TUROK'S CHOICE
The Insider's Review of
New Classical Recordings
Issue No.118 January, 2001 Suggested list price:$1.95
ARTHAUS
Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites receives an impressive performance on DVD (100 019). Forces of the Strasbourg Opera (Opéra du Rhin) are tightly led by Jan Latham-Koenig, with Anne Sophie Schmidt a striking Blanche, Hedwig Fassbender a powerful Mother Marie (her most important scene is sung lying on her back in the infirmary) and Patricia Pettibon a delightful Sister Constance. The opera is filmed creatively, starting each act with the scrim, but moving in, sometimes to total close-ups of individual singers. Schmidt is one of those singers who shapes her mouth prominently to focus resonance, a characteristic that makes watching her up close somewhat uncomfortable. Poulenc's opera is very problematical. Although there are a number of male roles, most of it is in the form of conversations between pairs or groups of women. (The example of Puccini's "Suor Angelica" never seems far from the surface here, but Poulenc, although less cloying than Puccini, is also less captivating melodically.) The composer's conversational manner consists of what today might be termed "sound bites," with definite pauses between them. As a result, although many are dramatically apt, clearly set textually, and gorgeously orchestrated, there is no sense of musical buildup to go with that of the dramatic tensions. The whole is curiously teflon-like; gratifying in passing (especially when you can view it at the same time, with a choice of all-important titles in English [or Japanese] to help keep track of the dialog) but curiously lacking in lasting impressions. The final scene, an operatic "natural" in which the condemned nuns go singly to the guillotine, their "Salve Regina" consequently diminishing in intensity from a near-choral sound to a solitary voice, must nonetheless be handled with care. Poulenc's masterful recurring orchestral evocation of the descending knife is here thwarted by the presence of each nun on stage, sinking to the floor after the musical knifestroke (with varying degrees of gracefulness), heads, thankfully, still attached. After a staging that is basically naturalistic, this final idealization weakens the opera's best scene, and since it is also the last scene, the entire production. Still, the performance is excellent musically, the video aspects often striking, and, despite flaws, is recommended to lovers of French opera.
The 450th anniversary of the Sächhsische Staatskapelle Dresden was celebrated on September 22, 1998, by a concert consisting entirely of works first performed there: Vivaldi's "Dresden" Concerto, RV 577, Weber's overture Jubel and Wagner's to Rienzi, and Strauss' Alpine Symphony (100 029). Sinopoli leads the orchestra in warm, fluent performances. The Dresden orchestra is by far the least-mentioned of the world's greatest, but nonetheless belongs in that category. With a home-grown tradition rivaling that of Vienna (Heinrich Schütz, Weber and Wagner were all Staatskapelle directors) the orchestra has a feeling about itself that comes across in the visual aspects of its performing as seen on this DVD, that special air of concentration, the personalized expression of each player, even as part of an ensemble. The photography is well coordinated with the music, and Sinopoli's conducting is devoid of the balletic content that can be so distracting.
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON
Boulez's Sur Incises (1998), for three pianos, three harps and three percussionists contains some marvelous sounds (289 4673 475-2). Throughout the first movement, steady, ostinato-like (not to mention minimalist-like) keyboard cascades grip the ear and don't let go. The second, although beautifully resonant, simply goes on too long. The other major work on this disc is Anthèmes 2, for violin and electronics (1997). It, too, contains superbly suggestive moments when figurations that are just beyond the capabilities of the "live" instrument grow out of those that are possible on it. It is a clever, but garrulous piece. Messagesquisse, for solo cello and six other cellos (1977) is short, and somewhat vague. Superb performances by members of Ensemble Intercontemporain led by the composer.
Sibelius' large-scaled tone poems En Saga and Tapiola are nicely articulated and sturdily played by Neeme Järvi and the Gothenburg Symphony, even if neither receives the kind of propulsion necessary to keep them completely vital (289 457 654-2). Spring Song and The Bard are short, single-mindedly discontinuous, and highly effective. Four excerpts from Kuolema, including Valse triste complete the well-recorded disc.
