CD Reviews (The Straits Times, December 2015)

ROGER-DUCASSE Complete Piano Music

MARTIN JONES, Piano

Nimbus Records 5927 (3 CDs) / ****1/2

The French composer Jean Roger-Ducasse (1873-1954), who should not be confused with Paul Dukas (composer of The Sorceror's Apprentice), was an important musical establishment during his time. Pupil of Gabriel Fauré, classmate of Maurice Ravel and close friend of Claude Debussy, his music fell into neglect thanks to the inexorable rise of modernism and atonality during the first half of the 20^th century. 

There is little that is academic, formulaic or reactionary about his piano music, composed between 1899 and 1923, and presented here complete for the first time. His style is allied to Fauré's love of melody, and progresses through dense contrapuntal mastery to the subtle dissonances of Debussy's impressionism.

Like Chopin, he favoured smaller forms like Études and Préludes, and composed three Barcarolles, the first of which was a conscious tribute to the Polish genius. Descriptive titles were shunned, which may led to this absolute music to be virtually forgotten. 

The first two discs are devoted to solo music, with the third disc featuring music for four hands, which include three books of Études.  Heard alongside Debussy's Études, composed around the same time, Roger-Ducasse sounds almost conservative by comparison. The indefatigable English pianist Martin Jones, who revels in arcane French and Spanish repertoire, is a totally musical and persuasive guide, bringing much colour and beauty to these unknown gems. 

BRAHMS Serenades

Gewandhausorchester / RICCARDO CHAILLY

Decca 478 6775 / *****

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) had to wait until he was 43 before he completed his first symphony, so daunted by the prediction that he was to become Beethoven's successor. He however had practice in symphonic writing with the two Serenades, his earliest orchestral pieces composed between 1857 and 1859. These are works in six and five movements respectively, which have models in Mozart and Haydn, but point to the very promising future of his later works. 

The First Serenade (Op.11) is longer than any of his four symphonies, and is filled with the same expressive devices to be found in those masterpieces. Its Scherzo second movement uses a similar theme that occurs in the corresponding movement of the Second Piano Concerto.

The shorter Second Serenade (Op.16) omits violins completely and has the feel of the wind serenades that Mozart so loved. Although less popular than its predecessor, the work is unique in its conception. Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhausorchester of Leipzig, recipients of the Gramophone Award for Brahms' symphonies, deliver the same dedicated and refined performances that so distinguished those readings. This disc completes their Brahms orchestral cycle which is essential listening, and must be savoured in its entirety.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2014)

BRAHMS The Symphonies

Gewandhausorchester /

RICCARDO CHAILLY

Decca 478 5344 (3 CDs) / *****

       

Here is the Brahms symphony cycle people have been waiting for. Following the critical success of the earlier Beethoven cycle, the Gewandhausorchester (Leipzig) and Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly bring out performances which the finicky German composer  (1833-1897) would have approved. Stripped away are decades of traditionally slow tempos and portentousness, in its place transparency and vitality. The First Symphony, dubbed “Beethoven’s Tenth”, has both drama and heft, and its coupling the Third Symphony, is coloured with a vehemence it rarely receives.    

Freshness rules the pastoral Second Symphony, one that does not get overly rustic, while the overall sweep achieved in the Fourth Symphony often makes one forget rival performances. For the curious, a four bar prelude to the last symphony (one that foretells the Passacaglia finale) and an also discarded earlier version of the slow movement from the First Symphony have been included separately. A generous third disc houses the Haydn Variations, Tragic Overture, Academic Festival Overture, three Hungarian Dances and several orchestrated Liebeslieder Waltzes and Intermezzos. This excellent set is for keeps.

TREASURES OF JAPAN

Singapore Chinese Orchestra / YEH TSUNG

SCO Recordings / ****1/2

      

This album of contemporary Japanese and Chinese music highlights the common ground shared by two different and distinct Eastern cultures. The wadaiko drum, a close relation of the dagu, is employed to explosive effect in Isao Matsushita’s Hi-Ten-Yu, depicting a metaphorical journey from earth to heaven. Eitetsu Hayashi, who gave the European Premiere with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2000, is the brilliant soloist in this ritualistic work that builds from an eerie calm to a frenzied and ecstatic climax. The visual impact of such a vigorous work is unfortunately lost in an audio recording.

The shakuhachi or Japanese bamboo flute gets an airing in two works. Chinese composer Zhao Ji Ping’s Monk Jianzhen Sailing Eastward, about the Tang dynasty Chinese monk who introduced a particular sect of Buddhism into Japan, sees father and son duo of Hozan and Shinzan Yamamoto work mastering different registers of the instrument in a double concerto. The most melodious work is Matsushita’s Dance Of The Firmament, commissioned by the SCO in 2007, which brings together elements of both cultures in what might be viewed as music of the spheres. It is a suitably rowdy affair, with soloist and ensemble in its element, but closes with a sublime and quiet shakuhachi solo. The SCO ensemble has this field to its own.    

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2012)

BRAHMS Piano Concerto No.1

MAURIZIO POLLINI, Piano

Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann

Deutsche Grammophon 477 9882 / *****

The First Piano Concerto of Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was the German composer’s first major symphonic work. From a young virtuoso pianist who seemed to model himself after Beethoven, the concerto mirrored his three early piano sonatas in harnessing raw power and strength, revelling in outsized gestures like heavy octaves and chords. Its portent of tragedy and high drama continues from the passion of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, the form of which it builds upon. The suicide attempt of mentor Robert Schumann and tender feelings towards his wife Clara also colour the 45-minute masterpiece that opens in a tumultuous maelstrom, professes reverence and love, before closing in a blaze of triumph.

For these earth-shaking emotional shifts, legendary Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini dusts off accusations of being dispassionate or anti-Romantic in the manner he launches fearlessly into its bristling pages. As expected, his impeccable technique more than holds up to the lofty demands, but more importantly this performance vividly captures the music’s turbulence and inner strife. The orchestra, providing more than just support, is integral to Brahms’s symphonic thoughts and ideals. In a way, this was his first “symphony”, with the piano playing its chief protagonist. Pollini’s new account, recorded live in 2011, is possibly the best of his three recordings for the Yellow Label.        

SOUNDS OF THE 30S

Gewandhausorchester / Riccardo Chailly

Decca 476 4832 / ****1/2

The period between the two World Wars saw a love affair blossom between the classical composers of the Old World and the groovy new movement called jazz from the New World. This interesting album is the fruit of that successful cross-cultural exchange, beginning with Maurice Ravel’s iconic Piano Concerto in G major. This is a fully written out score with no possibility of improvisation, but the liberal use of the blues, syncopation, driving beats and rhythms, decked with exotic orchestration that makes it sound jazzy. Italian jazzman Stefano Bollani gives an idiomatic but somewhat soft focus reading that makes one pay more attention to the excellent woodwind and brass players of the Gewandhaus Orchestra instead.

His solo contributions of Stravinsky’s Tango, with far more swing than most classical pianists, and laid back transcriptions of Kurt Weill’s Surabaya Johnny (Happy End) and Tango Ballad (Threepenny Opera) are a plus. The chief reason to acquire this disc is the ballet Mille e una Notte (A Thousand and One Nights) by Italian conductor-composer Victor de Sabata (1892-1967). Imagine Puccini in Hollywood for a breezy 28 minutes, with dance sequences leading up to a finale that owes much to Gershwin’s hit song Fascinatin’ Rhythm but dressed in the opulent colours of Respighi. Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly and his German charges make it sound like a masterpiece.