Melodic string-crossings

TECHNIQUE

NILS MONKEMEYER

Professor of viola at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich, Germany

BORN

Holzwickede, Germany

STUDIED WITH

Christian Pohl, Hariolf Schlichtig, Veronika Hagen

TEACHES

Conservatoire students aged 18+

String-crossings can be divided into two diff erent categories. One is more virtuosic, wiTha fast wrist movement for clear, articulate runs. The other is curved and smooth, for beautiful melodic lines. Very often in masterclasses I hear students move the arm and wrist wiThfast movements for all their string-crossings, so that they hit the next string wiTha slight attack and the sound pops out from the rest of the line. In the Classical style this doesn’t matter too much, because you need more articulation, emphasis and impulse, so I would generally use a much faster bow speed and more relaxed fingers. But in Romantic music like Brahms, which is full of inner resistance and long lines, it is important to incorporate smooThstring-crossings seamlessly into the melody.

EXERCISES

The following exercises break down how to play melodic string-crossings and can be applied to all bowed stringed instruments. The aim is to create smooThlines without accents or breaks, by keeping the arm moving in a small, continuous wave, without interruptions or corners. Big, angular or fast movements will create unwanted accents, as will pressing your fingers down on the bow when you change string. Begin wiThexercise 1:

• To find a well-balanced position for your bow arm, play the two strings as a double-stop

• Now play the string-crossing, without changing the level of your elbow or the speed of your stroke

• At the frog, pull from the elbow and cross strings using your wrist and fingers. From the tip, use your wrist, fingers and lower arm

In exercise 2, focus in slow motion on each stage of the string-crossing. Keep your sound, colour and bow speed consistent across boThstrings:

• Bow the lower string. Slowly introduce the second string as a double-stop

• Gently come away from the lower string, wiThas little change to your position as possible

• Practise on all adjacent strings, to find the most efficient elbow level for each string combination

Now apply this idea to exercise 3, by playing a double-stop between each string-crossing:

• Starting wiThthe elbow at the level of the lowest string, move the right arm in a half circle towards the highest string, pulling the bow in a flowing movement. Use a quarter bow per note

• Keep the tip of your bow in a straight line wiThyour elbow, so that they move together as a unit. Don’t let the wrist interfere!

In exercise 4 the arm should stay on one level for each triplet, as wiThthe first exercise. For the transition to each new triplet, use the continuous semi-circular movement from exercise 3. Keep your shoulders relaxed and your elbows free.

PREPARING THE LEFT HAND

To play any string-crossing well, you will need to prepare the left hand before the bow hits the string. Use exercise 5 to train it to stay one step ahead of the bow.

• Practice each finger preparation (marked x) in isolation: on each pause, place the next finger down on the new string while playing the previous note. Then slowly, smoothly cross strings wiThthe bow

• For the descent, rotate the left elbow before each string-crossing, to prepare the fourThfinger without hitting the higher string

• Now play the exercise as written, without pauses. Move the left hand quickly into position before each string-crossing while maintaining a slow, continuous curve wiThyour bow

When you can do this, progress on to exercises 6, 7 and 8, making a continuous, smooThmotion wiThboTharms. I also recommend practising all these exercises slowly wiThseparate bows, at the frog, middle and tip, for improved flexibility. The slower you can play them, the more proficient you will become.

REPERTOIRE

In pieces, because string-crossings are usually random and incidental to the melody, it is important to hide them so that they don’t disrupt the music. For example, when you cross strings, be careful not to let the higher string sound louder. You want a very smooThand connected line that incorporates all the notes into the sound, without anything standing out unintentionally. In examples 1–5, work on hiding your string-crossings within each line by playing in seamless, melodic arcs and waves.

IN YOUR PRACTICE

You can use the exercises in this article to break down string-crossings in any piece that you are playing. Don’t overdo it: just be aware of any melodic slurred string-crossings that occur and work out what the arm has to do. As wiThmany things, I recommend practising them for five to ten minutes three times a day, rather than for three hours at a time. You will learn more quickly if you feed your brain wiThinformation in short sessions, wiThfull focus. Keep adding to your subconscious until the actions become automatic. Even ten minutes a day should improve the quality of your melodic playing within a couple of weeks.

TIPS FOR TEACHERS

Students struggling wiThmelodic string-crossings may need to work on improving the independence of their hands, for example by practising a continuous vibrato wiThthe left hand while playing short bow strokes wiThthe right, or while brushing their teeThwiThone hand and moving slowly in a circle wiThthe other. Those wiThinflexible bodies may find it helpful to practise bow changes at the frog using only the wrist and fingers, to develop the flexibility needed for fluid string-crossings. Those wiThloose joints could benefit instead from work on the unity of the whole arm.