Schoenberg's 46-minute tone poem Pelleas und Melisande (Op.5) is a relentlessly polyphonic, overblown musical jellyfish, that, if shaped convincingly, can nonetheless offer rewarding moments in a post-Tristan idiom (289 469 008-2). It's quite an "if." Christian Thielemann starts out valiantly, but seems to give in to the work's tendency to drag early on. Similarly, the Deutscher Oper Berlin orchestra's playing becomes more indifferent (some less than first-rate playing in the winds). The disc also contains Wagner's Siegfried-Idyll.
l The most successful modern recording of Pelleas is the Boulez/Chicago (Erato 2292-45827-2).
Beethoven's complete symphonies are always a recording event. Famous or unknown, the conductor who undertakes the effort is making a "statement" about approach, attitudes and insights into the best-known music in the repertory. For his new traversal, Claudio Abbado has the benefit of a great orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic (469 000-2, 5 cds). His approach seems to be one of finding something in the music's texture not hitherto emphasized on other recordings, which guarantees that an attentive listener will find some delightful surprises here. His attitude seems to be that these surprises are enough to justify a new traversal. If there is any insight, it is that if you allow excellent players to go at these pieces in pleasantly-brisk, steadily-controlled tempos, the music will "work." He is correct, but most listeners will want more. The "big" symphonies come off best, a non-iconic Eroica, a Fifth with some odd but brilliant lightness in the finale, a superbly-played Sixth and a strong Seventh. The outer movements of the Ninth are the best, the last benefiting from fine soloists (Mattila, Urmana, Moser, Quasthoff). In the others, there is much that goes by pleasantly, but little to make you sit up and take notice.
One of two violin recitals contains splendid playing. Anne-Sophie Mutter and pianist Lambert Orkis offer a "live" concert featuring strong, persuasive readings of sonatas by Prokofiev (Op.94a) and Respighi, separated by short pieces by Crumb and Webern (289 469 503-2). Theirs is a true collaboration, not just a soloist with an accompanist. Gil Shaham's "Devil's Dance" features music chosen as much for its titles as its "devilish" character (289 463 483-2). Saint-Saëns Dance Macabre, Tartini's Devil's Trill Sonata, Sarasate's Faust Fantasy, Bazzini's Round of the Gobelins belong here (as they would on any virtuosic recital). Brahms's Walpurgisnacht, Mendelssohn's Hexenlied and Bolcom's Graceful Ghost (in a spongy arrangement for violin) do not. Pianist Jonathan Feldman is definitely an accompanist here, even if his acute rhythms and general enthusiasm seem to propel Shaham's accomplished but rather phlegmatic violin playing.
EMI
Classical" Ellington contains twelve of the Duke's well-known songs in spiffy orchestral arrangements by Luther Henderson (7243 5 57014 2). The performers include such jazz luminaries as Lena Horne, Joe Levano, Joshua Redman and others. The "big band" is Simon Rattle's Birmingham Symphony, which is precisely the problem, for - excellent as these proceedings are - there is a built-in sonic redundancy. Why not stick to a true big band medium for these short pieces in the first place?
A debut recital by cellist Alisa Weilerstein offers impressively strong and temperamental playing, if not yet fully-convincing interpretations, of well-chosen repertory from the 19th and 20th centuries (7243 5 73498 2). Included are de Falla's Suite Popular Española, Janácek's Podháka, Ginastera's Pompeana No.2, and selections by Paganini, Tchaikovsky and others.
A Callas reissue proves a bit too much of an extremely good thing (CDC 7243 5 57057, mono/analog). As is usually the case, individual selections have been extracted from her recordings of complete operas; the problem lies somewhat with the selections, and particularly with the order in which they appear. The first half-dozen or so are all supremely lyrical excerpts from famous Italian operas. The underlying vocal challenges are similar in all of them, and without the focus on characterization longer scenes provide, even her brilliant solutions to them don't prevent a sort of aural blur from setting in.
