Reviews

CONCERTS

New York

Mathis Mayr in groundbreaking Feldman PAGE 95

Jennifer Pike gives voice to The Lark Ascending PAGE 98

Leon Bosch in new classics of the 21st century PAGE 99

(VIOLA) THOMAS SAUER (PIANO)

PAUL HALL, JUILLIARD SCHOOL 18 OCTOBER 2019

Violist Misha Amory put together a thoughtful programme at Juilliard, which he explained brilliantly: ‘My idea is to oTher glimpses, or snapshots, of music being written for the viola at ve junctures during the 1900s. Each glimpse is “stereoscopic”, consisting of two works written close together in time that mirror each other, contradict each other, or otherwise cast each other in relief.’

His rst pairing, Kodály’s Adagio (1905) and Bridge’s Pensiero (1908) presented two works boasting beautiful colour changes, long lines, thoughtful use of vibrato, and the incredible bow control evident throughout the programme. fie ‘fiema mit Variationen’ from Hindemith’s op.31 no.4 Sonata (1922) and the ‘Furiant’ from Arthur Bliss’s Viola Sonata (1934) followed, and Amory immediately impressed with the opening octave passage of the Hindemith and the devilishly di£cult doublestop lines, which he played with stunning ease. fie Bliss demanded extreme athleticism and Amory played with utter control and precision, taking advantage of the bits of lyricism in the midst of an otherwise slightly mechanistic work. Bruce Adolphe’s Dreamsong (1989) and George Benjamin’s Viola, Viola (1998) closed the rst half satisfyingly: each phrase of Dreamsong was carefully crafted, purposeful and wonderfully played. fie tightly interwoven lines of the Benjamin (performed with Amory’s wife, HsinYun Huang) required nesse as well as acrobatics, incredible ensemble as well as deep emotion.

Two elegies were next: Carter’s (1943) and Stravinsky’s (1944). Both were achingly beautiful, played with pristine intonation and phrasing. Six movements from Kurtág’s Jelek (1965) provided some emotional relief – if anything, they almost felt too careful; I wished for more playfulness and less control. After an evening of fantastic playing, Amory saved the best for last: the Adagio movement from Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata (1975) was packed with emotional intensity expressed through Amory’s perfect bow control and incredible sound palette.

LEAH HOLLINGSWORTH

MOMENTA QUARTET, ERIC UMBLE (CLARINET)

TENRI CULTURAL INSTITUTE 18 OCTOBER 2019

On the third evening of its four-night festival - curated by cellist Michael Haas and titled ‘American Voices’ the Momenta Quartet exercised a commitment to giving a second hearing to works commissioned over the years.

With guest clarinettist Eric Umble, the group gave areprise of Alyssa Weinberg’s Still Life (2018), inspired by Picasso’s 1911 Still Life with a Bottle of Rum. fiough no rum was on the premises, it might be a ne companion for the rst movement – an addictive mix of peppy string pizzicatos, as the clarinet percolates above. In the subdued second movement, Umble gave a masterclass in sustained multiphonics, with the strings often in briny sul ponticello.

In Instantes (2005) by Venezuelan-born Manena Contreras, the ensemble mined every split-second of its Latin American vigour. fiough the pensive central movement is the emotional core, I also liked the lush ferocity of the Allegro nale, which evoked – of all things – the eervescence of Frank Bridge. Another winner followed from Jason Kao Hwang: If We Live in Forgetfulness, We Die in a Dream (2011), rhapsodic and ethereal, with episodes of near-stillness and high harmonic glissandos.

To close came the world premiere of Seasonal Music (2016–18) by Christopher Stark, who expanded his ‘Winter Music’ into the nal form. Furious buzzing in the opening ‘Spring Music’ includes at least one laugh-out-loud Vivaldi quotation, which appears for a scant three seconds. Additional quotes appear amid microtonal passages, scratchy tone from bow hair pressure, and icy textures from an avalanche of extended techniques.

BRUCE HODGES

MIRÓ QUARTET, STEPHANIE HO (PIANO)

WEILL RECITAL HALL 25 OCTOBER 2019

As part of its admirable initiative to explore concert traditions from the past, the Miró Quartet evoked ghosts of the venerable Kneisel Quartet (active 1885–1917) in this appearance at Weill Hall.

Asviolinist William Fedkenheuer noted in his introduction, the salon convention at that time prized not only complete works, but individual movements. To open, the Mozart ‘Hunt’ Quartet – in its entirety – had playful elegance, and the reserved, slightly shy Adagio made the exuberant nale stand out in high relief. fie foursome continued with Glière’s Andante con variazione from his String Quartet no.1, mining its quintessentially Russian mix of mournfulness and animation. Violinist Daniel Ching introduced the Scherzo from Franck’s String Quartet in D major, reassuring the eager audience that only ve minutes of the 45-minute work were on tap. fiose ve made aticklish impact.

As a palate cleanser, cellist Joshua Gindele oered a relative rarity, Fantasie sur deux Airs Russes by Adrien-François Servais.

Inopening remarks, Gindele mentioned that among the composer’s other achievements was the invention of the cello endpin. With the impressive Stephanie Ho on piano, Gindele struggled slightly with intonation, but the devilishly di.cult exercise made an impact anyway. To close came Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ – as one listener quipped, ‘the fastest 40 minutes I’ve ever heard.’ From the opening storminess to the incessant dotted rhythms later, the ensemble was thrilling, if again, some tuning slightly compromised the result. Violist John Largess announced the encore, the ensemble’s favourite Beethoven slow movement, the op.130 Cavatina, unveiled with appropriate reverence and grace.

BRUCE HODGES

The Munich Philharmonic opened its Carnegie Hall programme with Jörg Widmann’s Con brio, a work characterised by tight ensemble and electric use of extended techniques both in the strings and winds. fie interplay and exchange of ideas between these sections set up well the interplay between solo violin and orchestra in the Brahms Violin Concerto, featuring Leonidas Kavakos in a breathtaking performance. His opening scales and double-stops seemed utterly eortless. Although occasionally his G-string sound was a bit forced, he had many opportunities to demonstrate his mastery over the upper registers, and his playing on the E string and in high positions was stunningly crystalline.

