RECORDINGS

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IGOR CAT

ANTHEIL Violin Sonatas nos.1–4

Tianwa Yang (violin) Nicholas Rimmer (piano)

NAXOS 8.559937

A musical maverick brought alive by committed performances

George Antheil, the self-styled bad boy of music, wrote three of his four violin sonatas in 1923 and 1924 in Paris, heavily under the influence of Stravinsky. It shows in the opening of the First Sonata, with Tianwa Yang playing dry-as-dust staccatos, then moving into more avant-garde territory, with scrunching on the strings (as directed) and moments of melody with a louche touch. She plays the sinuous exotic melodies of the Andante moderato with sensuous warmth, before punctuating it with more scratchings and extravagant portamentos. After the thirdmovement Funebre, in which Antheil worries away at a handful of notes, Stravinsky’s influence returns in the final Presto with a riot of rhythmic patterns and moto perpetuo passages, which Yang dashes off with wellcontrolled abandon.

Antheil called his short onemovement Second Sonata ‘musical cubism’. Yang plays its fractured melodies and slinky tunes, interspersed with fragments of folk music and ragtime, in fine style and with authority – and occasional super-heated vibrato. At the end, Nicholas Rimmer turns from piano to two-hand drums (which he plays very well). The Third Sonata is more melodic, although still featuring Stravinskian obsessive rhythms and motoric piano patterns. Yang’s playing reflects its sad and pensive qualities, and she neatly negotiates the abrupt changes of character.

Antheil wrote his last sonata in 1947 (by which time he had designed a torpedo guidance system with the film star Hedy Lamarr. Yes, really.) Stravinsky is in the past, and this is an attractive, virtuosic showpiece that Yang dispatches with aplomb. The recording is close and warm.

TIM HOMFRAY

BACH The Art of Fugue BWV1080 Chorale Prelude ‘Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich’ BWV668

Cuarteto Casals

HARMONIA MUNDI HMM902717

A spellbinding new account of Bach’s contrapuntal masterpiece

Although The Art of Fugue graces the catalogues in several instrumental guises, the string quartet has consistently proved a practicable medium for remaining substantially faithful to Bach’s text and delineating clearly its intricate contrapuntal discourse. Cuarteto Casals views the work as a progressive sequence, extending from the first four relatively simple fugues through the more elaborate Contrapuncti V–IX, the density and chromaticism of X–XI and the spectacular mirror fugues and canons to the final triple fugue, the third subject of which is based on the letters of Bach’s name. Whether or not Bach left this last fugue incomplete is still open to scholarly debate, but these players traditionally opt to conclude it with a D major chord and proceed directly with the solemn chorale prelude ‘Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich’.

Cuarteto Casals: living up to its namesake in Bach

Judgements regarding tempos, dynamics and characterisation are difficult to fault. These players use vibrato sparingly and interact subtly and fluidly with each other to forge an idiomatic, impressively cohesive and clean-textured account. Highlights include their reading of the Frenchstyled Contrapunctus VI, the restless VIII, the energetic IX, the mirror fugues XII and XIII, the turbulent canon at the twelfth and the grave, extended final fugue. The recording is spacious, clear and expertly balanced.

ROBIN STOWELL

BACEWICZ String Quartet (1929–30); String Quartet (c.1965) MENDELSON String Quartet no.1; Quintet

Silesian Quartet, Karolina Stalmachowska (oboe), Piotr Salajczyk (piano)

CHANDOS CHAN20181

An important lost 20th-century figure is resurrected

What if the Nazis hadn’t razed the Warsaw Ghetto, murdered the composer Joachim Mendelson who was only in his very early forties, and in the process destroyed most of his music? On the evidence of the works rescued by the publisher Max Eschig which are featured in this enterprising and warmly recorded release, we may well have lost a major 20th-century voice. Mendelson’s melodious invention, hovering around atonality, is structurally cohesive with more than an occasional hint of the influence of folk music. His extended stay in Paris perhaps also added a timbral exoticism to a style reminiscent of Ravel. The First Quartet, though relatively early, already reveals considerable mastery of the genre. The Silesian Quartet is a great advocate, ensuring the textures remain lucid and the contrasts alert. Equally impressive is its performance of the unusually scored Quintet for oboe, piano and strings, for which it is joined by Stalmachowska and Salajczyk.

