Shostakovich - Piano Trio 2 [Leonskaja/ Borodin Quartet] 

And another Piano Trio!, and another strange sounding Trio in the minor key, i've heard this quite a lot, but as a lot of music goes, i have a tendency to let the music wash over me, and not really listen, today i tried to listen, and i certainly got something more out of it, it's also good to have an excellent interpretation by these Russians, 

Elisabeth Leonskaja is Russian, now 65 years old, this disc was recorded in 1995, the booklet photo is very much a studio posed shot, and yet very well done, very monotone in black and white, with dark brown [photo by Thomas Muller].

It was the faster, more lithe movements that really work here, Shostakovich can really build up some sort of vehemence, and it's the last movement that i especially liked, it's a very jumpy staccato movement, with excellent use of pizzicato strings, the violin has dull non singing strings, but at the end of each phrase the treble string rings out twice [0:06-0:44], a very special effect, and then we're off on one of Shostakovich's angry outbursts [0:45-1:32], the piano singing out, and the strings plucking as if their life depended on it, the whole thing is couched in this desolate minor key, Shostakovich likes to use extremes, and the piano uses the growling bass in the main melody [3:27-4:00], low and fairly quiet, an ominous rumbling, the anger is incessant, the piano sings out in strong forte [5:31-5:54], and the strings follow suit, yes it can get very bleak and wretched, but there's a tune in there, and even a whiff of sweet melody trying to break out, about two thirds of the way through, the piano has these lovely rolls that Debussy would have been proud of [7:11+], which turn into harp-like strumming, the opening idea returns [8:35-9:12], strings chanting, piano having a bass grumble, the violin has a pizzicato so high in the treble [9:59-10:12], sounding so dead, right at the end the piano lazily hammers out some chords [10:16+], growing softer and softer to a pianissimo ending, Shostakovich can certainly eke out all sorts of sonorities with his instruments, and Leonskaja / Kopelman / Berlinsky are up to the task, creating all sorts of weird and wonderful sounds.

Here's the Chung Trio playing the fourth movement on YouTube.

Tchaikovsky - Piano Trio [Beaux Arts Trio] 

What a wonderful experience this was, every single movement, every single variation was a glorious revelation today, this whole work is an intense work of genius by Tchaikovsky, there's a darkness and funeral sadness and tragedy to the thing, like a Requiem, which it was in a sense for Rubinstein, the piano is the dominant force, and the whole work is couched in the minor key.

The Beaux Arts Trio were formed in 1955, and they disbanded in 2008, the only member to have survived the whole 53 year tenure is Manahem Pressler, this recording was made in 1988, the booklet front cover is fabulous [photo by Christian Steiner], the Trio, headed by Pressler in the front, and with superb lighting from the right, and a nice darkness on the left, the lettering is very nicely laid out, i really like this cover a lot.

Well what can i say about this incredible Piano Trio?, i used to feel that Beethoven's Archduke was unsurpassable, now i really feel that there's a challenger, i loved every bit of this Trio equally today, and it'd a 45 minute long work, so where can i possibly start to even begin to explain it?, even though it's in two movements, both of these can be conveniently broken down into half also, making four defining sections, and it's this third section of the theme and eleven variations which are endlessly fascinating, Tchaikovsky seems to use every device and option to garner the ultimate variety in this music, and he uses all three of the instruments to their full potential, here's a short synopsis of three that i found especially moving,

Variation 5 - plinking piano keys, high in the treble register, with the strings in a sort of droning mode. 

Variation 6 - a beautiful waltz!, truly lovely, full of swooning glides across the floor, with two extremes to it, the first very much a serenade [0:00-0:48], very sweet, and then a fiery section [0:48-1:18], stamped out louder, and these two are repeated again, and it's the second time we hear the serenade / waltz [1:18-2:04], that i hear the piano playing some rolling and bubbly piano accompaniment.

Variation 9 - Tchaikovsky called this piece Andante Flebile, flebile = feeble / weak, i can see the emphasis here, it's certainly a quieter variation, elsewhere in this Trio the piano hammers away, but here it's certainly restrained, it's also quite a strange variation, couched in mysterious mists, the piano comes in waves of ripples!, very very effective. 

