Concertmuziek

Concertos for viola d'amore represent a fairly atypical part of Vivaldi's work, and he was probably the first composer to write pieces for this work in the solo concerto format. The viola d'amore was certainly well-liked for its soft, suggestive sound, which evoked the moods and climes of the orient thanks, in particular to its sympathetic strings which vibrate with those strings the player bows. But it was little-used because of its complex tuning and objective difficulties involved in playing it. In fact, the instrument would be tuned in different ways to fit the tonality of the piece being played – the famous scordatura, so finicky for the musicians – and it is believed that Vivaldi wrote these specifically for one of the musicians at Venice's Pietá: the famous Anna-Maria. Another characteristic of these concertos for viola d'amore, the rapid movements are also much longer and fuller than in most of Vivaldi's writing, for example in the seven string concertos which figure at the start of the album, or in the miniatures which were intended as showcases for the talent of the greatest possible number of soloists in the public concerts at the Pietá. A little curiosity is offered up here in the shape of the original concerto La Conca RV163, whose themes mimic the sound of the "conca", a kind of large marine conch used as an instrument since prehistoric times. The recording includes a conch being sounded at the start of the first movement by way of explanation. © SM/Qobuz

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

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.

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

French cellist Astrig Siranossian, a graduate of the Lyon CNSM and then of the prestigious Basel Hochschule went on to win First Prize and special prizes in the Krzysztof Penderecki competition: so it should come as no surprise that for this first solo album she has chosen a programme that brings together both the Second Concerto by Penderecki, written in 1982 and dedicated to Rostropovitch, and Khatchatourian's Concerto – Khatchatourian was Armenian, and it will not have escaped readers' notice that Siranossian is also an Armenian name. The young soloist is proving much sought-after: most notably, she has been invited to spend the next season with Daniel Barenboim at the new Pierre Boulez Hall in Berlin under the direction of Zubin Mehta, Simon Rattle and Antonio Pappano. Her musical partners include Yo-Yo Ma, Daniel Barenboim, Sol Gabetta, Bertrand Chamayou and Daniel Ottensamer, and she has graced stages as diverse as the Paris Philharmonic, the Vienna Musikverein the Salle Flagey in Brussels, the Buenos Aires Teatro Cólon the Kennedy Center in Washington… Note also that since 2015, she has been the artist in residence at the Queen Elizabeth Music Chapel in Belgium. This is a most promising musician whose career is one to watch closely. © SM/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