General – Page 7 – musicophilesblog – From Keith Jarrett to Johannes Brahms

Nearly (But Not Quite) Perfect – Gardiner’s New Recording of Bach’s B-Minor Mass

Bach’s b-minor mass was the subject of one of my first blog posts nearly six months ago. I just love and admire this monumental work of beauty.

John Eliot Gardiner

I’m also a big fan of Gardiner. Many of his recordings with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique of the classical and romantic symphonies are outstanding (e.g. his Schumann cycle), and his entire Bach cantata cycle with the Monteverdi choir is among my favorite versions.

The 2015 recording of the B-minor Mass (SDG 2015)

So when Gardiner released a new recording of the b-minor mass (his first dates back to 1985 for Deutsche Grammophon, still early days for the historically informed practice movement) I was all ears and have listened to it now for several times.

Obviously, a lot of thought and the experience gained from the entire cantata cycle went into this new recording (there is a great article about it in the November 2015 issue of Gramophone).

Bach: Mass in B-Minor - Gardiner (2015) - SDG

How does it compare to my reference version, Herreweghe’s 2012 recording? Well, it’s really very good, but doesn’t replace it. Let me try to explain why.

With this monumental work, one thing you need to get right is the balance between power and nuance. The old recordings of the 1960s and 70s (e.g. Otto Klemperer’s legendary version, or Karl Richter) are powerful grandiose affairs, and then you have other versions that very much limit the number of singers, resulting in a very light and transparent sound.

Gardiner choses something more on the lighter side (approx 30 singers), and also goes for a very clear and natural orchestral playing.

And here we get to the only minor bit of criticism to the otherwise beautiful and near perfect recording, very occasionally, I’d just like a little bit more power and brilliance, exactly what Herreweghe does.

Basically, the little additional sparkle, which he so often has in his cantata cycles, but here it feels somehow a little bit held back, not going at their full power.

Enough nitpicking, this is an excellent recording, and really worth checking out. But I’m in love with Herreweghe and will stick to his version for the moment.

My rating: 4 stars

You can download it here (Qobuz) or here (Prostudiomasters)

UPDATE Dec 5: Gramophone really likes this album and gives it an Editor’s Choice in the December 2015 issue

Cécile McLorin Salvant Live At Volkshaus Basel – November 17, 2015

Cécile McLorin Salvant

I’ve already written previously how much I admire Cécile McLorin Salvant.

Her first two albums show that not only she is an outstanding singer, but that she really has deep musical insight and a very strong personality.

If she’s already great on album, I presumed she must be even better live.

So I was very happy to be able to see her yesterday during her European tour.

Live at Volkshaus Basel, November 17, 2015

Cécile had her band from the latest album with her, the great Aaron Diehl (mentioned here already) on piano, Paul Sikivie on bass, and Lawrence Leathers on drums.

I always had the feeling listening to her albums that she is an artist that really needed the incremental freedom of a live concert, and what I saw was fully confirming this hypothesis.

She took her songs, many from her albums, but also some new ones, and turned them into something sometimes even larger than life.

A big part here is her outstanding stage presence. I don’t know how she does it, at the age of 26, but she just owned the audience. At some point she just started laughing, infecting even Diehl by this, and the audience just loved it.

Obviously, having a great band helped. Aaron Diehl is a true virtuoso. Luckily, many songs started as duets between Diehl and Salvant, and those intimate moments were among the best times of the evening.

That said, the rest of her rhythm section is outstanding as well. Unfortunately, Lawrence only got to solo rarely, but when he did, it was impressive. And Paul Sikivie on bass was amazing (I’m very jealous about his coolness, he looked like a 30 year younger version of Tommy Lee Jones in Man in Black, if you get the picture).

Already from her albums I was impressed by the range of her songs, but you got everything from Cole Porter Standards I get a kick out of you to Burt Bacharach’s great Wives and Lovers.

But my absolute favorite was her second encore, Gordon Jenkins Goodbye, in duo with Paul Sikivie.

Her tour continues, if she comes anywhere near you, this is a must see!

You will find pictures of the event on Céciles Facebook page

The Gramophone Awards Winners 2015

So, the cat is out of the bag.

Let’s see how my crystal ball did:

Baroque Instrumental

Let’s start with Baroque Instrumental: As I predicted here, David Watkin wins. Gramophone calls it a “definitive” recording, and I concur.

Unfortunately, this is where my Crystal Ball stops working, or to put it otherwise my taste is not aligned with the panel at Gramophone.

Concerto

Let’s continue to Concerto.

Pires’ and Harding’s Beethoven wins. Well, as outlined here, this to me is a solid 4 star recording, but I’d have rather chosen both Weilerstein and Andsnes.

Chamber

I concur that the winning recording of the Pavel Haas Quartet is outstanding playing, it’s just the music that is less my cup of tea. But you really cannot blame the Pavel Haas quartet for that obviously.

Instrumental

Here I’m truly puzzled. I already wrote in my post that I wasn’t a particular fan of this album. How on earth this album could win over the magnificent albums of Levit and Grosvenor beats me.

Orchestral

One more comment on the Orchestral category, which I had kind of ignored as I’m not comfortable enough with Sibelius and Elgar to add value. Luckily, the only album that I actually know and like won:

This recording from the Lucerne festival is really Abbado at it’s best. I wasn’t a universal fan of his time in Berlin, but he’s done magnificent recordings both with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra he founded and also in Lucerne. He will be missed!

Music That Gives My Readers Goose Bumps – Part II

As promised in my previous posts on this topic (check them out here and here), I still needed to publish more of my readers recommendations of Music that gives them (and me as well) goose bumps. By the way, if you want some scientific insight to what’s happening during these goose bumps moments, it has even been studies and published in NATURE: (see here for link). Their summary is that “These results indicate that intense pleasure in response to music can lead to dopamine release in the striatal system”, in a nutshell you produce your own drugs! Nice isn’t it? Here we go (again, no particular order).

Mahler: Symphony no. 5 – the famous Adagietto, well known from the movie Death in Venice among others

Here played by Claudio Abbado

Orff: Cour d’amours from the Carmina Burana – well, I’m not a big fan of this work in general, but I must admit that part is touching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D6cng6n9-c

Several Wagner operas were mentioned, for example:

Parsifal – Final Scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgx8AxG3fe4

Early music has some fantastic moments, like this one from Tallis:

Anton Bruckner was mentioned a couple of times, let me illustrate by taking the first movement of symphony no. 4:

Camille Saint-Saens: Organ Symphony

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1_EDzHRY7M

Several Rachmaninov symphonic works were mentioned, let me illustrate again by Isle of the Dead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJEli4WjUw8

Thank you again to all of you who have contributed, and do not hesitate to send me more!

My Reflections on the 2015 Gramophone Award Nominees – Part III – Chamber

Following my two previous posts on the categories of Instrumental and Concerto, let me comment this time about the Chamber music category.

I have had the occasion to listen to four of the 6 nominated albums.

To quickly just list them, the ones I didn’t hear are:

Winds & Piano – Les Vents Français, Eric Le Sage

and

Langgard: String Quartets vol. 2 – Nightingale Quartet.

The ones I have heard are:

Hindemith: Sonatas – Alexander Melnikov, Teunis van der Zwart, Alexander Rudin , Gerard Costes, Isabelle Faust

Brahms: Clarinet Quintet & Trio – Martin Fröst, Janine Jansen, Boris Brovtsyn, Maxim Rysanov, Torleif Thedéen, Roland Pöntinen

Haydn: String Quartets op. 20 – Doric String Quartet

Smetana: String Quartets 1&2 – Pavel Haas Quartet

Let’s start with the Haydn, as I’ve played this album only twice so far, it’s still a little bit too early to judge it properly. The issue is that on Haydn there’s obviously a lot of competition, but the Doric’s do a fine job. I guess in chamber music there’s always a trade-off between precision (which is outstanding here), and just pure joyfulness in playing, which I sometimes would like to have a little bit more here at first listen, especially with “Papa” Haydn (although the string quartets are certainly the works where general Haydn-skeptics like me have the least to complain). All right, let me shut up my rambling here and spend some more time listening. No rating here yet.

Next Brahms: I don’t know why, but the clarinet works have always been among my least favorite Brahms chamber compositions. However, two recent albums are making me change my mind right now, a) the excellent clarinet sonatas by Lorenzo Coppola and Andreas Staier, and b) this very nice album.

When it gets to the clarinet, Martin Fröst is one of the few superstars, and rightly so. He has released several outstanding recordings in recent years, e.g his Mozart concerto from 2013 with the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen which to my ears is even better than his previous recording with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta.

Not surprisingly, this Brahms album is very good as well. To be fair, he’s playing with some outstanding musicians here. Thorleif Thedeen and Roland Pöntinen have already recorded a very nice version of the Brahms Cello Sonatas, Janine Jansen is always a pleasure to listen to, and Maxim Rysanov is a safe bet on the Viola.

On top of the quintet and the trio, you get something that is really rather special, which is a an arrangement of some Brahms songs for Clarinet by Fröst himself. If you ever doubted that the clarinet can sing, here’s your proof.

Overall rating: 4 stars (playing is 5 stars, but I still need to fully overcome my issues with Brahms and the clarinet, so take this rating with a grain of salt)

Smetana: I assume the average classical listener knows exactly one work from this Czech composer, the ultra-famous Moldau. If they are a bit educated, they even know that the Moldau is just one part of the cycle Ma Vlast or “my homeland”. If you’re really into classical music, you may be aware of his opera “The Bartered Bride”. Beyond that, I’m pretty sure many would struggle to come up with other works from this composer.

So here’s a chance to change that. You get two of his chamber music works by one of the best string quartets that are currently out there. I’ve already praised them for their magnificent recording of the Schubert Quintet (see here), and they don’t disappoint here either. Their playing is outstanding, full of energy, but also very delicate and soft elements when needed.

My rating: 4 stars (not for the playing, which is certainly 5 stars) but at least to my ears, Smetana’s works are interesting, but there are chamber works I’d listen to first. Like for example the next one:

Hindemith: I’ve made it clear before that 20th century music, especially when we get to the borders of or beyond tonality, is really not my cup of tea. Well, exceptions confirm the rule. And this one is clearly one of those exceptions. This is a collection of sonatas with different musicians, and Alexander Melnikov on piano. Ever heard a Sonata for Trombone? Well here’s your chance. My beloved Isabelle Faust (see my admiring review of her Brahms concerto here), also get’s to play a sonata. Any album with Faust and Melnikov is usually a safe bet (take their outstanding Beethoven violin sonatas, the very nice Beethoven trio recording, their current cycle of Schumann works, etc. etc.)

And guess what, this album is truly outstanding throughout, and therefore my candidate for the Gramophone Award in the chamber category!

My rating: 5 stars.

So, what are your favorites?

Quick Note on the Site Organization

Quick internal note:

As I want this site to become a repository that is easily accessible and searchable while I’m adding more and more posts and reviews, in addition to the genre tagging I used to do I’ve just added a composer category that you can easily click on if you’re interested in a certain composer.

If you’re looking for a specific Jazz album, you can search by category as well, use the tag cloud, or just to free text.

And as usual, I really appreciate your feedback if you feel this site is well structured and intuitive or you have suggestions for improvements!