New Music

Music throughout the ages has been based mainly on folk song, dance music, love songs. The Beatles' "Yesterday" would have been enjoyed by music lovers in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. As they would have enjoyed Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne", or Edith Piaf's "Je ne regrette rien". Folk song, dance music, and love songs are pretty well eternal. Not so much "classical" music after the beginning of the 20th century, that abandoned its roots and became increasingly the preserve of a few trendies, plus music academies. Apart from the music of Shostakovich, I can think of almost no music I listen to composed after 1960. The "music industry" attempts to thrust "new music" on us, but most of us resist with profound indifference. Give me the Beatles, Leonard Cohen or Edith Piaf any day when it comes to post- 1955.

My Record of the Year: Eternal Heaven (Handel)

"I can resist anything, except temptation," Oscar Wilde once quipped. Well, I can resist buying yet another CD; unless it's a collection of Handel arias. The latest to be added to my immense collection of Handel is a CD titled "Eternal Heaven" and features Lea Desandre (mezzo-soprano), Iestyn Davies (counter-tenor), and a small orchestra called Jupiter, directed by Thomas Dunford. 21 tracks, all sung in English, starting with the wonderful aria "Eternal source of light divine" from the birthday ode for Queen Anne (where the solo trumpet is transcribed for Lea Desandre; not a bad idea).

As so often with Handel, the music is wonderful. Handel was a truly great melodist, with a master's touch. I liked both singers -- even the counter-tenor -- and the small band plays much as Handel would have wanted. Many favourite arias from Semele, Theodora, Solomon, Susanna, Esther, and others. A CD strongly recommended for those who want 86 minutes of often achingly beautiful music (try "Hither let our hearts transpire" from Theodora, or "To thee thou glorious son of earth", from the same oratorio.). A CD to file in my "keep close to hand" rack. They don't write music like this any more. "Comfort music"? It may well be. If so: long live comfort music!

I first listened to this new CD on 31st December, so it's just in time to be my Record of the Year 2022. A big bravo to the two soloists, the Jupiter band, the recording company (Erato, recording in a Normandy chapel). And to Mr Händel for the music.

Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell (1659-95) died at the age of 36 and was England's (only) great composer. To paraphrase a remark by Handel: "If he had lived longer, we would all be out of a job". His music is characterised by great harmonic daring, with strange harmonies that often make the late quartets of Beethoven sound conventional by comparison. Above all, his is pure music and makes us conscious of how music, after 1800, became less concerned with pure pleasure and began to gravitate towards emotions and personal statements. Purcell composed for his 17th century audience operas, masques, sonatas, trios, choral works, songs and, picking up a music form already antiquated at the time, Fantasias for the Viols (1680). Viol consorts were dated by 1680. As a change from violin music, I have been listening to the Fantasias as recorded by Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XX in 1994 with an all-star cast including Wieland Kuijken and Philippe Pierlot.

The music is never boring or routine; the tempi and harmonies are in constant flux with these early precursors of the classical string quartet. The CD ends with the In Nomine in 7 parts. Most of the Fantasias are in four parts, with a few in three parts. Think string trios, or string quartets. I first came across the Fantasias when I was around 15 years old and gave one of my sisters a 10" LP of the music, played by I forget whom. I have kept lovingly in touch with them ever since. The music is remarkable, and unforgettable; always highly contrapuntal, and often almost dodecaphonic years before its time. No wonder Handel was an admirer. Purcell is mainly known now for his opera Dido and Aeneas; but even given his short life, there is so much more of his music to admire and love. When I have finished with the Fantasias, I'll start back on his songs, of which there are many and of which he was a master.

 

Augustin Hadelich plays Tchaikovsky and Lalo

For some reason or another, it has been a long time since I last listened to Tchaikovsky's violin concerto. I listened to it today in a live recording by Augustin Hadelich, with the London Philharmonic conducted by Vasily Petrenko. Well recorded, and you would never know it was live, were it not for the (well deserved) thunderous applause at the end of the work.

Hadelich is well on the way to becoming my favourite modern violinist, in a highly competitive field. His intonation is impeccable, his technique beyond reproach. He always makes a lovely sound but, more importantly and more rare, he is a highly sensitive musician who appears to react instinctively to every bar he plays. His playing is always interesting; I would characterise his style as Central European as opposed to what I always think of as the Russian-Israeli-American more macho approach. I listened with pleasure to every bar of Tchaikovsky's concerto and was tempted to join in the final applause. Petrenko and the LPO contribute well, as one might expect; but Hadelich is the star here.

On to the second live recording on this CD, still with Hadelich and the LPO, but with Omer Meir Wellber conducting (never heard of him). A long way from Russia, we meet Eduard Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole -- with all five movements, thank goodness, and not the abbreviated four movement version that was often played in the past on the dubious grounds that a symphonie should only have four movements. Again, it is Hadelich who is the star in this over-familiar work. He is a violinist to whom one listens. The unknown Mr Wellber ensures a first-class accompaniment from the orchestra. Bravo to all concerned: Hadelich, the LPO, the conductors, the recording engineers. This a first-class CD.

Véronique Gens and Sandrine Piau in 18th century French operatic arias

A good friend sent me a CD where two of my all-time favourite singers, Véronique Gens and Sandrine Piau, sing eleven arias from the 18^th century French operatic repertoire. Thus we hear the music of such well-known (?) composers as Louis-Luc Loiseau de Persuis, André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry, Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, and Nicolas Dalayrac. The eleven arias are allocated alternately to the two French sopranos, with three of the arias being duos. Some of the arias are quite long (8-10 minutes) and all are sung in French. Though both Gens and Piau are sopranos, their voices are easily distinguishable, with Gens having more “gold” in her voice, and Piau more silver.

The music is uniformly lovely. I first listened to the CD in the evening after a good meal, and immediately fell in love with it. After the 18^th century, the idea that music had simply to be enjoyable became rarer in the “classical” music world. The music of Dalayrac, de Persuis et al is fully of the 18^th century and serves as a timely reminder that that century was not all German or Italian, and that the French musical scene thrived, particularly where opera was concerned. Difficult to imagine anything here being better done by other than Véronique Gens, Sandrine Piau, and Le Concert de la Loge directed by Julien Chauvin. A big Bravo to all concerned, including the recording team for the Alpha label. Three stars. Sit back. Listen. Enjoy the music and the singing.

Simone Kermes in Vivaldi

I risk being unfaithful to Sandrine Piau, having now discovered Simone Kermes. In mottetti by Vivaldi, Kermes sings with incredible accuracy, perfect style, and with a soprano voice that is tinted with gold (whereas Ms Piau is tinted with silver). And I have now discovered Vivaldi's cantatas, duetti and mottetti, so there is no stopping me! I have already ordered Ms Kermes' second Vivaldi CD. The playing of the Venice Baroque Orchestra under Andrea Marcon is exemplary. If I become a Mormon or a Moslem, I could live with both Sandrine Piau and Simone Kermes. [Corrected. Originally published in 2008].

Excellent Playing from Augustin Hadelich

Benjamin Britten's only violin concerto was written in 1938-9 when he was 25 years old. Its opus number is only 15. I have long had a soft spot for the work and currently have 18 different recordings of it. The latest comes from Augustin Hadelich, one of the finest of today's finest violinists, and it is a truly excellent version. Played with immense feeling (and no lack of technique) and very ably partnered with the WDR Sinfoieorchester conducted by Christian Macelaru. Warner gives it an excellent recording, though listening to some of the pianissimo passages requires more imagination than ears; the recording has a wide dynamic range. One of my three-star recordings. (Unusually for me, Arabella Steinbacher, James Ehnes, Ida Haendel, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Simone Lamsma, and Vilde Frang also all earn my rare three stars in this work. It appears to be a concerto that you play well if you really love it).

Also on the CD is my one of my favourite encores: Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tarrega. Arranged by Ruggiero Ricci, Hadelich plays it better than Ricci ever did, with bow control to leave you open-mouthed. Then on to Sarasate's Fantaisie de concert sur des motifs de l'opéra Carmen, a far superior fantasy than that of Franz Waxman, that was puffed up with Hollywood kitsch. Hadelich confirms himself as a very superior violinist, and leaves me wondering why I bother keeping a myriad of recordings by past violinists such as Szigeti, Milstein, Szeryng, Oistrakh, Francescatti, Perlman, Huberman, et al. Did they really have something that modern violinists such as Hadelich do not?

On to the final work: Prokofiev's second violin concerto. Prokofiev and Stravinsky are not my favourite 20^th century Russians, unlike Rachmaninov and Shostakovich. Of Prokofiev's two violin concertos, I much prefer the first, that is less “commercial” and crowd-pleasing in its concept. Hadelich and his orchestral partner play the second Prokofiev concerto entirely admirably. In fact, I think I prefer it to the classic Heifetz recording. I had a great deal of respect for Augustin Hadelich after his recent CDs of the Bach sonatas and partitas, a CD of Czech works, and Paganini's 24 Capricci. My respect increases; not only can he play the violin like an angel; he also shows a real empathy for the music he is playing. Roll on more Hadelich recordings!

Vieuxtemps, and Alexander Markov

What lovers of violin music would do without Naxos, I can't imagine. Vieuxtemps, de Bériot, Sarasate, Ysaÿe, Spohr, Sauret, Rode ..... and many other violin composers have poured forth from Naxos over the decades, and many excellent modern violinists have been able to make their voices heard on disc, often for the first time. A kind friend has sent me a new Naxos CD of music by Henri Vieuxtemps, recorded by Alexander Markov (the son of Albert) and the Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach. Everyone on the disc plays with great enthusiasm and expertise, and Naxos gives us its usual excellent recording quality.

The new CD is nice to have, but it has to be admitted that much of the music is of a somewhat slender quality, chosen mainly, I suspect, to provide a show-off vehicle for Alexander Markov. We can assume nowadays that every violinist and his or her dog can play any pyrotechnics to order; probably even double harmonics with simultaneous left-hand pizzicato and ricochet bowing. So what made ears tingle in the time of Paganini or Vieuxtemps occasions less tingling nowadays. I am not a fan of pages of violin pyrotechnics. Here, the Variations on Beethoven's Romance No.1, the Fantasie in E major, and the Variations on a theme from Norma, are not going to bear repeated listening, though good to have heard them at least once. The first movement of the 8^th violin concerto (orchestrated from the piano score by Chrisoph Baumgarten) makes one regret that Vieuxtemps died before he could finish the work. The concerto was dedicated to Vieuxtemps' star pupil, Eugène Ysaÿe and the first movement contains some excellent music.

The Scène de Ballet from the third act of Vieuxtemps' opera La Fiancée de Messine gives the orchestra a chance to show its paces under its conductor, Markus Huber. Attractive music with which to round off 69 minutes of music, some of which shows signs of barrel scraping.

Lisa Batiashvili

For a couple of decades now, the Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili has been one of my favourites. A kind friend sent me her latest CD on which she plays four works. The César Franck sonata is obviously one of her favourites; this is the third recording of her playing it that I have on my shelves, previously with Maris Gothoni in Scotland in 2001, and with Khatia Buniatishvili in Verbier in 2013. For this 2022 recording, she plays in Berlin with fellow-Georgian Giorgi Gigashvili. A superb performance, well recorded by the German team that balances piano and violin to perfection, and captures the sound of Batiashvili's Guarneri del Gesù violin. And also three stars for Gigashvili, who proves to be an excellent partner for his fellow-Georgian. Yet another superb recording of this much-played duo sonata.

Karol Szymanowski's first violin concerto is pretty ungrateful for the violinist; to my mind, it is more a concerto for orchestra, with obbligato solo violin part. In my distant youth I bought the sheet music and attempted the solo violin part, without too much success. In this recording, Lisa does her best, but is not helped by the American engineers who concentrate on the (superb) sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The del Gesù violin sounds a bit tinny on top, as the engineers concentrate on the orchestra. A pity it was not recorded in Germany, like the Franck sonata; I always have the impression that German, and Czech, recording engineers have more experience of recording classical music, and a better feeling for balance and dynamics.

I have always had a soft spot for Ernest Chausson's Poème Op.25. It is given a lovely, affectionate performance here by Batiashvili and the Philadelphians. Again, I wished the balance engineer had turned the sound of the solo violin up a notch; Batiashvili has some lovely piano and pianissimo playing, but you often have to strain your ears to hear it here (though probably not in the concert hall). An odd minor criticism; it's usually the other way round with famous soloist recorded too up-front. Anyway, one notch too low is better than two notches too high where the soloist can blast you out of your chair.

As an encore, we are given Lisa and Nézet-Séguin playing Debussy's Beau Soir as arranged by Jascha Heifetz. An affectionate performance by both artists, and a piece that rounds off a highly satisfactory hour of violin music. Lisa Batiashvili may now be aged 43, but she still sounds in her prime. I nearly heard her in at a concert some years ago, but she cried off before I arrived there due, I seem to remember, to advanced pregnancy. It's good to hear her poised, intelligent, classical playing still going strong.

Aaron Rosand and Brahms' Hungarian Dances

I have always loved the gypsy music of the eastern lands of Europe. Virtuosity, dance rhythms, ever-changing moods; this is true “popular” music. It also fascinated Johannes Brahms (amongst others) and I have just enjoyed listening to his 21 Hungarian Dances, most of them written in collaboration with the Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim. Few of the dances last more than two and a half minutes, so the ear is charmed with the constant change of rhythm and mood.

The 21 dances were recorded in Philadelphia in 1991 by the American violinist Aaron Rosand, born in America in 1927 of Russian and Polish extraction. His warm, romantic playing on his Guarneri del Gesù violin suits the music down to the ground. In my current major purge of my over-large CD collection, I have spared this Biddulph CD. It's a worthy memento of Rosand's playing and the sound of his violin, as well as preserving 21 lovable pieces of music in superb performances.

Fritz Kreisler's String Quartet

I have been listening with great pleasure to Fritz Kreisler's String Quartet in A Minor, played on a recent Naxos transfer by the Kreisler String Quartet. The 1935 recording is expertly transferred by Ward Marston and is Volume 11 of Naxos's admirable survey of all Kreisler's recordings (the concerto recordings are in a separate series on Naxos). First violin is, of course, Fritz himself; the viola player is William Primrose.

The quartet in conventional four movements makes for highly attractive listening. The music is quintessential fin de siècle Viennese (Kreisler was born in 1875). Had the quartet been written by a Moslem or African woman, it would be heard regularly in the current “inclusive” climate. Inevitably, the violin has the lion's share of the action, but with Kreisler playing his own music, all to the good. I have only two other recordings of the work: one by Nigel Kennedy and friends in his pre- pop star guise, and the other by the Fine Arts Quartet in 2010. To my great shame, I can recall neither recording, but Kreisler playing Kreisler is inimitable. Highly recommended. Elsewhere on Volume 11 we can admire Kreisler in the usual short duo pieces. The sound, as usual, is inimitable. What always fascinates me with Kreisler's playing is the way he articulates the music with his right arm (the bow). Most modern violinists concentrate on developing a kind of son filé, a stream of beautiful sound a bit like an oboe. The art of using the bow appears to have been lost.

Favourite Soloists. And Clara Haskil

A violinist friend once asked me to name my favourite violinist. I replied: “playing what music?” He agreed this was a fair answer, because a violinist who plays to perfection in Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert may well not be the same as the one who plays to perfection in Brahms, Elgar, Prokoviev or Shostakovich. With favourite conductors it's the same problem. Furtwängler and Klemperer are the greatest for me, but I don't fancy either conducting Debussy's La Mer, or Berlioz's Symphone Fantastique.

20^th century violinists? Hordes of them, but particularly Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Arthur Grumiaux, and Ginette Neveu. Come the 21^st century things become even more complictated, but I have a soft spot for Renaud Capuçon, Tianwa Yang, Lisa Batiashvili, Arabella Steinbacher, and Alina Ibrabimova. Four women, and one man; I think that's called “inclusive” in current parlance, at least by women.

For pianists, I have less of a problem: be it for Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert or Schuman there is only one favourite candidate. Clara Haskil. I have just been listening to her many CDs, recorded mainly in the 1950s. Mozart piano concertos Nos. 19, 20 and 27. Beethoven's Op 111 piano sonata. 11 Scarlatti keyboard sonatas. The Scarlatti and the Schubert D 960 come on an Archipel CD (recorded 1950 and 1951). A recital in Ludwigsburg in 1953 has Haskil playing Bach, Scarlatti, Beethoven, Schumann … and a bonus of Debussy and Ravel (Südwestrundfunk). A wonderful treat. I am currently having a serious weeding-out of my over-inflated collection of recordings. But never anything by Clara Haskil who just sat down and played the music, as it was written and as it should be played. One of a kind. I admired her in duo sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven with Arthur Grumiaux. I admire her as a soloist, or with an orchestra.

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.

Fanny Clamagirand in the Beethoven Violin Concerto

Up until now, the French violinist Fanny Clamagirand has appeared on my shelves only in French music by Camille Saint-Saëns and Eugène Ysaÿe, so I was happy to receive a CD of her playing the Beethoven violin concerto, with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ken-David Masur (Mirare). This is a performance I greatly enjoyed, starting with the recording balance. Beethoven's concerto is not written for a super macho soloist; the concerto is intensely lyrical and soloist and orchestra play the music together. This is Beethoven in a relaxed mood (the concerto is Opus 61 and the Pastoral Symphony Opus 68). The violinist and orchestra are well integrated, with the violin not having a distracting spotlight as it weaves its arabesques around the orchestral part.

Ms Clamagirand makes a somewhat tentative start at her very first entry, but thereafter things go exactly as they should. The orchestra makes an excellent partner for the solo violin. A big plus: Ms Clamagirand plays Kreisler's cadenzas throughout. There are dozens of cadenzas for this concerto, many of them somewhat preposterous and written for a different kind of soloist. After Beethoven, composers became wiser about leaving cadenzas to soloists and either wrote them out themselves, or with a virtuoso adviser (David for Mendelssohn, and Joachim for Brahms). Well done all concerned here: Beethoven, Fanny Clamagirand, orchestra, and Mirare.

Toscha Seidel

Alerted by the forthcoming auction of the “ex-Seidel” Stradivarius violin, I dug out some of my recordings of Toscha Seidel (1899-1962). A pupil of Leopold Auer in St Petersburg, and twinned early on with Jascha Heifetz, Seidel had a less than stellar career, and no international career that I know of, apart from a brief recital tour in Scandinavia as a teenager with Auer and Heifetz. Emigrating to America, and after New York, to Hollywood, Seidel's musical career became bogged down in the Hollywood morass of fame, money, and popular shows. Much like Erich Korngold (1897-1957), with whom Seidel recorded Korngold's Much Ado About Nothing suite in 1941. Hollywood was a death knell for serious classical musicians (though Heifetz managed to survive most of the tinsel). Possibly both Korngold and Seidel died early of broken hearts and thwarted ambitions, with a sense of immense gifts unfulfilled. As the French say: une vie ratée. Few recordings of Seidel's playing remain, and most of them from the period 1926-45, and most of them of short vignette pieces (in which, like Mischa Elman, he excelled). Mischa Elman, Jascha Heifetz, Toscha Seidel, Fritz Kreisler: they were violinists like no others, and they do not make violinists like them any more. More is the pity.

Put on a piece played by Seidel, and you are greeted with soaring lyricism, passionate involvement in the music, and sensuous string playing. The sound is enough to make you rush out and put in a bid for the forthcoming auction of the ex-Seidel Strad. The best of Seidel? He recorded few long works, and no concertos that I know of. Be that as it may: one listens to Seidel for the violin playing, not for musical perspicacity. Probably no one regrets that Seidel did not record the Mozart or Beethoven violin concertos. But the Wagner Albumblatt, and Provost's Intermezzo with the violin's soaring lyricism. Or Brahms Hungarian Dance No.1. Or Korngold's Much Ado suite (with Korngold at the piano). Or Chausson's Poème in 1945 with Leopold Stokowski. I know of no Seidel recordings after 1945, which is a big black mark for the American recording industry, and a big source of regret for lovers of wonderful violin playing. It is said that his favourite work in his repertoire was the Brahms violin concerto but, alas any recordings of his playing the concerto have long been erased by the American commercial radio companies for whom he performed for, probably, substantial fees.

I treasure my small collection of 5-6 CD transfers of Toscha Seidel's meagre recorded legacy. I listen to the pieces when I wish to be reminded of just what a violin can do. And just how a great violinist can bring music to life, even short pieces of music. As I said: they don't make them like that any more.