Stravinsky Yoel Levi

Like other European composers of his generation, Miklós Rósza, born in Hungary in 1907, found political and creative sanctuary in Hollywood, where he wrote concert music and many notable film scores. These three works clearly show that he never lost his roots in his native folk music. The violin concerto, a lush, romantic piece, was written at the urging of Jascha Heifetz and is tailored to his and his instrument's strengths, with singing, soaring melodies, brilliant passage work, and a very effective cadenza. Later, Heifetz and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky asked Rósza to write a piece for them; the "Theme and Variations" is the slow movement of a longer work. It is beautifully written for both instruments; based on a Hungarian melody, the variations are wonderfully inventive and varied in mood, character, and expression. The Cello Concerto too is extremely difficult and virtuosic, often quite wild and aggressive, and full of contrasts. The orchestration is excellent throughout, but not too heavy.

When I first put this disc in the player, I wondered if I would really enjoy it. I had just listened to a performance of the Tchaikovsky played by Sviatoslav Richter accompanied by the Leningrad Philharmonic under Evgeny Mravinsky. Obviously, the first characteristic was a vast improvement in the recording quality over the mono Russian recording (Leningrad, 1957). As the new disc got underway I was very pleasantly surprised, as André Watts, although not Richter, gave a very proficient and exciting reading.

Master and pupil? A youthful venture on the part of the composer of Scheherazade while naval officer, this symphony of Rimsky-Korsakov deploys fine rhetoric worthy of Haydn’s ‘military’ model incorporating contemporary material. His ‘cadet’ applies himself studiously - Stravinsky’s approach is more casual although the da capo appear in their entirety. A mere ad libitum experiment, his Scherzo fantastique is disappointingly lacking in metronomic rigour but not in inventivity. These two pieces appear together for the first time in over a century and are showcased with consummate skill.

If one considers that this 2005 CD presents music written in the early to middle twentieth century, and the latest of these is a "recomposition" of three Renaissance madrigals, then it seems a most peculiar offering in ECM's New Series line – certainly important for anyone interested in modern music but decidedly not the cutting-edge fare this label usually delivers.

Here's a conundrum: Leonidas Kavakos and Peter Nagy have selected two works each by J.S. Bach and Igor Stravinsky, for what seems a didactic demonstration of both composers' affinity for an objective "musical science"; yet the violinist and pianist deliver these works with so much feeling that their results seem quite subjective, and thereby undermine the presentation.

This CD's title, Messe Noire, and its dark cover art may mislead some into thinking this album is filled with evil, forbidden things; but the only selection that suggests the diabolical is Alexander Scriabin's macabre Sonata No. 9, "Black Mass," and it comes at the very end, after Igor Stravinsky's light, neo-Classical Serenade in A, Dmitry Shostakovich's sardonic Sonata No. 2, and Sergey Prokofiev's witty but brutal knuckle-buster, the Sonata No. 7, which all have their dark moments, certainly, but not the same sinister mood found in Scriabin. If pianist Aleksei Lubimov's aim in bringing these Russian masterworks together points to some other unifying idea – perhaps the significance of the piano in these composers' thinking – then some other title might have been more helpful. As it is, though, this album seems most unified in Lubimov's vigorous style of playing, brittle execution, and emphasis on the piano's percussive sonorities, evident in each performance. This spiky approach works best in Prokofiev's sonata, and fairly well in Shostakovich's and Stravinsky's pieces; but it seems too sterile in Scriabin's music, which needs more languor and sensuous writhing than clarity or crispness.

This breath-taking new album features exceptional works by two of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century: The Violin Concerto No.1 by American minimalist composer Philip Glass and Igor Stravinsky's neoclassical Violin Concerto in D major.