The latest releases reviewed
ELGAR: VIOLIN CONCERTO; CHAUSSON: POÈME Philippe Graffin (violin), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Vernon Handley Avie AV2091 ****
Everyone knows that composers consult performers when writing concertos. And they often defer to the expertise of the instrumentalists they're writing for, as Elgar did with Fritz Kreisler in his 1910 Violin Concerto and Chausson with Eugène Ysaÿe in his 1896 Poème. Philippe Graffin's new recordings restore some of the earlier intentions, but we're talking about very small matters indeed by comparison with, say, the first and second versions of Sibelius's Violin Concerto. Big fans of the two works may get excited by the minutiae, but others will be content to revel in Philippe Graffin's sensitive advocacy, and the work of the on-form Vernon Handley, who manages an almost miraculously undistorting elasticity of rhythm in the Elgar. www.avierecords.com
Michael Dervan
QIGANG CHEN: EXTASE; SAN XIAO; YUAN; L'ELOIGNEMENT Jean-Louis Capezzali (oboe), Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/ Leonard Slatkin, Yves Prin, Ensemble Hua Xia Virgin Classics 344 6932 ***
Qigang Chen, a French citizen since 1992, was born in Shanghai in 1951. He underwent "ideological re-education" during the Cultural Revolution in China but kept his musical interests and eventually managed to study with Olivier Messiaen from 1984-88. The earliest work here, Yuan (Origins) was completed in 1988, the latest, L'Eloignement (Distance) in 2004. The Chinese inflections are unmistakable, but not at all as pronounced as in Extase for oboe and orchestra (1995), where the solo instrument has its character radically re-drawn, or in San Xiao (Three bursts of laughter) (1996), which is actually scored for a quartet of Chinese instruments. These fascinating, accomplished pieces often have a hovering quality which flashes with bursts of chameleon-like change. www.virginclassics.com
Michael Dervan
MOZART: PIANO SONATAS IN A K331, IN A MINOR K310; FANTASIES IN D MINOR K397, IN C MINOR K475 Wilhelm Kempff (piano) Deutsche Grammophon The Originals 477 5907 ****
The four Mozart works Wilhelm Kempff recorded back in 1962 come in performances that are anything but neatly packaged, musically speaking. The playing is not free of accents that sometimes sound poky, the pedalling can seem overdone, and the volume of sound can accumulate in a way that's hardly most people's idea of Mozartian. Oh, and yes, Kempff can be cavalier with the composer's dynamic markings. But there's something about the playing - touches of magic, flashes of inspiration -with a potency to disarm criticism on matters of style and correctness. www.dgclassics.com
Michael Dervan
LIEDER RECORDINGS, 1930-1938 Elizabeth Schumann (soprano) Naxos Historical 8.111099 *****
German soprano Elisabeth Schumann (1888-1952) had a light voice of exquisite and seemingly effortless loveliness. She was a favourite of Richard Strauss, and was in the cast of a famous, early, abridged recording of his Rosenkavalier. This new disc collects recordings of songs by Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms with a range of pianists (George Reeves, Karl Alwin, Gerald Moore, Leo Rosenek) plus three with orchestra. Schumann sings with a caressing pleasure which allows the listener to take her impeccable delivery, focussed musicianship and intelligent handling of words completely for granted. Brahms gets the bulk of the space, with only a single item by Mendelssohn, an utterly delightful performance of his Auf Flügel des Gesanges with orchestra. The singing of songs doesn't come much finer than what's on offer here. www.naxos.com
Michael Dervan
