RECORDINGS

BACH Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin

Mikhail Pochekin (violin)

SOLO MUSICA SM298 (2 CDS)

A sense of free-flowing fantasy illuminates the music’s greatness

During the 20th century, Bach’s solo violin music attained such unassailable heights of awestruck respect that for a while the interpretative mainstream tended increasingly towards furrowedbrow rhetoric, as if every single note was literally a ‘feather on the breath of God’. Thankfully, and without in any way undermining the music’s stature, the prevailing tendency today is towards playing these priceless scores with a lighter touch and sense of free-flowing fantasy.

This would seem to be the starting point for Mikhail Pochekin’s outstanding new recording, which although studio-based achieves a perfect balance between the sense of a natural, open acoustic and tactile presence. Pochekin dissolves the old interpretative pitfalls of tonal and temporal inflexibility and full-throttle double-stopping in a deftly articulated, gently cushioned, tonally beguiling flow of musical incandescence. Where even the most distinguished names in the violin firmament have occasionally resorted to stern-faced imperiousness, as in the doubles of the B minor Partita, Pochekin imbues his phrasing with exquisitely supple inflections of tempo, dynamic, vibrato and bow contact that create the impression of music arriving hot off the press.

In the predominantly bright and breezy E major Partita, Pochekin keeps each dance-style miniature ‘en pointe’ so infectiously that it is difficult to remain seated, and even in the darker recesses of the A minor Sonata and D minor Partita he lightens the payload with innumerable nimble touches, reminding us that the music’s greatness arises naturally rather than being forced upon it. An outstanding achievement.

JULIAN HAYLOCK

BACH Wo soll ich fliehen hin (Transcriptions for viol trio)

Cellini Consort

RAMÉE RAM1911

Reworking Bach keyboard music for a trio of viols

Prompted by Bach’s proclivity for reworking much of his music for different forces, the Cellini Consort presents a unique programme of transcriptions of mostly keyboard works for a trio of viols. Its members between them perform on eight different instruments and conjure up such a variety of colour, character and sonority that fresh and original insights on familiar works emerge. The first-class recording is ideally balanced, the acoustic providing both intimacy and ambience.

The transcriptions are substantially faithful, although the Cellinis have added a pertinent second line in the Italian Concerto’s (BWV971) central movement and modified the harpsichord solo in the Gamba Sonata’s (BWV1028) finale to create a more idiomatic tenor viol part.

The various dances of the G major French Suite (BWV816) are adeptly characterised using seven-stringed bass viols, its Gavotte and Gigue sounding especially attractive in their new settings. Contrapuntal intricacy is clarified by the contrasting instrumental timbres, notably in the finale of the Italian Concerto and the fugue of BWV905, and the various chorale preludes prove ripe for adaptation for this versatile ensemble, particularly the dark-hued ‘Nun komm, der heiden Heiland’ (BWV660), the moving ‘Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten’ (BWV691) and the delightful ‘Kommst du nun’ (BWV650). ROBIN STOWELL

PRISM II

BACH Fugue in B minor (Well-

Tempered Clavier, Bk 1) (arr. Emanuel

Aloys Förster) SCHNITTKE String Quartet no.3 BEETHOVEN String Quartet in B flat major op.130

Danish Quartet

ECM NEW SERIES 481 8564

Three composers seen through a glittering Nordic prism

This is the second in the Danish Quartet’s Prism series, drawing connecting lines from a Bach fugue through a late Beethoven quartet to one of a subsequent composer. In this set Bach’s B minor Fugue comes first, its chromaticisms heralding the Grosse Fuge and Schnittke’s borrowing from the same work. The playing is spare, with little vibrato, mostly legato, leaning into the falling seconds. That same sparseness features at the opening of Schnittke’s Third Quartet, with its quotations from a Lassus motet, the Grosse Fuge theme and Shostakovich’s ‘DSCH’ signature (D, E flat, C, B). In the hectic discourse of the secondmovement Agitato the foursome play with fierce, dry attack, their tone ringing and focused. In the strange, shifting landscape of the third movement Pesante there is colour and raw power, as well as gentleness.

To browse through more than a decade of The Strad ‘s recording reviews, visit www.thestrad.com/reviews

In the B flat major Quartet op.130 they make much of Beethoven’s strong contrasts, of dynamics and character

(although ignoring his first-movement exposition repeat). The second movement twinkles, with excellen playing from leader Frederik Øland.

