Reviews

James Ehnes: hearty, forthright Bach

BENJAMIN EAOLVEGA

BACH Solo Sonatas and Partitas BWV1001–1006 James Ehnes (violin)

ONYX 4228

Originality and imagination characterise this first-class solo Bach album

In June of last year James Ehnes, becalmed by the pandemic, turned his home into a studio and recorded Ysaÿe’s Sonatas and Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas. The Ysaÿe disc is out in the world (reviewed July 2021), and here is its companion. Much of this is hearty, forthright Bach, playing to fill a big hall, with what seems an acoustic to match. But not all of it, by any means. The opening Adagio of the first Sonata is pure-toned, spacious and meditative. The fugue comes as an assertive contrast, with bold colours, building constantly toward great power. Ehnes skilfully dovetails the voices of the Siciliana, producing a wistful dialogue, and the finale Presto races along.

The Allemanda of the First Partita is severe, and its Double simple and graceful. In the Corrente, as so often, he simply does what it says, albeit with infinite finesse and subtle shaping. In the Double he is again very fast, and non-legato – it has a devilish whiff to it. The Tempo di Borea is punchy and dynamic, an open-hearted dance. After the serenity of the Grave which opens the Second Sonata the Fuga has full-blooded tone, with punched double-stops. He is emphatic. The veiled, silken tone of the Andante is balm after the fugue.

In the epic Ciaccona of the Second Partita he crafts the first great span with wonderful inevitability, building power and tonal richness before giving way to tenderness as the music shifts to D major. The Fuga of the C major Sonata mixes light and shade, creamy legato and dramatic emphasis, in a great eloquent whole. The Preludio of the Third Partita is steadier than some, the playing clean and precise. The dances that follow have courtly elegance.

TIM HOMFRAY

BACH Three Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord BWV1027-9, Organ Trio Sonata no.3 in D minor BWV527 (arr. Cunningham), Allemande from Flute Partita in A minor BWV1013 (arr. Cunningham)

Sarah Cunningham (viola da gamba)

Richard Egarr (harpsichord)

AVIE AV2491

Top musicians show fine teamwork in Bach sonatas and transcriptions

Sarah Cunningham and Richard Egarr demonstrate their excellent rapport in these well-balanced interpretations, captured in 2017.

Cunningham coaxes a lyrical flexibility from her gamba and is equal to most of their programme’s technical challenges, particularly in the concertante outer movements of BWV1029 and the concluding Allegro of BWV1028.

Her expressive realisation of the opening Adagio of BWV1028 is also pleasing, but she introduces some uncomfortable left-hand shifts in the poignant Adagio of BWV1029. Egarr matches Cunningham’s energy and poise and shapes phrases with due attention to the Baroque practice of stressing the ‘good’ notes, notably in the lyrical opening Adagio of BWV1027. These performers’ conversational interplay in the fast movements is consistently buoyant and animated, the finale of BWV1028 especially showcasing their virtuosity and rhythmic drive. Tempos are par for the course.

Arrangements of other works by Bach complete the menu.

Cunningham’s enterprising version of BWV527 complements the three gamba sonatas well, its easy-going opening Andante highlighting the interaction of the two protagonists and its final Vivace displaying their technical agility and control; but her account of her arrangement of the opening Allemande of BWV1013 seems sluggish and ponderous. The recorded sound reproduces the texture and resonances of both instruments in a sympathetic church acoustic.

ROBIN STOWELL

BARTÓK BOUND VOL.2 BARTÓK String Quartets nos.3, 5 & 6

Ragazze Quartet

CHANNEL CLASSICS CCS42421

Unerring instincts pay dividends in the continuation of a Dutch Bartók cycle

This second volume of a Bartók cycle from the Dutch-based Ragazze Quartet maintains the very high standards of the first. If continuity is prized over contrast in the jumpcut episodes of the Third Quartet, the players’ smoothly cultured but not studio-bound approach pays dividends in the valedictory nature of the Sixth.

The tone is set by Annemijn Bergkotte’s opening viola solo, sensitive but not over-literal in shaping and accenting its rise and elegiac fall. More astringent attack and improvisational handling of the first movement’s counterpoint could be imagined, but cellist Rebecca Wise raises the temperature once more with her taut outlining of the work’s theme to launch the second, and there is exemplary definition to the ensemble’s collective outlining of Bartók’s blurred harmonic edges and rhythmic slippages.

