RECORDINGS

BACH Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord BWV1027–29 (arr. for viola) Marie Stockmarr Becker (viola) Ilaria Macedonio (harpsichord)

CHANNEL CLASSICS CCS43721

Expressive, sweet-toned playing especially in the slow movements

Marie Stockmarr Becker draws a rich, unforced tone from her 1776 Joseph Hill viola, enhancing its mellow timbre with a restrained but tellingly sweetening vibrato. Expressive slow movements such as the lyrical opening Adagio of BWV1027 unfold with a graceful simplicity, its suspensions yearning for resolution. The austere Andante of BWV1028, with its anguished arching figurations, is also dispatched with appropriate pathos and expression. However, the bittersweet central Adagio of BWV1029, though suitably dignified, seems to drag, begging a more flexible response to the viola’s written-out ornamented line.

The emphasis in the fast movements seems to be more on caution and accuracy than on vitality or imaginative communication.

Ensemble is exemplary, but tempos tend towards the conservative, notably those of the second movements of BWV1027 and 1028 and the moto perpetuo finale of BWV1028, and the outcomes seem somewhat routine. Even with ‘period’ utensils, Becker’s more sustained, lyrical approach fails to match the natural articulation of Ilaria Macedonio’s harpsichord contribution and neither protagonist realises convincingly the exuberance of Bach’s invigorating contrapuntal interplay, even in the ebullient, concertante outer movements of BWV1029.

Channel’s recordings, captured in a reverberant church acoustic, are ideally balanced, but this disc’s meagre 45-minute duration may leave purchasers feeling somewhat short-changed.

ROBIN STOWELL

BEETHOVEN String Quartet in E minor op.59 no.2 ‘Rasumovsky’ BARTÓK String Quartet no.3 DVOŘÁK String Quartet in F major op.96 ‘American’

Juilliard Quartet

SONY CLASSICAL 19439858752

Classic quartet programme to celebrate the birthday of a refined ensemble

Ever the bastion of tradition in the face of changing musical priorities, the Juilliard Quartet (JSQ) celebrates its 75th birthday with a disc that could barely be more of a string quartet programming cliché: something Classical, something ‘modern’, something Romantic.

And there’s also a sense of homage to one of the eponymous music school’s founding fathers, Franz Kneisel, and his aim to transfer European tradition to America in the inclusion of a Dvořák quartet he premiered, alongside composers who have been at the heart of the JSQ story since the beginning, Beethoven and Bartók.

For all this, there is none of the ‘schlamperei’, or sloppiness, that Mahler attributed to tradition about the playing itself. Made in May 2019, this is the quartet’s first recording with its newest recruit, violinist Areta Zhulla, and she sounds fully integrated within a finely honed ensemble. Beethoven’s second ‘Rasumovsky’ Quartet emerges fresh-faced, especially in its sunnier passages, and there’s plenty of bounce to the Allegretto and perky vigour in the finale.

The players’ emphasis on refinement perhaps robs Bartók’s Third Quartet of some its raw gutsiness, but it’s given a fizzing performance nonetheless. And finally, Dvořák’s ‘American’ Quartet brings out the Romantic warmth of the JSQ’s string sound, which remains untroubled by the sprung rhythms and the general exuberance of the playing, not least in the joyous finale.

MATTHEW RYE

BEETHOVEN String Quartet no.7, op.59 no.1 ‘Rasumovsky’ RESCH String Quartet no.3 ‘Attacca’

Aris Quartet

GENUIN GEN21736

An intense, tightly wound ‘Rasumovsky’ plus expressive contemporary response

Now in their twelfth year together, the musicians of the Aris Quartet have won most of the young-artist prizes and bursaries worth having, and their 2017 album of op.131 and the Third ‘Rasumovsky’ raised expectations which this account of op.59 no.1 satisfies from the edgy momentum of the opening bars. The pure intonation and direct appeal of their approach to Beethoven’s mesto mood in the Adagio anticipate the great outpourings of solitude in Bellini and Berlioz, answered but not resolved by the surging euphoria of the finale.