The Cavatina has depth and profundity.

The Grosse Fuge has all the qualities of the CD brought together: constant clarity of texture and sharing of partwriting.

This is all vivid, propulsive playing, sometimes granitic, at others pliant. It is always gripping.

TIM HOMFRAY

BEETHOVEN Piano Trios vol.1: op.97 in B flat major ‘Archduke’; Concerto in C major for violin, cello and piano op.56

Hagai Shaham (violin) Raphael Wallfisch (cello) Arnon Erez (piano) Orchestra of the Swan/Eckehard Stier

NIMBUS NI 5978

There’s nothing arch about these elegant and open-hearted performances

These musicians have been playing together for a while now, since they met at the Pablo Casals Prades Festival in 2009. In the ‘Archduke’ Trio there is well-padded playing, lush, warm-toned and full of delicacy: some of the interplay between the strings in the first movement is delightfully light and playful, particularly in the pizzicato passage. The opening of the scherzo has a similar dry delicacy and humour. The worming chromatic passage slithers inexorably into the joyful piano outburst. The opening of the Andante cantabile is a study in note placing, with the slightest touches of rubato and emphases: the two-note string lead into their first melody is itself a small joy. The movement floats along, light, airy and sublime. The finale is earthy, dramatic and elegant.

Beethoven’s ‘Triple’ Concerto is cheerful, with perky rhythmic zest.

Cellist Raphael Wallfisch, who gets a generous share of the limelight, shapes his many melodies with patrician distinction. The three, separately and together, are a great triple act, the strings duetting in perfect accord, with some terrifically clear, punchy staccato playing and real power in the climaxes. The Largo is a seamless reverie, and the Finale is vigorous and open-hearted. In both works the recording is clear and well balanced.

TIM HOMFRAY

BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto in

D major SIBELIUS Violin Concerto

Christian Tetzlaff (violin) Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/Robin Ticciati

ONDINE ODE 1334-2

Performances of two cornerstone concertos that may divide audiences

Exquisite or infuriating? Christian Tetzlaff’s Beethoven Concerto has the potential to be either but with repeated listening I am erring towards the latter. It is a curious performance: considered to the point of revelatory but strangely joyless and almost fatally lacking a through line.

Sometimes the performance feels like a museum piece, a progression from ‘chamber music writ large’ through to full-on, manicured introversion, once removed from the listener. That styling can allow the performance to twist suddenly into something wonderful, as in the modulation of the theme at 10’40” in the first movement, or the recap later on, referred to by Tetzlaff in a knotty booklet conversation as a ‘deus ex machina’ moment and communicated vividly here.

Elsewhere, it renders the jokes in the finale coy and tense, with little of the inherent pleasure. Flipping Beethoven’s piano arrangement of the first-movement cadenza, featuring a duet with drums, only pre-empts the severity.

Ticciati’s grand orchestra is a more appropriate partner in the Sibelius, and makes a majestic sound. But from the soloist’s perspective, there is frustration again. Tetzlaff’s figurations are often frantic, which erases the material ambiguity that lies at their heart – one of the miracles of the music’s evolutionary processes. This is a blustery, stormy account but doesn’t adjust its colouring and reactivity, as some others have done when taking such a windblown approach (notably Sergey Khachatryan).

For this score, we are made aware of an awful lot of elbow grease. The end of the Allegro feels petulant. The finale runs away with itself and winds up munched and garbled. There are ways of finding a contrast with the slow movement – Tetzlaff should be applauded for taking it at a true

Adagio molto, but it lacks allimportant strain – without sounding so contrary. If you sense those things won’t grate as much for you as they did for me, then at least prepare to have one finger on the volume button: the sound is crystalline but the dynamic range is huge. ANDREW MELLOR

BRAHMS Piano Quintet in F minor op.34; Klavierstücke op.76

Geoffroy Couteau (piano)

Hermès Quartet

LA DOLCE VOLTA LDV61

Some wonderfully colourful moments in these piano-based chamber works

This is part of an ongoing project by pianist Geoffroy Couteau. Three years ago he produced a set of Brahms’s complete piano music, and he is now recording all the chamber music involving piano. On this CD he has added the op.76 Klavierstücke from his earlier collection, presumably because there was nothing else to fill it up. There is a purity in the Hermès’s playing, in contrast to the lush Romantic style of many. Early on they give a firm, almost heroic fortissimo statement of the opening theme, with a wonderful, melting change of character for the following piano melody. The gentle moments are among the most affecting, such as the quiet ascending first violin line at the start of the development and the interweaving strings in the poco sostenuto passage near the end.

