Album Review – Page 25 – musicophilesblog – From Keith Jarrett to Johannes Brahms

Pachelbel: Beyond the Canon with Amandine Beyer

Johann Pachelbel

Do you know Pachelbel? Sure you do. Like probably most of the population of the Western world, from his famous Canon and Gigue in D, as the Canon is one of the most popular pieces played at weddings (and by street musicians).

Now do you know anything else from Pachelbel? Well, I must admit, I really didn’t. In my entire classical music library, I have the sad number of 15 tracks from this composer, pretty much entirely on some Baroque compilations.

So I was curious when Amandine Beyer with her ensemble Gli Incognito recently released an entire Pachelbel album.

Pachelbel: Un Orage d’Avril (Harmonia Mundi 2016)

Pachelbel: Un orage d'avril - Amandine Beyer - Gli Incogniti - Hans-Jörg Bammel Harmonia Mundi 2016

Well, I was positively surprised. This is mainly instrumental baroque musique, with the occasional song (beautifully performed by tenor Hans-Jörg Mammel) thrown in.

Let’s admit it, baroque music can be boring. Sometimes it is just a bit too repetitive, to formalized, too much of the same (e.g. quite a bit of Vivaldi’s massive oeuvre IMHO). So it usually takes a genius like Bach to break out of the conventions of baroque music to really make it interesting (and even he doesn’t always succeed).

And obviously, Pachelbel is no Bach, probably not even a Vivaldi. That said, I still think there is enough to discover on this album that I highly recommend you to check it out.

A brief comment on Amandine Beyer: I sometimes find the sound of her violin a bit too “rough” for my taste (e.g. on her celebrated recording of the Four Seasons) This is nicely enough not the case here, the album is quite well recorded.

Give it a try!

My rating: 4 stars

You can find it here (Qobuz) and here (Prestoclassical)

Charlie Haden’s Nocturne – Music for the Tropical Summer Nights

For us here in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is finally on it’s way.

The ideal location for this album is outside, in the warm breeze of a tropical evening, sipping a nicely aged Dominican rum, a Pisco Sour, or maybe even just a Gin and Tonic (no Schweppes please though…).

The ideal place would be sitting by a pool, with the sea not too far away. And obviously, the essential part would be sitting there with your favorite other half.

Got the picture? If you’re not there right now, get onto your streaming service of choice and play this album, at least mentally you’ll be there in no time:

Charlie Haden – Nocturne (Verve 2001)

Another way to give you an idea about this beautiful album is a reference to Ray Cooder’s Buena Vista Social Club, that during some points of the late 1990s you simply couldn’t get away from in any bar or restaurant you walked in pretty much anywhere on the planet.

This really overdosed me for the next decade, and I only recently rediscovered the new high-res release of Buena Vista, and now enjoy it again, but in moderate doses.

Charlie Haden Nocturne Verve 2001

However, Nocturne has been with me and on regular rotation since I first discovered it in 2004.

But by now you really get the picture, I assume. Charlie Haden is playing soft latin rhythms, inspired by Cuba and Mexico, and this is really made for the late night.

Charlie Haden

I’ve only seen Haden live once in Paris, but was very fond of him, so his recent passing made me sad. I really don’t know why I haven’t written about him yet, he has done so many beautiful albums, and is one of my favorite bass players. Well, watch this space.

Outstanding Musicians

Charlie has assembled an outstanding team of musicians here. Gonzalo Rubalcaba is a great pianist (saw him once live in solo, great experience), Ignacio Berroa on drums, Pat Metheny (that I’m generally not that fond of, except when he plays with Haden), Federico Britos Ruiz on the violin. Joe Lovano (excellent, he also played when I saw Haden live in Paris at Vincennes Jazz) and David Sanchez keep relatively low profile on this album, but are there when you need them to.

So by now you have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Please, given the title of both the album and several songs (Noche de Ronda, Nocturnal, Moonlight, Nightfall), really listen to this album late at night, that is when it does all it’s magic.

Usually receiving a Grammy isn’t necessarily a safe gauge of quality (I still need to figure out what criteria they use, but they not very often get close to my taste), but in this case, the 2002 Grammy for best latin album was spot on.

