MOZART
Violin Concertos 1 & 5; Sinfonia Concertante, K364
Vilde Frang (violin), Maxim Rysanov (viola), Arcangelo, cond Jonathan Cohen
Warner 2564627677
The E flat Sinfonia Concertante — a symphony with prominent soloists — is the latest and greatest of Mozart’s concerted works involving a solo violin. Here the 28-year-old Norwegian violinist teams up with the brilliant Ukrainian viola player, and they prove a dream team in this masterpiece, composed on the threshold of Mozart’s great final decade. With Cohen’s period-instrument Arcangelo ensemble, they offer a fusion of traditional warmth and a more bracing instrumental style, sparing with vibrato in their solos, although not banishing it altogether. The results are fresh and invigorating, an unusually equal partnership in which the viola — Mozart’s preferred string instrument — is permitted its moments of glory, especially in the rapt C minor Andante. Frang’s approach to the early B flat and the famous “Turkish” A major concertos is no less arresting. These readings are worthy to set alongside the classic Philips performances of that famous Belgian Arthur Grumiaux (now on Decca). HC
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MAXWELL DAVIES AND OTHERS
Sea Eagle
Richard Watkins (horn), Mark Padmore (tenor), Nash Ensemble
NMC D203
The horn in this interesting British Isles sequence combines with other instruments and a voice, like an atom claimed by different molecules. First it sounds alone, in Davies’s Hebrides-inspired Sea Eagle, then is joined by piano and Padmore’s tenor for the typically madcap setting of an unlikely text — Carroll’s Jabberwocky, in French, then German — by the Irish Gerald Barry. With the cello of Paul Watkins (no relation of Richard) and his brother Huw’s piano, it blends for Colin Matthews’s Three of a Kind; then comes Huw’s own Trio and the Quintet by Colin’s brother David. Robin Holloway’s arresting Trio (with cello and piano) has its premiere here. PD
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DVORAK
String Quartets Opp 51 & 61
Talich Quartet La Dolce Volta LDV18
A production error means that you hear these works in reverse order from that suggested in the track listing and liner notes; so the more classical, and mature, C major Quartet precedes the earlier “Slavonic” Quartet in E flat. No matter, as these performances, from a third (at least) generation of players in an ensemble founded 50 years ago are as beguilingly idiomatic as those of their predecessors. The Op 51 Dumka’s opening section is movingly melancholic, while the fast central section goes with zing. HC
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BRAHMS
Requiem
Soloists, Stuttgart Vokalensemble, NDR Choir, Stuttgart Radio SO, cond Roger Norrington
Hänssler CD93327
Even now Brahms’s Requiem can be made to seem stodgy, but not in this superb account by Stuttgart forces under their former director. Whatever one thinks of Norrington’s insistence on vibrato-less strings, the effect here is to clear the air gloriously. The beautiful wind writing comes into its own: to take one example, the quiet but vital trumpet notes in the third movement. The choral singing — cleansed and vivid — is wonderfully expressive. DC
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MICHEL-RICHARD DELANDE
Symphonies pour les Soupers du Roy
Elbipolis Barockorchester Hamburg, cond Jürgen Gross
Challenge Classics CC72664
These suites were composed by the Surintendant de la Musique de la Chambre to be played between the courses of Louis XIV’s dinner. The harpsichordist and editor Jörg Jacobi has fashioned authentic, colourful five-part textures from surviving, mostly two-part scores. The result is music of magnificence and touching eloquence. SP
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