CD Review (The Straits Times, November 2017)

SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concerto No.1

  NICOLA BENEDETTI, Violin

  Bournemouth Symphony / Kirill Karabits

  Decca 478 8758 / ****1/2

SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concertos

  ALISA WEILERSTEIN, Cello

  Bavarian Radio Symphony /

  Pablo Heras-Casado

  Decca 483 0835 / *****

The string concertos of Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) used to be the sacred preserve of venerable Russian soloists with a direct line to the composer himself, men like David Oistrakh and Mstislav Rostropovich who are sadly no longer with us. 

A new generation of young and glamourous artists have filled the void, including women like Viktoria Mullova, Midori, Sarah Chang and Hanna Chang. Now add British violinist Nicola Benedetti and American cellist Alisa Weilerstein to the list.  

Benedetti gives a deeply-felt reading of the First Violin Concerto (1947), without smoothing over the opening Nocturne's dark matter, and letting rip in the manic 2nd and 4^th movements. The finale's Burlesque with its wild Klezmer raves also scores with a direct and relentless attack. Her trademark sweetness of tone is reserved mostly for its coupling, Glazunov's Violin Concerto (1904), which comes from an earlier and more effable era of Russian music.

Weilerstein's performances of both cello concertos are high on dry wit and ironic humour. The more familiar First Cello Concerto (1959) also benefits from the excellent orchestral French horn soloist's outlandish interjections and whoops. 

The longer, darker and grimmer Second Cello Concerto (1966) deserves to be better known, and she pulls all the stops for an ultra-coherent performance. Insanity, levity and vulgarity have seldom found a more united front in these superb recordings.     

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2015)

RADIO DAYS

CONCERTO BROADCASTS 1968-1979

NELSON FREIRE, Piano

Decca 478 6772 (2 CDs) / *****

Until recently, Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire had flown under the radar, admired by cultists and cognoscenti but relatively unnoticed by the musical mainstream. His award-winning recordings for Decca in the past decade have firmly and deservedly placed him in the spotlight. These recordings of radio broadcasts from Germany, France and Holland during the 1960s and 70s reveal a fiery virtuoso whose light has never dimmed over the years. The repertoire here reminds one of his close friend and regular two-piano partner Martha Argerich, and he yields nothing to the tempestuous Argentine.

His view of Chopin’s First Piano Concerto is passionate, and sparks fly in Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. Note also that he used the same rolled chord employed by Horowitz (not notated in the score) at the climax of the finale to thrilling effect. A rarity is Schumann’s Introduction and Allegro Op.134, a late work that had some influence on the young Brahms. Prokofiev’s First Piano Concerto did not figure much in his concerts but his sympathy and trenchant response were never in doubt. There is an inexorable and magisterial sweep to Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto while no punches are pulled for Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, where he is found at the peak of his prowess. This is a truly worthy release in celebration of Freire’s 70^th birthday. 

HOMECOMING: A SCOTTISH FANTASY

NICOLA BENEDETTI, Violin

BBC Scottish Symphony

Decca 478 6690 / ****1/2

After exploring her Italian roots in the well-received album Italia, former BBC Young Musician of the Year winner Nicola Benedetti has now turned to the musical traditions of the land of her birth, Scotland. The obvious starting point was German composer Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, which quotes a number of Scottish folksongs and embellished in orchestral finery. She gives a sumptuous performance of its four movements, equal to the best readings in the catalogue, and is well supported by the BBC Scottish Symphony conducted by Rory McDonald.

The balance of the album has a crossover element which is just as interesting, including colourful settings of songs by Robert Burns, James Scott Skinner and contemporary folk composer Phil Cunningham. Burns is represented by the love songs Ae Fond Kiss, My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose and Auld Lang Syne, the last being in the form of variations for solo violin. Benedetti has a tone that is long-breathed and sonorous, yet is capable of the frenetic folk fiddling to be found in Scottish jigs and reels, when she collaborates with folk musicians.

Almost stealing the show is Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis whose tongue-twisting agility in the Mouth Music And Tunes Set and the traditional song Coisich A Ruin (Walk, My Beloved) has to be heard to be believed. The disc closes with Bonnie Banks Of Loch Lomond, in a reading that truly stirs the heart. A very enjoyable 76 minutes, even if you are not a Scot.     

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2013)

ENCORES

ALFRED CORTOT, Piano

Naxos Historical  8.111261 / *****

Sceptics who wonder about why French-Swiss pianist Alfred Cortot (1877-1962) was considered of the piano’s greats need only sample this disc of 78 rpm recordings he made for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1925 and 1926. The title “Encores” is misleading because of the limitations of the recorded medium, which dictated a maximum of four plus minutes per side. That would explain the presence of half a performance of Chopin’s First Ballade from 1925, the first half having mysteriously gone missing from posterity. A 1926 complete performance of the same work reveals his majesty and command.

Cortot the virtuosic showman is never in doubt when one listens to his takes on Weber’s vertiginous Invitation to the Dance or Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies No.2 (with his own fancy cadenza ad libitum) and No.11 and a seemingly effortless Rigoletto Paraphrase. The occasional wrong notes, caught in the white heat of performance are more than tolerable. For more subtle pleasures, his own transcription of Brahms’s Lullaby, the Schubert-Liszt Litany, Chopin’s Aeolian Harp Étude, Berceuse and a most elegant Waltz in C sharp minor (Op.64 No.2). Here is mandatory listening for all serious students of the piano.

THE SILVER VIOLIN

NICOLA BENEDETTI, Violin

Bournemouth Symphony/ Kirill Karabits

Decca 478 3529 / *****

The Silver Violin is an anthology from the Golden Age of music for the silver screen, a bygone era when there was little or no distinction between serious composers and movie composers. This is best personified in the character of Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957), the Viennese Jewish child prodigy composer whose emigration to American saved his career and life from the Nazi Holocaust. His gorgeously lyrical Violin Concerto, premiered by Jascha Heifetz, recycles music from four feature films, including Another Dawn and The Prince And The Pauper. It rightfully takes its place among the 20^th century’s most popular concertos. From the same pen come Pierrot’s Dance-Song and Marietta’s Song from the opera Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City), arias which sound just as beautiful on the violin.

Young British violinist Nicola Benedetti performs these with sumptuous beauty, her selections leaning more towards Eastern Europe, which tend to be melancholic and wistful in temperament. Shostakovich offers three haunting tracks, from films The Gadfly and The Counterplan. Even American John Williams’s Main Theme from Schindler’s List falls within this aesthete. The inspired choice is the inclusion of Mahler’s early but dark single-movement Piano Quartet. Mahler died just before movies became in vogue, but this music has earned its place in the 2010 psychological thriller Shutter Island starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Whoever thought that? With the magic of music and movies, everything becomes possible. 

BOOK IT:

NICOLA BENEDETTI plays Korngold’s Violin Concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra

conducted by Neeme Järvi

1 & 2 February 2013

Esplanade Concert Hall at 7.30 pm

Tickets available at SISTIC