barber Nocturne Beach Dreaming. A Hermit
Thrush at Eve. A Hermit Thrush at Morn
Bloch In the Night Chadwick Nocturne
Copland Night Thoughts Crumb Eine
kleine Mitternachtmusik – Nos 1-5, 7 & 9
Farwell Dawn Foote Nocturne Gottschalk
La chûte des feuilles, Op 42 Griffes The
Night Winds. Notturno Grofé Deep Nocturne
Hamelin Little Nocturne Lamb Ragtime
Nightingale DG Mason Night Wind
Ornstein Nocturne No 2
Schelling Nocturne (Ragusa)
INSTRUMENTAL REVIEWS
Cécile Licad pf
Danacord M b DACOCD783/4 (109’ • DDD)
A diverse grouping
of first sonatas by
American composers
encompassed
Cecile Licad’s Anthology of American
Piano Music, Vol 1 (A/16); Vol 2 is given
over to American nocturnes, or nocturne-
like works. A brush of the strings opens
the first of two discs with the opening
theme of George Crumb’s Eine kleine
Mitternachtmusik, a set of variations
based upon Thelonious Monk’s
‘Round Midnight’. Rather than play
the Crumb work all together, Licad
intersperses the variations between
other pieces, linking, for example,
Amy Beach’s A Hermit Thrush at
Eve and Griffes’s Notturno. Licad’s
canny programme-building
yields other intriguing juxtapositions,
such as Barber’s classically tinged
Nocturne, Copland’s craggy though
tender Night Thoughts and the imposing
pillars demarcating Leo Ornstein’s
13-minute Nocturne No 2.
The Chadwick, Farwell, Foote
and Schelling nocturnes are basically
charming European knock-offs, but
Mason’s Night Wind, Bloch’s In the
Night and the Beach works abound
with personality and strong ideas.
Grofé’s Deep Nocturne may not be
truly deep but it’s unpretentiously
tuneful, while Joseph Lamb’s Ragtime
Nightingale remains one of the idiom’s
classics, and Marc-André Hamelin’s
Little Nocturne is a minor masterpiece
of sly humour.
With all of my concentration on
the music, I realise that I haven’t
mentioned Licad’s performances.
That’s probably because her
authoritative yet flexible pianism
adapts to the various styles with
idiomatic ease. She understands
Crumb’s textural fragility, she
confidently sails through Mason’s
glittering runs, she parses
Beach’s stunning modulations
with perfect timing, she minimises
Ornstein’s tendency to ramble and
she brings just the right lift to Lamb’s
gentle syncopations. In other words,
you hear the music first, the pianism
second, and that’s a good sign, not to
mention the excellent engineering
and annotations. I look forward to
this series’ further instalments.
Jed Distler
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 95
INSTRUMENTAL REVIEWS
Collector
A BACH MISCELLANY 1
Harriet Smith listens to solo Bach played on an array of instruments
Kuniko plays Bach’s Solo Cello Suites and Violin Sonatas in her own transcriptions for marimba
he road to hell, as they say, is paved
T with good intentions … here we
have some tremendously well-
intentioned discs but the results
are, shall we say, variable. The common
denominator is JS Bach who, more than
any other composer in history, can take
multifarious approaches and work on a
wide variety of instruments. After all,
performing his music on the piano is in
effect an act of transcription; indeed, one
of my favourite performances of his music
is Art of Fugue played by the New Century
Saxophone Quartet.
Of the discs here, the most obviously
‘authentic’ is Alessandra Artifoni’s account
of the English Suites on harpsichord, a
modern-day copy by Tony Chinnery of
a two-manual Mietke from 1702 (a make
of which Bach is known to have been
fond). It’s a fine, characterful instrument,
recorded with immediacy. The booklet is
lazy – not even listing suite movements,
let alone proffering a performer biography.
But the playing is certainly not and she
relishes the different character of each
suite without resorting to extremes. The
Second Suite, with which she opens, has
a lovely conversational Allemande and
an unfettered Gigue. The E minor Suite
(No 5) opens with a joyously full-sounding
Prelude; and if her Sarabande is a little
ponderous, the two Passepieds that follow
96 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
are well contrasted. The Sixth Suite is
a highlight, from the grandeur of its
Prelude via the experimentalism of the
Sarabande’s harmonies to a Gigue in
which she patently relishes Bach’s
wayward harmonies and buzzy trills.
Moving to the piano, the Australian-
born pianist Daniel Martyn Lewis talks of
his early experiences of listening to Bach
by the sea in south-eastern Australia and
of how he has been influenced by the
sound and technique of the harpsichord
in his own playing. That perhaps explains
why there’s not a legato line in his entire
second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier
and why devices such as agogic pauses are
very much the norm. He’s at his best when
there’s a lot to occupy his fingers – for
instance in the toccata-style D minor
Prelude or the effusive G major Prelude.
But elsewhere articulation can be fussy
and he lacks the sense of inevitability
that is found in the best performances.
The searing dissonances of the Prelude
in F minor are here diminished by the
distracting desynchronisations of the
hands, losing a sense of line. He also tends
to overplay accents, which can make for
awkward-sounding fugue subjects – as in
the G minor and A flat Fugues.
Turning to the French Suites of the
Chinese pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei, it’s a relief
to find those sustained lines I missed in
Lewis’s performances. Each suite emerges
with a very distinct character without
needing to resort to extremes. Just take
the Fourth Suite: her Allemande has a
reassuring quality to it, its pedal points
evident but not overdone, while the
Courante has a gentle bounce and is nicely
varied on repeats; after a veiled Sarabande
we get a playfully knowing Gavotte,
an ebullient Air and a pleasingly feisty
hunting-style Gigue. She’s unafraid to
use the full resources of the piano and
occasionally her pedalling sounds slightly
over-generous (for instance in the
Courante of the Second Suite or the
Allemande of the First), though this could
be the acoustic. A good account, then, if
not one on the same level as Perahia’s
Award-winner (DG, 11/16).
Finally to two Japanese artists, both
hugely admired exponents of their chosen
instruments. The marimba player Kuniko
wisely focuses on the Cello Suites and
Solo Violin Sonatas, works that would
seem to lend themselves more readily to
transcription than, say, the more intricate
textures of the keyboard Partitas. She
contributes highly personal notes in the
booklet about what Bach means to her,
offering a very specific narrative for every
piece she chooses. Of the Allegro assai from
the Third Violin Sonata, for instance, we
get: ‘In a dazzling light, is that an angel or
gramophone.co.uk

a child with white feathers on his back?
Children are gathering and playing. Is this
the sky or heaven? Where is this place?’
There’s no doubting her sincerity, but
unfortunately she seems to smother this
music with love and nothing is allowed to
speak for itself. Rhythms are bent out of
shape and lose their power, movements
are slowed down to make an effect (the
gigues of the Cello Suites are particularly
prone to this), certain notes are over-
accentuated. And the haze of sound that
you get where more than one note is
sounding simultaneously – for instance
in the Prelude of the First Cello Suite or
the Adagio of the C major Violin Sonata –
is something of an acquired taste.
Accordionist Mie Miki’s recital of
preludes and fugues from both books of
the ‘48’ is an entirely different experience.
Rhythms dance (just sample the fugue of
the C minor, BWV847) and the ability
of her instrument to sound at times like a
Baroque organ is all to the good, sustaining
beautifully the lines of the mournful B flat
minor Fugue from Book 2. Rhythms are
joyfully sprung, too, in the dashing D major
Prelude, BWV850, which she takes at a
daringly fast pace without losing clarity or
a sense of shape overall, and the F sharp
Prelude, BWV880, which is superbly
lithe, the trills effortlessly dispatched. The
G major Prelude, BWV884, is another
instance of outlandish virtuosity, but how
beautifully the figuration is kept under
control, never becoming obtrusive within
the texture. This makes fine contrast
with the hushed intimacy in the G minor
Prelude and Fugue, BWV861, that follow.
Above all, there’s the sense that Mie Miki is
entirely inside this music and has lived with
it for a long time. A real pleasure.
More miscellaneous Bach on page 112
THE RECORDINGS
JS Bach English Suites
Alessandra Artifoni
Dynamic F b CDS7793
JS Bach Well-Tempered Clavier II
Daniel Martyn Lewis
Odradek M b ODRCD344
JS Bach French Suites
Zhu Xiao-Mei
Accentus F ACC30404
P H O T O G R A P H Y: M I C H I Y U K I O H B A
JS Bach Solo Marimba Works
Kuniko
Linn M b CKD585
JS Bach Wohltemperierte Akkordeon
Mie Miki
BIS F Í BIS2217
gramophone.co.uk
‘Espressione …’
‘From Bolzano to San Marino’
Chopin Barcarolle, Op 60. Nocturne No 20,
Op posth. Polonaise-fantaisie, Op 61. Waltz No 1,
Op 18 Haydn Piano Sonata, HobXVI:46
Scriabin Piano Sonata No 2, ‘Sonata Fantasy’,
Op 19
Łukasz Krupiński pf
Dux F DUX1375 (59’ • DDD)
This release,
entitled
‘Espressione …
From Bolzano to
San Marino’, constitutes a travelogue, or
perhaps a ‘competition diary’. In August
of 2016, Łukasz Krupiński qualified for
this month’s Busoni Competition in
Bolzano with the Chopin Polonaise-
fantaisie on his programme. Then,
following a junket to Leipzig, he arrived
at the International Competition in San
Marino, where he opened his programme
with the Scriabin Sonata Fantasy and, at a
later stage, played the Haydn sonata and
Chopin Barcarolle, eventually winning
first prize.
It’s almost impossible not to feel
something akin to sympathy for Polish
pianists, who are invariably typecast
as Chopin specialists, regardless of
temperamental aptitude. A 25-year-
old Warsaw native, Krupiński seems
to fulfil the role naturally. The desire
for originality, rather than the physical
dictates of dancing, seems to motivate
some of the agogic choices in the E flat
Waltz. On the other hand, a beautifully
settled and thoughtful interpretation
of the Polonaise-fantaisie is a highlight
of the disc. The C sharp minor
Nocturne is languidly poetic
throughout, though the choice not
to make more of the brief contrasting
middle section seems a missed
opportunity for contrast.
Krupiński fully inhabits the Sonata
Fantasy in a passionate reading that
gives Scriabin’s interesting voice-
leading its full due. The Haydn sonata
is vividly characterised, though the
rubato, both in the first movement’s
development and the Adagio, press
the stylistic envelope. These quibbles
aside, Krupiński’s gifts are undeniable
and I will watch their full flowering
with interest. Patrick Rucker
‘Watercolour’
Cashian Landscape Chopin Etude, Op 25 No 11.
Fantaisie, Op 49 Liszt La campanella, S161 No 3.
Vallée d’Obermann, S160 No 6
INSTRUMENTAL REVIEWS
Maxwell Davies Farewell to Stromness
Schubert Impromptu, D935 No 3
Traditional Liuyang River (arr Yang)
Yang Three Aquarelles
Yuanfan Yang pf
Orchid F ORC100073 (78’ • DDD)
In the hands of a
master, watercolour
can be a most
expressive medium,
capturing the fragility of a scene or
moment like no other. In the hands of
a lesser executant, however, the result
can be insipid or merely splodgy. Its use
here, as the title of 19-year-old Yuanfan
Yang’s diverse programme, derives from
a set of three Aquarelles completed when
he was just 16. If Yang’s name is familiar
it may be from his success at the 2012
BBC Young Musician competition, at
which he won the keyboard section. He
is now a student at the Royal Academy
and describes himself as pianist, composer
and improviser.
A recital programme as wide-ranging
as this, from Schubert to contemporary
pieces, needs a persuasive personality
if it’s not to sound bitty. Yang begins
with the third of the Impromptus,
D935, which is elegant without being
particularly distinctive. From this we
move to Chopin: the slow opening
of the A minor Étude, Op 25 No 11,
is lacking in menace, while in the
maelstrom that follows Yang seems
to prize beauty over character. The
F minor Fantaisie is similarly fey: he
writes in the booklet about the work’s
‘passionate and virtuosic character’
yet doesn’t really follow that through
at the keyboard. Liszt’s ‘La campanella’
is again more about polish than
personality, while ‘Vallée d’Obermann’
is too polite to plumb any real
emotional depths.
From more recent times, Philip
Cashian’s Landscape and Peter
Maxwell Davies’s Farewell to
Stromness (the latter dedicated to
the composer’s memory) are both
efficient but little more than that.
Yang’s Debussy-inspired Aquarelles
are given with conviction but that
can’t save the disc, which I’d suggest
is primarily one for friends and family.
Harriet Smith
Find your
music on
www.qobuz.com
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 97
 CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS

Mark-Anthony
Turnage
Paul Griffiths scans the prolific output of this
British composer whose jazz-infused music is
new yet driven by deeply traditional forces

T
here is no way to talk about the music of Mark-Anthony
Turnage without straight away mentioning the
powerful presence – unmistakable, unabashed – of jazz,
with expressive effects simultaneously wild and needle-sharp,
noir and blue. Less immediately obvious, perhaps, is how
Turnage, in drawing his basic vocabulary from the other side
of the fence (and there still is one), is able to create music in
ways thoroughly in line with the classical tradition, even if
resolutely and necessarily new. Jazz gives him an alternative
handle on a venerable engine.
The Beethoven symphonies, which he listened to repeatedly
as a young teenager, taught him the value of pregnant ideas,
of dynamism, of progressive development. His own ideas,
jazz-inflected, can engender kinds of dynamism and
development that sound very different and certainly go
in different directions – not towards, it need hardly be said,
Beethovenian triumph or fulfilment. Yet what makes his
music move is a tight array of deeply traditional forces:
the draw and the tug between melody and bass line, the power
generated by ostinato, the expectation aroused when a motif
is being slightly changed, then slightly changed again. Turnage: a prolific composer whose catalogue is expanding at a rate of knots

The output astounds, and any attempt
to register it risks leaving out of account
the pieces for smaller forces
He was off to a quick start. Night Dances (1981),
which he composed when he was 21 and still a student,
was an ambitious place to begin: an orchestral score with
amplified soloists plus an offstage string quintet. The piece is,
however, not only completely assured but also immediately
characteristic in its urgent solo flights, its jazz band
intimations and its streetlight colouring. Performed
under BBC auspices at the beginning of 1982, it got
people talking.
Another key early event was encountering Hans Werner
Henze at Tanglewood the following year. If there was
any creative influence, it had probably been absorbed
by now; much more important were the guidance and the
opportunities Turnage gained from what became a lasting
friendship. At a time when the young composer had only
three or four pieces to his name, none of them longer than
15 minutes and only one of them vocal, Henze commissioned
a full-length chamber opera for his Munich Biennale.
The result was Greek (1986-88), whose in-your-face musical
style, matching Steven Berkoff’s raw rewrite of Sophocles’
Oedipus story, brought Turnage attention internationally.
A year later came his first piece for full symphony orchestra,
commissioned by Sir Simon Rattle and the CBSO: Three
Screaming Popes (1988-89). The title refers to Francis Bacon’s
disturbing transformations of the Velázquez portrait of Pope
Innocent X, and Turnage achieves a comparable state of crisis
in his swerving chain of dances. The screams are certainly
there, too, and so are the popes, in churchy music of chant
and bells, placed in its own acoustic by astute orchestration.
For all its riot and menace, though, the piece is firmly formed,
varying and restoring its principal idea in a context that
balances jaggedness and speed with strange calm. It proved
the symphonic potential of Turnage’s edgy style, and was the
subject of his first commercial recording, a CD single released
in 1992 (EMI, 9/92).
Meanwhile, Rattle had taken him on board for a three-year
residency with the CBSO (1990-93), which meant that other
outfits had to wait. Among them were the BBC, who
commissioned his first concerto, Your Rockaby (1992-93) for
soprano saxophone; and Ensemble Modern, for whom he wrote
the (ultimately) 90-minute-long suite Blood on the Floor
(1993-96), scored for jazz soloists with a large formation
melding the specifications – and the traditions – of new-music
ensemble and big band. Working for the first time with jazz
musicians he admired – John Scofield on electric guitar and
Peter Erskine on drum kit – as well as Martin Robertson, for
whom he wrote Your Rockaby, Turnage produced a score that is
deliberately open-ended, not only in allowing for improvisation

98 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk


turnage facts
Born Corringham, Essex,
June 10, 1960
Composition studies RCM,
London, with Oliver Knussen
and John Lambert (1974-83);
Tanglewood with Gunther
Schuller and Hans Werner
Henze (1983)
Major residencies CBSO
(1990-93), BBC SO (2000-03),
LPO (2005-10) and
Chicago SO (2006-10)
Key premieres First public
performance (Night Dances –
London, 1982); first opera
(Greek – Munich, 1988);
first big orchestral work
(Three Screaming Popes –
Birmingham, 1989); Blood
on the Floor (short version:
Frankfurt, 1994; final version,
London, 1996); The Silver Tassie
(ENO, 2000); Anna Nicole
(Royal Opera House, 2011)
Publishers Boosey & Hawkes
and Schott
at certain moments but also in
evoking an exterior narrative
of urban alienation and
wasted humanity.
Turnage went on to work
with melodies by Scofield in
another suite for jazz soloists
and orchestra, Scorched
(1996-2001), and again in
Silent Cities (1998) for orchestra, one of his finest impacts of
ferociousness and lament. Having by now established a busy
productivity, he was also at work on his second major opera,
The Silver Tassie (1997-99), based on a First World War play
by Sean O’Casey. Some of this work’s military atmosphere
and madness seemed to go on into other compositions, not
least Fractured Lines (1999-2000), a double concerto written
for percussionists from different backgrounds: classical
(Evelyn Glennie) and jazz (Erskine again). Turnage is expert
at endings, and here the close is memorable: a procession of
beautiful Stravinskian harmonies that gets stamped on.
Given the loving homage that Turnage pays to jazz in every
bar of his music, and the resulting breezy–nervy Bernsteinian
mix, one might think a US commission would have come
before now, but On Opened Ground (2000-01), a viola concerto
for the Cleveland Orchestra with Yuri Bashmet, was his
first – and it was mightily successful in giving the solo
instrument the strength and the bend not only to engage with
chrome-plated orchestration but also to lead it. Other works of
P H O T O G R A P H Y: P H I L I P G AT W A R D
this period came out of an association with the BBC SO that
ended in 2003 with a retrospective at the Barbican, London.
By this point Turnage was among the most frequently and
widely performed of contemporary composers, and certainly
among the most prolific. His subsequent concertos alone have
included works for Michael Collins (Riffs and Refrains, 2003),
Håkan Hardenberger (From the Wreckage, 2004; and Håkan,
2014), Christian Tetzlaff (Mambo, Blues and Tarantella, 2007),
gramophone.co.uk
CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS
Paul Watkins (Cello Concerto, 2010), Erskine (Erskine, 2013),
Marc-André Hamelin (Piano Concerto, 2013), Patricia
Kopatchinskaja and Sol Gabetta (Dialogue, 2014), Colin Currie
(Martland Memorial, 2014-15), and Daniel Hope and
Vadim Repin (Shadow Walker, 2017). Among other orchestral
works have been a sure-fire concert opener for the New York
Philharmonic (Scherzoid, 2003-04) and two four-movement
symphonies for the LSO: Speranza (2011-12), whose theme of
hope is expressed as communal fortitude under inhospitable
conditions, and Remembering (2014-15), where fierce and
erratic movements are answered by elegies, the finale rising
from sorrow to rage. Ballet scores, too, have become a regular
feature of his output, including (most recently) Strapless (2015),
for Christopher Wheeldon, introduced at the Royal Opera
House last year. Although recordings have come pretty much
annually, they have not at all been able to keep up.
Considering that Turnage also found time for another
big opera – Anna Nicole (2008-10), on the media star who just
a little while before had been sensationalised to death – the
output astounds, and any attempt to register it risks leaving
out of account the pieces for smaller forces. Many of these
are miniatures, gifts to friends, but there have also been
regular collaborations with the Nash Ensemble, some
included on their two Turnage albums, as well as, suddenly
in the last decade, three string quartets: Twisted Blues with
Twisted Ballad (2008), Contusion (2013) and Shroud (2016).
To view Turnage as essentially an artist of the large-scale,
though, may not be altogether unjust. His liking for the
sounds of the big band seems to be a matter not only of
aesthetic disposition but also of joining in the expression of
shared grief, shared suffering and shared exhilaration, and of
doing so in the broadest possible arena. Such a strong creative
drive, conveyed by each piece and by the scale of the output as
a whole, has a moral as well as a musical imperative.
Explore Turnage’s music via our bespoke playlist; visit gramophone.co.uk
LISTEN TO TURNAGE
A snapshot – mainly comprising large-scale works
Drowned Out. Kai. Three Screaming Popes.
Momentum.
Ulrich Heinen vc BCMG, CBSO / Simon Rattle
EMI (9/94)
Here is Turnage in a bunch of works he wrote for
Birmingham, vigorously and vividly realised by Rattle.
Another Set To. Silent Cities. Four-Horned
Fandango. Fractured Lines
Christian Lindberg tbn Peter Erskine, Evelyn Glennie perc
BBC SO / Leonard Slatkin
Chandos (3/03)
Silent Cities is among Turnage’s most evocative pieces, presented
here with dynamic concertos for trombone (Another Set To),
two percussionists (Fractured Lines) and four exuberant horns.
On Opened Ground. Texan Tenebrae.
Lullaby for Hans. Riffs and Refrains.
Mambo, Blues and Tarantella
Michael Collins cl Christian Tetzlaff vn Lawrence Power va
LPO / Marin Alsop, Vladimir Jurowski, Markus Stenz
LPO (2/13)
Concertos for clarinet (Riffs and Refrains), violin (Mambo, Blues
and Tarantella) and viola (On Opened Ground) exemplify Turnage’s
exacting, impassioned and sometimes humorous writing for soloists.
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 99
Vocal
Ivan Moody welcomes powerfully
original music by Martin Palmeri:
‘This is something entirely individual, the
work of a composer as familiar with Bach
as he is with tango’ REVIEW ON PAGE 104
Debussy . Fauré
Debussy Ariettes oubliées (arr Brett Dean)a.
La mer Fauré Pelléas et Mélisande, Op 80
(arr Koechlin). Pénélope – Prelude
a
Magdalena Kožená sop Deutsches
Symphonie-Orchester Berlin / Robin Ticciati
Linn F CKD550 (68’ • DDD • T/t)
The release of Robin
Ticciati’s first disc
with the DSO Berlin
coincides with the
start of his tenure as the orchestra’s
music director. It marks his move into a
repertory with which we don’t primarily
associate him, though he conducted both
La mer and Fauré’s Pelléas with the LPO
at the Royal Festival Hall two years ago –
a concert that divided opinion at the time –
and it also includes the first recording of
Brett Dean’s orchestration of Ariettes
oubliées, premiered in Sydney in 2015 by
Magdalena KoΩená, who sings it here.
As with John Adams’s version of Le livre
de Baudelaire, Dean both evokes Debussy’s
sound world and goes beyond it. ‘Chevaux
de bois’ owes much to Fêtes, and rustling
woodwind out of Pelléas (Debussy’s, not
Fauré’s) usher in the rain at the start of
‘Il pleure dans mon coeur’. When we
reach ‘L’ombre des arbres’, however,
penumbral brass and woodwind slowly
pull us towards something altogether
more Expressionist and startling. It suits
Ticciati’s considered way with Debussy
uncommonly well. Everything is
beautifully balanced and clear. Shifts in
colour and texture are carefully teased out,
and the underlying sense of erotic regret
is finely sustained. KoΩena declaims much
of the cycle in a suggestive whisper that at
times verges on mannerism, though there
are also moments of rapturous lyricism
and exquisite, hovering pianissimos that
take one’s breath away.
When he turns to La mer, however,
Ticciati’s attention to detail occasionally
impedes the music’s organic flow. The
opening of ‘De l’aube à midi sur la mer’
100 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Alexandra Coghlan on Clare
College’s Reformation-themed disc:
‘The Brahms glows with love and care, its
extended opening movement shaped with
an eye to sonic drama’ REVIEW ON PAGE 113
has a pristine clarity that impresses in
itself yet falls short of genuine poetry,
and the movement’s climax is reached
with an air of majestic deliberation.
Thereafter, however, he gets more into
his stride. ‘Jeux de vagues’ has a restless
beauty, and he unleashes real turmoil at
the start of ‘Dialogue du vent et de la
mer’. The playing is exemplary – the
woodwind are particularly outstanding –
though the orchestral and recorded
sound are very bright: this seascape
glares a bit, throughout.
Few will have qualms about the
Fauré, though. The Pénélope Prelude is
wonderfully controlled in its progression
from uneasy calm to agitation and back.
Ticciati’s Pelléas is darker in tone than
many, and beautiful in its discreet
sensuality: the bittersweet shifts of
mood in the ‘Sicilienne’ are immaculately
judged. It’s an uneven disc overall,
though the best of it promises much
from Ticciati’s collaboration with
the DSO, and is very fine indeed.
Tim Ashley
Glanert
Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch
Aga Mikolaj sop Ursula Hesse von den Steinen mez
Gerhard Siegel ten Christof Fischesser bass David
Wilson-Johnson spkr Leo van Doeselaar org
Netherlands Radio Choir; Royal Concertgebouw
Orchestra / Markus Stenz
RCO Live F Í RCO17005 (83’ • DDD/DSD • T/t)
Recorded live, November 5, 2016
Another month,
another attempt
to reconcile the
musical tradition
of the Latin concert Mass with an age
hungry for narrative extras or
postmodernist contradictions.
Detlev Glanert has form when it
comes to giving an established topos a
contemporary slant. Requiem for Hieronymus
Bosch (2016) is imagined as a process of
judgement taking place immediately after
the painter’s death 500 years ago last year.
There are 18 movements, the standard
texts of the Mass Ordinary alternating
with selections from the medieval
manuscript collection Carmina Burana,
each confronting Bosch with one of the
seven sins. Glanert describes the result,
for four soloists, chorus, semi-chorus,
organ and orchestra, as ‘not an opera but
an oratorio; an inward spectacle, like the
St Matthew Passion’.
It’s a spectacle, that’s for sure. Glanert
has wanted to dip his toes in the water
of sacred (if not liturgical) music for
some years but the result can sound a
little like he’s over-indulging a tradition
he admires, genuflecting a little too
obviously in the polyphony of ‘Recordare’
and ‘Juste judex’. On the flipside, the
spectacle comes when vivid texts prompt
Glanert into having that bit too much
textural fun with the orchestra for us to
take the predicament of purgatory and
judgement seriously.
Sure, that’s an old accusation and one
many composers have survived. But next
to some of his other works introduced to
us by RCO Live, Glanert’s excitable and
often wickedly irreverent post-Romantic
voice seems caught in the headlights here
in a way it absolutely isn’t when conveying
the realist emotions of the opera house or
symphony stage. When he sets up the
taut musical machines of ‘Avarice’ and
‘Wrath’, Glanert can’t break theatrically
out of them as he is wont. While the
textures might excite, the ultimate journeys
disappoint (and, in the case of the sins,
often sound interchangeable).
Despite that, drop the needle at almost
any point along this 80-minute journey –
perhaps not the two Mass movements
named above – and unless you’re the
grumpiest of ideologists you’ll be engaged
within seconds. Glanert knows how to pull
at the ears and the performances here are
unfailingly vivid, from the bellicose bass
of Christof Fischesser in ‘Gluttony’ to
the reptilian intertwining of soprano Aga
Mikolaj and mezzo Ursula Hesse von den
Steinen in ‘Sloth’. What appears to be a
gramophone.co.uk

Rapturous lyricism: Robin Ticciati recording Debussy and Fauré, with Magdalena Kožená and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
homage to the French ecclesiastical style –
another anomaly – is beautifully realised,
not least by the rippling fingers of organist
Leo van Doeselaar.
It is good to have a recording of a major
work from this ever-colourful composer,
not least as it’s unlikely the piece will have
a life outside Bosch’s anniversary year.
But the very idea of one artist passing
judgement on another – even in what is
effectively a work of fiction – is one more
way in which Glanert’s Requiem can appear
a strange and occasionally presumptuous
beast. Andrew Mellor
Handel
Occasional Oratorio, HWV62
Julia Doyle sop Ben Johnson ten Peter Harvey bar
Bavarian Radio Chorus; Akademie für Alte Musik
Berlin / Howard Arman
BR-Klassik F b 900520 (138’ • DDD • T)
Recorded live at the Herkulessaal, Munich,
February 9-11, 2017
P H O T O G R A P H Y: P E T E R A D A M I K
The Occasional
Oratorio (1746)
was first performed at
Covent Garden in the
gramophone.co.uk
uncertain midst of the second Jacobite
Rebellion, two months before the decisive
battle at Culloden. Newburgh Hamilton
stitched the libretto together from Milton’s
paraphrases of the Psalms and various
writings by Spenser; offering neither
dramatic plot nor particularly coherent
allegory, it is a patriotic exposition on the
troubled nation’s hopes that God will save
them from perilous opposition.
This Munich broadcast is only the
second commercial recording of the work.
Robert King’s polished account employed
five soloists and incorporated variants from
Handel’s later performances, whereas
Howard Arman mostly adheres to the first
performance version and uses just three
soloists (as Handel did in February 1746).
His unerring pacing and astute shaping
of details are realised impeccably by the
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin: trumpets,
horns and timpani drive the splendid
Overture with a confident swagger
(Handel reused it three years later in the
Fireworks Music). Julia Doyle sings with
quicksilver suppleness, stylistic acumen
and immaculate communication of the text
(‘Fly from the threat’ning vengeance, fly’
is unfamiliar fantastic music that Handel
based on an addition to the 1745 revival of
VOCAL REVIEWS
Samson). Likewise, Peter Harvey’s diction,
vocal suavity and persuasive authority
are all spot-on. Ben Johnson’s perfect
enunciation, husky timbre and fulsome
projection remind me of Robert Tear.
The Bavarian Radio Chorus always
have plenty of discipline and articulacy,
with only rare hints of Teutonic vowels.
They sing with robust muscle in
bellicose music, although one of their
finest moments is the lovely choral
refrain to the gently consoling ‘Be
wise at length’ (the first half is sung
beautifully by Doyle and features
rapturous cello obbligato); the chorus
develops animatedly into the sombre
message that averse kings will be bruised
by the iron sceptre, and shall perish like
scattered sheep. Another extraordinary
set piece is the verse-anthem-style
‘To God, our strength, sing loud
and clear’, which starts with Harvey’s
eloquent introduction paired with
trumpet and oboe and concludes with
a radiant choral outburst alluding
cheerfully to timbrel, harp and psaltery.
In Part 3 several key numbers from
Israel in Egypt are transformed from
rejoicing at liberation from Pharaoh’s
tyranny into an expression of optimism
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 101
 Follow
Champs Hill Records

CHRCD133
FRANZ SCHUBERT:
DER EINSAME
ILKER ARCAYÜREK

ELGAR: The debut recording from current BBC New Generation

Artist, the tenor Ilker Arcayürek, with Simon Lepper, piano.
THE NEW ENGLAND “Schubert and the feeling of solitude have been my companions
for many years. We can find ourselves alone as the result of

CONNECTION many different circumstances in life – unhappiness in love, a

bereavement, or simply moving to another country. For me,
however, being alone has never meant being ‘lonely’.”
Ilker Arcayürek

CHRCD124

Chadwick - Symphonic Sketches
Elgar - Enigma Variations
Andrew Constantine
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Release date: October 2017
MENDELSSOHN:
COMPLETE SONGS VOL.3
Fanny Hensel, ‘The Other
Mendelssohn’
For this third volume in a
complete survey of
Mendelssohn songs, Malcolm
Martineau shines the
spotlight on ‘the other
Mendelssohn’, with a
complete volume of songs by
his sister Fanny Hensel.
Malcolm Martineau has
assembled, as always, a cast
of wonderful young singers
for this refreshing and
important repertoire.
CHRCD129
BRAHMS: COMPLETE
PIANO TRIOS AND
QUARTETS
Gould Piano Trio
The Gould Piano Trio, at the
forefront of the international
chamber music scene for well
over twenty years, present
this 6 CD box-set of the
complete Piano Trios and
Quartets by Brahms. Both
versions of the Piano Trio
No.1 are included, plus the
Sextets arranged for trio, all
recorded at The Music Room
at Champs Hill between 2004
and 2016.

Champs Hill Records

available on CD or for download from all good record shops
& online, or direct from:
www.champshillrecords.co.uk

