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CHOPIN: 24 Preludes; SCHUMANN: Fantasie in C Major – Horacio Gutierrez, p. – Bridge

CHOPIN: 24 Preludes; SCHUMANN: Fantasie in C Major – Horacio Gutierrez, p. – Bridge

by | Mar 9, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

Noble and commanding, the Gutierrez renditions of two Romantic staples should bring repeated delights. CHOPIN: 24 Preludes, Op. 28; SCHUMANN: Fantasie in C Major, Op. 17 – Horacio Gutierrez, p. – Bridge 9479, 65:56 (10/7/16)  [Distr. by Albany] ****: Horatio Gutierrez (b. 1948) addresses (rec. 26-28 March 2015) two of the Romantic pillars of keyboard composition, the 1838 Chopin Preludes, and the 1839 Fantasie of Robert Schumann, works whose rhetoric and exalted gestures – along with the Liszt b minor Sonata – virtually embody the spirit of the age. The Chopin Preludes provide a kind of Rosetta Stone for the Romantic sensibility, 24 pieces in all the major and minor tonalities whose one concession to the Classical form lies in their following the circle of fifths. Chopin had taken a copy of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier with him to Majorca, and he studiously absorbed much of Bach’s concentrated lyricism and contrapuntal models, but he eschewed any additional component to his preludes: none of them attaches to an ensuing fugue or fantasia. Instead, the mighty drama Chopin effects lies within the core of each miniature – say, in the f-sharp minor – whose angry figures relent only in the last measures. True, […]

LISZT: The Transcendentals: Twelve Etudes; Funerailles, October 1849; Valse Oubliee No. 1 in f-sharp minor – Barbara Nissman, p. – Three Oranges

LISZT: The Transcendentals: Twelve Etudes; Funerailles, October 1849; Valse Oubliee No. 1 in f-sharp minor – Barbara Nissman, p. – Three Oranges

by | Mar 4, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

Barbara Nissman gives us a dynamic and emotionally aggressive Liszt, virtuosic and poetic.

 LISZT: The Transcendentals: Twelve Etudes; Funerailles, October 1849; Valse Oubliee No. 1 in f-sharp minor – Barbara Nissman, piano – Three Oranges Recordings 3OR-22, 75:18 (1/31/17) [www.threeorangesrecordings.com] ****: Barbara Nissman,long associated with the music of Franz Liszt, turns (rec. 1-3 August 2013) to his most imposing legacy, his 12 Transcendental Etudes (1852 edition), recast in more accessible form by the composer from his 1837 version, which Berlioz had deemed impossible for any other artist to realize. Schumann had been only slightly more optimistic, calling them “studies in storm and dread for, at the most, ten or twelve players in the world.” Much in the spirit of the Chopin Preludes, which follow the circle of fifths, the Liszt Etudes follow a pattern of descending thirds, starting in C Major and working their way to b-flat minor. In the course of the progression – or spiritual journey – Liszt consolidates his consummate keyboard technique while paying homage to his arsenal of Romantic rhetoric and heroic gestures, his capacity to embrace ecstasies of emotional extremes that look to Dante as their analogy in imaginative expression. Nissman opens with two preliminary […]

Jonathan Finlayson and Sicilian Defense – Moving Still – PI

Jonathan Finlayson and Sicilian Defense – Moving Still – PI

by | Mar 2, 2017 | Jazz CD Reviews

Strategy and movement from a jazz master. Jonathan Finlayson and Sicilian Defense – Moving Still [TrackList follows] – PI Recordings PI67, 52:15 [10/15/16] ****: (Jonathan Finlayson – trumpet, producer; Miles Okazaki – guitar; Matt Mitchell – piano; John Hébert – bass; Craig Weinrib – drums) Trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson is like an expert chess player. He pays attention to what is going on; reflects on what needs to be done; and when it is all sorted in his head, he moves with surety and grace. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Moving Still is only the second solo release from Finlayson, although he’s been a professional musician for a decade and a half. This 52-minute, six-track CD is the follow-up to Finlayson’s critically acclaimed 2013 album, Moment and the Message. Like that earlier effort, Finlayson offers twists and turns which maintain a cutting-edge demeanor, similar to the music of his mentor, Steve Coleman (Finlayson has been a member of Coleman’s Five Elements and has performed with Coleman for a decade). Finlayson’s quintet, Sicilian Defense, also has Coleman alum: guitarist Miles Okazaki is also in Five Elements. The other players are equally storied: pianist Matt Mitchell has worked with Tim […]