Such a risky but precisely calibrated take on the First ‘Rasumovsky’ is prefaced by Gerald Resch’s newly composed response to the piece, transforming Beethoven’s material more or less explicitly into four continuous movements – as the ‘attacca’ subtitle implies – without courting pastiche or parody. This is not Resch’s first engagement with his Viennese Classical heritage, after a brief and ingenious variation on Schubert to complement the ‘Trout’ Quintet (Pond and Spring, recorded on Avi). The tautly drawn nerves of the Aris’s Beethoven find an expressive match in the belated expressionism of Resch’s classically balanced quartet writing. The well-balanced, detailed but not analytical recording and usefully unpretentious booklet notes by Resch are further assets to an album worth noticing.

PETER QUANTRILL

BEETHOVEN Violin sonatas: no.5 in F major op.24 ‘Spring’, no.6 in A major op.30 no.1, no.7 in C minor op.30 no.2 Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin)

Martin Helmchen (piano)

BIS 2527 (SACD)

A fine demonstration of duo playing at its peak

Zimmermann and Helmchen open their second volume of Beethoven’s sonatas with the F major ‘Spring’.

Zimmermann plays the opening melody with a silky tone, immediately mirrored by Helmchen at the outset, after which they become more forthright, with vibrant fortissimos and powerful accents. The Adagio is a gentle song. The finale is at once expansive and propulsive, good-natured at the opening and fiery later, with biting staccatos and punched vibrato accents, all aided by the close miking and resonant acoustic. There are more powerful dynamic contrasts in the A major Sonata, with the sunny main themes of the first movement punctuated by robust, attention-grabbing outbursts. After the graceful and elegant Adagio, the variations of the last movement are full of ebullience, lyricism and occasional mystery.

In the C minor Sonata they give a big-boned account of the Allegro con brio, rich and grand, its staccato dotted rhythms firmly clipped, its dynamic peaks exuberant.

Zimmermann plays the Adagio with a velvety rich sound, intimate and warm. This movement is a particular joy, a demonstration of duo playing at its peak. The Scherzo trips happily along, and they unleash some raw power into the Finale, their playing vibrant and thrilling.

TIM HOMFRAY

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COLL Violin Concerto; Hidd’n Blue; Mural; Four Iberian Miniatures; Aqua cinerea Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin) Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra/Gustavo Gimeno

PENTATONE PTC 5186951

A bold and rhapsodic concerto to suit its committed dedicatee

Spanish-born composer Francisco Coll and Moldovan violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja first met by chance (on a train to Coll’s home town of Valencia) in 2016, but they clearly built a strong rapport very quickly.

Since then he has written several pieces for her – for example his 2018 double concerto Les Plaisirs Illuminés, for Kopatchinskaja and cellist Sol Gabetta (reviewed March 2021).

Indeed, it feels like there are natural parallels between Coll’s distinctively larger-than-life, sometimes deliriously grotesque music and Kopatchinskaja’s equally heart-onsleeve, fiercely committed playing, both of their approaches also revealing a touching sincerity and vulnerability that undercuts any flamboyant excess.

As what’s effectively a musical portrait of Kopatchinskaja, Coll’s Violin Concerto, premiered just before the pandemic hit in February 2020, brings them even closer. It’s a remarkable piece – big, freewheeling, bold and rhapsodic, orchestrated with kaleidoscopic flair, and with a compelling sense of organic growth. Kopatchinskaja rises to its technical challenges magnificently – from the first movement’s spiralling figurations to its gruff, assertive cadenza – but is just as alive to its passages of eerie, almost numinous stillness. It’s a solo performance of utter commitment and conviction, matched by that of the Luxembourg PO under Gustavo Gimeno, which provides impeccable, sharply etched support.

Coll tackles his own country’s folk music in the sarcastic but deeply sensual Four Iberian Miniatures, which play with layers upon layers of irony and detachment, and receive a superbly theatrical account from Kopatchinskaja. Three powerful orchestral works – Hidd’n Blue, Mural and Aqua cinerea – get brilliant, vivid performances to complete a deeply rewarding disc.

DAVID KETTLE

PROUST, LE CONCERT RETROUVÉ FAURÉ Violin Sonata no.1 in A major op.13; Nocturne no.6 in D flat major op.63; Berceuse op.16; Après un rêve HAHN A Chloris; L’heure exquise LISZT Isoldes Liebestod (after Wagner); and music by Schumann, Chopin and Couperin Théotime Langlois de Swarte (violin)

Tanguy de Williencourt (piano)

HARMONIA MUNDI 902508

An exquisite musical madeleine to be enjoyed again and again

This is one of those rare instances where the concept, material and performances align with resounding success. The starting point is the recital hosted by the writer Marcel Proust in a private room of the Ritz in Paris on 1 July 1907.

