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RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR Early Music ‘Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, Vol 5’ Anonymous Missa sine nomine Mason Ve nobis miseris Hunt Ave Maria mater dei Sturmy Exultet in hac die Blue Heron / Scott Metcalfe Blue Heron F BHCD1007 (10/17) Producers Eric Milnes & Brad Milnes Engineer Joel Gordon Has a Gramophone Award ever gone to a recording whose centrepiece is a largescale work by an anonymous composer, or on which vanishingly little is known of the named figures? It wouldn’t be the only one of this recording’s ‘firsts’: never before has the Early Music Award gone to an American ensemble. Reviewing it last year I predicted that I wouldn’t be alone in thinking this ‘one of the discoveries of the year’, and so it has proved. Emerging from an outstanding shortlist, this is an exceptionally confident recording in the service of equally confident music. The programme consists entirely of music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, much of which was unperformable until recently and therefore the preserve of specialists; but the repertory was that of pre-Reformation Canterbury Cathedral, so its pedigree could hardly be more distinguished. Nonetheless, it’s a token of Blue Heron’s achievement and the artistic vision of its Director, Scott Metcalfe, that such unheralded music should shine so brightly. The all-vocal programme gives space to the singers individually, but, just as in the best chamber music, the ensemble is more than the sum of its parts. Another prediction: those who’ve not heard Blue Heron before are in for a surprise. Fabrice Fitch Chamber Dvořák Piano Quintet No 2, Op 81. String Quintet, Op 97 Pavel Haas Quartet (Veronika Jarůšková, Marek Zwiebel vns Jiří Kabát va Peter Jarůšek vc) with Boris Giltburg pf Pavel Nikl va Supraphon F SU4195-2 (11/17) Producer Jiři Gemrot Engineer Karel Soueník Sponsored by This was always going to be special – the Pavel Haas Quartet in home territory, both musically and literally – playing Dvo∑ák, recorded in Prague’s Rudolfinum. So let’s just pause and look at the stats for a moment: of their seven recordings, four have already won Gramophone Chamber Awards, with their previous Dvo∑ák disc winning Recording of the Year back in 2011. That track record is no fluke – they have the creaminess and warmth of the Czech string-playing tradition at its finest, plus an absolute engagement with everything they do; they possess the music, making it absolutely personal, but without gimmickry. This recording is particularly outstanding, not just because here are two of the supreme masterpieces in the entire chamber repertoire, but because of whom they’ve chosen as partners. In the String Quintet, Op 97 they’re joined by the founder viola player of the Pavel Haas Quartet, Pavel Nikl, who blends beautifully while remaining full of character. And for the Piano Quintet, Op 81 the honours go to the pianist Boris Giltburg, who is completely attuned to the PHQ’s way of doing things – just listen to their account of the Furiant third movement, one of the most uplifting and thrilling ever set down on record. Harriet Smith 32 GRAMOPHONE RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR 2018 Click on a CD cover to buy/stream from gramophone.co.uk
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Orchestral Ravel Daphnis et Chloé Ensemble Aedes; Les Siècles / François-Xavier Roth Harmonia Mundi F HMM90 5280 (6/17) Producer Jiří Heger Engineers Alix Ewald & Bergame Periaux RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR Sponsored by I’m delighted my fellow critics adored this recording of Daphnis et Chloé as much as I did. I’ve long been an admirer of Les Siècles, the orchestra formed by François-Xavier Roth in 2003, and have been intrigued by their period-instrument explorations into the early 20th century. The orchestra’s debut on the Harmonia Mundi label was taken from concerts in seven venues, closely miked and miraculously stitched together on this outstanding recording. Perhaps the great conductors of Ravel’s symphonie choréographique such as Pierre Monteux and Ernest Ansermet would have recognised the characteristic ‘French’ sound from their youths (Monteux conducted the 1912 premiere). The French-built period woodwind and brass offer greater tonal sweetness than modern instruments, especially the Selmer trumpets, but this isn’t just a recording to appreciate from some sort of ‘worthy’ HIP perspective – it’s a tremendous performance all by itself. From the shimmering haze of the Introduction, there’s an excitement, a sense of anticipation which tempts you to lay your critical faculties aside and just wallow in a glorious account. From a pulsating ‘Danse guerrière’ through the rippling sunrise to the gossamer beauty of Marion Ralincourt’s flute solo in the Pantomime, this is a recording to treasure. Mark Pullinger Instrumental Brahms: Piano Pieces, Opp 76, 117 & 118 Arcadi Volodos pf Sony Classical F 88875 13019-2 (6/17) Producers Friedemann Engelbrecht & Julian Schwenkner Engineers Wolfgang Schiefermair & Tom Russbült There’s no shortage of very fine accounts of Brahms’s sublime late piano music. And there are better filled ones too – Arcadi Volodos doesn’t even give us the complete Op 76, performing just four out of the eight pieces. But that is utterly irrelevant, for here is a pianist who makes a more beautiful sound than any other on the planet (a quality you can fully appreciate thanks to Sony’s fine engineering). And no, that’s not hyperbole – this is pianism entirely without hard edges, even in the driven opening number of Op 76, allied to the subtlest range of tone colours. Volodos inhabits Brahms’s private world with such ardency that it’s impossible to think of this music going any other way. What might, in a lesser artist, be a dangerously slow tempo (such as the inner section of Op 117 No 1) is here so richly drawn that it’s as if we’re hearing these pieces clearly for the first time. There’s a luxuriance to the voicings too, particularly in Brahms’s favourite alto and tenor registers. Volodos doesn’t make recordings lightly – it’s four years since his Mompou recital (another Gramophone Award-winner) but this is as fine as anything he has ever done. Harriet Smith gramophone.co.uk Click on a CD cover to buy/stream from GRAMOPHONE RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR 2018 33

