Norman Stinchcombe reviews the latest classical CDs
Ysaÿe: Sonatas for Solo Violin, Roman Simovic (LSO Live CD & SACD) ★★★★★
The Belgian violinist and composer Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931) was nicknamed “The King of the Violin” for his amazing virtuoso technique and refinement as a chamber musician and founder of the lauded Quatuor Ysaÿe. He composed too but none of his eight concertos were published in his lifetime. He wrote one undoubted masterpiece, a set of Six Sonatas for Solo Violin of 1924 inspired by hearing the great Joseph Szigeti play Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas. Ysaÿe’s set pays homage to them but he never indulges in pastiche and mock-baroque, and uses the musical language of his own time. He does allow himself a moment of whimsy in the opening of Sonata No.2 which has a direct quote from the Prelude of Bach’s Partita in E minor, as if the soloist were overheard practising before beginning Ysaÿe’s piece. Each Sonata was dedicated to a soloist and with their style and technique in mind, from star players like Szigeti, Jacques Thibaud, George Enescu and Fritz Kreisler to the little-known Matthieu Crickboom who played second fiddle in the Quatuor Ysaÿe. Tackling the Six Sonatas requires phenomenal technique, versatility and imagination and Roman Simovic, leader of the London Symphony Orchestra and a world renowned soloist, has all three. Ysaÿe’s is a well-designed programme beginning with the longest and most Bachian, the four-movement No.1 in G minor dedicated to Szigeti, with its Grave opening and a fugato section, and ending with the sparkling single movement No.6 infused with dance rhythms from the dedicatee Manuel Quiroga’s native Spain. Simovic chills the bone with No.1’s weird sul ponticello effects and delights with the irresistible Iberian gaiety of No.6. There’s lots to admire along the way; No.3’s gradual build up from dark mutterings to blisteringly fast conclusion; No.2’s wistful slow ‘Malinconia’ movement played raptly by Simovic and his extrovert panache in the final whirlwind rustic dance of No.6. He is aided by Jonathan Stokes’ perfect sound balance, recorded at Jerwood Hall in the LSO’s St Luke’s Centre, giving Simovic an almost palpable presence.
Nielsen: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra / Gardner (Chandos CD & SACD) ★★★★ Name the great fifth symphonies of the 20th century and those of Mahler, Sibelius, Shostakovich and Prokofiev roll off the tongue but Carl Nielsen’s symphony from 1922 surely stands in that august company. Unlike those of Mahler and Shostakovich it’s a masterpiece of concision, compressed into two movements, densely packed and brimming with energy. It is often ferocious, reflecting perhaps the destruction wreaked on Europe in the Great War. Edward Gardner’s conducting is at the opposite pole from the ruminative imperious account of Herbert Blomstedt in San Francisco (Decca) often nerve-shredding in its anger. The orchestra’s clarinettist Alessandro Carbonare plays the important cadenza in the symphony’s second movement and is the excellent soloist in Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto the opening of which is as stormy as the symphony’s but Carbonare also finds moments of rapt calm too. I found Gardner’s approach to Nielsen’s magnificent overture ‘Helios’ disappointingly brusque, the opening lacking the majesty and gravitas that Thomas Dausgaard evokes with the Danish National Orchestra (Dacapo).
Shostakovich: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Choir / John Störgards (Chandos CD & SACD) ★★★
It may seem an odd way to begin a disc of Shostakovich’s first that third symphonies with two short pieces of the student composer’s juvenilia but it is actually aninspired bit of programming. Shostakovich was thirteen when he composed his Scherzo No.1 Op.1, it’s highly derivative with nods to Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Scherzo No.2 Op.7 shows an immense leap; we hear the authentic Shostakovich sound especially in the piano contribution with its echoes of silent cinema accompaniment, a job whereby the student composer earned kopeks. It features prominently in the knockabout sections of his Symphony No.1 Op.10 which gets an enjoyable performance here. Störgards however sounds leaden and staid compared to Bernard Haitink’s London 1970s recording which has much more zip and high jinks. Shostakovich’s Symphony No.3 ‘The First of May’ is one of his dutiful Communist Party works, a large choral piece venerating the state it gets a robust performance here with an impressive contribution by the Hallé Choir and Störgards doesn’t ignore the tension between the message and Shostakovich’s early acerbic musical style.
