Christian Rodway

‘The Bach violin concertos are not only one of the Baroque period highlights, but are one of the foundations of the entire history of music’ writes Swedish violinist Christian Svarfvar on his new album of Bach Re Composed by fellow Swede Johan Ullén. ‘It’s a whole world of beauty in 60 minutes. Then you may ask yourself: why recompose something that is already so perfect?’ The result is this brilliant album of re-composed Bach concertos, with a fearless and technically challenging stratospheric solo violin part contrasting with enriched cellos and basses. For those who loved Max Richter’s Four Seasons Re Composed, Infinite Bach will be a wonderful discovery for them. Bach was forward looking and his influence has travelled the centuries, influencing jazz, rock and pop musicians as well as every classical composer who came after him.

Although highly productive and respected in his lifetime as a composer of Lieder, Robert Franz (1815–92) has since become a peripheral figure in music history. One reason may be that he avoids dramatic contrasts and instead aims at an emotional ambiguity: ‘My representation of joy is always tinged with melancholy, whilst that of suffering is always accompanied by an exquisite sensation of losing oneself’, he once wrote to Liszt. As a consequence his music appeals to those who are able ‘to admire the nuances of a charcoal drawing without longing for the colours of a painting’, to quote from Georges Starobinski’s liner notes to this recording. As they began to explore the songs of Franz, Starobinski and the baritone Christian Immler were moved by their findings to devise a programme which includes 23 of the composer’s often quite brief songs. Using the poet Heinrich Heine as their guiding star, they present these – all Heine settings but from different opus groups – in the form of two ‘imagined’ song cycles.

Renaissance polyphony and contemporary sound clouds orbit around vocal late Romanticist like satellites. The Zurich Chamber Singers, conducted by Christian Erny, unearth a special narrative drama. Starting with Anton Bruckner, they turn their attention to Palestrina as a point of reference. At the same time, they cast a spotlight back on the work of the Austrian vocal innovator through three contemporary works. A comprehensive selection of Bruckner&'s Latin motets combined with chosen works by Palestrina and three world premiere recordings of the Stuttgart composer Burkhard Kinzler’s commissioned works.

Brahms (1833-97) devoted much of the 1880s to his three Piano Trios, having decided, as he told a friend, that there was “no further point in attempting an opera or a marriage”. They are among his less familiar chamber works. He originally wrote No 1 as a young man, overhauling it more than three decades later in 1889. All three works – the B major Op 8, C major Op 87 and C minor Op 101 – have a tender, shadowy intensity, without quite the same heart-on-sleeve fervour of the bigger chamber works. The string players here – brother and sister Christian and Tanja Tetzlaff – are regular quartet partners. Together with sensitive pianism from Lars Vogt, ensemble is alert, accurate, never forced: already a favourite CD.

These little pieces for saxophone, largely unknown even to saxophonists since their composition in 1929, may be viewed in several ways. The composer, the mostly Leipzig-based Sigfrid Karg-Elert, termed them "in primary respects higher studies for the development of new paths in technique and expressive means" for the saxophone. But saxophonist Christian Peters argues for their wider expressive significance. He himself wrote the booklet notes, which include a good deal of interesting biographical information (he was born simply Sigfrid, or Siegfried, Karg, but was urged by teachers to append his mother's maiden name to his surname to deflect "Semitic suspicions").

Pianist and composer Christian Wallumrød releases a sequel to the album Pianokammer from 2015.

2013's Trilogy showcased the engaging collaboration between pianist Chick Corea, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade. Virtuoso leaders in their own right, Corea, McBride, and Blade found common ground as a trio, exploring a mix of sophisticated standards as well as originals culled from Corea's extensive book. The album cracked the Top Ten of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart and earned two Grammys, including for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. The super-trio's follow-up, 2018's Trilogy 2, features further in-concert performances captured during their various tours between 2010 and 2016 in places like Ottawa, Bologna, Zurich, and St. Louis…

This performance of the fiery Fantasy in G minor for violin and orchestra, Op. 24, of Josef Suk, with violinist Christan Tetzlaff catching the full impact of the irregular form with its dramatic opening giving out into a set of variations, is impressive. And Tetzlaff delivers pure warm melody in the popular Romance in F minor, Op. 11, of Dvorák. But the real reason to acquire this beautifully recorded Ondine release is the performance of the Dvorák Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53, a work of which there are plenty of recordings, but that has always played second fiddle (if you will) to the Brahms concerto. Tetzlaff and the Helsinki Philharmonic under John Storgårds create a distinctive and absorbing version that can stand with the great Czech recordings of the work. Sample anywhere, but especially the slow movement, where Tetzlaff's precise yet rich sound, reminiscent for those of a certain age of Henryk Szeryng, forms a striking contrast with Storgårds' glassy Nordic strings. In both outer movements as well, Tetzlaff delivers a warm yet controlled performance that is made to stand out sharply.

NO BIRCH, by the Christian Wallumrod Trio (Import, 2008),is a beautifully realized album of atmospheric, moody, spare, gorgeous Jazz. This is the kind of music to listen to driving along a lonely stretch of road on a rainy, moody afternoon as the sun is about to set. There is a cinematic quality to the music this trio creates empoying just piano, trumpet and percussion.