Kavakos brought out the elegance in even the most di.cult of passages, and his rst-movement cadenza was entirely captivating – shimmering with nuance and colour. fie second movement opened with a subtle, well-timed oboe solo that blossomed to make room for the violinist’s elegant phrasing and nearly perfect playing. fie Allegro giocoso was utterly brilliant, and instead of the double-stop workout it can sometimes sound like, under Kavakos’s masterful technique it was a playful challenge. His encore – the first movement from Enescu’s Impressions of Childhood – again proved his mastery of the instrument and allowed for a playful ending to a performance that demonstrated all of Kavakos’s command and control of the violin, immaculate musicianship and rhythmic sense.

Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony followed the interval, and it was a delight to hear the unified and controlled sound from the strings throughout. The spinning, characterful lines in the first movement had just the right amount of pleading and were not overly dramatic nor forced. The pizzicato in the Allegretto was well controlled and the intensity of the Largo was stirring. The controlled energy of the final Allegro was a perfect balance of jubilation and sarcasm. LEAH HOLLINGSWORTH

Berlin

DORIC QUARTET

KONZERTHAUS 17 OCTOBER 2019

Brett Dean’s latest string quartet – his third – was written for the Doric Quartet, which premiered it during its Australian tour last June. Following the European premiere at the Edinburgh Festival, the concert under review marked its first performance infiGermany. One doesn’t need to know the piece’s ‘Hidden Agendas’ – hence its title – in order to enjoy it as a virtuoso vehicle. The Doric (left) ran thefiexpressive gamut from the aggressiveness of the opening (‘Hubris’) through sad resignation in the muted third movement (‘Retreat’) to the finale’s somewhat artificial optimism (‘On-message’). Forfiall their virtuosity in the piece’s extrovert passages, the players were most moving in the fragile, vulnerable tones they found for its more intimate parts, such as when, in the section titled ‘Self-censorship’, they are required to use bows without rosin.

In the Doric’s hands, Haydn – op.33 no.1 in B minor – was no warm-up a­air. Using period bows, the players underlined the composer’s wit in withholding the piece’s key at the beginning of the first movement, which, with both repeats observed, achieved an unusual monumentality. Chromatic steps were often played with one finger, resulting in unsettling slides that took some getting used to but were dramatically e­ective – and ‘historically correct’, too! The Andante was finely voiced, and they pulled out all stops for the fiery Finale. As with Haydn, the Doric’s judicious dosage of vibrato brought great transparency to Schubert’s G major Quartet. Their wide dynamic spectrum opened up some almost Brucknerian vistas in the rst movement, while maximising the contrast between the music’s wistful atmosphere and the many disruptive moments, nowhere more so than infithe nal movement’s breathless ride.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE

Zermatt

MUSICIANS OF THE ZERMATT MUSIC FESTIVAL ACADEMY

VARIOUS LOCATIONS 11 SEPTEMBER 2019

It’s unusual to begin studying a long-written musical work with no existing sounds whatsoever in your head.fiHowever that’s often the state of a­airs for the international students of the two-week Zermatt FestivalfiAcademy, coached by members of the Berlin Philharmonic’s Scharoun Ensemble. A large proportion of the chamber music they perform publicly after just three masterclasses per piece is rarely heard, nonrecorded repertoire unearthed by the Berliners precisely to get the students to think for themselves. Take the strings element of the programme: thefiop.62 Octet by Brahms’s barely remembered contemporary and compatriot, Ferdinand ieriot, for string quartet, double bass, clarinet, bassoon and horn; Sciarrino’s arrangement for viola, .ute and bassoon of the Adagio from Bach’s Sonata BWV1029 for gamba and harpsichord; Boccherini’s Quintet no.5 for oboe and string quartet; and Sibelius’s septet arrangement of En Saga for string quartet plus double bass, .ute and clarinet.

Their newly minted interpretations were staggeringly convincing, too. Beyond a feast of dramatic atmosphere and colour in the Sibelius, perhaps most striking was the monster-sized, vemovement ieriot Octet programmed as the grand nale: a quirky, multifaceted piece whose switching moods and styles were realised with style. Highlights included Karajan Academy cellist Simon Eberle’s creamily lyrical fourth movement solo, and its segue into an amorous duet with clarinettist Joel Cardoso. Also impressive was the polished, period-aware playing from violist Julia Pałecka across the opening Sciarrino, and the chamber awareness and loving sobriety with which she, .autist Aliya Vodovozova and bassoonist Francisco Ventura matched tones and curled their interweaving lines around each other. What I’d love to see next is some UK studentsfiapplying to this extraordinary orchestralfitraining ground.

CHARLOTTE GARDNER

London

The Australian Chamber Orchestra, currently the International Associate Ensemble at Milton Court, performed a set of three concerts in October under its violinist/director Richard Tognetti, of which this was the last, and for which it was joined by the Guildhall Chamber Orchestra.

After a moving account of Peteris Vasks’s Viatore, arranged by Stefan Vanselow for eleven solo strings, they launched into a spirited account of Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, marked by constant brilliance and colour to match the kaleidoscope of Britten’s invention. Here was a brittle, dry March, a slinky Romance, and the players all grinning as they played à la mandolin. To follow, Tognetti performed, and directed, Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending. His lark appeared in a rather loud burst, with some strong thrusts to come: this was not a.bird to be messed with. His playing was powerful and.rich in vibrato, accompanied by colourful playing from the orchestra.

In the second part of the concert came a performance of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, a technically superb account that suggested a lot of very careful rehearsal. The ensemble made a terri.c sound, with some scary Hitchcockian passages before the transformation. It was dramatic and beautiful.

TIM HOMFRAY

MIKLOS PERENYI (CELLO) DENES V-RJON (PIANO)

WIGMORE HALL 17 OCTOBER 2019

Miklós Perényi and Dénes Várjon performed Beethoven’s cello works in two concerts at Wigmore Hall, of which this one, the first, contained an early, middle and late sonata, and a set of variations. Perényi played the F major Sonata op.5 no.1 with winning simplicity, doing pretty much what Beethoven asks, and doing it wonderfully well, with a rich, woody tone, well-articulated staccato and just a hint of rasp from the bow. The Allegro Vivace second movement tripped along, light and eThervescent. Perényi opened the C major Sonata op.102 no.1 with a creamy, .owing legato, and brought out the drama on the ensuing Allegro Vivace. The opening of the second movement had meditative depth before the complex and captivating Allegro Vivace, dynamic and touched with humour.

