ALBUM OF THE WEEK
BRAHMS
Clarinet Quintet, Trio and other works
Martin Frost
BIS 2063
The great autumnal Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op 115, comes up fresher than ever in this wonderful new recording from — arguably — the world’s greatest clarinetist. The Swede’s “friends” here include the violinist Janine Jansen, the viola player Maxim Rysanov and the cellist Thorleif Thedeen: crème de la crème soloists who, with the second violinist, Boris Brovtsyn, comprise one of the finest ensembles ever to have committed this masterpiece to disc. The late Malcolm MacDonald’s booklet note refers to the famous 1930s Reginald Kell/Busch Quartet recording for its proximity to the work’s early performing tradition. Frost and co’s tempi are brisker, their rhythms more alive and their propulsion more energetic than in some classic modern versions. The sound is gloriously rich, aided by a state-of-the-art recording. I know no other clarinetist who commands such a wide spectrum of colour: with the pianist Roland Pontinen, Frost plays six transcriptions of popular Brahms songs, best “sung” in the mezzo/contralto register, while Pontinen and Thedeen are ideal colleagues in the Op 114 Trio. Chamber music-making doesn’t get any better. HC
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HANDEL
Arias
Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano), English Concert, cond Harry Bicket
Hyperion CDA67979
Apart from Zenobia’s ravishing lament from Radamisto, Coote’s Handel selection offers no surprises. All the arias are from roles she has sung on stage: Ariodante, Sesto (Giulio Cesare) and Dejanira (Hercules). Her lustrous mezzo is in the Baker, Hunt and Lieberson class — she is fiery in Dejanira’s terrifying mad scene, and gorgeous in the sublime Mi lusingha and Verdi prati (both from Alcina). Only the snail’s pace of her ponderous Scherza infida (from Ariodante) is a blot on this vintage disc. HC
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SCHUBERT, BEETHOVEN ET AL
Unfinished Symphony, Symphony No 2, Siegfried Idyll
Vienna Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, cond Claudio Abbado
Audite 95627
These Lucerne Festival turns date from before Abbado founded the Lucerne Festival Orchestra; yet the Chamber Orchestra of Europe’s Beethoven and Wagner (1988) have much of the chamber-music-like spirit that would make those musicians so extraordinary. The Vienna Phil’s more conventional Schubert is fine, in its way; the first movement has a dark, implacable force, but the horns’ insistent dotted notes at bars 190-1 are disappointingly feeble. DC
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COPLAND, BERNSTEIN ET AL
American Chamber music
James Ehnes (violin), Seattle Chamber Music Society
Onyx 4129
Ehnes is artistic director of the Seattle ensemble, which presents itself here in a selection nudging towards a notion of Americanness. Copland’s 1943 Violin Sonata typifies that sublime simplicity he was mysteriously able to make both populist and recherché. Carter’s Elegy for viola and piano, from that year, is a sombre tonal excursion far from his subsequent manner, though arresting; while Bernstein’s Trio for violin, cello and piano, composed at 19, is mainly striking as juvenilia. Barber’s three-movement String Quartet, embracing the famous adagio (a sort of American anthem), is true precocity: a blazing masterpiece of his mid-twenties. PD
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BUXTEHUDE
Omnia Opera XIX (Vocal Works 9)
Solosts, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir, cond Ton Koopman
Challenge Classics CC77258
Koopman’s mission to record the complete works of Buxtehude is proving ample encouragement for us to give Bach’s great predecessor his due. Here, 10 sacred works of the kind performed at Buxtehude’s famed musical evenings in Lübeck show just how inventive and varied his art is. They are performed with flair. SP
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