Personal favourites from April's rich crop of new releases include Steve Reich from the Colin Currie Group on the percussionist's own label, orchestrated mélodies from Cyrille Dubois, the Brussels Philharmonic and Pierre Dumoussaud on Alpha, songs by Eugene Goossens, Arthur Bliss & Herbert Howells from James Geer and Ronald Woodley on Resonus, and Glazunov from the Tippett Quartet on Naxos.
Steve Reich: The Sextets
Colin Currie, Colin Currie Group
Steve Reich’s sextets (single, double and marimba) are some of his most famous works. Their mechanistic, polyrhythmic soundworld is monumentally difficult to perform - and the reward for the musicians is often that if they sound like automata then it means they’ve done their job! Colin Currie’s musicians provide a harder-edged account of the Sextet (in particular its central section) than some earlier recordings, while the strings in the Double Sextet have a bracingly alive attack to their sustained notes that lifts the whole piece by reminding us that these are human performers relishing the moment, not just string sounds being switched on and off at the required moments. Conversely, the magically clockwork-ish Six Pianos benefits from the softening of its edges that the marimba version offers. (David Smith)
Available Formats: SACD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
So Poétique!
Cyrille Dubois (tenor), Brussels Philharmonic, Pierre Dumoussaud
Several members of the Presto team (including those who don't usually gravitate towards this kind of repertoire) have fallen entirely under the spell of this beautiful collection of orchestrated mélodies, which is looking like an early contender for our Albums of the Year. Dubois's distinctively sweet, high-lying tenor is an unalloyed pleasure, complemented by some gorgeous orchestral solos; favourites such as Fauré's 'En prière' (the voice gently spotlit against a backdrop of high strings) come up as fresh as paint, but it's the rarities by Augusta Holmès and Fernand de La Tombelle which really steal the show. (Katherine Cooper)
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Songs By Goossens, Bliss & Howells
James Geer (tenor), Ronald Woodley (piano)
James Geer and Ronald Woodley continue their insatiable exploration of twentieth-century British song beyond the canonised repertoire, this time bringing together music by three composers who entered the Royal College of Music in the years before the First World War. Our experience of each of these composers is under-nourished, and the advocacy of Geer’s bright and expressive tenor in partnership with the colour, range and conversation of Woodley’s piano playing makes this a rewarding album in correcting that. Woodley’s research background brings authority to engaging booklet notes which provide further illumination to what is essential listening to any lover of art song and British music. (Matthew Ash)
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Glazunov: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1
Tippett Quartet
Although the third quartet is the one subtitled ‘Slavonic’ in reference to how deeply it draws on Russian folk music, the first of Glazunov’s forays into this genre already has a somewhat rustic flavour to it. The second is perhaps the most refined of the three, with a particularly gorgeous slow movement. The ‘Slavonic’ quartet seems to sit midway between the sacred and the secular - its first two movements bear harmonic traces of Russian Orthodox sacred music, while its third and fourth are even folksier than the first quartet. This last is certainly the one that made the strongest impression on me, but the two earlier works are by no means short on charm. (David Smith)
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Alto Appassionato
Timothy Ridout (viola), Jonathan Ware (piano)
Ridout's own transcription of Franck's Violin Sonata receives a barnstorming performance from both players here, with fantastic clarity from Ware in the outer movements in particular and Ridout's full-blooded tone in the upper register providing thrills aplenty. Six songs by Fauré transfer beautifully onto the viola, and there's much pleasure to be had from the three pieces by George Enescu, Léon Honnoré and Henri Busser: all written for students at the Paris Conservatoire (where solo viola classes were introduced only in 1894), they showcase the instrument's lyrical and virtuosic capabilities in equal measure, and Ridout's evident delight in the writing is contagious. (Katherine Cooper)
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res+ FLAC/ALAC/WAV, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Pascal Rogé - Complete Decca Recordings
Pascal Rogé (piano)
I’m a box set addict, as my colleagues will attest, and as much as I knew I would enjoy this forty-three-disc collection of Pascal Rogé’s Complete Decca Recordings, I didn’t expect it to so quickly become a firm favourite. There’s so much to celebrate here, and much of it is standard setting, especially the Saint-Saens concertos in a symbiotic partnership with Charles Dutoit, and the ten discs that capture the heart of Poulenc. The debut Liszt album remains invigorating, the Debussy deftly painted, the Bartok concertos rhythmically idiomatic, and his Brahms is a wonderful surprise which betrays the influence of his mentor, Julius Katchen. (Matthew Ash)
Available Format: 43 CDs
Blackbirds
Nicolas Altstaedt (cello), Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Maxim Emelyanychev
On Blackbirds, we hear cello played with unwavering command in repertoire which demonstrates its flexibility and stretches expectations in four different contexts. Listening with twenty-first century ears, there are parallels to be drawn with the countercultural experimentation of the decade; its exploration of smooth and striated musical spaces, anchored in established paradigms. The Bacewicz concerto is economically atmospheric, the cello its binding force throughout rhythmic, dynamic and textural extremes. The Britten fuses myriad influences from Gamelan to Shostakovich without losing his individual voice. The wolf notes that surround the closing Lennon & McCartney song bring atmosphere to an otherwise consort-like arrangement which sounds almost like an echo of a bygone age. (Matthew Ash)
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Three British Accordion Concertos
Owen Murray (accordion), BBC Concert Orchestra, James MacMillan
Another triple-bill of off-the-beaten-track concertos from Toccata's bold Toccata Next series. Gordon Jacob's concerto for accordion, strings and percussion (premiered at Carrs Lane Church, Birmingham) was later arranged by the composer to give the solo part to the organ, and that chamber-organ-ish nature is apparent even here in the work's original guise. Edward McGuire's concerto is perhaps the most avant-garde-sounding piece on the album, and rewards repeated listenings to really get under its skin and get to know it. The final work - dedicated to the memory of the intended commissionee, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies - reflects the relative ease of seeing the haunting phenomenon of the Northern Lights from Maxwell Davies's home in the Orkney Islands. The two first movements are both marked 'very spacious', which should give you a good sense of how atmospheric this concerto is. (David Smith)
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