Vanessa-Mae is the subject of a three-cd reissue (7243 5 67456 2). It consists of recordings she made in the early 1990's, at the age of 12 or 13, originally released on the Enigma label. Violin concertos by Beethoven, Casadesus (his "Adelaide" Mozart-clone) Kabalevsky and Tchaikovsky, Kreisler pieces, opera fantasies by Sarasate (Carmen) and Wieniawski (Faust) and everything from Paganini's La Campanella to an arrangement of Yellow Submarine. The playing is astonishingly competent for a child, but is often curiously heavy-handed, without many flashes of the brilliance that illuminates the work of so many other instrumental prodigies in the absence of mature understanding of what they are playing. Splendid as musical biography, unrewarding as musical experience.
HÄNSSLER
Beethoven's Missa Solemnis receives a technically astonishing reading from Roger Norrington, choral and orchestral forces of Stuttgart Radio (also the NDR choir) and four singers who handle Beethoven's sometimes clumsy solo writing with complete ease (Amanda Higginson, Cornelia Kallisch, John Aler and Alastair Miles) (CD93.006). Norrington started out an excellent choral conductor; his ability to clarify textures and get fully-supported sound from his singers is much in evidence here. So are the very brisk tempos he adopted for Beethoven in his period-instrument days. While this gives the work much impetus, it also makes the performance somewhat breathless. There is plenty of energy in Beethoven's masterpiece already; the expansive, reflective passages seem slighted in this well-recorded version.
Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet is imaginatively coupled with Messiaen's L'Ascension (CD93.005, 2 cds). Sylvain Cambreling leads fine soloists (Nadine Denize, Piotr Beczala, Peter Lika), the Europa Choral Academy and the excellent SWR Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden and Freiburg in a fluent performance. Notewise, it is scrupulously unfolded, and Cambreling, an old Berlioz hand, clearly has an overall vision of the work. The problem is that his performance never catches fire; the wild ball, the great love music, the Queen Mab scherzo, all come across blandly (in the scherzo, the tempo is just a shade too deliberate). The Messiaen seems a similar performance temperamentally, but its oddly stiff monumentality is more suited to the interpretation.
Wolfgang Rihm (b.1952) is highly thought of in Germany. A new release is devoted to major works commissioned by the Southwest German Radio, the 1972 Morphonie for string quartet and orchestra, Klanbeschreibung 3 for orchestra, all 1987 (CD93.010, 2 cds). A footnote to Deutsche Grammophon in TC's Issue No.116 questioned the process by which Aribert Riemann's work was so readily accepted as music. TC notwithstanding, Rihm certainly did so; his music seems a continuation of Riemann's, albeit with more expressive variants. It has an unpleasant lumpiness to it, but stylistic assurance that indicates that Rihm has a solid concept of what he is doing, even if most listeners (including TC) won't care to delve into it long enough to share it with him. Michael Gielen and Ernst Bour lead the SWR Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden and Freiburg in what seem excellent performances. All the discs reviewed in this module are the result of the fascinating Hänssler/SWR collaboration.
HARMONIA MUNDI
Bach's three beautiful sonatas for gamba and harpsichord are so often played (and recorded) on the cello that the original sound - weak and wheezing is perhaps a harsh but not inaccurate description - takes some getting used to (HMU 907268). Jaap ter Linden, with harpsichordist Richard Egarr, offers the most convincing of several recent versions. He manages to overcome his instrument's acoustical problems, producing both a finely-spun legato and considerable firm articulation. He and Egarr produce true chamber music. The miking sometimes slights the harpsichord, except in the two solo Capriccios (BWV 992,993) which add a lovely contrast.
