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GRAMOPHONE AWARDS SHORTLIST 2019 Chamber Award sponsored by Britten . Purcell Britten String Quartets – No 1, Op 25; No 2, Op 36; No 3, Op 94. Three Divertimenti Purcell Fantasias in Four Parts – Z737; Z738; Z739; Z740; Z741 Doric Quartet Chandos F (two discs for the price of one) CHAN20124 (112’ • DDD) The Doric Quartet’s beautiful Britten cycle was recorded in tandem with a series of concerts, greatly admired, in Snape Maltings last October. They describe it themselves as a ‘milestone’ since their formation in 1998, and in some ways it can be seen as the culmination of a long association both with Britten’s music and with Suffolk itself. They were formed at Pro Corda, the school for chamber musicians at Leiston, not far from Aldeburgh, and the Suffolk landscape, they tell us, has long been in their minds and imaginations when studying Britten’s scores. Hélène Clément, meanwhile, the Doric’s viola player, plays the composer’s own instrument, previously owned by Frank Bridge, who made a present of it to Britten when he left for the US in 1939. The set also, however, reflects upon the indelible imprint left by Purcell’s music on Britten’s work, which is sometimes taken as read, though the juxtaposition here is effective and telling. The Second Quartet was famously written to mark the 250th anniversary of Purcell’s birth, while the great closing Passacaglia of the Third was Britten’s last deployment of a form he took from his predecessor and made his own. Moreover, hearing the Purcell Fantasias, particularly Nos 8 and 9 (Z739 and 740) in D minor and A minor respectively, in proximity to the First Quartet is to be reminded of their closeness in mood to the patterns of introspection and energy that give the First both its structural integrity and its nostalgic tone, particularly in its long, finely wrought slow movement. The performances are all superbly judged and controlled, balancing fragility with strength, restraint with great depth of feeling. The opening of the First, with its high, ethereal phrases offset by worldly, guitar-like cello twangs, is rich with ambiguities, while the Andante calmo, its long violin solo played with exquisite poise by Alex Redington, grieves quietly for the war-torn England Britten left behind during his American sojourn. In the Second, the Doric offset formal logic with deep emotional resonance, sweeping us through the ceremonies and wonders of the final Chacony with great refinement and dignity before we reach the final moments of assertion and grandeur. The Third, haunted by thoughts of imminent mortality, bids farewell to life and love with quiet dignity and gazes towards infinity as time ticks away towards the close: it’s wonderfully done, and you can’t help but be moved by it. The early Divertimenti, played with considerable wit and elegance, provide some much-needed contrast to the intensity of it all, while the counterpoint of Purcell’s Fantasias is finely realised in performances of considerable weight and finesse. Comparisons here are perhaps invidious. I have great fondness for the Amadeus Quartet’s slightly more spacious way with the Second in their 1977 performance (Testament DVD, 2/06), and if you like a more overtly dramatic approach to this repertory, then you may prefer the Belcea Quartet’s fractionally more extrovert interpretations (EMI, 7/05). But this is a major cycle, engaging and profound in equal measure, and you need to hear it. Tim Ashley (5/19) Debussy ‘Les trois sonates – The Late Works’ Violin Sonataa. Cello Sonatab. Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harpc. Berceuse héroïqued. Élégied. Page d’albumd. Les soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du charbond c Magali Mosnier fl aIsabelle Faust vn cAntoine Tamestit va cXavier de Maistre hp bJean-Guihen Queyras vc aAlexander Melnikov, bJavier Perianes, d Tanguy de Williencourt pf Harmonia Mundi F HMM90 2303 (54’ • DDD) Described as ‘testamentary’ on its back cover, the latest release in Harmonia Mundi’s Debussy anniversary series is perhaps more an act of commemorative reflection than an overt celebration of his genius. It gathers together, by no means for the first time on disc, the three sonatas, written between 1915 and 1917 as the First World War destroyed Debussy’s world and cancer slowly ravaged his body. They’re framed and separated here, however, by his four last, rarely heard piano pieces, all of them ostensibly pièces d’occasion, though they’re linked by a deep, sometimes despairing sadness that reveals much about the anguish of his final years. Three of them formed his contribution to the war effort. The sombre Berceuse héroïque was commissioned, along with pieces by Saint-Saëns, Mascagni and Elgar, by the Daily Telegraph for inclusion in a volume entitled King Albert’s Book, published in support of the beleaguered monarchy of occupied Belgium. The manuscript of Élégie pour piano was intended to be sold to raise money for war relief, while Page d’album was written for performance at a charity concert for ‘Vêtement du blessé’ (‘Clothes for the wounded’), for