Shostakovich, Jazz Suites, Ballet Suites & Concertos: Various Artists (Capriccio 3 CDs) ★★★
Shostakovich always looked glum in his official photographs, peering fearfully through spectacles while chain-smoking and obsessively nail-biting in private. But there was another side to him captured in a candid snap grinning and surrounded by his mates at a match supporting his football team Moscow Spartak. It’s also expressed in his love, and tremendous facility for light and popular music which features in this set. His ‘Tahiti Trot’ – an arrangement of Vincent Youmans’ hit tune ‘Tea for Two’ Shostakovich made for a bet– is irresistible, a genuine laugh-out-loud affectionate send-up. The four movement suite from his operetta ‘Cheryomushki’ (‘Cherry Tree’) begins with a raucously high speed ‘A spin through Moscow’ depicting a chauffeur borrowing his master’s car for the day for a joyride, while the ‘Jazz Suite’ shows off Shostakovich’s ability to compose popular dances with his own individual style and witty orchestrations. The orchestras from Cologne and Berlin are fine and Reinhold Friedrich and Thomas Duis are lively partners in the madcap Piano Concerto No.1 with its climactic piano and trumpet duel. But the heavyweight Violin Concerto No.1 (Vladimir Spivakov soloist) is unsuitably out of place in this collection.
Tippett, ‘New Year’: Oke, Lois, Murray, Wood, BBC Singers, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Martyn Brabbins (NMC 2 CDs) ★★
A good libretto can’t make a great opera, but a bad one can condemn good music to obscurity – Schubert’s operas suffered that fate and so, except for ‘Der Freischütz’, did those of Weber. They could blame overbearing patrons and intransigent theatre management. Sir Michael Tippett had no one but himself to blame for his libretti – he wrote them himself – a hotchpotch of mythology, Jungian psychology, Freud, sexual politics and leaden allegory. Lauded at the time, at least in Britain, they’ve aged badly. His last opera ‘New Year’ (1989) follows the same pattern with a cast that includes “a computer wizard” named Merlin, a villainess called Regan (one for Shakespeare fans) and characters hailing from Somewhere and Nowhere. The music is usually called “eclectic” but is more like the desperate effort of an octogenarian composer to sound hip with electric guitars, jazz saxophones and electronics. This live recording of a concert performance in Glasgow comes more than thirty years after its premiere and plaudits should be given to NMC and all the performers who show great commitment to the project. I wished the material had matched their endeavour.
Tchaikovsky: BBC Scottish Symphony / Chauhan (Chandos CD & SACD) ★★★★
This is the third disc in Birmingham-born conductor Alpesh Chauhan’s Tchaikovsky series with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra of which he is Associate Conductor. It maintains the high standards of the first two and is in some ways the best so far. That’s because it includes a sparkling well-characterized performance of the Orchestral Suite No. 2 in C major, one of the composer's four suites which are woefully ignored in the concert hall. They were composed in the eleven year gap between Tchaikovsky’s fourth and fifth symphonies, a busy rather than fallow period which also included ‘Manfred’, the violin concerto, second piano concerto and ‘Serenade for Strings’. He subtitles it as a “Character Suite’ and its five movements are all titled. The orchestra’s string section shines in the opening ‘Jeu de son’, playful and skittish, and Chauhan ensures that the succeeding Waltz is both elegant and energetic. The third movement Scherzo is the highlight with unbuttoned playing including a jolly quartet of accordions. I do hope Chauhan and the orchestra will go on to record the even finer Suites No.3 and No.4 ‘Mozartiana’ Tchaikovsky’s homage to his musical idol. The other works here are an exciting ‘Marche slave’, with some excellent trenchant brass playing; the little-known tone poem ‘The Storm’; ‘Dance of the Histrions’ from the opera ‘The Enchantress’; and the Entr’acte & Waltz and Polonaise from ‘Eugene Onegin’. The Chandos recording fully captures the quality playing.
Elgar & Faure, String Quartets: Eusebius Quartet (Somm CD) ★★★★
The Eusebius Quartet was founded in 2016 and has built a reputation not only for fine playing but also for imaginative programming – so it proves here. Elgar and Faure may at first seem a strange pairing but there are some interesting connections. The composers had met briefly in London in 1908 and admired each other’s work. Both quartets are late works, Elgar’s from 1917, after abortive attempts in 1878, 1888 and 1907, while Faure’s was his last composition, when he had been deaf for many years, and finished two months before his death. After the trauma of World War I both quartets, which share the key of E minor and are in three movements, seem striving for peace, tranquility and reconciliation, perhaps also a legacy of the composers’ shared Catholic faith. The central slow movements are the heart of the quartets with some intense and rapt playing from the Eusebius Quartet. There’s a lovely bonus in four arrangements for string quartet (premiere recordings) by Iain Farrington of Elgar’s orchestral miniature ‘Carissima’ and three of Faure’s Op.103 piano pieces. A disc well worth exploring.