Pianist Dénes Várjon, always excellent, was frequently to the fore in the twelve Variations on ‘Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen’ from Mozart’s Die Zauber öte, .rm, precise and injecting gentle poetry. Perényi opened the A major Sonata op.69 with a.serene nobility that gave way to theatrical dash, full.of dynamic .air. They punched into the syncopations of the Scherzo, and the Finale had a.grand sweep to it.

TIM HOMFRAY

SOL GABETTA (CELLO) PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA/ELIM CHAN

ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL 24 OCTOBER 2019

Sol Gabetta has had the First Cello Concerto of Shostakovich in her repertoire for some years, and her reading of it has evolved over that time into a much more capricious piece. Her interpretation felt shaped by her historically informed investigations into repertoire before Haydn.

Accordingly the first movement was projected with low, gru. humour but also a contained bow that received sympathetic support from the Philharmonia. Gabetta kept the long Moderato on the move, underlining the main theme’s passacaglia-like qualities of simplicity and severity. She untangled the tortuous cadenza in self-e.acing fashion, .nding a Spanish quality to its strummed soliloquies.

She also brought a novel angle to the .nale – without sending it up – as a parade or suite of Russian dances. But better was to come: a transcription of Lensky’s Aria from Eugene Onegin, done as an encore, in which Gabetta lived and almost sang every word with her bow. In some ways a model of restraint, restricted to the G and D strings and only jumping the octave for the last phrase, she captured every twist of the poet’s regret as he muses on spent youth and a life turned sour, with a sudden memory of unful.lled love its only, hopeless consolation. Her performance sent me scurrying back to her 2008 album of transcriptions, aThecting in its way, but no – you had to be there. PETER QUANTRILL

TRANSFORMING VIOLA BACH Ciaccona (from Partita no.2 BWV1004) BIBER Passacaglia HINDEMITH In Form und Zeitmaß einer Passacaglia (from Viola Sonata op.11 no.5) BRITTEN Ciaccona, Allegro (from Cello Suite no.2 op.80) LIGETI Chaconne chromatique (from Viola Sonata)

Diyang Mei (viola)

GENUIN GEN 19666

An attractive musical calling card from a prize-winning viola player

After Diyang Mei was awarded the first prize at the 2018 ARD Competition in Munich, he was picked by the label Genuin and given the chance of making a debut CD, which resulted in this most impressive ‘calling card’. All the pieces chosen are in the form of variations over an ostinato bass, but any fears of monotony are soon dispelled by the way Mei creates a specific sound world for each composition. He characterises the variations in Bach’s Ciaccona with engaging individuality while at the same time maintaining a strict pulse throughout the piece’s 15-minute span. After this monumental opening, he finds an inward tone for Biber’s Passacaglia, underlining its rhythmic obsessiveness in a way that seems inspired by the Holy Rosary litanies.

Moving on to the 20th century, Mei gives his sound an ‘edge’ that completely agrees with the acerbic character of Hindemith’s take on the passacaglia form. In Britten’s cello Ciaccona he sings lyrically in the uppermost reaches of the fingerboard, a task he is as comfortable with as when dealing with the composer’s idiosyncratic string writing. One wouldn’t necessarily guess from Mei’s performance that Ligeti’s Chaconne chromatique is marked ‘molto ritmicoe feroce’: he finds some playful tenderness in the music’s short phrases, which he builds up to a sonorous climax. If slightly short-measure, this attractively recorded CD is a valuable introduction to a talent to be reckoned with.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE

CPE BACH Complete Works for Violin and Keyboard: Sonatas in D major Wq71, in D minor Wq72, in C major Wq73, in D major Wq74, in F major Wq75, in B minor Wq76, in B fìat major Wq77, in C minor Wq78, Arioso con variazioni in A major Wq79, Fantasia in F sharp minor Wq80 Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin)

James Baillieu (piano)

SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD573 (3 CDS)

Deft and mellow-toned readings of late Baroque duos by Bach junior

This chronological survey of Emanuel Bach’s violin/keyboard works extends from the Baroque sonatas of his youth (Wq71-3, 1731; revised 1746) to the more unpredictable ‘sensitive’ works of his maturity (Wq74, 1754 and Wq75-8, 1763). James Baillieu is the busier in the early sonatas and argues a strong case for the anachronistic Steinway piano as their optimum keyboard medium, such are his clean, athletic technique and his awareness of style, texture and balance. Tamsin Waley-Cohen, playing a 1721 Stradivari, takes more of a back seat, opting for light articulations, transparency and purity of tone and minimal vibrato. Nevertheless her forays into greater prominence include some admirable trading of melodic motifs with Baillieu, particularly in the Adagios of Wq71 and Allegros of Wq72.

The systematic development of thematic material in the later sonatas results in greater equality between the two instruments and Waley-Cohen comes out of her shell to participate more vigorously in the dialogue, especially in buoyant allegros such as the outer movements of Wq75 or the first movements of Wq74 and Wq77. Her rapport with Baillieu is riveting in the deeply expressive Adagio of Wq78, where Baillieu’s extraordinary meanderings contrast with her intimately veiled and mellow violin line.

Apart from the somewhat express final Allegretto of Wq73 and Tempo di Menuetto of Wq74, tempos are finely judged and little expressive detail is left under-characterised. The set concludes with accounts of the keyboard-centric Arioso con variazioni Wq79 and Fantasia Wq80, intelligently and deftly conveyed. Captured in the Britten Studio, Snape, the recording is exemplary.

ROBIN STOWEL

BARTOK Violin Concerto no.2; Rhapsodies nos.1 & 2 Baiba Skride (violin) WDR Sinfonieorchester Koln/Eivind Aadland

ORFEO C 950 191

Expressive playing that captures the music’s inherent uneasy qualities

Bartok’s violin music is a semantic minefield. His ground-breaking creative innovations during the first half of the last century were almost invariably placed in the hands of players whose musical instincts were honed essentially by the mainstream repertoire. As a result, whenever anything remotely resembling a cantabile melody emerged (as at the start of the Second Concerto), the general tendency was to indulge the music with lashings of full-throated vibrato, while characterising the thornier passages with an impassioned intensity that in context tended to play out like wrong-note Tchaikovsky.

By comparison, Baiba Skride captures the sense of unease that destabilises the deceptively confident opening and becomes increasingly overt as the movement progresses, thereby creating an unusual degree of expressive continuity. This spills over into the tender yet disconsolate soul-searching of the central Andante tranquillo and the finale’s cris de coeur, which far from finding heroic resolution, create an agonising sense of rhetorical despair.