A single fascinating disc gives the listener a sense of the world from which Bach's cantatas grew (HMU 907268). The oldest composer, Franz Tunder (d.1667) is represented by three cantatas, one in Latin, redolent of Schütz and Monteverdi, and two based on Lutheran chorales, in the same style but indicative of the treatment later composers gave the same texts. Nicolaus Bruhns (whose father studied with Tunder) Johann Kuhnau (Bach's predecessor at Leipzig) and Christoph Graupner (a pupil of Kuhnau) were skillful composers as well. Graupner's work has hints of the coming rococo style that are lacking in his contemporary, Bach. Superb performances by Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale forces.
Schubert's Piano Sonatas in D Major (D.850) and A major (D.664) are disappointing in the hands of Alain Planès (HMC 901713). The D Major begins well enough, firm and lyrical, but the slow movement is too long for the rather dreamy treatment he gives it. Thereafter, a lack of rhythmic acuity is felt, especially in the finale. The slighter A Major work could also use more rigorous propulsion. Planès is a distinguished artist and his interpretive decisions are not arbitrary. They just don't work very well here.
Debussy's Estampes, and the two books of Images are the central works on Cédric Tiberghien's impressive disc in the "new interpreters" series (HMBN 911717). He plays with great technical ease, delicacy, and imagination, but threatens to turn precious from time to time.
HYPERION
This label's penchant for massive projects has now resulted in (besides Liszt's complete piano music) all of Schubert's songs, the last two volumes of which (Vol.36, "An 1827 Schubertiad" [CDJ33036] and Vol.37 "The Final Year" [CDJ33037]) were recently released. Vol.36 contains 17 pieces, including three unfinished songs to texts by Leitner (D.896,896A,896B) in performing versions by R.V.Hoorixx, along with two of his greatest songs (also to Leitner texts) Die Sterne (D.939) and Der Kreuzzug (D.932). There are several odd songs to Italian texts by Metastasio (D.902, No.1 and No.2) and a delightful, intentional full-length musical joke Der Hochzeitsbraten ("The Wedding Roast") (D.930) for soprano, tenor and baritone. Vol.37 contains 20 songs, 14 of which comprise the well-known cycle, Schwanengesang, along with Auf dem Strom (with a marvelous horn part) and other of his greatest songs. The performances are excellent, as they have been throughout the series. Soprano Juliane Banse, baritone Gerald Finley and tenor Michael Schade are featured on Vol.36, with the latter joined by two more tenors, John Mark Ainsley and Anthony Rolfe Johnson on Vol.37, along with the David Pyatt, whose horn playing is superb. Graham Johnson, whose work has sparked the entire series, is the refined pianist. The annotation throughout has been magnificent; the final volume contains a complete index.
Andrea Gabrieli (1510-1586), compared to his famous nephew Giovanni, is but a name. Now a marvelous disc offers motets and instrumental works, including his mass Pater Peccavi, music of great interest and vivacity (CDA67167). His Majestys Consort of Voices and Sackbutts and Cornetts, a superb period-instrument group, is effectively led by Timothy Roberts.
Vianna da Motta is the composer featured on Vol.24 of another continuing series, "The Romantic Piano Concerto" (CDA67163). Da Motta was a famous pianist, a great figure in the music of his native Portugal, and composer of technically-competent, vainglorious music in regular meter, the most salient characteristic of which is heavy emphasis on the first beat of every bar. As you might expect, it is virtuosically written for piano, and Arthur Pizarro plays it brilliantly. An early piano concerto is the least effective work. Fantasia Dramática is stronger, but with no distinguishing profile. Best is the Ballada, for solo piano, like Grieg's similarly-titled work, variations on a folk-like theme, but at c.9 minutes, not as substantial a piece of music. Martyn Brabbins leads the Orquestra Gulbenkian on a well-recorded disc.