FURTHER MATERIALS

Yuri Bashmet plays smooth, uninterrupted legato string-crossings in this YouTube video of Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata: bit.ly/39URgad

• Hear melodic string-crossings in performances of Vivaldi, Tarfini, Rolla, Paganini and Sciarrino by Nils Monkemeyer and L'Arte del Mondo in a new CD released by Sony on 5 March

NEXT MONTH

Cellist Mats Lidstrom on warm-ups

Reviews

RECORDINGS

BACH & BEYOND - PART 3 BACH Sonatas for solo violin: no.2 in A minor BWV1003, no.3 in C major BWV1005 BERIO Sequenza VIII HARBISON For Violin Alone Jennifer Koh (violin)

CEDILLE RECORDS CDR90000 199 (2 CDS)

Eloquent, artful, yet unadorned playing in the third of Koh’s series

Bach’s C major Sonata BWV1005 opens wiTha serene reading of the Adagio. The fugue, gentle at the start, builds to muscular climaxes in its great, skilfully developed span.

The Largo is elegant, and the motoperpetuo Allegro assai is vigorous and cumulatively exciting. The recorded sound is warm and clear.

TIM HOMFRAY

This is the third and final CD in Jennifer Koh’s Bach and Beyond series, combining Bach’s Solo Sonatas and Partitas wiThcontemporary works inspired by them. In Bach’s A minor Sonata BWV1003 Koh gives a clean, flowing performance of the opening Grave, eloquent but not demonstrative. The fugue, neat and agile, flows forward wiThartful simplicity. After a cool and contemplative Andante, warmed by light vibrato, the final Allegro is nimble and airy.

Luciano Berio described his Sequenza VIII for solo violin as a tribute to Bach’s D minor Chaconne, and said: ‘the soloist must make the listener constantly aware of the history behind each instrumental gesture.’ Now there’s a challenge, as if the work weren’t challenging enough. Koh certainly has the measure of this demanding piece, and steers a sure course through its many episodes, bringing vivid character to each, and steady momentum to the whole. John Harbison’s For Violin Alone, written for Koh in 2014, is a seven- movement work in a broadly tonal, astringent idiom, wiThthe spirits of Bach’s Partitas close by. They include an Air, a March and two dances, the second of which, at 4’14”, is the longest. They are constantly inventive and attractive, and Koh plays them wiThaplomb.

Bach’s C major Sonata BWV1005 opens wiTha serene reading of the Adagio. The fugue, gentle at the start, builds to muscular climaxes in its great, skilfully developed span. The Largo is elegant, and the motoperpetuo Allegro assai is vigorous and cumulatively exciting. The recorded sound is warm and clear.

TIM HOMFRAY

BARTOK

String Quartets no.1 op.7; no.3; no.5 Jerusalem Quartet

HARMONIA MUNDI HMM 902240

Quartet completes its Bartok cycle strongly wiThpolished performances

It has taken almost four years for the Jerusalem Quartet to complete its Bartok cycle for Harmonia Mundi. The first disc was reviewed here inApril 2017, and this one was recorded (spaciously but analytically) in Berlin in 2019, during which time the same label also released a rival recording of all six quartets from the HeaThQuartet (reviewed August 2017). But the newcomer can hold its own in a crowded field. The players begin wiTha particularly touching account of the first movement of no.1, conjuring up a sound that is heartfelt but avoids sentimentality.

In their hands the central Allegretto then acts as a cautious bridge to the ‘return to life’ of the finale (to quote Kodaly’s description).

The musicians give a polished performance of no.3, the shortest and most concise of the six quartets, which perhaps misses some of the deliberate rough edges that Bartok seems to intend in his panoply of extended playing techniques. Sometimes virtuosity can mask the daring of the writing.

Ensemble is at its most impressive in no.5, where the four players can sound as if they are one. It’s an energised interpretation, belying the fact that, as wiThmost groups in this work, the Jerusalem often plays more broadly than Bartók’s optimistically precise duration indications suggest.

MATTHEW RYE

BEETHOVEN

Piano Trios: op.1 nos 1-3; op.70 nos.1 & 2; op.97 Trio Sora

NAIVE V7085 (3 CDS)

Fluent and dramatic performances to complete Beethoven’s anniversary year

Just at the tail end of Beethoven’s 250Thanniversary, Trio Sora has produced a fine set of his complete piano trios. The group has a refined sweetness of sound, wiThplenty of punch and snap when needed, and does justice to the theatrical breadThof Beethoven’s structures, particularly in the later trios. In the op.1 set there is a plentiful supply of happy exuberance, particularly in the finales of the first two. Severe drama is balanced by lyrical insouciance in the C minor, wiTha few real jump- scare fortissimos.

The powerful, vivid performance of the ‘Ghost’ Trio op.70 no.1 highlights the great balance and interaction between the players. They display plenty of the required Vivace con brio in the first movement, wiThboThrobust highlights and hushed beauty. The mysteries of the Largo Assai open wiThdead, vibrato-less strings and unfold in one great span of wonder, whether in extreme sotto voce or relentlessly fierce ff, and there is open-hearted gusto in the finale. Dialogues between players are beautifully played in their jaunty account of op.70 no.2: they seamlessly pass around phrases in the first movement, and in the third there are passages of intense question and answer between strings and piano.