If anything, the two rhapsodies are even more problematic due to their unsettling fusion of indigenous Hungarian folksong with Western classical techniques. It feels at times as though this music really belongs in a world of cimbaloms (included, admittedly in the scoring of no.1) and dulcimers. Yet by keeping the music (appropriately) with a skip in its tail, Skride succeeds where many others have failed by making a convincing case for the music’s stylistic dislocation. Eivind Aadland responds intuitively with deft and articulate accompaniments, captured in sound of alluring transparency. JULIAN HAYLOCK

BEETHOVEN Three Violin Sonatas, op.12; 12 Variations on ’Se vuol ballare’ WoO40 James Ehnes (violin)

Andrew Armstrong (piano)

ONYX 4177

Clean and highly musical performances that want a little for character

The Canadian James Ehnes is an admirably clean violinist, although his E-string sound is a tad astringent; and Andrew Armstrong, from Connecticut, is a very good chamber music pianist. Their instruments are well balanced, vital in these works ‘for piano and violin’.

The playing is bright and stylish, though with no great individuality. Exposition repeats are taken, slow movements are well done - that of no.1 in D major, a theme and variations, is pleasantly announced and its variations are alertly interpreted, as are those in the quirky WoO40.

They are straight into their stride in no.2, with every note in place, good timing and rhythm, and a delightful final Allegro piacevole. They rise to the greater stature of no.3, enjoying Beethoven’s counterpoint in the Allegro molto finale, though with no great wit. It takes good musicianship to play like this.

However, turn to the op 12 performances in the 2001 complete sonatas by an all-Canadian duo - Andrew Dawes of Orford Quartet fame and the wonderful Jane Coop - and you hear what the Onyx team lacks: personality. The older duo makes so much more of no.3, especially, with

a much slower tempo in the Rondo.

TULLY POTTER

DOHNÄNYI String Quartet no.2;

Piano Quintets nos.1 & 2 Takacs Quartet,

Marc-Andre Hamelin (piano)

HYPERION CDA68238

Poised and polished composer portrait featuring music written 20 years apart

The awkward key of D flat major casts flickering shadows of forest- deep Romanticism over Dohnanyi’s Second String Quartet. The spectre of Brahms briefly rises to be banished from - or accommodated within - a cyclical three-movement structure owing more to Liszt and the Schoenberg of Verklärte Nacht. The long and eventful Molto adagio finale especially demands Beethovenian reserves of vision and rigour, which are long-established hallmarks of the Takacs Quartet. The players make the most of the work’s high contrasts with risky portamento belonging to the composer’s Austro-Hungarian world as well as their own collective heritage, making for a technically pristine but hot-tempered performance, altogether richer than rivals such as the Gabrieli and Fine Arts quartets.

In the 17-year-old composer’s precociously assured op.1 Quintet the Takacs’ principal rivals are themselves - with cellist Andras Fejer the sole perennial - on an impassioned but unkempt Decca recording from 1988. The quartet’s latest incarnation, its first recording to feature Harumi Rhodes on second violin, uses an inch or two of extra space wisely, and Hyperion’s superior engineering opens out Dohnanyi’s. textures beyond the conventional piano-versus-quartet opposition.

Almost 20 years later, Dohnányi is still scratching a Brahmsian itch in the Second Quintet, but his own maturity as a pianist is reThected in the sophisticated balance between piano and strings. I like very much the knowing, café-vibrato of Geraldine Walther’s viola solo to open the central Scherzo; Marc-André Hamelin’s sparkling ngerwork in the goblin-dance trio, and the Takács’ searching sense of line – more Beethoven again – in the grave counterpoint of the nale’s slow introduction. Only with the nale proper do nostalgia and anxiety come head to head – this is 1914, after all – and Hamelin and the Takács bring the con.ict to a conclusion as provisional as it is nely poised. PETER QUANTRILL

EISLER Duo for violin and cello op.7 WIDMANN 24 Duos for violin anc cello RAVEL Sonata for violin and cello Ilya Gringolts (violin)

Dmitry Kouzov (cello)

DELOS DE 3556

Gripping and beautifully played duos that demand committed listening

Look elsewhere if you’re expecting crowd-pleasers, but what this disc does offer is bold and hugely committed performances of three very striking duos spanning almost 90 years.

Eisler wrote his Duo in 1924, the year after completing his studies with Schoenberg, and the latter’s influence is clear in the finely wrought serial counterpoint and the short motifs. Gringolts and Kouzov are as one in shaping the gestures and in pacing the movement; the intensity of their playing at times suggests a pre-echo of Expressionism.

With their concern for abstraction and closely interweaving lines,

Widmann’s 24 Duos (2008) form a perfect complement. The players make the most of the slow, suspended creep and fragile dissonances in no.3 (Lento un poco Andante); the claustrophobic interplay around a narrow, shared pitch range (no.7); and of the breathtaking, eight-bar Calmo (no.9), which glows rather than ‘sounds’. There’s soul-crushing note-bending and decay in the Lament (no.24) but exuberant humour, by contrast, in the Valse bavaroise (no.21) and the concluding Toccatina all’inglese.

Ravel’s Sonata (1920-22) is mined for all its austere, intrinsic beauty, and that includes the macabre second movement. Again, counterpoint is king, and again the interplay between Gringolts and Kouzov is magnetic.

The lively sound of this studio recording is another beguiling touch.

EDWARD BHESANIA

FELDMAN Patterns in a Chromatic Fielc Mathis Mayr (cello)

Antonis Anissegos (piano)

WERGO WER 7382-2

Remarkable performances that seem to manipulate the passage of time

It’s telling that Rohan de Saram and Marianne Schroeder take more than 100 minutes, across two discs, over Morton Feldman’s hushed 1981 masterpiece in their benchmark 1993 recording (reviewed September 2017). Here, German cellist Mathis Mayr and Greek-born pianist Antonis Anissegos manage it in just short of 80 on an admittedly stuffed-full single disc.

This is a pacey, lively account, at least as far as those adjectives apply to Feldman’s quiet, contemplative world of obsessive almost-repetitions, one that begins with practically febrile energy before relaxing into austere, sparser textures, seemingly intent on making the greatest dramatic use of Feldman’s infinitesimal gradings of speed, density and texture. And as such, it seems to demand closer, more focused and sustained listening, so that the unpredictable and often witty changes that Feldman introduces into his repeating cells take on huge significance, as if the building blocks of music are being laid out before the listener.

