Concertmuziek

What if this album turned out to be the new standard version of Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor? Judging from what we get to see of the young cellist Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, it might well be, thanks to the sumptuous, smouldering sounds that fill this interpretation from beginning to end. It would be far too tempting to compare the young German to her distant colleague Jacqueline Du Pré, for whom this concerto was a signature piece. The publisher was on the right track when they took Marie-Elisabeth Hecker's picture striking exactly the same pose as the English cellist does in one of her most famous photographs, taken when she was the young wife of Daniel Barenboim: but Hecker's head is cocked the other way to throw the observer off. Born in Zwickau in 1987, she was one of the youngest participants ever to win the Rostropovich Competition in Paris. In 2010, she enjoyed a thrilling success in her hometown, playing Concerto in A minor to mark the bicentenary of Robert Schumann's birth (he was born in the same town), conducted by Daniel Barenboim, who would no doubt have felt very touched by a scene that recalled his own youth. The attentive and careful accompaniment by Edo de Waart shows off the sonic riches of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, which he led from 2011 to 2016. Yet more proof of the high quality achieved by so many orchestras around the world today. This is an interesting pairing with a short, ultra-romantic piece by Elgar, Sospiri, transcribed here for cello and strings, whose secrets are laid bare by cellist Sol Gabetta. The Quintet for Piano in A Minor is the other major piece by Elgar to feature on this new recording. Composed in 1918, it is a very refined work, which often takes on orchestral tones, in a very Brahmsian language. © François Hudry/Qobuz

After the volumes dedicated to Vivaldi's great instrumental cycles, La Stravaganza (2004), La Cetra (2012) and L’Estro armonico (2015), English violinist Rachel Podger continues her work with her Brecon Baroque ensemble to bring out this version of the Four Seasons, which is rounded off with three violin concertos. Brecon Baroque is an offshoot of the festival of the same name that takes place every year at the end of October, in Wales. A magical place at the confluence of two rivers, where the spectacular countryside draws visitors every year in their hundreds. A passionate fan of the music of Vivaldi and Biber, Rachel Podger, who studied in Germany, demonstrates through her performances just how much the Red Priest's music (and her herself, following Biber) can cloak itself in the mysterious and bizarre, to the point that Vivaldi appears here as a distant descendant of the mannerists from the late Renaissance and early Baroque period. This is a particularly interesting and successful take.

It seems that international recognition has at long last arrived for Argentine pianist Nelson Goerner, even if he had been known on the professional circuit for many years. His most recent recital albums, of Debussy, Schumann, Chopin, and Beethoven were met with rave reviews: and here he is today in one of the greatest concertos in the repertoire. Recorded in concert in Tokyo on 20 May 2009, with the excellent NHK Orchestra, this is a particularly sumptuous rendition of the Second Concerto by Brahms, twilit and intimate, with a velvet piano sound and well-chosen phrasing that provides a perfect match for Brahms's long melodic motifs. Tadaaki Otaka attentively follows his soloist's every move, supporting him with broad gestures from the podium. Discovered by Martha Argerich during an audition for gifted children in Buenos Aires, Goerner was sent to work in Geneva with Maria Tipo, where in 1990 he would win first prize at the International Competition, giving a magisterial rendition of Rachmaninov's Third Concerto with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Since then, he has travelled the world, building his career stone by stone, taking his time, and only bringing pieces before the public when they are perfectly ripe. This is a thrilling version of a major work by Brahms, even among the already-crowded discography – from which it can be hard to choose. © François Hudry/Qobuz

