CD Review: Nielsen & Sibelius violin concertos (John Dalene/RSPO/Storgårds) BIS-2620

John Dalene’s approach to recording violin concertos has paired both the well-known (Tchaikovsky) and the lesser played (Barber). To that are now added the Sibelius and Nielsen concertos. Both are fine works and they receive performances worthy of their stature. John Storgårds and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra provide characterful accompaniment throughout.

The Nielsen is a rather unusual piece, written in two movements that are each preceded by slow introductions. Yet, for all that, Dalene makes a fine case for it: by turns he conjures a bashfully romantic tone, at others a more jovial one. Personally, I have always found Nielsen a composer rather difficult to ‘place’; just when one gets a feel for his approach, he dashes it all by throwing in something new without much care for stylistic integration. Dalene integrates where he can with the two cadenzas.

The Sibelius is of course much better known. On occasions, it can feel like something of a war horse to be ridden so that the soloist merely survives the experience. Witness the particularly persuasive reading of the slow movement, the passionate closing movement or the lengthy single cadenza, all of which set this apart from many another recording.

Both works have been paired together on disc before: Cho-Liang Lin on CBS is the primary contender. However, the superior sound and playing of the present release ensures that it wins out in head-to-head listening. This is another recording from the BIS stable that fully deserves the plaudits it has garnered from the international press.

Concert Review: Alda Dizdari and Maria Gîlicel, violins / Mellos Ensemble (Southwark International Music Festival)

The opening concert in any new music festival with aspirations to become an annual event needs to immediately create an impression and, hopefully, carry with it the portent of great things to come. By launching with a programme entitled ‘Genius’ the Southwark International Music Festival, brainchild of violinist Alda Dizdari during lockdown last year, sought to do just that by finding synchronicity of purpose with the three works played by the Mellos Ensemble.

Each of the composers featured – Bach, Elgar and Enescu – wrote their pieces at a time in their lives when they had not yet achieved the fame that would eventually make their reputations. Another thread of performance connects these composers: Enescu, himself a fabulous violinist, recorded Bach’s double concerto with Yehudi Menuhin. It was also with Enescu that Menuhin prepared Elgar’s violin concerto for the famous recording of the work, conducted by the composer.

The flexibility of the Mellos Ensemble’s constitution – a core of members is supplemented to accommodate the performance of larger-scale works – was shown to good advantage throughout the concert. Alda Dizdari provided discrete yet assured direction in her role as ensemble leader. In Bach’s Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins, BWV 1043, she played the first solo violin part, whilst Maria Gîlicel played the second solo part.

The opening Vivace movement was well articulated with a sense of ensemble proportion, whilst the solo parts were distinct and characterful. In the middle movement, Largo ma non tanto, an apt tempo was taken without ever becoming ponderous. This allowed for a sense of reflection, which enabled the sinuous interplay of the reversed solo lines to fully register. Maria Gîlicel’s mellower tone contrasted well against the brighter timbre of Alda Dizdari’s playing, which benefitted the concerto as a whole. The closing Allegro movement’s lively intricacies were enjoyed by the ensemble and soloists alike, revealing much of interest in Bach’s inventive writing.

Edward Elgar’s youthful and slender Serenade for Strings in E Minor, Op.20, followed. The Serenade for Strings was written in 1892. A compact work consisting of three relatively brief movements, it was a revision and reworking of earlier material.

The opening Allegro piacevole, literally a ‘pleasing’ Allegro, was played with a buoyant tempo and warmth of tone, so much so that the impression of an English idyll came readily to mind. This was continued by the middle movement Larghetto, in which foreshadowings of Nimrod from the ‘Enigma’ Variations were readily detectable. A most sensitive blending of timbres was expertly handled, and nowhere more so than the movement’s closing diminuendo passages. This fully captured the romance in Elgar’s heart-on-sleeve writing. The final Allegretto movement captured the feeling of a pastorale, as the ensemble conveying a sense of unified contentment in their generous yet unforced articulation of this brief yet tender moment of Elgarian repose.

The evening concluded with a performance of George Enescu’s mighty String Octet in C Major, Op.7. Sometimes performed with a conductor, given its intricacy, it says a great deal that the Mellos Ensemble tackled it without one. The Octet’s four connected movements work together to form a large-scale sonata form across its entire structure. Something of the effort that Enescu grappled with is evident in any performance, as motifs and ideas recur between the movements. The Mellos Ensemble did not shy away from its challenges in their performance.

