Michael Dervanwith an eclectic mix
ALKAN: CELLO SONATA; CHOPIN: CELLO SONATA
Alban Gerhardt (cello), Steven Osborne (piano)
Hyperion CDA 67624
Although Chopin has long been seen primarily as a piano specialist, his Cello Sonata still holds a minor place in the repertoire. Like Chopin, the eccentric Frenchman Charles-Valentin Alkan focused on the piano and, again like Chopin, wrote his Cello Sonata for the great cellist Auguste-Joseph Franchomme.
Alban Gerhardt and Steven Osborne play both works as equals, finding the right touch for the naivete and daring of the Alkan, where they make light of the technical challenges, which is saying a lot. And, similarly, in the Chopin they are as attentive to matters of conversational balance and grace as to the heavy thrust of the climaxes. But it's the Alkan which comes across as the gem in this particular pairing.
www.tinyurl.com/5jub7c
MICHAEL DERVAN
DVORAK: NEW WORLD SYMPHONY; SCHUMANN: KONZERTSTÜCK FOR FOUR HORNS
La Chambre Philharmonique/ Emmanuel Krivine
Naïve V5132
There are some novel and sometimes gorgeous sonorities in Emmanuel Krivine's period-instruments performance of the New World Symphony: the soft-toned flute, the chaste cor anglais in the slow movement, the narrow cutting edge to the brass, and the clarity that comes from the general lack of fat in the instrumental tone. But the frequent air of letting the music speak for itself rather backfires, and results in a bluntness that can take the music far away from what seems to be its natural ambit.
And in spite of capable playing of the soloists (David Guerrier, Antoine Dreyfuss, Emmanuel Padieu, Bernard Schirrer), Schumann's full-blooded Konzertstück for four horns does at times sound too businesslike.
www.naiveclassique.com
MICHAEL DERVAN
GRAUPNER: SUITE DE SUITES
Antichi Strumenti/Laura Toffetti (violin)
Stradivarius STR 33797
Christoph Graupner (1683-1760) was ahead of Bach in the running for the position of Kantor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig. But Graupner's patron held on to the composer and it was Bach who got the job. So what was the now little-known Graupner's music like? Well, the two orchestral suites or overtures recorded here are very much on familiar Bachian lines, grand in their gravity of sweep in the opening movements, varied with resourceful colouring in the dance movements which follow. Yet they're clearly not by Bach. Graupner was his own man, here showing a buoyancy of spirit that's highly impressive in these performances by the musicians of the Frankfurt-based period instruments band Antichi Strumenti.
www.tinyurl.com/6mchwb
MICHAEL DERVAN
STRAUSS: FOUR LAST SONGS; Renée Fleming (soprano), Munich Philharmonic Orchestra/ Christian Thielemann
Decca 478 064
Strauss wrote his Four Last Songs at the end of his life, at a time when Europe was recovering from the ravages of a war that had destroyed much of what he loved most. Their tone of summation and nostalgia makes them special. And, old as he was, Strauss still indulged to the full one of the great passions of his life: the sound of the soprano voice. Renée Fleming is in resplendent form in this, her second recording of the songs, this time with the luxuriant but never overpowering swell of the Munich Philharmonic under Christian Thielemann. The subtle tinting of the vocal line is as haunting as the beauty of the voice itself. The couplings are four earlier songs, and excerpts from Ariadne auf Naxos and Die ägyptische Helena.
www.deccaclassics.com
MICHAEL DERVAN