SCHUBERT: String Quartet No. 14 in d, “Death and the Maiden”; SIBELIUS: String Quartet in d “Intimate Voice” – Ehnes Quartet – Onyx

SCHUBERT: String Quartet No. 14 in d, “Death and the Maiden”; SIBELIUS: String Quartet in d “Intimate Voice” – Ehnes Quartet – Onyx

by | Dec 5, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

James Ehnes and his quartet members deliver passionate accounts of dark Schubert and Sibelius. SCHUBERT: String Quartet No. 14 in d minor, D. 810 “Death and the Maiden”; SIBELIUS: String Quartet in d, Op. 56 “Intimate Voice” – Ehnes Quartet – Onyx 4163, [Distr. by HM/PIAS], 74:03, (11/18/16) ****: Canadian violinist James Ehnes (b. 1976) extends his multi-faceted career in these two dark quartets (rec. 27-29 October 2015), each of which confronts the composer’s sense of mortality. Schubert conceived his 1824 Quartet while seriously ill, having turned to his own lied Der Tod und das Maedchen, D. 531 (1817) as the basis of his powerful theme-and-variations second movement. Often, in the course of the first, powerful Allegro movement, Ehnes’ part becomes a concertante medium, asking him to display brilliant solo writing against the ensemble.  The Italianate second subject achieves some lyrical outpouring, but Schubert transforms this otherwise liberated affect to strict contrapuntal treatment. Triplet figures abound, and Schubert assigns them to bass lines consistently, even concluding by combining the countersubject with the triplets that had underpinned the first motif. Ehnes’ own instrument offers triplet figures that mumble and then dissolve. The famous Andante con moto, based on the dark lied, […]

HAYDN: Piano Sonatas and Variations = Lars Haugbro, fortepiano ‒ LAWO

HAYDN: Piano Sonatas and Variations = Lars Haugbro, fortepiano ‒ LAWO

by | Nov 11, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

HAYDN: Piano Sonatas and Variations = Sonata in F Major, Hob. XVI:29; Andante and Variations in F Minor, Hob. XVII:6; Sonata in C Minor, Hob. XVI:20; Sonata in C Major, Hob. XVI:50 ‒ Lars Haugbro, fortepiano ‒ LAWO LWC1094; 67:46 (5/6/16) *****: A nicely-varied recital from a Scandinavian Haydn specialist. B01AB6UNWM Despite the highly evocative cover photo, this album is not all storms-a-brewing. However, two of the works on this varied program tap into the darker side of Haydn, one not often encountered since his latest, greatest works are usually in a sunny major mode. Of Haydn’s late large-scale compositions, consider that his greatest symphonic creations, the twelve London Symphonies, include only one work in a minor key, Symphony No. 95 in c. It is perhaps the least admired of the twelve, and as to its key signature, critics generally conclude that here Haydn is more interested in the minor key as a matter of sonority than as a matter of spiritual-emotional context, as it was in the great c minor works of Mozart and Beethoven. Then again, in that same decade we have the marvelous Lord Nelson Mass, or Missa in Angustiis, written during the frightening early years of […]