Fauré, who was to have performed, withdrew at the last minute, but his music – about which Proust claimed he could have written ‘a 300-page volume’ – remained the focus.

Alongside the op.13 Violin Sonata, Berceuse and Après un rêve are the big-boned solo-piano Nocturne no.6, as well as other piano pieces by Chopin and Schumann, and Liszt’s piano transcription of Isoldes Liebestod. Couperin extends the French line back to two centuries earlier. Violinand-piano transcriptions of popular songs by Reynaldo Hahn (Proust’s one-time lover) top and tail the programme.

Apart from offering a delicious flavour of the Paris salons (and the inescapable influence of Wagner), the two musicians on this disc bring a further perspective by playing on historical instruments – the ‘Davidov’ Strad of 1708 and an Érard piano of 1891 – infusing the programme with a distinctive, transportive colouring.

The performances are unfailingly intelligent and idiomatic, not least the dark, enigmatic beauty of the Andante of the Fauré Sonata, which precedes a needle-sharp Scherzo. The sound is top-notch too. The overall package strikes with the force and intrigue of a Proustian madeleine moment.

EDWARD BHESANIA

ONSLOW String quintets: no.23 in A minor op.58, no.31 in A major op.75 (Vol.4)

Elan Quintet

NAXOS 8.574187

Attractive and lyrical playing in latest volume of late Classical quintets

This project’s fourth volume of music by French composer George Onslow (1784-1853) reveals the Elan Quintet as an excellent advocate for two more of his 34 genial and mostly ‘flexibly constituted’ string quintets. Although first violinist Alexander Nikolaev and cellist Benjamin Birtle are predominant, their colleagues also contribute significantly to the dialogue. Even bassist Matthew Baker gets in on the act, whether providing lyrical thematic material, as in the first movement of op.58, reinforcing the cello line or underpinning the texture with weighty pedal notes at significant structural points.

Tempos seem largely apposite and remarkable unity of musical purpose and realisation are evident, not least in op.75’s second movement, the driving scale theme of which, though more chromatic, resembles the principal idea of the Scherzo of Schumann’s Piano Quintet.

However, the Elan’s dynamic range seems much too narrow throughout. The players convey extrovert moments such as op.58’s stormy Allegro impetuoso with due brio, but play far too healthily the hushed markings at the opening and close of the following movement. They also underplay the contrasting dynamics of op.75’s Andante sostenuto and make only half-hearted attempts at realising Onslow’s ‘glissé’ markings, reinforced by specific fingerings, in the same work’s final Allegretto.

ROBIN STOWELL

PAGANINI 24 Caprices op.1 Alina Ibragimova (violin)

HYPERION CDA68366 (2 CDS)

Lockdown recording yields atmospheric communing between player and violin

I was knocked for six by Ning Feng’s Caprices (reviewed March 2021) and it is difficult to get this typically serious Hyperion production into perspective. It takes two CDs, partly because Alina Ibragimova plays more repeats – No.4, one of her successes, amounts to the sinister timing of 9’11”.

In an endearing addendum to Jeremy Nicholas’s interesting essay, producer Andrew Keener relates how in April 2020 Ibragimova brought him groceries from Waitrose. What was she doing during the lockdown, he asked? Practising the Caprices.

They made the recordings on four days in May and June at Henry Wood Hall, in a virtually empty building.

Did this near-solitude affect the performances? Again and again, my notes read ‘a bit slow’. The effect is of an excellent violinist communing with her violin, especially in the atmospheric opening bars of some pieces – nos.1 to 4, 6 to 10, 12, 18, 19 and 24 (apart from a scrambled Variation II) are well played.

I miss Ning’s feeling for narrative. Nos.5, 13, 14 and 23 have overstrenuous passages with discoloured tone, and the Amoroso section of no.21 sounds positively soupy.

Overall the recordings are good – in the striking effects of no.23 you almost see the mechanics of violin and bow.

