2 Sem 2014 - Part Five

Nelson Freire
The Complete Columbia Album Collection - 7 CDs

By Presto Classic
Called “one of the most exciting new pianists of this or any other age” in Time magazine, Nelson Freire celebrates his seventieth birthday on October 18th 2014. Sony Classical marks this milestone with a special original jacket collection. It contains some of the Brazilian pianist’s earliest and most coveted recorded performances, many of which have been out of print for decades. These include four celebrated concerto collaborations with the legendary conductor Rudolf Kempe, the “Prix Edison” award winning Chopin op. 28 Préludes, and large-scale sonatas by Chopin, Liszt and Brahms. Newly remastered from the best possible sources, the discs are presented in facsimile sleeves and labels corresponding to the original LP releases. 3 LPs appear here for the first time on CD, mastered from the original analogue tapes.
An enclosed booklet offers an essay by Jed Distler, a photographic retrospective, and full discographical information. Born in Boa Esperança, Brazil, Nelson Freire played his first recital at four. At fourteen he traveled to Vienna to study with Bruno Seidlhofer, and met his longtime friend and piano duo partner Martha Argerich. He began to concertize internationally, winning the first prize at the Lisbon Vianna da Motta International Competition in 1964 and the Dinu Lipatti medal in London. The list of world class orchestras and conductors with whom Freire has worked over the past four decades is a veritable who’s who of classical music luminaries.

Tracks:
Brahms:
Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5
Rhapsody in E flat major, Op. 119 No. 4
Capriccio in B minor, Op. 76 No. 2
Chopin:
Preludes (24), Op. 28
Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58
Impromptu No. 4 in C sharp minor, Op. 66 'Fantaisie-Impromptu'
Mazurka No. 25 in B minor, Op. 33 No. 4
Mazurka No. 23 in D major, Op. 33 No. 2
Mazurka No. 26 in C sharp minor, Op. 41 No. 1
Polonaise No. 6 in A flat major, Op. 53 'Héroïque'
Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 31
Nocturne No. 5 in F sharp major, Op. 15 No. 2
Waltz No. 6 in D flat major, Op. 64 No. 1 'Minute Waltz'
Impromptu No. 2 in F sharp major, Op. 36
Étude Op. 10 No. 5 in G flat major 'Black Key'
Grieg:
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16
Liszt:
Totentanz, S126 for piano & orchestra
Piano Sonata in B minor, S178
Schubert:
4 Impromptus, D899
Schumann:
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54
Carnaval, Op. 9
Tchaikovsky:
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23

Christopher Hogwood 1941 - 2014

By Gramophone
It has been announced that the conductor Christopher Hogwood has died at the age of 73. The official announcement on Hogwood's website reads,'Following an illness lasting several months, Christopher died peacefully on Wednesday 24 September, a fortnight after his 73rd birthday. He was at home in Cambridge, with family present. The funeral will be private, with a memorial service to be held at a later date.
Hogwood's Mozart symphony-cycle with the Academy of Ancient Music, which began in the late 1970s, won a Gramophone Award and changed the perception of period-instrument performance. Hogwood founded the Early Music Consort in 1967 with David Munrow, and the Academy of Ancient Music in 1973. He was awarded a CBE in 1989.
When Hogwood was interviewed by Gramophone in 2002 he looked back to the roots of Historically Informed Performance: 'I'm a Handel and Haydn man. But that's not where it all began. I'd come from playing medieval music with David Munrow. It was completely speculative, a sort of inspired circus, putting on a host of colourful works to entertain, very well run on the concert platform. But there were a number of worrying things about it; one was the impression it gave the world that most medieval music consisted of instrumental, secular music when 98 per cent was religious, sacred vocal music. And the other one was that there is so little surviving evidence of what really went on, what it actually sounded like.' So began an unforgettable musical journey.

2 Sem 2014 - Part Four

Valentina Lisitsa
Chasing Pianos - The Piano Music Of Michael Nyman



By James Manheim
Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa has taken an unusual path toward career development: she posted her Chopin performances to YouTube, gained a strong following there, and then hired the London Symphony Orchestra for a set of Rachmaninov concerto performances. The gambit seems to be working: Lisitsa's performances of late Romantic repertoire have been reasonably well received, and now she's earned the right to implement what one imagines was the point of the whole exercise in the first place: the pursuit of the crossover audience centered above all in Britain. There is no denying that Chasing Pianos works well. British composer Michael Nyman has made a long specialty out of minimalist music that shades in the direction of melodic pop. Although Nyman has stated that opera is his favored genre, the style is ideally suited to film scores, and his music for The Piano (1993) is a classic of the genre. That score, adapted for solo piano, is heavily featured here, along with music from other scores that is artfully chosen to give just enough contrast to avoid sheer repetitiveness without disturbing the basic calm surface. Lisitsa's style, flawlessly precise and slightly mechanical, fits this music in a rather eerie way, and fans of Nyman's music will doubtless find a fresh and exciting take on it here. Those coming to the music from the film The Piano or from one of the other soundtracks represented should also be pleased. The sound, from the concert hall at Britain's Wyastone Estate, is unusually well suited to the project: dreamy and soft without being overly gauzy.