My rating: 5 stars

You can find it here (Qobuz) or here (Spotify), or quite overpriced at Amazon.

Brahms Complete Piano Sonatas by François-Frédéric Guy – A Review

Brahms’ Piano Sonatas

I’m a fan of Johannes Brahms (see my blog’s subtitle). I’m a fan of his piano works, especially op. 116-119 (which are among his latest works).

However, until recently, his three piano sonatas never really touched me. I just didn’t get them. We’re talking about his op. 1, 2, and 5, so pretty much his first “official” compositions.

No. 3, op. 5, is the most well-known of the works. It is this piece that Robert Schumann heard when the shy 20-year old young man Brahms was at the time was introduced to the famous composer, which lead Schumann to write his famous article about Brahms being” one of those who comes as if straight from God”, and “He has a great future before him, for he will first find the true field for his genius when he begins to write for the orchestra”.

Well, with hindsight, Schumann was obviously more than right, but it’s amazing he was able to cast such a judgment based on these works. So I always knew there must have been something in these works that I was missing.

My first version ever of op. 5 was by Radu Lupu (not a bad choice actually), and I very quickly also got the famous complete Brahms piano works box from Julius Katchen.

So I didn’t have a bad starting point, but as said before, I never really was drawn into his early sonatas.

But obviously, I try to check out as many new Brahms piano releases as I can. Recently, Geoffroy Couteau released a box of complete Brahms piano works, which got great reviews by the French press. I’m still making my way through that box, but so far I don’t share the enthusiasm of Classica and Diapason. Anyway, more about this later.

Brahms: Complete Piano Sonatas – François Frédéric Guy (Evidence Classics 2016)

Brahms Complete Piano Sonatas François-Frédéric Guy Evidence 2016 24 48

In any case, I didn’t expect much when I checked out another French pianist, François-Frédéric Guy’s recent recording of the complete piano sonatas.

And I was very positively surprised! Guy actually specialized in German composers, especially Beethoven and Brahms.

So what makes this recording special? Basically, one thing, passion. I can really hear the 20 year old genius playing at the Schumann’s home in Düsseldorf in this album.

This album doesn’t necessarily sound like “typical” Brahms to me (if there were such a thing). Some softer elements remind me of Chopin, some more energetic moments even sound a bit like Rachmaninov (who obviously wasn’t even born yet when these pieces were composed).

There is a really nice example on Youtube:

This album is absolutely worth checking out.

My rating: 4 stars

You can find it here (Qobuz) or here (Highresaudio)

Bill Charlap Trio: Notes From New York

Bill Charlap Trio

Regular readers of my blog won’t be surprised by the fact that I love the Jazz piano trio.

So I was actually a bit surprised when I read quite a lot about Bill Charlap’s Trio on several discussion fora, and had never heard of the guy. And this came from people who generally have a good taste (or to be more neutral, a taste similar to mine…).

So when I recently saw on my streaming service the release of his latest album, released on Impulse (the legendary label that has seen a great revival in the last decade), I was obviously very interested.

Notes From New York (Impulse 2016)

Bill Charlap Trio: Notes From New York 24 96 Impulse 2016

And now I will unfortunately disappoint the several Bill Charlap fans I know: This is really not my cup of tea.

Let me try to explain why. An old friend of mine, Jazz lover as well, often basically distinguishes Jazz groups by the quality of their drummer (and I’m not even talking technical quality). Basically, if the drummer doesn’t work for him, he doesn’t care about the rest of the music (when you read this, I’m paraphrasing).

So, I’m not as black and white, as I’m coming from the piano, this is usually the most important instrument for me a in a combo. And that said, Charlap is really excellent.

However (and maybe it is only on this particular album, need to check out others), but basically here I have exactly the same problem, I don’t like what Kenny Washington does on drums. To quote Duke Ellington again, It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. Well, saying that Washington doesn’t swing isn’t fair, but he’s nevertheless the main reason why this album leaves me completely cold.

On very slow ballads, like Too Late Now, the music is much more focused on the piano and bass, and here I start appreciating the qualities of these artists (also Peter Washington on bass). But unfortunately, the rest just doesn’t do it for me.

I nevertheless strongly recommend you check this album out, there is nothing wrong with it, and these are without doubt excellent musicians, but it’s just not my cup of tea.

