Alec Frank-Gemmill / Alasdair Beatson A NOBLE AND MELANCHOLY INSTRUMENT music for horns and pianos of the 19th century

The 19th century saw huge developments in the design of many musical instruments. In some cases changes were adopted more or less universally: the fortepiano that Mozart knew, a five-octave instrument constructed entirely of wood, had by around 1900 grown into the modern grand piano with over seven octaves and a cast-iron frame. With other instruments, progress was less streamlined. As late as 1865, the natural, valveless horn of Beethoven's time remained the instrument of choice for Brahms when he wrote his famous Horn Trio, and when valves began to be introduced, makers and musicians in Germany, France and Vienna favoured different solutions, offering different results in terms of sound and requiring different playing techniques. The present disc is a unique combination of recital and history lesson, with a young British team performing music from between 1800 and 1942 on no less than eight different historic instruments: four horns and four pianos. This gives us the opportunity to hear the works on instruments that the different composers would have recognized, whether Beethoven's Sonata in F major (a natural horn from 1800 and a fortepiano from 1815) or the Villanelle by Paul Dukas from 1906 (an early 20th-century cor à pistons and a Bechstein from 1898). Both notable performers on modern instruments, Alec Frank-Gemmill and Alasdair Beatson here revel in the sonic possibilities offered by the historic instruments with results that are as delighting as they are enlightening. (BIS Records)

Asier Polo / Marta Zabaleta SERGEI RACHMANINOV - CESAR FRANCK

Together with the magnificent pianist and regular recital partner Marta Zabaleta, Asier Polo has released a new album, which is a beautiful selection of romantic repertoire for cello and piano. Together, Asier and Marta perform four works that display technical and emotional virtuosity.

The two most substantial works on the disc are Sergei Rachmaninov’s Sonata Op. 19 in G minor and César Franck’s Sonata in A minor, and these are paired with Alexander Glazunov’s Chant du Menestrel and Maurice Ravel’s Vocalise-Etude. They are four outstanding works of great interest that demonstrate the richness of colours, ideas and sound worlds that opened the 20th century.

The CD, released on the Ibs Classical label, was recorded last October in the Auditorio Manuel de Falla, one of the most emblematic musical venues in Granada. The sleeve notes are by Blanca Calvo and include a detailed explanation of the pieces and of the artists’ interpretation, and this is illustrated with photographs by Pablo Axpe.

With an extensive discography of 14 CDs, Asier Polo returns with this new production, which is his second with Marta Zabaleta, and which promises to be a “journey to the bottom of the soul”.

Jascha Heifetz THE MASTER VIOLINIST

The majority of these performances will be very familiar to Heifetz collectors and so will the transfers. Discs one and two were remastered in 2006 whilst the bulk of the remaining pieces date to work carried out in 1992-93. The selection certainly meets with my approval ranging across the repertoire as it does and I particularly commend the selection of the smaller pieces which occupies discs five and six and the 1935 Bach recordings enshrined in disc four. The sole item from the 1920s is also here; the Menuet I and II from the Partita in E which was recorded on an early electric in 1925 in Camden, New Jersey.  

Heifetz had recorded the Sibelius with Stokowski at the end of 1934 but it remained unissued at the time and didn’t materialise until it was issued in the multi-volume set devoted to the ‘Philadelphia Orchestra Centennial Collection - Historic Broadcasts and Recordings 1917-1998.’ His first commercially issued recording was with Beecham and this justly famous traversal kicks off this set. I’d just note that its ethos is vividly at a remove from the performances of Anja Ignatius and Georg Kulenkampff to cite two near contemporaneous performances. The subtly sustained expressivity exemplified by Heifetz can be heard at full tilt here. For the Tchaikovsky and Glazunov Concertos he was partnered by Barbirolli, who had earlier recorded the Tchaikovsky with a very different Russian player, Mischa Elman. This represents probably Heifetz’s best playing in the Tchaikovsky – at thirty-six he was at his peak. The Glazunov is virile, taut, expressive, full of shading, very different from Milstein’s more aristocratic approach. On this evidence it’s a pity Barbirolli didn’t explore the Glazunov symphonies.
CD 1 - CD 2
CD 3 - CD 4
CD 5 - CD 6

Nicola Benedetti / Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Kirill Karabits SHOSTAKOVICH - GLAZUNOV

This might just be Nicola Benedetti’s best recording yet. Two very different 20th-century violin concertos show her at her most generously expressive and succinct, her most agile and commanding. Shostakovich wrote his seething First Concerto in the late 1940s but kept it mainly suppressed until after Stalin’s death in the 1950s; Benedetti unfurls the painful opening melody with a wan, broken, beautiful sound, then, when it comes to the Passacaglia, she really soars. And what makes it so worth hearing her interpretation of the Glazunov – an altogether lighter, sweeter business – is that she retains some of that urgency and makes a convincing case for the dark corners as well as the big-hearted tunes. Another big plus is the playing of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Karabits, a sound that broods and simmers in the Shostakovich and adds lustrous depth to the Glazunov. (Kate Molleson)

Esther Yoo / Philharmonia Orchestra / Vladimir Ashkenazy SIBELIUS - GLAZUNOV Violin Concertos

Now in her second year as a BBC New Generation Artist, Esther Yoo first came to international attention in 2010 when, aged 16, she became the youngest prizewinner of the 10th International Sibelius Violin Competition. In 2012, the American-Korean violinist was also one of the youngest ever prizewinners of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. 

In 2015/16, Esther returns to the Philharmonia, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony and Kansai Philharmonic orchestras and Orchestre National de Lille. She debuts with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, RTÉ Symphony, Iceland Symphony and KBS Symphony orchestras. Esther also revisits South America, following her successful tour with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy last season, performing with Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia and Filarmonica de Jalisco. Chamber music highlights include her Wigmore Hall debut with regular collaborator Zhang Zuo, and recitals in Oslo, Liverpool and Istanbul.
Last season, Esther performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Hallé, Philharmonie Südwestfalen, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra (Turkey) and Gävle Symphony Orchestra (Sweden), while past highlights include performances with the Finnish Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Tenerife Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras. In 2014, she made her London concerto debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra under the late Lorin Maazel, following their collaboration on a 2012 tour to China and Korea. More recently, she recorded the Glazunov and Sibelius concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Ashkenazy which will be released this autumn by Universal Music.
Recent and upcoming festival appearances include the Ghent Festival of Flanders, Festival de Fénétrange, Seoul International Music Festival (featuring Bach’s Double Concerto with Maxim Vengerov), Festival du Château de Chambord (France) and Dvořák Prague Festival.
Born in the U.S. and raised in Europe, Esther began playing the violin at the age of 4 and made her concerto debut aged 8. In 2006, she was given First Prize in the Junior Section of the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition and also the European Union Award for Music Art for Youth. She is currently a student of Ana Chumachenco in the Excellence Bachelor Programme at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich and of Augustin Dumay in the Artist Diploma Programme at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brussels. Prior to this, she worked with Zakhar Bron, Leonid Kerbel and Berent Korfker.

Esther plays the 1704 “Prince Obolensky” Stradivarius, generously lent to her by a private collector.