Strauss: Concertante Works
Julie Price, bassoon; Tasmin Little, violin. Michael McHale, piano.
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Michael Collins, clarinet
Chandos 20034
Total Time:  76:53
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

For fans of Richard Strauss’ music, this new Chandos release will fill in a host of gaps of marginalia in the composer’s vast output.  The album pulls together four fairly rare works that will be unfamiliar to most listeners, apart from the Burleske for piano and orchestra which opens the album.  The other real draw here will be one of these last performances by violinist Tasmin Little of the violin concerto as the virtuoso plans to retire from performing.  All but one of these pieces comes from early in Strauss’ output.

Strauss’ Burleske (1885-86) is in the grand Romantic tradition and is like a mini-concerto of sorts.  Michael McHale tackles this piece well with gestures that sometimes feel more Rachmaninov-like in the opening bars.  The performance is overall quite good making for a strong opening to the album that can hold its own against others in the catalog.

The other three pieces though are going to be the more intriguing for Strauss fans.  The quite intimate Duett-Concertino, TRV 293 (1947) is a charming piece.  The clarinet and bassoon take on character-like dialogue with rather beautiful writing for both.  While there is no program, Strauss had a mild suggestion of a fairy (the clarinet) and a bear (the bassoon) that might have only been the germ of what would evolve into this little work.  Written toward the end of his life, the piece has a very conservative tonal palette.  The gestures are still quite like his other mature works, but they have been tamped down in a piece that spins along.  To see just how “old-fashioned” the piece is one need listen no further than the beautiful clarinet Romanze, TRV 80 (1879) which has a rather Mozartean quality.  It is from his earliest days of composition when he was still not quite writing music enraptured by Wagnerian harmony.

The more substantial Violin Concerto in d, TRV 110 (1881-82) was composed for his violin teacher, Benno Walter.  Walter would perform this in a piano reduction form to some appreciation and then in 1890 again in its orchestral version.  This too is a fairly convention work in the tradition of Brahms.  A traditional opening movement features some beautifully lyrical writing and a little rhythmic interest along the way.  The orchestral writing stays fairly traditional but is already quite competent.  There is a brief slow movement and a rondo finale.  For those who know the Strauss of the tone poems and grandiose symphonic chromaticism, this will seem almost anachronistic.  Fortunately, it has Tasmin Little to advocate for the piece giving it as fine a performance as one would hope.

This collection of conservative Romanticism from a composer known more for his expansive chromaticism and orchestral color will be a place to hear some of the ways this later style evolved.  For those who dislike that distinct Strauss style, this will be some pleasant and engaging Late-Romantic music that is firmly in line with other music of the 1870s and 1880s.

The performances here are all quite excellent.  Michael Collins finds gorgeous tone for the clarinet pieces where he is the soloist.  He also is on the podium to provide a larger continuity to the approach in all these works.  The BBC orchestra is in top form as well and captured in an excellent sonic picture with the violin being imaged a bit forward.

In Tandem: Solos & Duos
Vit Musik, violin. Petr Nouzovsky, cello;
Ondrej Jurceka, trumpet. Karel Martinek, organ;
Lucie Kaucka, piano; Sauro Berti, bass clarinet;
Christopher Morrison, flute. Stephanie Watt, piano.
Navona Records 6227
Total Time:  49:48
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Regular readers of Cinemusical are likely aware that this particular release has a personal connection.  In Tandem features music by five composers, and I am among that list.  I have debated not reviewing the album, but this seemed quite unfair to my colleague’s music which deserves your attention.  So, with that caveat in place, here is an overview of this collection of unique chamber pieces.

There are three single-movement works on the album.  Lee Actor’s Duo for Violin and Cello (1978) opens the release.  The piece received the Eva Thompson Phillips Award for composition.  The music has a more dissonant quality that opens with angular rhythmic ideas and tense harmonic writing.  The three-part structure features a decidedly more lyrical section which is a canon between the two instruments.  The piece concludes with a great flurry of energy.  Aria by Peter Greve is a fascinating exploration of timbre created by melding a slow-moving trumpet line against changing harmonies in the organ.  The result is a rather meditative work that serves as a perfect contrast to the opening work.  Sidney Bailin’s Blue Plea explores the range of the bass clarinet.  Using motivic connections in the piece, Bailin explores the instrument’s many expressive capabilities with some subtle references to Brahms; Clarinet Quintet and hints of jazz in the several riffs that appear in the music.  These ideas are taken through a number of variations that are revealed with repeated exploration.

The two multi-movement works are a violin sonata and a work for flute and piano.  The latter is Allen Brings’ Duo for Flute and Piano which is cast in three movements.  The opening has the quality of a Bach invention as the flute and piano lines seem to be moving in parallel musical universes until they begin to come together more at the end.  The central movement wavers between peace and more intense sections with the former attitude seeming to win out as the piano dissolves at the end.  The final movement continues to explore this back-and-forth interaction as it comes to an exciting conclusion.  At the center of the album is the four-movement Marian Sonata by Steven A. Kennedy (this reviewer!).  Each of the movements explores seasons of the Church year and merges specific Marian antiphons (for Advent, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost) with a French carol and specific hymns for the same seasons.  The opening movement features the most recognizable carol Il est ne le divin enfant.  It creates a more tonal focus with modern harmonic touches.  The second movement moves toward more dissonances with subtle references to Bach in the piano and a growing piled clusters that are created from the hymn melody, “O Sacred Head Now Wounded”.  A sense of growing excitement serves as the “scherzo” movement of the sonata before strange piano sounds hint at the breath of the spirit and celebratory nature of the finale.

The performances throughout the album are really excellent.