against the Jacobite threat. The oratorio
ends with an abridged parody of Zadok
the Priest, which nearly 20 years earlier
had accompanied George II’s sacred
anointing as the legitimate king during
his coronation service. There are
inevitably a few infelicitous imperfections
in this unfiltered live recording but the
all-round excellent performance
confirms that even the rarest of Handel’s
works contain unique stimulations.
David Vickers
Comparative version:
King’s Consort, King (6/95) (HYPE) CDA66961/2
Lorenc
The Covenant (orch Janczak)
Katarzyna Laskowska sop Cappella Corale
Varsaviana Choir; London Symphony Orchestra /
Lee Reynolds
Warner Classics F 9029 58459-4 (44’ • DDD • T/t)
It’s not every day you
encounter a piece that
has been 225 years in
the making. Composer
Michaπ Lorenc might only have started
work on this large-scale choral cantata in
2015 but the work’s origins stretch
back significantly further.
Premiered at the opening ceremony
of Warsaw’s Temple of Divine
Providence, The Covenant was
commissioned from one of Poland’s
most celebrated film and television
composers to mark the fulfilment
of a vow made in 1791 – to build a
temple as gratitude to a God who
had ‘delivered Poland from foreign
aggression and internal chaos’. Wars,
invasions and partitions intervened, and
it wasn’t until 2016 that the building
was finally completed.
Performed here by the London
Symphony Orchestra and Warsaw’s
Cappella Corale Varsaviana Choir under
conductor Lee Reynolds, this multi-
movement work is very much an occasion
piece, offering a sequence of atmospheric
episodes that seem designed to function
as soundtracks to meditation or
procession. The first, and substantially the
longest, is a hymn to the Virgin. A single
male voice (Robert Pożarski) chants the
lulling, repeating litanies to Mary, while
in impossibly delicate increments the
instruments of the LSO and a wordless
chorus fill out the texture beneath the
hymn. As a musical metaphor for the
temple’s long construction it’s potent.
The shorter subsequent movements
combine this chanted element (Hymn)
gramophone.co.uk
with filmic passages for strings
(Lamentations) and a throbbing great
Ave Maria, sung by Katarzyna Lakowska.
All remains firmly within the familiar
idiom of the contemporary film score,
but Krzysztof Aleksander Janczak’s
orchestrations bring plenty of textural
variety and subtlety, most strikingly the
use of two solo ney flutes that add their
grainy, evocative voices to the orchestra
in ‘The Temple’.
Will The Covenant have a concert life?
It’s hard to imagine. But as a musical
testament to 200 years of toil and faith
it’s a work of scope and stature.
Alexandra Coghlan
Łukaszewski
Adoramus te, Christe. Adventgebet. Alleluia.
Ave Maria. Ave maris stella. Beatus vir,
Sanctus Adalbertus. Beatus vir, Sanctus
Martinus. Five Funeral Kurpian Songs.
Motette. Nunc dimittis. Pater noster.
Psalmus 120. Psalmus 129. Regina caeli
Polish Chamber Choir / Jan Łukaszewski
Warner Classics F 9029 58363-9 (62’ • DDD)
Paweπ Łukaszewski is
a composer for whom
choral music is not so
much an expression of
profound religious faith as a personal act
of Christian worship. He first came to my
attention a decade ago in a Hyperion disc
sung by the choir of Trinity College,
Cambridge, and directed with almost
proselytising zeal by Stephen Layton
(A/08). I welcome this latest opportunity
to revisit this magical blend of richly
expressive harmonies, neatly woven choral
textures and intensely effective handling of
the a cappella medium.
Only two items from the earlier disc
are duplicated here – Ave Maria and
Beatus vir, Sanctus Martinus. Almost
everything else on this new disc has
been composed in the decade since the
Hyperion disc was released, and it shows
that little has changed in Łukaszewski’s
stylistic idiom. The latest pieces –
Adoramus te, Christe, Pater noster, Alleluia
and the simply ravishing Regina caeli, all
dating from 2014 – possess the same
luscious and luminous qualities as the
earlier ones. A slightly sharper edge to
the focus seems a direct consequence of
conductor Jan Łukaszewski’s businesslike
approach, although unquestionably these
Polish choristers have a lighter, less
involved approach to Łukaszewski’s
sumptuous sound world than their
English counterparts.
VOCAL REVIEWS
I suggested in my 2008 review that the
Trinity Choir possibly lacked the ‘warmth
of tone such unashamedly expressive
music demands’, but hearing these Polish
choristers deliver it with such clarity and
precision, I am inclined to revise my
original opinion and suggest that, if
anything, Layton’s performances were a
trifle too warm and indulgent. The Polish
Chamber Choir produce some gloriously
agile singing in Beatus vir, Sanctus
Adalbertus. Their clarity of texture and
text is impressive, and their studied lack
of self-indulgence allows us to relish the
detail of Łukaszewski’s writing on its own
terms. I might not find this disc so
intensely lovely as I did the Hyperion disc
but I do find its direct, unsentimental
approach equally sincere and moving.
Marc Rochester
Mozart . Handel ◊Y
Handel Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline,
HWV264 – Symphony Mozart Miserere, K85.
Ave verum corpus, K618. Requiem, K626
Genia Kühmeier sop Elisabeth Kulman contr Julien
Behr ten Charles Dekeyser bass Salzburg Bach
Choir; Les Musiciens du Louvre / Marc Minkowski
Stage director Bartabas
Video director Andy Sommer
C Major Entertainment F ◊ 741808;
F Y 741904 (70’ • NTSC • 16:9 • 1080i •
DTS-HD MA5.0, DTS5.0 & PCM stereo • 0 • s)
Recorded live at the Felsenreitschule, Salzburg,
January 29-31, 2017
Here is an unexpected
addition to the massive
and ever-expanding
Mozart Requiem
discography: a
performance of the work from the
Salzburg Felsenreitschule choreographed
for dancing horses. I must admit that
I know virtually nothing about horses –
as my betting history bears testament –
but the beasts of the Académie équestre
nationale du domaine de Versailles are
undeniably beautiful, and if the
combination of sacred masterpieces and
dressage is just what you’ve always wanted,
you will be enraptured. For myself,
I struggled to match what I was seeing
with the words and music, and fear that
those less well disposed will find it all
faintly absurd.
The concert opens with an early
Miserere, alternating plainchant with old-
style polyphony, and a single black horse
spinning around on the spot, its rider
making odd arm gestures. Then comes an
interlude for the opening Symphony from
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 103
VOCAL REVIEWS
Handel’s Funeral Anthem, before the
Requiem, danced by a troupe of white
horses wearing black masks, some ridden
by characters in Klan-style pointed
headgear. In the later stages, the riders are
replaced by winged skeletons, on which
one can make no further comment. The
whole closes with the Ave verum, before
rapturous applause and repeated calls for
the corps and cast.
The Miserere bodes ill, with ragged
polyphony and fluffed entries, but the
Requiem is well done. The documentation
doesn’t let on but we hear the 1989
completion by HC Robbins Landon, in
which the aborted completion of Eybler is
perferred (where it exists) to the traditional
Süssmayr version. This being Marc
Minkowski, it is a more than decent
performance, with some starry soloists
and finely honed orchestral playing.
The choreographer is Bartabas, one of
the world’s leading trainers of horses for
spectacles such as this. It is well filmed,
with Les Musiciens and the singers framed
by the arches of the Felsenreitschule stage’s
backdrop. And the horses are exquisite.
One for equestrians and the curious.
David Threasher
Nowowiejski
Quo vadis
Wioletta Chodowicz sop Robert Gierlach bar
Wojtek Gierlach bass Sławomir Kamiński org
Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Choir; Poznań
Philharmonic Orchestra / Łukasz Borowicz
CPO F b CPO555 089-2 (95’ • DDD)
Recorded live at the Adam Mickiewicz University,
Poznań, June 29, 2016
Feliks Nowowiejski
(1877-1946) is
hardly a household
name these days but
at the beginning of the 20th century
he was considered by many to be the
most significant Polish composer alive.
His massively scored Quo vadis, first
performed in its final version in 1909 at
the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, was
the work that put him on the map, and
it was performed regularly up to the
Second World War. The text was
originally in German, adapted from
the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz of
the same name (yes, it is that Quo vadis),
but the version recorded here is a
Polish translation.
Nowowiejski studied with Bruch and
Taubert in Regensburg and Berlin, and
his music is unquestionably Germanic
rather than Slavic in character. Nor
104 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
should this be surprising – the
composer’s birthplace, Barczewo,
was then a part of Prussia, so this
cosmopolitanism was there from the
start. Echoes of the German tradition
writ large may certainly be heard
(Wagner, Liszt, and a talent for
counterpoint that argues a solid
acquaintance with Bach), but in
his booklet note, Borowicz points
out that later in life Nowowiejski
moved in the direction of Szymanowski
and Roussel.
The work is divided into four ‘scenes’,
presenting Sienkiewicz’s story through only
three characters (the Apostle Peter, Ligia
and the commander of the Praetorian
Guard): the lion’s share is given to the
chorus. There is much bombast and fanfare
in the first two scenes, as they describe the
pomp and ceremony of ancient Rome,
finishing with the thrilling ‘Christiani ad
leones!’. The third scene describes the
suffering of the Christians under Nero’s
persecution and Ligia’s imploring them to
flee from the city. Here the music becomes
more tender, more mystical, the
orchestration less dominated by brass, and
with some fine writing for the bass soloist
(Peter, sung by the outstanding Wojtek
Gierlach) and choir. The organ is also
employed, lending Peter’s exhortation to
his fellow Christians an appropriately
solemn, liturgical atmosphere. But this is
only one aspect of the drama, as Peter’s
steadfastness becomes apparent, and
Nowowiejski takes full advantage of his
huge forces to underline the instability
of the situation. The soprano soloist (Ligia)
has a particularly dramatic and impressive
aria, ‘O Panie, nasz świe˛ty przewodniku’,
outstandingly sung by Wioletta
Chodowicz, and which makes memorable
use of a solo violin.
The final scene moves from the
darkness of the ‘deep, deep, dark
night’, through the brief but pivotally
transformative ‘Quo vadis’ aria (to which
baritone soloist Robert Gierlach gives
his all) to the triumphant final chorus
foreseeing Peter’s martyrdom,
culminating in a remarkable double fugue
and final chorus of praise and ‘Amen’.
This is grand oratorio, in the sense that
Gerontius is; it takes the listener on a
dramatic journey in an almost cinematic
fashion, made utterly convincing by this
superb recorded performance. It so
happens that there is another excellent
recording of the work, which uses the
original German libretto. Which to buy?
I would suggest both. Ivan Moody
Comparative version:
Mazur PO, Suπkowski (DUX) DUX1327/8
Palmeri
Magnificat
Aleksandra Turalska sop Agata Schmidt mez
Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi bandoneón
Martin Palmeri pf Astrolabium Choir;
Capella Bydgostiensis Chamber Orchestra /
Kinga Litowska
Dux F DUX1343 (46’ • DDD)
Martin Palmeri is an
Argentinian composer,
born in 1965. His
trajectory is curious
from a European perspective, but not so
much from an Argentinian one: he studied
composition, conducting and singing in
Argentina and the United States, but his
chief inspiration is the Tango Nuevo. His
best-known work is the Misa a Buenos Aires,
but I think that this Magnificat will not lag
far behind. It depends on having a virtuoso
bandoneón player, of course, and that is the
case here, with Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi
doing the honours. The composer himself,
incidentally, is at the piano.
This kind of ‘crossover’ (that’s not really
the right word, because the composer is at
home in both worlds) depends, inevitably,
on one or more of the performers being
fluent in the vocabulary of the ‘second
world’. In this case that is assured by
Pietrodarchi and Palmeri; what is much
less predictable is a corresponding
flexibility from the ‘first world’, that is
to say, in this case, classical performers.
But such concerns have absolutely no
foundation here: the orchestra and choir,
under Kinga Litowska, are more than a
match for the rhythmic swing of the music
and interact with bandoneón and piano as
to the manner born. Soprano Aleksandra
Turalska and mezzo-soprano Agata
Schmidt are stunning – pure, clear voices
entirely in tune (in all senses) with this
fascinatingly hybrid work. Let me be
clear: this is not Missa Criolla meets
Piazzolla; it is something entirely
individual, the work of a composer as
familiar with Bach as he is with Tango.
Or even with a more relaxed, lounge-like
kind of music. I can’t think of another
setting of ‘Et misericordia eius’ that
mixes supplication with the cocktail bar
in quite this way. And it’s not kitsch; it’s
entirely convincing, and utterly surprising
at the same time – the ending takes your
breath away!
If I say that I cannot imagine the work
being used liturgically, that is not to say
that it does not have another role. This
is powerful, original music, outstandingly
performed. Ivan Moody
gramophone.co.uk

Vocal freshness and deep emotional presence: Ilker Arcayürek’s Schubert on Champs Hill Records stands up to fierce competition
Schubert
‘Der Einsame’
An den Mond, D193. An die Laute, D905.
Abendstern, D806. Am Flusse, D160. Der
Einsame, D800. Frühlingsglaube, D686. Drei
Gesänge des Harfners, D478-480. Der Jüngling
an der Quelle, D300. Die Liebe hat gelogen D751.
Meeres Stille, D216. Der Musensohn, D764.
Nachtstück, D672. Nacht und Träume, D827.
Rastlose Liebe, D138. Rosamunde, D797 –
Romance ‘Der Vollmond Strahlt auf
Bergeshöh’n’. Schäfers Klagelied, D121. Der
Schiffer, D536. Schwanengesang, D744.
Sehnsucht, D879. Über Wildemann, D884.
Wandrers Nachtlied II, D768
Ilker Arcayürek ten Simon Lepper pf
Champs Hill F CHRCD133 (68’ • DDD • T/t)
The ever-increasing
tenor population in
the Schubert song
discography reaches
P H O T O G R A P H Y: P AT R I C K A L L E N
a peak of sorts with Ilker Arcayürek’s
intelligently conceived recital, executed
with vocal freshness and an open-hearted
quality that recalls the young Nicolai
Gedda and Christoph Prégardien. The
Italianate richness of his timbre makes him
a particularly mainstream voice in this
gramophone.co.uk
repertoire, though he has all of the needed
interpretative individuality: without the
vocal rumble of baritones and basses, the
more exposed tenor instrument demands
that he have a deep emotional presence at
every turn. Mostly, he does.
Using the song ‘Nachtstück’ as a litmus
test, one hears Ian Bostridge (Wigmore
Hall Live, 8/14) haunted to the bone by
death, with individual words tinged by
bitterness, whether he is acting as the
song’s narrator in one stanza or, later in
the song, portraying the elderly, dying
protagonist who sings himself into the
hereafter. The more boyish-sounding
Matthew Polenzani (Wigmore Hall Live) is
full of probing apprehension in confronting
the great mystery that is death. The more
baritonal Peter Gijsbertsen (Phaedra
Classics) projects tentative hope. But with
his long-reaching legato line, Arcayürek
creates a more satisfying journey that goes
to the verge of rapture, aided by pianist
Simon Lepper creating eloquent rhetorical
silences with hushed reverence.
Though his recording career dates
back at least seven years to ‘Weihnachten
mit dem Mozart Knabenchor Wien’
(Classic Concert Records), the Istanbul-
born, Vienna-raised tenor has recently
distinguished himself in various young
VOCAL REVIEWS
artist competitions and was named among
BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists in
2015. He maintains a small repertoire of
opera roles but, for the time being, the
intimacy of his voice suggests recital
repertoire is where he stands to win the
most devoted audience, especially in a
programme such as this, ‘Der Einsame’,
which is about solitude, of casting off
attachments to the temporal world and
embracing the ethereal.
Arcayürek’s reading of the album’s title
song isn’t the mildly comic portrait of
middle-class complacence heard from
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (DG) but
somebody who is in refuge from the
outside world. The rest of the programme
has its share of hearty songs such as ‘Der
Musensohn’ and even ones that overtax his
voice a bit, such as ‘Der Schiffer’. ‘An die
Laute’ even comes off rather trivial, but
is effectively sequenced just before the
weighty ‘Nacht und Träume’ that begins
the more reflective final leg of the recital.
Though his German is excellent,
Acayürek’s approach to the language is
the polar opposite of the hyper-inflected
Bostridge. Arcayürek sings
‘Schwanengesang’, for example, with the
kind of fearless clarity that comes with
minimum vibrato, projecting emotional
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 105
NEW ON CORO ®

PRESENTS
COR16151

Purcell: Royal Welcome Songs for King James II

The Sixteen | Harry Christophers
$_;Cuv|u;Ѵ;-v;bm-m;‰v;ub;vv_o‰1-vbm]|_;ˆ-ub;|‹-m7
7bˆ;uvb|‹o=†u1;ѴѴĽv‰ubঞm]ĸbm1Ѵ†7;v|_;Chacony in G minor,
When on my sick bed I languish -m7|‰o);Ѵ1ol;"om]v
‰ub‚;m=oubm]-l;vĺĺĺt†bm|;vv;mঞ-Ѵ†u1;ѴѴĴ
ĺ|Ļv-7;Ѳb1bo†vƓƏlbm†|;vo=!;v|ou-ࢼom‰b|-m7
lyrical charm, performed by Harry Christophers’ The
Sixteen.’ The Times (on Purcell: The Indian Queen) “...tension, excitement,
forward momentum...
much to savour”
GRAMOPHONE

“The result is one of the finest

recordings this work has
ever received”
COR16155

FANFARE

Palestrina Volume 7 “A landmark recording...

The Sixteen | Harry Christophers
$_;v;ˆ;m|_u;1ou7bm]bm$_;"bŠ|;;mĽv 1;Ѵ;0u-|;7v;ub;v destined to become
=o1†v;vomvol;o=|_;rbˆo|-Ѵ‰ol;mbm_ubvঞ-m_bv|ou‹
Ŋ-u‹|_;o|_;uo=;v†vķ-u‹-]7-Ѵ;m;ķ"|-u0-u- the new standard for this work”
-m7"†v-mm-_ĺ|bm1Ѵ†7;vMissa Ave Regina caelorum, Song
of SongsovĺƐƖŊƑƐ-m7Beata Barbaraĺ MUSICA RUSSICA
‘The Sixteen’s Palestrina cycle may just be a classic in
the making’ Gramophone (on volume 3)

To order, Call 1-800-451-5006

www.thesixteen.com www.paracleterecordings.com
www.naxosdirect.com, www.amazon.com

content with understated inference rather
than colouring of individual words. That
approach is perfect for the following
‘Meeres Stille’, in which his voice conveys
the watery surface with expressively
deployed legato at the bottom of his range
and at hushed volume levels. Lepper’s
pristine accompaniment – in a fairly radiant
recording acoustic – is an essential partner,
as is the detailed booklet note by Richard
Stokes. David Patrick Stearns
Schubert
Schwanengesang, D957
Bo Skovhus bar Stefan Vladar pf
Capriccio F C5292 (63’ • DDD • T/t)
I had my problems
with Bo Skovhus’s
recent Schöne Müllerin
(7/17), and many of
the same issues, alas, blight his new
Schwanengesang. Or, rather, the same
primary issue: the dry, worn state of the
Danish baritone’s voice. These late songs,
however, are arguably a better fit for his
once-handsome baritone as it now is.
I resist using the word ‘cycle’, and
the disc’s cover is in fact misleading.
‘Die Taubenpost’ is here positioned
among the five Seidl settings that come
first; then come the Heine settings,
followed by the Rellstab, into which is
interpolated ‘Der Herbst’. It’s the same
reordering and expansion as Skovhus
presented on his 1995 Sony account of
the cycle (10/95) and it’s not a bad idea,
meaning that we now end, appropriately
enough, with ‘Abschied’.
There’s a jarring shift in tone, though, as
we go from the bustling ‘Bei dir allein’ into
‘Der Atlas’, which then in turn segues
almost immediately into ‘Ihr Bild’. The
latter is one of the more successful songs,
though, in which Skovhus’s weary tone is
allied to an eloquent intensity of
expression. Likewise, there’s something to
be said for the sepulchral atmosphere he
and Vladar achieve in ‘Die Stadt’, and even
the gnarly honesty of their ‘Doppelgänger’.
The pair bring a nice springiness to ‘Der
Abschied’, too.
But the desiccated sound of Skovhus’s
baritone constantly gets in the way of
enjoyment – he can occasionally put
some flesh on the bones in the middle
of the register, but it peters out at the
bottom of the range and thins at the
top. Nor has he really come up with a
compelling interpretative strategy to
compensate, beyond an emphatic way
with the words.
gramophone.co.uk
Vladar’s playing is perfectly decent – and
one would expect nothing less – but lacks
immediacy in a recorded balance that tries
to offer his colleague a helping hand.
Another disappointment, I’m afraid.
Hugo Shirley
Schubert
Winterreise, D911
Florian Boesch bar Roger Vignoles pf
Hyperion F CDA68197 (71’ • DDD • T/t)
It’s less than six years
since the release of
Florian Boesch’s first
recording of
Winterreise, a widely praised Onyx account
that set quite a benchmark. This new
version from Hyperion is remarkable for
both its similarities and its differences. The
main change, of course, comes in the shape
of Roger Vignoles, whose minutely gauged,
infinitely subtle piano-playing (beautifully
captured by Hyperion’s engineers, and
especially clear in Studio Master download)
contrasts with Malcolm Martineau’s more
robust, assertive contribution on the
earlier disc.
In several ways, Boesch’s own approach
hasn’t changed that much. There’s the
same daring dynamic range, whispers
giving way to bursts of expressionistic
intensity. The mellow beauty of the
voice is largely unchanged, too,
although there’s a hardness at louder
volumes, and the sort of honeyed tones
Gerald Finley produces in his Hyperion
recording, for example, are not in
Boesch’s armoury. What I notice
especially on the new disc is Boesch’s way
with the words: there’s a special lightness –
though never a levity – that helps keep his
line unencumbered, allowing for an
astonishing expressive freedom.
More controversial will be the
occasional tendency, now a little more
pronounced, to sing some notes with
unpolished, unsingerly honesty
(particularly in his hushed ‘Der
Lindenbaum’, for example) or others
almost absent-mindedly (as at ‘das heisse
Weh’ at the end of the first verse of
‘Wasserflut’ – 0'45"). I remain slightly
unconvinced, too, about his halting way
with parts of ‘Die Wetterfahne’.
But otherwise it’s difficult not simply
to marvel at the interpretative skill on
show: listen to the gradual turning of the
screw in ‘Die Krähe’, for example, the
tangible sense of being weighed down in
‘Einsamkeit’ or the masterful delineation
of moods of ‘Frühlingstraum’.
VOCAL REVIEWS
But the approach to some of the later
numbers – understated, almost strangely
objective in tone – might also divide
opinion. Boesch keeps both ‘Der
stürmische Morgen’ and ‘Mut!’ rather
at arm’s length, while ‘Das Wirtshaus’,
though wonderfully controlled and hushed,
feels a touch abstract. ‘Der Leiermann’, a
whole minute quicker than on the earlier
recording, is resolutely undemonstrative.
Those bowled over by more visceral
approaches such as Jonas Kaufmann’s
might well feel slightly short-changed.
There’s something unusually compelling
and hypnotic, however, about a Winterreise
that seems consciously to underplay the
tragedy, withholding even the consolation
of a final catharsis.
It’s an approach, moreover, that raises
fundamental questions about how this great
cycle should be performed, of where the
line between objective presentation and
dramatic representation should be drawn.
I’m still mulling that one over. In the
meantime, though, there’s no question that
this is Lieder performance, from both
Boesch and Vignoles, at the very highest
level of sophistication and accomplishment,
and a fascinating, thought-provoking listen.
Hugo Shirley
Selected comparisons:
Boesch, Martineau (3/12) (ONYX) ONYX4077
Finley, Drake (4/14) (HYPE) CDA68034
Kaufmann, Deutsch (5/14) (SONY) 88883 79565-2
Verdi ◊Y
Messa da Requiem
Juliana Di Giacomo sop Michelle DeYoung mez
Vittorio Grigolo ten Ildebrando D’Arcangelo bass
Los Angeles Master Chorale; Los Angeles
Philharmonic Orchestra / Gustavo Dudamel
Video director Michael Beyer
C Major Entertainment F ◊ 741208;
F Y 741304 (98’ + 18’ • NTSC • 16:9 • 1080i •
DTS-HD MA5.1, DTS5.1 & PCM stereo • 0 • s)
Recorded live at the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles,
August 13 & 15, 2013
Bonuses: Behind the Scenes; Interview and
rehearsal with Gustavo Dudamel
If any Requiem is
going to be suitable
for performance in the
15,000-seat Hollywood
Bowl, then I suppose it’s
Verdi’s – famously operatic, by a composer
famous for having an ambivalent attitude
towards formal religion. And Gustavo
Dudamel has gone for a relatively broad,
leisurely approach that one suspects
offered a big enough picture of the piece
for those in the furthest reaches of
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 107
 OBERLIN MUSIC
THE OFFICIAL RECORD LABEL OF THE OBERLIN CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC

MYTH & TRADITION cellist Darrett Adkins performs three contemporary concertos | UNDER ONE SUN led by world percussionist
Jamey Haddad; music by Billy Drewes | GINASTERA: 100 a celebration with harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, violinist Gil Shaham,
pianist Orli Shaham, and guitarist Jason Vieaux | WHAT THINK YOU I TAKE MY PEN IN HAND TO RECORD? premiere recordings of
songs by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco with tenor Salvatore Champagne | GABRIELI featuring the 26-member National Brass
Ensemble representing nine American orchestras | LUCIANO BERIO—HUANG RUO violinist David Bowlin performs works cast as
both accompanied and unaccompanied

OBERLIN MUSIC | THE OFFICIAL RECORD LABEL OF THE OBERLIN CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC
Celebrating extraordinary talent and artistic vision. Available worldwide. www.oberlin.edu/oberlinmusic

Gustavo Dudamel leads a performance of Verdi’s Requiem at the Hollywood Bowl, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
the venue, audible above the birdlife
and cicadas.
A booklet essay talks of his maturation
since tackling the piece four years earlier
in Oslo (this performance was in fact filmed
in 2013) and this manifests itself in a
restrained platform manner – a certain
stiffness, nervousness even. There’s
patience, too, and a sense of searching out
the spiritual ahead of the merely dramatic.
The opening Kyrie is steady, the Sanctus
deliberate and the ‘Lacrimosa’ actually
rather slow. The ‘Dies irae’ is grandly
implacable as well as fiery, and there’s
a genuinely touching tenderness to the
‘Libera me’, although the fugal section
feels a little bit sluggish to me. Those
used to Toscanini or, more recently,
Muti in this score will find Dudamel
short on incisiveness and drive. Adjust
your expectations, however, and this is
in many ways an impressively cohesive
and imposing reading. The same booklet
P H O T O G R A P H Y: A U G U S TA Q U I R K
note invokes Karajan, and there are some
similarities in terms of tempo, if not yet
the older conductor’s iron grip.
Karajan’s famous La Scala film, of
course, features a matchless quartet of
soloists. Dudamel’s singers are not on that
level, but Julia Di Giacomo is technically
gramophone.co.uk
secure and often moving in the soprano
solos and mezzo Michelle DeYoung makes
a characteristically impassioned partner for
her. Vittorio Grigolo is in very good voice
but his delivery is lumpy and overwrought.
Ildebrando D’Arcangelo does a good job
underpinning it all, but with a voice – more
Figaro than Filippo – that can’t quite
muster the necessarily sepulchral tone.
The Los Angeles Master Chorale make
an impressive sound and the Los Angeles
Philharmonic play with luxurious tone –
listen out for the fine work from the winds,
the bassoons in particular. Hugo Shirley
Selected comparison:
Scala, Karajan (1/06) (DG) ◊ 073 4055GH
‘Baroque Cantatas
from Gdańsk’
Freislich Das ist meine Freude. Gott ist die Liebe.
Jauchzet dem Herrn alle Welt Grain Hertzlich
lieb hab ich dich o Herr Meder Singet, lobsinget
mit Hertzen und Zungen Pucklitz Ich will in
allen Sachen. Kehre wieder
Marie Smolka sop Franziska Gottwald contr
Hermann Oswald ten Markus Flaig bass
Goldberg Vocal Ensemble; Goldberg Baroque
Ensemble / Andrzej Szadejko
Dabringhaus und Grimm F Í MDG902 1989-6
(66’ • DDD/DSD • T)
VOCAL REVIEWS
This enjoyable
recording, the first
of an intended series
on music in Baltic
countries, presents a series of Lutheran
cantatas written in late 17th-century and
18th-century Danzig (the German name
for Gdańsk) by some of its leading church
composers, all of whose names are new to
me: the oldest, JV Meder, died in 1719,
and the youngest, JBC Freislich and
JD Pucklitz, died in 1774. In between
comes JJ du Grain (d1756), represented by
a single cantata, Hertzlich lieb hab ich dich.
This is perhaps the thinnest offering here
(its more pathetic accents seem pasted
on); the others are more accomplished
and offer more scope for choir, soloists and
ensemble. Meder’s Singet, lobsinget evokes
a festive atmosphere most economically,
and the more extensive selections from
Freislich and Pucklitz show a decent
stylistic range and agreeable invention
(Freislich’s short Das ist meine Freude has
an effective obligato trumpet part and
Pucklitz’s Ich will in allen Sachen a graceful
one for bassoon).
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 109
VOCAL REVIEWS
Precision and purity: the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, and Clare Baroque perform Reformation-themed works on Harmonia Mundi – see review on page 113
The performances emphasise these
qualities; ‘workmanlike’ may sound like
damning with faint praise but I mean it
here entirely positively. Perhaps more
might have been made of the menacing
opening section of Pucklitz’s Kehre wieder,
which presages (however briefly) a more
troubling atmosphere. The choir is
stretched a bit further in his Ich will in allen
Sachen, though this is not unduly troubling.
Each of the soloists, finally, makes at least
one telling contribution.
The sound recording is worthy of
Dabringhaus und Grimm’s usual standard,
though the absence of an English
translation of the texts is regrettable.
Fabrice Fitch
‘Music for Troubled Times’
Byrd O Lord, make thy servant Charles
Child O Lord God, the heathen are come
into thine inheritance Hutchinson Behold
how good and joyful a thing is Jeffreys How
wretched is the state H Lawes A Funeral
Anthem W Lawes Music, the master of thy art
is dead. Psalm 6, ‘Lord, in thy wrath reprove
me not’. Psalm 18, ‘O God, my strength and
fortitude’. Psalm 22, ‘O God, my God’. Psalm 67,
‘Have mercy on us, Lord’. Psalm 100,
‘All people that on earth do dwell’. See
how Cawood’s dragon looks
110 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Locke How doth the city sit solitary
Tomkins O God, the proud are risen against me.
Sad Pavan for These Distracted Times
Wilson My God, my King, incline thine ear
The Ebor Singers / Paul Gameson
Resonus F RES10194 (77’ • DDD • T)
William Lawes is
better known for his
instrumental music
than for vocal music,
and his brother Henry’s reputation today
rests principally on his songs. This recital
of Carolinian sacred music offers a focused
look at the pair in a largely unfamiliar
setting, with (this being from The Ebor
Singers) a significant nod in the direction
of the Siege of York in 1644. One might
not expect to find William at his most
daring in music of this sort, and in truth
not all the music here is top-notch (the
setting of Psalm 6, for instance). But at its
best there’s much to enjoy: the setting of
Psalm 22 is more successful, and every
now and then a recognisable gesture will
leap out at those who know his consort
music well.
These committed and sympathetic
performances take wing, generally
speaking, when Lawes does so himself
(again, Psalm 22, the most substantial
work recorded here, is a conspicuous
success). The choral selections and
sections fare best; the soloists (mostly
drawn from among the lower voices)
could be fleeter of voice and surer of
tone, and there’s a slight mismatch
between their vocal style and the tone
of the vocal ensemble. The latter rightly
throws caution to the wind in the defiant
round See how Cawood’s dragon looks;
more such confidence would have
served equally well throughout – it’s
a quality which William Lawes seems
to have possessed in abundance.
Fabrice Fitch
‘Nature and the Soul’
Dārziņš The Broken Pines. Long Ago.
Moonbeams Graubiņš Night has entered the
forest Melngailis Doomsday. Gently, slowly.
Latvian Requiem. Move gently and quietly.
Nature and the Soul. The Sun is Setting Vītols
David Before Saul. The Day is Ending. The
Dwarves and the Old Man of the Forest. The
Enchanted Forest. The King and the Mushroom.
The Moon Lied. The Sun’s Revelry Zālītis The
Goblet on the Isle of the Dead
Latvian Radio Choir / Kaspars Putniņš
LMIC/SKANI F 054 (59’ • DDD • T/t)
gramophone.co.uk
Latvian Radio Choir
in SKANI Cenntenial Series –

THE FRUIT OF SILENCE

Latvian Contemporary Choral Music
Latvian Radio Choir,
Sigvards Kļava (conductor)

SOUND OF FREEDOM
Imants Kalniņš. Symphony No. 4,
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
This album takes us to the first Liepāja Symphony Orchestra,
Marta Sudraba (cello), Atvars Lakstīgala (conductor)
decades of the 20th century
LATVIAN SONGS
when Latvian music, like that Egils Siliņš (bass-baritone), Māris Skuja (piano)
of the other smaller Northern Art Songs by Jāzeps Vītols, Emīls Dārziņš,
Alfrēds Kalniņš, Emilis Melngailis a.o.
European nations, reached its
prime. Latvian romantic choral
BORN IN 1906. DĀRZIŅŠ. IVANOVS
music, enriched by symbolism Volfgangs Dārziņš. Piano Concerto No. 2.
and Art Nouveau ideas, saw Jānis Ivanovs. Symphony No. 20
Latvian National Symphony Orchestra,
its golden era then and the Reinis Zariņš (piano), Andris Poga (conductor)
level attained by Latvia’s choirs
NORTHWIND
today is inconceivable without Latvian Woodwind Quintets
this foundation. Vasks, Plakidis, Zemzaris
CARION Quintet
– Arnolds Klotiņš

www.skani.lv

Dare to believe.

Focus on where you

want to be with Allianz
Musical Insurance by
your side.
• Instrument & accessory cover
• Unlimited professional use
• Accidental damage & theft
• Premiums from £3 a month

Get a quote:
allianzmusic.co.uk
0330 102 2068

Terms and conditions apply. Allianz Musical Insurance is a trading name of Allianz Insurance plc.
VOCAL REVIEWS
Collector
A BACH MISCELLANY 2
David Vickers explores the latest batch of Bach cantatas
Deutsche Hofmusik make an accomplished case for reconstructions of lost Bach works
ontreal Baroque and Eric Milnes
M have the long-term aim of
recording the first complete
cycle of all of Bach’s church
cantatas using exclusively a choir of one
single voice on each part – adopting the
hypothesis that Bach customarily used
vocal ‘concertists’ to sing all music for
their voice type (choral and solo). A few
first impressions of the sixth instalment
alarmed me: the little five-part string
sinfonia that begins Christ lag in
Todesbanden (Cantata No 4) is packed
with an extraordinary density of
mannerisms, and there is a jarring
mistake by one of the violas da gamba
in the first bar of the Actus tragicus
(No 106). It turns out that otherwise
Eric Milnes’s direction from the organ
is efficaciously poignant. The elaborate
opening chorus of Es ist das Heil uns
kommen her (No 9), featuring oboe
d’amore and flute, neatly juxtaposes
a dancelike pulse, fizzing rhythmical
complexity and harmonic sophistication.
Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister (No 181)
begins with a dramatic bass aria that
dramatically illustrates the folly of
frivolous spirits that deny God’s Word
(sung superbly by Drew Santini); and,
during an agitated tenor aria warning
about the harmful thorns and hellish
112 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
torment awaiting the avaricious, Milnes
plays an elaborate organ obbligato part
judiciously (perhaps a larger instrument
offering a more colourful registration
might have been effective).
The debut recording of Ensemble Alia
Mens presents three cantatas composed
for the Weimar court chapel (the
Himmelsburg) during the mid-1710s.
Plaintive solo oboe and strings exploit
emotive dissonances in the sinfonia to
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (No 12).
Four concertists’ arched phrasing
carefully manipulates each suspension
in the evocation of weeping, and overall
the four singers create a real sense of
‘choral’ sustained phrases, broad
sonorities and precise diction –
though not every moment has perfect
intonation in the upper voice parts.
Thomas Hobbs’s mellifluous navigation
of florid high passages in ‘Sei getreu,
alle Pein’ confirms that he has evolved
into a Bach tenor of distinction. Olivier
Spilmont directs from the keyboard with
an affinity for richly layered emotional
rhetoric; he chooses Bach’s additional
recorders from the 1724 Leipzig
revision of Gleichwie der Regen und
Schnee vom Himmel fällt (No 18) –
a decision that transforms the
original scoring for four violas
into a cathartic pastoral. The synergy
between beautifully contoured
instrumental playing and sensitive
singing from all four singers creates
the perfect tone of consolation in
Komm, du süsse Todesstunde (No 161);
there is spellbinding ebb and flow
between Hobbs’s sagacious singing
and shapely contrapuntal strings (‘Mein
Verlangen’), and the conversational
recorders, empathetic strings, sustained
continuo playing and expert voices in
the chorus ‘Wenn es meines Gottes
Wille’ are softly eloquent.
If you like your Bach choral music
to have punch, swagger and generous
resonance, Hans-Christoph Rademann
takes the 30-strong Gächinger Cantorey
through their paces in the Reformation
Day cantata Gott der Herr ist Sonn und
Schild (No 79), which opens with a
splendid chorus declaring that God is
our sun and shield, replete with braying
horns, driving kicks from the timpani,
fizzing orchestra and intricate choral
polyphony; the cantata also includes
a grandly festive setting of Luther’s
famous chorale ‘Nun danket alle Gott’.
In the closing chorale a replica of a
recently discovered chamber organ
by Silbermann cuts through the texture
to invigorating effect – much more
vividly than the boxy organs normally
used in this repertoire. The dramatic
minor-key fugal chorus that launches
Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort
(No 126) petitions God to spare
righteous Protestants from the dual
threats of the Turkish and the Pope;
solo trumpet fanfares, pungent oboes,
assertive strings and disciplined choir
convey a potent balance of robust
fervour and wily fluency. Rademann
conducts a spry account of the short
Mass in G major (BWV236), although
the tenors and basses are slightly
anonymous in the Gloria (parodied from
the opening chorus of Cantata No 79
but without horns and timpani; it is
fascinating to hear both versions on
the same disc). Carus provides an
excellent booklet essay by Henning
Bey on Bach as a reformer of Lutheran
church music – although I wish the
publisher would abandon its usual
policy of abridging its notes for the
English translation.
gramophone.co.uk