Here's the second part of the variations being played on YouTube, variation 9 starts at [2:40+].

Bantock - Tone Poem 5 'The Witch Of Atlas' [Handley-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra] 

This is the second time this work appears in my Blog [15th March 2010], i got to play this disc walking through the park on the way to Church, the first two works are heavenly, why have they been so obscure for so long?, thanks to Vernon Handley, his efforts to get them better known have paid off in this recording, this is now my 4th best disc of all time, that's a phenomenal achievement for a Composer that's on the fringes!.

Vernon Handley is British, born in 1930, and died recently in 2008, he was a great champion of British music, and recorded a lot that others wouldn't touch, he made this recording in 1990, the front cover is a nice painting by Johan Dahl, called Morning After A Stormy Night.

As far as i'm concerned, this is the best work on the disc, it's tremendous, i don't know why it isn't recorded more often, and why it isn't famous, Hyperion have supposedly helped us in giving the work 9 cuing points, but for a 14 minute work, it would have been better to have given timings within the work in the booklet, these tracks just get in the way for me, it starts off very quiet and sparse, with barely audible tremolo strings whimpering, and a solo violin beseeching us [0:04+ track 6], with an oboe as a duet partner [0:20+ track 6], and later a bass clarinet [1:01+ track 6], it's a very atmospheric opening, conjuring up the scene nicely, the music swells [0:00 track 7], with a lovely note on the soft brass, with rippling harp, the lower woodwind are wonderfully mysterious [0:41+ track 7], the chattering piccolos / flutes are exciting [0:05-0:21 track 8], and right after comes the very best bit of the Tone Poem, the music swells into a full blooded string serenade [0:21+ track 8], it's just simply stunning and gorgeous!, chattering woodwinds / flute return [0:00+ track 9], after a more tempestuous section, the woodwinds have a marvellous decrescendo [0:43-1:11 track 12], starting at the piccolos, and moving down through the woodwinds to the bassoon, right at the end there's excellent use of the glockenspiel [1:25+ track 13], it's a work that is on the whole sparse and restrained, but full of atmosphere and effect.

Here's Vernon Handley conducting The Witch Of Atlas on YouTube, it's a fairly quiet level of volume, plus it starts very quiet too!.

Saint-Saens - Symphony 3 'Organ' [Levine-Berliner Philharmoniker] 

This is the first time that Saint-Saens most famous work has appeared in my Blog, this is so surprising to me, it's one of my favourites, and this is my favourite recording of it, the first ever live concert i went to had this as their main piece, it's somewhat of a shame that his other Symphonies just aren't of the same calibre.

James Levine was born in America in 1943, now 67 years old, and suffering a number of health issues which is curtailing his conducting, he recorded this work in 1986, i'm not all that endeared with the booklet cover, DG have some fairly crazy visuals on their front covers, the back inlay is more interesting, white lettering on a black background works well for me.

The whole of this Symphony is a delight, each of the four movements play their part perfectly, Saint-Saens certainly knows how to put a Symphony together, i especially liked the second and fourth movements, there's some tremendous things going on at the start of the last movement, and yet my own personal favourite is the sublime slow movement Poco Adagio, it is so soothing, a beautiful and sweet delicacy, right after the initial gentle notes by the Organ, the strings come in with the most ravishing tone [0:10+], no woodwind, brass, or timpani, just strings, and they play at viola level [0:10-1:24], and then the strings play up a notch to more violin level [1:22-2:31] with woodwinds in the background, and the lower strings have that deeper and sultry creamy tone afterwards [2:31-3:15] with organ as a backdrop, and so it goes, Saint-Saens uses the different levels of the strings as a sort of dialogue, the whole movement is very sparse, the tune is the star of the show rather than complex instrumentation, after a string pizzicato section [5:50-6:56] for me the highlight appears, the violins play sweet and high [6:57-8:19], restrained at first, but getting higher and sweeter, they really hit the mark at [7:42+], with quiet pizzicato strings as a backdrop, like gently falling rain, it's just exquisite, and afterward the woodwind and strings have a nice little autumnal dialogue, the whole movement shows an excellent use of the different string textures.

