Latest releases reviewed
BAX: PIANO WORKS VOL 1
Ashley Wass (piano) Naxos 8.557439
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Àrnold Bax (1883-1953), an Englishman with a private income, is the composer most closely associated with the Easter Rising. He wrote nationalist poetry under the pseudonym Dermot O'Byrne, and one of the piano pieces included here, the mildly melancholic Dream in Exile: Intermezzo, was written in 1916, and retitled as a result of the rising, in which Bax lost many friends. The major works in this selection are the first two piano sonatas, in which one can feel the composer being tempted by the harmonic explorations that Scriabin had opened up, but equally (if not more strongly) being drawn back towards long-established routines of romantic pianism. Ashley Wass plays with an attractive lustrous warmth but cannot quite mask the sonatas' innate long-windedness. Among the shorter pieces, he clearly enjoys the over-the-top Russian pastiche of In a Vodka Shop. www.naxos.com
Michael Dervan
DE BRÉVILLE: VIOLIN SONATA NO 1; CANTELOUBE: DANS LA MONTAGNE SUITE
Philippe Graffin (violin), Pascal Devoyon (piano) Hyperion CDA 67427
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The Chants d'Auvergne by Joseph Canteloube (1879-1957) are known by large numbers of people who would never recognise the composer's name. But few even of those who know both songs and name know much of the composer's other work. The suite Dans la montagne (1906) pre-dates the songs by 17 years, but shows the familiar fondness for attractive melodies set in sometimes elaborate textural surroundings. The First Violin Sonata of the even less well known Pierre de Bréville (1861-1949), completed in 1919, has higher aspirations, but seems a more effortful composition, and strains rather too hard to make its effects. Graffin and Devoyon play both of these backward looking rarities with a rewarding combination of insight and selfless devotion. www.hyperionrecords.com
Michael Dervan
PROKOFIEV: VIOLIN CONCERTOS; VIOLIN SONATA NO 2
David Oistrakh (violin), London SO/Lovro von Matacic, Philharmonia/Alceo Galliera, Vladimir Yampolsky (piano) EMI Classics 562888 2
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This is one of those "from the horse's mouth" CDs we would love to have for the great figures of the 19th century. It was at David Oistrakh's behest and with his cooperation that Prokofiev arranged his Flute Sonata, Op. 94, for violin and piano, in which form it has quite eclipsed the popularity of the original. The violinist's 1955 recording is here coupled with those he made of the two violin concertos in 1954 and 1958 (this latter the only one in stereo). The playing throughout is unaffected, its lyricism ardent, its points made with effective directness. The earlier recordings do rather place the violinist unduly forward in focus, but that's a characteristic that playing of this calibre can bear. www.emiclassics.com
Michael Dervan
SCHUBERT: PIANO SONATAS IN A MINOR D845; IN G D894
Radu Lupu (piano) Decca Rosette Collection 476 2182
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Although Radu Lupu is a familiar face on the concert platform (he's back at the NCH on December 9th), he's been a stranger to the recording studio in recent years. These two much-praised Schubert recordings date from 1974 (D894) and 1979 (D845). Lupu likes to live in the moment, and in the A minor Sonata those moments are often nervily wound up. The more expansiveGmajor Sonata is altogether smoother, even when the climaxes are projected with a hint of brass. The reward of the approach is that there's never a dull moment, and the detailing is finely conceived. The drawback is that, in spite of the careful conception and the often gorgeous execution, the long term view is not always clear and musical momentum does suffer. www.deccaclassics.com
Michael Dervan