In the second movement the strings pulse gently above Couteau’s expressive theme before opening out gloriously into their molto espressivo melody. The whole movement has a winning natural flow to it. In the Scherzo the quartet really flexes its muscles, launching into the first fortissimo with big-boned jubilation, and snapping splendidly through the dotted rhythms. The Finale opens out into a great paragraph of colour and vivid contrast. This is a fine performance, and the recording is clear and well balanced.

TIM HOMFRAY

BRAHMS Violin Sonatas nos.1–3

C. SCHUMANN Andante molto (Three Romances op.22)

Alina Ibragimova (violin)

Cédric Tiberghien (piano)

HYPERION CDA68200

Freshly minted performances of familiar works prove there’s plenty more to say

When faced with Hyperion’s dreamteam line-up of violinist Alina Ibragimova alongside regular accompanist Cédric Tiberghien, captured in alluringly atmospheric sound by Andrew Keener and Simon Eadon and featuring exemplary annotations by Misha Donat, it would be all too easy to wave their latest collaboration through as a matter of course. But the fact is Ibragimova and Tiberghien, far from taking anything for granted, seem to treat each new project as though it was their special favourite. One might be forgiven for assuming that in these particular works just about everything has been said musically, yet encountering performances of such poetic freshness and impassioned spontaneity reminds us why we fell in love with this glorious music in the first place.

Far from applying a patina of autumnal nostalgia to such well-worn phrases, Ibragimova and Tiberghien appear to radiate them with sunshine, allowing the composer’s typically refulgent piano textures to shine where appropriate. And where Brahms really turns on the magic, as in the exquisite pedal-pointed passage towards the end of the G major Sonata’s central Adagio, it is as though time has been temporally suspended, so perfectly attuned are their musical responses in every way.

Just as it seems things couldn’t get any better, they finish with a dreamily poetic rendering of the first of Clara Schumann’s op.22 Romances, guaranteed to have even the sternest of countenances misting over. JULIAN HAYLOCK

BRAHMS Violin Sonatas: in

G major op.78, in D minor op.108 (arr. Wispelwey); Scherzo in C minor op.posth SCHUBERT Arpeggione Sonata in A minor D821; Violin Sonatina in D major D384 (arr. Wispelwey)

Pieter Wispelwey (cello)

Paolo Giacometti (piano)

EVIL PENGUIN EPRC 0030 (2 CDS)

The final instalment of these splendid additions to the cello repertoire

Wispelwey and Giacometti finally reach the coda of their six-disc exploration of the duos of Schubert and Brahms with this pair of CDs. Never mind that none of the works here were originally written for cello and piano – Wispelwey’s is a bold and mostly convincing bid to expand the cello repertoire.

Cellists usually play the G major Violin Sonata in Klengel’s D major version. Wispelwey here returns it to its original key with enlightening results: the lyrical first-movement theme now appears in the cello’s middle range, which suits its autumnal character better than the soaring notes of Klengel’s version, while in the final pages of the D minor Sonata’s Presto the extra weight of the cello sound adds excitement and power. In both Schubert works Wispelwey leans towards the playful, keeping us waiting fractionally longer than expected for the return of the theme in both finales and enjoying the sprightly interplay with the piano. Balance is always tip-top and the sound spacious and warm.

Brahms’s C minor Scherzo (wrongly attributed to Schubert on the CD jacket) fizzes with urgency, and the duo’s exceptionally free and poetic playing of the first interlude feels like a nostalgic look back at the whole series.

JANET BANKS

A BOHEMIAN IN LONDON

FINGER Violin Sonatas

Duo Dorado

CHANDOS CHACONNE CHAN 0824

Fabulous ‘Finger buffet’ is a smorgasbord of styles

Violinist Hazel Brooks deserves much praise for sifting out from British Library manuscript Add.31466 her selection of the 13 best unpublished violin sonatas by the London-based Moravian Gottfried Finger and committing them to disc. The resultant Finger buffet offers a mixture of Moravian, Italian and English styles and includes many sonatas which comprise a patchwork of short, contrasting sections (rather than separate movements), sometimes linked by brief passages for keyboard continuo.