The first movement, Très modéré, was begun just a touch of hesitancy, but progressed to find a requisite driving rhythm. Individual lines were clearly articulated, and interest was maintained across Enescu’s wide canvas through variety of tone, timbre and articulation. If at times the violins occasionally were prominent, the violas and cellos also had their passages of importance; these duly registered without taking away from the whole. The monumentally fugal second movement was greatly enlivened by the incisive attack afforded it in this performance. There was also elegance in its playing and discretion in playing individual lines, which contribute threads towards the completion of a tapestry. The third movement, Lentement, which takes the form of a meditative and even nostalgic nocturne, held the attention through playing that was confident and shaded at times with great depth of feeling. The Octet’s closing movement, a rhythmic waltz, was high-spirited. That the entire Mellos Ensemble clearly had this music comfortably under their fingers, as it were, aided their fully committed realisation of Enescu’s youthful vision for this work, which he claimed was the one with which he attained his own compositional voice. Playing of this calibre left me wondering anew why Enescu’s Octet is not better known, even today.

The concert was met with an enthusastic reception by the in-person audience at Sands Films Music Room, and I assume, the audience watching at home via the livestream. Over the past two years, it has been a necessity to often enjoy music-making online, often with variable sound quality. There were no such issues here though, thankfully. Hybrid audience concerts could well be a format of choice going forward, since it opens up events to a truly global audience.

Three further concerts are scheduled within the Southwark International Music Festival during the next week – details and booking online at https://southwarkmusic.org.uk/festival/. Having enjoyed watching this concert via an online livestream from Sands Films Music Room, it is good to see that one other concert in this years’ series is also being livestreamed, which you can watch free of charge. I urge you to investigate and support if you can – it is only through support that ventures like this will establish themselves, backed by funding and professional organisation, so the musicians and performances can receive the recognition they truly deserve. A credit to all involved; more please!

CD Review: Dan Dediu: Hybrids, Hints & Hooks (Irina Muresanu, violin; Valentina Sandu-Dediu, piano) Metier MSV 28621

Dan Dediu (b. 1967) has a significant reputation as a contemporary composer in his native Romania, holding a professorial post at the National Music University in Bucharest. He has written many works in virtually every genre, several of which have been performed internationally. The discography of his works is comparatively thin, so for that reason alone Divine Art are to be congratulated on bringing some of Dediu’s compositions to a wider audience through this release on their Metier label. My first encounter with Dediu’s music was at a concert in Bucharest over 15 years ago. At the time, if I am really honest, I didn’t take to it as I found it somewhat impenetrable on a single hearing. However, I have long thought that Dediu would be a composer worth revisiting.

An introduction to the recording is available on Youtube.

The works are not presented in chronological order, but as Dediu’s voice is equally assured across all the works, it’s not really a sense of development that this release is aiming to convey. Rather, it’s that Dediu’s music plays with forms and structures, often taking its starting points from disparate sources.  Indeed, violinist Irina Muresanu’s booklet foreword confirms this: “Dan Dediu is musical wizard who conjures styles and ideas from different eras, moulding them into a cohesive musical discourse that is unmistakably his own.”

The result is often simultaneously arresting, earnest yet quirky and demands that any listener pay it close attention. An initial play-through of this recording confirms that this is not music to be approached lightly. Dediu’s own concise liner notes helpfully introduce the listener to each of the four works on this disc, each of which is a first recording.

Don Giovanni/Juan ‘SonatOpera’, Op. 53 (violin & piano) – Written in 1995 for Muresanu and Sandu-Dediu in two movements, it is intended as something larger than a standard duo sonata. Dediu hints at the almost operatic proportions of his ‘SonatOpera’ by calling the movements ‘Acts’. He fleetingly draws upon motivic elements from Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Strauss’ Don Juan within his compositional tableaux. Do not think that Dediu just moulds sources into a new structure, rather, he hints at his sources with sleight of hand in music that is entirely original. Just as you get even the slightest of grasps on what the sources might be, they are gone and Dediu has plunged headlong into the music’s next aspect. Both acts are dynamically varied and involving. Act 1 begins with a dramatic ‘overture’ before plunging through a sequence of linked expressive quasi-operatic episodes, of arias, recitatives and duets. The writing is fluid and possessing its own sense of momentum; this continues throughout Act II also. There is no mistaking the sweeping, virtuosic verve that both players imbue the music with, making a fully convincing case for it.

Sonata for solo violin, Op. 7 – Written in 1987, when Dediu was 19, is a work that keeps soloist and listener alike on their toes with the contrasts between the two movements and the many twists and turns that the composition takes. As in the other solo violin work included on this release – À la recherché de La Marseillaise de Stravinsky, Op. 134, written some 31 years later in 2008.  The latter piece is another hybrid work: this time the tune of La Marseillaise as transcribed for solo violin by Stravinsky is given an imaginative contextual setting conceived by Dediu. Muresanu fearlessly meets the challenges posed within both works head on through a powerful technique tempered by her innate musicality.

The recording concludes with A Mythological Bestiary, scored for violin and piano in 2008 it was yet another work written for Muresanu. Comprising of musical portraits of six mythological beings drawn from European mythology – Griffin, Unicorn, Mandragora, Sphynx, Hippogriffin and Dragon – the composition encompasses a variety of styles, dramatic and inferences (or hints) towards the intended subject. As ever, Dediu’s writing can take sudden and subtle twists that amplify the portrait – the Sphinx’s riddle is portrayed through haunting, momentary shifts to the minor key. Impressive as Muresanu’s playing is, I find the pianism of Sandu-Dediu to be just as significant, her touch particularly in pianissimo passages is highly effective.

The recordings, made at the National University of Music in Bucharest, date from January 2014. Why it’s taken until now for them to be published is anyone’s guess, but better now than never. The recorded acoustic is relatively dry; Muresanu’s violin is forewardly placed against Sandu-Dediu’s piano in the duo pieces. There is no mistaking the dedication of both musicians in executing Dediu’s works and it is a testament to their longstanding professional association with the composer. So much so, that for the listener in search of new discoveries this release proves revealing of different aspects upon repeated listening. If you are feeling adventurous, why not give this a try.

CD Review: Chausson / Ravel / Enescu (David Grimal, violin; Les Dissonances) La Dolce Volta LDV97

Chausson: Poème for Violin & Orchestra, Op. 25

Ravel: Tzigane

Enescu: Caprice Roumain for Violin & Orchestra

It says a lot about the re-evaluation and wider availability of George Enescu’s music that several musicians have turned to works that were left incomplete in preference to the ‘core’ repertoire of the sonatas, suites or symphonies. Think of Peter Ruzicka’s successful accounts of the Fourth and Fifth symphonies on cpo or Luiza Borac’s live recording of the Piano Concerto movement on Hanssler. Ruzicka and Borac have also recently joined forces to record Enescu’s Phantasie for piano and orchestra. This cpo release will be paired with another work from 1896, the incomplete Violin Concerto in A minor, featuring Carolin Widmann as the soloist.

The Caprice Roumain, completed by Cornel Ţăranu, is perhaps the closest thing to a full violin concerto by Enescu that exists. The recording issued by La Dolce Volta, live from 2015, is not violinist David Grimal’s first foray on disc with Enescu’s music. He made a decent recording of the third sonata for piano and violin with George Pludermacher (Ambroisie label, 2008). No doubt David Grimal and Les Dissonances have sought to release the recording now to coincide with their performance of the Caprice Roumain later this month at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest.

The booklet interview with David Grimal succinctly identifies several aspects of Enescu’s musical personality: the mix of influences (French and Romanian folk idioms) upon his compositional style – this, though, oversimplifies things as Enescu was a much more complex figure. Grimal also pinpoints the fact that detail and atmosphere need to be effectively balanced in any performance of Enescu’s music. So, what about the performance itself?

On the whole, Grimal makes a convincing case for the Caprice Roumain. His playing of the solo violin part is clean and committed, without resorting to a distracting metallic tone even in the highest reaches of the register. Les Dissonances plays with atmosphere, aided by the slightly resonant recording. Individual instrumental lines and textures such as cor anglais, oboe, horns and the piano penetrate through the string-dominant orchestration at telling moments. The only competitor on disc (also on Youtube) is the rarely available performance on the Romanian Electrecord label from Sherban Lupu, violin with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra under Cristian Mandeal’s baton. The recording is a touch dryer and the orchestral winds are more characterful. Lupu’s solo tone is fuller than Grimal’s – something I slightly missed on repeated listening. Mandeal drives the orchestra forward: his Tempo di Hora second movement leaps into life, whereas the slower tempo adopted by Les Dissonances is just a touch reticent. Perhaps that’s the key difference from performers who have spent years performing a wider Enescuvian repertoire.

Cristian Mandeal once told me he found the Caprice Roumain, “Interesting, but not entirely Enescu”. Listening to the new recording, I am aware of the orchestration’s rather one-dimensional character, with close string textures used throughout. Perhaps if Enescu had completed the orchestration a wider palette of orchestral colours might be in evidence. Anyone new to Enescu’s orchestral writing would do well to investigate the three mature symphonies, the suites or the opera Oedipe for a truer indication of Enescu’s gifts as an orchestrator.

La Dolce Volta preface Enescu’s Caprice Roumain with Chausson’s Poème and Ravel’s Tzigane. Both are works that Enescu played as a violinist and they illustrate the Gallic context that he absorbed on a daily basis, given that for much of his life he lived in Paris.

The recordings, from 2021, are studio-based rather than taken from concerts. Together, they face stiff competition as both works are widely available. Grimal and Les Dissonances sound fully at home with both works with performances that seduce the ear. The playing of soloist and ensemble has a lithe and subtle quality about it which suits both works. There are bigger boned performances of the Chausson and more overtly ‘folksy’ recordings of Ravel’ Tzigane available. To Grimal’s credit, he resists uncalled-for fussy fingerings or vibrato that muddies the tone, to the detriment of the melodic lines.

All said, this CD brings together the familiar with the all-but-unheard in engaging performances that are well recorded and presented. Despite a relatively short playing time of 53 minutes, this release is well worth investigating.

 4 Stars – release date: 10 September 2021. Reviewed from a promotional download.