My (very personal) rating: 3 stars

You can find it here (Qobuz) and here (Prostudiomasters)

Gramophone’s Editor’s Choices Sometimes Leave Me Puzzled

I just wrote about the Quatuor Ebène’s brilliant new Schubert recording, which received an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone. This legendary magazine is obviously among the ultimate references in reviewing classical music.

Therefore, I checked out another Editor’s Choice from Gramophone’s May Edition:

Tchaikovsky & Grieg: Piano Concertos – Denis Kozhukin – Vassily Sinalsky – Rundfunksinfonieorchester Berlin (Pentatone 2016)

Tchaikovsky & Grieg: Piano Concertos - Denis Kozhukin - Vassily Sinaisky - Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin Pentatone 2016 DSD

Then I started listening. And couldn’t believe my ears. The Tchaikovsky is about as far as my idea of an ideal recording as it could be.

To be fair, I’m not a big fan of Tchaikovsky in the first place (see also here), and I have played his 1st piano concerto too much in my youth, unfortunately on another recording which today I really don’t like, Evgeny Kissin’s famous (or notorious) recording with Herbert von Karajan and the BPO.

To give you an idea how for my ears this concerto should be played, check out this legendary 1943 concerto played by Vladimir Horowitz and Arturo Toscanini:

This version really couldn’t be any more different to this new Pentatone release

So what does Patrick Rucker praise in his review? He mainly compliments Kozhukin’s naturalness. And I get that. The slow movement of the Grieg for example is beautifully played (I still prefer Andnes by quite a bit though). However, he then goes on and writes “you’re left with one thing: the music”. Well I really don’t get it, to me this music without the full power of the emotion of these romantic masterpieces is missing so much, TOO much for me.

My rating: Three stars (I don’t want to give Kozhukhin less than this, as I can clearly hear from this album that he has potential, although if I follow my own rating system systematically, it should have been 2 stars, as I’ll definitely won’t be listening to this album again).

You can find it here (Qobuz) and here (Pentatone)

P.S. I already had this recording typed out and ready for publishing when I read the review in the just released May issue of Classica Magazine, my other reading of choice.

And guess what: Two stars! (out of 5), to quote Clément Serrano about the Tchaikovsky “sans prise de risque”, without risk-taking, and similar, although slightly friendlier words about the Grieg. He reminds his readers again about the recent Perianes – Oramo recording of the Grieg, and I couldn’t agree more.

So in a nutshell, never trust a single review of a classical music album, even if it comes from a very reputable source, but always make up your own mind before buying. Luckily, in the days of streaming services, this is easier than ever.

Quatuor Ebène & Gautier Capuçon play Schubert’s String Quintet – Can’t get enough of it

On my absence

2016 has been a very bad year for me posting-wise so far. Last year I was usually able to stick to my self-imposed posting schedule, of about 2 per week.

Since the beginning of the year this frequency has plummeted. Sorry for that. There is a couple of reasons involved, too much business travel, late nights at the office, some long week-ends / short vacation, and most recently, a nasty gastro-intestinal flu that isn’t fully over yet. Plus there’s been a bit of a writing block on the occasional days that I could have written.

Well anyhow, I really hope you should be able to read my posts more often in the future, fingers crossed.

Thanks in any case for your loyalty, my dear readers. Very much appreciated.

Schubert’s String Quintet

Yes, I’ve written about it before. Schubert’s string quartet, to me personally the highest peak that chamber music ever reached (sorry LvB fans).

I’ve already recommended the Pavel Haas Quartet’s version here, the Takacs also have done a beautiful version.

So there is obviously no need to talk about it again.

Quatuor Ebène

Well, actually there is. The reason is called Quatuor Ebène. This French quartet is noteworthy not only for being one of the leading classical string quartets of our time, but also do crossover, i.e. interpret Jazz and contemporary musical classically.

I must admit the term crossover usually makes me run away as fast as I can, as it is usually just horrible André Rieu / David Garrett / Vanessa Mae etc. trash (sorry, but I really can’t help it, that’s about the only word that expresses what I feel about this stuff).

But obviously to every rule there is an exception. Ebène is one of the few classical artists to really pull this off well!