Brooks offers competent, stylish and largely technically assured accounts. She is at her best in fast, crisply articulated moto perpetuo sections such as the final part of RI136 in F major, recitative-like passages such as the Allegro of RI135 in E major, dance-like passages such as the second section of RI137 in F major and the end of RI125 in B flat major, and in realising figuration above pedal notes (as in RI132 in E major and RI119 in A major).

Although the slower sections are sonorous and lyrical, some seem too measured (for example, the opening ‘movement’ of RI119 or RI129 in D major) and wanting in ornamental flexibility, momentum and flair.

David Pollock lends commendable support at the keyboards and the recorded sound has all the requisite clarity, resonance and ambience.

ROBIN STOWELL

HAYDN String Quartets opp.71 and 74

London Haydn Quartet

HYPERION CDA68230 (2 CDS)

London quartets that are both satisfying and a little provocative

In these two sets of three quartets, Haydn brings the form he all but invented out from the privacy of the chamber, blinking into the sunshine of the concert hall. He had heard a pair of his op.64 quartets performed at the Hanover Square Rooms during his first London visit of 1791–2 and now composed something specifically for wider public consumption, at last revealing to his broadest audience yet the full breadth of tonal and textural opportunities offered by this combination of four similar instruments.

The London Haydn Quartet again opts to perform not from a modern scholarly edition but from one published during Haydn’s lifetime: although the booklet is not explicit on this matter, it reproduces the title page of Artaria’s 1790s ‘Oeuvre 73’ (which would be refashioned as op.71 by the end of the century). Catherine Manson leads from the front, employing telling and teasing rubato, while the whole edifice rests on the sure foundations of Jonathan Manson’s full-toned cello. Gut strings offer sweetness in the more lively music but, perhaps paradoxically, a touch of graininess in slow movements, gratifyingly preventing them from being over-romanticised.

Each work opens with its own coup de théâtre, stilling the audience for the discourse to follow. The recording, though, continues with the close-miked intimacy of earlier volumes, capturing players’ breathing and occasional artefacts of performance on older-style instruments. Some listeners may wish for more bravura in this newly public music; nevertheless, these LHQ readings maintain their reputation for the acute consideration they lavish on each paragraph, each sentence. As this cycle nears its conclusion – with only eight and a half more quartets to record, including the crowning masterworks of opp.76 and 77 – the LHQ continues to provoke but also, most importantly, to provide immense satisfaction.

DAVID THREASHER

ICHMOURATOV Concerto grosso no.1, op.28; Three Romances op.22; Octet op.56 ‘Letter from an Unknown Woman’

Elvira Misbakhova (viola)

Belarusian State Chamber Orchestra/Evgeny Bushkov

CHANDOS CHAN 20141

Ambitious, attractive works blend postmodernism and touches of Prokofiev

Airat Ichmouratov was born in the (then) Soviet Republic of Tatarstan in 1973, but for over 20 years has been based in Montreal. The three pieces included in this CD – which upholds Chandos’s reputation for vivid, state-of-the-art sound – reveal the composer as a child of his time.

The first movement of Ichmouratov’s Concerto grosso no.1 – its concertino made up of clarinet, piano and string trio – could be a rewrite of its opposite number in Prokofiev’s ‘Classical’ Symphony, albeit with a more heart-on-sleeve lyrical subject than the older composer might have countenanced. Surprises come in the form of postmodern bells, followed by Jewish intonations in the slow movement and an exhilarating Finale that looks back to and further elaborates on that soulful second subject.

The first of the Three Romances for viola, strings and harp creates a rustling accompaniment for the soloist to unfold its carefree song over, while the following ones are of a sterner hue in spite of deceivingly innocent beginnings. The last one features the harp more prominently, and all three include important material for different sections to accompany the solo viola.