The most powerfully individual of the three performances is the Quartet no.5: compact and restless from the outset, and most evidently led from the front by violinist Rosa Arnold. She and her colleague Jeanita Vriens-van Tongeren elect not to overplay their hand in the blues violin writing of the opening conflict, building up tension that is beautifully sustained through the inner nocturnes, and on the brink of audibility in the phantom pizzicatos of the fourth movement. The pay-off comes with a finale of exhilarating catharsis that doesn’t require studied exaggeration of the coda’s music-box insert to make its point. A first-class recording complements the unerring Bartókian instincts of the Ragazze.

PETER QUANTRILL

BRAHMS Sonatas nos.1 in F minor & 2 in E flat major, op.120; Sonatensatz (Scherzo from the ‘FAE’ Sonata)

WoO2 SCHUMANN Adagio and Allegro in A flat major op.70

Philip Dukes (viola)

Peter Donohoe (piano)

CHANDOS CHAN20146

An uncommonly strong partnership shines in core works for viola and piano

The two viola sonatas written by Johannes Brahms towards the end of his life belong to the instrument’s core repertoire but were first conceived for the clarinet. The viola transcription was supervised and approved by Brahms, who, however, wasn’t completely convinced, calling it ungeschickt und unerfreulich (‘awkward and unrewarding’). There is indeed a case for going back to the original versions of several passages, thus avoiding the tweaking of melodic lines caused by transpositions that were evidently intended to spare violists from staying in high positions for too long. Many eminent players nevertheless prefer the revised version, as Philip Dukes does in the present recording, but a few passages in the first movements of both works fail to sound convincing.

Dukes commands a warmly attractive sound and a wide variety of vibrato but occasionally indulges in ungainly slides that disturb the line. On his 1989 Hiroshi Iizuka instrument, he brings forth some sonorous double-stops while achieving breathtaking pianissimos elsewhere (a passing misreading in Brahms’s Sonatensatz is more than made up for by his sensitive phrasing of the central section). In the main section of Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro, Dukes’s crisp articulation convincingly impersonates the French horn for which the piece was originally written. Schumann’s marking, mit innigem Ausdruck (‘with intimate expression’) at the start is beautifully realised by Dukes and Peter Donohoe, who is an uncommonly strong partner throughout the recital and has an attentive ear for inner voices in the intricate piano parts.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE

BRUCH Violin Concerto no.1 in G minor op.26 BARBER Violin Concerto op.14 1 VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The Lark Ascending Sonoko Miriam Welde (violin)

Oslo Philharmonic/Tabita Berglund, Joshua Weilerstein 1

LAWO CLASSICS LWC1222

A quality debut that includes perhaps one of the finest Larks you’ll ever hear

Sonoko Miriam Welde’s name reflects this young violinist’s Norwegian/Japanese parentage. Starting as a Suzuki pupil, she has accumulated a string of distinguished teachers. She was 23 and 24 when making this well-recorded debut disc.

It contains one performance of the highest quality. I hear the influence of Vilde Frang, one of her mentors, in the way the notes bubble up, ineffably birdlike, in the outer sections of The Lark Ascending. Welde is one of the few since Hugh Bean to realise fully how vital the doublestops are in creating the pastoral atmosphere. Tabita Berglund and the orchestra are in accord and this is one of the finest Larks I have heard.

The Barber’s first two movements, with Joshua Weilerstein a positive partner, are also beautifully done.

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The duo sorts out the unsatisfactory finale between them and you will not hear this work much better performed.

After a baleful first solo violin note, the Bruch seems sluggish in the first movement; I keep waiting for something to happen. It finally does in the transition to the second, which is magical, and the main Andante theme is nicely phrased, but in the finale Berglund makes the big orchestral broadening very unspontaneous.

A raspberry to the booklet essayist for calling Albert Spalding, who premiered the Barber, ‘British’: he was as American as blueberry pie.

TULLY POTTER

ELGAR Cello Concerto in E minor, op.85 BRIDGE Oration – Concerto elegiaco for cello and orchestra Gabriel Schwabe (cello)

ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra/Christopher Ward

NAXOS 8.574320

Nuanced playing in works that muse on the losses of the First World War

A shadow of loss from the impact of the First World War informs the narrative of both these works – the rarely performed Bridge Oration a robust outcry against the futility of conflict. Cast in sombre harmonic hues, the dark mood eschews any respite, gritty stretched tonality colouring the invention. Gabriel Schwabe masters all the technical demands of the solo part with utmost aplomb and is impressively expressive in depicting the bleak character of the music, which juxtaposes passages of explosive intensity with other visions that are more macabre and ghostly in expression.

