Bad day, for usual reasons: work, wine and woman (without the wine). Sought catharsis, as often, in Russian music (Rachmaninov's second symphony – Pletnev) and this was so soothing (?) that I followed it with Furtwängler conducting orchestral excerpts from Götterdämmerung (1950, Lucerne). [Why doesn't Google/Blogger permit an "o" with an umlaut? I had to import this one from another file] All through headphones at high volume. Lovely! My spaghetti al sugo ed ai funghi was as good as usual. But life is stressful. Perhaps tomorrow evening it will be Tchaikovsky's Pathétique (no doubt Pletnev, again).

Great success with transfers to three CDs; the first transfers I have done for a long time. Old Alfredo comes up well in Saint-Saens and Bruch, as do Heifetz and Piatigorsky in Dvorak and Stravinsky. And there is also the Hotter 1954 recording of the Schwanengesang. Most welcome of all is a reincarnation after nearly 50 years of the Todesverkündigung with Flagstad. Welcome back! The hum and surface filters in Waverepair really work well. Excellent transfers, and a few more LPs can bite the dust at long last.

The year 2005 ended peacefully, with Sviatoslav Richter playing late Beethoven sonatas. Richter is my kind of artist; his concentration is phenomenal, and nothing he plays is done simply for effect or to draw attention to himself.

Christmas listening has been dominated by Bach's Mass in B minor. With this, I seem to have come full circle, having started life in the 1950s with Karajan, then going via Joshua Rifkin in the 1980s to Parrot, Kuijken, etc. The performance that entranced me this Christmas was the 1966 one by .. Otto Klemperer. Magisterial, monumental, "old-fashioned"; but quite addictive listening. I probably wouldn't take to Klemperer playing, say, the cantatas. But the Mass sounded right.

Akiko Suwanai in the Bach concertos also made me think (A minor, E major, double, and violin & oboe). Played like this, the music really does not need soloists of the stature of Suwanai or Mullova. A bit like taking a Ferrari to drive the children to school 3 kms away. The disc does, however, contain my four favourite Bach concertos.

Concert yesterday evening (Bournemouth) with Yan Pascal Tortelier conducting the BSO (Vaughan Williams fourth symphony -- very good).

Hagai Shaham played the Tchaikovsky violin concerto. A work I've heard before ... many times. I've never rated Hagai particularly highly before, but he went for broke in the Tchaikovsky, and it really worked. No seeking out the mysterious depths, or highlighting intellectual profundities. He just swept into, and through, the music like a mini tornado. British audiences never, never applaud between movements. But the audience (with me in the vanguard) broke into spontaneous applause after the first movement, and it really would have been criminal not to.

In my view, the only way to play this barnstorming, echt-romantic concerto. Hagai has gone right up in my rating system.

Re-listened to the solo violin CD from Baiba Skride. Despite David Gomberg's less than enthusiastic reaction to her Baltimore concert, I now find the CD highly impressive. First of all, she can really handle a violin and bow! Secondly, she uses an impressive range of dynamics and knows how to play softly when the music needs it. Her Ysaye first sonata is excellent, and this is possibly the first time I have really enjoyed the Bartok solo sonata (to my surprise). Skride's shading of the dynamics brings out fully the melancholy at the heart of this music.
The Bach (second partita) is well played from the violin point-of-view but, like so many violinists from the East, it is not at the same level of interpretation as the Ysaye or the Bartok. Too interventionist; Bach doesn't need all this care and carressing. The sarabande comes over as adagio molto con espressione; a long way from a dance movement. If Skride has a drawback, it is the (familiar) one of wallowing in slower music and concentrating too hard on always sounding beautiful.
Anyway, I am certainly in the market for more Baiba Skride. As long as it is not, yet again, the concerti of Sibelius, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Bruch or Prokofiev.

I haven't paid much attention to Philippe Graffin in the past, but his new CD really is extremely well-played, enjoyable, and well-planned. Enescu's Impressions d'enfance, Ravel's Sonate posthume and Tzigane, Debussy's sonata plus four arrangements. Excellent partner is Claire Désert (who plays the lutheral in the Tzigane).
What is nice is that Graffin does not strive for effect, or to impress. He just plays the music with skill and enjoyment. Even the oh-so hackneyed Tzigane is enjoyable. His sweet tone reminds me of Arthur Grumiaux. A good CD.

Another Sunday with Handel; this time three hours of Ramadisto with my current favoured combination of Patrizia Ciofi and Joyce DiDonato. What a pleasant way to spend three hours! Handel never fails (at least when this kind of music is sung like this and recorded so well). Happy afternoon !

Nice to find a new favourite work. I have been listening often to Albéric Magnard's sonata for violin and piano (played by Augustin Dumay and Jean-Philippe Collard). Weighing in at 43 minutes, it's not a work that yields its fascination quickly or easily. But it certainly repays repeated hearings (unlike, say, the wretched Berg Violin Concerto!) The more I hear it, the more I discover and enjoy.
The performance by Dumay and Collard strikes me as pretty well ideal; it can't be an easy work to play, since to keep interest flowing over the 43 minutes requires a wide range of subtle sound gradations and of colouring.

