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Changyong Shin – Keyboard works by Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven – Steinway and Sons

Changyong Shin – Keyboard works by Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven – Steinway and Sons

by | Aug 18, 2018 | Classical CD Reviews

Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven (Piano Works)—Changyong Shin (piano)—Steinway and Sons 30041—59:22, ****1/2: I always enjoy hearing recitals by emerging artists. Shin studied at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and has been a winner in a number of prestigious competitions. This recital is a means to showcase his versatility with the standard repertoire. He performs Bach’s Toccata, BWV 912, Mozart’s Hunt sonata, K. 576, Haydn’s sonata no. 60, and Beethoven’s A major sonata, op. 101. Shin is a technically-precise musician, but likewise applies rubato and dynamic shading to his playing. The recorded sound in this release is first-rate. The piano—a Steinway D—is even-toned, blooming ever so much in the middle register. The acoustic is live enough to celebrate the piano’s sound without anything feeling washed-out. Shin descends into the quiet shadows capable of the instrument many times so that the few outbursts come across as grand, rich explosions of color, as in the Beethoven Vivace Alla Marcia. Shin’s Bach for me is polite and somewhat underwhelming. This is a pianist approaching Bach, with no attempt to reference the sound world of Bach’s keyboard instruments. The opening is played forte, with even pressure but then the first cadences feel artificial. There’s nothing […]

Sei Solo = BACH Sonatas and Partitas – Thomas Bowes – Navona Records

Sei Solo = BACH Sonatas and Partitas – Thomas Bowes – Navona Records

by | Aug 8, 2018 | Classical CD Reviews

Johann Sebastian BACH. Six sonatas and partitas for violin alone—Thomas Bowes (violin)—Navona Records NV6159—164:00, ***1/2: This recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, the “Sei Solo,” are recorded across three discs. My immediate reaction was to question why the recording took three discs, while every other recording I have heard took just two. And so I went reading before I listened to try and discover what was novel about this recording from Thomas Bowes. Liner notes are funny things; they’ve long been associated with classical albums and give an opportunity from someone [performer, producer, record label, musicologist, etc., etc.] to educate the listener on some aspect (or many aspects) of the music, the recording, or even the instrument(s) used. And as a collector of albums, I feel qualified in saying that not all liner notes are equal and not all recordings come with them (as is often the case when purchasing re-issues). In 2018, I am not sure we need liner notes in the same way we did in 1998, or we travel back to the origin of the term, from somewhere in the mid-twentieth century when all this commentary was printed on the sleeve of a vinyl record. To […]

J.S. Bach: Sonatas for Flute and Harpsichord – Stephen Schultz, Jory Vinikour – Music and Arts

J.S. Bach: Sonatas for Flute and Harpsichord – Stephen Schultz, Jory Vinikour – Music and Arts

by | Jul 24, 2018 | Classical CD Reviews

The best performances of these works of the new millenium. J.S. Bach: Sonatas for Flute and Harpsichord – Stephen Schultz (flute) Jory Vinikour (Harpsichord) – Music and Arts 1295 55:18, (3/2/18)  *****: This writer subscribes to the view that the Sonatas BWV 1017-1023 for violin and harpsichord obbligato by Bach are his finest chamber works. A new recording of these by Rachel Barton Pine and Jory Vinikour were recently and favorably reviewed on these pages. It seems only fitting to acknowledge a 2018 recording of pieces that are nearest rivals to these eminent works, the Sonatas for Flute and Harpsichord, BWV 1030-1032, (featuring, as it happens, the same harpsichordist, Jory Vinikour); They are part of the inspired innovation to realize a trio sonata with two instruments by asking of the obbligato accompaniment a division of hands. The left hand merrily chases around the soloist, now in imitative counterpoint and now in extravagant improvisations, each instrument with its own themes, which converse with each other. The left hand soberly performs the work of the basso continuo, carrying along the swiftly-moving harmonic progressions. From a historical perspective, these sonatas were remarkable for the use of the transverse flute as a solo instrument, […]

Johann Sebastian BACH. The sonatas for violin and harpsichord—Rachael Barton Pine, Jory Vinikour —Cedille Records 

Johann Sebastian BACH. The sonatas for violin and harpsichord—Rachael Barton Pine, Jory Vinikour —Cedille Records 

by | Jul 18, 2018 | Classical CD Reviews

Johann Sebastian BACH. The sonatas for violin and harpsichord—Rachael Barton Pine (violin), Jory Vinikour (harpsichord)—Cedille Records CDR 900000 177—99:45, **** : While we can’t afford Bach the title as inventor of the sonata for violin and continuo, he did provide us examples of the first concertos for keyboard and orchestra. And in a form that would be continued since his time, he left us six sonatas for keyboard and violin. What makes these different from the scores of sonatas that first appeared in Italy after 1600 is that the keyboard part acts not as a “continuous bass” but as bass and a second voice. The result are pieces written predominately in trio texture, with the right hand and violin often intertwined in harmony or else chasing one another, as Bach is known to do, in counterpoint. Jory Vinikour (harpsichord) and Rachel Barton Pine (violin) take the historical approach in their recoding of the six sonatas (BWV 1014-1019) using period instruments and saving left-handed vibrato for another day. Bach’s structure for the sonatas is unusually consistent, save for the last sonata in G, which survives with alternative pieces, wrought in five instead of four movements. Vinikour and Barton Pine offer us first the […]