Bruckner's Third Symphony receives a rather unneccessary recording from Osmo Vänskä and the BBC Scottish Orchestra (CDA67200). It utilizes the Nowak edition of the 1877 revision, but substitutes the 1876 Adagio, producing yet another version to contend with. Considering how this symphony has been torn apart and reconstructed, by its composer as well as others, it is a sign of the work's intrinsic strength that all versions seem viable. The first three movements are well performed, but the finale plunks along. Very wide-ranged, clear recording.
l The original version of this work is dedicated to Wagner, and contains all sorts of references to Wagner's music brilliantly incorporated into Bruckner's musical fabric. Fans of later versions who are unfamiliar with the original are missing a treat. Inbal (Teldec 8.42922) gives a fine performance.
Christopher Page and his excellent Gothic Voices offer nearly the entire contents of one of the earliest English songbooks, c.1200 (CDA 67177). The manuscript contains both religious and secular music; imaginative performances make listening particularly rewarding.
Vaughan Williams songs are superbly performed by tenor John Mark Ainsley and members of the Nash Ensemble (CDA 67168). Best known is the Housman cycle, On Wenlock Edge, with piano and string quartet. Neither the Housman cycle Along the Field (8 songs with solo violin) nor the Ten Blake Songs (with solo oboe) are as often heard; the disc is rounded out with three Chaucer songs and two folk song arrangements. VW is justly considered one of the 20th-century's most effective vocal composers, but the pervasive influence of folk music on his vocal lines - both its modal basis and pastorale, declamative word setting - can grow tiresome. This is especially true in the songs with only a violin or an oboe accompany, where a tendency towards writing the same sort of lines for voice and instrument causes a perceptible lack of variety.
l This caveat holds true for all songs of that nature, although in a more dissonant, less smooth writing style the dullness is sometimes masked.
The Chilingirian quartet gives strong performances of string quartets by D'Indy (No.1, Op.35) and Chausson (Op.35), the latter work completed by the former composer (CDA67097). The D'Indy is technically correct, but stiff and more reserved than some of his better works. The Chausson is more penetrating, but the finale (supposedly nearly complete before D'Indy provided a conclusion from the composer's sketches) is noticeably weaker than the three earlier movements.
LINN
Thomas Tallis's fine Mass in Four Voices, along with eight of his motets (including the amazing 40-part Spem in alium) are strongly performed by Philip Cave's magnificat (sic) (CKD075). The use of women instead of boys for the upper parts gives a warm brilliance to this resonant, beautifully-recorded music.
The excellent Polish Chamber Orchestra (Jan Stanienda) offers a "live" program of Mozart (Divertimento, K.138), Vivaldi (Concerto for 4 Violins), Bach (Violin Concerto in A Minor), Bartók (Divertimento) and Elgar (Introduction and Allegro) (CKD001). The sound and performances (Stanienda is violin soloist in the Bach as well as the conductor) are so fine that it seems churlish to mention the disc's only drawback for collectors - nearly all the repertory may be already duplicated in your collection.
An all-Vivaldi disc (Mackarras and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century) proves disappointing (CKD151). Some of the composer's most imaginatively-scored works are rather stuffily rendered.
