Véronique Gens

I like singers with good diction. With some singers, it can be five minutes before you can even work out in what language they are performing. On a new CD, it is enjoyable to listen to Véronique Gens singing Berlioz, and Ravel. French vowels are difficult for non-native French speakers, and I love listening to Ms Gens. Berlioz's Herminie and Les Nuits d'été comme over as clear and fresh as a new day. Ravel's Shéhérazade has long been a favourite piece of mine and I wallowed happily in the singing here. Enchanting music sung by an enchanting singer. The Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire does not have a great role in these pieces, but performs well nevertheless. A new CD with which I am very happy.

Vivaldi and Roberta Invernizzi

In June 1712 you could have gone along to your local concert hall and have heard the very latest works from Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Frederic Händel, or Antonio Vivaldi (in theory, at any rate). All the works would have been in a familiar musical idiom and you could have sat back in your padded seat and enjoyed the evening, marvelling that the ink was scarcely dry on the music you were hearing. Times have changed.

Roberta Invernizzi does not have the media charisma of Sandrine Piau, Simone Kermes, Natalie Dessay or Magdalena Kozena. But she is an excellent soprano on a new Vivaldi opera aria CD, superbly supported by Fabio Bonizzoni and La Risonanza. 77 minutes of pure pleasure. They don't write things like this, any more. Something to listen to again, and again, and again.

Khachatryan, and Steinbacher

It is not often I listen to two different performances of the same work, one after the other. But today was an exception, and I plugged into two different recordings of Shostakovich's enigmatic second violin concerto. The first was with Sergei Khachatryan, with Kurt Masur and the Orchestre national de France. The second was with Arabella Steinbacher, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons.

Both violinists are excellent, of course. But I much prefer the recording with Nelsons, since he and the Bavarians are full participants with Steinbacher, whereas Masur and the Parisians just play the orchestral part. And Steinbacher also gets the better recording (Orfeo).

Shostakovich

Back this evening to Shostakovich. Music aside for the moment, like Gustav Mahler, Shostakovich really was a master of the orchestra, and of orchestration. I listened to the 15th symphony, and enjoyed it so much that I followed it with the – very different – 10th symphony. Both performances were from the admirable Vasily Petrenko with the equally admirable Liverpool Philharmonic. These two symphonies have entered my listening repertoire very late in life, but better late than never. I now love both of them and keep the CDs close to hand. Next time, however, I'll listen to the 10th first, then finish with the approach-of-death 15th. More emotionally logical.

Wihan Quartet

An interesting juxtaposition, listening to the Wihan Quartet playing a string quartet in E major by Paganini, followed immediately by Schubert's D minor quartet D 810 (“Death and the Maiden”). The Paganini quartet is well written and immensely enjoyable. Moving to the Schubert, one immediately sees the difference between enjoyable music, and great music. By any measure, the Schubert quartet is one of the world's greatest pieces of music.

I was so impressed with the Wihan Quartet in the Schubert that I immediately ordered the Wihan's new re-make of the work (coupled this time with the “Rosamunde” quartet). I never thought anyone would equal the Busch Quartet in the Schubert work; but the Wihan manages it.

Gidon Kremer plays Elgar

Gidon Kremer has never been a violinist who appealed to me, for some reason or other. A friend sent me his 1967 Queen Elisabeth recording of the Elgar Violin Concerto about a year ago, and it sat on my table awaiting a listening. So he sent me a second copy, demanding I hear it. Frankly, the performance of the violin part is superb. The twenty year old Kremer plays with passion and ease, in this long and difficult concerto. Tempi are mercifully fluid; nothing causes Elgar to sag more than languid tempi and frequent ritardandi. The slow movement lacks tenderness, but is beautifully played (the orchestra isn't much help). The young man fully deserves the rapturous applause from the audience at the end of the piece.

Kremer came away with just the third prize (Philippe Hirschhorn won first prize that year, which made two Latvians in the first three). As usual with these kinds of concerts, the Belgian orchestra and conductor sound as if they are sight reading, and the recording – understandably given the competition focus – features the violinist, with the orchestra somewhat recessed. A real pity that Kremer did not immediately record the Elgar concerto with someone like Boult or Barbirolli conducting a decent orchestra. As it is, however, we still have an extraordinarily convincing performance of the violin part of the concerto.

Menuhin and Furtwängler

I bought Menuhin and Furtwängler in the Brahms violin concerto (Lucerne, 1949) on LP some decades ago and threw it away because of the disagreeable “boppy” sound. I then bought it again later on CD, and threw that away, too, since the “bopples” remained. I bought the recording again yesterday (Pristine Audio) and was highly relieved to note that Andrew Rose had managed to massage out the more annoying background (due, apparently, to EMI's early attempts at using a tape recorder).

In the old days, artists such as Cortot, Fisher, Szigeti, Busch or Schnabel were allowed to be great musicians without necessarily being tip-top technicians. For the vioin world, Heifetz changed that, and violinists increasingly were expected to be razor-sharp and mechanically perfect. In this 1949 Brahms concerto, we have an excellent concerto, a supreme conductor in his element; and a soloist who is intensely musical (listen to the adagio) and technically perfectly adequate. No one is going to buy this recording to listen to great violin playing. But it should be bought to listen to how two great musicans – Furtwängler and Menuhin – play this concerto as we will never hear it played today. What struck me particularly was how, with Furtwängler at the helm, the orchestra is an entirely equal protagonist in the work (the same was true when Furtwängler conducted Erich Röhn in the Beethoven concerto). The sound is still not great, and Menuhin is somewhat shrunk into the orchestra. But it's a great performance; you can't have it all.

Shostakovich, and Pork

Shostakovich's 15th and final symphony fascinates me. It is a pot pourri of music, ideas, emotions …. As so often on my Shostakovich (belated) pilgrimage, I plugged into Vasily Petronko and the Liverpool Philharmonic (Naxos). Well played, well recorded. A work to listen to again and again (I am about to re-start, having eaten dinner).

Dinner was another (unexpected) triumph. On Saturday I had discovered a lump of pork nearing two kilos priced at slightly more than £4. I carried it home in triumph. Sunday I had it hot (with excellent crackling). Monday lunchtime I had it cold. This evening, I had it twice-cooked, slowly, with an Arrabiata sauce. Magnificent! The jews, moslems and vegetarians have no idea what they are missing. All the more for the rest of us.

Anton Bruckner

The symphonies of Anton Bruckner are a major challenge for any conductor. Which is probably why so few maestri succeed in convincing us. Bruckner's symphonies have dynamic textures that rise and fall; the time signatures and tempi within movements change frequently. The individual movements are often long. A great conductor can sweep us along and convince us we are moving towards a logical and inevitable point; a conductor who is less than great risks losing us amongst the seductive by-ways. Above all, the Bruckner symphonies need a strong, underlying pulse.

By any reckoning, Bruckner's 9th symphony is a great work. There are great recordings of it by Furtwängler, Horenstein and Klemperer, with Furtwängler's 1944 recording with the Berlin Philharmonic being particularly incandescent and one that keeps you riveted to every note until the final long-held chord of the great concluding adagio. Yesterday I listened to Günter Wand conducting the Berlin Philharmonic (1996) in excellent sound and with a superb orchestra (all the best Bruckner seems to come from either the Vienna or Berlin Philharmonic orchestras). Under Wand, the adagio comes off marvellously. The scherzo is less “evil” than with Horenstein. The first movement seems longer than with the other three great conductors. In other words: I have three great recordings (Furtwängler, Klemperer and Horenstein) plus one truly excellent one (Wand).

Simon Rattle has just recorded Bruckner's 9th with a “completed” finale, making it a four-movement work. The reason for doing this escapes me. All symphonies in the nineteenth century had to have four movements, so adding a finale was often a necessary formality rather than something demanded by the musical logic. Bruckner – like many others – rarely wrote finales that were inevitably and intrinsically a culmination of his symphony. I think the long-held chord at the end of the Adagio of the ninth symphony is a superb ending to a superb work; like a fantastic, high-level dinner, we just do not need an extra course!