The Music Treasury for 15 July 2018 — Tatiana Petrofina Nikolayeva, Pianist

The Music Treasury for 15 July 2018 — Tatiana Petrofina Nikolayeva, Pianist

by | Jul 15, 2018 | Streams and Podcasts

This week, The Music Treasury will present piano music performed by Tatiana Petrofina Nikolayeva.  Nikolayeva was raised in a musical family—her father a string player, her mother a professional pianist.  Tatiana Nikolayeva was particularly noted for her interpretation of works by Bach; her performance inspired Shostakovich to write his own set of preludes and fugues for her. Dr Gary Lemco hosts this week’s show, airing between 19:00 and 21:00 on 15 July 2018, PDT.  It can be heard from its host station KZSU in the SF Bay Area, as well as its live streamed simulcast from kzsu.stanford.edu. Tatiana Petrovna Nikolayeva, pianist, teacher and composer Tatiana Petrovna Nikolayeva, pianist, teacher and composer was born in Bezhitza, Russia 4 May 1924; twice married (one son); and died San Francisco 22 November 1993. It is difficult to imagine anyone forgetting the experience of hearing Tatiana Nikolayeva play. She was one of those rare artists who had the ability to win over an audience before even reaching the keyboard. Rotund, and frequently wearing a rather startlingly bright dress, she would make her way to the front of the piano, give the audience a heartwarmingly big smile, and then settle her ample frame on to […]

BACH: Mass in B Minor – Les Arts Florissants/ William Christie – Harmonia mundi 

BACH: Mass in B Minor – Les Arts Florissants/ William Christie – Harmonia mundi 

by | May 14, 2018 | Classical CD Reviews

A well-intentioned, hugely successful interpretation of this timeless work. BACH: Mass in B Minor – Katherine Watson, s/ Tim Mead, ct/ Reinoud Van Mechelen, t/ Andre Morsch, b/ Les Arts Florissants/ William Christie – Harmonia mundi HAF 8905293 (2 CDs), 52:16, 52:47 ****: The B-minor’s keep on comin’. I suppose we cannot be too critical of the efforts, seeing as how one of the world’s greatest masterworks automatically serves as a recording magnet. And when you add names like William Christie to the mix, whose involvement with this work spans decades and goes back to his very youth outside Buffalo, New York, the results will be something to talk about. This indeed proves the case here. Christie’s goal in this recording is to not only present the work as a testament to the Christian faith, which he readily admits it is, but also to provide a humanistic covering to the work, an equally inspiring testament to the human race. With that in mind, his musical aspirations here include some quick tempos—by his own admission—that serve to slightly undermine the fully religious immersion found in this piece, an act of homage to the dance-like elements that he finds in the music. […]

Jascha Spivakovsky: Bach to Bloch, Vol. IV = Works for Solo Piano by BACH; BEETHOVEN; CHOPIN; SCHUMANN – Jascha Spivakovsky, piano – Pristine Audio 

Jascha Spivakovsky: Bach to Bloch, Vol. IV = Works for Solo Piano by BACH; BEETHOVEN; CHOPIN; SCHUMANN – Jascha Spivakovsky, piano – Pristine Audio 

by | Feb 24, 2018 | Classical Reissue Reviews

The fourth installment of the Spivakovky Edition revels in the Romantic ethos of composer and performer.  Jascha Spivakovsky: Bach to Bloch, Vol. IV = BACH: Fantasia in c minor, BWV 906; BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110; CHOPIN: Impromptu No. 1 in A-flat Major, Op. 29; Etude in c minor, Op. 10, No. 12 “Revolutionary”; Etude in f minor, Op. 25, No. 2; Etude in G-flat Major, Op. 25, No. 9 “Butterfly”; Bolero in C Major/a minor, Op. 19; SCHUMANN: Carnaval, Op. 9 – Jascha Spivakovsky, piano – Pristine Audio PAKM073, 71:30 [www.pristineclassical.com] *****:  The latest installment of the Jascha Spivakovksy (1896-1970) legacy derives from a series of recordings that span approximately eighteen years, 1948-1966, derived from radio appearances and home recitals. Many of us who audition these rare and recently-revived performances marvel at the musical acuity and innate, Romantic sensibility of this magnificent artist, who never enjoyed the prestige of a commercial recording contract. Each interpretation bears Spivakovsky’s idiosyncratic temper and musical line, his astute rhythmic pulse and sense of the dramatic space between notes. Nothing that we hear bears the sense of routine or mediocrity of thought. We seem to become eaves-droppers on a […]