ARTHUR BERGER: ‘Words for Music, Perhaps,’ and Other Works
Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose, conductor
(BMOP/sound)
The American composer Arthur Berger, who died at 91 in 2003, first emerged in the 1940s writing vibrant, pointed Neo-Classical works. Over time he embraced 12-tone techniques, but, in his own distinctive way, retained crystalline Neo-Classical clarity and directness. A recent recording from the conductor Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project presents a diversity of Berger works ranging from “Words for Music, Perhaps” (songs on Yeats poems originally composed in 1940) to the intricately engrossing Diptych: Collage I and Collage II from the 1990s. Mr. Rose has long been a Berger champion. (Anthony Tommasini)
‘PIANO MUSIC OF DINU LIPATTI’
Luiza Borac, pianist; Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Jaime Martín, conductor
(Avie)
The Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti, who died in 1950 at 33 from lymphoma, was much admired during his lifetime and is still revered via his recorded legacy. He was also an accomplished composer
who studied with Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger during his teens. While Lipatti’s compositional talents don’t equal his remarkable pianistic gifts, this two-disc set of solo and orchestral works, played
with commitment by the pianist Luiza Borac, offers an intriguing traversal of his compositional aesthetic and influences. (Vivien Schweitzer)
‘DVORAK’
Alisa Weilerstein, cellist; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jiri Belohlavek, conductor
(Decca)
It’s not technical brilliance that makes Alisa Weilerstein’s recording of Dvorak’s much-loved cello concerto special, though the young American cellist has it in spades.
It’s the take-no-prisoners emotional investment that is evident in every bar, but never more so than in the heart-wrenching slow movement, where Ms. Weilerstein’s cello appears to take on human shape.
The arrangements of songs and dances by Dvorak for cello and piano are also beautifully sung. (Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim)
‘BRITTEN TO AMERICA: MUSIC FOR RADIO AND THEATER’
Various musicians
(NMC)
Even with Benjamin Britten’s centenary year over, the discoveries of underexplored corners of his output continue. This intriguing disc of mostly incidental music from the 1930s and early
’40s includes collaborations with W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood on the plays “The Ascent of F6” and “On the Frontier.” The darkly comic “Roman Wall Blues”
only resurfaced in 2005; it’s the only surviving fragment of Britten’s score for Auden’s “Hadrian’s Wall.” (Zachary Woolfe)
SZYMANOWSKI: Études, Masques and Métopes
Cédric Tiberghien, pianist
(Hyperion)
Chopin and Scriabin were the most significant influences for the Polish composer Szymanowski (1882-1937), who also absorbed elements of Wagner, Reger, Debussy and Polish folk music. The
pianist Cédric Tiberghien offers a colorful, virtuosic traversal through some of Szymanowski’s rhapsodic piano scores, including the characterful, fiery études and the more languid Métopes.
(Schweitzer)
MOZART: Violin Concertos, K. 216 & 218; Violin Sonata, K. 305
Ray Chen, violinist; Christoph Eschenbach, conductor and pianist; Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra
(Sony)
A citrusy-bright sound, clean, elegant phrasing and graceful wit characterize this recording of two Mozart violin concertos (No. 3 in G and No. 4 in D) by the Australian violinist Ray Chen. Christoph
Eschenbach leads an impeccable performance from the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra and brings seasoned class to the piano part in Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 22 in A. (Fonseca-Wollheim)
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, pianist
(Chandos; three discs)
After thrillingly vibrant installments of Haydn’s piano sonatas, the wonderful pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has turned to Beethoven, which he is covering in chronological
order in a trio of releases. This second volume is lucid yet intense in the poised Opus 31 sonatas and vital in the “Waldstein.” (Woolfe)
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