In contrast, the Elgar is more romantically nostalgic with a wider range of emotions. From the arresting opening chords of the Concerto Schwabe is masterful, suavely intoning on his 1695 Guarneri cello. Where this version is particularly successful is in the choice of tempos, which allow for poetry but without impeding the direction of each phrase.

Equally, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Christopher Ward are superbly responsive partners, and the clear recording creates a welcome transparency that enables fascinating inner instrumental detail to come to the fore. By turns brilliant in the Allegro molto and reflectively expressive in the Lento, Schwabe is particularly eloquent in the Moderato section of the concluding Allegro.

Here his full array of vibrato colours and bowing really nuance the writing.

JOANNE TALBOT

JANÁČEK On an Overgrown Path SUK Meditation on the Old Czech Chorale ‘Saint Wenceslas’ for string orchestra op.35a DVOŘÁK Nocturne in B major for strings op.40 (B47)

Camerata Zürich/Igor Karsko

ECM 4856432

A fabulous reimagining for string orchestra of Janáček’s piano cycle

On an Overgrown Path is described in Thomas Meyer’s sleeve note as ‘a collection of intimate memories and inklings.’ It is so elusive a collection that any re-rendering offers the tantalising prospect of divining further truths from between its notes – or even just clues.

We have a double re-rendering here, in the form of violinist Daniel Rumler’s 2016 arrangement of the work for string orchestra and the inclusion of a new set of poems by Maïa Brami. She imagines a scene in which ‘Janáček enters the forest to look for Otto, the son of the young, adored Kamila Stösslová and in it, mixes memory and longing.’ The imagined words, read by Brami herself in French, are designed to be interspersed but are tracked separately here.

Joy and tragedy from the Camerata Zürich players

FLORIAN KALOTAY/ECM RECORDS

ALEXANDER R. BROWN

Played by massed strings, Janáček’s messages from the village feel more freighted with the simple joys and deep tragedies of the composer’s life, while the muddy boots of his raw folk material (and his own musical insistence) take on an extra dimension with stringed instrument’s inherent referencing of the fiddle tradition. Perhaps the poems feel a little metropolitan and sophisticated – and French – alongside them.

But there is more here: spatial and echo effects, the ebbing and flowing that a multi-human ensemble can add to a pianist’s hand separation, and the evocative ‘old-cinema’ quality of ECM’s distinctive sound. The interpretation of the Janáček feels long-marinated and the sense of an ensemble sound is underlined by the two tracks that frame it: Suk’s Mediation on the Old Czech Chorale ‘Saint Wenceslas’ – whose beautifully metallic, crepuscular texture has a palpable sense of strain – and a pleasing full-stop (after all Janáček’s non sequiturs) in the form of Dvořák’s Nocturne. Recommended.

ANDREW MELLOR

NOT ALL CATS ARE GREY

LIGETI String Quartet no.1 ‘Métamorphoses nocturnes’ BARTÓK String Quartet no.2 DUTILLEUX String Quartet ‘Ainsi la nuit’

Hanson Quartet

APARTÉ MUSIC AP261

Vivid 20th-century quartets played with full-blooded passion

Ignore the concept title: the assertion that ‘not all cats are grey at night’ is intended here to indicate that not all 20th-century music sounds the same – in other words, similarly unpleasant. Would anybody argue that it does?

Taken purely on its own terms, however, this second disc from the young, Paris-based Hanson Quartet is a thrilling ride through three iconic quartets of the past century. So vivid and vibrant are their accounts, in fact, that you’d be hard pressed to notice the disc’s theme of night – an idea that’s stretched rather far to encompass Bartók’s Second Quartet, it has to be said.

In a class of its own: the Doric Quartet

The Bartók shows the Hanson players delivering full-on, late-Romantic richness, almost fighting for attention with ever more intense levels of expression amid the composer’s dense motivic textures. They make a mighty noise, too, in the Quartet’s hard-driven rhythmic dance music, capturing the work’s balance of intellectual rigour and visceral power with equal care and attention. They play up the theatricality in Ligeti’s First Quartet (Métamorphoses nocturnes), too, in a succession of episodes so feverishly vivid they could only have come from a dream. But behind their passion for conveying this hallucinatory music to the limit, there’s a steely sense of solid architecture and pacing, backed up by their impressive technical abilities.

