Roscoe

This release by Norwegian cellist Jonathan Aasgaard (the principal cellist of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra) and British pianist Martin Roscoe purports to be a complete recording of Brahms' music for cello and piano. In fact it's padded with quite a few other things that have little or nothing to do with Brahms other than the fact that he composed the original music.

Music in Germany in the later 19th century found itself divided into two camps; the modernists, led by Liszt and Wagner, and the traditionalists who took Brahms as their model and who upheld the values of the classical period and Beethoven in particular. Fuchs and Kiel are very much in the later camp and both spent their lives in academic posts, as so often befits such establishment figures. They each wrote only one piano concerto and, as one might expect, these are not vehicles for empty virtuoso display but rather 'symphonic' concertos, both written in the traditional three movements, the first of which is a weighty sonata form allegro.

This is Volume 2 in the series of orchestral works by Alfredo Casella, performed by the BBC Philharmonic and Gianandrea Noseda, with the pianist Martin Roscoe. The disc also forms part of the ‘Italian Series’ on Chandos, in association with Ricordi Music and the BBC Philharmonic. International Record Review said of the previous volume: ‘Anyone with more than a passing interest in this fascinating composer needs to have this remarkable disc.’

The three world premiere recordings featured here comprise the complete works for piano and orchestra by both composers (an early student concerto by Cowen appears lost).
In his day Cowen was a hugely successful contemporary of Stanford and Parry and it is surprising that his music has not yet been revived on disc. The Concertstück was written in 1897 for Padereswki, who gave the premiere to much acclaim. The work is notable for its orchestral colour and a great understanding of virtuoso piano writing and reveals what a master of his art the composer was.

The violin and piano sonatas of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel draw on foreign idioms: gypsy music in Debussy's case and African-American blues in Ravel's. But they remain completely French works, spiced with something exotic, and British violinist Jennifer Pike forges interpretations that keep this in mind. Start with the "Blues" slow movement of the Ravel Violin Sonata in G major: Pike and her accompanist, Martin Roscoe, avoid exaggerating the bluesy qualities of the music and instead emphasize the odd, almost tense disconnection between violin and piano that, combined with the languid blues melodies, gives this piece its special piquancy.

Steven Osborne continues his enthralling performances of Messiaen's piano works, with Martin Roscoe joining him for the two-piano Visions de l'Amen. The two of them are flawlessly matched in their strength, control, and range of expression, even though for much of the work the two piano parts are largely independent. They move together from twinkling, distant starlight passages to powerful, brilliant solar flare-like passages. Osborne and Roscoe, although painting large pictures in the seven movements, demand that attention be paid to the details in the music.

Later in his career, Roscoe Mitchell kept a toe in contemporary "classical" circles in addition to his avant-garde jazz groups and his continued participation in the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Four Compositions gives listeners some examples of his work in this genre, with mixed though intriguing results. "Nonaah," which Mitchell has recorded in a wide variety of contexts and instrumentations, is here given a reticent, almost too-polite reading with little of the punch the piece is capable of generating.