Volume 25 Issue 7 - April 2020

the expanded string ensemble of three pairings of violins, violas and
cellos gave Brahms the opportunity to explore the orchestral possibilities
of chamber music while still retaining the subtlety and intimacy
of the genre.
The playing here is suitably rich and warm in exemplary
performances.
There’s another superb recital CD in
the outstanding Naxos Laureate Guitar
Series, this time featuring the Korean
guitarist Ji Hyung Park, winner of the 2018
Changsha International Guitar Competition
(Naxos 8.574140 naxosdirect.com).
Transcriptions of three sonatas by
Domenico Scarlatti and two excerpts from
Iberia by Isaac Albéniz open the disc,
followed by the world premiere recording of Leo Brouwer’s Las
Ciclades arcaicas from 2018. Mori no naka de (In the Woods), from
November 1995, was the last work Toru Takemitsu wrote before his
death the following February; the second of its three pieces portrays
the trees in Toronto’s Rosedale area.
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Sonata in D Major Op.77 “Omaggio
a Boccherini” was written for Segovia in 1934, and is heard here
in its original manuscript form pre-dating Segovia’s editing. A
simply gorgeous arrangement of Toots Thielemans’ Bluesette ends a
terrific disc.
Park has everything you could want – tone, colour, warmth, technique,
dynamics – in a recital that fully lives up to the extremely high
standards of this series.
There’s more excellent guitar playing on
Asencio Complete Guitar Music featuring
works by the Spanish composer Vicente
Asencio (1908-79) played by the Italian
guitarist Alberto Mesirca (Brilliant
Classics 95806 naxosdirect.com).
Asencio’s interest in the guitar grew from
his teaching musical interpretation to the
young Narciso Yepes in the 1940s, a relationship
that resulted in the Suite de Homenajes of 1950, three homages to
Domenico Scarlatti, Manuel de Falla and Federico Garcia Lorca.
Collectici Intim is a suite of five songs and dances written in 1965 at
the request of the by-then famous Yepes. Suite Valenciana reflects the
colour and light of the composer’s native Valencia. The three-movement
Suite Mistica started life as a single piece, Dipsô, written for
Holy Week in 1971; Segovia was sufficiently impressed to suggest that
Asencio add a further two Passion-related items.
Two short pieces – Cançó d’hivern and Danza Valenciana –
complete the CD.
Mesirca displays excellent, clean playing with a wide range of technical
skills in a very interesting recital.
Italian Guitar Concertos is the somewhat
misleading title of a CD by the Italian
guitarist Emanuele Segre with the Orchestra
I Pomeriggi Musicali under the direction of
composer Carlo Boccadoro (Delos DE 3546
naxosdirect.com).
Aria for Guitar and String Orchestra is
Segre’s arrangement of a contralto aria from
a Vivaldi cantata, and the work by Mauro
Giuliani is a guitar and string orchestra
version of his Gran Quintetto Op.65. The Vivaldi Concerto in D Major
is at least a true concerto, but the main interest here is the world
premiere recordings of two contemporary single-movement works:
The Black Owl by Giovanni Sollima (b.1962) and Dulcis Memoria II for
Guitar and String Orchestra by Boccadoro (b.1962), the latter originally
written for clarinet and strings in 1995. Clocking in at about 18
and 14 minutes, respectively, they’re not substantial works, but both
explore a nice range of techniques and textures.
Performances throughout are fine without ever being dazzling.
Keyed In
Bach – Harpsichord Works
Jory Vinikour
Sono Luminus DSL-92239 (sonoluminus.com)
!!
Comprised of four revered works, this
album makes for a fine collection for harpsichord
enthusiasts and fans of Johann
Sebastian Bach. Jory Vinikour, two-time
Grammy-nominated harpsichordist and
conductor, has made quite a few recordings
of Bach’s music so far and his expertise and
passion for this composer is evident here.
I enjoyed the clarity of Vinikour’s sound
(his harpsichord is modelled after a German instrument of Bach’s
time) and his refined and thoughtful interpretation. This recording
has elegance and virtuosity, bringing out both the grand and hidden
gestures of Bach’s compositions.
The collection features the buoyant Italian Concerto (written
for two-manual harpsichord, thus distinguishing tutti from solo
passages), Ouverture in French Style (consisting of eight dance movements),
the exceptional Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue and an interesting
pairing of the Prelude and Fugue in A-Minor BWV894 with
Bach’s transcription of the Andante from Sonata for Solo Violin in
A-Minor. I liked the progression of the pieces: traditional pairing of
more formal works (Italian Concerto and Overture in French Style
were even published together in 1835) is followed by expansion of
virtuosic and improvisatory elements in Fantasy and Fugues.
Vinikour’s impeccable knowledge and sensibility to Bach’s music
makes these pieces sound very personal. Listeners are granted a sonic
glimpse of the unique world where the nuances are treated with care
and the sound is enriched with measured restraint.
Ivana Popovic
Bach – English Suites
Andrew Rangell
Steinway & Sons 30136 (naxosdirect.com)
!!
If the central tenet of music-making
is the desirability of singing or playing in
tune, accurately producing sound waves
that vibrate at the correct frequency, then
no one, it seems, did this better than Johann
Sebastian Bach. Much of his keyboard
music was written for the harpsichord –
a near-ubiquitous instrument in his day –
and it began to make a seamless transition
to the piano no sooner the instrument was invented and to this day
continues to be wonderfully interpreted.
One of the most recent is the unveiling of the English Suites with
these gorgeous, free-spirited performances by Andrew Rangell. The
suites are decidedly more grandiose than the French Suites and
written entirely for pleasure rather than for instruction. The allemandes
are rock steady throughout, the gigues extremely lively; the
courante sections rapid while the sarabandes are utterly noble. The
six suites are altogether easygoing and exquisitely flowery and are
said to have borne a slight resemblance to the style of Couperin, with
whom Bach is known to have corresponded.
The English Suites are not actually English, but rather more influenced
by other European compositional elements, that seemingly –
and fortuitously – held Bach’s attention. They begin with a prelude
which is often, as in the Suite No.3 in G Minor BWV808, a large-scale
concerto-like movement. Rangell brings matchless clarity to Bach’s
52 | April 2020 thewholenote.com