Danish violinist-turned-conductor Nikolaj Znaider, who won the prestigious Reine Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 1997, has decided to record Mozart’s complete violin concertos, conducted from the violin with the London Symphony Orchestra. Znaider has a particularly strong relationship with that orchestra, with which he has been performing as a soloist since 2005, and as a conductor since 2011. For his Mozart project, he has of coursed reduced the orchestra’s string section to a more Mozartian, nearly chamberlike size, so that the solo violin weaves seamlessly into the delicate musical fabric, as if it were some kind of “primus inter pares”. This is a particularly deft approach to those two magnificient scores, both written in 1775, and their youthfulness – the composer was but 19 years old – is contradicted by their astonishing broadness of scope: the Fifth concerto lasts about half an hour, a very unusual length for a concertante work at that time. Znaider plays them in such a way that their “lengths” seems absolutely “divine”, Mozart thus predating Schubert by some decades… © SM/Qobuz

For his first album with Sony Classical, Adam Laloum returns to one of his favourite composers. He distinguished himself with his first recording in 2011, for Mirare, which contained four of the composer's major works: Variations on an original theme Op. 21 No. 1, the wonderful and too-little-played Klavierstücke from Op. 76, the two Rhapsodies Op. 79 and the 3 Intermezzi Op. 117. And so it is hardly a surprise that today he is offering up his vision of Brahms's Concertos. Sony Classical has marshalled its formidable resources: one of the best orchestras in Germany, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin; and one of the young wolves of orchestral conducting from Asia (but already well-known in Europe - witness his many collaborations with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande for Pentatone) join them twice, once in August, then in October 2016, in the Radio Berlin Großer Sendesaal, for sessions which must have been a childhood dream come true for the young Frenchman. An amazing experience! © 2018 Théodore Grantet/Qobuz

The piano duo formed by Arthur Gold (1917–90) and Robert Fizdale (1920–95) enjoyed immense fame in the post-war years. Poulenc wrote a piece for them, as did Darius Milhaud, Samuel Barber, Luciano Berio and John Cage. They recorded with Leonard Bernstein. Nicknamed "The Boys", they played all over the world and were praised for their ‘seamless perfection and an inimitable "joie de vivre" (New York Times). The Boys were also famed for their bestselling books and television programmes on cooking, their other passion! Duo Jatekok (játékok ="games" in Hungarian) was formed in 2007. Like The Boys and unlike most current piano duos, Adélaïde Panaget and Naïri Badal are not siblings, but childhood friends. "They have everything going for them: dynamic rigour and expressive energy, exuberant keyboard skills and multilingual touch, and more than anything else, a sort of jubilatory osmosis", wrote Le Monde. For this first recording on Alpha, they have decided to pay tribute to "The Boys" with a programme of works written for them, Poulenc’s Sonata for two pianos and Élégie and a composition by a legend of jazz, the American pianist Dave Brubeck, Points of Jazz. Duo Jatekok also wanted to include music by one of their contemporaries: Baptiste Trotignon’s Trois Pièces (including one dedicated to Poulenc!) complete the programme. © Alpha Classics

Although he lived to be 97 years old, Hans Gál (1890-1987) didn’t exactly leave an indelible mark on European music. Still, the first decades of his career seemed to suggest a bright future: his works received enthusiastic support from Szell, Furtwängler, Strauss, Fritz Busch, and his notoriety grew steadily until Nazis came to power. Then there was the exile in Great Britain where he was interned during the war until the authorities understood, rather quickly in fact, he was anything but an enemy infiltrator! He went on to spend his late years in Edinburg where he taught at the university until he retired. His musical language remains rooted in Austro-Hungarian post-romantic tradition, while never foraying in any dodecaphonic nebula; it’s easy to imagine how much his work was neglected, particularly during the post-war years of lead with their imposed serialism, but the early 21st century finally saw his star shine once again in the firmament. Let’s therefore welcome the release of this album, which features his 1966 Concertino for Cello, followed by his Sonata and Suite for Solo Cello, both from 1982 – works from his ultimate maturity. All brought to life by the talented touch of Matthew Sharp, a disciple of Pergamenschikow and Jacqueline du Pré – and even of Galina Vishnevskaya, because he’s not only a talented cellist, but also a popular baritone! © SM/Qobuz