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RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR warned: attracted or repelled, Beethoven may well have the last word. He advocated Gehfühlstempo, the tempo of feeling. Thus it is that kaleidoscopic distinctions are never underestimated. Neither is attention to detail. Repeats are observed, some decorated. Reactions to emotional currents governing the expansion and contraction of phrases are unflinchingly dramatic. The pliant line is always present, introspectively so in the slow movement of Op 102 No 2, Adagio con molto sentimento d’affetto, for Anton Schindler ‘among the richest and most deeply sensitive inspirations of Beethoven’s muse’, its third section (from 6’21”) a whispered exchange between the musicians. In contrast is the Scherzo of Op 69 – with a difference, not new to disc but now far more resolutely proffered. The second of two similar notes tied across bar-lines isn’t silent, for, according to Czerny, Beethoven wanted it to resound like a vibrato. Levin varies his choice of pairs, Isserlis does not; and his repetitions are like echoes feverishly urging the music onwards. Theirs is a shared experience of audacity and spirituality. Small changes in recorded levels plus a few sniffs are insignificant. They don’t detract from the riches born of scant regard for the superficiality of toeing conventional lines or selecting safe options, shared with listeners in even the less mighty works, the variations and Horn Sonata. This is Beethoven fleshed out by Levin and Isserlis – and anodyne he ain’t here. February Editor’s Choices CORELLI Concerti grossi, Op 6 Gli Incogniti / Amandine Beyer vn Zig-Zag Territoires M b ZZT327 ‘The violins and cello sparkle with conversational animation in quick music and slow movements are always enriched by immaculately balanced suspensions.’ LIGETI Orchestral Works Benjamin Schmid vn Finnish RSO / Hannu Lintu Ondine F ODE1213-2 ‘Lintu unexpectedly drops us as though from a terrifying height directly inside the scorched-earth roasting magma of Ligeti’s orchestra.’ PROKOFIEV. RACHMANINOV Piano Concertos Yuja Wang pf Simón Bolívar SO / Gustavo Dudamel DG F 479 1304GH ‘Making her virtuoso credentials clear throughout, Wang dismisses every difficulty with nonchalant ease.’ CPE BACH ‘Württemberg’ Sonatas Mahan Esfahani hpd Hyperion F CDA67995 ‘The “Baroque” rhetoric and “proto-Classical” Sturm und Drang offered by the instrument are caught perfectly by Esfahani’s supple touch and disarming sense of rhetorical pacing.’ BEETHOVEN ‘Piano Sonatas, Vol 2’ Jean-Efflam Bavouzet pf Chandos M c CHAN10798 ‘His freshness and directness are delightful, the virtuosity often breathtaking, but his control is as much musical as technical.’ BEETHOVEN Missa solemnis Sols; Monteverdi Choir; ORR / Sir John Eliot Gardiner SDG F SDG718 ‘Such is the visceral intensity of the musicmaking, a certain girding of the loins may be required before a second hearing.’ P E R R Y I M O N : S P H O T O G R A P H Y Steven Isserlis listens to playbacks 8 GRAMOPHONE RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR 2014 SCHUMANN. REIMANN Lieder Wolfgang Holzmair bar Imogen Cooper pf Wigmore Hall Live M WHLIVE0063 ‘A recital that brings together two artists who are in complete harmony with the repertoire and with one another.’ HANDEL Orlando Soloists; Pacific Baroque Orchestra / Alexander Weimann ATMA Classique M c ACD2 2678 ‘Alexander Weimann’s pacing of the action, choice of tempi and shaping of orchestral ritornellos are frequently marvellous.’ Click on a CD cover to buy/stream from ‘CHE PURO CIEL’ Opera Arias Bejun Mehta counterten Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin / René Jacobs Harmonia Mundi F HMC90 2172 ‘The most enjoyable, intelligently planned countertenor recital to have come my way in years.’ gramophone.co.uk
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March RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR ‘Throughout, Bavouzet displays a firm grasp of the very different personalities of each piece’ Rob Cowan enjoys a superb Prokofiev piano concerto cycle from Jean-Efflam Bavouzet Prokofiev Complete Piano Concertos Jean-Efflam Bavouzet pf BBC Philharmonic Orchestra / Gianandrea Noseda Chandos M b CHAN10802 (122’ • DDD) You could say, with some justification, that many pianists who excel in Haydn also excel in Prokofiev, where similar qualities pertain – above all wit, intelligence, a keen sense of rhythm and an understanding of the composer’s often audacious muse. Think of Richter, Argerich, Horowitz, Gilels, Browning, even Alfred Brendel, who made a very early recording of Prokofiev’s Fifth Piano Concerto. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s superb cycle of the concertos with the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda promotes a combination of lyricism and chutzpah that lies at the very heart of these endlessly fascinating works, Prokofiev constantly renewing himself, invariably building on foundation blocks that he’d laid in the previous concerto. Their reading of the gnomic First Concerto flanks a warmly felt Andante (featuring especially tender string-playing) with extrovert high spirits, helped in this context by a recording that does full justice to Prokofiev’s high percussion-writing. The Second Concerto is a brute of a piece with a massive firstmovement cadenza that Bavouzet drifts into almost without our noticing, striding across one vast tundra after another before brass and timps boldly emerge with news that he’s at last reached the other side. No Romantic concerto harbours more gruelling technical demands or a potentially richer pay-off as a result of them, and Bavouzet is on magnificent form. The brief moto perpetuo Scherzo clears the air before the big guns re-emerge fee-fi-fo-fum style with the Intermezzo, though I would have preferred a broader, more imposing tempo at the outset (ie Vladimir Krainev and Dmitri Kitaenko in Frankfurt on Teldec or Moscow on Eurodisc). The variegated finale, almost a concerto itself with a more contemplative centre, rounds off an exceptional performance. I have fond memories of hearing Ashkenazy live in this work (his Decca recording is still a viable contender) but Bavouzet comfortably holds his own, even with a roll-call of CD rivals that includes, in addition to Ashkenazy and Krainev, Viktoria Postnikova (Teldec) and John Browning (RCA). The Third Concerto, easily the cycle’s most popular instalment, maintains these high standards without flinching, from the mostly energised first movement, through the gramophone.co.uk Click on a CD cover to buy/stream from beautifully gauged variations of the second (note Bavouzet’s smoothly articulated first entry and Noseda’s unusually thoughtful handling of the coda from 8’26”) to a finale that opens as a strutting gavotte, crisp as ice under Bavouzet’s hands, and ends as a riot of excited sound. Here Prokofiev happily plays to the gallery but keeps a dozen or so meaningful tricks up his sleeve, the unexpectedly romantic detour at the heart of the finale being one. Bavouzet’s way with the Third is chipper and cool, while Noseda and his players are mindful of an orchestral score that is both supportive of the soloist and characteristically colourful in its own right. The Fourth (left-hand) and Fifth Concertos are notable for their burlesque use of the bass drum, vividly captured by the Chandos engineers. Both works push the originality factor a notch or two higher, the Fourth carefree and nimble, with a finale that condenses the first movement’s essentials from ‘medium size’ to ‘miniature’ (in this context from 4’26” to 1’35”) and a third movement that recalls the gangland-style sense of menace that fills the Second Concerto’s Intermezzo. Bavouzet and Noseda capture the strangeness of this piece (only Serkin and Ormandy on Sony dig a little deeper), bringing the desolate world of the wonderful GRAMOPHONE RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR 2014 9