Elvira Misbakhova is an eloquent soloist throughout, her singing tone just right for these melancholy musings. Ichmouratov’s Octet is heard in the composer’s own arrangement for string orchestra. Based on Stefan Zweig’s tragic novella, it is the most musically ambitious piece and receives an intense reading that rounds off this attractive programme.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE

JALBERT Violin Concerto BACH Violin Concerto in A minor BWV1041 PÄRT Fratres VASKS Lonely Angel Margaret Batjer (violin) Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra/Jeffrey Kahane BIS 2309 (HYBRID SACD) Somewhat dogged playing detracts from a likeable programme

Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra since 1998, Margaret Batjer steps out from her usual desk as soloist with her own band in this enterprising collection showcasing her clearly accomplished skills. The 2017 Violin Concerto by US composer Pierre Jalbert (co-commissioned by the LAPO) is the disc’s stand-out work, and it’s an immediately likeable, engaging piece that blends colourful orchestral effects with a nicely imagined solo line, by turns introspective and brilliantly showy. Batjer delivers an enthusiastic account, but there’s a slight unevenness to some of her tremolos and runs that feels at odds with the pinpoint precision of Jalbert’s writing, and she’s sometimes too reserved to capture the music’s evident flamboyance.

Her account of Pärt’s Fratres, in the version for violin, string orchestra and percussion, feels similarly effortful at times, as well as rather hurried, as though pushing ever forward to a climax rather than conjuring the composer’s sense of timeless ritual. Batjer is in her element among the sentimental melodies of Vasks’s Lonely Angel, but between her passages of beguiling beauty, there’s other material that feels rather flat, as though she’s not always convinced by the music’s heart-on-sleeve melancholy.

The Bach A minor Concerto brings a rich, velvety backdrop from the LACO’s players, but Batjer’s doggedly legato, vibratoheavy solo line, which lingers over solo phrases, often lacks a sense of rhythmic impetus, despite its bouncing finale. Recorded sound is beautifully detailed and rich, though with copious competition on three of the works included, it’s hard to recommend Batjer above more accomplished accounts.

DAVID KETTLE

FELIX and FANNY MENDELSSOHN

Works for cello and piano

Johannes Moser (cello) Alasdair Beatson (piano)

PENTATONE PTC 5186 781

An exhilarating programme captures these siblings’ high spirits

The opening Allegro assai vivace of Felix Mendelssohn’s D major Cello Sonata (no.2) is one of those vibrantly exhilarating inventions – belonging to the same family as the first movements of the String Octet, B flat major String Quintet and D major String Quartet – whose exultant, life-enhancing energy sweeps all before it. Johannes Moser (playing a glorious 1694 Andrea Guarneri) and Alasdair Beatson (on a period Érard dating from 1837) capture the music with unbridled joy and infectious high spirits, as if no finer work for cello and piano existed. Interestingly, their only serious rivals in this respect are Steven Isserlis (on a gut-strung Guadagnini) and Melvyn Tan (who plays a fortepiano) on an outstanding, long-deleted RCA disc. If Isserlis and Tan tend to play with a concert-hall brilliance of projection, Moser and Beatson tend more towards the chamber room. This works especially well in the less explosive B flat major Sonata, whose gentler outlines Moser responds to with a delectable palette of tonal shadings. Not only is all of Felix’s music for cello and piano included here, but we also have his sister Fanny’s G minor Fantasia and her A flat major Capriccio, both exquisite miniatures worthy to stand beside her younger sibling’s creative progeny.

JULIAN HAYLOCK

STRAUSS Cello Sonata op.61; Zueignung op.10 no.121; Ich trage meine Minne op.32 no.1 (arr.cello and piano)1; Don Quixote2

Daniel Müller-Schott (cello) Herbert Schuch (piano)1 Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Andrew Davis2

ORFEO C 968191

Cello stars amid a constellation of other soloists in passionate performances

The freshness of youthful Romanticism in Strauss’s Cello Sonata is immediately intoxicating. Composed in 1883 when he was only 19, the melodies seem to rush from his pen with an unstoppable energy.

Alongside the horn-like figurations of the Finale’s main theme, the soaring leaps in the Andante would become trademark characteristics of his mature style.

This dynamic performance from Daniel Müller-Schott and Herbert Schuch brings great passion and sensitivity to the score, qualities also poignantly reflected in the duo’s tender rendition of the song ‘Ich trage meine Minne’. Müller- Schott is no less compelling in a live recording of Don Quixote. His approach balances expressive warmth with lean classical elegance.

