Early, Classical and Beyond

Variations, by their nature, tend toward the cerebral. Pianists who understand this devote a good deal of effort maintaining their ties to the thematic homeland in spite of the distances a composer may travel in his creative wanderings. Konstantin Scherbakov demonstrates this beautifully in Eroica (Two Pianists Records TP1039190) where Beethoven’s Eroica Variations Op.35 journey far on a surprisingly short musical idea. When at times the composer has left little more than a hint of harmonic progression as a fragment of the original idea, Scherbakov finds it and underlines it to remind us of our point of departure. By the time he’s played through all fifteen variations, the closing fugue comes as a highly energized and joyous finale in the form Beethoven so loved to use.

The same disc contains both the Pathétique and Appassionata sonatas. Here, Scherbakov is more formal. He is very aware of the architecture around his musical content and artfully recalls the ideas Beethoven requires in the closing arguments. The Adagio of the Sonata No.8 in C Minor, Op.13 “Pathétique” is perhaps less outwardly emotional than some would like, but this works well in the context of Scherbakov’s overall approach to both sonatas. A strong performer with a clear technique, he has made this a very fine addition to anyone’s Beethoven collection. Production values on this disc are very high despite the fact that the program was recorded in different locations (UK and Moscow).

Also recorded in Moscow are Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas 6, 7 and 9. Digitally restored from original sources Prokofiev Piano Sonatas (Archipel Records ARPCD 465) features three separate public recitals by Sviatoslav Richter from the mid-1950s. Disappointingly bereft of any historical notes about the concerts, the disc is economically packaged but thankfully a little web sleuthing can uncover plenty more about this material. These are among the recordings from the decade that introduced Richter to the West. The audio restoration is wonderful although the somewhat narrow frequency range of the recording reflects the technology of the period. Still, it in no way impedes the colossal technique Richter possessed. His utter control of the wildest passages in Sonatas 6 and 9 stand in contrast to his pensive playing of the Sonata 7 where doleful reflection speaks of the personal burden Prokofiev felt under the Stalinist regime.

Richter seems the perfect pianist for this repertoire. Recording two of Prokofiev’s “War” sonatas from the early 1940s (No.6 and No.7) just a few years after Stalin’s (and the composer’s) death, one wonders what the propaganda chatter must have been at the time. The final sonata on the disc, No.9, was written for and dedicated to Richter in 1947. All three of these performances are truly arresting.

Vadym Kholodenko is the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition gold medalist. His collaboration with Miguel Harth-Bedoya and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra in Grieg, Saint Saëns Piano Concertos (harmonia mundi HMU 907629) produces thoughtful and unhurried performances. Pianist and conductor are in complete agreement on tempi that favour a more relaxed approach than we sometimes hear. This subtle expansion of time offers the listener an extra moment of consideration before processing the composer’s next thought. The Grieg slow movement is especially exquisite for this reason.

The Saint Saëns Concerto No.2 in G Minor, Op.22 is not quite so restrained. Kholodenko takes the first two movements almost ad libitum alternating between the pensive approach of the opening movement and his dazzling chromatic octave runs in the second. But the third is where he explodes out of the gate with real drama. The palpable energy and crisp articulation make this a performance hard to surpass. This is Kholodenko’s second recording for the label. His third is the Prokofiev concertos the first disc of which we can expect the first disc in 2016.

Last month’s column reviewed several discs using period instruments. American Romantics, The Boston Scene (Piano Classics PCL0080) does something similar using an 1873 Chickering grand in a historic Episcopal church in Charlestown, MA. The instrument benefits from modern action and sounds more like a contemporary piano than a fortepiano. Still, its darker colours and unique upper register voicing remind us of its vintage. Pianist Artem Belogurov clearly loves this piano and as much caresses it as plays it. His repertoire choices reveal how much this late romantic American school owed to its European origins.

It wasn’t until the next generation of composers, the modernists of the early 20th century, that an identifiable American voice began to emerge. Still, this disc’s program helps us understand the creative heritage from which that sprang. Highly programmatic, these short pieces by Foote, Paine, Chadwick and Nevin are beautifully written by composers who knew their craft well. Belogurov commits to them wholly. His playing is sincere and utterly convincing.

The disc is enlightening, entertaining and offers a profoundly satisfying final track with Margaret Ruthven Lang’s Rhapsody in E Minor Op.21. Published in 1895, it’s the most substantial work on the recording and demonstrates a remarkable affinity between composer and pianist, across cultures and generations.

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Some four decades later Leonard Bernstein, then in his late teens, wrote his Sonata for the Piano (1938) and Music for the Dance No.2. These two works open and close pianist Alexandre Dossin’s program on Bernstein: Thirteen Anniversaries (Naxos 8.559756). Dossin is Brazilian-born, Moscow Conservatory-trained and now teaches in the U.S. He plays the Sonata with all the boldness and assertiveness that the young Bernstein brought to the page. It’s brilliant music and brilliantly played. The three-movement Music for the Dance is polytonal and angular in rhythm. Dossin understands Bernstein’s structures and always keeps the principal ideas up front for us to follow.

