Concerts

The renowned artists, violinist Jascha Heifetz and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, joined forces in 1949 at Chicago's Ravinia Festival. Twelve years later, and now good friends, both artists were in semi-retirement from the concert stage, yet enjoyed their evenings of chamber music with friends. This first ever complete collection of The Heifetz-Piatigorsky Concerts includes Dvorak's Piano Quintet No. 2 and Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence. The 21 CDs are packaged in mini-sleeves with the original album artwork and feature a new introduction by Heifetz expert John Maltese.

After the compulsory Gymnopédies, this turns out to be an above average Satie collection. Parade is performed with relish and a healthy dose of anarchy, with no attempt being made to blend the pistol shots into the texture of the orchestra. Rather than the more usual companion pieces of Mercure and Relâche, Yutaka Sado builds the remaining programme around La belle excentrique and Le piège de Méduse, opting for some of the music - hall - inspired works in between. Pieces like Je te veux and Poudre d ’ or are familiar in their piano or vocal versions, but rarely get outings in the arrangements for brasserie orchestra, making this a most desirable disc for Satie devotees.

Wie wundervoll, ja berauschend die Musik Paul Hindemiths sein kann, zeigen seine Kammermusikwerke auf dieser CD. Das Ausdruckspotential der Klarinette wird von dem in Hanau geborenen Komponisten in leidenschaftlicher, tief bewegender und humorvoller Art in jedem Stück mit diesem Soloinstrument ausgeschöpft. Hindemith, dessen Musik von den Nationalsozialisten als entartet verfemt wurde, verließ Deutschland 1938 und ging zunächst in die Schweiz, 1940 übersiedelte er in die USA. Trotz der überaus schwierigen Umstände gelang Hindemith auch in dieser Zeit ein in Quantität und Qualität beeindruckender Output.

Hans, le joueur de flûte is a ravishing opera, loosely based on the legend of Hamelin’s pied piper popularized notably by the Grimm Brothers, composed by Louis Ganne and premiered in Monte-Carlo in 1906. Rarely recorded, its best rendition is undoubtedly this beautiful 1967 performance with the best French singers of their time, including Liliane Berton and the amazing baritone Michel Dens in the title-role.

Sergey Taneyev’s music was acclaimed by some as a ‘model of pure style and sublime art’, but he was a loner whose supreme mastery of European Classical technique placed him outside the more nationalist trends of the day. The Violin Sonata in A minor is neo-Classical in its reserved and often song-like moods and expressions. It contrasts with the grand scale of the Piano Quintet in G minor in which the virtuoso nature of the piano writing reflects Taneyev’s own prowess, and the brilliant integration of the works’ themes cumulate into an overwhelming conclusion.

For their third disc, Les Timbres return to French chamber music (after Pieces of Harpsichord in Concerts by Rameau-Flora, Diapason d'Or in 2014). In great company, the ensemble offers a version particularly rich in colors of this opus that Couperin publishes in 1722 following his Third Book of harpsichord pieces. He gives four suites of dances for several instruments, typically French, destined for small concerts for the aging king who loves to hear these dances that have given him so many pleasures in his youth. From the intimacy of one or two instrumentalists to the greatness of ten musicians, this is a festival of …. timbres (!) That invites you to this new recording of this splendid work by Francois Couperin.

Couperin’s four concerts royaux were published in 1722 as in a supplement to his third anthology of harpsichord pieces. They sound like a twilight tribute to Sun King’s reign. The score doesn’t mention any instrument but we know the musician envisaged them as ensemble pieces for a mixed consort of instruments. And that was how they were performed at the Sunday concerts at Versailles organized by Mme de Maintenon for Louis XIV between 1714 and 1715.

vant-garde rock & roll of 1970s vintage – especially, it must be said, of the British variety – doesn't typically age very well. And although Henry Cow was quite a unique ensemble, even by the standards of the 1970s avant-garde, it would be silly to deny that much of the music captured on these two live discs (originally released on LP in 1976) sounds pretty dated…