The two players give well-nigh immaculate performances, full of character, but there’s a touchingly human quality, too, to their minute imperfections in consistency of sound and attack, laid bare in Feldman’s exposed writing. With close, intimate sound and a detailed, informative booklet note, this is a remarkable, deeply moving recording in which Mayr and Anissegos seem to manipulate the passage of time itself.

DAVID KETTLE

HAYDN String Quartets op.20: no.2 in C major, no.3 in G minor, no.5 in F minor Dudok Quartet Amsterdam

RESONUS RES10248

An auspicious start to what might become a complete Haydn cycle

The Dudok Quartet has already recorded Haydn - op.54 no.2 on a highly acclaimed disc called Metamorphoses (reviewed November 2015). This promises to be the first of two discs exploring the innovative op.20 Quartets and, who knows, perhaps a whole cycle as the years go by. It’s certainly an auspicious start.

The recital opens with the Third Quartet in G minor - wisely, as this is the most outgoing of the three presented here. At once the Dudok impresses with its responsiveness to gesture, not playing games with tempo but allowing the pulse to yield gently as the four-way conversation develops. This is followed by the earthy richness of C major and then the remarkable F.minor; and here the decisions made in recording these works are integral to the eThect of the disc. Microphones are drawn back slightly to eavesdrop rather than to focus; the listener is placed at a good distance to overhear the discourse rather than to be seated within it.

JANUARY 2020 THE STRAD

The result is to remind us that this is chamber music for friends, not concert music for an audience. ­e nale of the Second Quartet (the Fuga a 4 soggetti) scampers like children told to play together quietly – although these children are well versed in Haydn’s counterpoint, which even in these works of the early 1770s is of an airborne feather-lightness, both of touch and of spirit, that surpasses even Mozart. ­en the nale of the Fifth Quartet (the Fuga a 2 soggetti) is con ded as if to a confessor. ­roughout the disc the listener is drawn in closer as the stories become more personal: Haydn’s F minor is the saddest, most heartbreaking of all his chosen tonalities. All is played with true assurance and understanding; and this ensemble’s care for structure is worthy of its architect namesake.

DAVID THREASHER

ALL SHALL NOT DIE HAYDN String Quartets: in F minor op.20 no.5, in G major op.33 no.5, in D major op.50 no.6, in C major op.54 no.2, in D minor op.76 no.2, in F major op.77 no.2 Quatuor Hanson

APARTÉ AP213 (2 CDS)

Audacious and refined go hand in hand in these intriguing performances

Titled after a citation in Latin (from Horace) on Haydn’s tombstone, this debut release amply demonstrates why Quatuor Hanson has won plaudits in international competitions. Aided by a close-miked, warm and well-balanced . recording, these players offer inspired expressively audacious readings full of character, spontaneity and re nement of detail. ­ey mould phrases sensitively and take enormous pains to allow time and space for their interpretations to register. ­ey also emphasise Haydn’s harmonic surprises with maximum relish, notably just before the sotto voce second theme of op.77 no.2. ­eir dynamic range is wide – sample the explosive fortissimos in the opening movement of op.33 no.5 – and ensemble is largely polished throughout, leader Anton Hanson making the most of opportunities for rubato, especially in the slow movements of op.20 no.5, op.50 no.6 and op.54 no.2. ­ey admirably convey the wit of the Scherzo of op.33 no.5 and their innate understanding of fugal structures allows listeners to delight in Haydn’s contrapuntal invention in the nale of op.20 no.5.

They are their own bosses regarding the implementation of Haydn’s repeat markings and articulation indications, and their realisation of the notated acciaccaturas in the Menuetto of op.54 no.2 seems ill-judged. Further, their tempos for the Menuet and nale of op.77 no.2 are too fast for comfort, occasioning a slight dip in standards of precision and intonation, and although Hanson negotiates his frequent stratospheric .ights with due panache, his occasional addition of extempore ornamentation and his extended use of the glissando eThect in the nale of op.76 no.2 fail to convince. ROBIN STOWELL

TCHAIKOVSKY Serenade for Strings in C major op.48

ARENSKY Chamber Symphony in A minor op.35 (arr. Prooijen)

Amsterdam Sinfonietta/

Candida Thompson

CHANNEL CLASSICS CCS3711Ç

Russian music, including a new arrangement, played with panache

Russian music is home territory for this ensemble, which was founded by the Dutch-Soviet Lev Markiz. The players certainly have the measure of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade, which combines rich tone with a lightness of touch. Balance is superb and parts are always clear when the counterpoint gets busy. In the first movement there is a good deal of panache, and some elfin playing in the second subject. The Valse is played in high good humour, with nice touches of rubato, some marked, others not. The Élégie is finely shaped, with a neatly graded crescendo through the dialogue between first violins and cellos, and the finale is sparkling and elegant.

Arensky’s Chamber Symphony in A minor, in memory of Tchaikovsky, has come on quite a journey to arrive on this CD. It was originally his Second String Quartet, written for the odd combination of violin, viola and two cellos, then arranged by him for conventional quartet. Subsequently he arranged the middle movement as the well-known Variations on a theme by Tchaikovsky. He may have arranged the other two as well, but if so, they have vanished, and Marijn van Prooijen recently stepped into the breach. This is music of energy and pliant melody, stylishly played, mixing happiness with mournful reection.

The recording is warm and clear.

TIM HOMFRAY

BRITISH CELLO WORKS SMYTH Sonata in C minor MACONCHY Divertimento for cello and piano LUTYENS Nine Bagatelles op.10 CLARKE Rhapsody for cello and piano Lionel Handy (cello)

Jennifer Hughes (piano)

LYRITA SRCD383

Intense and well-judged performances of music by British women

This enterprising and well-recorded CD showcases four major British women composers. Their compositions span the latter years of the 19th century with Ethel Smyth’s Sonata of 1880 to the first half of the 20th century with Elisabeth Lutyens’s Bagatelles (1942) and Elizabeth Maconchy’s Divertimento (1941-3).

The stylistic diversity is equally wide. Smyth’s Sonata is cast in a conventional romantic mode. It is the largest-scale work on the disc, owing much to Brahms’s musical language and structure, but also presenting an obvious reference to the main motif of Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata in the opening theme of the first movement. The music is skilfully crafted, and Lionel Handy and Jennifer Hughes ensure that all its nuances are fully explored. Similarly both artists highlight the merits of Rebecca Clarke’s Rhapsody, its lyrical and rich vein of expression containing strong allusions to French impressionism. Once again the composer proves to be skilful in handling larger structural formats, with themes from the earlier movements reappearing in the Finale.

A more distinctive style is presented in the Divertimento by Elizabeth Maconchy. The opening Serenade, featuring Latin rhythms in mixed metres, is perhaps the most striking of its five movements, although ‘The Clock’ is also notable for offering a witty replication of the mechanics of the machine. Arguably the most individual of all the composers featured here is Elisabeth Lutyens. Her language is more acerbic, with close stylistic ties to Bartok and Schoenberg. The Nine Bagatelles are pithy, tightly constructed miniatures, and these artists carefully etch the motives to bring a real intensity to the work.

JOANNE TALBOT

TORRES MAIANI Asteria:

The Starlit Night

Yardani Torres Maiani, Armande Galloway (violin) Guillaume Leroy (viola) Natalie Forthomme (cello) Elisabeth Geiger (harpsichord) Railo Helmstetter (guitar) Anton Florenza Fabregat (double bass) Luis de la Carrasca (voice and claps) Nino Garcia (claps)

HARMONIA NOVA HMN 916116

Flamenco, Baroque, jazz and world music add up to a winning combination

The ten pieces of Andalusian violinist–composer Yardani Torres Maiani’s Starlit Night marry the inuences of his amenco heritage, classical training, Baroque and general globe-trotting. While on paper they’re classi­ed with typical amenco labels such as ‘Lamento gitano’, the actual sound world focuses more on its spirit. Everything is underpinned by the marriage of two plucked instruments at the core of their respective traditions: amenco guitar and Baroque harpsichord. They are given scope for improvisatory freedom, then layered with diTherent amenco, tango and jazz rhythms, plus strings, which glide between folk, classical and jazz styles. Torres Maiani’s classicalbackground collaborators do all this as second nature – listen to the stylistic ease and tight ensemble playing in ‘Fandango popular’, which takes the traditional Fandango rhythm, palmas clapping and free-style Andalusian singing, then blends in jazz-style harmonies, rhythms and solos. Or there’s Torres Maiani’s glittering solo violin spot, ‘Yahaïouni’, which takes the Bach solo sonata concept of virtuosic polyphonic writing for a single melodic instrument and casts it in raga style with quartertones and sul ponticello and sul tasto eThects. If you are resolutely classical in your listening habits, this wellrecorded album may not immediately be to your taste, but its artistically convincing feast of stylistic and timbral variety deserves a chance to work its magic.

CHARLOTTE GARDNER

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Serenade to Music (orchestral version); Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus; The Lark Ascending1; Fantasia on Greensleeves;

English Folk Song Suite (arr. Jacob);

Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis2James Ehnes1 (violin) Thelma Handy2 (violin) Kate Richardson2 (violin) Alex Mitchell2 (viola) Jonathan Aasgaard2 (cello) Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew Manze ONYX 4212

Beautifully shaped string playing is the hallmark of this new instalment

Ths is the latest in the Vaughan Williams series that Manze and the RLPO are making for Onyx. It includes The Lark Ascending, although soloist James Ehnes is not credited on the front cover, presumably because this track had already appeared on an earlier CD. His Lark is a sweet-toned bird that sings with a fruity lower register and subtle dynamic grace when he ascends to the melismatic heights. Before it takes o., there are the Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus which grow from hushed reverie through subtle increases in vitality to a .ne, spirited climax in Variant II. After the severity of the two-part counterpoint at the end of Variant IV, the .nal Variant is gloriously lush, before sinking to its gentle ending. e string soloists play beautifully but are uncredited; perhaps they’re the same as those in the Tallis Fantasia. is has an underlying propulsion that carries through its limpid beauties to the great release of the climax.

e string playing on this CD is tremendous. All the lines, phrases and paragraphs have a natural shaping, an ebb and ow and a sense of continuous unfolding which is somehow quintessentially string-like. e rest of the RLPO is .ne, too, in these compelling, warmly recorded performances.

TIM HOMFRAY

For readers of The Strad, the main focus of interest in this radiantly sung and stunningly engineered disc is Jennifer Pike’s enraptured rendering of Paul Drayton’s 2018 arrangement of Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending. e outer sections are sung as a vocalise, with the central section becoming an inspired evocation of the George Meredith poem that inspired the work in the .rst place. e otherworldly eThect created by integrating the violin (the most naturally ‘vocal’ of all instruments) with the magical, oated sonorities produced by the Swedish Chamber Choir under the highly gifted Simon Phipps is nothing short of entrancing. Indeed, hearing VW’s stunning invention hoisted gently and seamlessly aloft as if on warm summer breezes feels like a realisation of sounds and sensations at which the orchestral version seems poignantly to hint. All of this could have been for nothing, were it not for the ravishing sounds produced by Pike at the peak of her powers, playing a glorious Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ loaned to her by Beare’s International Violin Society. As she alternately weaves in and out of and utters above the choral textures, it feels as though one were somehow miraculously listening to a lark in ight. No less unforgettable is her delectably golden-toned contribution to Ola Gjeilo’s luminous Serenity of 2010.

JULIAN HAYLOCK

LIMITLESS

Music by Naqvi, Bielawa, Du, Sorey, Young, Wang, Iyer and Mazzoli Jennifer Koh (violin) Qasim Naqvi (modular synthesiser) Lisa Bielawa,

Du Yun (voice) Tyshawn Sorey (glockenspiel) Nina Young, Wang Lu (electronics) Vijay Iyer (piano) Missy Mazzoli (piano and electronics)

CEDILLE CDR 90000 191 (2 CDS)

An enterprising collection of breathtaking new music

This double CD of new music shows Jennifer Koh at her luminous and creative best. All but two of the works are world premiere recordings, and Koh’s gift for inhabiting each new soundscape in this most demanding of music is mesmerising.

Each piece is a duo, Koh performing alongside the composer. The opening track, Qasim Naqvi’s The Banquet, sets the bar high. Written for violin and modular synthesiser - a precursor to the modern keyboard synthesiser - it is wonderfully slow and atmospheric, setting up layers of sound with a sustained G ever present, the timbres and textures of both instruments becoming increasingly wild. The blend of soprano and violin weaving around each other in Lisa Bielawa’s Sanctuary Songs is equally compelling, straying into political territory with its fixation on a line from an Elinor Wylie poem, ‘Make my marvellous wall so thick’.