The first movement of the ‘Archduke’ Trio op.97 is grand and fluent, wiThbig-boned ‘tutti’ moments. The Scherzo is a joyful, muscular dance, the noble Andante cantabile is beautifully paced, and the finale is flecked wiThmischievous humour. The recording is warm in a resonant acoustic. TIM HOMFRAY

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

★ KENINS

Violin Concerto; Percussion Concerto; Beatae voces tenebrae Eva Bindere (violin) Perpetuum Ritmico, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra/Andris Poga SKANI LMIC088

Remarkable performance of an unmissable Latvian rarity

The centenary of the birThof Latvian- born composer Talivaldis Kenins in 1919 was marked in his homeland wiTha series of performances including the revival of the 1974 Violin Concerto captured here. The composer studied wiThMessiaen in Paris and his music seems to be the real deal.

The concerto was written after Kenins’s emigration to Canada for the virtuoso Steven Staryk. It has a prickly Russo-Slavic accent, midcentury architectural discipline, exceptional orchestration, limitless enjoyment of what the solo instrument can do (it plays more or less constantly) and a distinctively Latvian undertone marked out by solemnity, loneliness and impassioned longing. Precise, defined expression goes hand in hand wiThwild fantasy (hints of Szymanowski).

While we’re all so excited about Mieczysław Weinberg, this piece and its composer deserve attention and the performance from Eva Bindere demands it. Her playing is technically excellent, her poise and stature undeniable, her control of the tricky textures impressive and her leading of the piece from the front as charismatic as it needs to be.

Even lyrical music can be intensely rhythmic, and the Percussion Concerto that follows shows the composer building on rhythmic sophistication suggested in the Violin Concerto, even if the pieces goes to a different place in essence. Again, excellent performances and the extra Beatae voces tenebrae is no mere filler – an unsettling monoliThthat’s worThhearing alone, perhaps first. This disc is unmissable. ANDREW MELLOR

★MARTINU

Viol in concertos: no.l (1932-33), no.2 (1943) BARTOK Sonata for solo violin Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin) Bamberg Symphony Orchestra/Jakub Hrusa

BIS BIS-2457 (SACD)

Masterful performances of Martinu from a violinist on splendid form

Frank Peter Zimmermann, the German violinist I most like, is in terrific form on this superb disc, playing Martinu’s concertos as if he has known them all his life. The Second, for Mischa Elman, comes from Martinu’s later, more lyrical period and is gratefully written for the violin. The sound is outstanding and the contrasting tempos in the opening movement seem just right. Zimmermann’s rhythm is exemplary, as also in the central movement, where busier passages are kept interesting and he thrives on the scraps of melody Martinů tosses about. He plays the finale wiThdelightful virtuosity, taking rhythmic subtleties in his stride. The orchestra under Hrůša blazes in the substantial tuttis.

The First Concerto was for Samuel Dushkin who fussed endlessly, stopped other people playing it, but never achieved a premiere. The work was lost until 1968. It is typical of the neo-Classical Martinů, wiThperky outer movements and an appealing central Andante. Zimmermann is its master – turn up the volume slightly.

He seems to approach the Bartók from a Bachian standpoint, regarding it quite straightforwardly. For me, Barnabás Kelemen’s is the interpretation of our time, but according to his own lights Zimmermann plays very well. Recommended wiThenthusiasm.

TULLY POTTER

PERICH

Drift Mulftply Violinists from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Codarts and Doelen Ensemble/Douglas Perkins

NEW AMSTERDAM/NONESUCH 075597918199

Fifty violins plus 50 microchips equal a mesmerising sonic experience

An ensemble of 50 violinists, accompanied by 50 adjacent one-bit, on-off microchips emitting raw, primitive electronic tones through miniature loudspeakers, the 100-strong group works through slowly evolving musical patterns conceived by New York-based composer and visual/sonic artist Tristan Perich.

If that makes Drift Multiply sound arid and forbidding, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, there’s a lot here that harks back to the earliest days of minimalism - indeed, Perich seems consciously to quote Glass and Reich at certain moments. But Drift Multiply is an exceptionally beautiful sonic experience, inevitably quite mesmerising in its shifting repetitions, but full of humour and surprises, too - notably when throbbing harmonies dissolve gradually into noise, then continue on into pure rhythm.

More seriously, however, Perich conjures a remarkable variety of textures and sound qualities from his unconventional ensemble, not only blurring boundaries between the electronic and the acoustic, but also encouraging deep listening into the warp and weft of the sonic material itself. At times it’s unavoidably cool and mathematical - it’s no coincidence, surely, that Perich studied maths and computer science alongside music - but overall the work’s highs, lows and unexpected byways form a profoundly moving emotional journey.

