Early, Classical and Beyond

Dvořák – Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op.104
Alisa Weilerstein; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Jirí Bělohlávek
Decca B0019765-02

When we think of great cello concertos only a handful come readily to mind, namely those from the Romantic composers; Dvořák, Elgar, Schumann, Saint-Saëns, plus Prokofiev and the two from Shostakovich. Of course, there are also these popular named works: Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote, Bloch’s magnificent Schelomo. For the average music lover, the Dvořák and the Elgar are most likely to come to mind.

Neither of the two wants for excellent recorded performances from past and present luminaries, but today’s artist to listen for is Alisa Weilerstein and she has recorded both (her EuroArts DVD and Decca CD recordings of the Elgar were reviewed in these pages in October 2011 and December 2012 respectively). From the moment of her entry in the first movement of the Dvořák we are aware of her flawless and stimulating technique, producing thrilling sonorities with assurance and rhythmic precision. 

Under Bělohlávek, the Czech Philharmonic has regained the sound and authority of the past, playing with palpable enthusiasm and partnering in a very exciting and satisfying performance, superbly recorded.

Just a thought: a photograph of the recording session shows Weilerstein facing into the orchestra which may account for the total involvement of everyone concerned.

Six shorter show pieces are included: Lasst mich allein, Op.82 No.1; Rondo in G Minor, Op.94; Goin’ home; Songs my mother taught me, Op.55 No.4; Silent Woods, Op.68 No.5 and an exciting Slavonic Dance in G Minor, Op.46 No.8. Even though she does not yet have a recognizable, distinctive sound of her own, Weilerstein excels with an engaging rendering of each piece, closing out this most welcome disc.

Fauré – Nocturnes and Barcarolles
Stéphane Lemelin
ATMA ACD2 2466

Stéphane Lemelin’s program interweaves Fauré’s complete nocturnes and barcarolles (13 of each) on this two-disc release, providing an ideal chronological overview of the composer’s development. Lemelin’s program notes are clear and interesting. For example, he notes that while the pieces became less nocturne- or barcarolle-like over the composer’s lifetime, the publisher retained those generic names in an effort to boost sales!

Interpretively, Lemelin follows Fauré’s abstention from rubato yet maintains expressiveness with inflections and sense of breathing, in the manner of a Fauré mélodie (art song). Technically he executes well, from the clarity and filigree work of Barcarolle No.2 to the rumbling bass, octaves and even tone clusters of Nocturne No.12. Stylistically, many listeners will find the experimental works of the years 1902-1913 most difficult to appreciate: here Lemelin is uncompromising in projecting the bleakness and obsessive quality of Nocturne No.10, or the repetitive melody and harmony (for this chromatically sophisticated composer) of Barcarolle No.9. And yet, on repeated hearing I find that these pieces too reveal many beauties.

As for Fauré’s accessible early pieces, Lemelin sets a high standard of commitment from the beginning. His playing of Nocturne No.1 is full of harmonic interest and emotional depth. Though Barcarolle No.1 is fairly conventional Lemelin elevates it, capturing the beauty of texture and occasional twists of chord direction that will become stylistic trademarks. And so it goes, onward from these works and throughout this wonderful set.

James Ehnes is back with a program of Russian music on his latest CD, Khachaturian/Shostakovich (ONYX 4121). Ehnes is joined by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under Mark Wigglesworth in a solid performance of the Khachaturian Violin Concerto. The slow middle movement is particularly lovely here, and the “Allegro vivace” final movement really sparkles. Recorded in the orchestra’s Melbourne concert hall, the violin seems to be a bit far back in the balance at times, but the overall sound is full and resonant.

Shostakovich is represented by two works from his series of 15 string quartets – the Quartet No.7 in F Sharp Minor, Op.108 and the Quartet No.8 in C Minor, Op.110 – played here by the Ehnes Quartet, an ensemble formed in 2010 in which Ehnes himself is joined by violinist Amy Schwarz Moretti, violist Richard O’Neill and cellist Robert deMaine. The quartets, both written in 1960, are highly personal in nature, with the Op.110 in particular being essentially autobiographical. Dedicated “To the Victims of Fascism and War,” it quotes from six of Shostakovich’s earlier works and is dominated by his signature monogram D-S-C-H, the German designation for the notes D, E flat, C and B natural. It is a work that consistently reduced Shostakovich to tears, both in its composition and in performance. The playing here is dynamic and thoughtful, although perhaps a bit too polished at times; the aching, yearning sense of melancholy, desolation and despair so essential to the Op.110 in particular doesn’t always come through.

Shostakovich’s influence is clearly audible in an outstanding 2-CD set of the music of Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996), the Polish/Soviet composer who, with Shostakovich’s help, settled in Moscow in the early 1940s. The two composers shared a close friendship and clearly influenced each other. For many years Weinberg’s music has been unjustly neglected, but that has gradually been changing, with an ever-increasing number of CDs exploring his extensive and hugely impressive output. This latest issue on the German ECM Records label (ECM 2368/69) featuring Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica makes a massive contribution to the growing appreciation of Weinberg’s music.

Three of the works – the Concertino Op.42 for Violin and String Orchestra, the Sonatina Op.46 for Violin and Piano and the String Trio Op.48 – are from the period 1948-50, when toeing the Party line was more than just a sensible idea; Reading between the musical lines, the excellent booklet essay on Weinberg, refers to his being “under suspicion and shadowed day and night for five years from 1948 to 1953.” Like so much Soviet music of the time, these works are immediately accessible, but always with the sense of added meaning lurking beneath the surface.

The two other works – the monumental and towering Sonata No.3 Op.126 for Solo Violin from 1978, which Kremer rightly puts on the same level as the Bartók sonata, and the Symphony No.10 Op.98 for String Orchestra from 1968 – are from a period when the mature composer clearly enjoyed a greater sense of freedom, both politically and musically.

It’s a quite stunning set, with the performers outstanding in all respects. Kremer is as good as I’ve ever heard him, and this is clearly music very close to his heart.

Hyperion’s The Romantic Violin Concerto Volume 15 features the music of Polish composers Emil Młynarski (1870-1935) and Aleksander Zarzycki (1834-1895) (CDA67790). Młynarski enjoyed a hugely successful international career as a violinist, conductor and composer, and is represented here by his two violin concertos, No.1 in D Minor Op.11 from 1897 and No.2 in D Major Op.16 from 1916. The style is typically late Romantic, with echoes of Wieniawski and Dvořák. The first concerto virtually disappeared after its initial success, and apparently remained unplayed until 2011. The second concerto is clearly a more confident and individual work that has stayed in the repertoire.

Zarzycki was primarily a virtuoso pianist before concentrating on composition and teaching. His Introduction et Cracovienne in D Major Op.35 and Mazurka in G Major Op.26 are both delightful virtuosic pieces. Violinist Eugene Ugorski is terrific, with a big tone and a large and constant vibrato which is perfectly suited to the style of these works. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Michał Dworzyński provides excellent support.

British violinist Jack Liebeck is superb on another outstanding Hyperion disc, this time a recital of Kreisler Violin Music, accompanied by pianist Katya Apekisheva (CDA68040). The Viennese violinist Fritz Kreisler was one of the most outstanding and instantly recognizable players in the first half of the 20th century. As the excellent booklet notes by the ubiquitous Tully Potter point out, Kreisler`s continuous use of vibrato was considered to be a revolutionary new style of playing; he was also renowned for his pure, sweet tone and his immaculately clean and accurate double-stopping.

Although there is now ample opportunity for us to hear Kreisler himself in recorded performance – there are well over a dozen Kreisler CDs in the Naxos Historical series alone – he is still mostly remembered for his compositions, transcriptions and arrangements. Some of the compositions, of course, were the subject of a mini-scandal in the mid-1930s when Kreisler, who had passed them off as being by various Baroque and Classical composers, even claiming to own the original manuscripts, finally admitted that they were his own compositions. They are now usually listed as “in the style of…” The most well-known (and arguably the best) of these, the Pugnani Praeludium and Allegro, opens this recital in fine style. Other “in the style of…” compositions are the Boccherini Allegretto and the Cartier La Chasse, the latter full of the dazzling double-stops that Kreisler could handle so comfortably. As can Liebeck, quite clearly.

The four most popular Kreisler compositions – Schön Rosmarin, Tambourin chinois, Liebeslied and Liebesfreud – are here, the latter two, incidentally, having been originally passed off as being by the Austrian waltz composer Joseph Lanner. The lesser-known Syncopation, Toy Soldiers’ March, Caprice viennois, Polichinelle and Marche miniature viennoise are also included, along with the fascinating Recitativo and Scherzo for solo violin. Four Kreisler arrangements fill out the program: Gluck’s Mélodie from Orfeo; De Falla’s Danse espagnole from La vida breve; Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance in E minor; and Tartini’s G minor Sonata The Devil’s Trill, where Liebeck’s superb multiple-stopped trills bring an outstanding CD to a jaw-dropping conclusion.

There is a good deal of competition in recordings of this repertoire, but Liebeck and Apekisheva provide as lovely playing of these beautifully crafted works as you could wish to hear.

Doulce Mémoire
Margaret Little; Sylvain Bergeron
ATMA ACD2 2685

This CD explores the variation technique known as “diminutions,” a concept more commonly known as “divisions.” It is explained in the accompanying booklet: “Diminutions were made by dividing long notes of the melody into a series of shorter notes either surrounding the melody note or filling up the interval between it and the next melody note.” Many of these were based on madrigals, most famously Cipriano de Rore’s Ancor che col partire. Here the artists have chosen one set of variations, that by Ricardo Rogniono. The title of the CD refers to a different madrigal, Doulce Mémoire, by Pierre Sandrin. Here three sets of variations are played: by François de Layolle, Diego Ortiz and Vincenzo Bonizzi.

Although there are only two players, the recital gives us many different textures: of the 17 tracks, seven are for treble viol and archlute, six for bass viol and archlute, two for solo treble viol and two for solo archlute. The material is largely based on variations on 16th century madrigals, but it is complemented by selections from John Playford’s 1684 collection The Division Viol with its variations on popular English songs. No selection of variations would be even half complete without that most popular of songs, La Folia. Fittingly the CD ends with an anonymous set of variations based on that song.

Throughout the CD viol player Margaret Little and lutenist Sylvain Bergeron, are superb. I am always careful not to use superlatives too easily but these performances are truly out of this world.

Meine Seele – German Sacred Music
Matthew White; Tempo Rubato; Alexander Weimann
ATMA ACD2 2668

As the CD’s booklet reminds us, music was very important to Martin Luther. It was “a gift of God,” he wrote in 1530. It should be central to education: “A teacher must be able to sing; if not, I don’t think he’s any use.” Luther’s views account, at least in part, for the centrality of music in the Lutheran tradition. The tradition culminated with Johann Sebastian Bach, but he was able to build on at least a century of earlier music.

This recording begins with an early cantata by Bach (Widerstehe doch der Sünde) but then moves back into the 17th century (Heinrich Schütz, Franz Tunder, Johann Rosenmüller, Johann Michael Bach, Christoph Bernhard). It then returns to the early 18th century with the final work, a cantata by Philipp Heinrich Erlebach. The vocal works are complemented by instrumental pieces: a sinfonia by Tunder, extracts from a suite by Erlebach, a passacaglia for organ by Georg Muffat and a set of dances by Rosenmüller.

J.S. Bach, Schütz and Rosenmüller are the only composers here who are at all well known today. It is good to hear the religious music of other German composers of the Early Baroque, especially when sung by the countertenor Matthew White, who is a fine interpreter of this music. We used to hear him often in Toronto, with Tafelmusik or the Toronto Consort. Now his work centres on Montreal and Vancouver. I hope he will come back soon.