There is also admirable scholarship
from Alexander Grychtolik, whose
specialism is speculative scholarly
reconstructions of lost Bach works.
All that survives of Erwählte Pleissenstadt
(Cantata No 216a) is a rough draft of
the words, written out by Bach’s pupil
Meissner. Two solo singers play the
parts of Apollo (tenor Daniel Johannsen)
and Mercury (countertenor Franz
Vitzthum), their panegyric remarks
making explicit the glory and prosperity
of Leipzig; they sing together and
individually with arresting shapeliness
in praise of how the city on the river
Pleisse gleams contentedly above all
other great cities of classical antiquity.
The substantial solo soprano cantata
O angenehme Melodei (No 210a) is an
exposition on the virtues of music that
was designed in homage to Duke
Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels on the
occasion of his visit to Leipzig in 1729.
Only a printed libretto and the soprano
part survive but most of the music of the
arias (not recitatives) can be reconstructed
from their later parodies in the wedding
cantata O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit
(No 210). Grychtolik conjectures that
the soloist was none other than Anna
Magdalena Bach, who before her
marriage had been a court singer at
Weissenfels. Katja Stuber’s pure-toned
singing and unaffected delivery of the
poetry is creditable throughout all five
contrasting arias, most notably a restful
description of music as a panacea for
all ills (a message supported by lovely
concertante violin- and oboe d’amore-
playing). The pleasure afforded by
Deutsche Hofmusik’s accomplished
performances is diminished modestly
by the heavily reverberant church
acoustic swamping the singers.
More miscellaneous Bach on page 96
THE RECORDINGS
JS Bach Cantatas, Vol 6
Montreal Baroque / Milnes
ATMA Classique F ACD2 2406
JS Bach ‘La Cité Céleste’
Ensemble Alia Mens / Spilmont
Paraty F PARATY916157
P H O T O G R A P H Y: W O L F G A N G F R A N K
JC Bach Cantatas Nos 79 & 126, etc
Gächinger Cantorey / Rademann
Carus F CARUS83 311
JS Bach ‘Angenehme Melodei’
Deutsche Hofmusik / Grychtolik
DHM F 88985 41052-2
gramophone.co.uk
This is a collection
of Latvian choral
music selected in
honour of the
centenary of the independence of Latvia.
As conductor Kaspars Putnin, ≈ says in
his introductory note: ‘The majority of
Latvian conductors have probably grown
up with these songs whose imagery,
sound and colour are deeply encoded
in our consciousness … Working on
this album, I have felt as if I am writing
a love letter.’
It sounds that way. One is gripped
by the very first track, the atmospheric,
insistent prophecy that is ‘Senatne’
(‘Long Ago’) by Emı̄ls Darzin, ≈ (1875-
1910), every nuance of which is captured
by the Latvian Radio Choir. Did they
weep while recording the second song
by Darzin, ≈, ‘Mēness staro stı̄go’
(‘Moonbeams’)? I did. They sing
with every fibre of their being.
There is, in fact, something
extraordinary about Latvian choirs: they
sing as though their very lives depend on
it, and when they are singing Latvian
music their immediate connection with
the language makes this even more
apparent. There is both Nordic clarity
and Slavic profundity to be heard in the
sound of a Latvian choir, and there is
also what I might call a poetic sense, an
instinctive knowledge of how to phrase.
All this is beautifully, movingly evident
on this disc. All five of the composers
recorded here are outstanding but what
stays with me is the music by Darzin, ≈
and the wonderful, disturbing ‘Bik, eris
miron, u salā’ (‘The Goblet on the Isle of
the Dead’) by Jānis Zalı̄tis. At all events,
this is a celebration of Latvian choral
music that should not be missed.
As Putnin, ≈ also writes, ‘Many returns
of the day, dear Latvia!’ Ivan Moody
‘Reformation 1517-2017’
JS Bach Cantatas – No 79, Gott der Herr ist
Sonn und Schild; No 80, Ein feste Burg ist
unser Gott Brahms Warum ist das Licht
gegeben, Op 74 No 1 Croft O God, our help in
ages past Cruger Now thank we all our God
Luther Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott. Mit Fried
und Freud ich fahr dahin Mendelssohn
Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten
Neumark Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt
walten Vaughan Williams Lord, thou hast
been our refuge
Choir of Clare College, Cambridge;
Clare Baroque / Graham Ross
Harmonia Mundi F HMM90 2265 (73’ • DDD • T/t)
VOCAL REVIEWS
The face of
Martin Luther
stares out from
the cover of this
latest disc from the Choir of Clare
College, Cambridge, but not as we
know it. Lucas Cranach’s famous portrait
is distorted, fragmented and intersected
into Matthias Koeppel’s neo-Cubist
Luther. The Reformation-themed works
included here may attempt nothing so
radical but the historical long view that
pairs Bach cantatas with not only
Mendelssohn and Brahms but also
Vaughan Williams makes for an equally
interesting shift of perspective.
You only have to look down the names
of the soloists – Mary Bevan, Robin
Blaze, Nicholas Mulroy, Neal Davies –
and the members of Clare Baroque, led
by Margaret Faultless and including the
likes of Katharina Spreckelsen and
Stephen Farr, to get a sense of the
quality on offer here. The instrumental
playing is, well, pretty faultless, whether
in Rachel Chaplin’s introspective oboe
da caccia in Bach’s Ein feste Burg ist unser
Gott or the characterful brass-playing in
Gott der Herr ist Son und Schild.
The choir themselves, conducted by
music director Graham Ross, bring all
their customary precision and purity to
the Bach, but it’s once they arrive at the
later repertoire – Brahms’s Warum ist
da Licht gegeben?, Mendelssohn’s Wer
nur den lieben Gott lässt walten and
Vaughan Williams’s Lord, thou hast
been our refuge – that they really come
into their own. Faced with the busy
counterpoint of movements like the
opening chorus of Ein feste Burg, these
young voices in comparatively small
numbers get a bit diffuse and we lose
the vertical clarity.
But the darker-hued Brahms glows
with love and care, its extended opening
movement shaped with an eye to sonic
drama, and the Vaughan Williams
balances its solo and choral forces to
striking effect, pacing this slow-burn
anthem so that when we arrive at the
final iteration of William Croft’s great
tune with trumpet and organ there’s
a real sense of ecstasy and release –
faith finally rewarded.
Alexandra Coghlan
Find your
music on
www.qobuz.com
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 113
REISSUES
Peter Quantrill recalls the refinement of a master
conductor, that great Brucknerian, Günter Wand
The art of preparation
RCA Red Seal has boxed-up the German conductor’s live recordings
A
ccording to Günter Wand,
‘The older you get, the clearer
your vision of perfection’. We
might then hope to find some ideal
representations of the music closest to
the conductor in this box of live
recordings made during the last 20 years
of his life. For the last half of his career,
Wand was a ‘one-label’ conductor,
faithful to RCA, who hung the
microphones in the Musikhalle in
Hamburg, and then the Philharmonie in
Berlin, at ever-decreasing intervals, keen
to pass on some further refinement of
those visions to his eager public in
Germany, the UK and (especially) Japan.
The wallets being unnumbered, and the
discs inside them arranged in no obvious
order, the box lacks the kind of guiding
structural hand which would have borne
the imprint of its subject. In one sense it
begins with an outlier, the Chicago SO
Brahms First from January 1989. The
performance is commonly known as his
US debut, yet I can trace no record of any
subsequent American engagements. ‘Firmly
in the mainstream of interpretation,’
remarked Will Crutchfield in his New York
Times concert review, ‘neither novel nor
particularly old-fashioned, nor even
especially assertive, except in its assertion
that playing the symphony very well
could be a fruitful and joyous enterprise.’
Just so, though I also hear recovered a
Furtwänglerian model for the symphony,
especially in the memorial-style Andante
turned Adagio, and the dizzying poles of the
finale’s alternating tempi, when all Brahms
has marked is più animato. By comparison
with Andris Nelsons, 30 years on and 1000
miles away in Boston (and reviewed last
month), Wand gets more. More strings,
more force, more brass, more Brahms.
In 1996, back in Hamburg, Wand
remade all four Brahms symphonies. Every
bar of the later First lives in the moment –
114 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
and, lest it be forgotten, with the same
NDR Symphony Orchestra that
Furtwängler conducted in a one-off
performance of the symphony in October
1951. Memories of that occasion seem
to stir in the orchestra’s collective
unconscious, in the piercing wind-band and
full-tilt brass and timpani. There is no
turning aside to smell the flowers in the
third movement – even Thielemann (DG,
11/14) is more graceful here – and you may
find other expected moments of relaxation
hard to come by. So, it would appear, did
Wand, unless with cigar or high-end claret
in hand. Dolce and grazioso were not natural
adornments to Wand’s expressive
vocabulary. The contrasts lie between
degrees of tension.
Bruckner finales were a
challenge relished and
mostly met triumphantly
The set makes no pretence at
comprehensiveness. How could it, when
Profil has documented Wand’s latterday
work with other ensembles in Berlin,
Munich and elsewhere? Nonetheless,
several omissions and missed opportunities
draw attention to themselves. The late
symphonies of Mozart and Tchaikovsky, in
live RCA recordings from the 1990s, would
have put flesh on the bones of this portrait
of Wand. So would the film documentary
released by RCA in 2004 – ‘My Life, My
Music’ – which contains a full account of
the last interview he gave (to the ever-
faithful Wolfgang Seifert), originally
excerpted in the booklet of the final
Schubert Fifth/Bruckner Fourth set.
Anyone expecting a booklet in the present
box will be disappointed. The discs are
enclosed within original-sleeve artwork,
unnumbered, and not all bearing technical
data such as producer, venue or even date.
Wand made famously exigent demands
for rehearsal time. No matter how familiar
the orchestra was with him, or with his
repertoire’s ever-decreasing circle of late-
Classical and Romantic symphonies, at least
15 hours was a contractual minimum. His
use of that time focused on minutiae of
attack, timing and articulation. Whatever
the chosen tempo, there isn’t a sluggish or
routinely played bar of music in this box.
Interviewed for the documentary, NDR
members recalled how Wand always came
to the first rehearsal with a finished concept
of the work in his head. The details would
be discussed with the front-desk players
while the players at the back (in their words)
had a tea party. All the same, rehearsals were
hard and nerve-wracking: German
orchestras are accustomed to move through
the gears, whereas Wand required that idea
become reality there and then.
Seeing him at work in concert, you could
be more certain than with any of his
colleagues that what you heard was all that
Wand had in mind. A Bruckner Eighth
with the BBC SO in 1992 stands out in the
memory as a tragedy of epic scale and
concentration. Its ineluctable tread is
recaptured here not by the storied Lübeck
Cathedral NDR Eighth of 1987, nor the
2002 Gramophone Award-winning climax of
his late-flowering relationship with the
Berlin Philharmonic, but the plainer, more
angular cast of the 1993 NDR performance
at the Musikhalle.
All the same, mediated through
microphones, mixing desks and speakers,
uncertainty creeps in. Did Wand really
intend his NDR Bruckner Sixth in 1988 to
blare and hector so? Possibly not, for his
return to the symphony, seven years later
but with the same orchestra in the same
hall, is a more muted affair – so much so
that Richard Osborne (10/96) was left at a
loss: ‘I am no longer entirely clear how
Wand views the symphony. The newer
gramophone.co.uk

Günter Wand’s rehearsal demands were legendary, but extensive preparation gave us some truly great performances
version comes almost as a rebuke to its
distinguished predecessor.’
Wand was partial to the grand statement.
(One little gem from the documentary:
‘Vain people are so dreadful. Vanity is one
of the most despicable vices.’ This from a
man who reputedly stipulated a particular
brand of English toiletries in his rider.) ‘So
und nicht anders’ was another absolutist
motto he was happy to adopt, and it
became the title for Seifert’s biography:
This way and no other. (I did it my way?)
One lesson to be learnt from the box is
how much ‘this way’ could evolve. He
originally used the phrase while defining
tempo relationships in Schubert’s Great
C major Symphony. Whether in Hamburg
(1991) or Berlin (1995), his traditional
misreading of the alla breve introduction is
P H O T O G R A P H Y: M O E N K E B I L D / S O N Y B M G M A S T E R W O R K S
(along with Boult’s) the most nobly
persuasive on record, but in Hamburg the
slow movement’s coda collapsed like a
wounded boar in the Black Forest, part
Furtwängler Eroica, part Erwartung; the
trio became a Larghetto; the finale
descended at points into a cathartic but
coarse stomp. In Berlin, the symphony
more aptly resembles a day in the life of an
Alpine valley, pulsing with benign life at
every stage of development.
gramophone.co.uk
Bruckner finales were an intellectual and
executive challenge relished and mostly met
triumphantly by Wand. In its gruff way,
even the cut-and-paste 1889 version of the
Third comes together at this point. He
never quite came to terms with the more
rounded contours of the Seventh – which he
conducted less often than any other mature
Bruckner – whereas the quadruple fugue of
the Fifth’s finale found Wand in his
element. Both Hamburg (1989) and Berlin
(1996) recordings are magnificent, but if I
chose a single movement from the box to
introduce Wand’s aesthetic to a friend, it
would be the Fifth’s Adagio from Berlin.
The pace ideally flowing but sober, the oboe
given acoustic space to pipe his lonely
song – Bruckner at his most Berliozian – the
close discreet and chaste.
For all their executive refinement of
detail (particularly notable in the first six
Beethoven symphonies, which easily
outclass the earlier studio recordings), the
NDR performances are cut from rougher
stone. A lumbering Allegro to open
Schubert’s Third is followed by an
Allegretto rivalling Carlos Kleiber for fleet
songfulness. The risks Wand takes in
Berlin are of a different order. Out of three
Bruckner Fourths, it’s again the middle
one – from Berlin in 1998 – I prefer, for its
more refined tonal palette, and total
synthesis of the finale’s disparate strands,
with even a murmur of Gemütlichkeit
granted to the rustic third theme. In some
later concerts, including the Fourth from
his very last appearances in October 2001,
his expressive instincts were softened – or
dulled – by infirmity.
That said, the new set’s appeal would
have been much enhanced (at least for
Wand devotees) had it included a concert
of the NDR orchestra on tour to Tokyo in
November 2000, and released (both on CD
and DVD) by the label’s local imprint. This
can still be obtained from Japanese
retailers – at roughly three-quarters of the
cost of the new box (which sells for about
£60). Is it worth the outlay? It’s the only
commercial record of a programme of
Schubert’s Eighth and Bruckner’s Ninth
that Wand returned to time and again,
including on his last visit to the UK, four
months before these concerts. The
coupling of two unfinished symphonies
trailing off into the void has attracted other
conductors – not least Claudio Abbado for
his own final public appearances in
Lucerne – but Wand owned it. In a
summary appropriation of what he saw as
his own heritage, he once quoted Toscanini
in raptures having heard Fritz Steinbach in
Brahms. ‘It was a thing of wonder: All he
did was play the music just like this.’ What
could be seen in Tokyo and London – frail
and gaunt of physique, an implacable beat,
a left hand firing off red letters – bore scant
resemblance to what was heard, which on
closer examination admitted all manner of
easings and quickenings. Even at that late
stage he introduced a small but telling
accelerando to the ostinato figure which
takes over the Ninth’s Adagio, and wrung
even more agony out of the dissonant
wreckage left over from the movement’s
climatic chord.
One of the better April Fool’s on the
internet concerns a spoof set of five
Bruckner Ninths released by RCA after the
conductor’s death in February 2001 – three
make it into this box – with a putative
booklet note by a distinguished Gramophone
contributor. ‘Wand had actually planned to
make nine Ninth recordings in all, forming
a sort of 9 x 9 palindrome that would have
embodied the nine states of consciousness
engendered by this great, mystical work.’
Would that it were so.
THE RECORDING
Günter Wand Live
Various orchestras / Günter Wand
RCA Red Seal S (33 discs)
8898 543585-2
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 115
Opera
Hugo Shirley hears a fine account Mike Ashman on Domingo’s latest
of Stravinsky’s The Nightingale: baritone role, Verdi’s Macbeth:
‘The playing is superb, with the ‘The costumes provide the sort of non-specific
twittering singsong of many solo lines medievalism you might have seen in your last
strikingly alive’ REVIEW ON PAGE 121 school production’ REVIEW ON PAGE 123

Bellini palace in disguise to overthrow him and

Bianca e Gernando discovers his unwitting sister, Bianca, is
Silvia Dalla Benetta sop............................................. Bianca about to become Filippo’s bride. Things
Maxim Mironov ten ..............................................Gernando kick off in the usual bel canto fashion until
Luca Dall’Amico bass ..................................................... Carlo Carlo is released from his cell and the
Vittorio Prato bar .......................................................... Filippo tyrant is ousted.
Zong Shi bass.............................................................Clemente The young Bellini had wanted to
Marina Viotti mez .....................................................Viscardo push compositional boundaries but felt
Gheorghe Vlad ten ......................................................Uggero he needed to hang on to such elements
Mar Campo mez .............................................................. Eloisa as crowd-pleasing cabalettas to keep
Camerata Bach Choir, Poznań; audiences happy. The stylish music
Virtuosi Brunensis / Antonino Fogliani nevertheless turned critical heads, despite
Naxos M b 8 660417/18 (117’ • DDD) Gilardoni’s lumpen libretto (which you can
Recorded live at the Trinkhalle, Bad Wildbad, access in Italian only via Naxos’s website –
Germany, July 15 & 23, 2016 not good enough, Naxos). Bellini’s score,
Includes synopsis; Italian libretto available from done and dusted in a fraction under two
naxos.com hours, is attractive if hardly memorable,
the highlights being Bianca’s plaintive
Act 2 Romanza, an extended duet for
brother and sister and a decent prison
Here’s an operatic scene for Carlo. Taken from the autograph
‘first’ from the Rossini score housed in Catania’s Bellini Museum,
in Wildbad festival the original version has no overture and
which isn’t by the several cabalettas are different from the
Swan of Pesaro himself. Bianca e Gernando revised opera. The opera ends with a
was Bellini’s first professional opera (after trio and chorus rather than the 1828
his student work Adelson e Salvini, recently scena for Bianca.
resuscitated by Opera Rara, 5/17). Its 1826 Antonino Fogliani leads an efficient
premiere was cancelled at the last minute account of the score, not always in brilliant
and eventually given a few months later, sound, with intrusive ‘bravo man’ in the
headed by Henriette Méric-Lalande and audience sounding louder than some of the
Giovanni Battista Rubini in the title-roles. singers. Russian tenor Maxim Mironov is
Bellini revised it two years later as Bianca e the pick of the crop as Gernando, a light
Fernando (1828) when, after the success at tenor with an attractive ping to his upper
La Scala of Il pirata, he was commissioned notes. Bianca is sung by Silvia Dalla
by Genoa but had little time to write a Benetta, a soprano who has forged an
new opera. The revised version has been unremarkable career in provincial Italian
previously released but this is the premiere houses and a Wildbad regular. Her tone
recording of Bellini’s first thoughts. is a little pallid with a squally top. Vittorio
The opera is based on Carlo Roti’s Prato’s sturdy baritone does well as
Bianca e Fernando alla tomba di Carlo IV, Filippo, who gets some jolly music to
duca di Agrigento. Bellini and librettist sing considering he’s the villain, while
Domenico Gilardoni had to change the Luca Dall’Amico’s unfocused bass is a
name to Gernando because Ferdinando disappointment as Carlo. One for Bellini
was the name of the heir to the throne at completists only, I fear. Mark Pullinger
the time and therefore couldn’t be used
on a royal stage. The plot concerns the M-A Charpentier
dastardly Filippo (a baritone, needless to La descente d’Orphée aux Enfers
say), who has imprisoned Carlo, Duke of Ensemble Correspondances / Sébastien Daucé
Agrigento, and usurped the throne. Years Harmonia Mundi F HMM90 2279 (55’ • DDD)
later, Carlo’s son Gernando returns to the Includes libretto and translation
This recording of La
descente d’Orphée aux
Enfers, Charpentier’s
two-act operatic
fragment dating from the mid-1680s,
eloquently brings to life the circumstances
of the first, private performance in the
Paris townhouse of the Duchesse de Guise.
Sébastien Daucé has replicated the forces
indicated in the score. The rather more
sumptuous-sounding staged performance
mounted by the Boston Early Music
Festival in 2013, issued on CPO the
following year, employed only one extra
singer and two oboes, played in turn by
the recorder players.
Both recordings are vocally superb,
though to my ear the singers of the
Ensemble Correspondances have the edge,
Caroline Arnaud’s performance in the
role of Proserpina tipping the balance.
Charpentier’s vocal ensembles, in
particular, are enchantingly beautiful and
the variety of ways in which he combines
and contrasts them always supports the
dramatic pacing.
Instrumentally, however, the polished
forces of the BEMF deliver a more
nuanced performance, such that even the
purist will concede that the occasional use
of oboes genuinely improves the ensemble
sonority. It may, in fact, be a decision
made in the recording studio that allowed
Ensemble Correspondances’ recorders to
sound quite so shrill. Tempo and phrasing
are also at issue. The instrumental
ritournelle in track 6 (reprised at the end of
track 9) is taken at a fantastic lick that is at
odds with the dramatic mood it is intended
to support (quicker, too, than in the BEMF
version). Elsewhere, especially in the
passages for three bass viols associated with
Orphée’s pleas for the return of Euridice,
the phrasing is often foursquare; the
interpretation of these passages by BEMF’s
players offers a masterclass in how to
contour the sound of the ensemble to the
mood and quality of the voice of Orpheus.

116 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk


Damian Thantrey, with the Nova Music Opera Ensemble, recording Thomas Hyde’s one-man opera That Man Stephen Ward for Resonus – see review on page 120
By way of a petite reprise, let me affirm an American family given to treating
that both recordings are well worth owning the super-sensuous world of ghosts with
and revisiting for the sheer delight of pragmatic litigiousness, patent medicines
Charpentier’s music. Julie Anne Sadie and miracle cleansers and lubricants.
Selected comparison: Gordon Getty’s opera based on the tale
O’Dette, Stubbs (9/14) (CPO) CPO777 876-2 uses much of Wilde’s text verbatim but
comes across more like the standard
Getty Gothic drama that Wilde was satirising.
The Canterville Ghost The humour is all there on the page, and
Alexandra Hutton sop.............................................. Virginia perhaps on stage the slapstick indignities
Jean Broekhuizen mez ...........................................Mrs Otis directed at Wilde’s hapless ghost register
Denise Wernly mez..... First Twin/First Boy/First Voice as farce. On recording, however, it feels as
Rachel Marie Hauge mez ........................................................ if the singers are trying to project comedy
..........................Second Twin/Second Boy/Second Voice in the musical spirit of Owen Wingrave or
Timothy Oliver ten .......................................Cecil Cheshire The Turn of the Screw.
Jonathan Michie bar ...........................................Hiram Otis Getty, now in his eighties, is the
Anooshah Golesorkhi bar ............................... Canterville billionaire son of J Paul Getty but has
Matthew Treviño bass ......................... Ghost (Sir Simon) evolved into a serious composer with a
Leipzig Opera; Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra / particular affinity for opera. The Canterville
Matthias Foremny Ghost was premiered in Leipzig in 2015, on
Pentatone F Í PTC5186 541 (62’ • DDD/DSD) a double bill with Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.
Includes synopsis and libretto The composer crafted his own libretto
for the work, adding an opening scene in
which the young couple – the American
ingénue Virginia and her eager aristocratic
Despite its suitor the Duke of Cheshire – are seen
conventionally many decades later, speaking to their great-
sentimental grandchildren. The rest of the story is told
conclusion, most in flashback.
of Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost is Getty’s musical language is conservative
a laugh-out-loud satire on the foibles of but colourful, but his text-setting, with
gramophone.co.uk
OPERA REVIEWS
frequent large leaps across consonant
intervals, tends to the monotonous.
The orchestra responds mainly with
expostulation – harpsichord tremolos,
a piano glissando and emphatic passages
with strings in unison or parallel with other
instruments. But there are a few more
elaborately and more effectively composed
scenes, including scene 6, in which the
happy family strategises about how to deal
with their unwelcome cohabitant at
breakfast, and scene 19, which reprises
some of the same material.
The works builds to a tender and
wistful romantic-comedy conclusion, with
pleasing strophic passages and a fine duet
for two of the cast’s best singers, soprano
Alexandra Hutton and tenor Timothy
Oliver. Bass Matthew Treviño is
also effective as the churlish but not
unsympathetic Sir Simon, who feels
obliged to haunt Canterville Chase
with professionalism and consummate
theatrical integrity.
Matthias Foremny conducts the Leipzig
Opera and Gewandhaus forces effectively,
though one wishes that the musicians had
more to do. Getty has created a lean, fast-
moving, vocal-friendly theatre piece, but it
could sparkle a lot more than it does.
Philip Kennicott
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 117
 Musical heights,
Image: Prague, lithograph after S. Prout.
history in depth.
Our all-inclusive festivals harmonise music, places
and performers to unique effect.
New for 2018 you can hear Dvorák’s
Ü songs in a
Prague palace or a Britten cantata in one of England’s
most beautiful parish churches. Artists are matched to
music with equal care and there are historical visits as
well as music lectures.
‘Unbelievable – a unique opportunity to hear wonderful
artists in simply perfect venues.’

Our festivals in 2018: Music in the Cotswolds | A Festival

of Music in Prague | The Rhine Valley Music Festival
$)HVWLYDORI0XVLFLQ)UDQFRQLD_7KH'LYLQH2IĆFH&KRUDO
Music in Oxford | A Festival of Music in Bologna

Performances by: The Tallis Scholars, Gabrieli Consort, The Sixteen,

Classical Opera, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Wihan Quartet,
Contact us:
Cantus Cölln, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, La Serenissima, +44 (0)20 8742 3355
-m7;Ѵubm] †-u|;|ķ"ঞѴ;mঞ1oķ$;m;0u-;ķ-m7l-m‹lou;ĺ martinrandall.com
Watch the festival videos online at www.martinrandall.com ATOL 3622 | ABTA Y6050 | AITO 5085

Gounod
Faust
Piotr Beczała ten .............................................................. Faust
Maria Agresta sop ...............................................Marguerite
Ildar Abdrazakov bass ...........................Méphistophélès
Alexey Markov bar....................................................Valentin
Tara Erraught mez .........................................................Siébel
Paolo Rumetz bar .......................................................Wagner
Marie-Ange Todorovitch mez .............................. Marthe
Vienna Philharmonia Choir; Vienna Philharmonic
Orchestra / Alejo Pérez
Stage director Reinhard von der Thannen
Video director Tiziano Mancini
EuroArts F b ◊ 209 7038; F Y 209 7034
(3h’ • NTSC • 16:9 • 1080i • DTS-HD MA5.1, DTS5.1 &
PCM stereo • 0 • s)
Recorded live at the Salzburg Festival, August 2016
Includes synopsis
‘Death is nothingness’,
sings Iago at the end of his
Credo in Verdi’s Otello.
It could be the motto
for Reinhard von der
Thannen’s production of Gounod’s Faust,
premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 2016
and now released on DVD and Blu-ray.
Thannen’s is a bleak view of the world, set
in clinical white and featuring a gigantic
oval-shaped sculpted ‘eye’ which looms
over everything. The word ‘Rien!’ (Faust’s
first utterance) hangs over the stage at the
beginning, returning at the close when the
lifeless body of Marguerite is left alone,
abandoned by Faust, Méphistophélès and
all. Death is nothingness.
Thannen’s direction is clearly influenced
by Hans Neuenfels, with whom he has
collaborated with many times as stage
designer, especially the notorious, rat-
infested Lohengrin at Bayreuth. After
making their pact, Méphistophélès
becomes Faust’s alter ego, each appearing
in identical boulevardier outfits. The
Philharmonia Chor Wien are kitted out
in yellowing Pierrot-type bodysuits and
Marguerite is seduced in a white military
hospital style bed. Méphistophélès and
Faust wheel around a model church tower
and town house, and a huge daisy (the
German ‘Margerite’ = daisy) hangs from
the flies in Act 4, where an enormous metal
skeleton appears to accompany the soldiers’
chorus. Redemption is in short supply for
Marguerite as clown-angels roll giant black
roulette balls slowly around her cell …
it seems her luck (if she ever had any) has
run out. The Walpurgis Night scene is cut,
so we lose the ballet.
It’s a staging loaded with symbolism
which isn’t always immediately obvious.
The festival programme included a nine-
gramophone.co.uk
OPERA REVIEWS
◊Y page note to discuss the director’s concept, was concerned with the conflict between
reprinted here in EuroArts’ booklet. personal advantage and public duty,
Therefore, you can learn that the organ then Attilio Regolo was an opera seria
pipes descending to spear the stage and par excellence. With its grim ending,
entrap Marguerite are, apparently, Metastasio doubted it would be taken up by
‘Almighty God in the form of a pin many others, as his librettos generally were,
cushion’. If directors need nine pages of and indeed only three further versions are
programme notes to explain their concept, known. But Hasse became his favourite
what hope has the casual viewer of composer and went on to set many more
penetrating their ideas? of his texts.
Thankfully, musical standards are The action, such as it is, concerns the
high, the Wiener Philharmoniker playing efforts of the other characters to persuade
urgently for Argentinian conductor Alejo Regolo to change his mind. There is a love
Pérez. He has a fine cast at his disposal, interest, of sorts: Attilia, Regolo’s daughter,
headed by Piotr Beczała in pristine voice as is mutually in love with the tribune Licinio;
Faust, his beautifully smooth tenor perfect Amilcare, the Carthaginian ambassador, is
for French repertoire. Ildar Abdrazakov mutually in love with Barce, who is also
lacks a little of the devilish bass darkness loved by Publio, Regolo’s son. But there
as Méphistophélès but sounds glorious and are no love duets: in fact there are no
free in his upper register; his serenade ‘Vous duets or ensembles at all, the opera
qui fates l’endormie’ is the performance’s consisting entirely of recitatives and arias
high point. Maria Agresta sings an affecting until the final Coro. What gets the opera
Marguerite, aided by crystal pianissimos, into the history books are the accompanied
although her Jewel Song lacks – dare one recitatives, where the vocal line is
say it – a little sparkle and vivacity. Alexey punctuated by the strings: these and other
Markov’s Slavic vowels don’t make him a aspects of characterisation were the subject
natural Valentin but there’s no denying his of a famous letter from librettist to
juicy baritone, while Tara Erraught is a composer (October 20, 1749) that was
spunky Siébel. Mark Pullinger surely intended for publication. The last
scene is particularly effective, where Hasse
Hasse moves three times from secco recitative to
Attilio Regolo accompagnato and back.
Axel Köhler counterten ..............................................Regolo Given the seriousness of the subject, the
Markus Schäfer ten ..................................................... Manlio arias are, on the whole, surprisingly jolly.
Martina Borst mez ......................................................... Attilia The orchestration is plain: the violins are
Sibylla Rubens sop ........................................................ Publio sometimes doubled by oboes or flutes, and
Carmen Fuggiss sop ......................................................Barce a pair of horns puts in an appearance a
Michael Volle bar ...........................................................Licinio couple of times. This 20-year-old concert
Randall Wong counterten .................................... Amilcare performance from Dresden doesn’t exactly
Cappella Sagittariana Dresden / Frieder Bernius set the pulse racing. As Regolo, the part
Profil Semperoper Edition M c PH07035 originally taken by the amusingly named
(163’ • DDD) Domenico Annibale, Alex Köhler gives
Recorded live at the Semperoper, Dresden, 1997 little hint of the hero’s moral stature.
Includes Italian libretto with German translation Sibylla Rubens is too lightweight as Publio.
On the other hand Michael Volle, now well
known in Wagner and Strauss, is by no
means overpowering in the role of Licinio.
Marcus Attilius Martina Borst as Attilia, the part composed
Regulus (d250 BC) for Hasse’s wife Faustina Bordoni, is fluent
was a Roman in the melismas of her simile aria ‘Mia
general who, parea del porto in seno’; but the most
initially victorious, became a prisoner in winning performance comes from Carmen
Carthage. Sent to Rome with a Carthaginian Fuggiss’s fresh-voiced Barce. The Cappella
embassy, he urged the Senate not to Sagittariana Dresden play springily for
negotiate peace terms despite his own life Frieder Bernius.
depending on a successful outcome. He There are various cuts. The two booklets
returned to Carthage where, according to contain contemporary illustrations,
legend, he was shut into a barrel studded including costume designs, but the layout
with spikes and rolled down a mountain. is confusing and there are many errors (not
Metastasio had written the libretto of just typos). The libretto is given in Italian
Attilio Regolo in 1740 but circumstances and German only. This is a useful stopgap
prevented its being set to music at the but sceptics will need something better to
time; Hasse’s opera was performed in be convinced of Hasse’s genius.
Dresden in 1750. If the typical opera seria Richard Lawrence
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 119
OPERA REVIEWS
Hyde
That Man Stephen Ward
Damian Thantrey bar ................................. Stephen Ward
Nova Music Opera Ensemble / George Vass
Resonus F RES10197 (63’ • DDD)
Includes synopsis and libretto
Thomas Hyde’s one-
man chamber opera
about the society
osteopath scapegoated
during the Profumo affair dates from 2008,
when it was first performed at the
Hampstead and Highgate festival. It owes
its reputation, however, to Nova Music
Opera’s 2015 Cheltenham production –
subsequently seen in Presteigne and at
LSO St Luke’s – which now forms the
basis of its first recording. In the interim,
Ward had once again become the focus of
attention, firstly through Andrew Lloyd
Webber’s Stephen Ward The Musical and,
more importantly, through Geoffrey
Robertson’s book Stephen Ward is Innocent
OK, a forceful demand that the verdict of
his trial, on a fabricated charge of living
off immoral earnings, be overturned.
Setting a libretto by David Norris,
That Man Stephen Ward is not so much
a polemic as an ironic, if desperately
sad portrait of the man himself, cast as
a monologue in which he looks back over
his life in the weeks between his arrest
and the night of July 30, 1963, when,
in anticipation of the guilty verdict the
following day, he took a fatal overdose of
barbiturates. Ward is seen as a garrulous,
charming hedonist, catastrophically given
to vicarious involvement in the sex lives
of others. The score tacitly identifies him
as a tragic clown: Hyde deploys the same
instrumental combination as Pierrot lunaire,
albeit with the addition of a percussionist;
and Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer is
witheringly quoted, precisely at the point
when Ward realises that the establishment
he served is now abandoning him. The
vocal line glides in and out of Sprechstimme,
broadening into lyricism for a sequence
of formal set pieces: cabaret songs; a big
Handelian parody; and a nostalgic aria of
farewell just before Ward’s suicide.
You need, perhaps, to see it (regrettably,
I haven’t) rather than just listen: Hyde
specifies that Profumo, Christine Keeler
and Eugene Ivanov should be played by
dancers, and you sometimes miss their
physical presence, both in Ward’s over-
long platonic apostrophe to Keeler and in
the complex imaginary party scene, which
gathers all the players in the Profumo affair
together. But singer-actor Damian
120 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Thantrey gives a powerhouse performance within riddle and symbolism. Converting
as Ward, wonderfully sustaining his cut- that into an opera for children is anything
glass pronunciation, and impeccably but child’s play.
shifting voice and accent as he imagines To my semi-adult ears, which are
conversations with Keeler, Lord Astor, the admittedly unable to draw any solid
police, his judges and even Churchill, who parallels between text and music beyond
was one of Ward’s osteopathy patients. the obvious, Levinas’s score is intriguing,
George Vass conducts with committed evocative, original and frequently beautiful.
precision. Playing and recorded sound Its highly coloured recitative style might
are both excellent. It’s a fascinating be compared to Francesco Cavalli’s, and
achievement, beautifully done. Tim Ashley the voices are pitted against vivid writing
for ensemble founded squarely on
Levinas modernist techniques (often atonal, hints
Le petit prince of spectralism, lots of clustering and
Jeanne Crousaud sop.................................Le Petit Prince microtonalism, some knowing stylistic
Vincent Lièvre-Picard ten ..................................L’Aviateur pastiche and some absurdist tendencies).
Catherine Trottmann mez .....................................La Rose Two keyboardists superimpose the above
Rodrigo Ferreira counterten....Le Renard/Le Serpent with overlapping broken chords from a
Céline Soudain sop .................................La Rose multiple prescribed harmonic grid. The vocal
Alexandre Diakoff bass-bar ........................................Le Roi writing has clarity at its heart and is
Benoît Capt bar ................................................... Le Vaniteux exceptionally delivered here, particularly
Patrick Lapp spkr ...................................................... Narrator by Jeanne Crousaud in the title-role. But
Orchestre de Picardie / Arie van Beek an opera for children? In that regard, it’s
Claves F 50-1725 (78’ • DDD) Levinas who could do with coming down
Recorded live at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, to earth. Andrew Mellor
February 11 & 12, 2015
R Strauss ◊Y
Die Liebe der Danae
Krassimira Stoyanova sop .......................................Danae
Marks out of ten for Tomasz Konieczny bass-bar....................................Jupiter
product management: Norbert Ernst ten ...................................................... Mercury
zero. Here we have Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke ten ................... Pollux
an audio recording Regine Hangler sop .................................................... Xanthe
of an opera sung in French with no libretto Olga Bezsmertna sop ................................................ Europa
(not even on the web) and no synopsis Gerhard Siegel ten .........................................................Midas
in the booklet, but instead a sycophantic Mária Celeng sop .........................................................Semele
three-page biography of the composer Michaela Selinger mez ......................................... Alkmene
in laughable English that refers to the Jennifer Johnston mez.................................................. Leda
aforementioned opera in the future Vienna State Opera Chorus; Vienna Philharmonic
tense, ‘to be created in 2015’ (it opened Orchestra / Franz Welser-Möst
in Lausanne in November 2014). Good Stage director Alvis Hermanis
start, Claves. Video director Agnes Méth
To be frank, reviewing Michaël Levinas’s EuroArts F b ◊ 209 7028; F Y 209 7024
Le petit prince with only an 18-year-old (160’ • NTSC • 16:9 • DTS-HD MA5.1, DTS5.1 &
scraped French A level and Wikipedia’s PCM stereo • 0 • s)
plot summary of the admittedly very Recorded live at the Salzburg Festival, August 2016
famous book on which it is based posed Includes synopsis
quite a headache. It would have been far
harder if the principal singers on this live
recording of the opera’s transfer to Paris
in February 2015 didn’t enunciate with Straussians might
such clarity. have high hopes for this
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s semi- DVD. It captures the
autobiographical novella tells of a pilot homecoming last year
crashing to earth, whereupon he meets of Strauss’s penultimate
the titular prince. The two share various opera to the site of both its aborted and
experiences and encounters through actual premieres (the first, in 1944, only
which they seek internal peace and some got as far as a dress rehearsal; the second
understanding of the world. The ultimate took place in 1952). The Salzburg Festival’s
message is, apparently, enshrined in the only other staging, in 2002, has never, so
fox’s observation that ‘one sees clearly far as I can tell, been released in any
only with the heart’. Much of the book’s format. But one can’t help wishing that
resonance and reputation comes from its its Danae, Deborah Voigt, might have
concealing of complex existential questions featured on Leon Botstein’s important
gramophone.co.uk
 OPERA REVIEWS

Jupiter first appears wheeled in on a vast white elephant in the Salzburg Festival’s 2016 production of Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae

studio recording of 2000 (American
Symphony Orchestra) – she was, after
all, his Helena a few years later.
There’s good news and bad news when
it comes to the present performance. The
chief glory is probably the playing of the
Vienna Philharmonic – warm, burnished
and with all the sparkle Strauss’s score
(presented with a handful of judicious cuts)
calls for. Franz Welser-Möst’s conducting,
though hardly revelatory, has an admirable
seriousness and keeps the action moving
along efficiently and effectively. Krassimira
Stoyanova rises to the challenge of Danae
tirelessly, singing with luxurious, focused
tone throughout.
The bad news primarily involves Alvis
Hermanis’s production, which is a ludicrous
riot of exaggerated exoticisms and – in
the case of a troupe of gold-clad dancers –
eroticisms. Jupiter first appears wheeled
in on a vast white elephant and when he
finally says farewell to Danae, she is made
to listen impassively while weaving a
carpet; along with oversize turbans, carpets
P H O T O G R A P H Y: M I C H A E L P O E H N
performance, though very well sung, is Stravinsky
hardly involving as a result – and there’s The Nightingalea.
very little done to bring the work’s Pribaoutkib. Two Poems by Paul Verlainec
dramatic dry patches to life. In other roles a
Mojca Erdmann sop ........................................Nightingale
Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke stands out, a
Evgeny Akimov ten ...........................................Fisherman
in particular, as Pollux, while Gerhard a
Marina Prudenskaya sop ...........................................Cook
Siegel faces up to the unreasonable a
Tuomas Pursio bass......................................Chamberlain
demands of Midas heroically. Thomas a
Vladimir Vaneev bar .............................................Emperor
Konieczny sings robustly as Jupiter, but a
Feodor Kuznetzov bar .............................................. Bonze
you very much get the sense of this being a
Mayram Sokolova contr............................................Death
a mortal sent to do a god’s job. b
Katrin Wundsam mez
And the work itself? There are surely too c
Hans Christoph Begemann bar
many weaknesses (mainly stemming from WDR Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra,
Hans Gregor’s fussy, wordy libretto) for it Cologne / Jukka-Pekka Saraste
to ever establish itself in the repertoire; Orfeo F C919 171A (52’ • DDD)
but is there a moment more tender and WDR broadcast performances, aMay 8-12, 2012;
beautiful, in all Strauss, than Danae’s October c30 & b31, 2013
reawakening in Act 2? Can we really
manage without Jupiter’s music in Act 3?
This production communicates those
moments well enough but can’t help With a composition
feeling like a missed opportunity; its DVD history that straddles
rival from the Deutsche Oper conducted by the period of the
Andrew Litton remains more compelling composer’s three
viewing overall, despite Manuela Uhl’s breakthrough works for Diaghilev’s

offer a visual motif throughout, dangled
or projected variously on to the tiled block
that forms Hermanis’s own set design.
The director lets down his cast, too, by
offering only the most basic Personenregie.
Stoyanova is reduced to extensive waving
of hands and generalised gestures – her
somewhat wayward Danae. For all the
virtues of Botstein’s set – its very existence
chief among them – we still await a fully
satisfying modern audio-only account.
Hugo Shirley
Selected comparison:
Litton (ARTH) ◊ 101 580 or 107 539; Y 108 032
Ballets Russes, The Nightingale in many
ways presents two different Stravinskys:
pre- and post-Rite. A beguiling and mistily
atmospheric first act gives way to second
and third acts that reflect the composer’s
new forcefulness and angularity – but does
so just when the plot, based on Hans

