Ottawa Citizen, Canada
Dec 27 2008
Fasten your seatbelt for this musical ride
Richard Todd, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Saturday, December 27, 2008
1. Beethoven: Complete Symphonies, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Charles Mackerras, conductor (Hyperion): This is the most intimate and exciting account available of the Beethoven symphonies. The tempos are based upon the composer’s metronome markings, so fasten your seatbelt.
2. Gomidas Songs, Isabel Bayrakdarian, soprano (Nonsuch): Armenian-born superstar Isabel Bayrakdarian ravishes the ear with music by Gomidas, a priest and ethnomusicologist active in the years before the First World War.
3. Oppens Plays Carter, Ursula Oppens, piano (Cedille): This CD includes all of the piano music of Elliot Carter, who is 100 this month and has yet to put his pen down. Most of it was written in the last 10 years. Oppens is a most sympathetic interpreter.
4. Brahms: Symphony no. 1, Orchestre Révolutionaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner, conductor (Soli Deo Gratia): This period instrument recording will appeal to just about every Brahms lover. The textures are a bit leaner than what we’re used to, allowing for a clarity that Gardiner exploits to the fullest.
5. Beethoven: Symphonies 7 & 8, Tafelmusik (Analekta): Aside from a slightly bangy first movement in the Eighth, these interpretations are magisterial. The famous Allegretto from the Seventh is so beautiful that it would be worth the price of the disc all by itself.
6. Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, etc., Les Violns du Roy (ATMA): Les Violons du Roy chamber orchestra is best known for its performances and recordings of Baroque music. Recently, however, it has been exploring more modern repertoire, like this collection of Bartók, played with great nuance and transparency.
7. Fantasies and Variations, Cynthia Millman Floyd, fortepiano (Floyd): This is a good a demonstration of how well the fortepiano, the period instrument of the late 18th century, suites the music of that era. Compared to the modern piano, the light timbre and clarity of the instrument provide different interpretive opportunities.
8. Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem, Philippe Herreweghe, conductor (Harmonia Mundi): Along with the very different Verdi Requiem, this work stands at the summit of 19th-century choral music. Among the soloists is Canadian baritone Gerald Finley, whose Herr, lehre doch mich is probably the finest rendition of that grave aria available.
9. Bach and the Liturgical Year, Shannon Mercer, soprano (Analekta): Soprano Shannon Mercer has what it takes to perform Bach arias. Organist Luc Beauséjour is her principal accompanist and he also plays several chorales, fugues and the like most convincingly.
10. Shostakovich: String Quartets, vol. 3 — Manderling SQ (Audite): Does the world need this set from the Manderlings? Possibly not but, on the basis of the three quartets on this disc (5, 7 and 9), these musicians are indeed to be taken seriously.