TULLY POTTER

PAGANINI String Quartet no.3; Three Duetti Concertanti Gabriele Pieranunzi (violin)

Fabrizio Falasca (violin) Francesco Fiore (viola) Alessandra Leardini (cello) Paolo Carlini (bassoon)

CPO 555 310-2

Chamber music displays another side to the virtuoso violinist–composer

If you have ever wondered what a string quartet by Rossini might have sounded like, then here is the answer. Such is Paganini’s reputation as a virtuoso sans pareil, it is easy to overlook his dedication to chamber music and mastery of sonata style.

Anyone expecting the fizzing acrobatics of the solo caprices and concertos, or even the extrovert playfulness of Rossini’s sonatas for strings, can think again. Indeed, the last of Paganini’s three quartets, composed in 1815 for the King of Sardinia, is remarkable for its lack of pyrotechnical pizzazz, even though the first violin dominates proceedings throughout.

Not surprisingly, counterpoint is kept to a bare minimum – the texture is predominately tune-andaccompaniment – and everything is kept on its Classical best behaviour in the manner of Boccherini. The expert quartet ensemble, led by Gabriele Pieranunzi, plays with unfailing precision, technical expertise, and a natural feel for the idiom, although even they cannot rescue it from the outer fringes of the mainstream repertoire. On this occasion it is the ‘filler’ that turns out to be more instantly appealing: three sparkling duets for violin and bassoon, in which the music’s jauntiness and technical acrobatics combine infectiously to create bracing musical vistas bathed in Mediterranean sunshine.

JULIAN HAYLOCK

JULIAN HAYLOCK

RAVEL String Quartet in F major LA TOMBELLE String Quartet in E major op.36

Mandelring Quartet

AUDITE 97.709

An exploration of the Germanic roots of the French string quartet

Like a number of French composers – Franck and Debussy among them, Boulez too – both Ravel and Fernand de la Tombelle abandoned the string quartet after a single shot at the form. That’s not the only reason they make an interesting pairing on this disc by the German Mandelring Quartet. An organist and pianist who taught at the Schola Cantorum and counted Saint-Saëns and Massenet among his friends, La Tombelle was a prolific composer (as well as an amateur poet, photographer, astronomer and cook) whose 1895 quartet reminds us of French Romanticism’s German heritage.

Only eight years later, Ravel’s Quartet was in a newer, proudly Gallic vein.

La Tombelle’s Quartet is in fact only at its most ardently Wagnerian and Straussian in the Largo introduction to the first movement and in the third-movement Adagio. Elsewhere there’s a more Classical restraint. The Mandelring Quartet points up these stylistic and textural contrasts, playing with a conviction that makes them ideal ambassadors.

As if to prove a cliché, the Mandelring’s Ravel is less successful, lacking the pliable rhythm and nuanced tone-colouring of the most magical performances, and with melodic themes sometimes presenting themselves apologetically. Finely recorded and imaginatively programmed, this release is certainly revealing, even if it’s not exactly transcendent.

EDWARD BHESANIA

SCHUMANN Piano Trios: no.1 in D minor op.63, no.2 in F major op.80, no.3 in G minor op.110; Piano Quartet in E flat major op.47; Piano Quintet in E flat major op.44; Phantasiestücke in A minor op.88

Trio Wanderer, Christophe Gaugué (viola) Catherine Montier (violin)

HARMONIA MUNDI 902344.46

Freewheeling, elegantly vital Schumann from French musical explorers

Last year Trio Wanderer collaborated with violist Christophe Gaugué and violinist Catherine Montier in the Shostakovich Piano Quintet, with great success. Now they’re reunited for this generous Schumann programme of the works for piano and strings spanning his marriage to virtuoso pianist Clara Wieck, and it’s a set that deserves a prime spot on anyone’s shelf.

Overall these are lucidly textured, light and crisply articulated readings, the many dividends of which include the crystalline definition of the Quintet’s final fugue; and while essentially it’s all feeling at the Classical end of the performance spectrum, it’s far from cool, as the Quartet’s gently ardent Andante cantabile demonstrates up top.

More pluses are the sensitive balancing of parts, especially from pianist Vincent Coq; the musicians’ colourful responsiveness to Schumann’s fast successions of contrasting sound worlds and sharp dynamic switches; the right-feeling tempos and rhythmic impetus, combined with fun-filled risk-taking: the willingness to sound less than pristine at the opening of the Quartet’s finale, followed by the freewheeling élan as they work their way towards its close, in unfailingly limpet-tight ensemble.

The recording itself is another magic ingredient: far away enough to give the instruments space, but closely, intently enough to showcase the intimate, conversational feel of the playing. Highly recommended.