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 121

New music books from

Gramophone Choice Recordings

# Disc of the month

I Sang the Unsingable Bach CPE # + Haydn Cello Concertos Isserlis £10.50
Brahms Piano Sonata No.3, Intermezzi Nelson Freire £11.00
My Life in Twentieth-Century Music Handel + Barsanti Edinburgh 1742 Whelan £12.00
B E T HA N Y B E A R D SL E E Mozart Symphonies Nos.39 & 40 Suitner £12.00
With Mozart Violin Sonatas Vol.4 (2CD) Ibragimova £10.50
M I N NA Z A L L M A N P R O C T O R Pickard Symphony No.5, Sixteen Sunrises Brabbins £10.50
Ravel + Dutilleux & Delage (DVD+BLURAY) LSO, Rattle £16.00
Memoir of Bethany Beardslee, the Schubert Der Einsame Arcayürek, Lepper £10.00
iconic American soprano known as the ShostakovichChamber Symphony + R Strauss Leducq-Barôme £13.00
“composer’s singer”. ————— Carnevale 1729 (2SACD) Ann Hallenberg £22.00
————— Stravaganza d’Amore! (2CD+ BOOK) Pichon £14.50
£25, September 2017, 978 1 58046 900 5, HB
Signum Classics Promotion
Adès In Seven Days + Nancarrow Hodges, Adès £ 9.50
Berlioz Grande Messe des Morts (2CD) McCreesh £14.00
Dove In Damascus, Piano Quintet etc. Sacconi Quartet £ 9.50
Beethoven’s Cello Elgar Symphonies 1 & 2 (2CD) Philharmonia, A. Davis £ 9.50
Haydn The Seasons (2CD) Sampson, McCreesh £14.00
Five Revolutionary Sonatas and Their
Mahler Symphonies (15CD) Philharmonia, Maazel £24.00
World MendelssohnElijah (2CD) Joshua, Keenlyside, McCreesh £14.00
M A R C D. M O SKOV I T Z Mozart + Nielsen Clarinet Concertos Bliss, Venzago £ 9.50
& R . L A R RY T O D D RachmaninovSymphony No.1 Philharmonia, Ashkenazy £ 9.50
Reger Fantasias & Fugues (2CD) organ David Goode £ 9.50
The ideal companion for cellists, pianists, Shostakovich24 Preludes & Fugues (2CD) Peter Donohoe £14.00
musicologists and chamber-music devotees Todd Mass in Blue Vasari Singers, Backhouse £ 9.50
desiring a comprehensive understanding of Free Monthly New Release & Special Offer Listings
Beethoven’s beloved cello repertoire. We accept payment by Cheque / Visa / MasterCard
Postal Charges UK - First item £1.50, then £0.50 per item Box Sets £3.00
£29.95, October 2017, 978 1 78327 237 2, HB Maximum UK postage charge = £3.00
Europe - First CD £2.00, then £1.00 per disc Box Sets from £2.50
Outside Europe at cost Prices valid until 30.11.17 and include VAT at 20%
Office Hours Monday - Saturday 9.00am - 5.00pm Answerphone on Wednesdays
Orders: 01787 882223 Classics Direct
91 North Street, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 1RF. UK E-mail: sales@classicsdirect.co.uk
XXXCPZEFMMBOECSFXFSDPN
r
DVTUPNFS!XJMFZDPN
r

 www.classicsdirect.co.uk to view our special offer listings

Christian Andersen, itself starts to
explore the clash between nature
and technology.
Richard Taruskin called the work – just
45 minutes long – a ‘touching little Orphic
allegory’. It is indeed a gem, beautifully
polished up in this new recording. Jukka-
Pekka Saraste brings out a remarkable
amount of detail in the score, with each
line precisely etched and vividly conveyed.
The playing is superb – the twittering
singsong of many solo lines strikingly
alive – and the engineering is natural
and detailed.
While the first act is properly beguiling,
however, it’s as if Saraste is always looking
forward to the sound world of the final two
acts: there’s a real pungency to the music
accompanying the bickering courtiers, for
example. He brings brilliant, sparkling
angularity to the Chinese Dance later on,
and is especially good in capturing the
impassive objectivity of the Nightingale’s
mechanical rival.
The recording benefits from being
strongly cast, with Evgeny Akimov an
appealingly tangy-voiced Fisherman,
Marina Prudenskaya a luxurious Cook
and Vladimir Vaneev authoritative as the
Emperor. Mojca Erdmann’s performance
as the Nightingale might be a little more
controversial: she sings the part accurately
but the basic sound, with its earthbound
timbre, feels too plummy. There’s a similar
issue with the rather too knowing Natalie
Dessay on the main modern rival (with less
vivid support from James Conlon and the
Paris Opéra orchestra). I’m not sure, in
fact, if anyone on record really surpasses
Reri Grist, Stravinsky’s Nightingale on
his own recording.
Somewhat strident accounts of Pribaoutki
and Deux Poèmes de Paul Verlaine hardly
represent a generous coupling, and it’s
really not good enough for Orfeo to
include neither synopsis nor text and
translation. Still, that shouldn’t detract
from a very fine, recommendable account
of a haunting score. Hugo Shirley
Selected comparison:
Conlon (1/00) (EMI/WARN) 556874-2 or 456500-2
Verdi ◊Y
Macbeth
Plácido Domingo bar..............................................Macbeth
Ekaterina Semenchuk mez.....................Lady Macbeth
Ildebrando D’Arcangelo bass-bar ......................Banquo
Joshua Guerrero ten ................................................Macduff
Joshua Wheeker ten ............................................... Malcolm
Summer Hassan sop ................................Lady-in-Waiting
Los Angeles Opera Chorus and Orchestra /
James Conlon
Stage director Darko Tresnjak
Video director Matthew Diamond
gramophone.co.uk
Sony Classical F ◊ 88985 40357-9;
F Y 88985 40358-9 (149’ • NTSC • 16:9 • 1080i •
DTS-HD MA5.1, DTS5.1 & PCM stereo • 0 • s)
Recorded live, October 13, 2016
Includes synopsis
To be undertaking new
roles in major houses (and
in a new Fach) well into
your seventies – not to
mention conducting,
including a planned Bayreuth debut in
2018 – is no small achievement. Yet there
has been something anticlimactic about
several of Plácido Domingo’s forays into
the baritone repertoire.
Recorded in the singer’s ‘own’ house in
Los Angeles last year (where he is General
Director), this Macbeth is wanting in both
musical and dramatic drive. We never see
‘the much vaunted courage’ which Lady
Macbeth (in Act 2) hopes her husband will
soon show again. Ever since the Witches,
in the very first scene, prophesied a royal
future for Banquo’s children, Domingo has
presented a worried, frail individual. There’s
little internal conflict in his usurper: the
final ‘Mal per me’ – predictably added
in for this performance of a Paris version
which even includes some of the ballet –
feels like his natural habitat. Only this
aria, and some of the more Shakespearean
texts of his early scenes, sound naturally
baritonal from this artist. Much of the
remainder sounds like a tenor reaching low.
Serbian stage director Darko Tresnjak
has an impressive CV of theatre and musical
successes in America. The set has two
useful levels and the costumes provide the
sort of non-specific medievalism you might
have seen in your last school production.
But Tresnjak seems nervous of getting his
hands dirty in this opera with actual
Personenregie and leaves the soloists and the
chorus to their own devices. Unfortunately
he has picked up one of the least interesting
tropes of Macbeth staging: having the
witches acted (or, in this case, danced)
by extras who appear in every scene like
a spoiler soundtrack whenever something
evil is about to happen. Enough already, we
get the point. They (I think they’re all or
mostly girls) look truly hideous in painted
body stockings, squashed red insect wings
and dark tribal make-up with rodent-like
animal tails. The uncredited choreographer
has also decided they should spend much
time squatting with backsides towards the
public as if relieving themselves.
There is one outstanding performance:
Ekaterina Semenchuk’s Lady Macbeth, a
mezzo with just the right kind of gritty yet
OPERA REVIEWS
gleaming tone – and a great top – to
encompass Verdi’s non-bel canto demands.
She also acts with careful minimalism, at
least until habitual end-of-scene parade
ground stares to encourage applause from
the dress circle. James Conlon’s conducting
tends to hang back until encouraged to
accelerate by the soloists. The filming
seems to reflect faithfully an atmosphere
which is dark and muddy apart from the
follow spots on the Macbeths. This is only
really recommendable for Semenchuk and
those collecting everything Domingo has
done. Mike Ashman
Wagner ◊Y
Lohengrin
Piotr Beczała ten ................................................... Lohengrin
Anna Netrebko sop............................................................ Elsa
Evelyn Herlitzius sop .................................................. Ortrud
Tomasz Konieczny bass-bar........................... Telramund
Georg Zeppenfeld bass ................................... King Henry
Derek Welton bass-bar ............................................... Herald
Saxon State Opera Chorus; Staatskapelle
Dresden / Christian Thielemann
Stage director Angela Brandt
Video director Tiziano Mancini
DG F b ◊ 073 5319GH2; F Y 073 5322GH
(3h 35’ • NTSC • 16:9 • 1080i • DTS-HD MA5.0,
DTS5.0 & PCM stereo • 0 • s). Also available as 4k
Ultra HD Blu-ray: F Y 073 5373GH (2160p •
24-bit/96kHz, DTS-HD MA5.0 & PCM stereo)
Recorded live, May 2016
Includes synopsis
German interpreters have
long dreamt of performing
Wagner with star singers
from the supposedly
‘opposite’ Italian or French
vocal cultures, Lohengrin being a favourite
subject for experiment due to the supposed
bel canto nature of its leading roles. Wieland
Wagner wanted Mario del Monaco in
the title-role and Maria Callas as Ortrud;
Christian Thielemann (in what may have
been a trial for Bayreuth that apparently
won’t happen now) secured Anna Netrebko
and Piotr Beczała to debut as the not-quite
lovers for a Dresden run in May 2016.
As Thielemann outside Bayreuth appears
to prefer easy-going non-interventionist
productions from a safe past, this
‘new’ release is really a non-starter as
a competitive Lohengrin on DVD (go
rather to the Bayreuth or Munich options).
Christine Mielitz’s 1983 (!) production
has been worked over by a ‘director of
performance’. As filmed here there is
but one exciting moment, when the two
leading ladies clash in Act 2 Nibelungenlied-
style (as Wagner intended from his
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 123
OPERA REVIEWS
sources) over the crown of Brabant.
Otherwise we’re watching three acts
of dutifully efficient naturalistic plodding
around in 19th-centuried-up faux medieval
costumes: the not-so-happy couple, going
to get married, resemble pictures of King
Ludwig II in Neuschwanstein. The set
remains a kind of indoor courtyard (plus
big bed for Act 3 scene 1) that looks like it
has strayed in from an Act 1 Meistersinger.
The cast are good to look at on camera
and are no slouches as actors – but the main
interest of the release remains musical. How
do the imported stars do? Netrebko brings
a sensuality and an outraged awareness
of how this woman is exploited not that
common in Elsas, and the role lies well for
her vocally at the moment. Confident in the
more florid writing, she also has the weight
to doubt Lohengrin with some power in
their Act 3 duet. Beczała also sounds here
to have an ideal weight of voice and a
cunning balance between dreamy lyrical
and heroic. Both comfortably maintain a
dramatic presence in the rather dull setting.
They are excellently supported (if that
doesn’t sound patronising) by Zeppenfeld’s
King – a master of variety now as Wagner’s
authority figures – Herlitzius’s cold Ortrud
and the Telramund of Konieczny (especially
convincing in the denunciations of Act 1)
whom she clearly bullies. Thielemann has
not yet rethought his earlier Wagner as he
has recently his Walküre and Tristan, and
still relies on a generalised large orchestral
sound without a suggestion of what the
earlier palettes of Beethoven and Weber
might bring to these pre-1850 scores.
Nonetheless, there’s a stylish and
intelligent range of tempos and he does
not allow his fine orchestra to overdo the
weight of the plentiful brass music. He also
gives us a rare chance to hear all the music
in Act 2 (and there’s a lot of it!) between
the Ortrud/Elsa duet and the entry into
the Minster.
A CD might have served this project
better but, if you can hear through a little
visual frustration, the performance is well
worth attention for conductor and cast.
Mike Ashman
Wagner ◊Y
Parsifal
Klaus Florian Vogt ten ..............................................Parsifal
Ryan McKinny bass-bar.........................................Amfortas
Georg Zeppenfeld bass .................................. Gurnemanz
Elena Pankratova sop ...............................................Kundry
Gerd Grochowski bass-bar ....................................Klingsor
Karl-Heinz Lehner bass-bar ......................................Titurel
Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra /
Hartmut Haenchen
Stage director Uwe Eric Laufenberg
Video director Michael Beyer
124 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
DG F b ◊ 073 5350GH2; F Y 073 5353GH
(4h 7’ • NTSC • 16:9 • 1080i • DTS-HD MA5.0, DTS5.0
& PCM stereo • 0 • s). Includes synopsis
Recorded live 2016
Whatever else Parsifal is
about, we may agree that
its ending represents the
opening up of a closed
society. That is one idea
well caught at the end of this filming of the
Bayreuth Festival’s 2016 new production –
house lights fully up, scenery and ensemble
moving to the sides in search of new
horizons in cloud-like smoke. It’s a nice
lift at the end where not everything in Uwe
Eric Laufenberg’s staging appears yet to
have come into precise focus – which itself
prompts again the question as to whether
the premiere of a show that has several
years to run is really the best occasion
to record it for posterity.
Judging from the costumes and from the
Google map video that occupies the first
Transformation interlude in Act 1, we are
in the modern-day Middle East world of
religious conflict. The Grail community
shares not especially luxurious space with
other religions, refugees, tourists and
soldiers. Its iconography is very Christ-
oriented; a large crucifix designates its area
and Ryan McKinny’s terrifically in-focus
Amfortas appears at the ceremony as Jesus
en route to Calvary. Later we see that part
of Klingsor’s reaction against the Grail
domain has made him build up a fetishistic
collection of crucifixes, one of which
appears, tastelessly, to have been worked
into a sex toy. The burkhas which Kundry
and the Flower Maidens wear some of the
time in Act 2 suggest a rather half-hearted
attempt to show Klingsor turning towards
Islam, maybe too hot a potato politically.
None of these interventionist ideas are made
much of until Act 3 when, rather movingly,
the Flower Maidens return to the Grail
domain ‘redeemed’ after Parsifal baptises
Kundry. And too many of the ideas – like
the appearance of soldiers smoking during
Gurnemanz’s monologue – appear at the
moment like easy alienation effects in the
middle of an otherwise straight and clear
reading of Wagner’s text.
Hartmut Haenchen’s belated Festival
debut fields all his customary research on
the score. He seems immediately master of
pit/stage balance, using to the full the
acoustics for which the work was created.
(His sampled bells also sound specially
period.) I haven’t done the comparative
maths but the performance feels quite fast,
although not to a Boulez or Krauss degree.
The cast fit well, with McKinny outstanding
in mood and (like his longtime North
American predecessors here, George
London and Thomas Stewart) in the balance
between hysteria and pain. Pankratova
encompasses Kundry’s tricky range in Act 2
with aplomb – it’s just a pity she’s not given
more interesting things to do, although her
shell-shocked (de)incarnation in Act 3 is
memorable. Vogt now sounds more natural
in this role than as Lohengrin. Zeppenfeld
contributes another multi-layered reading
of an ‘old’ Wagner bass. The Blu-ray
provides exceptional sound and picture
detail. Well worth seeing even if there is
a shortage of the more memorable visual
moments provided by Audi (Challenge
Classics, 8/17), Lehnhoff (Opus Arte, 7/05)
and Kupfer (EuroArts). Mike Ashman
‘Carnevale 1729’
Albinoni Filandro – Fior ch’a spuntar si vede; Il tuo
core in dono accetto Giacomelli Gianguir – Mi par
sentir la bella; Vanne, si, di al mio diletto Leo Catone
in Utica – Ombra cara, ombra adorata; Soffre talor
del vento Orlandini Adelaide – Non sempre
invendicata; O, del mio caro sposo … Quanto bello
agl’occhi miei; Scherza in mar la navicella; Vedrò
più liete e belle Porpora Semiramide riconosciuta
– Bel piacer saria d’un core; Il pastor, se torna
aprile; In braccio a mille furie Vinci L’abbandono di
Armida – Nave altera che in mezzo all’onde
Ann Hallenberg mez
Il Pomo d’Oro / Stefano Montanari vn
Pentatone F b Í PTC5186 678 (130’ • DDD)
Includes texts and translations
Ann Hallenberg’s
inquisitive forays
researched in
partnership with her
musicologist husband Holger Schmidt-
Hallenberg are never merely run-of-the-mill
recitals – as has been proved by genuinely
rare ‘Hidden Handel’ (Naïve), portraits of
different ancient Roman Agrippinas (DHM,
7/15) and a live concert recording of mostly
music for Farinelli (Aparté). This new
double album is a judicious assortment from
seven operas all performed in Venice during
the eight-week carnival period between
December 26, 1728, and February 27, 1729.
At least some of these productions at
different theatres caught the eye (and ear)
of Handel, based in La Serenissima while
hunting around Italy for new singers. His
erstwhile diva Faustina and castrato
Senesino played the principal parts in
Orlandini’s Adelaide, and arias from each
role might as well have been tailor-made
for Hallenberg’s pinpoint virtuosity and
lyricism, communicative use of language,
gramophone.co.uk

Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczała maintain a dramatic presence as the not-so-happy couple in Wagner’s Lohengrin
idiomatic embellishment, intelligently
sculpted phrasing (limpid, gentle or
turbulent as the music demands) and astute
theatrical characterisation: time seems to
stand still in Adelaide’s lament ‘Quanto
bello agl’occhi miei’, sung sublimely over a
sophisticated rolling string accompaniment,
and the voice’s dialogue with violinist-
director Stefano Montanari is shaded
elegantly in Ottone’s lyrical alla francese
aria ‘Vedrò più liete e belle’.
Sweetly tender solo oboe and pizzicato
strings are judged beautifully in ‘Mi par
sentir la bella’ from Giacommeli’s Gianguir,
and there is zestiness in two quick arias from
Albinoni’s Filandro. From Porpora’s
Semiramide riconosciuta there are several fine
arias: the gracefully lilting siciliano ‘Il pastor,
se torna aprile’, the cantabile intimacy of
‘Bel piacer saria d’un core’ (for Farinelli
making his Venetian debut), and the furious
‘In braccio a mille furie’ (the only aria
recorded before – notably by Hallenberg
herself). Perhaps the eligible 1729
repertoire might have yielded some greater
variety of instrumentation and dramatic
moods, but such reservations evaporate
at the sheer classiness of Hallenberg
P H O T O G R A P H Y: D A N I E L K O C H / D G
and Il Pomo d’Oro’s perfectly aligned
dulcetness in ‘Ombra cara, ombra adorata’,
sung by the grieving widow of Pompey in
Leo’s Catone in Utica, and the barnstorming
climax of Vinci’s sizzling ‘Nave altera che
in mezzo all’onde’, used in the pasticcio
L’abbandono di Armida. David Vickers
gramophone.co.uk
‘Stravaganza d’Amore!’
‘The Birth of Opera at the Medici Court, 1589-1608’
Including music by Allegri, Brunelli, Buonamente,
Caccini, Cavalieri, Fantini, Gagliano, Malvezzi,
Marenzio, Orologio, Peri and Striggio
Pygmalion / Raphaël Pichon
Harmonia Mundi F b HMM90 2286/7 (103’ • DDD)
Hardback book includes texts and translations
This two-record set takes
as its starting point the
various strains of dramatic
music that fed into early
Florentine opera, above
all the legendary and spectacular intermedi
put together for the 1589 Medici wedding.
Unprecedented in scale and unified by the
theme of the power of music, this music is
historically important precisely because it is
constructed out of the elements from which
early opera evolved, within a decade, in the
same city. Ten excerpts are presented here,
together with substantial sections from
Giulio Caccini’s Il rapimento di Cefalo,
Marco da Gagliano’s La Dafne and both
Caccini’s and Jacopo Peri’s settings of
L’Euridice, together with a selection of
other works from the period in a variety
of styles and forms by a constellation of
composers. By grouping them into six
imaginary intermedi defined by themes
(‘La favola d’Apollo’, ‘Le lagrime d’Orfeo’
and so on), Raphaël Pichon has ingeniously
OPERA REVIEWS
encouraged structured listening across
composers and genres of a kind that rarely
occurs on record; the results are fascinating
and, at times, revelatory.
This is not to say that all these pieces
are masterpieces. Some, such as Malvezzi’s
Sinfonia, were written simply to disguise the
creaking of the stage machinery as the sets
were changed. As with so much stage music
designed to project a message across the
footlights, many of them originally formed
just one element in a complex experience
designed to evoke a sense of ‘wonder’,
induced by costumes, lighting, scenic effects
and the music itself, which was intended to
stupefy the listeners through the virtuosity of
the performers and the unparalleled size of
the forces required. Pichon and Pygmalion
rise to this challenge magnificently. Speeds
are finely judged, the sense of vocal and
instrumental ensemble is well balanced
and there is some impressive solo singing,
including Luciana Mancini’s carefully
wrought rendition of ‘Lassa, che di spavento’
from Caccini’s L’Euridice. Elsewhere there is
some spectacular improvised instrumental
ornamentation (just occasionally a little
exaggerated), while the whole is expertly
underpinned by a rich array of continuo
instruments. The fruits of an ambitious and
carefully researched project, these records
come encased in a beautifully presented
illustrated hardback book, with three essays
and the texts of the vocal works translated
into English, French, and German. Iain Fenlon
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 125
 20 NOMINATED ARTISTS 20 INCREDIBLE TRACKS
“With 20 quality tracks it all adds up to a
glorious melting pot of sound”
Evening Standard

Discover the very

best in world & folk
music from the past
year and order your
copy of the Songlines
Music Awards 2017
compilation album.

Available on CD, exclusively from

Prices and information are correct at time of going to print. Prices exclude delivery. Free Super Saver Delivery and Unlimited One-Day Delivery with Amazon Prime are available. Terms and conditions apply. See Amazon.co.uk for details.

Birmingham International Piano Festival

27 Oct – 4 Nov 2017
We are thrilled to present the 2017 Birmingham International Piano Festival – where we bring some of the world’s finest pianists
and keyboard players to Birmingham. Performances will take place in the University of Birmingham’s world class concert halls in
the Bramall Music Building and The Barber Institute of Fine Arts between Friday 27 October and Saturday 4 November 2017.

27 October 1.10pm Kenneth Hamilton piano

27 October 7.30pm Syd Lawrence Orchestra
with Steven Devine
28 October 7.30pm European Union Chamber Orchestra harpsichord

1 November 7.30pm Benjamin Grosvenor piano

3 November 1.10pm Ksenija Sidorova accordion
4 November 2pm Songs About Us family concert

Admission: Free - £22. See website for details.

Tickets + Info birminghampianofestival.com


The Editors of Gramophone’s sister music magazines, Jazzwise and Songlines,
recommend some of their favourite recordings from the past month
Jazz
Sam Braysher with
Michael Kanan
Golden Earrings
Fresh Sound New Talent F FSNT-1007
You’re far likelier these
days to find saxophonist
Sam Braysher’s version of
jazz played in a hotel bar
than in a jazz club. Or in a
film like La La Land played by a pianist with
the word ‘loser’ tattooed on his forehead,
perhaps. But don’t let that put you off.
Conversely, it’s a middle finger salute to the
current prevailing attitude that says jazz has
a responsibility to move ahead and cater for
a new generation. Braysher is just doing his
thing in any case and this is an enjoyable
recording. In one way at least he has a
refreshing approach: Braysher prefers
looking back to the original song source – a
Broadway show, film or dance band tune –
World Music
Stephan Micus
Inland Sea
ECM F ECM 2569
I was first drawn to the
music of Stephan Micus
by his piece written for
56 flowerpots in the
1980s. While travelling
the world over the years, Micus’ hunter-
gatherer instincts have picked up many
different instruments and traditions,
which he has reworked into his own very
distinctive music. His is a key voice on the
ECM label. Inland Sea explores his latest
enthusiasm, the nyckelharpa, (Swedish
keyed fiddle), a European companion to his
many Asian bowed instruments. The album
plays out their unfolding relationship via
plucking, bowing, hitting, stroking and
strumming. Micus’ other discovery here is
the balanzikom, a lute from the borders of
Gramophone, Jazzwise and Songlines are published by MA Music, Leisure & Travel, home to the world’s best
specialist music magazines. To find out more, visit gramophone.co.uk, jazzwisemagazine.com and songlines.co.uk
gramophone.co.uk
for inspiration rather than the classic
modern jazz interpretations. So ‘Dancing
in the Dark’ has something of crooner Al
Bowly as well as Lester Young and cool
school-era Lee Konitz. On the Irving Berlin
waltz medley, US pianist Michael Kanan
sounds like he’s been listening to Ray Noble
as well as Lenny Tristano, who is also the
inspiration for the altoist’s version of the
lesser known Bird original ‘Cardboard’.
Selwyn Harris
Jack DeJohnette, Larry Grenadier,
John Medeski & John Scofield
Hudson
Montéma Music F MTM0228
These four musicians are
linked by the proximity of
their postcodes, since, as
John Scofield puts it, ‘All
of us have built our
Tajikistan and Afghanistan, which he
says is unlike any other instrument he
has ever played. Its partnership with the
nyckelharpa, together with Micus’ long-
standing love of the Japanese shakuhachi
(bamboo flute), as well as his own voice in
a self-created language, combine in music
that is reflective and intriguing.
Fiona Talkington
Too Sad For the Public
American Folk Fantasies Vol 1:
Oysters Ice Cream Lemonade
StorySound Records F 161020
Dick Connette doesn’t
see music in terms of
white and black, urban or
rural, folk or funk, blues
or country. He views
America’s vast musical landscape as one
deep river fed by a thousand tributaries,
JAZZ & WORLD MUSIC REVIEWS
Brought to you by
careers in [New York] city and then moved
out to the Hudson Valley to raise our kids
and have a home.’ And who can blame them.
The group first came together in 2014 to
play the Woodstock Jazz Festival, their
musical paths having criss-crossed at several
points in the past. The point here is this
band is not a hastily put-together
‘supergroup’ for a record session. They
have history together and it shows –
nothing is forced or flashy, they seem to
be playing more for one another than any
audience. Taking a jazz-rock inspired path,
they mix original pieces with ‘Lay Lady
Lay’ and ‘A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall’ by
Bob Dylan, ‘Wait Until Tomorrow’ by
Jimi Hendrix, ‘Up on Cripple Creek’ by
The Band and ‘Woodstock’ by Joni
Mitchell. Relaxed yet intense, it might not
possess the cutting-edge fervour of their
youth, but there’s much distilled musical
wisdom on offer to savour. Stuart Nicholson
Brought to you by
clearly demarcated yet endlessly flooding its
banks. With his new project, he navigates
these waters with the help of a gifted raft of
musicians including Suzzy Roche, Gabriel
Kahane, Ana Egge, Rachelle Garniez, Rayna
Gellert, Erik Friedlander, Steve Elson and
Chaim Tannenbaum. Under another’s
direction, such a mix of music and voices
would seem more of a compilation than a
cohesive album, but here everything is
focused through the lens of a deft, expansive,
supremely musical vision. American folk and
old-time traditions, even a touch of the jug
band era, are explored via old songs and
original compositions that could have been
written a century or more ago. They are
underpinned by subtle arrangements that
echo Randy Newman’s strings and the
harmonic intervals of contemporary
classical music. American folk fantasies
indeed: Connette has realised them in
visionary fashion. Gerald Seligman
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 127
 Supported by the Maria Callas estate.
Photo © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

She left a legacy to music. Will you?

Maria Callas said, “When music fails to soothe the ear, the heart and the senses, then it has missed the
point.” Her stunning voice and passion may never be equalled but will live forever.
You too could leave a lasting contribution to music with a gift in your will.
Help Musicians UK has been supporting musicians since 1921, from starting out, to coping with illness
or retirement.
Show your love for music and contact us today.

helpmusicians.org.uk/legacy
legacy@helpmusicians.org.uk Backing musicians throughout their careers.
0207 239 9114 Registered charity No. 228089.
 MUSICAL CONNECTIONS
Two listening journeys inspired by our Lifetime and Special Achievement Award winners
The best of Dame Kiri Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Colin Matthew Championing the new
both receive Gramophone Awards this
Any Kiri Te Kanawa playlist has to Since its founding by Colin Matthews
year, and both inspire two very different
focus on Mozart and Richard Strauss, in 1988, NMC Recordings has played
playlists that explore their substantial
the two composers for which her a pivotal role in disseminating new
contributions of classical recording
voice and musicianship made her so British music. Here’s a selection from
ideally suited – in roles for which her its most significant recent releases.
glamorous, aristocratic stage persona From the 1995 premiere of The
certainly didn’t do any harm either. It Persistence of Memory, Richard Causton
was as Mozart’s melancholy Countess was clearly a composer of promise. This
that she made her breakthrough, at cross-section takes in that scintillating
the Royal Opera House in 1971, and piece, together with the ominous (and
she recorded the role for Sir Georg prescient) Millennium Scenes and the
Solti’s all-star-cast Le nozze di Figaro deftly evocative Chamber Symphony.
(alongside Thomas Allen, Samuel Few younger composers have evolved
Ramey, Frederica von Stade and Lucia an overtly modernist idiom with the
Popp) a decade later. The soprano’s audible conviction of Helen Grime.
characteristic silvery voice, always This recording includes pieces written
employed with restraint and taste, for the Hallé and Mark Elder such
is also what makes her Strauss roles as Virga and Near Midnight, together
special (her Marschallin, Capriccio with the Clarinet Concerto (Lynsey
Countess and Arabella are preserved on Dame Kiri Te Kanawa: made for Mozart and Strauss Marsh) and several ensemble works
disc). Few singers have led the famous that amply confirm her prowess when
trio from Der Rosenkavalier with such tenderness as she writing for chamber as well as orchestral forces. Best known
does in Bernard Haitink’s 1990 Dresden set – a recording for his concertos and string quartets, Hugh Wood is also a
that the soprano herself described as one of her finest distinguished writer of songs. The four song-cycles gathered
achievements, and for which she’s joined by Anne Sofie here underline his masterly word-setting across a range of
von Otter and Barbara Hendricks. Te Kanawa’s Puccini was poets in Lawrence Durrell, Robert Graves, DH Lawrence and
used to memorable effect in Merchant Ivory’s film A Room Laurie Lee; and rendered by a distinguished roster of singers
with a View: ‘O mio babbino caro’ is heard over the opening in Claire McCaldin, James Gilchrist and Roderick Williams.
credits, but her unusually seductive take on ‘Chi il bel sogno Testament to the resourcefulness of Charlotte Bray is the
di Doretta’ from La rondine (a work she recorded in full) is diversity of pieces featured here: whether composing for solo
also memorably employed. The sheer beauty of the voice piano (Oneirei), violin and ensemble (Caught in Treetops) or
can perhaps be best experienced in the intimate context of large orchestra (At the Speed of Stillness), these results confirm
song, and a Decca recital with Roger Vignoles at the piano, her imaginative response to a range of inspirations, together
and released in 1990, finds her on especially beguiling form with the fastidiousness of her ear for sonority and texture.
in Liszt’s tender ‘Oh, quand je dors’. Her rightly famous Never afraid to imagine past genres from an arresting new
recording of Joseph Canteloube’s sun-drenched Chants perspective, Harrison Birtwistle has recreated the Baroque
d’Auvergne offers another welcome opportunity to wallow in cantata in Angel Fighter; its biblical antecedents rendered
the voice’s sensual allure: she catches the dreamy world of in music visceral and provocative by turns. Committed
‘Baïlèro’ especially well. Te Kanawa was a soprano performances from long-term associates, the London
whose fame – and repertoire – spread well beyond the Sinfonietta and David Atherton. Active since the beginning as
confines of the classical and operatic worlds, and film buffs producer (executive or otherwise), Colin Matthews also features
and opera-lovers alike will be fascinated to hear her recording as composer on a recent 70th-birthday tribute featuring
of ‘Aria from Salammbô’, a fin-de-siècle pastiche composed by concertos for violin and (second) for cello, along with the
Bernard Herrmann as part of his score for 1941 Orson Welles darkly Mahlerian Cortège. Artists include Oliver Knussen
movie, Citizen Kane. In the film it’s sung badly – deliberately and the BBC Symphony Orchestra; themselves salient
P H O T O G R A P H Y: J O H N S W A N N E L L / W A R N E R C L A S S I C S

so – but Te Kanawa’s recording makes you wish contributors to the NMC project from the
the whole opera actually existed. Hugo Shirley outset. Richard Whitehouse

Mozart Le nozze di Figaro Solti Decca
R Strauss Der Rosenkavalier Haitink Warner Classics
Puccini Arias LPO / Pritchard Sony Classical
Liszt Oh, quand je dors Vignoles Decca
Canteloube Songs of the Auvergne ECO / Tate
Decca
Herrmann Citizen Kane – Aria from Salammbô
National PO / Gerhardt RCA Red Seal
To explore these playlists via
a streaming service, or to
create your own, we suggest
qobuz.com. You can listen to
these particular playlists at
gramophone.co.uk/playlists
Causton The Persistence of Memory, etc BCMG /
R Wiggleworth NMC
Grime Night Songs, etc Hallé / Elder et al NMC
Wood Wild Cyclamen McCaldin; Gilchrist; Williams NMC
Bray At the Speed of Stillness, etc Aldeburgh World
Orch / Elder NMC
Birtwistle Angel Fighter London Sinf / Atherton NMC
C Matthews Concertos BBC SO / Knussen NMC

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 129

REPLAY
Rob Cowan’s monthly survey of historic reissues and archive recordings
Böhm in Dresden, Vienna and London
A collection of Karl Böhm’s early recordings boasts operatic riches galore
‘I
have lied and done many things of
which I am anything but proud. As
far as music is concerned, though,
I have always been honest and sincere.’
Karl Böhm’s own words as quoted in Rémy
Louis’s excellent note for this valuable
collection of mostly wartime recordings
just about sum up the conductor’s essence:
a man of compromise, ‘a sinner’, as he
called himself, who had truck with the
Nazis – though he never joined the party –
but who prioritised his musical conscience
above all else. Not for him the heady
interpretative flights of a Furtwängler or
the marmoreal musical statements of a
Klemperer, but rather something altogether
more centred, even calmed. True, the
opera pit occasionally saw a different side
of him, and there are operatic riches galore
here, most especially featuring the music
of Wagner, and yet Böhm was particularly
celebrated for his interpretations of
Richard Strauss. Apart from accounts of
Till Eulenspiegel, Don Juan and the Dance
of the Seven Veils’ which opt for the sort
of brisk, no-nonsense approach that Strauss
himself often favoured, there’s music from
Der Rosenkavalier and Daphne (especially
lovely) with Esther Rethy, Elisabeth
Höngen, Margarete Teschemacher and
Torsten Ralf.
Wagner is handsomely represented, most
memorably post-war by the Philharmonia,
Kirsten Flagstad and Set Svanholm in
music from Die Walküre and Tristan
und Isolde (with Constance Shacklock as
Brangäne in the latter) and a superbly
sung 1938 Dresden recording of Die
Meistersinger’s Third Act, possibly the set’s
highlight overall, with Hans Hermann
130 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Nissen as Sachs, Ralf as Walther and
Teschemacher as Eva. Recordings from
1939-40 of the opera’s Prelude and Sachs’s
Act 2 ‘Flieder’ monologue with Josef
Herrmann are also included.
Apart from the Philharmonia Wagner
sessions and a couple of tracks with the
Berlin Philharmonic (Wagner and Nicolai),
all other performances are either with
Staatskapelle Dresden (the majority) or the
A man of compromise who
prioritised his musical
conscience above all else
Vienna Philharmonic. Böhm went on to
re-record much of this repertoire,
Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony to
magnificent effect with the VPO (for
Decca). The 1936 Dresden version
included here is quite different: generally
swifter, interpretatively straightforward and
a good deal less atmospheric. The Fifth
dates from the following year and is more
impressive. Again, Böhm doesn’t dawdle,
but seems to have the full measure of the
piece and his performance, muscular and
assertive, has genuine stature, for example
in the finale’s imposing double fugue.
Böhm’s take on Reger’s Mozart Variations
is most familiar from his post-war Berlin
Philharmonic version for DG, but this
1938 Dresden predecessor captures to
a T the work’s winning combination of
innocence, harmonic sophistication and, in
the closing fugue, over-the-top exploitation
of counterpoint. I still think that Böhm
in Dresden gives Reger’s most famous
orchestral work its best shout, by far.
Beethoven’s Choral (1941, with a cast
of soloists led by the lyrical bass Josef
Herrmann) opens to what sounds like
someone running a bath, though the
surface noise does eventually settle. This is
a powerful performance, with some deftly
pointed detail in the Scherzo, a warmly
felt Adagio, and a thoughtfully judged,
exceedingly well-sung finale.
Beethoven’s Violin Concerto (1939)
with Max Strub, a sensitive player, is
interesting in that it’s one of the first
on disc – if not the first – to feature the
cadenza with timpani. Walter Gieseking
is typically fluent in the Fourth Piano
Concerto (1939), and especially crystalline
in the finale. The Third Concerto falls
to the Ukrainian pianist Lubka Kolessa,
a d’Albert pupil who moved to Ottawa in
1940, the year after this elegantly phrased,
considerately pianistic performance was
recorded. Edwin Fischer turns in an
idiomatically forthright (if occasionally
ham-fisted) account of the Emperor (1939
again), Böhm opting for an uncommonly
rhythmic approach to the orchestral score,
though the Adagio is serenely beautiful.
Among the Mozart inclusions is a pure-
toned account of the Fifth Concerto with
the Carl Flesch pupil Jan Dahmen (1938)
and the Third Horn Concerto with Max
Zimolong (1940). The Minuet and Trio
from Mozart Symphony No 28 (VPO,
1947) is very sluggish, but the VPO Jupiter
from two years later and the Haffner from
1942 are commendably well balanced.
Böhm’s 1942 reading of the ‘Air’ from
Bach’s D major Suite follows Furtwängler
in its reverential mood and broad tempo,
likewise a darkly atmospheric Schubert
gramophone.co.uk

