CD Reviews (The Straits Times, April 2011)

LISZT Annees de Pelerinage (Complete)

LOUIS LORTIE, Piano 

Chandos 10662(2) (2 CDs) / *****

New recordings of Franz Liszt’s piano music are not exactly sprouting like mushrooms after a rain in 2011, his bicentenary year. However this double CD album will rank among the best. Liszt’s Années De Pelerinage (Years Of Pilgrimage) is a collection of heterogeneous works spanning some forty years (1830s-1870s), inspired by his travels in Switzerland and Italy. Legends, folklore, literature, poetry and scenery figure in these 26 pieces, which range from straight-forward transcriptions to original essays of outsized virtuosity and fantasy. The first two books – Suisse and Italie – are the most familiar, containing popular Romantic numbers like the rhapsodic Vallee d’Obermann, lyrical Petrarch Sonnets and hellish Dante Sonata.

The most modernistic third book hurls a lance into the future, with Tristanesque discords in the Cypresses of Villa d’Este, the fluid imagery of Debussy and Ravel in the Fountains of Villa d’Este, and pieces coloured by the starkness of the Second Viennese School. French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie possesses the imagination and technique to do justice to this varied music, which sings, sparkles and storms to equal degree. And there are startling fistfuls of notes on show for knuckle-busters like Orage (Storm) and the Tarantella from Venice and Naples. This stupendous account already surpasses the late great Lazar Berman’s legendary 1980s set on Deutsche Grammophon.

BOOK IT: 

LISZT Piano Recital 

by KENNETH HAMILTON

Where: Esplanade Recital Studio 

When: Monday 18 April 2011, 7.30 pm 

Tickets available at SISTIC

SZYMANOWSKI 

Violin Concerto No.1 / Symphony No.3

Vienna Philharmonic / PIERRE BOULEZ

Deutsche Grammophon 477 8771 / ****1/2

The Polish composer Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) has often been labelled an impressionist and nationalist, drawing him into circles occupied by Debussy and Ravel, or Chopin, Grieg and Janacek. His music is more difficult to pigeonhole, incorporating many disparate and contrasting influences. In his First Violin Concerto (1916), one senses Debussy’s variegated hues, Stravinsky’s clockwork intricacies, Richard Strauss’ orchestral opulence, Scriabin’s mysticism and intoxicating throes of ecstasy. All this makes for an aromatic 23 minutes within a single movement, drawing the listener in through a swirling vortex of volatile shifts and supercharged emotions. German violinist Christian Tetzlaff is the highly impressive soloist with an intuitive feel for this music.

Szymanowski’s Third Symphony (1914-16) shares a similar sound canvas. A setting of the Sufi poet Rumi’s Song Of The Night, it further employs solo tenor, the excellent Steve Davislim in this recording, and chorus for a suffocating and near-orgiastic sound experience. Veteran French conductor Pierre Boulez is renowned for his coolness and objectivity, but does not stint from delivering performances imbued with a highly sensuous emotional core. On a bonus disc, he speaks about his encounters with Szymanowski’s music in three different languages. But does this justify the extra cost of this hard-covered deluxe edition ($36.95 at HMV), when the first disc plays for under 50 minutes?

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, April-May 2010)

BARTOK Concertos for
Viola, Violin & Two Pianos
London Symphony / Berlin Philharmonic
PIERRE BOULEZ
Deutsche Grammophon 477 7440
****1/2

The Hungarian composer Bela Bartok (1881-1945) wrote eight works which he designated as concertos. Here are the three least familiar ones. The Double Piano Concerto (1942) was adapted from the Sonata for two pianos and percussion (1937). The orchestral adds little more to the textures dominated by the two keyboards acting as further percussion instruments. It is a rowdy rollicking affair, but pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich achieve the right blend of virtuosity, and sensitivity in the quiet “night music” segment.

The First Violin Concerto was rediscovered in 1957, having been composed five decades before. Its two movements contrast lyricism (inspired by an infatuation with a lady violinist) and folk-like gawkiness. The Viola Concerto (1945) was left uncompleted at Bartok’s death and reconstructed by Tibor Serly. It is a dark and forbidding work which finds occasional rays of sunshine. Violinist Gidon Kremer and violist Yuri Bashmet provide gripping performances that surpass the pioneering efforts by Yehudi Menuhin. With better recorded sound, these are firm recommendations for today.

MISSING YOU
SUMI JO, Soprano
DAVID FIRMAN, Piano & Conductor
Deutsche Grammophon 476 3306
*****

Subtitled Love Songs From Around The World, this is a ravishing anthology from the Korean superstar in crossover mode. Her voice is silky-smooth, always sensitive and sounding comfortable in languages including Swedish, Norwegian, Russian, Greek, Spanish, French, English and her native Korean. She is joined by tenor Alesandro Safina in De Curtis’ Neapolitan canzonetta Non ti scordar di me and the familiar Besame mucho, blending quite perfectly together.

The unifying theme here is longing and nostalgia, from simple songs like Henry Bishop’s Home, Sweet Home and Stephen Foster’s Beautiful Dreamer to dance numbers like Argentine Carlos Gardel’s Por una cabeza (tango) and Erik Satie’s Je te veux (waltz). She reserves her most treasured Korean song Mother, Sister for the end. This is pure aural candy, and unabashedly so.

BIZET Carmen
ANDREA BOCELLI et al
French Radio Philharmonic
MYUNG-WHUN CHUNG
Decca 475 7646 (2CDs)
***1/2

Only marketing hype, which places the name of Andrea Bocelli topmost on the album cover, will have you believe that the sight-impaired Italian tenor is the glory of this production. Bocelli gives a credible account as Don José, with his big Flower Aria (La fleur que tu m’avais jetée) ringing in the Euros. Stealing the show, however, is mezzo Marina Domashenko’s Carmen who is both commanding and seductive in her full-throated role. So why isn’t she given top billing instead?

Even soprano Eva Mei’s childlike innocence as Micaela is distinctive, as is baritone Bryn Terfel’s brash cameo as Escamillo in the Toreador Song. The choir is excellent in the crowd scenes but the orchestra sounds manically driven when playing on its own. At $50 this 2005 recording is an expensive pop. There are better Carmens at a far lower price.