CHARLOTTE GARDNER

SIBELIUS Violin Concerto op.47; Humoresques opp.87 & 89

JOSEPHSON Celestial Voyage Fenella Humphreys (violin)

BBC NOW/George Vass

RESONUS RES10277

A concerto with strength of spirit plus a heavenly journey postscript

Fenella Humphreys was once taught by Sidney Griller, whose Griller Quartet still offers a masterclass – courtesy of Decca – in what Sibelius meant when he marked a movement ‘Adagio di molto’. That’s as relevant to the D minor Violin Concerto as the D minor String Quartet, both of which are arguably suffering in our restless, hectic age.

How do Humphreys and her Pietro Guarneri fare here? Her Adagio is perhaps not sufficiently molto, but she does access the fortitude implied by that marking by means of more than just her chosen speed, and can be applauded on that front. Otherwise, the reading of the opening movement lacks through momentum, frequently slowing to linger and failing to tap figuration for its inbuilt forward drive. I do feel the concerto as a whole is more effective when it feels more born of the outdoors, though I like the slightly lumbering feel and woody tone of the finale, which never tries to dazzle. The music can work in this lowoctane mode.

There is nothing wrong with Humphreys’ technique, as the six Humoresques show. With Vass and the BBC NOW in cahoots, she accesses the serious coquettishness and oscillating character of the pieces with charm and seems entirely inside the style of each. Particular highlights include the knotty conversation of op.87 no.1, the gentle comedy of op.89 no.1, and the light colours and string harmonics of op.89 no.2.

It would have been good to hear a contemporary piece that spoke more of the here and now than Nors Josephson’s Celestial Voyage, which appears more like a postscript to the Sibelius. Resonus’s sound is impressive.

ANDREW MELLOR

YSAŸE Sonatas for Solo Violin James Ehnes (violin)

ONYX 4198

Compelling narrative, technical genius, wit – what more could one ask for?

Supreme technical facility comes as standard with James Ehnes, but for any doubters here is proof once more. Even the recorded sound, in which he had a hand, is excellent. This is polished, patrician playing. In the Fugato of the First Sonata the fugal lines are nicely phrased and eventoned, and there is grand, punchy playing of con brio multiple-stopped chords. The Obsession first movement of Sonata no.2 is fierce and muscular, and there are vivid theatrical contrasts in the last movement, Les Furies, as fragile when pp as it is furious when ff. In the Third Sonata, Ballade, Ehnes shows his skills as a raconteur, leading us through, and drawing us into, a compelling and complex narrative, full of glistening colour.

The two tranquillo sections in the Allemande of the Fourth Sonata are beguiling, and in the second Ehnes brings mournful grace to its flowing counterpoint. The Finale is a tour de force of agility and precision in moto-perpetuo semiquavers, with a joyful più animato finish. In the mysterious L’aurore movement of the Fifth Sonata Ehnes again has a story to tell, and there are delightful throwaway touches amid the bravura of the Danse rustique. Ehnes is sultry in the sixth sonata, playing with a degree of rhythmic freedom and some capricious wit.

TIM HOMFRAY

OYSTER DUO: STOLEN PEARLS BLOCH Prayer BOTTESINI Tarantella GERSHWIN Prelude no.2 RACHMANINOFF Song op.4 no.4 SCHUBERT Arpeggione Sonata D821 SCHUMANN Fantasiestücke op.73 SHOSTAKOVICH Adagio

(The Limpid Stream) GINASTERA Cinco canciones populares argentinas op.1

Nicholas Schwartz (double bass)

Anna Fedorova (piano)

CHANNEL CLASSICS CCS43121

Bass and piano duo breaks the mould and excels in borrowed repertoire

Many performers have raided other repertoires to enhance that of their instrument, and so it is de rigueur for the double bass to do likewise.

But few bassists manage to be convincing in solo works, their deep, husky tones consigned to bolster the orchestral lines.

From the first note in this beautifully recorded disc, Nicholas Schwartz eschews such stereotypes. Already a much-lauded bassist and cellist, he immediately compels the listener to share his narrative. He is a masterful storyteller, making the bass sing in the manner of a cello. No surprise, then, that some of the items are vocally oriented, such as the sumptuous and melancholic Rachmaninoff song ‘O never sing to me again’, where his dulcet tones implore and coax.

