Vivaldi - The Four Seasons [Kennedy-English Chamber Orchestra] 

Well here's Nige!, no matter what anyone says about these four Concertos, congealed into possibly the most recorded Classical work of all time, and quite possibly by the best selling Classical disc of all time, i still love this work, it never gets stale for me, but this is the first time i've heard Kennedy in this work.

Nigel Kennedy is now 54!, yes what happened to that kid?, and he seems to have kept forever young by his Punk Rock dress sense, and hair style, keeping hip means keeping young, he was born in England in 1956, and recorded this work in 1986 & 1989, amazingly he was already 25 when he began to record this work, this is the 30th anniversary edition of the original disc, the front cover is a huge improvement over the old original, showing 4 black and white pictures of Kennedy, coloured in in different colours, i suppose representing the four seasons, very very nice, there's also a DVD of the whole work, but i haven't watched that yet.

The first half of the work [Spring & Summer] is fairly conventional, the second half [Autumn & Winter] have some strange effects by Kennedy, i would like to just touch on the two movements that i thought were the best,

Summer 3, represents a summer thunderstorm, with frantic strings, and different sections overlapping each other in their ferocity, and Kennedy building on this ferocity, the music develops a lovely rhythm [1:06+], with some lovely high treble solo work by Kennedy [1:30-1:43], the overlapping strings reappear like sheets of rain pelting down [2:02-2:12], ends as frantic as it started.

Winter 1, starts off with strange cold voicings, the movement represents the biting cold, a person stamping their feet to keep warm, and their teeth chattering, when the violins get going [1:15-1:27], the rapid fire violins certainly sounds like chattering teeth, and the stamping comes from the beat the violins make [2:04-2:20], and nice twangings while Kennedy plays very high treble [2:30-2:57].

A version well worth hearing. 

Brahms - Piano Concerto 1 [Zimerman/ Rattle-Berliner Philharmoniker] 

I bought this a short while back, and today i got the chance to give it its first spin, it's an intense performance, boisterous and angry in fortes, lyrical yet mysterious in the quieter passages, Rattle likes extremes, likes to play the music hard driven, loves the hard use of timpani here, Zimerman is a staccato Pianist on the whole, and this is a fine dark reading, surprisingly this is the first time this work appears in my Blog!, and long overdue too, i must admit that i just haven't got round to playing this work recently, so it was all the more joyous to renew my acquaintance today.

Krystian Zimerman is from Poland, now 54 years old, he made this recording in 2003-2004, the booklet cover shows Rattle and Zimerman together, a very soft focus shot, not sharp at all, but i still like it, gone are the days when DG had those huge yellow banners at the top of the booklet, now they print a nice small discreet logo instead.

The first movement is roughly 45% of the Concerto, it really is mammoth [over 23 minutes long], and is full of D Minor drama, this was the first Piano Concerto i ever heard, and in my Classical naivete i found it dark and dissonant, and it's still true today, yet this is now a very upbeat Concerto for me, there's a mournful section right at the beginning, with mainly low strings, shrouded in the mists of mystery [1:04-1:56], listen to how Rattle caresses a quiet passage so lovingly [1:30-1:37], bringing out much tenderness, later in the first movement, while the piano is winding down, the horn gets a nice little solo [10:19-10:44], there's a slightly happier respite, the piano sings out gaily in little piano rolls [13:41-13:58], one thing i don't like about Zimerman, is his penchant for slightly slowing things down in a moment of forte drama, plus there's a staccato-ness, it certainly impedes the flow of those 'glory' moments, when power needs to surge without any restrictions, a lovely glowing autumnal surge from the lower strings [19:26+], somewhat announcing that the movement is moving towards a close, and more piano and horn duets [20:16+ & 21:03+], the second time winding down into a blissful quiet, with distant timpani heartbeats in the background [21:20-21:43], as a closer Brahms gives us the power and the glory, frantic hammering piano [22:20-22:46], and then right after these scaling runs up and down the piano [22:46+], really thrilling, a superb example of an intense Piano Concerto from the 25 year old Brahms.