Here's the second movement Poco Adagio conducted by Myung-Whun Chung on YouTube.

Brahms - Handel Variations [Magnan] 

Last month i played Magnan's interpretation of the 6 Klavierstucke Op118 [13th April 2011], and now it's the turn of the other work on this disc, this is the main reason i bought this disc, in my opinion this is Brahms's best solo piano work, and there's pros and cons to Magnan's interpretation.

Gisele Magnan i take it is French, but apart from that, i really don't know much else about her, this disc was recorded in 1995, i like the booklet front cover [photo by Stephane Ouzounoff], a nice concept, i like the tall photo on the left, from top to bottom, and then the more sparse cream coloured right hand booklet, nice ideas.

This is the first time i've played this work on this disc, so these are only my initial thoughts, i will surely play this disc again, and my thoughts and feelings may well change, Magnan is a good guide in this work, she hardly puts a finger or hand wrong, i find her a little impetuous, playing certain variations at a slightly garbled gait, there's a tendency to be a little sloppy at times, forcing the music, rather than letting Brahms speak for himself, she can also be a little too straightforward, too matter of fact, the very best Pianists find something extra to say, something unique, my first impressions [and these are only first impressions] is that Magnan doesn't have a magic wand to wave, well we'll see on subsequent listenings how she fares, don't get me wrong, i really did enjoy Brahms / Magnan today.

Out of all these variations, it was towards the last quarter of the work that it started to really click for me, variations 18, 21, 23 & 25 were the best, here's a little synopsis of each variation, first timings are for the disc, and second timings are for the YouTube video below. 

18 a lovely variation, starting high in the treble right hand, with some very choice treble notes, towards the end of the variation, these treble notes gets slower and more pronounced, the last one is the most affecting [3:09+]. [2:16-3:20 track 4] & [2:16-3:20].

21 a nice chimerical variation, like a strumming harp in many ways, gently rippling notes wash over me, and like a welcome gentle breeze, it ends all too soon. [1:46-2:28 track 5] & [6:05-6:45].

23 a gruff and deep bass variation, almost like a fugue, it's also very short. [3:14-3:45 track 5] & [7:33-8:05].

25 a barnstorming last variation, Magnan really plays this very well, there's a finality and culmination to the last variation, as if it's the capstone which snaps into place and completes the whole work, nicely hammered out by Magnan as a sort of reverse fanfare, which announces the end of the work. [4:19-4:58 track 5] & [8:38-9:18].

Here's Gisele Magnan playing the Handel Variations on YouTube, Part 1 [up to variation 13], and Part 2 [variation 14 onwards].

The Jack Rubies [See The Money In My Smile] 

I've had this disc for 10 years, i discovered The Jack Rubies by buying a tape cassette of this album in a second hand record shop in London, those were the days where i would go to London once a month, and buy roughly 40 cassette tapes for about £25, picking albums and Artists that looked interesting, Classical, Rock, Jazz, Folk, Country, Blues, anything that looked like it might strike a musical chord with me, if it was a hit, then i'd get the disc of the album, now i don't need to buy cassette tapes to 'test' music out anymore, i can listen online before i buy, neither do i need to go to London to do my buying, now Ebay is my new second hand shop, when i left my old house i left roughly 6,000 unwanted cassettes behind in the loft!, those cassettes served their purpose, they introduced me to an ever increasing array of Artists i would have heard no other way, this is one of those successes.

The Jack Rubies  were formed in England in 1987, but they've slipped into obscurity, they sound very much like The Church in their Gold Afternoon Fix days, and their lead singers have a canny similarity.

The two tracks that i felt were the best are track 9 Calamity Jane, and track 11 Western Sky [sounds extremely like Sit Down by James], they're one of those jangly guitar bands, and on Calamity Jane i like the wailing lead guitar, plus their band boasts a percussionist [Lawrence Giltnane] as well as a drummer, and he's very inventive, creating a new angle and freshness.

There's no YouTube music etc, and the biography is sparse, it's not a great album by any degree, but one i enjoyed listening to again today.