Drift Multiply gets a brisk, precise performance from violinists drawn from three Dutch institutions, wiThfocused direction from Douglas Perkins. This is a seductive, captivating disc of deeply rewarding music, brilliantly captured in warm, focused sound.

DAVID KETTLE

CARNIVAL

SAINT-SAËNS Carnival of the Animals; music by Tchaikovsky, Bartok, Grieg, Rimsky-Korsakov, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Whitacre and Marley The Kanneh-Mason Family, Olivia Colman, Michael Morpurgo (narrators)

DECCA 48511586

An enchanting tour de force from a stunningly gifted musical family

Not even the phenomenally gifted members of the Kanneh-Mason family can manage to cover every part in the perennial Saint-Saëns favourite (at least not without over-dubbing), yet it is amazing how well they acquit themselves here - wiThpianists Isata, Konya and Jeneba, violinist Braimah and cellist Sheku leading the way. The two youngest - violinist Aminata and cellist Mariatu - can be heard alongside their older siblings in the enchanting selection of pieces by Tchaikovsky, Bartok, Grieg, Rimsky-Korsakov, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Eric Whitacre that comprise Grandpa Christmas, a heartwarming story written and narrated by celebrated author Michael Morpurgo (alongside Mariatu), who also contributes and narrates a fresh set of verses for Carnival of the Animals, wiTha little help from Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman.

The two piano showstoppers - ‘Wild Donkeys’ (a tour de force, dispatched at phenomenal speed) and ‘Pianists’ (playfully sent up) - are among the highlights, as is Sheku’s sensitively poised ‘Swan’. On this evidence, first violin Braimah is another star member of the family, who relishes the staccato pecking and clucking of ‘Roosters and Hens’ and whinnying thrown harmonics of ‘Personages wiThLong Ears’ wiThinfectious aplomb. For an encore, all seven siblings join together in a sparkling arrangement of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song, captured in typically wide-ranging and alluring Decca sound.

JULIAN HAYLOCK

INS STILLE LAND SCHUBERT String Quartets: no.6 in D major D74, no.14 in D minor D810 'DeaThand the Maiden’; Songs (arr. Xandi van Dijk): Ins stille Land. Frühlingsglaube, Vorüber, ach, vorüber..., Abendstern, Auf dem Wasser zu singen, Das Grab, Schwanengesang Signum Quartet

PENTATONE PTC 5186 732

A ‘DeaThand the Maiden’ that stands tall in a crowded field

For the second CD of its Schubert series, the Signum Quartet successfully repeats the recipe already adopted in its multi-award-winning first volume (Aus der Ferne, 2018): one of the substantial late quartets is juxtaposed wiThanother one from the composer’s early years, boThpieces framed by a relevant selection of songs. The D major Quartet shows the 15-year-old Schubert wholly in the grip of the ‘Rossinimania’ that swept Vienna in the early 19Thcentury: its buoyant opening movement wouldn’t be out of place as the overture to one of the Italian’s farces. The Signum players relish its rhythmic vitality wiTha feather-light touch, while plumbing the unexpected emotional depths of the following Siciliano; an agreeably lilting Ländler of a Minuet is followed by a whirlwind Finale.

The Signum’s ‘DeaThand the Maiden’ is up there wiThthe best from a crowded field. The towering chords that articulate the first movement are astutely weighed at their various appearances, while the varying octave couplings are completely seamless (and spotlessly intoned). The variations are built as an impressive arc that proceeds inevitably from the movement’s organ-like exposition to its serene coda. The syncope-laden Scherzo, taken at a fiery lick, anticipates the Finale’s wild ride.

Idiomatically arranged by the ensemble’s violist, the interpolated songs set the stage most effectively for the two main pieces, making for a brim-full, vividly recorded CD which will hopefully soon be followed by more of its kind.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE

CELLO 360

Music by Sainte-Colombe, Dowland, Marais, Rameau, Telemann, Purcell, Grieg, Casals, Ligeti, Dutilleux,

Sollima, Chaplin, Lennon/

McCartney, Escaich and La Marca Christian-Pierre La Marca (cello)

NAIVE V726C

Imaginative and varied recital that takes in the gamut of solo cello repertoire

Recorded in the summer of 2020, this solo album was the ideal lockdown project for La Marca, newly signed up by the Naive label after a stint wiThSony Classical.

The French cellist has effectively juxtaposed pieces from the early days of string writing for viola da gamba and cello wiThmore contemporary music for unaccompanied cello, plus a few personal pop and film favourites. Only two pieces feature from the intervening years, Solveigs Song and Casals’ Song of the Birds, boThperformed in La Marca’s own imaginative, quasi-improvisational arrangements. The close recording in a church acoustic results in an intimate and very direct experience.

This does not always sound like a solo album - several of the tracks are polyphonic, La Marca having recorded all the parts individually.

In Dowland’s Lachrimae antiquae the overlaying of the six voices results in a tautly focused, compelling track.

