Grumiaux and Haskil brought to life in Beethoven

The ten sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven were recorded by Arthur Grumiaux and Clara Haskil between September 1956 and January 1957. They were immediately recognised as really great performances, a status they have retained until the present time. They fully deserve the adage: “if you own only one recording of these sonatas …” The last reincarnation of these works that I own was by Decca, released in 2007 in an “analogue to digital remaster”.

I was sent a new transfer of the ten, and compared it with the Decca box. The difference in sound was immediately noticeable. I tested old versus new with Op 30 No.3, one of my favourite sonatas with its lovely slow movement and impressive finale. The Decca sounded boxy and old; the new transfers by Alexandre Bak for Classical Music Reference Recording freed the sound and could have been recorded yesterday. A revelation, and a big accolade to Alexandre Bak. From now on his is the only version I need on my shelves, and Grumiaux and Haskil live on happily and in good recorded sound.

Ray Wings - L'Aile de Raie

I have had a long-time love affair with ray wing (or skate wing). L'aile de raie in French. Recently in France on the Brittany coast (La Trinité-sur-Mer) I had a really remarkable aile de raie in a restaurant called Le Surcouf. Cooking the wing is not difficult (2 minutes in hot water, turn, then two more minutes). It's the sauce that is so difficult. The classic sauce has capers and vinegar, but the sauce at Le Surcouf was much more subtle and I have been trying to emulate it at home from memory ever since, with varying degrees of success. Best attempt to date was with salt, pepper, butter, lemon juice, mustard, and a dollop of crème fraiche. But I'm not there, yet. Give me a few more years, and a few more experimental sauces.

Pavel Haas Quartet and Johannes Brahms

I have always been a selective fan of the music of Johannes Brahms. Too often the textures are too muddy for my taste. A good friend sent me a CD of Brahms chamber music for my birthday, and I listened to it with pleasure. The record company is Supraphon; still a recording company and not just a label name like so many others in the business. Supraphon employs sound engineers who also know about classical music. The players are the Pavel Haas Quartet; one of the best around today. The pianist in the Op 34 piano quintet in F minor is Boris Giltburg, also one of the best around today. A CD that has everything going for it.

To my great surprise – I who thought I knew everything – the Op 111 string quintet in G major was new to me. My loss; it's a lovely work, but string quintets often are (viz Mozart and Schubert). Needless to say, I found the playing and recording excellent. Pavel Nikl provides the second viola for the quintet. The F minor piano quintet is familiar; I have several other recordings of the work. It receives a superb, well-balanced recording here, but it's a work I like less than the string quintet. The piano part often muddies the texture; I'm often ill at ease when a piano joins a string quartet. Strings together make a nice, homogenous sound.

Anyway, a good 70 minutes of fine, classical 19^th century music presented in the best possible light. And also bravo to Supraphon for a fine piece of sound engineering.

Haskil, Grumiaux, Mozart. And recorded balance

In the previous century, recording companies such as DGG, Philips, and EMI maintained expert teams of in-house recording technicians skilled in recording classical music performances. The teams included a good balance engineer. At the present time, one gets the impression that contract technicians are used and that on Monday they may be recording the pop group Lord Muck and the Five Virgins, and on Tuesday a baroque chamber group with a solo singer. The message is: give the star a big microphone, and keep the backing group in the background.

This thought came to me while listening to some expert refurbished transfers of Arthur Grumiaux and Clara Haskil playing six of Mozart's violin and piano sonatas (Philips recordings from around 60 years ago). The refurbished recordings are excellent in quality; modern technology can do wonderful things. The recorded balance of the two musicians struck me: the balance was just right. In these sonatas, the piano has the lion's part (probably Mozart himself showing off). The performances by Grumiaux and Haskil come from another, golden age. No “original instruments”, no fortepiano. Just the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Highly enjoyable, balance and all.