NAXOS
Twentieth-century orchestral music fares well on a number of releases. Pride of place goes to the recording debut of the Nashville Symphony. Kenneth Schermerhorn leads this impressively proficient regional orchestra in an important Ives disc offering the authoritative new critical editions of his Browning Overture and Second Symphony, in crisp, well-articulated performances (8.559076) and in Howard Hanson's First Symphony ("Nordic"), "Merry Mount" Suite, Pan and the Priest (a 13-minute symphonic poem) and short Rhythmic Variations (8.559072). Schermerhorn succeeds in containing the billowy emptiness of the ultra-conservative symphony, and breathing life into the other works, Good sound on both discs. Other releases in the "American Classics" series offer music by Morton Gould (American Ballads, Foster Gallery, American Salute) (8.559005) and Philip Glass (Violin Concerto, Company, Prelude and Dance from Akhnaten) (8.559056). The Gould disc is disappointing; the National Orchestra of the Ukraine doesn't seem to get the spirit of these pieces based on American patriotic songs, and those of Stephan Foster. Conductor Kuchar, although an American, misses the pulse. Glass fares better in the hands of the Takui Yuasa and the Ulster Orchestra (Yuasa) and violinist Adele Anthony; fans of his music will be pleased. Yuasa and his Ulster forces turn in a first-rate Schoenberg disc, with a flowing reading of Verklärte Nacht, clean reading of the oddly fetching Accompaniment to a Film Scene, Op.34 and the most vital performance of the greyish Chamber Symphony No.2 yet recorded (8.554371). Familiar music from earlier in the century includes Sibelius's Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, proficiently played by Petri Dakari and the Iceland Symphony (8.554377) and five works by Ibert (the popular Bacchanale, Divertissement and Escales, along with the Ouverture de fête and odd Symphonie marine), strikingly played by the Lamoureux Orchestra (Sado) (8.554222). Less familiar music by Swedish composers (Larsson, Frumerie, Blomdahl, Atterberg and Rangström) primarily for strings, is fluently performed by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Sundkvist) (8.553715). Larsson is also represented on a fine disc by the Michael Thompson Wind Quintet, which also offers skillful readings of music by Hindemith, Barber and Janácek (8.553851). Light music is represented by the Royal Artillery Band (Kingston) playing attractive, if ephemeral, music by Eric Coates (8.554488). Szymanowski's two string quartets, along with Stravinsky's complete works in the medium (Concertino, Three Pieces, Double Canon) are splendidly played by the Goldner Quartet, an impressive Australian ensemble (8.554315).
RCA
Donizetti's La Favorite is strange in that, although it is exquisitely written for the voices, the vocal lines themselves are not as tuneful as those in his more famous operas (74321-66229-2, 2 cds). But the work has strong feeling of structural solidity, here enhanced by the continuously fine singing of every member of the distinguished cast (Kasarova, Vargas, Michels-Moore, Colombara, Piccoli, Furmansky) and Marcello Viotti's involved conducting (Munich Radio Orchestra). The opera is sung in its original French with varying degrees of comprehensibility, and the "live" performance is well recorded.
Wagner excerpts by Maazel and the Berlin Philharmonic offer a superb Meistersinger Prelude (those gorgeous subsidiary viola parts get a rare hearing) and strong performances of the Rienzi and Faust Overtures, Lohengrin Act III Prelude, Siegfried's Rhine Journey and the Siegfried Idyll (74321-68717 2).
Copland's music is the subject of a boxed set featuring Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony (09026-63720-2, 3 cds). The excellent, long-available disc of the Piano Concerto (Ohlssen), Symphonic Ode et al. (see TC Issue 74) is joined by vibrant performances of the suites from Billy the Kid and Rodeo, and the orchestral version of the uncut Appalachian Spring Copland made for Ormandy. A third cd offers the Fanfare for the Common Man, and Thomas's informed discussion of the music.
Copland also figures on a pleasant Boston Pops (Lockhart) disc that uneasily combines serious - if folksy - music on Latin American themes with "pop" numbers in the same vein (09026-63717-2). His El Salón México is the longest (and best) of the serious pieces, along with works by Ginastera (Malambo), Guarnieri (Dansa Brasileira), Moncayo (Huapango) and Fernández (Batuque). The "pops" pieces suffer from souped-up arrangements that grate against the disciplined style of the serious composers. One misses Morton Gould, whose orchestrations of such music almost fooled you into thinking you were listening to classics. Exciting playing and sound.
VIRGIN
Countertenor David Daniels and pianist Martin Katz collaborate on a widely-varied recital (Beethoven, Schubert, Gluck, Poulenc, et al.) with tender musicality (CDC 7243 5 4500 2). Some listeners may have a problem with the distinctive countertenor sound in the better-known selections, which most of us "hear" in more familiar voices.
Vivaldi concertos "with titles" are splendidly performed by Fabio Biondi and members of his Eurpoa Galante (RV 234, 270, 439, 531, 552, 570, 579) (7243 5 45424 2). Since varied solo instruments and combinations are involved, there is nice variety here, but Vivaldi collectors may find its contents duplicated on discs they already own, organized by more logical criteria.
On a reissue, Arleen Auger's pleasant singing of a selection of Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne (English Chamber Orchestra/Tortelier) is combined with strong Ravel performances by Pesek and the Philharmonia: Boléro, La Valse, Pavane, Alborada., and Shéhérazade (also with Auger) (7243 5 61742, 2 cds). Even more striking is the reissue of Leif Ove Andsnes's recording of the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic (Kitayenko), along with a number of complete sets of the composers's smaller piano pieces (Op.3, Op.28, Op.43, Op.54, Op.65) (7243 5 61745 2, 2 cds). In picking a "best" version of this much-recorded concerto, Andsnes's certainly would rank among the finalists. Fine sound.
VIOLA TO THE FORE
A number of welcome new releases offer music for viola. Until the late 19th century, little music was written for it. Most solos were arrangements of music for its more popular cousins, the violin or cello. Bach's suites for unaccompanied cello have long been a staple of violists. Because the viola is tuned an octave higher than the cello, the open-string resonances remain the same, so that the arrangements are quite effective. Patricia McCarty offers beautifully-sprung, robust performances, technically smooth and free of idiosyncratic annoyances (Ashmont 6100). Yizhak Schotten arranged an effective concerto from suitable movements of other Bach works which he plays impressively with the Ann Arbor Sinfonietta (Crystal CD638). His disc also includes the great violist Lionel Tertis's arrangement of Brahms's Cello Sonata, Op.38, which despite his fine playing, misses the sonic depth of the original, and two duos - Beethoven's "with two Eyeglass obbligatos" (cellist Peter Rejto) and Bridge's Lament (violist Paul Silverthorne). Two fine Norwegian performers, violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Håvard Gimse give rousing performances of a rarity, Vieuxtemps large-scaled and very pleasant Viola Sonata, along with an arrangement of the Franck Violin Sonata that, like its cello arrangement, lacks the brilliance of the original (Simax PSC 1126). Schumann's 15-minute Märchenbilder, Op.113 and Kalliwoda's Three Nocturnes are the longest works on Yuko Inoue's excellently-played recital disc with pianist Kathron Surrock (Black BoxBBM1034). Neither is very impressive music, although shorter works by Glinka, Glazunov, Bruch and Bridge prove fetching enough.
Two of the finest 20th-century works for viola and piano are available on new cds. Bloch's powerful Suite completely overshadows shorter works by Krejn, Gnesin, Gamburg and Weprik, although the latter's Kaddish is an imaginative treatment of the same melody Bruch used in his popular "Kol Nidre" (Hännsler CD 93.008). Tabea Zimmermann and pianist Jascha Nemstov offer strong performances.
Rebecca Clarke's remarkable Viola Sonata was written in 1921, several years after Bloch's suite, which it so resembles in expressive power (Caliope CAL 9285). Vladimir Bukac and pianist Jaromír Klepac play it superbly, along with Martinu's attractive First Sonata, and the three marvellous Reger Suites for Solo Viola, Op.131d. Garth Knox offers a disc of later 20th-century music for solo viola (Naïve Montaigne MO782082). The major works are a sonata by Ligeti, and Berio's Sequenza VI, with shorter contributions by Kurtag, Dillon, Dusapin and Sciarrino. The Ligeti, before it disintegrates into a curious aimlessness in its later movements, contains some beautiful music. Knox's all-too-accurate description of how the Berio must be performed ("the soloist saws away furiously.") is hardly a recommendation.The shorter works, even if you are interested in odd sounds, are hardly more gratifying.
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