Presto Editor's Choices,
Presto Editor's Choices - February 2021
Personal favourites from February include a superb, songful Liszt recital from Benjamin Grosvenor, three electrifying orchestral works by Hong Kong-born composer Raymond Yiu, a witty and wonderful trip to the zoo with bass-baritone Ashley Riches and pianist Joseph Middleton, and a beautifully-conceived and performed showcase for Paganini's Guarneri from Italian violinist Francesca Dego.
Raymond Yiu: The World Was Once All Miracle
Andrew Watts (countertenor), Roderick Williams (baritone); BBC Symphony Orchestra, David Robertson, Sir Andrew Davis, Edward Gardner
This first full-length recording of the Hong Kong-born composer’s orchestral music grabs you by the scruff of the neck, then goes on to reveal new beauties on each hearing: in The London Citizen Exceedingly Injured (2013), Yiu gives us a vivid, teeming urban soundscape to rival Elgar’s Cockaigne, and his settings of poets as diverse as John Donne, Constantine P. Cavafy and Thom Gunn in the 2015 Symphony respond so imaginatively to the texts, as does Andrew Watts’s crystal-clear countertenor.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The sheer vaulting athleticism with which Grosvenor tackles the opening of the mighty Sonata certainly stops you in your tracks, but it’s soul rather than muscle which is the defining characteristic of this breathtakingly beautiful Liszt recital from the young British pianist. The three Petrarch sonnets, Berceuse and Ave Maria really sing, and he’s fully alive to the drama of the Réminiscences de Norma - the Druids’ battle-cries could scarcely sound more electrifying in the opera-house than they do here.
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Hope’s love and understanding of every facet of Schnittke’s musical personality shines through in every bar of this compelling recital: the Suite in the Old Style is despatched with an almost rustic astringency, whilst the Tango from Agony is deliciously louche and the ‘wrong-note’ Stille Nacht unsettlingly beautiful. Perhaps the stand-out track for me, though, is the unaccompanied Madrigal in memoriam Oleg Kagan, played with the same introspective intensity which made his elegies for former owners of the Violins of Hope so affecting.
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Dego handles the Italian virtuoso’s legendary Guarneri with audible tender loving care throughout this imaginative programme, though the kid gloves certainly come off for Schnittke’s A Paganini, which sees her digging into the dramatically retuned G-string with gusto; there’s a lovely soft-focus glow to the instrument’s lower register, whilst its shimmering high overtones are showcased in Boccadoro’s Come d’autunno (specially commissioned for the project) and Kreisler’s Scherzo-Caprice.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Brahms: Viola Sonatas & Zwei Gesange Op. 91
Antoine Tamestit (viola), Cédric Tiberghien (piano), Matthias Goerne (bass-baritone)
Tamestit and Tiberghien find a wealth of light and space in the two sonatas, bringing a folksy, homespun charm to the third movement of No. 1 and plenty of impish energy to its finale; the two song-transcriptions, too, are beautifully done, with some magical pianissimo playing from both artists in the evergreen lullaby. And it’s wonderful to hear the two Op. 91 songs with bass-baritone for a change, Goerne’s dark, nutty timbre like luxury coffee to Tamestit’s cream.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Riches summons a wide range of colours and character for this hugely appealing musical menagerie: Strauss’s Thrush and Fauré’s Butterfly are brought to life with an airy charm, Ravel’s guinea-fowl is properly pugnacious, and there’s plenty of sardonic bite (as well as real Slavic darkness) for Mussorgsky’s Flea and Cockroach; he and Middleton have a ball with Vernon Duke’s Musical Zoo, a series of tiny vignettes delivered with cabaret-esque flair and a pitch-perfect American accent.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The coloratura flourishes of Britten’s On This Island are despatched with the same verve and brilliance which made the young Belgian soprano’s debut recording of Offenbach arias such a winner in 2019, but sensuality rather than virtuosity is the order of the day on this gorgeous programme of English-language songs by French, Belgian and English composers, and Devos has it in spades. The rarities by Tailleferre and Poldowski are particular treats, and Freddie Mercury’s You Take My Breath Away makes for an unexpectedly fitting coda.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