which his wife worked as a volunteer. The saddest of the four is Les soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du charbon, Debussy’s last work for piano, written during the bitter winter of 1916‑17 as a gift to his coal supplier, one M Tronquin, in the hope that the latter would furnish him with enough fuel to keep warm. Juxtaposed with the sonatas, they throw into relief the ambiguities of the latter, with their mixture of retrospection, fantasy and innovation. The Sonata for flute, viola and harp sounds more than ever like a final, nostalgic evocation of the worlds of Faune and Bilitis here: the performance is relaxed, fractionally too much so in the first movement, perhaps, but it tingles with sensuousness and the shifts in colour are all beautifully realised. Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov’s account of the Violin Sonata, Debussy’s last completed score, embraces exquisite fragility and strength in equal measure, the finale gathering itself for one last moment of assertion at the end. JeanGuihen Queyras and Javier Perianes’s performance of the Cello Sonata, noble in manner and grand in scale, balances the 4 GRAMOPHONE SHORTLIST 2019 gramophone.co.ukgramophone.co.uk
page 5
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS SHORTLIST 2019 I B E R T A Z Z I A I O R G G : P H O T O G R A P H Y Lars Vogt, Tanja Tetzlaff and Christian Tetzlaff display virtuosity that is entirely at the service of Dvořák’s music austere grief of the opening movement with understated wit in the Sérénade and nervous energy in the finale. Tanguy de Williencourt, meanwhile, binds the disc together with the four piano pieces, played with admirable restraint and quiet, if unsparing intensity. Listen to it in a single sitting, and in the right playing order: it’s extraordinarily moving. Tim Ashley (11/18) Dvořák Piano Trios – No 3, Op 65 B130; No 4, ‘Dumky’, Op 90 B166 Christian Tetzlaff vn Tanja Tetzlaff vc Lars Vogt pf Ondine F ODE1316-2 (73’ • DDD) With some discs, the very first notes tell you to expect something special. Christian and Tanja Tetzlaff sing softly together in the quietness at the start of Dvo∑ák’s noble F minor Piano Trio (No 3) – cello and violin in equipoise, and proving with the very first dotted rhythm that they think and feel together too. Enter Lars Vogt on piano, and in that first surge he supports and carries his colleagues upwards: establishing, in barely eight bars of music, both the intimacy and assurance of these players’ partnership, and the magnificent sweep and expressive scope of what is to come. I’m no fan of ‘all star’ chamber music projects but the virtuosity here is entirely at the service of the music, capturing the full symphonic grandeur of Dvo∑ák’s vision without ever sounding like anyone is playing for effect. It’s always chamber music, and it’s helped by Ondine’s lifelike acoustic, against which the focus and refinement of the Tetzlaffs’ palette is never at any risk from Vogt’s expressive generosity (in the booklet note, he compares the Trio of the second movement to Rachmaninov – and he certainly delivers). Grandiose when they need to be, the trio find moment after treasurable moment of subtly shaded tone colour (even Christian’s pizzicatos sound tender) – and you can imagine how that translates into the kaleidoscopic folk-fantasy of the Dumky. Staccato piano chimes its way over fading cello drones; melting violin lines float over translucent keyboard textures; the transitions are delicious; and of course, when the dances really start to fly, these players commit absolutely, without any loss of finesse. This disc sounds, and feels, like a recording born of love, and I urge you to listen. Richard Bratby (12/18) Franck . Vierne . Boulanger . Ysaÿe Boulanger Nocturne Franck Violin Sonata Vierne Violin Sonata, Op 23 Ysaÿe Poème élégiaque, Op 12 Alina Ibragimova vn Cédric Tiberghien pf Hyperion F CDA68204 (78’ • DDD) While we’re not short of top-drawer recordings of Franck’s Violin Sonata, I’m still not sure whether I’ve ever encountered it sitting within such a musically and musicologically tempting programme as this one from Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien. Not, I might add, that the Franck Sonata should necessarily be seen as the main event here, despite its fame. Au contraire, one of the chief draws is the way it sits in equal balance within the whole, each work informing and being informed by its neighbours. To deal first with the programming, all paths (or almost all paths) lead back to the great French violinist Eugène Ysaÿe: his Poème élégiaque of 1892, based on the tomb scene of Romeo and Juliet, followed by the Franck Sonata, which was a wedding present to him in 1886, and the 1908 Violin Sonata he commissioned from Franck’s fellow organist-composer Louis Vierne. Then a final petit four in the form of Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne, written only three years after the Vierne but ushering in a new era with its slightly leaner aesthetic and its final gramophone.co.uk gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE SHORTLIST 2019 5