Here's Zimerman and Rattle playing the first movement on YouTube.

Mozart - Piano Concerto 21 [Schmidt/Masur-Dresdner Philharmonie] 

I played Mozart's Piano Concerto 20 [my favourite Mozart Concerto] last month [17th April 2011], and now it's time for its companion piece on the disc, they were composed about a month apart, and even though there's certain similarities, they are in fact like opposites of each other, one minor and troublesome, the other major and sweet, but perversely they always seem to crop up as a pairing.

Annerose Schmidt is East German i believe, and these lovely Berlin Classics 'basics' are really that, a disc, a DigiPak, and a track listing, there's no biography, and no explanation of the music inside, it is not Annerose Schmidt on the cover, but it is a nice cover shot [by Elke Van De Velde], at first glance seemingly upside down, it's a nice clever idea, a girl laying on the grass, hair all over the place, and the logo / lettering is nicely laid out, but what has the picture got to do with the music?.

Even though it's written in a major key [C Major], there's still dark overtones in the music, as suggested by the opening in the orchestra [0:00-0:08], and by the more forte gestures almost after it, with frantic high strings [0:21-0:35], making a lovely inventive beginning, Annerose Schmidt is deeply in the same intensity as the orchestra, not merely an accompanist, there's a lovely sweet section where she makes her piano sing [3:55-4:24], and a little later provides some excellent background accompanying notes to the orchestra [4:32-4:44], the orchestral tutti comes back in force like early in the opening [5:54-6:14], Mozart really knows how to blast us with previously presented material, which comes back to reinforce and remind us just how great this music is, from negative to positive, the music is nicely switched by the piano [7:42-8:02], a lovely aching moment, and soon after the orchestra returns to the opening moments all over again [8:19+], coming back in power, especially that sweet tune [9:31-10:00], and the piano accompaniment right after [10:09-10:41], restatement is just heaven from Mozart, i loved this Concerto today. 

Here's Nikolai Lugansky playing the first movement on YouTube.

Schubert - 3 Klavierstucke [Tabe] 

Here's the companion work on this disc, to the great last Piano Sonata by Schubert i played a couple of months ago [21st March 2011], these 3 pieces fall under the shadow of the Impromptus, it was Brahms's idea to call them Klavierstucke rather than Impromptus, i think Brahms had a problem with what to call his own piano works, so he had a tendency to call them Klavierstucke, supposedly there was meant to be a fourth piece to this set, and it would have conveniently made 3 books of 4 Impromptus, the other thing which goes against this triptych is the length of a compact disc, the first 8 Impromptus neatly fit on one disc, and these other 3 seem like left overs in comparison, but they're a great work in their own right.

Kyoko Tabe is Japanese, born in 1967, she made this recording in 1993, on the front cover a nicely glowing Kyoko Tabe [photo by Toshiaki Takeuchi], very expertly composed, flowing hair, with well placed hands, and nice lettering, a very visually appealing product, Denon are so very good at this.

Each of these three pieces are tremendously interesting and enjoyable, they're very much in sonata form, with different central episodes to give variety and colour, on this listen i liked the last piece, it's easily the shortest of the three, in fact half as long as the other two, and makes a nice finale, it's a nice piano sound, maybe a little too warm, slightly reverberant, bit bass heavy in the recording, i just love the way the treble right hand notes [0:09-0:11] just slide in perfectly with the left hand playing, a very slight overlap which is joyous, and the right hand treble rolls [0:21-0:28], just really thrilling, plus there's this lovely bass warbling in the left hand [0:32+], the central section comes in really soon, and is more peaceful, i like it when Schubert uses the higher treble notes [1:24-1:44], and then later some more treble [2:36-2:55], at the very beginning starting to sound like Satie!, and then the opening is repeated, and to hear those warbling bass notes again is fantastic [4:23+], short-ish but full of character and fascination, Tabe plays it with excitement.

Here's Carlo Grante playing the third Klavierstucke on YouTube.

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.