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RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR

Early Music

‘Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, Vol 5’ Anonymous Missa sine nomine Mason Ve nobis miseris Hunt Ave Maria mater dei Sturmy Exultet in hac die Blue Heron / Scott Metcalfe Blue Heron F BHCD1007 (10/17) Producers Eric Milnes & Brad Milnes Engineer Joel Gordon

Has a Gramophone Award ever gone to a recording whose centrepiece is a largescale work by an anonymous composer, or on which vanishingly little is known of the named figures? It wouldn’t be the only one of this recording’s ‘firsts’: never before has the Early Music Award gone to an American ensemble.

Reviewing it last year I predicted that I wouldn’t be alone in thinking this ‘one of the discoveries of the year’, and so it has proved. Emerging from an outstanding shortlist, this is an exceptionally confident recording in the service of equally confident music.

The programme consists entirely of music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, much of which was unperformable until recently and therefore the preserve of specialists; but the repertory was that of pre-Reformation Canterbury Cathedral, so its pedigree could hardly be more distinguished. Nonetheless, it’s a token of Blue Heron’s achievement and the artistic vision of its Director, Scott Metcalfe, that such unheralded music should shine so brightly. The all-vocal programme gives space to the singers individually, but, just as in the best chamber music, the ensemble is more than the sum of its parts. Another prediction: those who’ve not heard Blue Heron before are in for a surprise. Fabrice Fitch

Chamber

Dvořák Piano Quintet No 2, Op 81. String Quintet, Op 97 Pavel Haas Quartet (Veronika Jarůšková, Marek Zwiebel vns Jiří Kabát va Peter Jarůšek vc) with Boris Giltburg pf Pavel Nikl va Supraphon F SU4195-2 (11/17) Producer Jiři Gemrot Engineer Karel Soueník

Sponsored by

This was always going to be special – the Pavel Haas Quartet in home territory, both musically and literally – playing Dvo∑ák, recorded in Prague’s Rudolfinum. So let’s just pause and look at the stats for a moment: of their seven recordings, four have already won Gramophone Chamber Awards, with their previous Dvo∑ák disc winning Recording of the Year back in 2011. That track record is no fluke – they have the creaminess and warmth of the Czech string-playing tradition at its finest, plus an absolute engagement with everything they do; they possess the music, making it absolutely personal, but without gimmickry.

This recording is particularly outstanding, not just because here are two of the supreme masterpieces in the entire chamber repertoire, but because of whom they’ve chosen as partners. In the String Quintet, Op 97 they’re joined by the founder viola player of the Pavel Haas Quartet, Pavel Nikl, who blends beautifully while remaining full of character. And for the Piano Quintet, Op 81 the honours go to the pianist Boris Giltburg, who is completely attuned to the PHQ’s way of doing things – just listen to their account of the Furiant third movement, one of the most uplifting and thrilling ever set down on record. Harriet Smith

32 GRAMOPHONE RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR 2018

Click on a CD cover to buy/stream from gramophone.co.uk

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