Thirteen Anniversaries from 1988 is the last of four such collections of miniatures Bernstein wrote for his family and numerous friends. A half century separates these from the early compositions on this disc and the difference is remarkable. Dossin conveys what the older composer is feeling. For Stephen Sondheim is a heartfelt tribute to his friend and librettist with very subtle harmonic tilts in the direction of Broadway. In Memoriam: Ellen Goetz is simple and profoundly moving and serves as a fitting close to the set. The 1943 Seven Anniversaries contains tributes to Aaron Copland as well as Serge and Nathalie Koussevitsky and others. Dossin finishes this set with an aggressively energized For William Schumann. All of it is superb.

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Felt Hammers (Tantara TCD0314FHM) is a collection of the piano works of Michael Hicks played by Keith Kirchoff. This disc is far from common fare but more than a few will like it – a lot. Contemporary and a bit experimental in both composition and performance, the music has titles that reflect strong allusions to the sacred, poetic and philosophical. Still, one hesitates to deem it entirely programmatic. With the piano tuned to Werckmeister III (a tuning system with subtle shimmers in certain keys), Kirchoff plays the instrument in the conventional way, but also stops and plucks strings manually and occasionally adds vocalizations.

The core of the program is The Stations of The Cross and its narrative is easy to follow. What raises this composition far out of the ordinary is that Kirchoff has fully captured Hicks’ intention to use the piano in ways that create new and powerfully evocative sonorities. These are sound paintings that strongly project images of Jesus’ journey from condemnation to death and burial. It’s emotionally graphic, though in an abstract way.

The Annunciation is the only piece that extensively uses familiar keyboard technique. Its technical demands are high and Kirchoff meets them capably. The disc opens with a helpful introduction to Hicks’ keyboard language. The Idea of Domes is a simple keyboard tone poem that delivers exactly what its title suggests and prepares the listener for what’s to come. The closing track L’épitaph de Monk is based on Thelonious Monk’s Crepuscule with Nellie and echoes the rhythmic note clusters that punctuate Monk’s original. Those in the target niche for this recording will find it very gratifying.

Since winning first prize at the 2000 International Chopin Competition at age 18, Chinese pianist Yundi has scarcely stopped to catch his breath. Countless international tours and 16 recordings later Yundi’s energy is as impressive as ever. His latest disc is Yundi Chopin Preludes (Mercury Classics/Deutsche Grammophon 4811910) which presents all of the Op.28 Preludes plus the Op.45 in C-sharp Minor and a posthumous work as well.

While each on separate tracks, the 24 preludes are produced with very little time between them and give the effect of a larger single piece. This has the novel effect of joining Chopin’s disparate ideas, many less than a minute long, into a statement that he may never have considered. If anything, it allows us a high-contrast glimpse of his remarkable imagination and technique, none of which is beyond Yundi’s grasp. His playing is often unbelievably fast as in the Prelude No.18 in F Minor, but never sacrifices clarity or phrasing. Others like the No.23 in F Major move with an enchanting fluidity. It’s a breathtaking recording and easy to play often for the sheer marvel of it.

Film music became its own form when musicians first started playing for silent movies. Largely given to supporting and enhancing the emotions portrayed on the screen, film scores occasionally rise beyond their usual task and stand on their own artistic merits. Composer/pianist Francesco Di Fiore has taken this a step further by creating a video and piano performance project using selected shots from a variety of modern films and has reinterpreted the film scores as minimalist keyboard iterations. The studio version of this live project is Piano Sequenza – Piano Music in Film (Zefir Records 9642) and is a remarkably intimate listening experience.

Most of the music selected for this recording was already piano-centric, either written for the instrument as solo or using it to carry the main thematic idea. Di Fiore’s reinterpretations have the effect of being artistic distillations, powerful for their links to films we know well, The Piano, The Hours, The Truman Show and others. And while there is a strong melancholic undercurrent to it all, he infuses it with a clear and uplifting simplicity that has a lingering effect.

Whether he is spinning the ideas of Michael Nyman or Phillip Glass, Di Fiore succeeds in turning the piano into a unique voice, through which we experience the film world of directors Peter Weir, Jane Campion and the others included on this unusual disc.

Our own James Ehnes is back with a CD of early 18th century works on Vivaldi Four Seasons (Onyx 4134), with his regular partner Andrew Armstrong at the piano for Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata and Leclair’s Tambourin Sonata, and the Sydney Symphony under Ehnes’ direction providing the support for the title work. It’s the first time Ehnes has recorded The Four Seasons, and it was certainly worth the wait. The playing is everything you would expect from him: it’s warm, intelligent and beautifully judged, with sensitive and very effective orchestral accompaniment.

