Latest releases reviewed
MUGAM SAYAGI - MUSIC OF FRANGHIZ ALI-ZADEH Franghiz Ali-Zadeh (piano), Kronos Quartet Nonesuch 7559 79804-2 ****
The Kronos Quartet are like latter-day incarnations of 19th-century explorers, bringing back for the delight and edification of their listeners the musical progeny of exotic and distant fraternisations. Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, born in Baku in 1947, is Azerbaijan's best-known composer, and Kronos here present the fruits of their work with her, two string quartets (Mugam Sayagi, 1993, and i 1998) and a piano quintet (the Aspheron Quintet, 2001) plus the Music for Piano (1989). The works are strong on evocation and colour, drawing freely on the composer's native tradition as well as on her early infatuation with the Western avant-garde. The performances are immaculate in detail. www.nonesuch.com
Michael Dervan
STILL: IN MEMORIAM; AFRICA; SYMPHONY NO 1 (AFRO-AMERICAN) Fort Smith Symphony/John Jeter Naxos American Classics 8.559174 ***
William Grant Still was born in Mississippi in 1895 and studied composition under the conservative George Whitefield Chadwick as well as the radical Edgard Varèse. He was the first black American composer to penetrate the musical establishment, and his greatest success, appropriately enough, was his Afro-American Symphony (1930), a work born out of blues, spirituals, ragtime and jazz, which was taken up by over 30 orchestras in the 1930s alone. Still handled an orchestra with real skill (he had worked as an arranger for bluesman WC Handy's publishing company), could turn out attractive tunes, and any of the three works here, especially the ground-breaking symphony, will amply reward anyone seeking out music with Gershwinesque appeal. Only the symphony has been recorded before, and the performances under John Jeter are adequate, though a little pale. www.naxos.com
Michael Dervan
BEETHOVEN: KREUTZER SONATA; BRAHMS: VIOLIN SONATA NO 3; FRANCK: VIOLIN SONATA Jascha Heifetz, Benno Moiseiwitsch, William Kapell, Arthur Rubinstein Naxos Historical 8.110990 ****
Like many a famous player today, the Jascha Heifetz (1901-87), the most influential violinist of the 20th century, gave recitals mostly with specialised accompanists. On disc he can also be heard, of course, in the "million-dollar trio" with Arthur Rubinstein and Gregor Piatigorsky, as well as in a range of chamber music from the Heifetz/Piatigorsky concerts. Naxos's new CD collects three other sonata recordings he made with eminent pianist colleagues, the César Franck Sonata with Rubinstein in 1937, Brahms's Sonata in D minor with William Kapell in 1950 and Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata with Benno Moiseiwitsch in 1951. Heifetz is in masterly form throughout, and it's the young Kapell - whose career was tragically cut off at the age of 31 in a plane crash in 1953 - who most closely follows and balances the flame of Heifetz's temperament. www.naxos.com
Michael Dervan
THE 1950S CONCERTO RECORDINGS Wolfgang Schneiderhan Deutsche Grammophon Original Masters 477 5263 (5 CDs) ***
Wolfgang Schneiderhan (1915-2002) provided a wealth of classically styled violin playing to the Deutsche Grammophon catalogue of the 1950s and 1960s. This Viennese violinist is best remembered for his Mozart, and the two concertos here (Nos 4 & 5) have an expressive sharpness that his Beethoven (conducted by Paul van Kempen) lacks. His straight-as-a-die manner in Bach's Partita in D minor for solo violin is a strangely compelling instance of interpretative purism, and he's altogether more pointed in concertos by Bach than Vivaldi (an early stereo Four Seasons) or Tartini. His general approach sometimes seems to constitute a slightly de-personalised anti-romanticism, so it's hardly surprising that he manages to find more in Brahms than Mendelssohn or Bruch. He also played contemporary music, and Swiss composer Frank Martin's 1951 Violin Concerto, which memorably combines reserve and sprightly elegance, was a deservedly praised speciality. www.dgclassics.com
Michael Dervan