Schwartz and pianist Anna Fedorova are equally persuasive in the adept arrangement of Ginastera’s Canciones populares argentinas.

Bloch’s Prayer refers to cantorial incantation, and once again Schwarz eloquently captures the emotional range, from the dolente whisper to fervent devotion. In performing the much-borrowed Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Schwartz allows the bass to shine, and in Schubert’s Arpeggione, the Lied quality to resonate. For Gershwin’s Prelude no.2 he begins with a jazzy introduction and showcases his affinity with that genre as well. He is in essence a masterful bassist across the repertoire, and a figure to inspire.

JOANNE TALBOT

SONATAS FOR THREE VIOLINS Music by Baltzar, Buonamente, Dornel, Fontana, Fux, G. Gabrieli, Hacquart, Pachelbel, Torelli, Purcell, Schmelzer and Sommer Ensemble Diderot/

Johannes Pramsohler (violin)

AUDAX ADX13729

Radiant acoustics and pungent 17thcentury harmony with an ad-libbed feel

For this eighth release in Ensemble Diderot’s series of recordings for Audax, the term ‘sonata’ is used in its broadest sense of a generic texture consisting of three upper parts and bass, played here on cello and harpsichord/organ. Beguilingly engineered, the enchanting sounds created by this top period-instrument group are gently cushioned by the radiant acoustics of Cologne’s Klaus von Bismarck Saal. Of the dozen composers represented here, Purcell’s tantalising modal-scalic harmonic inflections, as embraced in the Three Parts upon a Ground, make the most startling impression. Yet there is so much to savour here, including a captivating reading of Pachelbel’s ubiquitous Canon (and Gigue) that combines the velvety sonics of a modern outfit with deft, virtuoso inflections, creating the uncanny impression of being extemporised as the music goes along.

AUDAX RECORDS

Another standout work is Johann Schmelzer’s Sonata a 3 violini, whose interweaving suspensions and strikingly idiomatic writing rival even his 17th-century Italian colleagues. It is fascinating to compare Schmelzer’s chamber-style restraint with Torelli’s tendency towards Venetian brilliance and splendour and Fux’s ingenious contrapuntal interweaving. Ensemble Diderot responds to every change of mood and style with alacrity, imparting to the slower sections a sense of dreamy introspection that renews one’s sense of wonder at these priceless musical gems.

JULIAN HAYLOCK

SONGS OF SOLITUDE Music by Aho, Bach, Doderer, Gardella, Hosokawa, Mansurian, Ōshima, Powell, G. Prokofiev, Samuel, Serebrier and Spinei Hiyoli Togawa (viola)

BIS 2533 (SACD)

Intriguing commissions on a contemplation of lockdown solitude

The confinement enforced upon the world since the beginning of last year has brought forth many encouraging musical projects. This recording brings together music written during 2020 at the instigation of Berlinbased violist Hiyoli Togawa, nicely counterpointed by the sarabandes from Bach’s Cello Suites and warmly recorded in an enveloping acoustic, each piece seemingly leading inevitably to the next. Toshio Hosokawa’s haunting setting of the folk song Sakura makes for an impressive start. Johanna Doderer (Shadows) and Rhian Samuel (Salve Nos) have written engagingly characterful music that is nothing like your usual doleful elegy – this would be José

Serebrier’s Nostalgia, a piece centred on the viola’s C string and including some sobbing 6ths along the way.

Lack of space precludes commenting in detail on each piece, but Togawa faithfully brings each composer’s characteristic traits to the fore: the angular phrases of Tigran Mansurian’s Ode to Silence or Cristina Spinei’s Keep Moving (the latter inspired by one of Togawa’s paintings), Gabriel Prokofiev’s whimsical Five Impressions of Self-

Isolation, or the thorough workout routine that is Michiru Ōshima’s Silence, complete with fast runs and double-stopped passages. Kalevi Aho’s moody On the Horizon includes a part for a vocalising violist, and Oscar-nominated John Powell cheats by employing multi-tracking in the witty Perfect Time for a Spring Cleaning. But just as impressive is Togawa’s subtle differentiation between Bach’s sundry sarabandes, be they stately (C major), sallow (C minor), dramatic (D minor) or majestic (G major), before the fade-out finale of Federico Gardella’s Consolation brings the journey to a peaceful ending.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE