Tag Archives: Classical

This recent reimagining of The Fair Maid of the Mill—there actually isn’t any good translation—with guitar quite than piano supporting the vocalist, may lead you to surprise if the composer was an early Nineteenth-century prototype of the trendy singer/songwriter. He wasn’t. Schubert was about 5 ft tall, obese, socially awkward, and famously unhealthy at self-promotion; he wasn’t showing at Vienna Kaffeehausen. But there’s one thing about listening to the 20 songs that comprise the cycle, supported by the chief instrumental voice of latest widespread music, that makes the narrative content material particularly potent. It’s been executed earlier than, by tenor Peter Schreier within the Seventies, however this new association by guitarist and composer David Leisner is more practical, partly as a result of the keys required for a baritone occur to be extra guitar-friendly. Michael Kelly’s gentle baritone is completely suited to each the lyrical and dramatic calls for of the fabric; the pathos of the penultimate tune, “Der Müller und der Bach,” is nearly insufferable. The brook—“der Bach”— will get the final phrase. The realistically scaled but rapid recording was produced by Judith Sherman, answerable for so many great classical recordings for half a century now.

The publish Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

Poem of Ecstasy has absolutely earned each little bit of its fame. The colours coaxed from the orchestra are good but at all times utilized in service of the music. Scriabin’s principal themes are straightforward to recollect and acknowledge whilst they make their peregrinations by the twists and turns of his chromaticism. And the heights of jubilant grandeur the piece reaches are surrounded by their very own uncommon air. Shui and the Singapore Symphony are concurrently polished, managed, and invigorating, delivering a efficiency that ranks with the very best. In the sonata, Sudbin wins each devilish problem the composer throws his method, preserving the traces and rhythms clear whereas apparently having the time of his life. The miking makes the piano sound almost psychedelic, with totally different components of the keyboard coming from totally different locations within the soundstage. It’s like being inside the piano as an alternative of simply within the corridor! Prometheus is a vivid tone poem depicting the evolution of the world and humankind from gritty chaos to “final transcendence.” Though components of it really feel like a less-inspired sequel to Poem of Ecstasy, it has extra violent undertones and lurid orchestration. Again, a stellar efficiency in splendid sound.

The put up Scriabin: Poem of Ecstasy; Prometheus; Piano Sonata No. 5 appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

Richard Carr belongs to the ever-burgeoning band of American composers who’ve left the academia of their youth behind, as an alternative creating music that fortunately attracts from quite a lot of sources, together with pop and people music. This newest assortment of his chamber music works is principally dedicated to materials impressed by nature, which tempts the listener to listen to it as a kind of modern impressionism. But that’s considerably deceptive, suggesting imitative writing within the method of Debussy. Carr extra typically takes his cues from his beloved nature walks (together with waterfalls, woods, and ice caves) and flows into summary language that includes bluegrass, jazzy rhythms, Stravinsky-like angular Neoclassicism and fugal building that honors Bach. His musical collaborators are the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), whom he joins, variously, on violin, piano, and guitar. The performances are partially improvised and in addition carried out from scores, though the mix is seamless and tough to listen to. ACME scrambles a bit in among the quicker passages, and there are some occasional intonation misses, however these are minor points. This is, general, a positive instance of radiant modern American chamber music, skillfully constructed and enjoyable to hearken to.

The publish Carr: Landscapes and Lamentations appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

Steven Gerber (1948–2015) was an American composer and pianist who—like lots of his era—started writing in an atonal, pointillist idiom however progressively adopted extra conventional assets. This new assortment of his piano and piano-violin music reveals simply how good his works in each modes are. His 8-minute Variations for Piano is as rocky and disjunct because it will get, however the diamond-hard brilliance of the work (and of Gerber’s unimaginable efficiency of it) is dazzling even when the idiom stays inscrutable. His much-more approachable 1982, 15-minute, three-movement Piano Sonata opens with a “fantasy” in homage to Aaron Copland and is solid in large, sonorous, chunks set off by quick-leaping staccato rockets that recall its dedicatee’s additionally spacious, big-boned piano works. The Sonata concludes with a quick intermezzo adopted by one other large-scale motion, a somber passacaglia-like adagio that involves the ear as a fervent, wordless prayer. Also from the early Eighties, Gerber’s Duo in Three Movements for violin and piano is a glowing showpiece of intricate weavings as the 2 devices dart, trill, tease, coo, and sigh like infatuated songbirds. It’s performed by violinist Fulkerson and pianist Rinehart with magical perfection, and convincingly captured by Albany’s you-are-there sonics.

The publish Gerber: (Mostly) Solo Piano Music appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

Edward Elgar wrote his final main work, the Cello Concerto, within the dispirited, grey temper of post-World War One England in 1919, and practically a decade because the demise of the wonderful Edwardian age, for which he basically wrote the soundtrack. Not surprisingly, the work is magnificently darkish, but in addition tinged with moments of playful nostalgia. The rating was reworked as a viola concerto, in 1929, by the nice British violist Lionel Tertis, with the composer’s blessing. It is a remarkably profitable association, which is primarily because of the capability of the instrument to imitate the sound of the sung human voice. Of course, this impact is solely depending on the ability of the soloist, and Timothy Ridout is just beautiful, enjoying with a nimble, lyrical expressiveness that lends an improvisatory movement to the music. That virtuosity is much more on show within the suite that Swiss born composer Ernest Bloch wrote nearly the identical time that Elgar was composing his Cello Concerto. This colourful, even playful work, impressed by Asian melodic patterns, is brilliantly introduced off by Ridout and his BBC colleagues. The recording is vividly lifelike. In all, a really thrilling launch.

The publish Elgar: Viola Concerto. Bloch: Suite for Viola and Orchestra appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

Nathalie Stutzmann started her musical profession as a singer, and lots of of her admirers subsequently ascribe a vocal high quality to her conducting. But her riveting fashion additionally betrays the pure rhythms of a born dancer, even within the measured classicism of the Beethoven piano concertos. She attracts daring and buoyant music-making out of the fantastic Philadelphians, for whom she is serving because the principal visitor conductor, portraying the composer as a full-fledged Romantic, even within the first two concertos, that are historically interpreted as homages to Beethoven’s trainer, Haydn. The younger Shanghai-born pianist Haochen Zhang, a Cliburn Competition gold medalist, gives a delightfully dashing distinction to Stutzmann’s strong method, with elegant, but richly colourful tonality that appears rooted in an 18th-century sensibility, even amidst the grandiosity of the “Emperor” Concerto, the final of the set of 5. Of course, there’s fierce competitors within the recorded catalog of this music, together with such venerable soloists as Fleisher, Brendel, and Serkin, however this absorbing new take has sufficient perception and distinctive persona, to not point out excellent recorded sound from BIS (Stutzmann’s outstanding dynamic shaping is very effectively captured), to put it amongst the perfect.

The put up Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos appeared first on The Absolute Sound.