Two hours yesterday evening spent listening to Mela Tenenbaum playing 40 short pieces. Ms Tenenbaum plays adroitly, swiftly and highly efficiently. The 40 pieces could almost all have come from Elman or Heifetz recitals in the 1930s. But why did violinists such as Kreisler, Elman, Heifetz and Szigeti play them so much better? I suspect the answer is: love. Either they really loved the music they were playing (think of Kreisler), or they really loved the violin (think of Kogan digging deep into Paganini's Cantabile and obviously relishing the sound of his violin; Ms Tenenbaum dispatches the same piece swiftly, beautifully and efficiently).
Remarkably efficient playing from Ms Tenenbaum. But not much love or charm. Sounds a bit as if someone told her: "We'll pay you $100 a-piece for 40 pieces. And don't hang about, Mela; time is money".

Work has impeded additions to this journal. However, life resumes. Strange to be very impressed at this stage with performances of the Brahms and Mendelssohn violin concertos. Strange, also, that the violinist concerned should be Johanna Martzy, always a superb violinist but often, in the studio, somewhat straight-laced and severe. But her live performances of the Mendelssohn concerto (in The Hague, 1954 with Klemperer conducting) and Brahms (Stuttgart, 1964 with Günter Wand conducting) are fast, fiery and dashing. The Mendelssohn has to be one of the fastest performances on record (and ditto the finale of the Brahms concerto). Both performances get lots of stars in my listing -- and the recording of the Brahms is especially acceptable. Martzy's studio recordings showed she was an excellent violinist; her live recordings show she could have been fully the equal of all but Kreisler and Heifetz.

Tried yet again with Shostakovich's sonata for violin & piano (Oistrakh playing, with Yampolsky). Yet again, I found it a work without talent and utterly unmemorable. Shostakovich was so uneven!

On the bright side, a large oxtail stew awaits me tomorrow evening. It's already looking good.

Five hours this weekend listening to ... Mozart; the complete sonatas and variations for piano & violin, from K 296 to K 547. A very enjoyable way to spend five hours! Players were Vaclav Snitil and Jan Panenka; Panenka surprised me, since I had always considered him a kind of Czech Emmanuel Bay but, on this CD set, he plays with verve and sparkle. This is my third complete set of the Mozart sonatas (all sent to me by others). There is Joseph Silverstein and Derek Han, and Oscar Shumsky and Artur Balsam. From recollection, both are as good as the Snitil / Panenka set. Three fine sets!

Seized once again by Georg Friderik Haendel; this time by Saul in the new vigorous recording by René Jacobs. Very fine music indeed. The performance and recording are great, but one suspects that the desire to get all the 150 minutes on to just two CDs means that some of the pieces are brisker than might be thought desirable. Still, glorious music well performed. Handel is definitely up with my front runners when it comes to listening for enjoyment.

My first internet-download CD: Philippe Koch playing morceaux de salon by Vieuxtemps. CD created with no problems, and music is most enjoyable in the background.

Viola Day. Listened to Lars Tomter (with Andsnes) playing the two Brahms sonatas, plus Schumann's Märchenbilder: very good, with a fine, gruff viola sound. Then to Katz and Shteinberg playing Hindemith (dull), Bach and Mozart (K 378, arranged). The two Israeli's sounded like an agreeable chamber music concert in Bad Godesberg on a wet Wednesday: polite, well-mannered, smooth. But not memorable, and the viola sound was "pseudo-violin".
Refreshed myself by listening again to Lise de la Salle. It really does sound as though she is improvising, so surely does the music come from inside of her. Most enjoyable.

Well, spent another 27 minutes of my life listening to the Berg violin concerto (this time in a performance by Leonidas Kavakos at the Proms; very well recorded). That has to be around the twelfth time I have listened to this concerto and, I have to confess, it does absolutely nothing for me. That is the last time I waste another 27 minutes on it. Life is too short. I haven't a clue as to whether Kavakos played it brilliantly, or whether he lost his place after the first few minutes and improvised thereafter. Bah!
I also revisited Des Knaben Wunderhorn before shelving it. I like the music. I really do not like Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (at least, not in this music). She too arch; he too gusty. And Szell isn't terribly gemütlich, either.

Once again, I was able to make an excellent CD of the (Edinburgh Festival) recital by Magdalena Kozena (Ravel, Britten, Debussy, Strauss and Shostakovich). Very much my kind of singer: a lovely voice, extreme intelligence, excellent linguistic skills.
This weekend I also enjoyed Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn -- despite the participation of Mr and Mrs Legge plus Mr Fischer-Dieskau, none of whom warms my heart. But the music (Szell conducting the LSO) is attractive and I did not know it very well.