Saturday 10 July 2021

The violin concertos of Friedrich Gernsheim

I have been listening to two violin concertos by Friedrich Gernsheim. Yes, the famous Friedrich Gernsheim, born in Germany in 1839, died in 1916 and a friend of Brahms, Joachim, Rossini and Max Bruch. Like the fifteen (!) violin concertos of Louis Spohr, or seven of Henri Vieuxtemps, these concertos belong to the lost legions of 18th and 19th century music. The works are not earth-shaking or mind-blowing; they inhabit a safe sound world of the Romantic era, a sound world similar to that of Max Bruch. Not all music can reach the heights of Bach's Mass in B minor, or the late Beethoven string quartets, but so much thoroughly enjoyable music of the past is just never heard. The two concertos here (the first and the second) demand a lot of work from the violin soloist, and a degree of virtuosity. On my CD they are played by a highly competent Linus Roth, with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Johannes Zurl.

The CD came from the company CPO (that also gave us a box of the fifteen Spohr concertos). Naxos is not the only company that is good for exhumations. A reminder that recorded media are invaluable when it comes to re-discovering long-lost music (the soprano Simone Kermes did similar valuable service recently in bringing to our attention the music of Johann Adolf Hasse -- 1699-1783). 

 

Guillaume Lekeu's Sonata for Violin & Piano

Guillaume Lekeu died of typhoid fever in 1894 the day after his 24th birthday. He was one of a line of distinguished Franco-Belgian composers that includes César Franck, Eugène Ysaÿe, Henri Vieuxtemps and Albéric Magnard. Given his early death, he left a surprisingly rich quantity of chamber music, the best known of which is his sonata for violin and piano composed in 1892-3, the year before his death. The sonata is a work for which I have always had a soft spot, starting with a recording by Menuhin and his sister recorded in 1938. Despite the sonata's quality, it features rarely on concert programmes or recordings by prominent violinists. Even the excellent recording by Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien titles the CD “Ravel Complete Music for Violin and Piano” plus the Lekeu Sonata.

The sonata is a substantial work, playing for around 34 minutes with three movements of around 10 minutes each. Much of the work is suffused with a gentle fin de siècle melancholy, like much of Lekeu's music. Almost as if he had a premonition of his early death. The second movement, in particular, is one of the most beautiful in all violin and piano sonata movements. I listened to the work today in the recording by Ibragimova, one of my favourites amongst modern violinists and equally at home in Bach, Shostakovich ... or Lekeu. She did not disappoint here; Russian by birth she may be, but she entered the world of the Lekeu sonata with an entirely convincing sound and impeccable style.


Tuesday 6 July 2021

Handel's Rodelinda, with Lucy Crowe and Iestyn Davies

A generous friend sent me a new recording of Handel's Rodelinda by Harry Bicket and the English Consort. As usual with 18th century operas, I sit back and enjoy the music, the singing, and the instrumental playing. Just add in the recording quality, and balance. The “plot” passes happily by me. This Rodelinda has an all-English cast, due mainly to Covid restrictions on travel. The two principals are Lucy Crowe, and Iestyn Davies. Ms Crowe has a wonderful soprano voice, and one never winces, even in high and coloratura passages. Like so many sopranos, her diction is sometimes a little woolly; she should listen to Maria Callas or, on this recording, to Iestyn Davies who, although a counter tenor, has excellent Italian diction and, for a counter tenor, an attractive voice. He even overcomes my suspicions about counter tenors. The duet io t'abbraccio between Davies and Crowe comes off well, with the voices and band perfectly balanced by the engineers. The cast of six singers does not, for me, have even one less than acceptable.

In three acts, each of around one hour, Rodelinda is one of Handel's most attractive operas, featuring many superb arias. Georg Friedrich knew how to please the opera-going crowd of that time and the delight has lasted over two hundred years. I never become tired of Handel, and he has a knack of always lifting my mood. The current recording by the Linn company is very good, despite everyone having to be two metres apart throughout. If I had to nit-pick, I'd say the voices are just a little too far forward from the band. But that may also be a question of taste. Handel is a lucky man in the 21st century. And I am a lucky man to have a friend who supplied me with another Handel opera for my birthday. 

 

Sunday 4 July 2021

In Praise of Emil Gilels

I had forgotten what a superb pianist Emil Gilels was, especially in Beethoven and Brahms. A “star” of the period 1950-84, he was a modest virtuoso who kept a relatively low profile, recorded during his later years mainly for Deutsche Grammophon and, as far as I know, toured infrequently outside Russia. In Moscow he made some superb recordings with Kogan and Rostropovich. Dragged round innumerable charity shops by one of my granddaughters a few days ago, I chanced on Volume 1 of his recording of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas. Five CDs. OK, the first CD was missing, so I only had four. But at 50p (around 60 centimes) for the four, I was not complaining. Gilel's playing is just so right. On the four CDs I received, he plays the sonatas 4-15 missing out number 9, for some reason. The recordings were made over the period 1974-84. One just sits back and listens, and admires the pianism.