L'évaluation Des Psychothérapies

Jordi Savall's prolific output of recordings on Alia Vox is hard to pigeonhole because his expansive repertoire runs from some of the most obscure early music of the Old and New Worlds, to well-established classics like George Frederick Handel's Messiah. Recorded live at a December, 2017 concert in the Chapelle Royale du Chateau de Versailles, this performance of Messiah is based on the 1741 autograph score in the British Library in London, essentially re-creating the Dublin version, with restored oboe parts taken from the part-books for the 1754 Foundling Hospital version, and with four vocal soloists instead of Handel's original group of nine.

For this new recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Jordi Savall conducts an all-female orchestra, as Vivaldi did in his time at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice. The soloist Alfia Bakieva is a violinist of Tatar origin currently living in Salzburg, Austria. She is a multi-instrumentalist, parti- cularly in the field of folk music, playing violin, folk fiddle, kyl- kobiz, ghizzhak and similar instruments. She studied Baroque violin with Enrico Onofri (Palermo Conservatory) and Hiro Kurosaki (Mozarteum University), focusing on historically in- formed performance practices in the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Romantic repertoires. Such a profile made her the ideal candidate for a collaboration with Jordi Savall. She plays a Francesco Ruggeri violin, built in 1680 in Cremona, Italy. This double album sold at the price of a single new release of- fers the recording of the Four Seasons with and without the son- nets written by Vivaldi and four others concerti by Vivaldi. The version with read text sheds a particularly revealing light on Vivaldi’s work.

120 years after its premiere at Leipzig (under the baton of Arthur Nikisch), Philippe Herreweghe provides an opportunity to rediscover the Seventh Symphony played on period instruments. This work was the first to bring Bruckner success beyond the borders of Austria, and was never subsequently revised. By dedicating his score to Ludwig II of Bavaria, the composer was also relishing a calculated insult to the Viennese press, still resolutely hostile to his music…

Featuring a true golden-age cast, this 1967 Radio Broadcast hums and bubbles with invigorating warmth and unquenchable passion under the sprightly baton of Rafael Kubelik. Thomas Stewart is a intelligent Sachs, who brings real weight and power to the great Act III monologue but who retains real lyricism for the role's more tender moments. It would be inconceivable that Gundula Janowitz's creamy-voiced Eva would pass him over if it were not for the ardent, fiery Walther of Sándor Kónya, who gives voice to an ethereal rendition of the Prize song. Thomas Hemsley is an nuanced Beckmesser thankfully devoid of caricature, and Franz Crass is a warm, fatherly Pogner. Brigitte Fassbaender may be the most sensuous Magdalena on record, and is paired expertly by the great Gerhard Unger, at his considerable best as David.

Superlatives should be used sparingly. Nevertheless, there is probably no work in the centuries-old genre of programme music that is easier for listeners to understand than An Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss. Moreover, no composition in the long series of sonorous descriptions of nature, including bird calls, pastoral sounds and storm effects was probably ever scored for as many instruments as this highly eventful hike through the Werdenfelser Land in Bavaria. No orchestra in the world can, with its salaried musicians alone, present this piece the way Strauss ideally envisioned it and as he proposes in the score: the composer calls for some 130 instrumentalists, including at least 12 horn players and, ideally, even more.

A concert by Martha Argerich is always sensational, sometimes grandiose, and occasionally the audience experiences a truly stellar event. Going through the archives of Bavarian Broadcasting, the feeling was unanimous, and many “ear witnesses” themselves remembered the concerts: on these evenings Argerich was in top form, collaborated with two congenial conductors, inspired the orchestra and drew inspiration from it. In short: these live recordings should, indeed must be heard! Especially with this artist, the medium of live recording is especially valuable. Before an audience in the sold-out hall, there developed a knack for communication and spontaneous music-making with a downright personal appeal to the listener.