BoThThierry Escaich’s powerful Cantus and Dutilleux’s Trois strophes exploit the eloquent low sonorities of La Marca’s 1856 Vuillaume cello and receive compelling performances. In Ligeti’s Sonata, La Marca communicates boThRomantic longing and skittish contrasts, and the electronic soundscape of La Marca’s own Timeless, a collaboration wiThthe 1163 collective, brings the music right up to the present.

JANET BANKS

★EMOTIONS

Music by Monnot, Debussy, Mond, Dvorak, Richter, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Sade, Fauré, Mendelssohn, Giazotto, Cohen, Einaudi, Elgar, Chen, Piazzolla and Joplin

Gauder Capuçon (cello) Jérôme Ducros (piano) Orchestre de chambre de Paris/Adrien Perruchon ERATO 0190295214135

A collecdon of popular encores that strikes exactly the right note

If you’re going to present a compilation of sumptuous melodies that are an integral fixture of popular musical culture, the performances need to be flawlessly stylish. This beautifully recorded CD has style to spare, along wiThelegance and well-honed expression. We are bathed in Gautier Capuçon’s honeyed cello tones and sensitive delivery of many well-loved melodies.

There is something here for everyone, from the sizzling paprika of Monti’s Csárdás, wiThprerequisite dazzling virtuosity, to the intense melancholy of Giazotto’s Adagio. Inevitably there are a few standout items, such as a wonderful rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Valse sentimentale, and an exquisite arrangement of Fauré’s Pavane. Some may feel that there is a plethora of reflective slow items in the programme. Nonetheless, Capuçon concludes this disc wiTha perky delivery of Joplin’s Entertainer, to send us on our foot-tapping way.

The skilful arrangements and orchestrations favour transparent textures that allow the range of Capuçon’s cello playing to shine. This is a CD for friends who love listening to memorable encore pieces played wiThgreat sensitivity on the cello. JOANNE TALBOT

IN MOTION

Music by Corrales, Hindson,

Schubert, Boccherini and Farr Amalia Hall (violin) United Strings of Europe/Julian Azkoul (director) Franck Fontcouberte (conductor)

BIS BIS-2529

Unfamiliar repertoire arranged for small string ensemble is well worThexploring

In case its name suggests a large ensemble, it is worThpointing out that the United Strings of Europe employs only a chamber configuration of 4/4/3/2/1.

BIS’s velvet-toned, in-depThengineering captures the ensemble’s sound wiThbeguiling warmth, balancing solo, duo and tutti lines wiThtactile presence. Only two of these pieces are remotely familiar – Schubert’s Quartettsatz, skilfully arranged by violinist–director Julian Azkoul and gaining in amplitude and dramatic thrust what it may lose in terms of the original’s sense of physical struggle, and Boccherini’s Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid, which possesses a refreshing litheness and enchanting sense of intimacy, especially when set beside the purring opulence of Herbert von Karajan’s 1970s outing wiThthe Berlin Philharmonic (DG).

In between comes Australian composer Matthew Hindson’s 2011 Maralinga for solo violin and strings, in which Amalia Hall (a former pupil of Joseph Silverstein and Pamela Frank) evokes the chilling atmosphere at the former nuclear testing site wiThblazing insight and dazzling virtuosity. Señores, les voy a contar… (2010) by El Salvadorian– Swiss composer Arturo Corrales possesses an unmistakably Latin American vibe and energy, taking us on a helter-skelter ride around his home country’s myths and legends. To finish, New Zealander GareThFarr’s Mondo Rondo (1997), a bracingly inventive suite in three movements, which climaxes in a riot of mambo-style rhythmic pizzazz.

JULIAN HAYLOCK

THE MAD LOVER

Music by J. Eccles, H. Eccles,

H. Purcell, D. Purcell, N. Matteis and Matteis the Younger Theodme Langlois de Swarte (violin) Thomas Dunford (lute)

HARMONIA MUNDI HMM902305

Violin and lute duo explore music of delicious melancholy

This disc aims to focus largely on the sentiment of melancholy and re-situate the ‘mad lover’ of John Fletcher’s 1647 tragicomedy in the reign of Charles II. Contrarily, however, much of its musical content post-dates the deaThof that ‘merry monarch’.

The duo performs works representative of three family dynasties wiThtechnical assurance, style and insight, capturing the gravitas of the slow movements of Daniel Purcell’s SixThSonata and Matteis’s Sarabanda amorosa (Suite V) wiThexpressive subtlety.

The musicians occasionally lighten the mood and texture in sprightly, crisply articulated dance pieces, notably the fourThand sixThmovements of Matteis’s G major Suite, and dispatch two of Henry Eccles’s sonatas like a well-oiled machine, adding tasteful ornamentation as appropriate. Ostinato bass compositions such as the two well-paced grounds by John Eccles that frame the programme are realised wiTha wide-ranging emotive affect and Théotime Langlois de Swarte displays cultivated virtuosity in two solo fantasias by Matteis fils.