He seems completely under the skin of this colourful score, striking exactly the right pose in the nostalgic, melancholic mood of the closing section of the work. Needless to say, his partnership with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is extremely impressive. Conductor Andrew Davis is certainly in his element here, relishing every opportunity to project the more fantastical visions of the eccentric knight with lots of vivid detail, all captured in a clear recording. The cello is certainly one of the main stars in this process, but many of the other instruments also have to assume the dual roles of soloists and orchestral players, and each of them does its bit with complete assurance.

JOANNE TALBOT

TARTINI Violin Sonatas: no.25 in G major, no.26 in B flat major, no.27 in D minor, no.28 in A minor, no.29 in G major, no.30 in E minor

Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin)

TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC 0454

Plenty of expressive drama in the conclusion to this ambitious project

This issue signals the end of the recording limb of Peter Sheppard Skærved’s Tartini project, which has also involved thorough scrutiny of the autograph manuscript, interpretation of its sometimes puzzling notation, preparation of a scholarly performing edition and the conclusion that Tartini probably composed 30 Sonate piccole rather than the 26 previously acknowledged. His informative liner notes elucidate his various editorial and performing decisions, including his logical realisations of Tartini’s shorthand for the Menuet and penultimate movement of no.30.

Sheppard Skærved’s accounts, captured in 2011, are technically accomplished (though not without occasional dubious intonation), highly expressive and often boldly dramatic. These qualities are highlighted by the close recording, which emphasises his explosive attack and abrasive tone for various dissonances or other arresting moments, as well as the unwanted clatter of fingers against fingerboard.

Sheppard Skærved faithfully replicates the sentiments of texts appended to movements, as in the opening Siciliano of no.25 and the finale of no.26 and he is never afraid to let his hair down in the folksy Gigas of nos.27, 28 and 29, the wild finale of no.30 or the variations of nos.27 and 28. He shapes phrases musically, is suitably flexible in written-out and extempore ornamentation and introduces rubato tastefully and to telling effect.

ROBIN STOWELL

VERESS String Trio 1 BARTÓK

Piano Quintet in C major1

Vilde Frang (violin) 1 2 Nicolas Altstaedt (cello) 1 2 Lawrence Power (viola)1 Barnabás Kelemen (violin) 2 Katalin Kokas (viola) 2 Alexander Lonquich (piano) 2

ALPHA 458

Compelling live performances of folkinfluenced Hungarian chamber works

This disc from the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival in Austria pulls together a clutch of fine musicians in performances recorded in the last two years of two relative rareties. A 1954 trio by Romanian Sándor Veress combines twelve-tone technique with Hungarian folk rhythms that betray his time spent studying in Budapest – including piano lessons with Bartók.

Cast in two movements, an Andante and an Allegro molto, the work is shot through with a breathless energy that has a slightly rough, raw-edged feel in the hands of violinist Vilde Frang, violist Lawrence Power and cellist (and festival director) Nicolas Altstaedt.

Yet the whole is underpinned by impeccable intonation, and the percussive, racing second movement has an infectious drive that is particularly appealing for its constantly shifting textures.

The Piano Quintet by the 23-yearold Bartók is steeped in sensuous late Romanticism, and heavily indebted to Brahms – a work that he tried to suppress later in life but which gets a compelling reading here. Mellowtoned and rich throughout, the full-bodied tone of the strings always sings out, and the balance is perfect, the piano never muddying the soaring string lines. I found the extraneous breath sounds a bit distracting in places, but it wasn’t enough to cloud an otherwise fine disc.

CATHERINE NELSON

1939

WALTON Violin Concerto HARTMANN

Concerto funèbre BARTÓK Violin

Concerto no.2 in B major

Fabiola Kim (violin) Munich Symphony Orchestra/Kevin John Edusei

SOLO MUSICA S 308 (2 CDS)

Warm and heartfelt accounts of three concertos written at the end of the 1930s

The 1930s proved to be a bumper decade for violin concertos, and 1939 was the most productive year of all, with these three works seeing fruition (the Walton and Hartmann were both later revised), as well as concertos by Britten, Hindemith and Gál – any of which, incidentally, would have fitted on the rather skimpily filled second disc. Korean– American violinist Fabiola Kim proves an ideal exponent of all three concertos. There’s real warmth to her playing in the Walton, with some perceptive interplay between her and Kevin John Edusei’s Munich musicians. A particular strength is the variety of tone colours she displays, especially in the mercurial closing section of the central ‘alla napolitana’ Scherzo.

