MusicWeb Reviewer’s Log: February 2006
Reviewer: Patrick C Waller
Everyone likes a good
bargain and the best I have come across
recently is the complete set of Villa-Lobos
string quartets on the Brilliant
Classics label (catalogue no. 6634).
There are 17 quartets written over a
period of more than forty years; they
are interesting and approachable works
even if the composer was surprisingly
orthodox about form in this genre -
for example, all except the 1st
have four movements. This is a six CD
set which has been licensed from Dorian
and features the Latin American Quartet.
As recently as August 2003, Jonathan
Woolf was enthusiastically reviewing
these discs as they were being issued
at full price (see link 1 from which
there are links to the whole series).
This slimline set is very attractively
presented and recently cost me just
£12-50 - a special offer but the regular
price is probably not much greater.
The performances are excellent and,
compared with the two discs in the rival
series I have heard, considerably preferable
to the Danubius Quartet on Marco Polo.
This is highly idiomatic playing and
the recordings are first-rate. There
is a sense of atmosphere here which
is most compelling and which the rival
Hungarians do not match. Villa-Lobos’s
contribution to the string quartet seems
under-recognised - they are surely amongst
his finest works - but the ready availability
of this set could change that.
Catching up on Christmas
presents, I was fortunate to receive
Opera proibita, Cecilia Bartoli’s
latest offering with extracts from music
by Handel, Alessandro
Scarlatti and Caldara
which was initially banned by the Catholic
Church. Christopher Howell’s review
(link 2) indicates that he too was won
over by Bartoli’s singing and, whatever
one thinks of the presentation (it is
fine by me), this is well worth hearing.
As usual, there has
been a good crop of Naxos discs. Pride
of place goes to the disc of Piano Concertos
by Ferdinand Ries (links
3 and 4). A pupil of Beethoven, one
can certainly hear echoes of the master
and there is fine solo playing from
Christopher Hinterhuber. As Colin Clarke
says this is "sheer delight"
and the first in a series of recordings
of Ries’s concertos, the rest of which
will be awaited with some anticipation.
Naxos’s American Classics series continues
to impress me and there has been a recent
rush of discs by William Bolcom.
The music for two pianos (links 5 and
6) is a diverse mix, starting with the
delightful Recuerdos which gives
homage to important figures in Latin
American music, most strikingly Ernesto
Nazareth. Frescoes and the Sonata
which follow are much more serious stuff
but there are two attractive lollipops
to finish. Morton Gould’s
music has been rather neglected on disc
but one of the late Kenneth Schermerhorn’s
final discs makes some amends. The main
work is the Ballet Fall River
and the Jekyll and Hyde Variations
provide a fill-up. As Patrick Gary’s
review indicates (link 7), both are
interesting works.
Amongst the discs I
have reviewed myself, the most worthwhile
have been the completion of Martin Roscoe’s
cycle of Szymanowski’s Piano
Music (link 8), the symphonies of the
man who didn’t complete Mozart’s Requiem
– Joseph Eybler (link
9), and an attractive selection of bon-bons
by the "Danish Strauss" –
Hans Christian Lumbye
(link 10). If any of those appeal, they
can purchased with confidence, as can
a disc of piano music by Glazunov
played by Stephen Coombs (link 11).
This is a re-release on Hyperion’s budget
Helios label and the first disc of a
highly regarded series.
Last month I mentioned
the music of Alice Mary Smith,
the almost forgotten Victorian female
composer (1839-1884) whose clarinet
sonata I had heard performed live. Since
then I have tracked down the only disc
I could find of her music – two symphonies
and an orchestral version of the slow
movement of the same clarinet sonata.
This is on the Chandos label (CHAN10283)
and features the London Mozart Players
under Howard Shelley. There is some
beautiful playing from clarinetist Angela
Malsbury in the Andante. I also
enjoyed the symphonies, the first of
which was written (and premiered) when
she was aged 24, and second from 13
years later. The latter was intended
for entry in a British symphony competition
but never submitted. Apparently there
were 38 entries and it was won by F.W.
Davenport. If you’ve heard of him you
are doing better than me and the 50,000
plus database of CDs from which I found
this disc doesn’t have any of his music
at all.
I have been remiss
in not hearing any live music this month,
unless I can count the obligatory television
relay of the New Year’s Day concert
from Vienna, notable for the debut of
Mariss Jansons and enjoyable as ever.
Somehow I haven’t caught Mozart anniversary
fever either. Perhaps I am distracted
by large doses of Scarlatti
– my review of Scott Ross’s 34 CD set
of sonatas is now past half-way (link
12) and by listening to the some more
discs (I have reached 7 out of 40) from
the complete Schubert
songs on Hyperion. This is certainly
living up to expectations, even though,
with the chronological presentation,
most of the early songs are unfamiliar.
I finish on a sad note.
A family friend of Margaret Hubicki
wrote to tell me that she had died on
3 January at the age of 90. Last July
I reviewed the first ever disc devoted
entirely to her music and it was a recording
of the month (link 13). Fortunately
it was released in her lifetime and
I am sure that it must have given her
great pleasure.
Patrick C Waller
Links
1. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Aug03/villa_lobos6.htm
2. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Opera_Proibita_4756924.htm
3. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Jan06/Ries_concertos_8557638.htm
4. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Jan06/Ries_PianoConcertos_8557638.htm
5. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Jan06/Bolcom_2Pianos_8559244.htm
6. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Dec05/Bolcom_2pianos_8559244.htm
7. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Jan06/Gould_FallRiver_8559242.htm
8. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Jan06/Szymanowski_vol4_8557168.htm
9. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Jan06/Eybler_1&4_7771042.htm
10. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Jan06/Lumbye_Tivoli_CHAN10354x.htm
11. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Jan06/Glazunov_Piano_CDH55221.htm
12. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Nov05/Scarlatti_sonatas_2564620922.htm
13. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/July05/hubicki_dedication_CHAN10322.htm
