Delalande - Sacred Works - Herreweghe

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Rather disappointing

I'm afraid I found this rather disappointing.  I tried it because Philippe Herreweghe's work is always worth listening to, but the music itself didn't do much for me.

Naturally, the performances are excellent.  Herreweghe has assembled a fine cast of singers and musicians who do a very good job, but Delalande's music itself  just seems a little ordinary to me.  There's nothing wrong with it as such, but it really didn't hold enough harmonic or melodic interest to kee me listening for any length of time and, frankly, I got a little bored after a while.

His is just a personal view, of course, with which you may disagree, but for me this is a laudable project to record less well-known music but it's not a disc I'll be listening to often.

Bach - Sonatas & Partitas for Violin - Busch

Rating: 5/5

Review: 
Excellent

I think this is an excellent set.  I already have a number of recordings of the Sonatas and Partitas, including some quite brilliant interpretations by the likes of Isabelle Faust, Rachel Podger and Viktoria Mullova, but I think Christine Busch's recording stands with the best of them.

The music, of course, is sublime.  These are quite magnificent works which test the instrument and its player to extremes, and in the process produce some quite extraordinarily expressive and moving music.  Christine Busch is certainly equal to the technical challenge; her intonation is rock solid, she has a lovely tone and she makes these sometimes incredibly difficult pieces sound simple and natural.  Her interpretation is absolutely terrific, I think.  There is an elegance and grace running through this recording which never loses any of the intellectual weight or emotional impact, and the essential pulse of Bach beats throughout.  Busch is equally at home in the slow, tortured depths of the mighty Chaconne from the D minor Partita and in the quicker, more obviously dancing movements like the closing Allegro assai of the C major Sonata. 

The whole things simply glows, I think, and I was very pleasantly surprised by the excellence throughout.  The recorded sound is lovely with just the right degree of reverberation, and it's a really fine set all round.  Very warmly recommended.

Bach - "Bach" - Radulovic

Rating: 3/5

Review:
 Fine technique but questionable interpretation

This disc has its moments and Nemanja Radulovic is a very talented violinist, but overall I'm not very keen.

The disc consists of a variety of Bach pieces with a viola concerto by CPE Bach.  I was very pleased to hear this concerto; I didn't know it and it is rather a lovely work which Radulovic and his ensemble play very well with plenty of expression and well judged tempi.  I also like the Gavotte from the third Violin Partita which shows that Radulovic can produce something with real depth and that he also has a fabulous tone.  However, I was much less keen on much of the rest.

Partly this is to do with tempo.  A lot of this is taken very quickly indeed, and while I'm all for a brisk approach to Bach's quicker movements, there is a difference between that and hurtling through them at a show-off speed which loses much of the weight and beauty of Bach's music.  This was certainly true of the Double Concerto for me, and even the sublime slow movement lacked the real sensuality which Manze and Podger bring to it, for example.  I'm afraid I also heartily disliked the heavy-handed orchestration of the great Chaconne from the D minor Partita which robs that sublime piece of almost all its mystery and emotion.

So, this wasn't for me.  There is fine technique here, but in spite of some good highlights, as interpretations of Bach I can only give these a very lukewarm recommendation.

Marais - Jeux d'Harmonie - Rasi

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Excellent Marais

I think this is excellent.  I was a little surprised by how good it was; I hadn't come across Alberto Rasi before and there are already a lot of superb recordings by geniuses of the gamba like Paolo Pandolfo, Jordi Savall and others.  This disc stands very well among them.

Marais' music is lovely, often quite dark but full of invention and interest.  Rasi plainly gets all this, and in addition brings a lovely fluency to the lines with a subtle touch which really allows the music to glow, I think.  It's perhaps a less introspective approach than we may be used to, and I think it works very well indeed; Rasi has the technique to make it all sound utterly natural and with excellent, resonant recorded sound the effect is very beautiful.

Even if, like me, you already have a number of very fine recordings of Marais this is well worth trying, and I can recommend it very warmly.

Bach - Cello Suites - Sigiswald Kuijken

Rating: 4/5

Review:
An interesting project

It's a fascinating idea to record these wonderful works on a violoncello da spalla (an instrument I hadn't even heard of!) and Sigiswald Kuijken is a superb musician; the result is genuinely interesting and rewarding, although I have my reservations about it as a set of these Suites to listen to repeatedly.

The music is quite magnificent, of course.  It has been successfully played on a variety of instruments including viola, double bass and viola da gamba by truly great musicians but I have never found these interpretations quite match up to the great cello recordings – and that's how I feel about this.  It is really good in many ways: Kuijken understands the music very well and allows the lines to flow while keeping Bach's essential pulse; his intonation is excellent and the overall sound is quite pleasing.  However, there is a slight plodding feeling some of the time - in the Prelude of the Third Suite, for example, I don’t get the real emotion from those fabulous wide arpeggios – and the instrument lacks the cello's real depth of resonance which robs the music of some of its impact.

I don’t want to be too critical because this is a very laudable project and it's well done, but for the real soul of this music I'll be sticking to my much-loved cello versions by people like Fournier, Tortelier, Isserlis and Watkin (along with some more idiosyncratic interpretations like Anne Gastinel's).  For me, this is praiseworthy and interesting but not a version I will listen to repeatedly for pleasure.

Capirola - Pieces du luth - Marincola

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Very enjoyable

I think this is rather lovely.  Capirola was a new composer to me, who turns out to have written some very worthwhile lute pieces.  They don't have immense melodic and harmonic inventiveness, but they are very enjoyable and have the musical content and variety to keep me interested throughout the disc.  Frederico Marincola's playing is very good; smooth, expressive and well adapted to Capirola's style.  The recording is good, so the lute sounds full and quite beautiful at times. 

In short, this is a good disc of enjoyable Renaissance lute music, well played and recorded.  If you have any interest in this period or in the lute, I can recommend this warmly.

Mozart - Piano Concertos - Suh, ASMF, Marriner

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Disappointing

I'm afraid I'm not all that keen on this set.  It has its moments, but overall I was rather disappointed.

Suh Hai-Kyung is plainly a talented pianist with the technique to deal with some of the demanding passages in these concertos, but I find there's an empathy and expressiveness missing in a lot of places.  Take the D minor Concerto, K466, for example.  The dark drama of the opening movement never quite becomes really dark or dramatic for me, and the exquisite second movement Romance just sounds…well…a bit ordinary, somehow.  I don't get any of the flowing beauty which Brendel, Perahia, Uchida and others bring to it and the whole thing sounds just a bit mechanical to me.  I certainly don't want grand romantic gestures, but Mozart's music does need a subtle expressiveness if it is really to speak to me.

The orchestral work is very good under Neville Marriner and Suh's approach works much better in some of the lively rondo finales, so it's not all bad news, but I have to say that I'll be sticking with my already much-loved versions.  I would recommend sets by Mitsuko Uchida or Murray Perahia well before this, and I can't give it much of a recommendation.