Hartmann’s Concerto funèbre is the only work of the three here that demonstrably reflects the wider state of the world in that fateful year, and Kim’s first entry is filled with fragile foreboding, matched with sombre retorts from the richly hued Munich strings. The main Allegro di molto has as much anger as vigour, and dissolves into the closing funeral march with a melancholy inevitability as Kim’s keening lines peal away into an uncertain future.

Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto was written as he faced the dilemma of whether to stay in Hungary or flee, and the result is one of the most overtly Magyar of his late works. Kim gives a heartfelt performance that taps its emotions as much as it exploits its unashamed playfulness, and again there’s vigorous, characterful orchestral support.

This, then, is a highly satisfying concerto collection, all in excellently recorded sound.

MATTHEW RYE

Beethoven: The Relentless Revolutionary

John Clubbe

472PP ISBN 9780393242553 W.W. NORTON £28

This is not another full-scale, life-andtimes study of Beethoven but rather a bold venture by an emeritus professor of English with musical leanings to situate Beethoven within the context of the political and social events that inspired many of his groundbreaking compositions. Organised mostly chronologically, it comprises an ‘overture’, in which John Clubbe sets out his stall, and 24 chapters, each of which is subdivided into individual bite-sized chunks relevant to its title.

The book thus switches flexibly between various themes associated with the composer’s life and milieu, and insightful examination of his music, with a slant towards cultural history rather than erudite musicology.

Many of its short subdivisions are genially engaging, notably those in the opening chapter which deal with Beethoven’s youth in Bonn, a flourishing centre of the German Enlightenment, and those about his life in Vienna. Also stirred into the mix are references to various cultural figures of the time, notably Schiller, with his dramatic language, libertarian themes and tragic heroes, Goethe, Hegel, Fichte, Chateaubriand, Byron, Goya and Kleist. Although the overall result is somewhat ‘stop-start’ and much about Beethoven’s private life is omitted, Clubbe achieves a coherent thread throughout and brings a pleasing freshness to his subject. The shrewdness and clarity of his writing and his eschewal of specialist technical detail and music examples ensure the volume’s accessibility to a wideranging readership.

Clubbe claims no originality for jumping on the ‘revolutionary’ bandwagon – Beethoven’s branding with that descriptor dates back to the Austrian emperor Franz I – but his perspective on the composer’s life within a pan-European context offers interesting new insights into Beethoven’s socio-political thinking at various times of his life. Clubbe especially claims that the French Revolution shaped Beethoven politically and creatively far more than has hitherto been recognised and that Napoleon ‘serves as a key to understanding his [Beethoven’s] life’.

The French leader consequently serves a central role in Clubbe’s narrative, his efforts to liberate Europe from aristocratic oppression inspiring in Beethoven ‘a fertile emulation’ to liberate mankind through music.

Musically, Clubbe restricts himself to examining only a selection of key compositions that embody Beethoven’s revolutionary thinking. He demonstrates how works from the early cantatas for Joseph II and Leopold II through the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, Fidelio and the ‘Egmont’ Overture, among others, to the Missa Solemnis and Ninth Symphony reflect the spirit and substance of the new, radically altered world brought about by the French Revolution, the subsequent rise of Napoleon and the very different Europe that evolved.

My ‘advance reading copy’ is largely error-free. Although no space has been reserved for a bibliography, one hopes that the promised index will be sufficiently comprehensive for readers to extract full value from the text. Endnotes are informative and 16 pertinent black and white illustrations with explanatory captions elucidate Clubbe’s fluent narrative (although it is impossible for readers to appreciate the ‘strong revolutionary colours’ in Steiler’s portrait of Beethoven!). ROBIN STOWELL

Enjoying Violin Technique: Intermediate Level

Kerstin Wartberg

74PP ISBN 9783946872009 ISTEX MUSIC PUBLICATIONS €19.80

Violin teachers all know we should be using studies with our more advanced pupils, but it’s often difficult to know where to start. Students who have grown up on accessible series such as those by Mary Cohen and Herbert Kinsey will not necessarily take kindly to being presented with the complete works of Ševčík and other hardcore pedagogues, and even Simon Fischer’s highly respected tomes are rather daunting for younger players. Kerstin Wartberg’s Enjoying Violin Technique is a volume that might just bridge the gap. It is aimed at ‘young violin students of the intermediate level’, and contains a range of technical exercises, some original and some adapted from violinists past and present – Flesch, Heifetz, Galamian, DeLay and Perlman are all referenced, and Fischer’s influence is evident throughout.