If the drama and passion wind down slightly, it’s in Dutilleux’s Ainsi la nuit, which gets a sensitive, thoughtful reading that captures its rhapsodic spontaneity brilliantly, and conveys the composer’s exquisite sonic effects really quite magically.

There’s a fair amount of breathing picked up in the close, warm recording, but this is a deeply rewarding disc from a quartet clearly marked out for great things.

DAVID KETTLE

MENDELSSOHN String Quartets: no.2 in A minor, op.13, no.3 in D major op.44 no.1, no.4 in E minor op.44 no.2

Doric Quartet

CHANDOS CHAN 20257 (2 CDS)

A magnificent conclusion to an outstanding quartet cycle

For the second and final volume in its Mendelssohn cycle, the Doric Quartet focuses on the composer’s two most popular quartets in D major and E minor (from the op.44 set of three) in performances that combine the adrenal stile brillante of the Melos Quartet’s classic 1970s set for DG, with a dynamic suppleness and subtlety all its own. There is a beguiling seamlessness and unforced clarity to the quartet’s sound world, enhanced by exquisite vibrato shadings that at times reduce to a skin-tingling senza (most memorably in the D major Quartet’s gently swaying second movement). All four are wonderful players, but leader Alex Redington’s sleight-of-hand negotiation of Mendelssohn’s often tricky figurations deserves special mention.

In Mendelssohn’s outer movements (especially in the works of his middle period), is it all to easy to adopt a kind of ‘heads down and see you at the end’ mindset, yet the Doric players somehow find endlessly imaginative ways of characterising the music’s peaks and troughs without losing an imperative sense of forward momentum. The early A minor Quartet is also shaped with such keen sensitivity to musical atmosphere so that it takes its place naturally alongside such other prodigy miracles at the String Octet and First String Quintet.

There are a number of distinguished Mendelssohn quartet cycles currently available, but the Doric Quartet is quite frankly in a class of its own, complemented by lucid and immaculately balanced sound from Jonathan Cooper. To hear this ensemble metaphorically dance and smile its way through the Fourth Quartet’s irresistibly contagious E major scherzo is alone worth the price of admission.

JULIAN HAYLOCK

RÓŻYCKI Violin Concerto op.70; Two Nocturnes for violin and piano op.30; Pan Twardowski op.45 (excerpts)

Ewelina Nowicka (violin) Pola Lazar (piano) Michał Krężlewski (piano) Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Katowice/Zygmunt Rychert

CPO 555421-2

A timely re-release for a sinuous performance of Polish repertoire

Ewelina Nowicka was barely out of her teens when she made this, the first recording of Ludomir Różycki’s unfinished Violin Concerto. First issued on an obscure French label it sank with hardly a ripple; CPO has done everyone a favour by restoring it to circulation. Interest in both the composer and the concerto was recently revived by Janusz Wawrowski’s Warner Classics recording (reviewed in June 2021), but the new orchestration is a gaudy affair compared to the previous version by Zygmunt Rychert, who conducts it here with palpable affection for both the dappled, Szymanowskian orchestral textures as well as the more traditionally Romantic sweep of Różycki’s melodies.

A boxy recording for the complementary violin-and-piano items does neither them nor Nowicka’s tone any favours, but a tweak of the volume helps to bring out the shy, almost Elgarian qualities of the two nocturnes. Where the album has the field to itself is in the violinist’s own delightful transcription of music from Różycki’s 1921 ballet Pan Twardowski, based on the adventures of a legendary Polish sorcerer. Falling in style on the spectrum between Glazunov’s Seasons and Ravel’s Daphnis, the entire score is worth reviving, as anyone listening to Nowicka’s strong and sinuously drawn account of the opening ‘Polonaise tragique’ may agree.

PETER QUANTRILL

SAINT-SAËNS Cello Concerto no.1 in A minor op.33; Symphony no.1 in E flat major op.2; Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila Astrig Siranossian (cello) Philharmonie Südwestfalen/Nabil Shehata

ALPHA 764

Affection for the music shines through in a tribute for composer’s centenary

The Saint-Saëns centenary has thrown up a few surprises and here is another that turns received notions of musical rhetoric on their head. The general tendency in the First Concerto’s opening section is to go for high drama, and no one captures the attendant sense of hurtling forward momentum quite as compellingly as Jacqueline du Pré (EMI/Warner).

Yet, as Astrig Siranossian demonstrates, playing a golden-toned 1676 Rugeri, there is also a strong chamber-scale sense of introspection (especially in the central minuet), which if nurtured sensitively can subtly alter our musical perspectives.