Grażyna Bacewicz is an established voice of Polish culture and this disc explores her compositional evolution fascinatingly. Her early quartet reflects the influence of Szymanowski in its use of a kind of Romantic atonality. Already present is a contrapuntal weaving of voices, an element that was a hallmark of her style. The Fuga in the early work is an obvious example, but in the later quartet, the parts pursue each other in imitation in a kind of cartwheel motion, almost like a cat-and-mouse chase. Her writing in the later work is more harmonically astringent and with notably more employment of advanced string techniques. Again, the Silesian Quartet characterises the music with great insight.

JOANNE TALBOT

BACH Sonatas and Partitas BWV1001–1006

David Grimal (violin)

LA DOLCE VITA LDV88.9 (2 CDS)

POULENC Violin Sonata STRAVINSKY Divertimento PROKOFIEV Violin Sonata no.1 in F minor op.80

David Grimal (violin) Itamar Golan (piano)

LA DOLCE VITA LDV117

A French violinist struts his stuff in two highly contrasted albums

David Grimal’s Bach performances have the authoritative simplicity of an artist who feels no need to impose himself on the music. He is often light and nimble on his musical feet, playing with a period sensibility, with gut strings and little vibrato.

The opening Grave of the First Sonata is rhythmically flexible, less slow and weighty than many, and the Fuga is brisk and airy, pushing purposefully onwards, the broken chords deftly handled. Grimal plays the opening Allemande of the First Partita with such expressive rhythmic freedom that the pulse varies considerably. The dances that follow are not so much pieces to dance to as pieces that dance in themselves, and the Doubles are crisp and vigorous.

The Fuga of the A minor Sonata is played with finesse and a minimum of fuss – pretty much just as Bach ordered – and there is beautiful legato playing in the Andante over a steady stream of double-stopped quavers. There is no repeat in the second half of the final Allegro, which is odd. The great Chaconne in the Second Partita is beautifully constructed, with dabs of rubato to give it liveliness and shape; the central major section is a wonderfully crafted paragraph of increasing energy. The long Fuga of the Third Sonata emerges as a single musical thought, full of variety and purpose. After the clear, dynamic Prelude to the Third Partita the dances are shapely and graceful. The recorded sound is close and pristine.

In Grimal’s other new disc, he shows a strong affinity with the many and varied characters of Poulenc’s Violin Sonata, by turns edgy and spiky, filled with nervy energy, sultry and expansive. The Intermezzo is at times given in a breathy whisper, but the tone is always clear and warm. The finale combines mercurial charm with vigour and constant flashes of wit; it is suave and coquettish, before the suddenly slow, serious final pages. In Stravinsky’s Divertimento, Grimal is dry, witty and urbane. The opening Sinfonia is ghostly and then muscular; in the Dances Suisses, desiccated staccatos give way to foot-stamping joy when he lets rip in fortissimo octaves. In the Scherzo and the later Pas de deux variation his dextrous quicksilver playing is a delight.

His performance of Prokofiev’s First Sonata has a cumulative emotional power despite its paredback expression. After the severe beauty of the first movement there is plenty of bite in the violent repeated crotchets and scrambling triplets of the Allegro brusco, in the midst of which the Poco più tranquillo is meltingly tender. The Andante is like a refuge from its bleak surroundings, its melodies gentle and warm, and the finale is a clipped, macabre dance. The recording is close and clean.