Furtwängler, and Mischa Elman

Yesterday was a good Friday for Pristine Audio's new releases, with two of my favourite musicians from the past: Wilhelm Furtwängler, and Mischa Elman.

Furtwängler features in an all-Brahms disc, with the Vienna Philharmonic at a public concert in Vienna in January 1952 with a truly superb performance of Brahms' first symphony and the St Anthony Choral Variations. The first Brahms symphony is not one of my favourites – I find it over long and often a bit noisy – but here it has a tremendous performance, with Furtwängler at his best (as often when it was a live performance) and the Vienna Philharmonic at its best. The German Romantics were prime Furtwängler territory, and in Brahms he is truly in his element. To cap it all, the recording from 60 years ago comes up nearly as good as new. Certainly, the sound has not been bettered before now since January 1952. Well worth €9 !

Then on to Mischa Elman, a violinist for whom I have always had a soft spot. Excellent transfers (by Mark Obert-Thorn) of a Vivaldi violin concerto, the two Beethoven Romances, the Mendelssohn violin concerto, and a 13.5 minute “arrangement” by Elman of the Paganini 24th caprice – with a few extra variations thrown in. Listening to Elman's plaintive violin, one realises that all these works were written primarily to demonstrate the prowess of the performing violinist, a fact so often forgotten by the current fad for historico-authentic performances. Rachel Podger may be historically more correct than Elman and symphony orchestra in a Vivaldi concerto (not difficult). But Elman attracts and holds the attention in a way no “authentic” violin playing with no vibrato, little colour, and bulging long notes, can do. Put to the vote, I am sure Vivaldi, Beethoven and Mendelssohn would have chosen Elman over any “authentic” modern fiddle player. I sat back and enjoyed this CD. The sound is perfectly acceptable for recordings from 1931, 1932 and 1947. We live in a good age for re-discovering old performances and old performance styles.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Noted with sadness today the death of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau at the age of nearly 87 years old. For pretty well all my musical life he has been a constant presence. Not always my favourite singer. But a singer who make an immense contribution to the second half of the last century. RIP.

Paganini String Quartets

Only very recently did I discover that Paganini wrote string quartets. Well, they are not so much string quartets as 4-movement works for solo violin, with string trio accompaniment (second violin, viola and cello). Excellent, undemanding listening after a good lunch. Classical entertainment music at its best. My ultra-cheap recording (Brilliant Classics) is seemingly well played by the Amati Ensemble String Quartet, and is well recorded. There are three quartets on the CD (are there more around?) and I cannot recall ever seeing any of them programmed in a concert. Shame. Despite the 'Paganini' label, there does not seem to be anything in the instrumental writing beyond the technical powers of a good amateur string quartet.

Mieczyslaw Weinberg

A big advantage of companies such as Naxos is that one can sample hitherto unknown music without the risk of wasting too much money. I enjoyed yesterday two works by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, hardly a household name. His 6th Symphony makes for very pleasant listening, and I also enjoyed the 13 minute Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes, parts of which remind me of a Klezmer folk recording disc from New York in the 1920s that I have somewhere or other.

In earlier times, Naxos performers and recording could be a bit basic, but this has not been so for many years, and the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra (whatever that is) sounds fine on this new Naxos. Thank goodness for companies such as Naxos, while DG, EMI et al are still churning out Moonlight Sonatas and Bruch G minor violin concertos, year after year.

Yuja Wang, and Claire-Marie Le Guay

A deluge of twelve new CDs brought by the postgirl, with one other on the way. Interestingly, not one of the [13] is a violin CD; maybe I have them all, or maybe so few new violin recordings add anything appreciable to the vast legacy of violinists over the past half century or so.

Also interesting, faced with such a pile of new arrivals, to see which I listen to as a priority. In the current case, it was two different CDs of piano encore pieces played by Claire-Marie Le Guay, and Yuja Wang. The French pianist choses 18 pieces, all with a Russian theme; the Chinese, also 18, mostly with a showy virtuoso theme (leaning on Horowitz for two of the pieces). Both pianists play a lot of Scriabin and Rachmaninov, who seem to occupy the places in pianist hearts that Sarasate and Kreisler occupy for violinists.

Both recitals are immensely pleasing, and I'm glad I bought them both. Wang is amazing; Le Guay is moving. Both women are superb pianists and excellent musicians, and the choice of repertoire (with no over-lap) is always interesting.

Josef Suk and Jan Panenka

I have many complete recordings of the ten Beethoven sonatas for violin and piano – including Kriesler / Rupp, Ferras / Barbizet, Pamela & Claude Frank, Ibragimova / Tiberghien, Szigeti / Arrau, Faust / Melnikov, Grumiaux / Haskil. And so on. Impossible in such company to talk of “best” and “second best”. Having just listened to all ten sonatas recorded in the mid- 1960s by Josef Suk and Jan Panenka, I am conscious of having acquired yet another first-rate set.

Not the least virtue of the Suk-Panenka set is the fact that, in the thirty-three movements of the complete sonatas, I did not once query the tempi set by the duo. Adagio was never too slow, and allegro vivace was never too fast. Furthermore, here we have a true duo in these duo sonatas; both Suk and Panenka were superb chamber musicians, and it shows. Josef Suk is a known quantity, and a great violinist. I was pleasantly surprised by Jan Panenka, however; you do not need a world-famous name and a star billing to be a major pianist, and Panenka here is a true equal partner to the more famous Suk. A set of the complete sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven to set among the best.

Busch, Schubert and Haddock

Recently, for £11.00 I had a (good) piece of fresh haddock in the local caff. I also, recently, acquired for £5.50 a Regis 3-CD set of Adolf Busch and friends playing Schubert (G major string quartet D.887, 'Death and the Maiden' quartet D.810, E flat piano trio D.929, the Fantasia D.924, and the early, superb B flat quartet D 112). I enjoyed the haddock, but it was soon forgotten. I have had hours of pleasure from the Busch Schubert recordings. Just a little homily on the values our current society places on things.

Franz Schubert is one of “my” composers, along with Purcell, Handel, Bach, Bruckner and Shostakovich; an odd selection of personal preferences. Composers I hold at arm's length include Haydn, Mahler, Bartok and Richard Strauss. Composers I actively avoid include the usual suspects: Schönberg, Berg, Stockhausen, et al.

Sandrine Piau

I have long been an admirer of the singing and the voice of Sandrine Piau. Her new CD compilation is as well sung as ever, and enjoyable. Up to a point. The weakness lies in the music, operatic arias by the likes of Rameau, Grétry, Lully, Campra, Favart, et al. Almost all the music is contemporaneous with that of Vivaldi, Bach and Handel without, alas, reaching the standards of the Italian and the two Germans. In particular, the music for the accompanying band lacks the interesting complexity of J.S. Bach or the incredible imagination of Handel. All too often here the band simply accompanies (or flutes or recorders vaguely warble).

Sibelius and von Karajan

Sibelius makes good late night listening. His music does not tug the deepest emotional heart strings, nor plumb the depths of human emotions. But it is stirring and attractive stuff that, as far as his symphonies are concerned, needs only a first class orchestra, a virtuoso conductor, and a first class recording.

I made a rare excursion into Herbert von Karajan listening with Sibelius's fifth symphony this evening, and didn't regret it. The Berlin Philharmonic in the 1960s was a great orchestra; Deutsche Grammophon in the later 1960s produced superb recordings; and von Karajan was in his element in this kind of music. Rather like Tommy Beecham, to hear him at his best I find you have to listen to von Karajan in music that suited him. Anyway, I've loved Sibelius's fifth symphony ever since my teenage years, and still thrill to the sound of the cranes flying over the Northern landscape in the finale. Sends you to bed feeling happy and satisfied.