Gramophone Choices,
Gramophone Editor's Choices - October 2018
This month’s leaders of the pack are Steven Isserlis and Dénes Várjon, whose limpid accounts of the Chopin Cello Sonata and Schubert’s Arpeggione (plus Isserlis’s own transcriptions of songs by both composers) were described by Martin Cullingford as ‘wonderfully instinctive and personal’ in this month’s issue. Editor's Choices include two imaginative pairings of concertos and chamber works for strings from Vilde Frang (Bartók and Enescu) and Alisa Weilerstein (Haydn and Schoenberg), a splendid Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony from Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s gripping reading of Stravinsky’s Perséphone, whilst the DVD/Blu-ray of the Month finds Piotr Beczała in ringing form as Prince Sou-Chong in Léhar’s Das Land des Lächelns from Zurich Opera.
Recording of the Month
'We get a real sense of give and take from the off, Isserlis and Várjon giving Chopin’s lines a pliable quality that brings them to life...Their Schubert Arpeggione is similarly thoughtful and full of details that so often pass by unnoticed...Even among Isserlis’s many fine discs, this one stands out. And if you still need convincing that the Chopin Cello Sonata is a total masterpiece, this is the recording to do it.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
Editor's Choices
Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 1 & Enescu: Octet for strings
Vilde Frang (violin), Orchestre de Radio France, Mikko Franck
'Absolutely stunning. Had the Heifetz-Piatigorsky team tackled Enescu’s string Octet, I doubt that they would have topped this version by Vilde Frang and friends...What most absorbs me about this wonderful piece are its rich ingredients, an aspect that Frang and her collaborators appear to relish to the full. '
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Schoenberg: Transfigured Night & Haydn: Cello Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Alisa Weilerstein (cello), Trondheim Soloists
'You’d go far to find performances of the Haydn concertos that match Alisa Weilerstein’s mix of stylistic sensitivity, verve and spontaneous delight in discovery...for a performance [of the Schoenberg] that combines chamber-musical intimacy, transparency of detail and urgent human expressiveness, you won’t do better than this.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony
Elizabeth Llewellyn (soprano), Marcus Farnsworth (baritone); BBC Symphony Orchestra & BBC Symphony Chorus, Martyn Brabbins
'His is a painstakingly prepared and intelligently paced conception, combining a perceptive awareness of the grander scheme (climaxes are built and resolved with unerring authority), exemplary attention to detail and mastery of texture...the BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra respond with thrilling accomplishment and unflagging enthusiasm.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'There are at least three good reasons for investing in this fine recording. First, there is the prospect of hearing 10 of Paderewski’s best works for solo piano played on his own instrument...Second, there is the inclusion of Paderewski’s Op 1...Third, and most persuasively, there is the playing of Kevin Kenner.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Alfred Janson: The Wind Blows
The Norwegian Soloists' Choir, Alfred Janson (melodica), Grete Pedersen
'All the choral-instrumental works here feel timeless, refreshing and sincere, while many of them are notably bold. Their rigorous simplicity is often tied up in those things...Every word on every track is crystal clear, whether sung in Norwegian, Swedish or English...What a surprise and delight to come across an 82-year-old with such an important, refreshing and honest voice.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'The Clarion Choir, under the sure direction of Steven Fox, turn in a thrilling performance, recorded with clarity and not too much resonance in St Jean Baptiste Church in New York. This recording (together with its publication by Musica Russica) represents the rehabilitation of a major work, which nobody interested in Russian music of the 20th century should miss.'
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'Over 30 years later, Herreweghe’s radical rethinking yields shaded flexibility and kaleidoscopic dynamism...One never senses a dictating ego controlling proceedings; there is a spirit of collective chamber music-making from all participants that is classy, articulate and unerringly beguiling. Recordings of the 1610 Vespers are two-a-penny but very few have delighted and impressed me as much as this.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Stravinsky: Perséphone
Andrew Staples (tenor), Pauline Cheviller (speaker), Finnish National Opera, Esa-Pekka Salonen
'Orchestral textures are clean yet sensuous, rhythms exactingly precise...In lesser hands, the score can seem episodic. Salonen, however, forges it into a unified drama, in which not a note or word seems wasted…The choral singing is warm and focused...Cheviller, meanwhile, plays the title-role with great sincerity.'
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
'The singers make a beautifully balanced sound with impressive fluency across each style...There is a pleasing tension between a consort blend and the vital quirkiness of individual voices...Jourdain’s pairing of serpent, cornet and viols brings a gloriously rich hue to Byrd’s music. To bastardise Victor Hugo, never was there such pleasure in being sad.'
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
DVD/Blu-ray of the Month
Lehár: Das Land des Lächelns (DVD)
Piotr Beczała, Julia Kleiter, Rebeca Olvera; Chor der Oper Zurich & Philharmonia Zurich, Fabio Luisi
'This is a magnificent achievement: a staging that lets the piece speak eloquently for itself, performed with a sense of style that’s faithful without being patronising…Kleiter’s singing has a really glamorous gleam throughout; together with Beczała the pair articulate their emotional conflict as painfully and as persuasively as if they’re singing Puccini...Of course, much credit has to go to Fabio Luisi, who brings out textures ranging from Straussian lushness to Ravel-like chinoiserie.'
Available Format: DVD Video
Lehár: Das Land des Lächelns (Blu-ray)
Piotr Beczała, Julia Kleiter, Rebeca Olvera; Chor der Oper Zurich & Philharmonia Zurich, Fabio Luisi
Picture Formats: NTSC 16:9, Full HD
Sound Formats: DTS HD Master Audio, PCM Stereo
Region Code: 0
Running Time: 103:07
Disc Format: BD 25
Available Format: Blu-ray
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