Baden Powell, guitar – Images On Guitar – MPS vinyl

Baden Powell, guitar – Images On Guitar – MPS vinyl

by | Sep 24, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

Baden Powell – Images On Guitar – MPS 0210990MSW (1971/2016) stereo vinyl, 41:02 ****: Brazil’s legendary guitarist shines on this vinyl re-mastering! (Baden Powell – guitar, vocals; Janine de Walleye – vocal; Ernesto Gonsalves – bass; Alfredo Bessa – atabaque, percussion; Joaquim Paes Henriques – drums) Baden Powell was an influential guitarist. The Brazilian native (and yes, he was named after Boy Scout founder Robert Baden-Powell) was renowned for his embrace of the emerging bossa nova movement. His influence on music was attributed to the connection of Latin jazz to classical music. He eschewed the electric guitar that permeated music in the ‘50s and ‘60s to concentrate on acoustic. His career took hold when his composition, “Samba Triste” was covered by Stan Getz. Powell was a force in popularizing the 2/4 samba meter, and he started recording as a solo artist in 1961. But it was his early seventies catalog with MPS that globalized his popularity. Images On Guitar was initially released by MPS in 1971. The album featured a quartet with guest vocalist Janine de Walleye. Now there is a 180-gram re-mastered vinyl available. The improved technology translates the artistic vision of Powell. Throughout the recording, he expresses a […]

SCHUBERT: Arpeggione Sonata in a minor, D. 821; String Quintet in C Major, D. 956 – Matt Haimovitz, cello/ Itamar Golan, p./ Miro String Quartet – Pentatone

SCHUBERT: Arpeggione Sonata in a minor, D. 821; String Quintet in C Major, D. 956 – Matt Haimovitz, cello/ Itamar Golan, p./ Miro String Quartet – Pentatone

by | Jul 2, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

Two classic collaborations from cellist Matt Haimovitz enjoy sonic glory in these restorations from Pentatone.  SCHUBERT: Arpeggione Sonata in a minor, D. 821; String Quintet in C Major, D. 956 – Matt Haimovitz, cello/ Itamar Golan, p./ Miro String Quartet – Pentatone multichannel SACD PTC 5186 549, 76:55 (6/10/16) [Distr. by Naxos] ****: From the opening piano chords in Schubert’s 1824 Arpeggione Sonata – the obsolete instrument’s having been supplanted by the modern cello – we find ourselves enthralled by Itamar’s seductive keyboard and the sympathetic sonority of the Matt Haimovitz instrument, a 1710 Matteo Gofriller cello. The original recording (30 October 2001) enjoys the remastered sonics that project the glories of Schubert’s lyric genius to full advantage. The music blends a Bohemian ethos into a three-part song that asks of the solo part flurries of bravura filigree interspersed with broken chords, both arco and pizzicato.  The first movement, Allegro moderato, projects a resigned, autumnal nostalgia that we must attribute to the composer’s awareness of his fateful mortality.  The Adagio presents a quiet, intimate lied of rarified beauty, a sentiment that transforms into a slow, darkly-hued waltz marked by plangent, low tones in the cello. The tempo becomes virtually funereal […]

Florian Hoefner Group – Luminosity – Origin

Florian Hoefner Group – Luminosity – Origin

by | Mar 8, 2016 | Jazz CD Reviews

Musical storytelling which mixes compositional originality with instrumental brilliance. Florian Hoefner Group – Luminosity [TrackList follows] – Origin 82706, 54:28 [1/15/16] ****: (Seamus Blake – tenor and soprano saxophone; Florian Hoefner – piano; Sam Anning – bass; Peter Kronreif – drums) Stepping outside one’s comfort zone is a time-honored tradition in jazz. Pianist Florian Hoefner—born and raised in Germany and who finished his jazz education in Manhattan—took that journey a bit further than most. In 2014, he relocated from NYC to the isolated city of St. John’s in Canada’s farthest easterly province, Newfoundland. Not a hotbed of jazz, but the rugged and scenic area offered a place where Hoefner could and did focus his creativity. The result is Hoefner’s new quartet album, Luminosity, his third outing as a leader and one which exhibits growth, development and thoughtful complexity. The eight tunes (all Hoefner originals) total 54 minutes and were specifically composed for Hoefner’s international group, which also comprises tenor and soprano saxophonist Seamus Blake (who grew up on the west coast of Canada; runs his own quintet; and has been a regular with the Mingus Big Band); bassist Sam Anning (an Australian who resides in NYC and has worked with […]