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GRAMOPHONE AWARDS SHORTLIST 2019

Chamber

Award sponsored by

Britten . Purcell Britten String Quartets – No 1, Op 25; No 2, Op 36; No 3, Op 94. Three Divertimenti Purcell Fantasias in Four Parts – Z737; Z738; Z739; Z740; Z741 Doric Quartet Chandos F (two discs for the price of one) CHAN20124 (112’ • DDD)

The Doric Quartet’s beautiful Britten cycle was recorded in tandem with a series of concerts, greatly admired, in Snape Maltings last October. They describe it themselves as a ‘milestone’ since their formation in 1998, and in some ways it can be seen as the culmination of a long association both with Britten’s music and with Suffolk itself. They were formed at Pro Corda, the school for chamber musicians at Leiston, not far from Aldeburgh, and the Suffolk landscape, they tell us, has long been in their minds and imaginations when studying Britten’s scores. Hélène Clément, meanwhile, the Doric’s viola player, plays the composer’s own instrument, previously owned by Frank Bridge, who made a present of it to Britten when he left for the US in 1939.

The set also, however, reflects upon the indelible imprint left by Purcell’s music on Britten’s work, which is sometimes taken as read, though the juxtaposition here is effective and telling. The Second Quartet was famously written to mark the 250th anniversary of Purcell’s birth, while the great closing Passacaglia of the Third was Britten’s last deployment of a form he took from his predecessor and made his own. Moreover, hearing the Purcell Fantasias, particularly Nos 8 and 9 (Z739 and 740) in D minor and A minor respectively, in proximity to the First Quartet is to be reminded of their closeness in mood to the patterns of introspection and energy that give the First both its structural integrity and its nostalgic tone, particularly in its long, finely wrought slow movement.

The performances are all superbly judged and controlled, balancing fragility with strength, restraint with great depth of feeling. The opening of the First,

with its high, ethereal phrases offset by worldly, guitar-like cello twangs, is rich with ambiguities, while the Andante calmo, its long violin solo played with exquisite poise by Alex Redington, grieves quietly for the war-torn England Britten left behind during his American sojourn. In the Second, the Doric offset formal logic with deep emotional resonance, sweeping us through the ceremonies and wonders of the final Chacony with great refinement and dignity before we reach the final moments of assertion and grandeur. The Third, haunted by thoughts of imminent mortality, bids farewell to life and love with quiet dignity and gazes towards infinity as time ticks away towards the close: it’s wonderfully done, and you can’t help but be moved by it.

The early Divertimenti, played with considerable wit and elegance, provide some much-needed contrast to the intensity of it all, while the counterpoint of Purcell’s Fantasias is finely realised in performances of considerable weight and finesse. Comparisons here are perhaps invidious. I have great fondness for the Amadeus Quartet’s slightly more spacious way with the Second in their 1977 performance (Testament DVD, 2/06), and if you like a more overtly dramatic approach to this repertory, then you may prefer the Belcea Quartet’s fractionally more extrovert interpretations (EMI, 7/05). But this is a major cycle, engaging and profound in equal measure, and you need to hear it. Tim Ashley (5/19)

Debussy ‘Les trois sonates – The Late Works’ Violin Sonataa. Cello Sonatab. Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harpc. Berceuse héroïqued. Élégied. Page d’albumd. Les soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du charbond c Magali Mosnier fl aIsabelle Faust vn cAntoine Tamestit va cXavier de Maistre hp bJean-Guihen Queyras vc aAlexander Melnikov, bJavier Perianes, d Tanguy de Williencourt pf Harmonia Mundi F HMM90 2303 (54’ • DDD)

Described as ‘testamentary’ on its back cover, the latest release in Harmonia

Mundi’s Debussy anniversary series is perhaps more an act of commemorative reflection than an overt celebration of his genius. It gathers together, by no means for the first time on disc, the three sonatas, written between 1915 and 1917 as the First World War destroyed Debussy’s world and cancer slowly ravaged his body. They’re framed and separated here, however, by his four last, rarely heard piano pieces, all of them ostensibly pièces d’occasion, though they’re linked by a deep, sometimes despairing sadness that reveals much about the anguish of his final years.

Three of them formed his contribution to the war effort. The sombre Berceuse héroïque was commissioned, along with pieces by Saint-Saëns, Mascagni and Elgar, by the Daily Telegraph for inclusion in a volume entitled King Albert’s Book, published in support of the beleaguered monarchy of occupied Belgium. The manuscript of Élégie pour piano was intended to be sold to raise money for war relief, while Page d’album was written for performance at a charity concert for ‘Vêtement du blessé’ (‘Clothes for the wounded’), for which his wife worked as a volunteer. The saddest of the four is Les soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du charbon, Debussy’s last work for piano, written during the bitter winter of 1916‑17 as a gift to his coal supplier, one M Tronquin, in the hope that the latter would furnish him with enough fuel to keep warm.

Juxtaposed with the sonatas, they throw into relief the ambiguities of the latter, with their mixture of retrospection, fantasy and innovation. The Sonata for flute, viola and harp sounds more than ever like a final, nostalgic evocation of the worlds of Faune and Bilitis here: the performance is relaxed, fractionally too much so in the first movement, perhaps, but it tingles with sensuousness and the shifts in colour are all beautifully realised. Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov’s account of the Violin Sonata, Debussy’s last completed score, embraces exquisite fragility and strength in equal measure, the finale gathering itself for one last moment of assertion at the end. JeanGuihen Queyras and Javier Perianes’s performance of the Cello Sonata, noble in manner and grand in scale, balances the

4 GRAMOPHONE SHORTLIST 2019

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