By Classic FM
The Ukranian YouTube sensation plays the piano music of Michael Nyman. John Suchet's Album of the Week, 17 March 2014.
Valentina Lisitsa 's videos have been viewed on YouTube more than 50 million times. The Ukranian pianist has always admitted to having a special affinity for the works of Rachmaninov and Beethoven and continues to add to her vast repertoire each season. Her new album sees her exploring the piano music of Michael Nyman , on the occasion of his 70th birthday.
The album includes all ten solo piano transcriptions from the smash hit film The Piano , collected together on one album for the first time, along with complete recordings of his published music for solo piano.
Lisitsa plays with great sensitivity and fluidity and succeeds in bringing together a valuable collection of some of the most haunting and appealing piano music of our time.

2 Sem 2014 - Part Three

Ray Chen & Christoph Eschenbach
Mozart



By James Manheim
Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216, and Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K. 218, are so commonly heard and abundantly available on recordings that one may suspect a major reason for this Sony Classical release was that Taiwanese-Australian-American violinist Ray Chen and conductor Christoph Eschenbach are quite photogenic in the "cover image styled by Armani," as the credit has it. Indeed, Chen is all youthful elegance, and Eschenbach comes out looking a bit like Jean-Luc Picard. But don't hate them because they're beautiful. The performances come out distinctly above average, with a fresh take in which Chen avoids pouring on the standard sweetness for these works. The playing reveals a good deal of planning and cooperation between Chen and Eschenbach, who leads the rather oversized Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra, and the inclusion of the Sonata for piano and violin in A major, K. 305, at the end seems not an afterthought but a fully integrated part of the recital. The star of the show is Chen, whose consistently lively, imaginative detail work is enhanced by his own cadenzas. The church sound amplifies the excessive size of some of the orchestral sound, but he is undoubtedly an artist to watch even in a marketplace crowded with telegenic young violinists.


By John J. Puccio - Classical Candor
Chen starts the program with the Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216, which Mozart wrote along with all five of his violin concertos in Salzburg in 1775 when he was only nineteen years old. Mozart was more of a piano guy, so he didn’t take the violin concerto very far before he died. Nevertheless, because he died relatively young, who knows what he may have done with the genre had he lived another thirty or forty years. In any case, No. 3 is fairly typical of the form, with an Allegro, an Adagio, and a closing Rondeau Allegro. It is not particularly adventurous, but it is Mozart, which means it’s always charming. Besides, despite Mozart’s age when he composed these things, he was a prodigy, a musical genius who had been composing since his early childhood. In terms of their development and maturity, therefore, the violin concertos are more like the work of a man twice Mozart’s years.
Chen seems more in tune with the lyrical qualities of Mozart than he was in a previous recording I reviewed of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, where he seemed more relaxed than dramatic or exciting. In both instances, though, Chen shows a terrific command of the instrument, his virtuosity never in question. But in the present Mozart, his perhaps natural penchant for understatement serves the music pretty well. Chen maintains a light touch on the strings, helping the concerto to bounce along with plenty of vim and vigor, yet not so fast that it loses any delicacy. I still don't think he throws himself into the music with the passion and enthusiasm of Anne-Sophie Mutter, but he does display a good range of emotions. There is an especially deep sense of pathos in the Adagio, where Chen seems most at home. There is also a delightful spirit to the final movement, where Chen's lyrical treatment of the faster sections elevates it above the ordinary.
Probably the single most outstanding characteristic of all the music on the album, though, is the sound of Chen's violin, a 1702 Stradivarius, the "Lord Newlands." It has a rich, fresh, effervescent tone that combined with Chen's fluid playing is quite easy to like. Or love, as the case may be.
The Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K. 218 is in the same fast-slow-fast structure as No. 3: Allegro, Andante cantabile, and Rondeau (Andante grazioso - Allegro ma non troppo). Despite its classical structure, the Fourth Concerto is more romantic and sinuous than the Third, and Chen makes the most of it. The Fourth may also be more familiar to listeners than the Third, which means listeners may have more predetermined conceptions about it. In any case, Chen retains the better part of the work's wit and sparkle, keeping the often capricious music flowing evenly. Still, I missed the degree of impetuosity found in some competing versions, leading me again to appreciate Chen's handling of the concerto's slow movement more than his work in the outer movements, as good as they are.
Now, call me an old fuddy-duddy (OK, you're an old fuddy-duddy), but I enjoyed the accompanying Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 22 in A major, K 305 best of all on the program. Here, Chen again shares the spotlight with Mr. Eschenbach, this time with Eschenbach on piano. Although this is primarily Chen's album, the Sonata rather favors the piano as much as the violin, particularly in the longer second movement. Even though the engineers appear to do what they can to emphasize the violin, Eschenbach's piano part is really what carries the piece. Be what may, the two performers together create a sweet, cheerful, bubbly concoction that foreshadows the work of Schubert a few years later.
The sound is ultra clear and clean due in part, I'm sure, to some relatively close miking. The clarity comes at the expense of some orchestral depth in the concertos, but for many listeners it might be a fair trade-off. The violin tone sounds natural enough, with a pleasant bloom on the strings, and the whole affair is reasonably smooth as well, with only the tiniest evidence of hardness on occasion.