TIM HOMFRAY

BEETHOVEN Violin Sonatas: A major op.12 no.2, A minor op.23, A major op.47 ‘Kreutzer’

Antje Weithaas (violin) Dénes Várjon (piano)

AVI MUSIC 8553512

Two master musicians set off on a Beethoven journey of great promise

This first offering in a new recorded cycle of Beethoven’s violin sonatas includes three pieces in A that could hardly be more different – there is, of course, a fourth one still to come: I had never realised how often Beethoven used this key in his music for strings! – and forcibly show Beethoven’s progress from the early sonatas ‘for piano and violin’ to a fullblown, outgoing showpiece that is more concerto than sonata.

Closely recorded in a warm ambience, these are performances that benefit from the close rapport between Antje Weithaas, a much sought-after Berlin-based soloist and pedagogue, and her eloquent piano partner, Dénes Várjon.

The two bring bags of temperament to a trio of highly strung performances. Beethovenian passion is much to the fore with biting accents from Weithaas, whose vibrato is carefully gauged in music that, while striving to break its moulds, still belongs to the Classical period. Both halves are repeated in the A minor Sonata’s opening movement, giving it additional weight; indeed, Weithaas and Várjon make a forceful case for a piece that has always languished in the shadow of its companion, the ‘Spring’ Sonata. The lighter hue of op.12 no.2 prompts many delicious touches, the modulation at the start of the development bringing a smile to one’s face. Very occasionally, Várjon indulges in some idiomatic left-handbefore-right desynchronisation, of which I would have welcomed a little more. A monumentally virtuosic reading of the ‘Kreutzer’ leaves one wishing for the prompt continuation of this most rewarding sonata cycle.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE

BEETHOVEN AND BEYOND BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto in D major; and works by Kreisler, Saint- Saëns, Spohr, Wieniawski and Ysaÿe Maria Dueñas (violin) Vienna Symphony Orchestra/Manfred Honeck

DG 4863512

An attention-grabbing debut from serial competition winner Maria Dueñas

Plenty of daring from Weithaas and Várjon

IRÈNE ZANDEL

With her gleaming, heavily vibratoladen tone, proudly legato delivery and phrasing full of little emphases, 20-year-old Maria Dueñas has certainly given us a memorable, highly individual Beethoven Violin Concerto for her DG debut. Recorded live over three Vienna Musikverein performances, this is a highly Romantic reading in all senses – cleverly tempered by the slightly crisper, noble-flavoured orchestral support from her mentor Manfred Honeck, who also keeps a tight hold on the momentum of the first movement, despite its marked slowings for the super-hushed minor-key episodes and coda re-entry. Also noteworthy is the way Honeck allows the bassoonist to shine through the texture. The result is that, while this probably isn’t one for those who like a bit of zip and zing, everything feels finely balanced. Plus, Dueñas isn’t just a performer but a composer too, and provides three brand new self-penned cadenzas – bold, languorously romantic creations, the most striking of which is the finale’s.

The following short works from composers who also wrote firstmovement cadenzas for the Beethoven all play brilliantly to Dueñas’s warm-blooded virtuosity. I do think a trick has been missed by not programming each alongside its respective composer’s Beethoven cadenza – for variation, and to appreciate how they translated their languages into Beethoven; whereas cadenzas programmed back-to-back in isolation don’t work so well. Still, this debut packs a punch.

CHARLOTTE GARDNER

FRANCK Sonata in A major STROHL Great Dramatic Sonata ‘Titus et Bérénice’

Sandra Lied Haga (cello) Katya Apekisheva (piano)

SIMAX PSC1377

A real rarity rubs shoulders with the familiar, to refreshing effect

In her second album Norwegian cellist Sandra Lied Haga resurrects a programmatic sonata by Rita Strohl, a younger contemporary of César Franck at the Paris Conservatoire, playing it alongside his much better-known work.

Strohl, like Lied Haga who gave a Wigmore Hall recital aged 12, was something of a child prodigy, studying composition at the Paris Conservatoire from the age of 13. This dramatic sonata of 1892, written in her mid-twenties, takes Racine’s play Bérénice, set in Roman times, as its inspiration. Each movement represents a scene from the drama, but otherwise it follows much the usual pattern and musical language of a late 19th-century French four-movement sonata. Lied Haga’s playing style is assured and relaxed, capable of portraying both the intensity of emotion between the anguished lovers and the elegant fripperies of the scherzo. The sadness of her unaccompanied lament towards the end of in the third movement is deeply moving.

An eloquent performance of Franck’s Sonata, composed six years earlier in 1886, follows. Lied Haga and Apekisheva demonstrate a sensitive rapport, together subtly portraying the work’s fluctuating moods. Lied Haga uses portamento most effectively and draws a sweet sound from the highest reaches of her 1730 Guidanti cello. Every detail is audible in the disc’s closely recorded but well-balanced sound.

JANET BANKS

HAYDN String Quartets: G major op.17 no.5; E flat major op.33 no.2 ‘Joke’; C major op.54 no.2

Bennewitz Quartet

SUPRAPHON SU 43262

Czech warmth illuminates a Classical master

The 50-minute playing time for a full-price album, the goofy cover photo and the homely warmth of both engineering and playing all evoke the days of LP, and specifically Supraphon’s analogue era, when the likes of the Vlach and the Smetana charmed listeners on the other side of the Iron Curtain with their straightforward musical intelligence and golden tonal palette.

The legacy of the Czech quartet tradition would appear to be safe in the hands of the Bennewitz, which eschews fashionable extremes of timbre and gesture without neglecting this music’s contrasts of town and country, court and tavern, and its capacity to surprise. We’ll (almost) pass over the poor-taste portamento of the leader’s slides in the trio of op.33 no.2. The famous ‘joke’ of the finale is told without labouring the point. The Baroque pathos of op.54 no.2’s Adagio glows with an inner sincerity, and all three minuets likewise retain their dignity; nothing here is rushed or overdone, though the Presto section of the finale of op.17 no.5 is nimbly negotiated as an exhilarating pay-off to the grave severity of the Adagio.

All three are eminently repeatable accounts, but I have returned more than once to op.54 no.2 for a rare sense of a studio performance living in the moment of its creation.

PETER QUANTRILL

PENDERECKI Strings Quartets nos.1–4; The Interrupted Thought; Clarinet Quartet; String Trio Meccore Quartet, Jan Jakub Bokun (clarinet)

CAPRICCIO C 5493

A new survey of Penderecki’s quartets gives plenty of thrills

From wild child of the experimental avant-garde to luscious neo- Romantic, Krzysztof Penderecki had an unusually profound stylistic transformation across his career. When his string quartets neatly encapsulate that trajectory, written as they were between 1960 and 2016, it’s no mean feat to pull off the entire cycle in consistently convincing and compelling fashion. Yet, that is what the Meccore Quartet has done here.

The Interrupted Thought (1988) is a strong opener – not just a rich-toned, lyrically voiced snapshot of Penderecki in Romantic-leaning Second Viennese School mode, but a potent showcase for the Meccore’s emotive approach. Penderecki is arguably at his most brilliant and distinctive in the first two string quartets. The First’s barless blizzard of rapid percussive effects is served up in high definition with a huge dynamic range, vividly caught by the engineering. The Second, with its microtonal drones, barks, buzzings, scurryings, whispers and shouts, demands absolutely taut ensemble, virtuosity, a vast colouristic range, rhythmic impetus and deep expression, all of which it receives. If anyone needs convincing that Penderecki’s most violently brutalist phase was also beautiful, here is the proof. Add the String Trio and Clarinet Quartet – Jan Jakub Bokun thoroughly fused into the ensemble dynamic – and this may be a new benchmark.

CHARLOTTE GARDNER

VIOLIN DUOS

PROKOFIEV Sonata for two violins op.56 SHOSTAKOVICH Five Pieces for two violins and piano (arr. Lev Atovmyan) Julia Fischer, Kirill Troussov (violins) Henri Bonamy (piano)

ORCHID CLASSICS ORC 100234

Much to delight the tastebuds in this sparky pairing

This is among the first handful of 40 planned releases featuring Russianborn, Germany-based violinist Kirill Troussov. Totalling 23 minutes and available for streaming or download only, the two Russian works here, in which Troussov appears with Julia Fischer, are a meagre offering compared to a CD but they form a satisfyingly contrasting and coherent pair.

Shostakovich’s Five Pieces fall within his light music output. Fischer and Troussov (now joined by Henri Bonamy) sound entirely natural together, playing the doleful close harmonies of the opening Prelude and the fourth-movement Waltz with warmth. The Gavotte is elegantly turned, with just a cheeky wink at the sideways modulation in the first section. The central Elegy is lullabylike and the pair are happy to enter into circus antics for the final Polka.

Prokofiev’s Sonata is a much more sombre affair. The first movement is darkly austere but there’s beauty in the gently converging unisons. The duo dig into the violent chords of the following Allegro, also revelling in the brisk hocketing; and they sing sweetly in the high-lying writing of the third movement. The concluding Allegro draws brisk, precise attacks from both players, as well as a subtle elasticity in emotional tone. In all, a highly reviving and snackable release.

EDWARD BHESANIA

RUBINSTEIN String Quartets op.17: no.2 in C minor, no.3 in F major Reinhold Quartet

CPO 555 544-2

Adventures into Russian byways bear unexpected fruit

Anton Rubinstein’s music – the once-ubiquitous Melody in F major excepted – seems destined to remain on the outskirts of the repertoire. Concertos and sonatas of fearsome virtuoso challenges contribute to his reputation as a pianist of volcanic charisma, if little capacity for introspection; his prodigious facility as a composer does little to counter this impression.

That said, his quartets and other chamber music show another side of his personality. There’s a Beethovenian drive in, say the opening movement of the F major Quartet, although the melodic material is more akin to Mendelssohn. Both second movements, too, put the listener in mind of Mendelssohn’s fairy-scherzo style, although with a tinge of Romantic darkness that’s closer to Schumann. There’s a Bachian cast to the fugal opening of the C minor Quartet, even if Rubinstein can’t quite sustain interest over its substantial length, resorting in places to note-spinning. The Andante, though, is a real charmer, if conversely somewhat too slight and brief to exert itself fully among the Sturm und Drang of its surroundings. All in all, it would be easy on blind tasting to assume that this music emanated from a Leipzig composer rather than from one somewhat further east.

In these performances, an evident keenness to project, especially from the leader, gives rise to occasional inaccuracies of fingering, rhythm or intonation. Nevertheless, the Reinhold seems to be the only group exploring Rubinstein’s quartets, which makes this coupling – closely but not claustrophobically recorded in a church in Leipzig, appropriately enough – recommendable on its own terms.

DAVID THREASHER

SAINT-GEORGES Violin Concertos: G major op.2 no.1, D major op.2 no.2, A major op.7 no.1, B flat major op.7 no.2

Fumika Mohri (violin) Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, Pardubice/Michael Halász

NAXOS 8.574452

Fine performances but the music fails to linger in the memory

The welcome restoration of the reputation of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, continues apace. The rediscovery of his music extends beyond his instrumental output with the recent revival and premiere recording of his greatest operatic success, L’amant anonyme, and he is the subject of a major biopic, Chevalier. Naxos has been recording his music for over 20 years and now turns to two pairs of violin concertos that invite comparison with a composer to whom his name is often linked – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The two knew each other; and to the extent that they were contemporaries and spoke, as it were, with the same musical vernacular, there’s some justification for the lazy but tabloid-friendly ‘Black Mozart’ epithet by which Saint-Georges has perhaps inevitably become known.

Of course, he was far more than just the Salzburger’s mini-me: a glance at the list of his achievements amply demonstrates that. His concertos display his own brand of virtuosity, delighting in sweet melodies in the highest positions and exploiting all the effects that the new Tourte bow enabled. His impulse is primarily lyrical, even in fast music. What his concertos lack, though, is Mozart’s instinct for the dramatic moment, the harmonic surprise, the unexpected melodic twist. Finely wrought as they undeniably are – and lovingly dispatched by violinist Fumika Mohri and her Czech accomplices – they give nothing but pleasure in the listening but don’t trouble the memory for long.

DAVID THREASHER

KAUPO KIKKAS

PHANTASY IN BLUE

TCHAIKOVSKY Rococo Variations (arr. Malzew) VIVALDI Concerto in A minor (arr. Sobol) FALLA Seven Popular Spanish Songs (arr. Gottschick) SHOSTAKOVICH Prelude ‘Guitars’ from ‘The Gadfly’; Elegy from ‘The Human Comedy’ (arr. Atovmian) GERSHWIN Phantasy in Blue, after Gershwin’s Rhapsody (arr. Malzew) Alban Gerhardt (cello) Alliage Quintet

HYPERION CDA 68419

A master cellist delivers old favourites in striking new garb

This bold move to use saxophones and piano as a partnering ensemble for a solo cello is hugely successful. Aided by a supremely brilliant group of players who can utilise tonal techniques so adeptly, the combination is surprisingly effective. In economically challenging times, this might well prove a good alternative to hiring expensive orchestras!

The arrangers are equally stellar and have come up with imaginative solutions in applying shaded textures with fine ears. But be warned: these are free arrangements and sometimes there are radical differences from the original works, a good example being some unexpected harmonies towards the close of the Tchaikovsky. If your preference is for a purist approach, this will not be to your taste. Better, in fact, to listen afresh and regard these arrangements as, if not wholly new works, familiar friends with a makeover. Some versions perhaps sit more comfortably than others, but the Gershwin is a tour de force that (largely) works extremely well and is tremendously engaging.

Alban Gerhardt’s prowess as a soloist is well rehearsed, and in this diverse and beautifully recorded programme he never disappoints, bringing panache and colour to his roles, and vast amounts of cellistic wizardry not least in the Gershwin. Here the full range of the cello’s glorious sound word is fully utilised.

JOANNE TALBOT

L’ALTRA VENEZIA

BIGAGLIA ‘Dresden’ Sonata no.2 in C major for violin and continuo CALDARA Sonata in F major for violin and continuo ALBINONI Sonatas in B flat major and G minor for violin and continuo

GENTILI Sonatas in A major and G major for cello and continuo; Capriccio da camera in B minor for violin and cello or harpsichord op.3 no.11 REALI Sonata da camera in B flat major for violin and continuo op.2 no.7 Scaramuccia

SNAKEWOOD EDITIONS SKU SCD202301

Alban Gerhardt: recolouring the classics

An intriguing Albinoni discovery, but variable performances

Scaramuccia explores the experimental outputs of some of the more gifted of Vivaldi’s contemporaries who were active in Venice around 1700. Of particular interest are the two violin sonatas by Albinoni, recently discovered by Michael Talbot in Vienna’s Este Collection but performed here with mixed outcomes. Violinist Javier Lupiáñez dispatches the earlier G minor Sonata with style, virtuosity and verve, but his intonation lapses occasionally in the B flat major Sonata and, given his research specialism, he is inordinately liberal with extempore ornamentation in the opening Adagio and giga-like finale, disfiguring the melodic line and misrepresenting each movement’s character. A similar criticism applies to the opening Largo of Caldara’s F major Sonata, otherwise dispatched with sensitivity and élan, and most movements of Bigaglia’s Sonata in C major; the latter’s Siciliana, for example, seems bereft of its customary pastoral calm.