There are ten chapters, each focusing on a different point of technique, and every exercise has a downloadable mp3 accompaniment. The idea behind this, the author says, is that ‘playing with the piano […] is highly motivating and encourages [students] to practise in a more focused way’. Right from the first exercise in the book (one-octave scales in first to sixth positions) it is clear that the student is embarking upon a proper, no-nonsense sort of project. Shifting is covered through a useful adaptation of Ševčík op.8, and Flesch-style scales and arpeggios on one string calmly take the student up to eighth position. Threeoctave scales and arpeggios up to C are also tackled. The section on vibrato is wordy but worth it, and the two original studies in this chapter complement the exercises perfectly. Kreutzer puts in an appearance near the end of the book in an adapted version of no.15, and there is an intense chapter on double-stops, which is not for the faint-hearted. In all of this, the piano accompaniments are just right – they are enjoyable to play along with, and they support and encourage the player without distracting from the task in hand.

The book is full of solid explanation, and the practice tips are helpful. Not everything in the book will chime with every teacher, and some may choose to skip over or adapt sections such as those on block fingering and thumb-led downward shifting. A few small gripes: the low-resolution cover photo spoils the initial impression, and the many different typefaces make the pages feel busy. The CD of mp3 files seems pointless, since a link to the audio files is provided within the book. An audio CD might have been useful, although CD players are fast becoming obsolete and it might be worth the author considering a Spotify playlist or something equally new-fangled next time. The text errs on the wordy side, and the effect of the translation into English from the original German text is sometimes a little quaint, but the overall impression is sincere and not a little heart-warming: ‘Dear violin teacher, I want to assure you that your students will improve significantly through regular practice with this material and that you will be very pleased with the results.’ If you were to take a selection of a dozen or so violin teachers’ favourite technical exercises and put them all together, the end product would probably be fairly similar to this book.

It will suit serious-minded young students from Grade 6 upwards who feel ready for the challenge of exploring their violin in a systematic way. I will certainly be using it in my teaching, and I very much look forward to the second (as yet unpublished) volume.

CELIA COBB

Kiss Me Again: A Memoir of Elgar in Unusual Places

Alda Dizdari

116PP ISBN 9780244408503 PUBLISHNATION £6.99

‘Journeying’ is certainly a trend at the moment, making this a most apposite time for Alda Dizdari to trace her own special emotional journey, performing Elgar’s Violin Concerto in her home country of Albania and parts of Romania for the first time between 2015 and 2017. Dizdari is not only a gifted violinist, but also has an enviable knack of encapsulating her often poignant, insightful reminiscences in freeflowing, conversational prose.

Dizdari grew up in Albania in the 1980s, a time when ‘for most Eastern Europeans, Great Britain was a faraway island covered in fog and rain, where the children suffered like in Dickens stories.’ Her homeland changed irrevocably in the intervening years, but when Dizdari arrived in the capital Tirana in November 2015, she found that things were still decidedly toughgoing. She penetratingly observes that the orchestra’s sound is ‘sharp and hard. It is the sound of a country that has not much time to enjoy itself, but most of the time has battled to survive.’

This describes the first in a series of performances of the Elgar Concerto that climaxes with a March 2017 concert in Sibiu, Romania, with a wonderful orchestra, but deeply unsympathetic conductor, who directs the rehearsals with disinterest.

Yet come the night of the concert, Dizdari is determined to give it her all and the players respond: ‘as if by magic I felt the orchestra reacting to me; we were communicating like extended bodies,’ and despite the conductor they receive a standing ovation. ‘Without a translator,’ she reflects, ‘we had penetrated the meaning of the music ourselves, without a guide, without help.’ It’s a moving story, told with refreshing openness and honesty, that captures and conveys the transformative power of music under even the most trying of circumstances.

JULIAN HAYLOCK