All told, the sheer variety in these collaborations makes for a breathtaking 100 minutes of music, from the mellow textures of violin and glockenspiel on Tyshawn Soreys In Memoriam Muhal Richard Abrams to the brittle and eclectic Her Latitude by Wang Lu, in which the violin dances around processed sounds that stretch from rusty bells to Buddhist chants. Recorded sound is crisp and crystal clear, and throughout this enchanting disc Koh shows her virtuosity in laying bare the beauty of this most diverse array of sound worlds.

CATHERINE NELSON

20TH-CENTURY CLASSICS

Music by Britten, Bloch, Bartok, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Piazzolla, Webern, Messiaen,

Villa-Lobos and Yusupov Mischa Maisky (cello) Lily Maisky (piano) Lucerne Symphony Orchestra/Benjamin Yusupov DG 483 7289 (2 CDS)

A father-daughter combination achieves some almost miraculous musical moments

Despite its title, there is only one major 20th-century work for cello, Britten’s Sonata, on this disc - but it is worth buying for that alone. The father-daughter duo’s ensemble is almost miraculous, the fragmentary lines passing between them so naturally that the music flows as I have never heard it before. Maisky’s virtuosic pizzicato draws a whole range of colours from his strings, and every phrase oozes eloquence.

Webern’s Three Little Pieces are over in a blink but the pair still draw meaning out of every note. In their musical antithesis, Bloch’s Prayer, there is a hugeness to the Maiskys’ interpretation, ranging from tenderness to grandeur, the sound closely recorded and resonant.

A joyously wild interpretation of Bartok’s Romanian Dances has some pitches slightly off centre, a problem that also occurs in the highest reaches of the instrument in Messiaen’s second Louange, originally for violin, where Maisky’s wide vibrato makes the pitch waver unpleasantly. Piazzolla’s Grand Tango moves from its brooding opening to stylish flamboyance from the piano and an exciting, almost frenzied conclusion in high cello octaves. Among the encore pieces, a profound Shostakovich Adagio sees Maisky’s cello at its most sensuous and emotionally powerful.

The bonus CD features a bit of a gimmick - Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras no.1 with Maisky on all eight parts - and a live recording of the 2008 premiere of a concerto by Benjamin Yusupov, written as a musical portrait of the cellist on his 60th birthday. It is an effective piece, with Shostakovich never far in the background and Maisky in his element in the virtuosic cello part.

JANET BANKS

Despite its title, there is only one major 20th-century work for cello, Britten’s Sonata, on this disc – but it is worth buying for that alone. ­e father-daughter duo’s ensemble is almost miraculous, the fragmentary lines passing between them so naturally that the music €ows as I have never heard it before. Maisky’s virtuosic pizzicato draws a whole range of colours from his strings, and every phrase oozes eloquence. Webern’s ree Little Pieces are over in a blink but the pair still draw meaning out of every note. In their musical antithesis, Bloch’s Prayer, there is a hugeness to the Maiskys’ interpretation, ranging from tenderness to grandeur, the sound closely recorded and resonant. A.joyously wild interpretation of Bartók’s Romanian Dances has some pitches slightly o. centre, a problem that also occurs in the highest reaches of the instrument in Messiaen’s second Louange, originally for violin, where Maisky’s wide vibrato makes the pitch waver unpleasantly. Piazzolla’s Grand Tango moves from its brooding opening to stylish €amboyance from the piano and an exciting, almost frenzied conclusion in high cello octaves. Among the encore pieces, a profound Shostakovich Adagio sees Maisky’s cello at its most sensuous and emotionally powerful. ­e bonus CD features a bit of.a.gimmick – Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras no.1 with Maisky on all eight parts – and a live.recording of the 2008 premiere of a concerto by Benjamin Yusupov, written as a musical portrait of the cellist on his 60th birthday. It is an eThective piece, with Shostakovich never far in the background and Maisky in his element in the virtuosic cello part.

JANET BANKS

21ST CENTURY DOUBLE BASS Leon Bosch (double bass)

Rebeca Omordia (piano)

MERIDIAN CDE84655

The bass is supple and light on its feet in music from this century

Leon Bosch attacks everything he attempts with gusto. Having performed with the world’s top orchestras and notched up thousands of enviable session credits, he is now fast accumulating a formidable catalogue of recordings for solo double bass. Compared to previous surveys of British, Russian and Hungarian music, his exploration of.the tremendous variety of works written for the instrument in this century feels deeply personal. Many.of the pieces premiered on this.disc were written to showcase Bosch’s startling virtuosity in concert, but he.performs those that weren’t with an equal dedication. Each of the.featured composers seems to share his.aim of highlighting what his.instrument can do, on its own.terms.

If there is a common thread between the many diverse works in this collection, it’s that they are physically demanding. Robin Walker, composer of Turning Towards You, notes that Bosch has to bind his .ngertips with tape to tackle the ferocious string slaps of its percussive middle section. ­e soloist’s command of his instrument is total during his high-wire dialogue with Rebeca Omordia during Philip Wood’s Double Bass Sonata. It’s impossible to choose a favourite here, but perhaps the best, and most personal performance is saved for last. Listen to the coda of Roxanna Panufnik’s Shosholoza, a rousing tribute to the African miner’s song, and wonder – have you ever heard the most ‘unwieldy’ instrument of the string family played with such magni.cent singing tone?

Bosch is aided throughout by Omordia’s supple accompaniment. ­e.recordings, made in the generous acoustic of St Edward’s Church in south-east London, are €awless.

TOM SHORT

Bow to Baton: A Leader’s Life John Georgiadis

408PP ISBN 9781727426649 AMAZON PUBLISHING £38

When I returned to Britain from South Africa in the mid-1960s and began going to London concerts, two orchestral leaders in particular caught my eye. Hugh Bean would bustle on to the platform in a friendly but authoritative way, as if to reassure the audience that all would be well. John Georgiadis gave promise that we were in for really classy entertainment.

When I later interviewed him, he was thoroughly friendly and revealed that he nipped around London to rehearsal and recording sessions on a motorbike, taking his second-best violin with him. In this overdue memoir we learn that he came from tradesman stock: his Greek grandfather was a furrier in Southend, where John was born in 1939; and his father Alec, a selftaught amateur violinist, bought and sold rabbit skins in London. At six John was started on the violin by his father but was soon passed on to Vanna Brown in Kent, where the family then lived. She discovered he had perfect pitch. His next teacher was Joan Rochford-Davies at the Junior Royal Academy of Music.

Georgiadis’s account of his violinistic upbringing is interesting and should be read by today’s teachers. He led the RAM first orchestra, a good preparation for his future career. A year in Paris with René Benedetti was uninspiring but back home he began getting good orchestral jobs.

At 23 he landed his first leader’s post with Hugo Rignold’s City of Birmingham SO and in 1965 he arrived at the London Symphony Orchestra, with which he is still linked in the public’s mind, for his initial spell as leader (he left in 1973, returned in 1976 and finally left in 1979, returning occasionally as a guest). The LSO was all-male and Georgiadis’s reasoning on this point seems strange today. Even stranger is the crazy schedule the LSO players endured, with a heavy recording diary on top of their concert work. His orchestral memories are fascinating and, like his detours on violin playing, often thoughtful. Those who enjoy reading about conductors being discomfited will find stories against such figures as Previn, Mehta, Abbado, Sargent, Szell, Ozawa and Ormandy. Barbirolli, Boult, Fricsay and Pritchard emerge unscathed, but Georgiadis’s main admiration is reserved for Celibidache.

Georgiadis made many solo appearances and recordings, including the Moeran Concerto. In the latter part of his career, of course, after lessons from Celibidache, he has fallen from grace and become a conductor himself, holding several chief

conductorships but best known for Johann Strauss concerts and records. He gave up playing in 2010 but made a brief comeback the next year for the film Quartet. Chronicled with plenty of anecdotes, some of them hilarious, and many photographs, his life has been quite a roller coaster.

TULLY POTTER

The Bridge: Connecting Violin and Fiddle Worlds

Annemieke Pronker-Coron

198PP ISBN 9781683150183 CULICIDAE PRESS $18.95

This book seeks to show that violinists and fiddle players alike can improve their art and musicianship from an immersion in the other’s playing style and tradition, and that both styles share the same origins. Author Annemieke Pronker-Coron began her career in Amsterdam as a classically trained violinist specialising in the Baroque. Her own students expressed an interest in being taught other styles of music, which led Pronker-Coron to travel to the US to experience Bluegrass and other styles of American fiddle playing.

Inevitably, the book is a personal tale of what the author gained as a musician from absorbing the styles that she observed. Pronker-Coron was able to identify similarities between classical and folk approaches including bowing styles she had learnt with the Baroque bow appearing with American players, who also often adopt the same feel. Such parallels are perhaps unsurprising, as much secular Baroque music is based on the dances of the times, including jigs that are still played, and which were transported to the New World by early immigrants. There are strong connections in ethos too: in early concertos, a soloist is expected to improvise a cadenza; Pronker-Coron draws comparisons with ‘breaks’ where a ddler will play an improvised solo.

She also advocates the potential benefit to classically trained violinists of assimilating fiddle style to shed the shackles of learning and performing music only from notes on the printed page. She describes how really listening to harmonic progressions and the possibilities of improvisation around a melody can be crucial to liberation as a musician. She is right to say that a student violinist can become obsessed with notation and forget what is more important: the music as it is heard.

The book is not so successful in demonstrating fruitful cross-fertilisation between fiddling and classical technique post-Baroque, although this difficulty is well explained through the discussion of the evolution of the instruments leading to those we know today.

New string techniques were required to cope with the musical demands of Romantic composers and concert halls. The evolution of fiddling was not subjected to this technological drive. It would have been good to see more consideration of other folk fiddling traditions, some of which (Scottish and Irish) also fed into American folk fiddling traditions, quite separately from the classical common heritage.

The major weakness of The Bridge is that it really only works one way. There is a lack of discussion about

how fiddling techniques could be adapted so that a fiddler could become a better violinist. The result is that this book rather preaches to the converted: any classical string player with an open mind and a desire to improve can get an enormous amount from immersion in the aural tradition of the fiddle player. It would be fabulous to read a volume from the other perspective, of a folk player truly studying the classical repertoire to help them evolve as a folk musician. Then the gap could be said to be more effectively bridged.

ALEX LAING

Musicians in Motion: 100 Exercises with and without Instrument

Alexandra Turk-Espitalier

142PP ISBN 9783940105400 MUSIKVERLAG ZIMMERMANN €20

Like sportspeople, today’s musicians are increasingly aware of the need for good body use. Alexandra Turk- Espitalier’s book presents a practical training programme for those seeking to stay on top of their game.

After the introduction and before laying out the exercises, the author describes the four main aspects on which to focus: mobilisation, strengthening, stretching and coordination. She then presents well-illustrated exercises divided into body parts, from the lower back to the fingertips, from which players can create their own individual programme away from the instrument. Many of the exercises seem to be inspired by yoga: the ‘tree’, ‘bridge’, ‘mountain’ and ‘child’ poses appear. There are helpful tips on what the reader needs

to focus on during practice, such as, in a standing position, being aware of gravity and its opposing force (which she calls ‘lift up’). There is a short section on breathing, after which the author proposes five useful 30- to 40-minute training schedules. Only then does Turk-Espitalier bring the instrument into the picture, for example adding the bow to an arm pendulum movement and using the helpful image of a suspension bridge between the finger on the string and the shoulder blade to free the elbow and wrist. There follows a section on injury prevention, which includes a list of instruments with exercises tailored to the demands of each.

As a musician experienced in yoga, I find the instructions too focused on building strength, with not enough about how movement can happen naturally on release, especially in response to the breath. When I think of the musicians whose physical ease I admire most, I would say that, rather than ‘strong’, they are efficient in their movement. But I’m sure that many musicians will benefit from an approach where the body is the main instrument. This is, I believe, at the heart of what Turk-Espitalier seeks to present and, at a time when many people in the music world are seeking guidance for such issues, a book like this is most welcome. I am sure that, as a result of it, the strain and injury musicians suffer in the future will be greatly reduced. The tone is friendly, although the translation from the German is sometimes sketchy: there are places where the English is stilted, and that is a shame because it detracts from what is essentially a useful and well-presented book.

RUTH PHILLIPS