The Tartini and Leclair sonatas are the opening works on the CD, with Ehnes using the Kreisler edition of the Devil’s Trill sonata that ends with the challenging cadenza that Kreisler added to the work. Again, the playing by both performers is outstanding.

Another Onyx CD features live concert recordings of violin music by Sergei Prokofiev in terrific Frankfurt performances by Viktoria Mullova (ONYX 4142). The Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi provides the support in the lovely Concerto No.2 in G, Op.63, recorded over two days in May 2012. Mullova is equally at home in the work’s beautiful slow movement and in the music’s spikier passages.

Prokofiev’s two unaccompanied violin sonatas – the Sonata for Two Violins in C, Op.56 and the Solo Violin Sonata in D, Op.115 – were recorded in December 2014. Tedi Papavrami joins Mullova in the former. The recorded ambience is full and resonant, especially in the concerto, and there is no real sign of audience presence other than the applause at the end of the works, which fades out after a few seconds.

There’s more live Prokofiev, as well as Shostakovich and Rachmaninov on Russian Concert, a 2-CD recording of the March 28, 2006 concert in Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio by the outstanding violist Rivka Golani and pianist John Lenehan (Hungaroton HCD 32743-44). The concert opens and closes with pieces (six on CD1, five on CD2) from Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet, transcribed for viola and piano, with the composer’s permission, by the Russian violist Vadim Borisovsky. Violist Douglas Perry joins Golani and Lenehan for the final two pieces.

CD1 ends with a brooding performance of the Shostakovich Sonata for Viola and Piano Op.147, the only work in the concert in its original form, but the heart of the recital is the transcription – again by Borisovsky – of Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata in G Minor Op.19. More than anything else on the two CDs this brings impassioned playing from both performers, with the piano often predominant in a role that is far from being merely an accompaniment. Despite the wonderful viola playing, however, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that the instrument’s pitch is higher and somewhat thinner than the cello’s, and the absence of the latter’s strength, depth and richness, particularly in the lower strings, alters the tonal relationship with the piano; at times here, the music just seems to be too big for the instrument. Still, what a performance!

The ever-reliable English cellist Steven Isserlis is back with yet another delightful CD, this time with harpsichordist Richard Egarr on Bach, Handel and Scarlatti Gamba Sonatas (Hyperion CDA68045).

Bach’s three sonatas – in G Major BWV1027, D Major BWV1028 and G Minor BWV1029 – are programmed around Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in D Minor Kk90 and Handel’s Violin Sonata in G Minor HWV364b. The Handel here relies on an authentic manuscript version that shows the opening of the violin part lowered an octave and indicated as for viola da gamba. In this work and the Scarlatti the players are joined by Robin Michael on cello continuo.

Isserlis points out that playing with a harpsichord allows him “to play as lightly as possible without ever courting inaudibility,” and the result is playing of grace, lightness and warmth. Add the usual intelligent and insightful booklet notes written by Isserlis in his inimitable style – he even quotes Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel at one point – and the whole package is another winner.

The often-asked question “How could I not have heard them play before?” raised its head again this month when I played Four Centuries, a new CD from pianist Susan Merdinger and violinist David Yonan featuring works by Mozart, Schumann, Bloch and the Chicago-based contemporary composer Ilya Levinson (Sheridan Music Studio susanmerdinger.org). Both players have impressive résumés, but the Berlin-born Yonan made his recital debut in Berlin, Moscow and St. Petersburg at the age of 11. He also studied with the legendary Dorothy DeLay at Juilliard. He has impeccable technique, a sumptuous tone and a real depth to his playing.

A lovely performance of Mozart’s Sonata No.13 in B-flat Major, K454 opens the disc, with the fine balance between the instruments reminding us that the work was written as being “for Piano and Violin.”

Schumann’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in A Minor, Op.105 is also beautifully played, but it is the 20th century work, Bloch’s Suite Hébraïque that really steals the show here. “It is the Jewish soul that interests me,” said Bloch, and it’s that soul which is at the heart of this three-movement suite and given a brilliant realization by Yonan. It’s stunning playing.

The final work is the world premiere recording of Levinson’s Elegy: Crossing the Bridge, a short piece dedicated to David Yonan, who gave the world premiere in Chicago in 2011. Susan Merdinger is a terrific partner throughout a highly satisfying CD.

Three of the great Czech string quartets are featured on Janáček & Smetana String Quartets, the latest CD from the Takács Quartet (Hyperion CDA67997). All three works, while being strongly nationalistic, are also intensely personal.

Smetana openly admitted that his Quartet No.1 in E Minor, From My Life, was a tone picture of his life: the first movement is his youthful yearnings; the second the dance music of his youth; the third his first love – his future wife, whom he would lose to tuberculosis; and the fourth his joy in incorporating nationalism in his mature music, a joy that would be terminated by his growing deafness, represented in the score by the sudden ominous high E harmonic pitch that sounded in the composer’s ear. It’s obvious from the passionate opening that this will be a rewarding performance, and it never disappoints.

Janáček’s two quartets, subtitled The Kreutzer Sonata and Intimate Letters, were both written late in his life, when he had found his decidedly individual voice and was experiencing a late surge in his career. In particular, he was deeply involved in an intensely passionate – though essentially unrequited – friendship with the young Kamila Stősslová, and the second quartet specifically represents events in Janáček’s relationship with her; despite his age, it’s full of the passion and yearning of a youthful man.

The performances of both works here are all that you could want them to be.

American Dreams is the title of a lovely new CD from the St. Helens String Quartet (Navona Records NV6004) as well as the subtitle of the opening work, Peter Schickele’s String Quartet No.1 from 1983.

Schickele, who turned 80 this year, has enjoyed a long career as a composer and performer when not busy with his alter ego P.D.Q. Bach. This quartet, the major work on the CD, is beautifully written, moving in an arch from an Appalachian start through jazz, blues and fiddle styles and a Navajo song back to the dulcimer-like Appalachian tune from the opening.

Ken Benshoof (born 1933), Bern Herbolsheimer (born 1948) and Janice Giteck (born1946) are the other composers, represented by a variety of short works. Benshoof’s Swing Low from 2004 is eight views of the famous spiritual, and his Remember is a nostalgic sketch from 1977. His Diversions from 2005 – six pieces in various moods, including Blue Grass and Raggedy Blues – are for violin and piano, with pianist Lisa Bergman providing the accompaniment.

Botanas, Herbolsheimer’s five-movement work from 2008, is named for the appetizers served in Mexican bars and cafes. The two pieces by Giteck are Ricercare (Dream Upon Arrival) from 2012 and Where can one live safely, then? In surrender, written for the St. Helens Quartet in 2005. There is nothing here that is hard to assimilate, and a great deal that is thought-provoking and highly enjoyable. The playing throughout is warm and idiomatic, the recording quality excellent.

Also from Navona Records is Feral Icons, a suite of six movements for solo viola by Peter Vukmirovic Stevens performed by Mara Gearman (NV6008). The work was written for Gearman in 2013-14, and according to the very sparse booklet notes employs Stevens’ signature sound of extended tonality and isometric rhythms.

To be honest, I’m not quite sure what that means in this particular context. We’re told that Stevens, who studied with Bern Herbolsheimer among others, has a compositional approach that strips away the extraneous to reveal simplicity, and certainly the writing here seems to be mostly tonal and quite accessible, with a fairly standard use of the instrument. There’s not a great deal of dynamic, rhythmic or tonal range though, and Gearman’s vibrato never seems to vary much. Still, she’s more than up to any technical challenges the work presents.

Judging by the number of cello ensembles around these days, cellists must love company. Vibrez is the first release on the UK’s Edition Classics label by the London-based cello octet Cellophony (EDN1047), featuring a program of nine arrangements by octet member Richard Birchall and one original composition. The eclectic list includes Wagner’s Prelude to Act 1 of Tristan und Isolde, three Schubert songs, Liszt’s La Lugubre Gondola, Wieniawski’s Scherzo-Tarantelle (in a particularly dazzling performance), Mendelssohn’s Ave Maria, a Bach Prelude and Barber’s Adagio Op.11, the famous “Adagio for Strings.” The original composition Violoncelles, Vibrez! by the contemporary Italian composer and cellist Giovanni Sollima completes a charming and entertaining disc.

Music for a New Century is a new and intriguing CD of Violin Concertos by the American composers Sidney Corbett and Christopher Adler, performed by Sarah Plum (Blue Griffin Recording BGR371).

The Chamber Music Midwest Festival Orchestra under Akira Mori joins Plum in a live recording of Corbett’s Yaël at its June 5, 2011 North American premiere in Wisconsin, while Nicholas Deyoe conducts San Diego New Music in the world premiere of the Adler concerto, commissioned by Plum specifically to pair with the Corbett on this CD release.

While both works are clearly very strong neither is an easy first listen, with a good deal of unrelenting toughness that tends to act like a suit of emotional armour, keeping you at bay. Plum, however, calls them “beautiful, original and quite striking,” and says that she is “confident that they will enter the repertoire and be played for many years to come.” I really hope she’s right, but I won’t be putting any money on it; these are works that are not immediately audience friendly in the traditional sense, even on repeated hearings, and might prove difficult to program.

Mind you, it’s difficult to imagine a better flag bearer for them than Sarah Plum, who is quite brilliant here, or better performances or recordings. This is still an indispensable addition to the contemporary American violin concerto discography.