Siranossian can occasionally overcushion Saint-Saëns’s more demonstrative outbursts, but heard in context her gently affectionate approach is deeply satisfying.

Siranossian’s opulent sound is well caught by the microphones, although a tighter orchestral image would have helped bring out the score’s Mendelssohnian deftness.

Rather than feature another cello concerto, Nabil Shehata directs affectionate performances of Saint- Saëns’s First Symphony and the Samson et Dalila Bacchanale, which may ultimately lack the dramatic grip and focus of Martinon (EMI/Warner) and Barenboim (DG) respectively, yet are well matched musically with the concerto.

JULIAN HAYLOCK

SAINT-SAËNS Introduction & Rondo capriccioso op.28; Havanaise op.83;

Violin Concertos no.1 in A major op.20, no.3 in B minor op.61; Romance in C major op.48; Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix (Samson et Dalila)

Jinjoo Cho (violin)

Appassionato/Mathieu Herzog

NAÏVE V7422

Deliciously supple playing from soloist and orchestra in a composer tribute

‘Sensuous, evocative and exquisite’ is how Jinjoo Cho describes the music of Saint-Saëns in the sleeve notes to this studio-recorded effort from the warm acoustic of Paris’s La Seine Musicale, and the same could equally be said about her readings of these virtuosic works, of which the concertos and Introduction and Rondo capriccioso were dedicated to Spanish virtuoso violinist and composer Pablo Sarasate. The latter piece is a delectable curtain-raiser for the silkily slinking delicacy with which Cho spins its opening phrases; then equally as her fluidly virtuosic technique serves up a combination of silvery, gossamer-weighted, high-register acrobatics, and sultrily smouldering lower-register bite.

Another stand-out is the lilting central movement of Concerto no.3 for Cho’s sweet-toned lyricism and easy serenity. So it’s no surprise when she then so completely and stirringly assumes the mantle of the rapturous human voice for Herzog’s deftly coloured transcription of Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix – expressed to supremely tender, lyrical and attentive orchestral support.

Indeed, Appassionato is also sounding fabulous, bringing its own fire and soft romance via a sumptuously rich and polished strings sound (wonderful lowerregister depth), and all manner of opera-flavoured drama and colour, the woodwind often an especial pleasure. In a word, superb.

CHARLOTTE GARDNER

SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Trios: no.1 in C minor op.8; no.2 in E minor op.67 ARENSKY Piano Trio no.1 in D minor op.32

Trio Con Brio Copenhagen

ORCHID ORC 100181

Sheer tonal beauty and passion bring to life contrasting Russian works

A solitary personal gripe notwithstanding, this is a very impressive release, contrasting Arensky’s full-blown Romanticism with Shostakovich’s more troubled Soviet-era expression. From the start of Shostakovich’s Piano Trio no.1 we are allured by the players’ sheer tonal beauty, not only in the work’s melancholy lyricism but even in its clanging dissonances, which never seem ugly. There’s boundless joy and passion in Arensky’s Piano Trio, and technique to burn from the players beneath the surface. The slow Elegia movement is breathtakingly tender, with the muted violin and cello creating a magical effect.

Jinjoo Cho offers sweet-toned lyricism

KYU-TAE SHIM

The violin and cello harmonics at the start of Shostakovich’s Piano Trio no.2 are fragile but shimmering. The second movement may not be as snarling and unhinged as some performances, but this Allegro is definitely (as marked) ‘con brio’.

The Largo pours tonal balm over harrowing melody and the finale is suitably climactic. The recorded sound is ideal – airy in texture, nicely blended and rich in detail.

So what’s the gripe? Well if, like me, you have an aversion to the ‘historic present’ beloved of some historians and broadcasters you’ll wince at the (otherwise commendable) booklet notes (‘In 1906, when Arensky dies and Shostakovich is born, the old world is beginning to crumble…’) Everything else about this release is necessary.

EDWARD BHESANIA

STRAUSS Don Quixote; Till Eulenspiegel Tabea Zimmermann (viola) Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello) Gürzenich-Orchester Köln/François-Xavier Roth

HARMONIA MUNDI HMM902370

Two splendid soloists engage in a dialogue worthy of the finest actors

The Gürzenich Orchestra gave the premieres of the two main works on this album, and it clearly hasn’t forgotten them. Till Eulenspiegel is a virtuoso blast, and Don Quixote opens with fine playing from the strings – and the oboe. Queyras as Quixote is both rhythmic and languid when he appears, and Zimmermann as Sancho Panza is fleet and captivating. As the two encounter the windmills in Variation I, Queyras opens with lumbering dignity and ends in rich, woodytoned recitative, before setting off to attack the sheep in Variation II.