Thomas Dunford contributes an idiomatic solo improvisation and imaginative accompaniments that offer intimacy, flexibility and textural and dynamic variety, underpinning works such as Matteis’s ‘Diverse bizzarie’ and ‘La Folia’ variations wiThan invigorating rhythmic drive. The close recording combines immediacy, firmly focused yet transparent textures and an attractive ambient warmth.

ROBIN STOWELL

THE SOUThAFRICAN DOUBLE BASS

Music by McLachlan, Viljoen, Klatzow, Earl, Hanmer, Pieterson, Roosenschoon, Stephenson and Hofmeyr

Leon Bosch (double bass)

Rebeca Omordia (piano)

MERIDIAN CDE84661

New works commissioned by and for virtuoso double bassist

Formerly principal bass wiThthe Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Leon Bosch has commissioned 40 composers from his native SouThAfrica to write for him, and recorded the nine he liked best for the latest volume in his Meridian series. European and African idioms clash in Hendrik Hofmeyr’s exploitation of Bosch’s agility, while Paul Hanmer and Allan Stephenson offer wittier vignettes of SouThAfrican life, all of them effectively contrasting extremes of register in boThinstruments. The niceties of intonation sometimes go by the board in David Earl’s Nocturne, yet this is the album’s still point as well as its standout masterpiece, evoking memories of a childhood home wiThDvořákian affection. The lyrical shape of Hans Roosenschoon’s berceuse is handled so smoothly by Bosch that its origins as a piece for cello would be hard to guess.

WiThquicker recourse to Romantic conventions, the bittersweet rhapsodies by Anton Pietersen and Michael Viljoen also bring repose to a collection which elsewhere leans on the bass’s association wiThjazz and natural affinity for mordant humour, in the finale of Grant McLachlan’s Sonatina and the main section of Peter Klatzow’s Isipho – ‘gift’ in Xhosa. Whatever the merits of the other 31 pieces, the present collection demonstrates not only Bosch’s own talent for vivid characterisation but also the huge diversity of potential responses to a commission of converging cultures.

PETER QUANTRILL

THE FIVE ELEMENTS

The Five Elements; Threnody

Tim Kliphuis Trio and Ensemble

LOWLAND RECORDS

Jazz, folk, minimalism and Bach collide in the name of the environment

Dutch violinist Tim Kliphuis’s lockdown musical project is an environment-themed one. First, The Five Elements, whose five movements wiThaccompanying texts depict exactly that, the usual Tim Kliphuis Trio line-up expanded to include additional strings and wind instrumentalists plus pianist, who themselves have melded into the core threesome wiThcomplete naturalness. An effortless blending of folk, jazz, classical and minimalism, these pieces stylistically shift on the flip of a coin, wiThthe various trio members rising organically up through the textures to take solo spots. Air opens especially strikingly: ethereal, suspended string chords, soon joined by guitar ones underpinned by bass, the harmonies hinting of jazz, on to which comes a huskily lilting Celtic-style melody from Kliphuis.

Then Threnody, which may be the most intriguing piece for those more classically inclined. This is a delicately voiced, gossamer-weighted lament which takes Bach’s famous D minor Chaconne as its foundation, then injecting harmonies, textures, techniques and inflections drawn from folk and minimalism. Kliphuis’s silky, light-toned solo lines sometimes cleave close to the original, and at other times provide more of a variation on it.

If you’re planning a physical purchase, be aware that when the album runs at just 47 minutes long, you’re buying into an idea as much as getting some music. Either way, it’s music worThhearing.

CHARLOTTE GARDNER

CONCERTS

AUGUSTIN HADELICH (VIOLIN) DANISH NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA/ MANFRED HONECK

DR CONCERT HALL 27 NOVEMBER 2020

It takes a lot more fortitude to pull off the Sibelius Violin Concerto in concert than on record. I admired Augustin Hadelich’s 2014 recording for its detail, cleanliness of tone and cool emotional insight. His performance in Copenhagen wiThthe Danish National Symphony Orchestra was similarly prepared – scrupulous in its following of the composer’s tempo markings – but lacked the power and lyricism needed at climactic moments.

Unperturbed by a consistent whining noise that invaded the DR Concert Hall, Hadelich found an intriguing way to convey a sense of building stamina in the slow movement, using articulation rather than heft and volume. For once, the piece was taken at a true Adagio di molto by conductor Manfred Honeck. That sort of narrative articulation was a little less forthcoming in the finale, on which Hadelich couldn’t quite stamp his authority.

I admit to being hard to please in the Sibelius, but Hadelich proved his individuality in a stylish encore which he has all but taken ownership of: Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Louisiana Blues Strut. It’s a blues stuck in a groove, constantly slipping back to three pivotal chords that grind upwards. It’s neither easy to play nor stylise, especially in its special final chord, but Hadelich won on boThcounts. Despite the vernacular aesthetic, he showed us some of the tonal beauty of his 1744 ‘Leduc’ Guarneri ‘del Gesu’ that we hadn’t glimpsed in the Sibelius.