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March

RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR

‘Throughout, Bavouzet displays a firm grasp of the very different personalities of each piece’

Rob Cowan enjoys a superb Prokofiev piano concerto cycle from Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

Prokofiev Complete Piano Concertos Jean-Efflam Bavouzet pf BBC Philharmonic Orchestra / Gianandrea Noseda Chandos M b CHAN10802 (122’ • DDD)

You could say, with some justification, that many pianists who excel in Haydn also excel in Prokofiev, where similar qualities pertain – above all wit, intelligence, a keen sense of rhythm and an understanding of the composer’s often audacious muse. Think of Richter, Argerich, Horowitz, Gilels, Browning, even Alfred Brendel, who made a very early recording of Prokofiev’s Fifth Piano Concerto.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s superb cycle of the concertos with the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda promotes a combination of lyricism and chutzpah that lies at the very heart of these endlessly fascinating works, Prokofiev constantly renewing himself, invariably building on foundation blocks that he’d laid in the previous concerto. Their reading of the gnomic First Concerto flanks a warmly felt Andante (featuring especially tender string-playing) with extrovert high spirits, helped in this context by a recording that does full justice to Prokofiev’s high percussion-writing. The Second Concerto is a brute of a piece with a massive firstmovement cadenza that Bavouzet drifts into almost without our noticing, striding across one vast tundra after another before brass and timps boldly emerge with news that he’s at last reached the other side. No Romantic concerto harbours more gruelling technical demands or a potentially richer pay-off as a result of them, and Bavouzet is on magnificent form. The brief moto perpetuo Scherzo clears the air before the big guns re-emerge fee-fi-fo-fum style with the Intermezzo, though I would have preferred a broader, more imposing tempo at the outset (ie Vladimir Krainev and Dmitri Kitaenko in Frankfurt on Teldec or Moscow on Eurodisc). The variegated finale, almost a concerto itself with a more contemplative centre, rounds off an exceptional performance. I have fond memories of hearing Ashkenazy live in this work (his Decca recording is still a viable contender) but Bavouzet comfortably holds his own, even with a roll-call of CD rivals that includes, in addition to Ashkenazy and Krainev, Viktoria Postnikova (Teldec) and John Browning (RCA).

The Third Concerto, easily the cycle’s most popular instalment, maintains these high standards without flinching, from the mostly energised first movement, through the gramophone.co.uk

Click on a CD cover to buy/stream from beautifully gauged variations of the second (note Bavouzet’s smoothly articulated first entry and Noseda’s unusually thoughtful handling of the coda from 8’26”) to a finale that opens as a strutting gavotte, crisp as ice under Bavouzet’s hands, and ends as a riot of excited sound. Here Prokofiev happily plays to the gallery but keeps a dozen or so meaningful tricks up his sleeve, the unexpectedly romantic detour at the heart of the finale being one. Bavouzet’s way with the Third is chipper and cool, while Noseda and his players are mindful of an orchestral score that is both supportive of the soloist and characteristically colourful in its own right.

The Fourth (left-hand) and Fifth Concertos are notable for their burlesque use of the bass drum, vividly captured by the Chandos engineers. Both works push the originality factor a notch or two higher, the Fourth carefree and nimble, with a finale that condenses the first movement’s essentials from ‘medium size’ to ‘miniature’ (in this context from 4’26” to 1’35”) and a third movement that recalls the gangland-style sense of menace that fills the Second Concerto’s Intermezzo. Bavouzet and Noseda capture the strangeness of this piece (only Serkin and Ormandy on Sony dig a little deeper), bringing the desolate world of the wonderful

GRAMOPHONE RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR 2014 9

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