In the next two variations Zimmermann excels herself, crisp and energetic in her conversation with Quixote, her powerful sound and expressive dynamics suggesting impulsive restlessness. In Variation V, the Knight’s vigil, Queyras assumes the character of Quixote with complete conviction: reflective, melancholy, roused to passion, all done with the freedom of soliloquy one might expect of an actor. He produces some splendid forceful pizzicato at the end of Variation VIII – followed by a pair of excellent solemn bassoons in Variation IX.

The finale brings valedictory playing from Queyras, before a final gentle glissando down to low D. At the end of the disc there’s lyrical charm in Strauss’s early Romanze. The recording is well balanced and brings out all the colour of the playing.

TIM HOMFRAY

JOHANNA MARTZY & MICHAEL MANN: COMPLETE DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON RECORDINGS

Music by Beethoven, Dvořák, Falla, Honegger, Krenek, Milhaud, Mozart, Ravel and Szymanowski

Johanna Martzy (violin)

Michael Mann (viola)

DECCA ELOQUENCE ELQ 484 3299 (2 CDS)

Two short but stellar careers feature in a finely remastered reissue

This well-remastered set pays homage to two short-lived string players active around the middle of the 20th century. The blistering opening flourishes of Hungarian violinist, Johanna Martzy (1924–79) set the scene for an uncommonly intense reading of the Dvořák Concerto, backed to the hilt by her compatriot Ferenc Fricsay and his Berlin forces. Martzy’s lively vibrato and springing articulation make for a meaty Mozart Concerto in D major K218, the Joachim cadenzas all of a piece with it. Her long-standing collaboration with Jean Antonietti is remembered in exhilarating readings of sonatas by Mozart (K376) and Beethoven (op.30 no.3) that positively burst from the speakers, and by a discriminating selection of short pieces she included in her recitals.

On their first release, Martzy’s encores were coupled, as they are here, with the Krenek and Honegger viola sonatas performed by Michael Mann (1919–77), son of the celebrated novelist Thomas Mann. All children of that larger-than-life personality had a hard time, but Michael managed to make his independent way as a musician. He was a member of the San Francisco and Pittsburgh Symphony orchestras and had a short solo career before a neuropathic condition forced him to give up playing. An enthusiastic advocate of the music of his time, Mann has a slightly stiff style that well suits the angular lines of Krenek’s classicistic effusions and Honneger’s somewhat morose musings. The light charm of Milhaud’s miniatures is not so much his thing, but he is effectively exuberant in the concluding Parisian Girl.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE

OF ALL JOYS Music by Allegri, Bennet, Dowland, Clemens non Papa, Gibbons, Glass, Marenzio and Pärt

Attacca Quartet

SONY 19439936062

There’s joy to be found in this collection of sombre and thoughtful works

Three 20th-century minimalist compositions frame two groups of three short Renaissance works in this unusual programme. The centrepiece, Glass’s Third Quartet, comprises six movements from his music for Paul Schrader’s film about the Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima. The Attacca enliven Glass’s patchwork score, particularly in the motoric fourth movement and the ensuing ‘Blood Oath’ of Mishima’s Samurai allegiance before his honourable suicide. Beginning and ending with atmospheric arrangements of liturgically based works by Pärt, they give expressive shape to the restless interplay of repeated motifs in his tintinnabulian Summa and his ascetic, plainchant-inspired Fratres. Vibrato is strikingly suppressed in this clear and immediate recording.

The thought-provoking and expressive Attacca Quartet

DAVID GODDARD

The Renaissance pieces offer rich harmonic contrast to the sparse minimalist sound world. Some trace the madrigal’s lineage from Marenzio’s Solo e pensoso through Bennet’s Weep, O mine eyes to Dowland’s similarly introspective Flow my tears, all sensitively delivered. The complex polyphony of Clemens non Papa’s Ego flos campi and Gibbons’ D minor Fantasia à 6 is winningly realised, but violinist Amy Schroeder’s introduction of slides in Allegri’s Miserere is arguably a miscalculation. Although this album’s musical content is hardly a bundle ‘of all joys’, these performers’ interpretations, in which shapes and colours continually grow and change, are thought-provoking.

ROBIN STOWELL