Karl Böhm’s recordings from the 1930s and ’40s have been gathered into a new 19-disc set by Warner Classics
Unfinished from 1940, whereas his 1944
Brahms First Symphony opens to a firm
bass line then after a rather humdrum
introduction enjoys a vigorous finale.
The high point of the 1939 Brahms
Fourth comes at 8'13'' into the Andante,
the expansive return of the second subject,
as expressively drawn and richly textured
as any recorded performance before or
since, while a Vienna reading of the Second
Symphony’s Adagio from three years later,
again taken slowly, breathes autumn in
every bar, though the finale visits warmer
climes, albeit without rushing. A youthful
Wolfgang Schneiderhan is the soloist
for a sweet-toned and energetic account
of the Brahms Violin Concerto (1940)
and Wilhelm Backhaus offers a massive,
spontaneous-sounding B flat Piano
Concerto (1939), which like Fischer’s
Emperor occasionally sacrifices digital
accuracy to excitement and a sense of
scale. Also included is a compelling 1942
account of the Schumann Concerto with
Gieseking. Various shorter vocal items and
orchestral works take their place amongst
P H O T O G R A P H Y: U L L S T E I N B I L D / G E T T Y I M A G E S
this impressive set’s contents (Pfitzner’s
16-minute Symphony in C is one of them)
and the transfers are generally acceptable.
THE RECORDING
‘Karl Böhm: The Early Years’
Warner Classics S s
9029 58867-2
gramophone.co.uk
Bruno Walter’s Brahms
… ‘generally acceptable’, maybe, but not
of the standard that Opus Kura achieves
for a series of three CDs featuring Bruno
Walter’s pre-war recordings with the
Vienna Philharmonic which has a greater
sense of depth and presence. Hearing,
say, the coupling of the First (1937)
and Third (1936) Brahms symphonies
is like listening to decent copies of the
original 78s on a first-rate playback
system. Walter’s way with the Third’s
first movement is full of energy and
ardour, the sound frame letting in plenty
of lower brass, more so in fact than on
many of the earliest post-war recordings
of the work. Walter marks the difference
in mood and tone between the middle
movements, appreciating in particular the
flowing shape of the Poco allegretto third
movement, and drawing some glorious
playing from the VPO strings. As presented
by Opus Kura, the First Symphony opens
with so much more richness and clarity
than does the 1944 Böhm recording
on Warner’s set; in fact, it’s difficult to
believe that their provenance hasn’t been
accidentally reversed. My only gripe is
a slightly loose shellac side join at 4'37''
into the first movement, but otherwise
this is a superb production.
How many orchestras today could
summon such a rich Brahmsian sonority
for the opening of the Andante and
in the finale, the vividness of those
REPLAY
accelerating pizzicatos or, beyond the
horn solo, the big strings theme, a rare
vintage reproduced with admirable clarity,
the performance building up a real head
of steam? Anyone who is keen on Walter’s
art ought to supplement his American
legacy with these performances, plus an
Opus Kura coupling of Haydn’s 100th
and Beethoven’s Pastoral, which is equally
good (OPK2116)
THE RECORDING
Brahms Symphonies Nos 1 & 3
VPO / Walter
Opus Kura F OPK2117
Suitner’s Mozart
Returning to the Staastskapelle Dresden,
of special note is one of a series of CDs
marking Berlin Classics’ 70th birthday.
The disc I’ve chosen is a Mozart
symphonies coupling, the conductor
Innsbruck-born Otmar Suitner who
spent most of his conducting career
in East Germany and made what was
probably the very first digital Beethoven
symphony cycle for CD (for Denon,
with Kegel on Capriccio not too
far behind).
Suitner’s Mozart recordings fall very
happily on the ear, with sound (1974-75
in this instance) that is warm yet
admirably transparent. Listen in
particular to the E flat Symphony, K543,
the amiably chugging Menuetto and
Trio or the unforced gaiety of the finale.
The great G minor K550 (played in the
version with clarinets) opens to a gently
motoric accompaniment, the tempo
unhurried and yet once the dynamic
increases so the drama increases with it.
The mood is urgent but never exaggerated.
Also note the palpable change of tone and
colour once we shift to the development
section. The pensive Andante is sweetly
mellifluous (beautiful woodwinds, the
lead flute in particular), the Menuetto
furrowed but not aggressive, the finale
mirroring the first movement’s urgency,
except that here Suitner doesn’t play
the repeat. A distinctive coupling, well
worth investigating, as are all Suitner’s
Mozart discs.
THE RECORDING
Mozart Symphonies
Nos 39 & 40
Staatskapelle Dresden /
Suitner
Berlin Classics F 0300881BC
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 131
Books
Mervyn Cooke welcomes new
essays on Benjamin Britten:
‘This book offers a well-rounded
portrait of Britten as someone who
belonged, yet did not belong’
Benjamin Britten Studies
Essays on an Inexplicit Art
Aldeburgh Studies in Music, Vol 12
Edited by Vicki P Stroeher and Justin Vickers
The Boydell Press, HB, 554pp, £60
ISBN 978-1-783-27195-5
Do we need another book
on Benjamin Britten?
Aficionados of the composer
will feel the question to be
entirely unnecessary, yet others observing
the growth of Britten literature from the
sidelines will continue to be amazed at the
extraordinary proliferation of writing on
the man and his music in recent years,
which peaked around the celebrations
of his centenary in 2013. Indeed, several
of the essays in Benjamin Britten
Studies originated as papers given at two
conferences mounted to mark Britten’s
100th birthday, one held at the University
of Nottingham and the other at Illinois
State University. The book’s editors
co-organised the latter event and have
here deftly assembled a wide-ranging
symposium which encourages a resounding
‘yes’ in answer to the initial question.
What promised to distinguish this book
from its predecessors is its international
flavour, and its remit (as the cover blurb
states) to ‘take off the “protective arm”
around Britten’. Both editors are American,
and the book is – rather bizarrely, given
that its publisher is based just a few miles
from Britten’s Suffolk home – written
throughout in American English. There is
a notable emphasis on Britten’s American
sojourn in 1939-42, the book beginning
with a section largely devoted to this ‘exile’
which (unwittingly?) gives the impression
that the composer’s career only really
took off as a consequence of his temporary
emigration. Two of the book’s 16 chapters
are devoted to the ill-fated American
operetta Paul Bunyan (1941; revised
in 1976), as part of a disappointingly
unbalanced coverage of Britten’s musico-
132 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Philip Clark on a wide-ranging
book by Christian Wolff:
‘Wolff is everything a thoughtful, socially engaged
musician ought to be: a free spirit grounded in
compositional and philosophical rigour’
dramatic output in which Gloriana and
Death in Venice, along with two of the
church parables, are the only operas
receiving sustained critical consideration.
Discussion of the technicalities of Britten’s
music occupies a relatively small part of the
book, too, in spite of its subtitle promising
an examination of his ‘inexplicit art’
(a phrase he himself coined to describe
music in general). There is one outstanding
analytical contribution, nonetheless: a
brilliantly insightful essay on Britten’s
manipulation of rhythm and tempo by
Philip Rupprecht.
The perceived need to remove the
‘protective arm’ concerns the commonly
held view that, following his death,
Britten’s reputation was ‘carefully curated’
(as the editors put it) by an old-guard
coterie of associates whose admiration for
him bordered on hagiography. While on
the whole this may be true, the book does
not in fact develop this particular agenda
forcefully, being content for the most
part to present details of the man and his
milieu in a refreshingly unpartisan way.
It’s a pity, though, that a project which is
so heavily indebted to the source materials
at the archive at Britten’s former home
(The Red House) does not acknowledge
the achievements of figures such as the
composer’s indefatigable assistant
Rosamund Strode, without whom the
resource might never have blossomed in
the way it did. The first wave of Britten
scholars who worked in the archive when
Strode was still its guardian will fondly
remember having their wrists gently but
deliberately slapped if they dared to touch
a hallowed manuscript in an inappropriate
fashion: it was almost an initiation
ceremony, but the legacy of protectionism
and the sub rosa status of some of the
archive’s materials in subsequent years
have now completely evaporated. In their
endearingly personal Epilogue, the book’s
editors attest to their own experiences of
working at the archive as relative outsiders,
their position neatly resonating with the
central thrust of the project as a whole: it
offers a well rounded portrait of Britten
as someone who belonged, yet did not
belong – whether artistically, culturally,
socially or sexually.
The book’s extended length has
accommodated some rather leisurely
writing in places. There are many
substantial digressions during which
Britten is scarcely mentioned (after one
of which even the contributor has to ask
‘What has any of this to do with Britten?’),
and no fewer than 53 pages are devoted to
a factual listing of all the music performed
at the Aldeburgh Festivals held between
1948 and 1957. This could easily have
been made available online as a reference
resource, rather than taking up so much
space in a book which in its printed edition
is already priced well outside the reach of
most readers’ pockets. Frustratingly, too,
some contributors fall prey to the familiar
academic complaint of footnote-itis,
burying large amounts of interesting and
often relevant information in the notes
rather than finding ways to incorporate
these often distracting asides into the main
text in order to provide a more coherent
reading experience.
That said, the volume contains
manifold insights which illuminate both
the composer and his music from fresh
perspectives. This is certainly not – and
was never intended to be – a study aimed
at newcomers to its subject, but any readers
already possessed of a reasonable working
knowledge of Britten’s life and work will
find delving into its contributions both
stimulating and rewarding. Mervyn Cooke
Occasional Pieces
Writings and Interviews, 1952-2013
By Christian Wolff
OUP, PB, 368pp, £22.99
ISBN 978-0-19-061470-6
Christian Wolff, now 83,
is the last surviving member
of the New York School of
composers, a loose coalition
gramophone.co.uk
 BOOK REVIEWS

of magnificent chaos that grouped around

John Cage during the 1950s and also
included Morton Feldman and Earle
Brown – and their friends, the painters
Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg and
poets like Frank O’Hara and John Ashbery.
Wolff was initially Cage’s student but, in
1951, the apprentice began to lead the
master. The copy of the I Ching – published
by his parents Kurt and Helen Wolff, the
founders of Pantheon Books – that Wolff
presented to Cage allowed the older
composer to step his experiments into
chance and indeterminacy up a gear.
Wolff’s music during this period was also
wrapped up in indeterminacy but he was
already working with chance before
approaching Cage – suggestions put about
that he ‘learnt’ indeterminacy from Cage
are false. He would soon leave New York
to study Classics at Harvard, where he
would ultimately return to teach Classics –
Euripides was his man – and if you wanted
to study music with Wolff you could do so
at Dartmouth College. Wolff’s belief in
music as a radical model for social
revolution led him to form alliances with
Frederic Rzewski and Cornelius Cardew
and, during the late 1960s and early 1970s,
he regularly guested with the British free
improvisation group AMM, which included
Cardew, percussionist Eddie Prévost and
the guitarist Keith Rowe.
In other words Wolff is, I think,
everything that a thoughtful, socially Conferences to mark the centenary of Benjamin Britten’s birth in 2013 have spawned a new book of essays
engaged musician operating in the late 20th
and early 21st century ought to be: a free (commissioned by Karlheinz Stockhausen) matter’; and it becomes clear that Wolff is
spirit grounded in compositional and sets out many of Wolff’s base motivated to make musicians interact with
philosophical rigour who is prepared to preoccupations. ‘Form in music could his scores at a deeper level than merely
put sound first and worry only later, if at be taken as a length of program time’, he interpreting the notes. His signature
all, whether the work produced conforms begins and later serves up the following piece Burdocks offers musicians a pool of
to anybody else’s idea of what music, killer line: ‘Music is allowed no privileges materials that can be slotted together as
composed or improvised, must be. I’ve over sound.’ they please. But each musician must listen
occasionally seen Wolff about the place and Wolff explains how sound can be to what their colleagues are playing,
he has always struck me as the most genial organised as measures of time rather making conscious decisions about where
of men – and this anthology of his writing than made to follow conventional ideas to place materials using their instincts
and interviews, beginning a year after he of harmony but, it would be reasonable rather than taking their cue from a score.
rocked Cage’s world with the I Ching and enough to counter, why would anybody Breaking down chains of command
ending in 2013, balances his incisive and want to throw out functioning harmony, between composers, conductors and
determined thinking against a lightness of which was good enough for Bach, Mozart performers is an idea that resurfaces
persuasive touch; a more enlightened and and Schoenberg? In a 1969 interview with throughout the history of modern music
P H O T O G R A P H Y: P I C T O R I A L P R E S S LT D /A L A M Y S T O C K P H O T O

generous world could be like this Wolff
implies, but he has zero interest in telling
anyone how they should behave.
Occasional Pieces includes articles
that probe technical issues – such as
form, notation, rhythm and text – and
perspectives on an extraordinary range
of musicians with whom Wolff has
sympathies and/or has worked: Charles
Ives, Feldman, German composer Dieter
Schnebel, improvising saxophonist Evan
Parker, pianist David Tudor and AMM’s
Keith Rowe. A 1960 essay On Form
the new music promoter Victor Schonfeld,
Wolff says that New York School
composers wanted to ‘stay clear of styles
that were not ours to borrow’. In 1976, in
conversation with Walter Zimmermann,
Wolff expands on the openness of his
music – ‘my music is often just material …
it’s set up in such a way as to require
anyone who wants to seriously engage with
it to exert themselves in a particular way’.
In 2009 Wolff tells the composer James
Saunders that matters of social interaction
with his materials go ‘to the heart of the
and, unsurprisingly, tends to leave the
traditional classical music lover unsettled.
Chance procedures or free improvisation,
or inviting musicians to define the
structural parameters of a score, can lead
to accusations of hippy free-for-alls, places
where those who can’t really play go to
pretend they can. But Wolff’s life in music
has been about opening minds to other
meanings of virtuosity; a virtuosity of
responsive listening. You’ve got your
instrument and you’ve got your ears –
now what sounds matter to you? Philip Clark

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 133

Classics RECONSIDERED
Peter Quantrill and
David Gutman discuss
Sir Georg Solti’s groundbreaking
1971 recording of Mahler’s
Symphony of a Thousand

Mahler
Symphony No 8
Sols; Vienna State Op Chor; Wiener Singverein;
Vienna Boys’ Ch; Chicago SO / Sir Georg Solti
Decca M 475 7521
At last Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand
can be heard on record at something
approaching its full, expansive stature.
Here is a version from Solti which far more
clearly than any previous one conveys the
feeling of a great occasion. Just as a great
performance, live in the concert-hall, takes
off and soars from the very start, so the
impact of the great opening on ‘Veni
Creator Spiritus’ tingles here with
electricity. With superb atmospheric
recording and a sense of space more than
in rival versions, not to mention playing
from the Chicago orchestra that shows up
all rivals in precision of ensemble, Solti’s
performance sets standards beyond anything
we have known before. This is as near a
live performance as the dynamic Solti can
make it. At times the sheer physical impact
makes one gasp for breath, and I found
myself at the thunderous end of the first
movement shouting out in joyous sympathy,
so overwhelming is the build-up of tension.
Decca’s lavishness in selecting a roster of
soloists unlikely to be rivalled has paid off.
There is not a weak link, and though René
Kollo in the principal tenor role occasionally
ignores his pianissimos he easily outstrips his
rivals, with a big Heldentenor sound used
intelligently. My one doubt is whether
such fine singers needed balancing so far
forward. My preference would have been for
the choruses to be brought a little more
forward, the soloists a little farther back, but
as it is I prefer the Decca balance to that of
rivals, which also favour the soloists for the
sake of clarity. Edward Greenfield (10/72)

Peter Quantrill This was welcomed at the
time for stimulating the adrenalin rush of
a live experience (then even rarer than it is
now, in our age of Mahler plenitude and
possibly surfeit). Yet it’s the losses and gains
of a studio-manufactured account that make
themselves obvious from the outset: in the
undeniably impressive but crudely bolted-on
organ entry (probably more obvious on the
latest remasterings than on the original
LPs), the muscular contribution of the
chorus, with every sinew strained and
separated, and the huge stretch and
relaxation into the soloists’ first entry, more
daringly languorous than Bernstein ever
attempted or achieved, and flying in the face
of Mahler’s injunction to keep up the pace.
I wonder how much experience Solti had of
conducting the piece in concert when he
went into the Sofiensaal? And whether such
experience matters?
David Gutman I wondered that too,
in that the performance’s strengths are
somehow not specifically Mahlerian.
In his autobiography Solti remarks that he
conducted Mahler’s Seventh Symphony less
often than the rest without saying how much
experience he had with the Eighth. He does
say: ‘For the conductor, most of the
problems in this symphony stem from its
massiveness. In a sense, the Eighth is a vast
opera whose visual aspect remains in the
imagination. Opera conductors have
a tremendous advantage in conducting this
and other big choral-orchestral works.’ He
certainly co-ordinates his forces with rigour,
much as he must have done at Covent
Garden! I suppose part of the difficulty is
sonic – when the LPs appeared they did
seem to set new standards. But even ignoring
issues with the manipulated recorded sound,
there are live recordings from the same era
which project the score in less hectic fashion.
Greenfield would not have been able to refer
to Jascha Horenstein’s live 1959 London
account, but, thanks to BBC Legends and,
now, Pristine Audio, we can. And
Horenstein had 755 performers, whereas
modern rivals tend to make do with 300 or
so. The Solti I assume comes somewhere in
between? The impact is certainly big.
PQ And ‘operatic’ – if by that term we mean
the kind of full-throttle singing and wild
swings of pace that characterise Solti’s
Wagner. Tennstedt was the first on record
to offer a more nuanced, more quietly
ecstatic vision of the piece. But Solti’s vivid
pointing of instrumental colour and his
Chicago band’s virtuoso execution are still
rivalled only by two other notable
conductors of Moses und Aron: Boulez and
Michael Gielen. In fact, a high point of the
recording is the long and tense introduction
to Part II with its louring wind solos
emerging from Goethe’s wilderness which
show Mahler still developing an expressionist
orchestral canvas to rival anything in
Schoenberg and Strauss. For similar reasons
I’m captured by Solti’s way with one of the
score’s most purple passages, on the Mater
Gloriosa’s entrance: the strings play as if the
Adagio from the Ninth was in front of them.
I wish there were more such moments. Even
when the playing and singing is genuinely
quiet, I miss a certain charm and relaxed
intimacy in passages such as the sub-
Rosenkavalier duets and trio for the ladies.
DG I’d say Riccardo Chailly in Lucerne has
some of the same qualities in that he makes
textures bright and pungent where he can,
but without such a hard-edged transatlantic

134 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk


Sir Georg Solti with Lucia Popp (both seated) listen to playbacks during the recording sessions
sonority. Also like Solti, he doesn’t go for
that traditional, though unmarked,
ritardando into the recapitulation of ‘Veni,
Creator Spiritus’. And both conductors
employ unusually big-voiced tenor soloists.
EG seemed to have doubts, but I find the
young René Kollo very appealing. (Doctor
Marianus usually sounds less Heldentenorish
and more clapped-out, like Herod in
Salome!) What do you make of the solo
singing? It is usually regarded as one of the
things that keeps Solti’s set in contention.
PQ Ha! The consistency of casting is notable
in a piece that so often suffers from
indisposition and last-minute changes.
But what were the Decca engineers doing
in Part I, apparently placing Kollo at the
other end of the Sofiensaal from his
colleagues and the microphones? It’s the
recording’s one serious technical drawback.
Once returned to centre stage in Part II
he’s magnificent: ‘Blicket auf’ catches exactly
P H O T O G R A P H Y: D E C C A
that odd balance between ardour and
prayerfulness (sex, God and transcendence,
all the usual Mahlerian obsessions) which is
the symphony’s unique signature. Lucia
Popp is almost too chaste for the part of
gramophone.co.uk
Gretchen: a bewitching but implausibly
radiant sinner! Yvonne Minton is
a highlight, not only as the blink-and-you’ll-
miss-her Samaritan woman but also in the
more important (but unnamed) role of the
angel earlier in the piece: she displays the
special, reassuring dignity she brought to
the comforting of Peter Pears’s Gerontius,
in another spiritual crisis turned to musical
advantage by Elgar a decade earlier.
DG Capturing Kollo’s sound probably posed
a particular problem of scale but it throws
up again the multi-miking issue. In a
‘Sounds in Retrospect’ panel review (12/72),
Robert Layton and Jeremy Noble already
felt that the soloists were not just forwardly
balanced but had the feeling of a ‘sentry-
box’ around them, each voice being ‘picked
by a special microphone’ and so ‘not really
part of the overall sound picture’. People
hear voices subjectively anyhow. I admire
the clarity of John Shirley-Quirk but I know
younger listeners who find his timbre
dispiritingly English and somehow bleaty.
Popp is the most lovable of all singers in my
book but, yes, she isn’t right here and one is
conscious of that familiar ‘squeeze’
CLASSICS RECONSIDERED
technique. Good to be reminded, albeit
briefly, of the excellence of Arleen Auger,
who like Popp was taken from us far too
early. Close-miked Martti Talvela is in fine
voice too, even if harried by Solti’s high-
voltage approach. Some reports suggest that
the Viennese choral contingent was a bit
cool and suspicious at first, only to be won
over by the ardour of the American
musicians. The more savvy were presumably
aware that the sessions were only taking
place in their country to save money on fees.
PQ The irony being that a professional
opera chorus, with self-reliant members
trained for projection more than blend,
makes a perfect marriage with Solti’s
extrovert approach to the score. Concert
films from the time show how Karajan
cultivated a similar, independent-minded
approach from the Singverein. And the
mature, chest-based technique and
darker-hued timbres of the Vienna boys
must be closer to what Mahler had in mind
than the piping cathedral-style trebles of
most Anglocentric recordings. Tennstedt
wanted the best of both worlds when he
cajoled the Eton College boys into singing
‘like hooligans’, but for all that his live,
second recording (11/92, finally reissued
on CD by the LPO label in 2011) brings
me nearer to Mahler’s elusive cloud nine,
I recognise Ken Smith’s verdict (12/08)
on Solti as setting ‘the standard with which
to compare all the others’. If LPO issues
Vladimir Jurowski’s performance from
April this year, they will present the first
really radical but persuasive alternative.
DG I wasn’t at Jurowski’s concert but I was
at Tennstedt’s in 1991. The Tennstedt is
technically shaggier than Solti would have
countenanced – you seem to be implying
that some of that was deliberate? – but the
two are so completely different in mood
and pacing that it’s sometimes difficult to
remember that one is listening to the same
music. As so often with great studio
recordings, Decca’s is very much of its
time, its mythology bound up with the
particular circumstances in which the
Chicago SO restored itself to financial
health as a big, bullish brand on the world
stage. Tennstedt, like Horenstein, seems to
live somewhere else entirely – somewhere
more open and innocent. For all his
strengths, Solti isn’t the guide you should
be looking for if you want to be brought to
tears by the hushed arrival of the chorus at
‘Alles Vergängliche’. Perhaps it all depends
on whether you see the music as a defining
human statement or a brilliant showpiece.
If it’s the latter, then the Solti could still be
your indispensable version.
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 135
THE SPECIALIST’S
GUIDE TO…

The contralto voice

The noble contralto has come to play second fiddle to her close cousin the mezzo, even losing some of her
repertoire to her – with mixed results. Tully Potter champions 10 notable contraltos in as many recordings

T
he other day in Mahler’s Second Symphony I heard casting a mezzo Mary Magdalene who could hardly sing the lowest
a marvellous young contralto who was billed as a ‘mezzo- notes of this contralto part. Philippe Herreweghe’s supposedly
soprano’. Perhaps she had been advised to avoid her true period Brahms Alto Rhapsody employed a mezzo. It all contributes
designation – a young contralto I know was told at a music college to the slighting and sidelining of the contralto voice, among the
that they ‘did not believe in contraltos’, who were ‘merely lazy noblest in our vocal tradition.
mezzo-sopranos’. Sir Mark Elder took pains to make his The mania for countertenors has produced a situation in which
performances (and live recording) of The Apostles authentic, using a soprano can sing Bach’s cantatas, but not a contralto. Several
a semi-chorus such as Elgar favoured, but ruined the effect by Christmas Oratorio recordings have a man singing the alto
part – including the Virgin Mary’s
touching lullaby. A falsettist can
be affecting and stylish in Bach
but will inevitably come to grief
on low notes which a contralto
would take in her stride.
Contralto and mezzo share
much of their range, but one
should have a downward
extension, the other an upward
one. What was extraordinary
about the best contraltos of a
century ago was that they
commanded both extremes, with
ranges of up to three octaves.
Their warhorses were Gluck’s
Orpheus, Saint-Saëns’s Delilah
and Meyerbeer’s Fidès – one of
opera’s great mother figures, with
music of depth and virtuosity. We
may have lost Fidès (Le prophète is
rarely heard), but contraltos are
perfectly suited to many Handel
operatic roles, so let us embrace
and encourage them.
I could have chosen more
contraltos (Eugenia Mantelli,
P H O T O G R A P H Y: T H E T U L LY P O T T E R C O L L E C T I O N

Marie Delna, Nadezhda

Obukhova, Karin Branzell,
Norma Procter, Maureen
Forrester, Ewa Podleś, Hilary
Summers), but 10 must do.
As a parting shot I shall just say
that mezzo-soprano means middle
soprano – and you cannot have
a middle without something
Contralto Kathleen Ferrier possessed ‘an intuitive understanding of the full variety of human emotions’, according to Bruno Walter either side!

136 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk


Ernestine Schumann-
Heink (1861-1936)
Meyerbeer: Le prophète –
O prêtres de Baal
Victor Orch / Walter B Rogers
Nimbus Prima Voce (2/91)
German Czech Schumann-Heink was already
famous when she first recorded in 1903, and
sometimes hooted on top notes (virtually her
only fault). Beloved on both sides of the Atlantic,
she could trill, execute rapid runs and cover a vast
range. She commanded French, Italian and
German roles as well as Lieder. She is a formidable,
motherly Fidès (here recorded in 1907) but is just
as effective in Handel, Donizetti and Wagner.
Sigrid Onegin (1889-1943)
Brahms: Von ewiger Liebe,
Op 43 No 1
Anon pf
Nimbus Prima Voce
Born in Stockholm of a German father and
a French mother and first married to a Russian,
Onegin just had to be cosmopolitan. Her three-
octave range took her down to the depths and
up to the soprano register. Like Schumann-Heink
she was wonderful in Fidès’s scenes and had
a wide range of operatic roles. Both her records
of Brahms’s ‘Von ewiger Liebe’ (this one dated
1919) are deeply moving, and I even love her
Alto Rhapsody with its extravagant portamento.
Brigitte Fassbaender
(b1939)
Schumann: Lieder
Erik Werba pf
Orfeo (4/05)
Daughter and pupil of baritone Willi Domgraf-
Fassbaender and often listed as a mezzo,
Berlin-born Brigitte (now retired as a singer)
had a focused, well-balanced contralto voice
ideal for Octavian, Azucena, Amneris, Orlofsky
or Brangäne. In Lieder she teamed up with such
accompanists as Erik Werba – try their heart-
rending live Schumann cycle Frauenliebe und
-leben (recorded in 1977) – and Aribert Reimann,
with whom she recorded Winterreise.
gramophone.co.uk
Clara Butt (1872-1936)
Elgar: Sea Pictures, Op 37 –
Where Corals Lie
Unnamed orchestra /
Hamilton Harty
Nimbus Prima Voce
Sussex-born Dame Clara, a concert, recital and
ballad singer, was among the most distinctive
contraltos, with a booming chest register into
which she crashed like a pre-synchromesh racing
driver changing gear. She toured the world with
her concert party and recorded much. Her few
operatic discs are memorable, she is a compelling
Elgarian (here in an atmospheric ‘Where Corals
Lie’ from 1920) and her ‘Fairy Pipers’ is irresistible.
Marian Anderson
(1897-1993)
Schubert: Der Jüngling
und der Tod, D545
Franz Rupp pf
Nimbus Prima Voce
The tale of Philadelphia-born Anderson’s long
struggle against colour prejudice tends to
obscure how accomplished she was. Like many
US singers, she made much of her early reputation
in Europe; and although she did not appear in
opera until it was almost too late, she was a great
concert singer, one of those who raised Spirituals
into the realms of art song. In a song such as
Schubert’s D545 (recorded 1947) she was peerless.
Sara Mingardo (b1961)
Monteverdi, Handel et al
Monica Bacelli mez Concerto
Italiano / Rinaldo Alessandrini
Naïve (12/04)
Here is the lady to rout all the male hooters and
wailers, matching them for purity of tone and
flexibility while outdoing them in amplitude and
range. Whether throwing out chains of Pergolesi
trills, purveying tragic intensity in Monteverdi (as
recorded here in 2003), interpreting Respighi
songs or holding the stage in the final Agnus Dei
of Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, Venetian
diva Mingardo always seems perfectly poised.
A prolific recording artist, she is still at her peak.
Marie-Nicole Lemieux (b1975)
‘Ne me refuse pas’ – French Opera Arias
French National Orchestra / Fabien Gabel Naïve (3/11)
My top choice is a glorious singer in her prime.
Lemieux, from Quebec, has had a terrific career
since winning the 2000 Queen Elisabeth
Competition in Brussels, and has now landed
an Erato contract. I have not heard a more
gorgeous contralto recording than her ‘V’adoro
pupille’ in Alan Curtis’s set of Handel’s Giulio
Cesare, and her heart can softly awake
THE SPECIALIST’S GUIDE
Louise Kirkby Lunn
(1873-1930)
Mozart: La clemenza di Tito –
Non più di fiori
Unnamed orch / Percy Pitt
Symposium
Kirkby Lunn, a Mancunian, had oratorio successes
but was essentially an opera singer who appeared
at Covent Garden and the Met on equal terms
with, among others, Caruso, Scotti and Destinn.
Her great roles were Delilah, Kundry and Amneris,
her finest recording ‘Non più di fiori’, recorded
twice (here in 1911). Her lovely voice was better
equalised than Butt’s and she even scored a Great
War hit with ‘Have you news of my boy, Jack?’.
Kathleen Ferrier (1912-53)
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Julius Patzak ten Vienna
Philharmonic / Bruno Walter
Decca (10/52)
Like Anderson, this beloved Lancastrian inspires
feelings extraneous to her artistry. A late starter,
she was taken from us too soon. Her vocalising
always has ‘face’ – try ‘O thou that tellest good
tidings to Zion’ (from Messiah), where you can
‘see’ her smile. Her beautiful voice was weighted
towards the bottom, which, as Britten noted, gave
her high notes a creative tension. In Mahler (this is
a 1952 recording) her singing is radiant, as it is in
Bach, Handel, Schubert, Schumann and Brahms.
Nathalie Stutzmann
(b1965)
‘Vivaldi: Prima Donna’
Orfeo 55 / Nathalie Stutzmann
DG (9/11)
The Germanic name conceals a Gallic artist born
in Île-de-France. Gifted with a voice of immense
depth and range, Stutzmann has contrived to
lighten it to encompass myriad mélodies and
Lieder. When she lets out her full tone, as in
Brahms’s viola songs, she is overwhelming.
Her sole drawback in opera is a rather weedy trill.
This multi-instrumentalist who conducts her own
chamber orchestra, as in her lovely Vivaldi recital
(2010), will be remembered for her singing.
as luxuriantly as that of any Delilah. On her
French opera arias disc she breathes life into
‘Humble fille des champs’ by Halévy and
‘Ombre d’Agamemnon’ by Wormser. She has
a tremendous trill, great flexibility and exceptional
dramatic verbal acuity. I could rest my case on
Hahn’s ‘L’heure exquise’ and ‘Fêtes galantes’
from her album of French songs, also for Naïve.
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 137
THE GRAMOPHONE
COLLECTION
Strauss’s
Eine Alpensinfonie
Hugo Shirley finds recordings that best convey the sense that
something greater is at stake than the notes on the page in this
symphony-cum-tone poem exploring humanity and nature
T
he position of Eine Alpensinfonie in
Richard Strauss’s oeuvre – indeed,
in any music history more generally
– has always been problematic. Completed
in 1915, it sits at the heart of a decade in
which Strauss, comfortably ensconced in his
Salome-funded villa in Garmisch, was seen
to have lost his position at the forefront of
the musical world. For many, it represented
a last gasp of a lost age of excess; a final
essay in a genre – the tone poem – that was
rooted in the previous century, produced by
a composer who made a speciality of
mismatching vast means to meagre ends.
The means are, admittedly, vast: a dozen
offstage horns (although Strauss sanctions
their parts being covered in the orchestra)
as part of a beefy brass contingent,
a minimum of 18 first violins and a well-
stocked percussion section bolstered by
wind machine, thunder machine and
cowbells. The specified two harps, the
composer adds blithely, should be ‘doubled
where possible’. The score even suggests
the wind players make use of a recently
invented device, Bernhard Samuels’s
Aerophon, to help them with their long
legato lines.
But what, exactly, were the ends Strauss
had in mind? Ever since the premiere,
conducted by Strauss with the Dresden
Hofkapelle in Berlin on October 28, 1915,
the work seems widely to have been
interpreted as straightforwardly pictorial.
The composer’s 22 descriptive headings
in the score (a day’s trajectory, charting
a mountain walk and taking in a variety of
Alpine sights) certainly encouraged such
a view, and in 1917 the American writer
Henry T Finck suggested that ‘The
Alpensymphonie [sic], like its predecessors,
138 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
presents no complicated riddles to
the interpreter’.
But what of the score’s second half, where
purely descriptive titles – such as ‘Gewitter
und Sturm, Abstieg’ (‘Thunderstorm and
Tempest, Descent’) and ‘Sonnenuntergang’
(‘Sunset’) – start to mix with more
enigmatic headings: ‘Vision’, ‘Elegie’
and ‘Ausklang’ (the musical term for
‘conclusion’, but also implying more
generally the waning, dying away of a sound
or sounds)? Finck decided this represented
‘a decided anticlimax. The teutonic mania
for length comes into play, and the work is
made to last forty-five minutes, when
twenty-five would have been better.’
For many Straussians, though, the
work’s final sections are anything but an
anticlimax: this is where its deeper meaning
manifests itself. Research traces Eine
Alpensinfonie’s gestation back to the
19th century, taking in Strauss’s personal
recollections as well as reactions to the
tragic lives (and deaths) of the philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche and the painter Strauss in front of his Alpine villa in Garmisch
Karl Stauffer (an obscure figure today).
It was the death of Mahler in 1911,
however, that finally inspired Strauss to guidebook to the Alpine sights. But surely
start addressing the work in earnest: it should be possible for it to be both, and
‘I intend to call my Alpine Symphony any performance should find a balance that
“Anti-Christ”,’ he wrote in a diary entry positions the descriptive details within
that surely offers the key. ‘Since it involves a coherent broader musical argument.
moral purification through one’s own In the best performances, moreover, the
effort, liberation through work and the piece also seems to be a meditation on the
adoration of eternal, glorious nature.’ history of the tone poem itself. In its earlier
stages, we hear what can be achieved
SYMPHONY OR TONE POEM? technically in the genre (‘At last I have learnt
Part of the confusion regarding the work to orchestrate,’ Strauss is reported to have
stems from its title: adherents insist on its said at the final rehearsal); in the later stages,
symphonic stature, doubters dismiss it as the composer, delving ever deeper, shows
a ‘musical Baedeker’ – a mere sonic what the genre, at its best, should achieve.
gramophone.co.uk

The earliest recording comes from as far
back as 1925: a businesslike affair from
Oskar Fried and the Berlin State Opera
Orchestra (Music & Arts). But it’s Richard
Strauss’s own recording made with the
P H O T O G R A P H Y: L E B R E C H T M U S I C & A R T S
Bavarian State Orchestra in Munich in
1941 that sets a benchmark for striking the
work’s essential balance. This might at first
also seem rather businesslike and efficient,
a case of Strauss keeping calm and carrying
on in what was a disastrous, humiliating
year for him. It is one of the fastest in this
survey, too, at a little over 45 minutes –
never lingering, avoiding the ritardandos
gramophone.co.uk
between sections that would later become
standard practice. Nevertheless, it has an
unmistakable gravitas, and a real sense of
the work’s drama as well as easy, natural
coherence. Technical matters are a bit
rough and ready, admittedly, but the sound
is excellent for the time.
Eine Alpensinfonie’s history on disc in the
1950s is perhaps defined as much by who
didn’t record it as by who did. It was not
included in the series recorded by Strauss’s
great friend Clemens Krauss with the
Vienna Philharmonic for Decca, nor did it
feature in the influential Strauss recordings
THE GRAMOPHONE COLLECTION
made by Fritz Reiner in Chicago – one
wonders how its early fortunes might have
been different if it had. Instead, the decade
represents something of a ragbag.
Carl Schuricht’s scratchily played,
scratchily recorded 1955 account with
the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
(Hännsler Classic), for example, has the
speed of Strauss’s own account but little of
the tenderness and care. I’d steer clear,
too, of Franz Konwitschny’s live 1952
Bavarian State Opera Orchestra account
(Nixa/Urania), variously available, which is
even more of an ordeal.
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 139
THE GRAMOPHONE COLLECTION
Mariss Jansons (left) and Christian Thielemann (right) both make it into the top four recordings
Karl Böhm’s two 1950s versions are much
better: characteristically clear-sighted,
sensible accounts, which immediately push
the total time of the work to the now more
standard 50-minute mark. The first, from
1952, clocks in at over 54 minutes, but
never feels indulgent. And while it might
feature a rather ragged RIAS Symphony
Orchestra – with an especially wild
principal trumpet – it has impressive
intensity: listen to the powerful build-up he
achieves at the end of the ‘Vision’ section.
Böhm’s rather matter-of-fact 1957
Deutsche Grammophon account with the
Staatskapelle Dresden feels a tad dutiful
in comparison.
Perhaps the most remarkable account
of the 1950s comes from that other great
Strauss orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic.
Although currently available only to
download (via Presto Classical) and
to stream (on various platforms),
Hans Knappertsbusch’s recording from 1952
is grand and all-encompassing and looks
deep into the relationship of man to nature.
Listen to the striving, improvisatory ardour
of the violin lines in ‘Sonnenuntergang’,
THE SHOWCASE
Bavarian RSO / Jansons
BR-Klassik F 900148
With its sheer technical splendour, this is
an account of breathtaking clarity and
virtuosity – taken from
live performances –
captured in stunning
sound. Jansons doesn’t
look too far beneath
the surface – but what
a surface!
140 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
or the oboe solo at the summit (‘Auf dem
Gipfel’), capturing a moving sense of
awestruck vulnerability and humanity.
The sound is passable, but the performance
remains compelling. There’s another
compelling performance, too, from Dimitri
Mitropoulos and the same orchestra,
recorded in 1956 (Urania – download only).
This account has much the same sense of
sweep and grandeur – if somewhat
unrelentingly, given its swiftness – but is
technically a great deal rougher.
THE AGE OF THE LP
The next recording also follows a grandly
symphonic path, but comes from a
somewhat unexpected source: Soviet Russia,
with Yevgeny Mravinsky conducting the
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra.
It’s a brooding, often broad account, as one
hears right from the first patient build-up to
the ‘Sonnenaufgang’ (‘Sunrise’) – a picture
painted in generous sweeping strokes,
with some marvellously characterful, tangy
playing. It’s not always (as on the glacier
– ‘Auf dem Gletscher’) fully under control,
but it’s unfailingly exciting.
THE ROMANTIC CHOICE
Vienna Philharmonic / Thielemann
Opus Arte F ◊ OA1069D
Helped by the rich, burnished playing of the
Vienna Philharmonic, this
account from the Salzburg
Festival shows Thielemann’s
generous, big-hearted and
expansive approach to the
score to best advantage
– and it’s beautifully
captured on film.
My next recording from the 1960s,
though conducted by Dresden-born
Rudolf Kempe, also comes from beyond
the Straussian heartlands. In the first of
his two recordings of the work, he draws
fabulously exciting, fearless playing from
the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra;
the bold, burly brass are on especially
boisterous, outdoorsy form. The whole
orchestra gives its all – the strings tire
a little, especially in ‘Vision’ – in what is
also ultimately a moving account, in sound
(originally released by RCA, but now
scrubbed up on Testament) that is
gloriously fresh and direct.
Kempe’s next recording, set down five
years later as part of his complete Strauss
survey with the Staatskapelle Dresden,
is as mellow and urbane as the RPO
performance is direct and exciting,
supremely musical and with every phrase
beautifully turned. By contrast, Sir Georg
Solti’s 1979 performance with the Bavarian
Radio Symphony Orchestra sounds
unforgivably unloving, brash and rushed
(Decca, 9/80). Zubin Mehta’s first account
takes us across the Atlantic, with plenty to
enjoy from the playing of the Los Angeles
Philharmonic (Decca , 4/76), not least in
a luminous rendering of the final pages.
But elsewhere here, as well as in his rather
rotund 1989 account with the Berlin
Philharmonic (Sony, 8/90), there’s
a distinct lack of tension and excitement.
DIGITAL ERA
We’re getting ahead of ourselves, though,
for nearly a decade earlier it’s the Berlin
Philharmonic, sounding like a completely
different orchestra, that ushers in the digital
era. The age of the CD sees recordings start
arriving at an average rate of at least one
a year, a proliferation that is impossible to
cover comprehensively in this survey;
but Herbert von Karajan’s 1980 Deutsche
Grammophon recording still stands
as a majestic peak. Though of course
fabulously played, if not always totally
flawlessly, it’s an account that offers a great
deal more than a mere showcase of snazzy
new technology – indeed, the sound, toned
THE ROLLER COASTER
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Kempe
Testament F SBT1428
P H O T O G R A P H Y: P E T E R M E I S E L , S I LV I A L E L L I
Kempe’s Dresden account is justly famous,
but this London recording with the RPO on
thrilling, heroic form
– terrifically remastered
by Testament – is an
exciting alternative
to the better-behaved
performances by
central-European bands.
gramophone.co.uk
 THE GRAMOPHONE COLLECTION

down in subsequent remasterings, was
worryingly bright in early incarnations.
Karajan brings to the score a compelling
symphonic coherence, a broad, generous
lyricism and an almost Brucknerian sense
of line. He never loses track of its trajectory,
even through the early sightseeing (he has
his hunting horns, incidentally, playing
from the orchestra rather than offstage).
But he also manages to create a deep sense
of humanity’s relationship to the vast,
majestic forces of nature. His account of
the final pages – where Strauss at one point
asks for the winds to play ‘in sanfte Ekstase’
(in soft ecstasy) – achieves a magnificent
golden intensity.
It’s a hard act to follow, and the next
two recordings, from Sir Andrew Davis
and the London Philharmonic Orchestra
(Sony, 2/83) and André Previn and the
Philadelphia Orchestra (EMI, 12/83),
can hardly compete – Sony’s sound
for Davis’s dutiful account, in particular,
is disappointingly muddy. But
Bernard Haitink’s 1985 Philips recording
with another of Europe’s great orchestras,
the Concertgebouw, offered a serious
challenge. Unfailingly musical, played
with fabulous warmth, and again with an
impressive coherence as well as patience,
this release stood for a while as a joint
benchmark, but it seems today to lack that
last ounce of excitement, of the sense that
something greater – beyond the notes on
the page – is at stake.
Likewise Herbert Blomstedt’s San
Francisco Symphony account from 1988:
technically superb, and much praised on its
release, it nevertheless fails now to reach
the heights. Nor do Neeme Järvi’s solid
SNO account from 1986 (Chandos, 12/87),
Vladimir Ashkenazy’s slightly flabby 1988
performance with the Cleveland Orchestra
(Decca, 12/89) and Edo de Waart’s with
the Minnesota Orchestra in 1989 (Virgin,
8/90) really compete these days, despite the
last’s eloquent way with the all-important
final sections of the work.
Staying with US recordings, I should add
that it’s not a score with which Daniel
Barenboim seems at home in his 1993
Chicago Symphony Orchestra account
(Teldec, 6/93), a little generalised and with
the brass, in particular, seeming reluctant
to work as a team. Jump forward 15 years,
P H O T O G R A P H Y: L E B R E C H T M U S I C & A R T S
Strauss himself conducted a recording in 1941
blended sort, and certainly that is one of
the great pleasures of Horst Stein’s urbane
1988 account with the Bamberg Symphony
Orchestra. There’s a lovely transparency
to this recording (originally released on
Eurodisc, but now available on DG’s
commemorative Bamberg SO box-set),
as well as a seductive sheen to the strings,
even if Stein’s approach ultimately falls
short in intensity. Kurt Masur and the
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra present
the score well enough (1992, Philips – nla),
but without much sense of exhilaration
– special mention should be made of the
vividly thundering timps, though.
Previn and the Vienna Philharmonic
in 1989 (Telarc, 9/90) too often feel
pedestrian, and Seiji Ozawa’s 1996 Philips
recording with the same orchestra (10/97)
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
DATE / ARTISTS
1941 Bavarian St Orch / Strauss
1952 RIAS SO, Berlin / Böhm
1952 VPO / Knappertsbusch
1962 Leningrad PO / Mravinsky
1966 RPO / Kempe
1971 Staatskapelle Dresden / Kempe
1980 BPO / Karajan
1985 Concertgebouw Orchestra / Haitink
1988 San Francisco SO / Blomstedt
1993 Staatskapelle Dresden / Sinopoli
only hits its stride in the second half.
In Dresden in 1993 we find Giuseppe Sinopoli
pushing the Staatskapelle to extremes, with
the brass on warm, majestic if slightly
wobbly form. This is an interesting but
eccentric account: broad passages are
stretched out, the final minutes almost to
breaking point, while some of the wind
playing is rather undercharacterised.
We’re on slightly safer ground back
with the Bavarian RSO with another
controversial maestro, but one with a fine
Straussian record: Lorin Maazel. His vivid
1998 account is extremely well recorded
and, on the whole, fabulously well played.
There’s a great deal of excitement,
including a thrilling storm, but it’s also a
performance that drifts in and out of focus
a little, and is not without its eccentricities.
Two recordings from a little further east,
both featuring the Czech Philharmonic,
can be skated over: there’s little reason
to seek out ZdenΔk Koler’s sluggish
Supraphon account, recorded live in 1994
(12/95); and Ashkenazy’s 1999 Ondine
remake (A/01) is sensibly musical but still
short on tension and, on occasion, accuracy.
THE NEW MILLENNIUM
Twenty years after Karajan’s recording,
Christian Thielemann enters the fray as
a new representative of the old-guard
approach, with a recording for DG in the
tradition of Karajan and Knappertsbusch.
Grandly expressive, flexible and Wagnerian
in scale and scope, his live Vienna account
does, however, occasionally flirt with
portentousness. His approach is
better heard – as well as seen – in two
later DVDs: from Dresden (with the
Staatskapelle) in 2014 on C Major and,
RECORD COMPANY (REVIEW DATE)
Preiser F b PR90205
Audite M AUDITE95 611
Urania M b D WS121 197
Profil M f PH16026 (A/06)
Testament F SBT1428 (7/67R)
Warner/EMI S i 431780-2 (10/73R,4/76R, 4/14)
DG F 439 017-2GHS (12/81R)
Philips B D 416 156-2 (4/86R)
Decca S o 478 6787DC15 (6/14)
DG F 439 899-2GH (1/95)

and Marek Janowski’s with the Pittsburgh 1998 Bavarian RSO / Maazel RCA S e 88843 01523-2; Sony Classical S g 88883 79863-2; S (30 discs) 88697 93238-2
Symphony Orchestra (2008) is notable for 2000 VPO / Thielemann DG F 469 519-2GH (6/01); S b 479 1426
a storm of rare precision, but marred by 2007 WDR SO, Cologne / Bychkov Profil F Í PH09065 (3/10)
some raw playing from the brass 2008 LSO / Haitink LSO Live S Í LSO0689 (4/10)
(Pentatone, 11/09). 2011 VPO / Thielemann Opus Arte F ◊ OA1069D; F Y OABD7101D (9/12)
2012 Saito Kinen Orch / Harding Decca F 478 6422DH (9/14)
CLOSER TO HOME 2012 São Paulo SO / Shipway BIS F Í BIS1950 (1/13)
To return to the heart of Europe is to 2015 Frankfurt Op & Museum Orch / Weigle Oehms F OC891 (11/16)
return to brass playing of a more mellow, 2016 Bavarian RSO / Jansons BR-Klassik F 900148 (4/17)

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 141

 appian publications & recordings

MATTHEW WADSWORTH
NEW AND RECENT RELEASES
L AT E NIGHT
WILHELM KEMPFF
The complete wartime Beethoven sonata recordings
This set contains the sixteen
Beethoven sonatas that
Kempff recorded for
Grammophon in Germany
between 1940 and 1943.
Several have never been NEW RELEASE
APR7403 4 CDs (budget price)

reissued since their original

DXL 1175
release on 78rpm discs
and none is currently
available elsewhere.

WALTER GIESEKING
Brahms, Schubert & Schumann
Walter Gieseking may be primarily
APR7402 4 CDs (budget price)

associated with the music of

Debussy and Ravel but, as these
1950s recordings show, he was every
bit as masterly in Romantic Austro-
German repertoire

Dowland Rosseter Johnson Goss

LEFF POUISHNOFF Piccinini Kapsberger
Balakirev, Lyapunov and Liszt
APR6022 2 CDs (2 for the price of 1)

L`]Újkl%]n]jj]d]Yk]g^l`]
complete 78rpm recordings of this Featuring the premiere recording of
Russian-born, UK-based pianist plus
recordings made for Saga shortly The Miller’s Tale
before his death. The repertoire for solo theorbo by Stephen Goss
ranges from Schubert and Chopin to commissioned for Wadsworth by John Williams
D]^^Hgmak`fg^^kgofha][]k&

COMING SOON:
MARK HAMBOURG ͞dŚĞ ƉůĂLJŝŶŐ ŝŶ ƚŚŝƐ ůŝƩůĞ ƚŚĞĂƚƌĞ
ŽĨ ƐŚĂĚŽǁƐ ŝƐ ŽĨ ĐŽƵƌƐĞ ƌĂǀŝƐŚŝŶŐ
APR6023 2 CDs (2 for the price of 1)

Encores and Rarities ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚŽƵƚ͕ǁŝƚŚtĂĚƐǁŽƌƚŚĂŐĂŝŶ

ĚĞŵŽŶƐƚƌĂƟŶŐ ŚŝƐ ĂƉƉƌĞĐŝĂƟŽŶ
9k]d][lagfg^EYjc@YeZgmj_k
ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ůƵƚĞ͛Ɛ ƉƌŽƉĞŶƐŝƚLJ ĨŽƌ ƐƵďƚůĞ
@ENj][gj\af_k^jgeÚjkllgdYkl ŐƌĂĚĂƟŽŶƐŽĨƚŽŶĞĂŶĚƟŵďƌĞ͘͟
The Gramophone

Deux-Elles Classical Recordings www.matthewwadsworth.com

Email: info@deux-elles.co.uk

www.aprrecordings.co.uk www.deux-elles.co.uk
Distribution UK: RSK-Sony

Karajan, the ultimate choice in this survey, pictured with Strauss in the early 1940s
especially, from Salzburg in 2011, where
grandeur, lyrical generosity, intensity and
sheer sonic splendour are better balanced
within a compelling symphonic framework
– and where the Vienna Philharmonic
violins excel themselves in particular.
In a 2005 recording, Antoni Wit and the
Staatskapelle Weimar on Naxos (9/06)
present a fine, moving achievement,
but must concede on technical terms to
some of the competition. David Zinman’s
technically unimpeachable 2002 account
with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra (Arte
Nova, 2/03) ultimately lacks excitement,
as does Fabio Luisi’s handsome, burnished
2007 one with the Staatskapelle Dresden
(Sony, 4/08). But Semyon Bychkov with the
WDR Symphony Orchestra is well worth
seeking out as offering one of the most
cogently argued ‘symphonic’ accounts,
the work presented as a seamless arc,
with the final stages supremely expressive.
There’s a similar cogency to a reading
by Sebastian Weigle – another distinguished
Straussian in both orchestral and operatic
works. His excellent live 2015 recording
P H O T O G R A P H Y: U L L S T E I N B I L D / G E T T Y I M A G E S
with his Frankfurt Opera and Museum
Orchestra is a marvel of lyrical
expansiveness and generosity, with the
conductor exerting a masterful grip
over the work’s second half in particular
(and listen out for the big-hearted
horn solo in ‘Ausklang’).
François-Xavier Roth, recorded in 2014
with another German radio orchestra, the
SWR Symphony Orchestra, Baden-Baden
gramophone.co.uk
and Freiburg (on SWR), offers supreme
lucidity and clarity, but he’s trumped by the
newest offering from Mariss Jansons, with
the Bavarian RSO (far more vivid to my ears
than his 2007 Concertgebouw recording on
that orchestra’s own label – A/08). Indeed,
this is probably the best-played account
of all: a real sonic spectacle in which
the strands of Strauss’s score are made
to sparkle anew. Jansons misses the
knottier philosophical dimension, but for
Eine Alpensinfonie as orchestral showpiece
this account is hard to beat – and it easily
supplants Franz Welser-Möst’s somewhat
earthbound 2010 BR-Klassik reading with
the same orchestra (9/14).
FURTHER AFIELD
Away from the European heartlands,
Kent Nagano’s 2014 account with the
Gothenburg Symphony for Farao (A/16)
is perfectly respectable but ultimately
underwhelming. But there’s a real
dark horse from the São Paulo Symphony
Orchestra under Frank Shipway. I miss
an extra touch of warmth in the final pages,
but the veteran British conductor brings
a firm, coherent vision to the score, and the
orchestra, brilliantly recorded, play out of
their skins for him – listen to the furious
string tremolos as we get to the summit,
the sheer excitement of their ‘Vision’,
or the accuracy of the semiquavers
going into the storm.
From the other side of the world,
Jakub Hr≤≈a’s generous, sweeping but
THE GRAMOPHONE COLLECTION
rather broad account – very impressively
played and recorded (in 2013) – with the
Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra
(Exton) seems to have been available
on disc only briefly before moving to
download only. Daniel Harding is at the
helm of a thrilling performance recorded
live with the Saito Kinen Orchestra on
Decca – a terrific showcase, if an account
that fails quite to capture the mellower end
of the score’s spectrum.
There are some very respectable offerings
from UK orchestras, too. Gerard Schwarz’s
2001 account with the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic on Avie (12/05) takes some
beating in terms of sheer pictorial vividness
(have the bird calls on the meadow ever
sounded more alive?); and Andris Nelsons
(2010) offers a characteristically lucid and
attentive account with the City of
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on
Orfeo (6/11). That performance never
really digs far below the work’s surface,
though, while Bernard Haitink’s 2008
recording for LSO Live is impressively
symphonic in conception but occasionally
rather uninvolving – the first third is
somewhat leisurely and the final minutes
are short on emotion, even if the work’s
central episodes are masterfully controlled.
AUSKLANG
So, like Eine Alpensinfonie itself, we come
full circle, to return to what the piece
should and can be in performance.
Numerous accounts in what’s largely
a very high-quality discography, populated
primarily with conductors who clearly really
believe in the work, give us a very good
idea. But it’s the first of the digital age –
conducted by an Austrian who knew both
Strauss and the Alps intimately – that
remains for me the most persuasive,
affecting realisation of the score’s multiple
levels. Some subsequent accounts have
shown a greater level of technical perfection,
but none achieves the thrilling, moving
mixture of the visceral and the reflective, or
conveys the ever renewing power of nature
and man’s (and art’s) relationship to it,
quite as Karajan does with his Berliners.
TOP CHOICE
Berlin Philharmonic / Karajan
DG F 439 017-2GHS
Karajan and his mighty Berlin forces introduced
Eine Alpensinfonie to the CD era in a recording
that makes compelling
sense like no other: an
exhilarating, moving and
supremely satisfying
performance defined by
glorious lyricism and
cohesiveness.
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 143
PERFORMANCES & EVENTS
Presenting live concert and opera performances from around the world, and reviews of
archived music-making available online to stream when you want, where you want
Prinzregententheater & Philharmonie in
Geistag, Munich & online
ARD International Music Competition
Prizewinners’ Concerts, September 13, 14 & 15
Based in Munich, this is Germany’s largest
classical music competition, with a starry
rosta of high profile previous winners
including Jessye Norman, Christoph
Eschenbach and Mitsuko Uchida. It’s open
to musicians aged between 17 and 29 who
are ready to launch an international career,
and this year’s categories are piano, violin,
oboe and guitar. The 2017 winners have just
been announced, and the three prizewinners’
concerts are being streamed live both on
the competition website, and via Facebook
Live on the BR Klassik Facebook channel.
The September 13-14 concerts are in the
Prinzregententheater with the Munich
Chamber Orchestra, while the September 15
concert is with the Bavarian Radio Symphony
Orchestra in the Philharmonie in Geistag. If
you miss the live relays, you can watch it all
on catch-up, as you can the semi-finals and
finals if you want to catch up on all the past
month’s excitement.
bc.de/ard-musikwettbewerb
Sylvain Cambreling conducts a significant revival of Edison Denisov’s opera L’écume des jours
Denisov
Among the generation
of composers which
emerged from the Soviet
Union in the late 1970s,
Edison Denisov (1929-96)
remains least known in
the UK – possibly because
his penchant for French
culture (he spent his final
years in Paris) gets ‘lost
in translation’. Nowhere
more so than in L’écume des
jours, an opera after Boris
Vlan (also the source for
the film Mood Indigo) which
occupied him throughout
the 1970s and had its Paris
premiere in 1986.
Described by the composer as a ‘lyrical
drama’, it veers freely between surreal
whimsy and interpersonal violence
that illuminates its era despite being
defiantly non-realistic in content. This
144 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
David Geffen Hall, New York & online
106 All-Stars: Opening Gala Concert of New
York’s Orchestra, September 19
Music Director Designate Jaap van Zweden
conducts the deliciously dubbed ‘106 All-
Stars’ of the New York Philharmonic this
year in their season opening gala, featuring
Mahler’s Symphony No 5. Furthermore, you
don’t have to be in New York to experience
either the music or the black-tie glitz of the
occasion, because the performance will
be streamed for free on Facebook Live,
beginning at 7.20pm EST and directed by
Habib Azar. The concert will then be available
for on-demand viewing on the Philharmonic’s
website, YouTube and Facebook.
nyphil.org, facebook.com/nyphilharmonic
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
& UK cinemas
Die Zauberflöte live cinema broadcast,
September 20
David McVicar’s enduring staging of Mozart’s
Die Zauberflöte is back on Covent Garden’s
stage this season, this time conducted
by Mozart specialist Julia Jones, and with
a superb cast that you won’t want to
ONLINE OPERA REVIEW
2012 production from the Staatsoper
Stuttgart, directed by Jossi Wieler and
Sergio Morabito, evokes hedonistic despair
as its characters lose sight of each other
through denying their own sense of self.
miss. Roderick Williams sings Papageno,
Siobhan Stagg is Pamina and Mauro Peter
as Tamino (who, incidentally, features on
this year’s Award-winning DVD of Berg’s
Wozzeck). Furthermore, rather appropriately
given that this is our annual Awards issue,
the Queen of the Night is sung by Sabine
Devieilhe who this time last year was picking
up her Gramophone Award for her ‘Mozart
and the Weber Sisters’ recording for Erato
with Raphäel Pichon and Pygmalion, on
which one of the highlights was the famous
“Der Hölle Rache” Queen of the Night aria.
The production runs from September 12 to
October 14. The live September 20 cinema
broadcast will include one interval.
roh.org.uk, roh.org.uk/showings/the-magic-
flute-live-2017
Middleton Hall, Hull & BBC Radio 3
UK premiere of Anthony Burgess’s
A Clockwork Orange set to music,
September 30, broadcast October 1
Hull has had an exciting year as the UK City
of Culture 2017. One highlight of the BBC’s
coverage sees BBC Radio Drama join forces
with the BBC Philharmonic to perform the
Strong, even overwrought
contributions by Ed Lyon,
Marcel Beekman, Arnaud
Richard and Sophie
Marilley substantiate the
main roles, while Jeanne
Seguin and Sébastien
Dutrieux are the Cat and
Mouse whose ‘Greek
Chorus’ amuses and
unnerves in like measure.
Sylvain Cambreling
conducts with a sure sense
of where this amorphous
yet engrossing opera is
headed, and one can only
commend The Opera
Platform for making it
available. Just maybe it
will generate sufficient interest to warrant
a British staging, though don’t hold your
breath! Richard Whitehouse
Available to view free of charge
(until October 31) at theoperaplatform.eu
gramophone.co.uk

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s music director puts a handful of conducting youngsters through their paces
Masterclass
Rather than commercial-standard
performance films, this is what
the Royal Concertgebouw should
be putting out: nine hours of
masterclass footage, featuring four
promising conductors, given three
sessions each with the world’s
finest orchestra (according to
Gramophone’s survey of 2008).
At their elbow is the orchestra’s
music director, Daniele Gatti.
Asked in mid-session interviews
what they’ve gained from the
experience, the students give little away –
language could be an issue – but as the
orchestra’s leader Vesko Ashkenazy points
out, the conductor’s job in rehearsal is
to show, not tell. Accordingly, Gatti
doesn’t cross-examine Sergey Neller’s
late-Klemperer conception of Molto allegro
UK premiere of a special performance of
Anthony Burgess’s theatre dramatisation of
his 1962 novel, A Clockwork Orange.
Published in 1987, this dramatisation also
included Burgess’s own songs and music,
but this music has never been performed
along with the play in the UK. Much as you’re
probably anticipating this anyway, we should
warn you that the play contains strong
language! If you can’t get to Hull then you
can hear it on BBC Radio 3’s as Drama on 3
on October 1.
hull27.co.uk, bbc.co.uk/radio3
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
& UK cinemas
Pappano conducts a new production of
Puccini’s La bohème, October 3
Yes, a second Royal Opera House live
cinema screening, but we couldn’t not
draw your attention to it. This is Richard
Jones’s brand new production, staged with
spectacular stylised sets by Stewart Laing.
What’s more, the youthfulness of the majority
of Puccini’s characters is being reflected in Sir
Antonio Pappano’s cast, which is one made
up of young stars. Rodolfo is sung by the
American tenor Michael Fabiano, partnered
by the Australian soprano Nicole Car as
Mimì. Making her ROH debut in the role of
Musetta is the American soprano Nadine
Sierra. The Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecień
sings Marcello. Also in the cast are Florian
Sempey, Luca Tittoto, Jeremy White and Wyn
Pencarreg.
roh.org.uk, roh.org.uk/showings/la-boheme-
live-2017
gramophone.co.uk
ONLINE MASTERCLASS REVIEW
in Mozart’s Symphony No 40; rather,
help is offered to make it work. For him,
Valentina Peleggi and Dawid Runtz,
the Royal Concertgebouw players are
lab-rats of diligence, saints of patience, as
the symphony’s first eight bars are pulled
apart from every conceivable angle.
Carnegie Hall, New York & WQXR
The Philadelphia Orchestra open Carnegie
Hall’s 2017/18 season, October 4
It would be hard to out-glitz the line-up for
Carnegie Hall’s season opening gala this year.
Featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra with their
much-in-demand conductor Yannick Nézet-
Séguin, this is an evening of American classics,
and indeed works which celebrate New York
itself in all its multitude of facets. The concerto
is Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with pianist
Lang Lang, so bound to be pizzazz-tastic. Then
book-ending that jazz-age favourite are two
Bernstein works: the On the Waterfront Suite
to open the concert, and to bring the evening
to its climax the Symphonic Dances from West
Side Story. Those in New York can listen live
or on catch-up via the WQXR website, which
incidentally is worth exploring, given the well
presented, user-friendly US perspective it gives
on the classical scene.
carnegiehall.org, wqxr.org
Beethovenfest Bonn & WDR 3 on 28 October
Beethoven in 1803, Beethoven in 2017,
September 29
With the Beethovenfest Bonn concluding this
month we thought we’d draw your attention
to one of its final offerings, because it carries
both repertoire and performers of interest.
The orchestra are Le concert olympique, a
45-piece period-instrument ensemble who
you won’t yet have encountered on British soil.
Established in 2010 by their conductor, the
Beethoven expert Jan Caeyers, they’re drawn
from various European orchestras and meet
several times a year to perform Beethoven
To my eyes, the most gifted
student is the left-handed Ji∑í
RoΩe√: Gatti limits his first
intervention in the Poco adagio
of Mahler’s Fourth to a remark
that the music-stand is a bit high.
‘They understand what you
want’: high praise. Later, though,
cardinal principles are restated
from sessions with the others.
Reduce the gestures in number
and size: make every movement
meaningful. Resist exaggeration,
conserve energy. Don’t keep
making the same points: trust the orchestra
to learn. For detailed illustration of how
conductors worth following think in six
dimensions, it’s compelling viewing.
Peter Quantrill
Available to view free of charge at
concertgebouworkest.nl/en
programmes offering historical context as well
as historically informed playing technique.
This particular concert is thus typical, being a
reconstruction of the programme of a musical
‘academy’ Beethoven mounted at the Theater
an der Wien during Holy Week 1803 which
premiered the Symphony No 2, Piano Concerto
No 3 and the rarely heard oratorio, Christ on
the Mountain of Olives. The soloist for the piano
concerto is Kristian Bezuidenhout, and the
oratorio soloists are soprano Marlis Petersen,
tenor Steve Davislim and baritone Dietrich
Henschel, with the Arnold Schoenberg Chor.
beethovenfest.de, www1.wr.de
Metropolitan Opera, New York & cinemas
worldwide Met Live in HD
David McVicar’s new production of Bellini’s
Norma, Live in HD, October 7
You may have noticed that there’s a season
opening running theme to the pages this
month, and here’s another in the form of
Sir David McVicar’s new production for the
Met of Bellini’s Norma, and with an all-star
cast. Sondra Radvanovsky takes the title-role
as the druid priestess Norma, while 2017
Gramophone Recital Award winner Joyce
DiDonato sings Norma’s archrival Adalgisa.
There are some real bel canto heavyweights
among the men too, with the tenor Joseph
Calleja as Norma’s unfaithful lover Pollione,
while Matthew Rose plays the role of Norma’s
father and Chief of the Druids. McVicar’s
staging places the action deep in the Druid
forest. Carlo Rizzi conducts.
metopera.org, metopera.org/Season/In-
Cinemas
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 145
 Connect your home to a
deeper music experience

Channelling forty years of audio engineering, we present Mu-so.

A range of compact, yet commanding wireless music systems, that will unleash
your music wherever it’s stored, in breathtaking quality. Advanced connectivity includes
AirPlay, Bluetooth®, Spotify Connect®, TIDAL, iRadio and multiroom streaming.
AirPlay is a trademark of Apple Inc.
naimaudio.com

Experience at John Lewis, selected Apple stores and our network of specialist audio retailers.
HIGH FIDELITY
T H E T E C H N O LO G Y T H AT M A K E S T H E M O S T O F Y O U R M U S I C
THIS MONTH A very modern amplifier with a retro twist, a bridge between your network and your hi-fi,
and is the shape of audio changing forever? Andrew Everard, Audio Editor
From LPs to multiroom audio and AV made easy
The vinyl revival shows no signs of slowing down with another well-known name joining the fray
here are two schools of thought
T when it comes to the so-called
vinyl revival, which has seen a
boom in the availability of record
players, record pressing plants being
re-started, the price of ‘classic’ turntables
soaring on the usual online auction sites,
and national papers publishing ‘Do you
know how much your old record player
is worth?’ articles. Whether you believe
the LP is back to stay, as a backlash
against the all-digital world, or a passing
fad born out of hazy nostalgia, there’s no
denying that record-playing equipment
is everywhere right now. Even Roberts,
one of the grand old names of audio
and celebrating its 85th anniversary this
year, has just launched its own turntable,
joining its line-up of portable ‘wirelesses’
from retro to digital.
The Roberts Radio RT100 1 combines
a real wood veneer plinth with a clear
dustcover and comes fitted with a cartridge
and ready for ‘plug and play’ operation.
It handles 33 and 45rpm records, and has
a built-in preamplifier to allow it to be
used straight into any amplifier, as well as
analogue-to-digital conversion with a USB
output, so records can be ‘ripped’ to MP3,
WAV or FLAC files. It sells for £250.
gramophone.co.uk
1 2
4
3 California, it uses a 30cm woofer, 12.5cm
5 supplied in mirror-image pairs for optimal
New from the well-known Goldring
brand is a line-up of three E-Series moving
magnet cartridges 2 , designed for the
medium- to high-mass tonearms found
on today’s affordable turntables, and with
Magnetic Duplex Technology to lower
crosstalk and improve stereo separation.
The entry-level E1, at £60, uses a spherical
stylus on a carbon-fibre-reinforced ABS
cantilever, while the E2 uses the same
stylus with an aluminium cantilever for
greater stiffness without weight penalties.
It sells for £80. The range-topping E3, at
£100, has the same cantilever as the E2
but is fitted with a super-elliptical stylus to
give ‘superior high frequency groove detail
retrieval ability and a reduction of sibilance,
especially in high level vocal recordings’.
One for the soprano fans, then!
At the other end of the chain, JBL has
revived a classic monitor line, the compact
three-way 4312SE speaker 3 . Designed
and assembled at JBL HQ in Northridge,
mid-range and a 25mm tweeter, and is
imaging. It sells for £2500/pr.
US company McIntosh has launched its
biggest integrated amplifier to date, the
300W-per-channel MA9000 4 . Priced
at $10,500 in the States, with UK pricing
yet to be announced, it adds to that huge
output a digital module able to handle
files at up to 384kHz and DSD256 (the
module being replaceable to accommodate
future upgrades), balanced and unbalanced
inputs and a moving coil/moving magnet
phono stage.
Denon has launched the £899 AVR-
X3400H 5 , described as the most advanced
7.2-channel receiver in its new range. As well
as handling both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X
soundtracks and all 4K video formats, it also
has HEOS multiroom integration built in,
allowing it to work with other HEOS-
enabled products to form a complete
wireless whole-house music system.
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 147
AWARDS ISSUE TEST DISCS

A lovely pairing of Beethoven and Schubert by Another one of those glorious recordings
the Oslo String Quartet, recorded with the 2L label’s from the Resonus label, this complete set of
usual attention to detail and available in a range CPE Bach’s works for keyboard and violin is
of formats. superbly enjoyable.

REVIEW PRODUCT OF THE MONTH QUAD VA-ONE

Quad VA-One
An innovative compact amplifier combining ‘retro’
thinking and the very latest digital audio technology
familiar conversation was heard appeal with new models combining elements

A while admiring the concept model

of the new Quad electrostatic
speaker at this year’s High End
Show in Munich: ‘Yes’, said one visitor to
his companion, ‘but they’re not real Quads,
are they? I mean, they’re designed and
made in China.’
That’s been an argument ever since the
Quad brand was acquired by IAG, which
is still headquartered in Huntingdon,
to where the company moved in 1941
after being bombed out of London, but
manufactures all the products – alongside
the likes of Audiolab, Castle Acoustics,
Mission and Wharfedale – at its huge
complex in Shenzhen, China. It’s a very old
argument, given that the IAG acquisition
happened 20 years ago and there’s a case
for suggesting that without the input of the
Chang brothers, IAG’s owners, Quad might
well by now be one of those much-lamented
lost brands from British hi-fi history.
What has happened instead is that Quad
has survived, updating its range with the
likes of the 99/909 series and the current
Elite and Artera ranges, not to mention new
versions of the classic electrostatic speakers;
looking back at its past with the QII series
(including still-available variations on the
classic Quad II power amplifier, now well
into its seventh decade) and expanding its
of classic designs and new technologies.
The slimline Vena amplifier may
hark back to the style of the company’s
pre-amps of the past but comes packed
with digital-to-analogue conversion and
even Bluetooth, and now the company has
gone even further with its ‘-One’ series,
combining valve working with those same
up-to-date technologies. It started this Type Integrated amplifier
series with the PA-One, a headphone Price £1299
amplifier complete with valve amplification Inputs One line stereo, optical/coaxial digital,
and a decidedly traditional look, albeit in a USB Type B, Bluetooth with aptX
compact, desk-friendly footprint, and any Outputs One pair of speakers, headphones
suggestions that this was a slightly cynical on 6.3mm socket
exercise in working the corporate heritage Power output 15W per channel
with a retro product were soon dispelled (into 6 ohms), 12W/ch into 4/8 ohms
when the product was hooked up. Like Accessories supplied Remote handset
most current Quad designs, it sounded very Dimensions (WxHxD) 18x17.9x33.cm
good indeed, combining the company’s quad-hifi.co.uk
traditional honest, easily enjoyed sound
with the ability to drive even demanding
headphone loads. And with both digital and footprint and even a headphone socket on
analogue inputs, plus the ability to function the front – but justifies the price differential
as a pre-amp into an external power amp, with a rather different functionality.
it soon showed there was a lot packed into For while the £1199 PA-One has only
its chassis, finished in Lancaster Grey – pre-amp and headphone outputs, at £100
another ‘new Quad’ innovation with a very more the VA-One has built-in power
classic flavour. amplification and can thus be used straight
The VA-One amplifier we have here into a pair of speakers. Yes, the relatively
looks very similar to the headphone modest 15W per channel output of the
amplifier – same finish, same compact VA-One means you’ll need speakers of

,/Ͳ&//,KD/ED/hdKDd^K>hd/KE^

ĂƐĞĚĐŽŶǀĞŶŝĞŶƚůLJŝŶĐĞŶƚƌĂů'ƵŝůĚĨŽƌĚW:,ŝͲ&ŝŚĂƐƐƉĞĐŝĂůŝƐĞĚŝŶƚŚĞĚĞŵŽŶƐƚƌĂƟŽŶ͕ƉƌŽǀŝƐŝŽŶĂŶĚŝŶƐƚĂůůĂƟŽŶŽĨ
ƋƵĂůŝƚLJŚŝͲĮĂŶĚŚŽŵĞĐŝŶĞŵĂĨŽƌŽǀĞƌϮϬLJĞĂƌƐ͘KƵƌĚĞĚŝĐĂƚĞĚĚĞŵŽŶƐƚƌĂƟŽŶƌŽŽŵƐĂůůŽǁLJŽƵƚŽůŝƐƚĞŶŝŶĐŽŵĨŽƌƚ
ƚŽĂƌĂŶŐĞŽĨĞdžĐĞƉƟŽŶĂůƉƌŽĚƵĐƚƐ͕ǁŚŝůƐƚŽƵƌĨƌŝĞŶĚůLJĂŶĚŬŶŽǁůĞĚŐĞĂďůĞƐƚĂīĂƌĞĂůǁĂLJƐŽŶŚĂŶĚƚŽĂŶƐǁĞƌĂŶLJ
ƋƵĞƐƟŽŶƐLJŽƵŵĂLJŚĂǀĞ͘tŚĞƚŚĞƌLJŽƵĂƌĞůŽŽŬŝŶŐĨŽƌLJŽƵƌĮƌƐƚŐĞŶƵŝŶĞŚŝͲĮƐLJƐƚĞŵ͕ǁĂŶƚƚŽĐƌĞĂƚĞĂďĞƐƉŽŬĞŚŽŵĞ
ĐŝŶĞŵĂŽƌǁŝƐŚƚŽĚŝƐƚƌŝďƵƚĞŵƵƐŝĐĂŶĚŵŽǀŝĞƚŚƌŽƵŐŚŽƵƚLJŽƵƌŚŽƵƐĞ͕W:,ŝͲ&ŝĐĂŶƉƌŽǀŝĚĞĂƐŽůƵƟŽŶƚŽƐƵŝƚĂůůďƵĚŐĞƚƐ
ĂŶĚĐƌŝƚĞƌŝĂ͘ƐĂƚƌƵůLJŝŶĚĞƉĞŶĚĞŶƚƌĞƚĂŝůĞƌǁĞĂƌĞƉƌŽƵĚƚŽƐĂLJƚŚĂƚǁĞŚĂŶĚƐĞůĞĐƚ͕ƚĞƐƚĂŶĚƐĐƌƵƟŶŝƐĞĂůůƚŚĞ
ƉƌŽĚƵĐƚƐƚŚĂƚǁĞƐƵƉƉůLJ͕ĞŶƐƵƌŝŶŐĂĐŽŶƐŝƐƚĞŶƚƐƚĂŶĚĂƌĚŽĨƋƵĂůŝƚLJĂŶĚƌĞůŝĂďŝůŝƚLJŽǀĞƌŽƵƌĞŶƟƌĞƌĂŶŐĞŽĨĞƋƵŝƉŵĞŶƚ͘
ƌŽƉŝŶƚŽĚĂLJƚŽĚŝƐĐƵƐƐLJŽƵƌƌĞƋƵŝƌĞŵĞŶƚƐŽƌƉŚŽŶĞͬĞŵĂŝůƵƐƚŽŬĂĚĞŵŽŶƐƚƌĂƟŽŶ͘

dĞů͗ϬϭϰϴϯϱϬϰϴϬϭ/ǁǁǁ͘ƉũŚŝĮ͘ĐŽ͘ƵŬ/ŵĂŝů͗ŝŶĨŽΛƉũŚŝĮ͘ĐŽ͘ƵŬ
ϯƌŝĚŐĞ^ƚƌĞĞƚ/'ƵŝůĚĨŽƌĚ/^ƵƌƌĞLJ'hϭϰZz

148 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk

SUGGESTED QUAD S-1 SPEAKERS
This may be an obvious
PARTNERS
pairing, but the Quad S-1
The Quad amplifier is speakers were designed
capable of a beguiling to be used with the
sound. Try it with these VA-One amplifier.
speakers …
reasonable sensitivity – Quad offers its own
ribbon-tweetered S-1 bookshelf model for
£495 – but unless you really want to play
rock music at realistic festival levels, that
output should be more than adequate for
use as part of a desktop system or in all but
the largest rooms.
Remove the protective mesh cage,
designed to keep prying fingers away from
the hot-running ‘business end’ of the
amplifier, and you reveal the VA-One’s
array of seven valves. The pre-amp section
uses one ECC83 triode, feeding two
ECC82s in the driver and phase splitter
stage, while two EL84 pentodes per
channel provide the ‘push and pull’ of the
power-amp stage through the encapsulated
transformers behind the valves.
The Quad combines
control and involvement
with sweetness, plus a bass
that’s both warm and rich
but never overly bloomy
That’s the ‘trad’ bit of the VA-One,
though Quad points out the transformers
here are designed to allow the warmth and
generosity of the ‘valve sound’ without
the softness sometimes ascribed to such
designs. The modern bit is apparent when
you look at the rear of the amplifier, where
there are not only analogue inputs (one
set) and speaker outputs, on substantial
gold-plated terminals, but also digital ins
on optical, coaxial and USB-Type B, and a
Bluetooth antenna. Yes, the Bluetooth part
is a convenience, although it does handle
the aptX codec for better sound quality, but
of more interest are the hardwired digital
inputs, able to handle content at up to
192kHz/24 bit.
PERFORMANCE
Setting up the VA-One is simple – both
connections and controls are logical, and
the only extra thing required is a USB
driver if you’re going to use the amp with
a Windows computer. This is available for
download from the Quad website. I tried
the VA-One with both a range of speakers
and a number of pairs of headphones and
found it more than capable of driving
both to good effect, and with that ease
gramophone.co.uk
NEAT ACOUSTICS
FLOORSTANDERS
For a bigger sound, try the
little Quad amp with these
unusual baby floorstanders
from Neat Acoustics.
of listening combined with high levels of
detail that’s long been a hallmark of the
brand’s products.
Having had good results with my
desktop Neat Iota speakers driven by the
Quad fed from my Mac Mini computer,
where the generosity of sound flattered
the smallish bass drivers and ribbon-type
tweeters – Quad’s own S-series speakers
also use a ribbon for the high frequencies –
I progressed to the larger Iota Alpha
speakers, Neat’s miniature floorstanders.
The modest output (at least on paper) of
the VA-One proved more than capable of
driving the little Alphas to room-filling
levels with no signs of limits being reached,
even when playing large-scale orchestral
music. At the kind of listening levels most
of us will require – ie not ‘scaring the
neighbours with Mahler’ volume – the
Quad combines control and involvement
with a sweetness never straying into
softness or lack of information, plus a
bass that’s both warm and rich but never
overly bloomy.
Saying the VA-One sounds very Quad
might appear to be stating the obvious,
but that’s very much the impression
this amplifier creates – and all in a
good way. With the lovely live Brahms
German Requiem under Jan Willem de
Vriend (Challenge Classics), the drama
and passion of the music are beautifully
delivered by the Quad, using Roon on the
computer to down-convert the original
DSD64 to PCM. Instrumental and vocal
timbres are realistic, the choir sounds
thrilling, and the glorious flow of the
music is unimpeded. And yes, you can
crank the volume up to exciting levels,
the amplifier still having power in hand
for the dynamics of the music without any
nasties creeping in: the power delivery
remains even-handed and the sound
just as mellifluous.
With smaller-scale music, from
chamber ensemble to accompanied solo
instruments, the Quad’s presentation is just
as convincing, if not even more so. That
relaxed, effortless flow of sound is enticing
with Kuniko’s toothsome transcriptions for
marimba of Bach solo works (Linn), the
resonance and tonality of the instrument
and the feeling of the space in which it was
recorded being strikingly resolved.
Or you could try …
The VA-One is unique in offering its mix
of classic valve technology and up-to-
date connectivity, so you have to look
further for alternatives.
NAD C 368
The NAD C 368, at
around £800, uses its
manufacturer’s Hybrid Digital technology
to good effect, will drive a wide range
of speakers and can accept an optional
multiroom module. More details at
nadelectronics.com.
Quad Vena amplifier
Quad’s own range
has a less expensive
alternative to the VA-One in the form of the
Vena amplifier. It’s a solid-state design rather
than using valves, has Bluetooth built in
and comes in a choice of finishes and wood
wraps for a classic Quad look. It sells for
£600 in Lancaster Grey, with luxury finishes
adding an extra £100. See quad-hifi.co.uk.
Arcam A39 amplifier
If you want a stripped-
down, high-performance analogue-only
amplifier, then Arcam’s A39 fits the bill. Using
the same Class G technology found in the
mighty A49, it delivers 120W per channel
and is highly configurable, including an
mm/mc phono stage, and costs £1249. See
arcam.co.uk for details.
Naim Nait 5si amplifier
Finally, totally frill-free
amplification from Naim in the form of
the ultra-slim Nait 5si amplifier. The latest
version of the company’s original integrated
amp, it sells for £1029 and has four inputs
and a 60Wpc power output. Find out more
at naimaudio.com.
The VA-One isn’t an amplifier for
everyone. Those in huge rooms with large
speakers might well hanker after some
electronics with more meat on the bones.
But it delights more than it disappoints; and
when you add in its ‘cute factor’, this is a
pretty compelling must-explore alternative
to more conventional amplifiers.
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 149
REVIEW dCS NETWORK BRIDGE
Bridging the gulf between music and system
Designed to form the link between your network-stored music and a hi-fi
system, this dCS unit is part of a new generation of audio components
he dCS Network Bridge is a
T relatively small and plain-looking
little box – at least when compared
with the British manufacturer’s
other products – designed to sit between
music stored on a home network and the
digital inputs of a hi-fi system, providing
a means of accessing and playing a library.
It’s principally intended for use with other
dCS products, including current and past
digital-to-analogue converters, but the way
in which the product has been engineered
means it has more wide-ranging appeal,
especially for those who want to keep their
set-ups clean and simple.
The £3250 Network Bridge is part of a
strong digital line-up from Cambridgeshire-
based dCS (Data Conversion Systems). dCS
is a strong believer in optimising every part
of the digital chain, which is why it makes
separate transports, converters and master
clock generators for its flagship systems.
There’s a marked lack of ‘off-the-shelf’
solutions, too: the company tends to write
and programme its own systems. Not only
does this allow dCS to design the product
to its requirements but it also opens up the
possibility of future online firmware updates,
bringing both performance upgrades and
the chance to add extra functionality.
The Network Bridge is some 32cm wide
and stands just over 6.5cm tall, the only
notable feature when set up being the little
stub antenna for wireless connectivity.
There’s no display and a marked lack of
controls, the units being ‘driven’ over a
network connection using a smartphone or
tablet app: dCS has its own Network Bridge
App for set-up and playback, or the unit
can be controlled by any one of a number
of UPnP-compatible apps. Networking
is via either Wi-Fi or a wired connection;
I’d suggest sticking to the latter for the
smoothest listening experience, especially
with higher-resolution music files. As well
as network streaming, for example from
a Network Attached Storage device or a
computer running suitable UPnP software
to make music available on the network,
the Network Bridge can also accept data
streamed via Apple AirPlay from iOS
devices and can be used to access Spotify
Connect or Tidal streaming services.
It’s also Roon ready and can play music
from other devices running Roon; like
150 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
dCS NETWORK BRIDGE
Type Network audio renderer/player
Price £3250
Inputs Wi-Fi/Ethernet networking, USB,
word clock x 2
Digital Outputs AES/EBU x 2, SPDIF,
BNC x 2 plus word clock
Formats handled FLAC, AIFF & WAV up
to 384kHz/24 bit; ALAC up to 192kHz/24 bit;
AAC, MP3, WMA & OGG up to 48Kz/24 bit;
DSD64/128; Apple AirPlay 44.1/48kHz
Finishes Silver or Black
Dimensions (WxHxD) 36x6.7x24.5cm
dcsltd.co.uk
the Spotify and Tidal integration, this is
dependant on the appropriate licence having
been purchased. You can also connect USB
storage devices – either thumb-drives or
hard disks – to the dCS’s rear-panel input
and play content directly from them.
There’s power and detail
to the sound, making
anything played an
involving, satisfying listen
Output to a suitable DAC is via what
looks like a baffling array of connections,
but then the Network Bridge is designed
for compatibility with a wide range of the
company’s DACs. There are two AES/
EBU digital outs, BNC sockets allowing the
separate output of left and right channels
in digital form, and inputs for an external
digital clock, enabling all the devices in a
chain to be synchronised to the same master
device. For those of us without dCS digital
partners, the unit also offers a standard
SPDIF digital output, able to output
content at up to 192kHz/24 bit and DSD64
(using the DSD over PCM frames, or
DoP, standard). The Network Bridge can
downsample higher-resolution content to
suit the DAC to which it’s connected, this
being set up in the Network Bridge App.
PERFORMANCE
The dCS feels reassuringly solid, the
casework actually being milled from a
billet of aluminium, and has nothing
much to show save a power light. In fact,
it could easily be hidden away if required,
given that there’s nothing the user needs
to access directly, everything being done
via the app. Even updating is simple: the
process is initiated on the app and then one
just waits for the LED to stop flashing.
While it’s hard to ascribe a sound
to a digital component – and indeed
some will say a digital device such as
this can’t have an effect on the overall
presentation – testing it with a range of
DACs and amplifiers with digital inputs
revealed that the dCS maintained the
integrity and fluidity of high-resolution
files, even when called on to downsample
them to suit the attached device. The most
telling comparison was to be had with the
Network Bridge connected to one of the
digital inputs on the Naim NDS player
I use as a reference, where it was possible
to draw comparisons between the Naim’s
streaming section playing 192kHz/24 bit
and DSD64 files, not to mention standard
CD-resolution music, and the same files
streamed using the dCS.
What was striking was that there was
really nothing in it, whether playing
the tight-focused but atmospheric Oslo
Quartet ‘minor major’ recording of
Beethoven and Schubert in DSD64 or
Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms from the
recent ‘American Voices’ disc (Resonus)
set in 44.1kHz/24 bit. There’s power and
detail to the sound, and above all rock-solid
sound staging and a fine sense of ambience,
making anything played an involving,
satisfying listen. The punch and drive of
the orchestra in the opening Bernstein
psalm is truly thrilling but the dCS is just
as adept when downsampling the DSD64
Oslo Quartet recording, sounding very
close indeed to the Naim’s ability when
playing the DSD files directly.
What’s more, for all its high-end
capability, the Network Bridge is a joy to
use via the app, and of course set-up is as
simple or as complicated as your system
configuration makes it. As an alternative to
all-in-one network player solutions, this is
a fascinating product.
gramophone.co.uk
 Choose the right
subscription for you
y THE GRAMOPHONE CLUB
y PRINT EDITION
y DIGITAL CLUB
y DIGITAL EDITION
y REVIEWS DATABASE

THE WORLD’S LEADING CLASSICAL MUSIC REVIEWS MAGAZINE

EXPAND YOUR INTERNATIONAL COMPOSER THE GRAMOPHONE

COLLECTION ARTISTS PROFILES CLUB
With the world’s most We are devoted to We celebrate composers Our best value package
authoritative classical exploring the artists both past and present, includes 13 print issues,
music reviews section, stamping their mark on providing you with a unique digital access to every
written by our unrivalled, recording today, with perspective on the lives issue since 1923 and over
international and objective captivating features and and work of the greats of 30,000 reviews, plus exclusive
panel of expert reviewers exclusive interviews the classical music world offers throughout the year

Visit www.magsubscriptions.com/gramophone
or call 0800 137 201 (UK) +44 (0)1722 716997 (OVERSEAS)
Pictured: Violinist Janine Jansen (DECCA/© Marco Borggreve) who featured on the January 2016 cover of Gramophone. Full annual retail price for print only (13 issues) is £74.75; print only annual subscription, Digital Edition and
reviews Database (£64); Digital Club (£84); Gramophone Club (£106). Postage and packaging is not included for overseas orders. Overseas subscription p&p: Europe £22.80, Rest of World £27.00. If you have a subscription
enquiry then please email subscriptions@markallengroup.com
ESSAY
Should hi-fi be heard and not seen?
As music moves away from physical media and into streams and network
files, remote control is getting smarter and audio hardware less apparent
omething was nagging away in my
S head when writing the product
reviews for this month’s issue, but
when the realisation came, it was
more of a statement of the obvious than
any great insight. What we are seeing
increasingly are hi-fi products with no
vestige of a display to show what’s being
played, relying instead on dedicated apps
to control it. Last month KEF’s LS50
Wireless speakers followed this path; this
month it’s the dCS Network Bridge.
That’s one of the biggest changes in
audio for a very long time. It’s the result
of a shift in the way many of us listen these
days, eschewing physical media such as
CDs or even LPs in favour of computer
music files, be they downloaded from
online stores or ripped from existing discs.
No longer do we need to place a storage
device in or on a player and press buttons
to make it play; instead we just tap or swipe
on the screen of a smartphone or tablet to
select the music we want to hear – either
from our own library stored on a computer
or NAS device, or increasingly from a
streaming service for which we have a
subscription – and then tap again to start it
pouring forth from our speakers.
All of which has a number of benefits,
not least of which is no need to have half
of one’s listening environment taken
over by shelves of discs. Yes, there’s
a certain romanticism about flipping
through a collection of LPs or running
one’s finger along rows of CD cases,
choosing something to play, but all of that
assumes a fairly disciplined shelving and
sorting regime unless it’s to be a complete
pot-luck exercise.
I know many will have elaborate
cataloguing systems but, having served my
time in public libraries many years ago and
remembering what a chore the ritual of
‘shelving’ was, these days I’d rather have
it done for me. And on the screen of my
tablet I can find music instantly, sorted by
composer or work or album or genre or …
well, you get the idea.
If I add music, it’s added to the virtual
library indexing, and fully searchable.
Using the excellent Roon software, which
integrates both my own library and that
from the online Tidal service, I am treated
to a seamless combination of both kinds of
152 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Look and listen: remote tablet control made easy
music. If I want, I can even play one of my
own albums and then have Roon carry on
playing similar and complementary music
from the Tidal database. And that in itself
can be a fascinating voyage of discovery!
What’s more, I can actually see what I am
choosing or playing – to an extent not
possible given the limited (and sporadic)
availability of CD-Text on silver discs –
and, even more to the point, from across
the room. The displays on CD players and
the like are fine if you’re lucky enough to
be sitting right next to them but, with a few
exceptions, worse than useless when viewed
from any distance, whichever pair of glasses
I juggle. With my tablet to hand, I not only
get instant access to the library, including
those search options, but also album
artwork, notes and often the whole booklet
to read on the screen.
Freed from the need to be in
a format with which you can
interact, the modern music
player can be any shape
Yes, I lose the exercise of travelling from
sofa to CD player every hour or so – and
the well-trodden path on the carpet is
steadily recovering! – but this new way
of consuming music is having a more
profound effect on audio equipment. Freed
from the need to be in a format with which
people can interact – ie with loaders whose
size is defined by the diameter of a CD,
displays and even buttons of a sensible size
for fingers – the modern music player can
be almost any shape able to accommodate
the circuitry required, which itself is usually
highly integrated and thus very compact.
So we have seen products such as the
little Google Chromecast puck and the
Gramofon player on which I have reported
in the past, or even the tiny Raspberry
Pi/HiFiBerry computer player, which is
no bigger than whatever is the currently
acceptable alternative to a couple of
packets of cigarettes.
Even more to the point, the working of
the hi-fi no longer needs to be visible. Some
will still prefer a rack of matched boxes
glowing away in their room, but today’s hi-fi
system could just as easily be a device such
as the dCS Network Bridge connected to a
DAC and amplifier, all hidden away, feeding
a pair of speakers. And if those speakers
were in-wall or in-ceiling models, you’d
have truly invisible music.
Or your entire set-up could just be
something like the excellent KEF LS50
Wireless reviewed last month – and
that model’s idea of a ‘system in a pair
of speakers’ could well prove to be
somewhat prophetic.
gramophone.co.uk
 HI FI Dealer

Visit our website or call us for advice...

musicmatters.co.uk
Birmingham 0121 429 2811
Specialists in sound & vision
Solihull 0121 742 0254
Leamington Spa 01926 888 644
London 020 8420 1925
Stratford 01789 414 533

020 7226 5500

25% OFF www.grahams.co.uk
FULL PRICE
GRAHAMS

“One of the five best hi-fi TO

shops in the world”
Grahams Hi-Fi
ARENA Magazine ADVERTISE
Canonbury Yard
for sales/enquiries or FREE brochure call - 01423 500442 190a New North Road
London N1 7BS IN THIS
Ian Harrison HI FI Sale!
UP TO 40% OFF! SECTION
SPECIALIST SUPPLIER OF TURNTABLES, TONEARMS,

PLEASE
CARTRIDGES, PHONO STAGES, RECORD CLEANING
MACHINES, HEADPHONES & CABLES
TEL; 01283 702875 (UK) 9AM - 9PM
EMAIL; IAN.HARRISON@MERCIAN.MYZEN.CO.UK
CALL
Is this your problem?
Here’s your
answer
020
7501
loud too loud way too loud
It’s a common problem. The usable range
on the volume control is all down at the
bottom end and fine control at low listening “this accessory
is heartily

6368
levels is either difficult or impossible. The
noise floor may be audible, too. There is recommended”
a simple and effective solution- the Rothwell Gramophone
In-Line Attenuators. They can be used with
pre/power or integrated amps
to cure the problems of excess
gain and bring sonic benefits with
even the most expensive equipment.
£39/pair - post free
01204 366133 www.rothwellaudioproducts.co.uk

www.gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 153

Classified

Uk Classical Archives OX FO R D r L I E D E R r F E ST I VA L
celebrating 40 years in the gramophone industry

WE BUY
LP & CD collections 13-28
OCTOBER
Orchestral - Opera - Jazz & Blues 2017
Hi-Fi always required
Turntables - Speakers - Amplifiers
9am - 9pm 7 days a week

 A fascinating immersion in Vienna at the turn of the

01803 606162
we cover UK Ireland & Europe
twentieth century, focussing on Gustav Mahler: his influences,
contemporaries and legacy
 Mahler’s complete songs, as well as songs from Beethoven to
Strauss, bringing many of the world’s greatest musicians to Oxford
 Chamber, piano and choral music, talks, study events,
workshops and masterclasses and more illuminate this pivotal
collection service available period in musical history

or email your lists to W W W . OX FO R D L I E D E R . CO . U K

ukclassicalarchives@gmail.com

Potton Hall Recording Studio 0207

• Set in Suffolk Countryside 5 miles from Southwold 689
• First class acoustics and facilities 7533
• Steinway Model ‘D’ Grand Piano available
• A complete CD package available
• Reasonable rates
• Accommodation/Leisure Spa available on site
• Full Brochure available by request
www.pottonhallltd.co.uk | 01728 648265

TO ADVERTISE IN
THIS SECTION info@watsonrecords.co.uk
PLEASE CALL
020 7501 6368

154 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 www.gramophone.co.uk

 Classified

rev lutions
Run by musicians
for music lovers
records and cds
We will travel to anywhere in
We buy classical LPs the UK to view sizeable collections
From 1950s - 1970s
or can buy by post from your lists.
Examples - we will pay up to:
£2500 for Leonid Kogan on Columbia SAX
Quality hi-fi equipment purchased -
£1500 for Johanna Martzy on Columbia 33CX EMT - GARRARD - TANNOY -
£4000 for Andre Levy on Lumen THORENS Etc.
Top prices paid for EMI ASD, Columbia SAX,
Decca SXL. CD Collections also purchased

For prompt attention, contact:

Leslie Laine, BA (hons)
Tel: 01903 209553
or Dr Matthew Pollard
Revolutions, 1st Floor 67 Victoria Road,
Worthing, West Sussex BN11 1UN
email: info@revolutions33.co.uk www.revolutions33.co.uk

RECORDS FOR SALE

Oriel Opera Archives

‘Preserving Our Opera Heritage’
More than 400 British Opera performances from 50 years
ago on CD - mostly in English. Now carefully restored.
BUY • SELL • TRADE
Great Performances! Great Singing! Great Sound!
Catalogue and free sample CD available from:
Oriel Music Trust, 79 Ffordd Glyder, Port Dinorwic,
vinyl • CDs • DVDs • box sets
Gwynedd LL56 4QX
All profits go to the Musicians Benevolent Fund
nothing legal refused! (ID required)
opera@orielmusic.org 01248 670 797

Yarborough House
Bookshop and Coffee House
4,000 CDs Rapidly Changing Stock.
Much unusual repertoire. All guaranteed.
Large secondhand general book stock.
buy interesting LPs, CDs, DVDs and quality books,
We
particularly music, philosophy and literature.
Will collect or pay postage.
No mail order.
The Square, Bishops Castle, Shropshire, SY9 5BN
Open 5 days 10am - 5pm / Closed Mon & Wed
www.yarboroughhouse.com
01588 638318
SCHOPPER AG
(Switzerland)
The best partner for your Thorens TD 124 !
Restorations & Parts
CLASSICAL MUSIC EXCHANGE
ϯϴEŽƫŶŐ,ŝůů'ĂƚĞ͕tϭϭ͕ŽƉĞŶϳĚĂLJƐϭϬĂŵͲϴƉŵ
www.mgeshops.com ϬϮϬϳϳϵϮϱϴϰϳ
SEVENOAKS CD MAIL ORDER SERVICE
Classical Compact Discs and DVDs FREEPHONE 0800 999 6994
The Compact Disc Shop
57 London Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 1AU. Celebrating 11 years as a mail-order service to
01732 740 889 martin@bluesandjazz.co.uk those starting their love affair with music, clever
A wide range of new releases and back catalogue in stock. collectors, also to music groups and at concerts.
All Labels - All distributors - Both large and small.
Full title and artist identification service. FREE P&P with your 1st ORDER
MAIL ORDER Colchester Classics, St Austell,
47 Gladwin Road, Colchester CO2 7HW
Is a major part of our business. We offer a prompt and
efficient delivery usually within 2/3 days. FREEPHONE 0800 999 6994
GIVE US A RING AND TRY OUR SERVICE Email: liz@colchesterclassics.co.uk
We also stock Jazz, Blues, World music and talking books etc. www.colchesterclassics.co.uk
COLCHESTER CLASSICS - WHERE
CLASSICAL MUSIC MATTERS!

www.thorens-td124.ch TO ADVERTISE PLEASE CALL 020 7501 6368

www.gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 155
 NOTES & LETTERS
Appreciating Ashkenazy • Taking stock of Elgar • Walton’s recording session departure
Write to us at Gramophone, Mark Allen Group, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB or gramophone@markallengroup.com
Elgar was no genius …
Much as I enjoyed Andrew Farah-
Colton’s feature ‘Elgar Abroad’
(August, page 11), I must take exception
to his use of the word genius to describe
the composer.
Although generally an over-employed
word, there should be some measure
of agreement about its meaning. In
this context I would suggest it refers
to someone who is at the undisputed
pinnacle of their field; someone who
has changed the way the medium is
understood and appreciated; and someone
with a body of work beyond compare,
both in scale and quality. Elgar is a fine
composer who created a small number of
memorable and important works. He was
also parochial and insular, and this partly
explains his lack of appeal elsewhere.
Surely great music transcends boundaries?
Tony Schendel
Salisbury, Wilts
… or was he?
Your feature on ‘Elgar Abroad’ included
assessments of the composer from several
leading conductors, but I would like
to draw attention to one more – Kirill
Petrenko, who next year succeeds Rattle
at the helm of the Berlin Philharmonic.
For his second guest appearance with
the orchestra in May 2009, Petrenko
chose to include Elgar’s Second
Symphony. Prior to the concert he was
interviewed by horn player Sarah Willis,
who expressed both surprise and delight
at the choice and asked how it had come
about. (Both the interview and the concert
itself are on the Digital Concert Hall.)
Petrenko said that he hadn’t known
the work at all, but had come upon it
unexpectedly on a CD he had sought
out for its other content. However, he
was intrigued enough to listen to the
symphony, and was so drawn into the
work that he listened to it in its entirety.
He said that he quickly fell in love with
what he called ‘this deep music, its huge
scale and its great contrasts’. He saw these
features as a great challenge to which the
Berlin players would unquestionably rise.
Stephen Elder
Bournemouth, Dorset
[Kirill Petrenko’s performance has not
slipped through Gramophone’s net as
Andrew Achenbach, in January 2016’s
156 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017
Letter of the Month
Affection for Ashkenazy
on performing
the composer.
Ashkenazy alone
replied. Here
is a flavour of
his generous
response: ‘The
joy of playing
and conducting
Beethoven’s
music is knowing
that, like with
all great music,
you are trying
Vladimir Ashkenazy: a musician of enormous generosity to express the
inexpressible. It
Jeremy Nicholas, in his deservedly is like trying to identify yourself with
warm-hearted article on Vladimir eternity – and you cannot use words for
Ashkenazy (August, page 22), recounts this … The difficulties – apart from the
how Ashkenazy re-autographed the obvious technical ones – are to try to
autograph he had given on a scrap read Beethoven’s mind and therefore
of paper after a Cheltenham recital to be true to his intentions.’
50 years before: ‘a typical Ashkenazy For many decades, both at the
gesture’. keyboard and on the podium,
It reminded me of another ‘typical Ashkenazy has done all that with
Ashkenazy gesture’ from December Beethoven and many other composers.
1989. My older son Matthew, then We have been the privileged recipients
11, was doing a school music project and with deep gratitude wish him well
on Beethoven. He wrote to several on his 80th birthday.
pianists and conductors c/o their Harold Jones
record companies for their views Derby, Derbyshire
prestoclassical.co.uk is a website that speaks your language, ‘underpinned by an evident love of music and the world
of recordings’ (Gramophone). No other site selling classical CDs and DVDs is arranged in such a logical and accessible
format, where you can easily find lists of composers’ works, compare different options, view recommendations and
read reviews. We believe you will find it one of the most user-friendly classical music sites on the internet. The Letter of
the Month receives £50 of Presto Classical gift vouchers. Gramophone reserves the right to edit letters for publication
‘Performances and Events’, reviewed the and Martha Argerich. There is one
Berlin Philharmonic performance in the recording, however, which seems to me
Digital Concert Hall, describing it as to be especially notable and monumental,
‘nothing short of stunning’, a reaction that by Barenboim and Klemperer in 1967
shared by our correspondent Tony on EMI, which is now re-available, after
Williams the following month – Ed.] many years, in a Warner box set. Their
contemporaneous collaboration in the
Klemperer and Barenboim five Beethoven concertos was very well
Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C, K503, has received at the time of its release.
been a favourite of mine for over 50 years. There was a palpable chemistry
Francesco Piemontesi’s excellent article between the two men, despite the great
on the concerto (September, page 62) discrepancy in their ages. In his biography
reflects the fact that it has always divided of the conductor, Peter Heyworth notes
opinion as to the piano part. Brendel that Klemperer regarded Barenboim as a
apart, it has, however, been championed remarkable pianist, and warmed to him as
in fine recordings by Mitsuko Uchida a man. He particularly liked Barenboim’s
gramophone.co.uk

ability to spar with him intellectually, and
Klemperer did not always come off best in
these exchanges. On one occasion in 1967,
Barenboim was summoned to Klemperer’s
London hotel, and they went through
many of Klemperer’s songs. When asked
his opinion, Barenboim is said to have
made it clear that did not like them. After
he had left, Klemperer said to his daughter
Lotte ‘I like that boy, he is honest. But he
is no judge of music’. Klemperer would
have relished the eminence that his young
associate has since achieved.
Keith Pearce
Penzance, Cornwall
Dissatisfied Walton
In the course of his survey of Walton’s
Belshazzar’s Feast (June, page 106), Andrew
Mellor draws attention to EMI’s claim that
the Previn/LSO version was recorded in
the presence of the composer. This is only
partly true. Walton was present for the
first part of the first session, and made
adjustments to some of the tempos that
Previn had adopted for Walton’s 70th
Birthday Concert the preceding night.
However, the session was on March 29,
Walton’s actual birthday, and he could
not stay. He had been invited by Edward
Heath to No 10 Downing Street for a
dinner party with friends, who included
the Queen Mother. This was the occasion
on which Heath presented Walton with
the original score of the music for The
Battle of Britain film, rejected by the
producers except for ‘The Battle in the
Air’ sequence, and rescued by Heath.
OBITUARIES
A Gramophone critic and passionate champion of Renaissance music
JEREMY NOBLE
Musicologist and critic
Born March 27, 1930
P H O T O G R A P H Y: D P A P I C T U R E A L L I A N C E /A L A M Y S T O C K P H O T O , D A R I O A C O S TA / D G
Died June 30, 2017
Jeremy Noble, a
former contributor
to Gramophone, has
died aged 87.
Born in South
Africa, he came to
the UK to attend
school and later read
Greats at Oxford, where he developed an
interest in early music, first of the English
Renaissance and then of the Flemish
Renaissance, above all focusing on the
music of Josquin Desprez.
As well as scholarly work, he would
lead a choir that explored the music
of his favourite period, and released
gramophone.co.uk
NOTES & LETTERS
No doubt but for Heath’s action it would NEXT MONTH
very likely have been destroyed.
Later in the year, when the record of
Belshazzar’s Feast was released, in response
OCTOBER 2017
to a letter from Malcolm Arnold Walton
stated that he wished he had been able
to be present for more of the sessions
to correct more of what he agreed were
‘wrong speeds’. Thus while on the evening
Walton expressed himself as being very
pleased with the live performance, in time
he became less impressed with the record.
Robin Moore, via email
Remembering Pouishnoff
I was pleased to read that APR has
issued a double CD of Leff Pouishnoff’s
recordings (September, page 83). He was
the first classical pianist I heard live, on
several occasions during my schooldays
in the 1950s, when he performed in the
Winchester Guildhall (where my mother
had heard Paderewski in 1937).
He always came with his own piano,
a Blüthner with the maker’s name in
large gold lettering on the side. Once,
in a severe winter, he cancelled as the
roads were too icy to risk damage to his Danill Trifonov
precious instrument. When he returned Hugo Shirley talks to 2016’s
a few months later, he apologised for
the earlier cancellation, telling us the Gramophone Artist of the Year –
reason and assuring us that he had and one of the most impressive of
not been unwell. On his last visit, just today’s young pianists – about his
two months before his death in 1959,
he played Schumann’s Carnaval, and
next recording for DG, which
I have never forgotten it. focuses on the music of Chopin.
Daniel O’Hara,
Saltburn, Cleveland, North Yorks
Winter festivals
Summer may be over, but the
festival season is far from finished –
we publish our new guide to the
most thrilling and unique festivals
an LP on Vanguard of Josquin that in taking place throughout the
many ways paved the way for successive
generations of performers.
world over the coming months.
During the 1950s he reviewed for
Gramophone, broadcast for the BBC’s
Third Programme (Radio 3’s precursor),
Machaut’s Mass
and in 1960 joined the staff of The Times, The earliest surviving Mass
contributing criticism alongside two other setting by a named composer
Gramophone critics, William Mann and continues to inspire performers
Andrew Porter.
Academe beckoned and, following six-and-half centuries on. In next
a stint of research at the University of month’s Collection, Fabrice Fitch
Birmingham, in 1966 he was appointed names the recordings to own.
Professor at the University of Buffalo
in New York State, where he remained
until his retirement in 1995.
A man of urbane charm and great
erudition, he contributed greatly
to Gramophone’s high standing as ON SALE OCTOBER 11
a respected journal of opinion. DON’T MISS IT!
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 157
NEW RELEASES INDEX
The latest releases on CD, SACD, DVD, Blu-ray and download
Key: F Full price £10 and over M Medium price £7.76 – £9·99 B Budget price £6.25 – £7·75 S Super-budget price up to £6·24 3 Reissue 1 Historic Í SACD ◊ DVD Y Blu-ray 6 LP

ARCO DIVA arcodiva.cz/en/ ELOQUENCE www

CD & SACD Fiala. Martinů. Řezníček Chor Wks. Czech Philh Ch, Brno/Fiala. Handel Arias (r1960s). Sols incl Sutherland & Greevy.
F UP0188 B b 3 ELQ482 4759
ABC CLASSICS abc.net.au Mahler Syms Nos 1 & 3 (r1964/68). LSO/Solti.
ARUNA www
Medtner Pf Conc No 1 Rachmaninov Pf Conc No 2. Gillham/ B b 3 ELQ482 7177
Bigham Staffa. RSNO/Picard, J-C. F ARUNACD002
Melbourne SO/Northey. F ABC481 5564 Mahler Sym No 9 (r1968). LSO/Solti. F 3 ELQ482 7163
AUDITE audite.de
ACCENT www Rachmaninov Preludes (r1941-42). Lympany.
Beethoven Cpte Stg Qts, Vol 8. Cremona Qt. F 1 ELQ482 6266
Bach, JS Cantatas for the Cpte Liturgical Year. Petite Bande/
Kuijken. S s 3 ACC25319 F Í AUDITE92 688
Various Cpsrs Lollipops. Concertgebouw Orch.
Molter Concs for Tpts & Hns. Madeuf/Musica Fiorita/Dolci. Beethoven Cpte Wks for Pf Trio, Vol 4. Swiss Pf Trio. B b 1 ELQ482 5650
F ACC24327 F AUDITE97 695 Various Cpsrs Evening at (pp1956). Chicago Lyric Op/Solti.
Schmelzer Sons. Concert Brisé/Dongois. F ACC24324 AVIE avie-records.com F 1 ELQ482 7518
AEON outhere-music.com/aeon Saint-Saëns. Schumann. Tchaikovsky Wks for Vc & Orch. EVIDENCE www
Nyman No Time in Eternity. Ens Céladon/Bündgen. Meneses/Royal Northern Sinf/Cruz. F AV2373 Respighi Ancient Airs & Dances. Fountains of Rome. Pines of
F AECD1757 BERLIN CLASSICS edel.com Rome (arr Pf Duet). Biddau/Cordisco Respighi. F EVCD035
Various Cpsrs Caprices. Arditti. F AECD1755 Beethoven Pf Conc No 4 Schumann, C Pf Conc. Schirmer/ GIMELL gimell.com
ALIA VOX alia-vox.com Staatskapelle Halle/Matiakh. F 0300928BC Josquin Masses – Pange lingua; La sol fa re mi (r1986). Tallis
Alfonso X El Sabio Cantigas de Santa Maria (r1993). Brahms Frei aber einsam. Kirschnereit/Amaryllis Qt/Neudauer. Scholars/Philips. F 3 CDGIM009
Hespèrion XXI/Capella Reial de Catalunya/Savall. F b 0300929BC GLOSSA glossamusic.com
M Í 3 AVSA9923 Handel Silla. Sols incl Prina, Genaux & Invernizzi/Europa
BRILLIANT CLASSICS brilliantclassics.com
ALPHA outhere-music.com/alpha
Jolivet Cpte Chbr Wks with Pf. Farinelli, F. S b 95275 Galante/Biondi. M b GCD923408
Bach, JS Privat. Nigl/Staier/Richter, AL/Müllejans/Dieltiens. Purcell Fairy Queen. Nouveaux Caractères/d’Hérin.
Liszt Great Pf Wks. Various artists. S o 95564
F ALPHA241 M b GCD922702
Milhaud Chbr Wks. Bernard/Tortorelli/Meluso. M 95449
Berg. Berio. Gershwin Crazy Girl Crazy. Ens Ludwig/Hannigan. GOD RECORDS godrec.com
F (CD + ◊) ALPHA293 Monteverdi Madrigals, Book 9. Nuove Musiche/Koetsveld.
M 95153 McCartney, A OEK. McCartney, A. F 6 GOD44
Chausson. Debussy. Ravel Stg Qts. Van Kuijk Qt. F ALPHA295
Scheidemann Kybd Wks. Rassam. S b 95427 GRAMOLA gramola.at
Dvořák Pf Qts. Busch Trio/da Silva. F ALPHA288
Various Cpsrs Joyeux Noël. Aradia Ens/Mallon/Fantasia/ Chopin Waltzes. Ivanov. F 99146
Mozart Don Giovanni (pp2016). Sols incl Bou, Gleadow &
Voskuilen/Lambour. S c 3 95569 Liszt Pf Son (r1865/71). Badura-Skoda. F 99147
Papatanasiu/Cercle de l’Harmonie/Rhorer. M c ALPHA379
Various Cpsrs Rosa mystica. Maletto/Tomadin. M 95506 Various Cpsrs Pf Wks. Harison. F 99139
Reicha Chbr Wks. Sols of the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth.
M c ALPHA369 Various Cpsrs Tribute to Ida Presti – Gtr Wks. Milani. M 95528 GRIFFIN griffinrecords.co.uk