ANDREW MELLOR

London

BRODSKY QUARTET

KINGS PLACE 3 NOVEMBER 2020

ALBION QUARTET

WIGMORE HALL 4 NOVEMBER 2020

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL 4 NOVEMBER

At Kings Place, the Brodsky Quartet rounded off its late-Beethoven series wiThop.130. Preceding the quartet wiTha suitably introverted account of Purcell’s G minor Chacony served to underline certain antique qualities in the Beethoven that sometimes go underappreciated. It also lightened the alien landscape of the first movement, adding 18th-century character and conventions.

Perhaps the movement’s climax lacked a degree of precision and intensity – the chilly mood of a socially distanced hall can’t have helped – but as in Schubert’s song cycles there is a place for a performance that uncovers the composer’s strange, new directions afresh. The Brodskys found a brittle elegance in the second movement’s twitching moto perpetuo, and only gradually did the Andante outgrow a Biedermeier gentility, which prevailed in the Alla danza tedesca and the Haydnesque pleasantries of Beethoven’s second finale.

At Wigmore Hall the Albion Quartet presented an even more apposite pairing, opening wiThthe most sombre of Haydn’s op.20 quartets in the notably tragic key of F minor, inflected by leader Tamsin Waley-Cohen and her colleagues wiTha stylistically sure touch of dappled sun and shade, even in the pathos-laden gestures of the Minuet. Brahms, too, knew something about smiling through tears, and while the Albion’s vibrato widened for the B flat major Quartet op.67, their essentially Classical approach took an especially intimate address to what should feel like music overheard; Ann Beilby’s viola led the suppressed melancholy of the inner movements.

WiThthe UK entering a second lockdown in November, orchestras turned to their front desks for soloists. The first concerto of Vivaldi’s La stravaganza op.4 lacked nothing for Italianate fire and brilliance from a spatially separated LPO, while leader Pieter Schoeman imbued the solo line wiTha glamorous extroversion. Concerto grosso values of collective virtuosity were more prominent in Thomas Larcher’s phantasmagorical Ouroboros (2015), wiThprincipal cellist Kristina Blaumane articulating the restless circularity of Larcher’s narrative.

PETER QUANTRILL

BOOKS

Get Beethoven!

Paul Cassidy

215PP ISBN: 978 1838593 421

TROUBADOR PUBLISHING £9.99

Paul Cassidy has been violist of the Brodsky Quartet for four decades. He is a Northern Irish Catholic, brought up in Derry as the last of 16 children – the next youngest may have been abducted soon after birth, just one of the tragedies the family had to bear.

It seems to have been quite a dysfunctional family, wiTha father who did not encourage any of his tribe of off spring. Cassidy also had to deal wiThhis country’s Catholic education system – having his hand beaten black and blue, days before his Grade 7 violin exam, was typical. Then there was the discrimination that Catholics suff ered in every sphere of life. In the case of the Cassidy clan, it was intensified because they had the aff rontery to acquire a house in a part of town that the Protestants considered their fiefdom.

It is quite a tale, but the telling reminds me of a well-oiled Irishman buttonholing you in a bar. The stream of consciousness can pall after a time, especially as it badly needs an editor – we are off ered ‘flowery’ for floury, ‘unchartered’ for uncharted, ‘it’s’ for its, ‘prize’ for prise, ‘lead’ for led and so on. Many passages could gain from being trimmed, while others need some clarification.

Reading about a musician’s early life, you want to follow his musical progress, but it often submerges for some time; and when it re-emerges, he has leapt ahead. He must have been astonishingly talented – the story of how he was accepted for the Royal College of Music can trump most people any day of the week. However, he never really explains what led him to give up the violin for the viola.

But an end to gripes. When Cassidy gets the bit between his teeth, he can really bring his tale to life, as in the chapter headed ‘War’ about the Troubles. The bar his father has run for 40 years gets blown to smithereens, undoubtedly because a member of the Provisional IRA has been off ended. It is a miracle that Paul and so many others survived those times. The deployment of the British Army, which should have improved the situation, only made matters worse. Cassidy avoided being drawn into the IRA, although he was inducted into its youThsection.

Funnily enough, the book’s title refers to an episode that took place not in Derry but in Ayr, when Cassidy’s visiting youThorchestra was constantly besieged by Scottish yobs. He was wearing a black T-shirt wiTha portrait of Beethoven on it, and was rightly aff ronted when the yobs knew just enough culture to yell: ‘Get Beethoven!’ One senses his relief when he got out of Ireland and made it to London. Some names familiar to readers of The Strad flit in and out of these pages: Hugh Maguire, Donald McInnes, Bruno Giuranna, Quintin Ballardie (misspelt), Mstislav Rostropovich. At least one name is changed to a pseudonym but this disguise will be transparent to most readers. There are good anecdotes and hoary old jokes.

The last few chapters find Cassidy joining the Brodsky Quartet, the other three of whom have been together since childhood; falling in love wiThthe cellist Jacqueline Thomas; marrying and having children. A second volume following the fortunes of the quartet is promised and I look forward to it, but I hope he will find an editor! The book is not illustrated but photos can be seen at paulcassidy.eu – even one or two would have brightened this autobiography.

TULLY POTTER

Achieving Musical Success in the String Classroom Karel Butz

240PP ISBN 9780190602895

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS £22.99

Teaching strings to any level in the classroom can be an overwhelming experience. Usually a music education graduate, whether or not they are a string player, runs a class in how to teach strings. Of course, no amount of studying can ever quite prepare one for when they actually stand in front of their class. However, as a supplement to classroom teaching, Karel Butz’s excellent book Achieving Musical Success in the String Classroom aims to be an exhaustive resource for the string orchestra teacher.

It’s obvious that Butz is working from a wealThof experience on his own, and the opening chapters are rich in material designed to shape the reader’s own teaching philosophy. No one would argue that nuts-and-bolts technique isn’t important in learning a stringed instrument, but should that be the main focus, or is there a larger picture to keep in mind? Butz has plenty to say on that topic.

After the introductory chapters, the book is divided into various sections covering almost every topic on teaching strings in a classroom. From ‘Establishing a Healthy Foundation for Learning’, to specific exercises for left- and right-hand techniques, to ‘Characteristics of a Successful Rehearsal’, to common problems and solutions in rehearsal, and even to music theory and ear training, the various chapters are organised clearly. It’s hard to think of a topic that Butz doesn’t cover at least in some way.

In the section devoted to specific exercises, Butz breaks it down even further into Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced, wiThapt activities for each level. A good number of the exercises are accompanied by example videos averaging three to five minutes in lengThfound on the publisher’s website. I viewed a selection of the videos and found them helpful in demonstrating how the activity would work in the classroom setting, wiThthe author himself executing the exercise wiThhis students. While the videos are enlightening, I found some of the written instructions a little labyrinthine; perhaps they could have been laid out in bullet points, rather than wordy prose, for ease of reading. It would also have been nice to have illustrations or diagrams for the warmup and stretching exercises he describes. These are minor quibbles, as every other aspect of the book is clear and contains myriad useful tools.

Among the most beneficial elements Butz has included are examples of administrative paperwork, such as lesson plans, a syllabus, letters to parents and rubrics for assessing auditions and playing tests. These will give the neophyte orchestra teacher wonderful stepping stones for classroom planning.

Another passage I found engaging was a section where he covers motivation in the rehearsal. It’s easy for teachers to sink into a familiar routine, and I appreciated Butz’s insistence on constantly assessing what you are including. ‘I approach each rehearsal by asking myself the following question: “If I had only one opportunity to make a positive impact on increasing students’ performance skills, what musical aspect would I most concentrate upon during rehearsal?”’ – a good reminder indeed.

Having taught a class in string techniques for many years, I’m familiar wiThthe majority of the literature out there. I would definitely recommend Butz’s book, and would have no qualms about endorsing it to students. For the beginner string orchestra teacher in particular, this book’s many teaching exercises and resources could be a life-saver.

BRIAN HODGES

The Art of Violin Retouching:

Layers, Colors, DepThand Antiquing Brian Epp

Brian Epp

56PP ISBN 9780989618106

SUSHUMNA PUBLISHING $39.50

The newly released second edition of this slim ring-bound softback book is crammed wiThinformation about techniques of retouching. It is profusely illustrated, which is vital for this inherently visual subject, although the publishing quality is not of the highest. All the technique in the world will not make up for lack of understanding of colour, especially within the very limited range used by violin restorers. I have seen experts work wiThincredibly limited tools and materials, and produce immensely subtle and sensitive varnish repairs. Nevertheless, it is important to know what can be done and what resources are available. When I began my career, information was very hard to obtain. The techniques I learnt were quite limited to begin with, but recent innovations have come quickly and widely, and looking at this book makes me worry I have become complacent in my own ways. All information shared in this way is precious.

Generally, author Brian Epp steers a fast but safe and practical course within the basic approaches, short of the further reaches of museum-level conservation methods. He only sails a bit close to the rocks, as far as I’m concerned, in his advocacy of abrasives and scrapers. These are indeed vital tools, but I have misgivings about the advice to smooThraised cracks and remove old varnish in this way rather than resetting the crack or using solvents (which, in fact, are not really discussed at all). The new chapter on antiquing gives a slightly cursory introduction to the complexities of reproducing ancient varnish, but this is an overwhelmingly solid and informative guide to the patient craft of varnish retouching, from preparation to finishing, and Brian Epp is a trustworthy teacher. His volume seems to me to fulfil its intended purpose as a workshop companion very well.

JOHN DILWORTH