Cellist Inés Salinas joins Lupiáñez as a soloist in a more level-headed performance of Gentili’s Capriccio op.3 no.11. She also gives cautious, workmanlike accounts of Gentili’s only two cello sonatas, the frequent low-register passagework of which engenders problems of articulation and tonal clarity, particularly in the A major Sonata’s central Allegro. Patrícia Vintém provides supportive harpsichord accompaniment throughout. The close recording reproduces the timbres of gut strings with revealing fidelity.

ROBIN STOWELL

WHAT REMAINS

Works by Gesualdo, Machaut, Messiaen, Pérotin, Reich and Roukens Dudok Quartet Amsterdam

RUBICON RCD1110

A concept album with plenty of assurance but lacking a clear personality

Born in 1982, Joey Roukens is a Dutch composer on the ‘contemporary classical’ scene with a strong list of serious commissions to his name. What Remains is the title of his 25-minute Fourth Quartet from 2019, written for the Dudok and evoking (to me) the notion of a defined or noumenal space as described in different ways by Kant, Rückert or Beckett. A listener in search of their bearings would find points of orientation in Steve Reich’s oscillating ostinatos and the hyperexpressive expanded tonality of Thomas Adès; a strong sense of Roukens’s own voice remains elusive.

Different Trains deserves its status as a modern classic but does not invite re-recording or recreative interpretations. For one thing, the tape part-straitjackets the performers in terms of tempo; for another, it covers over the usual variations of texture and colour that we would expect from different performers. I think I have heard all the recordings since the original Kronos Quartet album and I cannot say that any of them improve on it. The piece is what it is.

Which leaves us with a trio of early-Renaissance motets in transcription, done with glassy assurance, and a Messiaen curio: the sixth movement of the Fête des belles eaux which he wrote in 1937 for a sextet of ondes martenot and then adapted for the first ‘Louange’ in the Quatuor pour la fin du temps. The Dudok curates this kind of concept album in style, but on this occasion the whole feels less than the sum of its parts.

PETER QUANTRILL

VIOLIN CONVERSATIONS

Works by Blake, Butler, Blackford, Hiscocks, Horovitz, Knehans, Malone, Musgrave, Rawsthorne and Wallen Madeleine Mitchell (violin) Andrew Ball, Howard Blake, Martin Butler, Nigel Clayton, Wendy Hiscocks, Ian Pace, Errollyn Wallen (pianos)

NAXOS 8.574560

An ambitious project proves scintillating in parts

Madeleine Mitchell outlines in the booklet for this release the connections between the composers within, also noting the dialogues that result from four of them appearing as accompanists. It’s not the most solid of themes but, with eight premiere recordings across eleven pieces, it’s a bold offering.

It opens with Rawsthorne’s neglected 1958 Violin Sonata (a 1996 BBC recording with Mitchell partnered by Andrew Ball). Together the players strongly characterise the sonata’s four movements, by turn austere, enigmatic, extrovert and mystical. This is the most winning performance on the disc, and the work’s flavour of British modernism opens a line of enquiry that ends with Thea Musgrave’s much more abstract Colloquy (1960) – a performance that is precise but never brittle, and which features a natural interplay with pianist Ian Pace. For me, the final substantial piece, Martin Butler’s Barcarolles (2020), sounds less distinctive and more expressively limited.

Madeleine Mitchell in conversation

DANIEL ROSS

Among the sprinkling of shorter pieces are Kevin Malone’s Your Call Is Important to Us, layering recordings of automated customer-service menu-option voices with a tense violin line. Joseph Horovitz’s Jewish-inflected Dybbuk Melody (1980) is both prayerful and restless, though the playing in Howard Blake’s The Ice Princess and the Snowman (2018) is short on magic. Overall, the disc – like many conversations – has points of real interest, even if it may not be riveting from beginning to end.

EDWARD BHESANIA