Stradella Lagrima e sospiri. Santon Jeffery/Galilei Consort/ CARL DAVIS COLLECTION carldaviscollection.com
Anonymous Chants of the Anglo-Saxon Saints (r1995).
Chénier. F ALPHA297 Magnificat/Cave. M 3 GCCD4004
Davis, C Aladdin: The Ballet. Malaysian PO/Davis, C. F CDC029
Various Cpsrs Agitata. Galou/Accademia Bizantina/Dantone. Janáček Chor Wks (r2003). Christ Ch Cath Ch, Oxford/
CARPE DIEM carpediem-records.de M 3 GCCD4042
F ALPHA371 Darlington.
Traditional Sephardic Songs. Mirković/Godard/Cagwin. Various Cpsrs Debut: the Originals (r1973). Clerkes of Oxenford/
ALTO altocd.com
F CD16313 Wulstan. M 3 GCCD4083
Beethoven Syms Nos 3 & 8 (r1988-89). LSO/Morris.
S 3 ALC1353 CHANNEL CLASSICS channelclassics.com Various Cpsrs Org Classics from York Minster (r1978).
Beethoven Stg Qt No 15 Mendelssohn Stg Qt No 2. Ragazze Qt. Jackson, F. M 3 GCCD4067
Brahms Vc Sons (r1989-90). Georgian/Gililov. S 3 ALC1352
Bruch Vn Conc No 1. Scottish Fantasy (r1956/62). Oistrakh/LSO/ F CCS39317 HARMONIA MUNDI harmoniamundi.com
Matačić/Horenstein. S 1 ALC1356 Various Cpsrs Grandissima gravita. Podger/Brecon Baroque. Bach, JS Cantatas for Bass. Goerne/Freiburg Baroque Orch/von
Granados Orch Wks (r2001). Gran Canaria PO/Leaper. F Í CCSSA39217 der Goltz. F HMM90 2323
S 3 ALC1348 CYPRES cypres-records.com Charpentier Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers. Ens
Handel Favourites (r1959/74). LSO/Pro Arte Orch/Szell/ Correspondances/Daucé. F HMM90 2279
Bartholomée Rhizomes. Musiques Nouvelles. F CYP646
Mackerras. S 1 ALC1340 Mendelssohn Vn Conc. Sym No 5. Hebrides. Faust/Freiburg
DABRINGHAUS UND GRIMM mdg.de
Lehár Merry Widow (r1953). Sols incl Schwarzkopf/Philh Orch/ Baroque Orch/Heras-Casado. F HMM90 2325
Field Cpte Nocturnes, Vol 1. Irmer. F MDG618 1849-2
Ackermann. S 1 ALC1363 Telemann Companion. AAM Berlin. S g 3 HMX290 8781/7
Puccini Tosca. Sols incl Callas & Gobbi/Scala, Milan/de Sabata. DELPHIAN delphianrecords.co.uk Various Cpsrs Fancy. Caravansérail/Cuiller. F HMM90 2296
S b 1 ALC2030 Rachmaninov. Stravinsky. Tchaikovsky Wks for Pf Four Hands. Various Cpsrs Jardin à l’italienne – Airs, Cantatas & Madrigals.
Rodgers Oklahoma!. South Pacific. Orig Broadway Cast. Hill/Frith. F DCD34191 Arts Florissants/Agnew/Christie. F HAF890 5283
S 1 ALN1964 DIVINE ART divine-art.co.uk Various Cpsrs Reformation 1517-2017. Ch of Clare Coll,
Various Cpsrs Irish Ballads (r1916-40). McCormack. Castelnuovo-Tedesco Pf Wks. Soldano. F DDA25152 Cambridge/Ross. F HMM90 2265
S 1 ALN1962 HUDDERSFIELD CONTEMPORARY RECORDS
Various Cpsrs Operatic Pianist, Vol 2. Wright, A. F DDA25153
APARTÉ apartemusic.com hud.ac.uk/hcr/
DOCUMENTS www
Rameau Pygmalion. Sols incl Dubois & Chappuis/Talens Ablinger Verkündigung. Mashayekhi-Beer/Weiss/Kleeb.
Various Cpsrs Cpte Recorded Masterworks. de Vito. F HCR014CD
Lyriques/Rousset. F AP155
S j 1 600409
Tchaikovsky Stg Qt No 1. Souvenir de Florence. Novus Qt/ HYPERION hyperion-records.co.uk
Gaillard/Berthaud. F AP154 Various Cpsrs Milestones of a Legend (r1957-62). Starker.
Blow Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell. Arcangelo/Cohen.
S j 1 600408
ARCANA outhere-music.com/en/labels/arcana F CDA68149
Compère Missa Galeazescha. Odhecaton/Da Col. F A436 ECM NEW SERIES ecmrecords.com Debussy Pf Wks. Osborne. F CDA68161
Feo. Gaetano. Manna Lux in tenebris. Frigato/Talenti Vulcanici/ Bach, CPE Tangere – Pf Wks. Lubimov. F 476 3652 Dvořák Stg Qt No 14. Stg Qnt No 3. Takács Qt/Power.
Cardi. F A437 Josquin. Victoria Secret History. Potter et al. F 481 1463 F CDA68142
Various Cpsrs Dresden. Zefiro/Bernardini. F A438 Reiner, C Elegie an John Donne. Reiner, C. F 481 4485 Scarlatti, D Kybd Sons, Vol 2. Hewitt. F CDA68184

158 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk

JSP jsprecords.com PENTATONE pentatonemusic.com STONE RECORDS stonerecords.co.uk

Prokofiev Pf Conc No 3 Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme Bach, JS Solo Vn Sons & Partitas (r2005). Fischer, J. Stimpson Age of Wonders. Iwabuchi/Poster/Philh Orch/
of Paganini (r1945-53). Kapell. F 1 JSP684 F b Í 3 PTC5186 682; F c 6 3 PTC5186 666 Stratford. F 5060192 780741
KAIROS kairos-music.com Beethoven Syms Nos 1 & 4 (r1970s). Israel PO/LSO/Kubelík. Various Cpsrs Glorious Quest: Hits from the Golden Age of
Fuentes Broken Mirrors. Diotima Qt. F 0015015KAI F Í 3 PTC5186 248 Broadway Musicals. Clarke/Gould. F 5060192 780758

Węgłowski Contemporary Jewish Wks. Krakauer. Glazunov. Khachaturian. Prokofiev Vn Concs. Fischer, J/ SUPRAPHON supraphon.com
F 0015026KAI Russian Nat Orch/Kreizberg. F Í 3 PTC5186 591 Various Cpsrs Prague Recs (r1953-66). Navarra.
Heggie It’s a Wonderful Life. Sols/Houston Grand Op/Summers. S e 1 SU4229-2
KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE kings.cam.ac.uk
F b Í PTC5186 631
Various Cpsrs Tecchler’s Cello. Johnston/Kanneh-Mason/ SWR MUSIC swrmusic.com
Mahler Totenfeier Strauss, R Also sprach Zarathustra.
Poster/Ch of King’s Coll, Cambridge/Cleobury. M KGS0026 Various Cpsrs Edn, Vol 6 (r1988-2014). Gielen.
Berlin RSO/Jurowski. F Í PTC5186 597
KLANGLOGO klanglogo.de S r (17 CDs + ◊) 3 SWR19042CD
Various Cpsrs Serenade. Hampson/Pikulski.
Machaut Messe de Nostre Dame. Vienna Voc Consort. F KL1412 Various Cpsrs Operetta Arias (r1954-65). Wunderlich.
F Í PTC5186 681
Pachelbel Kybd Wks. Barsányi. F KL1519 B b 1 SWR19038CD
PHI outhere-music.com/phi
LAWO lawo.no TACET tacet.de
Bach, JS Cantatas Nos 101, 103 & 115. Collegium Vocale Gent/
Hvoslef Chbr Wks, Vol 4. Various artists. F LWC1130 Ravel Pf Wks. Koroliov/Duo Koroliov. F TACET227
Herreweghe. F LPH027
Sinding Suite im alten Stil Walton Va Conc. Ringstad/Oslo PO/ Weinberg Wks for Fl. Styczen/Polish PO/Rajski.
PHILHARMONIA philharmonia-records.com
Engegård/Weilerstein. F LWC1133 F Í TACET2324
Martin Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke.
LINN linnrecords.com TACTUS tactus.it
von der Damerau/Zurich Philh/Luisi. F PHR0108
Debussy La mer. Ariettes oubliées Fauré Pelléas et Mélisande. Davide da Bergamo Org Wks. Ruggeri. B b 3 TB790490
Verdi Ovs. Zurich Philh/Luisi. F b PHR0109
Kožená/DSO Berlin/Ticciati. F CKD550 Frescobaldi Kybd Wks. Vartolo. B b 3 TB580692
PIANO CLASSICS piano-classics.com
Monteverdi Vespers. Dunedin Consort/Butt. F b CKD569 Marini Madrigali & Symphonie, Op 2. Musicali Affetti
Bach, JS Cpte Kybd Partitas. Sheng. F b PCL10126
Tye Cpte Consort Wks. Phantasm. F CKD571 RossoPorpora/Messaggia/Testolin. F (CD + ◊)TC591304
Clementi Sons. Preludes. Kim, I. F PCL10128
LPO lpo.co.uk Tartini Fl Concs. Mercelli/Rogliano/Ens Respighi.
PRAGA DIGITALS pragadigitals.com B b 3 TB692090
Tchaikovsky Cpte Syms (pp2004-16). LPO/Jurowski.
Schubert ‘Trout’ Qt. Stg Qts Nos 12-15 (r1934-62). Budapest Qt/ Various Cpsrs 19th-Century Italian Wks for Fl & Hp. Ortensi/
S g 3 LPO0101
Horszowski/Levine. M b 1 PRD250 386 Pasetti. F TC800005
MELODIYA melody.su
PROFIL haensslerprofil.de TADLOW tadlowmusic.com
Bach, JS Kybd Partitas Nos 4 & 6. Batagov.
Beethoven Pf Sons. Pf Concs. Vc Sons. Richter/Rostropovich/ Various Cpsrs Blessing – Op Arias. Johnston, C.
B b MELCD100 2500
USSR SO/Moscow PO/Sanderling/Kondrashin. S l PH16030 F TADCLASS022
Various Cpsrs Anthology of Russian & Soviet Sym Wks, Vol 2.
Hildegard of Bingen Femina forma Maria. Ens Mediatrix/
Various artists. S (55 CDs) MELCD100 2481 TOCCATA CLASSICS toccataclassics.com
Göshchl. F PH17023
MÉTIER divine-art.co.uk Elcock Orch Wks, Vol 1. RLPO/Mann. F TOCC0400
Strauss, R Rosenkavalier (r1951). Sols incl Bäumer & Lemnitz/
Keeley Twists & Turns – Chbr Wks. Various artists. F MSV28568 Kokkonen Requiem. Cpte Org Wks. Lehtola/Klemetti Inst
Staatskapelle Dresden/Kempe. F d 1 PH16071
Miyachi Transitional Metal – Chbr Wks. Various artists. Chbr Ch/Liimola. F TOCC0434
Various Cpsrs Himmel Rühmen: Best of Sacred Chorales.
F MSV28563 Tartini Sonate piccoli, Vol 4. Sheppard Skærved. F TOCC0363
Various artists. B b PH16041
NEOS neos-music.com Tovey Chbr Wks, Vol 2. Ormesby Ens. F TOCC0226
Various Cpsrs Recital (r1960). Dalis. F 1 PH17044
Aperghis Accordion Conc. Six Études. Bavarian RSO/Pomárico. Various Cpsrs Secret Places. Twiolins. F PH17002 URLICHT AUDIOVISUAL urlicht-av.com
F NEOS11728 Various Cpsrs Invisible Colours. Cuckson. F UAV5979
RED PRIEST redpriest.zooglelabs.com
Mozart Basset Cl Conc Mueller Piccolo Conc grosso. Octet. WARNER CLASSICS warnerclassics.com
Various Cpsrs Baroque Bohemians: Gypsy Fever from Campfire
Mueller/Collins/Zurich CO/ens remixed. F NEOS21704
to Court. Red Priest. F RP014 Saint-Saëns Org Sym. Carnaval des animaux. Argerich/
Rihm Sphären. Schablas/Österreichische Ens für Neue Musik/ Rossi/S Cecilia Orch/Pappano. F 9029 57555-5
REGENT regent-records.co.uk
Huber. F NEOS11520
Various Cpsrs Live in Lugano (pp2016). Argerich et al.
Stopford In My Father’s House. Truro Cath Ch/BBC NOW/Gray.
NEW WORLD newworldrecords.org S c 9029 58316-5
F REGCD517
Makan Letting Time Circle Through Us. Either/Or. Various Cpsrs Live at the Mariinsky – Pf Wks (pp2016). Li.
Various Cpsrs Year at St Patrick’s. Ch of St Patrick’s Cath,
F NW80791-2 F 9029 58129-4
Dublin/Nicholson. F REGCD504
NMC nmcrec.co.uk Various Cpsrs Remastered Recs (pp1949-64). Callas.
RESONUS resonusclassics.com
Holst, I Stg Chbr Wks. Hewitt Jones, S & T/Worswick/Hankey/ S (42 CDs + c Y) 9029 58447-0
Joubert Chor Wks. Wells Cath Ch/Owens. F RES10198
Coates/Swain. F NMCD236 WERGO wergo.de
Poldowski Reimagined: Verlaine Songs. Ens 1904. F RES10196
NORTHERN FLOWERS nflowers.ru Pauset Canons. Hodges/Lévy. B b WER7365-2
SIGNUM signumrecords.com
Ustvolskaya Chbr Wks. Waiman/Malov/Karandashova/Stolpner. Rihm Geste zu Vedova. Minguet Qt/Maintz. F WER7346-2
Handel At Vauxhall, Vol 2. London Early Op/Cunningham.
F NFPMA99122 Squillante Wings of Daedalus. Sols incl Luchetti. F WER2073-2
F SIGCD479
OEHMS oehmsclassics.de
Janáček. Kodály. Poulenc Kyrie – Chor Wks. Ch of St John’s
Mozart Shanghai Mozart Dream. Han. F OC1805
Coll, Cambridge/Nethsingha. F SIGCD489
Schubert Schwanengesang. Trekel/Pohl. F OC463
Rachmaninov Sym No 1 (pp2016). Philh Orch/Ashkenazy.
Zeller Vogelhänder (pp2017). Sols/Mörbisch Fest Ch & Orch/ F SIGCD484
Priessnitz. F OC461
Various Cpsrs Art of Dancing: 21st-Century Tpt Concs.
Various Cpsrs Hn Wks. Shanghai Hn Ens. F OC1870 Desbrulais/English Stg Orch/Woods. F SIGCD513 DVD & BLU-RAY
OPERA RARA opera-rara.com SOLO MUSICA www
Various Cpsrs Écho. El-Khoury/Hallé/Rizzi. F ORR252 Bach, JS. Cage Chorales. Berger. F SM270; F c 6 SMLP271 HARMONIA MUNDI harmoniamundi.com
Various Cpsrs Espoir. Spyres/Hallé/Rizzi. F ORR251 Various Cpsrs Wks with Hn. Greull. F SM268 Rossi Orfeo. Sols incl van Wanroij & Aspromonte/Pygmalion/
ORCHID orchidclassics.com SOMM somm-recordings.com Pichon. M b (◊ + Y) HMD985 9058/9
Various Cpsrs Watercolour – Pf Wks. Yang, Y. F ORC100073 Tchaikovsky Pf Wks. Meecham. F SOMMCD0173 PARNASSUS parnassusrecords.com
PALADINO paladino.at Various Cpsrs Echoes of Land & Sea – Pf Wks. Marchant. Bach, JS. Haydn. Scriabin Wks for Pf & Orch (pp1972-83).
Popper High School of Vc Playing. Rummel. F PMR0085 F SOMMCD0174 Richter. F ◊ PDVD1205
PAN CLASSICS www SONO LUMINUS sonoluminus.com TONY PALMER FILMS
Dall’Oglio Vn Sons. Krestinskaya/Krotenko/Tarum. F PC10378 Various Cpsrs Beyond. Los Angeles Perc Qt. F DSL92214 Britten Nocturne. Palmer. F ◊ YPDVD198

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 159

REVIEWS INDEX
A Boismortier
La Caverneuse 77
Nocturne No 20, Op posth
Nocturnes – No 3, Op 9 No 3;
97 Freislich
Das ist meine Freude Í 109
Hasse
Attilio Regolo 119
Albinoni La Décharnée 77 No 5, Op 15 No 2 89 Gott ist die Liebe Í 109
Haydn
Filandro – Fior ch’a spuntar si vede; La Marguillère 77 Polonaise-fantaisie, Op 61 89, 97
Il tuo core in dono accetto Cello Concertos – No 1; No 2 54
Preludes, Op 28 – No 14; No 15 89
Í124
Sonatas: Op 37 – No 2; No 5;
Op 41 – No 2; Scherzo No 4, Op 54 89
G Piano Sonata, HobXVI:46 97

Arban No 3; No 4; Op 50 – No 6 77 Waltz No 1, Op 18 97 Getty Hutchinson

Fantasies on Verdi Operas 74 La Valetudinaire 77 Waltzes – No 5, Op 42; No 10, The Canterville Ghost Í 117 Behold how good and joyful a thing is
Op 69 No 2 89 110
Boyle Giacomelli
B Burble 77 Churchill (transc Wild) Gianguir – Mi par sentir la bella; Hyde
Di Tre Re e io 77 Reminiscences of Snow White 95 Vanne, si, di al mio diletto That Man Stephen Ward 120
Bach, CPE Í 124
Cello Concerto, Wq172 H439 54 Dramatis personae 77 Copland
Four Bagatelles 77 Night Thoughts 95 Glanert J
Bach, JS Sonatina 77 Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch
Cantatas – No 79, Gott der Herr ist Croft, J Järnegard
Tatty’s Dance 77 Í 100
Sonn und Schild; No 80, Ein Deux Méditations d’une furie 84 PSALM 84
feste Burg ist unser Gott 113 Brahms Glass
Croft, W Jeffreys
Cantatas – various 112 Eight Piano Pieces, Op 76 88 Book of Longing – The Paris Sky 92
O God, our help in ages past 113 How wretched is the state 110
Mass in G major, BWV236 112 Four Piano Pieces, Op 119 88 The Secret Agent 92
English Suites 97 Piano Pieces: Op 76 – No 3; No 4; Solo Cello Partitas – No 1, ‘Songs & Johnson, E
Cruger
French Suites 97 Op 116 – No 1; No 4; Op 117 Poems’; No 2 92 émoi 84
Now thank we all our God 113
Orchestral Suite No 3 in D major, No 2; Op 118 – No 2; No 3 88
Godowsky Jones, D
‘Air’ 130 Piano Concerto No 2 131 Crumb
Studies on Chopin’s Op 10 Études 92 Symphonies – No 1; No 2; No 10;
Solo Marimba Works 97 Piano Sonata No 3, Op 5 88 Eine kleine Mitternachtmusik –
No 11, ‘in memoriam George
Well-Tempered Clavier II 97 Symphonies – Nos 1-4 131 Nos 1-5, 7 & 9 95 Gottschalk Froom Tyler’ 59
Wohltemperierte Akkordeon Í 97 Variations on a Theme by La chûte des feuilles, Op 42 95
Schumann, Op 9 88
Bach, JS (transc Wild) D Grain L
Violin Concerto 131
Hommage à Poulenc 95 Waltz, Op 39 No 15 88 Dārziņš Hertzlich lieb hab ich dich o Herr
Lamb
The Broken Pines 110 Í 109
Barber Warum ist das Licht gegeben, Ragtime Nightingale 95
Nocturne 95 Op 74 No 1 113 Long Ago 110 Graubiņš
Moonbeams 110 Lawes, H
Bruckner Night has entered the forest 110
Barrett A Funeral Anthem 110
Vale 84 Symphonies – Nos 4 & 5 130 Debussy Grieg
Ariettes oubliées (arr Brett Dean) 100 Lawes, W
Buxtehude Violin Sonata No 3, Op 45 83
Barsanti Cello Sonata 69 Music, the master of thy art is dead
Trio Sonatas, Op 1 BuxWV252-258 Griffes 110
A Collection of Old Scots Tunes 74 La mer 100
78 Psalm 100, ‘All people that on
Concerti grossi, Op 3 Nos 1-5 74 The Night Winds 95
Delage earth do dwell’ 110
Byrd Notturno 95
Bartók Quatre Poèmes hindous Y ◊ 64 Psalm 18, ‘O God, my strength and
O Lord, make thy servant Charles 110
For Children, Sz 42 88 Grofé fortitude’ 110
Dutilleux Deep Nocturne 95 Psalm 22, ‘O God, my God’ 110
Beach C L’arbre des songes Y ◊ 64 Psalm 6, ‘Lord, in thy wrath
Dreaming 95 Métaboles Y ◊ 64 Gounod reprove me not’ 110
A Hermit Thrush at Eve 95 Casella Faust Y ◊ 119
Tout un monde lointain … 69 Psalm 67, ‘Have mercy on us, Lord’
A Hermit Thrush at Morn 95 La donna serpente: Symphonic 110
Fragments, Op 50 – Suite No 1 Dvořák See how Cawood’s dragon looks 110
Beethoven Í 58
Piano Quartet No 2 78
H
Complete Symphonies 56 Symphony No 2, Op 12 Í 58 Leo
Haglund
Piano Concertos – No 3; No 4; Catone in Utica – Ombra cara, ombra
No 5 – ‘Emperor’ 130
Cashian F Flaminis Aura Í 58 adorata; Soffre talor del vento
Landscape 97 Il regno degli spiriti Í 58 Í 124
Romances – Nos 1 & 2 Í 57 Farwell Serenata per Diotima Í 58
Symphonies – No 5; No 6, Chadwick Dawn 95 Levinas
‘Pastoral’; No 7 Y ◊ 56 Sollievo (dopo la tempesta) Í 58
Nocturne 95 Le petit prince 120
Symphony No 9, ‘Choral’ 130 Fauré
Hakim
Triple Concerto, Op 56 Y ◊ 56 Charpentier, M-A Ballade, Op 19 90 Liszt
Caprice en rondeau 78
Triple Concerto, Op 56 Í 57 La descente d’Orphée aux Enfers 116 Impromptu No 3, Op 34 90 La campanella, S161 No 3 97
Diptyque 78
Violin Concerto 130 Nocturnes – No 6, Op 63; No 7, Vallée d’Obermann, S160 No 6 97
Child Phèdre 78
Violin Concerto Í 57 Op 74; Venezia e Napoli, S159 92
O Lord God, the heathen are come Piano Concerto 78
Violin Sonata No 1, Op 12 No 1 74 into thine inheritance 110 No 9, Op 97; No 11, Op 104 No 1; Zwölf Lieder von Franz Schubert,
No 13, Op 119 90 Hamelin S558 – No 2, Auf dem Wasser zu
Bellini Chisholm Pelléas et Mélisande, Op 80 singen, D774; No 3, Du bist die
Little Nocturne 95 Ruh’, D776; No 9, Ständchen,
Bianca e Gernando 116 Dance Suite 58 (arr Koechlin) 100
D889; No 11, Der Wanderer,
From the True Edge of the Pénélope – Prelude 100 Handel
Ben-Haim D489 92
Great World 58 Thème et variations, Op 73 90 Alcina – Sta nell’Ircana pietrosa tana
Concerto grosso 57 Lloyd, G
Violin Concerto 58 74
Symphony No 2 57 Fauré (transc Wild) Symphonies – No 6; No 7,
Concerto for French Horns,
Chopin Après un rêve 95 ‘Proserpine’ 61
Bloch HWV331 74
Ballade No 4, Op 52 89
In the Night 95 Fitch Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline, Locke
Barcarolle, Op 60 97 HWV264 – Symphony
Agricola IX 84 How doth the city sit solitary 110
Boccherini Etude, Op 25 No 11 97 Y ◊ 103
Cello Concerto, G480 – Adagio 54 Fantaisie, Op 49 97 Foote March from Ptolemy 74 Lorenc
Six String Trios, Op 34 G101-106 75 Impromptu No 3, Op 51 89 Nocturne 95 Occasional Oratorio, HWV62 101 The Covenant (orch Janczak) 103

160 GRAMOPHONE
160 GRAMOPHONE APRIL
AWARDS2017
2017 gramophone.co.uk
 REVIEWS INDEX
Łukaszewski Symphonies – No 35, ‘Haffner’; Midsummer Nights 95 Scott, C Vinci
Adoramus te, Christe 103 No 41, ‘Jupiter’ 130 The Muse 95 Consolation 64 L’abbandono di Armida – Nave altera
Adventgebet 103 Symphonies – No 39 & 40 131 O, cease thy singing 95
Scriabin che in mezzo all’onde Í 124
Alleluia 103 Symphony No 28 – Minuet and Trio On the Death of a Linnet 95
130 Piano Sonata No 2, ‘Sonata Fantasy’,
Ave Maria 103 Sorrow in Springtime 95 Vītols
Variations on ‘Hélas, j’ai perdu mon Op 19 97
Ave maris stella 103 amant’, K360 81 To the Children 95 David Before Saul 110
Beatus vir 103 Vocalise 95 Shostakovich
Violin Concerto No 5 130 The Day is Ending 110
Sanctus Adalbertus 103 Where Beauty Dwells 95 Chamber Symphony (String Quartet
Violin Sonatas – No 18, K301; No 21, The Dwarves and the Old Man
No 8), Op 110a (arr Barshai) 68
Beatus vir 103 K304; No 26, K378 74
Ravel of theForest 110
Sanctus Martinus 103 Violin Sonatas – No 2, K8; No 8, K13; Strauss, R
Daphnis et Chloé – Suite No 2 The Enchanted Forest 110
Five Funeral Kurpian Songs 103 No 11, K26; No 13, K28; No 20, Daphne – excerpts 130
K303; No 25, K377; No 26, Y ◊ 64 The King and the Mushroom 110
Motette 103 Festliches Praeludium, Op 61 Í 67
K378; No 30, K403 81 Pièce en forme de habanera 69
Nunc dimittis 103 The Moon Lied 110
Le tombeau de Couperin Y ◊ 64
Don Juan 130
Pater noster 103 Die Liebe der Danae Y ◊ 120 The Sun’s Revelry 110
Psalmus 120 103 N Reger Metamorphosen 68
Psalmus 129 103 Mozart Variations 130
Regina caeli 103
Neumark Der Rosenkavalier – excerpts 130 W
Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten Rouget de Lisle Salome – Dance of the Seven Veils130
113 Till Eulenspiegel 130 Wagner
Luther La Marseillaise (arr Stravinsky) Í 81
Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott 113 Nowowiejski Die Meistersinger – Prelude; Act II –
Rubbra Stravinsky
Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin Quo vadis 104 Flieder-monolog; Act III 130
Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Duo concertant Í 81
113 Lohengrin Y ◊ 123
Cyril Scott, Op 69 64 Mavra – Chanson russe Í 81
Lutosławski O 64 Parsifal Y ◊ 124
Sinfonia concertante, Op 38 Pastorale Í 81
Subito 83 Violin Concerto, Op 103 64 Petrushka 93 Tristan und Isolde – excerpts 130
Orlandini
Petrushka – Danse russe Í 81 Die Walküre – excerpts 130
Adelaide – Non sempre invendicata; Rubio (transc Wild)
M O, del mio caro sposo … Quanto Mexican Hat Dance 95 Pulcinella – Suite Í 81
Wieniawski
bello agl’occhi miei; Scherza in The Firebird – Suite Í 81
Mahler mar la navicella; Vedrò più liete Fantaisie brillante sur des motifs de
The Nightingale– Airs du rossignol;
Symphony No 8, ‘Symphony of a e belle Í 124 S Marche chinoise Í 81 l’opéra Faust de Gounod, Op 20
Thousand’ Y ◊ 61 83
Ornstein Saint-Saëns The Nightingale 121
Mason, DG Nocturne No 2 95 Cello Concerto No 1 65, 69 Suk Wilson
Night Wind 95
Schelling Piano Quartet, Op 1 78 My God, my King, incline thine ear
Maxwell Davies P Nocturne (Ragusa) 95 110
A Birthday Card for Jennifer 79
Palmeri Schmidt
T
Farewell to Stromness 97
Lullaby 79
Magnificat 104 Symphony No 2 Í 67 Tchaikovsky
Y
A Postcard from Sanday 79 Palmgren Schubert Manfred, Op 58 68 Yang
Oboe Quartet 79 Exotic March Í 62 An den Mond, D193 105 Russian Folk Songs 93
Three Aquarelles 97
String Quartet Movement 79 A Pastorale in Three Scenes, Op 50 Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op 33
An die Laute, D905 105
String Trio 79 Í 62 65
Abendstern, D806 105
The Last Island 79 Piano Concertos – No 4, ‘April’;
Der Einsame, D800 105 Tchaikovsky (transc Wild)
Z
No 5 Í 62
Two Nocturnes 79 Am Flusse, D160 105 At the Ball 95 Zālītis
Violin Sonata 79 Pauset Frühlingsglaube, D686 105 Dance of the Four Swans 95 The Goblet on the Isle of the Dead
Eurydice 84 Drei Gesänge des Harfners,
Meder Tomkins 110
D478-480 105
Singet, lobsinget mit Hertzen Pfitzner O God, the proud are risen against me
und Zungen Í 109 Impromptu, D935 No 3 97
Symphony in C major 131
Impromptus, D899 92
110 Collections
Melngailis Sad Pavan for These Distracted Times
Pickard Der Jüngling an der Quelle, D300 105 Ensemble Alia Mens – ‘La Cité
Doomsday 110 110
Concertante Variations Í 62 Die Liebe hat gelogen D751 105 Céleste’ 113
Gently, slowly 110 Sixteen Sunrises Í 62 Tsontakis
Meeres Stille, D216 105 Karl Böhm – ‘Karl Böhm: The
Latvian Requiem 110 Symphony No 5 Í 62 Anasa 68
Der Musensohn, D764 105 Early Years’ 131
Move gently and quietly 110 True Colors 68
Porpora Nachtstück, D672 105 Choir of Clare College, Cambridge –
Nature and the Soul 110 Unforgettable 68
Semiramide riconosciuta – Bel piacer Nacht und Träume, D827 105 ‘Reformation 1517-2017’ 113
The Sun is Setting 110
saria d’un core; Il pastor, se torna Rastlose Liebe, D138 105 Deutsche Hofmusik – ‘Angenehme
Tye
Mendelssohn aprile; In braccio a mille furie Rosamunde, D797 – Romance
Complete Consort Music 83 Melodei’ 113
Í 124 ‘Der Vollmond Strahlt auf
The Hebrides, Op 26 61 Distractfold Ensemble – ‘Vale’ 84
Bergeshöh’n’ 105
Symphony No 5, ‘Reformation’ 61 Prokofiev
Violin Concerto, Op 64 61 Violin Concertos – Nos 1 & 2 64
Schäfers Klagelied, D121 105 U The Ebor Singers – ‘Music for
Der Schiffer, D536 105 Troubled Times’ 110
Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten Urspruch
113 Pucklitz Schwanengesang, D744 105 Leonard Elschenbroich – ‘Siècle’ 69
Cavatine & Arabesque, Op 20 93
Ich will in allen Sachen Í 109 Schwanengesang, D957 107 Ann Hallenberg – ‘Carnevale 1729’
Messiaen Cinq Morceaux, Op 19 93
Jauchzet dem Herrn alle Welt Sehnsucht, D879 105 Í 124
Quatuor pour la fin du temps – Í 109 Deutsche Tänze, Op 7 93
Symphony No 8, ‘Unfinished’ 131 Julia Hwang – ‘Subito’ 83
Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus 69 Keh re wieder Í 109 Fünf Fantasiestücke, Op 2 93
Über Wildemann, D884 105
Präludium & Capriccio, Op 22 93 Łukasz Krupiński – ‘Espressione…’
Monteverdi Wandrers Nachtlied II, D768 105
Variationen, Op 10 93 97
Orfeo – Toccata (transcr Pickard) R Winterreise 107
Latvian Radio Choir – ‘Nature
Í 62
Rachmaninov Schumann and the Soul’ 110
Mozart Carnaval, Op 9 88
V
Six Morceaux, Op 11 93 Cécile Licad – ‘American Nocturnes’
Ave verum corpus, K618 Cello Concerto 65 Vaughan Williams 95
Y ◊ 103 Rachmaninov (transc Wild)
Piano Concerto 131 The Lark Ascending 83
Do not grieve 95 Pygmalion – ‘Stravaganza d’Amore!’
La finta giardiniera – Geme la Lord, thou hast been our refuge 113
tortorella (arr Isserlis) 54 Dreams 95 Schurmann 125
Horn Concerto No 3 130 Floods of Spring 95 Piano Quartets – No 1; No 2 81 Verdi Marie Smolka – ‘‘Baroque Cantatas
Miserere, K85 Y ◊ 103 In the silent night 95 Serenade 81 Macbeth Y ◊ 123 from Gdańsk’ Í 109
Requiem, K626 Y ◊ 103 The Little Island 95 Two Violins 81 Messa da Requiem Y ◊ 107 Yuanfan Yang – ‘Watercolour’ 97

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 161

MY MUSIC

Nick Robinson
The former BBC political editor and current
presenter of the Today programme talks about
concerts, playing the piano and his love of opera
My father played the piano – the Chopin waltzes and
nocturnes were his favourites. His mother could have been
a professional concert pianist, she was that good, so there
was a lot of music in his house, and subsequently in ours.
Even before Classic FM, my dad realised that music could
be therapeutic. He’d come back knackered from a high-stress
job, open a bottle of wine and put on a record. Those were
the days when you listened to music without distractions.
I remember visiting my grandparents, who lived abroad,
and the main room was full of books on one side and LPs
(mainly DG ones) on the other. We’d have lunch and then
my grandfather would put on a record, close his eyes and listen.

Growing up, we all had piano lessons, but we loathed our

teacher who was very traditional and would spank us with
a ruler if our wrists dropped. Then we changed to a family
friend who was a real giggle – most lessons ended up with
fits of laughter over how incredibly bad I was at scales and
arpeggios. I got to Grade Five though! But I didn’t play for
years until recently; I was unwell for a bit, and started thinking
about how to get more balance back into my life. Ed Balls
lives pretty close to us and I chatted to him about how he’d THE RECORD I COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT
taken up the piano quite late and loved it. I asked him if his Chopin Nocturne No 15, Op 55 No 1
teacher would take me on and, for a little while, she would go Maurizio Pollini pf
to his house and then walk round the corner to me. I started DG (1/06)
to learn the pieces my dad played me, and I really did enjoy My father would always play this piece, and hearing
it. But I have a very unpredictable schedule … it today still transports me back to those times.

I’m so excited that my kids are into music in a way I never
was. With my generation, there was this idea of ‘dad music’ –
your parents would either listen to pop music or classical but
not both, so you’d avoid what you knew they liked. My kids
have picked up that you can like everything. Spotify has
helped in that regard – they all use my account and have
told me how it’s introduced them to new things. But mostly
I credit Richard Frostick, the music teacher who founded the
brilliant, inspiring Islington Music Centre. All three of my
kids sang there from the age of six, and it’s given them brilliant
opportunities; the choir has performed at No 10 and the Proms.
I tend to go to the Proms every year, to at least two or three
concerts including, if I’m lucky, a First or Last Night. I used
to get annoyed with the fact that my mind raced during
concerts – I’d get to the end and realise I’d written three
internal documents for work. But now I get really excited
see the dancers come off stage and almost physically collapse.
So nowadays I’m able to get carried away by the music and
simply enjoy the sheer technical skill on display.
But it’s with opera that I completely lose myself. I still
remember going to see Fidelio at the Royal Opera House with
my wife. I didn’t know the opera, I’d never seen it, but when
the quartet started, it was one of those ‘wow’ moments.
And we recently went to Grange Park to see Jen≤fa – it’s
unrelentingly bleak! My sister arranged for us to go and see it
because we were both at school with Susan Bullock who was
singing Kostelni∂ka. What her generation of singers seems to
have cracked is that they can act as well as sing – when she
had to murder the illegitimate baby, she was spectacular.
But the one performance I’ll remember on my deathbed is
‘Grimes on the Beach’. We’re regulars at The Maltings in
I L L U S T R AT I O N : P H I L I P B A N N I S T E R

about going. The same goes for ballet. I just didn’t used to
‘get it’, and my wife – who loves it – had pretty much given
up on taking me. But then, for her 50th birthday, I bought
her a charity auction prize which allowed us to sit in the
wings for a Royal Ballet performance. It was the most
amazing thing I’ve ever done. You get a sense of the sheer
physicality of it, you actually get hit by beads of sweat, you
Snape but I’d never seen Peter Grimes. When I heard about
the 2013 production, I thought it sounded extraordinary – and
it was. What makes opera potentially so powerful is that all of
human life is there – it brilliantly captures the grim emotions
as well as the soaring ones. To see the story of this lonely
fisherman played out on the beach where it’s actually set was a
real ‘hairs standing up on the back of your neck’ moment.

162 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS 2017 gramophone.co.uk

 Photo Credit: Patrick Allen / operaomnia.co.uk

Playing on our strengths to

deliver first-class performance.
Comprehensive private banking solutions; solid range of investment
and advisory services; delivered one relationship at a time.

efginternational.com

EFG International’s global private banking network operates in around 40 locations worldwide, including Zurich, Geneva, Lugano, London, Madrid, Milan, Monaco, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Singapore, Miami, Bogotá and Montevideo. In the United Kingdom,
EFG Private Bank Limited’s principal place of business and registered office is located at Leconfield House, Curzon Street, London W1J 5JB, T + 44 20 7491 9111. EFG Private Bank Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by
the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. EFG Private Bank Limited is a member of the London Stock Exchange. Registered in England and Wales as no. 2321802. EFG Private Bank Ltd is a subsidiary of EFG International.