Back to Schubert.

Schubert: Quintet & Lieder – Quatuor Ebène – Gautier Capuçon – Matthias Gerne (ERATO/WARNER 2016)

Schubert String Quintet - Lieder - Quatuor Ebène - Gautier Capuçon - Matthias Goerne ERATO 2016

I would have checked out this album even without a “Choc” from Classica and an Editor’s Choice recommendation by Gramophone. But obviously, having the highest possible endorsement from both of my favorite classical magazines helped.

Let’s write about the Quatuor first. They are joined by Gautier Capuçon on 2nd cello. Gautier is the younger brother of the well-known violinist Renaud.

So what makes this recording so special? Two words spring to mind, rough and fresh. Rough isn’t meant that this is not high quality playing, far from that. But there is a real direct quality in the playing, that let’s you notice all the little angles and details than more polished recordings.

I’ve mentioned the energy that sets apart the Pavel Haas Quartet’s reading. You’ll find some of this here, but overall this is even more “chamberesque” (is this a word?) and intimate in this reading with Ebène.

This recording never just let’s you enjoy it, this album forces you to live the music.

The String quintet is already nearly 1h long, so many other artist would have just stopped there. Here however, you get an interesting bonus. Schubert is obviously famous for his Lieder (songs), and many of his chamber works are inspired by his songs (e.g. Death and the Maiden, see also here).

Usually, these songs have a piano arrangement. I must admit, I’ve never heard them with a string quartet supporting the singer. Well, here we go. And obviously, you don’t just get any kind of singer, you get Matthias Goerne, a Schubert legend. It is surprising how well this works. This is really way more than just a filler.

My rating: 5 stars – absolutely worth checking out, even if you already own the Haas or another reference version.

You can find it here (Qobuz) and here (Prestoclassical)

Bänz Öster & The Rainmakers Live in Willisau – Ukuzinikela

Live Concerts

Last year I clearly haven’t been attending enough live concerts. I have the clear intention of changing this for 2016.

During a recent trip to Hamburg, a friend of mine took me to see a Jazz artist I must admit I hadn’t heard of before, the Swiss bass player Bänz Öster, at the relatively recently established Cascadas Jazz Club in downtown Hamburg.

I had checked out a quick Youtube excerpt of this artist, but was pretty unsure to what I would be expecting. Well, I was very positively surprised.

Bänz Öster and The Rainmakers

Let me write first of all about the other three musicians. Obviously, Jazz is these days a rather international affair, but this was truly an interesting mixture. We had Ganesh Geymeyer on saxophone. He is Swiss as well, but coming from the French speaking part around Lake Geneva.

And then we go to a completely different continent, that at least in my mind wasn’t strongly linked to Jazz, Africa. I was obviously proven wrong. We had a great drum experience from Ayanda Sikade. But the true hero of the evening for me was Afrika Mkhize on piano. This really encouraged me to find out more about the South African Jazz scene.

So what did we get from this quartet? Exciting, interesting and melodic Jazz that often reminded me of Coltrane’s quartet recordings in his best days, but didn’t rely on standards, during the concerts we mostly got recent compositions, many of them written by the musicians themselves.

After such a great evening, I obviously had to immediately buy their new CD which was just released and was available at the concert.

Bänz Öster & The Rainmakers Live in Willisau – Ukuzinikela (Enja 2016)

Bänz Öster & The Rainmakers Live In Willis Ukuzinikela Afrika Mkhize Ganesh Geymeier Amanda Sikade Enja 2016

This live album, in spite of having quite a different track list than the live concert I saw in Hamburg (it was released just now, but already recorded in 2014), truly replicates the pleasure I had listening to these four musicians.

As this is a live concert, the musicians really take their time, the tracks are often more than 10 minutes giving ample solo time. My favorite track of this album is Hungersnot (famine), which after a long two minute intro where Bänz and Geymeyer play unisono, turns into a fascinating groove, thanks especially due to the miracles that Mkhize does on the piano. I’ve said it before, I’m a big fan of him now, he has amazing technical capabilities (the speed is incredible), but he doesn’t have to overdo it, it just flows naturally.

Overall, a live album that is absolutely worth discovering!

Here is a kind of “making of” video for the album: