Reuben Blundell is an Australian-born conductor, whose mother played French horn in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. As a violinist, Blundell gained a place in the New World Symphony in Florida (under Tilson Thomas). He is now Music Director of several ensembles in New York and Philadelphia. One of these is the Gowns Arts Ensemble, a string orchestra, comprising ten musicians on this recording. The programme consists of a dozen short pieces for strings by American or American-based composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This was a time when Americans wrote in the European style, even if indigenous themes were used, as in the Omaha Indian Love Song and Chippewa Lullaby from Four North American Legends by Carl Busch (1914).  It is interesting to hear music by Horatio Parker, who was the composition teacher of Charles Ives – arguably the first true American original – as well as Roger Sessions and Quincy Porter. Parker’s Scherzo for Strings is a brisk minor-key waltz, reminiscent of the work of one of his own teachers, Dvorˇák. Other composers include Arthur Foote (Air and Gavotte), Frederick Converse (Serenade), and Paul Miersch, a German cellist who played in both the New York Symphony…

Elizabeth Joy Roe is an emerging artist snapped up by Decca. She has recorded the Britten and Barber Piano Concertos, but the repertoire on this, her second solo album, is even rarer. The Irish composer John Field (1782-1837) studied with Clementi, later traversing Europe as a concert pianist. Contemporary accounts mention Field’s lyrical, singing tone and poetic style. He is credited with inventing the nocturne: a short study expressing Romantic notions of the night. Impressed by Field’s Nocturnes, Chopin composed his own iconic set. Field’s Nocturnes fall into the pattern of a lyrical, thematic line, usually supported by flowing arpeggios or repeated patterns in the left hand. His early pieces recall Mozart’s slow movements (No 1 in E Flat), but later ones contain dramatic contrasts (No 10, Nocturne Pastorale). The thematic line is often treated to pianistic decoration, as in No 6, Cradle Song – possibly the precursor to Chopin’s Berceuse – and Liszt in his ‘consolation’ mood is anticipated in No 5 in B Flat. Field’s Nocturnes are not restricted to a particular time signature: most are in 3/4, but only one (No 8 in E Flat) sounds like a true waltz. No 16 in C Minor is the…

Franz Schubert’s late piano music has a deceptive simplicity about it: a surface naivety masking emotional depths. The surface purity and the Romantic soul need to be kept in balance; with Schubert it is always a question of less is more. That is why the most thoughtful and self-effacing of the great pianists – Alfred Brendel, for example – make such fine Schubertians. Geoffrey Saba, an Australian-born pianist resident in London, is one of this breed. He maintains the necessary equilibrium with skill and understanding. In the second Impromptu of D935, for instance, he transitions deftly between rippling semiquavers and the stately, somewhat melancholy chorale that closes the piece. In the following Impromptu, a theme and variations, he employs subtle rubato: enough to create a feeling of spontaneity that underlines the work’s title. Schubert could have called these four pieces a sonata, but he did not. The first of the Klavierstücke belongs to the same troubled world as Winterreise, and contains the seeds of desperation beneath a restless surface. Both works include passages of major-key frenzy that collapse into the minor. Saba judges such moments unerringly. I find the piano sound on this disc a trifle hollow. It lacks the warmth of Brendel’s Philips…

★★★★☆ Robertson and co. give Stravinsky’s subtle and delicate score an appropriate treatment.

David Matthews (b. 1943) and his composer brother Colin were protégés of Benjamin Britten. The string quartet medium is clearly one that appeals to David; he has written 12 so far. Although this is the third volume in the series, it actually contains the earliest: Quartets Nos 1-3 (composed between 1969 and 1978), plus a short Mirror Canon (1963) and a string quartet transcription of Scriabin’s Piano Prelude, Op. 74 No 4. TUnderstandably, the First shows some influence of Britten’s own quartet writing: there are passages containing wisps of thematic material hovering over sustained chords, often in high harmonics, and occasional musings from solo instruments. Along with that, however, are strong rhythmic passages and thick textures. Matthews’ primary influences of Tippett, Berg and, most notably, Beethoven were present from the start. The First, in five movements played without breaks, is densely packed with contrapuntal incident. The Second, more classically styled, was written while Matthews was in Australia staying with Peter Sculthorpe. The piece culminates in a moving elegy (am I wrong to hear Sculthorpe’s fingerprints in the syncopated ostinati of the second movement?). By comparison, the Third seems a more public statement. All three major works and the two fillers…

If the prospect of a whole disc of wind quintets by Antoine Reicha – whose biggest claim to fame was his friendship with Beethoven – hardly sets pulses racing then the actuality proves more enchanting. The Thalia Ensemble performs on period instruments – no valves on Hylke Rozema’s gamey natural horn – which lifts the soundworld of Reicha’s music out from that rather antiseptic sheen I associate  (unfairly perhaps) with modern instrument wind quintets. Each of Reicha’s 24 wind quintets conforms to the standard four-movement mould as handed down from Haydn and Mozart, and revolutionised by his friend Ludvig van B. Of the two quintets on offer here, the earlier G Major Quintet, Op. 88 embeds the sound of surprise into its form most effectively. Harmonic tricks of the light and rarefied timbres are deployed to spice up the formula. Reicha’s Lento prologue stumbles into existence: a questioning opening chord catches the clarinettist mid-phrase before the music slithers chromatically towards the Allegro main event. Reicha was a flautist and his flute writing is correspondingly athletic, defined by “here’s me”. But my ear was as captivated by his bassoon parts, which dramatically break free from the ensemble, gurgling and turning like water…

The further removed we are from the era of the American iconoclast Charles Ives (1874-1954), the stranger his music sounds.

Australia’s Seraphim Trio contrasts early Beethoven – the genial G Major Trio – with the later Ghost Sonata (No 5), so named because of the eerily troubled scene conjured up in its central movement. No 4, is sometimes known as Gassenhauer after the popular tune by Joseph Weigl that forms the basis of Beethoven’s variations in the finale. The Seraphim captures the light-heartedness of the early trio with style. Goldsworthy’s delicate piano figuration in the final movement is delightful, and all three musicians display subtle shading throughout, not least in the darker slow movement. In the Op. 70, Nankervis’s cello is eloquent in bringing out a strain of melancholy in the ‘ghostly’ movement, but it is pointless to single out individual performers because unanimity of vision is the Seraphim’s strength. How well they judge the arpeggio passage just before this movement’s close. The robust variations in Op. 11 are lots of fun, and I hear the subtlest sense of ‘heart on sleeve’ in the preceding lyrical Adagio movement. These musicians are clearly enjoying themselves in this lighter side of Beethoven. By comparison, Trio Wanderer on Harmonia Mundi takes a more straightforward approach. Their performances do not remind us (as the…

Sokolov is a cult favourite, not only because his conception of any music he plays is unflinchingly personal but also because of his tremendous concentration. Every note is coloured and weighted; each phrase meticulously judged. He refuses to record in the studio, but Deutsche Grammophon has secured a contract to release his live concert performances. This is the second release, taken from recitals in Warsaw and Salzburg in 2013; the previous disc won Limelight’s 2015 Recording of the Year.    Sokolov’s typically uncompromising programme includes Beethoven’s Sonata No 29, Op. 106, the Hammerklavier. I was surprised how delicately he plays the first two movements: his dry, detached staccatos are lightly etched, as if to remind us that we are still in the Classical period. The Adagio sostenuto is one of the great inward meditations of late Beethoven, and here it feels as if time had stopped. Sokolov ruminates for 21’28”. By comparison, Paul Lewis plays it in 18’31”, and Gulda in 15’44”. This communing over every single note requires deep concentration from the listener as well as the performer – easier in a concert hall than at home. While Sokolov’s single-mindedness never falters, his is not your everyday Hammerklavier.  Late…

Once, recordings of Ravel’s output for solo piano were rare. Now many young pianists have joined the fray.

Yuja Wang’s ability to colour her playing at speed is like nothing we’ve heard since Martha Argerich

Editor’s Choice, Jan/Feb 2016 – Instrumental It has been clear for some time that Lang Lang has grown into a sensitive, thoughtful musician. He was always an excellent technician and a marketing department’s dream: reading the blurb accompanying this release you might assume that no pianist ever recorded anything in Paris before. My research suggests otherwise. With his huge Chinese fan base, Lang Lang is the most well-known classical pianist on earth. Some condemn him for sticking to a narrow Romantic repertoire when he could be commissioning new work or rediscovering forgotten masterpieces. Certainly, while Chopin’s Scherzi are not easy to play, they are nothing compared to the challenges a pianist like Marc-André Hamelin routinely sets for himself. However, in his own way Lang Lang is pushing the envelope. He recently recorded Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto – much less user-friendly than the Third – and here he plays Tchaikovsky’s relatively rare set of 12 pieces, one for each month of the year, misleadingly titled The Seasons.  Appropriately, Chopin provides the stylistic model for Tchaikovsky’s piano writing, with its limpid melodies and touch of melancholy. Lang Lang allows his expressive palette full rein, whether it be in the relentless rhythmic patterns…